My Sweet Saga

from goodreads – At nearly 30 years old, Brandon is barely able to make it through life, much less enjoy it. He is weeks away from what should be one of the happiest days of his life, his wedding day to his fiancée, Clarissa, but his attention is distracted when his estranged, erratic and oddly eccentric father suddenly reappears with a bizarre demand: to accompany him to Stockholm, Sweden, where they will meet a man who he claims will change their lives.

Desperate for even a brief escape from his reality, Brandon reluctantly goes with his father, ready for a disaster. But his life changes completely the moment his eyes meet the mysterious Swedish man’s daughter, Saga. On a cobblestone street in the middle of Stockholm, Brandon reawakens to life, though struggles to navigate the messy love triangle with Saga and his fiancée, which includes multiple arrests, hospital stays, terrorist bombs, acts of heroism and foolishness, family secrets and even a bit of public nudity.

my take – Brett Sills has written a taut debut that showcases his ability to weld a pen and entertain.

My Sweet Saga is what I refer to as ‘every males fantasy.’ An overly average “Joe” (in this case Brandon) who’s dead end career, coupled with his nagging fiancée leads him to an overseas adventure with a European hottie, where fun and Scooby Doo type mayhem ensues.

One of the best characters is main character Brandon’s lottery-winning, eccentric dad. At first he seems a swarthy, Tommy Bahama wearing, selfish bastard, but in the end he is applaud worthy.  His ability not to be forth coming is, in the end, a noble gesture.

While this is an extremely well written novel with a cast of unlikable, but realistic, yet over the top characters, this one wasn’t for me. Brandon is at times a racists (and a bigot) and a selfish, weak willed male who let’s his circumstances dictate his life instead of standing up for himself and taking a stand. On the outside he seems like a good guy, but his thoughts are perverse and ugly. By the end of the novel he did figure out that he had to fight for what he wanted, but his selfishness still reigned.

Over all, this is a solid book and a perfect choice for those looking for a read with lots of themes and a plethora of characters for in-depth character studies.

Stacy 

Publisher

from Goodreads - An unflinching portrayal of the Korean immigrant experience from an extraordinary new talent in fiction.

Spanning Korea and the United States, from the postwar era to contemporary times, Krys Lee’s stunning fiction debut, “Drifting House,” illuminates a people torn between the traumas of their collective past and the indignities and sorrows of their present.

In the title story, children escaping famine in North Korea are forced to make unthinkable sacrifices to survive. The tales set in America reveal the immigrants’ unmoored existence, playing out in cramped apartments and Koreatown strip malls. A makeshift family is fractured when a shaman from the old country moves in next door. An abandoned wife enters into a fake marriage in order to find her kidnapped daughter.

In the tradition of Chang-rae Lee’s “Native Speaker” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies, Drifting House” is an unforgettable work by a gifted new writer.

my take: I am in love with short stories lately.  I think it is because I don’t freak out if I have to put down the book to cook dinner or listen to my kids talk about their day.  It also brings several stories, ideas, and characters to me within a 250 page book.  I like it.  Also, if I am not entirely excited about a story, I only have 10 pages to read and then I get another chance to be enthralled with a new one.

Krys Lee challenges my boundaries and what I am used to reading in these beautifully written yet sometimes not entirely relatable pieces.  With that said, the struggles of the Korean people within the pages of Drifting House are heart-wrenching.

Drifting House made me dig into my Korean friends history and I asked about their life and that of their parents.  I also asked why they moved to the United States as I wondered if it was anything close to anyone in the stories in the book.  (It wasn’t.)

There really is a story for everyone in Drifting House. I just love the name of the book and the cover is so inviting.  I feel like I am looking into the window of their lives.  I don’t see the whole picture but I see one tiny section and I get transformed to a different character and more importantly, a different journey with every story I read.  Although the short story titled Drifting House came close to making me change my mind as my favorite story in the book,  At The Edge of the World really pulled my heart strings.   The young boy Mark, as he is called at school and Myeongseok as he is called at home made my heart cry and I wanted to adopt him.  I’m anxious to know if you feel the same.

Lee shows a beautiful collection of stories that bleed with sorrow, grieving, and heartache from the beginning of the book until the very end.  Although there is hope within the book, it shows the struggles of the Koreans with blinding pain.

Love, Stackgirl Shannan

Author: Sara Zarr
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Released: Aug 18, 2011

Goodreads:
Jill MacSweeny just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she’s been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends–everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she’s somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one.

Mandy Kalinowski understands what it’s like to grow up unwanted–to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she’s sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It’s harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too?

Sarah’s Take:
So every time I talk about this book, I hear The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” song in my mind…I don’t know if Sara Zarr is tired of hearing this or not, but her book title definitely inspires my head bobs.

Anyway, I just needed to say that, so now I will move on to the review. I wanted to tweet Sara immediately upon finishing her book to say BEST ONE YET!, but I didn’t, perhaps because I didn’t want to appear too fangirl, after I stopped to say hi to  her at ALAN, and she remembered me from her visit to St. Louis and my interview for vocabgal.com (see the interview here) and Girls in the Stacks (see that interview here).  Also, possibly because it’s taken me so long to read the book, since it was snowed under by so many others (haha, bad pun incorporating cover and theoretical cold winter weather).

“So why did you love it, Sarah?,”  I know you are all asking.  Here’s my list:

-I loved the alternating chapters between Jill and Mandy- the switch-up kept the story interesting and let me see how both girls interpreted the same events (fascinating)

-I loved how I learned about more lower-class mentality via Mandy-her mom kept telling her to look pretty and don’t nag to snag a man, while Jill and her mother clearly are more in my realm of feminist “your man should respect you for who you are.”  Seeing the mentality that Mandy grew up with (and her choices because of her upbringing), gave me some insights into the decisions made by some of my students and parents that I don’t always understand.  Plus, I really liked how Mandy learned to get out of her mother’s mentality and value herself more.

-I love how real, yet unique the story was.  There was more action in this story than in some of Sara’s other stories (which I’ve also loved) -but figuring out what was going to happen with Mandy, Jill, Jill’s mom, the baby, Mandy’s family who tries to swoop back in — there was more at stake, and I really liked how realistic yet positively the story ended (I do like a happy ending, but not too many rainbows to be unrealistic).

Overall, this is a great read, and Sara is just an awesome author so check out this and her other stories…but don’t let that song creep into your  brain…How…to…save..a life .

The Fault in Our Stars

from goodreads - Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumors tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

my take - It’s no secret, I am not a big contemporary reader. I prefer fantasy to the realism of life. However, after reading and seeing the buzz for John Green’s newest novel, The Fault in Our Stars, I felt the need to give this book a go. Plus, I wanted to see if it would make me cry.

The story was brilliant, yet so simple. Two teens fighting for their life, and one fearing oblivion. The story is gripping, heart-warming, jarring, heart wrenching, funny and smart.

Hazel and Augustus. Their voices rang with truth, and were replete with desires and fears and frustrations. They gave the readers something to hold on to, and to hope for. As well, they were entertaining. They had a great vocabulary, panache for poetry and an unwavering want to know what happened to the characters in An Imperial Affliction.

How does John Green create these complex characters with depth, soul and wisdom? I’m not sure, but I do believe this book is a modern day classic. Why? It is the epitome of literary classics – timelessness, universal appeal and has the simple, yet beautiful expression of life and truth.

Some of the great things from this book are: it’s quote-ability, The Price of Dawn and Staff Sergeant Max Mayhem (haha), the trophy stomping, Anne Franks house and the kiss, the illustrated use of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Isaac.

The is a must read.

Stacy – So, I bet you’re wondering…did I cry. Well, the truth is no. I think it was a combination of several factors, but suffice it to say I didn’t even tear up. Though, I’m sure I’m in the minority. 

A) I had read and thoroughly enjoyed
B) I had just given away to my father for Christmas (it was autographed!!)
C) I interviewed Jack Gantos when he came to St. Louis in September promoting the book!
D) I love Jack Gantos and was thrilled that he finally got some well-deserved recognition!

