TGIF Impressions!

Happy Friday (finally)!



How good is this guy? It doesn't seem real. Credit to Stephen Duncan for finding this and sharing it on Facebook.

Susan Quinn at Project Mayhem

I'm hosting my dear friend and critique partner Susan Kaye Quinn over at Project Middle Grade Mayhem today.

Did you know she was an actual Rocket Scientist?

You did? I guess that makes sense. She's even more famous than me.

Anyway, please stop by, and check out her great guest post about her new Middle Grade Novel, FAERY SWAP, and about Warrior Faeries and Math Magick. In it, Susan shares the book trailer, and an awesome virtual author visit video she made, in which she shares a lot about her scientist and engineer past, and how the magic of mathematics inspired her to write FAERY SWAP.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Finale

I just finished my second read through of GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, my favorite YA novel ever. I finished it in the bathroom at work, where I had to nab some toilet paper to dab at my eyes before walking back out to my desk like a little bitch.

The ending is beautiful and poetic and perfect.

The parts I finished were called: NEVER LOOK FOR ICE CREAM IN A SPERM FREEZER • A REAL CONCRETE IOWA THINKER • NIGHTTIME IN EDEN • THE FINALE OF SEEM • THE SUNSHINE BORES THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME • THE RIGHT KIND OF CIGARETTES TO SMOKE JUST BEFORE YOU KILL SOMETHING • THERE ARE NO CUP-O-NOODLES IN EDEN • RAT BOYS FROM MARS, AND AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT INVOLVING AN INFLATABLE WHALE • THE BATTLE OF THE DEL VISTA ARMS • THE END OF THE WORLD • PICTURES OF ROBBY AND SHANN • THE INTERGALACTIC BUG COPS • ENOLA GAY AND BEAU BARTON'S BONER • THE BATTLE OF KELSEY CREEK BRIDGE • GREAT BIG JAR • [REDACTED]

The greatest line I've possibly ever read in any novel comes from the part titled THE FINALE OF SEEM, which (the part title, not the line) is partially paraphrased from a real dynamo of an Iowan rhyming poem, The Emperor of Ice-Cream, by Wallace Stevens.

The line is:

"It is the strangest machine: pencil and paper, paint and wall; medium, surface, and man. The machine stitches all roads into one, weaves every life together, everything."

In case you can't figure out what's going on here (it would be difficult without the context of the book, I'm sure) what Smith (or really Austin, but it's meta) is describing here is the matrix of story. The machine, the codex, the method, the form, the idea, the need for story.

And he's describing it in a breathtakingly beautiful manner, don't you think? I certainly do.

From painting in blood and berry juice on the walls of caves to publishing bits and bytes onto little plastic digital decoders, man has always needed story. Story comforts us in the night. Story prepares us for danger. Story heals wounds. Story makes us fall in love, forgive, hope, dream, fight and fuck, and laugh and cry, and live and die with meaning.

Austin Szerba understands story. He knows that everything is connected. Austin records history. He sees that it mostly repeats itself, except for getting dumber and dumber. Austin tells the truth, and he realizes that the truth is all we need.

I hope you enjoyed this series. I certainly enjoyed writing it, even if the best part was just reading the book in a different manner than I did the first time, and thinking about it as deeply as the hectic bullshit of my life allowed me to.

The winner of a brand new hardcover copy of this book was Michael Offut, so please email me your address when you see this, Mike. As for the winner of the other copy and the t-shirt from Amy's giveaway during the tour, I believe she will be contacting you through whatever address you entered into the Rafflecopter.

