Sweet Book

After falling in love with LA after 5 minutes there, I am always eager to read books set there. I am always eager to dream about going back. I checked out Epic Fail on the Kindle app from the library just because it was set there. Elise is a junior in high school and has lived in Massachusetts all of her life but her parents have decided to move to LA and now Elise, her older sister Juliana, and her two younger sisters will be attending an elite private school attended by children of the Hollywood rich and famous. Elise is attracted to this hot dude because he's hot, but then she discovers that he is the son of two of Hollywood's biggest stars. Is he a jerk? Does she like him because he's rich and the son of movie stars? Does he not like him for those same reasons?
The book is a quick, cute read that I can easily recommend to folks looking for an upbeat ending.

Whatever

So The Haunting of Hill House has been called one of the best literary ghost stories of the twentieth century. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award. There are have two major movies based on the book, The Haunting in 1963 and The Haunting is 1999.

I don't know.

It just didn't do it for me.

That's terrible, isn't it? And it probably says more about my taste than the book, because everyone loves The Haunting of Hill House. It's a classic. It's on the list of every horror writer's favorite books. And it is literary.

But I can't lie, and I can't pretend it held up over the years. And I can't pretend that I wasn't annoyed by the characters and disappointed that they all didn't perish! (Okay, that is an exaggeration...kinda).

IMHO, it is self-important, boring and not scary at all. The whole love thing between the two women is ridiculous and so tiresome. If Jackson wanted to write a book about two women and their repressed sexuality, then she just should have and not tired to make it into a horror novel so that people who are looking for a horror novel wouldn't have to suffer through something so totally uninteresting. Some parts are funny, but this was just a pure waste of time for me. Yawn.

Watch those Sharks

Usually I just put a picture of the book's cover on a review, but Variant is the perfect example of a book jumping the shark so I had to include a pic of The Fonz.

Variant is written by Robinson Wells, the brother of Dan Wells who wrote I am Not a Serial Killer. Despite my years of research, I have not been able to confirm or deny that the Wells Brothers are related to Dawn Wells. Or Wells Fargo, for that matter.

Variant is the story of Benson Fisher, a foster kid who applies to a private academy to escape the miserable foster homes he has been in before, which, if we believe a lot of what we hear about some foster parents, we know that this part of the book is probably realistic fiction. Benson arrives at Maxwell Academy to find that there are no teachers, no adults at all. There are just 77 kids, each of whom belong to one of three gangs. Benson wants to GET OUT, but most of the other kids seem content or defeated. No one is sure why they are there, perhaps it is a training camp, though all they do is play paintball sometimes, or maybe it is a psych experiment. One gang seems to be the "do-gooders" communicating with the Iceman, who visits via closed circuit tv and computers to tell the students what their daily schedule will be. This group, The Society is content to just take things as they are. Havoc, that's the "bad guys" gang. They wear chains and have ink tattoos and like to cause trouble. The third group, the Vs, are just kind of there. They try to keep the peace, but they want to get out, someday and so they don't kiss butt like the Society does.

One of the most bothersome things about the book is that it says "V's" when referring to this group. Doesn't that imply possession? The V's cat. The V's chair. Should it just be "Vs"? Like CDs and 80s music? Not "I have a lot of CD's." and "I liked the 80's."

Maybe I am wrong but I looked in a couple grammar books and they agree with me.

So it was so annoying to see "The V's were in the room." The V's WHAT was in the room??? No, just the V's. Oh, you mean just the Vs!

The other bothersome thing is that Benson is supposed to have come from Pittsburgh. He says that he lived in foster homes in Elliot, the Bluff and South Side and then says that these are not top Pittsburgh tourist destinations. I would suggest that the South Side is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Pittsburgh. The Bluff, which is better known as Uptown, is actually a very small area of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University and Mercy Hospital taking up quite a bit of it. There are law offices, and the Armstrong Tunnel. Not a lot of residential stuff going on there. It is 1.5 miles in size. Some of DU's frat houses are there though...and given what we know about some foster care businesses, I guess that they might put a foster kid under the care of a frat. Maybe that's where Benson was.

So I took a lot of time saying what bugged me about the books...but still I really did like it. I mean, did Happy Days stop being fun to watch after Fonz went out in his shorts and water skis? No!

The book kept me reading and I will be reading the sequel.

Tag, You're It!

So in order to make the blog easier to search, I put up one of those little tag clouds, but now I have to go back and redo my older posts so I am going to be doing a few a day and so hopefully some time it will be easier to get to the books that you are looking for! Thanks for the suggestion, R! Right now I just stuck it down at the bottom because there are hardly any tags in it now! When it gets done I'll move it up higher!

