The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott

by Kelly O'Connor McNees
2010, Penguin Group (USA)
This book is a mix of fact and fiction centered around a summer during the young life of Louisa May Alcott, the well-known author of Little Women. For one summer the Alcott family lived in Walpole, New Hampshire and the author, Kelly O'Connor McNees, creates a fictional romance for Louisa during that summer. She weaves true facts about the family; their poverty, their personalities and their family dynamics with fictional friends, lovers and events. It was great fun to read. It was like being able to see into the past and get to know these people that lived long ago, but in a much more exciting way than a dry textbook or biography. I don't know enough about Ms. Alcott's real life to know what's true and fact, but I don't really care. I feel very satisfied thinking of the people as they were in this book.

I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction, but I picked this book up because it was written by someone I grew up with. As a librarian I spend my days around books and am constantly looking at new titles and authors old and new, so I was totally psyched to see Kelly's name on a book at our library. It's a wonderful mix of my young life and my current passion. And Kelly definitely has talent. I may not have picked up the book if I didn't know the author, but I'm really glad I did. It was a well written book and I'm looking forward to reading more by her in the future.

Classic Reads

This past semester I took a class called British Literature: 1700 to the Present. We read a number of things (including more poetry than I would have liked) and I'm just finishing the final papers for the class. I thought I would include some book reviews here of the novels we read.

Essay on Man - Alexander Pope
Not really a novel, but interesting nonetheless. Pope was a big name during the Age of Reason and wrote Essay on Man as a way of expressing his ideas on the universe, the individual, society and happiness. It's not very easy to read, but if you take your time there is some great stuff in there. It's not necessarily new and earth-shattering ideas (Pope was of the opinion that there wasn't anything new to be said, just newer and wittier ways to say it), but the way that he expresses his thoughts show how truly intelligent and creative he was.

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Gulliver's Travels was written as a satire on the travel-log books that were becoming quite profuse in the late 18th century. As new lands and peoples were being discovered more and more men were publishing their tales of exploration and encounters with the "natives." Swift used this trend to create Gulliver, a pompous doctor who takes to the sea and discovers four separate and unique worlds. He also uses the stories to express his opinions about the political happenings of the time. I really didn't like Gulliver so it was hard to read along and hear him talking on and on about his trips. And the places that he visited kept getting more and more crazy and hard to believe. By the end of the book I was shaking my head very ready for it to be done.

Hard Times - Charles Dickens
Dickens did not like the changes that the Industrial Revolution brought to the country. He saw the squalor and poor working conditions of the people and used his books to complain, making villains of the rich and unfeeling factory owners and others in power who he felt didn't do what they could to help those in need. Hard Times is a very harsh indictment of the industrial society, but is also a very interesting story. Like most of Dickens' books it is overly descriptive which can take away from the plot a bit, but by the end you really know the people and the settings because of the abundance of descriptions. There aren't as many characters as in most Dickens' novels, but that makes it easier to follow and to be invested in the lives of the few you meet. It's also one of those books where you are a bit bored up until the last third and then you can't put it down because you have to know what's going to happen next.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
I have to say this book was rubbish. It was another book where I did not like the main character so I did not care what he did or didn't do and by the end of the story I just wanted him to get out of his head and grow up. Stephen Dedalus is a young boy growing up in Ireland. The book starts with him as a toddler and quickly moves to his time in school. I did like the way Joyce creatively wrote it as real life interspersed with memories and dreams. It was almost like trying to capture a stream of consciousness which was slightly confusing, but also an interesting way of writing. In general, though, the story was too intellectual for its own good. There were tons of allusions and motifs interspersed with poetry and grumbling. I know it's considered a classic, but I would give it a pass if I were you.

There you go...my opinions on a semester worth of reading (minus the poetry because I haven't quite recovered enough to write about that yet).

Author! Author! Author!

On Tuesday I went to the Book Club Kickoff Celebration at my local public library. I've been going to a book club through this library since I moved to IL and thought it would be fun to see what this celebration was all about.

