Megan and Victoria, oh, this is going to be fun. Megan is in Mrs. Hudson words “A spoiled brat” who had her father give her everything she ever wanted, including having Ken, who worked for the Hudson’s take her illegitimate, biracial child for a measly $10,000. We have, in proper V.C. Andrews fashion, Victoria, Megan’s polar opposite. Victoria is a comical version of how someone thinks a rich unmarried woman would act. Married to the business as they say (no, they actually say this). Megan is beautiful, Victoria is less so (we’ll come back to this fact later). These two girls have one think in common, they are both totally awesome.

Megan’s husband wants to run for Senate, which adds to her desire to keep Rain a secret. So Rain moves in with Megan’s mother, under the guise of being some sort of acting prodigy, this absolutely infuriates Victoria, who has the audacity to show up unannounced during dinner. Rain makes some snappy comments that are kind of boring. Whatever.

Victoria, put back in her place, leaves. And we get to follow Rain to school, which is boring, she’s perfect and impresses her teachers and there’s this awkward moment where you think someone is going to say something horrifically offensive like “you are a credit to your race”, but that is avoided by Rain trying out for the school play. I only mention it because it brings up Megan’s other mistakes children, Brody and Allison.

Allison is of course the polar opposite of Rain, just like her mother pretty much just a bratty kid. Brody on the other hand is okay. Now being that this is a V.C. Andrews book and Megan’s husband is running for the Senate the family can’t possibly know about Megan’s little black indiscretion. Brody of course is therefore smitten with Rain. Yep, both of her brothers, Roy and Brody both totally want to hit that. Oh and some boy named Corbette. Luckily the boy that isn’t related to Rain wins out, leaving all the others heartbroken. Well kind of, Roy joined the army shortly after Rain left home and she only hears from him a few times, most notably when he calls to let her know that their mother (Latisha) has died of lung cancer, whatever. Let’s be perfectly honest, we knew it was coming from the beginning, it’s a V.C. Andrews book, if she had a place to go back to away from all of the batshittery there would be no need for Lightening Strikes or Eye of the Storm.

The thing that I like about the Hudson series is really Victoria. Rain and Megan are pretty stale characters that don’t change very much throughout the course of the books, Victoria however is awesome. For those of you familiar with other V.C. Andrews books, I’d say Victoria is second only to my favorite V.C. Andrews character of all time, Vera, from the standalone My Sweet Audrina.

Anyways, back to the main plot point because Victoria doesn’t start to get really fun until the third book, Rain wins the lead in the school play and is so awesome she gets to go to London to go to a performing arts school there and stay with Mrs. Hudson’s younger sister in their manor. That book is pretty weird and creepy so it’ll get it’s own post, soon.

Hey, I warned you that I’d be grouping stuff together and that I’d be reading some trashy stuff, I read Rain at the end of 2012 but finished the last one in a few weeks ago.

I don’t think there’s a woman in my age group that hasn’t heard of V.C. Andrews and Flowers In the Attic, but many don’t know about the hidden literary masterpiece that is Rain.

That’s not sarcasm in my tone readers, Rain is probably one of the best books that Andrews’ estate has ever come up with, why is that? Because it’s a book about black people clearly written by someone who has at best just a passing familiarity with black people.

For the most part, the series follows the standard V.C. Andrews pattern, which you can read more about at Trapped in the Attic, but for some reason, the books really weren’t that popular. I think it’s mostly because the first book was published in 2000 which is relatively late but people are missing out. Especially because along with Flowers In The Attic, Rain, is one of the only other V.C. Andrews books to be made into a terrible movie.

Rain Arnold lives in Washington, D.C. in a ghetto, rat and roach infested building, with her mother, Tisha, father, Ken, brother, Roy and younger sister Beni. Rain’s father Ken, is an alcoholic who gambles and can’t hold down a job. This is actually a pretty standard background for a father figure in a V.C. Andrews book but Ken is special because his gambling and well wayward ways lead to Rain overhearing that Ken wants to go back to Rain’s “people” and demand more money.

