Celebrating THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE

It's Thursday, and we know what that means, right? It's Bookanista day! For those of you not familiar with the Bookanistas, we're a group of writers celebrating books that are MADE OF AWESOME.

Awesome, I tell you.

So today, I'm celebrating a book that's so good that it KILLED ME. That's right, people. I am now DEAD. OoOoOoooOOOoh. (And doesn't this make you want to read it?) I picked up The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson on the strong recommendation of a couple of fabulous book bloggers. I will admit a few things. First, that I'd picked it up once before, looked at the cover, and kinda lost interest. Second, that I'm not usually a fan of death-in-the-family books, unless the dead person gets up and STARTS WRITING BOOK REVIEWS. But this book awed and thrilled me. It's SO FREAKING GOOD that I CAN'T STOP USING CAPITAL LETTERS.

Yeah, that good.

From the book jacket:Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.

So, without further ado, five things I loved about The Sky is Everywhere:

1. I finally have something to say when people ask me why orange is my favorite color. I used to say, "Well, why not?" or something about Halloween. But now I can borrow a line from the book and say, "Orange is the color of extraordinary."
   
2. At one point, the main character internally chants all these words for boner. It cracked me up, and it made me really want to hang out with her. I was totally a boner chant girl in high school.
   
3. Frankly, there were very few characters that I WOULDN'T want to hang with. From Gran to Uncle Big to Lennie herself, they all felt so freaking real. And strange and funny and delightfully half-cracked.
   
4. NO FLASHBACKS. That's one of the things that kills me about death-in-the-family books. All the flashbacks of times WHEN THINGS WERE PERFECT. And I can just imagine the sappy movie montage with the orchestra score, and it leaves me wishing that aliens would choose that moment to invade the planet and start randomly blasting things with lasers. It makes me feel manipulated, and I don't like that. And invariably, the dead person ends up all Mary Sueish and way up on a pedestal, which I don't like either. This book did none of those things. Bailey was dead and stayed that way.
   
5. The writing was so good that it killed me. But then I got up and started working on the new book, and I'm inspired to do better. Even though I'm now undead. And chanting the word "boner" in my head.

So there you go! If you read it, let me know what you think. And if you're looking for a little more book-related awesome, check out these other Bookanista bloggers:

• Katie Anderson raves about THE LIAR SOCIETY
  
• Jen Hayley lauds DELIRIUM
  
• Shelli Johannes-Wells gives a shoutout to IN LOVE WITH HARLEQUIN
  
• Elana Johnson and Christine Fonseca recommend Michelle McLean's HOMEWORK HELPERS: TERM PAPERS AND ESSAYS with Giveaways
  
• Jessi Kirby admires MATCHED
  
• Shannon Messenger commends THE LIAR SOCIETY with an ARC Giveaway
  
• Carolina Valdez Miller salutes XVI with Signed Book Giveaway
  
• Megan Miranda gives some love to ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
  
• Shana Silver cheers for HERE LIES BRIDGET
  
• Scott Tracey acclaims DIVERGENT
  
• Bethany Wiggins praises Michelle McLean's HOMEWORK HELPERS: TERM PAPERS AND ESSAYS