Carpe Diem

This enjoyable story goes from moments of hilarity to moments of terror as it follows a young woman on her journey of self-discovery through Southeast Asia. Vassar Spoor is just as preppy as her name sounds--encouraged by her parents to set goals and aim for the top she has a life plan that includes becoming valedictorian of her prep school, attending Vassar, and marrying a doctor. But she doesn't count on her Grandma Gerd sending her a plane ticket so that she can spend the summer trekking through Southeast Asia with her. Mysteriously Vassar's parents decide she should go--after it appears Grandma Gerd has blackmailed them with a family secret. Suddenly Vassar is thrust into a world of high humidity, strange bathroom habits, Malaysian show more cowboys, un-trustworthy relatives, and 'the big secret'. She manages to survive it all, learns to 'LIM'--live in the moment, and learns a lot about herself--including "the big secret", which concerns her very identity.
I highly enjoyed this romp of a story; Vassar's adventures are truly over the top in hilarity and danger. Having traveled to Southeast Asia I also delighted in the many aspects of the setting and culture that I recognized--the author did a wonderful job of describing the unique locale. At least I never found myself mooning a bunch of Asians after a bathroom mishap on a boat, but I can see it happening! Some of the antics of the grandmother and the danger she put Vassar in made me really angry, and while she miraculously survives the lightheartedness trivializes some of the very real dangers of travelling in this part of the world--or with a grandmother who will steal and cheat to get her way. Vassar's courage and ability to overcome lost contact lenses, hostile natives, and the terrors of the jungle were amazing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone! The audio version is wonderful, by the way, the narrator captured each characters voice with the right nuance and kept up with the fast pace of this adventurous story well. show less

Carpe Diem turned out to be a surprisingly good read about travels in Southeast Asia (where, according to the book, rolls of toilet paper are placed on restaurant tables to be used as napkins). This is one of the few times I've read about the Hmong since The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and I found the contrast between the happy family and the drug den very interesting. Ultimately it's a YA novel with the requisite teen age love story, and the worst possible narrator, Lynde Houck on the audiobook, and alas a really stupid christian miracle (what do you expect from the daughter of missionaries?). But it's worth a read for the very interesting details of travel.

The characters can be cartoonish at times (Malaysian cowboy?? List-making overachiever named Vassar??) but reading it put me in mind of the old screwball comedy movies and that's not all bad. Entertaining and amusing coming-of-age story.

I agree with community reviewer Kara that this is a book you can't judge by the first bit. ?áDon't give up on it too early. ?áI disagree with her about the final rating. ?áUltimately, it's as superficial as chick lit, and really should have a pink cover accessorized by symbols of Vassar's rich, planned, Western life contrasted with symbols of her quest for a sense of a spiritual identity and a global perspective in rural SE Asia. ?á

I picked it up because of the title and cover. ?áI wanted a story that was powerful enough to hit home, to help me act more boldly and spontaneously. ?áBut this disappoints. ?áIt's not a bad book for a casual reader, but it's not what it could have been.

Vassar has everything on track with her life. Her mother is a life coach and has spent the whole of Vassar's life being her personal life coach. She has a few friends, and grand plans for her last 2 years of high school that will ensure her entry into the college Vassar. That is until her grandmother calls and blackmails her parents into sending her to join her grandmother on a tour of southern Asia. This change of plans throws Vassar for a loop and she learns more about herself and her family than she ever dreamed she would.

Susan says: This is a quirky book, but I really liked it. Vassar Spore lives with parents who are planners and organizers, and as such her life is planned down to the minute, including how she will already become the valedictorian of her class, even though she is a junior. Her parents tell her she doesn't have time for romance or anything outside of the curriculum until...her grandmother sends her a ticket to Malaysia to stay with her for the summer. This results in a wild, unplanned trip, culminating in a trek up a Laotian mountain. Things are definitely out of Vassar's control, and it is chaotic but fun. This is definitely a coming of age book, and there are some unexpected twists, but it was good. Very refreshing and funny and unusual.

Based on everyone else's reviews and mine, I'm not sure we read the same book!

The Good: The characters were cool. You got your hippie internationally traveling Grandma, your Asian cowboy love interest, your over-bearing all-or-nothing parents, you super smart (but different) friends, and your over-acheiver main character.

Vassar got into really interesting situations. Even though they did not make me laugh out funny, but they did make me smile.

Umm... I can't really think of anymore good thinks to say about this book.

The Bad: Vassar really got on my nerves. In my opinion, I felt that she was too much of a smart ass to be relateable. Although she does mature eventually, we were already 2/3 into the book before we saw that change! I just show more wanted to smack her so bad.

Not only is she a smart aleck, the girl bought food sanitizer from someone off the street (that is just retarded), brought 10 jumbo bags with her ON A TREK (you'd think someone that smart would know what a trek is), and just complained about the heat on almost every single freaking page (of course it hot, it's Asia in the summer!).

Don't get me wrong, I love character growth as much as the next person, but Vassar is just out of my empathetic range. I just can't find her relateable.

Another thing, almost all the reviews were saying how wonderful the descriptions of the scenery were... Really? Sorry, but I just don't see it. Maybe it's because I'm Asian and I already knew about the cultures there, but I thought most of them really boring and I wished the author could've toned it down a bit. Sometimes, when I wanted more misadventures in traveling, I got descriptions of a temple.

Also, "The Big Secret" was really predictable. I didn't guess exactly what it was, but I got the main idea early on in the book. And that is no fun at all when you can guess the big mystery that early.

Overall: I thought this was going to be a fast-paced, exciting read with relateable characters who just leap off the page. That was not what I got. IN my opinion, Carpe Diem was very boring and it just frustrated me so much because it could've- no, should've been so much better!

Grade: C show less