The Treasure Map of Boys by E. Lockhart

It's been a while since I read The Boyfriend List or The Boy Book, so even though I liked both books, I didn't immediately read my ARC of The Treasure Map of Boys. I just didn't have a burning desire to know what's happened to Ruby. And for a while as I read it, even though I was entertained by the plot, I was thinking two negative things: (1) Why is she SOOOO into boys? And after Lockhart wrote this amazing burgeoning feminist in Frankie, I felt very disappointed in Roo. Why is she doing this to herself and her friends? (2) I never had that many guys like me at once. How is this possible? And why do they like her so much?

But . . .

By the end, I felt like Ruby had some realistic breakthroughs that weren't all moralistic and completely rejecting of boys and not completely "I'm happy with who I am and I don't need a boy to be happy." After all, girls like boys! I like boys! People are generally attracted to others and happy when one (or more) of those others likes you back. And while I do think there is something to be said for not hooking up with a guy your good friend likes, I liked the idea that you forgive people you love. What I loved about The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and what I think Lockhart does really well here again with Ruby is convey how complicated relationships and feelings can be, how sometimes you feel a way that you intellectually know is not right or healthy or helpful but you cannot seem to control it. It's hard to know what's right and sometimes hard to do that even if you know what it is. Sometimes making yourself happy means hurting others, or making one person happy means hurting another. So yes, the novel is cute, but it also captures a lot of complexity. And I also loved the notes that Noel wrote Ruby! There's a lot to be said for feelings expressed in words and then actually written down on paper to be read and savored. And his were so creative. I want notes like that.

2008 Favorites

With the end of the year, it's time for all the "best of" lists.   I choose to do "favorites" instead since I didn't read nearly enough to choose "the best."  Plus, it's too subjective anyway.  So these are just my favorites of the year.  

New York Times's Notable Children's Books of the Year

Amazon Editors' YA Picks for 2008

I'm pretty happy with the NYT picks, even though I never read Sunrise Over Fallujah.  I can't get behind any list with TDHOFL-B, however.

My favorites:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

As an aside, even though I read The Disreputable History months ago and loved it and have given it prime display space at the circulation desk and recommended it to students, it hasn't been checked out once.  I'm sad about this, and I don't know what else to do.

National Book Award

Just wanted to say that I'm crossing my fingers for The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart to win the National Book Award for Young People's Literature since I loved it so much. I know it'll end up on the Amelia Bloomer List too.

Amelia Bloomer List

The current nominations for the Amelia Bloomer List have been posted here. I am soooo happy to see The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks on there. I nominated it, but surely someone else must have as well. It's one of my favorite books of the year so far, and it definitely deserves to be on the final AB list.

How to Be Bad

Clearly, we all see who has been carrying this blog. Sheryl goes on her little jaunt to Poland and A True Reality just dies. I kept waiting for Cody to step up to the plate because, let's face it, he's the only one actually in a library this summer. That's right, Cody, you better step it up. Don't give me any of that BS about summer programming keeping you busy! Sheryl is counting on you.Moving on. Although I am sitting at home with a 2 year old all summer long, I have been doing some reading. Specifically, I just finished reading How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle. The plot is familiar, three girls going on a road trip together. I really liked how the authors told the story from all three girls' perspectives, though. It was fun switching from Vicks to Mel to Jesse. I was really curious to know which author wrote for which girl. Personally, I liked Vicks the best. This book has it all, drama, romance, cancer, betrayal, and even alligators (alive and stuffed). This is a great summer read, perfect for a day at the beach or poolside.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

I know this book has been out for a couple of months now, and I wasn't going to blog about it since it's taken me this long to get around to reading it, but I just loved it so much that (a) I keep thinking about it, and (b) I wanted to gush. I think one of the main reasons I liked it so much is that I could really relate to the main character (Frankie). And I loved what she ended up doing, I admire her choices, and I love how Lockhart ended the novel.

I don't think my feminism was quite as developed as Frankie's was when I was her age. Like Zada, it really took college to help me to see the need for feminism, to have the vocabulary for naming and interpreting oppression (even in my everyday life), and and to have the willingness to call myself a feminist. But regardless, I certainly could relate to Frankie's dilemmas between her feminist ideals (even when she wasn't labeling them as such) and her desire to just want friends and a cute boy to like her.

There were so many amazing moments in the book that it's hard to choose favorites, but I think my two favorites were probably when she let Porter have it for telling her not to let herself get taken advantage of (poor guy, I'm sure he was just trying to be nice, but really, I think Frankie was right to point out how patronizing it appeared) and when Frankie dared to sit alone at the senior table. Amazing how such seemingly inconsequential things can actually be so huge and require such courage! Most impressive of all to me was how Lockhart created these situations (that, let's be honest, happen all the time in relationships) where Frankie couldn't just say the first thing that came to mind or felt the most natural; she had to "strategize." It's sad that we have to act this way in relationships, but it's so true. I think this is my very favorite part, when Frankie realizes/thinks that Matt is standing her up because he is mad at her for sitting at the senior table and emasculating him:

When I act the way I acted, Matthew doesn't like me as much as he does when I fall off my bicycle.

Is he breaking up with me?

What can I do? Frankie thought. What can I say? Is there anything I can say that will make him change his mind?

Don't sound whiny. Don't sound defensive. Don't sound pitiful. Don't sound angry.

I can't say any of the things I feel, because none of them are any good.

Can't say, "But you promised."

Can't say, "I put on makeup. I did my nails, I looked forward to it all day."

Can't say, "Are you breaking up with me?"

I can't lose him.

I can't lose them, either.

