Bad Faith

The Incendiaries is one that I knocked down a couple stars after reflection, but just to three stars, because I can recommend it.  The way it was written was just not very enjoyable.  And the intimacy scenes were just very tiresome.  I am just so over that! 

Learning More

So much to learn from reading!  Boarderlines is the second in the Joe Gunther series and I learned a lot more about Vermont!  Especially the whole Woodchuck vs. Flatlander deal!  This was good, but I wasn't sucked in that much, but I am for sure going to read the next one.  I like Joe a lot!

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. 

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!

Evil Things

The Smaller Evil was really well written, but way too deep for me!  I will still recommend it though, but I had to give it 3 stars, personally, because I really didn't understand much of it!  But I am sure it was full of good stuff.  It was just beyond me!

The Unexpected

I think The Unexpected was the name of a radio program.  Maybe.  Yes!  It was!  The Girls was an expected listen for me.  I had it on hold from the Denver Public Library on audio and when it came in, I thought it was a teen book, but it wasn't.  And then I couldn't for the life of me remember how I had heard about it, but having read American Girls not too long ago, and it being October, the time of creepy things, I figured I would give it a listen.
Thing is, I didn't look too carefully at the cover and had I, I probably wouldn't have read it, because I am not a big fan of Janis Joplinesque, hippie glasses and long hair and all of that sort.  I don't know why.  I am just not.  Also I am a big fan of judging a book by its cover, though I know that has hurt me in the past.  Freak the Mighty, Hatchet, yes it has happened a LOT.  But in this case, had a judged the book by its cover and passed, I would not be any worse off.  Not that The Girls was bad.  It just wasn't my thing.  I think I just get bored of whiny middle age, unmarried women lamenting their loneliness.  It's all too At Seventeen for me.  Which just makes my stomach turn.  But the nauseating self-pity of the grown-up Evie was just way too much for me. Gimme a break.  First World Problem for sure.  I'm not talking about Evie's hook up with a cult as being a First World Problem.  Wait a minute-- it probably is, isn't it?  I mean, we get hooked up with cults and the like because of low self-esteem.  And in Third World countries, who has time for thoughts of self-esteem.  I am not big on "too blessed to be depressed" because I know depression is real and mental illness is real, but this gal just seems to have a case of the blahs.  If she had more than that, I am sorry.  I am.  But then, even as an adult, to still be thinking about her "pimpled face" as a teen and her "too thick thighs" as an adult?  Really?  Really?  Maybe start thinking about someone else other than yourself.
It was hard to like Evie at all.  This was very Ice Storm-ish, and maybe that is just a reflection of the decade?  But yeah, this was not for me.

Sometimes I feel like shouting, "Glory! Glory! Glory!"

that has absoultey nothing to do with Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, but her name, Glory O'Brien, of course, reminded me of the song Were You There?  And the last verse which reads, "Sometimes I feel like shouting, "Glory!  Glory!  Glory!  Were you there when He rose up from the grave?"  This version is by Marion Williams.  It doesn't end that way, but man....what a rendition.  WOW.  WOW.  WOW.
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future is a pretty "wow" kind of book.  A.S. King really has written terrific books.  I haven't read them all, but I really hope to do so next year.  I think that next year I might take an author-focused approach and also finish up my "Reading Road Trip" deal where I am trying to read a book set in each of the nifty-fifty.
Where does Glory O'Brien's History of the Future take place?  In Pennsylvania!  I think most of her books do.  Aaaannnywayyyy....I am rambling.
This book is a must for the Amelia Bloomer Project.  It is a very odd book, but odd in a good way, as in original!  It reminded me a bit of Grasshopper Jungle because that also had a main character who was writing a history, not of the future, but of the last days of Earth.  I don't know if this is sci-fi like Grasshopper Jungle and Noggin, because modern science doesn't give Glory and her friend their super powers, they come from drinking the ground-up remains of a bat.  But natural science is still science, right? So maybe? It is like GJ and Noggin though because while it definitely is paranormal, it doesn't seem way out there, it is very realistic.  Is this a new trend in YA fiction?  Paranormal fiction that is more normal?  GOHOTF also reminded me of Sure Signs of Crazy which I read just about this time last year.  Glory and Sarah both had mothers who ended their own lives and both are concerned that they will do the same.
There are just some really great characters in here.  And a very great father.  This was just such an exceptional book, even though Glory is not a very likable character and I don't think she is meant to be. Well maybe she is just like a normal person.  No one is likable all of the time.  Well, I actually do know a lot of people who are likable all the time!  Not me!  But I do know a lot of people who are!
Anyway...great, great book!  A.S. King, great, great writer.

The Chosen

I saw on goodreads.com that someone said this book sounds too much like The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  I have no idea where that thought came from.  Gated isn't anything like The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  Not at all.  This is realistic fiction here.  It's one of those "ripped from the headlines" deals that referes to Waco and Jonestown and Heaven's Gate.  It was a great book and I loved, loved, loved that it wasn't a big rip on Christianity.  This was a true caught-in-a-cult story, and I appreciated its truthfulness.  No no one was ripped on or made to seem stupid.  It all was very respectful, even of those who were realed in by "the Pioneer," the leader of the cult who promised to keep everyone safe from the end of the world.  Lyla's family has a lot to be sad about and fearful of.  Her sister Karen was kidnapped as a young child, her family lived in NYC during 9-11.  It is easy to see why a safe, supposedly utopian society would be appealing to her parents.  But as Lyla grows older and as the "end" approaches, she begins to question.  Questioning isn't big in their little commune.  Great story.  A great heroine and very respectfully done.

Don't You Believe Him

The Believing Game was a hard read.  It is the very creepy story of a very vile and manipulative man who draws in a group of teens who are residents in a reform school and tries to convince them that he is some kind of savior and that they are his "special ones."

Greer is in reform school because of her tendency to take things that don't belong to her, and her potential eating disorder.  She meets Addison, a former skin head with a drug and drinking problem and a violent past.  Addison is clean now and doing well and he gives all the credit to Joshua, his NA sponsor.  But Joshua is more than what he seems.  A liar and a scary one at that. Greer is hesitant to bring up her misgivings about Joshua, as she is afraid she will lose Addison.  

There a lot of tension in this story and I had no idea how the ending turn out and was quite surprised by it.  I do believe this book will be very popular and have ordered it for the library, but personally I was a little disappointed by the ending.  

Great song, by the way.