Thursday, October 16, 2008

Oh goody! A book recommendation!



I used to think that YA wasn’t my thing. I’m a 37-year-old woman, for God’s sake. Why would I want to read about teenagers? I’ve had to eat a little crow because two of my favorite books this year fall under the category of YA: The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and, most recently, Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One Before by David Yoo. Maybe I just like stories about misfits? I dunno, but both of these books resonated with me and they were both desperately funny.

The book trailer above does a great job of summarizing the plot (and I think book trailers are very cool—but that’s the topic of a different post.) The story is about Albert Kim, teenage eccentric and intentional loser, and his very unlikely love affair with the most popular girl in school, Mia. When Mia’s super-jock ex-boyfriend is diagnosed with cancer and uses that as an excuse to win her back, Albert finds that the whole school (the whole community!) is against his relationship with Mia.

There were enough late 80s/early 90s references for me to feel like I wasn’t reading about a different generation entirely, but the story is still relevant to high school students today.

Although they might wonder what are these things called “pay phones?”

Check it out. It’s hilarious

5 comments:

Angie Ledbetter said...

The trailer does look great! Maybe we're just hungry for something about normal people and their interesting experiences?

WendyCinNYC said...

Angie--That could be. I've also been on a multi-cultural kick with my books lately.

Full disclosure: David Yoo was my Gotham Writers Workshop teacher, and has helped me tremendously with my novel.

His first book was titled Girls For Breakfast, which I think has to be just about the best title ever.

Joanne said...

Isn't it funny how a really good book can transcend the genres? It really says something for the story.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

That does sound like a great story and one I'd be willing to read. The teenagers seem normal instead of rich, spoiled, and waaaaaaay too smart.

WendyCinNYC said...

joanne--That's so true. Due in part to AW, I've been reading genres lately that I might not have considered before (including thrillers)and have been enjoying them.

melanie--Yes, I liked that, too. There weren't any "rich" references and the dialogue rang true to me. It was clever, but not something no teenager would say.