The Walls Have Eyes

This is the book that I wanted to write! Well I wrote a very bad version of this book in 2010 for nanowrimo and now it is lost somewhere because it is one of those things you don't want to find accidentally and be reminded that you are a seriously bad writer! 53,000+ words of bad writing about a curse at Dixmont and a cover-up in town and teenage angst. But it had a beginning, middle and end and that was the first and only time I won nano!
My abandoned mental asylum story was about the former Dixmont State Hospital, near Sewickley, PA, where as Project 17 takes place at the former Danvers State Hospital, near Boston. The two places were very, very similar, both designed according to the Kirkbride Plan, both originally lovely places when they were privately held, and then once the state got involved they turned into places of ruin, torture, over-crowding and abuse, according to people who worked and lived there. Both were closed around the same time when it was no longer the trend to treat mentally ill people in such hospitals, both left to rot, with a lot of the stuff left inside, both hangouts for kids and ghost hunters and movie-makers and both torn down.
As I've mentioned here before, I got to visit Dixmont before it was torn down, I knew someone who knew someone and she called someone and my dad and I were able to bypass security and tour the building and the grounds on a Sunday morning before it was torn down to put up a Walmart. The Walmart never made it, as while they were preparing the land, a huge landslide happened and Rt. 65 northbound was closed for a million years! I drive by there a few times a week on my way to Sewickley and there's always something going on up there, but I don't know what. I just know there won't be a haunted Walmart going in.
Project 17 is a multiple POV story and all of the characters are likable in their own way. The main dude is Derik "LaPlaya" LaPointe, who doesn't care much for school, but loves the ladies. He is heir apparent to his folks' diner but doesn't really want to be. Nor does he want to let his parents down by telling them what he really wants to do is go to film school. A reality tv network is holding a film contest and the winner gets an internship to a big deal film thingiemabob. Derik wants to film his movie in Danvers and win the internship.
He needs to find folks for his movie and he has an interesting bunch. What they run into at the hospital is, as the teasers say, "MORE THAN THEY EVER EXPECTED! DUN DUN DUN!"
So if you have a thing for abandoned mental hosptials and you like a little creepiness, this is a fast, quick, creepy read.

This was something else....

So I found another good book to check out from the library to my BB, one I'd never heard of before, 7 Souls by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando.

It begins with Mary, waking up in the window of the SoHo Crate and Barrel, naked with a few deep scratches on her back. She has no idea how she got there. She was probably thinking that this day, her seventeenth birthday, couldn't get any worse, oh but it does. Something very weird is going on and all of her friends seem to have turned against her, even her spoiled boyfriend Patrick "Trick" has broken up with her.

Ah but the day gets worse.

Think Egyptian curses and meth and guns.

This book didn't remind me of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver until I read a review that compared the two, but I think they are different enough that you don't have to compare. Good book and fun reading of the lives of rich and rotten in Manhattan.

A Great Effort!

I am a super toad for saying that about Addie on the Inside. I'm not an author. I'm not even all that bright. I certainly couldn't create something 1/2 as good as this book. And just saying that, "A great effort!" sounds so pompous. But I can't think of anything else to say that is right. I know what James Howe was trying to do with this book. It's a coming-of-age tale. A middle school girl who is naturally uncomfortable in her own, changing skin, putting up with the usual, horrible stuff that middle school is made of: mean girls, breaking up with boyfriends, teachers who don't understand, teachers who do, that kind of thing that makes everyone want to get out of middle school, and once out, so glad they are. It's also the story of a girl who knows about injustice in the world and is brave enough to speak out against it. Or not speak, as she does on The Day of Silence, that she and the other kids in the Gay-Straight Alliance in her school have organized on their campus. But it just is a little too over the top. I think that Planet Middle School, while it doesn't has as big of an agenda as AOTI, does it better. Addie's story of her seventh grade year is just so filled with so much loss and sadness and misery that it is just too much. I mean, come on, does that cat REALLY have to die? And here's a tip...if you don't want your cat to get hit by a car...well don't let them outside. When are people going to learn that.

So yeah, that's what I think...a great effort, that just went a little awry.

Crossing the Line

Desire Lines is a very complex story and it is definitely one that sticks with you, one you want to talk about after you read it. It also proves once again, that Jack Gantos is one of the best writers out there.

Walker is a young man living in Fort Lauderlade, FL, he seems to be kind of a loner, an average student, a sad kind of guy. But maybe part of that sadness is because he is telling the story after all of the events in the book have happened. It would be hard to happy after living through all of this. He spends his free time hanging out in an abandoned golf course, where nature has taken back the formerly groomed grounds. As part of punishment for cheating on a biology test, he has to take care of the animals that are used for biology at his school and at neighboring schools. Sometimes he rescues those animals, the frogs, the pigs. Trying to do what he thinks is right.

