Extra Good

Extraordinary Means was very, very good.  I don't know much about TB.  But in EM there is a renewed outbreak of it, but this isn't a futur-y type book.  It is about relationships and love and making the most of the time that one has here on God's earth while one can.  People will compare this to TFIOS, but I liked it better, I think.  And I loved TFIOS.  But I think it is different enough to not be a copy-cat, maybe just inspired by?  Or maybe not even!  In any case, liking TFIOS might make one like this, but if one didn't like TFIOS, one could still really enjoy this.

What I Didn't Realise

was that most of How I Live Now is set in England.  For one reason or another, I am not big on books set in England.  Maybe because I have never been there and probably will never go there!
Set in a time that has not yet come, but could come tomorrow, for the way that human nature is, Daisy is sent to England from Manhattan to live with her cousins and while she is there London is attacked and war breaks out.
This is more than a war story though.  It's about first love and loneliness and loss of a parent and finding a little joy amidst all of the misery.  Good stuff, but it wasn't a 5 star for me.

Midwinter Mystery

Midwinterblood won the Printz Award this year and it seemed to take FOREVER for it to come out on audio!  I was wanting to read this so badly.  It just looked so interesting, even though I had no clue what it was about and I still don't have a big picture of it.  But man...it was worth the wait.  It was so, so good.  I read some place that "if you like your horror more moody than gory" you will like this book. Yes, I would say, yes indeed this is moody.  And horrific, and a smart, smart kind of horror.  I think that you will enjoy it best if you don't know anything about it beforehand.  Just read it and savor the words and get lost in it.  Awesome.

Gimme a Facebook Account

The Future of Us is a very serious title!  That really is neither here nor there.  I needed something to listen to and this was a new audiobook at the library.  The narrators were great.  It was also my first book by very popular authors Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler.  I really enjoyed both of their writing styles and now I will go on to read other books from them.  I always feel that one sign of a good book is that if you still enjoy the book while disliking one or more of the main characters, and that was the case with this one.  I liked Josh but really didn't like Emma.
TFOU is the story of Emma and Josh in 1996, who get a free disk from America Online.  I was trying to explain this to a kid born in 1998 and it was hard to do so!  How to you even explain a "disk!"  I totally remember getting my free disk and putting it into my Mac Performa 460.  It was awesome!  My first email address, my first online romance (We did end up meeting in person, totally nice guy, I was just so hung up on an old boyfriend that it didn't work out.  Ironically, if you think about this book, I am now Facebook friends with him!)
When Emma and Josh log on, however, they get more than an email address and the chance to IM.  They tap into something they have never heard of before, something no one had never heard of in 1996, Facebook.  Emma's Facebook page shows her what her life will be like in 16 years.
Emma and Josh start to play with the present to see how it will impact their future.  You can see the thematic similarities between this and Gimme a Call, which I loved, but TFOU is more serious.  Really good book.  Oh yeah!  And this book also reminded me of how hard it was to get a Facebook account, back in the day!  Remember when your school or business had to be a participant?  The old days!