Teen Fiction Review: The Black (Morpheus Road)

 If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that D.J. MacHale’s Pendragon series is one of my all-time favorites for middle-grade and teen readers.  He’s following up that 10-book success with a new series for teens called Morpheus Road.  Last summer, my son and I read the first book, The Light, and a few weeks ago we both read Book 2, The Black.  It’s a scary, suspenseful story sure to please fans of supernatural thrillers.

Interestingly, Book 2 tells the same story as Book 1, but from a different character’s perspective.  That may sound repetitive, but it isn’t: it worked for Orson Scott Card with Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, and it works here for D.J. MacHale.  Book 1, The Light, was written from Marshall Seaver’s perspective, about how his best friend, Cooper Foley, had mysteriously disappeared.  At the end of the book, Marshall found out what happened to Coop (and no, I’m not going to tell you!).

The Black takes place during the same timeline, but it is Coop’s own story of what was happening to him, as Marshall and Coop’s family searched for him.  It reminded me in some ways of Pendragon, with an ordinary teen boy at its center who suddenly finds himself responsible for the fate of the universe.  It is exciting and fast-paced like Pendragon, too, with plenty of plot twists.  The Morpheus Road series, though, deals with ghost stories, something D.J. MacHale knows well from his TV writing career.  I really don’t want to say much more about it because I don’t want to give away its many secrets and surprises, but if you like action-packed supernatural adventures, you’ll love Morpheus Road.

405 pages, Aladdin

First Look at Gale and Peeta in Hunger Games Movie

Entertainment Weekly is publishing a first peek at the actors playing Gale and Peeta:

They both look fairly close to how I imagined the characters, although I didn't picture Peeta quite so buff (he is, after all, a baker's son and specializes in decorating cakes).

What do you think?

Top Ten Kids/Teen Books That Tackle Tough Issues

It's Tuesday and that means Top Ten day over at The Broke and the Bookish.  Today's topic is Books That Tackle Tough Issues.  I love this one because I always enjoy thought-provoking books that teach me or make me think about something (I love the alliteration, too!).  In fact, I wrote my own Top Ten list a few years ago of Books That Taught Me Something, which is a bit similar.

For this week's list, I tried to stick to more recent books I've read that have tackled a wide variety of tough topics and to books written for kids/teens/YA (you can read my Top Ten list of grown-up books at Book By Book).

Top Ten Kids/Teen Books That Tackle Tough Topics:

1. Three Little Words (memoir) by Ashley Rhodes (foster care)
2. Go Ask Alice (drug addiction)
3. Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor (divorce, unreliable parents, child neglect)
4. Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay (plight of girls/women in Afghanistan)
5. A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata (effects of war on children)
6. Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel (animal rights)
7. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (effect of war on society, citizens, and soldiers)
8. Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin and Rules by Cynthia Lord (autism, treatment of people who are different)
9. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (abduction, rape)
10. Nothing But the Truth by Justina Chen Headley (personal identity, mixed races, fitting in)

What are your favorite books that tackle tough issues?

It's Monday 7/25! What Are You Reading?

What's that sound??  Ah, it's silence. This weekend, my husband and I dropped off our two teen boys at their grandparents' house for their annual week of sailing with Gramie and Pop Pop.  They love this week - it's the highlight of the year for them (that's them with their cousin a few years ago on the Grandkids' Cruise).  And for me?  It's a well-deserved week of quiet solitude in the midst of a crazy-busy summer.  I hope to catch up on all the stuff (especially writing) that has been going undone all summer and, of course, fit in lots of reading (though I was a complete lazy bum last night and watched two movies in a row instead of reading my book!).  This is my week.

We kicked off our quiet week with a mini getaway this weekend.  My husband surprised me for my birthday Saturday with an overnight near New Hope, PA, a lovely little town along the Delaware River.  We had a fabulous dinner and enjoyed some much-overdue quiet time together.

