Not Exactly the ABSE

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Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah OcklerTwenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 290 pages

“Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it.”
“Okay.”
“Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?”
“Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?”

According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie—she’s already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

Beautifully written and emotionally honest, this is a debut novel that explores what it truly means to love someone and what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

I love reading summer books, because I love summer. Summer in the Philippines can be horrendous, but I love the sun, I love having long days and plans with friends and going to the beach and just enjoying the sand, sea and the (seemingly) infinite possibilities that a summer day can bring (like getting personalized basketballs, for example).

I wasn’t sure what Sarah Ockler‘s Twenty Boy Summer was about when I first saw it, and from the title, I thought it was just one of those summer fling books. Imagine me wrinkling my nose at the idea. But after some time, I decided to try a sample and realized from that it wasn’t just a summer fling book, but one that also tackles grief and friendship, and that was enough for me to give it a try. Twenty Boy Summer is about Anna, Frankie and Matt, who have been best friends forever. Anna, our protagonist, has been harboring a secret from the two of them: she has been in love with Matt for years now. On Anna’s 15th birthday, she gets her wish when Matt kisses her after their cake fight. They keep this secret relationship from Frankie at least until they get to their yearly vacation to California, where Matt promises to tell his sister about it. He never got the chance to tell her because the day before they were to leave for California, Matt passes away from a heart defect. Everyone is devastated, but not as much as Anna, because her secret relationship with Matt would forever remain a secret.

A year later, Anna gets invited to join Frankie’s family for their vacation. Anna and Frankie were convinced that this would be their ABSE (Absolute Best Summer Ever), and the perfect time for Anna to lose her virginity, so they set up a twenty-boy contest. The logic was simple: they would be in California for 23 days. Give or take 3 days of sight seeing, that leaves them 20 days to meet a boy each day. Anna still can’t get over Matt, but she also promised to take care of Frankie, so she says yes to this plan. Then starts their supposed absolute best summer ever.

Sarah Ockler definitely hit it right with the summer theme in this book, and it made me miss those days when my friends and I were planning beach trips, whether it is overnight or a long trip on faraway places in the country. Twenty Boy Summer has a lot of those elements, almost making me feel the sand between my toes or hear the surf as it hits the shore (aptly described as Sshhhh, ahhh. Sshhh ahhh. Can you hear it now?). In a way, it’s a pretty relaxing book, despite the themes it attempted to tackle. There were also some great descriptions of items in the story, such as the sea glass being mermaid’s tears, or the ocean being “licorice soup”, or how Anna felt after her first time. I think Ockler had a way with words that actually transported me to the beach just by imagination.

What was kind of disappointing with this book is sadly, the characters. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but I pay close attention to the characters of books I read. Sometimes I think I like characters more than the plot because I think even the most boring plots can be spiced up by strong characters. I like it when I connect to the characters at some level, even if I can’t empathize or relate to their situation in the book. I tried my best, but I just couldn’t connect to Anna or Frankie in this book. I figure it may be because Anna and I don’t have much in common, but I don’t think that’s a valid enough excuse for me to feel distant from them. The setting pulled me in, yes, but the characters kind of put me at arm’s length through out the novel. I felt that the characters were somewhat inconsistent with how they were initially portrayed. Anna first came off as the good and sad girl who secretly grieved for Matt, but as the story unfolded, she seemed inconsistent to that. Her witty comments seemed a bit out of place, and her and her emotional outbursts felt lacking. For example (spoiler warning):

A lie? It hits me like a sledgehammer, releasing all the hurt and sadness and confusion I’ve held inside the last fourteen months. I jump up without speaking and bolt to the shore, unable to hold it any longer.

“How could you leave us like this?” I bawl at the sky, tears spilling into my mouth, ignoring the blurred runners who pass behind me without slowing. Just another drunk little girl, they must think.

“Tell her!” I should. “Tell her you made me promise! Tell her it’s your fault! Tell her it was a lie for you, too! Tell her you loved me!”