They invited a number of local authors to come and talk to us. I hadn't heard of any of them and most of them are romance writers so I thought it might be a bit boring. I ended up having a great time! My name was drawn for a free book, and when one of the women from my book club told them it was my birthday, I got another free book. And since both the authors were there I got them signed.

I'm really excited to read them and see if they're any good. It was such an enjoyable evening and the women were so nice and approachable. I would recommend checking them out if your stumped for a romance or historical romance or supernatural romance read.

The Authors:
Luisa Bueler - Mysteries
Dyanne Davis - Supernatural and African-American Romance
Blythe Gifford - Historical Romance
Keena Kincaid - Historical Romance
Michelle Larks - African-American and Christian Romance
Ann Macela - Supernatural and Historical Romance

The Sugar Queen

by Sarah Addison Allen
2008, Bantam Books
This was the latest Book Club book that I read, and it was the best that we've read so far. It's definitely chick lit, but it has this extra bit of fantasy that works really well. One of the characters is visited by books that appear just when she needs them (Wouldn't that be awesome!). The twists are creative and I wasn't able to guess any of them ahead of time, which added to the excitement of their discovery. It's a well written book that follows the romance of the characters without shoving it down your throat. It also ties up all the loose ends for a satisfying ending.
Check it out and enjoy!

Vacation Reads

My time in Florida was well spent. I got plenty of reading done and thought I would share my thoughts about the books - I know...what a surprise.

Here Lies the Librarian
by Richard Peck
2006, Penguin Group (USA)
This book is a fun and quick read with substance. Richard Peck is a master at telling stories set during the hard times of the early 20th century, but still very relatable to today's readers. (For more great Peck books see A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder)





The Tales of Beedle the Bard
by J. K. Rowling
2008, Scholastic, Inc.
'Bout time I got around to reading this one. Classic J. K. style: creative, humor and whimsy filled, but deeply rooted in the HPverse. Fans of Dumbledore's wackiness will enjoy the commentaries after each story.






Last Days of Summer
by Steve Kluger
1998, HarperCollins Publishers
I picked this book up on a whim and it turn out to be a very good whim. It's a story told through letters over a couple years in the life of a 13 year old kid in NYC in the 1940s. You go from feeling bad for the raw deal the kid is getting to marveling at his ingenuity and laughing your a** off at his schemes.




Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
by Lewis Carroll
2004, Barnes & Noble Classics
I read both these books one after the other (two for one). The original John Tenniel artwork was a great bonus. These are definitely stories that reflect childhood imagination, the time when everything and anything was possible, but the second book is very, very, very nonsensical, and actually a bit frustrating. But having seen lots of the movie adaptations it was fun to finally read the originals.


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
by Mark Haddon
2004, Random House, Inc.
A story told from the perspective of an autistic 15 year old, this is a great insight into his world. Told from his perspective, his logic and his way of thinking are the right ways and the rest of us are doing it wrong, which breaks your heart a little. It was a very interesting way to read a story and I would definitely recommend it especially if you enjoy math.




Murder on the Orient Express
Thirteen at Dinner (or Lord Edgware Dies)
by Agatha Christie
1934, 1933
Two more Agatha Christie classics. How does she do it time and time again? Creative and twisty and never guessable. Genius!





Great American Short Stories from Hawthorne to Hemingway 2004, Barnes & Noble Classics
This book is great for reading in short spurts since it's short stories. I've only read six stories so far, but so far so good. It's fun to be reading stories I've heard of but never actually read myself. I feel very mature. The stories I've read so far are:
Young Goodman Brown - Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1835
The Birth-Mark - Hawthorne, 1843
Rappaccini's Daughter - Hawthorne, 1844
The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe, 1846
The Fall of the House of Usher - Poe, 1839
The Purloined Letter - Poe, 1844

