Secrets

Two Can Keep a Secret was a really good mystery, one that I didn't see coming.  A lot of twists and turns and really believable, I think.  Good, good stuff.  After reading One of Us is Lying, this was top on my to read-list.  And it didn't disappoint.  If you like OOUIL, check it out!

The End

totally saved Alone for me.  Totally.  I don't want to say much more.  But it was a good one to read this time of year!  Cyn Balog is a writer I have come to enjoy very much! 

I worry

that the language used in Tyler Johnson Was Here will keep some schools from purchasing this book.  And this book needs to be purchased and it needs to be read.  I have read critics of the book say that it is racist.  I have heard that term "reverse racism" applied to the book.  And wow, how uneducated those people are.  How truly uninformed.
There are also those who say that the characters act like children.
Um....
well...
yeah...
because they are.
And then there was even someone who said there was too much use of Tupac.  REALLY?  Okay.
So I guess all of the books that fawn all over Jane Austen or Shakespeare or The Beatles or Harry Freakin Potter.  That's okay?
Um...yeah...
This was an excellent book and realistic and horrifying.  And it needs to be read.

Unusual!

Denis Ever After has a really different description of the afterlife!  It doesn't jibe with my view, but I wasn't offended or anything.  I found it to be really intriguing and different and it didn't take me long to get sucked in to this book.  Grief on both sides of the Jordan.  And a mystery.  And the book made me cry and laugh.  I loved the brother-brother relationship.  Tony Abbott has written a book that will keep the interest, I think, of reluctant readers and mystery lovers and at the same time create some really interesting discussion.  I really liked this. 

The X Factor

When I first saw the book The Poet X I thought maybe it was about Betty X or Malcolm X and that is why I put it on hold, but it isn't.  But I am so glad I did!  What a wonderfully written book.  Elizabeth Acevado is an incredible writer.

REALLY good

I was so glad that my turn for Where the Line Bleeds finally came up from the library.  Man.  This book was just excellent.  Jesmyn Ward is just such an incredible writer.  This story unfolds so so so well and just sucked me in and really speaks volumes about the "land of opportunity" that is our country.  And man, it is even worse now than when this was written!   What a book. 

Rain and Ethan

One of the many things I appreciated about Rules of Rain was Rain's explanation of her name and her brother's name.  Her father named Ethan.  Normal name.  And her mom named her, Rain.
Her mom was a hippie-type and her dad was Mr. Normal.  Well, my name is Ingrid Gaynell.  And my brother is Robert Paul.  And well.   That has always bugged me!  Not just that my name is so terrible, but that my brother's is so NORMAL!
The other thing I appreciated about this book was the brother-sister love and relationship.  And also the proof that no one is all good or all bad.  (thinking about the parents here)
This was a good book, not just about families who have members with exceptional abilities, but also about the pressures that we put on ourselves, how we define ourselves, that kind of thing.  I loved Ethan and Hope, too. 

Oh those Tapper Twins!

The Tapper Twins Go Viral is the fourth in the series and I really still do love it so much.  In fact, I loved it so much I actually read it, instead of reading it!  Ha!  Great stuff.  A good lesson on internet safety!  But not cheesy or an obvious lesson at all!  Very funny!

Election Stress

The Tapper Twins Run for President is the third in this series I have enjoyed so much!  Once again, I love the love between these two siblings, even though they have their normal spats.  And the format of the books are great!

A Great Change!

After the long, hard trip that was Strange the Dreamer, it was so great to see that the second book in the Tapper Twins series was ready for me!  The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York was just great. Very enjoyable and I really, really am looking forward to the next one in the series.  I have the audio on hold!  Loved the first and this one just as much!

Sweet

Sure it seems like a book called The Tapper Twins Go to War (with each other) wouldn't be sweet. But this really was.  Sure there were a love of un-sweet parts, I mean they do play horrible tricks on one another involving cyberbullying and stinky cheese, but man, this was a really good, funny book and I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series!

Gifts

Gift of Magic is an old book, written the year I was born by Lois Duncan.  That link takes you to Lois Duncan's home page, but it hasn't been updated in a while.  Neither has her twitter feed.  That's because Duncan died in June.  She is in heaven now and I bet that if there was any need for her to communicate from heaven, Duncan would have done it, because the whole supernatural world was obviously of great interest to her.  I loved her books as a teen.  And I do enjoy reading them now.  This one was very good and creepy.  I think my most favorite is Summer of Fear.  I wonder if that is available to listen to, because I really would like to read it again.  This one only seemed dated in the name of the main character, Nancy.  But I have an Agnes in one of my storytimes, so I am thinking there is a chance Nancy will come back around some day, too.

Esau Have I Hated

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, the movie, not the song or the remake of the song, has a scene in it, with a line in it, that I have often quoted and always loved.

Travis: And I asked the Lord, "Lord, why have you forsaken me?". But there was silence. So , I asked again, "Lord, WHY have you forsaken me?", and there was silence. So I asked again, "LORD, WHY have you forsaken me?"... and this great booming voice said "Geez, I don't know Travis, I guess something about you just chaps at my ass."

I am thinking that Louise feels that way.  Jacob Have I Loved is a book I read a long time ago by the most amazing, Katherine Paterson.

Having a sister must be very hard.  It is really hard for Louise who always feels out shined by her twin.  There were so many times in this book that I spoke aloud, "What?!" or "No way!"