One day a traveling preacher and his two sons, one Walker's age, show up on the lot next to the high school. The Walker-age son, is determined to out the homosexuals at the high school and rid the school of the sin of homosexuality. He targets Walker right away, accusing him of being gay and telling him that if he just tells him who the real gay kids are, he will leave him alone.

Walker knows of two gay girls in his school, he has seen them together, on Thursday evenings, by the pond in the old golf course.

Walker fights with himself, should he tell Preacher boy about the girls and get himself out of the line of fire.

I am a Christian and I don't think that homosexuality is a sin. I figure that if Jesus never mentioned it once, that pretty much says it all...His not saying anything, you know? God is far more concerned THAT we love, than WHOM we love. So I just spend my time trying to love God's creation and I don't think about who is loving who. I would love to say "some of my best friends are gay!" But actually, I don't have any gay friends. Well, friends who I know to be gay, anyway. I do have one guy friend who is gay, but we aren't close-close, not because he's gay, but just because he's a lot younger than I am and we don't hang out or anything.

SPOILERS.

The thing about Walker is, he does end up outing the girls and he realizes that it was the wrong thing to do, and it ends in serious, serious tragedy so basically, Walker has really screwed up his life and others lives. But all of the blame can't be placed on Walker, I think, even though he is more than willing to take it all on. This book is so incredibly sad. I like the book because the one gay girl is a total jerk. I mean, Gantos didn't paint all the gay characters to be angelic and wonderful and awesome and hip and perfect and saints. Gay people can be jerks. Straight people can be jerks. Gay people can be great. Straight people can be great. And this one gay girl is a major jerk. Its just a real story.

The title is based on the idea of the desire path. And when you think of it literally and figuratively, it adds a lot of meaning to the whole story.

Really good book.

Too Much Time Has Passed

When I was a kid, I loved Snow Treasure! LOVED IT! And so when we had to pick books to read for work, man...I called Snow Treasure right away.

Ugh.

It has been thirty years or more since I read ST and it just really hasn't held up. Its not as terrible as AYTGIMM, but it is pretty bad.

Snow Treasure is loosely based on true events during WW2 when Norway removed its gold from the country so that it would not fall into the hands of the Nazis.

Children rode their sleds down to the beach with hidden gold bricks where a ship took the gold to the US.

The things that make this book unappealing are things that I missed when I was a kid. Before the Nazis invaded Norway, the folks in the book say things like, "We've no quarrel with anyone and no one has a quarrel with us." page 17. I don't know...it just kinda reminds me of First They Came. Also this dude named Per Gerson, he's just a jerk.

Basically it's just that the book is very dated. It took a long time to finish this one. I'm interested to know what kids think of this book today.

Baby Come Back

Once again my dear friend Kara recommended a book to me and I am glad she did. I probably wouldn't have read Where Things Come Back right away. There are a lot of books I want to read now and a lot of books I have to read and so it would have been a while probably. Kara said that I needed to read it because she had to talk about it with someone and I can't wait to see her tonight to do just that. Where Things Come Back is an award-winning YA book by first time author John Corey Whaley. WTCB reminded me a great deal of The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs with its very original storyline, dark humor and depiction of small-town life. When you compare any book to a Gantos book, the "any book" is going to fall short, but that's not really taking much, or anything, away from the "any book." Gantos is like Judy. One of a kind.

WTCB is full of surprises, but I was mad at myself because I figured out the surprise by the second chapter, I think it was. This is the woman who can't solve a Nancy Drew or a Three Investigators or Stuart Woods book. Trust me, the surprise is NOT easy to figure out, I just have no idea how I stumbled on it, it was totally dumb luck but once I saw the ending coming, I think I lost part of the experience of the book. Still it was an incredible, thoughtful book, even if you do figure it out after the second chapter.

Half of the book is told from the POV of Cullen a neat, cynical kid, in his summer before his senior year of high school. He has a fifteen year old brother, Gabriel, who looks a lot like him, but is a lot different. He's kind of a magical kid. The kind of kid who sees the best in everything and everyone. Cullen and Gabe have a great relationship, as do all of the members of the Witter family, which is a neat change for a YA book.

Part of the story is set in the town of Lily, Arkansas, which is fake, I think. But it could be any small town that people are dying to get out of. It had that same Norvelt-kinda feel. That's where Cullen and Gabe live. And that's the town from which Gabe disappears one day. Vanishes into thin air.

