BBAW 2012 Interview Swap with Vy's Blog!

For Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2012's interview swap, I was paired with Vy of Vy's Blog. Read on to learn more about this young YA blogger!

1. Tell us about yourself in a few short sentences. For example: name, location, occupation, hobbies, pets... and so on!

My name is Vy and it's pronounced just like the letter "V". I’m currently a high school sophomore and I live in the lovely state of Oregon. Besides reading and blogging, I enjoy playing ping pong and going on long runs.

2. Tell us about your blog. When did you start it and why? What interesting things can visitors expect?

Vy’s Blog is mainly a young adult book blog. I started my blog around the beginning of my 8th grade year in 2010 after I started reading YA books. Readers can expect to find a young adult’s view on many topics and reviews on my blog.

3. What are some of your favorite books you discovered through blogging?

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is a book I would have never thought of to pick up if it weren’t for fellow bloggers. It is one of my favorite books of the year. I also discovered high fantasy through blogging and I've been in love with the genre ever since.

4. One thing I discuss every once in a while on my blog is my understanding of my Asian identity and how Asians/Asian Americans are represented in YA lit. What is your relationship with your Asian identity? When you've traveled to Asia in recent years, where did you go and what were your impressions?

I’m from a Vietnamese family that is very close to our culture. I was fortunate enough to have been to Viet Nam a total of four times and I enjoyed every visit. My most recent trip to Viet Nam, I went to Nha Trang, Cần Thơ, Saigon, and Phú Quốc. It was great to experience the difference in the way the people interacted and the amazing foods from each location.

5. What are your favorite snacks to have while reading?

I love eating fruit and gold fish while reading.

6. Tell us something you wish people "in real life" knew about you, or, alternatively, something people IRL know about you that you want to share with bloggers.

I guess I wish that people “in real life” knew about my “blogging life”, but I also enjoy keeping it private.

7. What are some things besides books that you just LOVE to receive for presents? :)

Getting posters, and fun fandom or bookish related accessories are my favorite to receive.

8. What do you hope to get out of BBAW 2012?

I met a lot of other bloggers through last year's BBAW and I hope to meet more bloggers through this year's.

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Thanks, Vy! Be sure to check out Vy's Blog, and also the interview she did with me over there, in which I talk about my life in Shanghai and my ideal YA character roommates. I greatly enjoyed answering her interview questions, so would appreciate it if you'd give it some love. :)

Review: Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Tags: middle grade, contemporary, acceptance

Summary

August Pullman is ten years old and starting school. Previously, he was homeschooled, because Auggie was born with a facial deformity. Auggie, as well as the other people in his life, have mixed feelings about him entering school, but perhaps Auggie will prove to everyone, as well as himself, that with a heart of gold, he can accomplish things beyond everyone’s expectations.

Review

If this book doesn’t get its own slew of awards this year, there is no justice in the literary world. WONDER is unmatched in the middle-grade contemporary genre—but, in fact, it is not middle-grade so much as it is a winning tale that transcends reading age groups.

There are many great things I can talk about regarding WONDER, but my favorite thing about it is how R. J. Palacio successfully uses multiple perspectives to weave together a very full portrait of Auggie and his struggles and triumphs. Palacio treats the story humanly and realistically. Just as in real life, characters are not perfect in this book: Auggie’s older sister, Via, struggles with her guilt over her occasional flashes of resentment and embarrassment over her brother, while Auggie’s friend Jack learns how to balance social expectations with his personal feelings about their friendship. As readers, then, we might prefer some characters over others, but we cannot hate any of them, because we fully understand where they come from.

Auggie, the protagonist, is a character that simultaneously possesses the youthful optimism of the truly good and the observational skills of one who has borne more than he should have to. My heart jumped each time he made an insightful observation on subtleties in human behavior, such as the way he remarks on that “one-two look” people give him and his face. You know what he’s talking about, because you’ve either received it, or have done it (the latter doesn’t make you a bad person, as this book shows). Auggie’s narration is so honest and unflinching you feel like you should pity him, but you can’t, because he just wants to be a normal boy…only he is too good of a person to be considered just normal. You know how that movie Say Anything has the tag line “To know Lloyd Dobler is to love him”? Yeah. To know August Pullman is to love him.

WONDER is marketed as a middle-grade novel, at least in the US, but I think it can be even better appreciated by older readers who are aware of both the innocent and not-so-innocent actions of children and also how cruel the world can be. Regardless of your age and genre preferences, WONDER will leave you in a mess of strong emotions and have you better appreciating your blessings. Thank you, R. J. Palacio, for reminding us of what it means to be human.

Similar Authors
Holly Goldberg Sloan

Cover discussion: It isn't that much to look at, but I like that color blue, and after reading the book, I fully appreciate how the cover doesn't overshadow the book's contents or set up misleading expectations.

Knopf / Feb. 14, 2012 / Hardcover / 320pp. / $15.99

Personal copy.

Review: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 2
(Book 1: The Name of the Wind review)

Tags: fantasy, magic

Summary

As the morning of the second day dawns on Waystone Inn, Kvothe continues to recount his incredible life story to Chronicler and Bast. The University goes on as ever but Kvothe is beginning to realize that, in order to find the answers about the Amyr and the Chandrian that has been obsessedly searching for, he may need to leave his beloved University—nay, even leave familiar lands completely—and travel to the far-off land of Vintas, where he dabbles in court politics, robber-hunting, Fae relations, and more.

