novel dress: teen fiction

the fault in our stars by john green // ariel colorblocked dress

One of the funniest things about teen fiction is that the majority of readers I know that are indulging in that genre are definitely not teens. Because really, young adult (YA) literature is actually just a catch-all for a bizarre in-between category of story. It doesn't seem to strictly adhere to its age assignment. Everyone from teendom and beyond can relate to coming-of-age tales, because we've all been there. They're still applicable and relatable to a much wider audience than ages 12-18. It's a tricky category, really. These books are not 1,000 page epic fantasies, but they're not really children's books either. There's probably a better name for this genre somewhere, but I'm not sure what it would be.

In my last book club in Virginia, we would often lament that the "YA" label can take a lot away from the expectations of reading. It turns some people off from reading these books altogether. Sometimes it even seems like a downgrade - a truly extraordinary book that gets put in the "YA" category seems to be getting the short end of the stick. It seems like this genre is simply too large to contain all of the vastly different books that are included in it. What characterizes a book to be young adult? Is it the content, the age of the characters, the quality of writing? The answer is that young adult books are so named because they focus on the problems and experiences of youth. Even so, books like The Book Thief are jumbled into this nebulous category, but I would never describe that book as juvenile. Reading it at age 25 pretty much changed my life. To be honest, I'm not sure I could have handled it or truly treasured it 10 years ago.

Regardless, young adult/juvenile/teen fiction is prevalent and well-loved in the world, which I am happy about. I am an advocate for reading at all ages. This post is mostly for us old folk lovelies that continue to read these YA books despite their ageist tendencies, and continue to love them for their virtues, their lessons and their flaws.

(Click here to see all novel dress posts!). 

harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling // full of light metallic dress

sisterhood of the traveling pants by ann brashares // daylight blossom dress

the giver by lois lowry // on the riviera dress

the princess diaries by meg cabot // star hollow dress

the hunger games by suzanne collins // twinkling stars metallic dress

tuck everlasting by natalie babbitt // polly heart print dress

twilight by stephenie meyer // city striped dress

the chronicles of chrestomanci by diana wynne jones // sunset dance dress

divergent by veronica roth // manhattan skyway dress

love is not a triangle

I think my first cognitive experience with a fictional love triangle was in 1998.
All of my fellow 90's-kids will join me in a collective groan when I mention that this love triangle was set in a snowy cabin on a little show called Boy Meets World. The triangle participants? Beloved Topanga Lawrence and brillow-headed Cory Matthews and the forever-after despised Lauren what's-her-face.

I honestly can't even see Linda Cardellini in anything without giving her the stink eye. She destroyed a piece of me I didn't even know existed at age 10. I am forever damaged by her home-wrecking. Unfortunately this plot disaster was not the end of young adult love triangles in TV and literature alike. And I hate it. With a fiery passion that I can scarcely contain.

Here's why:

1. Love Is Not A Triangle.

I won't judge those of you who totally buy into the cheap-ploy that is the love triangle. (Yes, I will).
But love is not a triangle. You cannot be in love with two people at once. And if you say that you can, all that means is that you need to redefine "love". Because there is absolutely no love involved when someone is torn down the middle between two people, leading them both on and completely at a loss about which one to choose. The answer should be neither because both of those peeps deserve better. A love triangle thrives on selfishness and jealousy. It's pathetic and upsetting at best, and downright evil at worst. That's not how love works.


2. People Have More To Offer

A really common story arc is for a girl to be torn between the "good guy" and the "bad guy". Or a guy who is the best friend, who has been there for her for all of time (a.k.a. the "safe" option), and the bad boy who is exciting and usually horrible. She can't decide, she's so confused. Gordo or Smooth Italian Guy, Lizzie? Topher Grace or Tad Hamilton, Rosalee?

The truth is, people don't function in those extremes. People (and yes, that includes teenagers) are complex beings. I have no appreciation for a 17-year-old who has no clue who to choose between a leather-wearing, parents-hating rebel and an argyle-wearing valedictorian. I'm not saying that hormonal teenagers don't date around and have different crushes every week, but don't paint a portrait of a passionate love story with a character who has two opposite choices that they "love" equally. That's not a thing, and it makes me hate everyone.

3. Girl Power

Love triangles are the worst because they completely strip my heroines of their strength and respectability. They play upon a really terrible stereotype of flaky, cruel, mindless, indecisive females. The reason why love triangles so often hang on a woman who is love-struck and dumb is because nobody would believe a man to be that fickle and obnoxious. And if he is, he wouldn't be the hero! A man in that situation is a jerk. You can't have your heroine be a jerk! Do not support this behavior in our fictional representatives.

