A Million Words

Review of Bitterblue

2012-01-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

Title: Bitterblue

Author: Kristin Cashore

Genre: Young Adult fantasy

Publisher: Dial Press

Publication date: May 1st, 2012

For those of you who aren't familiar with Kristin Cashore: stop reading. Right now. Well, stop reading this and go buy Graceling. Come back when you've finished it and Fire.

There are some books that I don't want to review because my grasp of language doesn't seem adequate. After reading a book like Bitterblue, in which every sentence is constructed so beautifully, I don't feel like I can do the story justice. But I'll try.

I went into Bitterblue with some anxiety: what if Katsa and Po weren't in it enough? What if they'd broken up, or gotten married, or some other unexpected turn of events? What if Bitterblue turned evil in the eight years since we saw her last? Or, perhaps worse, what if she was an implausibly perfect queen after everything that had happened?

Once I started reading, though, my anxieties didn't matter because I remembered how much I trust Kristin Cashore to deliver exactly the story I want to read. I was transported. I wish I was still in Monsea right now.

I won't post any spoilers, but know that fans of Kristin Cashore won't be disappointed. Her prose is still lyrical, lush, and sad. You will laugh out loud (more so than in the previous volumes) and you will probably also cry. You will shake your head and wonder why you thought that, maybe, this time the heroine would get a normal romance. You will fall in love with a grumpy librarian and his mangy, grouchy cat. You will want to start reading it again as soon as you finish.

My 2012 Wishlist

2011-12-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

Hello readers--

First, an apology for my long hiatus. Many of you know that I left bookselling at the end of August to pursue my dreams of living by the beach. I'm volunteering in a library now, but I haven't had access to any galleys. So forgive me if I'm a little behind the times, book-wise. There are no general bookstores in or near where I live. I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

I have been paying attention to what's coming out in the next few months, though, and I want to share the titles I'm excited about. Without further ado, here is the first category in my 2012 wishlist:

Young Adult:

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler: January 3rd from Simon Pulse

A once-bitten, twice-shy heroine who bakes lots of sweets? A winter romance? Sign me up! I love the way that Sarah Ockler portrays the magnified drama of being a teenager in such a way that you empathize with the characters.

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick: January 28th from Lerner Publishing Group

I was sold on Ilsa J. Bick when I read Ashes; Drowning Instinct, while less apocalyptic, promises the same gritty, emotional ride.

The Agency #3: The Traitor and the Tunnel by Y. S. Lee: February 28th from Candlewick Press

If you haven't read this series, check it out. They're Victorian mysteries with an atypical heroine: rescued from the gallows as a child, Mary Quinn grew up in a boarding school for female detectives. Romance, intrigue, Victorian history--all the things I love.

Croak by Gina Damico: March 20th from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Lex Bartleby is a troublemaker. Her family finally sends her to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer--where she ends up learning the family business: reaping. This promises to be a hysterically funny, insightful novel from a debut author. I've read Gina's writing--we went to college together--so I know that this one is not to be missed.

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman: April 10th from Random House Children's Books

Like her other books, The Book of Blood and Shadow promises to be fast-paced and creatively plotted. Robin Wasserman is the master of the plot twist. Add in Prague, some old manuscripts, and some mysterious conspirators and you've got the makings of a great story.

The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi: May 1st from Little, Brown

This companion to Ship Breakers is more dystopian grunge from a writer who is gaining popularity with each book.

Crazy by Amy Reed: June 12th from Simon Pulse

Amy Reed takes controversial topics and makes them real. She doesn't push the "moral of the story," she makes you understand why teenagers sometimes turn to the dark side--and what it's like for them when they're there.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2 by Laini Taylor: September from Little, Brown

I probably shouldn't include this one, since she's still writing it--but I really can't wait for this book. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the most magical, exquisite YA novel I've read this year (okay, so maybe it's tied with Chime) and I'm eagerly awaiting the continuation of the story.

2011-11-10T08:56:00.001-08:00

Title: Carter Finally Gets It

Author: Brent Crawford

Genre: Young Adult fiction

Publisher: Hyperion

Publication date: Available now in paperback

So. Freakin. Funny.

Never has a book made me almost-pee-my-pants as frequently as this one. Somehow Brent Crawford has taken the average high school boy's everyday life and made it laugh out loud funny. And I do mean laugh out loud. At one point I was cackling like a madwoman while sitting under the hair dryer at the salon.

Carter is your average freshman boy: ADD, a difficult older sister, awkward around girls, a group of friends with weird nicknames. He thinks that starting high school is a good time to become cool, if only his brain would stop forcing him to make bad decisions. And now, there are girls added into the equation.

At first I was trying to mark passages to illustrate the utter hilarity of this book, but soon I realized that I was marking almost every page. You'll just have to read it for yourself. It's right up there with KING DORK for Funniest Book About Teenage Boys.

Review of Above

2011-11-02T22:29:00.001-07:00

Title: Above

Author: Leah Bobet

Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Publication date: April 1st, 2012

This is a beautiful, sad story. Underneath the world is a place called Safe, where anyone Sick or Freak or Beast is given Sanctuary. Matthew, the Teller, was born there. It is his duty to collect the tales of Safe so that they can be recorded for future generations. And then, on Sanctuary Night, the unthinkable happens. Suddenly Matthew finds himself in Above with a ragtag collection of refugees from Safe. He must use all the skills he has--for Telling, for Passing, and for loving Safe--to help reclaim his home.

It has been a while since I read a book this lyrical. Seeing through Matthew's eyes, thinking his thoughts--I could almost believe that Safe is real. The prose is lovely, round, and vivid; at times it felt like poetry. At other times it felt like a painting come to life.

Matthew's relationship with Ariel, a winged girl whom he rescued some time ago, is perhaps the true heart of the story. She is broken by her past, and Matthew has spent months learning the quiet, slow ways of holding her together. Their exile from Safe is anything but quiet and slow, and both Matthew and Ariel are forced to confront things that they have spent much of their lives hiding from.

Part DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, part MS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH, and all its own, ABOVE is a book that can't be missed.

Review of Clean

2011-09-30T07:46:00.001-07:00

Title: Clean
Author: Amy Reed
Genre: Young adult contemporary fiction
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: July 19th, 2011

When I was growing up, my family moved a lot. Like, a lot. By the time I was 14 I was living in my third state in five years and attending my fifth school. That's when I discovered the library.

I'm not sure if it was just the tiny library in upstate New York, or the general state of YA literature back then, but there was a lot of British YA about drug addicts and delinquent kids. I read everything I could get my hands on, reading as many as 7 or 8 books a week in the summer. So I know about rehab books. And this is not your average rehab book.

CLEAN revolves around five teenagers, each of whom is in recovery from different things and for different reasons. The main narrators are Kelly and Christopher, although we get transcripts from group therapy and excerpts from the teens' entry essays to fill in the blanks. Their stories are surprisingly accessible. I've never had a drug problem but I found myself almost empathizing with Kelly and Christopher. Their voices are so vivid. Their stories get inside of you and live there for a while.

My favorite thing, though, was the transcripts from Group. As a teacher, I'm very sensitive to realistic dialogue. There's nothing I hate more than a good YA book with dialogue that sounds like an adult's idea of what The Kids say to each other. This is not one of those. Amy Reed somehow packs a world of nuance, back story, and group dynamics into Group sessions characterized by the monosyllabic, evasive responses to questions posed by the Group leader.

I loved this book. I'm going to read BEAUTIFUL next, and then eagerly await whatever Amy Reed is working on now.

Review of Anna Dressed in Blood

2011-09-26T15:10:00.001-07:00

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Genre: Young Adult paranormal fiction
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication date: August 30th, 2011

I don't read a whole lot of paranormal fiction, and ghosts are not my thing. Something else that's not my thing: buying hardcovers. However, when I heard all the raves about ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, I threw all my "usuallys" out the window and bought it.

Holy crap.

So, if you are squeamish about corpses, ghosts dripping blood, ghosts with no eyes, basements full of dead bodies, etc, then this book is going to FREAK YOU OUT. In a kind of awesome way.

If you are a fan of badass male narrators, aloof cats, mean girls who are actually nice, and homicidal spirits, then you should go buy this book.

Cas is a ghost hunter, just like his father was. He spends a few months here and few months there, following the call of the kill. He moves to a small town in Canada for his senior year of high school, because the town is haunted by an especially prolific murderer: Anna Dressed in Blood, a young girl who was killed several decades ago. Everything seems to be going as normal until Cas actually meets Anna--and discovers that, for the first time, he is in over his head.

It's rare that I ever identify with a male narrator in YA. Cas is one of the few that I almost understand. He's angry. He's isolated. He doesn't know how to relate to people his own age after everything he's seen. And like Cassel Sharpe in Holly Black's WHITE CAT, he is still coming of age despite missing out on his childhood.

Although the plot is well-developed and interesting, the character development is what I love most about ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD. I can't wait for the second book, which is due out at the end of next year.

Review of Drink, Slay, Love

2011-09-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

Title: Drink, Slay, Love
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication date: September 13th, 2011

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King's feast -- as the entrees.

The only problem? Pearl's starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she's definitely dead if she lets down her family. What's a sunlight-loving vamp to do?

My take:

I am so tired of vampire novels, but this doesn't quite qualify. Durst spends as much time making fun of vampire novels as she does writing one. I mean, the main character gets staked by a UNICORN in the first 20 pages. Hilarious.

Honestly, though? My favorite thing about this book was Zeke and Matt, a.k.a. Tall and Chubby. They're Buffy enthusiasts, amateur slayers, and pretty much nerds personified. Their dialogue had me cracking up. Don't get me wrong, I liked the other zany characters, but Zeke and Matt are my brothers in nerdery.

I think that vampire fans will like this, but so will readers who are tired of vampires. Either way, you should probably read it.

Review of Liesl and Po

2011-09-15T07:34:00.001-07:00

Title: Liesl and Po
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: October 4th, 2011

Ever since I read a galley of BEFORE I FALL, I've been a fan of Lauren Oliver. She sucks you in with an inventive plot, but you stay for the writing. And in LIESL AND PO, her first middle grade novel, the writing is Oliver's best yet.

Before the story starts, there's an author's note. Lauren Oliver wrote this book in a place of profound sadness after the death of her best friend. The story is such an elegant, eloquent expression of her grief--it's sad, funny, angry, lonely, touching, and redemptive all in the right proportions.

LIESL AND PO is like a cross between THE GRAVEYARD BOOK and THE SECRET GARDEN. It's on the darker side, although it's got bits of heartwarming humor. The world is one that hasn't seen the sun in over a thousand days. Nothing thrives. Add to that the fact that Liesl has been locked in the attic for weeks and just lost her father, and you've got the makings of a real downer. When Po and Bundle arrive, however, things start to look up.

In the weeks after my own best friend's death, I think I would have found Oliver's descriptions of the Other Side comforting. Although this is a middle grade novel, it addresses timeless feelings, and it does so beautifully. I will happily--and sadly--read this book again.

Review: Under the Never Sky

2011-09-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

Title: Under the Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: January 3rd 2012

In Veronica Rossi's version of the future, the world is fraught with deadly electrical storms and the human race has been split in two. Half, the Dwellers, have retreated into insular communities called Pods. In the Pods, food is genetically altered, body processes are carefully regulated, and most people spend their waking moments in the Realms, a series of virtual worlds that are "Better Than Real." Outside, humans have reverted to basic survival methods to outrun the Aether storms. They live by their wits and rely on Blood Lords to unite and protect them.

After many generations, the two groups have begun to evolve apart.

Aria is a Dweller, living in Reverie. Her mother, Lumina, is doing research in another Pod when the link suddenly goes down. In an effort to reach her mother, Aria tricks a consul's son into taking her into an abandoned Ag pod. Her plan goes awry and she is banished from Reverie and abandoned in the Outside.

There she meets Peregrine, another outcast.

At first I wasn't sold on this book. It seemed like yet another somewhat hard-to-swallow dystopian landscape, full of inexplicable rules and a heroine who breaks free of blah blah blah and etc. etc. Around the time that we meet Peregrine, though, things start to look up. It's not often that I identify more with a male narrator than a female one, especially when the male narrator is written by a female author. In UNDER THE NEVER SKY, however, I found myself waiting for Perry's chapters to come up. The way Rossi links scent and emotion is so evocative, I found myself wondering if she has synesthesia. I found myself wondering if I have synesthesia, too--that's how good her descriptions are.

Also: not enough male heroes have blond dreadlocks and tattoos. Hot.

Rossi builds her world with a combination of imagination and science, creating a landscape that is both real and magical. Although the story is a little predictable, I highly recommend it to fans of MATCHED, DELIRIUM, BUMPED, and GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS.

Review of Reamde

2011-09-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

Title: Reamde
Author: Neal Stephenson
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: September 20th, 2011

REAMDE begins with Richard Forthrast: draft dodger, marijuana smuggler, Iowa farmboy, and most recently, CEO of Corporation 9592, which created the online world of T'Rain. He's a workaholic making a halfhearted attempt at retirement when a virus called REAMDE wreaks havoc among the T'Rain community. Caught up in the drama is Richard's niece Zula. The story skips and weaves among the many characters whose lives tangle together in the wake of REAMDE.

Reading this book isn't the normal reading experience, in which one sits down and finds out what is going to happen next. You don't read REAMDE, you inhabit it. During the days I spent reading it, I would wake up and ask myself, "I wonder what Zula is doing right now." Because, while I was inside the world of REAMDE, the characters were as real as anyone else I encountered throughout the day. Even when I wasn't reading, they were there, eating and sleeping and living right alongside me. That's Neal Stephenson's particular brand of genius.

I read the Advance Reader's Edition of this book, which is 981 pages long. Every single one of those pages is riveting. I don't know how he did it, but Stephenson somehow wrote a thriller that's packed with nonstop action for almost a thousand pages. Reading it is exhausting and exhilarating.

Neal Stephenson's cult following will love this, but I think it will also earn him some new fans. I for one will be recommending it to everyone.

Review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone

2011-09-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publication date: September 27th, 2011

Although I originally wrote this review in July, my feelings about the book have only intensified. At the time I read it, I didn't know that I would no longer be a bookseller when the book was released--but you better believe I'm going to be at the closest independent bookstore on pub date, handing the book to everyone who walks in the door.

Original review:

Whenever I try to put my feelings about this book into words, they all crowd to the front at once and get tangled up. I'm not sure I can do it justice without a paintbrush and some interpretive dance to express the more visual and kinesthetic ways that I love this book. I'm very, very sad that I will never get to read it for the first time again. This is the jacket copy:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Karou.

Karou. She is so awesome. From the moment I met her, I wanted to be her. She's so badass, with a side of lonely and vulnerable. She doesn't always make the best choices. She's definitely not perfect. But I wouldn't have wanted to read about her if she was.