Maybe it’s just me, but that particular passage lacked something, some oomph. I didn’t feel Anna’s anguish; it felt more like a show than real emotion.

Frankie, on the other hand, seemed to go from being the bad girl to the good girl and back to bad. She seemed to be the typical girl who’s acting out because of someone’s death, but it didn’t feel genuine. However, Frankie’s character is kind of justifiable after a huge revelation in the book, so that kind of saved her. Anna is a bit too confusing for me to really like her, and that’s saying a lot since the novel is in first person POV. I felt more like a silent spectator through out their adventures in the novel. At least I was on the beach, right?

Furthermore, I wasn’t sure if it was able to tackle the grief aspect right. I had no qualms about how friendship issues were dealt with, but I think the grief part wasn’t highlighted enough, save for those small moments (ex. Anna and Matt’s mother talking about Matt, Anna and Frankie’s conversation at the end about Matt). Perhaps it was meant to be that way — I’m not sure. Actual grief is kind of hard to write about, but there’s a lot of YA books that managed to tackle that gracefully (perfect example: The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen).

Overall, this isn’t really a bad novel. I liked the summer aspect and the setting, but the characters and some of the serious themes that it attempted to deal with didn’t really work out that well for me. Some reader discretion is advised, especially for the young ones since this book also deals with losing one’s virginity over a summer fling (which obviously won’t work for me, either). It’s okay enough to be considered a good read for my standards, but in the end, it’s just not my type of summer.

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 68 out of 100 for 2010

Cover and Blurb: Goodreads

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Catch a Falling Star

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Catch a Falling Star by Cristina Pantoja HidalgoCatch a Falling Star by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo
Publisher: Anvil
Number of pages: 148
My copy: paperback, bought from National Booksotre

With this collection of stories, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo departs from the “tale” mode of Tales for a Rainy Night (1993) and Where Only the Moon Rages (1994), and returns to the realistic short story, the mode of her earlier collection, Ballad of a Lost Season (1987). But the simple narrative style and the nostalgic tone of these new stories about the young girl, Patriciang Payatot are reminiscent of the tales as well as of her travel essays, a genre in which she pioneered, and which some critics regard as her best work.

* * *

Okay that blurb won’t tell you anything at all — I just copied that from the back of the book.

I used to believe that writing short stories was easier than writing a novel, mainly because of its length. I mean, short stories are just short. You don’t need to put in so many characters, you don’t need to have complex plot lines, or chapters. But as I wrote, I realized that a short story is equally hard. In a novel, I can afford to ramble, I can afford to insert as many characters as I want, put in all kinds of random devices just to make something happen in the story. In a short story, I am limited because it’s supposed to be short, and a short story has to pack as much punch as a novel. Somehow, the characters have to be more memorable, the plot tighter and the ending more memorable, despite its length.

It’s been a while since I indulged myself in a good short story, so it was just timely that I saw Catch a Falling Star by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo in National Bookstore for only P150. I know my friend Sam likes her writing (loves?), and I trust her taste, so I figure this one seemed to be a good choice. Plus I like falling stars. ;)

Catch a Falling Star is a collection of short stories about Patricia Soler. Yes, you read that right: all twelve stories in the collection are about a girl named Patricia, or Trissy, her childhood, her school life, and other stories about her family and the places around her. It’s not a novel, and it’s not a series of stories that you have to read in order. According to the author, she wrote these stories after writing her novel, in memoir mode, as if an older woman was recalling stories of her childhood. So Trissy was born, and her stories first appeared in magazines such as the Philippine Free Press and Philippine Graphic before they were published into this book.