That’s right, Rain is the unwanted child of a white socialite and a black man. This of course causes strife in Rain’s family. Rain’s sister, Beni tells everyone at school which leads to all of them thinking she’s stuck up because of her white blood. Keep in mind this is all occurring at the same time as a subplot that involves Beni being drugged at a party while the Crips (the gang) run a train on her. Yeah.

In typical and glorious V.C. Andrews format, when learning that Rain is not his biological sister, Roy, Rain’s “brother” admits to having feelings for her. Rain, being sane, is totally grossed out and rebukes Roy because she only thinks of him as a brother. Luckily there’s no awkward bathtub scene but there is a lot of awkward touching that at least Rain admits is awkward.

After Beni is viciously murdered by the leader of the Crips, Latisha is determined to get Rain to safety so she manages to convince Megan, Rain’s biological mother to make arrangements to have her live with Rain’s biological grandmother, Mrs. Hudson.  I totally need to do a review of the movie because Mrs. Hudson is played by the forever flaw-free Faye Dunaway. Did I mention that the Hudsons are rich? I mean I don’t think we ever know Mrs. Hudson’s net worth but it’s pretty high, there’s some awkward rich people posturing about dressing for dinner and then we get some dirt on the family.

Mrs. Hudson has two daughters, Megan, Rain’s mother, and Victoria, the younger spinster sister.

But this is getting kind of long so I’ll break this into multiple posts.

But it’s 2013, a new year and a new blog, 2011 brought you 50 Books by People of Color, which completely changed how I look at not only what I consider to be “literature” but what types of books that I grab for my casual reading. 2013 was Reading the Rainbow, in which I read books by Authors of Color as well as Gay, Lesbian and Transgender authors.

2013, is going to be different. This year is going to be the year of Cartman.

Well, sort of. In the past I tried to pick books that I wouldn’t be ashamed to be reading in public. This year, I’m saying to hell with it and thus Whatever, Whatever, I Read What I Want. Granted a lot of the books will be the same type I’ve been reading and posting about, some, as you’ll soon see, will be different.

Some other changes:

When I read multiple books in a series I might group them together in one entry.

I added the GoodReads widget so you can get a preview of what will be reviewed and track my progress.

I might update the look of the blog, I might not, whatever, whatever I do what I want.

Unlike my reading of Twilight, I read all of these by choice. Honestly, everyone was reading them and I wanted to know what all of the hype was about. Since the first one lacked any real plot I read the second, and then the third because I had already read 2/3rds of the trilogy. You can look around the internet and find lots of reviews, critics and snark of the Fifty Shades books and so there is very little that I can say that hasn’t been said before. These books are bad, there are characters that I liked (namely Christian’s mom and . . . yeah, that’s about it, I liked Christian’s mom) but for the most part the series is about a girl who falls in love with a boy who probably isn’t that good for her. You can read about how bad the grammar is all over the internet, you can read about the tampon sex scene, or any of the myrad of other scenes in the book that are just bad pretty much in any book blog (or video blog – my favorites are this one by Thriftyathome and this tipsy one by Smoothiefreak/AkilahObviously)

Unlike Twilight, which I read earlier this year because of a $20.00 bet, Ana Steele does have goals and thoughts outside of Christian Grey (unlike Bella Swan her Twilight doppelganger) but it doesn’t change the fact that the books are an excuse to have about fifty pages of plot thrown among tons and tons (and tons – who am I kidding) of sex. It doesn’t change the fact that the relationship between Ana and Christian isn’t a healthy depiction of one anymore than Twilight is and I’d probably have a serious if not awkward conversation with my young nieces if I thought they were going to read them

Overall Rating: One star for all three, so .333 for each. I’ve read better in every single category this book falls into. Also, E.L. James need an editor, an American editor because some of the slang was just jarring in how wrong it is.

I know, so many audiobooks in a row, I was reading physical books at the same time as you’ll see in my next entry but I decided to group them together. Anyways, Firefly Cloak. Have you ever read a book and gotten about halfway through and realized that the only characters you like are horrible people? That’s how I felt while I was reading Firefly Cloak. Tessa Lee and her younger brother, Travis, are abandoned by their mother in a state park and move in with their grandparents. After Travis’ tragic death Tessa Lee goes in search of their drug addict mother.

