Powerful

My trip to ALA Midwinter will take me through ten states, five of which I have not visited.  One of my new states is the big ole state of Texas.  Since I'll be driving, I thought it would be cool to listen to audiobooks set in the places I will see.  I found God's Man in Texas, a play by David Rambo, presented by the LA Theatre Works.  I put the book on hold and it came in before I left for my trip and I was so intrigued by it that I finished it before I left!  Thus, this was actually my last entry for 2010 and my first and only play of the year.
Wow.  That's one way to describe GMIT.  I just can't believe that I happened upon this play.  The actors who recorded it were amazing as well.
This was just an incredible story that hit very close to home for me, not just because of my years as a pastor but also in my current place spiritually.  The end left me speechless.
GMIT is the story of a young preacher who is being trained to the take the place of an older preacher.  The church is a mega church, complete with ball fields, bowling alleys, a preschool, elementary, middle and high school and college and of course, a tv show.
This is not a rip on the Christians kind of deal, but a real look at real people.  It reminded me of  one of my most favorite movies, The Apostle ,in some ways, not in the plot, but in the depiction of human nature.
Highly, highly recommended.

Twisted Tales

Oh oh oh!  How delightful A Tale Dark and Grimm is!  Deliciously gory and fun!  The book starts with the tale of Hansel and Gretel and works them into other Grimm Fairy Tales (that site is hilarious) to make a seriously funny and creative book that was hard to put down.
This was my last book of 2010!  That makes 200 for the year!  

Hooray for Hollywood

Since I'm going to California in a few days and hope to spend a bit of time in Hollywood, at least stop at Grauman's Chinese Theater I was searching for books set in California and came across The Loud Silence of Francine Green on cd.  
A truly serendipitous find!
TLSFG takes place just outside of Hollywood from 1949-1950.  This was a time of great change in the US, well and in the world.  WW2 was over and Soviet Russia and the US were no longer friends, infact, they were rivals.  Both countries had the bomb and the Second Red Scare was starting in the United States. 
Francine Green is an eighth grader at All Saints School where Sister Basil the Great rules as the mighty tough principal.  Francine is a regular kinda girl, "going along to get along", not questioning much, just living her life.  She's a very likable character.  Along comes Sophie Bowman who was kicked out of public school for promoting free speech by painting words on the gym floor.  Sophie's dad is a writer for the movies and encourages Sophie to be the opposite of a "go along to get along" girl.  She is outspoken and, as a result, frequently getting into trouble.  I think that Cushman does an excellent job showing the importance of balance.  This was an excellent look into the time period and a great coming of age story as well.  Different and interesting and very good!

You Slay Me...

Batman.  The Killing Joke was recommended to me by a young man at a teen book group led by the amazing Kelly. It is clear then, that I am once again in debt to Kelly for introducing me to some fine reading material.  In this case the material was a bit disturbing, but that's okay!  It was quite good. 

As I have mentioned before, I don't know much about graphic novels and comics, but I know what I like and I really liked this.  Maybe that says a lot for a comic as it is, that a particular comic can become a favorite of someone who isn't all that into comics.  It must be a great comic, right? 

This one must be an especially good comic because it's a Batman one and Batman has this whole big history going on and legions of fans and backstory and frontstory and futurestory.  And I think I've seen maybe one movie, I think and I really know hardly anything about Batman but the tv theme song, but yet, I really loved this comic! 

One word though, it is for sure not for little ones!

I believe this to be so...

Love is the Higher Law, that is.  I admit I am not an obsessed U2 fan.  I have nothing against, U2.  It seems that they are lovely bunch of folks, I just don't know their music well.  Bono seems like a very cool dude.  I have heard some of their music and it is very, very good!  I just don't know them very well, but maybe I will make that a 2011 goal, get to know U2 better.  That will be yet another thing that came out of my reads in 2010. 