Much of the story takes place in Prague, which is magical even without Karou and her cronies. Laini Taylor has infused the city with sparkle dust, making it somewhere that every reader is going to want to go. It's mysterious, welcoming, layered, and alive.

I can't say much about the plot without spoiling it, but let me just say that you better clear your schedule if you're going to read this book. On the other hand, you might want to drag it out as long as possible so you don't have to come to the end.

In conclusion, September can't come soon enough. I can't wait to share this book with everyone.

Review: The Name of the Star

2011-08-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

Title: The Name of the Star
Author: Maureen Johnson
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Mystery
Publisher: Putnam
Publication date: September 20th, 2011

Rory Deveaux arrives in London expecting to spend a magical year at boarding school. Instead she discovers that, the night before her arrival, the first in a series of Jack the Ripper copycat murders has occurred. The news takes over the city. Soon everyone is involved in "Rippermania"--even, somehow, Rory Deveaux.

When I heard that Maureen Johnson was deviating from her usual type of book (funny contemporary novel) and doing a mystery with GHOSTS IN IT, I was a little nervous. It's hard to be hilarious when a Jack the Ripper copycat is chopping people up. And her hilariousness is one of the things I love about MJ.

So I went into this book with reservations. They disappeared somewhere around the second paragraph.

We've come to expect funny observations, realistic interpersonal relationships, and loveable characters from Johnson, and this book has all three. It also has undertones of creepiness and lots of hidden London lore.

I didn't find myself connecting with Rory, the main character, in the way I've connected with some of Johnson's other narrators, but that's partly because she's so entertaining to just stand back and watch. She comes from small-town Louisiana and has been dropped into an exclusive London boarding school. There's potential for a lot of humor there, and Johnson delivers.

Review by Mayfair

2011-08-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

Title: Fury
Author: Elizabeth Miles
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Fiction
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: August 30th, 2011
Reviewed by: Mayfair

In the town of Ascension, Em is falling for her best friends boyfriend. She knows it's bad but she can't help it. When her best friend Gabby leaves town Em makes her move. Chase is having problems. His social life is going downhill and he's made a bad mistake. A mistake that's haunting him, a mistake that no one would have guessed he would do. Three beautiful, mysterious sisters have come to Ascension to choose who will pay. Em and Chase have been chosen.

Author Elizabeth Miles has done a fine job for her first novel. She delves in deep to the characters so that you get a real feel of what they're going through. On a different note, I feel as though the title gives away too much of the book and that it ruins some of the surprise.

Other books like Fury:

Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Review of Born Wicked

2011-08-20T08:48:00.001-07:00

Title: Born Wicked
Author: Jessica Spotswood
Genre: Young Adult Historical/Paranormal
Publisher: Putnam Books for Young Readers
Publication date: February 7th, 2012

It has taken me a long time to put my thoughts about this book into words. I'm not sure why. Probably because it wasn't what I was expecting.

BORN WICKED is about three sisters who are witches. They keep their powers secret, though, because the Brotherhood arrests anyone suspected of witchcraft. Cate is the oldest sister, and considers it her duty to protect her family from suspicion. When her father decides to hire a governess for the girls, concealing their powers becomes a lot more difficult.

I'm not a big fan of "witch books" and other paranormal fiction, but I liked this. I think part of the reason I liked it is that the setting has a real Victorian feel to it, which is something I DO love to read. The relationships between the sisters are very believable, too. I'm curious to see where the next book takes the Cahill witches.

Secret Bonus Task #6

2011-07-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hey Challengers, I hope you're getting a lot of reading done during your vacations! This year's Grand Prize is going to be AWESOME: a party at the bookstore with ten of your friends! Remember, the more levels you pass (and the more Secret Bonus Tasks you complete), the more entries you get in the Grand Prize Drawing!

This week's Secret Bonus Task is actually going to last for two weeks. You have until Thursday, August 4th to complete it.

On a Scene Sketch form, draw a picture of one of your favorite scenes from a book. When you’re done drawing, answer the questions at the bottom. Since this is a two-week Secret Bonus Task, you will earn TWO extra entries in the Grand Prize Drawing!

Scene sketch forms are available at the bookstore, or you can email p1ratewench@hotmail.com for an electronic copy.

Secret Bonus Task #5

2011-07-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

Hey Challengers!

The Summer Reading Challenge is flying by! I can't believe it's already half over.

Our Secret Bonus Task this week is a fun one!

Come to the Christmakkuh in July raffle at 5 p.m. on July 23rd. The Raffle will take place at A Great Good Place for Books. Raffle tickets are on sale now for $1.

Raffle prizes include:

a $50 gift card to the bookstore
a prize pack of forthcoming fiction and nonfiction titles
a prize pack of forthcoming dystopian titles
a children's birthday party at the bookstore
Kathleen visits your book club
a free yearly membership in the audio rental program

Don't miss it!

Secret Bonus Task #4

2011-07-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Helloooooo, Challengers! I know a lot of you are on vacation this week, so hopefully you're getting tons of reading done!

Are you ready to find out about the fourth Secret Bonus Task?

Are you sure?

Okay.

Here it is:

Think about all the things you love about your favorite book. On a 3x5 card, write:

The title and author of the book
A few sentences explaining why you love it
Your name

Bring the card to the bookstore. If we have the book, we'll put your card inside so people can see it when they're browsing.

Keep reading!

Secret Bonus Task #3

2011-06-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hey, Summer Reading Challengers! Things are heating up...we've already had over twenty kids finish level one! Remember, you get one entry in the Grand Prize Drawing for every level you complete, and one more entry for every Secret Bonus Task you finish.

Here's the third Secret Bonus Task:

Fill out a character sketch for a character you've invented. The character sketches are available on the Summer Reading Challenge wall at the bookstore. Or you can email me (Jake) at p1ratewench@hotmail.com and I'll email you a copy.

Hand in your completed character sketch when you turn in your next level. The sheets will be available until 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 7th.

Happy reading! And happy Independence Day!

jake

Secret Bonus Task #2

2011-06-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

Secret Bonus Task #2:

Come to the 2nd annual Children's Book Swap! The swap is this Sunday, June 26th at 5 p.m. Bring all the used books you don't read any more and trade them for other books!

All donations must be received at the store by 4 p.m. on Sunday. There will be a sale at the front of the store for grown-ups.

Secret Bonus Task #1

2011-06-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry, Summer Reading Challengers--I didn't realize you were coming to the blog to find the Secret Bonus Tasks! I'll be posting them here on Friday from now on. They will also be on the Summer Reading Challenge wall at the bookstore.

The first Secret Bonus Task is this:

When you pick up your Reading Record at the store, write the code word "NOSTRIL" at the bottom of the page. You'll get an extra entry in the grand prize drawing when you hand in your Reading Record.

Good luck, and keep reading!

(And don't forget about the Children's Book Swap on Sunday at 5 p.m.)

Review by Mayfair

2011-06-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

Title: Starcrossed
Author: Josephine Angelini
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication date: Available now in hardcover
Reviewed by: Mayfair

Helen Hamilton, a resident of the small island of Nantucket, is different, she doesnʼt know why, all she knows is she ﬁnds herself waking up from vivid nightmares feeling like sheʼs walked hundreds of miles, or feeling cramps so bad she needs to go home from school. A family moves onto the island. One of the boys, Lucas Delos, helps Helen ﬁnd what she really is, her true heritage. The Three Fates have decided that Lucas and Helen will be never be together. Will their true love overcome the power of the Three Fates?

Author Josephine Angelini has created an unpredictable plot, that will have the pages turning. Starcrossed is a Greek mythology and romance twisted book that should be a deﬁnite must-have on your book list. Angelini is an amazing author and I truly hope that she will write a sequel to Starcrossed. In fact, the ending of Starcrossed practically screamed the fact that there will be a second book.

If you liked this book you should like these books:
The Pandora Series, by Carolyn Hennesy (ages 8-12)
The Percy Jackson series, by Rick Riordan (ages 8-14)
Troy, by Adele Geras (ages 10-adult)
Fallen, by Lauren Kate (ages 12-adult)
Torment, by Lauren Kate (ages 12-adult)

Addition by Jake: you might also like Abandon by Meg Cabot (ages 14-adult).

This is Teen

2011-06-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

One of the major perks of bookselling is getting to hang out with authors. Something I've noticed in four years of spending time with authors is that there are some very different communities within the publishing world. Some authors keep to themselves. Others (usually award-winners) limit their author-author relationships to people who are at least as famous as they are. Still others have a tight-knit community of local writers.

But it's the Young Adult community that really blows my mind. These people are crazy. First of all, it seems like most of them are friends with each other, even the ones whom you'd never expect to get along. Second of all, follow any one of them on Twitter and you'll quickly learn that they have WAY more fun than you do. While you're going about your day, doing your boring day-things, they are inventing crapfts (crappy crafts) and making bets that end in someone eating a Crisco milkshake and passing around a pair of traveling pajants. I'm not making this up. All of these things have actually happened. And in between they're getting angry about injustice and convincing young people to care about something other than what their classmates are thinking about them.

Also, they write books.

So I'm always a little wary when I come across an author whom I know to belong to this group of lunatics. Some of them seem perfectly nice and normal on the outside, and then BAM! They're doing an interpretive dance to summarize their latest book for a middle-aged man who hasn't read it yet.

Which is exactly what happened last week at a Scholastic luncheon with Libba Bray.

"Livin' Large," featuring Meg Cabot, Maggie Stiefvater, and Libba Bray

I was really excited about this luncheon, because I have a lot of respect for all three authors who were there. Libba Bray (Beauty Queens), Meg Cabot (Abandon), and Maggie Stiefvater (the Shiver series and The Scorpio Races) are giants in YA literature. I don't know why I expected them to be be sober, serious professionals when I know for a fact that they're actually way more interesting than I am. The fact that Scholastic is sending them around the country together means that the publishing industry is starting to wise up to the fact that YA authors can be used for entertainment as well as for the signing of title pages. And believe you me, we got some serious entertainment.

It's common knowledge that The Young Adult Genre Is Exploding. Every day I have adults wander into the bookstore looking for this "new thing," YA. So, great, now you've read your first YA book, good for you. The next step is to start organizing outings to readings with YA authors (with, of course, a group of young adults). I promise you, something interesting will happen...and you never know who else might be in the audience.

Review of The Scorpio Races

2011-06-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Title: The Scorpio Races
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication date: October 18, 2011

I like fantasy novels; I always have. These days, with the explosion of the YA genre, it's actually a little harder to find a good, straight-up fantasy novel. It seems like everything has to include one of the current trends: vampires, or a badass female heroine, or what have you. That makes it so much more satisfying when I find an original fantasy novel.

Prior to this book, Maggie Stiefvater wrote a trilogy about werewolves that includes Shiver, Linger, and Forever. I'm not a huge fan of werewolf mythology, but what impressed me about that series was the way that Stiefvater differentiated between the four characters who narrate the series. When I picked up The Scorpio Races, I was expecting more of the same.

This book is nothing like anything I've read before.

Kate "Puck" Connolly lost her parents to the capaill uisge, the water horses, some time ago. Now she and her two brothers are struggling to make ends meet on the tiny island of Thisby, where there are more people than jobs. This year, Kate knows that she needs to make some money from the Scorpio Races, but she doesn't intend to actually race until her older brother announces that he's leaving the island. In attempt to make him stay, she enters the race as the first female rider in the race's history. Here's the catch: it's not an ordinary race. She'll have to ride a water horse.

As an Irish-American, I love the atmosphere of this novel. It's got all the music and melancholy of the traditional Celtic myths without the darkness that can easily take over. Stiefvater really brings Thisby alive, from the landscape to the weather to the colorful people who live and visit there. And Kate is a real heroine: desperate, hesitant, but fiercely courageous because she is protecting those she loves.

When I finished the book, I found myself wishing I could spend a little more time on Thisby.

Review of Lola and the Boy Next Door

2011-06-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Publisher: Dutton
Publication date: September 29th, 2011

I went into this book with mixed expectations. On one hand, there's a purple-haired girl on the cover, which is awesome. On the other hand, it isn't Anna and the French Kiss, which is an automatic mark against it (and most other contemporary YA). Plus, it's Perkins's second novel, which means it's subject to the Second Novel Curse. So I approached it with caution.

I quickly discovered that any comparison to Anna and the French Kiss was unnecessary. Lola and Anna are like apples and oranges. Lola is...crazy. Like, the kind of crazy that involves a lot of wigs and a dress made out of a sheet. She's also extremely dramatic. At points even the narration is over-the-top, Lola style.

In Lola and the Boy Next Door, the Bell family has just moved back into the house next to Lola's. Lola and Cricket Bell used to be almost-more-than-friends, until Cricket got weird and broke her heart. Now Lola is her own woman: she's got amazing style, a hot rocker boyfriend, and a life that does not need to include Cricket. It's hard to avoid him, though, when his bedroom window is only a few feet from hers.

The things I love about this novel are legion. First of all, Lola's family is very unconventional. She lives in the Castro in San Francisco with her two dads, one of whom is a professional baker. (The second thing I love is the pie. Every good book should have at least one pie in it.) Anna and St. Clair make an appearance, but the real story is between Lola and Cricket. He's awkward, sweet, a gifted inventor, and has great taste in pants (in Lola's opinion).

I was really impressed by how different Lola's voice is from Anna's. This novel didn't feel at all like Perkins's first, despite being just as excellent and satisfying. I think Stephanie Perkins is right up there with Sarah Dessen when it comes to comfort reads. I'm glad we have at least one more (Isla and the Happily Ever After) to look forward to.

A review by Elizabeth

2011-05-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

Title: The Mysterious Benedict Society
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
Genre: Middle Grade mystery/adventure
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Available now in paperback

Reviewed by Elizabeth

Are you a gifted reader looking for more wonderful reading opportunities? Well, this is a book you won’t want to put down! A New York Times bestseller, Trenton Lee Stewart is one of the best authors you’ll ever read!

When the peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities” many children take a series of mind-bending tests. Only four however, succeed, thus forming the Mysterious Benedict Society. The Society has one mission only they, as resourceful children, can accomplish saving the world. There are four children and one mission to complete. I cannot tell you any more. You’ll have to read the book to find all the answers to your questions.

Esther Gulli (an adult) has an interesting story to tell. Esther made a deal with her daughter that if her daughter read the Harry Potter books, Esther would read The Mysterious Benedict Society. She didn’t expect to enjoy it, yet she loved it!

“Real flashlight under the bedclothes material” rates Hornbook. This story is not a read once a week story. Once you pick it up, you can’t put it down! If anyone tells you to read this book, they’re right! You have to read The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Review by Rae Lo

2011-05-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

Title: The Bayou Triology
Author: Daniel Woodrell
Genre: Crime fiction
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: Available now
Reviewed by Rae Lo

Like the raging Mississippi river, Rene Shade questions whether his life has a predetermined path or if its course can be harnessed and changed by man-made interventions. Follow his journey through the gritty underbelly of the Louisiana delta.