So here is my metaphor for my “relationship” with Jack Gantos: He is the amazingly cool kid in high school wearing the Ramones t-shirt, skinny jeans, and Chuck Taylors who is too cool for school but loves to show his brilliance by making witty remarks in honors English. I am the dorky girl with the oversized glasses, permed hair, braces and lack of fashion sense, sitting in the corner, worshiping from afar.

As you can tell in my picture with Jack, I’m a little star-struck to be attending an awesome dinner party at NCTE 2010 where he talked to me like I was a normal person and put his arm around me for the picture!

What did we talk about? The fact that his non-fiction memoir A Hole in My Life is the most stolen book from my classroom (because it deals with the time when he, as a teenager, helped sail a boat into NYC full of hash, but alas, got caught and went to jail for a year=hole in life). It definitely is a book kids want to read, but when they finish, they pass it on to their friends and not so much back to me.

Then he came to St. Louis this September and was gracious enough to grant me an interview for Vocabgal -which will be posted next Thursday, Feb 2nd! Again, he chatted with me like I was a normal human being, rather than a star-struck fan (I kept my giggling to a minimum I hope.)

What I love about Jack is that he bases much of his writing on his own personal life, and he has a fascinating, if not always warm and fuzzy, life. Dead End in Norvelt is so interesting because it is almost another memoir -he based it on the time he spent as a child in the town of Norvelt-a town named for Eleanor Rosevelt who created this awesome, pseudo-socialist community where everyone built each others’ homes and paid each other with their own goods and services. Jack’s mother had grown up in this town and, as the book opens, has moved back with her family, but Jack’s father is not as happy with the location…

Jack’s sense of humor and comedic timing describing the events of the story make the book laugh-out-loud funny, yet the poignancy of his task to help the town’s nurse write the eulogies for the last original townsfolk is rather touching (and the fact that these townsfolk start dying off rather quickly also poses a mystery to be solved).

My favorite part of the story is when Jack has to sneak inside an old woman’s house to see if she is dead, so he dresses up in his Halloween costume-which, of course-is a Grim Reaper outfit. The woman isn’t dead, but almost dies when she sees the embodiment of death itself creeping toward her.

This is what you can expect from the book that has it all-humor, excitement, love, eccentricities and Jack’s personal flair. I think the autograph he created just for this book conveys it all!

from goodreads.com:  It’s 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They’ve been best friends almost as long – at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh’s family gets a free AOL CD in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they’re automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn’t been invented yet. And they’re looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.
By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they’re forced to confront what they’re doing right – and wrong – in the present.

**SPOILERS ABOUND!**

my take:  The story premise is what made me pick this up – what would you do if you could see 15 years into your future?  Would you try to save the world, corner the stockmarket, or see if you married well and were deliriously happy?  And what would you do if your life seemed … unhappy?

Emma is upset that her future life seems to be miserable, and experiments with small changes that effect her future posts.  I suppose I did not like Emma very much – she seemed very self centered.  She let her gross boyfriend grope her even though she was planning on breaking up with him … ugh, why did she do that?  She kisses Josh just to mess with their future timeline, even though she knew Josh had a thing for her and she burned him big time 6 months previous when he’d revealed it … not very nice.  What she reads into her innocuous facebook posts is that she is married to a loser … so she decides not to go to the college where she meets him.  But the future guy she marries instead is even worse … so she changes something else … on and on it goes until it’s so mixed up I couldn’t keep it straight.

I really wanted a lot more emotional development from Emma, or maybe make her a little more considerate of Josh. She does look up her best friend Kellan on Facebook, and try to prevent her from making a major mistake; but she does it by slipping a condom in her jacket pocket instead of actually talking to her about her love life or preventing pregnancy.

I liked Josh.  He was an easygoing, laid back skater dude, and even though Emma spurned him he came over to help her when she discovered “Facebook” on her computer and thought it was a mean prank.  When he found out he would be happily married to the hottest girl in school, with a good job and (eventually) three kids, did he get a swelled head and lord it over Emma because she rejected him?  No, he did not.  Even his interactions with his “future wife” were sweet.  Yep, he was a nice guy.

My other big disconnect was the whole “opening up a future Facebook with an AOL CD-ROM” thing.  I must have gotten hundreds of those things in the mail, but I never got a wormhole to the future in mine, ha ha.  Actually, I just wanted a little more explanation on the hows and whys of that.  And alllll the ’90s references were there - Diskmans, dial-up noise, skateboarding, beepers, Alanis Morissette and Dave Matthews Band.  Got it.  Actually, the funniest bits were when Emma and Josh tried to make sense of all the modern day references – what is Glee, Netflix, and what horrible thing happened to planet Pluto?

The idea that every decision you make influences your future was really interesting.  I could see the potential for this story being so much more than it was, but it fell a little short for me.  I liked it OK, but wish I had liked it better, because there were so many great reviews out there they made me want to give it a try.

See you in the STACKS,
Nancy

Jane Eyre, simply put, is a tale of love and redemption.

description from penguin classics… Having grown up an orphan in the home of her cruel aunt and at a harsh charity school, Jane Eyre becomes an independent and spirited survivor—qualities that serve her well as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him whatever the consequences or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving her beloved?

Here are my thoughts:

My thoughts are many and varied and they are inadvertenly scrambled. Ahhhh!!!

Okay, meltdown over…moving on.

*Jane’s abusive childhood and utter loneliness brought tears to my eyes. I felt every harsh word and look of disapproval. The only saving grace was Bessie, which consequently is whom I think she learned to love from. However, the exposition was long. When I say long, I mean long. There were ten chapters, yes TEN whole chapters on Jane’s childhood, maybe even more. I was beginning to think I picked up an MG book.

*Jane is constantly thrown into grueling situations. Like the good trooper she is she endures all, from the hard hand of Mr. Brocklehurst at Lowood, to her desperate times on the street to suffering judgments from others unfairly. She remains constant;  she learns, yes, but she does not degrade herself long with her situation.

*I can’t stop thinking about Jane’s relatives. Her aunt, Mrs. Reed and her cousin John were just appalling. They were mean, uncaring and crass towards her. She not only suffered physical abuse, but emotional as well. I’m surprised at how well she turned out with such a beginning.

*The “gothic” elements of this book might have been on the edge of scary back in the day, but I found them dull and boring.

*There were lots and lots of references to the Bible and God. If I were a good scholar I would pick out all the points and scrutinize them. Alas, I have no time for that but I do have a theory or several little theories. That is, don’t judge people by who they are/what they are (there was a lot of that going on), because things aren’t always as they seem, nor are people. Money nor station does not secure your spot in heaven, that only love, forgiveness and redemption can do that.

*I thought it was interesting how much alike St. John and Jane were in their respects to temptation and their chosen path. They seemed to reflect each other.

*Jane has tenacity. Love that the most about her, she never gives up or loses her faith.

*The “third floor mystery” fell flat for me. It could be because I saw it coming, remembered it from a movie or just from casual conversation with friends. Though, I will admit if I had seen that woman in my room ripping apart my veil I would have screamed like a little girl.

*Edward. I liked him. He did piss me off a bit with his hot and cold attitude and his underhanded way he handled the whole Miss Ingram affair.

*I loved, LOVED the way Edward and Jane communicated their love. It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, it was real and it was heartfelt. Albeit, the elf talk could have been left out.

*Jane is true to herself, her beliefs and she uses that to guide her and does not fall to temptation.

I could go on and on but in the interest of your time (and mine) I end my review here.

If you’re a lover of classic literature than this is a must read, however if old English and French phrases that are never interpreted isn’t your style than I would suggest watching one of the many movies based on the books or read a modern re-telling and call it a day.

See you in the STACKS,
Stacy, who’s kindle did more defining than there are hours in the week while reading this book.

