Here So Far Away- Hadley Dyer

Here So Far Away is written by award winning YA author Hadley Dyer.  The novel is set in the early 1990’s and is centered around George (she goes by her middle name), a typical misunderstood teenager just trying to escape her mundane existence. She is living in a small town “where bean sprouts were still considered an ethnic food” and is itching to graduate and leave town, and to not end up like her parents. The precious edge of adulthood just around the corner, George is often misunderstood, lonely and isolated by her too earnest nature. She ends up driving most of her friends away, subsequently falling for an older guy who moves to town, someone who she believes “gets her” even as she pretends to be years older than her age. She imagines herself as an adult having grown up conversations where she doesn’t mispronounce words, a time where everything is better, just by being with him. George has to learn who she is and how to stand on her own feet. We read as she experiences her first pangs of love, how to balance this newfound feeling with friendship, and the loss of friends you thought you knew. The story has many layers, including her depressed and injured father, a lovely friendship with an elderly man, and a sweet brother with an adorable Victorian disposition. The novel can be heavy at times and might be best suited for older teenagers or adults.

Dyer writes with an authentic voice, like she has captured the very tortured soul of being a teenage girl, deep with distraught when everything feels so helpless. Her characters are real and occasionally shocking with their cattiness and self-hatred. Any reader can relate to the yearning to just be different, to just grow up, to finally escape the mundanity of adolescence.

The writing is often very witty, yet Dyer goes for the jugular and in the end creates a heartbreaking novel dealing with secrets, loss, and the mess that arises from not living truthfully.

 

 

Guest post on self-care

It is not exactly about books but I recently guest posted on a friend’s blog and thought I would share the link with you:

http://rhdowns.com/self-care-dime/

 

 

Next Year for Sure

Next Year for Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson was a very quick read for me. The prose was simple, yet interesting and often punched me in the gut with realization that I too have felt the same way. It is not a challenging read, but it does bring up many questions about monogamy, relationships and intimacy. There is not easy answers and there is no simple solutions or fall guy.

 

Chris and Kathryn are a great couple, a couple that has been together for 9 years. They have the sort of relationship that others envy, the kind that is so happy spending a Saturday night in pajamas playing Scrabble. They are open and honest with each other and best friends. Chris tells Kathryn that he can’t stop thinking about Emily, a young woman he can’t help but notice around the neighbourhood. Kathryn tells him to go for it, to ask her on a date. From here we navigate the messy and heart-aching word of open relationships, what others think of it, the pressures from outside and what intimacy really means.

The novel moves along at a good pace. Perhaps you have to be open to the idea of open relationships and that love is complicated because I have read other people hated the idea of this novel. I think it is a topic that was refreshing to see and that will come up more and more as we continue.

Classics Book Club

So for a little over a year now, I have been a part of a “Classics” book club. It is one of two book clubs I belong to, and when you love reading as much as I do, it a great way to socialize (and it certainly doesn’t hurt that most of my book club meetings involve wine and delicious food that other people who can actually cook make).

Classics book club is a challenge for me, because as a reader I would not normally grab classic literature. So this really pushes me to read out of my comfort zone and to feel like I am stretching my brain. It also helps that all of the people in the club are super smart and I always feel like I am learning something.

Which takes us to this months pick: Kristin Lavransdatter The Wreath  by Sigrid Unset. This book was translated from the Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally and was originally published in 1920. It follows the life of Kristin in three parts from birth to death and is set in fourteenth century Norway. It revolves a lot around the concepts of sin and love and sometimes I had to remind myself that it was set in the 14th century so I didn’t hurl it across the room yelling at the damn thing.  I mean ” “The ale is good, Lavrans Bjorgulfson,” said Haakon. “But a slut must have made the porridge for us today. Overly bedded cooks, makes overly boiled porridge, as the saying goes, and this porridge is scorched.” (referring to Lavrans daughter Kristin)

It also helps that the book is so pretty. It is one of Penguin’s Drop Cap series (A-Z); just look at her in all her purple glory. 

I love the idea of the book, I love the saga, I love the beautiful descriptions of Norway, but I don’t love the idea that falling in love and sinning are such desperate things that Kristin needs to ruin her life about or that throughout the book she has to be “owned” by someone. I know, I know it was the times, however I have read strongly written characters from this time period before and I just don’t think Kristin qualifies as one. The whole tale seems to sit under the compass of a large religious arm, watching over and controlling everything. She wants to go against her father’s wishes to marry a man he does not approve of, but she stands strongly next to this man, when many times I think that she shouldn’t.

I kept waiting for her to perk up a bit. Her “betrothed” Erlend always seems like a cold man to me and I never was sure about him. “But he had taken her, partly by force, but with laughter and with caresses too, so she has been unable to show him that she was serious in her refusal.” Hmmmmmm. I am sure that we will see how their relationship develops in the next two parts of the giant sage.  This book is one part of a three part trilogy and I do think that someday I will try to read the rest, even if it is a bit of a slog. I want to see if Kristin keeps crying forever over her past “sinful” mistakes. The last 30 or so pages of this book really had a lot of action so it makes me want to keep going. One thing I will say about Undset’s writing though, it feels real. Sometimes I hated the characters and sometimes I loved them but they all have faults as raw and flawed as the rest of us fools.

The Agony of Bun O’Keefe

http://atlanticbookstoday.ca/heather-smiths-naive-voice-of-darkness-and-hope/