Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Release Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 336


Source: Bought.

Image from Penguin.com

Summary:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.


Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. (From Penguin.com)

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The diction and characters in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars are as electric as the novel's bright blue book jacket. I finished reading this book a month ago*, and the funny, insightful Hazel and the adorably pretentious Augustus--who chooses his "'behaviors based on their metaphorical resonances'"--still burst in on my thoughts.

Hazel Grace Lancaster meets Augustus Waters at Cancer Kid Support Group. Hazel carries an oxygen tank everywhere she goes, because--in her words--her lungs "suck at being lungs." Hazel was diagnosed with incurable Stage IV thyroid cancer that had also spread to her lungs when she was thirteen. Miraculously, she's still alive at sixteen thanks to Phalanxifor, a fictional experimental drug that keeps the tumors in her lungs from growing. Phalanxifor grants Hazel some extra time, but no one knows how much. Augustus, on the other hand, is in remission from osteosarcoma that left him with a prosthetic leg. Augustus is long, lean, and hot. He invites Hazel to his house the afternoon they first meet, and she says yes.

The Fault in Our Stars is a love story: a beautiful, heartbreaking, luminous love story. While cancer plays a major role in the novel, Green never lets it consume the characters or the plot, showing that sick people are--above all--still people. At one point, Hazel remarks, "You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice." John Green makes the funny choice, too. The Fault in Our Stars is full of hilarious conversation and observations. And when I say hilarious, I mean so funny you want to roar with laughter and read the book out loud to everyone you meet. Or maybe that was just me.


Amidst all this humor, however, Green's characters face tragic, torturous situations. Life isn't fair in reality, and Green does not sugarcoat the reality of cancer. Hazel and Augustus are both forced to contemplate death more often and more seriously than average teenagers, and they are concerned with universal human desires to be remembered, to not truly die, to go on being people. The Fault in Our Stars asks readers to consider the definition of heroism and what it means to do something that matters.


The Fault in Our Stars is also a book about books. When Hazel goes to Augustus's house the afternoon she meets him, they talk about books. Augustus cajoles Hazel into revealing her favorite novel, An Imperial Affliction, which exists only in the fictional world of Green's novel. August announces that he will read it, but adds, "'All I ask in exchange is that you read this brilliant and haunting novelization of my favorite video game.'" Green's characters display an appreciation for different types of fiction, and the novel comments on the place of stories in the face of life and death.

The Fault in Our Stars is one of the best books I have ever read, and I recommend it to readers who enjoy romance, humor, and pitch-perfect prose. I was working at the library the day my branch received our copy, and it was all I could do not to rave about this book to every customer who approached me with a reference question. So I will rave here: The Fault in Our Stars is funny, addictive, quotable, deep, and lovely. And I hope many, many people decide to read it.
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*I happened to pre-order the book from the company that accidentally shipped its pre-orders early . . .

Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, and illustrated by Jim Kay

Release Date: September 15, 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 224

Source: My local library.

Image from the author's website.

Summary:

The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.

But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Costa Award winner Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel of coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults. (From the author's website.)
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In Patrick Ness's novel A Monster Calls, the yew tree in the churchyard behind thirteen-year-old Conor's house comes walking. The yew tree monster begins showing up while Conor's mother is in the midst of taxing chemotherapy treatments. So yes, A Monster Calls is a Cancer Book. But it is also a story about stories; the monster approaches Conor because he wants to tell the boy stories. And the stories the monster tells have teeth. The first one begins like a fairy tale, but ends unconventionally. The monster is not interested in falsehoods and happy endings.

In between Conor's encounters with the monster, Conor lives the painful, awkward life of a child with a sick parent. Conor's teachers and classmates treat him differently because his mother has cancer. Regular social and school rules no longer apply to Conor, and the unreality and unfairness of it all frustrates him. To top it off, the monster wants Conor to tell a story, too. He wants Conor to tell the truth. And it isn't the truth I thought he would tell.

