Reviews coming your way soon!

Just a quick post to say that Allison and I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. We just took a little unintentional hiatus. :-) I've been traveling every other week since May and even though I've been home the last two weeks, I can't seem to get caught up at all. And Allison was traveling as well.

I have at least five book reviews to get up here, if not more. I've lost count because I've just been reading and not paying much attention. I promise to be back soon! I know, I've been a very bad book blogger lately! ;-)

Summer Reading

As the pile of Books That Must Be Reviewed grows ever taller, I have been playing hooky! It's too hot for high literature, which doesn't seem to travel well to the beach. And with the summer comes my compulsion to re-read. This is what I've been up to:

The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde: I haven't re-read these since the fifth (and long-awaited) installment came out about two years ago. The first in the series is The Eyre Affair, which introduces Thursday Next, a Literary Detective in an alternative version of 1985. Time travel, travel within books, literary jokes, rampant punning, re-engineered dodos, characters from classic literature turning up in the real world...you can see why it's hard to summarize them. I thoroughly enjoy this series every time I read it, and I always, always cry for the last couple chapters of the fourth book, Something Rotten.

And I did it, I read Twilight. And I can barely wait to read the rest of the series, even though the end of the book was a bit lame, almost as though Meyer got almost done, then realized that something should happen in the book. Still, addictive and fun. I was sure that I would hate it, but I was enthralled. Excellent summer reading.

I'm headed out of town and packing ONLY books I need to read for review. Now, it so happens that I accidentally had Amazon send my Twilight sequels to my parents' house, which is where I'm headed...

Teaser Tuesdays - The Angel's Game

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Mine is from the gorgeous, intoxicating The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, page 95:

When the first breath of dawn touched the windows I opened my eyes and found the bed empty...I went through the whole house, which already smelled of her absence, and one by one blew out the candles I had lit the night before.

YA Weekend--The Postcard

The Postcard by Tony Abbott is more of a middle-grade novel than Young Adult. I learned of this book after reading a terrific review on Lesa's Critiques blog. It won the Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.

Thirteen-year old Jason finds himself spending time with his father in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida cleaning out his grandmother's house after she passes away. All he wants to do is get back home (I think it's New York, or some place more north--I can't find it in the book now) to hang out with his best friend Hector. His stay in Florida takes a turn for the worse when his father falls off a ladder cleaning the gutters and ends up spending some time in the hospital. Jason finds himself alone and stumbles onto a family mystery after a strange anonymous phone call asking him if he's smart and to look in the desk. He starts investigating and finds an old postcard. The postcard is an old hotel in the area once owned by Jason's great-grandfather. He discovers a pin-hole in a window in the hotel on the postcard and feels compelled to check it out after also discovering an old magazine article featuring the hotel in a fictional story. This starts Jason's journey throughout St. Petersburg and his family history.

By the end of the story Jason learns who his real grandfather is, what his grandmother's life was like when she was younger, and what a tyrant his great-grandfather was. Along the way, Jason also befriends a girl in the neighborhood named Dia who eventually helps him solve the mystery.

I really love the premise of this book. I think family histories can be very interesting and I love looking at old archival materials like postcards and whatnot. A trail of clues on old postcards is a fun idea! I also liked the realistic nature of Jason's family. His parents are on the verge of splitting up, he feels torn between them. His father is a borderline alcoholic. There are real family issues discussed that I think many kids reading this book can identify with.

However, this book was quite long for what it was. I felt bored about halfway through. And though it overall was an interesting concept, I wonder if I was bored if a middle-schooler reading this might be bored too. I'm not sure. Funny, I think I'm realizing something about my reading habits. This particular book had a story within a story concept to it. I find that whenever I read books like that (ie: Atwood's Blind Assassin), I lose interest in the story within a story and just want to read the "real" story. I rate this book lower simply because of its length and sort of wished perhaps there was a tad bit more adventure/suspense to the story. It unfolded very methodically. Just wasn't zippy enough for me after reading The Red Blazer Girls and the 39 Clues books.

Fragment by Warren Fahy

I received an ARC of Fragment from Random House through Shelf Awareness. This book was touted as the next Jurassic Park or The Ruins. I have not read The Ruins, but I did read Jurassic Park (many years ago now) and devoured it! I LOVED the mix of adventure, science, suspense and Crichton's good writing. After that, I read all of Crichton's earlier works. So I was really looking forward to delving into a scientific thriller.

