Book Review: Real Live Boyfriends, by E. Lockhart

This book is the fourth in a series and therefore this review will inevitably contain spoilers for the first book, The Boyfriend List, the second, The Boy Book, and the third, The Treasure Map of Boys.

Ruby Oliver is nearly out of the Tate universe! Just one more year to go, and it would be a breeze, if she could control her panic attacks. She knows what she wants to study at university, and she knows what boy she's in love with. Noel is now her real live boyfriend.

Until he becomes a pod-robot.

Real Live Boyfriends was a lot sadder and a lot more serious than any of its predecessors in the Ruby Oliver series, however, it was also much more funny. I actually laughed out loud several times and if you'd like a preview of the hilariousness (and also, the sadness), check out this video of E. Lockhart reading from one of the early chapters:



Real Life Boyfriends is about the reality of romantic relationships and the nature of love. But it's also about pygmy goats, financial woes, dramatic parental reactions, movies, lists (mostly of movies), and above all, friendship.

I especially liked the way that Ruby's views on the last item on that list, friendship, develop. Ruby has been, up until now, a girl obsessed with her own social status. Even before she became a 'social leper and famous slut', she was very aware of where she fitted in. Her group with Kim, Nora and Cricket was not really popular, not really cool, but not on the fringes either. Since the debacle of junior year she's had to decide a) where she fits in, and b) whether she actually cares about the opinions of most of the other students at Tate Prep.

Towards the end of The Treasure Map of Boys, Ruby got over Jackson for once and for all, delivering a putdown that you know I loved if you highlighted the text at the bottom of my review, and that helps set her free. In Real Live Boyfriends Ruby interviews her friends to find out how they would define love and/or friendship for her film project, and the answers she gets clearly influence her decisions and self-esteem.

I loved the way all the characters developed in this novel, with the except of Ruby's mum, Elaine, she just goes scarily off the rails. But Noel, Hutch, Nora, and especially Meghan develop into ever more rounded and grown-up people. In the previous books, we've mostly known Meghan only from Ruby's impression of her and what Ruby says everyone else thinks about her, but in this one, she really comes into her own. I think Meghan becomes a GODDESS in Real Live Boyfriends, I really do.

Meghan and Ruby's scenes are my favourites, along with the really cute scene with Noel and Ruby at the start of chapter three. Oh, Noel. As I say in a slightly different way in every Ruby Oliver book review, be real and eight years older and my real live boyfriend, please.

If I said anything about the ending of Real Live Boyfriends I'd spoil it but I thought it was appropriate for Ruby's character and I was mostly just sad that the Ruby Oliver Quartet had come to an end. I really have loved reading this series and the lessons Ruby learns throughout have made a real difference to the way I see the world. The Ruby Oliver books will probably remain one of my favourite series for the rest of my life.

Book Review: Povídky: Short Stories by Czech Women, edited by Nancy Hawker

Telegram Books is an independent publisher of international fiction and a few years ago they published several themed collections featuring women writers from different countries. Povídky: Short Stories by Czech Women is the first of these collections that I have tried. I really enjoyed it and will definitely try to read more of the collections from this series.

The writers are from a wide range of backgrounds and thus the stories in the collection are very varied - some more overtly political and others more personal. Some are snippets of memoir, others are fictional fables. A list of all the writers, with titles and synopses for the stories, can be found on the Telegram website here.

My favourite story in the collection has to be 'A Day in the Half-Life of Class 4D' by Kateřina Sidonová, which follows a group of teenage girls as they battle with teachers, smoke in the boys' toilets, joke and tease each other, and try to avoid humiliation, all during one day at school. I enjoyed it so much that this story alone would make the book a keeper.

I was also amused by 'The Path of Medium Sinfulness', by Viola Fischerová, about a little boy who struggles with the idea that animals don't go to heaven, after the death of his pet dog, and the imaginative bargain he makes in the end. 'How I Went to School', by Tera Fabiánová, is a memoir about going to school as a Roma girl, which was shocking and sad but is written with enough comedy to make it easy to read.

I would recommend Povídky to readers that enjoy short fiction and that would like to broaden their horizons.

Book Review: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

I first heard of The Hunger Games trilogy in 2009, when I worked at a bookshop. Many of my colleagues told me that I must read it, some even suggesting that a good time to read it would be soon. We didn't have the first book in the shop for almost the whole time I worked there - as soon as it came in, someone would buy it - though there were plenty of copies of Catching Fire (they were on special offer).

Naturally, my TBR being what it has been since I rediscovered the joys of teen lit, I proceeded to not read it anywhere near immediately. I decided to move it higher up the list when I heard that a film was being made. Then I saw the trailer and thought 'this looks like such a good book. Must get it next year'. Despite the excitement generated by the trailer, I was still a bit nervous about whether I'd like the book. Yes, everyone raved about it. But plenty of people raved about Twilight and I resented every excruciating page. But The Hunger Games had one thing going for it that Twilight didn't: there were people who hated Twilight that said The Hunger Games was good.

So I kept it on the to-read list, and now, after determinedly ignoring forum posts and blog discussions and everything else laden with spoilers for the last two and a bit years, I have actually read The Hunger Games. I read it the week before the film came out. Just before it became The Book everyone was reading on the train. In before the hordes. Oh yeah!

