Oh Joe

I do like the Joe Gunther series.  I do.  I just don't like KGB stuff and international spy jazz and that was ALL Disposable Man was! 

Bellows Fall is Falling Down

But it is also building up.  Bellows Falls is number 8 in the series and yes, yes, another great one!  I don't know what it was about those few that didn't 5 star for me, but these last few really have! 

Last Summer

We went to Utah.  It was grand.  Just grand.  Amazing and beautiful and beyond words....one of the coolest places we stayed was Cedar City.  We stayed in an airbnb and the woman who owned the place was super, incredible nice.  She told us a lot about the fundamentalist Mormons who lived around the town.  Apparently after the Warren Jeffs horror, the followers who remained relocated to CC. 
We also went to Salt Lake and visited the Salt Lake Temple.  Which is part of the LDS, not the FLDS, but it sparked a lot of interest in both groups. 
Last year on a podcast I can't remember I heard an interview with Tara Westover, talking about her upbringing and how she didn't have a social security number and so therefore, didn't exist until her aunt could sign an affidavit that she really did exit.  I can't for the life of me find it now, but since then she has published Educated and is telling her story other places. 
This book is more about mental illness and abusive families than faith.  And Westover says that right in the beginning.  What a story.  What a book.  What a brave woman. 
Her parents and some of her siblings have disowned her, this is their business here.  Really good book and I wish Ms. Westover the best.  She is a brave, brave and resilient woman. 

Dexterish

The Killer Instinct books, which are two, Killer Instinct and Killer Within are a bit like the Dexter books.  I read them a million years ago, but I remember really liking them.  I have never seen the show though.   In this case the person with murderous instincts is a teen female with a complicated family.  The thing I found really icky about these was the sex.  I mean, I am totally not a prude.  I really am not.  And the language didn't bother me and I am not the kind of person who thinks that violence is fine but any kissy-lovey stuff is wrong, but the graphic nature of the sex seemed...I don't know...misplaced?  It just didn't seem to me that someone of this age, even someone with serial killer potential, would be that versed in the terminology and so forth!  It just seemed weird.

Horror?

And the Trees Crept In was a horror book, I think.  It was for sure horrific. Terrifying.  I had bad dreams!  It was really, really well done.  This was a good book.  But I don't know if it was horror.  It wasn't supernatural.  But horror doesn't have to be supernatural, does it?  I am going to look up the horror genre!  Hang on.  Here it is!   Yes, this is horror!  Author Dawn Kurtagich is an author I will read again.  But I think I need something funny for right now!  Excellent.  Adults would really appreciate this as well.

ABC

I am not a HUGE Michael Jackson fan.  I like his music, I do.  I just am not nuts over him the way I am say, Judy or Tupac.  I'll Be There, the book, gets its name from the Jackson Five song, I'll Be There.    It is by Holly Goldberg Sloan who wrote one of my most favorite books, Counting by 7s.  This is a story of a very mental ill father who has stolen his sons away and caused them to live a basically homeless life with no schooling, no clothing, no food.  They have had to fend for themselves and live in fear their whole lives.  Sam is an older teen who attends churches on Sunday for the music.  He hears a girl sing and instantly feels drawn to her.  She is a pretty bad singer and throws up, outside the church, right after her solo where he comforts her.  The two get to know each other and fall in love.  The sequel, Just Call My Name is also a very good book and totally different from Counting by 7s.  Very intense books.  I really did like it though.  A lot.  

In Perfect Harmony

Nic Sheff is a very interesting person and writer.  This is the second of his books I have written.  I read this one because of his name and also the cover looked fabulously scary.  Harmony House was scary.  I liked the way that he handled the religious aspects of the book.  I have complained about writers and movies that are inconsistent in their inclusion of religion in a book.  You know, the movies where houses of Baptists have crucifixes on the walls, that kind of thing.  But this was consistent.  This book does have a lot to do with religion.  And it doesn't really bash faith.  It just bashes faith that has turned bad.  Obsessive and twisted faith.  Radicalized Roman Catholics in this case. But as a person of faith, I wasn't offended by the material here, because it was clear that the depiction of faith in this case was to point out what happens when it goes awry.  The language was rough here, but I think people do sometimes talk this way, so it wasn't gratuitous, but if you can't handle bad language, you probably do want to skip this one.