So, last week was very busy, with my husband out of town on business, getting the boys ready for their trip, driving them to CT, and hosting two other teen boys to help out their mom (my friend).  Whew.  We did fit in a little reading, though:

• I am reading The Passage by Justin Cronin, part of my Summer of the Big Book effort to catch up on some hefty reads.  It's almost 800 pages, so I'm only about a quarter of the way through so far, but it is really, really good (though really creepy).
• My husband, Ken, finished Room by Emma Donoghue.  He liked it very much, and we even had time to discuss it over dinner this weekend!
• Ken is now reading The Burning Wire by Jeffrey Deaver, a Father's Day gift from us.  He says it's good so far.
• Jamie, 16, spent a lot of time with friends last week, so he had less reading time than usual.  He finished re-reading City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare.
• Jamie was thrilled when Rip Tide by Kat Falls showed up at our house last week.  It is the sequel to Dark Life which he loved last summer, so he re-read Dark Life and took the new sequel with him on the boat.  He loves to read water-centric books while on the boat, and these take place in a future community deep below the ocean.
• Craig, 13, took an old favorite on the boat with him.  He's decided to re-read the Charlie Bone books which were the first books to really grab his interest a few years ago.
• Ken and I finally finished an audio book this weekend that we started almost 9 months ago!  We rarely have time alone in the car together, so on our way home yesterday we finished Sarah Silverman's memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee.  We weren't familiar with the comedienne before we listened to this, but I guess this was classic Silverman:  hilarious and outrageous, sometimes a bit uncomfortable, and sometimes suprisingly touching.

In addition to my post on the Summer of the Big Book last week at Book By Book (I could still use some advice on that one!), I also posted about The Demise of  Bookstores and was very sad to come home yesterday and hear that our own Borders is closing this week (I guess they are now closing ALL stores).  I will be stopping by their clearance sale this week to spend one last, remaining gift card.  So sad.

I did manage to post one measly review last week here on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book and movie).  I hope to use some of my writing time this week to catch up on reviews!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, book and movie

Last week was Harry Potter week at our house (and probably in many other houses, too!).   I re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the second time, and our whole family went to see the final movie at the theater on Sunday.  We don’t get out to the movie theater very often, but for years we have made sure to catch the annual Harry Potter movie, no matter what.  There’s not much I can say about the book or movie that hasn’t already been said, but I thought I’d just share some of my own thoughts on both.

If you haven’t read a Harry Potter book in a while (or…gasp…have never read one), I urge you to pick one up.  I had forgotten what an amazing writer J.K. Rowling is, how she has the ability to make her pretend world seem more real than your real world.  Her books are exciting and fast-paced, of course, but they are also imbibed with a wonderful, subtle sense of humor and plenty of warmth.  By this past weekend, I was at the point where I just could not put the book down (even though I’d read it before and knew how it ended!) – that sounds trite, but in reality, there are very few books that can really make me set aside my to-do list and just spend an entire day reading.

The movies have been remarkable also.  As any avid reader knows, the book is always better than the movie, and there is nothing worse than a poorly done movie adaptation of a favorite book.  My husband, older son, and I have all read all of the Harry Potter books, and we have all thoroughly enjoyed the movies as well.  Of course, as with any movie adaptation, especially of such long books, there are many small details missing and other details that need to be changed, but overall, the Harry Potter movies have stuck closely to the original books.  In this case, the movies have been additive, bringing our favorite characters and scenes to life in a way that pays homage to the books.

Harry Potter has been more than a story; it has defined a whole generation, creating a cultural phenomenon never before seen.  Before J.K. Rowling came along, could you even have imagined a book causing hundreds of thousands of fans to line up for hours?  Or bookstores staying open until midnight so that people could buy a book at the exact moment of its release?  Or kids willingly reading 800-page tomes?  Harry Potter caused all of that and more, paving the way for other mega-popular books and midnight release parties (Twilight comes to mind).

 

So, now it’s all over – the last book written, the last movie made.  Will my family ever go to the movies again?  Well, if we ever miss Harry Potter, we’ll find him alive and well on our bookshelves, in seven beautiful hardcover volumes, just waiting to take us back to the world of witchcraft and wizardry.

 

(NOTE:  I thought you might enjoy some more photos from my son’s 8^th birthday when we hosted a Harry Potter party:  there’s Professor Snape presiding over Potions class, Madam Trelawney in Divinations class, and all the kids ready for their Sorting Ceremony.  I also included a few photos on Monday’s post.)

 

It's Monday 7/18! What Are You Reading?

July 18...summer is already half over!  We had a very busy week here, filled with doctor's appointments, errands, and running the kids all over.  Whatever happened to the lazy days of summer?

