Happy New Year Road Trippers!

I’ve got some organizational changes in store for the 2010 edition of our expedition.  First and foremost I’ll be moving to bi-weekly road maps.  This will allow for a good collection of stops per post and give everyone driving and riding plenty of time to enjoy the experience across the long and winding roads around the blogosphere.

Also, instead of having a Mr. Linky for the entirety of the year I’m going to be posting a new one up each month.  This is more for me than it is for you, but those of you who have been faithfully posting links you shouldn’t worry if you see previous entries disappear from month to month.

Lastly, I’m starting a LRT referral program.  Each person who refers a blogger to the Literary Road Trip and said blogger becomes an active participant (posting at least one LRT post a month)  I’ll be entering both the referrer and the new blogger participant into a quarterly drawing to win a $25 bookstore gift card. To qualify for this drawing please post a comment to the most recent road map outlining who you referred and a link to their blog. Once I see their first post pop up through Mr. Linky you’ll both be entered!

So let’s begin our first road trip of the new year!

Our inaugural stop for 2010 is:

South Carolina

Kathy of Bermudaonion’s Weblog reviews Josie Taternall’s Bed and Breakfast

Let’s all get excited for a new year filled with amazing and wonderful stops on the trip!

Title: The Arrival
Author: Shaun Tan
Genre: Graphic Novel
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Source: Purchased
Parental Warning: none

Summary:
One family’s tale of immigration, this graphic novel illustrates a working man’s migration from one unique location to another.  Closely followed by his wife and young child they arrive in a new land to take advantage of a new country, job, and hopefully dream.

Opinion:
Recommended to me by Ann of PBS Booklights while we were attending the 2009 Kidlitosphere Conference together, this is the very first graphic novel I’ve read.  To say I wasn’t disappointed would be an understatement.

Stunningly illustrated I was awestruck by Tan’s artistic ability. Immediately taken by the beauty of the story he’d presented I’d say my favorite pieces were those that showed the other-worldy almost ethereal feel of the locale.  A land of sweeping loveliness the buildings and creatures that comprised it’s inhabitants weren’t to be feared but rather adored.  Which is exactly what I did.

(photos courtesy of Shaun Tan’s Website)

Not to be outdone, the story Tan wrote in accompaniment is wonderful as well.  I could feel the emotions so clearly displayed on the young father’s face. From the trepidation of leaving his family behind to the jubilation of their arrival to meet with him in a new land I felt every beat he did. Traveling from the safety and security of his home and family into the unknown abyss of a new life the loneliness jumped off the page as the man searched for a job and made new acquaintances.

Though I’ve not had much experience with this genre, I imagine that this is what any great graphic novel should do.  Move the reader to feel and experience.  If this is the case than Tan has certainly done so with The Arrival.

All in all, I’m excited to have been introduced to the world of graphic novels in such an exemplary way.  I’m looking forward to not only reading more of Tan’s work but also other authors as well.  I would encourage all to pick up this wonderful book and place it out for everyone to see.

Title: Conspiracy 365: January
Author: Gabrielle Lord
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Kane Miller
Source: Review Copy Provided by Publicist
Parental Warning: violence

Summary:
Callum Ormond thought he was leading a fairly ordinary life.  With the exception of his father passing away from a rare and little known infection he was simply a school boy enjoying a typical teenaged life. Unfortunately for him, out of the blue he encounters a strange man bearing warnings of a questionable future.  A future from which he’s supposed to run and hide.  From the strike of the clock on January first Callum had a year to figure it out.

As a result of both that strange warning and several out of the ordinary occurrences with his uncle Rafe, Callum begins to wonder if it all warrants further investigation.  Suddenly, his world is turned upside down when he learns that his father’s death may not have been everything he’d been lead to believe.  His investigation gives him names –  The Ormond Singularity, the Omond Angel and the Ormond Riddle — but no answers.

This story is the first month of his investigation for answers and his fight to stay alive.

Opinion:
A very quick and short read, the concept of the Conspiracy series has great appeal to me and excellent potential.  It’s very 24-esque — meaning there will be twelve books over the course of the year each covering one month in the life of Callum as he attempts to solve the mystery of the Ormond Singularity.

As is the case with most mystery stories there is a bit of violence.  There are mobsters and any number of nefarious individuals all chasing after Callum and inevitably friends and family get in the way.  The level of violence and criminal activity in the story are befitting the plot it is not overwhelmingly excessive or needless.

One of the downfalls of this story is that it was extremely predictable.  What I can’t decide is if that predictability is included in the plot as a way to deflect the reader from what is really going on.  Will we find out in hours two or three that what we were told or thought in hour one is completely false? There are still eleven books worth of story to tell so it can’t be that everything is going to be laid out before us in book one.  At least not if the author doesn’t want us to get bored and abandon the series, that is.

At this point, it’s certainly, intriguing enough to want to stick with it to find out.

Where did the book excel?  The author did a great job of creating a cliffhanger ending that has readers on the edge and wanting answers that may be provided in book two.  Having said that, I think it’s safe to make some assumptions on at least one of those answers.  The story would be considerably altered if the immediate resolution didn’t go a certain way and the reader will know that as they put book one away and wait for book two.

One of the other elements I enjoy (and the one I liked most frankly) about this story are the relationships Lord built between Callum and his best friend Boges as well as his relationship with his mother and sister.  Callum has such love for them that he’s willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of seeking out answers.  And Boges has personality galore.  He could turn out to be my favorite character in the series.  I’m just hoping he is who he says he is!