Quirky and Lovely

Raymie Nightingale was fabulous.  One of those books that bring to mind sappy words like, "heart-felt" and "endearing" and "touching" and all of the rest.  But it is not sappy!  And is REAL.  And funny and I just really loved this funny/sad/touching book.  I do think this could be a Newbery winner, for sure.

Hang in There...

I say that to the characters in book, as most of them probably have thought that giving up and going Home was the best thing, and also to readers of I Crawl Through It.
I read some reviews in which the reader said they just couldn't finish the book.  And I completely understand.
I started it and read a book in between and thought about not going back to it, but I am really glad I did.
A.S. King is an incredible writer.  And I am the first to call someone pretentious!  (Terrible, terrible, but sadly, that is true.) but I don't agree with others who have said that King's writing here is pretentious.  I really don't.  I think that she really is just that smart.  She really is just that creative.  She really does care that much about telling the stories of teens who have experienced trauma.
Make no mistake, this IS an odd book.
It is more surreal than magical realism, but it is well worth reading.
Check out the book trailer, too.

Tough Stuff

This School Library Journal article suggests that it has been a year of really tough books for middle grade readers.  They mention Nightingale's Nest as one such tough book.  I love the cover, it is beautiful, but as I was picking labels for this book I chose "Good for Dudes" and then I thought, there is no way a dude will read a book with this cover!  It's even worse than The Disenchantments!  No, actually, it is a tie.  I had just forgotten how girlie The Disenchantments' cover was!

Regardless, this is a beautiful book full of sorrow and pain and reality and magic.  Hard, hard book.  Any book in which the main character spends his young life feeling that he was responsible for the death of his sister is bound to be.  

Let me just be honest and say that while the reviewer in School Library Journal said that it took her thirty-nine pages to figure out that Nightingale's Nest is a middle-grade adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Nightingale, I never figured it out!  Actually, I have never read The Nightingale but I will now.  

Poignant, moving, all of those big, beautiful words, most of which I don't know.  Highly recommended.  If it isn't another 1954, this will get come Newbery love.  Still, my most favorite of the year so far is Brown Girl Dreaming.   

How did I miss this?

I do hate when I miss a book that I wish I could have read when it first came out.  I had no idea that Turn to Stone, a novella from Brian Freeman came out in February.  Man, man, man....this was so good and creepy. And it is a Jonathan Stride WITHOUT EVIL MAGGIE!  And it is set in the great state of Wisconsin!  But it is evil and creepy and I learned that the German word for the devil is teufel.  I had no idea who the bad guy/girl was.  I was always guessing.  So well done.  So so so well done.  Freeman has become my favorite mystery/detective author.  It is official!

Very Depressing...

This has been a harsh winter, indeed, so maybe it wasn't the best time to read Stray Bullets.  This was the first volume, and I guess having the word nihilism in the subtitle, was a clue!  But I still didn't even realize how dark and depressing these stories could be.  Again, this is not for kids.  Not really even for teens.  Not really even for adults, maybe!  Just dark and miserable stories.  I don't know if I could recommend this to anyone!  Good stories, but super-dark.  The art was very good.  But I felt sick after reading it.

While My Friends Were Meeting A.S. King

While my friends were at the PaLA Conference in Seven Springs, watching A.S. King receive the 2013 Carolyn Wicker Field Award for her book Ask the Passengers, I was at home reading Reality Boy, King's newest book.  While I would have loved to meet Ms. King, I must say that I felt so fortunate to be able to read Reality Boy.  If someone would have said, "What would you rather do, meet King or read Reality Boy.  Pick one.  I would pick the book, because man, I wouldn't want to miss this book.  While I was reading it, I couldn't help but think of Honey Boo-Boo and worry that her time on reality tv is going to haunt her for the rest of her life.  Gerald was on a reality tv show when growing up, where he was known as the boy who went to the bathroom in inappropriate places when he was unhappy.  Now he is seventeen, but his time on the show and more important, his time growing up in a seriously messed up family with a total jerk for a mom and a psychopath for an older sister is still haunting him.  King is just an amazing writer.  Her characters as so real.  I have already recommended this book and will continue to do so.  Fantastic.  Just like everything I have read by King.