We did find some time for reading, however, especially this weekend:

• I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (my second time) in preparation for the last movie which we went to see on Sunday.  Both the book and movie were fabulous!  I was glad I had re-read the book because there were a lot of details left out or changed in the movie, and I was reminded of just how wonderful J.K. Rowlings' books are - by this weekend, I was at the point where I didn't want to do anything but read, and I didn't care what was left undone!  I've included a few photos here of Jamie's 8th birthday when we put together a big Harry Potter party and transformed our entire house into Hogwarts.  We recruited some friends to help play the roles of the professors (you can see everyone at the table in the Great Hall below; I was Professor McGonagall, on the right in the photo with Dumbledore and Snape).  The kids all had a blast, as did the adults!
• Last night, I just started The Passage by Justin Cronin, a July birthday gift from my husband LAST summer that I have finally gotten around to reading.  I've just started it, but it seems intriguing so far.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Room by Emma Donoghue, based on my recommendation.
• Jamie, 16, is re-reading City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare, and he told me this morning which five books are next on his list!  He has it all planned out.

I finally started to catch up on my backlog of reviews last week, posting new reviews of Blood, Bones and Butter, a memoir by chef Gabrielle Hamilton, at Book By Book and  Deadly, a teen historical novel by Julie Chibarro.  I also posted my Top Ten Lists of Authors I'd Like to Meet and Kids'/Teen Authors I'd Like to Meet.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Teen/YA Review: Deadly

I was intrigued by the subject of Deadly: How Do You Catch an Invisible Killer?, a new teen/YA novel by Julie Chibbaro.  It’s about how scientists unraveled the mystery of so-called Typhoid Mary, a cook who unwittingly spread typhoid fever throughout the NYC area in the early 1900’s.  In true historical fiction fashion, Chibbaro took this fascinating real-life event and wove an engaging fictional story around it.

Sixteen year-old Prudence is a turn-of-the-century young woman with big dreams.  Though most of her peers are finishing charm school and hoping to be married soon, Prudence is interested in more meaningful things: science, writing, and having some sort of positive impact on the world.  She’s seen her share of sorrow already, having lost both her father and her brother.  When she gets a job as an assistant at the Department of Health and Sanitation, she feels like her dreams are finally coming true.

Her boss is working on an important case, trying to figure out what is causing an outbreak of typhoid fever in the area.  They think they find a link between the affected homes, a young cook named Mary, but she has never had typhoid.  How can they prove that Mary is contagious and spreading this disease without knowing it?

The science and history here are fascinating, but so is Prudence’s own coming-of-age story, as she struggles with her own personal challenges, including grief, in this journal-like novel told in her own words.  I enjoyed it very much and would love to read another Chibbaro novel.

NOTE: There is nothing objectionable in this novel; it is appropriate for younger teens or preteens.

 

293 pages, Athenuem (Simon & Schuster) 


Where in the World Are You Reading? update: this novel takes place in NYC.

Top Ten Kids/Teen Authors I'd Love to Meet

It's Top Ten Tuesday over at The Broke and the Bookish!  Today's topic is an intriguing one - authors I'd like to meet.  I put some thought into this one and didn't just choose my favorite book authors (though many of them are) but ones I thought would be interesting to meet and talk with.

Here is my list of Top Ten Kids/Teen/YA Authors I'd Love to Meet:

1. J.K. Rowling – she seems to be on everyone’s list!  Specifically, I would like to ask her whether she now sees Daniel Radcliff in her mind when she thinks of Harry Potter or whether she still sees the character she first imagined.
2. Madeleine L’Engle – my favorite childhood author.
3. Laura Ingalls Wilder – another favorite from childhood, plus I’ve read biographies about her and she seems like she was such a kind, thoughtful, intelligent person.
4. D.J. MacHale – loved his Pendragon series – what a great imagination!
5. Orson Scott Card – he’s such an amazing writer – I’d love to talk with him about his novels and his writing.
6. Suzanne Collins – our family loved both her Gregor the Overlander series and The Hunger Games series – I’d love to talk to her about all the thought-provoking issues she brings up in her books.
7. Neal Schusterman – I’d like to talk to him about his ideas about the afterlife from his Everlost series.
8. Kate DiCamillo – her books are so warm and clever - she seems like she'd be a wonderful person to meet.
9. Dr. Seuss – I’ve seen him on lots of lists today – who wouldn’t want to meet the best children’s author ever?
10. Kathryn Kenny – I don’t even know if she’s a real author or a pseudonym for a bunch of them, like Carolyn Keene, but I wanted to be Trixie Belden when I was a kid!

If you're interested in the authors of grown-up books I'd like to meet, you can check out my list at Book By Book.