The other part of the story, which is told in the alternating chapters takes place in Savannah and Ethiopia. Ben believes he is called to be a preacher, spread the word of God, but when he is sent on his first mission trip to Ethiopia, with a veteran missionary named Rameel. Ben discovers that what Rameel does is bring food, water, crop-planting help and medical care to the poor. Ben thinks that this isn't the way to serve God. He wants to go some place where he can preach God's word and save sinners. He quits the ministry and becomes obsessed with the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish text that is only included in the canon of a couple of churches.

I'm not going to say anymore about the plot and if after you read that, you are thinking...what the heck??? I'll also add that the book is about a thought-to-be extinct woodpecker, the Lazarus Woodpecker, possibly being spotting in Lily. The only other thing I'll add is that you have to read the book to appreciate how it all comes together and you won't be disappointed.

WTCB impressed me for a lot of reasons. I loved, loved, loved Rameel's definition of and way of serving God. I don't know if Whaley is a Christian, but he certainly has got it right, either way, because Rameel is just amazing and Whaley's description of his work, and Rameel's words to Ben are so beautiful and so spot-on, I would encourage pastors to read this book as well.

I also loved the characters. This is a short book but man....Whaley knows how to put a lot into a little bit of space.

Excellent. Excellent book.

Excellent song, too.

Dem Bones

So the thing is I don't know if I gave this a fair review or not because I had listened to it before, a long time ago when it first came out. Maybe listening to it again was just too much for me because it really isn't the most exciting book in the world. But it is not terrible.

Maze of Bones is the first book in the 39 Clues series. There's a whole new series now, of course, the Cahills vs. Vespers.

I listend to it on CD and the reading was really good. I liked the voices that the reader gave to the characters and I like Nellie and I like that the cat didn't get hurt! Will I continue to read or listen to more? I probably will. It is kinda cool that the books are written by different authors, so I will try out the second one and see what happens!

Great Ending to the Trilogy

The wait for this book was so long! Spell Bound is the third and, sadly, final book in the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins. It picks up right where Demonglass left off and does a nice job recapping the events of Demonglass without overdoing it. Still, you definitely want to read these books in order. Sophie Mercer is the coolest demon ever. There are many things to like about her, from her strength to her sense of humor. I also like that she really isn't into looks, is clumsy and says the wrong thing sometimes. She's, you know, normal! I mean not that it isn't normal to care about looks...I just mean that she isn't totally obsessed and she doesn't mind getting a little dirty when she is fighting werewovles, other demons or evil witches. Especially evil witches who want to take over the world. The ending is very satisfying and it was even more satisfying to read on Rachel Hawkins' FB page that she has a new series coming out that, while it won't be Sophie's story, it will take place within the Hex Hall world, which I have come to love. Hooray for this series!

Because of You

Because of Mr. Terupt is a little book with a lot of meat. There's a sequel coming out later this year and I'll be waiting for it. BOMT is the first book by Rob Buyea. I checked this out from the library on my Kindle because I like to be reading three books at one time. One book in traditional book form, one ebook and one audio book in the car. Publishers are giving libraries a very hard time about ebooks. Random House wants to charge 80 bucks for one copy of an ebook. Some publishers won't let libraries lend their ebooks at all. The debate goes on and on and so really there aren't a lot of ebooks out there to be borrowed. Finding BOMT was like finding a golden ticket because this book was great. Mr. Terupt is a first year teacher and each chapter in the book is from the POV of one of seven students in his class. Each kid is your typical kid-- everyone has them all figured out on the outside...but inside, each one has a story to tell. I don't want to give away too much, but I definitely strongly recommend this book.

Mixed Bag

Hmm. I love Sharon Flake. Money Hungry, Begging for Change, Who Am I Without Him, You Don't Even Know Me. L-O-V-E her! So I feel terrible about not liking Bang! The thing is, Bang! is a really good book. I just hated it. It was so upsetting. It made me so angry. It was just so sad. Now sometimes I can give a book a rave review anyway, when I agree that it is wonderfully written but it upset me. This time it just upset me so much that I just can't give it a glowing review.

Mann is a young teen growing up in a neighborhood where death is all around him. His seven year old brother was shot and killed in the crossfire of an argument between two strangers. Guns are everywhere. His parents are still grieving the loss of their son and basically his dad has flipped out totally. Mann's father comes up with a ridiculous plan to make a man out of Mann, to somehow toughen him up so that he won't be killed, like his little brother was. The grief in this book was just too much. I know that this is real. It was just so so harsh and I'm not brave enough to handle it. I'm ashamed of myself and I feel helpless when I know that there are folks out there who have to live like this every day. How long, O Lord, until You come again? Your people are suffering. Hear our prayer.

Life Saver

Sara Zarr is one of those authors whose website I check out often, looking to see if she has anything new going coming out. Story of a Girl was a terrific book and I loved, loved, LOVED Once Was Lost.