The book opens on a boat filled with scientists and a camera crew recording a reality show that takes the scientists to various islands looking for new species. When they come across an island only mentioned once in all of history and completely uninhabited, the scientists are excited to check it out. Once ashore, they discover a crazy world left to evolve without any human contact whatsoever. Darwin gone completely crazy! There are plants that are actually animals. Every species on the island seems to be a predator. The opening of the book starts with quite a bang and continues on that front throughout. It doesn't really slow down, except for the lengthy scientific descriptions throughout the book.

The overall premise of the book is fantastic. The prologue of the book provides a brief history of alien species invading islands and taking over or causing other species to go extinct. Alien as in foreign not extraterrestrial. I actually found this information just as intriguing as the novel. It set up the book quite nicely. This is Fahy's first novel and it's relatively well done. I say relatively because I think there was good and bad. Fahy has a fantastic imagination. The descriptions of the island, its animals and environment were spot-on. The back of the book contains a map of the island and sketches of some of the species found on the island. I found my vision of the animals from the text was quite close to the sketches provided. It takes a incredible amount of imagination for Fahy to create the island that he did.

The title is apt in that it not only describes the island as an isolated fragment of a supercontinent long ago, but also the writing style. Short chapters that jump around between characters and places. This eemed very disjointed and bugged me through the first 2/3rds of the book. The last 1/3rd really picked up and ended quite interestingly. I was satisfied with the ending and that made up for some of my annoyance in the beginning of the book. Some of the lengthy scientific descriptions got a little tedious, but not overwhelming.

Overall, this is a fun book for summer. A good vacation read. And I can definitely see this made into a movie. It is so visual. One of my real problems with the book actually has nothing to do with the author. It was the marketing. This book did not live up to Jurassic Park for me. I definitely can see a comparison to Crichton's work in general, the science-fiction adventure such as Congo comes to mind more than Jurassic Park. I just think that's quite a lot to live up to for a debut novel. This book is receiving nice praise though, check out other reviews at:Thoughts of Joy and The Novel Bookworm. Both glowing reviews.

Fragment became available in bookstores June 16, 2009.

YA Book Carnival - Giveaway

The very first YA Book Carnival begins today! At On My Bookshelf, we are excited to host a giveaway of two fantastic YA novels, courtesy of Penguin Young Readers!



Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti: Marisa is ready to start her sophomore year on the right foot with a positive attitude and dreams of a boyfriend who will bring her everything she's been waiting for. But when popular Derek surprisingly asks her out, she discovers that what she always wished for might not be enough. Navigating a year filled with conflict--including her parents' relationship turmoil and a fight with her best friend--makes Marisa stronger and helps her understand what's really important. Someone close to Marisa has been waiting for her all along, but will she realize that he's the one?


Peace Love & Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle: By sophomore year, Carly is so over her cushy lifestyle in the affluent Atlanta suburbs. She is tired of fancy nails, shiny cars, and empty values, and has vowed to become a non-leg-shaving-rebel hippy just to be different. The only person she isn't sick of is her little sister, Anna. But while Carly was away for the summer, her younger sister blossomed into the hottest girl at school. Carly has always relied on Anna's consistency and authenticity, but suddenly everything is different. Then beautiful Cole appears on the scene, and Carly is too busy crushing on him to notice that Anna is drifting away. During an ill-fated party at their house, Carly and Anna--and a trio of adorable baby ducks--hit rock bottom and finally start to make things right.

Who wants to win this pair of ARCs? Leave a comment here for one entry. Become a public follower for FIVE more entries. The winner (US & Canada only, please) will be selected on Friday, June 26 at noon, in time to announce the winner for the last day of the YA Book Carnival on Saturday, June 27.

Picture Book Thursday

Today's Picture Book Thursday is all about two summer releases courtesy of Penguin Young Readers.