Which authors would YOU like to meet?

It's Monday 7/11! What Are You Reading?

Well, life is slowly returning to normal after our trip, though I am still way behind in blogging!  Re-entry to real life is always a challenge after a long vacation, but we have finished unpacking and laundry and taken care of the most urgent stuff waiting for us when we got home.

So, we haven't had as much reading time as we did while we were away, but we are still enjoying our books this week:

• I finished Morpheus Road 2: The Black, a teen thriller about the afterlife by D.J. MacHale and enjoyed it.  MacHale told the same basic story from Book 1, from the totally different perspective of a different main character, sort of like what Orson Scott Card did with Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.  It was clever and suspenseful.
  
• I am now re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book 7) in preparation for this week's movie release.  Fun!
• My husband, Ken, finished The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner and enjoyed it.
• Ken is now reading Dark Life by Kat Falls, a middle-grade sci fi book that takes place under water that our son really enjoyed.  Ken says it's good, though he feels the technology is less believable than typical adult sci fi novels.
• Sixteen-year old Jamie finished Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and loved it!
• Jamie is now re-reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, book 1 of Mortal Instruments because he enjoyed books 3 and 4 so much on vacation, as I mentioned on the vacation book summary I posted last week.

Didn't have a chance to post any reviews last week, but I did post a summary of the books I read in June.  I'm going to try to catch up on reviews by writing some mini reviews, starting this week, so stay tuned!


What are you and your family reading this week?


(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Some of the Books Jamie Read on Vacation

As I mentioned in my Monday post, we just returned from a 3-week vacation, and my 16-year old son, Jamie, read about a dozen books in that time!  We had to ship a carton of books ahead of time to keep him stocked up, and the carton hasn't arrived back home yet, so I can't include a full list, but here are some of the books he read while we were away:

• Triss and Loamhedge by Brian Jacques, part of Jamie's effort to re-read the entire Redwall series (which he did!).
• The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials trilogy) by Philip Pullman - a re-read for Jamie.
• Books 3 and 4 (City of Glass and City of Fallen Angels) in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (and he enjoyed those so much, he is now re-reading books 1 & 2!)
• The Dragon's Apprentice, Book 5 in The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series by James A. Owen, where H.G. Wells asks J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams to be caretakers of an atlas of imaginary places, thus bringing into the stories the fictional locations of all of your favorite places from fantasy novels (a really wonderful series!)
• Fire by Kristin Cashore, the first novel either of us has read by this author.
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, which Jamie had to borrow from my aunt because he'd run out of books for the flight home!  He was thrilled when I told him there were two sequels that we have at home.

So, that's just a portion of the books Jamie read while we were away.  As you can see, he is an avid book lover!  And, unlike his mother, he can read in the car without getting sick, so he spent all of our driving hours buried in fiction, lucky boy.

It's Monday 7/4! What Are You Reading?

Happy Fourth of July!  I didn't even remember it was Monday until just now...oops.

We just returned this weekend from a 3-week vacation in California and Oregon, so that's why I have been absent from the blogging world for so long.  Sorry I just sort of left without saying anything, but it didn't seem like a good idea to announce on the internet that we'd be away for 3 weeks!  We had a magnificent time and saw so many beautiful sites.  This photo was taken at Crater Lake National Park.  Yes, it was summer there, too, but they still have over 20 feet of snow!  It was mind-boggling, but the views were still gorgeous.  If you'd like to see more photos from our trip, you can check out our trip blog (if you scroll down to June 10, 2011, you can see the pictures in order).

So, what have we been reading?  That's a big question this week!  I'll try not to make this list too long:

• I started our trip reading Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult, wanting a fun, gripping read for the long flight.  It was classic Picoult, with alternating viewpoints and a few twists, and I enjoyed it.
• I love to read road trip books while on a road trip, so next I read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, a teen book by Morgan Matson, about two young adults on a cross-country road trip that is also an emotional journey.  I loved this book, especially the playlists and scrapbook-style entries.  Best part: when the characters went to Yosemite right when we were headed there ourselves!
• Finally, I read Little Bee by Chris Cleave on the way home and absolutely loved it.  A very powerful story about hope and redemption and people coming together.
• I am now reading Morpheus Road: The Black, book 2 in the teen series by D.J. MacHale.  I always enjoy MacHale's books.
• My husband, Ken, read The Little Book by Selden Edwards, a novel he gave me for my birthday last year about an 80's rock star who goes back in time to 1890's Vienna.  We both enjoyed it.
• Ken is now reading The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner, one of several suspense paperbacks I picked up for him at a library sale.  Neither of us had ever read Gardner before, but Ken says this novel is very good.
• Our 16-year old son, Jamie, read between 10 and 12 books during our 3-week trip!  We shipped a box of books out there ahead of time for him, he went through every single one and then had to borrow a book from my aunt for the trip home!  That box of books hasn't arrived back home yet, so I won't try to remember all the titles.
• After a couple days of complaining, we finally got our 13-year old son interested in a book.  Jamie had just re-read His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman, so Craig started The Golden Compass (he had seen the movie but not read the book), and he actually got caught up in it and has been reading before bed at night.

