Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

So I've stolen this idea from another of my GR groups, I thought it would be a good way to share what we are reading and/or our favourite YA books. The idea is to open up your book to page 42, and then type out a couple of interesting sentences, or a whole paragraph, giving everyone a glimpse into the story.

I figure it's too close to the beginning of the book to really give anything away, but just in case--NO SPOILERS!!

Why did you pick "42"? Is it your shout-out to Douglas Adams? :)

I'll begin: From The Boyfriend List 15 guys, 11 shrink appointments, 4 ceramic frogs, and me, Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart:

Kim was my best friend. I wanted her to understand why I had been so weird with Finn. I figured I could tell her everything.

But now, I wish I hadn't.

Muahaha... And now you're all left hanging... See? It's fun!

Becky wrote: "Why did you pick "42"? Is it your shout-out to Douglas Adams? :)"

Of course! It was actually page 46 on the other forum... haha... Plus, now that more people have read Hitchhiker's (thanks TNBBC), it will catch people's attention. In theory.

From I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith:

"Topaz come from the wash-house and set irons to heat, so father changed the subject by asking me if I'd dyed all my clothes green. I said I had few to dye."

:) I loved that part. It was so funny...

Yeah. I am enjoying it very much. Thanks for the recommendation Fiona! :) I was reading it out on the hammock this weekend. That was nice...

Small Steps

"All I'm sayin' is, it's not as easy as you think for a couple of independants. I'm offering you a hundred and eighty dollars, pure profit, no worries."
"We ain't worried." said X-Ray.
"Armpit looks worried."
"I'm cool." said Armpit.
Felix smiled. "Then why you sweatin' so much?"

From Tamar A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal: "Veening lead him up a wide zigzag staircase with a dark mahogany banister. On the second floor landing they turned right, through a reinforced door. A corridor , more stairs, two turns. Dart remembered an earlier night walk with a Luger pressed against his skull."

What a great idea! This is from The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, which I finished last night. (I'm not up to page 42 in Suite Scarlett yet.)

And so instead I tell him of the things I do believe in, the things I know to be true only because of faith. I tell him the stories my mother used to tell me about life before the Return.

I tell him about the ocean.

Linda Grace wrote: "From I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith:

"Topaz come from the wash-house and set irons to heat, so father changed the subject by asking me if I'd dyed all my clothes green. I said..."

That's what I'm reading right now too. :o)

Sara TX wrote: "So I've stolen this idea from another of my GR groups ..."
CAUGHT YOU! How DARE you steal my idea....that I'd already stolen from TNBBC...ahem!

From a favourite:

She attempts one of those confessional smiles, the sort usually seen in reverent portraits of Florence Nightingale. In my experience, such smiles mean that the real message - the one hidden by manners and good posture - will need to be translated.
"I think you shall be very happy here, Miss Doyle."
Translation: That is an order.
"Spence has turned out many wonderful young women who've gone on to make very good marriages."
We don't expect much more from you. Please don't embarrass us.
"Why, you might even be sitting here in my position someday."
If you turn out to be completely unmarriageable, and you don't end up in an Austrian convent making lace nightgowns.
- A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

From Feather Boy

So it was only when the second apple landed , squidgy and rotten and directly on my head, that I thought to look up.

Cait wrote: That's what I'm reading right now too. :o)

I'm loving it. What do you think so far?

Josie wrote: "So I've stolen this idea from another of my GR groups ..."
CAUGHT YOU! How DARE you steal my idea....that I'd already stolen from TNBBC...ahem! "

Ermm.... OOPS! Sorry! I didn't know you were in both YA groups! ;) And I copied your first post almost verbatim, too.... I DID change the page number, at least......... :) It was a GREAT idea!

Josie, I love that part of AGATB. If I had Rebel Angels on me I'd open page 42...damn. Another time, then.

The Loop

"Her parents appeared to believe that not getting divorced earlier constituted a permanent, indestructible gift to their children, and that the illusion of having had a happy childhood was as good as the real thing."

Sara TX wrote: Ermm.... OOPS! Sorry! I didn't know you were in both YA groups..."
All is forgiven :P he he - I can't take credit for the idea anyway! It didn't really take off in the other group, let's hope it does here, where we're much more active...