David Levithan's Love is the Higher Law gets it's title from the U2 song, One.  A song I don't know but I will listen to someday. 
So this book probably wasn't the best choice to read on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, especially when you are already prone to "downerness" as I am.  But actually this book wasn't as depressing as it seems.  Yes it is about 9-11 and yes it takes place right near Ground Zero and yes it is full of tragedy.  But, as Levithan says on his website, "It's the story of three teenagers in New York on 9/11, and how their lives intertwine in the days and weeks and months that follow. I know this sounds grim, but it's really the story of things coming together even as it feels like the world is falling apart -- because that's how it felt to be in New York at that time, both tragic because of the events that happened and magical in the way that everyone became their better selves in the face of it. It's a love story between friends, a love story for a city, and a love story for love itself, and the way it can get us through things, however daunting or shocking they may be. Or at least that's what I aimed for. I hope you'll read it and let me know if I got there."
I do think he got there, indeed.  I found it to be definitely a love story for a city. 
I also loved the way one character, Claire, said that, shortly after 9-11, she was worried that the country was moving from "United We Stand" to "God Bless America" and I know what she meant.  I am all for God Blessing America.  And I am all for America Blessing God, by really acting like people who believe in God and showing love to ALL people.  So I believe in God Bless Us EVERYONE, which is another way of saying United We Stand, I think.  So how about United We Stand, Asking God's Blessing, and Asking That We Will Be a Blessing to All. 
Well I guess that's too much for a t-shirt.
This is a very, very good book.  I do wish that, when talking about music in the book, Levithan might have mentioned what I feel is the very best 9-11 song, "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning".  Maybe he never heard of it.  But it is a great one.
Well that is neither here nor there, is it.  Anyway, I do love Mr. Levithan.  And I do recommend this book, maybe not to read on Christmas. :)  But to read for sure. 

Loved It!

This was another one of those "can't put it down" books.  The Realm of Possibility has made David Levithan one of my favorite authors, for sure.
This book of free verse poems shares the stories of a bunch of high school students at the same school.  Some white, some African American, some boys, some girls, some straight, some gay, some on the fringe, some in the "in" crowd. 
I especially love the stories from the girl in the choir and from Jed.  Beautiful.  Twenty different voices, so real and so uplifting at the same time. 

Christmasy Delight

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is a wonderful book to read at Christmas time.  It is a wonderful book to read at Halloween.  It is a wonderful book to read at Easter.  It is wonderful book to read on Labor Day.
Let's face it.  If you've read this book, you know it is wonderful book to read at any time.  If you haven't yet read this book, then you must.  And there's no better time to read it than now.  Whatever time it happens to be.
This book begins on December 21 and I started reading on December 21.   So that was kinda cool.  It takes place in NYC and is written by the incredibly amazing and talented writer duo of Rachel Cohn, whom I have loved since Gingerbread and David Levithan, whom I have loved since I read Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which he wrote with Rachel Cohn.  Cohn and Levithan also wrote Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List which I adored as well!
If you think about it, it had to be a danger that Dash and Lily would end up sounding at least a little like couples Naomi and Ely and/or Nick and Norah, but no, Dash and Lily are completely different and they are my favorite of the three couples, though I do love them all.
Dash and Lily are just so different.  And so real and so full of hope.
Dash meets Lily via a notebook she left in The Strand, in which she invites the finder of the notebook on a scavenger hunt of sorts.
All of the supporting characters in the book are intriguing and different.  Everything about it is spot-on, from the description of Christmas movies called Momma Got Run Over By A Reindeer and Collation to washingtonsquaremommies.  Hilarious!
Simply awesome!

Secrets

I think this is one of the best songs about secrets.  No, it is probably the BEST song about secrets.  This year I read a lot of books about secrets.  Most mysteries are about secrets, aren't they? And I did read a lot of those.  This wasn't a mystery though.  Anyway....
The Secret Year is a story coming-of-age, young love, class war story about Colton, a guy from the "flats"and his secret affair with Julia, who lives where the rich kids live up on the mountain.
Julia is killed in a car accident and Colt is left to mourn alone, because no one knew about their complicated relationship.  Soon after Julia's death, Julia's brother, Michael, gives Colt a notebook in which Julia had written letters to Colt while they were dating.
Colt's voice is so real and so is the voice-from-the-past of Julia, as presented in her purple notebook.
The side story of Colt's brother Tom is quite good as well.  Also, Colt's parents are completely real.  Neither demons nor angels, as parents in YA books are often made out to be.  They are simply, human.
This is the first book from Jennifer R. Hubbard and what a terrific one it is.  I had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Hubbard speak at the 2010 PaLA Conference in Lancaster, PA and was smart enough to buy a copy of this book.  She even signed it, which was very cool.  Of course, in my messy car, I lost it and just found it this week!  Now I can give it to the library so that I can feverishly recommend it to others!   I do recommend it whole-heartedly and look forward to the next offering from Ms. Hubbard!