Each part of the trilogy has a texture all its own, and Woodrell’s rich vernacular, more disarming than a purse-snatcher, catches you off guard and sweeps you along with his buoyant flow. Troubled career, rocky love life, and dysfunctional family are just a few things pulling Rene Shade down into the riptide of life. Will he sink or swim? Jump into this good read to find out!

Ready Player One

2011-05-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Crown
Publication date: August 2011

Around the (second) time that I found myself carrying this book into the shower, I realized that I had a problem. I could not stop reading this book. Could. Not. Stop.

When I was in ninth grade, I read ENDER'S GAME. It wasn't the first science fiction novel I'd ever read, but it changed the way I thought about things. I got so engrossed in Ender's world that I expected to be living in it when I put my book down. (Sadly, this was not the case. I was still in a public high school in Syracuse, New York, and the kids behind me in study hall were throwing Cheetos at the back of my head.)

READY PLAYER ONE was like another ENDER'S GAME for me. It sucked me in on the first page and didn't spit me out until the last.

Wade Watts, like most people in the year 2044, lives most of his life in a simulated world called the OASIS. He's a gunter, one of thousands of people who have dedicated themselves to solving a series of challenges to find a massive fortune hidden within the game. Outside of OASIS, he is a poor, overweight, parentless teenager. Inside of the game, he is anonymous. Until he solves the first challenge.

Ernest Cline is a screenwriter, and it shows. Every scene in READY PLAYER ONE reads like a 3-D movie with surround sound and smell-o-vision. Whenever I put the book down it was like I'd paused the movie, but I could still see it out of the corner of my eye. It was impossible to get anything done because I was still waiting to see what would happen to Wade next.

Fans of Cory Doctorow will go CRAZY over this amazing debut. In fact, this book will quickly become Canon for nerds everywhere.

A review by Alexander

2011-05-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

Title: Big Nate on a Roll
Author: Lincoln Peirce
Genre: Middle grade/graphic novel
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: August 16, 2011

I read a book called Big Nate On a Roll by Lincoln Peirce, which comes out in August 2011. Lincoln Peirce uses a combination of graphics and writing, in a similar style to Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It is about a boy named Nate who wants to sell wall hangings to 1.win a cool skateboard and 2.beat Mr. Perfect-Never-Loses, Artur. He is trying to figure out every possible way to win. I really liked this because it was incredibly funny. Also, it was impossible to know what was going to happen and something interesting happened on every page. I would definitely recommend it!

Reviewed by Alexander Hutton, Age 11

Calling all Bay Area YA/Children's Authors!

2011-05-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

Are you an author living in the San Francisco Bay Area? Do you write for children or young adults?

We need you*!

Our fourth annual Summer Reading Challenge starts on June 17th. Traditionally we've scheduled several author readings for the challengers, but this year we don't have any planned. We have upwards of 100 young readers participate every year who get special prizes for coming to events.

If you're interested in one of our Meet the Author nights, send me an email at jnhallman@gmail.com. I'd like to have two event nights, one on Saturday, July 9th and one on Saturday, August 6th.

Previous events have included:
Ellen Klages

Heidi Kling

Mac Barnett

Cheryl Herbsman

Marissa Moss

and many more!

*And are willing to bribe you with snacks and cute kids.

A re-post

2011-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I know I already reviewed this book, but today DIVERGENT came out and I want you all to go buy it immediately. Here is a reminder, in case you missed my review:

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: May 3rd, 2011

Do you ever read a book that's so awesome that it ruins the next five books for you? Divergent is that kind of book. Every book I've picked up this week was just not what I wanted to be reading. I wanted to be reading more Divergent.

It's sometime in the future, and Chicago is in ruins. The city is divided among the five factions: Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, and Dauntless. Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation, wearing gray clothes and trying to make sure her every action is selfless. But every morning before classes she watches the Dauntless leap from a moving train and wonders what it would be like to be one of them.

After her aptitude test, the day before she must choose a faction, Beatrice has an opportunity to find out. Her choice sets in motion a chain of events that no one, especially Beatrice, could have predicted.

I loved this book. At first I was a little wary, because the dystopian world is one that I had a hard time believing, but within a few pages I was swept up in the story. Beatrice is the kind of character that I really like: strong, different, and struggling with an identity change. There is plenty of face-punching, awesome tests of daring and skill, a delicious romance, and a surprising twist that makes the book impossible to put down. In short, reading Divergent is like jumping onto a speeding train and holding on for dear life. (And then being cruelly pushed off before you're ready. I hope book 2 is forthcoming.)

Review of Sister

2011-04-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Title: Sister

Author: Rosamund Lupton

Genre: Adult mystery/thriller

Publisher: Crown

Publication date: June 7th

Beatrice and Tess are sisters and best friends, so when Beatrice gets a call that Tess has gone missing, she's on the first plane back to London. Tess has always been the flighty, irresponsible younger sister. At first Beatrice isn't completely convinced that something is wrong, but then Tess is found in Hyde Park.

Although Tess's death is ruled a suicide, Bee is convinced that her sister was murdered. The story shifts back and forth between Beatrice's meetings with a lawyer and her investigation, stringing the reader along with tantalizing bits of information that make this book almost impossible to put down.

There aren't many authors who can pull off creepy, vivid, intelligent, fast-paced, and prosaic all in one book, but Rosamund Lupton does it well. This book is highly recommended for fans of Tana French and Erin Kelly.

Review of The Magician King

2011-04-24T14:18:00.001-07:00

Title: The Magician King
Author: Lev Grossman
Genre: Adult fantasy
Publisher: Viking Adult
Publication date: August 2011

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I don't typically review books that are the second or third in a series. That's because it's hard to review a sequel without giving away too much information about the first book. Now, however, I'm breaking my own rule for The Magician King because I just can't let it go to print without putting in my two cents.

But, that being said, there are ***SPOILERS*** in this review if you haven't read The Magicians.

I'm going to start with the thing I liked the most about The Magician King. It's a feeling. It's the same feeling I get when I'm at the movie theater (about once every six months) and the movie is something I'm really excited about, but while the previews are on I'm totally engrossed and not thinking about the feature film. Then the previews end and for a split second I forget what's coming next. And when I remember, I get this sudden jolt of nervous excitement.

Maybe it's just me--I don't get out much--but that's how this book made me feel whenever one of Julia's chapters came up.

Which brings me to my next point: Julia. Her chapters only occupy about 1/4 of the real estate in this novel, if that, but it's clear that she is the protagonist of The Magician King. This is partly because Quentin is still a mopey little wiener who sighs around his own story but mostly because Julia is a force of nature. Finally we get to hear what happened to her between her ill-fated Brakebills entrance exam and her ascension as Queen of Fillory.

Meanwhile, Quentin is looking for something to do. He settles upon a journey to Utter Island to collect three years' worth of back taxes, but being Quentin he has to make an ostentatious quest out of the expedition. And, of course, things start to get weird pretty fast. He and Julia make an interesting team: both with a caravan's worth of emotional baggage, both incredibly smart and powerful, both really good at screwing up their own lives.

Where Quentin (I love Quentin, I really do, but he's SO emo) is depressed in a kind of sad and pathetic way, Julia is depressed in a dark, fiery, angry way. She's totally hardcore in her unhappiness, and her magic is an extension of that. In The Magician King we finally get to see what the non-Brakebills-educated magicians are all about, and let me tell you, it's pretty awesome.

I'm going to stop there, before I give too much away. Suffice it to say that the dialogue is still hilarious, the prose is still luscious, and the characters are still irritatingly human. I plan to read this one again when it comes out in August.

Why I've Been Silent

2011-04-14T07:43:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I reviewed a book. Almost a month, in fact. I'll tell you why.

I started this blog to promote the forthcoming titles that I was excited to sell. When I first began blogging (elsewhere, at an undisclosed location) I would review everything I read--which meant that four out of five titles would get lukewarm or bad reviews. I was not sparing with my criticism. But then I stopped to think about what purpose my negative reviews could possibly serve.

As a teacher and children's book specialist, every day I see kids getting excited about books I don't personally like. A classic example is The Mysterious Benedict Society. I found it boring and lacking in atmosphere. But last year my third graders went CRAZY over the series. Kids who would otherwise be intimidated by a 485-page tome were reading it without hesitation. Now, imagine that before any of them had read it I'd publicly disparaged the book, picking apart the things I didn't like and halfheartedly praising the things I did. Do you think those kids, who liked me and respected my opinions about books, would have been so excited about reading it? I don't. And it's not my job--in fact, it's the opposite of my job--to limit readers' enjoyment of books in any way.

So here, on this blog, I keep my negative reviews to myself. I don't review books that earned fewer than four stars on my goodreads.com page. And I haven't read any of those in the last two weeks.

Some people have criticized my review policy, saying that they're not real reviews if I only say nice things about the books. This is probably true. Some people say that I'm only trying to ingratiate myself to authors and publishers by never ripping apart a bad book. This is not true. I have no problem telling someone that they won't like a particular book. But I won't tell the world that a book shouldn't be read just because I didn't like it. Who knows, maybe that book is the one that turns a reluctant reader into an avid one.

Addition: I do not read e-books or accept self-published novels for review.

Review by Mayfair

2011-03-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

Title: From Bad to Cursed
Author: Katie Alender
Genre: Young Adult paranormal fiction
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication date: June 2011
Reviewed by Mayfair Rucker

In From Bad to Cursed, Alexis is thrilled with the fact that her younger sister, Kasey, has joined a club, The Sunshine Girls, and made new friends. That was until Alexis felt something was wrong. She and her best friend, Megan, decide to join the club and see for themselves what’s going on. But soon Alexis can’t even remember why she joined the club, only that she’s one of Aralt’s girls now. All of the Sunshine Girls have pledged themselves to the evil spirit Aralt. This is a gripping story that will keep you from putting the book down. Author Katie Alender has some unexpected surprises that will keep the pages turning.

The first book in the series, Bad Girls Don’t Die, featured younger sister Kasey and her attempts to be stronger than the spirit trying to posses her. This book focuses more on 16-year-old Alexis, who has to make a decision between the lives of the Sunshine Girls as well as her dedication to the evil spirit Aralt. Overall if you liked Bad Girl’s Don’t Die you should like this book. They are both exciting and will have you wondering if there really are spirits.

Review of Ashes

2011-03-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

First of all, I have two guest blogs waiting to post but my computer won't let me cut and paste the text for some reason. If you are one of the guest reviewers, I apologize for the delay. I'm going to try from my home computer as soon as I have a free hour at home.

[cover image not available yet--stay tuned!]

Title: Ashes
Author: Ilsa J. Bick
Genre: Young Adult post-apocalyptic fiction
Publisher: Egmont USA
Release date: September 2011

This book was completely not what I was expecting. Although, rereading the back, I'm not sure why I was so surprised. The back cover reads:

An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human...

Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the Changed, Alex meets up with Tom--a young army veteran--and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse.

This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to survive.

My first surprise was the writing. It seems like there are dozens of post-apocalyptic novels getting published these days, in the wake of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, and quality of writing is not always the first consideration. This book, though, is actually well-written. Ilsa J. Bick obviously has a vast knowledge of guns, wilderness survival, emergency medicine, and human biology, and her descriptions are detailed yet accessible. It's not all about the action, though--Alex's emotions are vivid and real.

The second surprise was the scope of the novel. This is no cookie-cutter action book, where monsters keep popping out of nowhere and the characters are running helter-skelter from one disaster to the next. There are quiet periods. A realistic amount of time passes. I was not exhausted and glad to be finished with the book when I came to the end. And the world is complex, well thought-out.

There is one similarity with other post-apocalypse novels: the cliffhanger ending. I should have been ready for it, since I was very clearly approaching the end with no resolution in sight, but I was still thrown for a loop. All in all, a pretty impressive start to an exciting new series.

Review of The Language of Flowers

2011-03-11T21:17:00.000-08:00

Title: The Language of Flowers
Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Genre: Adult fiction
Release date: August 2011
Publisher: Ballantine Books

This book is crazy good. CRAZY. GOOD. I started it this morning before work and couldn't think about anything else all day. Even though I know it's going to be at the top of the New York Times bestseller list as soon as it comes out, and obviously I want everyone and their mother to know about it, I'm feeling a little possessive. I don't want anyone else to read these words and have opinions about them until I've had them to myself for a little while.

The story opens on Victoria Jones's eighteenth birthday: the day of her emancipation from the foster care system. Ever since she was found abandoned three weeks after her birth, her life has been a string of bad foster parents and brutal group homes, broken only by the year she spent with Elizabeth. But Elizabeth, like all the others, is in the past.

Now Victoria faces a life with no backup plan. She has no friends, no family, and no skills or interests beyond her knowledge of flowers. After spending several nights in a public park, Victoria knows she has to make a life for herself--and the life she makes is nothing like the one she'd envisioned.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh will take the literary world by storm with her debut novel. The chapters alternate between the present day and Victoria's ninth year, the year that Victoria lived with her last foster mother. She is hard to love at times, but impossible not to. Her world comes alive on the pages: I could smell it, feel it, and taste it as I read--and everything is imbued with tinges of anger, defensiveness, and self-doubt that make it possible for the reader to almost understand what it's like to be a foster child. Most of the time, Victoria is her own worst enemy. In the words of publisher Libby McGuire, "She's like a friend you just know will able to find love and happiness, if only she can get out of her own way."

Review of Strings Attached

2011-02-26T10:16:00.000-08:00

Title: Strings Attached
Author: Judy Blundell
Genre: Young Adult historical fiction/mystery
Release date: Available now in hardcover
Publisher: Scholastic

Lately I've been immersing myself in the history of the early 20th century: reading Moon Over Manifest and American Rose, watching Downton Abbey. When I picked up Strings Attached, I knew that this would be a very different take on the same time period, and I was excited about that.

It's 1950, and Kit Corrigan has dropped out of high school and moved to New York to be a Broadway star. So far that's meant playing a chorus girl in a show that no one likes, but she knows that when the show closes there will be another one opening. Then the father of her ex-boyfriend appears and makes her an offer that's hard to refuse. Even knowing that he has connections to the mob, it seems innocent enough. Besides, she owes him a favor from five years ago, and he's calling it in.

Immediately, Kit is caught up in a world she doesn't quite understand, so she looks to the past for answers. As the pieces begin to fit together, Kit's story only becomes more tangled and complicated.

Judy Blundell has written another unique coming-of-age story that combines rich historical detail, a dark underworld, and a naive protagonist who is forced to grow up in a hurry. The chapters dance around each other like chorus girls: each flashback answers one question and raises five more. This is not a book to be read slowly.

Review of The Dark and Hollow Places

2011-02-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

The Dark and Hollow Places

by Carrie Ryan

Young Adult zombie fiction

Pub date March 22nd

Yesterday one of my students, who is in sixth grade, asked me, "If you don't like zombies, then why did you start reading those zombie books?"