No Talking

By Andrew Clements
2007, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

One of my favorite things about Andrew Clements' books is that the characters are never stereotypes. He's written quite a few books that are set in elementary schools (like this one), but he never repeats the same story or the same people. I also truly appreciate that he avoids the "adults are stupid and kids know better" view that lots of books and especially movies take now-a-days. Nothing is more annoying and zaps me right out of the story than unbelievably stupid adults that are made fun of by incredibly clever children.
This book tells the story of a rowdy 5th grade class that challenges each other to a "no talking" contest. My mom reads this to her 5th graders at the beginning of the school year (because she's a genius). It's a well-written and rounded story that shows the importance of thinking before you speak, the effect your words can have on others, and much more. All great stuff for kids to think about, and if we're honest, some lessons that adults could use too.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

By Libba Bray
2005, Random House

I enjoyed this book mainly for the fact that it manages to be set firmly in the British Victorian era, but still have a modern air and sensibility. The characters act in such a way that you could imagine them in your high school, twittering behind other girls’ backs, saying those comments that are the barbed non-compliments girls are so famous for. The story follows Gemma Doyle as she enters a girls academy after spending her first 15 years living in India. She’s quickly initiated into life in an all-girl environment and shows herself to be quite adept at holding her own.

The story is slow moving. You know that things have to happen, Gemma has newly discovered “powers” and there are good and evil influences all around her, but it gets tripped up on the setting and every day minutia of the life of a “proper wife in waiting”. This is the first book in a trilogy, but I’m going to have to wait until I have some serious time to devote to the second and third before I finish the story.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

"A good heavy book holds you down. It's an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic."
- Roy Blount, Jr.

I read a book recently that was huge, but very fun and diverting. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick was the winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal, which is the award for the year's best American picture book for children. Normally the award is given to a stereotypical book, with big pages and pictures, but this book looks more like a Harry Potter novel.
It's 533 pages, but the fun thing about it is that the story is told with both words and pictures so that when the main character is running through the train station there are pages to illustrate his run. It's great fun.

X23: Target X

By Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost

Art By: Mike Choi and Sonia Oback

2007, Marvel Publishing, Inc.

This book is actually a graphic novel. Can you believe I read a graphic novel? I thought it would be fun to read something X-Men for the 'X' book on my list. It turns out it’s not so easy to go to a comic book store and browse for a “good book” like you can in a book store. I learned that the smaller comic books, excuse me…graphic novels, are only parts of stories so you have to buy a bunch to get a complete set. Bummer. I asked the guy working there for some help and he explained that you can buy books that are a whole set brought together. He recommended a couple and I got this one. It’s about a girl who’s life is tied to that of Wolverine (the Hugh Jackman character), but has been used by bad people and is now trying to figure out what to do. It was pretty cool and once you got used to the different way of reading the story it flew by. I’m actually thinking I might go back to see if they have more stories with this character.
So there you go, that’s my branching out for the month. Maybe next month I’ll try reading a non-fiction book (gasp!).

Breaking Dawn

By Stephenie Meyer

2008, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

I put off reading this book for a while. I’m not sure exactly why, but I think I was worried. Bella Swan, the main character of the four books in the Twilight series, is very emotional. She feels things deeply and sometimes makes what I consider stupid decisions because she’s so darn self-sacrificing. It’s hard for me to read a book when I just want to reach into the story and shake the characters and yell “What are you doing!” I was worried that this story was going to drift irrevocably in that direction and I didn’t really want to put myself through that.
But finally I couldn’t put it off any longer, so I picked up, all 768 pages of it, gritted my teeth and started. At first, I was right. Bella was an idiot and I was going to hate this book. Then everything changed. It reverted back to the quality writing and great story-telling of the first three books and it never looked back. Stephenie Meyer has proven herself an excellent story-teller. She’s able to write romance without being soppy and gross and she’s able to write suspense without being a scary chiller, which is quite a feat. I will admit that I did have moments while reading when I had to set it down and take a break because it was INTENSE, both emotionally and physically.
The book is split into three parts. The first is told from Bella’s perspective and then we hear the events from Jacob’s (her friend) perspective, and then it goes back to Bella’s story. It’s a very interesting way to see events and to experience the story and it truly adds to the book. It also added to the question of “Will the good guys all make it?” If Stephenie can tell their stories from the perspective of someone who hasn’t been the narrator all along does that mean that the narrator isn’t going to last until the end of the book? Before the book came out there was enough speculation about the ending of this series to cast doubt on Bella’s ‘happily ever after’.
While I’m not going to say if there is a storybook ending or not, I will say that I was pretty satisfied with it. It does veer off a bit with the first part, but it’s necessary to make the story complete and full. I’ve never been a fan of the Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle either, but this book does a great job of tying it all in and making it a necessary part of the other books in order to complete the overall story.
It’s a great book and totally worth reading. And…Bonus: it’s good for weight-lifting in a pinch, especially if you get the large print edition.

