"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan - 2006

Two YA authors teamed up to write a he said/she said love story that happens over the course of one crazy NYC night.  Hollywood made it into a somewhat/kinda/not really entertaining movie. 

I saw the movie first, and had a heck of a time getting it out of my head while reading.  I now think casting of Michael Cera was pretty freaking terrible, yes, I'm just plain sick of him and his recent teen offerings - but, here's some proof,

p. 9 "...He's working the ironic punk boy-Johnny Cash angle too hard to be a 'mo."  

Sorry, George Michael, but I don't think so.  So, that threw me off a bit.  On the other hand the casting of Norah was spot-on.  Anyway this is about the book, not the film. 

A few nagging details that got under my skin:

p. 29 "...on another Green Day cover, "Time of Your Life."

That song is actually called, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).  Now I once saw that mistake in a SEP romance - annoying, but kinda forgivable - she shouldn't be giving song shout outs anyways.  However, in a book about punk rock or a least people who love punk rock?  Unacceptable.

p. 40 Nick is talking to Norah's ex -  "Dude, nobody puts baby in a corner..."

Then later on p. 61 - "I have no idea who Johnny Castle is, but I definitely approve of the name."

Please don't reference/use a line from a movie you've never seen. Thanks.

and then the unforgivable line that killed the book for me and the line that sort-of saved it...

p. 176  - Norah to Nick - "I hate The Beatles," I state. "Except for that song 'Something....But The Beatles as a whole? Completely overrated." then later: 

"Did you really write a song for me?"

Nick to Norah: "Yeah.  But it's not finished.  And don't ever speak of The Beatles with such condescension again or I may never finish it."

This book sort-of grew on me, once they got out of the clubs and the sun started to come up, I started to like Nick and Norah.  Then Norah opened her big mouth and made that Beatles comment - and while I liked that Nick spoke up, it made me not like Norah anymore.  I would say I prefer the book to the movie, and I'm a tiny bit curious about this pair of YA authors' other offerings.  

"The Blue Castle" - L.M. Montgomery - 1926

Don't you just love how book covers change over the decades?  The bottom one is classic, still as elegant today as it was when published.  It would make a great screen print, wouldn't it?  Our library had that unfortunate copy which makes Valancy and Barney look like they're reenacting a scene from Dirty Dancing!  

First things first, I read "AoGG" as a kid, and I loved the movie adaptations, especially 'Anne of Avonlea" - I vividly remember renting double VHS sets, in fact, I think the library still has those copies...  

"The Blue Castle" is regarded as her most mature work, as in not specifically for young adults, but my copy says YA and I found it right in with the "Anne" books in our library.   

When we meet Valancy, she's a tragic spinster, age 29, brow-beaten into submission by her overbearing family.  The first section of the novel is painful to read.  Every member of her family ranks higher than her, widowed aunts, bombastic uncles, and especially her younger, prettier cousin.  Every day is the same, the same jokes, the same insults, and always directed at Valancy.  They don't even recognize her as an adult, insisting on calling her by her childhood nickname, "Doss." They consider themselves better than most citizens of their small town, while living in fear of their opinions.  She rebels in her heart and head - her rank may be lower, but her intelligence is higher than that whole family put together.  

Valancy decides to visit a non-family doctor to check on the heart palpitations she's been having, and this one act of rebellion sparks a chain of events in motion that leads her to the life she deserves.   

"Empress of the World" - Sara Ryan - 2001

Another summer book, this time at an institute for high school honor students.  The protagonist Nicola makes real friends for the time and falls in love for the first time.  She falls for a beautiful dancer named Battle and navigates the ups and downs of teenage relationships.  First love is always awkward and tough.  Nic and Battle are not only dealing with homophobic jerks, but the feelings and opinions of  their friends and each other.  Two such friends are the accepting teenage boy from San Francisco who has a crush on the flamboyant dresser/computer geek, Katrina.

A blog called "Bookshelves of Doom" posted this 2007 review saying, 

" I do think that this book is a good example of why to avoid detailed descriptions of clothing in anything other than genre fiction: 

Katrina has a white dress with pictures of buildings and people silk-screened onto it in black--it's like she's wearing a silent movie--neon green tights, and purple combat boots.  She has her hair up, clipped into several clothespins that she has spray-painted silver Heck, give her a crimping iron and some squiggly earrings and you'd have a Claudia Kishi original. " Yeah, that's probably true.  I hate when romance novelists describe clothing, and Claudia's outfits seem ridiculous now, but I loved them back in the day.  Which might explain why I also owned neon green tights, purple combat boots and did random things with my hair.  I guess that's why I don't mind the descriptions, I get a little nostalgic - and I would have loved tights with a pattern of the word fuck on them! Still would, in fact!

I enjoyed "Empress of the World" very much, so I was excited to find out Ryan published a sequel in 2007 focusing on Battle's life the summer before college called, The Rules for Hearts.  The description sounds fantastic, I can't wait to read about a co-op theater!