Tessa Lee is horribly naive, which is sometimes endearing but generally extremely annoying. The only character I really wanted to like is Tessa Lee’s grandmother, but then about halfway through the book she starts saying some stuff that’s pretty racist. It’s stuff that even she as a character acknowledges is kind of offensive, like thinking that people of different races shouldn’t socialize (and her astonishment that both Tessa Lee and Travis’ fathers are white) and for me it was really hard to think that someone who holds ideas of racial superiority as still being a “good person” so it detracted from the one rational, non-drug addicted, not recovering from feelings of abandonment perspective.

This book at it’s core is very much like The Secret Life of Bees (and is narrated by the same voice actress) so if you’re going to read one and not both, go for The Secret Life of Bees, it’s problematic in it’s own respect but at least there are people of color that exist outside of being simply objects of fear or lust.

Portia De Rossi narrates her own book which brought me to two conclusions, one that she was going through way more on Ally McBeal than I ever could imagine, and two, that the way she pronounces the word “anything” really bugs me. It’s the only word she drops the “Y” in and it comes out “Ana Thing”, it’s complete irrelevant but it really did throw me for a loop every time it was said.

I remember the first time I saw Portia De Rossi on Ally McBeal and even as a kid I thought she was perfect, tall blonde with long hair and absolutely gorgeous, little did I (or apparently anyone else) know, she was battling both anorexia and bulima off and on for years. Unbearable Lightness follows Portia from her life as young Amanda Rodgers into her modeling carrier and up through her relationship with Ellen Degeneres. It really puts into perspective how much thought, effort and pain goes into having an eating disorder. While the book talks about her career, her relationships, her fear of admitting her homosexuality and her later fear of being outed, it all always came back to food and her exercise habits.

On one hand, it made me feel incredibly lazy for not finding time to exercise but on the other, it did make me see how for some people, exercise and dieting could become all they could think about. My only real problem is that the entire recovery takes place in the epilogue, it’s Portia De Rossi talking about how much better her life is in recovery, which is good, but the last chapter of the book talks about how she collapses on the set of a movie and how she is diagnosed with Lyme Disease and not an acknowledgement of disordered eating.

Don’t get me wrong, I generally like books that do this, and having read this the same year as reading James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces De Rossi gets right what Frey got wrong, the truth and the honesty behind the words is clear it just left me with this feeling of wanting that still hasn’t gone away.

Overall Rating: 3/5

Since I listened to these books in quick succession I figured I should probably review them in one entry. After being abandoned by their mother in a mall parking lot siblings Dicey, James, Sammy and Maybeth travel to their Aunts house by foot. Dicey, the oldest is thirteen and believes that they can make the journey easily but she learns very quickly that she might be in over her head. From under estimating how long it would take them to walk to Bridgeport, Connecticut to trying to feed and shelter her younger siblings, Dicey quickly beings to understand how overwhelmed her mother felt.

A lot of the first book is about the children traveling, meeting interesting people on the road and Dicey trying to enforce a sense of morality on Sammy, who fights and steals. The children do not acclimate well living with the Cousin they find in Bridgeport, so the children run away to find their grandmother who lives on a farm in Maryland.

Dicey’s Song isn’t much different, the theme of finding a place where you belong still exists it’s just more stationary. Knowing they have no real place to go Dicey and her siblings delay moving on from their Grandmother’s home (who doesn’t want them there and makes that very clear) by doing tasks around the farm that they feel they need to complete before moving on. Eventually their Grandmother says they can stay but an interesting power struggle occurs between Dicey and their Grandmother.

Dicey’s Song is actually pretty interesting because it’s kind of like reading a coming of age novel, in reverse. Dicey has to learn how to give up control and allow her Grandmother to be the parent while still dealing with the very real issues of growing up after being abandoned.

Overall Ratings: 3/5, this book is not a fine wine, it didn’t age so well but still readable.