What will get me what I want?

A couple of other longer great paragraphs follow, but I am too lazy to type them out. Anyway, I adore that part. How many women have not felt this? I am so in awe of Lockhart for capturing this so utterly perfectly. I love this book. This needs to be on the Amelia Bloomer list for sure.

P.S. The characterization in this book is amazing! Even the secondary characters are really complex and well-developed, but I really liked the little fun parts where Frankie adopts INPs from Wodehouse and Trish points out how weird this can be.

Happy birthday to me!

Today is my birthday! I was looking at the list of books that come out today on YALIT.com. Since I haven't received any of these, here are the two I most can't wait to read (did that make sense?):

Rock the Vote

You can vote here for the title of the book that E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle are writing together. According to Lockhart's blog, the book is "an awesomely fun summer read about three girls taking a road trip through the sticky heat of Florida in pursuit of love and adventure."

Fly on the Wall

E. Lockhart!

E. Lockhart answered these questions for me on K.L. Going's very cool "Author Interviews" forum section of her website. I'm posting them here for your further edification and enjoyment!

1) What was your dissertation about?
Late 19th century and early 20th century British illustrated novels -- their publishing histories and their reception. Sherlock Holmes. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Trilby by George duMaurier.

2) Can you describe the process of making a novel into an audiobook? How is it decided whether or not a book will be made into an audiobook? How involved, if at all, are you in the decision process and then the production? How happy have you been with the audio versions of your books so far? [You know how I love audiobooks!]
It's pretty minimal, in terms of what an author does. The Boyfriend List and Fly on the Wall were audiobooks, but my other books have not been. Basically, the publishing house reps your audio rights -- and if they sell them, they inform you. You get some money, but not oceans of it.

I had a chat with the producer, but they hired actors without my input. I was invited to come and see the process -- which is pretty interesting. I mean, it's a woman reading your MS in a soundproof room, with a director and a technician telling her when to stop and start -- but it was interesting to me, to see how the director coached the actor, and to hear the actor reading my words. They had slightly early version of the MS for Boyfriend List, so people who listen to the audiobook are subjected to a few awkward phrases and irrelevant sentences that I axed from the final version!

In the end, I can't listen to the audios. I think the actors were probably great, but the text sounds so different inside my head, I couldn't deal with hearing it interpreted another way. It's a good thing I'm not a playwright!

3) What person(s) who has not yet contributed a boyfriend/girlfriend list to your site would you most like to see do one?
I love having YA authors I admire. I guess if I could pick just one it would be Louise Rennison, author of Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, etc. I think she must have a doozy of a boyfriend list, and all her writing cracks me up.

The next questions were inspired by my recent reading of "Bake Sale: A Ruby Oliver Story," which is part of the short story compilation Not Like I'm Jealous or Anything.

4) What are you good at cooking?
I am a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself. I have people over for dinner every week. My mom taught me the basics, and I learned the rest from cookbooks. This week I am making a celariac salad from Julia Child, and a feta/watermelon/cilantro salad, among other things. I am not a sophisticated baker, but I do love to make cakes. Here is the most insane cake I ever made. It is a taj-mahal ice palace, with rock candy and gummy penguins.





5) What's something you've done that you otherwise wouldn't -- just to impress a guy?

I took scuba-diving lessons.

6) Fill in the blanks to these cliches:
The way to a guy's heart is through . . . well -- in The Boy Book, Cricket says "the nether regions!" But I think she is wrong.
The way to a girl's heart is through . . . Hm. I once fell for a guy because he sang songs outside my window in the middle of the night. He really did. It was very very silly. BUt it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't already liked him. THe singing just made me FALL.

7) I liked what Ruby has to say about the importance of thoughtful gifts. What is the best gift you've ever received? Given? (or at least one of the best)
Honestly, I like a love letter. I don't remember the presents. I remember the notes that went with them.

The Boyfriend List

Book: The Boyfriend List

Author: E. Lockhart

Narrator: Mandy Siegfried

Book Rating: A-

Audio Rating: A-/B+

The Book:

Okay, I really, really liked this book. It wasn't profound, it didn't move me, it probably isn't going to win any literary awards, but it was just fun. What I liked most was the way Lockhart did that Seinfeldian thing where she just writes about the way things are for teens. For instance, I loved the part where Ruby said she and her friends didn't want boys at the dance to be gentlemen; they wanted boys to ask them to dance and send them cute text messages. One thing that would have added to the insight was to include "the summer camp syndrome" where you get to summer camp and no guys are really attractive or anyone you'd normally date, but after a week or two, guys start to look good just because there's no one else there. I liked the movie footnotes a lot but didn't care for the allusion and vocabulary explanations (more on this in a separate future post). What prevented this from getting a straight up "A" was the ending. I don't know . . . it just wasn't satisfying. It didn't really seem like anything got resolved. I guess that's what life is like, but it's just not how I like my novels. But this novel was laugh-out-loud funny and cute and sweet and had great characterization.

THE AUDIO

The Good:

I thought Siegfried was just fantastic as Ruby. She sounded perfect for a 15 year-old girl and got the tones and moods just right. This was one of the performances where I think I liked the book much better listening than I would if I read it. I was a little worried about how the footnotes would play out in audio form, but they were just great and didn't seem awkward at all.

The Bad:

Siegfried didn't have much character differentiation, especially for Ruby's peers. I kind of prefer distinct voices in an audio performance, especially in some of the scenes with a lot of dialogue where it's difficult to tell who is speaking. Also, the CDs didn't give any warning when they were ending, so my changer just skipped to the next CD. I hate that.