Exactly. That other group is REALLY QUIET!

Yes, despite having over four times as many members as this one...

Sam wrote: "From Feather Boy

So it was only when the second apple landed , squidgy and rotten and directly on my head, that I thought to look up."

Cool quote, Sam! What a great word - squidgy. Now I'm going to have to add Feather Boy to my TBR list.

I'm reading The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them--sequel to The Boyfriend List, which I read yesterday, but I don't want to skip ahead to Page 42 and ruin anything for myself, so I'll post later...

From Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. I can't believe it's taken me so long to read a book by this woman!

"You don't see much of that in the city. I guess your parents' aren't fans of birth control."

Scarlett had had this exact thought many times herself, but she didn't really like hearing this stranger saying it out loud. Nor did she like strangers hanging over her, practically staring down her cleavage. But it wasn't the cleavage, or lack thereof, that the woman seemed most interested in.

"That's Dior, isn't it?"

From The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them by E. Lockhart:

When I thought about it later, I realized that Nora was telling me who to like and what to do, even though she said she couldn't."

....

"Roo," said Doctor Z, leaning forward a bit. "We can't know or say what other people will do. You have to think what you want to do. What you can do to get the situation where you want it to be."

Alright here's my page 42 from The Last Olympian:

Tyson pouted some more.

"I will go," he sniffled. He hugged me so hard he almost cracked my ribs. "Percy, be careful! Do not let monsters kill you dead!"

I tried to nod confidently, but it was too much for the big guy. He sobbed and swam away toward the armory, where his cousins were fixing spears and swords.

I finally started up Wondrous Strange again, after taking a break for Percy Jackson.

A ghostly, iridescent light seeped through the split in the stone, and Sonny could see diminutive figures silhouetted in the glow. A tiny, wizened face peered out at him. When the creature saw the Janus standing there, it did not turn and run back to the Faerie lands. Instead it gave a nasty, high-pitched giggle.

from Anne of Green Gables:

To bed went Matthew. And to bed, when she had put her dishes away, went Marilla, frowning most resolutely. And upstairs, in the east gable, a lonely, heart-hungry, friendless child cried herself to sleep.

Flush (Carl Hiaasen)

"I understand you've been to visit your father," he said finally. "That must've been tough."

"Not really." I was trying to sound kind of cool and bored.

"Yes, well, this isn't the first time your dad's had a scrape with the law, is it?"

"No, sir."

"What do you remember about the other times?" He asked.

I just shrugged. It was amazing that Mom had left me alone in the room with this guy. I knew she was hovering somewhere nearby, but at least for now I was free to say what I wanted.

Currently reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, about two girls with eating disorders. These two lines are not from page 42, but there isn't a whole lot on 42 and I wanted to share them anyway.

Rice cakes with hot sauce are better. You eat and are punished in the same bite. (31)

In the spring of fifth grade, the boob fairy arrived with her wand and smacked Cassie wicked hard. (39)

Currently reading Princess of the Midnight Ball and here is a peek at the 42nd page:

Rose didn't bother to reply. Being called "Mother" on top of being cold, and wet, and upset about well, everything, had set her temper on the boil. She stamped off to the palace with her dripping shawl hanging from her arms. She passed Lilac and the twins, Poppy and Daisy, on her way to the room she shared with Lily and Jonquil. All three opened their mouths to say something but closed them again when they got a good look at Rose's face.

Rose stalked into her room and slammed the door.

From Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel (which I am LOVING so far):

Flossing, fortunately, gave me the opportunity for a good long observation of myself in the mirror. I didn't look like a member of one of the most notorious secret societies in America. I didn't look like someone who could claim brotherhood with the head of the CIA, the President of the United States, or the new CEO of Fox.

"Faeth it," I garbled to my reflection through the floss. "Youffe been hadth."

Peeps / Parasite Positive [image error]

Parasite geeks have a phrase for what cats are to toxoplasma: the "final host."

A final host is the place where a parasite can live happily ever after, getting free food, having lots of babies. Most parasites live in more than one kind of animal, but they're all trying to reach their final host, the ultimate vector...parasite heaven.