Just like the title, I thought the entire book was positively charming. Despite the length of the stories and how I was only offered glimpses of Trissy’s life, I thought she was a real person. The stories were written as if I was with Trissy in a coffee shop and she was telling me of all these stories of her childhood and laughing as she recalled them. The stories here are diverse enough to each pack its own punch — there was a story of the glasses she received for Christmas that she attempted to trade for a hopscotch stone, a story of her afternoons with their laundry woman who other maids thought was witch. There were stories from her conservative Catholic school and her classmates, stories of her befriending the most unpopular girl in school, a story of her being called “Patriciang Payatot” because of her stature, and stories of class reunions discussing one of their old classmates and her sad fate. There were stories about her family, of one summer vacation she spent with an aunt, of a boy that must have been her half-brother, and even a story of a woman who arrived at a wedding but no one knew who she was. And of course, there were stories of crushes, having loved and lost. It all seems very different, but there is a continuity in the stories that helped me keep track on where I am and who was who.

Trissy never lost her charm all through out the book, and the descriptions of her life were clear and imaginative, despite the seemingly simple text. I love how the author just seemed to have the right words to describe whatever Trissy was feeling perfectly, without sounding pretentious or too flowery. Case in point, from the story “Sweets for my Sweet”:

I expected my heart to break. Indeed, I was convinced that it had. I thought I could actually see the bleeding fragments lying about on the floor, waiting to be trampled on and crushed…

…And then I realized that it simply wasn’t true. Since Buddy had never been mine, I could not very well feel that I had lost him. (p. 79)

Even if most of the stories only showed Trissy from her childhood up to sometime during her college years, I didn’t feel cheated at the end of the book. I felt like a friend just simply ended her story, and is waiting for me to tell mine.

Catch a Falling Star is one of those anthologies (that is the correct term, right?) that hits the “I need to read something new but nothing too serious” spot just right. If you’re in need of a palate cleanser in between books, or you just want to indulge yourself in good local literature, pick this up and get ready to be charmed by Patriciang Payatot. :)

Rating: [rating=5]

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Follow Friday / Book Blogger Hop (1)

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After writing my blog award post last time, I realized that I don’t know too many book bloggers. Well, I know a lot of local book bloggers (yay Pinoys!), but for others? I hardly know any. I have a lot of book bloggers on my RSS reader, but none of them are really “friends”, or at least, people I get to interact with, if you know what I mean.

So let’s try this, shall we? :)

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and it aims to help book bloggers make friends with other bloggers all over the world. :)

This week’s question for Follow Friday is: What’s my amazing fantastic gorgeous book?

Oh this is kind of hard. Right now the first thing that came to mind is Justina Chen Headley’s North Of Beautiful. It has a gorgeous cover, and an equally beautiful story, too. :) It’s one of my best reads for 2010. :)

Book Blogger Hop

Over at Crazy for Books, Friday means it’s Book Blogger Hop! Like Follow Friday, Book Blogger Hop is a great way to get to know other bloggers, connect and make friends! The question for this week at Book Blogger Hop is: How many books do you have on your ‘to be read shelf’?

The last count? I had 40 actual books on my shelf that I haven’t read yet. I have three additional from today’s Sale haul, and I’m getting more books tomorrow with my friends as we bookstore hop. That’s not counting the ebooks I have in my iPod, which I feel will grow more once my mom arrives with my new toy. It’s a little overwhelming, honestly, but I know some people who have about 100+ books on their TBR. Now that’s a lot. I don’t know how I will find time to read the ones I haven’t read yet and I don’t think I can go on a book buying ban anytime soon because there are so many books coming, and it’s just hard to resist. :P

Which reminds me: I wish our house renovation gets done soon so I can start planning and saving for my new shelf. That should stop me from buying books for a while. I hope. :P

This weekend should be good. I am kind of apprehensive at what I may buy this weekend at our bookstore hopping (must. control!), but I’m also kind of excited. :) Let’s see. Happy Friday everyone! :)

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The Versatile Blogger Award

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When I was still new to the web design business, one of the things that everyone who has a personal website gives away and pines for are awards. I remember having an entire page full of awards for my site, and yeah, I was proud of it. Looking back, I realize that all those awards are just for hits and hits and hits, but then…that’s the website business, right?

