So glad

That I found this podcast, which introduced me to Monday's Not Coming, which led me to take another try with Allegedly, which was a great, suspenseful book.  It will be great to see what Tiffany D. Jackson writes next! 

It's Friday, but Sunday's Comin'!

I learned from Tony Campolo of course, but that has nothing to do with Monday's Not Coming. I heard about this book from a podcast and it makes me so glad that I happened upon this podcast because, wow, this was one powerful book and is not to be missed.  I remember the tragic story of Caylee Anthony and the incredible amount of media attention surrounding it.  I am not complaining about the media attention, but I am remembering that during that time I learned another horrible truth about our country.  I had never realized the great number of minority children who disappear each year.  This book is excellent.

Devil

The Devil in Ohio was a book that I liked less the next day.   The author, Daria Polatin is an accomplished writer.  But the thing is, she claims that the book is "based on a true story" but won't reveal any of the details.  At all.  Sooooo not to say I don't believe her, but you know me, I don't even think we walked on the moon.  There was a lot of mixed up religion as well.  Wiccan vs. Satanism, etc.  I don't know.  It just wasn't a good one for me. 

Good Me, Bad Me was very good.  Very good and I would recommend it, for sure.  I sucked me right in and all along the way.  It is creepy and awful and real and horrifying.  The only reason I didn't give it five stars was that I was not surprised by the ending at all. But it was still really, really good. 

When Dad Killed Mom

was a really, really good book.  The title isn't as subtle as The Last to Let Go, sure, but it was really, really good.  TLTLG was good.  But I really had a hard time liking the main character.  It was easy to like her brother and her mom, and Dani.  Her sister wasn't a very big character.  I felt that we didn't get to know her that much. 

Hiding

The Dangerous Art of Blending In was great.  Really great.  Not only did it deal with a subject rarely seen in books (that I have come across anyway) but it did it so well and so realistically.  Angelo Surmelis is pretty famous.  I am not very aware of the world and so I didn't know that!  But the thing, I am glad I didn't know.  I mean I didn't read this book because he is famous, I might not have read it because he WAS famous!  The only thing I knew about the book was the Greek connection.  And I have been always drawn to Greek and Greek-American culture.  Fantastic book. 

The Description

on goodreads for A List of Cages doesn't really seem to capture this book.  But it's hard to capture this book.  I just thought it was terrific.  Terrifying and upsetting and yet loving.  And I loved Adam so much.  And I loved Julian, too.  And I loved all of Adam's friends.  And wow, this book was just something else.  I would be very happy to see this as a Printz Honor book.

I do love the Walgreens

Steve Pemberton is a Big Deal at Walgreens.  He also gave the Opening Keynote Address at the NAEYC Conference this year in Atlanta.  I was so fortunate to be there and to hear him speak.  Wow. After hearing him speak I had to read his book, A Chance in the World:  an Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past and How He Found a Place Called Home.  I loved his book so much I have recommended it to everyone and am using it for my Adult Non-Fiction Book Group in January.  I hope others will love it, too.  I am not really a big fan of the foster care system, and this book did nothing to help that opinion.  but what a story of hope and love and faith. 

Unexpected

I hadn't read too much about Jumping the Scratch before I started it, but I knew it was by Sarah Weeks, of course and I find her books to be just so very, very good.  And this one was no exception.  Thoughtful, painful, beautiful.  Real.  Yeah.  Great, great book.  I didn't want to read it at first, because the cat dying and all, but the description of the book tells you that right up front.  I mean, man, if a cat is going to die, then that is the way to tell it.  Let us know first!  Excellent. 

Saints and Sinners

Talk about a dysfunctional family.   Now THIS book is about a dysfunctional family, as compared to the ones that were chosen for the BOB.  The Patron Saint of Butterflies was a really good book.  Of particular note was the Catholic-esque flavor of this particular cult.  I have not read a cult book in which the cult was quasi-Catholic.  It made me cringe at how smart/awful/manipulative it was of the cult leader to hold up saints as ideals.  I can totally see how wanting to be like a saint (unless one digs deeper into their lives and discovers how they doubted and had failings, too) can keep people on the straight and narrow and obedient. 
I loved the grandma, of course.  And her description of a Big Mac, too!

Dekker

I think I have found another go-to author!  Ted Dekker's Thr3e was excellent. Okay, there was a little romance, but since I have fallen in love myself I think that I see romance a little differently now!  This poses some really good questions about the nature of good and evil, in a theological context, as the main character is in seminary.  I enjoyed the book a lot and it kept me guessing until the end.  I saw on goodreads that someone had characterized his books as "Christian Fiction."  I have to say, that although I am most certainly a Christian, when I saw this, I thought, "Oh.," and I was disappointed because I don't have a high opinion of what I have seen marketed as "Christian Fiction."  Indeed, what I have seen of has been rather dull and rather on the conservative side, rather...what do I want to say-- yes, not very like Jesus the Christ at all!  But I am going to reserve judgement on Dekker and read another, because I did love this book and it did seem very Christ-like to me, especially the ending.  Very full of grace.  So maybe this is the kind of Christian Fiction that will redefine the way I see Christian Fiction!  In any case, a very disturbing, excellent, thought-provoking thriller.

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.