From Goodreads.com:  Zoey is finally home where she belongs, safe with her Guardian Warrior, Stark, by her side, and preparing to face off against Neferet – which would be a whole lot easier if the High Counsel saw the ex-High Priestess for what she really is. Kalona has released his hold on Rephaim, and, through Nyx’s gift of a human form, Rephaim and Stevie Rae are finally able to be together – if he can truly walk the path of the Goddess and stay free of his father’s shadow…

 But there are new forces at work at the House of Night. An influx of humans, including Lenobia’s handsome horse whisperer, threatens their precarious stability. And then there’s the mysterious Aurox, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous teen boy who is actually more – or possibly less – than human. Only Neferet knows he was created to be her greatest weapon. But Zoey can sense the part of his soul that remains human, the compassion that wars with his Dark calling. And there’s something strangely familiar about him…

 Will Neferet’s true nature be revealed before she succeeds in silencing them all? And will Zoey be able to touch Aurox’s humanity in time to protect him – and everyone – from his own fate? Find out what’s destined in the next thrilling chapter of the House of Night series.

My take:  If you have not read any of the books in this series, go get Marked and start there, because jumping in here would be a mistake.  This is book nine in the House of Night Series, and it feels like it.  P.C. Cast said that they have a twelve book deal with the publisher, which means there are three more books after this one in which to wrap up this series.  Honestly, they should have stopped at six, or seriously edited and combined the last few.

Don’t get me wrong – this series is a guilty pleasure of mine, and the first few books in the series were fabulous vampire teen soap opera fun.  But honestly, we have come to book nine – NINE – and still main baddie Neferet is in power and messing with Zoe, and no one outside Zoe’s group even knows she’s bad!  Even the Kalona storyline is getting old – he is relegated to the sidelines here with some vague plan for revenge that is only hinted at.

I’d just like something to happen to move the overall story arc along, and give us more drama.  There was no major character growth (unless you call the BFF twins breaking up “growth”).  This book felt like it was marking time, the middle of a story that began in the last book and will end with the next one.  In other words, when are you going to give Neferet her comeuppance???

I am enjoying the story line of Rephraim, the Raven Mocker and son of Kalona, who turned to the Goddess and was forgiven.  His romance with Stevie Rae, and his punishment of being a bird by day, boy by night, is one of the things that redeemed this book for me.  Kalona is trying to tempt him to spy on the House of Night for him, and he still loves his daddy, so who knows what may slip?  The Aurox story line is also beginning to interest me, but they didn’t go far enough with it – at the end, I still wasn’t sure; is he Heath or not?

Another thing that is beginning to grate on my nerves is the childish language and dialogue.  It’s a “gihugic” turnoff.  I know they are teens, but it’s just too much, always with the joking and bickering and slang.  With all the crap they’ve been through in the last eight books, I’d be kinda depressed and not so jolly all the time, ya know?

Anyways, I now see the light at the end of the tunnel, since there are only (presumably) three books left.  Story lines will be moving along and wrapping up, and we will get resolution.  Yes!  I’m hoping the Casts get their groove back and come up with a fantastic ending for those of us who have been with this series from the beginning.  I can’t wait to find out how it all ends.

See you in the STACKS,
Nancy

The Garden Intrigue

from goodreads - As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, English operative Augustus Whittlesby gets wind of a top  secret device, to be demonstrated over the course of a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is to join forces with that annoying American socialite, Emma Morris Delagardie, who has been commissioned to write a masque for the weekend’s entertainment. Even so, it should leave plenty of alone time with Augustus’ colleague (and goddess), Jane Wooliston, who has been tapped to play the heroine. Or so Augustus tells himself. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing seems to go quite as scripted… especially Emma.

all me - Willig has done it again. Her newest Pink Carnation book, The Garden Intrigue is just as captivating and charming as the rest.

This time we are introduced to Emma, a small and overly ostentatious American living in Paris. Though small, she is no wall flower. She knows everyone, including First Consul and soon to be Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. She’s also friends with the Pink Carnation, Jane and secret agent disguised as a poet, Augustus. These relationships, and her deceased husband’s desire for irrigation, put her smack dab in the middle of Napoleon’s scheme to invade England and those who thwart it.

I heart Emma. Her bodices are a bit too low, and her finery is over the top. She is a perfect wiry and full of life character. Yet, with all of her outward illusions, Emma is a very private person. She guards her heart, her feelings and lets very few in – including herself. Which brings me to…

Augustus, the “atrocious” and rather silly poet. His life as a secret agent has him hiding behind tight pantaloons, billowy shirts (puffy shirt!!)  and rather absurd poetry. His life too is full of illusion and because of his trade his true self is seldom, if ever seen.

These two illusion artists, who are hiding from themselves, are a perfect match. Watching their friendship blossom is oh, so sweet and to see it fully bloom into passion is just down right romantic. There are pivotal points in the story that you can see their relationship grow from their early quick and humorous banter to mutual respect and understanding, and finally, to love.

As for the “intrigue” part of the story, it’s simple and brilliantly keen.  How Willig manages to take a key time in history and add in believable elements with great dollops of whimsical romance is utterly amazing. She had me convinced that her Bonaparte was the real deal; from the submarines to theatrical productions to covert operations.

My only complaint with the story is the present day tale. It seems trite. The saga of Colin and Eloise’s relationship seems to be stuck in time, like it’s taken to long for them to get where they are. I’m sure this has everything to do with their short screen time, and the fact we get a new “historical romance” every book but their story remains the same.

See you in the STACKS, Stacy – who wonders  when is it Jane’s turn for a romance and are we going to see Turnip again??

150 Pounds

from goodreads – A smartly-written novel of two women starting at opposite ends of the scale–and finding compromise and friendship in their journey towards 150 pounds In the fast paced life of blogging, two women stand out: Alexis Allbright, of Skinny Chick, and Shoshana Weiner, who writes Fat and Fabulous. Both have over five million loyal readers. Both are hungry for success. But the similarities stop there. 

With over 100 pounds on the scale separating them, weight isn’t their only difference. Alexis is a loner who is so bitchy the only person who can stand her company is her gay best friend Billy. She gives neurotic New Yorkers a run for their money with her strict daily workout routine, and weighing of food. Shoshana is Alexis’s opposite. Living in Jersey with rowdy roommates, she is someone who “collects friends,” as her mother puts it; and treasures a life of expanding circles…and waistlines.

When both appear as panelists on a popular talk show, their lives intersect in ways neither could have imagined. In turns comedic, heartwarming–and familiar to any woman who’s ever stepped on a scale–Alexis and Shoshana realize they have far more in common than either could have possibly imagined, and more importantly, something to offer.

my take – When I picked up this book I was expecting a fun, but very predictable read.  Fortunately, this one had a few unexpected surprising elements that were smart and utterly charming.

This book is written in third person, with alternating perspectives from Shoshana and Alexis.  Rockland did a great job giving each girl an engaging story line. It’s funny, I would get so engrossed reading one girls section and then moan when it changed, but yet would groan again when perspectives changed again.

Shoshana and Alexis each had their own battles to fight, issues to overcome, and their story reflected that. Shoshana, the heavy one and by far my favorite character, had one of those infectious personalities that automatically lifts your spirits and brings a smile to your face. She’s one you’d want to be BFF. Her weight isn’t a barrier, she embraces it and you can’t help but respect her.

Alexis, the skinny one, is the total opposite. She may have the perfect hair, clothes and body, but she has a closed off personality. She puts up a wall that very few can climb, and has an elitist attitude. Watching her metamorphous was a definite highlight of the book, though it wasn’t without lots of eye rolling.

Oh, and I just have to mention the adorably cute cover. It fits the tone and mood of the book perfectly. Seriously, is there anyway one could walk by those scrumptious cupcakes without picking the book up?

Overall, this is a cute read!

Stacy

from goodreads: Tod Munn is a bully. He’s tough, but times are even tougher. The wimps have stopped coughing up their lunch money. The administration is cracking down. Then to make things worse, Tod and his friends get busted doing something bad. Something really bad. Lucky Tod must spend his daily detention in a hot, empty room with Mrs. Woodrow, a no-nonsense guidance counselor. He doesn’t know why he’s there, but she does. Tod’s punishment: to scrawl his story in a beat-up notebook. He can be painfully funny and he can be brutally honest. But can Mrs. Woodrow help Tod stop playing the bad guy before he actually turns into one . . . for real? Read Tod’s notebook for yourself.

