Fast funny reads, and a new author to hunt.
Well, I have definitely read a bunch of fluff lately. Some of it had some redeeming qualities though . . .
Meggin Cabot: She Went All the Way and Boy Meets Girl
Jennifer Crusie: Bet Me
Sarah O'Brien: Hot Property
All of this stuff was mystery-flavoured romantic comedy. The Cabot and the Crusie were light and well written, as per usual, and the O'Brien was inoffensive and interesting mainly in that it was set in Ireland. Oh, and none of it had overtly strict gender roles, which sadly abound in romance books. Boy Meets Girlwasn't quite as good as the other stuff I have read by that author (who also writes as Patricia Cabot, Meg Cabot, and Jenny Carroll). This is partly due to the format - everything is in the form of emails between friends, enemies, love prospects, and coworkers.
I read a YA novel by Cameron Dokey, How Not to Spend Your Senior Year, and was really impressed. I thought it was going to be a really light read, but it was actually more than entertainment. I keep thinking about the situation the characters were in, and how the author managed to red herring me so well. A few deft touches really turned the characters from stock comedy/adventure plug-ins into people I really empathized with. I read so many books that I am so happy when I find a decent plot twist that I can't predict, but doesn't come off as forced or exceedingly unlikely. I have just found out that she has like 20 more books around, and now must hunt them down . . .
Another book which was much more realistic than expected (and HELLA more realistic than the movie) was Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. The movie format didn't do justice to the book at all, because though some short sections were almost verbatim, somehow most of the depth was lost. All the characters got more stereotyped (and irritating, in my opinion) in the movie. The book was toned more like the movie Mean Girls, which actually had some morals hidden in it, while still being relatively realistic and watchable.
P.S. I have a guy friend who said that he quite enjoyed the CoaTDQ movie. I now attribute that mostly to a schoolboy crush of surprising proportions on Lindsay Lohan. And here I thought he was a relatively mature, sensible guy. I assume he missed large sections of the overdone dialogue while examining LL's person in her varied and usually form fitting costumes.
I read Requiem, the third book in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, and found it was entertaining, exciting, and relatively unpredictable, and the teenage characters had the general insights (and characteristic lack of insight) of real teenagers. The Meg Cabot / Jenny Carroll series are remarkably reliable - I haven't been disappointed yet.
Meggin Cabot: She Went All the Way and Boy Meets Girl
Jennifer Crusie: Bet Me
Sarah O'Brien: Hot Property
All of this stuff was mystery-flavoured romantic comedy. The Cabot and the Crusie were light and well written, as per usual, and the O'Brien was inoffensive and interesting mainly in that it was set in Ireland. Oh, and none of it had overtly strict gender roles, which sadly abound in romance books. Boy Meets Girlwasn't quite as good as the other stuff I have read by that author (who also writes as Patricia Cabot, Meg Cabot, and Jenny Carroll). This is partly due to the format - everything is in the form of emails between friends, enemies, love prospects, and coworkers.
I read a YA novel by Cameron Dokey, How Not to Spend Your Senior Year, and was really impressed. I thought it was going to be a really light read, but it was actually more than entertainment. I keep thinking about the situation the characters were in, and how the author managed to red herring me so well. A few deft touches really turned the characters from stock comedy/adventure plug-ins into people I really empathized with. I read so many books that I am so happy when I find a decent plot twist that I can't predict, but doesn't come off as forced or exceedingly unlikely. I have just found out that she has like 20 more books around, and now must hunt them down . . .
Another book which was much more realistic than expected (and HELLA more realistic than the movie) was Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. The movie format didn't do justice to the book at all, because though some short sections were almost verbatim, somehow most of the depth was lost. All the characters got more stereotyped (and irritating, in my opinion) in the movie. The book was toned more like the movie Mean Girls, which actually had some morals hidden in it, while still being relatively realistic and watchable.
P.S. I have a guy friend who said that he quite enjoyed the CoaTDQ movie. I now attribute that mostly to a schoolboy crush of surprising proportions on Lindsay Lohan. And here I thought he was a relatively mature, sensible guy. I assume he missed large sections of the overdone dialogue while examining LL's person in her varied and usually form fitting costumes.
I read Requiem, the third book in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, and found it was entertaining, exciting, and relatively unpredictable, and the teenage characters had the general insights (and characteristic lack of insight) of real teenagers. The Meg Cabot / Jenny Carroll series are remarkably reliable - I haven't been disappointed yet.
posted by Lu Hill at 6:09 p.m.
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