Abundance of Katharines by John Green...

We had a good meeting the other night. Those who attended all enjoyed the book greatly. We discussed the theme of "mattering" and "not doing". Interestingly, we talked about how "mattering" wasn't just a teen-angst issue, but that many people struggle with the concept well into adulthood. "Not doing" was the other primary theme we saw. All three main characters were in some way "not doing" something. We all really liked Hassan's character. Some of the best "throw away lines" come from his character. Catch phrases and one liners that spoke a truth without dwelling on it caught our attention. Such as Green's comment when Colin discusses wanting to like coffee and that Katharine "liked her coffee the way she liked her boyfriends... bitter". We felt the characters were treated respectfully, but not necessarily reverently. Footnotes were an added part of the story. People felt that they went easily into the story and didn't pull you away from the storyline. We all really liked that the core relationships in the books really focused on friendship rather than romance (even though there is some of that too). We felt this book was emotionally real. We also liked the fact that the book basically begins and ends with a road trip. The one disappointment to the book we decided was the cover. It either gives the impression of a self-help book or a chic lit book, of which it is neither.

Group members - Did you miss our meeting? Did I miss something you want to include? Please add your comments to this post.

Recap of NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST

This recap is from Kate P. after the group discussion on April 30. More comments to this post? Please add.

A good and interesting light read for older teens; we universally liked the romance aspects of the story. We thought it would be a good audio presentation or even a stage presentation to get the full effect of the numerous songs. Check out I-tunes and the Nick and Norah website for some song lists!

The pacing was frenetic in keeping with the punk/club scene and we debated the positive and negative aspects of the intriguing 2-author writing. In the beginning the voices of Nick and Norah were quite separate, then they blended as the story unfolded: a bit too blended for most of us. We also discussed the story taking place in one (albeit long) night and felt overall that it could have been drawn out more for realism.

All in all, not an overly "discussable" book but a good one~ not great, but good.

Recap of January 2007 meeting...

In which we read Witch of Blackbird Pond and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. Feel free to post your own comments about these books to this posting.

Sent January 2007:
We had a cozy little meeting last night with Kate, Leah, Camille & Jenn T. sitting around the fireplace and sipping hot cider and eating cornbread and other snackies. Thanks to Camille for hosting and Kate & Leah for braving the cold to join us. As usual we had a good discussion of the books and felt that both had some interesting similarities with themes - prejudice, intolerance, family. An interesting theme that came up for Roll of Thunder was Quiet. We also discussed how these books, though written as historical fiction, really related to issues that were current at the time they were written: McCarthyism vs. witch trials; Civil Rights vs. Post-Slavery/Depression era issues.

Recap of TWILIGHT...

Here's the recap of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer after our group discussion. Again, feel free to add your own comment to this post.

Sent in February 2007:
We had a nice meeting last night and decided that we aren't real sure precisely why we liked this book (Twilight) as much as we did, except that we all seemed to have a "thing" for vampires. Overall we thought it was well written and engaging although there were a few plot devices that didn't work quite as well as we thought they should. Anyone else have issues with the whole "venomnous" fangs being a little too rattlesnake bite-like?! As, I believe, Kate mentioned in one of her e-mails prior to last night's meeting, not necessarily literary merit winner, but a fun and captivating story of young love and a little occult thrown in the mix.

Recap of HOOT

Here's the recap I shared after our group met to discuss the book Hoot by Carl Hiassen. Feel free to add your own personal comments about the book to this post!

Sent back in July 2006:
We had a nice discussion. In general we felt it was an "ok" book. Not as rivoting compared to our first one nor our next one either, but it was a good fun summer read. We thought some of the websites stretched the ability to really pair with curriculem outside of perhaps social studies/environmental studies and even then we thought there were probably stronger books on such issues. We liked the message of kids finding a cause and standing up and doing something that they believe in. We liked the relationship between Roy and his family. We thought the other characters were a bit caricatured, but one of the members added that even his adult books tend to do that. Not one that we felt we'd rave about, but perhaps recommend in the right circumstances as a librarian or parent for some fun reading. We did think it was nice to read a book that would be interesting to boys without it being too sport heavy or macho-centric.

