Remember last month when I told you to tune in today when I would be all together and planned and everything? Psych! Life and this first Wednesday of the month blog post are NOT all together.  But we’re going with it anyway.  I was going to tell you all about Zoo City – but I just need more time to write that.  I wrote it once and it was bad. You don’t want to read that blog – which is sad, because I want you to want to read that book! So, instead, today’s book blog is a two-for-one because both of these books are great – but both are best read with very little information.

First: Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge

Solitaire is…intense. And really good. It’s just a good, surprising, and introspective book about life and love and expectation and dreams and tragedy.  I read it without any information whatsoever – a friend said “this is good, read it.” So I did! I didn’t even read the back. And I am really really happy that I did it that way.  Here is the background I will provide:  It’s a different world but not so different from here and now, maybe it’s an alternate reality or maybe it’s the not-super-distant future.  The main character is from Ko: a place, a corporation, a family, a way of life.  And that’s all I’m going to tell you about the actual book.  I started reading this book one nice lazy Saturday – and it became an obsession.  I finished it either that day or Sunday, and I was really sad that I didn’t have anyone to talk about it with IMMEDIATELY!  So, now I’m telling you, “this is good, read it” and it would be great if you ran out, read it, and then talked to me about it.  Oh, and don’t let the cover of the paperback dissuade you – it’s not like that cover at all! The hardcover has a much better and more appropriate cover.  Under my current test: If I wrote this book I would be so so proud of myself.  I would run around telling the world LOOK AT WHAT I DID! I might do that anyway, but just with this blog post.   (Ooh, here’s another good cover. But don’t read the description – TOO MUCH INFORMATION!)

Second:  The Unidentified by Rae Mariz

The Unidentified is … not intense! It’s actually less “good” and more “fun” than Solitaire.  It’s a teen novel, and it’s truly a teen novel – but don’t let that stop you.  In The Unidentified, the government stopped funding schools and now they have all been privatized.  High school is “The Game”, it takes place at old shopping malls, you get points for doing various activities, tests involve rollercoaster-like rewards for correct answers, and the coolest people get “branded” by corporations or fashion lines.  They immediately have lots of money, clothes, popularity, and entre to the A-list areas of The Game.  My favorite aspect of the book is that high school is basically “do whatever you are interested in” and the kids actually do it! They get all into design, or science, or music, because they are free to follow their own interests and because they are motivated to get noticed and branded. Although the book is definitely portraying The Game as a bad thing, overall, I enjoyed the hopeful prospect that kids would pursue their interests and even excel without any real requirement that they do so.  This book is not perfect by any means.  It tries a bit too hard, there are some major holes in the plot, and the ending left me flat.  But it’s fun, it’s fast, and if I wrote it, I would be proud of it (although I would edit the hell out of it and maybe ask for some help with my ending).  I would particularly recommend it to young women – there is a clear teen girl perspective coming across.  I think my boyfriend’s nieces who are about 13 and 17 are the perfect audience.  But I would also recommend it to young men – I think it’s really important that they understand the teen girl perspective!  And I would recommend it to the rest of us as well – just because it’s fun, and it never hurts to take a quick walk back through the angst and confusion and excitement of the teen years.

Share this page: