okay okay

Two more young adult books and then THAT'S IT.  I promise.  Both by E. Lockhart: 

Book 36:   The Treasure Map of Boys.  Cute, fun, thoughtful - like the other Ruby Oliver books.

Book 37:  Dramarama.  You know...  maybe not my favorite of the E. Lockhart books.  If you're a drama geek you'll like this one, though. I'm just not.  And the protagonist bugged me a bit.  Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it -- I don't subscribe to the theory that you have to like characters in order for a book to be a good read -- but Sadye did annoy me.  Bit of a know-it-all. 

UNTIL:  The last 20 pages of this 300-page book, when I cried.  

And now, my dear friends, I think my appetite for young adult books has finally been sated (for now).  Grown up books from here on out.  Huzzah!

The Boyfriend List

Latest Y.A. read was The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart.  Since I loved The Disreputable History so much I decided to go for another by this author.  I am not going to summarize it here -- that's boring for all of us -- but I will submit to you this small excerpt which rang true for me, even as an adult:

... I never felt the same after that.  Not really.  Look back and reread what Jackson actually said when he told me about his afternoon with Heidi.  True, he said he wanted me, had never felt like this before.  But he also said that Heidi was superbeautiful and fun, and that they'd played tennis for old times' sake, because they were so well matched, blah blah blah.

Now, if your entire focus was on making your new girlfriend feel better about your feelings for your old girlfriend, would you mix your declaration of love in with nostalgia about tennis games and the superbeauty of the old girlfriend?

No.

You would only do that if you were still thinking about the beauty and the tennis. ...

Believe me, I know the actual truth is that these are all nice girls.  Some of them even used to be my friends.  And I firmly believe that women should not get all cruel and petty with each other over men, because how on earth will we run companies and countries if we're preoccupied with someone else's big boobs in a pink sweater set? ... 

My problem is that I can think whatever I think -- girl power, solidarity, Gloria Steinem rah rah rah -- but I still feel the way I feel. 

Which is jealous.  And pissy about little things.

Amen, sister.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Oh, I just loved this book!  (The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, Book No. 30, by E. Lockhart) It's another Y.A. book, and I KNOW I'm too old for this (more self-analysis at a later date on why I keep picking up Y.A. books the past year or so - I have been thinking about it) but it had a fun plot, great characters, funny parts, sad parts.

I came across a mention of the book on this blog (which I randomly came across while looking for dress sewing patterns, of all things) and the blogger's enthusiasm plus the fact that the book was nominated for a National Book Award made me feel like it might be worth reading.  I finished it all in one lovely, hot, lazy weekend day (to the detriment of the piles of laundry waiting to be laundered and the kitchen waiting to be cleaned and the dog waiting to be walked). 

Frankie is a teenage girl recently blossomed into someone that boys and girls alike are beginning to notice.  She's smart, good-looking, and does not like being told what to do.  She becomes obsessed with her school's boys-only secret society, a group which claims as its members her father and current and ex-boyfriends alike.  She manages to infiltrate the group via email, talks them into a number of genius school pranks...  and I don't want to give away the ending.

But it's interesting.  It's about girl power, and also about the lessons Frankie learns when she doesn't play by the Old Boy rules.  Double standards are alive and well.  When her pranks are discovered, she has to ask, "Why is it psychotic if I did it it, and brilliant if Alpha [a male student] did it?"   It makes her think, and hopefully it will make Ms. Lockhart's female readers think.  It's a funny, smart book, and while it doesn't necessarily have a Happy Ending, the conclusion is solid and rings true. 

Of course the book has many ingredients I love: Teenagers good and bad, boarding school, successful teenage girls, secret societies, crushes, language games, literary references.  Some minor points jarred slightly - does a sophomore girl really read P.G. Wodehouse for fun?  But then I decided maybe Frankie does.  She seems like she might, so I took it at face value.

Loved it.  I ran out and picked up two more by Lockhart.  (I can't stop with the teen books!)  Info to follow.