I Read to Relax!: Rainbow Rowell

Showing posts with label Rainbow Rowell. Show all posts

Friday, October 17, 2014

Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and Park
by Rainbow Rowell

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. (Description from Goodreads.com)

I'm not sure if it's because I read FANGIRL first, or if I just connected more to the main character in that novel, or if it's because I just didn't "live" through the 80s, having been too young to really feel most of the culture of that time, but I didn't have the same overwhelmingly overawed reaction to this book that a lot of people did.

I enjoyed it. Rowell is a great writer. I really like how well she can craft a fully fledged character that feels as if I could meet him or her on the street. I like that each one of her books is different...they take place in different settings and times, and yet, they have a similar feel to them. I know that Rowell wrote them.

While I didn't love the setting of this book, I found it very believable. This book really felt like it was set in and embraced the 80s. As I mentioned, I was just a peanut in the 80s so I don't have the same nostalgic connection to it that some older readers might, but I can remember the early 90s pretty well and some things felt eerily similar.

I think what I liked the most about this book, though, was Park. Eleanor was a fun and interesting character, but I LOVED Park...and I loved the way that Rowell described him. Here you really felt not only that Eleanor liked Park for his personality, but also that she really and truly wanted him. Her descriptions of Park's skin as melted honey were truly evocative. It wasn't just the way that Eleanor viewed him, though, either...Park was a fascinating character in his own right - flawed as any teenage boy would be, but also strong and brave and true. The book almost broke my heart on Park's behalf, but thankfully Rowell left things in a way that left me satisfied at the end.

As I said, not my favorite Rowell title, but well worth reading anyway.

Full Disclosure: Audiobook borrowed from my Library

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Fangirl

Fangirl
by Rainbow Rowell

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan... But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind? (Description from Goodreads.com)

As a fangirl, myself...though I don't write fanfiction...I really loved and connected to Cath. Not only did I love her geeking out and feeling compelled to be an active part of the fandom, but I also really connected to her as I remembered what it was like to start college. Thank goodness I met my friends, now my best friends, in the dorms in the first few months, and just like Raegan pulled Cath out of her room and made her interact, my friends encouraged me to do the same. Without them, my college experience could have been totally different. Quiet, full of nothing but homework, boring...

This is actually the first Rainbow Rowell book that I've read and I really enjoyed it. It was sweet and well done in its own right and then had all these nods to fandoms that added an extra layer of fun. My only complaints were that A - We don't actually get to read "Carry On, Simon" now and B - That even though the fictitious author makes a slight nod to Cath's fanfiction in basically refuting it, there wasn't a more direct sort of acknowledgment of all her hard work. I know it's not realistic, but honestly I would have loved if Gemma had actually acknowledged Cath in some fashion...

Now, I REALLY need to read Eleanor and Park, which I've heard is EVEN better!

Full disclosure: Audio Book borrowed from my Library, eBook purchased for my Nook

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Books I Can't Wait to Get My Hands On...

Here are some books being released in September that I can't wait to eventually read!! They look so good, I'm going to have to try to squeeze them in somewhere...