Teen Tuesday

Golden by Jessi Kirby (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers hardcover, 14 May 2013.)

Good girl Parker Frost sometimes wishes she could do something improper.  Not something bad, but rather rebellious and unexpected. She's always done everything she could to make her mother proud:  worked hard, excelled in school and made valedictorian.  She's even one of the finalists for a scholarship to the university of her choice.  

But before she graduates from high school, Parker wants to -- just once -- break the rules.  

A perfect opportunity falls in her lap when, as part of her TA assignment for English teacher Mr. Kinney, she stumbles across the journal of Julianna Farnetti.  Ten years earlier, Julianna and her boyfriend Shane Cruz were the "golden couple" of Summit Lakes High, but on the night of their graduation,  Shane's jeep slides off a mountain road.  Neither of their bodies were found, but the water was so icy cold that their deaths were almost a foregone conclusion.

Parker begins to read Julianna's journal, and discovers some major secrets.  Julianna had a relationship with an older guy, an artist who encouraged Julianna's own artistic aspirations.  Learning how Julianna's hesitation to defy expectations was the cause of a real tragedy spurs Parker to push the envelope.  

With the help of Trevor, whom she's had a crush on forever, and her best friend Kat, Parker follows up on some clues in Julianna's journal to find out who the older man might be, and what really happened to Julianna and Shane.

Not just a coming-of-age novel, this unputdownable book is a story about relationships between friends, girls and guys, and teens and parents, as well as a satisfying mystery.



FTC Full Disclosure:  My thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the e-galley.

 

Teen Tuesday

The Fault in Our Stars* by John Green (Dutton hardcover, 10 January 2012).

Hazel Lancaster is sixteen, and has lived with a diagnosis of fatal thyroid cancer for three years.  A very intelligent young woman, she hasn't attended school for some time, but has managed to earn her GED at home, and attends classes at the local community college when she feels up to it.

Due to the help of an experimental drug, her life has lasted longer than expected, but the disease is advanced enough that she has to take an oxygen tank with her everywhere.  Her relatively solitary life and her disease have (not unexpectedly) led to depression and her doctor has encouraged her to attend a support group for teens with cancer.  Since her parents agree, she does, even though she thinks its a bit lame.

But at one meeting, she meets Augustus Waters, a few months older than she.  He tells her he's attending the meeting to support his friend Isaac, who is one of the few people at the meetings that Hazel likes.

Hazel and Gus click immediately, and begin to spend time together.  She learns that he also had cancer, but has been in remission since one of his legs was amputated.  They exchange favorite novels.  His is called The Price of Dawn, and is about a soldier named Max Mayhem who kills hundreds throughout the course of the book (presumably in the name of peace, justice and The American Way).  Hers is entitled An Imperial Affliction and is written by a (fictional) author named Peter Van Houten, from the point of view of a girl named Anna, and ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence when Anna presumably dies. 

Hazel is frustrated at not knowing what happened to the girl's mother and stepfather after Anna's death. This information, for some reason, is very important to her, and she 's written to the author multiple times with no reply.

Although Green manages to describe the development of a relationship between two teens with cancer honestly and without overdoing the sentiment, it's still an emotion-laden book to read, whether one has a fatal disease or not.  Although it's marketed for teens, it's also suitable for mature adults.    

*"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Julius Caesar, I, ii, 140-141

 FTC full disclosure:  I picked up an advance reading copy of this book at ALA last June.  
 

Just finished reading...

Friday Mornings at Nine by Marilyn Brant.*


For years, Tamara, Bridget and Jennifer have a standing date for coffee every Friday morning at nine. They talk about everything, including children, husbands, work and sex.

As the book begins, they've each reached a sort of crossroads and are hesitant about choosing a direction. Tamara's son Benji has just left for college, her husband is constantly away on business and she has a very attractive neighbour who works from home; Bridget has started back to work part-time, and finds herself attracted to her boss; while Jennifer whose husband and kids take her for granted, has received an email from her college sweetheart.

Feeling frustrated, they make a pact to find out who they really want to be with by stepping out of their comfortable routines. They say they're not intending to have affairs, just know themselves better, but each of them wonders to herself if an affair is really what she's considering.

The story follows each of them, separately and together, as she explores herself and her situation in life. This description makes it sound like a self-help book, but it absolutely is not. It's an interesting, absorbing story of three women who are not afraid to test the limits of their relationships with their husbands and families in order to learn what they really want from their lives.

Reminiscent of Marge Piercy, this is definitely a women's novel, topical and thought-provoking.


*Many thanks to GoodReads and Marilyn Brant for the Advance Review Copy.