Or not. Okay, I didn’t mean to be down with that — awards are fun. It’s just been a long time since I received one, so it was just kind of surprising. :)

Wait, I received two.

Thanks to Grace and Honey for giving One More Page the Versatile Blogger Award! If my blog had a face, it would be smiling like this: =D

The Rules for the award are:

  1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
  2. Share 7 things about yourself.
  3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order…)
  4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

Seven things about me:

  1. I name my gadgets. I feel like naming them helps me take care of them better, so I started naming them after I got my first laptop. My first laptop was named Ginger, and my first iPod was named Sam. My current gadgets are: Aslan (Macbook), Teo (office laptop), Macy (iPod Touch), Elyon (cellphone), Cornelia (cellphone), Wes (hard drive), Ashley (camera). The next gadget that comes in will be named Astrid after Rampant by Diana Peterfreund.
  2. My first love of genre is really chick lit. I love those fluffy books, but I realize that not all chick lit are fun to read (maybe more to this on a later post). Right now my favorite genre is young adult, because I get to live my teenage years all over again. Ha.
  3. I love Christian fiction. I love it when faith is written in stories I read. I don’t like preachy stuff of course (who does?), so I’m also picky with the Christian stuff I read. I admit that my faith and values influences how I rate the books (and I promise to post about this next time), so what others may like very much may not work out with me best because of something that goes against my beliefs or values.
  4. I have been a National Novel Writing Month participant since 2004. I’ve won since 2005, and I always, always love November because it gives me an excuse to be creative and to write as much as I can, even if it doesn’t always make sense. I’m also the Municipal Liaison for the Philippines, and I think I have the best bunch of novelists in the world. :)
  5. I like to run and dance. I don’t know if they like me back, but I enjoy it. I was never sporty, so I make use of the gym to get my exercise. It’s a blessing that running is such a low maintenance and not-so-competitive sport, so I can enjoy it without worrying if I will win.
  6. My dream car is a Honda Jazz. I want it pink, but not the light pink shade they have now. More like metallic pink. (Yes I love pink). There’s nothing wrong with having a dream car even if I don’t really drive, right? :P
  7. I think my body clock is perpetually screwed up. I have a rotating shift at work, which means I rotate shifts every two weeks for some client needs. I go from day shift to mid shift so I never have a permanent sleeping time it’s kind of hard to choose a time to sleep. I try to sleep before midnight when I’m on day shift, but I fail at it. Mid shift means sleeping at 2-3am. Now you know why I need coffee to be productive and cheerful.

I give this award to:

