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Unfortunately, as a blogger that attempts to review everything I read, I do sometimes have to provide reviews of books I really didn't completely love. Does that stink? Yes...it's not fun to write about something that was boring or slow or I just plain didn't like, but that was my resolution for this year...to write about everything (and that will be changing next year!). These three books were not titles that I "disliked," they were just ok. Nothing entirely bad, but nothing really good for me either. You may love them!

One Lonely Degree, written by C.K. Kelly Martin was a big surprise for me, not really loving. I did enjoy the last book from this author, I Know It's Over, when I read it last year for the Cybils, and I was really hoping this one would get that same reaction.

Jacket description:
"Fifteen-year-old Finn has always felt out of place, but suddenly her world is unraveling. It all started with The Party. And Adam Porter. And the night in September that changed everything. The only person who knows about that night is Audrey--Finn's best friend, her witness to everything, and the one person (under thirty) finn trusts implicitly. So when Finn's childhood friend, Jersy moves back into town--reckless, beautiful boy Jersy, all lips and eyes and hair so soft you'd want to dip your fingers into it if you weren't careful--Finn gives her blessing for Audrey to date him. After all, how could she possibly say no to Audrey?

With Audrey gone for the summer, though, Finn finds herself spending moer and more time with Jersy, and for the first time since September, for the first time in her life maybe, something feels right--absolutely, stunningly right. But Finn can't be the girl who does this to her best friend...can she?"

Unfortunately, I felt the book dragged. It moved really slowly for me and I really didn't understand what part of the plot was supposed to be the main point. Was it Audrey and Finn's friendship possibly being broken up over a guy? Or was it Finn's emotional healing after an assault?

Oh and as a last note...I didn't like the cover even a little bit.

It gets great reviews on Amazon, so I may alone in my feelings about this one.

One Lonely Degree
C.K. Kelly Martin
256 pages
Young Adult
Random House
9780375851636
May 2009
Review copy provided by publisher

Well at least I loved the cover for this next one! Karma for Beginners, written by Jessica Blank, had a whole lot of promise for me. I really liked the description, the cover was one of those that pulled me in and made me want to flip through the pages, and I actually really enjoyed the plot, until I was about 3/4 of the way through.

Jacket description:
"Fourteen-year-old Tessa has never had a normal life. Her mother, a frustrated hippie with awful taste in men, has seen to that. But when her mom pulls her out of school to live at an ashram in the Catskills, Tessa goes from being a freak among normal people to being an outcast among freaks. Freaks who worship an orange robe-wearing guru. And while her mom is buzzing with spiritual energy, and finding a little too much favor with the guru, all Tessa feels are weird vibes.

Unless she's with Colin, the gorgeous boy who fixes trucks for the ashram. The connection they share is the most spiritual thing Tessa has ever felt. But he's older-like illegally older-and Tessa's taking dangerous risks to spend time with him. Soon her life is blooming into a psychedelic web of secrets and lies and it's clear that something's about to give way. When it does, will she have anyone to hold on to? Will she even know herself?"

I really was intrigued by the inside look at a cult-like setting and I thought the relationship between Tessa and her mother and then Tessa and Colin was interesting as well. I felt connected with Tessa and her feelings of not fitting in and confusion over why her mother doesn't seem to love her as much as she loves the guru. And Tessa wanting to know her absent father...that was a great plot point as well. When Tessa decided about 3/4 of the way through the book that she would become a pothead and begin taking all sorts of strange drugs and doing totally crazy things, I was pretty much over the book. Done. It was soooo not needed.

I thought the smoking pot part was ok, as much as drug use in a teen novel can be ok...it seemed to fit the plot. However, when acid and doing illegal stuff and sleeping with a 20 year old guy came into the picture, it was unnecessary and took away from what I really enjoyed in the beginning. And the fact that Tessa's mom finally begins to understand her after she comes down off an acid trip after stealing a statue from the ashram and the police arrest Colin? Yeah...not exactly believable.

So...I'm probably not going to be recommending this one to anyone, but once again, it gets a 5 star review from someone on Amazon and has been nominated for a Cybil, so someone out there loves it. Maybe you!

Karma for Beginners
Jessica Blank
320 pages
Young Adult
Hyperion
9781423117513
September 2009
Review copy provided by publisher

Finally, the one I probably enjoyed the most out of this bunch, but still wasn't totally loving, was Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles. I'll probably get some flack for this one...I know a lot of you really loved it, but it just moved soooo slowly for me. It took me almost a week to read it, just because I kept wanting to put it down and get a faster-paced story into my hands.


Jacket description:
"Ellie has hooked up with more than a few boys. Each time, she is certain there will be more to the encounter than juts sex. While she is with them, she feels loved. For awhile anyways. So when Josh, an eager virgin with a troubled home life, leads her from a party to the backseat of his van, ellie follows. But their "one-time thing" is far from perfect : Ellie gets pregnant. Josh reacts with shame and heartbreak, while their close friends, Caleb and Corinne, deal with their own complex swirl of emotions. No matter what Ellie chooses, all four teenagers will be forced to grow up a little faster as a result.