Toxoplasma uses mind control to get to its heaven, It makes the rat want to go looking for cats and get eaten. Spooky, huh?

But nothing like that would work on us humans, right?

From The Wind in the Willows

Glancing back, they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark centre of energy, advancing on them at incredible speed, while from out the dust a faint "Poop-poop!" wailed like an uneasy animal in pain. Hardly regarding it, they turned to resume their conversation, when in an instant (as it seemed) the peaceful scene was changed, and with a blast of wind and a whirl of sound that made them jump for the nearest ditch, it was on them!

Kandice- I didn't know Sachar had written more with the Holes characters! Also, I LOVE The Loop, probably in my all time top 3.

From The Third Eye:
"...they saw Raka striding back. He reached the group and announced, "I have had a long chat with Zarku. I believe he is an accomplished healer and much better than Prabala."
Everyone gaped at him. Tara felt a jolt in her chest at the words. *Morni was going to replace her grandfather.* She had to bring him back."

From Touching Darkness:

"Did you ever wonder who put all those signs in place?"

Jess frowned. "Haven't there been midnighters here for a long time? You said they'd been fighting the darklings for ten thousand years. Since the blue time was created."

"True. But the struggle wasn't always as secret as it is now. In the old days it wasn't just us midnighters who knew what was going on."

I read too many books at once...

From Airman:

I am flying, thought Conor Broekhart. I remember this.

Then the flying finished and the falling started, and though it was drastically slowed by the flag, it seemed devilishly swift. Sights dissolved into a kaleidoscope of fractured blues and silvers. The flag caught a low breeze and flipped. Conor watched the clouds swirl above him, stretching to creamy streams. And all the time he held on to Isabella so tightly his fingers ached. He was crying and laughing, and he knew it would be painful when they hit water.

They crashed into the ocean. It was painful.

Because I finished Touching Darkness, I started the last book in Westerfeld's series.

From Blue Noon:

"Don't worry, I'll take you over to Madeleine's at midnight."

"Yeah, sure," Jessica answered. "After you guys have already talked about all the important stuff this afternoon."

Both Dess and Jonathan sighed and looked away, apparently tired of her whining.

I love doing this :)

From The Fairy Godmother:

Every time someone paused in front of her, Elena looked them straight in the eyes, recited her abilities, and prayed. Someone kind. Someone kind. But most merely looked at her and moved on. For some, the reason was obvious; women with husbands with hungry eyes, or sons old enough to begin thinking about girls. No one wanted to hire a girl who could, all too readily, become the plaything of someone in the family. It was hard enough to keep a girl away from the trouble that came from fellow servants and farmworkers; at least there she could presumably be relied on to have enough common sense not to fall into a haymow and into pregnancy unless there was a wedding in the offing. But a pretty girl had no defenses against a predatory master. As a sheltered girl of a wealthy family, Elena had known nothing of such thing; as one of the lowly servants, she had learned a great deal. Madame's servants gossiped constantly, and it hadn't been long before they were ignoring her as so unimportant that it was safe to gossip in front of her.

From A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly:

"I'd put the letters in my pocket and forgot all about them until I went upstairs later in the day to change into a fresh apron. I slipped them under my mattress, figuring I would wait to burn them, just in case Grace Brown changed her mind and asked for them back. Guests could be like that. They'd get cross with you for bringing them the butterscotch pudding they'd ordered, because now they wanted chocolate. And somehow it was your fault if their shirts were too stiff after they'd asked for extra starch. I didn't want Grace Brown complaining to Mrs. Morrison that I'd burned her letters when she hadn't meant me to, but Grace hadn't changed her mind. Or complained. And now she never would."

From Sold by Patricia McCormick

Ama and I walk down to the village, my little brother riding on her back. As we draw near the bonfire, Ama presses a coin into my palm. "Run off and buy yourself a sweet cake," she says, "like the other children."

I tell her I'm not a child anymore. I tell her not to waste her money. But she insists.

"Tonight," she says, "you are a child."

From Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

I've just been attacked by dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.

