I just wished

I liked Locked in Time.  It was good, expected storytelling from Lois Duncan.  No complaints.  But I think I could have really liked it if the setting, New Orleans, had played a greater role.  That's such an incredible city and the culture (in books and movies and tv anyway) lends itself to adding a lot to a supernatural mystery like LIT.  Still, I did enjoy this.  Very quick listen.

Good News and Bad News, but what can you do?

The Thickety is an outstanding series!
That is good news!
The Last Spell is the last book, I am assuming.
That is bad news!
Because this series didn't go on too long.
But now it is over!
So that is good news and then bad news!
But had it gone on too long, I mean, it would have ended with bad news! So I guess it had to end.
Read from the beginning!

Potential Series?

I love a good stand-alone book.  And sometimes a book should just be you know, a book!  But The Mesmerist seems to me like it would be a good series! Ronald L. Smith wrote Hoodoo which I have not read, but I want to read it now, especially after reading this.  I was attracted to it because of the whole spiritualist thing, which I have found fascinating.  It makes me sad that people don't know that when their loved ones die they are in perfect peace with God (Jesus is my path and He said He has sheep that belong to other flocks and so I KNOW this is true!  EVERYONE! Christian Universalist  that I am!) and so I can see that people would want to find answers and assurance.   This book takes place in Victorian England and so it was neat to find out more about the time period and spiritualism.

Something Else...

Thanks for the Trouble is the second book I have read by Tommy Wallach. Last year, when I wasn't writing reviews, I read And We All Looked Up.  and I liked it very much!  I was just thinking that I need to read more by Wallach, but so far, he has just published these two, but I am looking forward to his next with great eagerness!  This was just soooo good.  Really, really good.  I am really surprised that this didn't get up on a Printz watch list (not that I know of anyway) because it is THAT good, I think!  The whole thing is written in form of a college application essay.  Just some good, good, unusual stuff.  Honest and real (even though it is magical realism, maybe?) Just good.

Could Have Been More Excited

How to Hang a Witch was good.  I just thought it wasn't AS good as a lot of the reviewers did.  I mean, this book got really, really good reviews.  I liked the author's note and what she did to show how what happened in Salem during the witch trials and what happens in this book, set today are similar to bullying, but I just didn't LOVE this book.
I also wondered about Danvers and how that all fits into this book.  Oh wait, wait, wait!  I see that Danvers was where the hunt began, but the actual trials and hangings took place in Salem.  Okay!
Adriana Mather reads the book and she did a really great job.  She is actually a Mather-Mather.  And also, there is a W. Cotton Mather here in the North Hills of Pittsburgh who is related to the Cotton Mather who figures prominently in this book.  My friend used to babysit for his kids!  Maybe I was just a little burnt out on Salem or maybe I just thought the love story between Samantha and the ghost guy was a little too much, but I did like the book, and I can recommend it for sure, I just didn't love it!  A lot of people did, though. There is another one coming next year.

Trilogies

When I looked on goodreads, I saw that The Gathering is to be the first in a trilogy called Shadow House.  Then I remembered that my dear friend Rachel wrote a book that was published by Chicken House, which is tied to or part of Scholastic, like this book.  And when she and her husband wrote Claws they were told to change it SO much because it was also "slated to be a trilogy." Well I loved the book.  But Rachel and her husband felt it really lost something because of the changes.  Then Chicken House lost its big money author, Cornelia Funke.  And things changed big time for Chicken House/Scholastic.  It wasn't that Claws didn't sell well.  And Claws never became a trilogy, despite selling really well regularly and also at book fairs. It makes me sad because I won't ever know what happened to the characters and also because Mike and Rachel were never able to see the work that they had imagined and created come to life as they expected.  But I guess that happens.  But it doesn't make it any less horrible.  For authors and readers.
So I wonder if Shadow House will take off, but I hope it does.  First of all, the cover is fantastic! LOOK at that cover!
Four kids end up getting invites to live or attend school or shoot a movie at a far off mansion.  And creepiness begins. The end did get a little confusing for me, but that is me!  I can definitely recommend this book!

