13 Little Blue Envelopes, by Maureen Johnson

This isn't technically my first e-book, since I've read two Cory Doctorow novels and Dracula on my computer, but it is the first e-book I've read portably, in this case using the Kindle app for my Android phone. I had originally downloaded the app to try to read Pride and Prejudice, but gave up on that for the audiobook version, and the poor app was destined to languish along with Angry Birds and Words with Friends.

BUT THEN! Maureen Johnson, whom I dedicatedly follow on the Twitters, decided to offer up 13 Little Blue Envelopes for FREE in advance of the publication of the sequel, The Last Little Blue Envelope. And while I am in love with Twitter Maureen, I have managed to read but one of her books proper, and so this situation presented itself as a win for everyone. It can even still be a win for you, as the book is still free for a few days yet, with all the pertinent links over at Maureen's blog.

So first a note on the e-book format itself: it being on my phone, the book necessarily looked a little odd, what with sentences not fitting perfectly on short little lines and some formatting causing odd little line breaks here and there. And indeed, I felt a little lost without page numbers or an idea of the heft of the book. But I had an eye appointment right after work last week and got there, as usual, embarrassingly early, and so I pulled out my phone and started reading. I felt like Reed on Criminal Minds, "turning" pages at an alarming speed but still managing to understand them (if only I could do that for regular-sized books!), and though I was surprised by a chapter break here and there it still felt like reading a paper book. It being my phone, I wouldn't want to read a large book in one go on it for fear of going blind by backlight, but it was perfect for the waiting room and for the times I was standing in line or otherwise bored.

And now for the story: It was okay. It, like its format, was perfect for the waiting room or standing in line et cetera, but I had some problems with it.

The driving force behind the story is the eponymous set of envelopes, which are left to our hero Ginny by her dead aunt who was a bit flighty in life. Her aunt, Peg, wants Ginny to go wander around Europe, following the path that Peg took after she left the States.

This seems pretty cool, except that the letters are constantly telling Ginny to go here or there IMMEDIATELY DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT GIVE YOURSELF A CHANCE TO DO WHAT YOU WANT and Ginny, being that sort of person, obliges without question. This makes me hate Ginny a bit, and it makes me hate Peg more considering that she herself did whatever she wanted. And as a consequence of Ginny up and leaving for somewhere new every ten seconds, the book felt quite rushed and unfinished and I just wanted it to slow the heck down and let me figure out what was going on HERE before I had to go THERE. And so there is that.

But! For all the rushing around, I was still quite engaged in the story; I wanted to know where Ginny would go next and what she would learn and who she would meet and if she'd ever get back to the cute guy from the beginning of her adventures. And although Maureen Johnson does not quite write the way she tweets (for then her stories would go on for ages), I am still drawn in by her turns of phrase. And and, I love the way that she describes all of the weird things that go on in foreign countries, like washing machines in kitchens and oddly labeled bathrooms and other things that you don't really think about until they're staring you in the face.

So, on the whole, I do not regret the time I've spent with this book. The free version comes with a preview of the sequel, which preview I read and which did not really entice me to put the book on hold. But I am excited for Maureen's upcoming Jack the Ripper mystery series, which seems slightly more up my alley.

Recommendation: For YA fans who like a good road-trip story or a good jaunt about Europe.

Rating: 7/10
(A to Z Challenge)

Let it Snow, by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle (18 December — 20 December)

I picked this book up both because I like John Green and Maureen Johnson and because it's practically Christmas and I wanted to get some of that proverbial spirit going. Well, I still don't have any Christmas spirit, but I did have a good time reading about people who do. :)

The book is three shorter interconnected stories: Johnson's, the first, tells of a high-school girl called Jubilee who ends up stranded on a train in western North Carolina. Because of the scary cheerleaders who are also stranded with her, she treks away from the train as fast as she can, which is of course not very fast in snow that can strand a train. Jubilee ends up at a Waffle House where she meets a cute guy who offers her his and his mother's hospitality for a few days. I think we all know what a mother's "hospitality" is like. -eyebrow waggle-

Then Green comes in to tell the story of three kids who are friends with the manager at said Waffle House, who, by the time he calls, is looking at a room full of cheerleaders and wants to invite along Tobin, JP, and the Duke to ogle them. Of course, the Duke being a girl, she'd rather ogle maybe one of the other people I've already mentioned, so there's awkwardness there, and oh, did I mention the snowstorm? Because there is some slow-tastic adventuring out in Tobin's mom's SUV just to get to the Waffle House. Current me is like, "Why would you go out in the snow like that???" but high-school me is like, "ADVENTURE!"

Myracle's story is about a girl called Addie who is devastated over her breakup with Jeb, a bit player in the two previous stories (stuck on the train and then stuck in the Waffle House), even though it was all her fault. She's pretty self-absorbed, but when her best friends and her manager and the old lady that comes in to Starbucks all the time all tell her so in the span of a couple days, she starts to take it to heart and tries to make up for all of her mistakes.

I'm always a little wary of teen romantic novels, because they're always a little implausible, but this one is just completely implausible so it worked for me. :) I don't think any girls are going to be looking for romance in a snowstorm at the Waffle House (though, maybe), and after Addie is portrayed as a bad guy for wanting a storybook/movie romance... well, there's a chance for teens yet!

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2008)

See also:
Library Queue
an adventure in reading
Book Nut
Blogging for a Good Book
things mean a lot

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Bermudez Triangle, by Maureen Johnson (10 December)

I first heard about Maureen Johnson and this book back when it was all a-being banned over the summer, and I thought to myself, "Banned book? I like reading banned books. Give it here!" and then I requested it from the library and then I got it and then I didn't read it for, like, three months and then I suddenly had a craving and I read it! Good job, self.

And in the first few pages, I was like, "Oh, no. This book is overdescriptive and overexpositive and if this keeps up I am going to just throw its hefty self¹ across the room because I can't deal with that again for a long time.

But it did not keep up, thank goodness, because I might have dislocated my shoulder in trying to heave it, and it was actually a very fun read!

The eponymous "triangle" is three high-school-senior girls who have been bffs(aeae) for some relatively long period of time. The summer before senior year, Nina goes off to a pre-college thing at Stanford, meets a guy, has a great time, and comes back to upstate New York ready to get her party on with Avery and Mel. Except that while Nina was gone, Avery and Mel met... each other, and now it's all sorts of awkward-pants up in this triangle. Nina tries to figure out how to deal with her two best friends dating, Avery tries to figure out why a straight girl like herself is dating a girl, and Mel sort of gets left out in the process.

Obviously, the whole book-banning thing is on account of the < whisper > lesbians < /whisper >, but except for the fact that Avery and Mel are girls, it's pretty much your basic high school story of one or more friends finding significant others and totally ditching Friend One. And even more so the story of two friends hooking up and then trying to figure out how to make the relationship work. And doing these things all while trying to graduate from high school, because that stupid homework never stops coming.

I thought this book was delightful, and I recommend it if you're in the mood for a reality-infused tale of love and friendship.

¹ As you can see from the image of the book cover I've included, the copy I ended up with is a "splashproof beach read!" with 100% waterproof cover and ridiculously stiff pages that must have been printed on, like, sixty-pound paper. It's intense, and I'm not sure that I would be willing to lug this thing to the beach anyway. But someone must have!

Rating: 8/10
(My Year of Reading Dangerously, Countdown Challenge: 2004)

See also:
things mean a lot
Book Nut

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.