Road Trip Wednesday: The Books of My Childhood

The folks over at YA Highway ask a reading/writing question every Wednesday and invite people to blog their responses. Today's question is: What books were you obsessed with as a kid?

Here's the list I came up with off the top of my head, though I'm certain that I'm leaving out something important. I refrained from including the romances that I started reading at the age of 12 and included only those non-romance books that I read up to early teen years. The late teen years were basically exclusively dedicated to Harlequin.

Baby Sitters Club Series by Ann M. Martin - Pretty much the series that made me love reading. When I was in elementary school, my mom worked for the local Wal-mart, one that didn't open until 9 am (gasp!), stocking shelves in the early mornings before the doors opened. Since she was a single mom and I was too young to stay alone, she often woke me up at the crack of dawn to go to work with her. Small town, Arkansas FTW. An empty Wal-mart is pretty much a 7 year olds dream, or nightmare, depending on how many lights were turned on on a given day. I did like to wander around the toys, but inevitably, I would wind up in the book aisle, sitting on the floor, reading the BSC books that I loved but couldn't afford to buy. Then they'd go back on the shelf. As an adult, I can only hope that I didn't damage them too much.

The Giver by Lois Lowry - I think I found this in the middle school library, and its the first book that I can remember which made me really think about the message it was putting forth. I was a really type A kid, and part of me was really attracted to the way that Lowry's dystopian society was so organized and regimented. It was an interesting exercise to get to the end and have to evaluate Jonah's actions and what they meant about my own attraction to the system he was escaping.

The Graduation by Christopher Pike - This was the 3rd book in a series, and I'm not really sure if I ever read the other two books that precede it. I include it because it's the first book that I was truly crazy about because I had a crush on a character, Michael Olson, and I wanted him to get the girl in the end. It was also probably the first book I read that included reference to teens having sex, though it was fade-to-black. There was even discussion of condoms! Heady discussion for a pre-teen. Can you tell my mother didn't screen what I read at all?

Others I loved:

• The Hardy Boys (I loved the ones set in the 80s)
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (school assigned book that I loved)
• All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (the main characters were Jewish girls in NYC in the early 1900s, and I was fascinated by the culture differences)
• Sweet Valley High Series by Francine Pascal (Duh.)
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Also duh.)
• Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene (I loved the 50s set ones best)
• Bad News Ballet Series by Jahnna M. Malcolm (Thanks to The Mighty Ducks, I loved these books because one of the characters was a hockey player)
• Palm Beach Prep Series by Elle Wolfe (Again, blame a movie, but I got into this series because one of the characters was a soccer player and I had just seen The Big Green)

If you're curious about other answers to YA Highway's question, check out the comments on Road Trip Wednesday.

New Layout, Another Pledge to Actually Blog

I've been thinking for a while that the old layout/theme was a hindrance to me posting more often. For some reason, short posts looked awful with that layout, so I was reluctant to just dash off a post about whatever is interesting to me that day. I felt like I needed multiple paragraphs and pictures or videos for it to look aesthetically pleasing. I think this new layout will fix that issue.

So here's to blog re-launch 1535. May it go better than the last 1534 relaunches.*

*Does this thing have a sarcasm font?

On Love Triangles

Oh love triangles...how I love and loathe you all. I've been thinking about love triangles today thanks to author Rachel K Vincent's blog post on what constitutes a love triangle and why she thinks her characters aren't in one (caution, mildly spoilery for those not caught up to the current book in her Soul Screamers series).

Vincent lays out a few ground rules for what she thinks constitutes a simple love triangle:

1. The person in the center of the love triangle has to be aware of the feelings of both of the other sides. 
2. The person in the center must be asked to choose between the two sides.
3. The person in the center must love both of the two choices to the point where choosing between them is difficult.

I agree with these points, at least as far as a generic love triangle can be defined. Of course, they're always more complicated than this, but this is the general gist of a true love triangle.

Now, maybe I'm not reading the right books or the right genres, but based on these rules, I'd argue that there are very few true love triangles in any of the series that I've been reading the past couple years. Most of the time, the person, usually a girl, knows exactly who she wants to be with, but circumstances might point her towards someone else for a while, because all books need conflict.

Case in point, Twilight. The Team Edward vs. Team Jacob "conflict" sold a lot of t-shirts and generated a lot of page views as people debated. However, I'd argue that this was not a true love triangle. Rules 1 and 2 were certainly met, but rule 3, not so much. Bella is clear with Jacob that it was always going to be Edward, as long as circumstances allowed them to be together. She genuinely cared about Jacob, but he was never going to be her first choice.