All of Baby: Nose to Toes by Victoria Adler (Pictures by Hiroe Nakata): This was a big hit with Lilah, and a lot of fun for me to read aloud--there are no awkward or dull ryhmes here. The rhyme scheme is energetic, the rhythm extremely readable ("Baby's got a nose, a neat little nose. Sniffs at a rose nose. Honks when it blows nose. Wrinkles when it goes nose--goes kerchoo."), and the formula is pleasantly predictable (each two-page spread deals with one body part and is followed with "Who loves baby's _____? Me! I do.") It also deals with a baby's favorite topic, body parts, and the gentle, colorful illustrations are very pleasing to the eye. This is a gorgeous book that will become a favorite for babies/toddlers and the adults who read to them.

Best Baby Ever by David Milgrim: I actually looked up the age range on this book to be sure it was intended for children. Not that it's inappropriate; it's simply that I was cracking up while Lilah's attention was wandering. This book follows baby's milestones through the parents' gushing to friends, relatives, strangers who stand still long enough. Among the antics of this young family: In their haste to find the camera to capture Baby's every amazing "first," the new parents let Baby wander right out the front door. The text is written in Dick and Jane style, which enhances the humor: "See Baby laugh. Laugh, Baby, Laugh. See Daddy jump up and down on one leg and cluck like a chicken to get more laughs." The book ends with the parents crying like babies as Baby, having reached so many other milestones, heads off to school. If you know a couple expecting their first baby, your shower gift shopping is over - they will love this book.

Teaser Tuesdays - Re-Reading

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm re-reading one of my very favorite series, the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, and I'm on the second book, Lost in a Good Book. It's a tough call whether I adore Thursday or her brilliant creator more. There's so much going on in these books that it's tough to pick a couple of sentences that will make any sort of sense to someone new to the series, so this is longer than two sentences. Thursday is talking to Marianne Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility:

"Don't we have to be careful as to what we say?" I managed to utter, looking around nervously.

"Goodness me, no!" exclaimed Marianne with a delightful giggle. "The chapter is over, and besides, this book is written in the third person. We are free to do what we please until tomorrow morning, when we depart for Devon. The next two chapters are heavy with exposition--I hardly have anything to do, and I say even less! You look confused, poor thing! Have you been into a book before?"

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley: Reading does not get better than this! The story begins in 1950s rural England, where precocious eleven-year-old Flavia deLuce spends her spare time getting even with her older sisters, tinkering with poisons in her chemistry lab, and riding her bicycle from the rundown family manor to the village. When a dead bird turns up on the doorstep with a postage stamp on its beak and a barely alive stranger breathes his last, perplexing word ("Vale!") to Flavia, it is the most exciting time in her life to date. Most troubling to her: her father's shock and fright at the sight of the bird and a missing piece of the housekeeper's dreadful custard pie - who could possibly have eaten that? She digs into the investigation with relish, uncovering disturbing information about her father's school days and a postage stamp worth killing for. The police at first send Flavia off to make tea, but grow to appreciate her insights. The premise of a young aristocratic girl solving mysteries could be dreadful, but in Bradley's capable, witty hands, the material makes for an engaging mystery that manages to exude originality while evoking the Golden Age mystery. Is Flavia a realistic eleven-year-old from 1950? Really, I don't care in the least. She's so appealing, and I was so relieved that she uses her prodigious intellect for (mostly) good and not evil, that I wasn't bothered by questions of how

Fortunately, Sweetness is billed as the first in a series, and I look forward to more of Flavia's outrageous antics and penetrating deductions.

The Actor and the Housewife - Review and Giveaway!

Bloomsbury USA was kind enough to send me a review copy of Hale's second book for adults (after Austenland, a fun Jane Austen-infused bit of chick lit), The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. Hale takes a chick-lit premise (housewife meets her celebrity crush) and turns it on its head. Becky Jack is a happily married mother of three and seven months pregnant when she meets Colin Firth, I mean Felix Callahan. She insults Callahan with such wit that he invites her to dinner. They become fast friends, calling, e-mailing, and visiting when possible, though Callahan is no fan of children and views her Mormonism with amusement. The premise is completely unrealistic, of course, and Hale even points out the unlikelihood of the two meeting (they meet when Becky flies out to Hollywood because she's sold a screenplay with no effort whatsoever and then stars opposite Callahan in the film), but the friendship and Becky's balance between Callahan and her family are the center of the story.