Sarah’s Take: We never get to read books from the perspective of the bully! This one was fascinating-quite eye-opening for me as a high school English teacher. Why does Tod extort money out of kids? Because he’s poor and it’s a good way to get some extra spending money-and put the rich, snotty kids in their place before they think they are better than he is. I can’t really argue with that logic, although having read Dear Bully I did wonder about the inner havoc Tod was causing for the poor wimps…

I did really root for Tod – he was really a good guy underneath and between his sewing skills (I know, totally not something I expected out of a book about a bully!) and the ending-which caught me off guard, I am a big fan of Scrawl.

Mark Deakins did a great job of capturing Tod-a bully who is just a poor kid trying to find his way. His voice sounded familiar, but when I looked him up-holy cow-he was the reader of The Maze Runner-a totally crazy book I really liked except for the completely ugly things in the maze (Fun Fact: I got to meet James Dashner at ALAN, and he was totally cool about my disgust over his creations so thanks James for that!).

The other reader-the guidance counselor-was great as a no-nonsense but very sympathetic guidance counselor (you could tell she was rooting for Tod the whole time); nice job, reader Kimberly Farr.

Overall, if you want some insight into bullies or just want a great, original read, check out Scrawl because you can believe the writing on the [Girls in the Stacks Facebook] wall about this one!

THREE FEMALE FRIENDS FACE MIDLIFE CRISES IN A NO-HOLDS-BARRED EXPLORATION OF SEX, MARRIAGE, AND THE FRAGILITY OF LIFE.  Holly: Filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, she sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Will it bring the fulfillment she is searching for? Andrea: A single mom and avowed celibate, she watches her friend Holly’s meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for—a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly’s castaway husband?  Marissa: She has more than her fair share of challenges—a gay, rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts.  As one woman’s marriage unravels, another’s rekindles.  As one woman’s family comes apart at the seams, another’s reconfigures into something bigger and better. In this story of connections and disconnections, one woman’s up is another one’s down, and all of them will learn the meaning of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness.  Unflinchingly honest, emotionally powerful, surprisingly erotic, Triangles is the ultimate page-turner.  Hopkins’s gorgeous, expertly honed poetic verse perfectly captures the inner lives of her characters.  Sometimes it happens like that.  Sometimes you just get lost.  Get lost in the world of Triangles, where the lives of three unforgettable women intersect, and where there are no easy answers.

my take:  Ellen Hopkins has a successful career as a young adult writer, with a fiercely devoted fan base and lots of accolades (as well as controversy).  Triangles, her first foray into adult fiction, is just as mesmerizing and remarkable as her YA fiction.  It’s written in her signature verse novel format, which makes the pages fly by. 

What I love about Ellen Hopkins is her ability to capture the emotions of her characters, and to dig deep into their psyche to get to the heart of what drives them.  The entire human experience is fleshed out in her writings – some I can identify with, some I cannot, but I always gain understanding.

As an adult reading Hopkin’s YA novels, I sought to identify with characters very unlike me.  As an adult reading Triangles, I felt the book hit disturbingly close to home.  These women were just like me, or my friends, or people I know - dealing with midlife, children, divorce, death, serious problems.  These characters resonated with me and made me look at certain issues differently - is this how some of my friends may feel about these issues?  Would I have behaved in the same way as these characters in that situation?  Would I have had more sympathy for a friend if I had an inkling of what she was really going through? 

The narratives from the three women are skillfully intertwined and absorbing.  Of course, this book is for adults and it does cover some very adult situations frankly and honestly.  Sex is a large part of the lives of these women, and for the character of Holly it’s not vanilla.  But if you have read any of Hopkins’ work, you know that she doesn’t shy away from taboo topics. 

I’m so glad Ellen Hopkins decided to begin writing novels for the adults in her fan base – she has another one coming in the fall of 2012 titled Collateral, about deployment and what that means to those left behind.  I recommend this book for adult women of all ages who appreciate frank and honest depictions of their lives – warts and all.

See you in the STACKS,
Nancy

Austentatious

from goodreads: In this quirky, sexy novel set against the lively, music-filled backdrop of Austin, Texas, a young woman learns that romance can wreak havoc with even the best laid plans. . .

It started innocently enough. While browsing in one of Austin’s funky little shops, Nicola James is intrigued by a blank vintage journal she finds hidden among a set of Jane Austen novels. Even though Nic is a straight-laced engineer, she’s still a sucker for anything Austen-esque. But her enthusiasm quickly turns to disbelief once she starts writing in the journal–because somehow, it’s writing her back. . .

Miss Nicola James will be sensible and indulge in a little romance. Those twelve tiny words hit Nic like a thunderbolt, as if her diary was channeling Austen herself! Itching for a bit of excitement, Nic decides to follow her “Fairy Jane’s” advice. The result: a red-hot romance with a sexy Scottish musician who charms his way into Nic’s heart in about five seconds flat.

Sean MacInnes is warm, funny, and happens to think Nic is the most desirable woman he’s ever met. But a guy like Sean doesn’t exactly fit into her Life Plan. With no one but Fairy Jane to guide her, Nic must choose between the life she thought she wanted–and the kind of happy ending she never saw coming…

my take:  What a lovely romp of a read!!! I easily devoured it in one sitting – laughing and smiling.

I absolutely adore this Jane Austen-esque book. It is full of wit, comedy, magical journaling and utterly cute and ahhh worthy romance. Goodnight has done an excellent job capturing the essence of Jane Austen and her characters – creating a modern world for them to live. While there aren’t direct correlations to Austen characters (well, except for Nicola and Sean), there are plenty of references to them for Jane Austen fans to devour.

Nicola, our dear Lizzy Bennet, is a definite kindred spirit character. The reader can’t help but to smile at her sensibility and her simple, but realistic and very safe life plan. And then we smile even more when whimsy and magic interfere and she is reluctaly nudged into a whirlwind romance. Her wit and comedy are on par with her Austen escapade.

Sean is the swoon worthy Mr. Darcy. He is (borrowing from the book) ‘the perfect mix of charming and presumptuous.’  Not only is he the sexy rocker, he’s also thoughtful, has an adventurous spirit and (this is the biggest) he has an accent. He is modern Mr. Darcy through and through, without the stubborn pride! His romance with Nicola is every girls dream.

The side characters are a big highlight to the story; my favorites are Nicola’s neighbors, Leslie, and her partner Laura. Where one is snarky and pulls no punches the other is sweet. The story would not be the same with out them. They add sizzle, spice and laughs.

Favorite scenes: The infamous ‘mushroom extraction,’ Leslie and Laura’s Friday night karaoke parties, and Nicola’s attempt at karaoke and the aftermath.

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen modern re-telling’s, then this is a MUST read!

Stacy - who thinks that the Austin, Texas setting is perfect and licked her lips when Hey Cupcake was mentioned!!

*SPOILERS and as always you can find us on iTunes*

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The Bird Sisters is set in Spring Green, Wisconsin, a small farming community by the Wisconsin River. Spring Green seems to be distinct in nearly every way from Deadwater, Minnesota, which is where Cousin Bett has grown up. How does each location shape the story, each community, and our characters? Can you imagine Milly and Twiss in Deadwater? How do the places we live shape us?

Nancy – Deadwater sounds about as inviting as its name – Bett called it “officially irrelevant” and made up wild stories about the town  and its inhabitants; stories that thrilled and fascinated Twiss but repelled Milly.  Spring Green was as bucolic as it sounds, a lush farming community that prospered.  Twiss would have loved the adventure of staying in Deadwater; Milly would have hated it.

