How How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr sucked me in

I have what I guess could be called a bad habit of skipping from one book to another. It's not necessarily because I don't like the one(s) I'm reading, but more that my curiosity about whatever's new compels me to start reading whatever catches my eye, to see if I must read it right away. And in the case of the new YA novel How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (who's on a book tour), the answer is yes, I need to devour it ASAP. I got it for free from Amazon Vine in the mail today and am already totally engrossed. The story is told from alternating viewpoints, that of Jill, whose father has died ten months previously and her mother decides she wants to adopt a baby, and Mandy, who is pregnant and looking to give her child up for adoption. One of my favorite novels tackling pregnancy and motherhood (and, in that case, OCD) is Little Beauties by Kim Addonizio, which I'd like to reread. The way the three narrators in that story, including a fetus-turned-baby, collide and contradict and interact, is marvelous, but that's another post (been thinking about it, and mentally ill, possibly unreliable narrators and how fascinating they are after finishing excellent OCD young adult novel A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie by Matt Blackstone).



Someday maybe someone can teach me how to properly use Blogger and indent and make things look pretty like I can on Tumblr. Until then, my ham-handed clumsyblogging, alas. Speaking of this blog, I'm looking into revamping it (I know, it's forever overdue, but rent paying takes priority). Stay tuned! From How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr, from Mandy's POV, as she's riding on a train to meet Jill and her mom for the first time:

"Um, hey." He shifts his body so that he's sitting on his side, facing me and leaning close. "It's Peña, by the way. My last name. And I'm..." He laughs. Lines appear around the corners of his eyes, and there's tea on his breath and stubble on his chin. "This is stupid. I'm not really married. I just said that because I thought you were trying to hit on me or something, and it seemed kind of weird, because...well, then I thought obviously picking up some stranger is the last thing on your mind right now. And you're probably half my age, and most likely you have someone, anyway, given..." He gestures to my belly. "That."

This. This rolls inside me, stretches a limb. I touch where it moved and wonder if it can feel my hand there.

"I'm nineteen." Almost.

"There you go. That's exactly half. I'm thirty-eight." He sips form his cup. "So, how long before you're a mother?"

I smile. I'll never be a mother. "About a month, I think."

Alex scratches his stubble. "Most women I know can tell you to the minute."

"I'm different." Being so specific with dates is silly. No one measures a life in weeks and days. You measure it in years and by the things that happen to you, and when this life is a whole year, I won't be in it."

That passages was so bold to me; I'm fascinated by Mandy and what she's going through to deal with her pregnancy, how tough she sounds, even though I'm sure as the novel progresses (I'm on page 22), that toughness will have to crack a little. And the "This rolls inside me" line also was so powerful, and taught me more than that umpteen writing books strewn around my bags and my floor about what I want to learn how to do with my fiction.

Excited to read: Kiss & Tell by Mari Naomi

I spend a lot of my life being excited about books, whether anticipating their release, tenderly opening the first page, or reading them obsessively when I should be, I don't know, writing. Or just reading them obsessively. I'm edging closer and closer to a Kindle purchase, but don't know if that's going to actually happen anytime soon. Right now, on my bed, where I have one laptop perched on my lap and the other, older one, which has Word, at my feet, I have next to me The Winter of Our Disconnect, a memoir by Susan Maushart about how her family went offline for six months, Good Eggs, a graphic memoir by Phoebe Potts about infertility that I finally got from the library and am totally enjoying, and Close to Famous, a middle grade novel by Joan Bauer about a 12-year-old girl who wants to, yes, bake cupcakes. If I could spend my entire day reading, I would, but I do manage to work reading into my daily schedule - it's always a balance between that and writing, and I often try to combine them by writing about the books I've read that have somehow moved me. I will also soon be reading Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, the book du jour on sexual politics, for an article I'm writing for Alternet, and Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism by Deborah Lutz, to prepare to interview her February 17th at NYC bookstore McNally Jackson (free, with book party to follow).

Anyway...in an attempt to get back to blogging here, I'm starting a new feature called Excited to Read, which will contain basic info about a book I'm excited to read/looking forward to reading. Sometimes the anticipation stage of reading is the best, though I always hope the book lives up to its promise.

This one I saw in the online Harpercollins catalog a while ago, and it's finally coming out. I'm totally intrigued by the idea of someone putting out a resume of their dating life. I was a late bloomer in that regard so mine up until age 22 wasn't that interesting, at least, looking back I don't think it was. The graphic memoir Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume From Age 0 to 22 is by Mari Naomi and the official blurb is:

In this fresh and offbeat graphic memoir, critically-acclaimed comic book artist MariNaomi chronicles her time as a misfit teen and young woman looking for love in San Francisco, while bringing to light issues of identity and sexuality.

From her father and mother’s interracial marriage to “you show me yours, I’ll show you mine” moments on the playground to drug experimentation and questions about her sexuality, MariNaomi lays bare all her hurts and loves in this coming-of-age graphic memoir that’s poignant and often hilarious. Each chapter highlights a different relationship in her life, including a heartfelt and sweet first love and an honest look at how her blunt views on sex affected her work and her relationship with her parents. Though she often admits to actions that some might find shocking, her deft writing and assured illustration make this memoir one to applaud. MariNaomi’s words and illustrations beautifully meld together, creating a memoir that is funny and frank and marks a strong new female voice in the graphic book world.