Maybe I just wasn't in the mood

for a love story.   This wasn't chick-lit, no.  It was more than that, deeper, better written and more interesting.  It WAS good.  It was just that it maybe was a little bit predictable?  But predictable books need to be written, too and this was very well written.  Maybe it hit a little too close to home for me?  Maybe that was it.  The Seven Torments of Amy and Craig has me wondering about the title.  Were there really seven torments for Amy?  It seemed like Craig was the one tormented!  But yes, I suppose I must be fair...Amy was tormented, too.  Just not in the same way.  I read the book because it was set in Janesville, where I have stayed twice!  And I ate a pretty good Mexican meal, there, too, back when I ate!  Don't worry, Mr. Levithan!  I don't eat Mexican food now!

Monsters Come in All Shapes, Sizes and Ages...

Little Monsters was very good and it kept me guessing.  The only thing that kept it from being a 5 star was that I think it wrapped up WAY too fast at the end.  But maybe that was just because I was sad to see it end?  Very creepy and good book.  At first I thought it was going to be a paranormal thing, but I was glad that it wasn't!  It was also nice to hear all of the Wisconsin references! 

“We are here to take chances, and fail, and keep trying.”

That is a quote from The Vanishing Season that really helped me last week.  It was a rough week at work.  And my theme at work (and in life in general) is "I gotta try!"  And so that just really helped me to remember that.  I just realized now that Jodi Lynn Anderson was also the author of Midnight at the Electric. I liked this one a lot more than that one.  But I can totally see that they were written by the same author as this one was weird, too!  But weird isn't bad...it's just weird!  MATE was a little TOO weird, so much so that I didn't get it, but I did get this one and I did like it.  The ending was quite a surprise!

Newbery Buzz

There's Newbery Buzz around What the Moon Said.   I just don't know. Granted, I am biased.  This has been an incredible year for books!  Man, I wouldn't want to be on the Newbery committee this year.
Oh who am I kidding, OF COURSE I would want to be on the Newbery committee- any year!
And honestly, the clear standout for me is The Madman of Piney Woods. Brown Girl Dreaming is a close, close, close second.  But the thing with Brown Girl Dreaming, is that it is INCREDIBLE, but not as INCREDIBLE as After Tupac and D Foster, the neo1954 situation.
There's also The Nightingale's Nest, Bird and Where I Belong, OH!  And West of the Moon.
But What the Moon Said?  I am not sure that this one should even get an honor.  Man, I just didn't see Newbery in it at all.  It was fine.  I mean, it was very American Girlish and I see that the author, Gayle Rosengren,  was a copy editor of AG, so maybe that is why. This is not a bad book.  It's just a fine book.  Maybe if it wasn't played up to Newbery material, I would be easier on it.  It certainly didn't put me to sleep, like Moon Over Manifest did in book form and in audio.   I am going to give Moon Over Manifest another try someday, I really am.  Everyone seems to have loved it but me and so that tells me something.
Anyway...What the Moon Said just didn't do it for me as far as Newbery goes, but it was a decent book.

How did I miss this?

I do hate when I miss a book that I wish I could have read when it first came out.  I had no idea that Turn to Stone, a novella from Brian Freeman came out in February.  Man, man, man....this was so good and creepy. And it is a Jonathan Stride WITHOUT EVIL MAGGIE!  And it is set in the great state of Wisconsin!  But it is evil and creepy and I learned that the German word for the devil is teufel.  I had no idea who the bad guy/girl was.  I was always guessing.  So well done.  So so so well done.  Freeman has become my favorite mystery/detective author.  It is official!

Well...that was...something

So Shadows is the second book in the Ashes Trilogy by Ilsa J. Bick.  This book was very action packed and gory.  It was all action.  I am not a big fan of all that much action, I guess.  The gore doesn't bother me, but it was 500+ pages of it.  A lot of people die is really gross ways in this book.  But the thing is, you really don't care because you don't know the people.  It is just very action and gore oriented.  I am still hopeful that the third book will bring it all around and that will be cool.  This one was set in Wisconsin!  So that is good for my Road Trip.  But man...I don't know.  It was kind of like a torture porn movie.  The thing is, Bick is a veteran, so I know that she knows what she is talking about and so I right then and there, just have to respect her.  She has a lot to say in a recent blog post about those support the troops magnets on cars.  That they aren't really supporting the troops and that people should really support the troops.  I agree, but it is impossible to know if the people with those magnets do or don't support troops in other ways.  Or if they, themselves, are just back from Afghanistan.  She just doesn't know.  I have a POW/MIA magnet on my car and I do support the troops in the ways that Bick suggests and in other ways.  But if Bick saw my magnet she would be mad.  That was kind of weird.  The other thing is that she is a child psychologist.  That's tough.  I don't really think psychologists make much difference, good or bad, but maybe child psychologists do, but I don't know.  So well, I am kind of lukewarm about Bick.  But I still hope to read Ashes #3.  I also don't know why she was upset about the picture of the soldiers praying before a meal.   I just don't know.