She was referring, of course, to the Forest of Hands and Teeth novels by Carrie Ryan.

I didn't have an honest answer for her, because even I am not quite sure why I started reading the series. I know why I continued beyond the first few pages, though. The books are good. They're not your usual run-of-the-mill zombie apocalypse story, since the apocalypse happens over a hundred years before the first book starts. Instead they're about the relationships between people who are struggling to make sense of a world in which humanity is a severely endangered species.

The Dark and Hollow Places is the third novel in the series. In the second, we met Gabry, a girl who grew up in the relative safety of Vista. Annah, the protagonist of book three, was not so lucky. She's been on her own in the Dark City for three years, waiting in vain for her brother to return from his service with the Recruiters. She has finally decided to move on with her life and leave the city, but before she can go she is stopped by the sight of someone she never thought she'd see again--her twin sister.

Like Ryan's other novels, this one is not a light and happy tale of triumph. It's dark, it's tortured, and it's a pretty realistic picture of what humanity will have to do to survive a zombie horde of several million undead. At least I imagine so. For all the dreariness, though, Ryan has once again managed to write a heartwarming romance into the fast-paced, action-packed plot. I hope there will be a fourth book. I love to hear about the world of Mary, Gabry, Annah, and the zombies.

Review of The Agency: A Spy in the House

2011-02-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

The Agency: A Spy in the House

by Y. S. Lee

Young adult historical mystery

Available now in paperback

As you know, I rarely read books after they come out, mainly because as a bookseller I have to stay ahead of the game (and I prefer to read books that are free). But every so often a book will slip through the cracks and I'll spend a few days staring at it on the new release table. Usually, if I haven't heard any buzz about it from other booksellers, I won't read it--but sometimes I'm just too intrigued to pass it by.

A Spy in the House was one of these.

I just moved into a 133-year-old Victorian house, so I've been reading a lot of Victorian mysteries. It's interesting to read about families like the one that built my house in 1878. In A Spy in the House, young thief Mary Lang is rescued from a death sentence at the age of twelve and brought up in a finishing school. By the time she's sixteen, she's teaching there--but she's bored with life. She asks the headmasters if they can help her find a more exciting job, and is promptly inducted into The Agency, a network of female spies that does private investigation and works for Scotland Yard.

Mary finds herself posing as the paid companion of a spoiled young woman, trying to listen for information about a smuggling operation. Soon she gets bored and takes it upon herself to investigate more rigorously, which, as you might imagine, doesn't go exactly as planned.

Mary Lang is a sassy, badass heroine with a past that is shrouded in mystery. Her witty retorts and reckless decisions make this a typical Victorian mystery in some ways, while the social and ethnic questions (and the romance) are unique. I can't stop thinking about A Spy in the House, and I'm waiting extremely impatiently for my copy of the sequel to arrive tomorrow.

Review of Shine

2011-02-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

Shine
by Lauren Myracle
Young adult mystery
Pub date May 2011

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn't a coming-of-age/mystery/social commentary/love story. Myracle has continued to branch out into different styles and genres over the course of her writing career, and this is by far my favorite of her voices.

Years ago, Cat withdrew from her own life after a traumatic event took place. Now, in the wake of a hate crime perpetrated on her former best friend, she is trying to get to the bottom of what happened. It means re-entering her old life, investigating those she once considered friends, and facing down her past.

This book has a lot of different things going on: a mystery, hate crimes, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, tensions caused by community history and socioeconomic differences. In spite of the heavy topics, Lauren Myracle manages to write a book that is touching and uplifting. You'll love Cat. I can't wait to see where Myracle goes next.

Review of Divergent

2011-02-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

Young Adult Dystopian

Pub date May 3rd, 2011

Review of Eona

2011-01-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

Eona
by Alison Goodman
Young Adult fantasy
Pub date April 19th 2011

[I gave this book, like most books I review on this blog, five stars on Goodreads.com]

I wish I could give a book six stars. This one earned all six. Alison Goodman spent months agonizing over the last 3 or 4 chapters, and it was completely worth it--they're amazing, and a fitting ending to the Eon/Eona saga.

There are so many things I love about these books that I don't know where to start.

In Eon, the first book, Eon is a girl passing as a boy in order to train as a candidate for the Rat Dragoneye Apprenticeship. Although she is crippled and a girl, her master has managed to help her through the long training process and finally the day has come for the Rat Dragon to choose a new Dragoneye apprentice. The chain of events that begins on that morning spins quickly out of control, and Eon must use all of her resources to stay alive.

In Eona, Eon's true identity has been revealed and she is on the run from Sethon, the pretender to the Emperor's throne. Eona is coming into her power and her identity, but she doesn't have time to figure things out slowly. Every moment counts as she and the true emperor battle to restore him to the throne. Throughout everything, the power of the dragons and the richness of the culture make this an incredibly lush set of novels.

I love the world that Alison Goodman has created. It's like Tamora Pierce's Tortall in its breadth and depth of tradition, and the Asian-ness of it is incredibly compelling. The characters inhabit a place and time where breach of etiquette can mean serious consequences, but they must reinvent the rules as they go.

The love story is also brilliantly developed. Eona is a character who has gone from a young girl, servant, and cripple to someone with enormous power over dragons and men. Her moral compass is constantly being recalibrated, and it shows in her every action. She has to tell lies and keep secrets, even from people who love her.

I could probably go on for years about this book, but I think you just have to read it.

Review of The Last Little Blue Envelope

2011-01-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

The Last Little Blue Envelope
by Maureen Johnson
Young Adult fiction
Pub date April 26, 2011

Fans of Maureen Johnson have expressed both delight and dismay at the prospect of a sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes, originally published almost five years ago. "More Ginny! More Keith! *squee*!!" say the optimists. "Maureen Johnson cannot possibly top the first book, especially since she didn't leave much in the way of loose ends," say the pessimists.

Well, pessimists, let me put your concerns to rest. This book is as good as and better than the first one. You thought the wild careening around Europe was done? Wrong. You thought the romance was played out? Wrong again. Ginny has a new haircut, a new outfit, and 304 more pages of hilarious experiences, observations, and adventures.

In the first book, Ginny finds herself alone in Europe with thirteen letters from her dead aunt. Each letter directs Ginny to a new location and teaches her a little bit more about Aunt Peg. But when Ginny is almost done with her journey, the last letter is stolen. Now, months later, a mysterious English boy contacts Ginny to tell her that he has found the thirteenth little blue envelope--and she has to come to London to get it.

Maureen Johnson's genius lies in her ability to make the most mundane parts of life completely hilarious. She and John Green share the honor of being the best dialogue writers in YA fiction. This novel has the added bonus of taking place mostly in England, so there is a plethora of funny nicknames and insults.

There's also a new character: Oliver, who is holding the last letter ransom. Tall, mysterious, and kind of dashing, he's the perfect addition to the cast of characters.

I just finished the book today, and already I want to reread it.

EDIT: Keith is in this book! He is as Keithy as ever. I would even venture to say that his car is a main character in this book too.

Censoring Huckleberry Finn

2011-01-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

******RANT WARNING******

So I'm sure most of you have heard about the new version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This new special version has two controversial words--"nigger" and "injun"--replaced throughout the text with "slave" and "native". The reason for the censorship is to make the book more accessible to students who might be turned off to the book if they saw words that are today considered racist.

I understand that the "n" and "i" words are deeply offensive, and not just to racial minorities. I even understand how someone could make a case for changing the words in order to get a wider readership in high schools and a less controversial classroom discussion.

However.

This is censorship, plain and simple, and if it becomes common practice then we're effectively allowing non-authors to determine the content and language of someone else's creative work.

It's not like this is a new argument--most older books (especially classics) have something that could be considered offensive, un-PC, or generally ignorant in modern society. That's part of the reason that they spark ongoing debates in classrooms. Confronting controversial topics is a huge part of education. Ignoring controversial topics doesn't serve anyone except a teacher or administrator who is too lazy to guide a potentially unruly discussion. And if you're that kind of teacher or administrator, I would recommend NOT reading Huckleberry Finn at all because there are much more difficult topics like slavery and child neglect to address. This book is the perfect forum for discussion about racial slurs, the evolution of language, and the history of race relations.

Of course, it's possible to have a discussion about the words without having to read the words within the text. But think about the cost of that approach. We're opening the floodgates on censorship if that becomes an acceptable solution.

I'll end my rant with a quote from Mark Twain, provided for me by the Christian Science Monitor:

"I wrote 'Tom Sawyer' & 'Huck Finn' for adults exclusively, & it always distressed me when I find that boys and girls have been allowed access to them. The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know this by my own experience, & to this day I cherish an unappeased bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was 15 years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean sweet breath again on this side of the grave."

Review of The Near Witch

2011-01-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

The Near Witch
by Victoria Schwab
Young adult fantasy
Pub date 8/2/11

Ever since I finished Chime by Franny Billingsley, I've been looking for another atmospheric fantasy with a good romance. The Near Witch really fits the bill. It's about a girl named Lexi who lives with her mother and five-year-old sister Wren. The town of Near rarely sees strangers, so when an unfamiliar boy appears late one night and children start disappearing from their beds, the town starts a hunt for the stranger.

Lexi, whose father trained her to hunt and track, finds him first. Together Lexi and the stranger must uncover the kidnapper before the town finds them.

A common problem in atmospheric fantasy (like Patricia McKillip's books or Deerskin) is that the main character is a little too cryptic to be accessible. Lexi isn't--she's smart, headstrong, and ready to grow up. This is a great book for kids who are ready to graduate from middle-grade to Young Adult fantasy--and older readers, too, of course.

2010-12-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

Anna and the French Kiss

By Stephanie Perkins

Young Adult fiction

Available now in hardcover

My favorite kind of book is funny and a little sad with good character development and a nice romance. Anna and the French Kiss is exactly that.

It's about a girl, Anna, whose famous author father has decided to send her to boarding school in Paris for her senior year. She doesn't want to leave her best friend Bridgette or her almost-boyfriend Toph, but she doesn't have a choice. When she gets to Paris she meets a new group of friends--including Etienne St. Clair, who is gorgeous, amazing, and taken.

I think I can sum up my feelings about this book with the following bulleted list:

I read it in one day, and on that day I also worked an 11-hour shift
I can't stop thinking about it
It's awesome
I laughed out loud and read the following passage four times.

"In the history of terrible holidays, this ranks as the worst ever. Worse than the Fourth of July when Granddad showed up to see the fireworks in a kilt and insisted on singing 'Flower of Scotland' instead of 'America the Beautiful.' Worse than the Halloween when Trudy Sherman and I both went to school dressed as Glinda the Good Witch, and she told everyone her costume was better than mine, because you could see my purple 'Monday' panties through my dress AND YOU TOTALLY COULD."

review of Mr. Chartwell

2010-12-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

Mr. Chartwell
by Rebecca Hunt
Adult fiction
Pub date February 22, 2011

First of all, I have to say that the cover of this book is the best I've seen of the 2011 titles. I love it so much that I asked our Random House rep to procure me a poster to hang in the store and then my apartment.

Mr. Chartwell is the "bete noir" that Winston Churchill sometimes referenced when speaking of his depression. Named after Churchill's estate, Mr. Chartwell shows up at Esther Hammerhans's front door one day to inquire about renting a room. She lets him in and her relationship with the black dog begins.

This book is charmingly odd from beginning to end, as are most books in which the main character is a large talking dog. The dialogue between Mr. Chartwell and the other characters is brilliant. It is half spoken and half conducted via the strange, familiar, and often disgusting behavior of a misbehaving dog. I found myself liking every character in this book, even ones I didn't necessarily want to like. They're so real that you can't judge them too harshly for their faults.

All the quaint and comfortable parts of life are drawn in perfect detail in this book. Rebecca Hunt is the kind of author that the lovechild of Nick Hornby and Maggie O'Farrell might be.

View all my reviews

Review of Red Glove

2010-12-11T07:30:00.000-08:00

Red Glove
by Holly Black
Young Adult (Paranormal?) Fiction
Pub date April 2011

I love this series. Love love love it. White Cat was one of those books that I never would have read if certain circumstances had not combined to drop it into my lap, and I'm so glad I read it. Red Glove was even better.

I know that some of you haven't read White Cat yet, so I won't give much of a synopsis because I don't want to spoil the first book. Instead I'll tell you what I love about the series.

First of all, Holly Black's world-building is masterful. In the world of these novels, some people are born with the ability to work curses: luck curses, death curses, memory, emotion, etcetera. Cassel Sharpe comes from a family of curse workers who have chosen to use their powers to work for the mob. At the same time, curse workers' rights are a prominent political issue.

I hate slogging through long paragraphs describing the history of some minor detail that differs from the real world. Instead, Black works crucial details into the narrative so smoothly that they feel natural and obvious. She doesn't use cliches, and when a character says something that sounds too cliched another character is always quick to point it out. The characters are so believable that I expected to see them on the street when I was between chapters.

And, of course, there's a cliffhanger ending that left me jonesing for the next book, Black Heart. Write faster, Holly Black!

A Review by Emily

2010-10-22T10:07:00.001-07:00

Unearthly
by Cynthia Hand
Young adult fantasy
Pub date January 2011
Review by Emily Dmytryk

Clara has a pretty easy life. Everything she does comes easily to her...because she's an angel. Life as an angel isn't as fun as it sounds. Every angel has a purpose which they must complete. Once Clara receives hers, she and her family are forced to move away from California to Idaho, forever altering their lives. at her new school, she meets the boy she knows she has to save, and also another boy she wishes she could save. The characters in this book are wonderful. The evil ones very evil, and all the others very likable and real. It is written very well, and overall very exciting. After reading this book, you will not be able to wait for the sequel.

Review of Chime

2010-10-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

*no cover art available*

Chime
by Franny Billingsley
Young Adult Fantasy
Pub date March 2011

I absolutely loved this book. In fact, several times I caught myself reading the same passage (or page) over and over because I liked the way it sounded. Billingsley has such a way with words, both real and made-up. This is a novel that reads like one long song with lots of strings and minor chords.

Briony and her twin sister are seventeen-year-old girls living in early 20th-century Swampsea. Briony has two secrets that she must never forget: one, she is a witch. And two, she hates herself. Remembering these two things will help keep her family safe, because when she forgets, bad things happen. She believes that she is responsible for the unusual amount of tragedy that has befallen her small family, and she will do anything to make sure they are safe. However, when her father takes on a new (young, vibrant, and male) tenant, it becomes harder for Briony to accept her fate.

If this story had been written by another writer, it could have been trite and overwrought. Billingsley makes it creepy yet romantic, sad yet funny, small-town yet epic. This is the best book I've read in a long time.

Review of The Poison Tree

2010-10-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

*note: this cover is from the British edition. I couldn't find an image of the American cover, which is red with a black tree.

The Poison Tree
by Erin Kelly
Adult Mystery
Pub date January 6, 2011

I won't lie, I read this book mainly because it was compared to Tana French's mysteries. It has a similar carefully built suspense but the similarity ends there.