  1. Blooey of Bookmarked! – I don’t know if she got this award yet, but Blooey is one of the first book blogs I followed. I always trust her taste in books, and I am always amazed by her speed in reading and her talent at finding gems in the bargain bins. If there’s a real book lover out there, it’s Blooey. :)
  2. Chachic of Chachic’s Book Nook – It’s nice to know that there are other Filipino book bloggers who do the same memes as I do. Plus if it weren’t for Chachic, I wouldn’t have joined the Filipino Goodreads group! I like how thoughtful Chachic’s reviews are, and I trust her taste in YA fiction. I think you may have received this award multiple times now, and that is a testament of how people see your blog. :D
  3. Aldrin of The Polysyllabic Spree – Aldrin reads serious books. By serious, I mean books that I wouldn’t give a second glance to because I’m fluffy by nature. :P He’s one of the few guy book bloggers I’ve encountered, and even if I don’t really read the same books as he does, I like reading his reviews because they’re always so well-written. One of these days I’ll pick up one of the books you reviewed to see if I’d like it, too.
  4. Aaron of It’s the G World – This isn’t exactly a book blog, but he posts about books, so it could pass, right? Aaron is one of my new friends from the Filipino Goodreads community, and for the short time we’ve known each other, he’s like a younger brother to me. (Naks!) Aaron is nice, despite his villainous persona (Mighty Evil Overlord!), and he’s a firm believer of happy endings (did I get that right?), and I totally trust his taste on books. :P
  5. Lucy of Lucy Loves Fully Booked – I must give recognition to Lucy, Fully Booked’s resident blogger! I am a Fully Booked Fan, and it’s nice to know that they have started a blog, too, and I think it’s very helpful to connect to the local book blogging community to promote reading.
  6. Reggie of The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really) – At first I thought Reggie wasn’t from the Philippines, up until Honey listed her as a Filipino book blogger and when I saw one of her posts with a link to Children’s Hour. I emailed her, and she emailed back and I was totally psyched to know she is in the Philippines. I love her blog because there’s so many things to read about there, and she has the coolest contests. :D Plus, she owns International Book Tours, which help spread more reading love. If that is not a book lover, then I do not know what is. :P
  7. Ruby of The Fickle Fan – Ruby is my college schoolmate, and I was surprised to learn that she blogs about books, too! Her blog is not only about books, but movies, music and her travels.
  8. Forever Young Adult – I don’t know if they’ll notice this award since they’re really cool (they’re like the coolest kid in school :P), but I can’t not give this award to one of the most entertaining YA blogs I’ve read for the longest time. If you want honest and funny book reviews for YA books, go to them!
  9. Angie of Angieville – I found out about her blog from other book blogger friends and I love her reviews. Her reviews are always thoughtful, like she always takes the time to write about them, unlike how I do sometimes when I’m lazy.
  10. Alayne of The Crowded Leaf – I don’t really know Alayne, and I don’t think we have the same taste in books, either. But she’s always commenting on my Teaser Tuesday and Waiting on Wednesday posts, and she always had something nice to say. She deserves to be recognized.

Like the two girls who gave me the award, I don’t think I can get to 15 bloggers. But I hope you do drop by those 10 I listed above. It’s always nice to know that there are people all over the country and the world who share the same passion for books. :)

Thank you once again, Grace and Honey, for the award! :)

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Audrey, Start the Revolution

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Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Publisher: Razorbill
Number of pages: 313
My copy: paperback, bought from Fully Booked

California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, “Audrey, Wait!,” a break-up song that’s so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous!

Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can’t hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi.

Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is.

* * *

I needed a break from all the dystopia an somewhat depressing books I’ve been reading lately, and Audrey, Wait! was the perfect one. I found this book while I was browsing in the Fully Booked and bought it impulsively — and now it’s one of the best impulse buys I’ve ever made.

Audrey is your normal teenage girl who likes music, goes to concerts, works for an ice cream store, hangs out with her best friend and has a musician boyfriend with an MF taylor guitar in tow. However, the musician boyfriend bit is slowly getting old and Audrey knew that she had to break up with him. After much support and list-making with her best friend Victoria, she finally breaks up with Evan in the most gentle way she knows how, and plans on moving on quietly. Nothing spectacular about that, right?

Except for two things: Evan finally found the inspiration to write a song about Audrey after she broke up with him, and they played it on their gig the next night where this bigwig producer was watching. And the song was good. Very good.

Wait, that was three things. Or four.

Audrey’s normal life gets turned upside down as The Song becomes a hit. Pretty soon Audrey gets mobbed by fans, chased by papparazzi, kissed by wannabe rockstars hoping for inspiration, and basically loses every bit of privacy she knows. All the while Audrey can’t wait for everything to die down — the question is, will it ever?