But obviously, there were plenty of people out there, those Team Jacob people, who would disagree with me. And why is that? Its because people project their own feelings onto the characters. I just did it in the paragraph above. Only Stephenie Meyer could tell you if she intended for Jacob to be a genuine contender for Bella's love (and I think she's made it clear that she had a different plan for him all along, as evidenced by the events of Breaking Dawn). Because I preferred Edward over Jacob, I never viewed Jacob as a legitimate threat or believed that Bella would choose him in the end.

This sort of reader projection results in a lot of "love triangle" debates when there might not even be a triangle in the first place. I think that its in rule 3 that the reader's feelings are brought most strongly into play. Rules 1 and 2 are pretty cut and dry, but the reader's feelings about whichever side of the triangle they prefer certainly color their interpretation of the center person's difficulty in choosing.

Another good example, and one that's caused lots of drama within the fandom, is the Stefan/Elena/Damon "triangle" on The Vampire Diaries, the tv show. Let's look at our rules again. For rule 1, I don't think that we can comfortably say that Elena is "aware" of how Damon feels about her. She must know that Damon cares about her, but I wouldn't go so far as to say she knows he's in love with her. In fact, he's tried to make sure she doesn't know by compelling her to forget he confessed his love (and thoroughly breaking my heart in the process). As for rule 2, I don't think Elena has to choose between the two Salvatores if we accept the idea that she doesn't know that she's in a love triangle. Rule 3 is irrelevant if the center is both unaware of one of the sides' feelings and isn't being forced to make a choice. However, its the rule that creates the best drama when both rules 1 and 2 have been fulfilled.

There are, of course, Damon/Elena shippers who would argue with me on every point, and that's their right to do so. However, as a person who is immensely interested in seeing a Damon/Elena relationship at some point on the show, I don't think that I'm projecting some sort of Stefan/Elena agenda onto my argument. I just think that some shippers are incapable of being objective when they have a passion to see a certain thing happen. And then they rant about it on Twitter.

The last example I'll cite is the Jace/Clary/Simon "triangle" from Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series (spoilery):

1. The first rule here would be met, Clary is aware that both Jace and Simon care about her in a romantic way.
2. Yes, Clary had to make a choice between the two, though it was complicated by the uncertainty of her and Jace's familial status.
3. Here's where the projection of the reader comes into play. In my interpretation of the book, Clary only thinks to pursue any sort of romantic relationship with Simon when she thinks that a relationship with Jace can't happen. And she realizes that its not fair to keep stringing Simon along when its really Jace she wants. So, in my opinion, Rule 3 is not satisfied.

So what's my point, here? Even I'm not entirely sure, but I think its that love triangles aren't as common as we think and some of the most famous ones right now aren't really love triangles. However, with the degree that readers' feelings play into Rule 3, then perhaps love triangles exist wherever the reader believes they exist. At least fandom discussions won't be boring!

Ingram Hill - "Hey Girl" Live at Juanita's 10/2

Check out the video I took Saturday night at Juanita's in Little Rock of my favorite band, Ingram Hill, performing "Hey Girl," off their new album Look Your Best!

Premiere Week Impressions: Monday Night

I haven't gotten a chance to watch Lone Star yet, so it's missing from this rundown. Apparently, it tanked in the ratings anyway, so I'm not sure if I'll watch now or just hold on to it until I see if it picks up better ratings next week.

The Event (NBC, 8 pm CST) - I tuned into this mainly because I missed the whole phenomenon of watching Lost as it aired and I didn't want that to happen again. NBC has played fast and loose (and for good reason) with what the titular event actually is, but I was happy to see that we actually found out what it is in the pilot. The show had the tone of something like 24 or that one episode of Flashforward I managed to catch. Lots of moving parts in the pilot, with very little time devoted to fleshing out the characters, other than who I assume is the main character, Jason Ritter's Sean. I was kind of 'meh' on the whole thing until the last 5 or 10 minutes when several things (including "the event") really piqued my interest. I will definitely give this one a few more episodes, at the very least.

