Aud Thoughts: The Stumbling Book

Reading has become a family business. So while I try to undo the effects of having read The Slap, let my sister Audrey tell you about her own bookish struggles. 

I had been hitting my stride for a while, not going to lie. I had made it to a solid 60 books when the unthinkable happened: I took my first hit. I hit a block. My first not so great book. My stumbling book.

Honestly, I fell flat on my face. Which, as a generally lazy person it takes me quite awhile to recover from. Sure, I limped through; I think in the past month and a little bit I’ve read maybe seven books? SEVEN. As opposed to like, seven a day. Just kidding, at least seven in two days.

I had finally fallen off of my high horse and been left to dwell in the dust. My safe haven, where I read nearly everyday for at least four hours became swarmed with people visiting my fair city. I had to do my job.  Honestly.

Suddenly my books were being left behind at the till. I was forgetting my place; I was losing my involvement in the story to constant interruptions and my biggest regret? I made friends at work. I know. What an absolute travesty.

The past month has been a weird one for me, as I fell off the book track, I fell into the track of superheroes, binge watching Netflix, and actually leaving my room. (That last one was a lie).

However, as my mountain of books continues to grow and my newly found aversion to the library is replaced by buying books, I have decided that this slump is finished.

So, as this has happened to me many times before, here are some books I’ve read in the past that helped me leap over my stumbling book and dive right back into the fray.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. So I take it a majority of you have seen – or good lord, should’ve seen – the wonderfully hilarious romantic, badass comedy with Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy. At least, I have about a million times. To me this movie and this book represent a significant part of my childhood. It’s a nice, quick read that yes, probably could be a children’s book – I think it actually may be – but it’s a gem. Especially if you’re having a hard time…performing. Lets keep this short and simple. It’s a comedic book about this girl that a fairy bestows a gift to, the gift of obedience. Ella cannot say no to any command given to her – whether it be eat an apple, do the dishes, or stab her one true love. She has to do it. The story follows her on a journey throughout the kingdom of Frell to find the semi-psychotic fairy and get her to take away her curse. There are ogres and princes, giants and centaurs, a somewhat unsavoury stepfamily and a neglectful father. What more can you want?  I think this is one of my most read books, I read it at least twice a year. It never fails to suck me back into the majestic realm of the written word.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. There is nothing like a Scottish highlander to get me into the mood of reading. Add time travel to the mix? I’m just about ready to sell myself to the circus and travel around pretending to be a monkey. Sign me up. I’m not saying go ahead and settle down for winter by championing all eight of these massive volumes. Honestly, even just reading the first one will enthrall you with enough action, romance, adventure, and men in kilts to keep your engine going. So give it a read. Because I think you owe it to yourself. There is no other love like Claire Beauchamp and Jamie Fraser.

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. If you haven’t already guessed, I’m the person that falls under the umbrella of fiction. I love some good, ole fashioned fiction. I’m not talking about mixed up family ties, or kids with cancer going to Amsterdam, I’m talking about fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction. So basically anything that has a sprinkling of subject matter that falls under similar categories as unicorns. So when I picked up the Kelley Armstrong Otherworld Series, I didn’t know the kind of deep longing and obsession I would have with the paranormal. I am the biggest Kelley Armstrong fan; I’ve actually even had the chance to meet her at a writing workshop. Anything she’s written, I’ve probably read it and could sing praises to it on command. I also really, really have a soft spot for super sexy male characters. I don’t even mean just physically sexy, if you’ve got a great personality going on? Oh boy. And while Bitten itself definitely has it’s own brand of Abercrombie werewolves, the rest of the books in the series have such a great cast of just great characters. From werewolves to witches to ghosts to necromancers. I am always an advocate for someone to buy the Otherworld Series. Always.

And finally, while this isn’t much of a book suggestion, just read something you love. Whether it is a biography or Winnie the Pooh, pick up an old favourite and take the time to remind yourself why you fell in love with reading in the first place.  That’s why you’re here isn’t it? You picked up a book one day and fell in love. And then that book ended and it left you with a hole in your heart and then you went on to love another book. However you remember your time together fondly and are always willing to return to one another, perhaps not as the great love affair that you once were but as good friends. So, friends, return to your own good friends. Reach out a hand from where you’ve stumbled and ask Harry, Hermione and Ron for help up. Ask Percy Jackson to give you a lift back to camp. Ask Elizabeth Bennett if she wanted to go for a stroll around Pemberley. It’s time to pull yourself away from Netflix and get to your feet and start on running.  I refuse to only be fifteen books ahead of schedule on my reading challenge. I refuse. Kick aside your stumbling book and journey on, my wayward friend.

