A Big Bowl of Ketchup

Oiy, life. Anyway, I'm crossing things off the To-Do list--the one in my day planner and the one in my head.

So, I did the Banned Books give-away drawing tonight and emailed the winners--there were 5! So, if you entered, check your inbox.

Also, some books I reviewed finally came out, so you can now go grab your very own copy of Hip Hop Speaks to Children (review here) Vibes (review here), and Paper Towns (review here). Go check 'em out.

AND! Last spring, I tried to read all of the Fusion Stories, but not all of them were out yet, so here are the reviews of the two I missed!

Minn and Jake's Almost Terrible Summer Janet S. Wong

In this verse-novel sequel to Minn and Jake, Jake has gone back to LA for the summer. Jake thought it would be fun to go back to LA, but his grandmother keeps stuffing him full of food (but not the kind he likes) and Soup keeps waking him up at 6am. Not only that, but his friends have all moved on and and don't have time to hang out with him.

Then Minn comes down to LA, despite the fact Jake hasn't written back once all summer. Sadly, things don't go well. Minn's upset that Jake never told her his grandmother is Korean. Jake's upset that he cares. Then, when Minn and Jake run into cute Haylee at Disneyland and Jake totally ignores Minn, things get really bad.

An excellent look at friendship, going home again, and trying to navigate the whole boy/girl dynamic. I liked it even better than the first one.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before David Yoo

Albert Kim is an intentional loser--in a life where was always on the fringe and never really fit in, he decided it was just easier to stop trying. No one can reject you if you don't make advances towards friendship in the first place. But then, he ends up spending the summer working with Mia, 1/2 of the school's power couple. Only, Mia and Ryan have broken up and by the end of the summer, Albert and Mia are... something. Albert's days as an intentional loser are over, not that it's that easy, of course. To make matters worse, Ryan gets cancer and needs Mia by his side constantly. Can Albert hang on to her without making everyone in town kill him?

Part of the book are funny and Yoo writes an unbelievably authentic voice in Albert. Sadly, it was also one that really annoyed me. I knew Albert in high school--not my favorite person and I was never sure why Mia went for him. Part of me felt really sorry for him when things went wrong, but part of me just wanted him to shut up. I think teen boys, especially the lovable losers, will identify and like it.

Full disclosure: ARC provided by publisher, via Picnic Basket.

The Last of the Fusion Stories

Well, May is almost over and I've finished reading all of the Fusion Stories. Well, all of the ones that have been published at this point.

So, here's the last batch!

She's So Money Cherry Cheva

Laugh out loud funny. Maya is a straight-A student who spends her nights working in her family's Thai restaurant in what I'm thinking is Ann Arbor. One glorious weekend, her parents go to DC and leaves her in charge of the restaurant. At the end of the night, 2 horrible mean women are complete b----- and don't understand the difference between vegan and vegetarian, but want to be snotty about it. After having to be nice to such people, Maya and her brother decide to skip cleanup. Of course the horrible ladies complain and the health inspector comes and slaps them with a $10,000 fine.

Maya can never tell her parents and knows they can't afford it. They're going to lose the restaurant... unless... unless Maya can raise $10,000 in 6 weeks. There's stripping, prostitution, or taking Camden up on his offer. Camden--super hot, super rich, super jerk Camden wants to pay Maya to do his homework for him. If she does Camden's, and some of his friend's homework... she just might do it.

Of course, then it turns into a huge ring that requires hiring help. And there's that pesky kissing thing that Camden keeps doing...

I loved Maya's comebacks to Camden's ickyness. And I loved the horrible, horrible customers that started this whole chain of events--it's no secret that my years in Ann Arbor were fairly miserable. A large part of it was working customer service in a town that is so filled with self-important a-holes. I mean, there are a lot of really lovely people in Ann Arbor, but... at the same time, I know live in DC, the capital of self-important a-holes, but a lot of that type in DC have a reason to be self-important and where I heard "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!" all the time in Ann Arbor, not so much in DC. Really. Anyway, the horrible customers were spot-on. I think those ladies used to shop at the co-op.

Anyway, She's so Money is hysterical and you should read it. I couldn't put it down.

Seeing Emily Joyce Lee Wang

This is a prose novel about Emily, a high school student who falls in love with the new boy, the new boy who has a thing for Asian girls and wants her to be his geisha but he thinks he's racially sensitive. Emily has to be nice to her parents' friends' son, Alex, even though he has an accent and sticks out like a sore thumb. Emily is an artist and has to paint a mural with Alex. Emily wishes her mother would stop trying to own the art Emily creates...

There is a lot going on beneath the surface of these poems. It's not a funny book, but a true one.

Also, I like the paperback cover (the green one with the tube of lipstick) MUCH better than the hardcover cover. Such a huge difference and they seem like such different books, but I think both covers work for the story that's inside, but the paperback cover will entice more people to read that story.

Girls for Breakfast David Yoo

Ok, I had a hard time telling if this book, or the forthcoming Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before was the Fusion Story. Given that Stop Me... isn't out yet, I read Girls for Breakfast.

Yay for a funny boy book. It starts out when Nick Park is nine and first discovers girls. After this, girls become his whole life. But, girls don't seem to like him. Is he a total loser? Or is being the only Asian guy in town a draw back? Or is it because he's the ultimate banana? Too Asian for the white chicks, and too white for the Asian ones?

As we follow Nick from age 9 until high school graduation, we start to form our own ideas about why he's so unpopular with the ladies he loves (well, lusts after) so much.

It's funny and true. To the point where I wanted to smack Nick upside the head for being such a... teenaged boy. So annoying. But in a way that makes him a real character.