Audrey, Wait! is such a fun book. I love contemporary YA, but I do get sick of having to deal with characters who have dysfunctional relationships with their families, or have body image issues, or friendship issues or any other kind of issues. Sure, no one is perfectly adjusted even in books, but it’s nice to read about someone who has a good life who just happened to make the right decision at the wrong time. That’s Audrey. She’s probably the most normal character I have read in contemporary YA ever. She has good friends, good grades and even a friendly relationship with her parents. It’s comforting to read something like this because it shows that you don’t need to be a messed up protagonist to have a story — sometimes normal in extraordinary situations would work just as fine. Audrey’s voice was clear and distinct, and she often breaks the fourth wall in the story since she’s basically re-telling it to us (Example, on page 241: “He, Victoria and my parents were the only one who had my cell number, because someone — and if you’re reading this, I will find you, oh yes, I will — hacked into my phone and got the number…”). She’s snarky most of the time, but she’s also lovable and I can’t help but sympathize with her as the story went on.

Audrey is the type of person I want to be, but if I can’t be her, I want to have a best friend like Victoria. She’s one of the smart and memorable best friend characters I have ever read. More often than not, best friend characters are always watered down in order for the main character to shine. In Audrey, Wait!, Victoria has her own character without stealing the spotlight from Audrey. Her personality shone just as bright as Audrey did, and even if she seemed a bit selfish at times through out the story, I understood her well when she and Audrey finally fought (oh that is not a spoiler — you know best friends often fight in contemporary YA novels). Favorite Victoria moment: when she brought coffee and a hammer to Audrey after being caught on video with the lead singer of the Lolitas. Coffee for the bad morning and hammer to smash the CDs to smithereens. If that is not a real best friend, then I don’t know what is. :)

The love interests are also very fleshed out. Evan disappears to be on tour soon after they play the hit song, but his presence was never gone in the story. He is the so-called antagonist that redeemed himself in the end without glossing over his flaws and offenses. James, on the other hand, is a sweet and sensitive guy that took Audrey (and me) by surprise. He’s one of those male YA characters that you can’t help but like, and maybe even have a crush on? :P He isn’t my type of guy, but I thought he was a cute and well-characterized male character.

Audrey, Wait! is peppered with so much fun dialogue that I can’t help but giggle at a lot of parts (best example in my Teaser Tuesday post yesterday). Unlike other contemporary YA novels, this one takes stuff from real life and adds fictional elements to it so it’s easier to relate to. It’s a novel with music at its center so don’t be surprised when you see artists such as Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, Belle & Sebastian, REM and the like on chapter titles and within the story. References to Lindsay Lohan and other Hollywood celebrities are there, too, as well as other pop culture, like Harry Potter (“Get over here and talk to her. She’s a reporter, not a Dementor.” – p. 57). The author knows how to make scenes sentimental/poignant and funny at the same time — another example:

“I just want you to know that, okay? I don’t want you to be scared that I can’t handle his. I mean, you know, whatever this is.” He waved his hand to indicate the general insanity that had taken over my life.

His heart was beating even louder now, and I closed my eyes and tried to calm my pulse down to match his. “I’m not scared of that,” I murmured, and I wasn’t. “That doesn’t scare me.”

“What does scare you?”

I thought for a minute, tapping my index finger against my bottom lip. “Sock puppets.”

“Excuse me?”

“They’re horrifying.”

See what I mean?

I think the only “flaw” this novel may have is the sheer unbelievabilty of the story. Okay, not so much I guess, because what happened to Audrey is possible. I’m just not sure if it can happen in real life in the scale that happened to Audrey. But I guess us normal girls can pick up a few lessons from this story: if you value your privacy,* don’t date someone who will write a song about you when you break up and make it big after. Or at least, don’t break up with them before a big gig. Or something to that effect. Personally, I think Audrey, Wait! shows us that normal non-rockstar guys are still the best. ;)

This is a novel with a happy ending, but not without any difficulties getting there, so expect a ride through fame, fights and a realistic resolution — as realistic as Audrey’s situation can be, that is. This is a fun and crazy read, and while it’s not something I will profess my love for, it’s a book that will definitely be on my favorites. :)

Rating: [rating=4]

Post Title credit: Anberlin’s Audrey, Start the Revolution

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