Unspoken - Sarah Rees Brennan

 Summary

Goodreads:  Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

 Thoughts

This book was SO SO funny.  Like completely different than I was expecting.  I loved the characters, and yay diversity, and YAY girl friends who aren't catty and awful and YAY EVERYTHING IN THIS BOOK.

Ok.  I can't even begin to organize my thoughts here.  I'm trying, I really am.  On the surface, it's a gothic mystery which would have been enough to make me love it already.  Kami is hilarious.  Like seriously laugh out loud funny.  I was reading this out in the square and I had to leave because I have a bad tendency to pull faces when I read, and laughing hysterically when you are sitting by yourself is a sure way to freak out all the parents who frequent the square.

This is what I imagine I looked like.

Beyond that, you've got two hunks sort vying for her attention and sort of trying to not be into her (it's weird, but it is one of the few love triangles I didn't mind very much).  So it's got eye candy for those of you who love your book boyfriends, but it's doesn't focus on the love triangle...ish thing that's going on or have instalove, for those of you who hate having to deal with that.  Her friends are awesome and they keep up their crazy banter up almost the whole time (until it gets life or death and serious).  Seriously, the dialogue here is so funny I don't know how anyone can read this without laughing out loud!

Sarah Rees Brennan tackles so many great girl issues with this book.  Kami and Angela have been best friends for the past 6 years and they clearly love each other, even though they're both a bit crazy.  Unlike Kami and Angela who have been besties for years, Holly joins the group during the book, and how Brennan deals with her is a big part of why I thought the book was so amazing.  Kami has assumed for years that Holly is a "floozy" because she hangs out predominantly with guys and is rather well endowed.  Jared (voice in head boy) points out that this might have to do with her being ostracized by girls because she developed young (age 11).  This totally happens in middle school and continues into high school, and Kami feels like she was a bit of a prat because Holly has never actually given Kami a reason to dislike her.  Once she realizes this, she takes Jared's suggestion to invite Holly to sit with her in class (or at lunch?) and Holly seems so happy that she was asked to hang out by a girl that Kami realizes that Holly doesn't hang out with girls  not because she doesn't want to, but because other girls snub her.  I love this because it deals with all the complicated relationships that girls have especially in middle and high school, but not in the way most YA contemporaries do (because really it seems to be only YA contemporaries or normal fiction books that deal with this).  It's significantly less angsty and it doesn't fall into the trap that most books I've been coming across do: you say she's your bff, but she acts like an unreasonable bitch.  Honestly, this whole situation is dealt with so quickly (I mean, it really isn't the point of the book, I just happen to love it)  and it's funny the whole way through.  Then there's an Angela's epiphany, and I can't say too much about this because, spoilers so proceed to the highlighted section with caution.

*SPOILERS*  We find out that Angela is a lesbian towards the end of the book.  And it is so not a big deal in an amazing way!  It's a surprise, but it's one Kami overcomes in the span of a paragraph (because let's face it, psychopathic magical beings who are about to kill said best friend are kind of a much bigger deal).  I also love that Angela isn't made into a lesbian cliche, and that her identity as a person is not defined by her sexuality.  I thought it was dealt with SO well.  And I have high standards on these things as I'd say probably half of my friends are out.  I'm so happy that I'm seeing more LGBT characters in literature, particularly in YA literature because that's the audience that is discovering their sexuality.  It is so, so important to not only have LGBT characters in the literature, it is important to have characters who happen to be LGBT, rather than characters whose sexuality defines who they are as people, rather than it being a by product of who they are.  I digress.  On to the book!  *SPOILERS*

I think what I love most about this story, and honestly that's saying something because I am so FULL OF LOVE about everything to do with this book, is that it follows the story of what you'd expect a paranormal YA book to be, but the characters are what separates it.  Kami is not a "strong female character".  She has legitimate martial arts training, but she's small, and while insatiably curious, she gets terrified.  She has a wide array of emotions.  AND she's got this awesome/weird mental/emotional bond with Jared.  But instead of making them have an instalove situation (as is expected in paranormal YA as far as I can tell), it makes things awkward.  I mean, imagine you've known someone your entire life - they know every single secret about you, even the kind of secrets you would never share with a single soul as long as you live.  You think they are an imaginary friend, and that maybe you're a little bit crazy.  Then you MEET them.  You've never seen this person, never physically interacted with them, but they know your deepest, darkest secrets.  Can you imagine how uncomfortable that would be?  How unsettling? In any other paranormal romance, it would be grounds for deep love bond yayyy.  But this bond forces the characters to feel a deep connection to  each other against their will.  I feel it is very important to note that.  It gives it a completely different feeling...sort of...mind rapey for lack of a better term.  It's a sort of...slavery, if you will.  Not being free to feel as you choose, to even think anything privately really.  They have to consciously put a mental block up to hide any thoughts and feelings from each other.  Honestly, it sounds exhausting. 

