Memory lane, teenage fiction and up to my elbows in cuffs ...

It's been a strange fortnight (for those Americans amongst us this is slang for a two week period ;) ... In some ways it's been a bit of a cicada/reptillian process of first looking inwards and then shedding or moulting and emerging refreshed, heading into a newly motivated direction.

I have met up with MANY people over the last 10 days, most that I haven't seen in nearly 15 years and it's been a little randomly awe inspiring.
Each of the people I have met has been a significant part of my life and it has been crazy good and freaky weird ... but it has allowed me to tidy up loose ends and start fresh and shiny and clean ... I like it

I have also been wandering down memory lane in regards to books that I have loved and learnt from especially in my angsty teenage years. Most of these books I have kept and read occasionally (once every 5 yrs or so) but now that my eldest daughter is reading confidently I can't wait the next few years to share these wonderful books with her as she grows older.
These novels have all truly affected me and stayed with me over the years so I thought I'd share them here and those of you who are readers might want to venture out and see if you can pick one up somewhere ...

Let me know if you read them too!

Z for Zachariah - Robert C O'Brien (Unfortunately he died whilst writing the last chapter and his family finished the book. It doesn't really hurt it but to my mind it didn't quite fit)

It is written from the first person perspective of a sixteen-year-old girl named Ann Burden, who survives a nuclear war in a small American town. The town's location is in a geographically distinct and remote valley that shelters it from the nuclear fallout. The book takes the form of a diary kept by Ann as she recounts the events that followed the war.

Sparkle & Nightflower - Sonia Hartnett

Sparkle and Nightflower are nicknames that a single mum and her son have for eachother. They move to a small Australian country town to take over a boarding house that was left to them.

Thunderwith - Libby Hathorn

This is a story of a man Larry Ritchie, who lives with his second wife and three kids on an Australian Farm in the Wallingat Forest NSW. He learns about fatal illness of his first wife which leaves his eldest daughter, Lara, alone in the world. Larry decides to take the girl into his home, but his new family doesn't like the idea. The mother Gladwyn is possessive of Larry and their three children, Pearl, Opal and Jasper. Lara seeks solace with a mysterious dog she names Thunderwith that appears from time to time on the property. The dog seems to the girl to be a link to her beloved mother and an important companion. The story concentrates on the relationship between mother Gladwyn and stepdaughter, as Lara is slowly accepted into the family.

So Much to Tell You - John Marsden

Based on a true story and presented as a diary that a 14 year old girl, Marina, writes. Marina is disfigured by her father. She refused to talk to anyone when she was at hospital to recover, so she was sent to Warrington Boarding School for a chance to communicate again. But even then, her silence goes on. Her English teacher Mr. Lindell gives her class journals to write in. Despite the unwillingness to write in the journal, Marina still records some trivial daily events in her school down. She eventually starts to write beyond just trivia and the readers are able to see Marina's world, and how her friends, teachers and families influence her. Marina goes from not interacting at all, to opening up and socializing, as well as communicating. As the book goes on, Marina's uncertain feelings towards her father fade away. In the end of the book she goes to see him, and speaks the only words she says in the entire book

My Darling, My Hamburger - Paul Zindel

As senior year rolls around, two unlikely couples find themselves caught between desire and the fear of intimacy. Liz and Sean, misunderstood by their parents, confused but certain they are in love, have an affair that ends shatteringly. Maggie and Dennis, just as confused, take their first steps toward understanding the demands life makes on everyone. Faced with real-life dilemmas that have no easy answers, Maggie, Dennis, Liz, and Sean must make choices that will affect the rest of their lives.

Mazes and Monsters - Rona Jaffe

Young Robbie Wheeling plays the Mazes and Monsters game with his friends. They're everything to him; a refuge from his family and the heartbreaks of reality. One day, as he and his friends undertake their first live-action roleplay, Robbie's mind snaps. In that instant, he takes on the simple personality of Pardeux, his cleric character in the game. He vanishes, and Lieutenant Martini suspects foul play, whether accidental or intentional, on the part of his fellow players... until Robbie, in one brief moment of clarity, calls home from distant New York. Returned home, he returns to being Pardeux, now safe in the arms of his friends and family, who pray he will someday return to normal.

Lastly here's a peak a boo at some wrist cuffs I'll be carting around the markets with me ...