A Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell (review by Bella Aire)

Summary (provided by Amazon):
Cora Bradley dreams of escape. Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt suffocated by her small town and high school. She seeks solace in drawing beautiful maps, envisioning herself in exotic locales. When Cora begins to fall for Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died, she uncovers her brother's secret artistic life and realizes she had more in common with him than she ever imagined. With stunning lyricism, Sandell weaves a tale of one girl's journey through the redemptive powers of art, friendship, and love.

They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me. I want to do things-I want to walk the rain-soaked streets of London, and drink mint tea in Casablanca. I want to wander the wastelands of the Gobi desert and see a yak. I think my life's ambition is to see a yak. I want to bargain for trinkets in an Arab market in some distant, dusty land. There's so much. But, most of all, I want to do things that will mean something.

-- From A MAP OF THE KNOWN WORLD.

NSCG Review:

Full of lyrical phasing, vivid memories, and honest feeling, A Map of the Known World is a beautifully written YA novel. Readers will be moved by the story of Cora dealing with the loss of her older brother, Nate. Her attempts to understand her brother and the rift that had grown between them before his death shows her struggle. Cora no longer seems to fit in the world she used to live in, and instead of turning to her old friends or family, she makes a connection with the most unlikely--or perhaps most likely--of people.

Damian, Nate’s rebellious best friend, survived the crash that Nate did not. Cora and Damian’s relationship does not start smooth due to the fact that Cora, following in her parents’ footsteps, blames Damian for being a “bad influence”. However, soon the two form an unusual bond through art. But will memories of Nate tear the bond apart…or make it stronger?

The strongest part of the novel is Cora’s recollections of her brother. Lisa Ann Sandell really deserves some praise for making them incredibly touching and heartfelt and just…beautiful. The only real problem I had with this novel was with the angry scenes. For some reason, the writing became stilted during shouting matches, etc. However, this didn’t prove a large enough hitch to distract from the novel’s focus.

Did I like it better than Song of the Sparrow (a favorite of mine and one of Sandell’s earlier works)? I can’t say for certain. It would be like comparing apples and oranges. World is very different from Sparrow in writing style, mood, and many other ways. The one constant seems to be Sandell’s lyricism. Both were wonderful, so I’d suggest reading both.

-Bella Aire

A Map of the Known World can be purchased here.

Visit the author at her website.

Lisa Ann Sandell is also a Geek Fest author! Check out her guest blog for the event here.

WIN The Song of the Sparrow and an ARC of A Map of The Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell!

I loved Lisa Ann Sandell's beautiful The Song of the Sparrow.

Synopsis:

Since the days of King Arthur, there have been poems and paintings created in her name. She is Elaine of Ascolat, the Lady of Shalott, and now there is a book all her own. The year is 490 A.D. and 16-year-old Elaine has a temperament to match her fiery red hair. Living on a military base with her father, brothers, and the rest of Arthur's army, Elaine pines for the handsome Lancelot, and longs for a female friend. But when the cruel, beautiful Gwynivere arrives, Elaine is confronted with startling emotions of jealousy and rivalry. Can Elaine find the strength to survive the birth of a kingdom?

And I can't wait to read A Map of the Known World, which sounds absolutely incredible.

Synopsis:

Cora Bradley dreams of escape. Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt suffocated by her small town and high school. She seeks solace in drawing beautiful maps, envisioning herself in exotic locales. When Cora begins to fall for Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died, she uncovers her brother's secret artistic life and realizes she had more in common with him than she ever imagined. With stunning lyricism, Sandell weaves a tale of one girl's journey through the redemptive powers of art, friendship, and love.

They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me. I want to do things-I want to walk the rain-soaked streets of London, and drink mint tea in Casablanca. I want to wander the wastelands of the Gobi desert and see a yak. I think my life's ambition is to see a yak. I want to bargain for trinkets in an Arab market in some distant, dusty land. There's so much. But, most of all, I want to do things that will mean something.

Sounds like something you'd be interested in? Entering for this contest is easy, and there are tons of ways to rack up extra entries.

Enter by leaving a comment below including your email address. The winner will receive a both The Song of the Sparrow and an ARC of A Map of the Known World! If you are uncomfortable leaving your email address below, feel free to shoot me an email at not_so_cg[at]yahoo[dot]com instead with the subject "Lisa Ann Sandell Contest".