I probably won't be blogging for a little while now, so take care of yourselves.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 10

This will probably be my second to last post in this series. I am almost finished with the book. Since my last post, I've read these parts: ROBBY THE THEOLOGIAN • SATAN AND THE PASTOR • SERIAL KILLER USA • LOOKING FOR WIGGLES • CONCERNING THE BISON, AND FREE WILL • POPULATION EXPLOSION • EVERYTHING A GUY COULD NEED, AND THE TWO BEST ROCK ALBUMS EVER MADE • THE BLOOD OF GOD • WANDA MAE'S PINK BOWLING BALL • RULES ARE RULES, BUT THE BRAIN ROOM IS NOT PARTICULARLY BRAINY

I didn't write down any great lines from this part of the book. Not because there aren't any (there are), but maybe because at this point the story is moving forward at such breakneck speed, and so much is happening, and so much is falling apart around Ealing, Iowa, I just didn't have any single lines stick in my mind.

Grasshopper Jungle Release Tour and Review

Title: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE

Author: Andrew Smith

Genre: Fiction | YA | LBGT

Release Date: 2/11/14

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.
To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He is stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann.

Ultimately, it is up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

B&N  | IndieBound | Goodreads  | Amazon

This is the truth. This is history.
It’s the end of the world. And nobody knows anything about it.
You know what I mean.

February 3rd – The Midnight Garden

February 3rd – The Story Siren

February 4th – Good Choice Reading

February 4th ^– Bookish

February 5th – I Read Banned Books

February 5th – Jenna Does Books

February 6th – Bibliophilia, Please

February 6th – Escaping One Book At A Time

February 7th – Scott Reads It

February 7th – Live to Read

February 10^{th –} Alice Marvels

February 10^{th –} The Society

February 11^{th –} Lexi Swoons

February 11^{th –} A Reader of Fictions

February 12^{th –} Roof Beam Reader

February 12^{th –} Forever Young Adult

February 13^{th –} The Compulsive Reader

February 13^{th –} Books and Bling

February 14^{th –} Book Chic Club

February 14^{th –} The QQQE

February 17^{th –} JeanBookNerd

February 17^{th –} Ticket to Anywhere

February 18^{th –} Sleep Eat Read Books

February 18^{th –} Read Now Sleep Later

February 19^{th –} Anna Reads

February 19^{th –} Word Spelunking

February 20^{th –} Books With Bite

February 20^{th –} What A Nerd Girl Says

February 21^{st –} Wastepaper Prose

February 21^{st –} LRB – Guest

February 24^{th –} We Are Word Nerds

February 24^{th –} Cabin Goddess

February 25^{th –} Ex Libris

February 25^{th –} Cari's Book Blog

February 25^{th –} A Good Addiction

February 26^{th –} YA Reads

February 26^{th –} The Young Folks

February 27^{th –} Novel Thoughts

February 27^{th –} Fangirlish

February 28^{th –} Once Upon a Twilight

February 28^{th –} Naughty Book Kitties

Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several Young Adult novels, including the critically acclaimed Winger (Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness—an Amazon “Best of the Year”) and The Marbury Lens (A YALSA BFYA, and Starred reviews and Best of the Year in both Publishers Weekly and Booklist).

He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles. Grasshopper Jungle, coming February 11, 2014, is his seventh novel. He lives in Southern California.

Twitter | Facebook | GR | Website

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Thanks so much to Amy and Kriss (and anyone else involved) who made this gorgeous tour look the way it looks, and for all the other hard work involved. GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE is quite literally my favorite young adult novel, and it's also really pushing the limits toward my all time favorite book. But that's not what we're here for.

We're here for an overall review (and a giveaway, obviously), so maybe I better get to that, eh? I know probably none of you have been reading my series of responding to the book as I re-read it, section by section, but that doesn't really matter. That's an entirely different animal.

So ... without further ado, here is my review.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, which is not officially sub-titled: A HISTORY, is about a lot of things. What does that mean, anyway? About? Well, in my opinion, when you're talking about art, about means ... meaning. Specifically, it means what it means to me.

Well, that sounds simple, but it isn't. Don't worry. That's a good thing. Mainly, to me, this book is about questions. Not only like, what does history mean if we're bound to repeat it anyway, which is obviously an important question man has pondered for some time, but also like: who are we, and what defines us as men and women, boys and girls, cowards and heroes, and sinners and saints and all the spectrums in between? Is it actions? Thoughts? Behaviors? Accomplishments? Asking the right questions? Questioning things in general?

