what i'm reading.

i'm lauren and this is my book blog.

the unbecoming of mara dyer

I finished reading the unbecoming of mara dyer a couple of days ago. I was looking for something easy/light (i.e. teen romance) and out of the few books i brought back from my college apartment, this fit the bill. It took me some time to get into it, but overall, i found it enjoyable. sadly, its the first in a series (i wish i could read a teen book without having to commit to reading two more some time later), but having enjoyed this one, i am willing to wait.

I had issue with some of the stylistic issues (the strange frame letter in the begining that was never referred to again—what’s up with that?) and also with some of the plot (some events needed more explanation, the rescue scene seemed rushed and too easily accomplished). overall, i enjoyed the gender role reversal as well as mara’s abilities, though i wish they had been explained further. perhaps in the sequel?

(Source: amazon.com)

In the hall itself the din of the music— for this is the real way to play a jukebox and what it was originally for— was so tremendous that it shattered Dean and Stan and me for a moment in the realization that we had never dared to play music as loud as we wanted, and this was how loud we wanted.

—On the Road; Jack Kerouac

thecostumedlibrarian: npr: The Unlikely Best-Seller: ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ Turns 50 Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a publisher hearing a pitch about a children’s book whose tangled plot braids together quantum physics, fractions and megaparsecs (a measure for distances in intergalactic space). The book also casually tosses out phrases in French, Italian, German and ancient Greek. Sound like the next kids’ best-seller to you? It didn’t to the many publishers who rejected Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, which turns 50 this year. The novel was an immediate hit with young readers and with critics when it was published, and it won the Newbery Medal in 1963. Since then, it has remained a beloved favorite of children and adults alike. But it almost didn’t see the light of day. At the time, L’Engle already had six books to her name, but publishers were perplexed by her latest.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was pretty damn certain that I was Meg Murray. But without the cool time and space travel.

thecostumedlibrarian:

npr:

The Unlikely Best-Seller: ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ Turns 50

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re a publisher hearing a pitch about a children’s book whose tangled plot braids together quantum physics, fractions and megaparsecs (a measure for distances in intergalactic space). The book also casually tosses out phrases in French, Italian, German and ancient Greek. Sound like the next kids’ best-seller to you?

It didn’t to the many publishers who rejected Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, which turns 50 this year. The novel was an immediate hit with young readers and with critics when it was published, and it won the Newbery Medal in 1963. Since then, it has remained a beloved favorite of children and adults alike.

But it almost didn’t see the light of day. At the time, L’Engle already had six books to her name, but publishers were perplexed by her latest. 

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was pretty damn certain that I was Meg Murray. But without the cool time and space travel.

(via musicalmuse)