What we've read so far...

2006
June - Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
July - Hoot by Carl Hiassen
Aug - Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Sept. - Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Oct. - Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Nov. - Blankets by Craig Thompson
Dec. - NO MEETING

2007
Jan. - Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare & Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Feb. - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Mar. - The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Apr. - Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David
Levithan
May - An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Original book suggestions...

Here's what was on our original list... interesting to see where we've been and what we're doing now!

Previous (I've taken off the current ones that we have/are reading):
- Flush -- Carl Hiaasen (YALSA best of 2006)
- Eragon -- Christopher Paolini
- The Lightning Thief -- Rick Riordan (YALSA best of 2006)
- Counting Coup --Larry Colton (Nonfiction)
- Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida -- Victor Martinez
- The Tequila Worm -- Viola Canales (Pura Belpre Medal book)
- Day of Tears -- Julius Lester
- Invisible -- Pete Hautman (we said books by earlier, but this is the one I'm most curious about as I've read others, but I'm open to rereading Godless or Sweet Blood too)
- Books by E.R. Frank
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon
- Esperanza Rising -- Pam Munoz Ryan
- Criss Cross -- Lynne Rae Perkins (Won this year's Newberry)
- The Arm -- Nancy Farmer (Sci Fi)
- Books by Philip Pullman
- Twilight--Stephanie Meyer (YALSA best of 2006)
- The Game of Sunken Place -- M.T. Anderson

More Book Ideas

Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The most concise yet interesting description of the book from bordersstores.com:

It's just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery . . .

Set during World War II in Germany , Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich . Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist -- books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau .

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Some others from my Borders newsletters that sounded interesting:

Golden by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (written when she was 19)

Bras & Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski (perhaps a bit of light reading if needed)

Burned by Ellen Hopkins (not sure, but has the possibility to be a �female� Chocolate Wars)

Hush by Jacquline Woodson (a current best seller about a relocated family)

Others that have peaked my curiosity from other lists/libraries:

Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa (A Pura Belpr� Honor Book about a girl whose both Cuban and Polish in ancestry, but very much American and how she deals with expectations of her family and her own)

Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a shifting self by Rebecca Walker

From Publishers Weekly: The daughter of famed African American writer Alice Walker and liberal Jewish lawyer Mel Leventhal brings a frank, spare style and detail-rich memories the this compelling contribution to the growing subgenre of memoirs by biracial authors about life in a race-obsessed society. Walker examines her early years in Mississippi as the loved, pampered child of parents active in the Civil Rights movement in the bloody heart of the segregated South. Torn apart by the demands of their separate careers, her parents' union eventually lost steam and failed, leaving Walker to shuttle back and forth across country to spend time with them both. Deeply analytical and reflective, she assumes the resonant voices of an inquisitive child, a highly sensitive teen and finally a young woman who is confronted with the harsh color prejudices of her friends, teachers and families-both black and Jewish-and who tires desperately to make sense of rigid cultural boundaries for which she was never fully prepared by her parents.(non-fiction, biography � sub-genre: autobiography)

Happy Birthday Bookclub!

Readers Of Young Adult Literature (ROYAL) bookclub started with a conversation in the parking lot of the College of St. Catherine between Jennifer B., Kim S. & Jenn T.

We decided to keep things relatively informal and invited folks we thought would enjoy the club. That was a year ago April! That's right... we are 1 YEARS OLD! Happy Birthday!

Welcome R.O.Y.A.Lty members...

Here we can blog about our thoughts on books - both for our group or ones we're reading on our own and highly recommend- as well as meeting updates and recaps. I will be "back-blogging" a bit to provide a little more information about our group and some of our past meeting recaps.