Shivery

I didn't look closely at the cover of the audiobook The Seer of Shadows when I checked out, but now that I have, it gives me a shiver!  To me, of course, that is a good thing.  Yikes!  I just looked at it again, and it really creeped me out!  I must stop that!  But of course I don't want to and I am like Ramona when her mother bought her the "baddest witch mask" for Halloween.  She would scare hersellf with it sometimes.  She did the same thing with a picture of a gorilla, too.
Avi is a pretty famous author, but another confession as we head into the new year:  I think this is the first book of his that I have finished!
This book was terrific.  It had to be, because it is nothing like my usual books, it doesn't take place in contemporary times.  Indeed, it is set in 1872 in New York City.  Horace Carpetine is a young teenager, an apprentice to a less-than-honest photographer, Mr. Middleditch.  Middleditch sees an opportunity to exploit the grief of a woman who has lost her daughter, Eleanora, to fever.   It turns out that there more to this grieving mother than meets the eye, in fact, she isn't grieving at all.  Horace meets Peg, an African American servant to the grieving woman and her husband.  Peg confides that there is something mysterious about the death of Eleanora.
As Horace and Middleditch take portraits of the "grieving" mother, they notice a spirit lurking in the background of the photos.  And this spirit, Eleanora, herself, ain't too happy.  She's back and wanting to exact revenge upon those who wronged her.
It turns out that spirit photography has been around since the time of this book's setting and it is a pretty interesting topic.  I hope to look into that more at some point.
Seer is an excellent ghost story and it did give me the shivers throughout, even up until the end when Horace concludes his testimony of the events, noting that the date is December 21--- which is today's date.  A delightful shiver, indeed!
Horace was named after Horace Greeley, a pretty important historical figure, who I had never heard of, so now I am going to learn about him!  I have heard of Andrew Greeley, but that is not related at all to this review.  Anyway, great book!

The Big Happy Orange!

It is pretty clear that Jen Bryant has been in love or else she is an amazing miracle writer who can capture the feelings of that great and terrible feeling of love and love lost. The Fortune of Carmen Navarro is a terrific book, comic and tragic, like love and life. It is based loosely on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée,which became an opera by Georges Bizet I'm a big opera fan but have never had the blessing of seeing Carmen, but I know the music and even if you think you don't, you do. Listen here. That's from Carmen.

I received this book, free, from Random Buzzers, which I can't say enough good things about, so if you haven't checked them out, please do. Carmen and Maggie work at the Quickmart, making subs, in Valley Forge, PA, where they meet two cadets from VFMA. Carmen flirts with Ryan and wins his heart immediately. But Carmen isn't interested in a long term relationship with Ry, she wants to focus on her music career, and besides that, this half-gypsy, free spirit, won't be tied down. But this is Ryan's first time falling in love, his first time walking on the wild side and considering a life apart from his miliatry family's plans for him. Right away you know this story is not going to have a fairy tale ending.
Will is Ry's best friend, as Maggie is Carmen's and these supporting characters are as complex and well drawn and Ryan and Carmen. This book is one of the best ones I've read this year.

Can't Think of a Subject

The Dating Game was weird for me.  After reading this review I really wanted to enjoy this book because I just think this is a tough review.  But then I read the book and didn't like it all that much.  I didn't hate it or anything, it was just hard to get into and I didn't like the characters all that much.
Holly, Madison and Lina are high school sophomores at a magnet school for exceptional students.  They don't seem too exceptional to me, but even of the girls writes that no one at the school is very exceptional, it is just that their parents all expect them to be exceptional, so they are sent there.  So fair enough.
The book is written in three points of view, each girl having their own.  Each chapter starts out with an email from their daily horoscope and it sets the tone for the day's events.  The book is made up of narrative, emails and IMs, so that keeps it interesting and adds life-like appeal.  I like the premise.  For a class project the girls set up a website to poll the student body on their opinions about sex and their dating and sexual behavior.  They then offer to use the results to match up students on blind dates.
I can't imagine a school sanctioning something like this, but this is a school for exceptional kids, so I guess it flies.
The girls and their friends party a lot, or want to party a lot, and everyone brags about how much experience they have with the opposite sex, but no one really has much.  It isn't for tweens for sure, and I am not sure if it is really for many people, because the characters are kind of meh.
I liked Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters so much more and I think I expected more from this one, but I am going to keep reading other books by the author, because GM was so good.  I probably won't read any more in this series though.

Do you have a secret?

I don't have many secrets.  Actually, if I think about it...I don't have any secret-secrets!  What I mean is, there isn't anything about me that no one knows.  At least I don't think I do.  If I do, it must not be a big deal kind of secret.  Not everyone knows all of my secrets but I don't have a secret that at least one person doesn't know!
In Tell Me a Secret, seventeen year-old Rand has one.  And her older sister Xanda had a big secret.
Xanda was the troubled sister, now dead.  Dead at the hand of a bad boy she never should have been dating, according to her parents.  Rand was the good sister, the girl who was going to do well and make her parents proud, but then she gets pregnant.
There are a lot more issues going on here in addition to the pregnant teen deal.  The book deals with friendships, parent-child relationships, forgiveness, mental illness and the fact that "faith manages."
This is Holly Cupala's first book and if this is what she can do in a first book, I can't wait to see what she has for us next.  A very original and honest book, a great one.