The Poison Tree jumps back and forth between Karen's present, in which she has just picked up her boyfriend from a ten-year stint in prison, and the past, when she first met him and his sister Biba. Karen was a straight-laced, somewhat uptight college graduate who let her hair down for one glorious summer. However, the summer ended with a murder, and it isn't until the novel's climax that we find out what really happened.

Erin Kelly is a beautiful writer, and her greatest strength is evoking the little sensory details that bring a scene alive. Reading The Poison Tree made me want to visit London and see it through Karen's eyes.

Five Books That Changed My Life

2010-09-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Lately I haven't had much time to read, although I always carry a book with me in case I encounter a five-minute period when I'm not walking somewhere. Most days I only read during my 20-minute bus ride and my 30-minute lunch break. Even worse, I haven't read a book that I absolutely LOVED since Mockingjay. I find myself returning to old favorites rather than squandering my reading time on something I might not like.

So here is a list of five books (or series) that changed my life in one way or another.

1) The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce

In sixth and seventh grade I had a mysterious chronic illness that kept me home from school for weeks. My mom would call me from the bookstore and name off titles, trying to find one that I hadn't read yet. (Sadly, we didn't have a library nearby. How is that possible?) Alanna: The First Adventure was one of these. I blew through everything Tamora Pierce had ever written (at that point, only two series) and wanted more--so I started to write it. I have been writing ever since.

2) Mandie and the Foreign Spies by Lois Gladys Leppard

Back up four years, to second grade. My grandmother kept me in books when I was young, and she made sure that I always had the next book in the Mandie series. In this one, Mandie and her friends are in France and get into some trouble. Mandie finds herself in an abandoned tunnel with a bad guy and must scream for help--in French. I was aware of foreign languages before second grade, of course, but after reading this book I had to learn French. So began my love of languages which eventually turned into a linguistics degree.

3) Smack by Melvin Burgess

I already talked about this book in my previous post. It's a stark and honest look at teen drug abuse, and it is the main reason I've never done drugs. But it's also an important book because, when it came out in the 90's, there wasn't much in the way of Young Adult fiction. My local library (I'd moved across the country to a place that had libraries) had a lot of British YA. As the genre gained popularity in Britain, it followed suit in the States. So this is my homage to British YA, of which I read a lot.

4) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Those of you who know me in real life know that I spent a year abroad in Scotland during college. This series is the reason that I chose Scotland, despite the fact that another country would have made more sense for a Slavic Studies major. But I was so intrigued by the history and people of Scotland that I couldn't pass up the chance to live there for a year. I'm thinking of rereading this series.

5) Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Before vampires were lurking around every corner, I was obsessed with them. (Now that they're popular, I turn my nose up at vampire novels as if I hadn't spent half my life reading every one I could get my hands on.) Sunshine came into my life during my sophomore year of college, just after my mom and sister got into a really terrible car accident. Then, I read it to escape from a situation that made me feel helpless. Later I reread several times: when I was alone and sick in a foreign country, when my best friend died, when a long-term relationship ended and someone broke my heart. You wouldn't think that a vampire-hunting novel would be so comforting, but Sunshine gives me hope that a normal and underachieving person can do amazing things.

2010-09-21T10:03:00.001-07:00

Banned books seem to be the topic of the month--just in time for Banned Book Week. (Banned Book Week is September 25th to October 2nd, but I'm sure you already knew that.)

Books are challenged and banned in schools all the time. Usually it doesn't get much publicity, because the banning happens in a place where censorship is, at least to some extent, accepted, but every so often an author chooses to make it known that she does not accept or appreciate that her voice has been silenced in that community.

Ellen Hopkins is one such author. This summer she was invited to speak at a Young Adult book festival outside of Houston, Texas. A librarian and some parents did not feel that Ellen's books were appropriate for teens and made enough of a stir that Ellen was uninvited from the festival. Of the other seven authors invited, six withdrew and the festival was canceled. Hundreds of voices were raised in protest of censorship, and I started to pay attention to the controversy.

Next, Sherman Alexie's book The Mostly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was challenged in a Washington school. Last week it was removed from the shelves. Then came the #SpeakLoudly movement, which is still going strong. For anyone who hasn't encountered it yet, this is a campaign--mostly online--to protest Wesley Scroggins' assertion that books such as Slaughterhouse 5, Twenty Boy Summer, and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson are detrimental to young adults' moral and intellectual education.

As I follow the various controversies, I feel the need to share my personal experiences with banned books. Some of them have changed my life, and I think it's a terrible shame that others like me might not have the chance to have their lives changed by these and similar books.

When I was in Junior High, I encountered a book called Smack by Melvin Burgess. Like Crank by Ellen Hopkins, Smack tells the story of a slow descent into drug addiction. At the time I was reading it, my friends in sixth and seventh grade were experimenting with cocaine, ecstasy, and prescription drugs. Smack scared me so much that, to this day, I haven't touched an illegal drug. Are there descriptions of teenagers shooting up and having the time of their lives? Yes. Is there teen sex, drinking, and pregnancy? Yes, yes, and yes. Did the book make me more likely to engage in any of those? Absolutely not. In fact, the opposite happened--the book scared me straight at a time in my life when my family was falling apart and it would have been easy to fall into bad habits and addiction without immediate repercussions.

As for Speak, I am appalled that anyone could call this book "pornographic" or "filthy" or "demeaning." Speak is about a girl, Melinda, who survives a sexual assault but feels too ashamed to tell anyone about it. Instead she becomes withdrawn and silent, cutting school and alienating the few people at her school who will still talk to her. Melinda's sense of shame comes from people like Wesley Scroggins who consider rape to be pornographic and filthy. Speak tells us that it's not.

If I had read this book before I myself was raped, maybe I wouldn't have spent a year hiding from the world--but I did. I didn't speak.

If I could say one thing to Wesley Scroggins and other book banners, it would be this: Please don't take away our voices. When you limit a person's learning to things that you believe in, you don't prepare her for things that exist outside of your bubble.

As a teacher, I understand that it doesn't make sense to have a book like Smack in a third grade classroom library--because it isn't DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE. But when Smack is removed from a middle school, that is censorship. And it's wrong.

Review of XVI

2010-09-16T17:15:00.001-07:00

XVI

by Julia Karr

Young Adult science fiction

Pub date January 6, 2011

Ever since The Hunger Games got popular, publishers are more willing to take a chance on young adult dystopian science fiction. I couldn't be happier--it's my favorite genre. XVI is another one that I've read recently.

Sometime in the near future, Nina Oberon lives in a world where turning sixteen is a huge milestone. Gone are the days of "sweet sixteen"--in Nina's time, turning sixteen means that girls are fair game for boys who are looking for a good time. Once you've been branded with a XVI tattoo, you're expected to be up for just about anything. But for girls like Nina, who aren't sure that they're ready for sex, it means constantly avoiding older boys in dark alleys and quiet corners.

Just before her sixteenth birthday, Nina's family experiences a terrible tragedy and she finds herself relying on former strangers. She begins to realize that her life is not what it seems--and she's caught up in a race to find out what it is before it's too late.

Karr puts forth some interesting ideas in XVI. Her version of the future is loud, uninhibited, and a little scary because it's not completely unbelievable. I'm curious to see what her next book has in store for us.

2010-09-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

Juliet

by Anne Fortier

Adult Fiction

Available now in hardcover

As many of you know, I am a sucker for a) mysteries, b) Shakespeare-themed books, and c) historical fiction. Lucky for me, JULIET is all three.

Julie Jacobs is a drifter without much ambition. At 25, she has spent most of her life living in the shadow of her twin sister Janice. When Julie's great-aunt and guardian dies, leaving her entire estate to Janice, Julie escapes to Italy with a cryptic note, a key, and a mountain of debt. There she finds that her birth name, Giulietta Tolomei, is also the name of the woman who inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet--and it's no coincidence.

There are a lot of things I love about this book. The "curse on both your houses" isn't completely over the top, and has just the right amount of creepiness. An extremely annoying character succeeds in redeeming herself (which is rare for me--I don't forgive easily). But what I like most is Julie. She is the kind of character that you expect to run into on the street: real, flawed, and with a history of grudges and mistakes that influence her choices. She, along with the wealth of research, make the story believable.

I highly recommend this book for fans of Dan Brown, Carol Goodman, and Jennifer Lee Carrell.

Review of Delirium

2010-08-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Delirium
by Lauren Oliver
Young Adult science fiction
Pub date February 2011

I think it's a real shame that this book is coming out relatively close to MATCHED by Ally Condie. It's inevitable that people will compare the two books, though they both deserve to be read on their own. That being said, I loved this book and I'm glad it's coming out, regardless of the timing.

DELIRIUM takes place in a world where love is considered a disease--one that is, fortunately, curable. Youths are evaluated, ranked, matched with similarly ranked youths of the opposite sex, and sent to the operating table to undergo brain surgery. After the operation, all strong emotion is gone. You are cured of the disease that causes people to fall in love. But not everyone is cured. Outside the safety of Portland is a wasteland where Invalids struggle to survive. When Lena is caught up in a forbidden romance, she must make a difficult decision: stay in Portland and be cured, or give in to the delirium.

This novel, like Oliver's debut novel (BEFORE I FALL), is extremely well written. She finds a good balance between a compelling plot with plenty of action and a good amount of character development. And the ending--I'll just say that the sequel can't come soon enough.

review of Fixing Delilah

2010-08-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

Fixing Delilah
by Sarah Ockler
Young Adult fiction
Pub date December 15, 2010

I was a little nervous to read Fixing Delilah--not because I thought it would be bad, but because Sarah Ockler's first book (Twenty Boy Summer) struck such a perfect balance between sad and sweet and honest. I wanted to like Fixing Delilah just as much, but I didn't know if that was possible.

Delilah Hannaford is a good girl, but lately she's been doing all the things that good girls don't: sneaking around with Finn, her not-boyfriend; (accidentally) stealing lipstick; getting bad grades; and lying to her mother. As a result, Delilah gets to spend the whole summer packing up her grandmother's house for an estate sale. Returning to the lake house brings back the argument that divided her family eight years ago--and took her away from her friend Patrick. No one seems to want to talk about what happened that summer, but Delilah doesn't think she can just let it go.

The things that happen to Delilah in this book never happened to me, but I felt as though they had. It was actually hard to read at points because I had such empathy with Delilah. Even though the plot, characters, and setting are completely different from Twenty Boy Summer, Ockler's books share one major similarity: they are emotionally pitch-perfect. I can't imagine a better follow-up to her debut novel.

Review of Where She Went

2010-08-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

Where She Went
by Gayle Forman
Young Adult fiction
Pub date March 2011

I feel like anything I say about this book will be a spoiler, so I'll keep it short. It rocked. In many ways. It's hard to imagine what could possibly follow IF I STAY...no conflict could ever be as wrenching and poignant as the one Mia faces in the first book.

From the first pages of WHERE SHE WENT, we see where Adam and Mia went in the three years since the end of IF I STAY. The question, then, is less where they went and more how they got there, and why. Forman uses the same style of flashbacks alternating with a day in real time, only this time the story is from Adam's perspective, and Adam is far more complicated than Mia was. The characters have grown up, and Forman has dealt with it brilliantly.

As someone who lived and breathed music for several years, I have a special appreciation for the insights into a rock god's life that this book offers. And as someone who has been in Adam's place, I appreciate the honesty in his character.

I'm not going to say any more. It's worth the wait to find out yourself.

2010-08-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, people! Now that the Summer Reading Challenge is over, it's time for some exciting new programs for children at A Great Good Place for Books.

Coming up first is a new GRAPHIC NOVEL WRITING WORKSHOP.

The Graphic Novel Workshop is a 6-week writing workshop, taught by a credentialed teacher (me), that shows kids that reading and writing can be easy and fun. Students will read and discuss their favorite graphic novels during the first part of each class, and the second half will be devoted to building a story with dialogue and narration. At the end of the workshop, students will produce their own 3-page comic.

Who: Kids age 8 and up.

When: Sundays from 5-6:30 p.m., beginning September 12th and ending October 24th.

Where: A Great Good Place for Books, 6120 La Salle Ave, Oakland CA 94611

How much: $180. This includes all supplies, materials, snacks, and a "gallery opening" and pizza party on October 24th.

You can email me at jnhallman@gmail.com to register.

Summer Reading Challenge winner

2010-08-15T11:06:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to OLIVIA DUFF, this year's winner of the Summer Reading Challenge!

Olivia will get a list of local authors. She'll choose one, and I'll set up a meeting between them. Way to go, Olivia!

A review by Rebecca

2010-08-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Artemis Fowl 7: The Atlantis Complex

by Eoin Colfer

Young Adult Fantasy

Available now in hardcover

Review by Rebecca Sklar

Artemis Fowl is up to something. And it's not like his old plans. This time, Artemis Fowl is trying to save the world. But something is wrong with our favorite genius. He is showing signs of OCD, paranoia, multiple personalities, and "professions of love for a certain fiesty LEP officer." Artemis Fowl has developed a fairy disease, Atlantis Complex, just when the world needs him most. This seventh installment of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl brings out a new side of Artemis. Not to mention the hilarious involvment of Holly, Foaly, Juliet, Butler, and of course, Mulch Diggums. This is a must-read book with a definite two thumbs up response for anyone who's itching for a good YA fantasy book. This may be the best Artemis Fowl to date, so don't miss it.

Some Upcoming Events

2010-08-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

A big THANKS to Rebecca, Elizabeth, Emily, and Ixchel, who came to the author reading to meet Heidi Kling. We had a great time, and I was really impressed by the questions that were asked.

There's only one more week before the Summer Reading Challenge ends! Are you wishing you'd read more? Are you wishing you'd earned more entries in the Grand Prize Drawing? Well, here's a way to earn two more:

On Sunday, August 8th at 4 p.m. we'll be hosting author Rosemary Graham, who will be reading from her new YA novel Stalker Girl. You'll get an extra entry in the Grand Prize Drawing if you come!

On Wednesday, August 11th at 7 p.m. we'll be hosting author Cameron Tuttle, who will be reading from her new YA novel Paisley Hanover Kisses and Tells. You'll get ANOTHER extra entry in the Grand Prize Drawing if you come to this event too!

And remember, the last two SECRET BONUS TASKS were posted yesterday...scroll down if you missed them.

Last 2 Secret Bonus Tasks

2010-08-05T09:43:00.001-07:00

Hey, Challengers--there are only EIGHT more days left in the Summer Reading Challenge! Make sure you turn in your reading records before Friday, August 13th so you can get your last entries in the Grand Prize Drawing.

Here's a special treat: TWO Secret Bonus Tasks at once!

The first is to come to the prize drawing on Friday, August 13th at 6 p.m. We'll be giving away lots of little prizes as well as the Grand Prize: a meeting with a local author!