Of course, the whole book is focused on the mystery behind Kami's hometown, Sorry-in-the-Vale, and what role the Lynburns play in it, and not all these wonderful things I'm raving on about.  While it's not hard to guess there's something supernatural behind it, pretty much everything else you think is wrong.  Seriously, this book is amazing!  There's just enough familiarity in the subject material and genre to keep the suspense ratcheted up, but there's so many twists, and (really I'm not just saying this) they're really good twists.  Now some of you might be quicker to pick things up than I am, but I promise you will be genuinely surprised at some of the reveals.  This book is really unique because it is so familiar, but so clearly sets itself from other books I've read in this genre by how it deals with out expectations of characters and outcomes in a situation.  Honestly I know I'm talking in circles at this point but I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH.  And I'm running out of ways to say that differently haha. 

Here are some more reasons to love this book (but more concisely now, I promise):

1.  Diversity - you've not only got a half Japanese character, she's the main character.  Her dad is Japanese by race, but he grew up in this town.  I think people forget that just because you look a certain nationality, it doesn't mean that you ARE that nationality.  I don't remember if her dad was English born or not, but he's definitely an English native as he was raised there.  So that's already two awesome things

2.  Pro LGBT

3.  Strong female characters, but not strong female characters, very distinctive and different personalities.  And the secondary characters are so well done they almost don't feel like secondary characters, in the way that Ron and Hermione don't really feel like secondary characters.
4.  Great parental figures.  I know right?  It's completely shocking.  Kami's family is awesome!!  She loves them, doesn't always agree with them, and feels like an outsider at times, but they are actual people with separate characters!  And they love her unconditionally.  How many YA books can you name that even match ONE of those statements?

 5.  This book never stopped surprising me.

Seriously, every time I thought I had it all figured out, I was wrong!

When I got to the last paragraph I basically went...WHAT???? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME. HOW.  WHY. I;ALSDKA;SKDGH;ADKGH;ASDKHG;ASKFGA.  That being said....no cliffhanger!!  My reaction wasn't because of a cliffhanger, if you've read it you know what it is.  But can I just repeat this?  NO CLIFFHANGER!!!  Praise the lord, alleluia. 

In the Ring of Endless Light post, I mentioned that I hadn't found books I could reread over and over the way I could with books I was a kid.  Well consider me wrong, this book definitely is going to get reread billions of times.  I can't believe I found this book two weeks before the new one comes out!!!! (Although I suppose by the time I post this it will have already been out for a while). 


Overall

Seriously, you have to read this.  I mean it.  There is not a single reason for you not to read this.  I honestly think this might be my favourite read of the whole year.  I don't think it's possible for me to read a book better than this one.  IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD!!!


Bechdel Test

...I forgot to check whether it passed or not before I returned it to the library, but since I'm planning on buying the book soon anyway, I'll update this when I get the book!

The Dressmaker - Kate Alcott

If you've already read this review, nothing's changed except I added the Bechdel Test section at the end.  I guess it was enough text that it showed the review written as today, rather than last month!

Summary

Just in time for the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic comes a vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young woman who survives the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy.

Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.

Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky.

On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period's glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.


Thoughts

I think it's fantastic that I had completely forgotten what this story was about and that I read it on an e-reader so I didn't have a back cover to read.  It's also great that I didn't remember very much about the Titanic survivors, so I honestly didn't have a clue what was going to happen!  Even with foreknowledge, I think the suspense was still handled very well.

