Parenting

There is this part in Gem and Dixie that I can't remember exactly, but it is so true.  Gem is talking about her parents, who weren't ready to be parents and who weren't shown how to be parents from the way in which they were treated by their parents and, well that's how it ended up that Gem and Dixie didn't have capable parents.  And I was thinking about this young gal who came into the one place where I work and was a very young mom-to-be, not yet 16 and her mom was obviously drunk or under the influence of some kind of drug and also pretty young and I was thinking, this is one of those situations where it would be easy to assign blame and say that that 16 year old is troubled (she was very troubled, I don't mean the pregnant part, I mean there was just A LOT going on there) because of her own mother.  But then, I mean, who is to say what her mother was like?  Or her mother before her?  And back and back and so on.
I know one has to take responsibility but it is also hard to take responsibility when one doesn't know the first thing about what "usual" or what is "needed" or "expected."  Does that make sense?

Here is the thing about Sara Zarr, on goodreads I gave this book a 4, but I would have given it a 4.5, but if it were written by anyone else it would have been a 5+ because Sara Zarr is just. that. awesome. I have been wow'd by all of her books and I was wow'd by this one, just only a wee bit less than previous wows.  Still.  This is wow.

I guess I just really didn't like Dixie at all.  But then I kept trying to remember that she was just 14.  I still highly recommend this book.

Toughie

This was a tough book.  It was a hard book.  A sad book.  And it was almost like Almost Perfect, one I couldn't finish because it was just so sad and hard and tough.  I really like Sara Zarr's books and so I stayed with this one, but I had to listen to it backward!  Just to make sure the end wasn't just a devastating mess.  I wasn't worried it would be a cheesy, "all's well that ends well" deal, and knowing Zarr's other books like I do, I probably should have realized that this would be just a disaster book, designed just to play on emotions, but I really came to care so much about the characters that I just couldn't not know that hope would still be alive, even if on life-support.
Great, great book.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Zarr

I've read a few books by Sara Zarr and always look forward to a new offering from her.   As usual, I was not disappointed.  Once Was Lost is my most favorite, just because of my personal experiences, but The Lucy Variations is wonderful, even to someone like me, who has no artistic talent at all, and really isn't one of those "music is my life" kinda person.    For Lucy, music is her life.  Or it was.  When she was a child prodigy on the piano and her grandfather was pushing her to be better and better and the piano was everything and everything was the piano.  And then, one day, she just walked off stage at a competition.  And that was that.  And now, Lucy is trying to find out who she is, apart from the music.  Or can the music still be a part of her life.  I loved the details of Lucy's relationships with men.  I was totally like this when I was her age.  I totally understood what she was doing, what she was thinking, how her heart was breaking.    Zarr just can really make characters come alive.  Great author.  Great book.

Ah the College Months...

My dad used to say that all of the time.  He always started college but never finished.  He started many times.  Many, many times!  We went to Missouri Valley College, Point Park, CCAC and the University of Pittsburgh.  As for me I never lived away at college or seminary or graduate school, so I missed out on the whole college roommate experience, which I think I am just not brave enough to have handled.  I really don't.  I admire those who have done this.  Roomies comes out at the end of year.  I had to twist the arm of the guy at the Penguin Young Readers booth to get a copy of this.  Sara Zarr has written some awesome stuff.  Tara Altebrando wrote The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life and I really liked that, too, so it was great to see a book written by both!  Elizabeth, or EB as she is called, lives in New Jersey near the beach with her mom.  Her dad is a deadbeat.  He hasn't contacted EB since she was six or seven.  He is gay and has an art gallery in San Francisco.  Lauren lives in San Francisco and is one of six kids who are much younger than she.  EB and Lauren are pretty different.  When EB gets her email from UC Berkeley that tells her that Lauren will be her roomie, she sends Lauren and email and the two of them start to get to know each other.  Both girls have a lot in common though, both concerned about leaving their past behind, starting in a new place, both with many questions about relationships and the guys they start seeing that summer.  I really loved how the book didn't fall into any stereotypes.  Having the gay dad be a deadbeat jerk was really different.  Usually gay dads are super great.  So this was a different twist!  He was such a serious jerk.  I felt like that made the book more real.  It made gay guys more real, not every one is the same!  I really loved this book and I guess that it is good that comes out in January, more folks can get their hands on it and read it before they go off to school in the fall.  Great book! 

Life Saver

Sara Zarr is one of those authors whose website I check out often, looking to see if she has anything new going coming out. Story of a Girl was a terrific book and I loved, loved, LOVED Once Was Lost.

How to Save a Life is Zarr's latest and it is another completely original story with well-developed characters you really come to care about pretty quickly.

HTSAL is told from two POVs. Mandy, a pregnant teen from Council Bluffs, Iowa and Jill, an only child from a wealthy suburb in Denver. Jill has lost her father to a car accident eleven months ago and now her mother has decided to openly adopt Mandy's baby. She met Mandy on the internet and agreed to no contracts, no lawyers, no social workers, etc.

Jill is cynical and seriously still grieving her dad. She is suspicious of Mandy's real motives. Mandy is a lost soul, pretty much, her mother is a such an extreme jerk and has told her never to come back.

This is a very beautiful story of broken lives and broken people and healing. Great book. Made me cry, which is tough to do. Well, for a book!

Absolutely

is the real name of that song that kept running through my head as I read this book.  I don't really know any of the lyrics except for "this is the story of a girl who cried a rive and drown the whole world" but it is a catchy tune.  It's funny because there are big fights on the internet about who recorded the song!  If it was Three Doors Down or Nine Days.  I've also seen it listed at Third Eye Blind.  I think it was either Three Dog Night, the Fifth Dimension or the Four Tops.  Matchbox 20, maybe.  10,000 Maniacs?  Or .38 Special.

Regardless, Story of a Girl really doesn't have anything to do with the song or these artists.  Well, maybe it does.  I mean...the girl in this book, does cry a lot.  She does have a lot to cry about, actually.  She lives in a world similar to the boys in Angry Young Man.  Deanna is branded the school slut because, back when she was thirteen, her father caught her and a senior, Tommy, inflagrante delicto.  Tommy spreads it all over town that Deanna was the aggressor.  Since the incident, Deanna's father hasn't even looked her in the eye, and that was three years ago.  
This is a short, tightly written book by Sara Zarr who wrote the amazing Once Was Lost.   I am looking forward to my next book by her.

But Now I'm Found

This book is wonderful and real.

As a former full-time pastor, I really could really understand what was going on here. I have always believed that the Roman Catholics have it right when they don't let their priests marry. I know that some men and women pastors and their spouses and kids can handle it...but man...man...it isn't easy.

Sam's father is easy to dislike if you aren't a pastor's kid, a pastor's wife, a pastor's husband, a pastor yourself, or a pastor's mom or dad. Or if you don't believe, as Sam's mom of her pastor husband, "He's only human."

Still though...some of the stuff that Pastor Charlie does are pretty upsetting, even to someone who has been there. Needless to say, this book really makes you think.

Sam is already doubting her faith when a member of their youth group goes missing. That's the main story line but this book is also about faith and hope and finding one's own self. It's about having a mom who is an alcoholic and finding yourself growing apart from your best friend, and finding your family in financial trouble. Man, Once Was Lost is just wonderful.