So, it was a wonderful trip with lots of good reading along the way.  Unfortunately, the bronchitis I had before the trip came back with a vengeance while we were away, so I am still struggling with that.  Hopefully, I will start to get back to normal here soon.

I missed hearing about what all of you are reading, so please tell me what books you and your family are enjoying this week!

Middle-Grade Review: My So-Called Family

Courtney Sheinmel’s middle-grade novel, My So-Called Family, is definitely a 21^st-century type of story, about a girl who has a donor instead of a dad.  It’s a well-written book that takes a look at the meaning of family.

Thirteen-year old Leah Hoffman-Ross never really had a father; her mother chose a donor from a reproductive agency and had a baby on her own.  Although her mom is open about it and Leah now has a wonderful stepfather and brother whom she love, she still feels uncomfortable with her origins.  When they move to New York and Leah starts a new school, she feels like she has to keep the truth a secret from her new friends.  Here, one of them asks about her hyphenated last name:

“Oh, yeah.  Ross is my stepfather’s last name,” I said.  “He and my mom got married six years ago.”  I didn’t tell her Hoffman was my mother’s maiden name.  She could just assume the Hoffman part came from my biological father.  I could be like thousands of kids with a father and a stepfather.  That was my plan anyway.

“My mom’s remarried, too,” Callie said.  “I practically know my stepfather better than my real father.  Does your dad live nearby at least?”

“Oh, no.  He’s off in Europe somewhere,” I said, reciting the familiar line I usually told about my family.  “I’m not exactly sure where.”

Then, Leah finds an online Sibling Registry hosted by the reproductive agency her mom used and discovers she has siblings who were also fathered by Donor 730.  She feels compelled to meet these previously unknown brothers and sisters but isn’t sure what her mother will think.

It’s an interesting story.  Although the premise may not be something most kids can relate to, Leah’s struggles will be familiar to all adolescents – feelings of embarrassment over aspects of her family, wanting to fit in and just be a “normal” kid, and straddling the line between childhood and growing up.  It’s a well-written story with realistic, likeable characters and a thought-provoking plot.

194 pages, Simon & Schuster

For more information on this and other novels, visit the author’s website. 

 

It's Monday 6/6! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday!

The past week passed by in a blur - I'm still very sick and was unable to do much of anything all week, so I apologize for not being able to get around and visit blogs like I usually do (or post much on my own blogs).  I'm hoping to start improving this week, but then I'll be very busy preparing for our upcoming vacation and getting to all the kids' last-week-of-school events.  Busy time of year!

Well, the one good thing about being this sick is having lots of reading time:

• I finished reading The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon, a local author here in Delaware.  I loved her two memoirs, Riding the Bus with My Sister and Building a Home with my Husband, and her new novel is absolutely wonderful.  It tells the story of the love between a deaf man and a mentally handicapped woman, both institutionalized in the 1950's.  It's a beautiful story, beautifully written, and I do hope to find time to write this review this week.
• Since I've read very few kids and teen books this past month (see my May summary), I decided to focus on those for a while.  I read a middle-grade novel, My So-Called Family by CourtneySheinmel, about a girl with a very 21st-century problem.  Leah doesn't have a father; she has a donor.  And despite having a loving mother and step-father and an adorable step-brother she loves very much, Leah still feels like something is missing from her life.  I enjoyed the novel.
• Now I'm reading a teen/YA novel, Deadly: How do you catch an invisible killer? by Julie Chibbaro.  It's a fascinating novel based on the real-life story of Typhoid Mary.  In the novel, sixteen-year old Prudence lives in NYC in 1906 and is interested in science - not a popular or acceptable choice for girls of that time.  She gets a job as an assistant at the Department of Health and Sanitation, helping her boss track down the cause of a typhoid epidemic.  It's well-written and absorbing.
• Ken finished Num8ers by Rachel Ward, a teen/YA thriller that I enjoyed, then moved onto its sequel The Chaos.  He says he enjoyed the series very much.
• Jamie, 16, was also quite sick all week, plus was busy trying to finish his schoolwork.  He has three exams this week and then he is free for the summer!  He is still re-reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques but has filled a carton with books he wants to read on vacation!  I'm going to ship it out to California ahead of time for him (plus a few for me!).

