Book Meme: Parts 13, 14, and 15

Part 13--Your favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA (or both!): Ok. As we know, I was a consummate reader as a child and continue to be. I read a lottttt of weirdo things as a kid; I pretty much read everything I could find. That said, my childhood favorite that is neither The Once and Future King nor The Yearling would probably be This Island Isn't Big Enough for the Four of Us! by Gary Greer and Bob Ruddick. It's hysterically awesome. I read my copy--which I "borrowed" from a teacher, as I recall--until the front cover fell off. Basically, these two tweenage boys go camping on what they think is a deserted little island. They meet two girls who proceed to kick their asses in every way possible--fishing, pranks, cross-country running, everything. Bonus: the boys have a cute little Hansel and Gretel tent. Current favorite YA book is easy; I just got around to reading A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and IT IS AWESOME. As, hell, I knew it would be, like five years ago when it came out. Now I have Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing on my hold list at the library. Please come in soon, books! I HAVE TO KNOW IF GEMMA AND KARTIK GET TOGETHERRRR.

(girls'll getcha every time)

Part 14--Favorite character in a book (either sex/gender): Hmmm. This is a toughie...there are so many awesome characters throughout literature! Hard question fail. Here are a few of my faves:

+Guenever (the T.H. White version); she is really, REALLY well-written for being...Guenever. Mostly she is boring and/or irritating, right? White gives her the time of day and more, and does a great job with her character.

+Keladry of Mindelan (Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce); she's the best of Pierce's heroines--in the Tortallverse, anyway--being cool-headed, very self-controlled, funny, hardworking, compassionate, and many other fine things. Her interior monologue is excellent and relatable.

+Lily Bart (Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth); so sorrowful! So full of life! So misunderstood! Tragic.

+Bathsheba Everdene (Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy); the quintessential Hardy heroine--headstrong in ways that society can't comprehend, beautiful, hardworking, tragic but ultimately transcendent.

+Maurice Hall (E.M. Forster, Maurice); I must just love tragic figures (der). Maurice is the tragicest of the tragic--a gay man as closeted as only a late Victorian could be, who finds love and then loses it and finds it again. A beautiful, sad character and story.

Part 15--Your "comfort" book: I have a few. A couple have already been mentioned, and so I will not belabor them. A few more are The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (not exactly COMFORTING but her prose is so lovely), The Awakening by Kate Chopin (again, not comforting in its themes or plot, but gorgeous and one I love to reread), 1984 (why are all my comfort books depressing??), Saturday by Ian McEwan, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Many--maybe most--of my comfort books that aren't kids/YA are things I read in high school. I wonder if that means something.