While this isn’t the most suspenseful book I’ve read I believe that it’s compelling enough to continue the series.  I do want to know how it progresses and where all the loose ends get tied up.  I also believe that it’s target audience (older pre-teens and teens) will likely enjoy the fast paced atmosphere and action based plot.

It’s that time of year again.  From Friday to Sunday of this weekend Natasha from Maw Books Blog is holding the second round of Bloggiesta!

Say hi to Pedro everyone!

<<waves>>

In case my excitement didn’t clue you in, this is an awesome event!  You know, one where gobs of bloggers get together to work on those long needed and sometimes procrastinated tasks.  The kind of awesome event that provides a time for us to focus on things like book reviews, rainy day posts, feed reader and category/tag clean up plus all sorts of other improvement type stuff.

I had such fun the first time around it never crossed my mind not to participate for round two.  So here I am writing up my kick-off post!  I’m a little late to the game but hey better that than not at all right?

So, last time I created a great big list of all the things I wanted to do.  This time I’m going to fly by the seat of my pants and be a bit more vague.  I do have loads of book reviews to write, I have multiple blogs to design graphics and write posts for, and I’d like to finally get my book review archive started at the very least.

As you can see I’ve got plenty to keep me occupado for the fabulousness!  I’ll be updating this post throughout the weekend to show my progress so feel free to check back in and see how I’m doing.

So at the end of this post I’ll be kicking off my weekend long Bloggiesta.

Ready….Set….Go

—-

Update #1 – Saturday 8pm(ish)

• 1 guest post formatted and uploaded to publish at appropriate time
• 1 book review written and posted
• 75% of emails read and answered

Update #2 – Sunday 9pm(ish)

• Finished reading and answering emails
• Worked on theme graphics, postings, pages, forms and other elements of blog for YA based project
• Worked on various elements of blogger convention logistics and blog

That’s all she wrote for Bloggiesta numero dos.  It’s been productive to be sure!

Title: Little Black Lies
Author: Tish Cohen
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Egmont USA
Source: Review Copy Provided by Publicist
Parental Warning: sexual content, mental illness

Summary:
Anton High School is the picture of preppy upper class positioning.  Filled with students of a certain caliber both academically and socially all were pre-determined to become New England’s finest.  All but Sara Black that is, recently transplanted with her janitor father she is everything that the student body is not.  Taken away from her home and the only friends she knows she’s quickly thrust into an awkward, socially inept, and lonely existence.

As she navigates the bustling halls of Anton a series of mishaps thrusts her into the popular crowd as they mistakenly believe she is a wealthy socialite from London, England as compared to a poor schlub from London, MA. Attempting to make the best of that bad situation Sara allows the in-crowd to continue to believe in her made-up status hoping it will alleviate the discontent and discomfort that she is feeling as a result of her move.

Unfortunately, as part of the ruse she must avoid her father in the halls and lie about her past. Increasingly difficult as his OCD begins to escalate and make itself apparent both at home and at work Sara finds herself navigating the choppy waters between her two lives with much effort and little reward.

Opinion:
At the outset it appeared that Little Black Lies was the typical “awkward new student outcast lies to fit in with the popular crowd” story.  However, after a few chapters the reader is quick to realize that there is a bit more to the story than just this young girl adjusting to a new school and new friends.  The addition of her father’s struggle brings with it the most promise.

I think I’ve mentioned before that books that focus on the father/daughter relationship are important to me.  My brother is a single father to a teenage girl so when I read a story that has any focus on an that type of relationship I am always comparing it to my real life.  It may not be fair but I can’t help but let my experiences shape how I read and reflect on the story.  In this case I felt Sara and her father’s story was extremely realistic.  I enjoyed watching them struggle with the loss of her mother, the re-appearance of his OCD and her self-loathing at lying so completely about who she is.  Despite his own issues her father continued to be a mostly positive influence and wholly supportive parent.

Another element of this book that was slightly near and dear to me was the setting of Anton High.  Growing up I too was a townie in a quaint New England burg that was home to one of the Nation’s foremost private prep schools.  Though I wasn’t a student I interacted with many who were and the portrayal that Cohen has depicted of these teens is spot on.  None of the girls were over the top and the boys were appropriately aloof and self-absorbed. A breeding ground for competitiveness and self-entitlement Anton High was exactly what one would expect from such an institution.

The sub-stories of Sara’s friends were an interesting addition to the overall plot.  In particular one such story involving the most popular girl in school went to further showcase Sara’s own struggle with keeping who she really was a secret.  It humanized the rich bitch while still allowing the readers to loathe her just enough for still being both who she was at school and the girl Sara’s crush was dating. Speaking of the crush, Leo wasn’t the picture perfect hunky sport playing guy.  He was as normal and flawed as Sara was thus making the potential for a relationship quite rootable.  There wasn’t any “Pretty Woman” syndrome here.

If I had to find one fault with this book it would be that a few things seemed much too coincidental for my liking.  For example the role that Leo’s father plays in resolving some of the problems Sara and her father faced was more than timely.    Having said that, the few coincidences and predictable weren’t so out of the ordinary or tremendously blatant  that it ruined the entire story for me.

In the end, I found Little Black Lies to be quite enjoyable. Definitely worth adding to your TBR pile if you’re looking for a quick but thoughtful YA read.