Told alternately from each character's point of view, this deeply insightful novel explores the aftershocks of the biggest decision of one girl's life--and the realities of leaving innocence behind."

I did really like the alternating character voices and I really enjoyed and believed in each character and their purpose to the story. Totally relevant to today's teens, I felt the plot was well-done, just really slow.

This is one I would recommend to teens and I think they will definitely enjoy. It really was just "me" that wasn't feeling the pace.

Jumping Off Swings
Jo Knowles
224 pages
Young Adult
Candlewick
9780763639495
August 2009
Review copy provided by publisher

To learn more about any of these titles, or to purchase, click on the book covers above to link to Amazon. I am an Associate and will receive a small portion of your purchase price.

I had sushi for breakfast in the fishmarket, sushi for lunch, and am about to go and have sushi for dinner. Even the Japanese think I'm pushing it a bit.

Will post fishmarket photos, and the story of my day, as soon as I've digested it a little more. In the meantime...

Chris Ewen's Hidden Variable project now has its own website at http://www.hiddenvariable.net/. Chris got a bunch of authors to write lyrics for him, mostly Malena to sing them (although Cosi Fanni Tutti sings one, and Claudia Gonson sings my song "unresolving"). The fabulous Lorraine plays violin. You can hear song samples at http://www.hiddenvariable.net/songs.html


Jonathan Ross's In Search of Steve Ditko documentary has, for the moment, crept onto YouTube. (I'm putting some embedded video in here, so if you're reading it on an RSS feed and you can't see the video or links, click on the link to the original post now.)



Here are parts two to six:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbHblWpCIcU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4p3Gt2dFQQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXkDEIgYfTw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn_ymGSFD2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvXGyRknQHo

and people who complain that I don't smile enough on camera will get to see me with a very goofy grin on my face in the final part, part 7...

Last night I introduced Stardust to the Swedes and did a Q&A after. Today I was interviewed by the Swedish press, then did a book-signing, and then I was given the "Finn the Giant" Award. In the crypt of the Cathedral at Lund. Beautiful live music was played, the legend of Finn the Giant was retold, and I was made the second person, following the unfollowable Terry Gilliam in 2005, to be honoured with the award.

In addition to a scroll, and flowers, I was given an amazing piece of art as my Award -- a portrait of me as a Saint, of sorts, all framed and ready to hang.

And then I left in the rain for the airport, happy to have met so many nice people and wishing I could stay longer in Lund.

....

Right. Here are the details of the upcoming Hay Festival London event...

Tuesday 2 October, 6pm

Neil Gaiman in conversation with Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian
The Criterion, Piccadilly
Book signing following the event.


The film of Stardust premieres in London on Wednesday 3 October. We have a pair of tickets to the premiere: all ticket-holders to the Hay Festival event at The Criterion will be entered into a draw and the winner announced at the book signing.
Tickets £5
Book at http://www.hayfestival.com/ or on 0870 990 1299.

Probably worth mentioning that the Criterion seats 600 people, which is slightly less than the last event in London, a year ago, so if you want to be sure that you can come, get tickets early.

This just came in from Japan...


Dear Neil


I am a Japanese fan who is dying to see Japanese release of Star Dust, coming this October. This is not exactly a question, but do you know about the special menues are available at Pascal Caffet and Shiseido Parlour (Both are famous sweets shops in Japan) in Yokohama Takashimaya while the department store is having photograph exhibition of Star Dust? Those menues are Star Dust Sweets Set (Pascal Caffet) and Star Dust Parfait (Shiseido Parlour).

http://www.takashimaya.co.jp/yokohama/new3/index.html

Anyone who eats the menu will get a chance to win a pair of tickets of Star Dust. As your fan, I am wondering if I should take two hour trip to Yokohama to try both menues. (^^)

Kominami Mie

Hullo. Only if you like parfait and sweets, I would have thought. (I loved the website you linked to -- I'd not seen the Japanese Stardust poster before, and it makes me strangely happy that it has the Ghosts on it.)

Also, from it I learned that there's a whole Japanese Stardust website at:

http://www.stardustmovie.jp/top.html

In addition to which, late this afternoon I was told that...

On Friday, the 21st of September, at 6:30 in Japan, I will be doing a signing, at

Kadokawa Shoten

2-13-3 Fujimi,

Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo

102-8177

Japan

(This is my publisher's office, by the way, not a bookshop. They were kind enough to agree to let me do a signing because I told them that people had been writing in to my blog from Japan and asking when I'd sign their books. So if you're in Japan, please come...)

...


Hi Neil

I thought you and your readers might like to know that the Mitch Benn podcast featuring an interview with you is now online - http://www.mitchbenn.com/podcasts/

Lena

Oh good. (I am now slightly less travel-weary than when I did the interview with Mitch, for those who worry about that sort of thing.)

