Saturday Inspiration 6/15/13

Here's Grumpy Cat to brighten your Saturday morning! What do you think of this week's Saturday Inspiration?

P.S Grumpy Cat the book (Chronicle Books) drops on July 23, 2013. I don't know how it'll be but I think it'll be hilarious. 

Image source: Grumpy Cat
Edits: me

Scribbling: Tropes

Scribbling is a new feature where I blog about things I notice. This week, I'll talk about a YA trope I really dislike: when the girl has to make a decision between boy and college. 

I had this discussion earlier with a classmate of mine. Why is it even an issue? She mentioned that she also discussed it with her friend who replied that it must be a [school district name redacted] mindset. Our graduation rates are around ninety percent and high school-to-college rates are high. I think this may contribute to our mindset, but I don't think we're the only ones thinking this. 

The synopsis of said story goes like this: Girl X is going off to college soon but her boyfriend, BOY Z is not. Will Girl X stay behind for her boyfriend? (Oh, it sometimes involves the girl going off to an Ivy League institution, which makes it even more of an non-issue. I'm saying that the girl is obviously very capable and academically strong, so why would she want to give up everything- her future for a teenage romance?)

I know that high school sweethearts exist. The majority of them however, don't work out, so why give up so much? 

The U.S Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 66% of 2012 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities. 71.3% of the 66% of the high school class of 2012 in the US were females. There's a greater percentage, nearly 10% more than males, of females attending college/university after high school graduation. I have no idea why it seems so common in YA novels that girls making the difficult choice of choosing between going to college or boys, if so many girls and high school graduates in general are going off to college. 

Maybe the author didn't set out writing the book featuring this situation but why are publishers marketing books like that? The classmate that I was having a conversation with was reading a book with this trope and she told me that while the synopsis made it seem like the boy-versus-college question was the central pivoting point for the novel, it was only part of the problem. I was reading another book that was similar. Why are publishers doing this then?

Girls are hormonal, prone to hasty decisions, etc. I get it but we aren't half as clueless as some books make us out to be. We maybe clueless about our future careers, our majors in colleges, but we aren't half as ditzy nor in need of boys so much that we'd be willing to give up college, an education. The same Bureau of Labor Statistics report reported that unemployment rates for high school graduates was at 34.4%, while unemployment rates for high school graduates were at half of the rate for high school graduates not going to college at 17%. We understand that going to college is going to give us an advantage in finding a job. 

So why does this trope exist? I still fail to understand why. 

Share your thoughts on this trope below or tweet me at @alicejane011.

The Lucy Variations

I've had the ARC for The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr (Little, Brown and Company), which came out sometime in May (aka that month that I was swamped with work), for a while now. I've finally found a sliver of time in my schedule to type up a review for it so here it goes! 

The Lucy Variations follows the story of sixteen-year-old Lucy Beck-Moreau, former concert pianist. She's lost her former fame and certain future all before fourteen, when a tragedy hits. Now, she's just another girl going to high school. Lucy's brother, Gus, however is left to carry what used to be Lucy's job-- meeting family expectations. 

However, one day when Gus' new piano teacher arrives and wants to help Lucy rediscover her love for piano, Lucy starts to find joy on her own terms and discover who she really is. 

The chapter titles are all musical terms, which I loved. I used to play piano (and violin but that's another story for later) and it was quite a throwback for me to see musical terms. It was a creative touch. 

However, for the story itself, I was disappointed. I connected with Lucy in the way that I could understand having to meet family expectations that are set higher than most families but that was it. Lucy had a strange obsession/crush on older men (ie. her English teacher) and it was... weird. Lucy's friends didn't really understand her either, which is problematic since I connected more with the friends than the protagonist. It wasn't like a "Oh I have a crush on you because you're cute" kind of crush; it was more of a  "I like everything that you stand for and the type of person you are so I'll get a muffin for you in the morning" kind of crush. 

Later in the book, Lucy developed a crush on her brother's piano teacher, which I suppose is the one of the "intense mentorships" that's described in the synopsis. Needless to say, I couldn't connect either. 

The Lucy Variations had promise but it was the way that things were described and Lucy's own personality that really made me dislike The Lucy Variations. I liked the premise of "one girl's struggle to reclaim her love of music and herself". Lucy's had piano in her entire life and to have that taken out, she's obviously going to struggle with her identity (how do you separate something that's been part of your life for so long that it becomes your identity?), no doubt. But the way that her discover hinged on a piano teacher (who's married, nonetheless) and the way that the mentorship turned more into a romantic interest (or that's how it seemed to me) than a mentorship was weird. 