I want to read about young women who are strong. The way Katniss should have been. Instead of playing on her strengths and bringing out the hear me roar potential in her, the series dribbled her down to a shell of a person who had no social skills, was intent on killing herself, and whose only interesting plot design was whether or not she would choose Gale or Peeta. What a waste.

Especially in reference to YA fiction and literature, I want characters that are smart, engaging, relatable, and revolutionary for our young people. I want to read about young women (and men) who are good. Who struggle, sure, but who are loyal, especially in love. That's what I want out of a love story. Love. Is that so crazy?


4. Today's "Love Triangle" Isn't Even Right

The current teen drug of a love triangle somehow evolved from the original triangle, which was A loves B who loves C. That I can appreciate. There is heartache and unrequited love, which is always compelling and actually realistic. Take The Holiday, for instance. Iris is in love with Jasper, who is in love with somebody else. But he loves to tease her and torment her and stay "friends" because he is a jerk. People who can't decide and have two love interests are jerks. They're unfaithful and miserable fictional morons. Nobody roots for Jasper, amiright?

There are countless examples of brilliant, heart-wrenching stories of unrequited love. I will take the brilliant, tragic Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities any day. I can root for those people, I can emphasize and grieve and cry with those people. I've met those people. I've been those people!

5. It's Lazy Storytelling

You know what stories I love the mostest? The ones that don't utilize lazy, immature plot devices to hook me. Ones that have authentic gumption and content and don't need to throw in frilly sex drama to fill time. I want characters and worlds with real plots and real stories to tell. I guess what I'm saying is that Harry Potter is king. To quote my friend Bonnie,

"You know why Twilight and Hunger Games had love triangles?

Because Harry Potter didn't need one."

Word. Good stories don't need love triangles, which create this weird, perverse, and unhealthy conflict in young people (and middle-aged women). The character core of Harry Potter was even made of two guys and one girl, and there was no triangle-ing. That is fantastic. They were too busy actually living. Growing up, fighting evil, and showcasing bravery, friendship, loyalty, strength, intelligence, fortitude and all of those other great adjectives. Those are heroes, ma friends. 

To sum up: love triangles are the living worst, and they ruin stories. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on love triangles and their prevalence in YA fiction nowadays, and if you adore them I promise I won't hate you... but you won't be able to convince me that they're cool. 

(all the) time to read

I love Monday holidays. 
I'm up in the mountains camping today, but thought I'd prepare a post for you all!

I recently attended my very first professional development seminar.
For two days me and a few other women from my office hopped in a company van and drove up to Phoenix for an Excel conference. I know, it sounds absolutely invigorating, and it was.
But what I really wanna talk about is the program I bought while I was there. More accurately my mother gifted it to me, because when I got home after that first day I talked so passionately about it that she was moved to buy it for me. It just came in the mail and I can't wait to get started.
It's a speed reading course developed by Evelyn Wood.

The average person reads about 300 words per minute. Evelyn Wood could read 6,000. 

I'm sorry but come again? Can you imagine? 6,000. That's like reading The Count of Monte Cristo on your dadgum lunch break. You could read Peter Pan on your bathroom break. 
36 books has been my goal for my entire year of reading. What if I could knock that out in a week?

In starting this course and thinking about all of the books I am going to be able to devour, I thought it appropriate to reflect on some of my all-time favorite reads. This is a fairly good representation of my favorites, in no particular order.
My dear friends, my dear readers (or should-be readers), if you haven't read any of these boons to mankind, take a gander and pick one at random. If I could, I would wish them to your doorstep with a  giant bow on top.

A Little Bit of Everything:

The Great Gatsby // I Capture the Castle // The Last Unicorn // The Remains of the Day
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? // Fault in Our Stars // Bread & Wine // Way of Kings
Fellowship of the Ring // Ocean at the End of the Lane // Book Thief // Devil in the White City
Daughter of Smoke and Bone // Pride & Prejudice // Emperor's Soul // The Great Divorce

I loved all of these books, all for different reasons. Some of them are classics that you'll recognize, others are more obscure. I have Brandon Sanderson on here twice, because he's my favorite author right now, and I couldn't resist. The Emperor's Soul is a novella, a really stunning story that will capture you immediately. Way of Kings is my favorite book. Although its sequel, Words of Radiance, may have displaced it. It's going to be a fantastic series. But I don't recommend it to everyone because it's hefty -- each book is somewhere around 1,000 pages, but if you're up for the challenge, do it! I will be your biggest cheerleader in that endeavor.