I found this mostly enjoyable and more thought-provoking than chick lit, if overlong (at 352 pages). An omniscient narrator pops in and out with commentary that makes the book seem like a fairy tale and the repartee between Becky and Callahan really sparkles. However, there are issues that other non-Mormons may run into. I found Becky to be naive at times, in contrast to her intelligence and wit, and her relationship with her "perfect" husband sometimes grated. Apparently, Mormon women simply aren't friends with men, so Becky's family and bishop counsel her to drop the friendship, to "avoid the very appearance of evil." Even though her friendship with Callahan enriches her life, Becky is prepared to drop it if her husband objects. I found this to be both frustrating and interesting because my inner feminist yelled, "Are you kidding me?" when Becky considers giving up this part of her life when her husband is jealous, but at the same time, it's a complicated question since marriage is all about compromise and I can see putting family first. But (I know, another 'but') Becky really ranks herself third after her husband's wishes and her children's needs, and I can't relate to that. She gushes and gushes about how perfect and wonderful her husband is, but when he finds the house a mess after work, he scolds her like an errant child, and I gritted my teeth through those parts of the book. At least Becky doesn't submit easily; she responds passive-aggressively to his criticism by asking him to clean up while she finishes her phone call with Callahan. But this doesn't seem like a marriage of equals. I'm not sure if that's typical of LDS marriages, but a little more equal partnership would have been nice. Becky seems smarter, wittier, and more fun than her husband, so his de facto tyranny was especially annoying.

Hale has done an excellent job making a chaste relationship story entertaining and offering a complicated alternative to the usual chick lit formula. This would be a good choice for book clubs, as there are plenty of issues to discuss, and different people are sure to react differently to the relationships in the book. For those mystified by Mormonism, The Actor and the Housewife sheds a bit of light on the community, and groups can discuss the questions presented by the book and how they would have answered them.

Are you intrigued? Tell me about a book you've recently read that you found thought-provoking, and you'll be entered to win my gently read hardcover copy. US and Canada only, please, and enter before Sunday, June 21 at noon.

The Writing Class by Jincy Willett

The Writing Class is almost indescribably good, but I'm going to ramble on and on about it anyway. Amy Gallup was a novelist, but she peaked early and hasn't written in years, except on her blog, where she catalogues funny-looking words and creates debate about the sexiest letter of the alphabet. She's out of print, divorced, and bitter, and she survives by teaching creative writing through the university extension. Her thirteen students this session are the best group she's had in years...except for a prankster who leaves creepy voicemails, vicious comments and pornographic drawings on workshop writing samples, and a Ted Bundy mask in a student's car. When a student dies, the remaining class members band together to determine the culprit, knowing that one of them is a killer.

Willett deftly skewers the writing life and writing classes while maintaining the suspense of a murder mystery. We read writing samples from the class members, which run the gamut from cliched to overwrought, and provides clues to the killer's identity. One student, Carla, has taken Amy's class so many times that she quotes Amy when other students ask questions. Carla could have been a shell of a character, but Willett draws her developing relationship with Amy in a rich, complicated way. The other class members begin as one-note characters (Amy's class roster is hilarious), but we see them develop into realistic people. The And Then There Were None group dynamic is intriguing and very well handled. The group manages to avoid the fact that the killer whose identity they playfully discuss is actually one of them. This is a wickedly funny, thought-provoking, page-turner of a novel, and I'll be reading more of Willett's work.

It's Not You, It's Me (or books I just won't finish)

Often, I read a summary of a book and know immediately that it's a perfect fit for me. Sometimes...I'm wrong.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson: I entered every blog contest out there for this book, which sounded perfect for me, but I can't get past the first fifty pages. Southern Gothic? Ghost story? Murder mystery? Sign me up. But this book, which started out with a bang (the ghost of a girl leads Laurel to her body, floating facedown in Laurel's pool) fizzled for me when it became apparent it was going to be more about Laurel's poor, Southern family and her relationships with her husband and sister than about ghosts. The point-of-view switching bothered me as well, and after a couple of tries, I moved on.