In addition to my May summary, I did manage to post one new review last week, of the teen/YA novel The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson,  a darkly humorous look at the meaning of life and death.


What are you and your family reading this week?



(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Teen/YA Review: The Deathday Letter

The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson is a teen/YA novel with more depth and warmth  than first appears.  It grew on me the longer I read, and, as I finished it, I was surprised to realize that I had actually liked it quite a bit.

The premise of the book is quite simple: it’s a society where people receive a Deathday Letter the day before they will die.  Fifteen-year old Ollie receives his Deathday Letter at the start of the novel and has only 24 hours left to live.  He wants to make the best of his last day.

I expected the novel to delve deeper into the concept of the Deathday Letter itself – why this happens, how it happens – but it didn’t.  It just assumed this was the way things were and moved onto Ollie’s own story, which turned out to be just fine with me.

Since the novel is told from the point of view of a teenage boy, it is filled with all sorts of lewd observations and actions – sex, drugs, and roll ‘n roll, right?  At first, this nonstop barrage of jokes and sex talk was irritating to me, but then it occurred to me that maybe this is really how a teen boy would react to his impending death, covering his real feelings with humor.  Here, he has just told his best friend about his letter:

Shane claps me on the back.  “Listen, I’ve known you since you were a baby, man.  You’re like a brother.  I know everything there is to know about you, and lots of stuff I wish I didn’t.  It’s not just my job to tell you the truth, it’s my obligation.”

We stand in silence until finally I say, “What do we do about my letter?” because standing around not talking about our feelings feels way gayer than actually talking about our feelings.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going back to class.  I already know how the war ends.  We won.  And I don’t want to stand around and cry about my letter.”

So, Ollie and Shane skip school and bring along Ronnie, their childhood friend and Ollie’s recent girlfriend (who broke up with him).  They embark on the kinds of things you would expect teenagers with nothing to lose to embark on.  Filled with dark humor, The Deathday Letter explores life and death, love and sex, and the meaning of friendship.  Though crude at times, the novel redeems itself with a tender, thoughtful, and thought-provoking ending.  I’m glad I read it.

240 pages, Simon Pulse

For more information, check out the author's website and blog. 

It's Monday 5/30! What Are You Reading?

These Monday holidays always feel strange - doesn't really feel like a Monday, does it?  I have spent most of the holiday weekend struggling with a severe flare-up of my chronic illness.  This just came out of the blue - it's been almost a year since I had an episode this bad - and I don't know what triggered this.  All my plans for getting caught up around the house had to be set aside.  I have been reading a lot, though, and trying to rest.  Thank goodness for engrossing books!  Here's what we're reading this week:

• I finished reading The Condition by Jennifer Haigh, one of my favorite authors.  Like her earlier novel, Baker Towers, this one is also about family.  Everyone in my book group enjoyed it very much.
• Because of book group commitments, I've read several adult books in a row without my usual alternating between kids/teen books and grown-up ones, so next I read a teen/YA book, The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson.  Narrated by a teen boy who knows he will die in 24 hours, this was a bit crude, but its dark humor and thoughtful ending grew on me.
• Now I'm reading The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon, a local author here in Delaware.  I loved her two memoirs, Riding the Bus with My Sister and Building a Home with my Husband.  This novel about a young mentally handicapped woman locked up in an instituation in the 50's and 60's is absolutely wonderful - I was completely hooked within the first chapter (perfect for sick days!).
• My husband, Ken, is reading Num8ers by Rachel Ward, a teen/YA thriller, based on my recommendation.
• 16-year old Jamie is still working his way through a re-reading of the entire Redwall series by Brian Jacques, in between getting through his last weeks of school.  He says he has only 3 books left to go!

I posted a review of The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht last week at Book By Book.


What are you and your family reading this week?  Hope you're enjoying the holiday weekend!


(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey).

