April 14, 2009 Within a day of last week's announcement of an agreement between Penguin and the Robert McCloskey estate copies of Blueberries For Sal were released from, well, book prison I suppose. These beloved and now liberated copies have already arrived at DDG and are back where they belong, on bookstore shelves. Another book we were happy to see arrive this week was If I Stay, a terrific new young adult novel with strong appeal for adult readers. Here's the advance review of it I did for Publisher's Weekly. If Aristotle had reviewed Gayle Forman’s If I Stay in his Poetics as an exemplar of Young Adult tragic fiction, he would almost certainly have expressed great displeasure. After all, he considered the proper engine for pathos to be the fall of an otherwise virtuous person based upon a single tragic flaw, whereas If I Stay works strongly to evoke pathos from arbitrary tragic circumstances befalling its teenage heroine, Mia. Forman begins her novel by deftly drawing Mia’s sympathetic family and then sending them off to a car accident on a snowy road, in which her parents die straightway and her seven-year-old brother lingers in the hospital. Mia, a gifted musician, is herself badly injured. Prior to the accident she had stressed out over the prospect of leaving behind her wonderful boyfriend, rock star musician Adam, for a prestigious music academy. In the wake of her tragedy, the term “if I stay” takes on fresh meaning. If If I Stay were a 10-meter platform dive, it would start out with a low degree of difficulty, given the benefit of all that tragic material, but Forman pulls it off amazingly well. The characters are clearly drawn and our sympathies are engaged on many levels. Mia narrates the book from a state of heightened awareness as she lies in a hospital bed, seemingly unconscious. This unusual narrative device conveys a vital immediacy much like that found in Terry Trueman’s Stuck in Neutral. In the end, as we listen through Mia’s ears to Adam’s wrenching plea that she stay, one part of our mind is registering that Adam is an impossibly good guy, but somehow it doesn’t matter. If I Stay is a tearjerker that works because it is both heartfelt and tightly constructed. Teen readers should be more than ready to incur Aristotle’s wrath and join booksellers in embracing this fantastic new book. Here they are! Our weekly picks for the two best: two hardcover, two paperback, and two children's books. The very best new arrivals to leap out of the box and onto our shelves this week. Call or email us if you want more information on any of these titles, or to have us hold you a copy. Or stop in and check them out in person. We'd love to see you. Thanks as always for sharing your reading with us! Laura Rider's Masterpiece By Hamilton, Jane 2009/04 - Grand Central Publishing 9780446538954 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $22.99 - Your Price: $18.39 Availability: Available This is a definite change of pace for Jane Hamilton. Laura Ryder's Masterpiece is a send up of chick lit. Comedy hasn't been Hamilton's specialty, in fact her publisher notes that readers "know her for her provocative, heartbreaking dramas and her unique Midwestern sensibility." All right, so enough with the "provocative, heartbreaking dramas" and bring on this "frisky romp!"...More   The Last Dickens By Pearl, Matthew 2009/03 - Random House 9781400066568 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $25.00 - Your Price: $20.00 Availability: Available A lot of exciting literary events happen at DDG, but not as many literary related murders, nor mysteries and quests built around lost manuscripts with dark histories, as many people might wish. That's where Mathew Pearl's books come in handy. The Last Dickens is his latest....More   The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian By Alexie, Sherman 2009/04 - Little, Brown Young Readers 9780316013697 - Trade Paper  See Other Formats List Price $8.99 - Your Price: $7.19 Availability: Available The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian easily earns The Weekly Top 2 DBBTONIP (Deserving Big Book That's Out Now In Paperback) rating. Alexie's National Book Award winning young adult novel shows his humor, depth, and versatility at every turn....More   What to Read When: The Books and Stories to Read with Your Child--And All the Best Times to Read Them By Allyn, Pam 2009/04 - Avery Publishing Group 9781583333341 - Trade Paper List Price $16.95 - Your Price: $13.56 Availability: Available This is a really useful new reference for people who care about what they read to and share with children. Allyn breaks things down into insightful categories and situations which I think readers will find easy to apply....More   If I Stay By Forman, Gayle 2009/04 - Dutton Books 9780525421030 - Hardcover  See Other Formats List Price $16.99 - Your Price: $13.59 Availability: Available Our featured title this week, here's a link to the review of If I Stay which appeared in Publishers Weekly. ...More   The Curious Garden By Brown, Peter 2009/04 - Little, Brown Young Readers 9780316015479 - Hardcover List Price $16.99 - Your Price: $13.59 Availability: Available The Curious Garden is just a lovely and engaging picture book. It follows a boy who discovers a small patch of garden in the trestle of an abandoned upper level railway which threads through a city otherwise devoid of greenery. The name of the book works smoothly with both meanings of curious, as the garden grows and threads through the city, it pulls people into almost as though they were getting on a train....More