Testimony by Anita Shreve: I've always meant to read Anita Shreve, and kept attempting to read The Weight of Water years ago. I was excited to win this one, but Shreve lost me on page four (4!) with the phrase "empurpled penis," which is possibly one of the worst turns of phrase in the English language and, sadly, was not meant to be funny. I cannot believe that an editor didn't kill that phrase. It wasn't just that particular affront to the English language; I had a strong feeling of melodrama/dragging out a story that was less dramatic than the author thought it was, and I *did* try to keep reading past "empurpled penis," but I just didn't care for the writing and it wasn't the book for me.

Someone out there will love these books, I know, but I've got to get them out of here. Every time I see Testimony on my dresser, I think "empurpled penis, empurpled penis" and start laughing uncontrollably. Leave a comment telling me which book you'd like to read and why before Sunday, June 21 at noon and I will pick a winner for each. U.S. and Canada only, with my apologies to everyone living elsewhere.

Mailbox Monday

I haven't posted a Mailbox Monday post in awhile. So I thought I would get this up here. :-)

I won Testimony by Anita Shreve in book blog contests hosted by Teddy Rose and Wrighty Reads. I'm passing my second copy along to a friend.

From Shelf Awareness:
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper (ARC). A pet memoir about a blind kitty. Sounds like a good book for those who enjoyed Marley and Me. :-)

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer (ARC). This sounds like a bit of a complicated literary novel. Part romance, part mystery, somewhat philosophical sounding. Sounds interesting for when I'm in the mood something more complex and in-depth.

Fragment by Warren Fahy (ARC). Scientific thriller compared to Jurassic Park. Sign me up! I'm looking forward to getting to this one sooner rather than later. Sounds like a fun read for summer.

Books I've purchased recently:
I didn't receive these in the mail, but I'm excited about them nonetheless so I thought I'd post them here.

Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon
I've seen this one around the blogosphere lately and really think it sounds fun. Entered a few contests for it but no such luck so I decided to just add it to my library.

39 Clues #4: Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson
Looking forward to the fourth installment of the series. I've found that I have not heard of some of the authors in this series so far. I like to look them up and see what else they have written. Jude Watson has also written many Star Wars novels (probably why I haven't heard the name before). ;-)

The Lost Hours by Karen White
Another one I've heard about from various book blogs. I nominated it for my book club recently and it was chosen! I'm looking forward to reading one of White's books, they all sound interesting.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Yet another one I thought might be interesting from reading reviews of it on book blogs.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at the Printed Page. Hop on over to check out what others have received in the mail!

Great giveaway!

Lenore over at Presenting Lenore has an awesome giveaway going! Head over there to find out how you can win 3 books: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Giveaway ends June 17th!

Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle

I was fortunate to receive a copy of Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle And Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino from Roaring Brook Press. This is a sweet, funny story set in upstate New York just before the moon landing, focusing on a group of neighborhood children who have their own hierarchy and rules. Tammy, the narrator, can't stand the newcomer to the neighborhood, a scrawny boy she mockingly dubs "Muscle Man." He tells outrageous lies, the most recent of which is that Neil Armstrong is his uncle. The other children let his lies slide, which infuriates Tammy, who continues to pick on Muscle Man. It gradually dawned on me that Tammy is a bully, and the reason I didn't notice immediately is that Marino draws her so sympathetically. She's grieving for her best friend who moved without a forwarding address, and she resents Muscle Man as the newcomer. Muscle Man responds to Tammy's mean comments with kindness that only angers Tammy further. The impending moon landing, Woodstock, and the Vietnam War hover mostly in the background (with the exception of a touching subplot involving a neighbor whose son is serving). I found myself utterly swept up in the naive world of these children in the summer of 1969, and hoping that Tammy and Muscle Man would find solace in friendship with each other. This is the perfect book for teaching children how to understand another person's point of view and that everyone has his own problems, and I recommend it to adults and children alike.

YA Weekend

Gilda Joyce: The Dead Drop by Jennifer Allison: This is the fourth in an entertaining mystery/paranormal series for the 9-12 crowd, featuring Gilda Joyce, who is practicing for her chosen career as a "psychic investigator." I've enjoyed this series, and the fourth is an excellent entry. Plan on significant suspension of disbelief, and not from the ghost trying to communicate with Gilda: Gilda's mother lets not-quite-fifteen Gilda go off and live in Washington, DC for a summer to intern at the International Spy Museum. Mmmhmmm. And Gilda is sharing an apartment with a twentysomething. Mmmmhmmm. But if you just accept that and settle into the gripping ghost story and more hilarious internship story, this is a fun, fun read, and the strongest plot in the series.