Her Royal Spyness

By Rhys Bowen

2008, Penguin Group (USA)

I happen to love almost all things British and one of my favorite ‘things British’ is Jeeves and Wooster. It’s a TV show based on the P.G. Wodehouse books, but made hilarious by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. (Having seen Dr. House as Bertie Wooster has exponentially increased my respect for that man’s acting ability). The show is set in swinging London in the 20s and 30s and features the high class of British society that doesn’t need to work for a living and so instead does ridiculous things and say ridiculous things and is pretty much ridiculous, but so fun to watch.
Her Royal Spyness is set in that same time period and with those same types of characters, the main character being the exception (of course). Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie (or Georgie to her friends) is 34th in line to the throne, but she’s completely broke. When an odious Frenchman threatens to take her family home she knows she needs to rise above her troubles to figure out how to save the family, but when he ends up dead in her bathtub things really get interesting. It’s a great murder-mystery that’s not too complicated, but not too easily solved either.
In the tradition of Jeeves and Wooster there are plenty of bumbling idiots with too much money for their own good, but Georgie manages to remain a definite part of that “class” without looking the fool. It’s a quality fluff read – my favorite kind.

The Sleeping Beauty Proposal

By Sarah Strohmeyer

2008, Penguin Group (USA)

This book isn’t a direct re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story, but it looks at the question “What if someone was practically sleep-walking through life waiting for someone else to start it for them?” Genie hasn’t really been living her life. She’s just been waiting for her prince to come make everything perfect. When her boyfriend of four years proposes to someone else on national TV she lets everyone believe that he proposed to her. It’s the wake-up call that she didn’t even know she needed. Now as she’s struggling with her conscious and the realization that the world treats you very differently if you’re engaged, she’s slowly realizing the things that are important and becoming a fuller person.
I have a hard time with deception. It’s the number one reason that I don’t read certain books or go see certain movies (like how is Hannah Montana a role model when her life is built on deceiving people who admire her?). I decided to try this book anyway because Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite Disney movies and I wanted to see how the author worked with the story. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. For the most part she just keeps her mouth shut and other people assume things, which is just as sinful but easier to take then aggressive deception. The thing that ended up bugging me the most was the way her parents treated her once she was “engaged”. They weren’t complete stereotypes, but they were willing to give her money for a house and throw her a lavish wedding, when they wouldn’t do anything for her while she was single, living in a hole of an apartment with a crap job. Ugh.
It’s a cute book, though. It’s fun and slightly quirky, with a healthy dose of romance without going trashy. Plus it has a cute cover.

More Books

I've been on a bit of a reading tear lately. Although, I must admit that most of the books in this post are quick reads. And all but one were mysteries which I tend to read really fast because I have to know "who-dun-it" as soon as possible.

The Secret of Platform 13

Eva Ibbotson, 1994

Eva Ibbotson has quite an imagination. I've read some of her stories before so I knew I was going to like this one. She writes about ghosts and monsters, but it's all very matter of fact and there are very few bad monsters, most are just misunderstood. It's a cute story about a kidnapped prince and the rescue party that is send to retrieve him, and even though it's very full of characters you never feel lost or confused. It's straight-forward good vs. bad and you root for the underdog the whole time. Very worth the read.

The Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse

Rick Riordan, 2006, 2007

I really liked the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and was ready to keep reading about the characters, but the 2nd and 3rd books were amazing. The stories were better with scarier monsters and narrower escapes and you keep learning more and more about the world of the "half-bloods" and greek gods. And now there is an overarching story line that you can see running through all the books and you can see Percy and his friends headed towards. It's like when you're reading Harry Potter and you know there that each book is it's own story, but the battle against Voldemort is brewing under the surface in each one. Still... each books is so good and they keep building on each other so you can't put them down. When I finished the Sea of Monsters I immediately went to the library to get the next one and I'm kinda pissed that the 4th one is checked out. Definitely read these!

The Name of This Book is Secret

Pseudonymous Bosch, 2007

This is one of the quirkiest books that I've read in a while. It's told by a narrator who is conflicted because he thinks the story is too secret and dangerous to share, but he just can't help himself. So he changes all the names and only describes things if he's sure you won't be able to track them down and jumps in to the narrative every so often to warn you about impending danger or explain why the characters did what they did. It's very entertaining and creative. The main characters are two 11 years olds so it's definitely written for that audience. It's full of logic and actions that only make sense to the naive and un-worldly 6th graders, but it's still a great story and worth the effort.

The Library Card

Jerry Spinelli, 1997

Jerry Spinelli is a really good author. He's able to tell stories that are real and full of true feeling, not fluffy or fake, but at the same time make them relatable to a younger audience. Maniac Magee is a great example of that and his series of 5 short stories that make up The Library Card are also. Each story follows a different person as their life is affected by a small blue library card. Some use it to learn, others use it to remember, and others use it to connect. There's an element of magic in the stories, but it's not overt or cheesy, it just feels special. Of course I picked this book up because of the title, but I'm glad that I did. It's stories are touching and remind me of one of the reasons that I love sharing books and stories with people.

End of Summer Reads

It’s officially the end of summer. It’s been raining off and on all week and it was dark by 7:20pm tonight (darn Central Time Zone). It all goes downhill from here. Despite the depressing loss of sunlight I’ve managed to read some good books lately. So here are my end of summer reads:

Q is for Quarry
Sue Grafton, 2003
Sue Grafton has quite a series going, and it worked out very well for me since I needed a ‘Q’ book for my reading challenge. The A, B, C books are mysteries that follow Kinsey Millhone, a private detective in California, as she tackles cases. They are fun and suspenseful and hard to predict. They’re also amusing because they are slightly dated. They are set in the 90s before cell phone and PDAs and lots of modern technological conveniences that would be beneficial to someone in Kinsey’s line of work.
Overall they’re great stories. I’ve read two of them out of order, and they can definitely be read as individual books, but I think you could get even more out of the stories by reading them in order.

Mansfield Park
Jane Austen, 1814
Jane Austen is very good. Her stories are so calm, yet cover so many events and emotions. I’ve read all but one of her books and I have to admit this is probably my least favorite. It’s very long and it seemed to drag more than the other books she’s written. I’ve seen two different movie versions of this story, and never realized how much they condensed the book. As much as I admire Fanny Price’s moral character, I kept getting annoyed at her crippling shyness. It’s a good book and well worth the time it takes to read, but if you could only read one Jane Austen book, I would say go with Persuasion or Pride and Prejudice over this one.

The Lightning Thief
Rick Riordan, 2005
For those of you who are slightly depressed that there are no more Harry Potter books coming out and slightly mad that Warner Brothers has decided to move the next Harry Potter movie release back from this November to July 2009, there is hope. The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series follows Percy and his “half-blood” friends as they navigate the world of mythological monsters and gods. The world of Greek mythology is real and Percy is learning what it means to be the son of a god and to see all the creatures and monsters that he’d always thought were just tall tales.
This is a great story. It had been recommended by a couple of people, but I just now got around to reading it. It’s well written with exciting adventures and action sequences. It’s chocked full of Greek mythology, but you don’t have to be an expert to understand what’s going on. It’s a quick, fun read that’s perfect for lazy rainy days, when you are yearning for HP type adventures.

