Monthly Bookish Awesomeness: May 2015

In which I recap what went down in the last four weeks here and outside the blog.

Hey y’all! So I know I’ve been away for more than a couple of weeks now—and I apologize—but I recently went through a surgery and a slightly unexpected weekend escape before that. I’m recovering well, though, and excited to be back blogging regularly soon!

May had been really wonderful. My  childhood best friends were in town, however briefly, and I spent the whole weekend with them before I had my operation, which went successfully. This month, I also got to read Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda (FINALLY!!!) and More Happy Than Not, which both exceeded my expectations. So yaaay times two! And oh. I watched Pitch Perfect! No, not the sequel. Oops. It was pretty aca-mazing.

First week of May, the lovely Hazel Ureta of Stay Bookish invited me over at her blog for Behind the Lens and I’m a happy snowman! Thank you so much, dear!

Books I Read

• Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith – Smith is many things, but what he does best is writing complex teenage boys. I had problems with the narrative style but, overall, it’s a candid look on growing up.
• More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera – This is a strong debut you guys, with characters as unforgettable as the book is unflinching in its portrayal of confusion, love, homophobia, friendship and a lot more. Silvera surely is set to win many, many fans.
• Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – There’s only one thing you need to know about this novel: Becky nailed the character voice. I mean, I can’t even. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda is such a charming, smile-inducing read. The cast instantly feels familiar and you can’t help but root for them. WHO GOES OUT THE GATE PUBLISHING HER FIRST BOOK THIS GOOD?!!!
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik – I have conflicting opinions about this. Very. But it’s reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone with fae-ish elements. And, somehow I requested this from Netgalley thinking it’s YA, but it’s not.
• Noggin by John Corey Whaley – Gaaah. I’ve never cry heaved so hard. There was this one scene that’s just beautiful and sad and poignant and I lost it. The overall tone was very nostalgic and there were times the MC was too whiny for my liking but it still is one of those stories that you know will stay with you in a long while.
• Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver – D (of Oops! I Read A Book Again) and I are currently buddy-reading this one. This is my first title from the author.
• Half Bad by Sally Green – Yeah, I read this in April but wrote a review this month. Terrific character connections, blunt writing style and quietly compelling.

Other Stuff I Posted

• 184 F-Words, 28 Illustrations, and 4 Book References: Andrew Smith’s ‘Winger’ by the Numbers – I had TONS of fun writing this one but the reception was A LOT more overwhelming. This garnered the most page views for Bookish and Awesome and Andrew himself was “quite impressed with this scholarly achievement.” HA!
• I Would Give Up the Internet – This was the hardest tag by far.
• Ten Authors I Really Want to Meet – If you follow me on Twitter, this list wouldn’t surprise you because DUH.
• I Am More Happy Than Not – I initiated a Tag! But, really, coming up with this article was both comforting and liberating. Allow me to give you reasons to be grateful everyday.

Book Birthdays

         

Happy book birthday to Made You Up (Greenwillow Books), Uprooted (Del Rey), Anything Could Happen (Push), and Extraordinary Means (26th, Katherine Tegen Books), which all found a place in the shelves this month!

Book Radar

         

June will see both More Happy Than Not (2nd, Soho Teen) and The Witch Hunter (2nd, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) coming out into the wild, woohoo! Along with Every Last Word (16th, Disney Hyperion), and The Night We Said Yes (16th, HarperTeen).

Gold Star

I’m introducing a new feature in my monthly recap! Gold Star, inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, aims to spotlight a person, book, project or anything that makes the world a happier place (because I’m cliché like that). And this month’s Gold Star belongs to… The #BooksArentDangerous initiative! So basically, together with The NOVL, Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia asked the bookish community to upload a photo using the hashtag. And for every picture posted, they will donate a book to First Book, to help underfunded schools and libraries. They reached their goal of 5,000 and I just think that, for readers like us, spreading the love of reading is such a fulfilling cause to be a part of. Fantastic job, ladies!

Around the Interwebs

• Shannon @ Awash with Wonder always posts beautiful, reflective entries and you should check out her blog, if you haven’t already. Earlier this month, she shared how moving from one place to another helped changed her mindset and how sometimes walking away appears to be the only option and that’s not a bad idea.
• The Book trailer for The Night We Said Yes is HERE, as well as ones for Extraordinary Means, which can be an indie film on itself (I LOVE IT!), and Anything Could Happen, another one I adore. Seriously. I don’t know if this is a trend, but I’m totally digging this book trailers with indie-movie-vibe.
• And speaking of which, we get the first full-length trailer for Syfy’s The Magicians series. I had my reservations concerning this one because I’m so attached to Grossman’s characters and world (or should I say worlds?) and the age gap threw me off but now I’M CRAZY EXCITED!
• Alex London wrote this brave, heartening article on bending reality to match a closeted gay teen’s daydreams. You go, Charlie!
• Game of Thrones 05 x 06 is THE EPISODE I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE SEASON 1! Except, well, the last part.
• Kat Kennedy @ Cuddlebuggery talked about blogger exhaustion and you know it’s a real thing.
• Another from Gay YA: this personal, unapologetic piece from Adam Silvera in staying true to your story is all you need to know.
• Paper Fury, then Notebook Sisters, celebrated its fourth year anniversary! Cheers Awesome-Cait! Greet her with a piece of cake or two!
• Bad Blood MV!!! So this isn’t bookish news but I love Taylor Swift (deal with it) and her latest music video was epic and badass as promised. Although, I didn’t like the rap parts. Not at all.