Anyone following Gilda's adventures, with her penchant for wacky disguises and her handbooks on psychic investigation and spying, will understand why she's so excited about her Spy Museum internship. She ends up in charge of a group of children attending "Spy Camp," teaching them important spy skills like detecting lies, concocting a good cover story, and playing Wigball. A Russian spy appears to be haunting the museum (and Gilda's dreams), and Gilda is led by a dream of Abraham Lincoln to a "dead drop," a location where spies leave messages for their handlers. Cold War history, double-agent intrigue, and the mysterious Russians make this a blast to read, and the mystery is very well done. Gilda's work with the Spy Camp children is hilarious, and while I could have done without the brief scenes from the point of view of the "psychic spy," the surprise appearance of a new character near the end made them much more tolerable. I loved the surprise character! This could be read alone, but for maximum enjoyment, I'd read the first three books before picking this one up, just to watch Gilda's skills develop.

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator
Gilda Joyce and the Ladies of the Lake and Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata

Oh. My. Gods by Tera Lynn Childs: This book was rather disappointing for me, as the premise (high school girl whisked off to live in Greece and attend a special school for descendants of Greek gods) sounded great. The execution didn't live up to the promise. There are many ways to set up this sort of book. You can have your character encounter the paranormal out in the normal world, making it impossible for him to deny the unbelievable (Percy Jackson), you can have a messenger give him the information, which is backed up by past strange experiences that are now explained (Harry Potter), etc. Childs chooses the weakest setup I can imagine. We barely meet Phoebe in her normal life before her mother appears with a fiance and announces that the family is moving to Greece to live with him. Phoebe will attend the only school on the remote island. On the ferry ride to the island, Phoebe's mother reveals the truth about the school: it was established to educated the children of gods. Phoebe's response is strange; she thinks this is crazy, but is inclined to believe her mother and new stepfather, who provide proof. If something strange had happened at Phoebe's old school, or if we had simply met Phoebe while she was already on the island, I would have been drawn into the story much more readily. As it was, I didn't feel particularly engaged until the Academy life is in full swing. There really isn't much Greek mythology in this one. I really thought the Percy Jackson series did a much better job of incorporating the Greek myths and making them fresh. In Oh. My. Gods, we just have a description of the various cliques, which are all along ancestor lines (so the Ares kids are the jocks, etc.). Phoebe, as a nothos (or normal, non-divine person), is an outcast, but is befriended by two students there who don't care about her humble origins. Phoebe is a runner, and she tries out for the track team at the Academy, and falls for a jerk (I can't tell you how much I hate this plotline in YA books), while struggling to keep her place on the track team.

There's really too much going on here, and if the set-up had been different, it would have been easier for me to enjoy the story. As it is, Phoebe is dealing with 1. leaving her California friends thousands of miles away and being unable to tell them about the island's secret, 2. a new stepfather who is also her headmaster, 3. a wicked step-sister with supernatural powers, 4. the sudden marriage of her mother, 5. isolation at her new school, where most students hate or ignore her, 6. keeping up her grades so she and her California friends can all go to USC together, and 7. awareness of supernatural forces. That's a lot to balance, and I didn't really find the ties to her California friends all that interesting (especially when described in IM transcripts). This was a cute summer read, but I had been hoping for more. I am mildly interested in reading the follow-up, Goddess Boot Camp, but I won't rush to buy it in hardcover.

A Bookish Question for YOU

I'm planning on doing a little reorganizing around here (or rather, I'm enlisting my husband to lug around our bookshelves in the house until I'm satisfied with a new setup). ;-)

This will require me to take ALL my books off the shelves and it gives me an excellent opportunity to start over and maybe sort them a little differently. I tend to start off with fairly organized shelves but then I have that darn problem of acquiring more and more books. So they end up getting shifted around; some shelves end up organized, others are hodge podge just stuffed together.

