Friday, February 25, 2011

SORTA LIKE A ROCK STAR! Winner, review, giveaway

Of course,. Mr. Random originally selected the one person who elected NOT to win the book. So I had to roll the diceys again and the winner of 1 copy of Th1rteen R3asons Why is....

BROOKE!

Congrats!

Today I've got the book that turned me on to Matthew Quick up for grabs.

From Back Cover:

Maybe I am a freak- but I'm one hopeful misfit, and you could be worse things in this world.

True? True.

--

Sorta Like a Rock Star is the story of Amber Appleton, a self-proclaimed freak, who's so poor she's living in her mother's schoolbus. Still, Amber finds a way to the rock in several people's lives- from the old folks at the home she visits weekly to her Korean ladies' English class to her 4 best friends, the other misfit members of Franks Freak Force Federation.

One thing I didn't love:
It took a while to get rolling. I felt like I was in a backdrop, but I fell so hard for Amber that I held on. And, boy, am I glad I did!

The bitsies I loved:

There were two things that I really adored about this book, above the other million things that I just loved.

Firstly, this book has important 'issues' in the background.

'Whoa! Isn't that a bad thing? Shouldn't important issues be at the front?'

Lemme explain.

There are a million and one books about Christians, or about being the only Black kid, or about special-needs characters, or immigrants. But I hate feeling like every book with an issue is ABOUT that issue. Can't I just read about a black character? Why does said Black character HAVE TO be struggling with being Black? Some of us are past that. Are we implying that a Black character who is not struggling with being Black is the same as a white character?

This book features all of the things I mentioned above, but isn't ABOUT any of them. It gives them a chance to just exist without taking centrestage. And it's fabulous.

Secondly, I loved the irreverence.

There's a general feeling that if you talk about a sensitive issue, you have to use a sensitive tone. Everyone is so PC these days that noone wants to make a joke about any group unless they are a part of it and can therefore claim they meant no prejudice.

Not Amber Appleton. She refers to Jesus as "JC" and even goes so far as to call him as a "sucka!" She calls her Vietnam veteran friend on his bullcrap. She cusses out a blind old lady in a wheelchair.

And even though she does all this, it's not evil or bitter; it's actually 100% Amber optimism, and people can't help but love her for it.

And I can't help but love Matthew Quick for writing this book.

To win:

Be a follower
Tell me one way you're optiimistic
Comment by 11.59 pm EST

Good luck!

3 comments:

Aleeza said...

ahhh, ive been dying to read this book! ive heard such awesome stuff about it.
im optimistic in the sense that i keep on writing one day ill get published. that's optimism, isn't it? :)

Unknown said...

Thanks so much, Claire! I'll email you.

Great review! I'm so excited about this book now, and I can't wait to pick it up. Amber sounds awesome.

I'm optimistic that I'll be able to graduate with both of my degrees on time and be able to do something that really makes a difference in kids' lives.

Sidrah said...

Sounds like a good read =D

Am optimistic about being a good dentist running her own clinic, being a famous children's author, and having a wide spacey kitchen (yellow and blue in color)where I can try my own weird (yet yummy) recipes - all in few years.

=)