Hawaii Five-0 (CBS, 9 pm CST) - I really loved this pilot. For one, I adore Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan. For another, James Marsters, Spike himself, is in it! It wasn't deep, it wasn't all that meaningful, but it was pretty and entertaining. The pilot sets up a nice continuing plot line involving the murder of Steve McGarrett's (Alex) father (briefly seen to be Jim Sadler, my dear Sheriff Valenti from Roswell), along with the potential for Case of the Week hijinks to be tackled by McGarrett's task force. The best part of the show was the banter between McGarrett and Caan's Danny "Dano" Williams. Scott Caan is best when he's allowed to be the sarcastic smartass, and hopefully the show will continue to let him exercise that skill. Season pass is already set up, so I'm in for the year, unless something really drastic happens.

Castle (ABC, 9 pm CST) - This was a returning favorite, and I have no complaints about the episode, but it didn't really wow me. I feel like we've made no progress from last season. I know that will-they-or-wont-they is a timeless tv trope, but getting stuck in a rut is no fun either. Here's hoping they're going somewhere interesting with Beckett and Castle this season. I'm actually looking forward more to what happens when Alexis gets a boyfriend than anything else on the show. Oh, and Ryan and Esposito. They make this show for me.

Other new shows I'm watching so far: Nikita (mainly due to my love of the Peta Wilson show), which I may review eventually, and Terriers, a fantastic new little drama on FX starring Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. The characters are fantastic and the dialogue is some of the best I've seen in a while.

TV Review: The Vampire Diaries 2.2 "Brave New World"

Spoilers, as always!

Oh, Caroline. I'm not sure how I feel about your transformation into a vampire. On the one hand, it'll be interesting to see a vamp besides the Salvatores in Mystic Falls and the hijinks that will ensue on everyone's parts to keep Matt and Liz in the dark should be entertaining.

Observations in order as I watched:

• Why in the world does Vamp!Caroline not question the fact that she wants to drink blood? Does she already remember some of her Damon-repressed memories? I'd have run screaming to the nurse if I had a craving to drink blood out of a bag.
• What the hell is a goldfish toss?
• Damon heading up the Anti-Vampire Council of Mystic Falls? Fantastic.
• Also fantastic: the Lockwood boys in very little clothing while they discuss Tyler's anger issues. Obviously, Uncle Hottie is digging for info to see if Tyler inherited the wolfiness.
• Again, why the hell isn't Caroline questioning what the hell is happening to her? Is it new vampire instinct to hide what's happening to them?
• Poor Pudding Pop. I'm certain he's in for a rough season.
• "Aren't you worried that one day the forest animals are going to band together and fight back? I mean, surely they talk." Heh.
• Candice Accola is really knocking her material out of the park.
• Oh, Uncle Hottie, no one believes that the moonstone you're looking for is useless. Family heirlooms on this show always have super special powers.
• Jeremy, threatening Damon is even more stupid than your usual stupid behavior. Loved that Damon threw the ring back at his head.
• "Get him, Stef!" Hee. Damon, I love you so.
• "Maybe they're Ninja Turtles." Stefan, you can stay, I suppose.
• Ambiguous Supernatural Mystery Uncle is Uncle Hottie's new nickname, at least until next week when we find out he's Jacob Black.
• So Caroline obviously has contempt for Damon now that she remembers everything he did to her. Will she align herself with Katherine to get back at him? In the books, even though she's not a vamp, Caroline is more of adversary to Elena and Stefan than an ally. It will be interesting if her becoming a vampire moves her more in that direction. Still, I'm sure Stefan helping her puts some marks in the good guys' favor.
• I heard a few rumblings since the episode first aired about Elena seeming to be more okay with Damon than she should have been after the end of 2.1. I disagree, however. She's not being nice to him, but she also recognizes that there is much supernatural hijinks afoot in Mystic Falls and that she needs to know what is happening in order to help her friends and family. Besides, she knows (as do we) that she is safe with Damon, at least physically, so going with him to find out what's going on wasn't a huge risk.
• Though I have high hopes for Vamp!Caroline, Damon makes some good points about the difficulties of keeping her alive.
• Ambiguous Supernatural Mystery Uncle is not very good at diverting attention from his wolfy traits. Tyler wasn't fooled for even a millisecond.
• I don't know about anyone else, but I thought how sweet Damon was to Caroline before he tried to stake her was genuine. I think he really didn't want her to suffer and genuinely felt bad that she'd been put in this position.
• How much do I dislike Bonnie right now? That would be a lot. Its not Caroline's fault that she got turned into a vampire. And you know what? Its not Damon's either, at least not any more so than it is Bonnie's or Elena's or Stefan's. The blame lies on the shoulders of Katherine "Bitch Incarnate" Pierce. Deal with that, Bonnie. Damon is a bad, bad man for many reasons, but he is not to blame for everything that ever happens in the history of the world. There are other bad people too. If I'd been Elena, I'd have slapped her ass for being a bitch instead of hugging her.
• I see some really intriguing possibilities in a Damon/Jeremy alliance. Better yet, Damon, Alaric and Jeremy can be the three amigos, cracking wise and fighting the forces of evil in Mystic Falls.
• "It was 1864...people knew how to whittle."
• The Edward Cullen Spider-monkey jump was the low point of the episode, which sucks, cause that's how the show ended. I love me some Twilight, but I watch TVD because its not that.

