Adventures in Librarianing: meme

Showing posts with label meme. Show all posts

Teaser Tuesday (May 22)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Over the last few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going - so far as I can tell - but it’s changing. (5)

The Shallows: How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember - Nicholas Carr

Teaser Tuesday (Jan 17)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Brian was moving from gargoyle to gargoyle with the ease of long practice when he heard the voices. He was so startled he almost lost his grip. (77)

A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

My first trip to the library for 2011. I had intended to spend a month or so reading only from my shelves, but well… I guess that didn’t work.

Beddor, Frank with Liz Cavalier – Hatter, Vol 1: The Looking Glass Wars
Beddor, Frank with Liz Cavalier – Hatter, Vol 2: Mad with Wonder
Beddor, Frank with Liz Cavalier – Hatter, Vol 3: The Nature of Wonder
Kellaway, Lucky – Martin Lukes: Who Moved My Blackberry?
Link, Kelly – Pretty Monsters
Rosoff, Meg – Vamoose!

Teaser Tuesday (18/1)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“I’d been hoping to go back to school when my baby was six months old, but things weren’t going to plan. For one thing, try finding a crèche or a childminder who’ll take a moose.”

Vamoose! (p. 24/25), Meg Rosoff

Musing Mondays (17/1)

Musing Mondays is hosting by MizB at Should Be Reading

Do you prefer deep, intellectual, “meaty” books… or light, “fluffy” books? Why? Give us an example of your preferred type of book.

As a former English major I feel almost guilty for saying this, but these days I tend to shy away from the deeper more intellectual books. Not to say that I don’t enjoy them, they do have their place (and I’m rather fond of essay collections), but these days, with my reading time being as limited as it is, I really don’t have the time to wade through dense prose on a daily basis.

Having said that, I wouldn’t consider myself a heavily ‘fluff’ reader. I do like a book with a little bit of substance, even if I don’t need a forklift to lift it in the first place. I would imagine that definition of ‘fluff’ would vary from person to person, but I definitely prefer a book with a well thought out plot that will leave me considering it after I’m finished. I don’t like a book that I forget about as soon as I’m done.

--------

On another note: I remember reading somewhere (perhaps last week’s MM, I just can’t remember, sorry) about the blogger who noted that people were signing or marking their library’s romance books to remind them of which they had read. I found this a fascinating practice, and bee lined to the romance section today to see if the practice held in my library and it did! So, to whomever wrote the post, your library is not alone!

Literary Lusts: Friedrich Bhaer

Literary Lusts is a meme hosted by Elena over at With Extra Pulp, wherein we discuss any literary characters we may have had developed a crush on.

Sometimes – okay, ALL the time – I forget to post my responses to memes, especially when they don’t, quite handily, have the day in the title. This is why I’m doing the Literary Lust post today, instead of yesterday.
This is my third post on this subject, and I’m a little concerned that I haven’t run out of people yet…

Friedrich Bhaer
from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women

I know he’s not a major character (not right away, at least) but think about it. He’s a well-learned, extraordinarily kind and gentle man. He’s wonderful with children, believes in honesty, and has an accent to boot. He not only puts up with Jo’s temperamental ways, but actually loves her all the more, and compliments her so well. At the risk of being pelted with tomatoes, I was never disappointed that Jo turned Laurie down – I knew she would find her Friedrich.

You’ve got to love a kindly literature-nerd*.

When it comes to movie adaptions of Little Women, there are of course several Friedrichs**, but my favourite will also be the version of my generation: Gabriel Byrne. Really, would you turn down this man:

* My love for Friedrich is in no way connected to my long-standing wish to be Jo. No. Never. Not at all.

** In looking for Professor Bhaer pictures I discovered that William Shatner and John de Lancie were in a production of Little Women together, as Friedrich Bhaer and Frank Vaughn respectively. This makes the nerd in me very happy … and very giggly.

Literary Lusts: Atticus Finch

Literary Lusts is a meme hosted by Elena over at With Extra Pulp, wherein we discuss any literary characters we may have had developed a crush on.

So I was thinking about who I was going to pick for my Literary Lust character this week – and I was thinking, and thinking, and then it hit me!!

Atticus Finch
from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

and then of course, I fend really bad that I didn’t think of him last week – thank goodness Wendy’s on blogging hibernation or I’d never live it down.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all-time favourite books. I read it for the first time when I was in tenth grade – it was the first book I ever really studied seriously, and I remember being so excited about it (I’m even nerdy enough to admit that this probably played a big part in my love of this novel).