Review

Those who loved The Name of the Wind will not be disappointed: THE WISE MAN’S FEAR is as meticulously plotted and beautifully written as the first. Which means that you should just read my review of The Name of the Wind for all the reasons why you should read this series, and in this review I will talk instead about some of the things I found, well, a little lacking.

I found myself making a Star Wars comparison as I closed the cover to THE WISE MAN’S FEAR. Specifically, that this book served all the purpose of Episode 2: Attack of the Clones: it was exciting and adventurous, but hardly answered any of our questions from the first story. In THE WISE MAN’S FEAR, Kvothe pretty much remains the same and does exactly the same sorts of things he did in the first book: he verbally spars elegantly with his superiors, gets into nearly impossible situations and gets himself out or through by dint of his cleverness, and on and on. Oh, and in THE WISE MAN’S FEAR Kvothe adds to his overflowing litany of good qualities some mad skillz in the sack. Kvothe is this perfect hero who experiences no growth throughout books one and two, and it’s finally begun to grate a little on my nerves.

Kvothe goes on his adventure under the pretext of learning more about the Amyr and the Chandrian, but narratively speaking, that seems like just an excuse for him to get into increasingly unbelievable mini-adventures, none of which seem to aid him on his ultimate quest of avenging his parents’ death. Which is why I made the Star Wars comparison: I’d be curious to find out if, at the end of the series, his side journeys into Vintas and beyond are actually essential parts of his path to the Chandrian.

For the most part, Patrick Rothfuss characterizes beautifully: supporting characters such as Simmon, Wil, and Vashet stole my heart and demanded more page-time than they were allotted. However, I simply cannot get behind Denna as the love interest. It’s almost like Rothfuss wrote a lifetime’s worth of frustration over females into this impossibly beautiful, charmingly clever, woefully haunted woman. She represents the embodiment of unattainable female perfection, and therefore Kvothe is living out the male population’s dream by getting closer to said unattainable female perfection than anyone has before. Their dynamic is unrealistic, self-delusional, and more than a bit annoying. (Don’t get love lessons from Kvothe: you don’t win over your perfect partner by never giving them any indication that you like them as more than friend, because you’re scared that they don’t like you back in the same way. This leads to unhealthy cases of unrequited love, in which you can’t move on in your life.)

With all that’s been said, however, I will still devotedly read the third and last book in the series when it comes out. Fans will appreciate this installment that’s chock-full of Kvothe’s diversionary adventures, but boy, I hope questions will actually be answered in the next book!

DAW Trade / March 6, 2012 (reprint) / Paperback / 1008pp. / $19.00

Personal copy.

Review: Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Tags: YA, contemporary, gossip, bullies

Summary

Chelsea Knot has clawed and climbed and gossiped her way up to the top of her school’s social chain. But her reign as the queen bee’s best friend takes a shocking, dizzying fall when Chelsea’s post-party decision has the entire school jumping at the chance to alienate her.

Well, not quite the entire school. Despite her self-imposed vow of silence, Chelsea befriends Asha and several other classmates she’s never spoken to before, who all work at the diner in town. And one of her new friends, Sam, is utterly too cute and sweet. But has Chelsea finally learned her lesson this time about knowing when and when not to speak, and what she’s going to speak up for?

Review

Hannah Harrington’s debut novel, Saving June, was my delightful surprise of 2011, so I had high expectations for her sophomore novel, SPEECHLESS. And while I didn’t like SPEECHLESS as much as I did Saving June, it was still an uplifting and quick YA contemporary read.

SPEECHLESS’ strength lies in its treatment of its protagonist, Chelsea. There is no doubt that Chelsea is a mean girl at the beginning of the book, so caught up in the dangerous thriller of being the first to find and spread gossip, and yet we readers undoubtedly see the potential she has in her for good. And yeah, okay, this is kind of the way that protagonists have to be—they have to arouse our empathy in order for us to want to invest in their journey—but Chelsea is, really, likable. She has a very relatable reaction to her changing social position at her high school, but she has an inner strength that we can admire: this is not a girl who will dissolve into a spineless, quivering, tearful mess in the face of extreme challenges.

That being said, the predictability of the rest of the story made this only a mediocre read for me. SPEECHLESS follows a very basic YA contemporary story format, complete with a budding romance that readers can call from the love interest’s first appearance on the page. While Chelsea’s situation is no doubt cringe-inducing—she’s forced to suffer at the hands of some truly heartless school bullies—it’s all written about in a very straightforward manner, so that you can anticipate everything that’s about to happen. While I don’t always require oodles of surprises and utter originality in my reads, the elements of this book just all felt very…safe to me, and thus ultimately forgettable.

SPEECHLESS’ reformed protagonist, golden-hearted supporting characters, and predictably sweet romance are nothing new in this genre, but sometimes that’s the kind of read you seek. If so, you can’t go wrong with Hannah Harrington’s well-intentioned books.

Similar Authors
Donna Freitas
Morgan Matson

Cover discussion: This is a brave cover. It completely defies all the norms and goes for the ultra-minimalistic look. And it works.

Harlequin Teen / Aug. 28, 2012 / Paperback / 288pp. / $9.99

e-galley received from publisher and NetGalley.