Next week: It's all about the Ambiguous Supernatural Mystery Uncle. And Alaric is back!

TV Review: The Vampire Diaries 2.1 "The Return"

Spoilers ahead!

Oh, Damon. Its a good thing I like my fictional characters really freaking broken. Otherwise, I'd hate your guts right now. Instead, I'll hate Katherine (and maybe Stefan?) for making you into the person we saw in last night's season premiere of The Vampire Diaries.

We left off last season with Katherine cutting off Uncle John's fingers while pretending to be Elena, Jeremy lying motionless after ingesting Anna's blood and a bunch of pills, and Caroline critically injured in the hospital.  This episode picked up right where that left off and, as Damon put it, "doppelganger hijinks ensued." Elena finds John, but not Katherine, and gets him an ambulance, then she and Stefan discover that Jeremy is not a vampire, just an idiot. I'm hoping that Jeremy isn't whining about becoming a vampire all season.

Damon was the first to put the pieces together and realize that Katherine was back in town. The look on his face when he realized it was Kat he kissed and not Elena was typical Somerhalder awesomeness. Stefan, on the other hand, recognized Katherine right off the bat. He was such a badass in this episode, in his interactions with Katherine and when he threatened John Gilbert. I like Forceful!Stefan. I was a little frustrated when he was focusing so much on Damon trying to kiss "Elena" since I thought he was missing the forest for the trees, but Stefan had come to the same conclusion by episode's end. That's the beauty of this show: no waiting!

With the CW promoting this season as "The Year of the Kat," you have to think that Katherine will be sticking around all season. Props to Nina Dobrev for making Elena and Katherine so distinct from one another. And really, she's playing 3 characters right now: Elena, Katherine, and Katherine-pretending-to-be-Elena. I'd hazard a guess that eventually we may add Elena-pretending-to-be-Katherine to the list.

Then there were the two screaming-at-the-tv moments. First, Damon, heartbroken after both Katherine and Elena tell him that they don't love him, that its always going to be Stefan, snaps Jeremy's neck. I was horrified for Elena, wondering if Jeremy was really dead or going to become a vampire. Turned out, it was not really either: John Gilbert had given Jeremy his Ring of Imperviousness. Elena now claims to hate Damon, since he just killed Jeremy, but Stefan insists that Damon must have noticed the ring. I'm not real clear on how the ring works, since John told Jeremy that it only protects from "supernatural" death and not accidental. I'm going to assume he wasn't referring to being killed by Dean Winchester. I'm actually wondering how if John was telling Jeremy the truth about why the ring didn't protect his dad, or if there's more to that story.

Meanwhile, over at the Mystic Falls hospital, Katherine tells Caroline, who is magically healed thanks to Damon's blood, to give the Brothers Salvatore a message: Game. On. Then she smothers her with a pillow. Presumably, next week, Caroline will feed and turn, unless she dies. I think the preview for next week gave the answer to that one away.

I don't even think turning Caroline was Katherine's opening gambit. I think that came when she told Damon that she'd never loved him. I'm not saying she actually does, but I'm certain that her telling him was a purposeful act to drive a wedge between him and Stefan. Whether Katherine still cares or ever cared about either brother remains to be seen. Damon's heartbreak at the end when he was alone in mansion was palpable, and I'm certain that we'll be seeing the effects of the premiere on his behavior all season.

The most powerful scene in the whole episode, in my opinion, was when Damon confronted Elena about her feelings for him. I actually wondered for a minute if Damon was going to rape her, and kudos to Somerhalder for displaying that kind of desperation, though I'm not sure how I reconcile my love of Damon as a character with my willingness to believe he could actually do that. In the end, I don't think that Elena loves Damon. I think they definitely have a connection that she won't admit to, but its not love, at least not the romantic kind for now. Poor Damon, he's just so desperate to be someone's first choice.

Looks like Williamson and Plec are going to keep the hits coming this season. Overall grade: A- (The minus is due to lack of Alaric. More Matt Davis, stat.)