So, I’ve done some reading over the past couple of days after a busy week. None of them were especially “hot off the press” or “too hot to handle,” but they were definitely worth picking up. I seem to always subconsciously pick up books with similar themes and it was no different this weekend. I’ve read Julie Anne Peters’ Between Mom and Jo and Brent Hartinger’s Geography Club, both about GLBT teens. And both were great! I was hesitant to pick up Peters’ work since I’d had a fifty/fifty split with her last two: disliked Keeping You a Secret but loved Luna. But, this one was so heavy at times and heartbreaking, but truthful down to the core. What happens when gay couples decide to conceive or adopt, what happens to those kids? And Hartinger’s work was equally as important. One reason I especially liked Geography Club was the lack of parents, instead, it was about secrecy and acceptance in high school, among friends, whereas Between Mom and Jo was about parenting. And the third book to round out the weekend was the first of Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak books, which I’ve been meaning to pick up for some time. Eh, I could take it or leave it, but I’ll probably, when I’m bored, pick up a second and third and fourth, just to say I’m keeping up with the series.
Underrepresented August 30, 2007
Going into it, I wasn’t quite sure what I would find. I didn’t care for Julie Anne Peters’ novel, Keeping You A Secret, so I was unsure I would like Luna. But, I give her credit for writing about topics that are underrepresented in YA lit: GLBT (for those that aren’t aware that’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered). I was pleasantly surprised to find a strong and raw take on transsexuality in the character of Liam Luna who depends his sister, Regan, to carry around his secrets until he’s ready to transform into who he truly is, a girl named Luna. It reminds me of My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr because of the sensitivity given to the topic of sexuality, which any teenager can relate to.