The second Secret Bonus Task is to write a review of a book that you love. Here are some things that the review must include:

The title, author, and genre of the book (some genre suggestions: picture book, chapter book, Young Adult fantasy, etc.)
2-3 sentences describing the main character and the problem he/she faces
2-3 sentences telling us what you liked about the book
remember, don't give away the ending! You want people to read your review and think, "Hey, I would like to read that," not, "Hey, I don't need to read that because JoJo just told me what happens at the end."

You can bring your finished review to the store or email it to me at p1ratewench@hotmail.com . I will post the reviews on the blog for everyone to see!

Questions to Ask an Author

2010-07-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hi, Summer Reading Challengers. Many of you are planning to come to our author reading on Tuesday (because it's a Secret Bonus Task!). If it's your first author reading, you might be wondering what kinds of things Heidi Kling will talk about. Here's a list of frequently asked questions that you could ask:

How do you get ideas for characters? Are they based on real people or made up?
Where and when do you usually write? Do you have a schedule for writing?
Do you plan your books before you start, or just sit down and write them?
Who gets to read your drafts before they're published?
How did your first book get published?
What are you writing next?
How old were you when you started writing novels?
Do you have any advice for young people who want to become authors?

Remember, Heidi Kling will be here to talk about her Young Adult novel, Sea, on Tuesday August 3rd at 7:00 p.m.

Third-to-last Secret Bonus Task

2010-07-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

First of all, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone came to our first ever Children's Book Swap! After the Book Swap we were able to donate almost 500 books to the Children's Book Project! We tested out some different ways of doing it, and we hope our next one will be even better.

There are only 17 days left in the Summer Reading Challenge. Are you wishing that you had more entries in the Grand Prize Drawing? Well, you can earn two more if you come to our author event on Tuesday!

Who: Heidi Kling, author of Sea. Sea is a Young Adult book, but younger children are welcome to come and ask questions about what it's like to be an author.
What: Heidi will read a little bit from her book and then answer questions from the audience
When: Tuesday, August 3rd at 7:00 p.m.

Here's a little bit of information about Sea. In my next post I'll include some frequently asked questions that you may want to ask Heidi.

Sea
by Heidi Kling
Young Adult fiction

Still haunted by nightmares of her mother's death, 15-year-old Sienna Jones travels to Indonesia with her father's relief team to help tsunami orphans with their post traumatic stress disorder--something Sienna knows about. But the last thing she expects is to fall for Deni.

Secret Bonus Task!

2010-07-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hey, Challengers! Are you ready for the next Secret Bonus Task? Here it is:

To earn two extra entries in the Grand Prize Drawing (plus a secret prize)...

...you must...

...come to our first ever BOOK SWAP!

What: You bring all the books you don't really want any more. For each book you bring, you get a ticket. Trade your tickets for books that other kids have brought!

Where: In the children's room at A Great Good Place for Books.

When: Sunday, July 25th at 5:00 p.m. Please be on time so I can set up the books on tables!

Who: anyone who is doing the Summer Reading Challenge--or would like to join. While the kids are swapping books, there will be a great sale happening for parents at the front of the store.

Why: So you can keep reading without spending all of your allowance on books!

Do you have questions or need more information? You can email me (Jake) at p1ratewench@hotmail.com or call the store at (510) 339-8210.

Secret Bonus Task!

2010-07-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, Challengers...are you ready for the next Secret Bonus Task?

Completing this task will earn you TWO extra entries in the Grand Prize Drawing. (If you're curious how many entries you've earned, check out the poster in the store window.)

Here is the Task:

You must draw a picture of a scene from a book. Below the picture, or on the back, write:

Title of the book
Author of the book
What is happening in your scene. (Remember to include the names of the characters and what they are doing.)

When it's done, bring your drawing to the store and, if you give us permission, we will display it.

review of White Cat

2010-07-02T17:00:00.001-07:00

White Cat
by Holly Black
Young Adult Paranormal Fiction
Available now in hardcover

You know what I love? I love when a book takes place inside a slightly different version of the world you know, and the author assumes that you're already familiar with those differences. Rather than taking pages and pages to explain the history of this not-quite-the-same place, the author throws in references that explain the little ways in which the world she's created is different from ours. It feels more natural that way. Holly Black's White Cat is this kind of novel. Her America is the same as ours in every way but one: a small percentage of the population can work a curse on you if their bare hands come in contact with your skin.

Cassel Sharpe comes from a family of curse workers, but he himself is not a worker. Until the night he wakes up on the edge of his dorm's roof, he is just a normal kid trying to get through school without making a splash. His sleepwalking episode is seen as a cry for help and he is suspended from school until he's been evaluated by a doctor.

Cassel returns to his family home and begins to realize that not everything is as it seems. His sister-in-law is hearing strange music. His brothers are acting secretive. A white cat is following him everywhere--even into his dreams. And his mom is about to get out of prison. Suddenly Cassel is on a hunt for the truth, but he doesn't know if he wants to find it.

I devoured this book in less than a day. Usually I don't go in for paranormal-type stuff, but Holly Black did a great job of working the paranormal elements into a novel that could stand up on its own. Cassel is the son of a con man--or con woman--and he struggles between his love for the con and his moral compunctions. I liked him a lot, and I hope I get to hear more from him in Red Glove.

Review of Revolution

2010-06-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are looking for the next Secret Bonus Task...stay tuned! I will probably post it on Friday. In the meantime, here's a review of a really great book I read yesterday.

Revolution
by Jennifer Donnelly
Young Adult fiction
Due October 2010

Andi is tired of being herself. Two years ago her brother died, and since then her life and her family have been slowly falling apart. Even her music is starting to lose the power to make her forget. Finally her school sends a letter to her parents, informing them that she is in danger of failing her senior year of high school.

Andi's father decides that Andi should accompany him to Paris while he is there on business. When she gets there she comes across an old guitar case and discovers a series of secrets that lead her deep into the eighteenth century and the French Revolution.

I loved this book for a number of reasons. First, the French Revolution is fascinating and I think that Jennifer Donnelly does a good job of integrating facts into her narrative. We see the revolution through the eyes of a young actress, and that part of the story is clear and compelling. Meanwhile, Andi's story keeps us hooked because there is a magical mixture of angst, music, Paris, and a cute boy. Two cute boys if you count the composer that Andi is researching for her senior thesis.

I'm a total sucker for any novel that combines a historical tale with a modern-day mystery, or a historical mystery with a modern-day tale. This book reminded me a lot of The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips, and I liked it just as much. Watch for it in October.

A review by Kate

2010-06-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Matched
by Ally Condie
Young Adult Science Fiction
Due November 30, 2010
Review by Kate Walker

In Cassia's (the main character) world the officials decide everything for you. They decide whom you will love and when you will have children. They also decide when and where you will work. They even determine when you will die! Cassia has trusted them since the day she was born. When her best friend Xander turned out to be the one she will marry and spend the rest of her life with, she knew she had been right to trust them. Suddenly she finds that life will never be the same again when another person's face appears where Xander's face should have been. Cassia's world is turned upside down and she has a hard choice to make, a choice between love and perfection.

I highly recommend this book to libraries and bookstores all around the world. This book is full of suspense and romance. Choices are made that are very much like choices made in the real world in some ways and completely different in other ways. To tell the truth I was devastated when it was over and I hope that there is another book right around the corner.

A Reminder

2010-06-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

Hey Summer Reading Challengers!

Don't forget that Mac Barnett will be here on Saturday to talk about THE CLOCK WITHOUT A FACE. Not only is it an awesome book, but you can also find a secret treasure if you figure out the clues!

And if you come to the event...you get TWO extra entries in the Grand Prize Drawing.

See you there!

another SECRET BONUS TASK!

2010-06-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hey Challengers, are you wondering what else you can do to get entries in the Grand Prize Drawing?

Well, here's another Secret Bonus Task that will get you TWO ENTRIES in the drawing. (Remember, the prize is a chance to hang out with a local author and get a signed copy of his or her book!)

All you have to do is come to a super awesome event at the bookstore. Here are the details:

What: Mac Barnett talks about his new book, THE CLOCK WITHOUT A FACE.

Where: A Great Good Place for Books

When: Saturday, June 26th at 7:00 p.m.

A little bit about the book:

We’ve buried 12 emerald-studded numbers—each handmade and one of a kind—in 12 holes across the United States. These treasures will belong to whoever digs them up first. The question: Where to dig? The only path to the answer: Solve the riddles of The Clock Without a Face!

THE BOOK The call comes in from the shadowy Ternky Tower: 13 robberies, one on each floor, all the way up to the penthouse, where obnoxious importer Bevel Ternky has been relieved of the numbers garlanding the legendary Emerald Khroniker, his priceless, ancient clock. Readers must conduct their own investigations, scouring detailed illustrations for hidden clues and knotty puzzles. All your answers can be found within this book: whodunit and how… and where the real numbers are buried now.

THE NUMBERS Twelve—and only twelve—emerald-bedecked integers sleep somewhere in this nation’s soil. If you can find them, they’re yours to keep—and only this book can tell you where they are. So read the story carefully, and examine the illustrations closely. The race is on!

Make sure you mention to a staff member that you're a Summer Reading Challenger. We'll see you there!

Summer Reading Challenge (and a Secret)

2010-06-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Summer Reading Challenge has begun!

Hopefully you've already picked up your Official Rules and Instructions and your Reading Record from the store. If so, then you're ready to start reading! Here are a few tips:

Remember to write down the titles of the books you were reading at the end of each hour. If you wait too long, you might forget what you were reading.
The Challenge isn't about how many BOOKS you read, it's about how many HOURS you read. So you don't need to read a million easy books! Pick one you really love, and the time will fly by--even if you're reading it slowly.
Stop by the store and check out the prizes if you get bored. You might see one you really want, and you'll have to get reading before someone else beats you to it!

And last but not least, here is the first SECRET BONUS TASK:

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Your comment should include your name (first and last), your age, and the best book you've read in the last few months.

If you would rather keep this information private, you can email it to me at p1rateWench@hotmail.com.

Your prize for completing the task will be an extra entry in the Grand Prize Drawing--that means you'll be entered TWICE instead of ONCE if you complete the Secret Bonus Task.

Now...get reading!

Summer Reading Challenge

2010-06-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Get ready for the 3rd annual SUMMER READING CHALLENGE!

The Challenge begins on Friday, June 18th at 9 a.m. If you would like to participate, come to the store between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. to pick up your Reading Record and a copy of the rules.

The goal of the Summer Reading Challenge is to read as many hours as possible. For each ten hours you read, you get a prize and an entry in the Grand Prize Drawing.

Our prizes this year are awesome! Here's what you could win:

Level 1: a clip-on bookmark
Levels 2 and 3: an item from our Prize Boxes
Levels 4 and 5: a free book from our Advance Reader cart
Level 6: a personalized book recommendation list from ME (Jake the girl)

Are you ready? We'll see you on Friday!

Recommendations from Julia

2010-05-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

My future stepsister Julia is in sixth grade at Onondaga Hill Middle School. I asked her to recommend some of her favorite books, which I'm passing on to you:

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass
Love That Dog and Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

I've read half of them and I totally agree with Julia's recommendations. Enjoy!

2010-05-31T07:34:00.001-07:00

It has been a really long time since my last post. Since then, I did my classroom takeover, graduated from my credential program, and came to upstate New York to take care of my mom after a double mastectomy. But that's not the only reason. Mostly, I kept picking up books that I didn't feel were worth reviewing. I only review books that I love, and I hadn't read one in a while.

Until yesterday.

Since I came to Syracuse, I've been to the library three times. The first time, I picked up a few disappointing reads. The second time I got movies and wedding books for my mom. The third time I got Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.

Jellicoe Road
by Melina Marchetta
Young Adult fiction
Available now in hardcover

I first read about Jellicoe Road in a controversial post about Young Adult literature. The reviewer didn't appear to have ever read a YA book before and wrote some very uninformed opinions about the genre. I was so annoyed about the article that I had no desire to read the book that had inspired it--but, over a year later, the book was still nagging at me. It won the Prinz Award, so I knew it must be good. When I saw it at the library I passed it twice and then came back. It was speaking to me.

Jellicoe Road is about seventeen-year-old Taylor Markham, whose mother abandoned her six years ago at a 7-Eleven. A woman named Hannah found her there and took her to Jellicoe High, a boarding school with a long history of turf wars between the students, the Townies, and the Cadets who camp nearby for two months a year. When the book opens, Taylor has just been chosen to lead her House against the Townies and the Cadets, despite the fact that she has a history with one of the Cadets.

As the book unfolds--slowly, quickly, beautifully--we find out that Taylor's story is linked to another one that began 22 years ago on the Jellicoe Road. This is a book full of heartbreak, passion, and truth. Even though I was never a teenager at boarding school in Australia, I felt like Melina Marchetta knew me when I was seventeen. Somehow there is something in Taylor's story that reminded me of my own, despite that fact that we have nothing in common. That is the mark of great writing--when an author can bring forth emotions and memories that the reader has never felt.

Review of Mistwood

2010-04-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Mistwood
by Leah Cypress
Young Adult Fantasy
Pub date May 2010

I was eager to read this book because the back says, "For fans of Kristin Cashore's Graceling and Fire, Tamora Pierce, and Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia books." As some of you know, Tamora Pierce is the author who made me a reader. I love Kristin Cashore, both as an author and as an awesome person, and I've been trying to get my hands on the Attolia books for several months. (I had one in my hand, finally, but lent it to someone and never saw it again.) So I had high hopes and expectations for Mistwood. It didn't let me down.

Isabel is the Shifter. For hundreds of years, it has been her duty to protect the king of Samorna. But this time, when the new king comes to summon her from the Mistwood, she finds that she does not have hundreds of years of memory to rely on. Her knowledge comes in flashes, disconnected bits of remembering that indicate that everything is not as it should be. And, most troubling of all, Isabel is exhibiting human characteristics that have no place within an immortal being. Can Isabel remember who she is--and how to shift--before the king's enemy strikes? Does she even want to?

You will be sucked into the land of Samorna from the very first page.

Review of The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

2010-04-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
by Alan Bradley
Adult/Crossover Mystery
Available now in hardcover

This is the second Flavia de Luce mystery. After I read the first one, entitled The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, you may recall that I called Flavia "my favorite character in literature." This book proved it. Even if this series was not full of murder mysteries and intrigue--even if it was just a week in the life of Flavia de Luce, riding her bike (Gladys) around the countryside and serving tea at church--I would still love it. Flavia is eleven years old. She is the youngest of the three de Luce girls, who live with their widower father on the Buckshaw estate. Flavia's sisters are the bane of her existence, and she uses her budding expertise in chemistry to play tricks on them. (For example, in the first book she extracts the poison from a batch of poison ivy, melts down Ophelia's favorite lipstick, mixes in the toxin, and reforms the lipstick into its original shape. She then makes field notes for the next week as she waits for the poison ivy to do its work.)