To be fair

allow me to post some links to the praise that History of Wolves has gotten from well respected sources.
The New York Times
NPR
Kirkus Reviews
As for me,
wow
that was terrible.
And I LOVE books set in Minnesota!
And this was set in Northern Minnesota!
And I love Northern Minnesota!  Though I am not sure if "n" should be a capital there or not.
And it even mentions Grand Rapids!
And you-know-who was born in Grand Rapids!
But wow.
The main character is such a jerk.  So unlikable that she is not even a good main character in the sense that being unlikable makes her real.  I mean, I know there are people out there like she, but wow.  What a self-centered jerk.  As a child and as an adult remembering her childhood.
Thing is, I hate writing a bad review of any book.  I acknowledge that this book is well written.  I acknowledge that the author, Emily Fridlund is a zillion times more talented than I.  But man, this book just wasn't for me.  I didn't understand it.  So maybe that is why!  I mean, this was for sure, literary fiction and I am not very literary.  I am not a bright bulb.  I readily admit that, so maybe I am just not smart enough to understand HOW.  I put those links on there so that you can see what folks FAR brighter than I had to say about HOW and I would love to hear your take on it.
I was really bothered by the depiction of the pedophile as a sympathetic character, even though I know he was probably a pedophile because someone molested him, and even though I know we are not to judge.  But man, anyone who hurts our children or our elderly, among the most vulnerable in our society...man, man, man...I just have a super hard time having a kind thought for them.  And that is on me.

Just Something Different

Last Seen Leaving was the kind of book I haven't read in a long time.  I bought it on audible after I saw it on the shelf at my local library.   I read the jacket and thought it sounded really good.  And it was really good!  I mean it wasn't WOW but it was good for what it was and easy to recommend.  The language is rough, if that bothers you.  But some teenagers do talk this way.  Flynn is only 15 but he seems older.  His vocabulary is quite large.  Here is something that I liked about it.  Flynn is gay and he is worried about coming out.  In so many teen books these days coming out doesn't seem like a big deal at all.  I just don't know if that is true for everyone.  Maybe it is.  It would be nice! Because gay or straight doesn't matter and should someone have to "come out" as straight, too?  But I think that some people might have a hard time coming out.  And even though the people in Flynn's world are very supportive, Flynn still has a hard time in his head.  I just thought that was good.  Kinda a shout-out to those who are struggling with coming out (which I wish no one had to and heck, maybe Flynn IS the only one who has a hard time with it anymore.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful world!) but maybe since I can be a pessimist sometimes, I think maybe there is at least a few kids out there who aren't so excited about announcing their sexuality.  In reality, it can be a cruel world.

Toughie

This was a tough book.  It was a hard book.  A sad book.  And it was almost like Almost Perfect, one I couldn't finish because it was just so sad and hard and tough.  I really like Sara Zarr's books and so I stayed with this one, but I had to listen to it backward!  Just to make sure the end wasn't just a devastating mess.  I wasn't worried it would be a cheesy, "all's well that ends well" deal, and knowing Zarr's other books like I do, I probably should have realized that this would be just a disaster book, designed just to play on emotions, but I really came to care so much about the characters that I just couldn't not know that hope would still be alive, even if on life-support.
Great, great book.

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.   

Nothing is Black and White (SPOILERS)

I had a visceral reaction when I realized that this book was about a deserter from WW2.  The thing is, had it been the Vietnam War, okay, sure, we have heard that all before, right?  And as Waylon sang:
and the men
who could not fight 
in a war
that didn't seem right
you let them come home,
America
But WW2?  That was the "Good War," right?  Did ANYONE desert from that?  Is this fantasy? What? What?  What kind of person would do that?
And then I felt like a real jerk and fool for thinking that way.
See the thing is this.
If you are a Christian, which I am.  So for me, as a Christian, killing is always wrong.  Christ prohibits it.  There really is no "just war" no matter what Augustine said.  Augustine wasn't Christ.
Turns out there were conscientious objectors in WW2.  The thing is, the enemy was so clear in WW2. Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito were evil, evil men.  The hideousness of their actions can't be described. But as Jesus said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul."  Ah, man...it is so hard.  As you know, I am a fierce, fierce patriot.  I have so much respect and thanks for our veterans and servicemen and women.  And I am not sitting in judgement of those who follow Christ and serve in the armed forces.  No, no, no.
See.
See how much this books makes one think??
This is a fantastic novel.  So not preachy.  No easy answers.  And no cliches.  Fantastic.
There is just so much in here.
Stepping on the Cracks should be required reading.   And then required discussion should follow.

Horror Story

Yeah, Because I am Furniture is a horror story, for real.  It is realistic horror.  And horror like this happens every day and that makes it even more horrific.  Anke's father is super abusive.  A true monster.  But there is more Anke.  I just love her.  She is fighter and real and just a true hero.  Powerful book.  Very. 

What a Story

The Crossing is a must-read.  I didn't know much about Juarez, Mexico.  I still don't, but The Crossing is one of those books that will cause me to do tons of research on it.  This book takes place fairly recently after the Vietnam War and is centered around a young boy named Manny who lives in the streets of Juarez and an American Army General who is still reliving he horror of his time spent in country.  The conditions on the streets of Juarez at that time were horrible.  In an author interview at the end of the audiobook, Paulsen tells that he spent time in Juarez and his time there inspired this book.  He says in the interview that at the time of his taping of the interview, the condition of life for the children of Juarez were reported as being still horrible.  I googled it today and found much the same, though, promises of much hope.  What an incredible story of the impact of greed, war, of children and hope and hopelessness.  An incredible, incredible story.