Once upon a time (7 years ago to be exact), I was a senior in college and also the president of my school’s chapter of the English honorary society, Sigma Tau Delta. You would think that English majors would pay attention to words and how they can be skewed, but apparently not in this case – the shortened name for the English honorary society is STD. Lovely, huh?

So anyway, as the president of my local STD chapter, I had to attend a conference in Boise, Idaho. What better way is there to spend Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, I ask you? As fate would have it, I met DH Mike at this conference, and the rest (as they say) is history. However, my BFF Ann likes to tell people that I met my husband at an STD conference. It does make for an amusing story, I suppose.

Anyway, the reason I’m sharing this story today is because something else happened at that conference that is actually relevant to this post. Among the many guest speakers at the conference, the highlight was Sherman Alexie. Since I’m participating in the 2009 YA Book Challenge, I just finished reading Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian this weekend. What follows is my review of the book.

Cover art stolen from amazon.com.

To be honest, when I first chose this book for my list of YA books for 2009, I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to read it. I had been hearing about it for a few months, and kind of waffling in my thoughts about it. But when it showed up on the 2009-10 Florida Teens Read list, I figured I’d give it a shot. And I’m really glad I did.

The narrator/hero of this story is Arthur Spirit, Jr., a Spokane Indian with a defective brain. He has a condition where he has excessive water on the brain, and this makes him physically different than other kids, which we all know is a bad thing to be in a coming-of-age novel. Junior suffers through the taunts of the kids on the reservation, and most of the adults, too. Despite his physical limitations, Junior is incredibly bright, and one day he comes to the realization that his reservation education sucks majorly. So he tells his parents he wants to go to school in the nearby white neighborhood of Reardon.

Going to Reardon means a lot of things for Junior: his fellow Indians hate him for selling out to the white folks, the white folks think he’s weird for being the only Indian (besides the mascot) in the school, and he’s going to get a much better education than he would have had otherwise. During his freshman year at Reardon, Junior suffers – and learns – a lot. This book had me alternately laughing out loud and crying with the ups and downs of Junior’s young life. His narrative voice is full of wit and candor, and I couldn’t help but be sucked into his story.

I highly recommend this one for anyone who was ever a teenager. It’s a really great read.

This week’s Booking Through Thursday prompt:

Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that  you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?

Most of the time, if I hate a book, I stop reading it well before the end. However, there have been a few books I really couldn’t stand and I had to read them, for work or school or something of the sort. Recently, I tried to read two literary classics that I hadn’t ever gotten around to before, and I ended up getting through them and didn’t like either one by the time I was finished. Though I didn’t HATE them with a large amount of rage, I also didn’t like them and determined that I would probably never teach them if I could help it. Those two books were …

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

and

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

(Ok, that last picture is the dvd cover, but you get the point.)

I got Cassandra Clare’s City of Glass at the library yesterday, and finished it last night (yes, folks, that’s 560 pages in one afternoon/evening). I had already read the first two books in this trilogy, City of Bones and City of Ashes, earlier in this school year. I could not WAIT to get my hands on this third installment.

Photo from amazon.com

I was not disappointed by the final installment of this fantastic series, except perhaps in the fact that it’s over now. I have followed Clary Fray, the heroine, on her fantastic journey from the world of the mundane (everyday people things) to the world of the Shadowhunters (demon-slayers) for three volumes now, and I was glad to accompany her. This third volume was full of twists and turns as Clary ventured to Idris, the homeland of the Shadowhunters, to hunt down the cure for her mother’s comatose condition and defeat her evil father, Valentine. She was, of course, accompanied once again by her fearless friends Jace, Simon, Alec, Isabelle, and Luke. I found myself frantically turning pages, wondering if evil would overtake Idris or if Clary and Jace would ever solve their romantic problems. I will not answer either of those questions here, for the sake of suspense for those of you who haven’t read it yet. Suffice it to say that I was extremely satisfied with the ending, and Clare didn’t leave me with too many loose ends untied, which is always nice at the end of a series.

I highly recommend the Mortal Instruments trilogy to anyone who likes sci-fi YA Lit, or just a good adventure story.  It’s a great escape, either way.

Since I’m participating in the YA Book Challenge (see post below this one), I thought I’d review the books on my list as I get through them.  I’m on my way to the library later on this morning to pick up a few more, but for now I’ll start with one I read earlier this year:  The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

Picture from amazon.com

The setting of this book is a futuristic dystopia where the area formerly known as North America has been divided into districts.  District 1, containing the capital, is in the Rocky Mountain region.  In order to keep the other districts from revolting against them, they use several means of maintaining dictatorship.  They regulate food allowances, take percentages of earnings from industries, and every year they hold the Hunger Games. 

The Hunger Games are like Survivor on acid.  Each district holds a lottery every year, supervised by the capital.  During this process, the names of one boy and one girl from each district are drawn at random.  The youth who are chosen then have to travel to the capital to compete in a game of survival … to the death … on t.v.  In this way, the capital reminds the other districts how powerless they are against District 1, and enforces rules and policies. 

Our heroine, Katniss, volunteers for the Games when her little sister’s name is drawn in the lottery.  Taking her sister’s place, Katniss travels to the capital to train for a few days and then compete in the games.  The story that follows is one of extreme suspense.  I could barely put the book down, desperate as I was to know what would happen next and if Katniss would prevail.  Though I normally hate reality tv, and have never watched a season of Survivor in my life, this book sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go.

Katniss is a heroine who embodies strength, cunning, and compassion.  Though she must plot and kill the other kids in the games, she never turns Lord of the Flies on us.  Throughout her life, she has suffered greatly to make sure that her family would prosper, and she continues to do that throughout the games (the prizes for her family will be great if she wins).  I won’t tell you what happens in the end of the book, but I will tell you that I anxiously await the survival of the sequel, Catching Fire, this September.

Since I’m an avid reader of YA Lit, this challenge seemed like it would be right up my alley.

So, here is the list of books I will read/have read this year.  I am going to bold the titles as I read them.

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (already finished earlier this year)
2. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (I read the prequel to this and loved it)
3. Hunted by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (read last month)
4. Fablehaven:  Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary by Brandon Mull (I read the first 3 in this series, and can’t wait to get my hands on the 4th)
5. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (loved books 1 & 2, anxious for 3)
6. Tenth Grade Bleeds, by Heather Brewer (the first two in this series were cute)
7. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (heard about it on the news)
8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (I heard him speak once and am interested in his writing.)
9. Generation Dead by Dan Waters (A Florida Teens Read book for 09-10.)
10. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Seems like a great 1984 revamp.)
11. Suck It Up by Brian Meehl (probably going to be similar to the Vladimir Tod books, but we’ll see.)
12. Unwind by Neal Shusterman (getting mixed reviews on LibraryThing, but it seems like a really unique concept).

I will probably end up adding to this list as we go throughout the year, as I’ve already read a few of these.  The difficulty may be in tracking down the others, but I’m on it!