It's Monday 5/23! What Are You Reading?

Huh?  What?  Monday already?  I was just sitting here trying to catch up on my 100 e-mails from the weekend, when I remembered it was Monday, and I was late writing my book post!  Slow start...


This time of year is just so busy, with all sorts of end-of-year school functions, last soccer games, overwhelming yard work needed, plus last-minute vacation planning before summer starts.  We spent our weekend on all of those, with more coming up this week.

Still trying to squeeze in some reading, as well!

• I finished reading The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht (though not until the day after my book group discussion!).  It was well-written but a very complicated book - we all agreed it was a good thing we had each other to talk to!  I still have some lingering questions about it.  Definitely a literary novel.
• As soon as I finished The Tiger's Wife, I moved onto my book group book for this week (sometimes they fall one right after the other like this!), The Condition by Jennifer Haigh.  I am loving this novel so far.  Haigh is one of my favorite authors - she is especially talented at writing about family relationships.
• I finished Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton on my iPod, a fascinating memoir about a very unusual life.
• I started a new audio, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, a teen/YA novel about a troubled teen girl who becomes engrossed in the story of a teen girl during the French Revolution.  It's excellent so far.
• My husband, Ken, finished Once a Spy by Keith Thomson and moved onto its sequel, Twice a Spy.  He's enjoying this author.
• 16-year old Jamie is still working his way through a re-reading of the entire Redwall series by Brian Jacques.  We're planning a 3-week trip to California, and he's very worried about how to bring enough books.  On our usual road trips, he packs a whole duffle bag with nothing but books, but this time we're flying.  I think we'll ship a box out there to my aunt's house before we go!

I posted two reviews last week:  Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese at Book By Book and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher here.  I also posted a link to an excellent radio interview with author Diane Ackerman that I really enjoyed last week.


What are you and your family reading this week?


(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Teen/YA Review: Sapphique

Last year, the teen/YA audio novel Incarceron kept my family riveted during our spring break road trip to Louisiana and back.  Author Catherine Fisher had created a very unique world that combined modern technology with an old-fashioned veneer.  This spring break, as we drove to Oklahoma and back, its sequel, Sapphique, helped the miles fly by.  (I tried to avoid second book spoilers here, but if you haven’t read Incarceron yet, you’d be better off reading that review).

As in the first book, the action of this second novel switches back and forth between Incarceron, the grimy, industrial, living prison and the outside world, where nobility and peasants live as though it were an earlier century, despite the ignored existence of very advanced technology.  Now, really, if you haven’t read Incarceron yet, you might want to skip the next two paragraphs…

At the start of the novel, Finn is trying to adjust to life Outside with Claudia, but he finds that it has its own challenges and is not the utopia he’d thought it was.  Meanwhile, the friends he left behind in Incarceron, Attia and Keiro, continue to struggle within the prison, in search of a magical glove, said to have been the way that the legendary Sapphique escaped.  

Claudia worries about her father, who is now trapped within Incarceron, and her beloved tutor, Jared, whose health continues to worsen, and can’t help but have doubts as to whether Finn is truly the missing prince, though she wants to believe it.  When another young man shows up, also claiming to be the lost prince, Finn must somehow prove he is the true heir in order to save both his and Claudia’s lives.

I think we all favored Incarceron just a bit, perhaps for its surprising turns and new setting, but Sapphique had plenty of its own twists and surprises to keep us listening happily for hours.  Reader Kim Mai Guest did a marvelous job with both books, giving each character his or her own unique voice.  Fans of fantasy and dystopian novels (though this isn’t strictly dystopian) will thoroughly enjoy both books in Catherine Fisher’s imaginative and fast-paced set.

Listening Library

Listen to a sample of Sapphique:

   AUDIO: 

It's Monday 5/16! What Are You Reading?

Monday...and another dark, rainy day.  It's supposed to rain all week, with possible thunderstorms and hail today!   I am just hoping life will return to (somewhat) normal this week.

Last week, my family traveled to Washington, DC, to give testimony in front of the CFS Advisory Committee (within the Department of Health and Human Services) about how the immune disorder, ME/CFS, has affected our lives.  If you're interested, you can watch our testimony at this link.  While in town, we also met with a couple of our Congressional representatives to ask for more equitable distribution of funds for ME/CFS research.