Honestly there isn't much to say outside of what is already said on the back cover.  I wasn't a huge fan of the love triangle - I didn't understand at all why the millionaire was interested in Tess.  She is significantly below his class, and they've had like...a conversation.  Sure it was an interesting conversation, but not really a good reason for a millionaire to marry a servant girl.



 It mostly seemed like the love triangle was made entirely so that the author could explore the differences between class, independence vs. stability, dreams vs. safety, etc.

On the other hand, I loved that for the most part the female characters weren't like modern women set in history.  Yes, there were suffragette views, because that was very much going on in America at the time, but their expectations match what was in history and our main character still very much followed class views.  She wanted to break out of them and saw America as an opportunity to do so, but she saw and followed class differences.  I think that is partially why I was startled by her acceptance of the millionaire's attentions - I would have expected her to be more surprised.

Lucile Duff Gordon (Tess's boss, and an acutal historical figure) is a very complicate character, and I wish we had got more of her as a person.  The mystery as to why she is the way she is went on a bit too long and was addressed very briefly.  It is very in character for her to do so, but I do wish we had more reason to sympathize with her than we get.  I also wish her relationship with her husband was more explored.  I feel like Tess and her reporter friend Pinky were very well formed characters, Jim was an ok character, but the Duff Gordons and Jack Dawson really weren't developed at all.  I had a lot of unanswered questions about them specifically, but also about the relationships between all of them (why on earth did Lucile hire Tess?  She's a bit mysterious about it and it's not believable at all.  Why is Pinky so upset about Tess/Jim things?  At first I thought it was because she liked Jim, but then well...it just wasn't why).  I also would have like the book a tiny bit more if it had ended a page earlier.  The ending wasn't bad, but it was slightly cliche. 

I will warn you, I would imagine many readers were disappointed in how the book handled the sinking.  Not much is written of the actual sinking.  The majority of the book is centered around the trials.  I personally found this really interesting, and it was very well researched from what I can tell after looking up Wikapedia trusted sources about the Titanic after finishing this book.  But if you were wanting sinking drama, you only get that in the aftermath not during the event, which didn't take more than a couple chapters (maybe even one chapter, I can't remember).

Overall

It was an engaging novel, and I had a fun reading it.  The trials were well researched and it was an interesting look at a time period I haven't done a lot of reading on.  The class situation could have been researched a little bit more and the characters more plausible, but otherwise it seemed well researched on the Titanic.  Maybe not a book for hard core history books, but a good read I'd recommend to dabblers in historical fiction and who enjoy chick lit.


Bechdel Test

“I have no need to com­pete; you may have the at­ten­tion,” Lu­cile said in her huski­est, haugh­ti­est voice.

“Oh, stop it, Lucy. Nei­ther of us is im­pov­er­ished on that score. Re­ally, you are cranky lately.”

“If you were pre­sent­ing a spring col­lec­tion in New York in a few weeks, you’d be cranky, too. I have too much to worry about with all this talk of women hik­ing their skirts and flat­ten­ing their breasts. All you have to do is write an­other novel about them.”

The two of them started squeez­ing past the dozens of valises and trunks, brass hinges glow­ing in the wan­ing light, their skirts of fine wool pick­ing up lay­ers of damp dust turned to grime.

“It’s true, the tools of my trade are much more portable than yours,” Eli­nor said air­ily.

“They cer­tainly are. I’m forced to make this cross­ing be­cause I don’t have any­one com­pe­tent enough to be in charge of the show, so I must be there. So please don’t be friv­o­lous.”

Eli­nor closed her para­sol with a snap and stared at her sis­ter, one per­fect eye­brow arched. “Lucy, how can you have no sense of humor? I’m only here to wish you bon voy­age and cheer you on when the ship de­parts. Shall I leave now?”

Lu­cile sighed and took a deep breath, al­low­ing a timed pause. “No, please,” she said. “I only wish you were sail­ing with me. I will miss you.”

“I would like noth­ing bet­ter than to go with you, but my ed­i­tor wants those cor­rected gal­leys back by the end of the week.” Eli­nor’s voice turned sunny again.

There are more like conversations sprinkled throughout the book with women talking about work or about suffragette issues, so this book passes the Bechdel test with flying colors!  It surprised me actually, because it is more of a chick lit sort of historical fiction book, and I don't generally expect chick lit to pass the Bechdel test (As backwards as that may sound.  But if you think about it, chick lit is generally focused on how the girl gets the guy).