The Book Thief is one of the only books to ever make me truly cry. I finished it in bed, while my husband was asleep, and began sobbing so hard I had to retreat to the bathroom so I wouldn't wake him. He woke up anyway, and came knocking at the door, completely baffled and scared. I just yelled  a very garbled "GO AWAY!" until I could finally get out, "It's just my book, I'm fine, I'm not dying, go back to sleep". It's incredible, stunning, horrible, beautiful.

If you want to read a book that will leave you enchanted in a melancholy way, kind of like that wistful feeling when you look at a night sky full of stars, read The Last Unicorn, I Capture the Castle, Remains of the Day, and/or Ocean at the End of the Lane. All of them are really beautiful books. I mentioned The Last Unicorn before, because if I could be any book on a shelf, it would be that one. It made me laugh and cry, and filled my dreams for days. Somewhere deep inside I almost think that no one could quite appreciate it the way I do.

For Kids (and the Young at Heart):

Inkheart // Chronicles of Chrestomanci // Dealing with Dragons // The Book of Three
A Wrinkle in Time // Ella Enchanted // The Secret Garden // Prisoner of Azkaban
Peter Pan // Deltora Quest // Haroun and the Sea of Stories // Anne of Green Gables

Obviously the Harry Potter books start with The Sorcerer's Stone, but I decided to feature my favorite of the series, because I love Sirius Black and this book, to me, is the happiest and most exciting of them all. 

These books have all made an impact on me in some way. I remember first reading The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander quite vividly. He was my favorite author for a while, I read everything I could of his. This is probably one of the only series I've read through more than once. (It was written in the 60's, and is most popularly known by the second book in the series, The Black Cauldron). I was absolutely enamored with it. When I was young I was a very active reader -- the gasps, the squeals, the giggles. (My husband would say I haven't really changed at all.) But those books evoke really strong memories for me. 

The same goes for Dealing with Dragons and The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, which are both wonderfully innovative and charming book series. I would highly recommend them to kids and adults alike, if your imagination is alive and well and you love happy endings. I read all of the Chrestomanci books over Christmas break in high school, and my parents happened to also gift me some perfume that year. To this day, every time I smell it I'm carried back to those worlds. It's delightful. 

My brother and I (and in turn, every cousin and sibling we could convince to) gobbled up the Deltora Quest books, too. A long adventure series of small books with great characters and monsters. Great for little boys and tomboys like me. 

Stories are one of my all-time favorite things to share with people. I love talking about them, dissecting them, loving on them, and hearing other people's literary loves. What are your favorite books? What do you think of mine? Have you read any of these?

(Also, if you have a list of your own, answer the questions at the bottom of this old post!)

Have an amazing holiday!

There's no better way to rest than in a hammock with a book in hand. 

that new book smell

There's something about a bookstore that is refreshing and inspiring and makes me feel ancient. 

I can remember countless hours spent in our local Barnes and Noble, snatching up bakery goods with mom, coveting the fancy leather journals and waltzing around the kid's aisle. Feeling too shy to play with the toys, but really wanting to. Buying expensive bookmarks for friends. Collecting calendars. Wishing I could afford hardcovers. That momentous occasion when I finally began looking toward the young adult section, rather than the children's. 

How is it that the upcoming generation spends little to no time in bookstores, perusing the young adult fiction section for their next great adventure?

I wonder if there's any truth to the idea that books will be entirely electronic eventually.

There's a person somewhere inside me that clenches her teeth, pushes up her horn-rimmed glasses and cocks her hip while shouting emphatically "Never!"

But on the other hand, there's no use denying that the number of books, journals and articles available electronically is steadily on the rise.

Kindles have converted even the strictest (and horn-rimmed glassiest) of folks. 

Having said that, I'm confident I'll be long gone by the time the smell of new books ceases to move people. 

Skirt/Shoes: Zulily, Sweater: Gifted, Top: Ruche (similar)

On a completely separate note, what's the general consensus out there about Gwyneth Paltrow?

All sources point to her being snobby, pretentious and occasionally difficult to work with...

And yet I still see her and think she's completely fantastic. 

(The best thing about admiring celebrities - you can pretty much make up whatever you want about them, because you'll never know them in real life.)

So Gwyn: love her, or unlove her?