I hope you all had an awesome May! For those of you who didn’t get to attend BEA15, did you torture yourselves by staying on Twitter (like I did)? And for those of you lucky bastards who went, what was your favorite part? Let’s talk in the comments below!

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REVIEW: Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Title: Grasshopper Jungle
Author: Andrew Smith
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Publication: February 17th 2015 by Speak (first published February 1st 2014)
Source: Bought from National Book Store
Genre: Fiction—Coming of Age, Contemporary, Science Fiction
Other classifications: Apocalyptic, LGBTQIA, Weird, Young Adult

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This is the truth. This is history. It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it. You know what I mean.

In the small town of Ealing, Iowa, Austin and his best friend, Robby, have accidentally unleashed an unstoppable army. An army of HORNY, HUNGRY, SIX-FOOT-TALL PRAYING MANTISES that only want to do two things.

At least once in our lives, we become so confused in and with everything. With our identity, our sexuality, how we make sense of what’s happening around us and how it affects us while also trying to figure out who we are and what does that mean. This is at the core of Grasshopper Jungle, Andrew Smith’s 7th novel, which is also a Michael L. Printz Award nominee.

“”Sometimes I’m confused,” I said. “Actually, pretty much all the time I am. I wonder if I’m normal.””

Smith is many things, but what he does best is writing complex teenage boys. Andrzej Austin Szczerba is our narrator. He, his best friend Robby, and girlfriend Shann witness the end of the world, where hungry, horny, six-foot-tall Mantis-like bugs are involved. Austin is flawed and almost always thinks of the stuff boys think, but he’s young and is threading waters. In that way, Grasshopper Jungle wins. It excels in capturing the inner battle of who-am-I-what-do-I-want-what-could-I-do everyone of us fights or at some point fought. This universal subject is what makes the book an intimate experience. And Smith’s use of monosyllabic reactions like “uh” and “um” is so on point.

“Okay, at times, can effectively serve as the closing curtain to difficult teenage conversations.”

Grasshopper Jungle also champions two other topics: weird YA and bisexuality. What’s horrifying about this piece of literature is not the ginormous bugs who only like to do two things, it’s the “deranged carnival sideshow.” The disturbing tableaux of where humanity may lead to, or maybe have. Smith offers his readers a freak show of macabre human psyche and he does it with no reservation whatsoever. And the portrayal of one character’s bisexuality is just realistic and I think it comes from a place of sensitive observation. Because, clearly, Smith is not bi. But his character undeniably is. Plus, the book does not shy away from vulgarity. It actually has one graphic, explicit sex scene but the author handles it well.

“I consider it my job to tell the truth.”

The biggest drag, however, in this novel hitting full circle of genius is the narrative style. Austin is a historian. He records events in his notebooks. The book, Grasshopper Jungle, is filled to the brim with too many facts. And, while every single one of these is relevant to the story by rights and manages to resurface in forked roads, it’s often distracting. I find the reiteration of certain things gratuitous, and by the nth time I was told that Andrzej Szczerba—whose American name is Andrew Szerba—is Austin’s great-great-great-grandfather, I was weary.

“I love how you tell stories. I love how, whenever you tell me a story, you go backwards and forwards and tell me everything else that could possibly be happening in every direction, like an explosion. Like a flower blooming.”

But I still recommend this title, especially for fans of honest, candid coming-of-age tales like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Grasshopper Jungle is wild, daring and introspective if in places tedious.

Andrew Smith knew ever since his days as editor of his high school newspaper that he wanted to be a writer. His books include Grasshopper Jungle, Winger, and 100 Sideways Miles. Smith prefers the seclusion of his rural Southern California setting, where he lives with his family.

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I cheated. My photo is recycled. I disappoint myself. Have you read this book? Have I convinced you to? Who are your go-to authors for Weird YA? And, OH, since Grasshopper Jungle is about the end of the world, name three writers you’d want in your team when this happens!

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Stacking the Shelves #2

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews in which book bloggers share their latest bookish acquisition.

Notice how I bought new books even though I haven’t started on last week’s spoils. Hush now. I did start a new book. And, I guess, I’m lucky I don’t buy in bulks. Otherwise, I’ll have a ginormous pile sitting in the corner. But I digress!

Physical Copies

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Sometime last year, I saw a Paper Lantern Lit video featuring Lauren Oliver. And since then, I wanted to try this author. I decided Vanishing Girls will be my introduction. Side note: until I have this in my hands, I didn’t realize how chic its cover is!

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

I LOOOOOOOOOVE WINGER! Naturally, I’ll go for another Andrew Smith book.

E-galley

Ferals by Jacob Grey

A youngster hero? Crows? A combination of Neil Gaiman and Batman? Yes please!

What are your recent bookish acquisition? Have you read any of these titles? Which do you suggest I read first? AND are you a hoarder? Let’s talk in the comments below!

You can also stalk follow me elsewhere! On Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Goodreads, and Bloglovin.