Inevitably, there is a murder in the nearby town of Bishop's Lacey and Flavia must put her detection skills to the test. Can she solve the mystery before the local constabulary does?

A Public Plea

2010-03-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and strangers,

Last week my family found out that my mom has Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC), a rare form of breast cancer. For all that cancer is becoming so widespread as to be a normal fact of life, you never really think that it will personally affect you until it actually does. That's how I felt about my mom's diagnosis. She is too young, and too youthful to have cancer. But in a little over a week she's going in for a double mastectomy and she'll start treatment soon after that.

For a couple years, I'd been thinking about doing the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. It's a crazy hard commitment--almost 40 miles over the course of two days. I've done charity walks before, but nothing past 10 miles. And in addition to the grueling physical demands, each walker has to raise at least $1,800 before they let her "out the gate," so to speak.

Thankfully, I won't be walking alone. My little sister is coming all the way out from New York to walk with me. Together we will help modern medicine get $3,600 closer to beating this terrible disease. We're walking for my mom, of course, but also for both of our grandmothers and several close friends of the family who have either survived or become victims of breast cancer.

If you'd like to support our cause by joining our team, you can register at www.avonwalk.org. If you'd like to donate money, you can go here. Any little bit is appreciated, even if it's thoughts and prayers for my mother. She is a strong woman and I know she'll beat her cancer in record time. All the same, we rely on the support of those around us to carry us through sometimes.

Thank you. I am blessed with a life full of amazing people, and you are one of them.

jake

The Sky is Everywhere

2010-03-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

The Sky is Everywhere
by Jandy Nelson
Young Adult Fiction
Pub date 3/9/10

I don't have time to write a book review. I really don't. However, I also didn't have time to start a book last night, lay awake until all hours reading it, wake up, devour it during my commute, read a few pages during recess and lunch, and finish it as soon as I got home, pushing a huge assessment and lesson plans to the wayside.

But I did all of those things.

The book is called The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, and if you are a human being (or similar) you should read it. It comes out tomorrow.

Fans of Sarah Dessen, Susane Colasanti, Stephenie Meyer, Maureen Johnson, John Green, and/or Sara Zarr will love this book. Fans of the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, clarinets, France, roses, Bea Arthur or other tall zany old women, California, boys, and/or poetry will love this book. It will make you laugh (out loud, on page 2), it will make you cry (very shortly thereafter), and it will make you shake your head and wonder WHAT ON EARTH the characters are smoking to make them so awesome and weird. (Unless you live in Berkeley. Then you might understand.)

The Sky is Everywhere is about an unorthodox family reeling from the death of one of its members. Lennie--named after John Lennon--has lost her older sister and best friend, Bailey. A clarinetist, poet, and self-acknowledged nerd, Lennie doesn't know who she is without her vibrant sister. Even the Lennie plant, which has always reflected Lennie's emotional state, seems to be dying. With the help of Bailey's self-destructive boyfriend, their pothead Uncle Big, their artist grandmother, and the new boy in town, Lennie begins to find herself. But she makes a pretty big mess along the way.

I experienced all the extremes of emotion in the pages of this book. It's been a long time since a book has taken me for a ride like this one did.

Review of Purge

2010-02-22T06:20:00.000-08:00

Purge
by Sofi Oksanen
Adult fiction/historical fiction
Pub date April 2010

I'm always a little nervous when I pick up a translated novel, because I've read a lot of bad translations in my day. Thanks to authors like Henning Mankell, Steig Larsson, and Ninni Holmqvist, there are more and more great translations coming from previously overlooked parts of the world. This is one of them. Oksanen is a new Finnish-Estonian novelist, and this is not the last you'll hear of her. Purge tells the story of two women: Aliide Truu, who lives alone in the Estonian countryside, and Zara, a girl whom Aliide finds in her backyard one morning. Through their cryptic conversations and heartbreaking memories, Oksanen slowly spins a tale of a changing Estonia, and the women who have lived there. On the jacket copy it says, "Purge is a fiercely compelling and damning novel about the corrosive effects of shame, and life in a time and place where to survive is to be implicated." It is also a beautifully written story of redemption, which I highly recommend to book groups everywhere.

review of Thief Eyes

2010-02-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

Thief Eyes
by Janni Lee Simner
Young Adult Fantasy
Pub date 4/27/2010

I loved this book so much that I read it in one day. I'm always impressed when a book inspires a burning desire to read another book...in this case, it's the Icelandic saga Njal's Saga. Thief Eyes is about a sixteen-year-old girl, Haley, who follows her father to Iceland so she can see the place where her mother disappeared a year previously. There she finds a strange coin that brings her nothing but trouble. Soon she discovers that her mother was caught in an ancient magic--and, by picking up the coin, so is she. Thus begins her journey through Iceland's myths and history.

Haley is accompanied by Ari, an Icelandic boy whose mother works with Haley's father. Together they must navigate a world that they thought was only a legend.

The thing I liked most about this book was the way that Simner made Haley a real person. So many adventure stories show a character transforming instantly into a (sometimes bumbling) hero, but not Haley. She was a completely believable human being from beginning to end, with all the hesitation and confusion that comes with being human. The writing was great, too--and, like I said, it made me want to pick up an Icelandic saga for casual reading. Bravo, Janni Lee Simner.

Review by Sydney

2010-02-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

Something Like Fate
by Susane Colasanti
Young adult fiction
Due May 4, 2010
Review by Sydney McGillis

Something like fate, by Susane Colasanti, is about a teenage girl who meets a guy she finally connects with... yet is dating her best friend Erin. Lani finds herself torn between the guy of her dreams, and her best friend that also saved her life. When Erin figures out about Lani and Jason's romance will their friendship be over? Read to find out if Lani chooses friendship or romance, in this novel by Colasanti.

Macmillan vs. Amazon

2010-02-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

Everyone and their mother, at least in the book community, has weighed in on the Amazon vs. Macmillan debacle this week. (For what I deem to be the best recap, go here: http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/?p=2138) Everyone seems to be on the same side: Amazon is the bad guy, Macmillan is the brave little toaster. I completely agree. Amazon makes decisions based on the pockets of its employees, with no regard for the authors, booksellers, publicists, editors, and reps that they are systematically putting out of business. Soon its own model is going to kill it, at least as far as books go. Macmillan has done a courageous thing by putting their collective foot down, even though they must be losing a crazy amount of money.

I want to thank the brave souls at Macmillan who made the decision to face down the giant. Even though Amazon has allegedly conceded, Macmillan books still aren't available on Amazon after several days. As a former indie bookseller, I greatly appreciate the stand that Macmillan has taken on my behalf.

So, thank you, Macmillan. And thank you to our Macmillan reps, Kevin and Gigi, who are awesome.

When You Reach Me

2010-01-24T14:21:00.001-08:00

So, some (or most or all--I have no idea who reads this) of you know that When You Reach Me recently won the prestigious Newbery Award. For the second year in a row, the award was given to a book that I'd read. I actually finished When You Reach Me about 24 hours before the win was announced, so it was fresh in my mind when I heard the news. It made me think about award-winners and how they're chosen.

Last year I was on the committee that chose Steinbeck's Ghost by Lewis Buzbee for the YA category of the Northern California Book Award. The committee communicated by email to nominate titles for a longlist and then choose a shortlist, which each member was supposed to read. One day I came to work and found a poster advertising Steinbeck's Ghost as the winner. This was news to me. We'd had a brief discussion about Lewis Buzbee and his relationship to the Indie Bookseller community, but as far as I knew we hadn't reached a decision about the award. I wouldn't have voted for it. I loved the book, and it was Northern Californian through and through, but it was hard to sell because kids weren't interested in Steinbeck. Whomever had chosen the winner had not taken young readers into consideration, which was supposed to be the reason I was on the committee.

I'm sure that the Newbery committee doesn't operate this way, but it makes me wonder what criteria are considered when the award is given. I have read several books in the last year that I would call Newbery-worthy. But do kids love them? Do they ask deep and important questions? Do they teach us anything? Will they still make an impact in twenty years when kids read them in school? Will kids even want to read them in twenty years? I imagine that these are the questions that the Newbery committee asked while they were choosing a winner. Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me checked all the boxes.

I remember reading other Newbery winners when I was in elementary school. I loved each and every one. Whatever the criteria, they are tried and true. I have no doubt that When You Reach Me will hold its own in the ranks of Newbery award-winners.

Broccoli & Bow Ties and Birthday Sheet Cake

2010-01-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

Yum! Pasta with broccoli, garlic, pine nuts, lemon, and parmesan. Ina's Broccoli & Bow Ties (obviously I used farfalle instead of bowties) was as good as it sounds. This comes from the Kids! section of The Barefoot Contessa Family Style, because it's so simple. It's not bland, though, thanks to the addition of the garlic and lemon zest. It was easy to make and delicious, which are both things I've come to expect from Ina Garten's recipes.

Here we have the Birthday Sheet Cake, which I made in honor of my fiance's birthday. We decorated it together. As you can see, we're just about ready to start our own bakery specializing in cake decorating...not.

I admit I was a little disappointed with the frosting. The cake itself is amazing--it's a buttery and rich white cake with, you guessed it, lemon zest. But I'm a little tired of all the lemon zest so I used orange zest instead and I'm glad I did. The cake is moist and yummy. It ALMOST overflowed the pan while it was in the oven but in the end it was fine.

The frosting, like I mentioned, was not my favorite. It's just semi-sweet chocolate chips, some cream, and a little butter and vanilla. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate and this was just a little too semi-sweet. Plus, it never came to the right consistency so it was like pouring fondue over the cake. Actually, that sounds delicious. Maybe it's just that I don't love chocolate. I've been scraping it off the top of my pieces of cake and leaving just a hint, which is enough for me.

Review of The Dead-Tossed Waves

2010-01-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Dead-Tossed Waves
by Carrie Ryan
Young Adult Science Fiction
Pub date March 2010

As you may have noticed, I do a fair amount of reading. One might even say a lot of reading. As a result, I have acquired enough self control to put down a book at night and go to sleep--usually. About once a year, I encounter a book that I CANNOT PUT DOWN, not even to bake a cake, not even to sleep. This was that book.

The companion volume to The Dead-Tossed Waves, which is entitled The Forest of Hands and Teeth, was good. Not nearly as un-put-downable, but good. I was expecting the same from this one: lots of fear, running from zombies, beloved characters dying, the forest slowly closing in. I was expecting the main character to be Mary, whom you might remember from the first book. I was wrong on all counts.

The Dead-Tossed Waves opens in the village of Vista, where Gabry lives in the lighthouse with her mother. Gabry is a typical teenager. She wants to run with the fast crowd with her best friend Cira, but she's afraid of the world outside the barrier. Cira's brother Catcher finally persuades Gabry to join in their illegal escapade outside the wall--and the consequences are more hideous than anyone imagined. Suddenly all of Gabry's friends are locked up or missing or dead, and she is left with the guilt of running away from them. Can she overcome her fear and set things right? Can she trust the handsome young stranger who appears just when she needs him? And should she follow her mother into the Forest of Hands and Teeth?

Romance novels: a personal history

2010-01-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

When I was little, my grandma's house was full of teenagers. My mother was the oldest of 5 and had me when she was 20, so there were lots of young aunts and uncles to entertain me when I was a kid. As they left home one by one, their cast-off belongings were slowly moved into a closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms. As I grew up, this closet became magical--it seemed like there was a neverending supply of books inside. Here was where I discovered the Sweet Valley twins (Jessica and Elizabeth), Nancy Drew, and the tragic and predictable novels by Lurlene McDaniels. And then, one summer when I was 12 and spending a couple of months with my grandparents, in the bottom of the closet I found a small paperback with a shirtless Scottish man on the cover.

And thus began my love affair with romance novels.

Now, let me pause here and say that this closet was ACTUALLY MAGICAL. I will explain. When I began finding the books, my mom and her next-youngest sibling had already moved out of the house. As far as I know, of the five children in that generation, these two are the only readers. The books probably didn't belong to my uncle, and they definitely didn't belong to my aunt Jennifer. My aunt Carolyn isn't much of a fiction reader. And yet books kept appearing in a steady supply. So who did the books belong to? And, even more curious, why was there a lurid bodice-ripper in the closet years after the last child had moved out?

In any case, I devoured that first romance novel and continued to read them avidly for years. I especially loved Scottish history--in fact, after reading Diana Gabaldon's series about Jamie and Claire, I decided to spend my year abroad in Scotland. I loved every kind of romance, though, and my grandpa fed my addiction with those horrible 4-packs that Costco sells.

I don't really read romances any more, unless Jude Deveraux comes out with a new one. But those early obsessions contributed to a lifelong love of historical fiction, and a great appreciation for genre fiction.

This post was inspired by THE SIXTH SURRENDER by Hana Samek Norton, which exists somewhere between romance and historical fiction. Pub date July 2010.

Another review

2010-01-10T09:26:00.001-08:00

Hawksmaid: The Untold Story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian
by Kathryn Lasky
Young Adult Historical Fiction
Pub date May 2010

I am a complete sucker for Robin Hood retellings. Ever since I read The Outlaws of Sherwood, by Robin McKinley, I can't get enough of them. This one was so good, different from all the rest but with enough of the familiar elements that I was satisfied. Matty is the daughter of an English noble, and when she is a child her home is invaded by the vile Guy of Gisborne. In the aftermath of the invasion, Matty finds herself bearing more responsibility than a child should, and she learns to hunt with her father's hawks. Soon her band of friends are not satisfied with innocent games in the woods--their home is changing under the influence of Prince John and his cronies. They decide to do something about it, and Matty becomes Maid Marian, a spy within the household of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Naturally, I loved the story itself, but what I really loved was the way that Kathryn Lasky wove so much falconry into the tale. It's a subject that I knew almost nothing about, and I didn't feel like the book was trying to cram facts into my head. I'm curious to see what kids think of this one.

Reviews

2010-01-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

31 Bond Street
by Ellen Horan
Adult Historical Mystery
Pub date: April 2010

I wasn't sure what to expect from this: it was part mystery, part historical fiction, and part courtroom drama. The action shifted back and forth between Henry Clinton, a defense attorney who leaves his comfortable partnership to take on a controversial murder case; and Emma Cunningham, the suspected murderer, who tells her story piece by piece. Emma, a widowed mother of two, is the housekeeper for Dr. Harvey Burdell. When he is found brutally murdered, all evidence points to her. Henry Clinton is the only lawyer brave enough--or foolish enough--to represent the doomed woman. One thing I liked about this book was that I didn't know if Emma was guilty, even right up until the end. I also love the way the novel dealt with nineteenth-century New York: the landscape, the population, the legal system, society, women's roles, slavery, etc. I especially liked the character of Henry Clinton's wife--she has an extremely sharp legal mind but her station doesn't permit her to work in the field.