Sarah – I think Bett came from death (Deadwater) and tried to live life fully -a bit too fully in terms of the affair with Milly and Twiss’s  dad.  I think Milly and Twiss came from a theoretical “always green” kind of life-at least it must have looked like that to Bett -as they had both parents, enough to eat and a decent sized house.  Also their father was always (in his head after he lost his job) on the greens of a golf course.  The sisters’ also never married, making them “green” virgins perpetually.  However, it seems like they too were living in a type of Deadwood created by their mother and her bitterness.  Overall, all three girls wanted to escape their hometowns, but only Bett succeeded in doing so, mostly through her cousins sacrificing their own plans.

Stacy – Locations, places (settings) shape everyone’s life, including novel characters. For example, if you grow up in the city, it’s more  likely you’ll be exposed to a variety of arts, nationalities, have several dining choices, etc. In contrast, growing up rurally your choices are typically limited. Not to mention that every community has customs, idiosyncrasies, environment factors etc.  that are influential. Just like Nancy and Sarah pointed out, Deadwater and Spring Green couldn’t be more different. The girls from these cities were in part, a product of where they came from.

The novel is primarily set during the late 1940s, when the pace of life was a little bit slower than it is today. There seems to be a pervasive cultural nostalgia and a renaissance with regard to skills and cultural mores from the recent past (for example, folks learning how to can vegetables, a love of vintage clothing, etc.). Why do you think this is?

Nancy – My goodness, everything is rosy the further away you get from it.  People always are looking for the easier, simpler times.  As a  society, people tend to romanticize the happier aspects and gloss over the ugly parts.  But humanity is made up of people who are complicated in any time period.

Sarah – I think Nancy rocked this question- no more to add!

Stacy – Nancy, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Memories play such a powerful role in Milly and Twiss’s lives because, in many ways, their lives were arrested while both were teenagers. Can they ever be at peace? Is there always time for a fresh start?

Nancy – I think they may not be at peace, but they have learned to live with it.  They both have regrets, and I think that if they had wanted a fresh start they would have done it long ago.  Why didn’t Milly try to find love again (or at least another suitor), or Twiss leave after their parents died?  I believe Milly finally found peace by forgiving and letting go of the past when Asa puts the note in her soaps, saying I know why you did it, she swings the club just like him.

Sarah – I think the fact that both characters are reliving their memories to become at peace with their decisions (I remain bitter on  their behalf, however).  Although frustrated by the woman who accuses Milly of ignorance because of her lack of children, Milly- and also Twiss -both seem to take satisfaction in taking care of broken birds and one another.   I think that it is too late for a fresh start, but they are at peace by the end of the novel.

Stacy – It’s never too late for peace, but like Sarah and Nancy said, Twiss and Milly have learned to live with their decisions. If Milly  and Twiss want a fresh start, I suggest online dating. I’m not saying love is the answer, but it would provide new and exciting experiences for them, something out of their normal.

Milly and Twiss will do anything and everything for each other in the novel, but they won’t talk openly about all that has happened to them over the course of their lives — especially events in their youth. Why is it so difficult for them? After so many years together, do you think that each knows of the other’s disappointments, vulnerabilities, and heartbreaks without having to explicitly say it? Or do you think that even after all this time the two do not know each other as well as they think?

Nancy – I think part of it may have been the era they grew up in.  People just didn’t talk openly about sexual issues – infidelity, homosexuality, out of wedlock pregnancy – all had a terrible social stigma that made the people involved cover it up.  Even though they may think they know how the other feels, it’s tacitly understood they won’t talk about it, and they are too stubborn to bring it up – even though talking about it could begin a new chapter in their lives.  However, that doesn’t mean they don’t love each other – on the contrary, they love each other enough that they won’t embarrass the other by talking about it.

Sarah – I agree with Nancy, but also feel that bringing up the ngative aspects of their lives would just bring them down, and they are clinging to the few strings of happiness daily life brings them.  To bring up old wounds with one another would just make the pain that much worse.

Money is a constant source of tension for Milly and Twiss’s parents in the novel, but in the beginning of their relationship, their mother thought that her dreams would come true without her family’s money, and their father thought that his dreams would come true through his proximity to money at the country club. How were they right and how were they wrong? Money, and lack of it, is also a source of conflict between other characters (for example, Father Rice steals the entire meager collection from the church and Mr. Peterson pays for Bett’s medical care). How does money solve problems in the novel as well as create them?

Nancy – Ahhh, money, the root cause of many a failed marriage.  Maisie believed love would compensate for the lack of money.

Stacy – While I think money was an issue in Maisie’s marriage, the real problem was her husband’s selfishness. Love can conquer all, but that love can only conquer all if both parties are fully committed and act selflessly.

Sarah – I think the need for money overtakes the sense of love that characters have for one another. Milly and Twiss’s parents (as did their aunt and uncle) believed that their love would overcome financial worries. However, it seemed to drive Milly and Twiss’s mother and aunt away from their husbands; it caused the sisters to become bitter because their husbands could not provide the type of life they were accustomed to and learning how to function without such money was a hardship neither sister ever got over.  I think Mr. Peterson is able to solve Bett’s medical problems through paying for her medical care -but also drives her away from the sisters in the process.

Cousin Bettie — Bett — comes down from Deadwater, Minnesota, to stay with Milly and Twiss for the summer and in doing so changes the dynamics of their family. Bett grows close to each of the sisters in very different ways. How would the family have changed if not for Bett? In other words, do you think that the changes were the result of Bett’s particular personality? Or do you think that she was just in
the right place at the right time to be seen as a catalyst?

Nancy – I think the family would have imploded even if Bett had not come for the summer, but it would have been much later rather than sooner. While Bett was in the right place at the right time to alter the family, I do think Bett’s personality was partly responsible for the problems.  She was plain and sickly, and worried she’d never find a better life. Bett behaved in a sometimes reckless manner – plunging her arms into a bee-filled sand pile, for example. Afterwards, Millie thinks “…she couldn’t find a polite way to explain what she’d seen: a person so untouched by fear she was certain something terrible had happened to Cousin Bettie, or would.”

Stacy – I truly believe Bett was a catalyst. Her visit was at a pivotal time, coupled with her personality, the perfect formula was established for the life changing summer.

Sarah – I think Bett brings out Twiss’s homosexuality and Milly’s fears, but without Bett, these would have been there, just not as exposed.  It is Bett’s affair with her father, subsequent pregnancy and Milly’s sacrifice of Asa for Bett that brings about the real change-not Bett’s personality itself.

Both Milly and Twiss sacrifice their personal dreams for, they think, the betterment of the other. When is personal sacrifice for the sake of the larger goal noble and valiant? At what point is it foolish? Do you think that they make the right choices? How do you think Bett feels about her choices? What do you think she was trying to tell Milly by sending her the book?

Nancy – Oh man, do I want to give Bett an earful.  Looking at the situation from my modern perspective, I definitely have a different opinion than Milly and Twiss would about sacrificing my happiness for the sake of my family’s reputation.  However, even looking at it from their perspective, I think Milly could have worked things out without losing her chance at happiness and a family.  Why couldn’t Bett go back to Deadwater to have the baby?  Or go to a home for unwed mothers and give it up for adoption?  Why couldn’t Milly have taken Twiss with her if she got married? Bett may have felt guilty, but not guilty enough to not marry Asa.

Sarah – I TOTALLY agree with Nancy.  The most frustrating aspect of the book for me was how Milly and Twiss just seemed to roll over and let Bett walk all over them.  However, I also tend to be a proactive woman in an age that allows me to do so; I find their choices valiant and foolish simultaneously.

Overall, I think Bett does feel guilty-but allowed Milly to make the sacrifice for her (just as she let Mr. Peterson pay for all her medical treatment).  It is like Bett is the reverse of her mother and aunt-she moves up from poverty to wealth because of who she chooses to marry (and Milly kindly and stupidly sacrificed that for her).

Milly and Twiss love their parents deeply, but they don’t know quite how to forgive them. How do you think their lives might change if they were able to forgive them? Are they able to forgive Bett and Asa?