How to Save a Life is Zarr's latest and it is another completely original story with well-developed characters you really come to care about pretty quickly.

HTSAL is told from two POVs. Mandy, a pregnant teen from Council Bluffs, Iowa and Jill, an only child from a wealthy suburb in Denver. Jill has lost her father to a car accident eleven months ago and now her mother has decided to openly adopt Mandy's baby. She met Mandy on the internet and agreed to no contracts, no lawyers, no social workers, etc.

Jill is cynical and seriously still grieving her dad. She is suspicious of Mandy's real motives. Mandy is a lost soul, pretty much, her mother is a such an extreme jerk and has told her never to come back.

This is a very beautiful story of broken lives and broken people and healing. Great book. Made me cry, which is tough to do. Well, for a book!

The Final Book of Four-Book Weekend is a Downer

All of Ellen Hopkins' books are downers, though. That's what makes them so appealing. No one reads an Ellen Hopkins tome to perk up. Well...maybe after reading a Hopkins novel, you start to realize that your own life isn't so bad after all! It is hard to imagine a life worse than Kayleigh's and Raeanne's. Identical twins, the daughters of a big-time judge and a mom running for the US Senate. This family has some seriously dark secrets. Just when you think there couldn't be one more terrible thing thrown into the book, you turn the page and something even MORE horrible is happening! It was tough to get through. I think I'm done with Hopkins. Her books are just too long, and just too...I don't know...I keep thinking about Glass and how the one reviewer on goodreads said that Glass was a better book about meth addiction than Under a Meth Moon (see my own comment on my post, for my thoughts). I just don't think these books are at all my style. There's just something a little too melodramatic about them or something, for me. I can't put my finger on it.

Stealing is Bad

On friday my dear friend, with excellent taste in books, Kara, recommended Stolen by Lucy Christopher. I was hesitant at first, only because it isn't set in the U.S. It starts out in an airport in Bangkok. Gemma is on her way from London to, I forget where, with her parents. Her mom is an art collector and her dad is a banker.
She has a little spat with them, and goes to get a coffee, where she meets a man who seems a bit familiar. In little time at all, the man, Ty, has drugged her, changed her clothes and whisks her off to the middle of a huge desert in Australia. I won't get into the why and how, because that's part of the whole story.
The book is sort of like a horror movie, actually. Ty acts like a monster, so did Michael Myers. But after Rob Zombie gave Michael a little history, it was easier to see why he acted that way. That doesn't excuse the monster-like behavior at all, but it does make one maybe a bit sympathetic toward the individual.
On a lesser scale, you can look at the 4PTSs. They act like monsters, but we never know why, thus they come across as just dirtbags we don't what to learn more about. If you look at the girls in The Clique, you learn WHY they act like jerks, and so it is easier to be sympathetic toward them, than the 4PTSs.
Lucy Christopher has made Ty into a multi-dimensional character, unlike Blume's PSTs.
Where was I going? I don't know.
Kara said that this book stayed with her for a long time. It will be the same way for me.

The Newbery

So this year's Newbery went to Dead End in Norvelt by the incredible Jack Gantos. I was totally thrilled when I heard this and when I started listening to the book, read by the author, I thought immediately that maybe, miraculously, the Newbery went to a deserving book, unlike all of those other disappointing years.

Jack Gantos is a master at humor. There are so many laugh-out loud parts in this book. And Jack Gantos is a master a telling a poignant story. There are many parts in DE that will bring tears to your eyes.

Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

All through Texas Gothic I was reminded of Fred, Scooby, Shaggy, the Mystery Machine and the whole gang. TG really reads like an episode of this cartoon show. That's not bad, of course, but it just isn't my kind of thing in a book.

I first picked up this book at the Harrington Branch of the Plano Library System. I was hanging out there, checking out the library vibe, waiting for the children's librarian to find me some information about their children's department desk, which is totally cool. I was caught up right away in the story of two sisters, Amy and Phin, who belong to a family of witches. The sisters are spending the summer watching their aunt's farm which their aunt travels to China. Amy and Phin have witchy powers, of course. Phin embraces them for the scientific aspects of the craft, but Amy really would rather forget the whole witch thing and lead a "normal" life.

They are drawn into magic and ghosties right away though, when rumors of a Mad Monk on their neighbor's ranch surface when bones are discovered on the property.

This is a bit of Nancy Drew story, with a bit of the supernatural and Phin and Amy find friends among the university students who come to excavate the remains found in the area. They are all drawn in the mystery, like Velma, Daphne and the gang.

The book is long and for me, I just couldn't fall in love with it. It wasn't terrible, it was decent. But just a little too Scooby and Nancy for me.

More Meth

So another book about meth.