I was just thinking, I wonder what the book would have been like if told from the POV of Caroline. I bet someone has asked Paterson that.  I have to investigate!

I investigated, but I didn't find anything.  But I didn't look too hard.  I just think that would be a neat thing to find out.

The book takes place on the fictional island of Rass in the Chesapeake Bay.  Louise and Caroline are 14 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, that's about when the story begins, and the story finishes when both are grown women.  Though the main details are mostly about their growing up years.

This is a good, good, beautiful story.  But can anything else be expected from Paterson, who is just magic with words.

is this the end?

Twice as Nice is the fourth book in the Almost Identical series by Lin Oliver.  I remember I was in love with the series from the first one and they just got better as they went along.  If this is the end of the series, it was a great way to wrap it up, but I will miss twins, Sammie and Charlie very much.

Newbery! Newbery!

It won't make me upset at all if The Crossover wins the Newbery.  Not only is it an excellent, moving, realistic book, written so so so so so well, it is also a book that kids will like!  In fact, The Crossover is now my top pick for the Newbery because it really will appeal to its audience, not just librarians!  Just fantastic.  I can't wait to read He Said, She Said, also by Kwame Alexander

The poetry here is so incredible.  I mean, I don't know much about poetry, but this just sounded so good.  I listened to the book, read by Corey Allen who also did the EllRay Jakes books! 

This isn't just a basketball story, it is a story about the loss of a parent and the love between brothers (twins) and how hard it is to grow up.  An excellent middle-grade book.  Just an all-the-way-around awesome book.
I first saw it on the Anderson's Mock Newbery List and then when I posted on the discussion on goodreads about Caminar, which I still do totally love, this gal, who clearly has excellent taste in books said that The Crossover was her favorite and I am so thankful that she did!   It made me want to buy it right away, which I did, using my last audible credit and man, man, man, so good!  

Will this win the Newbery though?  Will it be 1954?  Will this be one of those horrid, "Oh it will get the Coretta Scott King Award deals?  We can only pray not.  

Not only will kids love to read this, but even kids who don't love to read will want to read this!  

WINNER!

I'll Follow the Sun

is a Beatles song.  I'll Give You the Sun is a book.  A long book.  I read it because of the Printz buzz around it.  I actually bought the MP3 CD because it wasn't available at the time as a download.  The thing is, on a CD you can't speed up the playback... and at first, that was okay!
This is a very engaging book.  It is told from two POVs, twins, a brother and a sister.  Art factors big-time in the book as does sexuality.  I really liked this book, but I feel like the editors did it a disservice by not editing more.  It just went on a bit too long.  Way too long for me, but for the normal person, probably just a bit too long. I don't see this as winning the Printz and I can't see a lot of readers sticking with it.  I had broken up with so many books recently,  that I felt I had to finish it.  But in the end it went on so long that I found myself not caring what happened to the characters, and that is a shame.

Another Really Great School Story!

Andrew Clements, man.  He is GOOD GOOD GOOD.   Lost and Found was another excellent one.  It is about twin boys who are entering a new school and they pretend that there is only one boy instead of two!  The guys move to Cleveland over Labor Day weekend.  One twin is sick on the first day of school and his brother discovers that the school has messed up and combined both boys' records together so instead of being Jay and Ray, there is only Jay!  They get the idea to play it out and see how long they can be one only child instead of half of twins.  Really good!

When I first heard..

my friend Julie describe Sure Signs of Crazy, I thought that there was no way I wanted to read it.  When she told me it was the story of a twelve-year-old girl whose mother had tried to drown her and her twin brother when they were little, killing her brother, I thought, nah.  Not in the mood for a downer.  But then she told me it wasn't a downer at all.  And she was right.  And wow, did I love this book.  Karen Harrington is a new author for me, but I will be sure to read more by her.  What a lovely, sad, happy hopeful story.  Sarah Nelson's mother did try to kill her.  Now her mom is in a mental hospital, prison situation and doesn't have much contact with her.  Her father is an alcoholic, but a good man.  Sarah writes two diaries, a fake one, incase anyone finds it, and a secret one, in which writes to Atticus Finch, wishes he was her dad.  They live in a rented home in Texas and move around a lot when folks find out that they are "that family."  What a great story.  I know it sounds like a downer, but it isn't.  It is lovely.  Please read this.  You will fly through it.

Another wow....

Not too long ago I finished listening to Eleanor and Park and I've recently finished Rainbow Rowell's latest book, Fangirl.  Man.  Wow.  Yes.  Amazing.  Just super, super, super.  My friend Kelly said it best, "Rowell writes flawed but incredibly decent people."  Incredible characters here.  Original story about twin girls who head off to college.  Just so so so so so good. 

Another Series Ends

Even though I know it was time for The Lying Game to end, I am sad to see it go. It really couldn't have gone on much longer, but I loved this series.  Seven Minutes in Heaven is the final book.  I loved the Tucson setting and I recalled time I spent in Arizona on my way to San Diego.  It makes me wish I was back on the road, just trekking across country.  And I will miss Emma Paxton and Sutton Mercer.  I have to say I was unsure of the killer up until he or she was revealed (no spoilers here.) I also loved that the author took the time to make sure we knew that Nisha's cat was going to be okay. Unlike some evil books.  Read this series from the beginning.  Great one.