Spooky Stories

I know it is early September, but I do love a good ghost story.  I love spooky stuff.  I do.  And the fall, well, it just makes me think of spooky things.  And so when I saw Guys Read:  Terrifying Tales, I just had to have a listen.  And I am so glad I did.  I have listened to a few of these.  This is the sixth one in the series.  Last year when I was keeping track, I guess.  I know I did the sports one, which I really did enjoy!
This one was really good.  Some fantastic authors here like Dav Pilkey, and Nikki Loftin. I LOVED some of the stories.  Like Mr. Shocky by Michael Buckley and Don't Eat the Baby by Kelly Barnhill.  This is a very strong collection of great spooky stories!

What I Loved

about The Ninth Ward was that it wasn't just a book about Hurricane Katrina. This was a book about a person who happened to be involved in Hurricane Katrina.  A lot of times books about an "event" have a main character, but the main character doesn't seem to have existed before the "event" and we can't surely know how the main character will continue to live after the "event" because all we know about him or her is what she or he was like during the "event."  Jewell Parker Rhodes characters in both Towers Falling and in Ninth Ward have lives before and we learn about them and we seem to get an understanding of how they will continue on after the book/"event" ends.  That seems like it would be a tricky thing to do.  But wow, Jewell Parker Rhodes just has that ability to make me care so much about Deja and Lenesha and I am so glad I got to "know" them as people.
AND this is totally cool- I just wrote to her because I found out she is from Pittsburgh!  Can you believe it!  And she wrote me back!  Even though she was on a plane headed to New York.  Totally cool!  She is from Manchester, where I met the Robinsons when I was in seminary school.  So like a big dork, I asked her if she knew them!  Dork!
I am off on a tangent.
Anyway...a great book, a must-read.  And now I will be listening to Sugar and Bayou Magic!

One, Big, Blood-Shot Eye in the Middle of Her Forehead SPOILERS

The Third Eye by Lois Duncan was okay.  I mean, it was good!  I just felt it was a little dated, more than the others I have read recently.  In this one the main character has the gift of sight and is able to find a missing boy who was accidentally locked in the trunk of a car.  When she finds out she is able to do this, she has to decide how or if she doing to use this gift.  It turns out that her mom has the gift also and because of a bad experience she had when she was her daughter's age, she has decided to never use her gift.  This was a bit hard to understand for me.  And I was probably, now that I think about it, why didn't like the book as much.  I mean, it was really glad that the daughter did decide that she was going to make a different choice than her mother.  But I think the fact that her mom could turn away from helping people, it just left SUCH a bad taste in my mouth that it colored everything.  Are there some people have this sight?  We hear about them on those terrible day time tv shoes and in tabloids. But I wonder if they really can. Then there becomes the whole debate about messing with stuff that is supernatural.  I mean, we really shouldn't mess with things like that.  There really is no way to know what is giving us the power, right?  But it wasn't even like that even entered into the mom's decision to not help with her gift.  It was all about whether or not it would hurt her own life.  Still, something interesting to think about, you know?

Overstayed Welcome (Possible Spoiler)

I read Hotel Ruby even though I wasn't a huge fan of Suzanne Young's The Program, which I gave only one star to and I see I didn't even write up a review for it!  Which is odd, because I read it back in 2013, when I wasn't missing a lot of reviews, or so I thought!   The second cover here is the cover that I saw when I picked the book for a listen.  The first picture is the new cover, according to Young's blog and it also has a new title:  Hotel for the Lost.  Personally, I would have been more upset had that title and that cover been the ones that drew me to the book.  I find the new title and cover to be SO much cooler and creepier than the first title and the first cover.  There is a problem with being an old lady and reading teen books, sometimes.  I rarely see an ending or plot twist coming, but I saw this one from miles away and that was a disappointment.  However, the book is written for teens and I don't know if teens today have seen The Sixth Sense or read or seen The Shining, both of which I was reminded when listening to this one.  I am so old that Young herself might not have even been born when The Shining came out!  So maybe my thoughts on the book aren't fair.  It's just that there so many other really good books out there that seem to be good for an old person to enjoy as well as a teen.  Still, I can see where there would be appeal for this book.  It is a creepy.  And the premise is good, even if it isn't new.

