Thursday, April 10, 2008

The sweet, terrible, glorious year, I truly completely lost it--Lisa Shanahan

Title: the sweet, terrible, glorious year I truly, completely lost it
Author: Lisa Shanahan
Pages: 297 p
Publisher: delacorte press
ISBN: 9780385735162

Gemma Stone (HAHA. Get it? Gem Stone. GEMSTONE) has always been a calm shy girl who throws up when she speaks in public. The same year that her sister gets engaged and plans a crazy wedding, Gemma discovers that she can keep the bile down if she's speaking in character--in a play on stage. She also discovers that the school delinquent is a gifted actor and a true friend.

I gobbled this book up. It was fun. It's Australian so some of the slang is odd--but in a good way. It's a fun quick read and I'd recommend it. And I now have my new favorite phrase in the world: chucking a birkett*.


* "IN MY FAMILY, when anyone rides the wave of their emotions, we say they're chucking a birkett. When the emotion drives out all common sense, we say they're chucking a big one. The telltale signs are: flaming cheeks, shortness of breath, bulging eyes, and a prolonged illogical outburst."
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Reading:
On My Nightstand:

3 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

Could not get into this one, nor could my students. I did try. Maybe it's an Ohio thing-- nobody liked the chucking the birkett thing.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why Raven didn't want the part of caliban. can some one explain?

Anonymous said...

raven didn't want to be caliban i think because he had seen enough violence and anger at his own home. i think he was afraid of the anger swallowing him up and turning him out to be just like his brothers. he was just afraid of becoming like caliban.
did that help a little? it took me a while to understand too.

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