Finally, Finished a Book

I don't know, but lately it seems that it takes me forever to finish a book. I have enjoyed the last few books that I read, but I just haven't had a chunk of time on the weekends to read. I have been spending two or three weeks on just one book, and usually I read a book a week. I try to read daily, but that might only be 15 or 20 minutes. On the weekends, I like to find a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday to read. I have noticed a trend in YA literature. The books are getting longer. It is not unusual for books to be over 300 pages. The kids are still reading, so I guess this is not a bad trend.

This afternoon I finished Libby Bray's Beauty Queens. I read her Printz winner, Going Bovine, and though I could appreciate it, I did not love it. However, I thought Beauty Queens was a riot. It was definitely over the top. The premise is an airplane full of teen beauty queens crashes on an inhabited tropical island. There are a handful of survivors, but no surviving adults. Think Lord of the Flies goes feminine with lots of girl power and coconut milk beauty routines. The Corporation which sponsors the pagent chooses not to rescue the girls because of the covert weapons' operation on the island. For a good part of the book, the girls don't even know the island is inhabited. Lots of references to the Corporations' products and reality television shows. Some of the girls are given distinct personalities. Others are mentioned several times in passing. This book has some sexual content--a boatload of reality tv pirates crashes onto the island, but it is all in fun.
I don't think this is a title that everyone will like, but I definitely know some upperclassmen(upperclasswomen) who will get a kick out of it.

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