What We Think and What We Know

Back when I read The Catacombs by Roux I said that I probably wouldn't go back and read the novellas I had missed.  But then yesterday I saw The Bone Artists available for download and I borrowed it and listened to it today and I am REALLY glad I did!  It is Asylum 2.5,  This was just a teasing, creepy, sinister story that I really, really enjoyed!  And that was even more I got a good look at the cover, which is AWESOME.  I am looking forward to reading more from Roux and I hope that the other novellas end up being available for a listen as well.  This one is set in New Orleans.

Misleading (but maybe only if you are I)

Escape from Asylum is labeled .5 on goodreads.com and to me, I think that would mean it is 1/2 a book.  But it's really a prequel, a full book and I really good one to read if you enjoy this series!  Just like this one!
I have really enjoyed this series, but have found it confusing at times or maybe I just wanted to know more about what was going on and I feel like this book really helped a lot!  Fans of the series won't want to miss it, set back in the late 1960s when Dr. Crawford started all of this mess!

Anticipation

for the Well of Witches, the third book in the Thickety series was well worth it.  I read the first two, A Path Begins and The Whispering Trees when I wasn't writing on here as much.  All I can say is, this is an excellent series.  It really stands up through all three and doesn't feel like "Oh man...another book I have to read."  Great fantasy, even if you aren't a "fantasy person" which I am not.  Scary and creepy good.

New Orleans

Catacomb by Madeleine Roux is the third in the Asylum series.  Just looking up the series now I see that I have missed the novellas.  Thing is, while I was just going to write that I really enjoyed this book and the series in general, and I really did!  I think that these novellas are good and bad.  There are a lot of books with the whole novella thing going on:  Delirium, Divergent, Selection, and a lot more.  And even for kids, like Wonder.  Even with a book like Wonder, which I loved, loved, loved, I still haven't read the latest novella. I think that some of the novellas I have read were really good for holding me over until the next one, or a nice surprise when I thought that was the end.  But more and more I kinda think they are just money-making deals, you know?  And while I did really, really enjoy this series.  It is believable with likable characters and creepy, I just don't think that I am drawn enough to the story that I will go back and read the novellas I have missed in this series.  Still, the three main books are worth reading, for sure, if you like creepy and paranormal. I liked that this book was set in New Orleans, a favorite city of mine.  I have only been there once!  But I mean it is also a favorite city for a book setting!  I wish there would have been more focus on the New Orleanishness, that the city was tied into the book even more, but still, it was cool.

Ain't No Sunshine

in Sunshine's life.  Well, there is.  But there is also a lot of darkness.  And demons.  And death.  And people trying to destroy her.
Denver was a great trip and during the PLA exhibits I met Paige McKenzie, author of The Haunting of Sunshine Girl and its sequel, The Awakening of Sunshine Girl.
McKenzie started a youtube show and well, here is this background.
All I can say is, I BLEW through these two books.
The only thing that disappointed me about them was that the next one isn't coming out until next March.
Fantastic!

I tried

Greenglass House has been getting Newbery buzz.  I have little doubt that it will win.  I didn't like it at all.  It just seems to be the safe Newbery choice.  I tried three times to read this.  I ended up buying the audio book just so I could get through it.  Even on 3x speed, it took 467 hours.
This book has been compared to other books I just couldn't get through, like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Westing Game.  So if you liked those books,  you may very well like Greenglass House.  I tried and tried, I did finish it but it was rough going.

Inner Sanctum

is not related to Sanctum, the second of the Asylum novels.  I have only ever heard the Inner Sanctum radio dramas, not seen the television show nor have I seen any of the low-budget movies.  You know, it wasn't until I read this book that I knew the definition of sanctum.  I guess that I could have thought about it being from the Latin sanctus and all, and that would have made me think it meant something good instead of something sinister, but I always assumed it had a sinister meaning because of the radio show.
Let me admit that I was a hypocrite for listening to this book, after having criticized books that take a sensational approach to mental illness.  I wanted to see if there was some redemption in this book, if it continued to address the maltreatment of those suffering from mental illness.  It didn't, instead it took on more of a paranormal and fantasy approach than the first.  This one didn't really deal with mental illness, but with hauntings.  It was okay.  It really wasn't anything to write home about or buy.  I listened to it on my library account.

