North of Beautiful (A Justina Chen Novel) (edition 2009)

One of the most amazing and beautiful books i have ever read! ( )

i dropped this book north of beautiful by justina chen. i have heard so many good things about it from my cousins and kids in my grade and my friends, so many people have recomended it. ever since i was little though, i have had trouble understanding books and reading in genereal. i got pretty far into this book actually but i had to re read a lt of the pages and paragraphs and sentences up to four or five times and depeniding on what it was, i still didnt get it. the first few parts of the book just were not interseting, and i think thats why i had to re read becasue i spaced out while reading becasue it didnt cathc my attention. i definately want to try to read this book again. i feel im not ready to take on this big book.

Terra is nearly counting the days until she can escape her small Northwestern town and go to college a year early. She wants to escape her sad, trapped mother, and her nagging, nasty father, and she wants to move to a place where people don't know her as the girl with the port-wine stain. When Terra meets Jacob, a boy adopted from China when he was young, she finds an unexpected soulmate who understands what it means to be different. A trip with his mother and her mother to China allows them all to discover more about themselves and the true meaning of beautiful, and Terra figures out how to navigate her world.

Headley's novel is beautifully written and full of characters that have varying levels of depth. Readers will find themselves drawn to Jacob's warmth and frustrated by what a dick Terra's dad is. Others will root for her mother as she finds her inner-strength.

Although the pacing is slow, the story is compelling enough to see it through to the end. Some readers might bristle at the sheer number of references to cartography and directions, but for the most part, it works within Headley's larger framework.

An interesting read that will leave some readers wondering about the characters long after they finish the last page. ( )

Once upon a time, I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning while sitting under the covers in a darkened air force base hotel, watching a PBS Nova special about the magnetic poles. (hold on while I push up my nerd glasses) The people I was with were all asleep but I was watching it, flabbergasted, and wanting to wake them up--because I never knew, until that moment, that what we know as magnetic north and south have changed several times in the history of Earth. Can you imagine? Obviously it blew my mind. And we're overdue for another change! (Here's the link if you are interested: Your Mind Blown)

Anyway, the point of this story is that this book has a map and discovery theme that I found totally refreshing. Though the story is one of self discovery and relationship evaluation, I felt like the author did an amazing job of making the story original and the characters believable and multidimensional. After reading, I can say that this book evoked the same sort of reaction from me that I felt after reading [b:Saving Francesca|82434|Saving Francesca|Melina Marchetta|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1302788502s/82434.jpg|1369647]--I really enjoyed it and moreso because it dealt with heavier issues in a realistic way. In this novel, the protagonist is a girl who has a large portwine stain birthmark on her face which resulted in teasing from her peers and low self-esteem. While she does come into herself, and that is the largest focus of the book, the storyline I felt most involved in was that of the family dynamics.

The way [a:Justina Chen Headley|190922|Justina Chen Headley|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1279772065p2/190922.jpg] writes family scenes is so real that I actually cried thinking about how heart-wrenching being in that situation would be. Each member of a family has a different impact on your life and Headley's writing made me think about where the pressures in my life are coming from--good and bad--and how the failure of someone in your family can devastate other people nearly as much as the person who failed at something. And, in the same vein, one person's negativity or rudeness can ruin an adventure/day/dinner for the entire family. (Boy, do I ever know what that is about...)

Headley wove so many interesting tidbits into this story that I really can't talk about them all, but here are a few more topics that I found of particular interest:

*Cartographers drew dragons and sea monsters in sections of the oceans on maps to keep people from going to those areas. (who knew?!)
*As adults, I feel we accept a lot more quirks in people. It saddens me to think how many people feel left out in high school.
*Memento mori
*Headley mentions a mnemonic device to remember the streets in downtown Seattle! Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest (Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, Pine)
*I want to go geocaching.

I am between 4 and 5 stars on this book but I'm closer to the 5 so that's what it gets. (Edited it down 5/11) I definitely recommend it but beware, the love interest is goth. At first, I didn't get it, but I really came to like him by the end. You will, too. ( )

I'm sure this must get better as it goes on but the opening was too dull for me to want to spend any more time finding out.