NOT.

Beneath a Meth Moon isn't just another book about meth addiction. Jacqueline Woodson can't write "just another book" because Jacqueline Woodson is amazing.

This is a heart-breaking story. Not just the story of fifteen-year-old Laurel and her fight with the monster that is meth, but it is also about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This is the second post-Katrina book I've read and equally as emotionally tough. Laurel and her family live in Pass Christian, but she and her father and little brother head for Jackson, MS when the rains come, Laurel's mom and grandmother want to tough out the storm. If you know what happened to Pass Christian during Katrina, you know what happened to Laurel's loved ones.

Eventually Laurel and her father and little brother end up in a small town in Iowa. That's where Laurel ends up falling in love with meth to escape the pain of her past.

An excellent book, just such a quick read, I couldn't put it down.

How do you respond to that?

I remember a business trip I took many years ago. We had less than zero budget, so there were six of us, all very different folks, in a minivan, driving across the state. We had a really fun time and got some good work done. But we did have a very awkward moment when someone suggested we play the game Two Truths and a Lie. We were all grown women. A few of us closing in on 35 and the others headed to, and past 50, so it was all sort of goofy and light-hearted.
Some of the truths and lies were, "I've gone white-water rafting. I've been rock climbing. I shot a gun in an orange grove." And "I have three tattoos. I used to raise show dogs. My middle name is Eunice."
We were all laughing and joking. But then we got to one lady who said, "I was raped. I had a miscarriage on my birthday. I were a bra since 44DD."
We were silent. As they say, you could have heard that pin drop. There was a lot of fidgeting and coughing, and then one lady shouted, "I have to stop for the bathroom!" And that ended the game.
So that's one way to end a game of Two Truths and a Lie!
TT and a L is the third book in the Lying Game series. I blew through this baby in a few hours, and I am sad and yet happy that it isn't the end. I REALLY wanted to find out who killed Emma's twin sister, Sutton. I have my suspicion, and I hope I am right, because I really don't like this particular character at all!

I am really looking forward to Lying Game #4, even if it is a Harlequin of another cover.  

There's a Killer on the Road

So I Hunt Killers doesn't come out until next month, I got a copy at Midwinter and I just finished it today and I when it comes out I want to recommend it to everyone who enjoys the Dexter series and doesn't mind a very twisted and dark story. At first I was a little annoyed that it was so Dexter-like but then I reminded myself that there's nothing new under the sun and that I found myself just getting lost in this really well written and suspenseful book by Barry Lyga.

Jazz is the son of the worst serial killer the US has ever known. When Jazz's Dear Old Dad, Billy, was doing his horrific work, he was also grooming Jazz to become just like him. Now that Billy is in prision, and Jazz is almost 18, Jazz is worried that he will become like his monster-dad and he spends most of his days making sure that he doesn't. Enter a new serial killer in Jazz's small town and Jazz gets into his head that if he can catch this serial killer, maybe he can escape his father forever.

That's a way-simple plot summary, there's a lot more to the story and it is story well worth reading! It is much better than I am Not a Serial Killer, even though I liked that, too. This is just a really good book, if you have a strong tummy!

Going Away Again

When Away, the sequel to The Line, first came out, I started to read it. For some weird reason, I stopped reading it. I remember thinking that I didn't like it or something and probably wouldn't finish it. Recently I read the sequels to Wither and Delirium, and as I did, I kept thinking about Away and remembering it really well, and remembering that I had enjoyed it. So I can't for the life of me figure out why I stopped reading it, I mean it was A MAZE ING, but it certainly was good!

Again it is definitely more of a serial kind of deal, you can't read it without having read the first and it won't be satisfying to read it without reading the next one.

She's Disenchanted

The Disenchantments is the name of a fabulously bad, but enthusiastic girl band, based in San Francisco, headed out on their first, and maybe last, tour up the coast of Cali. Bev is the lead singer and lead guitar. Sisters Meg and Alexa play bass and drums. Colby, Bev's best friend, is kinda the manager, kinda the head roadie and madly in love with Bev. Meg, Bev and Colby have just graduated from their fine arts high school, and are off in Colby's Uncle Pete's VW bus to play the tour and then drop Meg off at college in Portland. I feel sorry for that girl, four years in Portland!
Bev and Colby are then scheduled to tour Europe for a year, something they have been planning for four years.
Things change though, much to Colby's surprise, and there is much soul-searching and discovery that takes place in the week-long tour.
I enjoyed The Disenchantments a lot. All of the characters are very real and likable, especially Colby, the narrator. I remember what it was like to be young, like Colby, and wondering where the future will lead. I guess as I got older, like many do, I came to have less hope and fewer dreams for this life and I put all my hope into the next one, the eternal one. There are many more miles left behind me, than I have yet to go (great song) and so it was hard to relate to Colby, as there is a lot of living ahead of him. That doesn't mean though that I didn't wholly appreciate him, cheer for him and admire him. He is one special, smart young man and The Disenchantments' West Coast Tour is well worth attending.
I am definitely going to be looking for more from Nina LaCour.