Sarah – I think it is not so much about forgiving their parents and Bett and Asa but being comfortable with who they are.  I think the book is ultimately about both of them learning to accept the decisions they made and move on; but if they had done so early on, they could have had more fulfilling lives.

Stacy – They’ve never truly forgiven their parents, because their parents never forgave each other. As well, forgiveness was never doled out to Bett and Asa. Forgiveness is a powerful act, its bondage breaking. Like Sarah said, Twiss and Milly accepted everyone transgressions but had they actually forgiven them they could have moved on and had more fulfilling lives.

Asa, Mr. Peterson, and Joe all seem to make significant life choices based on snap judgments. How has this impulsive streak served them well? How has it hurt them? If Asa truly loved Milly as he seemed to, how could he so quickly abandon her? Do you think he understood at the time what Milly was asking of him? And by asking it, do you think she was asking too much of someone she loved?

Sarah – I don’t think Asa truly loved Milly or he would not have abandoned her for Bett without a fight. I think Milly too made a snap decision by sacrificing her love for Asa for her cousin -which clearly does not serve her well.  I don’t think snap decisions are shown in a positive light-but really none of the characters make good choices-whether thought through or made quickly.

Throughout the novel, Twiss and Father Rice exchange letters. In these letters, Twiss often reveals her secret feelings. Father Rice, in turn, reveals his. In the age of the Internet, have we lost the intimacy that can be found in this old-fashioned form of correspondence, the traditional letter? How do we choose to share what we do when it’s by letter, e-mail, text, Twitter, Facebook update, blog post, or telephone? When was the last time you handwrote a letter?

Nancy – I dunno, I think we can still be profound and meaningful and intimate even when limited to 140 characters…LOL.  I still write letters to people, I just send them electronically instead of in an envelope with a stamp.  But I handwrite thank you notes and birthday cards, because that is just the way you do it.

Sarah - I think e-mails can be just as intimate as letters-they just get delivered faster. I do write letters to people-but I think I am more communicative in an email because my feeling and thoughts can be communicated faster through typing than writing.

Tempest by Julie Cross
Release Date: January 17, 2012
Publisher: St. Martins Griffin
Julie Cross online: Website / Twitter
Find Tempest: Amazon / Goodreads

From Goodreads: The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just  harmless fun. That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future. Desperate  to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities. But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this  powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him. Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

FANTASY CASTING: 

Who would you choose to play the part of Miss Stewart?  Julie Cross and I have made our decisions.  Comment below on who you would want to be in the movie version of Tempest.  If you are fans of Glee or The Vampire Diaries, you will surly be fans of our picks!!

Julie Cross has picked Naya Rivera (left), and while I think she is gorgeous; I like Kat Graham (right). Kat is super talented and seems to have the essence of Miss Stewart.

Teaser Quote: October 12, 2007 (2:30 p.m.)

My hands were on her face, her mouth moving with mine, fingers curling around the back of my neck, the stream from the shower running over us like a waterfall. It was just like the first time…a couple of years in the future.

GIVEAWAY!!!!

Click  this FORM  to try to win 1 of 5 signed copies of Tempest by Julie Cross. Readers can enter on each blog, for a total of 15 entries and must leave a comment to enter. This is the last night of the giveaway.  It ends at midnight tonight so enter away. Check out the Tempest Blog Tour Page for a list of everyone on the blog.

Sarah’s Take -  I, like many, have always been fascinated by the Titanic tragedy. I got the Scholastic book about the rediscovery when I was young, went to the museum shows in Cincinnati and Vegas, have seen the movie several times, etc. However, Allan Wolf has done more research than I ever want to do-and I reaped the rewards simply by listening to this free verse novel told through many voices-including a con artist, wealthy socialites, immigrants from all over-even a rat and the iceberg that caused the sinking.

As I listened, I was thrust back into all the drama, learning all kinds of new information about the individual people on the ship, fascinated by the personalities and the problems, and dreading the inevitable ending all over again.

I really loved this book-and was thrilled that the entire last CD was the non-fiction background on each of the characters in the novel, as well as fascinating facts about the ship, its contents, etc. I appreciated knowing how all of the information in the story was derived from the facts Allan had meticulously uncovered, including the controversies behind some of the facts.

My only complaint was that the voice of the iceberg was a bit annoying as it attempted to be ethereal and “deep” (haha, unintentional pun). In terms of the audiobook edition, I liked how there were several different actors who performed the twenty-four different voices throughout the book-it made the different personalities stand out more than had they all been voiced by one actor. Great job readers Michael Page, Phil Gigante, Christopher Lane, Laural Merlington, and Angela Dawe.

Overall, if you are fascinated by the Titanic, you will love learning more about the shipwreck through this uniquely told story.

Charmfall by Chloe Neill
Release date: January 3, 2012
Publisher: New American Library (Penguin)
Book Links:  author, goodreads

from goodreads.com:  High school can be a battlefield, but for Lily Parker, surviving at St. Sophia’s School for Girls is a matter of life and death…

Protecting Chicago from the dark side can be an exhausting job, especially when you’re a junior. So when the girls of St. Sophia’s start gearing up for Sneak, their fall formal, Lily decides to join in on some good, old-fashioned party prep—even if it means not giving demons, vampires and the twisted magic users known as Reapers her undivided attention.

But when a Reaper infiltrates the school, Lily doesn’t forget what she’s sworn to protect. She reaches deep into herself to draw out her magic—and finds that it’s gone. And it turns out she’s not alone. A magical blackout has slammed through paranormal Chicago, and no one knows what—or who—caused it. But Lily knows getting back her magic is worth the risk of going behind enemy lines…

my take: Charmfall is the third book in the Dark Elite series, and I don’t know if it’s in the same world as the author’s Chicagoland Vampires series (which I have not read) but that seems likely, considering vampires are mentioned.  Having not read the first two books in this series, I can’t tell you if they were any better or worse than this story, but I hope they were better.

Lily Parker is a pretty strong heroine, but she seems stuck between a rock and a hard place here in terms of the two factions of magical users, the Adepts and the Reapers.  Sebastian, the guy who accidentally initiated Lily into the world of magic, is on the “bad” team, Reapers; Lily is on the “good” team, the Adepts.  But while the factions see in terms of black and white, she sees shades of grey between the good and bad, and Sebastian doesn’t seem to be all bad.  In fact, he helps her out in this book quite a lot, and not having read the first two books, he seems like a pretty decent guy.

Of course, this does not sit well with Lily’s werewolf boyfriend, who begins to doubt Lily’s loyalties because of her connection to Sebastian.  Lily moons over him; he pretty much dumps her for talking to Sebastian.  Not cool, dude.

This book was short and fast to read, so not a whole lot of character development – I’m sure if I’d read the first two books that the backstory would have come in handy.  The main story about the magical factions losing their power lacked suspense for me – the stakes didn’t seem high enough.  So what if everyone, Adepts and Reapers alike, lost their magic – meh.  The one interesting side story was the vampire Nicu who seemingly has a thing for Lily’s high school nemisis Veronica, a human who had her memory wiped because of some supernatural activity she witnessed.  Hmm, maybe I’ll read the first two books and see what his thing is for her.

See you in the STACKS,
Nancy

publisher: Ace Hardcover
release date: May 3, 2011
book info: goodreads author site

Nancy’s thoughts - Let’s just say this is not my favorite out of the series. Honestly, this book was slow to start, meandered around a bit and had an unsatisfying ending that left me irritated. Yes, we did get some resolution of various plot threads, and the main plot mostly revolved around the relationship between Eric and Sookie, which made us Stackgirls very happy. However, it was not my spunky Sookie, but a harder and morose Sookie. And the ending was one of those ‘things that make you go hmmmm’. Or in my case, “Really?”

I give this book 3 STACKS!

Stacy’s thoughts - Give me a minute…*trying to wrap head around this one*

Well, I can certainly say that I see a definite path that Charlaine has set out for Sookie. Storylines are coming to close as well as key relationships. Yes, key.