I would argue that's it's all of the above, but I don't have to argue that of all the things I possess in this life, knowledge of self is probably the most valuable. Nothing trumps it. It's not always a nice, easy thing to possess, because I'm a human being, and being a human being is fucking hard sometimes, but it helps to know that I am fragile and imperfect and kind and sensitive and observant and brave.

I am a lot like Austin Szerba.

I am a lot like Robby Brees.

I am not so much like Shann Collins, but I love her anyway.

Austin has a lot of questions. Austin questions himself a lot. He doesn't have a lot of answers, but he does have the truth, and his devotion to telling it is one of the greatest things about his character and about this book. THE greatest thing about both is his love for his friends. I don't know if I've ever had friends as great as Austin and Robby, but I know that if I ever did, I would treasure them.

And ... I hope you don't mind that I didn't really talk about the plot. You can find out about that all over the internet, if you want, but I thought it would make more sense to write a little bit about how much this book means to me, since that too might make you want to buy it.

Which is kind of the point after all, isn't it?

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 9

I can't.

We're nearing the end here.

I'm not sure I know what to write.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE dropped on the world last night. Some people knew about it.

The sections I read since the last post were all part of PART 4: THE END OF THE WORLD. They were not called: WE, THE NEW HUMANS • LAST LEGS • DAVY CROCKETT AND DANIEL BOONE NEVER WORE COONSKIN CAPS •GARLIC, DR PEPPER, AND CRYSTAL METH • CLICKETY CLICKETY • ON THE ROOF AGAIN • DENNY DRAYTON HAS A GUN, MOTHERFUCKER • EXILE IN EDEN • A CHANCE MEETING UNDER A PORTRAIT OF A PRESBYTERIAN, OR, CALVIN COOLIDGE'S CANOE • A MOST SOOTHING SHOWER HEAD • INFINITA MILITES! INFINITA MILITES!

I'm personally frustrated, for professional and personal reasons, but those topics lie beyond the scope of this post.

The scope of this post, other than a vessel for the expression of my own Olympic satiation, is really basically pretty much just here to discuss one line.

This is not the best line in the book. But it's close.

It's probably the second best line I've ever read, in any book, ever written.

It reads:

Besides fucking and eating, a few of us human beings are driven to paint on the walls of caves.

I mean, seriously? Have you ever fucking read a single goddamn sentence that was so insightful? Laid out like the honest blood stains of a deserving victim in a gangster flick, in nineteen little words? Not one single member of their choir weighing in at over two syllables?

Me either.

Ponder their message for a minute.

I realize, full well, that two thirds of that message is somewhat juvenilve. Even for the less Victorian, even the scientific implications are somewhat rudimentary.

But the third. Oh saints that be, the third sentiment is the one! Why? Why are we? Why do we exist? Why do we matter? How do we feel? Why do we feel? In what way do those things matter? And why, and how, and when and in what way do any of those mean anything to any of us, ever, and forever, and when and why and how, and ... you know what I mean.

It's one of those lines. One of those Vonnegut or Thompson or Irving or Robbins lines that makes a classic American author a neverending classic.

As we near the end of this journey together, you, you five readers, and I, your dear and lonely author, we find ourselves at the crossroads of the obsoletion of blogs, and I hope that if I leave these posts up, eventually someone will find them who finds some meaning in them, but even if that never happens, I'm glad to have had something to say, for the second or third or whatever time, about the greatest young adult novel ever written.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 8

I finished PART 3: THE SILO this weekend. That, and I watched a lot of the Olympics. The second half of part 3 ends with these not-chapters: SOMETHING ALWAYS HAPPENS WHILE SOMEONE ELSE DANCES • LUCKY, IN POLISH BOY NAMES • MOVIE NIGHT IN EDEN • THE GOOD DOCTOR ACCOUNTS FOR HISTORY • UNSTOPPABLE CORN! UNSTOPPABLE CORN! • THREE OF FIVE • THE ORPHAN FELEK

These are some of the longest sections of the book. They explore some deep and distant history, but eventually, all roads converge.