So, my question to you...how are your books organized? Do you organize by subject (literary fiction, mystery, historical fiction, romance, etc), fiction vs. nonfiction, simply alphabetize by author regardless of subject matter, paperbacks together/hardcovers together? Please leave me a comment with your system if you happen to have one. Perhaps everyone else in the world is like me and their shelves are just a hodge podge...in which case, please leave me a comment with how your dream bookshelves would be organized. ;-)

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This was our book club pick for April (I'm a little behind...hee hee). It took me awhile to get in the right mood to read it. But once I started it, I really enjoyed it.

The novel flip-flops between two stories. Julia Jarmond in 2001, a journalist who is assigned to write an article about the Vel d'Hiv roundup in France during WWII. Julia is an American married to a Frenchman living in Paris. She writes for an American magazine there. Through her investigation and research, she discovers that not many people are aware that Jewish families were arrested in Paris and sent to camps and eventually Auschwitz. It's a dark time in French history that seemed to be swept under the carpet.

This brings us to the second part of the novel, Sarah's story. Sarah is a young girl whose family is arrested for being Jewish and sent to a camp in the French countryside. When she hears the police coming to round them up, Sarah locks her little brother in a secret cupboard to keep him safe. She doesn't realize that she will not be able to return to get him until its too late. She frets for weeks about her brother and whether anyone had discovered him or if he was still stuck in the cupboard all this time without food and water.

The two stories eventually come together when Julia discovers a connection in her husband's family to Sarah's life. She becomes obsessed with the story and goes to great lengths to find out more about Sarah and what happened to her.

I really liked this book. Granted, I believe I was intrigued by Sarah's story much more than Julia's. Julia was quite a bit obsessive, moreso than I think a person would be in reality. And I felt like a few of the characters were a bit overdramatic. But overall, this was a good book and if you like the subject of World War II and how it affected people, be sure to check this one out.

I have found the novels I've read lately with WWII as a backdrop to be very interesting and informative in providing new viewpoints of the war. Growing up, I mostly learned about the political/logistical aspects of the War and how our country was specifically affected. Never gave much thought to how other countries in Europe were dealing with things. Even though these are fictionalized accounts, I think they provide great stepping stones for thought on the war.

Other novels reviewed with WWII as the time period:
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Lily's Crossing
The Boy in Striped Pajamas

YA Weekend--Memorial Day Edition

I think I could almost start a "World War II Wednesday" regular feature here. I cannot believe how many books there are based during WWII. I never had a particular fascination with WWII or cared to learn more about it other than what I was taught in school. But books on the subject keep popping up and sound good to me. A bit ago, I finished two juvenile fiction books set during WWII: Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff and The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Both were interesting and worthwhile reads.

Lily’s Crossing: Lily finds herself with her grandmother at their oceanside summer home in 1944. She always looks forward to her summers in Rockaway, but this year is different. Her father was shipped overseas to help with the war effort and her best friend moved away so her father could help build planes in Michigan. Just when her summer looked like it was going to be the worst ever, Lily meets a Hungarian boy named Albert. They forge a friendship throughout the summer. This sweet book depicts wartime in America with rationing, a town’s reaction to their own missing in action, and just simply the unknown during war. The pace is a little slow, but that seems to reflect the pace of Lily’s summer days and also the patience for waiting for a loved one to return home from war. This is a middle-grade Newbery Honor Book and I think it definitely fits the age group well. You learn about the war, but it is a bit censored and appropriate for a younger age. I wonder if this book might be a bit boring for the younger set, but I liked it.

The Boy in Striped Pajamas: We meet nine-year-old Bruno, and his family who all of sudden must pack up their house in Berlin because his father has gotten a new assignment. They all move to an undesirable house at Out-With. From Bruno’s bedroom window he can see a fence with many people behind it. They are all wearing the same outfit: striped suits with matching caps. Bruno does not understand why his family has left Berlin and everything they know, but he knows his father is an “important man who works for the “Fury” and is going places.” The book goes on through Bruno’s days at Out-With and he can only accept so many “Don’t go anywhere near the fence” statements before he goes exploring. He follows the fence for quite a while, not seeing a soul, until he comes upon a little boy named Schmuel. The two form an unlikely friendship never playing and only talking to each other with the fence between them. This book is written from Bruno’s very ignorant and naïve point of view. He does not understand at all what is going on on the other side of the fence and in fact, never does quite figure it out, even at the end (which is incredible, but not all together shocking—I saw the end coming as soon as Bruno crossed the fence line). He spouts some of the rhetoric he hears coming from his house from the Nazi soldiers. And all he knows is that his father is a great man. The author purposefully omits the word Auschwitz in the book, instead sticking with Bruno’s mispronunciation of Out-With so that the book could really be about any war atrocity.