A Monster Calls is a lyrical, well-written novel that contains moments of dark humor, uncomfortable realism, and, of course, pain. The novel also contains illustrations by Jim Kay that add to the foreboding, sometimes gothic atmosphere of the novel without taking the visuals completely away from the reader's imagination. However, enjoyed is not a verb I would use to describe my experience as I read this novel. Nevertheless, I highly recommend A Monster Calls to anyone of any age who wishes to read a powerful book. A Monster Calls is marketed and shelved as a young adult novel, but I think I would have a hard time recommending the book to teens and especially children looking to read for fun. This novel requires readers to acknowledge their own mortality and--perhaps most terrifying--the mortality of the people they love and all the uncertainties inherent in life. And there is the fact that Ness built this novel out of characters and a premise developed by Siobhan Dowd, an author who died of cancer before she could write this book. Different readers will react differently to this information, which Ness presents in a note before beginning his tale. I can't hand this book to someone and promise that they will enjoy it. But I can promise that they will walk away with a new appreciation for life, truth, and the struggles we may all face.

Funny Library Montage

(From a link sent by the library director of the library system I work for.)

Cookie Monster's obsession with obtaining cookies from the librarian made me crack up, because library patrons have asked me for food. And money. And money for food. If only I could make this kind of stuff up.

A Week in Pictures

The Sunset last Friday at Pacific Beach in San Diego, CA

Madame Hessel in the Boudoir, Rue de Naples, ca. 1935 by Edouard Vuillard--one of my favorite artists--at the San Diego Museum of Art

The view from the Ocean Beach Pier in San Diego

Where the Keebler elves live. (A tree in Balboa Park)

Mirrors on the wall of my aunt and uncle's living room in San Diego

Young Girl in Front of a Window, 1930. By Suzanne Valadon. At the San Diego Museum of Art.

Flowers at Disney Land

This man rollerblades while dancing to music up and down the sidewalk at Pacific Beach.

Nom nom nom--a panda at the San Diego Zoo

Wenches for sale in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney Land

A pillow at the Disney Land Hotel. Really.

San Diego Zoo

My uncle's lamp collection in the spare bedroom

I returned yesterday from a weeklong visit to San Diego, CA to see my aunt and uncle. We also went to Disney Land and California Adventure, and January must be the time to go. There weren't many crowds, and most of the lines were only five minutes long. My dad and I rode 18 rides, and my mom and my aunt rode 17. (They wouldn't ride California Screamin', the roller coaster that goes upside down.) That's a new personal best for us :) The weather was--for the most part--sunny and perfect, and now I am back to chilly weather and piles of snow. Bookish posts coming soon.

Happy Friday,

The Joy of [Real] Books

(Via bookshelves of doom)

Another thing ebooks can't do.

I love books as objects as well as stories, but they do take up a lot of space. I recently had to weed out my personal library to make it fit into my bookshelves. The books I gave up went to a lovely used book shop--another thing ebooks can't do.

But. But but but. I did receive an e-reader for Christmas. I'm still deciding what I think about ebooks. I'm visiting family on the opposite side of the country next week, and I plan to leave all my hard copy books at home and only take the e-reader. (My carry-on bag will be the lightest it's ever been.)

We're also getting more questions about ebooks and e-readers than ever at the library. So many questions, in fact, that the city bought e-readers for library employees to experiment with at work, so that we can better explain and demonstrate how to access online library services to patrons. I've heard many patrons remark that they read more on their e-readers than they did without the devices. That's encouraging to hear: no matter how people read them, people are reading books.

A Paris Moment

No, not this Paris (although this is where I was last January):

I'm talking about the Paris in Gilmore Girls:

Image from Tumblr.

She's pushy, socially clueless, scary. And I have something in common with her. I was watching Gilmore Girls on DVD, as I do from time to time, when I saw The Paris Moment. I remember seeing this scene on reruns of the show when I was in high school, but it didn't mean much to me at the time because I was not applying to grad schools.

I dropped out of the blogosphere this fall because my life was way too busy to even think about Musical Mondays, never mind read for pleasure. In the last few months I did the following:

• Submitted and presented my senior English portfolio. (The eighty-three page monstrosity received rave reviews from the English faculty, which was nice, but ate all my free time and a large chunk of my ZZzz time, which was not so nice.)
• Applied to graduate programs for library science.
• Saw one of my paintings in a professional museum gallery--I got into the invitational exhibit I wanted into so badly!
• Applied to MFA programs for painting.
• Paused for three days to celebrate Christmas.
• Kept applying to MFA programs.