I'm not going to write a synopsis. You know what this book is about. If you don't, here's the film trailer, I hope it gets you excited to read it too!



As I said above, I wasn't completely expecting to like it. But I was hooked from, I don't know, page two? 'This is much better than Twilight,' I said. Probably aloud. The plot is gripping and it only gets better as the story progresses and the consequences of everyone's actions are fully revealed.

Katniss actually does stuff, and thinks about the consequences for her and her family, at least most of the time. I found her an interesting and appropriate heroine for the story. A more silly, flighty, romantic sort of heroine would not have worked with The Hunger Games' plot, in my opinion. I also liked the way her family background was a source of both comfort and anxiety for her, it all helped to shape her character. She's guarded and doesn't trust easily but she has reasons for that.

I had mixed feelings about Peeta, her male counterpart . Yes, he's a romantic idealist, and I can understand why. He works as a great foil for Katniss - but there were a few intriguing elements to his character that I wanted to know more about. I also wanted to know more about Haymitch and Madge, which made me think that it would be likely that the rest of the trilogy would hold my interest easily.

I did get a bit confused about the geography of District 12, but I found the level of description of the arena to be just right. I could picture it easily in my head but there wasn't so much detail that it got boring (I will freely admit to skipping the eight pages devoted to description of a church in Swann's Way).

I wasn't entirely convinced by the way the Games ended, but it wasn't enough to stop me from eagerly reserving Catching Fire at the library!



Reviews that helped convince me that I needed to read this book:

Addicted to Heroines

Book Review: Good Bones, by Margaret Atwood

Photo by Just Chaos

Good Bones is a collection of (very) short stories by Margaret Atwood, probably best-known and loved for her novel The Handmaid's Tale. I picked this up in hardback at a university book sale I organised a couple of years ago, having previously read The Handmaid's Tale and Negotiating With The Dead, a collection of essays about writing. I was already part way through a book of short stories at the time so it went to the bottom of my TBR, until I pulled it out to read on the train in March. I don't read short story collections very often but this year I've already read three. I think they're a great way to have a break from teen/YA books that isn't too long! I also think they're fantastic for commuting, because if you know your reading speed and choose wisely, you can read a whole story or more during one journey. If I'm part way through a really good novel I find it really annoying when I then have to go do something else for seven or eight hours before I can pick it up again, but with short stories, I can finish one a couple of minutes before I get off the train. Perfect.

The first short story collection I read this year was Wayward Girls and Wicked Women, and Good Bones was quite similar in that there were often feminist messages behind the stories that I had to try to puzzle out. Again, this was a nice change from YA, which is usually quite straightforward. Not that YA novels don't make me think, but it's a different kind of contemplation. Usually I don't have to wonder what a YA book is about, though I may ponder the issues raised in the story at length.

Good Bones is also quite a witty collection - some stories made me laugh, or at least had me smiling at their cleverness. I enjoy it when books make me smile whilst I'm on the train because other commuters always notice and I reckon it makes me seem mysterious but also happy!

My favourite stories were 'The Little Red Hen Tells All', which is a retelling of the children's story about the little red hen who planted a grain of wheat, and ' Gertrude Talks Back', which is from the point of view of Hamlet's mother, but I liked all of the stories. Most of them are only three or four pages long, even in my little hardback edition, so they're very quick to read. Unfortunately this makes some of them quite easy to forget, but on the other hand it seems to amplify the power of others.

I would recommend Good Bones to anyone who has enjoyed any of Margaret Atwood's other works, anyone who likes short stories, and most especially to anyone who wants to try reading more short stories.

 

Book Review: Journey to the River Sea, by Eva Ibbotson

Photo by Mark Dumont.

It's 1910 and young Maia Fielding lives at a boarding school in London until her guardian announces that some relatives of hers have been found. She and her new governess, Miss Minton, travel all the way to the Amazon to live with her unpleasant new family, the Carters, who appear to detest everything about Brazil. Maia, on the other hand, is utterly enchanted by her new home and is keen to make new friends and explore. Soon she finds herself caught up in the mystery of Bernard Taverner's missing son...

This is the first book by Eva Ibbotson that I have read. I picked it up on a whim, loved it completely, and now I want to read them all. Seriously. I am considering tracking down a copy of every one of her books, building a fort, and hiding out there to read and read and read until I have devoured Eva Ibbotson's entire ouvre.I want to hand out copies of Journey to the River Sea to every child I meet! And probably a few adults too. I loved it that much. And so quickly! I even included a quote from the first chapter in my Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes post.

The narrative voice is funny and charming and snarky. The characters were colourful and varied. I loved Maia's innocence and ingenuity, Miss Minton's sneakiness and dignity, Clovis' nervousness and the greediness of the twins. The main plot and all the subplots were just fabulous.

I'm no historical expert but I spotted a couple of anachronistic details in the story. Nothing really jarring, just a couple of things I noticed, and I know some people are fussy about accuracy, so I wanted to include a warning!

Being a children's novel Journey to the River Sea was quite a quick read, but it was just what I needed to make the time I spent commuting speed by! I would recommend it to EVERYBODY.