Good luck and godspeed,

Audrey

Aud Thoughts: February Faves

My sister Audrey is back to offer up some of the books she’s fallen in love with this month. You think I read a lot – this girl sometimes goes through 2 books a day. The perks of an early shift without a lot going on, I guess. When she gets to Big Magic, know that I made her read it. And now I’m waiting for her to let me borrow it. Also, last time she posted, she had a really hard time replying to comments; as in, she couldn’t. Not sure why, we’re hoping it won’t be an issue this time! Once again, here’s Audrey!

I’d like to think that this month I’ve made some pretty wise decisions with my choice of books. I’ve annihilated any past record of how many books I can read in one month, and actually even within a day. I’ve destroyed my credit card with online book buying binges, and induced my plum points card into a blissful state of over usage. I’ve already compeleted 34% of my reading challenge, 22 books ahead of schedule. This isn’t even an addiction anymore; this has become a new way of life.

And these are the books that I’ve pored over so far. These are the books that make up my Goodreads reading challenge, and I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer was one of the first series I plowed through this month. I had already spent the past few years accumulating the first books and was sneaky enough to get my mom to buy the last one for me for Christmas. I am proud to say that I am now the owner of the complete collection and let me say, I am better for it. I adore fairy tales with a passion, so when you take the princesses from fairy tales and give them mechanical limbs? Sign me up. Not only does this story include action, of course romance, but the humorous and endearing way that the characters interacted with one another made me never want to finish that last page. Thank god Marissa Meyer has enough mercy on us to produce short stories.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown was a book that I was reading and only mildly interested in and then suddenly, I was sucked in. I don’t even remember how it happened. One moment I was reading it, minding my own business and then suddenly I’m on Mars – MARS! – in the middle of a giant lesson of War Strategies with bigger than life beings.  Red Rising is about a boy that loses his wife and then his own life and then comes back to destroy the society that took everything from him. Pretty standard, right? WRONG. He comes back with a fury that is amazing to read. I can genuinely say that I felt smarter for some reason when I read this book (and the second and third one…). This wasn’t some Class of Clans simulation, I felt like a genuine badass when I immersed myself into this book. Please, give it a try. It’s Game of Thrones in Space with a pinch of Hunger Games. It’s amazing! Plus it is now a completed series…annnnd I need someone to discuss it with.

City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong did not disappoint.  I am an avid Kelley Armstrong fan. Give me a book by her and I will read it, then I will buy it, then I will buy the entire series (all thirteen of my Otherworld books say hello). Her characters, I always find, to be funny in a dark way (of course), but also hard. They’re badass and they’re realistic and they are never, ever perfect. City of the Lost is about a town full of people hiding from something; abusive partners, the law, some cannibalistic tribe in the woods, you name it. So detective Casey is recruited by the town’s only Sheriff – a very attractive man (Kelley Armstrong knows how to write her men to make me fall in love) – to help solve a couple of pretty gruesome murders. Not teen fiction ladies and gents, but god I loved it. Not that I had any doubts that I wouldn’t.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert came to me at a good time in my life. I’m at the point where I’m trying to figure out my future a bit more and what direction to go in (I think I’ve got this now guys) and this book spoke to me like a kind, funny, aunt. I’m not one to read much non-fiction, but boy, I should start. I felt lighter when I finished reading this book. It helped me understand how creativity is something I need to learn to embrace and incorporate it with my life, working alongside of it instead of trying to let it rule me or vice versa. This book shone a light on the necessity of exercising some precaution and practicality when I think about the decisions I make regarding the art I want to pursue. And I’d just like to thank you Elizbeth Gilbert, wherever you are. So if you’ve got a confused college type in your life, or perhaps anyone who struggles with understanding their creativity perhaps give this to them to read. You don’t even need to wrap it the cover is so pretty!

That’s all I’ll bore you kind people with today, head on over to my Goodreads page to check out a list of what I’ve read so far, there are few that I wouldn’t recommend from that pile. So give it a peek!

Cheers,

Audrey

Something New: Aud Thoughts

I’ve mentioned before that I come from a family of readers. Recently my sister, Audrey, has been devouring books at a rate I can barely keep up with. I’ve asked her to start writing a little something for this here blog and she agreed. So once a month, she’ll pop in to share some of her bookish thoughts. Audrey is 19, recently back from time au pairing in the Netherlands, is wicked talented with liquid liner and loves Outlander. Here’s Audrey.