Split

is a perfect title for this book in so many ways.  Split is the story of a family ripped apart and up and down by domestic abuse.  Jace Witherspoon's dad is Judge Witherspoon, a very well respected and well connected man of the law and a horrible, violent husband and father.  Jace's brother, Christian left the family long ago, while he was still in high school and so younger brother, Jace has been left to try and keep his mother and himself safe, and not turn into the abuser that his father is. 
This is the first time I have ever read a book that deals with abuse from the side of an abuser as well.  The book leaves you cheering for Jace and cursing him at the same time.   Fantastic book for discussion.  Great, great book. 

Why Do You Hit?

Dead Ends is a really, really good book.  Erin Jade Lange wrote Butter, which didn't click with me that much but this one, it just sucked me right in.  Dane Washington is a smart, tough, cool kid, living with his mom and this pent up anger.  He gets an itchy feeling in his palms and he just has to HIT someone.  He doesn't consider himself a bully, he hits guys who have it coming.  And he'd never hit a girl and he doesn't hit "retards"- a word he throws around without thinking, until he meets Billy D.  Billy D has just moved in across the street and lives just with his mom, like Dane.  Both Billy D. and Dane have no idea where their dads are.  Dane doesn't know who his is, and he says he really doesn't care.  Billy D. wants to find his dad so badly and he seeks out Dane's help.  This is just a beautiful, painful, smart, important book.  So different.  So great.  Can't wait for it to come out so that I can recommend it to all!  Thank you, netgalley and Bloomsbury. 

Back and Forth

I went back and forth on my rating for What Jamie Saw.  First of all, it has a terrible cover.  I mean seriously bad.  And that's a shame.  But if you can get past the cover you are on your way.  Next the deal is that the first sentence is tough.  I had to reread it a few times.  I just couldn't follow it!  But if you get through that and into the whole story you are in for a pretty seriously emotional ride. 

The book addressed domestic abuse through the eyes of young Jamie.  Jamie sees his step-dad throw his baby step-sister across the room.  His mom catches her and that's it, man.  This brave mom just picks up the baby and nine-year-old Jamie and says enough is enough. 

I loved the mom in this story.  Great story and a tear-producing story for sure. 

Ya...wow

Man. I  loved Eleanor and Park.  People told me I would.  I bought it on audible.  And man, I did love it.  Wow.  What a beautiful and sad and hopeful story of two on the fringe kids...well, who isn't on the fringe, really, when you think about it?  I mean, life is not easy.  Eleanor has it awful at home.  Her step-dad.  Oh my gosh...just a monster.  Truly.  Park has wonderful parents, but you know, he's still a teen and man, it is hard to be a teen.  What a beautiful heart he has.  Man.  I just loved this book.  You have to read it.  Right now.  You must.  You must buy it.  Recommend it to everyone.  I loved this story.  Also, set in the 80s, so a nice bit of historical fiction for today.  Great book.  Just great. 

The Monster of Abuse

Scowler was a tough read.  I wanted to read it because I loved Kraus' Rotters.  I did enjoy it, but I read it while my father was dying and well, he was an abuser.  Not nearly as horrible as the father in this story!  But still, it was just doubly hard to read at that particular time in my life.  This is told from the POV of Ry, a recent high school graduate who is pretty much wrecked by his father's abuse.  When the book begins, his father is in prison, but he breaks out and comes back to finish his business with Ry.  Scowler is a about a monster in human form.  It is a tough book to recommend because of the harsh violence and really difficult themes.  I can't say I enjoyed the book.  It's not the kind of book you enjoy.   But it is very good.