Friday Five

Well, this is shaping up to be another distressing week.  But we can't all be adorable balls of fluffiness all the time, so I'm allowing myself to be all doom and gloom if I like because it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to.


1.  Just got the news that the insurance company might write off my car entirely.  It's not certain one way or the other but... I don't know.  It's too depressing to talk about.

2.  I was supposed to see my boyfriend this week for the first time since May, but I had to cancel.  I am utterly swamped with music and I'm stressed out and way behind and next week is going to be hellish if I don't get my act together.  We couldn't reschedule until Thanksgiving, which already was going to be the next time I saw him...so six months.  I've not done six months before, but at least we're already half way through it :(.  But on the upside, I have such a great boyfriend.  I don't think I would have been so good about him cancelling on me last minute and then not getting to see him for another 3 months.  One of many reasons why I love him, and why I broke my long distance rule for him.  So that's something to think about next time I get irritable with him!

3.  As I said before, I'm utterly swamped with music!  While I'm stressed out beyond belief, it's a good thing.  Even though I'm feeling all awful and insecure, it's a sign that I AM a decent enough musician that people want to perform with me and are confident enough in my abilities to have me sub for them.  So that is a nice feeling when I take the time to remind myself of it!

4.  Robin McKinley's Shadows is on Netgalley AND I WANT IT SO BADLY!!!! I mean I know I'm going to buy the book.  It's Robin McKinley.  I own ALL her books (well almost.  I'm missing like two, and I'm pretty sure they might both be picture books).  But I want to get to read it right away!  And review it!  And further the awesomeness that is Robin McKinley into the world!

5. On another upside, I feel like I've hit a book gold mine this year.  I've read some really great books (That I haven't posted reviews for but expect a lot of excited reviews in the near future) that seriously made my go insane when I finished because they were SO GOOD and I HAVE TO READ THE WHOLE SERIES.  It's unusual for me to find many books that I am head over heels in love with, especially on in one go, so it's been a great couple reading weeks for me!

And that's it for my week.  How has your week been?

The Crimson Crown - Cinda Williams Chima

 Summary

Goodreads:  A thousand years ago, two young lovers were betrayed-Alger Waterlow to his death, and Hanalea, Queen of the Fells, to a life without love.

Now, once again, the Queendom of the Fells seems likely to shatter apart. For young queen Raisa ana'Marianna, maintaining peace even within her own castle walls is nearly impossible; tension between wizards and Clan has reached a fevered pitch. With surrounding kingdoms seeking to prey on the Fells' inner turmoil, Raisa's best hope is to unite her people against a common enemy. But that enemy might be the person with whom she's falling in love.

Through a complicated web of lies and unholy alliances, former streetlord Han Alister has become a member of the Wizard Council of the Fells. Navigating the cut-throat world of blue blood politics has never been more dangerous, and Han seems to inspire hostility among Clan and wizards alike. His only ally is the queen, and despite the perils involved, Han finds it impossible to ignore his feelings for Raisa. Before long, Han finds himself in possession of a secret believed to be lost to history, a discovery powerful enough to unite the people of the Fells. But will the secret die with him before he can use it?

A simple, devastating truth concealed by a thousand-year-old lie at last comes to light in this stunning conclusion to the Seven Realms series.


 Opening Line:  It was the largest gathering of the Spirit clans Raisa had ever seen.


Thoughts

It is so rare for the last book to be my favourite in a series (I can only think of The Amber Spyglass receiving that honor, although I'm sure there are others).  This series so clearly improved as they went on.  I wasn't enamored with the first couple books.  They were good, but while I enjoyed the books, I really didn't love the series yet.  Both Han and Raisa were a bit too Mary/Gary-Sueish.  Does EVERY guy who isn't related to Raisa fall in love with her?  And the same seemed to be true of Han for a while as well!  Except, you know...girls.  Apparently due to Hans' heritage he has this charisma that can't be explained.  It's sort of a weak excuse, and while Raisa is the crown princess, there's a difference between loving her and wanting her power - and most seemed to want primarily the former.  Once the story starts moving along and more action is involved, they both round out quite nicely.  What I did love about characters that start out so rough (and honestly, they both annoyed me a little bit) is that through the series they really grow and mature, and you can feel them growing up.  Because despite the fact that they are crazy powerful and and main characters - they are also 16.  And I think two years pass between the beginning and ending of the series?  I might be wrong about that. But imagine the difference between the you at 16, and the you at 18.  It's pretty different, no?  Now add in all the life changing experiences Raisa and Hans go through, and it really makes their growth as characters very nicely done.