I have always had an interest in mental health hospitals.  The mentally ill in the United States have been through it.  I don't know anything about the care of the mentally ill in other countries.  People who are experiencing a mental illness need the best in care, the same quality of care that we would hope those who are experiencing a physical illness receive.  But that isn't always the case.  This is a good site from PBS that gives the world-wide history.
I remember this article from years back, about Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights which had a very controversial ad campaign.  Here is some related information here.  And here. 
Right away I admit have been a hypocrite.  I have toured Dixmont after it was closed.  I have toured the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and also done their Halloween Haunted Asylum attraction.  I have given money to TALA in the form of paying for these tours and so contributing to the profit they make off of their ventures.
The thing is, and I don't know if this is any kind of defense of my participation.  Certainly, I can't condone going to the commercial attraction part of TALA, but when I walked through Dixmont, when I toured TALA, I was thinking about the horrors of those who were abused while living there.  After my experiences I spoke out loudly about how poorly individuals were treated in these "hospitals" and I was sickened by how closely the rooms at TALA for the sick resembled the cells of the prisoners at Moundsville.  Not that prisoners should be treated inhumanely!  And certainty many prisoners are mentally ill.  But I think you get what I mean.  A hospital that is more like a prison?  Shouldn't a prison be more like a hospital?  That is the best way to look at it.
As far as the book Asylum goes, I do think that, while capitalizing on the macabre details that attract people like me, Madeleine Roux does make it very clear that what went on at this particular "hospital" was wrong and inhumane.  I can see where this would be a good discussion starter.  A sneaky way to get to the root of how we treat the ill.
Project 17 was a much more interesting book, as far as entertainment goes.  If I can even call it that. Ugh.   But I can't recall it did that.  The thing is, I am living proof that reading expands your mind and your heart.  I am so much more aware of offenses that I have committed in the past, such as dropping my own contribution in the bucket of a business that mocks those who are mentally ill.  And I won't commit them again.

Blurry....

So Boys of Blur is a Newbery Buzz Book.  My dear friend, Rebekah, tried to read it and didn't like it at all.   She even broke up with it. Although, she is more comfortable with breaking up than I am anyway. I am really trying to read some of the "good" books this year.  I don't know, honestly, if I will do this next year, obsessively try to read all of the books with the award buzz, but we'll see.  But I wanted to read this.  Plus, it was short!
While Rebekah didn't like it at all, I have to say that I did like.  I liked the atmosphere of this tiny town right near the Florida Everglades, on the banks of  Lake Okeechobee.  I liked learning about the sugar cane fields but I DIDN'T like reading about the poor rabbits.  I just can't imagine how scared those little rabbits must be.  Ugh.  It just makes me so sad.  A lot of  football players learned their speed from "running rabbits" in the sugarcane fields.
I like the main character, Charlie, a lot.  He is a good dude.  And I liked the whole family, really.  Cotton, especially.
Turns out that the book is inspired by Beowulf.  I had to read Beowulf in eleventh grade, but I didn't remember much about it so I found these little videos!  They are fabulous!  And then I got into the book even more.  I loved the book trailer, too!  But overall, it just didn't hold my interest as much as I wanted it to.  I am not sure why...maybe I wanted to know more about Charlie?  More about Mack?  About Bobby Reynolds?  I guess I just wanted more.  I still can highly recommend this book. Especially for fans of high school football and creepy stuff.  The battle between good and evil was well done!

The End of a Great Trilogy!

Ashes to Ashes is a fitting title for the last book in the Burn for Burn trilogy by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.  I loved Burn for Burn and Fire with Fire.  This was one of those trilogies that need to be a trilogy.  And it was consistent throughout.  Read the first one first!