Once Upon a Bookshelf

Abby has a plan. A plan to find her One True Love, and to avoid getting impregnated while in high school, causing her to drop out and never graduate like her two older sisters. And with this plan, she has come up with five rules - rules she developed through her many hours watching soap operas and her sisters’ mistakes - in order to find her One True Love:

Rule #1 - Find Someone New.
Rule #2 - No Baggage from Past Relationships.
Rule #3 - Looks Aren’t Everything.
Rule #4 - Don’t Need Him.
Rule #5 - Get Out of Town.

Only problem is that her best friend’s older brother, Jackson, has just come back to town, and while Abby has the hots for him, he definitely DOES NOT fit in with the rules.

I’m somewhat torn about this book. On one hand, I found it perversely entertaining. On the other hand, the author didn’t make me empathize with or care for any of the characters. The main character, and her family, are exactly what the title implies - white trash. I don’t understand what motivated these characters, and the author didn’t make that any easier. Especially when we get into the details about how Abby’s step-father also dated her oldest sister, and is her other sister’s daughter’s father, and is still sleeping with her oldest sister while still being married to her mom. Um, yeah. It was like watching an episode of Jerry Springer. And unless you’re a fan of Jerry Springer, I would suggest you skip this one.

I’ve almost read all of L.M. Montgomery’s short story books! Only two more to go - Christmas with Anne (which is sitting on my bookshelf waiting patiently for December to come along), and At the Altar, which I’m waiting to find on BookMooch. This is very exciting for me. It’s also exciting that this is my tenth book for the Canadian Book Challenge, which means I’m almost done that as well.

For the most part, this collection of short stories included stories where the protagonists met someone important in their lives after a long separation - whether due to a family feud, a lovers quarrel, or because one of the characters moved away. And for the most part, these stories were adorable and completely heart-warming.

As always, there are ones that stood out to me more than others - in this case it was Between the Hill and the Valley and Elizabeth’s Child.

In Elizabeth’s Child, Elizabeth had married a man whom her family did not approve of, and moved out west. One of her brothers, Paul, took it extremely hard, and refused to talk to Elizabeth, or even acknowledge the fact that Elizabeth was his sister. Many years have past, and now Elizabeth’s husband is dead, and she is not doing too well financially. When Elizabeth’s daughter, Worth, now in her teens, visits the rest of Elizabeth’s siblings, she and Paul strike up an unlikely friendship. Worth, manages to win his heart, and because he can’t bear the thought of Worth going back to her mother and never seeing her again, he invites the sister he refused to speak to back home to live with him, where he would be able to provide for her whole family.

Between the Hill and the Valley is the story of a man, Jeff, who has been in love with Sara most of his life. He always thought he was unworthy of her, so didn’t mention anything to her until after her father has died and he has discovered that Sara will have to move away. I think the reason I enjoyed this story so much is because in Jeff, I found a kindred spirit. There is always a joy in finding that one sentence in a book that really speaks to you, that describes you perfectly, that you can completely relate to, even if it was written about another character. And Montgomery always has a way of phrasing things that make them seem like they were written just for you.

They pitied him for the lonely life he must lead alone there at the Valley Farm, with only a deaf old housekeeper as a companion, for it did not occur to the Bayside people in general that a couple of shaggy dogs could be called companions, and they did not know that books make very excellent comrades for people who know how to treat them.

“… books make very excellent comrades for people who know how to treat them.” Ah yes, that spoke volumes to me, and that sentence alone made this a wonderful collection of stories. (Isn’t it wonderful when you find a little gem like that?)

Maureen Johnson never fails to amuse. This is the third book of hers that I’ve read, and I enjoyed it just as much as the other two I’ve picked up.

On Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday, she’s given a hotel room to look after. This might be considered bizarre for any other family, but Scarlett’s family owns a hotel (a not-very-popular, slightly rundown hotel, but it was built over 75 years ago, and is very Art Deco, so it’s automatically cool.). Along with the hotel room for her birthday, Scarlett acquires an extremely eccentric guest - Mrs. Amberson is an old B actress who is trying to rediscover New York, and taking Scarlett for a ride while at it. Scarlett’s older brother is a struggling actor, and soon Mrs. Amberson and her newly-employed-personal-assistant Scarlett, are as involved with the play as possible - trying to help Spencer break it through to the big time, while still trying to keep the hotel running.

This was a highly enjoyable book. In fact, it may have been almost everything that I think makes a good book rolled into 353 pages. It was funny; it had interesting, realistic characters; it gave me the ability to transport myself to an old hotel in New York. For all intents and purposes, it was fabulous.

One of the things that I like most about Johnson’s books that I’ve read is that, unlike other popular non-fantasy YA books, Johnson’s characters don’t need to “get the guy” in order to be happy. It’s more about family, friends and self-realization. I would even say that this alone makes Johnson not chick lit, as some people claim she is… but then that could just be my aversion to most chick lit. ;)

I loved this book, and it’s reminded me that I really need to go back and read more of Johnson’s older books.

I am about 100 pages into this book, and what I have to say is this: I am NOT going any further in this book, and you cannot make me. I have too many other unread books on my shelf that it seems silly to force myself through a book which I am so totally, completely and thoroughly not enjoying.

I know there are SO MANY people out there who love these books. So many! But I can’t do it. With the first one, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I thought it was because I despised Amy. Apparently not as Amy’s not made an appearance yet, and I still dislike it. Sadly, I’m not entirely sure what it is that makes me dislike this one as well. It just seems very … silly to me. Which can’t be right, as there are many other books that I thoroughly enjoyed that are just as silly!

Ah well. Doesn’t really matter. Here’s hoping that I’ll actually enjoy the next book I pick up.

City of Ashes is the second installment of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments Trilogy. Action-packed and fast-moving right from the beginning, it doesn’t give you the usual, expected time to get used to your surroundings before it gets going. Taking up where City of Bones left off, Clary’s mother is still in a coma, Valentine is still evil, and Jace is still complete snarkiness.

The majority of the Shadowhunters believe Jace is in cahoots with Valentine, and that he knows why Valentine stole the Mortal Cup; the Inquisitor of the Clave has arrived and is trying to get to the bottom of the mess. Clary is attempting to help Jace as well as attempting to keep her loved ones safe, which isn’t always easy when you’ve just discovered that werewolves, vampires, warlocks, fairies and demons are all real, and that you’re really a Shadowhunter. And of course, there is Valentine who is still on the loose and is attempting to raise an army of demons in order to destroy the Clave.

I enjoyed City of Ashes more than City of Bones - Clare’s writing has definitely improved since the first book in the trilogy, which makes me even more excited to see how much better the third one will be. That said, you can still see how this is very much written by the same person who wrote The Draco Trilogy (Harry Potter fanfic that is, as far as I am aware, no longer available online). There are certain elements that are the same in everything she writes - mainly, the snarky blonde, and at least one pair of leather (or leather-like) pants. And her humour is still very much the same; I spent the majority of my time reading this book giggling, even when it started getting intense because of the wit and sarcasm of certain characters.

Though it wasn’t a major part of the plot, I have to say that I much more prefer Clare’s werewolf-vampire dynamics to Stephanie Meyer’s. Maybe because the werewolf and vampires are not vying for the same girl in this case, and for that reason are SO MUCH less angst-ridden. It’s a very nice change.

My biggest disappointment with this book was that there were no major twists. I had kept hoping for something to throw me, like the Clary-Jace bit did in the first installment, but it wasn’t there. It felt like Clare was playing it safe this time around. I hope that’s not the case with the last book in the trilogy.