I fell in love with Atticus Finch before I’d even finished my first reading of the book. My English teacher that year really set an example! He’s intelligent, moral, and articulate to boot. He’s just the all-around perfect man! My only qualm is that he refuses to step out of the book into reality.

And now come on, let’s be shallow for a minute. Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch is just gorgeous!

I challenge anyone who’s read To Kill a Mockingbird to disagree with me. Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t just adore Atticus?

Literary Lusts: Gilbert Blythe

Literary Lusts is a meme hosted by Elena over at With Extra Pulp, wherein we discuss any literary characters we may have had developed a crush on.

This week Elena went for the broody Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I seemed to head for the opposite end of the spectrum in my choice:

Gilbert Blythe
from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series.

I really don’t know how anyone who has read the Anne books couldn’t be completely enamoured with Gilbert. He’s smart and kind, funny and generous. Not to mention absolutely enamoured with Anne.

Right from their earliest rivalry I was cheering for Gilbert, waiting for Anne to realise what every reader already knew: that Gilbert was a catch, and that they were perfect together. And you’ve got to give the boy credit, he really did stick it out, despite all her rejections.

Good on you, Elena, now I want to read Anne!

For those of you who haven’t read the series (and you really should), the first book can be found here.

And did anyone else know that there is an Anne and Gilbert musical? I didn’t! See, this meme is educational, too.

BTT (Jan 7)

What books did you get for Christmas (or whichever holiday you may have celebrated last month)?

Do you usually ask for books on gift-giving occasions or do you prefer to buy them yourself?

I don’t normally get books for Christmas – and haven’t done since I was very young. My family tells me they find it too hard, not knowing what I already have, or would like to read. I suppose I can understand this sentiment, though I have tried to nudge them towards gift certificates in the past.

This year, however, I did get a nice little pile of books. And my sister and I actually decided early to make a wish-list and exchange books this year.

Star Trek: Voyager – Full Circle by Kirsten Beyer
Graceling by Kristen Cashore
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
An Abundance of Katherine by John Green
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum/Charles Santore

It’s not unusual for me to slip a book under the tree for myself (what? I like getting books for Christmas!), and this year it was the new Borders special edition of Sense and Sensibility. I just couldn’t resist the prettiness of this edition.

My favourite, however, was undoubtedly the illustrated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that my cousin Renae bought me. I collect copies of this book, and am always on the look out for something new. Charles Santore’s edition is just so beautiful.

As for requesting books for gift-giving occasions, no I don’t usually. If asked what I’d like (though I’ve been told I’m easy to buy for, so it doesn’t come often) I will give a title or two, but it’s not common.

A-Z Wednesday (Nov 25)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.).
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment. (We all love comments, don't we?) Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: P
Here is my “P” Title:

Peter Pan and Wendy – J.M. Barrie
267 pages; published 1911

In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers nightly with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars to the lush jungles of Neverland. Wendy and her brothers join Peter and the Lost Boys in an exhilarating life free of grown-up rules, while also facing the inevitable showdown with Hook and his bloodthirsty pirates.

A-Z Wednesday (Nov 18)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: O
Here is my “O” Title:

Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey
528 pages; published 1998

From Amazon
Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favor of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grownup Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness, and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly--transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.

Friday Firsts (on a Sunday)

This month Wendy supplied us with a list of first lines and asks which books we’ve read and which would make it to our tbr list on the basis of the first line.

Bold = the books I’ve read
Pink = tbr pile

1. Call me Ishmael. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
3. A screaming comes across the sky. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

7. Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicious of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

10. I am an invisible man. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

A-Z Wednesday (M)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: M
Here is my “M” Title:
[Brooks+-+March.jpg]

March – Geraldine Brooks
346 pages; published 2005

From Publisher’s Weekly
Brooks's luminous second novel, after 2001's acclaimed Year of Wonders, imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or "contraband." His narrative begins with cheerful letters home, but March gradually reveals to the reader what he does not to his family: the cruelty and racism of Northern and Southern soldiers, the violence and suffering he is powerless to prevent and his reunion with Grace, a beautiful, educated slave whom he met years earlier as a Connecticut peddler to the plantations. In between, we learn of March's earlier life: his whirlwind courtship of quick-tempered Marmee, his friendship with Emerson and Thoreau and the surprising cause of his family's genteel poverty. When a Confederate attack on the contraband farm lands March in a Washington hospital, sick with fever and guilt, the first-person narrative switches to Marmee, who describes a different version of the years past and an agonized reaction to the truth she uncovers about her husband's life. Brooks, who based the character of March on Alcott's transcendentalist father, Bronson, relies heavily on primary sources for both the Concord and wartime scenes; her characters speak with a convincing 19th-century formality, yet the narrative is always accessible. Through the shattered dreamer March, the passion and rage of Marmee and a host of achingly human minor characters, Brooks's affecting, beautifully written novel drives home the intimate horrors and ironies of the Civil War and the difficulty of living honestly with the knowledge of human suffering. (Amazon)