For her senior project, Gabby decides to do a project that involves her faking a pregnancy and taking notes on peoples reactions to her. Gabby did this knowing that all of her older sisters were teen parents who struggled. I wanted to read this book because I wanted to think that Gabby had a profound reason for wanting to fake a pregnancy, but I was extremely disappointed. Gabby manages to suffer from a big case of not getting it. Her entire attitude throughout the entire book is “I don’t deserve to be treated like this” but not because she feels as though no teenage girl who is pregnant deserves to be treated as though they have ruined their lives, it’s because she feels that it is wrong for people to assume that just because she got “pregnant” her life would be ruined.
The original project was supposed to focus on the stereotypes of people based on their backgrounds, to prove that people thought that because Gabby’s mother and sisters were all teenage mothers she was destined to become one too.The problem is that Gabby had more of an objection to how she, as a special snowflake with good grades was treated, as opposed to society’s treatment of pregnant teenagers.  The whole book involves a lot of very subtle slut shaming, while she doesn’t actually use the phrase “those girls” it’s very clearly in the subtext especially because she reiterates over and over again in the book her pro-life stance.

If the idea behind the project was more of a “this is how pregnant teenagers are stereotyped”, I think I’d be more sympathetic but it really just read as someone who hadn’t grown up enough to learn that very few people will love and support you blindly, regardless of your choices or mistakes.

Overall Rating: 2/5

As the lights dimmed a hush fell over the auditorium, it was as if a collective realization that we were about to witness not just a feminist icon, but a living legend. For the first time in my going to an event all cell phones were actually turned off or muted and a reverent silence captivated the audience. Margaret Atwood didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to be a serious evening.She took the stage with her characteristic wit and charm and throughout her entire lecture had periods of time where she had the audience roaring with laughter.

The lecture was divided into three parts. The first: “What is the Future” an interesting and complex subject that Atwood tackled easily and jovially. The second part:”How do you Write About the Future” in which she discussed the history of science fiction and speculative fiction. Finally the third part: “How I Write about Science Fiction” where she discussed some of her inspirations for writing The Handmaid’s Tale. Needless to say it was an evening I’ll remember always.

And next time I promise to remember to hit publish and not save as draft. Gah!

Rating 1/5 and giving anyone (especially white women over 40) who say they loved this book the side eye eternally.

12. Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Not bad, I mean, it’s a book where you don’t like any of the characters because they all have (kind of realistic) character flaws.

Rating 3/5

14. The Secret Life of Bees by Susan Monk Kidd

Not as horrible as The Help but I think that’s only because Lily gets more of a pass than Skeeter because Lily is a kid and Skeeter is a grown college educated woman.

Rating 2/5

15. Bloodchild and other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

Male Pregnancy is always a weird concept but Butler does it well in one of the short stories. It’s an interesting combination of horror, science fiction and what Margaret Atwood would call speculative fiction.

Rating 4/5

16. Finding Miracles by Julia Alvarez

I love Alvarez, at least once every few years I reread In the Time of the Butterflies and Yo!, but this book, I don’t know, Milly is pretty much the type of person that people who are against transracial adoptions want to use as the poster child. It’s well written but the fact that they never actually say which country Milly is from is pretty annoying.

Rating 3/5

17. Going Bovine by Libba Bray

I don’t care if she was going for a modern retelling of Don Quixote, the magical negro trop needs to die.

Rating 2/5

18. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

My friend gave me $20 bucks to read it; I don’t think it was worth it. Considering that the plot doesn’t start until 3/4’s of the book it just drags and drags about those crazy kids Edward and Jacob.

Rating: No Stars Ever

19. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti

It’s a good into guide to feminism, Valenti is a good author however her online presence and her unwillingness to delve more into the intersectionality of race and gender in the marginalization of women of color leaves much to be desired.

Rating 4/5

20. Voices From the Other Side edited by Brandon Massey

I wasn’t expecting the amount of what I would consider science fiction in this book, but that makes me glad. I’m not the biggest fan of horror, and while I didn’t find all of the stories great, it was a solid collection.

Rating 4/5

21. Cinder by Melissa Meyer

This was a bookclub book and I enjoyed it. Cinder is a modern retelling of Cinderella without the Disney happiness. Cinder has character flaws but it smart and someone I think young girls can relate with.

