Recent Reads

This has been an awesome reading year so far for me. That's partly good fortune, and partly because I've been doing a bunch of re-reading of old favorites (Anne of Green Gables, The Darkangel, The Blue Sword, and an ongoing re-read of the Brother Cadfael series). Actually I want to try to organize my thoughts on the pleasures and benefits of re-reading but I will save that for another post. Because this one is about new discoveries.

First up: I was lucky enough to get an early look at Amy Butler Greenfield's beautiful new YA historical fantasy CHANTRESS, which features musical magic, terrifying mind-flaying ravens, science and a determined heroine making her own destiny. I interviewed Amy about the book here on the Enchanted Inkpot. CHANTRESS just released yesterday and Amy shared a lovely, inspiring post about her writing journey on her own blog. If you are struggling with a creative project, go read it. If you like YA fantasy, English history, music, hard choices, and complicated, slow-burn romances, go read CHANTRESS.

Second, I just finished reading ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell, which is a YA novel set in 1986, about two teen misfits who meet on the schoolbus and fall in love. I loved this, and not just because it features the music of my teendom (The Smiths, The Cure, U2, New Order) and X-Men comics. It reminded me of a John Hughes movie (in a good way). Eleanor is a smart, prickly, poor, fat (or at least, big enough that she gets bullied for it), white girl dealing with a really rough family life. Park is a quiet, music & comic-loving, half-Korean boy trying to live up to the expectations of his macho dad. It's not a perfect book (in particular, I need to think some more about the portrayal of Park's family, though I am so happy to see a hot Asian boy as the romantic lead in a popular novel). But it was perfect for me, and it might be perfect for you too!

One of my favorite quotes: “Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

Note: ELEANOR & PARK does feature some pretty mature content and language. And a lot of dark stuff mixed in with the romance and funny bits. And the ending may not work for everyone (it worked for me though). Actually, I really want to talk about the ending with someone else who has read it! I am very curious what other folks think of it.

I know what I think the three words are. But I don't want to spoil anything more here...

Also, I am super-excited by the looks of Rainbow Rowell's next book, coming later this year: FANGIRL. It's got cover art by the fantastic Noelle Stevenson, which brings me to...

My third recent reading recommendation! This one is easy to check out because it is free and online: Noelle Stevenson's webcomic Nimona. It's about heros and villains, science, best friends who are now enemies. The titular main character is teen shapeshifter Nimona, who wants to be the side-kick of supervillain Lord Ballister Blackheart, who was once lawful before having been betrayed by his former best friend, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin, the golden boy of the kingdom.

It starts here.

Stevenson is also the artist behind the highly amusing Broship of the Ring.

There you are. Go forth and read!