That being said, I wish a little more time had been spent on the secondary characters.  Micah is a nice grey character, but it still feels like something is missing somehow.  Maybe it's that so much is implied about him, but Chima never really has him move from being grey to black or grey to white, which is less of a problem with her character or writing, and more of a problem with me being unsettled, which in writing is an excellent thing to do to your reader.  I still think the secondary characters just didn't feel quite real enough to me, but it wasn't obvious to me right away that I didn't really connect to them.  It really was well written and I'm only coming to this conclusion on thinking about it.

But since I'm reviewing the last book, and not the series as a whole, let's move on shall we!  The last book was WOW.  It was PACKED with action and I literally had to put the book down because my heart started pounding so fast I wasn't sure I could handle it haha.  I seriously had like heart palpitations and thought I wasn't going to be able to finish the book that night!  In the middle of me reading this series, I had an AWESOME friend who I haven't seen in months come stay with me for a week, and I was really excited to see him!  But it was physically painful for me to put this book down and go explore the city with my friend, despite the fact that it was loads of fun.  As soon as I got home I just devoured this last book.  I mean seriously, if you need action in your books to interest you, you NEED to read this series, because it is nonstop madness, particularly in the last book.  And at this point I was really invested in the characters, so while it might take you a while to warm up to them, it is worth giving this series a shot.  I think part of the reason this book feels so crazy is that if you look at those graphs of how a story moves (intro, rising action, climax, etc)...practically this ENTIRE book was the climax!  I also think I liked it because our main characters finally affirm their love for each other and stupid love triangles are put (mostly) to the side.  Whatever qualms I had about the secondary characters and the endless stupid love...shape that has more sides than I have a word to describe...this series is worth it.  This last book alone is worth it, let alone all the other great stuff about the previous books.

And on another note about love triangles, despite my complaining about these ones, I did like that none of the main characters' love interests were their first loves (well except Micah because I honestly don't know who else he liked, really).  Because if you think about it...what exactly are the statistics for people snagging their first love?  I mean I probably won't ever see mine ever again, considering he's on the opposite side of a completely different continent!  So I liked that I think Chimas was trying to accomplish a more realistic approach to relationships with her use of love triangles, not just drama to help the story tension.  Even if I do still hate stupid love triangles.  I at least understand a good purpose to hers.

Overall, I thought the book was a fantastic ending to a great series.  I was a little let down by the ending - and it is not for any reason I have mentioned, or even any reason that I feel is a GOOD reason.  If you've read the series, you might know what I'm talking about and proceed to the spoilers below.  If you've not read the series, trust me when I say that this reasoning is 100% not even #1000 of a list of reasons I could come up with to tell to not to read the series (I couldn't even think up 15 reasons you shouldn't read this series).  In fact it is very much a reason you might WANT to read this series.  Also if you haven't read the series, I REALLY recommend you don't read said spoilers because they will Ruin.  Everything.


This next part has some spoilers, so I REALLY recommend you don't read it unless you're either not going to read the series or you already have.

*SPOILERS*  There's something sad but true about character endings.  I hate to say this, because I really do get so attached to characters that I mope for days about them, but...books appeal to me more when my heart is ripped out.  I guess this shouldn't surprise me since I'm a Joss Whedon and J.K. Rowling fan, but still.  It's just not as satisfying in a way if the people you love don't die, or at least get seriously maimed.  Which really makes me question my sanity.  That being said, I think this ending was as satisfied as I could get without people dying.  I would have loved more time spent on Reid Nightwalker and his madness...you know what I really want?  I wish the series was a couple books longer so that the other characters got fleshed out a bit more.  That would have been fantastic.  But all in all the series was a really worthwhile read, and if you read these spoilers and haven't read the books, SHAME ON YOU (but seriously go read this series), and if you have read the series, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  *SPOILERS*


So take my word for it that this series was awesome, and you should go read it RIGHT NOW!