Extra Entries:
+1 Leave a comment on Lisa's guest blog
+1 Visit Lisa's website and tell me about one thing you learned there about Lisa or her books in your comment
+1 If you become a NSCG follower
+1 If you become a NSCG reader by subscribing to our myspace blog (www.myspace.com/not_so_cg)
+2 If you were a follower before Geek Fest
+2 If you were a myspace subscribed reader before Geek Fest
+4 If you link to this contest in a post, sidebar, etc (a link to this must be left in your comment)

Make sure to leave all extra entries specifics in your comment/email.

This contest closes this next Saturday (March 21th). The winner will be announced and contacted sometime during the week following.

Geekfest: Could There Be a More Beautiful Name? by Lisa Ann Sandell

Lisa Ann Sandell is the author of the lyrical The Song of the Sparrow, which has earned many starred reviews. Her vivid debut novel, The Weight of the Sky, was also well received. Her next novel, A Map of the Known World, comes out on April 15, 2009. Check in later today to have a chance at winning both The Song of the Sparrow and and ARC of A Map of the Known World in a Geek Fest contest!

Geekfest: Could there be a more beautiful name?

Cardboard. Marigold yellow and white. I remember a marigold yellow and white cardboard box filled with kitty litter, or some other granular substance that looked and felt and smelled a lot like kitty litter (minus the actual cat poo). It was a Chanukah present from my parents, the best one ever. A cardboard box filled with kitty litter and fossils. FOSSILS! As in, fragments of dinosaur bone and trilobite imprints and ancient plant remains. OMG. A box of FOSSILS buried in kitty litter! And it came with a little guidebook, a brush, and a magnifying glass. I couldn’t imagine a better present, not for Chanukah or my birthday or Christmas or National Digging Up Dinosaurs Day—if only that were a holiday.

Well, as soon as my parents presented this magical box to me and I tore off the dreidel-covered wrapping paper, I began picking through the bits of gray, slightly smelly pieces of gravel, or litter box filler, excitedly unearthing piece after piece of prehistoric treasure. I flipped through the book; identified each piece I found, carefully dusting off the microscopic specks of dust; and stuck a small square sticker on whatever flat surface I could find. I painstakingly labeled those stickers with neatly drawn numbers, then pulled out a black and white freckled composition notebook and wrote the corresponding number alongside the name of the artifact. 1. Dinosaur bone (late Triassic – late Cretaceous?). 2. Trilobite (early Cambrian – lower Paleozoic), etc. Finally, I lovingly stored each fossil in a long, rectangular red velvet case, which I stored in the drawer of my night table, at my bedside, so I could examine and caress my precious finds whenever I wanted.

Oh my goodness, I was in geek heaven. A special corner of geek heaven—DINOSAUR geek heaven. And I couldn’t have been happier. Of course, I couldn’t let on to anyone I knew outside my immediate family that this was the best gift I’d ever gotten. In fact, I’m not sure anybody outside my immediate family even knew about my affinity for dinosaurs, aside from one or two bffs. And I didn’t get any less geeky as I grew older and moved into high school.

There, I was a full-fledged geek: top in my class in calculus, a chemistry lover, and…in the marching band (yes, I went to band camp). But I did everything I could to mask my geekiness. I didn’t necessarily succeed at camouflaging myself as one of the non-geeky, but not for lack of trying. I tried to dress trendily (fail), I tried to cover up my good grades, and I tried to convince myself that marching band was cool. Uh huh. Because to admit to geekiness was to admit to weakness, to loserdom, and I certainly wasn’t prepared to do that. At least not willingly.

Once I got to college, however, everything changed. There, I found that to be smart, to have “geeky” interests was actually cool. It was like four years of opposite day. And gradually I began to embrace my closeted geeky side. I learned how to recite the prologue of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English from memory; this bumped me up the geek-o-meter by about fourteen thousand points. Suddenly, I was kind of cool. I majored in medieval English literature and focused on Arthurian legend. Girls who love the mythology of King Arthur are not often considered cool, but in my college English department, it wasn’t even a question. The research that went into my senior thesis led to my second book, Song of the Sparrow. Snap!

And when I left college, suddenly, I realized, the geekier one was, the better. The more I read, the more I knew; the more Star Trek I watched, the more I had to talk about with my friends. Now, as a tried and true geek—still a space and dinosaur lover—and a fan of Battlestar Galactica, when people ask me if I watched the original Battlestar Galactica series (which I didn’t), I feel a pang of anxiety because maybe…maybe I’m not geeky enough. Ah, how things change. For the better!

So, I say: Geeks, stand strong. Wear your fossil-loving, dinosaur-hearting sci-fi nerdiness like the badge of honor that it is! And, geeks, unite!