Rating: 4/5

22. Dead to You by Lisa McMann

What can I say about Dead To You without spoilers? If you watch enough Law and Order: SVU or Nick Stahl movies this one won’t surprise you at all.

Rating 3/5

23. Illegal by Bettina Restrepo

Nora is a hardworking teenage girl living in Mexico with her mother and grandmother. Her father left several years before for work in the United States. Suddenly one day, her father stops sending money and Nora and her mother venture to the United States in search of him. This book combines the fears and worries associated with being an illegal immigrant, the constant fear and tension, without being a woe is me narrative. Nora acknowledges their situation and continues to learn and grow.

Rating: 4/5

24. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Super short book about a young girl named Green. Green’s family is killed in a brutal attack on the city when she is left at home. Green and her natural ability to heal and grow things, survives but eventually must re-learn how to live.

Rating 3/5

25. Green Witch by Alice Hoffman

Super short sequel to Green Angel and it follows Green on her search for a missing friend (or two). It’s awkwardly rife with mysticism, but I mean, this is the same woman who wrote Practical Magic so I kind of expected it.

Rating 3/5

26. In Love and Trouble by Alice Walker

This collection of short fiction contains the classic Everyday Use which I had read several times before, and a few other stories that I had read before. One of the new ones, We Drink The Wine in Paris was really beautiful and unexpectedly moving.

Rating 3/5

27.Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Aria has lived her entire life in the protected city of Reverie, safe from the danger of the dangerous aether storms and the outsiders Aria knows only to be savages. It’s kind of like Pure by Julianna Baggott, but less disturbing. Everyone in Under the Never Sky is pretty, and there are absolutely no doll-heads as hands.  If the reader were looking for something dark and serious, I’d recommend Pure over Under the Never Sky, but if the reader were say, thirteen and just wanted a dystopia mixed with a romance, then Under The Never Sky is a good read.

Rating 2/5

28. Hold Still by Nina Lacour

Following the unexpected suicide of her best friend Ingrid, Caitlin tries to return to a normal life, but without Ingrid, nothing is normal. When she finds Ingrid’s journal hidden under her bed, Caitlin is forced to realize that Ingrid’s death is hard to everyone to deal with.

Rating 4/5

29. The Stoning of Soraya M. by Freidoune Sahebjam

The film version of this book was recommended to me by Netflix, after watching it I decided that 1) I need to watch more happy movies so that Netflix doesn’t give me categories like “Emotional Foreign Dramas” and “Tearjerking Political Films” and 2) that I needed to read the book. Granted it took me almost a year to get around to it, I’m glad I finally got around to it. Written in the formal of a novel, Sahebjam takes some literary license into his inferences into certain characters thoughts that he couldn’t have known, but it gives the book a more well-rounded feeling. It fills in the gaps that otherwise would be unanswerable questions, like why.

Rating: 3/5 it’s a book about a stoning, it’s tragic, gross and really happened.

30. Keesha’s House by Helen Frost

I managed to get a copy of this book from last year’s Indiana Author’s Awards, Frost was a finalist.  It’ll remind readers of Ellen Hopkins  (Identical, Crank, Tricks) with its poetry/prose mash up. Frost made me to a time warp back to my AP English Literature classes where we learned about sestinas, sonnets and about a dozen other poetic forms that Frost uses. This still manages to not take away from the actual story too much, but I do think that Frost’s book might have too many characters.

Rating: 3/5

Okay, wow, that took me a while to finish up. Here’s a summary:

Fiction Books Read: 28

Non Fiction books read: 2

Books that don’t count towards total read: 9

And for kicks, here’s what else I’ve read.

1. Remember Me2: The Return by Christopher Pike
2. Under the Dome by Stephen King
3. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
4. Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick
5. The Minority Report and Other Stories by Phillip K. Dick
6. Habibi by Craig Thompson
7. Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfield
8. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (read it last year)
9. Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler (read it last year)

My original goal was to read 75 books, so we’ll see how it do. Wish me luck!

P.S. This post gets ALL of the tags