Oh and a big plus were the references to songs and artists. Everyone from Sleater-Kinney to one of my most favorite bands, The Chiffons.

Or across the seat

Hmm. Another wonderful book, so good that it is really, really hard to find words to describe it.
Jacqueline Woodson is incredible. I just don't know how to talk about Behind You, the sequel to If You Come Softly.
This is the story of what happens after Miah's death, to Miah, and to those who loved him.
If you have lost someone you love and yet you still feel them sitting beside you in the car, you will fall in love right away with this book.
Behind You is told from the POV of Miah, his mom, dad, his grandma, Ellie, Carlton and Kennedy. I didn't remember Kennedy too much from If You Come Softly, but he was on Miah's team at Percy and his POV here is important, everyone's is.

Guns Made America Great

I don't know if I have included this song on my blog before, I just can't seem to find much luck when I "search this blog" sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So sorry if I repeat.
You ever heard this tune:

Guns made America big and strong!
No one's left to save us,
John Wayne's gone!
Everybody's pickin' on the NRA,
Tell 'em guns made American great!
Ha! I found it!

Gun Games is proof that guns aren't so great.

I don't understand the negative reviews for this latest Rina Lazurus/Peter Decker novel. The suspense was so greatly built that I couldn't listen to it in order. By the eighth of ten disks, I had to put the tenth disk in and listen to that, then work backward.
The story surrounds a couple of suicides at a very posh prep school, investigated by Decker. Gabe is a prominent figure, as he falls in love with a young Persian girl and their sweet teen romance is so cute. I know that made some fans angry, that a lot of the time was spent in teen characters, but the books is so well done and well written, it is just awesome. Another excellent book by Faye Kellerman.

Say Uncle

Does anyone really say that? Does anyone say, "Say Uncle" to anyone? And if they do, does that other person really say "uncle" and if they do, does the person who says, "Say Uncle" really do whatever they are supposed to do, or stop doing whatever they are were doing? I just wondered. I have no opinion, I just wondered!
Lois Lowry has written a lot of books and I've read some of them. I remember reading A Summer to Die a few times when I was a kid and I read The Giver series, too. My most favorite Lowry book is The Willoughbys!
Us and Uncle Fraud is one that I checked out to read on my phone before I fall asleep, so it was kind of an afterthought, but I am glad that I read it, because it was a good little children's book.

You Give Me Fever

A brief break for an excellent song.
Fever is the second book in the Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano. I loved Wither and I loved this one, even though it is fairly different.

The major difference is that it is more action-filled, like Pandemonium was more action-filled than Delirium. Both Pan and Fever were more Hunger Gamey than the first books in their respective trilogies.

No matter, I loved Fever, every bit of it. There were surprises that make me gasp, it is very unpredictable.

If you remember from the end of Wither, Rhine and Gabe have escaped the mansion and now are trying to make their way back to Manhattan to find Rhine's twin brother, Rowan. That creepy Vaughan just doesn't let up though. And Gabe and Rhine end up in some pretty miserable places, making them wonder if they ever should have left. I found myself not liking Gabe very much. He seemed kinda pouty and wimpy, or maybe it's just that Rhine is so strong.

Tough to Read about, but Necessary

Ever since my ALA class I have taken a renewed interest in services to children with disabilities. Last night I read the very short, but excellent book, T4, about the Nazi plan to euthanize people with disabilities. It is told in verse from the POV of a young deaf girl. I don't want to give any more away, and the book is so short, and so worth reading, that I would just urge you to read it yourself. And pray that evils such as this do not happen anymore. And do all that you can to protect the lives and dignity of all.

And a Lot More Action

A Little Less Girl is a quick read, available only on the Kindle, by Tess Oliver. I really enjoyed this story of Dani, a girl with a tough history due to her mom's prior drug habit and poor taste in men. Dani and her mom have a home now in a rural town, but sadly the reason why they have a home is that Dani's grandma, her aunt and her cousin, Amy, have all died. Her aunt died awhile ago, leaving cousin Amy with her grandma and then Amy killed herself by driving off of the road into a gully. Shortly after that, grandma passed away. Dani and her mom had been running from one exceptionally bad boyfriend and his son and so they left California and took up residence in grandma's old homestead. Dani is obsessed with finding out why Amy killed herself and she uses Amy's diary as a guide.