Top Ten Book Pairings

  Hosted by The Broke and Bookish

OH MY GOD THIS WAS A FORMATTING NIGHTMARE.  I had to redo this like 432029342 times!!!  ..which begs the question why I kept trying.  I kept hitting the wretched command z key to fix things which made the pictures move and aghghhhahsldk;alkd.  I've given up.  Just completely given up.  I am incapable of putting two pictures next to each other.  I am so inept at blogger hahahaha.  At least my posting date is working again (for some reason it was three days off for my last post...so weird...)  So FINALLY...here's my TTT!  

1.  Gone/Lord of the Flies

Both novels feature children with no adult supervision, no social structures, and their fight for survival.

2.  Speak/The Scarlet Letter

Both deal with a woman's silence, perceived virtue, and how it affects her social status.

3.  The Eyre Affair/The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Both use off the wall humour and ridiculous situations.  While I don't expect Hitchhiker's is taught in school, it is a classic sci-fi novel, and it should be!  The Eyre Affair is set in classic literature, so it would also be easy to pair with more standard school novels like Jane Eyre of Great Expectations (although now that I think about it I'm not entirely sure which book Miss Havisham first appears in)

4.  The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox/Wide Sargasso Sea/Jane Eyre

 Wide Sargasso Sea is a sort of prequel/retelling of Jane Eyre with Bertha as the protagonist, so it is easy to link these two novels, although WSS is a classic in its own right.  The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is more directly connected to WSS due to their link in "madness".  It explores what was considered madness in the past, how it was dealt with, the role gender played, and how long this awful system remained in place.  You'll be shocked.

5.  Dracula/Interview With The Vampire/Peeps

 Dracula is considered the father of the modern vampire.  Interview with the Vampire drastically changed our perspective on vampires from creatures of horror to the creatures of romance we find in current literature.  Peeps crosses from paranormal into the sci-fi genre, where vampirism is caused by a parasite.

6.  Just Listen/Tess of the D'Urbevilles

This is similar to The Scarlet Letter/Speak one, but this more closely relates virtue to status, rather than silence to status. 

7. Tiger Lily/Peter Pan

 This connection is a bit more obvious since Tiger Lily is a retelling of sorts.  It is also one the best written stories I've ever read...the writing is beyond beautiful. This definitely deserves a place in school literature!

8.  The Song of the Lioness Quartet/The Once and Future King

 Both are a coming of age story, from preteens to powerful adults who change the face of their nations, and both are fantasy novels (and both are quartets).  However, the Alanna quartet features a female protagonist.  I think more fantasy should be featured in schools - I don't think I had had any required fantasy reading. I also feel there is a severe lack of empowered women in our required school reading, or at least how we would relate to them today.  I'm not saying there aren't any, and I understand a good bit of that is because female independence is a relatively new concept in comparison to the history of literature, but even the relatively groundbreaking characters (like Jane Eyre) are still tightly held by social standards of the time.  Characters like Alanna make their own destiny, and I think it's important to showcase that in our school literature as well.

9.  Abarat/The Wizard of Earthsea

This is similar in concept to #8 in that they are both fantasies, but with reversed gender roles.  But this combo has islands!  And I really wanted Abarat on this list...

10. His Dark Materials/The Bible

I think this would be a fascinating way to study religion!  Studying The Bible is more common than one would think in public schools, so I think its only fair that if you read about The Bible, you read about other religions as well.  Of course, this would never pass The Bible Belt (in fact I'm pretty sure it's banned in a lot of libraries haha)

I found it interesting that I didn't use many of my favourite classics in here (like 1984 which I probably would have matched up with The Giver, but that's already required reading in a lot of schools), but I did use a lot I hadn't read (The Once and Future King, Dracula, I've only read parts of the Bible) and almost all of the classics I HATED (Tess of the D'Urbevilles and The Scarlet Letter.  All I would have had to do was use Heart of Darkness, and that is literally every classic novel I despised).  I think the only classics I listed that I liked AND read for school were Lord of the Flies and Jane Eyre!  And in fact, I don't think I did read Jane Eyre for school (I was a weird kid...I'd read all but a few of the classics required for school before I'd hit high school haha).

In any case, that's it for my TTT!  What's on yours?