I turned in my last grad school application yesterday, and the Waiting Game is now in full swing. I'm done requesting recommendation letters, following up with my recommenders, nervously triple-checking deadlines, writing essays and statements, painting painting painting, painting some more, editing portfolio photos, uploading resumes, filling out applications. As the director of Career Services at my university pointed out, this application business had become my full-time job. And in about a month and a half, I will receive letters and e-mails with acceptance decisions.

Image from Hey girl. I like the library too. on Tumblr.

Gilmore Girls's Paris receives her pile of acceptance letters in Season 7, Episode 19: "It's Just Like Riding a Bike." When Rory gets back to the apartment she shares with Paris and Paris's boyfriend, Doyle, after class, she finds the two of them standing nervously near the door.

Doyle: Paris has some news.

Paris: Not some news. The news. Responses from Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Penn Medical, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, and Columbia Medical.

Rory begins opening the letters for Paris, and each one begins, "We are pleased to inform you . . ." The three of them jump up and down and shout with glee, but after a few acceptance letters, Rory and Doyle stop screaming so loudly. Paris notices.

Paris: What's that about?

Doyle and Rory: Hmm?

Paris: Your noticeable drop-off in enthusiasm? Is that a reflection of the fact you're less impressed by my admission to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine than you were by my other acceptances?

Doyle and Rory assure Paris that they're just as impressed with this acceptance as they are with the others, and Paris rattles off the school's merits. Doyle and Rory agree that the school is top-notch. But Paris doesn't really listen to them.

Paris: Fine. You've made your point. Perception should play a role in my decision-making process . . . . So. How do I decide? How? This is a huge decision. The biggest decision I've had to make in my life. Law school or med school? I have two passions and obviously I'm vastly talented in both fields. What muse do I follow? Not to mention location-wise. Where do I wanna live for the next three or up to eight years? [To Rory:] Open the others.

Rory: Yeah? Okay. Columbia. That's also a good school . . . [opens letter] . . . "We are pleased to--"

Paris: Oh, God!

Rory tells her she's being silly, that it's good to have options. Rory opens up another letter.

Rory: Hey, hey, you got into Stanford!

Doyle: Woo-hoo! Someone's on a roll!

Paris: Enough with the hysterics. I have a big decision to make, and all this hooting and hollering isn't exactly helping matters.

Paris ends up sulking on the couch with a pillow over her head.

Like Paris, I have two passions: Literature and library science, and art. And--unless I can come up with a creative way of integrating the two--I will have to choose between schooling and careers in these two fields in a matter of months. As Paris said, it's a big decision. But I hope I have a decision to make. I want a Paris Moment, with acceptance letters from both fields. I don't want to end up in one field just because the doors to the other one all slammed shut in my face. Applying to grad school requires one to really evaluate why one wants to go into a specific field; I had to dig in and articulate my passions, hopes, dreams. I'm grateful for this part of the application process, because it helps to know what I love about libraries and information services, teaching, and art making.

And now the rest is up to admissions committees. If I get my Paris Moment, I hope I accept it more gracefully instead of huddling into a corner of my couch. Until then, however, I am on break until the beginning of spring semester, which means books! And blogging! And one more picture of library-loving Ryan Gosling for the road:

Image from Tumblr.

Readers Advisory: "Me is not you"

From Liz B at Tea Cozy:

One of my pet peeves (I have so many I should run a zoo) is when that role isn’t recognized or is downplayed. Sometimes it’s “anyone who reads can do readers advisory,” so who needs librarians? That’s a bit like saying anyone who eats can cook. Reading is about “me,” what I want and enjoy in a story; readers advisory is about “you,” what you want and enjoy in a story. Me is not you.

Click on through for more thoughts on reader's advisory.

Also, from "The Role of Reading" at Venn Librarian:

Look, Reader’s Advisory is one of the few school librarian skills that cannot be outsourced to others. Many (most?) English/Language Arts teachers aren’t really up on what’s New! Wonderful! in the world of ya or children’s literature. Not only that, those teachers rarely allow students to just read the book, they want analysis and thoughtfulness.

And sometimes readers just wanna have fun.