My review here

A-Z Wednesday (L)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: L
Here is my “L” Title:

Looking for Alaska – John Green
160 pages; published 2005

From School Library Journal
Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days "before" and "after" what readers surmise is Alaska's suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles's A Separate Peace(S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends. (Amazon)

A-Z Wednesday (J)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: J
Here is my “J” Title:

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel – Susanna Clarke
800 pages; published 2004

From Publishers Weekly

The drawing room social comedies of early 19th-century Britain are infused with the powerful forces of English folklore and fantasy in this extraordinary novel of two magicians who attempt to restore English magic in the age of Napoleon. In Clarke's world, gentlemen scholars pore over the magical history of England, which is dominated by the Raven King, a human who mastered magic from the lands of faerie. The study is purely theoretical until Mr. Norrell, a reclusive, mistrustful bookworm, reveals that he is capable of producing magic and becomes the toast of London society, while an impetuous young aristocrat named Jonathan Strange tumbles into the practice, too, and finds himself quickly mastering it. Though irritated by the reticent Norrell, Strange becomes the magician's first pupil, and the British government is soon using their skills. Mr. Strange serves under Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars (in a series of wonderful historical scenes), but afterward the younger magician finds himself unable to accept Norrell's restrictive views of magic's proper place and sets out to create a new age of magic by himself. Clarke manages to portray magic as both a believably complex and tedious labor, and an eerie world of signs and wonders where every object may have secret meaning. London politics and talking stones are portrayed with equal realism and seem indisputably part of the same England, as signs indicate that the Raven King may return. The chock-full, old-fashioned narrative (supplemented with deft footnotes to fill in the ignorant reader on incidents in magical history) may seem a bit stiff and mannered at first, but immersion in the mesmerizing story reveals its intimacy, humor and insight, and will enchant readers of fantasy and literary fiction alike. (Amazon)

A-Z Wednesday (I)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: I
Here is my "I” Title:

Ice Station – Matthew Reilly
528 pages; published 2000

From Publishers Weekly
After a team of American scientists at Wilkes Ice Station discover what seems to be a spaceship in a four-million-year-old cavern below the ice, two of the divers disappear while checking out the craft. Lt. Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield and his highly trained team of Marines respond to the scientists' distress signal. By the time the leathernecks reach Wilkes, three days later, one of the scientists has killed another, six more members of the Wilkes team have disappeared in the ice cave and eight French scientists from a nearby station are for some reason at the U.S. base. Would the French government kill Americans to capture a frozen UFO? Probably: six of the French "scientists" turn out to be the members of the French special forces. From that discovery onward, this first novel offers nonstop thrills as Schofield and his team fight for their lives and for those of the remaining American scientists against French and British commandos and a secret American spy group; against killer whales and strange aquatic mammals; and against time, for both the French and British commandos harbor "eraser" plans to wipe out all survivors in case of mission failure. Reilly's debut evokes a host of predecessors, including Jaws, The Andromeda Strain, The X-Files and the combat novels of Tom Clancy. It also echoes the work of Ian Fleming, as the outrageously heroic Schofield comes off as less a real Marine than a fantasy action figure on a par with Bond. There's not much that's original here even the set-up is reminiscent of the classic SF film The Thing, about a saucer buried in Arctic ice but Reilly doesn't really need to be original, not at the pace at which he whips his story line past readers. Employing crude but effective prose, a nonstop spray of short, punchy paragraphs and cliffhangers galore, this is grade-A action pulp. (Sept.) FYI: Ice Station was previously published by Pan Macmillan in Reilly's native Australia, where it sold 30,000 copies. (Amazon)

Friday Firsts (Oct. 2)

This month, Wendy provided a list of first lines collated by Nancy Pearl, author of the Book Lust series.
Of the eight books on the list, I haven’t read any – in fact I didn’t even recognise them (so you’re two up on me, Wendy). The one I liked best, however, was from Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle:

“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

How can that not draw you in? What are you doing in the kitchen sink? And why on earth would you choose this location to write in? Why??
At this point I’m not adding any to my tbr pile because it’s already toppling and I’m in fear of my life as is.