As much as I want to see character growth in Sookie (I mean, who wants a stagnant character) I’m not happy. Though, I guess I should be. She is making decisions that are best for her. Guess I’m just upset she didn’t consult me, haha.

Team Eric or Team Bill? Guess again.

I give this book 3 STACKS!

——

Gotta love twitter, you never know who you’re going to tweet or what random comment will generate an idea that leads to something productive, something good and something downright fun. This happened not too long ago, and out of the frenzy of tweets came #GoneBookClub.

#GoneBookClub is a twitter book club (of sorts) where we’ll read and discuss, you guessed it, Gone by Michael Grant. Never fear, it’s not too late to join us on our, as we like to call it, ‘adventure in reading a really great, best-selling series that is like a YA version of something Stephen King would write, if he had thought of it first.’ Yea, it’s that.

Here are the deets (are we too old to say that?):
Read – Gone by Michael Grant (goodreads)
Twitter chat date – January 8, 2012 (an all-day event, use #GoneBookClub)

Not yet convinced to join in the merriment? Need to know who else is taking the #GoneBookClub plunge? Well, here is the official list of le grand twitter participants:

*Reading Vacation – twitter. blog
*Katie’s Book Blog – twitter. blog
*Emily’s Reading Room – twitter. blog
*Good Books & Good Wine  – twitter. blog
*Electrifying Reviews – twitter. blog
*Dizneeee’s Wonderful World of Books – twitter. blog

To join, or not to join? What’s it gonna be? If you’re game, fill out the Linky’s form below. We want to stalk you…

Audiobook Publisher: Listening Library/BOT

Release date: October 12, 2010

Goodreads: Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

Sarah’s Take:
First of all, A.S. King is the coolest! She was on an anti-bullying panel at ALAN with Heather Brewer and Jackie Kessler and they could not have been nicer, more lovely people (note: Heather and Amy both contributed to Dear Bully-one of my favorite books of 2011).

Amy was so awesome that she signed my audiobook copy of Please Ignore Vera Dietz (Jackie also signed it with the note: “Totally read this book!!!” . Amy also gave me one of her five precious copies of Everybody Sees the Ants which is on my short list of books to read-thanks again Amy!

So what about Vera Dietz? Answer-an awesome read! It had been awhile since I was really excited to turn on my CD player, but Vera Dietz did that for me. I loved her character, and then I intrigued when we heard “a brief word” from three other characters-”Charlie, the dead kid,” “Vera’s Dad” and “the Pagoda”–interesting choices with new perspectives.

I hadn’t realized how much I was disliking Vera’s dad based on her initial description of him until I heard from Vera’s dad himself, and gained new respect for how much he had overcome and fought to be a better parent than his own mom and dad. The Pagoda-definitely an interesting “overseer of the town” with wise thoughts and hearing from Charlie made Vera seem sane for seeing Charlie (he told us how he did it), and also redeemed his actions by showing how much he always loved Vera.

The book was both a Printz Honor and an Edgar Allen Poe Award nominee, and I can see why. It’s a mystery to figure out what Vera isn’t telling us about Charlie’s final night and also has a really great message about standing up for yourself-and for injustice -and appreciating your flawed parents –without being preachy. The narrator, Lynde Houck, is awesome-sounds like a teenager, but can convey emotions without being too whiny. She also read Carpe Diem, by Autumn Cornwell, a really great book that hasn’t ever gotten much press. The male narrators, Mark Deakins, Ryan Gesell and Arthur Morey, who were just there as the “brief notes”, were also excellent -deadpan or emotional as needed.

In the end, Vera Dietz was a story that had me hooked to the end with a narrator who learns her own self worth as she uses her great voice to tell a unique yet universal story-so no one should ignore Vera Diez!

From Goodreads:  Deeper Than the Dead introduced Tami Hoag’s millions of fans to Oak Knoll, a small California town that, in the mid-eighties, seemed as idyllic as any . . . until the See-No-Evil killer shattered that notion. It took FBI agent Vince Leone and a new technique called “profiling” to put an end to the trauma.

Secrets to the Grave brought Leone’s teacher-turned-child- advocate wife, Anne, into a central role. Together with Vince and local sheriff ‘s deputy Tony Mendez, she solved an Oak Knoll murder with a particularly challenging mystery: The victim never existed.  And now Hoag returns once more to Oak Knoll for the third installment of this bestselling series. Through Leone’s pioneering, science-based investigatory skills, Hoag explores the early days of forensic police work. And through the chilling case at the heart of Down the Darkest Road, she hooks ever more readers into the meticulously crafted, all-too-terrifying world of Oak Knoll, where the scariest secrets of all can be found . . . Down the Darkest Road.

My Take: I am a mystery newbie.  My mom would kill me to know that.  She reads a mystery a day.  Cross my heart.  She may wonder why her adult daughter is in love with young adult books and can’t get enough of paranormal romances and dystopian novels.  Well, she shall wonder no more.  I am now hooked on mysteries. Holy cow!  Hoag freaked me out with this thriller!  Everything seemed so real.  It has changed the way I think about security in my house.  I am 1. getting put on anxiety meds 2. installing an alarm & 3. getting a dog.

As the mom of a daughter, the story of a child abduction couldn’t have drawn me in any faster.  I stayed up until 4 in the morning finishing the book.  Then I proceeded to check all the locks in my home and check on my kids.  It’s so sad to know that this story, although it is fiction, is really happening in this world.  There are so many children that are taken from their families and I cannot fathom what heartache those families live with.  I can’t say that I would act much different than the mother, Lauren.  Although she emotionally neglects her younger daughter while searching for her older, missing daughter, who knows how one would really act unless you are thrown in that nightmare of a case.  After four years of missing a daughter and then losing a husband, let alone being stalked by the person who probably took your child, I think I would be on a rampage for justice even if I had to take it into my own hands, like Lauren.

The police departments in Down the Darkest Road were so interesting.  Yes, this was in the early 90′s when computers and analyzing DNA wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now.  I can’t believe how far we have come!!

I loved getting to know Tony and Anne!  I wish I really had them as friends.  And something I loved about Hoag is her writing.  I’m telling you, she scared me with her suspenseful writing and the way we got to know the characters with Hoag changing the point of view throughout the whole novel.

As this is my first adult mystery that I have read,  I am thankful that is was written by  a talented author who tells a suspenseful story while still maintaining heart and hope.

If you would like to meet Tami Hoag on tour (we are excited to meet her!), check out these dates:

December 27^th 7pm
Barnes & Noble Apache Mall
Rochester, MN

December 28^th 7pm
The Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ

December 29^th 6:30pm
Murder By The Book
Houston, TX

December 30^th 12pm
Hastings
Waxahachie, TX

December 30^th 7pm (We are going to this one! We love A Real Bookstore!!)
A Real Bookstore
Fairview, TX

January 4^th 7pm
Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL

January 5^th 7pm
Barnes & Noble
The Shoppes at Wellington Green
Wellington, FL

January 7^th 3pm
Vero Beach Book Center
Vero Beach, FL

January 10^th 6:30pm
Sho Clothes Equestrian Boutique
Wellington, FL

The Bird Sisters

from goodreads - When a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds’ heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can’t, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who’ve brought them. These spinster sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health.

But back in the summer of 1947, Milly and Twiss knew nothing about trying to mend what had been accidentally broken. Milly was known as a great beauty with emerald eyes and Twiss was a brazen wild child who never wore a dress or did what she was told. That was the summer their golf pro father got into an accident that cost him both his swing and his charm, and their mother, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, finally admitted their hardscrabble lives wouldn’t change. It was the summer their priest, Father Rice, announced that God didn’t exist and ran off to Mexico, and a boy named Asa finally caught Milly’s eye. And, most unforgettably, it was the summer their cousin Bett came down from a town called Deadwater and changed the course of their lives forever.

Rebecca Rasmussen’s masterfully written debut novel is full of hope and beauty, heartbreak and sacrifice, love and the power of sisterhood, and offers wonderful surprises at every turn.