...

Jonathan Ross's In Search of Steve Ditko documentary is broadcast in the UK this Sunday, on BBC4, and you can read what Jonathan has to say about it at http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2169000,00.html

(This is Neil, guest blogging in my blog.)

Yesterday is already turning into a bit of a blur. CBLDF board of directors meeting early in the morning. Then a meeting about the Neverwhere film. Saw old friends Mark Buckingham and Jill Thompson briefly then down to the big hall for "Spotlight on Neil Gaiman". I felt like a kid who had not done his homework, and had brought nothing to the show and tell, so I just burbled and answered questions for the 75 minutes and nobody seemed to mind. A signing (at which I finally met Wil Wheaton, and saw my Interworld co-author Michael Reaves -- who sat next to me, and took enormous pleasure in saying ominously, "Remember Caesar that thou art mortal" while I signed and signed). Up to room, grabbed late lunch, er, something I've forgotten, then back on my head for the CBLDF signing, and then it was getting a bit blurry so I napped for 40 minutes before the Eisners, and showed up later than everyone else, but was happy to be led to a table already containing Ann Eisner and her nephew, Jackie Estrada and Batton Lash, Dennis and Alexa Kitchen, and my future co-presenter Jonathan Ross at the table.

The Eisners were just starting as I got there -- Bill Morrison hosting, assisted by Jane Wiedlin -- and you can find them summarised much better by other people. I was there as I was presenting an award, and had forgotten that Volume 1 of Absolute Sandman was nominated for the best reprint collection. It won, and editor Scott Nybakken, Vertigo ubereditor Karen Berger, and reprint colour hero Danny Vozzo and I went up to collect it. I babbled about the weight of the thing and forgot to a) thank lots of people by name and b) mention that Volume 2 is going to be better.

I got blindsided when they gave me the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award ("I don't deserve this," I said. "Jack Benny was given a similar award and said 'I don't deserve this, - then again, I have arthritis, and I don't deserve that either'. But I don't deserve this." And then I said that the world of comics was a family, and you look after your family. ) This is who Bob Clampett was, if you don't know.

The presenters who were really good -- people like Brian Posehn (from Mr Show and the Sarah Silverman show, who turned out, when we chatted afterwards, to have been at my CBLDF benefit reading at the Stinking Rose in 2000) and Ellen Forney and Alison Bechdel (who announced that, to celebrate the record number of women nominated for the Eisners, they would now re-enact the historic Britney Spears-Madonna MTV awards kiss for us all, and then did).

Jonathan and I were the last of the presenters, and we hadn't worked anything out to do because I turned up so late. ("You'll be funny," I said, having found myself on stage with Jonathan a few times before. "I'll be the straight man." )

It was almost midnight. Everyone was tired. The energy was ebbing from the room...

Jonathan explained that he was famous in England, and that he loved comics... He loved comics so much he had named his son after Kurtzman and Kirby. He loved comics even more than he loved masturbation. And he loved masturbation.... And he was off.

Now Jonathan Ross is funny. He has hosted more awards shows than probably any human being alive. And he was in his element.

Every now and again, I'd manage to stop laughing, and get us back onto announcing and presenting awards. (I was thrilled to present one to Alison Bechdel for Fun Home, one to Gene Luen Yang for American Born Chinese.)

Finally the mad gleam in Jonathan's eye focussed on me, and he announced that we would now celebrate the Eisners and comics... by re-enacting Madonna and Britney Spears' famous kiss at the MTV music awards...

So yesterday night, on that stage, in front of thousands of comics fans and professionals, I got an Eisner, the Bob Clampett Humanitarian award and was snogged by Jonathan Ross.

Maddy thought it was funny. She said I turned lots of interesting colours.

...

From the Convention:

On Saturday you can meet Neil Gaiman & Brian Froud while doing a good turn for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund! Award-winning illustratorBrian Froud has has turned a poem by critically-acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman into a beautiful poster making its debut here at CCI. 100 ofthese will be autographed by both creators.The drawing for tickets will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday up in theAutograph Area. Winners MUST then go to Booth 4818 (Imaginosis,located in the Fantasy Illustrators section) to make their $20 donation to the CBLDF and pick up the poster. Neil and Brian will autograph the posters for the winners from 3 p.m.- 4 p.m. in line AA1 up in the Autograph Area. Bring the poster AND the winning ticket.

Today I'll be appearing briefly on the Rogue/Focus panel at 12:15 in Hall H (Hall Hell, as the Con people seem to be calling it).

And at 7.00pm I'll be at the Horton Plaza cinema for a special event. Is it possible that Henry Selick and I will be secretly presenting Coraline-related stop motion footage there? Er, it is possible. The Rogue/Focus event will reveal all.

..

Right. Now I shall get out of bed, and sip things to turn my gravelly croaky voice into something that sounds more like me.