Drake's Bay
by T.A. Roberts
Adult Mystery
Pub date April 2010

T.A. Roberts actually dropped this book off to me at work last week. He had read some of my reviews and delivered his book right into my hands! I felt famous for about a minute and a half. I took it right home and read it.

I read a lot of mysteries of this type: a lost manuscript of some sort, a professor trying to solve a puzzle, other (sometimes evil) professors racing the main character to find the truth. It's a genre that Dan Brown made popular, but there are a lot of great books that have been published as a result of The da Vinci Code's success. This one distinguishes itself from the pack, however, in several ways. First of all, there is a TON of sailing detail in the book. The protagonist, Ethan Storey, lives on a boat and is trying to find the lost travel logs of Sir Francis Drake before a mysterious antagonist destroys all the evidence (and people) involved. Secondly, there's a lot of California history and geography that I found really interesting. This book is great for people who live in the Bay Area, because so much is familiar and yet there's a lot to learn. I also appreciated that Dr. Storey teaches at SF State, where I'm currently a graduate student. : ) The sometimes-strained partnership between State and UC Berkeley is given some attention in the novel, which I enjoyed.

I did find myself wishing that there was more background on Francis Drake. He's a fascinating figure but I don't know much about him, especially his search for the Northwest Passage, which he called the Strait of Anian. All in all, a good mystery.

Christmas...and BEYOND!

2010-01-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to post pictures and reviews of my Christmas recipes. I had a "guest photographer" for some of them, because I can't find my (extremely crappy) camera. I actually used the built-in webcam on my laptop for some pictures and it works way better than my 6-year-old digital camera...pretty sad. Anyway, here's what I've been up to for the last week and a half:

On Christmas morning, we opened our stockings and then I made these Banana Sour Cream Pancakes. They were really easy, and the consistency was PERFECT--they were light and airy and perfectly cooked inside. I think the trick is to add the bananas after you pour the batter onto the pan--every time I make pancakes with mashed bananas in the batter, it seems like the batter doesn't cook properly. Ina is a genius. My only issue was the syrup. The pancakes didn't taste right with the real maple syrup that I had...they were way too lemony. I confess that I don't really love real maple syrup, but maybe I just haven't found the right one yet. When I used Mrs. Butterworth's, though, the flavor overwhelmed the pancakes. In any case, Casey said these were the best pancakes he'd ever had.

And for dinner...this very small pot roast. We started off with a soup/salad course with leftover Roasted Vegetable Soup from the night before, and Green Salad with Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette. Then we had Sunday Rib Roast and Chive Biscuits. For dessert we had more Raspberry Cheesecake. The roast was delicious, although I overcooked it a bit. The only thing we did was cover the top with salt and pepper--but somehow it created this amazing crust. As for the Mustard Horseradish Sauce, it was pretty good on the pot roast and even better on sandwiches the next day. It was very mayonnaisey, so I doubled the amount of mustard and horseradish.

The biscuits were great, too. Light and flaky and the chives added a little zing that went great with the pot roast.

Now, on to New Year's Eve:
On New Year's Eve I made Ina's Rum Raisin Rice Pudding. I'd never made pudding before, and I'd never even seen rice pudding, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Unfortunately, the recipe didn't help much. Unlike most of the recipes, there was no picture to help me out. In addition, the recipe didn't give any indication of how the pudding was supposed to look or feel at any point. I ended up leaving out a whole cup of half-and-half because I didn't think the pudding was thick enough, and I'm glad I did--with that extra cup, it never would have set up right. The recipe doesn't even mention that it has to be refrigerated in order to set up--it says "serve warm or chilled" at the end and makes no mention of refrigeration. Luckily, Casey knows his way around the kitchen and suggested that my soupy mixture might look more like pudding in the morning. He was right. It tasted great, though. I'm not much of a raisin fan but I might make this again sometime.

On New Year's Day I had some friends over for pasta salad and games. I made Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and it was a huge hit! The dressing is made of sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, oil, capers, garlic, and salt--what a winning combination. The pasta-to-cheese-to-tomato-to-olive ratio was spot on, and I loved the last-minute additions of basil and parmesan. I left out the cheeses for Casey's vegan brother and he seemed to like it too.

And here we have the dreaded Linguine with Shrimp Scampi. I say "dreaded" because I have an irrational fear of cooking seafood, having had way too many overcooked specimens. Also, I have to be in the mood for shrimp to enjoy it, and that night I was decidedly NOT in the mood for shrimp. Still, the recipe was good. It was a little too lemony, though, which has been a theme throughout this cookbook. I think my palate is just too lemon-sensitive, and the flavors are often overwhelmed by the amount of lemon in the dishes. Oddly, Ina's picture in the cookbook seems to have way more parsley than mine did. Hers looks delicious, and mine was so-so. I guess that's why she's the chef and I'm...not.

THESE COOKIES ARE THE BEST. They're Jam Thumbprint Cookies from the Kids! section. They're shortbread batter, which is mostly butter, rolled in coconut and filled with raspberry jam. Really, how can you go wrong with that? That's right, you can't. These will definitely make it into my box of recipe cards.

reviews!

2010-01-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Heist Society

by Ally Carter

Young Adult fiction

due February 2010

If you like books about spies, criminals, art heists, and/or smart young people, this is the book for you. As in Carter's Gallagher Girls series, the characters in this book come from an extraordinary background: they all belong to an age-old family of thieves. Kat was among the best, but then she pulled off her biggest job yet--she left the criminal world and decided to go to school. It doesn't last long, though. After a few months she is called back among the thieves to save her father from a threat bigger than any she's ever seen.

I loved this book. The characters are believable, despite the fact that they're completely unbelievable. The action was intricate enough to make it good, but it wasn't too confusing. I hope there's going to be a second book--I can't wait to read it.

The Fire Opal

by Regina McBride

Young Adult fantasy

due March 2010

I come from a big Irish family, and I grew up hearing tales about selkies, the sidh, the tuatha de Danaan, Finn MacCool, and all the other myths. This book was written in the vein, with all the old lore worked into a pretty fantastical plot. Maeve O'Tullagh encounters a mysterious woman one day, and the woman gives her two small bottles to protect her mother and herself. However, soon after giving birth to Maeve's sister Ishleen, Maeve's mother falls into a strange sleep that she cannot be woken from. When Ishleen suffers the same ailment years later, Maeve must rescue them. During her journey she encounters all manner of strange creature, including a handsome Spanish sailor. I liked how faithful this book was to Irish lore.

Merry Christmas from Jake and Ina Garten

2009-12-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve dinner: an Ina spectacular!

Finally, I have had a chance to cook again! Because it's been such a long time since I made one of Ina's recipes, I decided to do a bunch of them all at once for Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas breakfast, and Christmas dinner. Tonight I started with Green Salad with Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette, Roasted Vegetable Soup, and Raspberry Cheesecake. Below, behold the Roasted Winter Vegetables that form the base of the soup. I'd made them before, and I love the combination of carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash. Next to them, you can see the brioche rolls that were destined to become croutons.

The croutons were delicious. My timer didn't go off so they baked a little longer than I meant them to, but the end result was perfect. They were crispy and complemented the soup and salad perfectly.
Here's the soup. It was great, although I thought it was lacking something. An acidity, maybe. In any case, I'll be happy to have it again for lunch tomorrow. But the best thing of all was the salad dressing. It had more ingredients than most recipes in this book, and it was sooooo good. The garlic, mayonnaise, and olive oil combined perfectly with the mustard and vinegar. Yum! I'll definitely be keeping a jar on hand at all times.
Finally...the cheesecake. I tried to make a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving, but I didn't cook it long enough and it was a little too rich. Not a success. This one, though, was much lighter (and fully cooked). There are hints of lemon and vanilla in it. The raspberry sauce was super easy and really good. I'm glad it's so good, because Casey and I will be eating the whole thing!

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova--a review!

2009-12-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

The Swan Thieves
by Elizabeth Kostova
Adult fiction
Due January 2010

Elizabeth Kostova has a special place in my heart because of her interest in the Balkans, and particularly Bosnia and Bulgaria. Her first book, The Historian, is a tome about vampires, history, research, travel, and a bunch of other things I love. I was a little worried that I wouldn't like The Swan Thieves as much, simply because it was missing these elements. Happily, I was wrong.

The Swan Thieves is, above all else, the story of a psychiatrist and his quest to discover the secrets of a silent patient. Robert Oliver was arrested for attempting to destroy a painting in the Met and committed to Dr. Marlowe's facility. When Oliver stops talking, Dr. Marlowe must investigate the events leading up to Robert's arrest. As he gets deeper and deeper into the story, we begin to learn Robert Oliver's story--and that of a mysterious French painter who has been dead for almost 100 years.

Despite the lack of vampires and Bulgaria, I actually liked this book better than the last. It is much more cohesive and the characters really come to life. I especially loved all the painting that goes on throughout the novel; it made me want to take up oil painting. Watch for this one a few weeks after New Year's.

2009-12-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

I never thought there would be a time in my life when I didn't have time to read. Alas, the past few weeks have been that time. I have, however, painstakingly reread two books a few pages at a time:
Terrier by Tamora Pierce

and Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

The first time I read Wizard's First Rule was in high school. My friend Magoo and I were competing to read the most books that year, because our English teacher encouraged students to give a quick synopsis of every book they read independently. Magoo and I were in different classes with the same teacher. We decided to see who could take up the most class time with long, complicated retellings of books. When I discovered this series I decided to try it--even though the books are like 800 pages long, their plots are so complicated that I could fill a whole class with the eight books in the series. I was hooked after Wizard's First Rule, the first book in the series, and read them all one after the other.

This year, a t.v. show based on the series aired. It's called Legend of the Seeker. It's not particularly faithful to the books but it's an entertaining show, and it made me want to reread the books.

As for Terrier, I think I've mentioned before that Tamora Pierce is the author who made me a reader. The Song of the Lioness Quartet and the Immortals series are two of my favorite series, at least until the last book in the Beka Cooper trilogy is complete. All three series take place in the same world, which is as well-developed and believable as any I've encountered. Definitely check these out if you haven't read them yet.

2009-11-08T21:35:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time (specifically, October 2005) I heard about National Novel Writing Month, in which a bunch of crazy people attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Because I was studying abroad at the time, and everyone knows that you're not supposed to study when you're studying abroad, I decided to participate. I spent a few days coming up with ideas. At work--which was a bar at the time--I scribbled character details on napkins and coasters. When November 1st rolled around, I was ready.

Unfortunately, my laptop got stolen on November 12th and that was the end of that.

In 2007 I tried again. November also happened to be The Month In Which I Was Taking the GRE, Applying To Grad Schools, and Applying for A Fulbright Scholarship, and after writing three pages I gave up in favor of doing those other things. Again, not a very successful attempt.

Finally, in 2008, I had my game face on. This time I was going to superglue my laptop to my desk. And back up my work at the end of every day. And say NO to any complicated applications and exams that came along. This time, I was going to finish.

And...I did! I wrote 52,000 words in 30 days and it felt AWESOME.

This year I'm trying again, even though I'm a full-time graduate student. I may not have time to earn money or eat or sleep, but doggone it, I'm going to hit that 50,000 word mark. So far I'm ahead of schedule and I'm loving my story.

The point of this post is actually to beg you (whomever you may be) to donate money to the Office of Letters and Light, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes literacy. It also keeps NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy running so that 100,000 crazy people can try to write a novel every November. Any novelist who raises $200 for the organization is invited to the Night of Writing Dangerously on November 22nd. I would like to go, and that's where the begging for money part comes in.

If you'd like to donate, please go here. Any contribution will be appreciated. If you donate enough, I'll even dedicate my novel to you! (I probably won't let you read it though.)

A video about NaNoWriMo

2009-11-02T09:04:00.001-08:00

Review of Before I Fall and The Postmistress

2009-10-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

The Postmistress
by Sarah Blake
Adult Historical Fiction
Due February 2010

I wasn't so sure about this one when I read the flap copy. I'm not a huge fan of WWII fiction, but I loved GUERNSEY LITERARY so I decided to give it a shot. This is a novel about three women: Iris, a small-town postmaster on Cape Cod; Emma, the new wife of the town doctor; and Frankie, an American reporter who is reporting from London. All three women experience the war in different ways. I liked this book because it walked the line between light and thought-provoking. It was very well-written, and the characters were completely believable as women who were living in a different time and place. Watch for this in February.

Before I Fall
by Lauren Oliver
Young Adult Fiction
Due February 2010

This is Groundhog Day (or Replay) for teenaged girls. Sam Kingston lives the last day of her life, February 12th, and dies in a horrific car accident. She wakes up in her own bed--on February 12th again. Sam relives her last day 6 times, each new time trying to change the factors that are making her repeat the 12th of February. What starts out as a Mean Girls-esque trashy novel becomes unbelievably deep and compelling. Lauren Oliver's depiction of teenage relationships is dead-on (pun intended), and you will find this novel un-put-down-able.

2009-10-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Incarceron

by Catherine Fisher

Young Adult Science Fiction

Due February 2010

I love that lately there's been a trend toward steampunk, which is kind of a fusion between futuristic machine fiction and Victorian history. This book isn't technically steampunk, but it takes place in the future, in a world where a terrible war has led society to return to a medieval way of life. Anything non-Era is banned, and technology is hidden within the depths of nobles' households. Modern medicine is illegal, wildlife is full of steel and wire--and that's just aboveground.

Claudia's father is the warden of Incarceron, the self-sustaining prison where half the world's population was forced after the war. In Claudia's world it is believed to be a utopia, but inmates know the truth. It is a cruel, harsh place where survival depends on terrible acts and unusual skills. This is Finn's world.

When Claudia and Finn find a way to communicate with one another, it changes both of their lives. Neither one is who they thought they were. Together they could change the trajectory of the world--but only if they survive.

Fans of The Maze Runner will love this book. Claudia is everything that a medieval heroine should be, and Finn is an urban survivor. I can't wait for the next book, Sapphique, which I think has just been released in the United Kingdom.

Review by Sydney

2009-10-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet

by Erin Dionne

Young Adult Fiction

Due February 2010

Review by Sydney McGillis

The book I read is called 'The Total tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet' and the Author is Erin Dionne. This book is about a girl named Hamlet who just started 8th grade and all she wants to be is normal. Unfortunately for Hamlet she is anything but normal, having two parents who both live and act like they are in the 1600's and are huge Shakespeare fans, and a seven year old sister who is just about ready to go to college. When Hamlet's sister starts going to her school and her English class starts learning about Shakespeare, Hamlet just about loses it. The only thing that keeps Hamlet looking forward to school are the mysterious origami pigs that are accumulating in her locker. Will Hamlet survive middle school? You'll have to read to find out!

This book was really interesting and it was not the usual story about a teenager's life.

Note from Jake: I read this book as well, and I loved it! Hamlet's little sister Dezzie is a central character in the novel, and I've never met anyone like her. She's smart, spunky, and seven years old. Erin Dionne really brings the characters to life, as usual. : )