Anyway, it was very rewarding but completely exhausting!  My oldest son is still home from school, and I was pretty useless the rest of the week, though feeling better now.  I had no time at all for blogging last week and not much time for reading, either, so please excuse me if I didn't have a chance to visit your blog or reply to your comments.  I hope to be able to make the round this week!  Here's our reading update:

• I am reading The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht for my neighborhood book group.  It took me a while to get into it because I was only reading about 5 pages a day!  It's very good, and I'm glad to have a chance to read such a hot new novel - I often don't read new books until they've come out in paperback.  Now I need to somehow find time to finish it before Wednesday - it's not looking good!
• My husband, Ken, is now reading Once a Spy by Keith Thomson, a book I found at the library.  He said he's enjoying it so much that he's also bringing it's sequel, Twice a Spy, with him on a business trip this week (it must be good for him to carry two hardcovers with him!).
• Jamie, 16, read another 3 Redwall books by Brian Jacques last week, in his quest to re-read the entire series!  Since he's been home sick, this has worked out well - these are his "comfort books," old favorites.
• Jamie is also reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne for his American Lit class...but much more reluctantly than the Redwall books, as you can imagine!
• I am still listening to Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton on my iPod.  She has certainly led an interesting life, to say the least!  I think I am almost done with this fascinating memoir.

What are you and your family reading this week?


(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

It's Monday 5/9! What Are You Reading?

Please pardon the very late post today - our life has been a whirlwind of travel lately (and this week will continue in that vein).  After our boys' two soccer games Saturday, we drove up to Connecticut to spend Mother's Day with my mom and my sister and their families (this week is also my mom's birthday).  Then we turned around and drove back home less than 24 hours later!  Despite the quick turnaround, it was good to see everyone.  No one can make me laugh like my family!  I hope everyone else had a good Mother's Day. 

This morning, my son and I headed back up the NJ Turnpike to see our Lyme doctor (a 90-minute drive each way).  We didn't have much time for reading this week:

• I have finally, just today, finished Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  It took me over two weeks to read this hefty novel, but it is well-worth it, a unique story of a set of twins, born conjoined at the head, and raised in Ethiopa.  I finished it today and thought, "Shoot, that wasn't for a book group...now who will I talk to about it??"
• My husband, Ken, finished Fear, a thriller by Jeff Abbott.
• He has now moved onto Once a Spy by Keith Thomson.  I had pulled Twice a Spy off the New Release shelf at the library for him, but when he tried to read it, he discovered it was the sequel to another book, so I requested the first one from the library for him!
• Jamie, 16, is still on his Redwall re-reading binge.  I asked him today if he was planning to re-read the entire series (for perhaps the third time?), and he said, "Yes!  And I'm trying to read them in chronological order this time," which is different than the order they were published in.  I have no idea how many more he read this week - I gave up trying to keep track!
• On our way to and from Connecticut, we finished listening to Sapphique by Catherine Fisher in the car.  Though I think we all favored the first book, Incarceron, slightly, the sequel was well worth our time and provided a satisfying conclusion to the story.

Because I've been reading the same book for two weeks, I didn't post any reviews last week but did post a variety of other fun stuff:  my April reading summary, a photo of a surprise bookmark Jamie found in one of our older books and a discussion of found bookmarks, and my lists of Top Ten Books I Read Based on Recommendations both here and at Book By Book.


Tomorrow we head to Washington, DC, for a special awareness event and lobbying day on Wednesday for kids and teens with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (the immune system disorder that both of my sons and I have) - exciting but hectic!  So things may be quiet here at the book blog for much of this week.


What are you and your family reading this week?


(what are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey).

Children's Book Choice Awards Winners Announced

At a big event Monday night, the 4th annual Children's Book Choice Awards were presented.  Why is this awards show news-worthy?  Because kids themselves choose the winners!

Here are the major category winners:

Kindergarten to second grade: Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby (Putnam)

 

Third to fourth grade: Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf)

 

Fifth to sixth grade: The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles: Book 1) by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion)

 

Teen: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton)

 

In addition, David Wiesner was named Illustrator of the Year and Rick Riordan was named Author of the Year.   This is a big honor for Riordan, who just 5 years ago was a middle-school teacher stunned by the success of The Lightning Thief back in 2006 when I corresponded with him after reviewing his first book for Family Fun magazine (don't you just love stories like that in the writing world?)

Check out this article at Publisher's Weekly for all the details, plus photos from the awards ceremony.

Have you read any of the winners?  Do you agree with the kids' choices?  Who would be your choice for Author of the Year?