The whole town has blamed Amy's death on the high school heart-throb, Jake. Amy was obsessed with him. Dani comes to town determined to hate Jake, but soon she realizes that she can't. And she realizes that Amy's death wasn't as simple as a broken heart.

All of the characters in this little book are very likable. My only complaint is that the book could have been longer. I wish we could have learned more about Jake and Dani (the book is told by alternating their POVs) and Amy, too.

Good book though, really good.

Reading with the Kardasians

I don't know much about the Kardasians. I've never seen their show and I don't know which one is which, all I can say, with no shame is that I truly enjoyed Dollhouse and I will read the next one, if there is one! The most I knew about them before I read about them on wikipedia was that Bruce Jenner is stepfather to some of them. I remember Bruce Jenner because when I was a little kid, I had a crush on him.

I found this book sitting on the New Fiction shelf at the library and of course recognized the name and then though, well, I loved the LA Candy series so much, maybe I will love this! LA is a YA book and Dollhouse is adult but it could pass for YA. There's a lot of explicit stuff in here, unlike LA, but there's a lot of explicit stuff in a lot of YA so I am not sure why this wasn't marketed as YA as well.

Anyway, this is the story of three sisters and their blended family and there's a ton of drama and great fun. I totally recommend this as a fun read. It is much better written than, say, Stone Barrington book and it is completely entertaining! I hope the Kardashians will write more!

A Trip to Del's- Post-Restaurant: Impossible

I think I went to Del's many, many years ago, but I can't remember, I mean I would have been a little kid, so I have nothing to which I can compare. I think we went there with my grandma after I graduated from Duquesne, but I don't remember what anything looked or tasted like.

Let me say upfront I am not a fan of Italian food. It's fine, but it really isn't my thing. That said, after seeing the show on Wednesday night, Mommy and I decided to go for lunch on a Saturday. We got there right when Del's opened and the staff was very courteous.

We both ordered Stuffed Shells, mine with Alfredo and Mom with Marinara. Mom got the salad that came with the meal and I picked the Wedding Soup.

I hate Wedding Soup, but this was the best I ever had! I loved it! It didn't have those little pasta balls, instead it had tiny little macaroni thingies. Mom's salad was really fresh and well presented.

The main meals were awesome! The portions were just right and we got bread with the meal.

We will definitely go back. The place was packed by the time we left, and I truly hope that this place succeeds.

In Between

So I had no idea that the e-mini book Hana even existed until after I read Pandemonium. I wish I had because it would have helped to hold me over until Pan came out! Regardless, I bought this one, too and read this afternoon and it was very good. Hana, if you remember is Lena's best friend from childhood and the book is a little look into what was going on in her life when Lena was meeting up with Alex, back in Del.

Hana, if you remember, is even more of a rebel spirit than Lena, at first anyway, she is the one who takes Lena to her first underground party. Hana is the one who has a secret and forbidden map of the world before, which includes places like France and China. She likes to think about going there and she talks about them, which freaks Lena out because, well the Regulators REALLY wouldn't like that!

I enjoyed this little book so much, that I'd love find out what happens to Hana, so maybe there will be a 2.5 before we get to the last in the Delirium trilogy! At least I can hope!

Read the First One First!

I had to buy Pandemonium on the Kindle. I just couldn't wait. It had been so long!!

Pandemonium is very different from Delirium. It reminded me more of the Hunger Games because of the higher level of action. Maybe I don't remember Delirium as well as I thought.

It doesn't really matter though, because I thought Pan was just as awesome as Del.

The book is set up as a back and forth "then" and "now." "Then" was back right after Alex and Lena crossed into the Wilds and how Lena was found by a group of Invalids and nursed back to health and then brought into their community. "Now" is set in NYC where a powerful political group is pushing vaccination for the love disease at a younger age. There's a lot of unrest, as many disagree with the idea of curing folks at a younger age, as it can result in death and things worse than death. Lena and her gang are part of the Resistance and trying to do what they can to fight for freedom for all.

Again, this is definitely an action-driven book. If you like action novels, you will love this. If you don't, but you loved Del, you will still love it because you already care about the characters.

This book left me counting the days until the conclusion of the trilogy.

Lost Week of Reading

It was a slooooow week for reading, as you can see from my posts, or lack thereof. One of the main problems was The City of Ember. I wasted a lot of time on this book and finally gave up on it. I asked a bunch of people if they read it and the answer was always the same. Everyone got a funny look on their face...like a frowny scowl and said, "I started it." or "I tried to." But I kept plowing on until finally I just couldn't take it anymore. Sadly I was 40% through, so I wasted a lot of time!

I've started a good book on cd and I'm reading the sequel to Delirium, so hopefully I'll have some reviews soon!