The Bird Sisters is a lovely book about two sisters who sacrificed their own happiness for their cousin and each other. The story is told through the two sisters who live together and are known for nursing wounded birds back to life (metaphor, anyone?). They are living in the present day, but after a woman brings a bird to their doorstep, her comments to them trigger each sister to reflect back on the summer their cousin came to stay with them, and the havoc (and clarity) it brought to their lives.

Author Rebecca Rasmussen is clearly a lyrical poet with her prose, and this book has several bookmarked pages where I just loved her turn of phrase. The story itself dragged a bit, unfortunately, as the end of the book delivers punches that have to be built up, but seem less meaningful during the reading. The sisters’ reflections throughout the day reveal the flaws of all the characters-from family members to eccentric townspeople – so it was hard to really root for any one specific character. However, in the end, the sisters’ love for one another triumphs over all the ugliness of their parents’ unhappy marriage and subsequent actions and that was a nice redemption after being rather frustrated with most people in the story.

For a finally developed story focused on revealing the beauty in the midst of unhappiness, The Bird Sisters is a finely honed and beautifully written novel. Clearly a labor of love, Rasmussen revealed on her site for the book that the characters and plot were based on her own family’s background, and I’m intrigued to know what facts specifically have been embedded into this fictional story, although it seems a bit of a depressing one.

Sarah

If you would like to join us, check out our discussion schedule below:
 January 6, 2012 – we’ll tackle those scholarly discussion questions
January 8, 2012 –listen in to our podcast for our candid thoughts and opinions

And make sure to join in the discussion on twitter, just use the hashtag #LHJbookclub . We’re always open for academic debate!

The Lovers Dictionary

This book was so unexpected and different that I had a hard time putting it down. David’s created a humanistic vocabulary approach to a lover’s plight which is full of exposed emotion and has managed to capture the general lover’s doubts (that’s you and me) and focus them in a story that we can all relate too. I’ll be frank though and admit this is NOT for the etymology faint of heart. If it weren’t for my kindle and the easy word look-up feature I would still be plugging through this with a worn copy of Webster’s by my side. Even though I felt like I just stepped out of an intensive SAT vocabulary prep class, I was walking tall and proud and started saying things like, “The esoteric propensities of the average dodo bird confound naturalist as do the vestige of their life.”

While we never know names and specifics, we get to know the heart of the narrator (or is it narrators?) and see his (because I think it is a male) fears, his anxiety over his lover. We see him in moments of elation and moments of doubt and self-worth. It’s the perfect mix of the good times and the bad.

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

An utterly delightful read!!

This genius book was penned by both Cohn and Levithan and you should defiantly check out their writing process for this book here. Basically, the story was passed back in forth with Cohn writing Lily’s part and Levithan writing that of Dash. While I am not familiar with Cohn’s writing I can say without a doubt that Dash was pure Levithan, it’s filled with his trademark vocabulary (go vocab!).

Dash and Lily are the perfect opposites, where one grumbles the other smiles. They balanced each other perfectly. Dash was like a cantankerous old man and Lily the over obsessed Christmas freak, it was hilarious watching them come together.

Two of the great things about this story is the quintessential Christmas time New York and the red Moleskine notebook. This lone little notebook sets two random people on mad (as in good) adventures across Manhattan in search of themselves (unbeknownst to them) and each other.

Every You, Every Me

This book has an interesting origin, David sees a picture at a friend’s house and begins to craft story around said picture. He then had his friend send him random pictures and continued story around all the pictures (see pics here).  I think this is genius, creative and sounds like a totally fun and random way to write a story. As fun as the idea was behind the story, the story itself is not “fun” and lighthearted. It’s morose and sad and a little bit psychological thriller.

The story is told from Evans point of view, and it’s trulyemotional and raw. David perfectly honed in on Evan and his plight and was able to convince readers we we’re in his head. Not only are we in his head, we witness him on the edge of breaking, through his eyes, while wondering is he crazy, maybe suffering a little from PTSD? It’s intense, to say the least.

I can’t say too much without giving away major plot points, but let’s just say there are several questions from the beginning.

Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love ed. by Andrea N. Richesin

Leviathan’s short “Creative Writing,”  is one of the best and most poignant stories from this collection.  David’s talent as a writer is evident and his ability to express his feelings and thoughts in a meaningful way are truly beautiful. I would love to see this story expanded into novel form, fictionalized or real.

See you in the STACKS, Stacy - who is now an automatic buyer of books with the name David Levithan on them.

from goodreads:  In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

from me:  How do I love thee, Clockwork Prince?  Let me count the ways…

Clockwork Prince may be the biggest and most anticipated YA release of this year, with the blogosphere considerately writing spoiler-free reviews before the release (all saying “loved it!” “her best yet” and “can’t wait for Clockwork Princess”).  So folks, I am about to join the enormous gush-fest over Clockwork Prince.  But I am giving you fair warning here – I may let slip a few spoilers, so beware.  After all, it came out Tuesday and I gave you three whole days to read it!!

**** THERE BE SPOILERS HERE ****

Clare begins each chapter with a quote from various poets, authors and playwrights – Shakespeare, Tennyson, Poe, Bronte, Coleridge.  Therefore, in the spirit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, let me count the ways I love this book (apologies to Browning for butchering her lovely poem!).

How do I love thee, broken characters.  Ahh, I love Tessa.  And Will.  And Jem.  Each character in this series is interesting, unique, and broken somehow, someway.  What I love about this book is that we get to delve deeper into the stories of our three main characters, and discover more about what makes them tick.

Tessa’s foundering a bit because she doesn’t know who (or what) she really is, or where she belongs in the world.  We get to find out a few clues to her parentage, and a couple of dramatic scenes with Nate that answers some questions but raises others.  We get to find out why Will pushes everyone away and is so horrible to everyone, and it breaks your heart.  And OH the irony at the end – the curse, the epiphany, too late!  Jem’s physical decline does not dim his gentle spirit and inherent kindness, thank goodness, but we get to see flashes of backbone in the guy.  The scene at the opium den – Jem, I never knew you had it in you!  Jessamine, Charlotte, Henry and Sophie also are given interesting plot lines and we grow to understand them better.  And Magnus – oh, dear me, I love this character even more now that I know what happened between him and Camille, and how he is helping Will.

I love thee with a passion for thy passion.  So let’s get to the real reason we love this series so much – the romance.  I love the way Clare writes romance that makes your stomach flutter and your toes curl, and much of this book is devoted to the relationships Tessa has with Jem and Will.  Not only does Jem get his big love scene with Tessa, Will does too.  Yep, this girl is confused, but with good reason.  Just take a look at the trailer teaser and you’ll see why – whew, they’re kissing.  Hot kissing.  You know you have a winner when you name it the “DSBS (Dirty Sexy Balcony Scene)” (like the DSAS from City of Fallen Angels (review here) – and if you haven’t seen it, Google it my friend).    There is also unexpected developments on the romance front for some of the other characters in this book – and it’s very sweet and touching.

I love thee for thy story with depth and breadth and height, most quiet read, by sun and candle-light.  Yes, Clare knows how to spin an engrossing story.  Twists and turns and setbacks abound, so that you never know what is going to happen next.  Friends become villains, villains become friends.  The action is balanced well with the personal scenes, and the mystery is exciting.

Clare has a knack with dialogue, and for a book set in prim and proper Victorian England, it’s tough to get the flavor of the era without needing a slang dictionary to figure out what they’re saying.  Clare makes it seem natural and real.  She gives Will some great zingers and funny bits, and Tessa and Jem get in a few laughs in too.  We even get another six-fingered Nigel reference!

I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!  Okay, this last line is a little dramatic, but if you are looking for complex characters, thrilling mysteries,  electrifying action and butterflies-in-the-stomach romance, this is the book for you!  You will have to deal with the cliffhanger at the end since this is the middle book in a trilogy, but like for all good things we will just have to wait for Clockwork Princess.

See you in the STACKS,
Nancy – who thinks Ed Westwick is the perfect voice for the audio book … and the book trailer!  Yum!