A-Z Wednesday (H)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: H
Here is my "H” Title:

Larbalestier, Justine - How to Ditch Your Fairy

How to Ditch Your Fairy – Justine Larbalestier
320 pages; published 2008

From School Library Journal
Grade 6–10—In New Avalon, most everyone has a personal fairy. Charlie, 14, has a parking fairy; if she is in a car, a perfect parking spot is found on the first try. But since Charlie doesn't drive and hates exhaust, she thinks she's been cursed. Her friend Rochelle has a clothes-shopping fairy that makes everything look perfect on her, and her sworn enemy, Fiorenze, has an every-boy-will-like-you fairy. Charlie's attempts to starve her fairy away by walking everywhere just collects her demerits for lateness at New Avalon Sports High, where it is all sports all the time. When the water polo star virtually kidnaps her in his car for his illegal purposes and the "pulchritudinous" new boy on whom she has a crush falls for Fiorenze, Charlie needs to get drastic. She and Fiorenze forge an alliance and hatch a plan to switch their fairies, and she learns to be careful about what she wishes for. With the every-boy-will-like-you fairy, girls turn on Charlie, and she wonders whether Steffi likes her or if he is just responding to her fairy. Charlie is totally likable, smart, and sarcastic, a perfectly self-involved, insecure teen. At its core, this is a typical coming-of-age story, but the addition of the fairies, the slightly alternative setting, and the made-up slang make it much more. This "doos" (brilliant) fantasy will not be ditched.

My review here

A-Z Wednesday (G)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: G
Here is my "G" Title:

Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
383 pages; published 1990

Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time... (Amazon)

My review here.

A-Z Wedneday (F)

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicky of Reading at the Beach

THIS WEEK'S LETTER IS: F
Here is my "F" Title:

Finding Cassie Crazy – Jaclyn Moriarty
383 pages; published 2003

Cassie is in Year 10 at Ashbury High. Ashbury students claim that the kids at Brookfield High are drug-dealers and psychopaths. Their teacher starts a pen-pal project which leads to an escalation of the war between the two schools, to secret romance and to Cassie learning to face her fears. (Amazon)

My Review from August 2008
Dear Brooker Kid [...]

My name is Cassie.

[...] I'll tell you something else that I find funny and that is this: counselling. I went to see a counsellor with my mother last night. You might think that's kind of a private thing to reveal in a letter to someone like you, who I've never even met, but you must be forgetting what counselling it. It's where you TELL A STRANGER ALL ABOUT YOURSELF. So telling you that I've been to see a counsellor is nothing. You're not a stranger. You're a Brooker Kid. (p. 25-6)

Dear Cassie

Eat shit and die, private school slag.

Yours faithfully

Matthew Dunlop (p.32)

Emily, Lydia and Cassie are best friends and students at the prestigious private school, Ashbury High. When they learn that their English teacher, Mr. Botherit, is instituting a mandatory year 10 penpal program with the neighbouring school, Brookfield High (a school you "can't get in ... unless you have a criminal record", 17), they are less than pleased. They have more important things to worry about than writing to the criminal Brooker kids, things like skipping school to go to the movies, working on becoming a famous novelist and helping Cassie cope with her father's recent death.

Mandatory does, however, mean mandatory and the girls are issued their penpals: Charlie, Seb and Matthew. Despite initial first impressions (ranging from bemusement to downright loathing) the pairs manage to find something to talk about: Emily teaches Charlie how to date a girl (in order to steal away the beautiful Christina); Lydia and Seb engage in a a round of one-up-manship through their "secret assignments"; and Cassie and Matthew find someone with which to talk over their heartache.

The problem with letter writing, however, is that you can never be entirely too sure who it is you're talking to, and when the penpals decide to meet up, they are met with mixed results. The Matthew of her letters is not exactly the young man Cassie meets. In fact, there is no 'Matthew Dunlop' enrolled in Brookfield High at all. Who is he? And what does he want? Is the hatred between the two schools that hard to overcome, and will Cassie manage to hold herself together?

Told entirely through letters, emails, and announcements, Finding Cassie Crazy is a quick and engaging read. Each of the characters have a strong personality that comes through in their letters and I laughed and cried along with them. 4/5

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Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.