I really do wish I could say that I loved The Lucy Variations but I can't. Perhaps I'll love the next music-related book I come upon. 

Saturday Inspiration

A lot of changes are long overdue here at CRP and I'm excited to finally be blogging again. I've decided to start making and releasing inspiration/humorous quotes/pictures on Saturday, under the general name of "Saturday Inspiration", hopefully to bring a little sunshine to your weekend, regardless of the actual weather. 

Katharine Hepburn is one of my new favorite people since I just recently discovered her. She's hilarious, a feminist and a great actress (I have yet to see one of her movies, though). 

To kick off "Saturday Inspiration", here's a Katharine Hepburn quote. I love, love chocolate and I love this quote as well so I made a graphic of it. 

What do you think of this idea? This quote? Comment below or tweet me!

Image source: Mashable

Out of Print Clothing

At BEA, Out of Print Clothing had a booth and I was quite excited. I learned about Out of Print sometime last year and I loved it. Too bad I don't really do online shopping other than book shopping or else I would've bought something a long time ago. (Actually scratch that, I probably would've spent all my money buying everything. I seriously love Out of Print Clothing.)

Out of Print Clothing makes literary t-shirts and other products, adorning regular apparel items with the covers of books. How cool is that? Plus, everything they sell is made out of quality material and they sell both women and men clothing (and children's as well), instead of just unisex clothing. The shirts that I used in the graphic are a mixture of children's, men's and women's shirts but the graphics can usually be found in all the sections, regardless of age/gender.

They also have accessories such as iPad/Kindle cases that trick the viewer into thinking you're reading a real book (gasp!) since the covers are covers of classic novels such as Great Gatsby, as well as iPhone cases and tote bags. I think pouches should be coming soon since I spotted them for sale at BEA.  Pouches have just been released on their site. GO GO GO! 

For myself, I bought myself a gift certificate at BEA (stock at BEA was limited) and I still can't decide what I want to buy. Do you see how problematic this is and HOW AMAZING OUT OF PRINT IS?!!! Seriously, check it out. 

No, I'm not doing this because I'm getting compensated for this post (Ha! I wish) nor is Out of Print telling me to do so. I just love Out of Print. Really. 

BEA 2013 Recap Post

BEA 2013 was exhausting and tiring but it was loads of fun. I can't begin to describe the chaos, the fan-girling (NEIL, freaking, GAIMAN) and the shininess of everything so I've decided to let the pictures tell the story. After all, they're worth a thousand words right? 

The wait line to go into the exhibit hall that's filled with 1008 booths (I think that's the number?). I got to BEA, which was at the Javits Center in NYC at around 8:00 am and the exhibit area opened at 9:00 am. Needless to say, I waited there for an hour. While I was waiting, I saw Neil Gaiman just breezily walk by but NO ONE RECOGNIZED HIM (At least I think I was the first person in my area of the line to point out that Neil Gaiman just walked by). I stood there just watching him pass by while holding my friend's phone and wearing my DSLR, without doing anything. This was a huge fail moment and finally when I came to my senses, I was looking for the camera app on my friend's Samsung Galaxy S3 at which point Neil Gaiman was gallivanting up the stairs. I managed to take a side photo of him. 

Click below the cut for more. Image heavy but hey, Ransom Riggs, Neil Gaiman, Tahereh Mafi pictures are there!

Litographs

I just came back from BEA and I'm exhausted. My back is literally killing me from carrying all those books and the insane NYC weather made me sweat. A probably lengthy BEA recap post will probably be written in soon (hopefully!), along with everything that I got. 

At BEA, I found a cool literary poster/tote bag/t-shirt maker called Litographs, which makes graphics of books that are rendered in the text of the book, instead of pixels. The designs are quite cute and unique (to think, the full text of a book in a simple design!). 

I didn't see the tote bags on the Litograph site yet, but I'm pretty sure they're going to be released soon since there were some for sale at BEA. 

For each poster that's sold, there a book is donated through the International Book Bank to a community in need. 

Here are some of my favorites:

The graininess of the photo is just because the picture is made up of text, not pixels. This one is the poster for Ulysses by James Joyce. I have a weakness for simple things and graphics with moustaches. I don't know why. 

This poster is for F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. I like the simplicity of it and the color. As you can probably tell, I'm a sucker for pastel colored things as well. 

Anyway, this is a short post but definitely check out Litographs! I think it's quite neat!