The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear
Jasper Fforde
I loved these books. It’s been a while since I read something that was so creative and fun, yet complicated and compelling. These are the first two books in the Nursery Crime Series. They tell the story of Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergent Mary Mary who run the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Force. They investigate the cases involving PDRs or Persons of Dubious Reality.
In the first book, The Big Over Easy, Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall. Was it an accident or was there foul play involved? In the second book, The Fourth Bear, Henrietta “Goldilocks” Hatchett has gone missing and the last people to see her alive were the three bears. Adding to Jack’s problems is the fact that the Gingerbreadman – “psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and cookie” – has broken out of prison.
There are so many ways that these books could fall flat, but they don't and I'm sure it's because the author is intensely talented. They are full of nursery rhyme characters acting out their stories in incredibly creative ways, but at the heart of the books is a really good who-dun-it mystery that truly keeps you guessing.

Summer Reads

I’ve gotten a bit behind on reviewing the books I’ve been reading this summer so I thought I would do a couple quick reviews to get back on track.

Twisted
Laurie Halse Anderson, 2007
Ms. Anderson is a very good author who writes with a gritty sense of reality to her stories. Her characters are flawed and their lives can be hard, but their stories, while intense, are relatable and good reads. This is the story of a high school boy who pulled a prank at the end of the school year and has been working off his community service all summer. The summer of hard labor in the sun has turned him from geek to hottie. His life has changed, but he's finding being noticed by the “in” crowd can bring just as much negative as positive.

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
Gennifer Choldenko, 2007
Kirsten has had a rough summer. Her parent’s are fighting and her best friend has been gone. She’s not really excited about starting school again, but does her best to keep a good attitude. Walker is starting at a new school as one of the only black students. He knows life will be hard, but this school is what he’ll need to get a good start in life and keep out of trouble. When the two of them become friends they learn something that makes each of them really have to question what they’ve known and what their future will look like. Very good author and an interesting story told from both main character’s point of view, going back and forth from chapter to chapter. The ending seemed a bit too easy, but it was a great read.

Fearless Fourteen
Janet Evanovich, 2008
The fourteenth book in the Stephanie Plumb series is a no different than the others. It’s really fun, really quick and slightly frustrating. The fun characters are back. Lula, Grandma Mazur, Joe Morelli and more, plus more quirky residents of Trenton, NJ join the ride. As much as I like these books I’m about at the end of my patience about the Ranger vs. Joe dilemma that Stephanie is in. I think she’s in a rut and needs to choose one guys over the other and make some changes in her life. But regardless, this is another fun book and I’m gonna keep reading the adventures when new ones come out.

Just Like That
Marsha Qualey, 2007
Hanna is a really cool girl. She’s someone that I would want to be friends with, but I have a feeling that people that are that well adjusted and sure of themselves in high school don’t exist outside of books. I took a chance with this book because I needed an author whose name started with a ‘Q’ for my A~Z Reading Challenge. It was a “blind date with a book” and I think I’d be willing to go on a second date if they asked. Hanna has an event happen in her life that really makes her question who she is and what she wants in life. The author does a superb job of making her search real and relatable and I’d love to read more that she’s written.

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
Eleanor Updale, 2004
This book is set in England in the 1800s (one of my favorite places and time periods) and tells the imaginative story of a convict who uses his skills as a thief to set himself up in high society. His plundering finances a new more gentile way of life, but without even realizing it he truly begins to change, slowly becoming the gentleman that he only started out pretending to be. There are sequels to this story, but I think I’ll stick with the first one since it’s so satisfying of an ending.