From My Swordhand Is Singing:

He glanced at the door, but he knew Peter was way into the village by now. Nonetheless he threw the bolt and went and knelt by his low cot, as if he were about to pray.

Instead, he rummaged with both hands under the mattress and pulled out a long, flat wooden case.

From Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt:

Early morning sunlight washed over the snowy hillside with light the color of new peaches. The air tasted as freshly blue as the sky. Gwyn's head was bare in the weak sunlight. She wore a sheepskin jacket. It was enough trouble moving through deep snow in her long skirt, without adding to that the weight of a cloak.

It had been days since anybody walked the path leading from the Inn to the village. Burl stayed behind her, so she had the sense of being the first and only as she moved steadily uphill and downhill through the woods, the basket for Old Megg on one arm, her staff in the other hand--as if in the whole white world, nobody had preceded her.

Finished this last night. From Fool Moon:

Call me crazy, but I'm not big on defiance when I've got a gun rammed against my skull. I carefully set the .38 in my left hand down and moved away from it.

"Hands behind your back. Do it," snarled the woman. I did it. I felt the cold metal of the handcuffs around my wrists, heard the ratcheting sounds of the cuffs closing around them. The knee lifted off my back, and my attacker shoved me over with one leg, snapped on a flashlight and shone it in my eyes.

"Harry?" she said.

I blinked and squinted against the light. I recognized the voice now. "Hi, Murphy. This is going to be ones of those conversations, isn't it?"

"Oh, she can talk fast enough. I saw that at once. It's nothing in her favor, either. I don't like children who have so much to say. I don't want an orphan girl and if I did, she isn't the style I'd pick out. There's something I don't understand about her. No, she's got to be dispatched straightaway back to where she came from."

Pg. 42: Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

Uglies [image error]

"First the basics." The software took over: The eyes gradually grew, reducing the size of the nose between them, Shay's cheekbones moved upward, and her lips became a tiny bit fuller (they were almost pretty-sized). Every blemish disapeared, her skin turning flawlessly smooth. The skull moved subtly under the features, the angle of her forehead tilting back, her chin becoming more defined, her jaw stronger.

From Stargirl:

"It was a rebellion she led, a rebellion for rather than against. For ourselves...More than a hundred students tried out for the Spring Revue. One kid started a camera club. Another wore Hush Puppies instead of sneakers. A plain, timid girl painted her toenails kelly green. A boy showed up with purple hair. None of this was publicly acknowledged...But it was there; it was happening."

From Watership Down:

"He ran easily up the meadow toward the cows. As he came they raised their heads and gazed at him, all together, for a moment, before returning to their feeding. A great black bird was flapping and hopping a little way behind the herd. It looked rather like a large rook, but, unlike a rook, it was alone. He watched its greenish, powerful beak stabbing the ground, but could not make out what it was doing. It so happened that Hazel had never seen a crow. It did not occur to him that it was following the track of a mole, in the hope of killing it with a blow of its beak and then pulling it out of its shallow run. If he had realized this, he might not have classed it light-heartedly as a "Not-hawk"--that is, anything from a wren to a pheasant--and continued on his way up the slope."

From Strawberry Hill

"Is it over?" Tiny asked.
A few quiet gusts of wind howled above.
"Sounds like it blew over," Max answered, looking up toward the door, his face orange in the lantern light.
"What a way to pass our first night." Tiny shook her head.
"I'm going up!" Raleia charged up the stairs.
Tiny shouted, "Don't open that door! There could be flying debris!"
Raleia wondered who Tiny was realy worried about-her or the baby? Tiny had every right to worry about the baby, but just once, Raleia wanted her mom to be worried about her.

Inkheart

The books in the white bookcases seemed to be watching Meggie, but they said nothing to her, as if they sensed that there was only one book Meggie could think about just now.

Finally, Mo came back carrying a package wrapped in brown paper. Perhaps he's just going to hide it here, thought Meggie. Where could you hide a book better than among ten thousand others? Yes, Mo was going to leave it here and then they'd drive home again. But I would like to see it, thought Meggie, just once, before it's put on one of those shelves I'm supposed to stay three paces away from.