I must say...

and I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I wouldn't want grow up again.  Growing up is ROUGH STUFF!  Whoever looks at kids, or tweens or teens and thinks, "Man, it would be great to be young again, their lives are so carefree!"  is totally wrong.  I guess every stage of life has it's challenges, but when I read tween novels, I think tween time must be among the hardest of times.
Figuring out self, figuring out friends, school, family.  And everyone is trying to figure it out at the same time.  So some kids lash out at others, and other kids are the victims and some kids are do both at the same time, but no one has it easy.  I love books like this, where the characters are complex, there are no "heroes" or "villains" everyone is a bit of both, just the way it is in real life.
Oh well...that's not true for every tween, of course, certainly not Margaret Simon and her evil friends.  But it is true of people in the real world and the characters in The Kind of Friends We Used to Be.  Kate and Marilyn have been best friends for a long time, but now in seventh grade, they are drifting apart as each girl tries to figure out who she is.
Yes, the story has been told before, but every story has.   And this story is told very, very well.

The Diary of Fate

You sure has received a lot of praise. 

I just don't know...I wish I loved it.  Everyone does!  It isn't that I don't love it.  It's just that...

It reads to me like a cross between an 80s cautionary slasher movie and the 40s radio show The Diary of Fate.  I think that the author might have listened to the DOF and got the idea for the style of this book. And that's fine! I actually love listening to DOF. But what makes people love DOF is that it is so entertainingly heavy-handed. If you've read You, I beg you to listen to a DOF episode and tell me if you sense what I'm saying.

You is similar to 80s slasher films in that it is a cautionary tale. Start down a bad road, keep making poor choices, and you'll end up being decimated by the larger-than life, invincible villain. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and in this case, Zach McDade.  Wear all black, stop caring about school, don't communicate with your parents and look what happens. 
I know it isn't that simple, I know the author is trying to make the point that we have free will and our choices have consequenses. Walter Dean Myers Dope Sick, has the same message and is a much better book and more original book in my opinion.

That Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady

This is one of the best songs of all time.  I love Helen Reddy and I had, at one time, hoped to be a Helen Reddy impersonator, but alas, there wasn't much demand, at least in the Pittsburgh area. 

For the longest time I couldn't figure out why this book was called Painted Ladies, but near the end the meaning is revealed and it makes complete sense and adds to the wonderful charm and brilliance of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novel.  As I have bemoaned again and again, Parker left us this year. 

Rumor has it there's one more Spenser book left to be a gift to us all, according to his page on Wikipedia.

I hope, I hope!

Excellent story, full of all of the Spenser-isms that make him so beloved.  I wish Hawk had been in this one, but hopefully he will be in the next and sob, sob, sob, probably last. 

It has been 39 years since my last confession

Which is actually okay, since I am a Protestant.  But I have to admit that at different and frequent times in my life, I have wished that I could have gone to confession.  There are times in a person's life, I believe, when it would be beneficial to confession to another.
Confession is beneficial, no, it is necessary, for the Sullivan girls in Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters.  Norrie, Jane and Sassy have done something to offend Almighty.  The Almighty in this case isn't God, it's their grandmother, a member of Baltimore's high society and the matriarch of their family.  And also the chick with all of the bucks who has threatened to cut the entire family out of her will if the one Sullivan who has offended her does not confess in writing.
The book is divided into three sections, each granddaughter writing her "big sin," the one that they believe has caused their nasty grandmother to impose such a threat.
Norrie, seventeen and the oldest sister, a senior at a prestigious all-girls Catholic school north of the city writes about her relationship with a twenty five year old grad student.
Jane, confesses about her blog myevilfamily.com in which she exposes Almighty and her entire family for the messed up frauds that they are.
And Sassy, well, Sassy's confession is really different.
This book is truly funny and fresh.  And love that myevilfamily.com is really a live site.  Hilarious.
One truly unexpected thing I learned while reading this book was that the author, Natalie Standiford wrote The Bravest Dog Ever:  the true story of Balto which I get requests for all of the time from children who want to read it.  I haven't read it and this the first book I ever read by Standiford, but it won't be the last, that's for sure!  It's weird because on her website, she doesn't list all of her books, but when I did a catalog search for her name, I found a bunch.  I can't recall another author's website like that.  Weird.  I am just glad that I happened to search for her in the catalog because I would have just assumed that this one and How to Say Goodbye in Robot were the old two YA books she has written, because they are the only two listed.
Now I am off on a tangent!  Shocking!
Anyway..................
I totally enjoyed this book and I sure wouldn't mind a sequel.  The ending is quite cool.  Norrie's story in particular is intriguing and I do wish I was the one having a secret relationship with Robbie Pepper!