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

By Jordan Sonnenblick

2004 - Scholastic Press

I've read another book by this author and I really enjoyed it. He writes from the teen male perspective really well. He does a really good job of telling stories that you could imagine really happening. I'm not, nor have I ever been, a teen male, but I almost feel like I can relate to the main character because he is so real and his voice is so true. (how's that for a pretentious phrase)

Steven is just starting high school and trying to figure everything out. He's lusting after the hot girl in class and working hard to be the best drummer in the all-city jazz band. His life takes a dramatic turn when his little brother, Jeffrey, gets sick. Everything changes and he has to figure out who he is and learn what he can and can't do to affect his situation.

It's a great story, and a quick but satisfying read.

Slaughterhouse Five

By Kurt Vonnegut

1969 - Dell Publishing

Every now and then I like to read a book that falls into the "literature" category. Normally, I gravitate towards very light, general fiction within the young adult sphere, but I recognize that there are good books out there that I might not immediately think to read. This is one of those books. People like to talk about how they had to read it for a class in high school or college and what they did or didn't get out of it.

It was creatively written in that it was a story within a story, kind of like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I thought that was interesting. And it kind of centers around the bombing of Dresden during WWII, which I will admit I don't know much about, but made for an interesting centerpiece. But other than that I didn't really like it. It was just weird. When the literary types rave about a book and say how it had deep meaning and all that, they lose me. Here's a direct quote from the back of the book: "Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know." What?! That sounds so pretentious and it means nothing to me.

It's a book about a guy who writes a book about a character who was a prisoner of war during WWII and managed to survive the bombing of Dresden and who gets "unstuck" in time so keeps popping in and out of different periods of his life, which include a number of years when he was abducted by aliens and placed in the "human" exhibit in their zoo. Again...WTF? If the description of the book was ever actually clearly stated anywhere I wonder how many people would actually read it.

Zathura

By Chris Van Allsburg

2002 - Houghton Mifflin Company

This is a picture book so I almost feel like I’m cheating by having it on my reading list, but I really don’t think the quality of a book can be judged by it’s length or whether or not it has illustrations. Chris Van Allsburg has quite an imagination so reading any of his picture books is a treat. This particular book is loosely a sequel to Jumanji. Both books have been made into very clever and fun movies, but I have to say I almost always like the book better.
This book is a more simplified version of the movie (which I saw first) and I like it because of that. It’s still a great imaginative adventure in outerspace, but it’s quick and engaging without really over-thinking anything. Two thumbs up.

Love, Rosie

By Cecelia Ahern

2005, Hyperion Books

I heard about this author because she got a lot of buzz because her father was the Prime Minister of Ireland from 1997 until just recently. I imagine she had trouble being seen as a successful author apart from who her famous father was. I, for one, think she has talent. Her first book was P.S. I Love You, which was adapted into a very sad, yet touching movie.

This book, Love, Rosie tells the story of two best friends, Rosie and Alex, who become best friends at the age of 6 and remain tight for years and years. It follows their lives, but the twist is that it is completely told through correspondence. You read about their lives through e-mails, letters, IM conversations, birthday cards and more. It’s so creative and rather well done. It does take a little while to get into it because there is no narrative so you have to pay attention and kind of fill in the blanks yourself. But it’s not hard and it's fun to see what happens next. The two main characters are a bit of a departure from the goodie-goodie hero and heroine that are the usual fare in books. You are definitely rooting for them as you read, but you laugh along as they get in trouble and make sketchy decisions. I also love that it's set in Dublin. I’d say it’s worth picking up and reading at your leisure.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club

By Heather Vogel Frederick
2007, Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers

This was a very interesting take on the “put un-like people together with a gimmick and they’ll grow and become great friends” type book. It’s set in Concord, Massachusetts, the historical town that was home to Louisa May Alcott, so the characters in the book read Little Women. It was a really cute story and even though you knew it was going to have a happy ending it was still great fun to read. I loved that there were so many characters. It made it more interesting and fun that there were so many people interacting. I also really liked that the author snuck in a lot of history, both about Concord, Mass and Louisa May Alcott. It was a “twinkie” book where the reader secretly learns a little history. Nice. It also didn't hurt that one of the moms was a librarian and was really the coolest of all the moms...in my unbiased opinion.