Some of the best lines from this part of the book are:

It was Ingrid's silent way of kissing me.

Nobody would ever take an army of Communists without balls seriously.

Spanish missionaries were really good at naming shit.

Most of those are even better with context. I notice that the pace of the book slows a bit through this part. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that the not-chapters are longer, there are more large paragraphs and long sentences, and I think Austin is a bit more contemplative (of course he's still sarcastic and hilarious ... and horny).

It's a sort of a deep breath before the plunge.

Now, I know hardly anyone is reading these, but make sure you comment if you do drop by because I'm giving away a copy of this book (which releases tomorrow) when this series of posts is done, and you have to comment on at least one of the posts to be entered. Then, on Friday the 14th, Amy Del Rosso will be giving away another copy, when I take part in her tour.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 7

The Book Release Party for GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE was held somewhere in L.A. last night. There were custom cocktails. I was jealous.

But at least I had my trusty ARC by my side. The book that has carried me through many a night these last weeks. Since Wednesday, I read these parts: FOUR PHOTOGRAPHS • THE PRESIDENT'S SPERM • THE VIRGIN SAINT AND HIS WARD • THE DIVING BELL • THE POPULAR GIRL • WELCOME TO EDEN • SOME KIND OF SIGN • GIMME SHELTER • THE DRAGON PARADE • SOUP FROM PAINT CANS • GIDEON'S BREEDING RIGHTS • THE QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE • THE LIBRARY AND THE NEW TALLY-HO! • VENTILATOR BLUES

This may be the very best part of the book. It's definitely where things start to get pretty awesome for Austin, Robby, and Shann. It's my favorite part so far.

Here are some of the best lines from these sections:

Outside, in the distance, a police siren wailed like a plaintive coyote.

Nobody ever expects to be cheerfully greeted at midnight by a kid smoking in his underwear on a deserted street in Ealing, Iowa.

I took a drag, exhaled, and said, "Roof access, Rob." (this one requires some context in order to fully appreciate its brilliance, but that's the point of these posts - to get you to want to read the book)

Eileen's dance card was full. (this one needs context too, but any line that has "dance card" in it is a great line)

History shows that an examination of the personal collection of titles in any man's library will provide something of a glimpse into his soul.

I love that last line so much. It's such a great point. Books are special. They are almost holy, if you believe in that kind of thing. And let's face it: e-books are not the same.

Don't get me wrong. I love e-books. I love the convenience of my Kindle, especially when I'm traveling, but they're not the same as real books. Real books hold magic between their bindings. They are gateways to other worlds.

Besides, think about it: on that 4th or 5th date with a new person you keep finding more and more interesting each time you get together ... the date where they finally invite you over to their place. What's the first thing you do? Well, maybe the second, depending on how long it takes for that person to need to use the bathroom or slip into something more comfortable, what do you do? You take a look at their bookshelves.

Nothing reveals more about a person than an examination of their personal library. Nothing is more romantic than discovering a kindred spirit through the revelation of a mutual love of books.

Mick Jagger knew that. His favorite novel, or so I've read, was The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Here is one of Mick and the Stones' best rock tunes, which is mentioned in GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE:

It was meant to be that Eden would have its historian.

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 6

Since Monday, I've been reading PART 3: THE SILO, which began with the un-titled not-chapter pictured above. I then read these parts of the book: A TOUGH DAY AT CURTIS CRANE LUTHERAN ACADEMY • BUGS DO TWO THINGS • A GIFT FROM JOHNNY MCKEON • SHANN CALLS • MY MOM'S LITTLE BLUE KAYAKS • PAGES FROM HISTORY • SCHOOL PRAYERS • THE VICE PRESIDENT'S BALLS • MODERN-DAY NIGHTINGALES • SHANN, THE HORNY POLISH KID, AND SATAN

I'm not going to share any of the great lines from these sections. Not because there aren't any (there are), but because I want to talk about the hardest part of this book.

