Of course I took a pile of books with me to New Zealand. Here are a couple of books from the pile.

The first is Shrimp (by the author of Nick and Norah's infinite playlist, which won the recent Cybils YA award), a young adult book that tells about a year in the life of Cyd Charisse and the love of her life, a surfer named Shrimp. Or, as Cyd says towards the end of the book:

If my life was a movie, here is where my closing scene voice-over would tell you (in lame-actress voice filled with precocious teen melancholy and uber-wisdom) that "I thought my year was all about Shrimp, but, in fact, it was really all about me".

I liked Cyd’s self-confidence and spunk, even if it was combined with a teenage impatience with her parents. It felt like we were watching her move out of her youth into her adult character. The only quibble I had was her occasional agony aunt speech where she showed great insight into other people’s problems and articulately gave advice – perhaps slightly too polished. I don’t know that I’ve read an American YA book about someone choosing not to go to college before. Seeing as there are presumably lots of young adults who make this choice it’s great to see them represented in fiction. I loved the ending of the book. Without mentioning an spoilers, it felt really right. There is an earlier book in the series, Gingerbread, which I haven't read. When I read books out of order, I often don’t feel like going back and reading the earlier books – I mean, I know what’s happened now, right? But I generally end up reading them and appreciating the whole series more, so I will hustle off and find Gingerbread while waiting for the third book, Cupcake, to be released here.


I had been eagerly anticipating reading Ellen Kushner’s book Swordspoint: A melodrama of manners as it is one of those books that it seems nearly everyone has read and enjoyed. And really, is there a better subtitle in the world? The book combines political intrigue with romance. And lots of swordfighting. It's set in a fantasy world that doesn't display any of the "typical" fantasy elements like magic. Rather, it's a city that never existed in our world but is believable in its structured society, range of characters and implied history. I really enjoyed the story. However, although the characters were compelling at times, they were also slightly shallow. I don’t know if that perception is due to the dramatic storytelling style or because I read the book in small chunks at night over several days. In retrospect I wish I had been able to read it in a shorter period of time, so am looking forward to a re-read. I am also looking forward to reading the highly praised recent sequel The privilege of the sword. There’s also another sequel The fall of kings but I admit I am being seduced towards the newest book due to blog babbling about it. OK, and the pretty cover.

Tags: books, cohn, fantasy, kushner, young adult