Dear Closeted YA Fans,

Your time is now. Your time is here. Your time is the time to stand up and admit fully and openly that you read Young Adult Books. You dabble in the PG-13; you peruse the stacks of trilogies and multiple dystopian novel sets – yes you Divergent – and as you fall just out of the spectrum of high school, your addiction (my own included) must be kept hidden. Must be stowed at the bottom of your book bag and be covered up like it’s a ten cent harlequin novel with a half naked man on the cover (I must admit, I devour those…). But I’ve decided that enough is enough.

Our time is now. We must make our case, we must let it be understood that what we love should not be devalued just because it is set for a younger studio audience. Do we refuse to go to movies meant for children, where we ourselves leave the theatre mopping our eyes and hugging bags of popcorn to our chests? No!

So why should be tip toe around the YA section, into the adult section, and then when no one is looking, throw ourselves amongst the stacks of books where the youth frolic smoking cigarettes and smacking bubble gum and discussing belly button piercings (I only wished I was so cool).

I mean, I think it’s safe to say that muttering the word “Teen Books” to another fellow adult is like admitting that you still wear diapers and suck your thumb at night. Suddenly you’re opinion is taken in with an eyebrow raise and the slightest hint of “Oh, I guess you can sit at the edge of the adult table”.

So to avoid these rather unwelcoming reactions, I’ve found myself going to great lengths to avoid admitting to others that what I am reading is in fact a teen fiction book. It does in fact have a slightly gooey love story. There is in fact a teenage male heartthrob that everyone is cheering for. There is also in fact a happy ending.

But why is that so wrong?

I read a lot at work, and I have recently been taking up with my kobo – taking out ebooks from the library is a dream for those days where I go through two books – and so now I have to explain to people exactly what I’m reading. I can no longer just smash the curious onlooker in the face with the cover of the book and let them figure it out.

So I was innocently finishing off the delicious morsel of a book by Gayle Forman called One Night (please read it) and one of my customers comes up to me and begins to ask what I’m reading and I freeze. Torn between betraying my new found love affair with Ms. Forman, or opting out like a coward and hiding under the bush of my obsession and straight up lying.

So then, I lied. I betrayed my new found relationship, swimming up to my eyeballs with guilt and self-directed annoyance. Why was I doing this? Why was I lying? Why was Game of Thones my go-to lie?

I was a liar and fraud and a cheater.

I had cheated on my wonderfully sweet and confused, and maybe a tad bit naïve characters of the world of One Night. I had betrayed my adork-able main heroine. I left her to pin after the boy she spent a wonderful night with in Paris. IU had abandoned her in the aftermath of their night together (I don’t mean pregnancy, jeez, I mean college, bleh). 

But I also left him. My wonderfully funny little Dutch boy. He even eats hagelslag. Because he’s Dutch.

Instead the world was left to believe I was reading about Sean Bean getting his head chopped off and dragons and Jon Snow and Red Weddings and while I have read about these things before (ermygod so good), no great love affair should be stuffed in the freezer in your basement and forgotten about when your wife shows up.

I don’t find that teen books even often reflect a less important life lesson if you will, from within their depths. I’ve read some messed up teen books. Anything by Ellen Hopkins can make your head spin and your heart hurt. Rainbow Rowell’s Fan Girl teaches me it’s okay to be the way you are, however it is that you want to be.  And One Night teaches me not to always worry about what you’re doing next, to believe in accidents, to believe in what is meant to be will be and you’ll find your way. It teaches me to give myself time and to get on trains with tall Dutch boys with wonderful taste in sandwiches. I think that teen books, even if they are about sparkly vampires, are books just the same.

I suppose, a book is a book, no matter what subject matter.

So read your own goddamn book and take pride in the fact you took the time to sit down and fall into another world. Not enough people bother to take the time you do.

So I suppose from now on you can think of me as your liaison to the teen world. Yes, occasionally perhaps I’ll read some adult books to appease your adult needs, but I’m a firm believer in giving any book a chance – if it sucks, it sucks, you know – and I’m here to help you learn what that means. Hopefully you can spare some time in your busy month to allow a moment for little ole me, but I hope we can get along splendidly and give you a chance to really get to know some of the teen books that I do love.

If you want an idea of some good teens books that I’ve read this month, here’s a little list for you:

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer – basically fairytale retelling, but in the future, but in space, but with love stories, but it’s great.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey – Alien, pretty good. I’ve only really read the first one so far, so bear with me.

One Day and One Week by Gayle Forman – just YES.

If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman – another YES.

Well that’s all for now folks, I’ll divulge back into the regular world now to deal with my post-book blues, but stay classy.

Cheers

Audrey