On the Road...

Everyone loves Willie's On the Road Again, but this is one I like better probably.   The Morpheus Road is not the kind of road that you want to walk.  Sixteen year-old Marshall Seaver doesn't have a choice, though.  This creepy guy named Gravedigger is pretty insistent that he does.
This book is pretty amazing.  I am so glad that it is trilogy and a new one is due out in the spring.  God Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll be reading it!
Marshall's best friend Cooper has gone missing and Marshall is trying to find him, while avoiding the evil spirits that are all around him.  Or is Marshall going crazy?  This book has so many twists and turns but it is told so well that you don't get lost.  Action and great characters.  Definitely a winner!

Things I Never Knew Before...

I could fill a million books with all of the stuff that I never knew before I started this book blog back in January.  Just today I learned about the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944.  What a horrible tragedy.  More than 167 people died, mostly women and children.  This was during the war, and so many men were serving overseas.  Moms took their children to the circus to give them a little bit of joy, while they were missing their fathers.  There have been many books written about the fire, and tonight I read Worlds Afire, a book comprised of poems, each one from the perspective a person who was there during the tragedy.  

It can be a tough read, even though it is very short.  There is the story of one little girl who was never identified and a really neat poem about the people who helped out while all of the horror was taking place.  A very interesting, a sad book.  

Baby, It's Cold Outside

I think that is one of the worst songs ever.  Ever.  In fact, I will not give it the honor of a link.
The snow is on the ground and it's pretty darn cold outside, so reading Girlfriend Material on a day like today was a little weird. Even though I am not a summer kinda girl, it made me long for warm weather.
GM reminded me a lot of The Summer I Turned Pretty and It's Not Summer without You because of the similar setting, of course, and the romance. GM is a lot less serious, though it does deal with the subject of divorce, but it is no less a good book. Kate, a teen girl who has accompanied her mother from their home in Salt Lake City to Cape Cod for the summer, is a very likable and believable character. Even though she can be a bit tough on her mom, who has decided that she needs to separate from her husband and live with her old college roommate and her husband at their summer home, she is a good kid, with a good heart. Tina and Harry are the couple who own the home on the Cape and they have a teenage daughter, Sarah, who is a year older than Kate. Kate's mom and Sarah's parents expect the two girls to be best friends, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen from the reception Kate gets when she arrives. Another surprise is the warm reception Kate gets from a hot boy named Adam.
This coming of age at the beach story is a quick and interesting read that doesn't fall into cliches. And, it mentions Judy! So, really, how can this book lose?
I'll be looking for more books from this author.

Bloody Good Book

I am not a fan of off-putting Briticisms, as I have said, but Blood on My Hands just begs for that lead in, right? 

So I am still trying to find a place that defines this "trilogy" of Todd Strasser's.  First came Wish You Were Dead and it was said to be the first in a trilogy.  In some places it is called a trilogy.  In the book itself, and some other places, refer to it as  part of a cyber-thrilled trilogy, whatever that means.  Is it a cyber thriller because Callie, who is a teenage girl accused to murdering her frenemy Katherine, uses a cell phone and Facebook?  I am not sure.
Anyway, Blood is a decent murder story/thrilled deal.  I didn't like it as much as All Unquiet Things but I think I am tough on YA mysteries because I love mysteries so much and no one can compare to my guys, Block, Parker, Freeman, Sandford, Woods, and my girl Kellerman.
So Callie wants very much to be a part of the in crowd.  And she wants even more to be in the IC (inner circle) which revolves around Katherine, who is the Queen of Mean.  She is meaner than the Zombie Blondes.  Meaner than The Girls.  Meaner than those girls who Rhyme with Witches.  Yes, you guess it, she could be a member of the Four PTSes.  No, kidding!  No one is that mean, except for other Judy Blume characters, but she is really mean!  Callie has a boyfriends, a really nice guy Slade, who is older and off in the National Guard.  Katherine will do anything she can to get Callie to break up with Slade and break his heart.  But then, well, Katherine winds up dead.  And Callie finds her recently dead body. And people take pictures of her, bending over, knife in hand, with Katherine's blood all over her.  So now Callie is on the run, and she needs Slade and she needs to prove that she didn't kill Katherine before she will turn herself in to the police.
I did like Blood and it worth reading for sure, it is a decent, suspenseful, quick read.   And I didn't figure out the ending!