Andrew Smith's books are all the same. Oh, they have different plots. A lens that takes you to another universe, wrangling horses and mountain lions, chasing after your brother (whether he was your little brother, and ran away with a psychopath, or was your older brother, and escaped the tortures of your familial home by himself), but they're all really about the same thing. Deep studies of character, and of relationships.

A friend of mine, Sarah Fine, who is a psychologist and an author, once blogged about characters, and relationships, and I'm paraphrasing here, but she referred to how the key of what she loved about relationships was the space between two people. I might go a little further. In a book, in fiction, when it's done well, a relationship, the space between two characters, can almost become a character of its own. A third, somewhat nebulous entity, whose arc can be followed independently.

In GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE, the two main characters are Austin and his best friend, Robby. Their relationship is one of the saddest and most beautiful things I have ever read about. Austin and Robby love each other very much. They are also teenage boys, so they are horny and confused and they do stupid things, to themselves, to each other, and to other people. This is what teenage boys do. I would even argue this is what teenage boys need to do. You need to make mistakes, to test the limits, to define the borders, to know your strengths and weaknesses, in order to become a man.

Not that GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE is about becoming men. It's not. It's about the end of the world. And history. But relationships are kind of about growing up. They're about learning about ourselves, and our fellow human beings. Austin and Robby keep doing dumber and dumber shit, but they love each other, and their brotherhood is a beautiful thing to behold, and my very, absolute favorite thing about this book, even if it's also the hardest thing not to cry about.

GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE drops in less than a week (next Tuesday, in the US) and you can pre-order it from (and I highly recommend you do):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | The Book Depository

Blogging Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Part 5

I don't know the exact address of his birth, but Andrew Smith and I were born about 12 miles, and maybe 15 years, apart. He's a fan of Rubgy. I'm a fan of (American) Football. I think he knows, but I don't think he really cares, that our (American) Football team, the Seattle Seahawks, just won perhaps the most lopsided game in the history of the NFL Super Bowl. So as a #12thMan, I'd like to offer a major congratulations to my team, and a thumbed nose to Drew.

This post is going to cover the entire Part 2 of GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE: WATERLOO CORNFIELD. It's a somewhat short section of the book, but I also finished it because I missed so much blogging least week, and had plenty of time to read.

The not-chapters in this section of the book are called: PALINDROMES • A BATH, A SHAVE, AND MODESTY • JOHNNY AND OLLIE • THE PATCH JOB • SAY PLEASE • A SNAPSHOT • HAGGLED • [REDACTED] • SKATING AND KAYAKING • EDEN FIVE NEEDS YOU • AN AWFUL LOT OF MATH • TALLY-HO! • THE INNER TOMB • AND HERE'S NUMBER FIVE • TAKING DRAGS • A VISITOR COMES AND GOES • [REDACTED]

Not redacting some of those titles probably wouldn't have given that much away, as you'll see for yourselves when you read the book, but sometimes it's just fun to redact things.

Some of the best lines from this section of the book are:

Kayak and Xanax are palindromes.

Everyone knows I love you, too does not mean I love you.

History is unimpeachable, sublime.

Grimacing lemurs are a little unnerving.

I was horny and mathematically confused.

History also shows there aren't an awful lot of real friends on the record.

The place was as quiet as a cemetery in a morning snowfall.

The best part about WATERLOO CORNFIELD, apart from Austin making fun of things like Hollywood, stupid movies titles, Iowa entrepreneur's penchant for naming businesses hilariously, and his poor dog Ingrid's restless bowel, is how the plot all starts to come together/fall apart. It's like that moment when you're at the top of the highest point on the track of a roller coaster, and the entire world stops for just a moment, and you hold your breath, and look around, and marvel at the beauty of it all for what feels like an eternity, until you suddenly take the plunge and everything is screaming past you like a motherfucker.

You've all felt that before, right?