I actually think Boy in Striped Pajamas would make a good book club book just because there is much to discuss. Just from reviews I have read on amazon.com and other sites, this book sparks many lively discussions, for example here on LibraryThing. I keep going back and forth on my rating for this book. I give it four stars just for the thought-provoking ideas, but maybe only 3.0 for the execution. In the LibraryThing discussion, there was some negative reaction to this book as historical fiction. They felt that a nine-year old growing up in a household with visits from Hitler would probably know more about what was going on than Bruno. Also, that maybe some of the depictions of Auschwitz were not accurate. However, the cover of this book states that it’s a fable. I actually give it a bit more leeway knowing that (and hoping that came from the author and not the publisher) because then its not based so much in fact, but in what the moral of the story is.

Bruno’s naivety bugged me quite a bit. I think he actually acted more like a five or six year old. And I felt the first half of the book was a bit dull. Schmuel does not even appear until more than half way though the book. The second half does pick up and I think you just need to take the story with a grain of salt. It is what it is. And yes, even though maybe history did not happen just as Boyne has stated it, he paints an interesting picture of what happened during the Holocaust and may help bring it to a more real level, especially for a young adult who may not have the same amount of knowledge as adults reading the book.

I think the right age for this book would be around 13-14 years old. Any younger than that probably would not understand. I know I didn’t truly learn about WWII and details of it all until freshman year of high school or maybe Eighth grade when we read Anne Frank. This book is definitely not appropriate for younger than that based on subject matter.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day Weekend and please take a moment to remember the soldiers who have fought and are fighting for our country and those who gave their lives. We came back from vacation on Saturday and encountered many, many military men and women in the airport. And in particular one army soldier getting on our plane saying good-bye to his wife and two young sons. Everyone was hugging and crying and you could see just how hard it was for him to stop hugging them and get on the plane. It was quite poignant. And a nice reminder of what this weekend is really about (besides the relaxing and grilling).

Mystery Monday

While on vacation last week, I finished up the last two books currently out in the Ophelia and Abby series by Shirley Damsgaard.

#5 The Witch is Dead: In the fifth installment of this fun series, Great Aunt Dot visits from Appalachia adding a new character and some fun. Although, she's not quite as crazy as Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series, she adds a bit of humor to the story. Her particular talent is seeing fairies and tippling homemade elderberry wine. Aunt Dot joins Tink and Ophelia on their latest adventure trying to figure out who killed the local undertaker. Tink also winds up kidnapped throwing Ophelia into a hysterical mess. Our friendly Federal agent Cobra/Ethan (from #4) makes an appearance again.

Although I liked Aunt Dot's character quite a bit, this storyline didn't grab me as much as some of the others. I'm hoping the series continues to hold my interest. I've found that it's at about book 5 or 6 where a series starts to go downhill a bit or the author has a hard time coming up with new ideas that are really good. I think Damsgaard has kept the series fresh and interesting, but this one was probably one of my least favorite.

#6 The Witch's Grave: This is the most recent in the Ophelia and Abby series. Ophelia meets a wonderful man (an author) at a fundraising event and winds up going on a walk with him where he gets shot right in front of her! She is very attracted to him and feels awful about what happened. She becomes quite obsessed with figuring out who shot him and two other people as well.

This book also takes a little different approach than the rest and has a second storyline set during WWII. It's the story of a couple working to help people during the war. This story comes to Ophelia in her dreams and Abby explains that perhaps reincarnation is at work. Abby must make a change in the present to help fix what went wrong in this person's past life. It was an interesting concept and the reincarnation story took place in France and discussed how Jews were gathered and sent to camps from France; first to Drancy and then to Auschwitz.

Ironically, I'm currently reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay which tackles this very subject. Anyhoo, I liked this last chapter of the Ophelia and Abby series and I sort of enjoyed that the story wasn't as much about Tink.

Allison's review of #6 can be found here.