June Book Challenge 2011 - Page 2

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

1. Moon People: The Age of Aquarius

by Dale M. Courtney

I reviewed it HERE.

1. Moon People: The Age of Aquarius,

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

2. Go the F**k to Sleep (Audio)

by Adam Mansbach

read by Samuel L. Jackson

I reviewed it HERE.

1. Moon People: The Age of Aquarius, 2. Go the F**k to Sleep (Audio),

[raksmama]

 Stolen by Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong’s books always feel like a guilty pleasure for me. They are certainly not trashy. They are pretty well written but there is definitely not anything that is in anyway uplifting or enlightening about them. I don't feel good after reading tehm like how I often do with a De Lint or Allende novel. If you want a pure entertaining read with borderline horror,with supernatural characters and lots of suspense they are perfect.

I am pasting a describtion from her website:

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/stolen/

When a young witch tells Elena that a group of humans are kidnapping supernaturals, Elena ignores the warning. After all, everyone knows there’s no such thing as witches. As for the thought of other ‘supernaturals’, well, she’d just rather not dwell on the possibility. Soon, however, she’s confronted with the truth about her world, when she’s kidnapped and thrown into a cell-block with witches, sorcerers, half-demons and other werewolves. As Elena soon discovers, dealing with her fellow captives is the least of her worries. In this prison, the real monsters carry the keys.

Edited by raksmama - 6/15/11 at 10:47am

[Igraine]

34) Medicine Road, Charles DeLint. A nice, easy read. Not as deep and stimulating as some of DeLint's other work that I have read. But an enjoyable book just the same.

35) Midnight on the Moon  Mary Pope Osborne.

[kofduke]

Mystery, Jonathan Kellerman

When Lt. Milo Sturgis of LAPD homicide asks psychologist Alex Delaware to view the faceless corpse of a young woman in Kellerman's enjoyable if only average 26th Alex Delaware novel (after Deception), Alex is shocked to recognize the gunshot victim as someone he and wife, Robin, saw the night before in a restaurant bar. A link turns out to exist between the dead woman and a sinister-looking man Alex and Robin observed outside the bar that night. An anonymous tip leads to an online service that matches "sugar daddies" with "star-quality sweeties." The victim, who called herself "Mystery," had a "daddy," Markham McReynolds, whose wealthy, anything-goes family offers plenty of suspects, including McReynolds's wife, two sons, and two daughters-in-law. Kellerman's bantering detectives make it look almost too easy as they put together the clues and possible scenarios, despite the unusual solution to the crime.

Okay...fairly formulaic but I always enjoy the interaction between Alex and Milo.

[raksmama]

Promises to Keep by Charles de Lint

 http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/promises-desc01.htm

For all of you who love Jilly Coppercorn from the Newford series!

This novel, although written after, takes place before the other Newford novels, when Jilly is a young art student.

Running into her old friend Donna from the days when  they were both in a juvenile institution, Jilly is invited to see Donna’s band play in a location that (she later finds out) does not exist.  Jilly is lead into a parallel world where most of the inhabitants are actually dead. Everything is perfect in this world and the people living there are able to live out all the dreams that they were unable realise in their former lives.

Even though this novel does deal with some very serious subjects the tone is very uplifting and optimistic. This book was really pleasure to read!

Edited by raksmama - 6/17/11 at 12:34pm

[cathe]

Miss Timmins' School for Girls by Nayana Curimbhoy

Young, innocent Charu gets a job as a teacher at a Christian boarding school in India. She is shy and self-conscious about the large "blot" on her face. She ends up in a lesbian affair with another teacher--but after an argument one night--her lover is murdered and Charu becomes one of the suspects.

 

This book had an intriguing premise and lots of interesting tidbits about life in India, but somehow it didn't quite work. The book was way too long and dragged in many places; there were too many characters that the reader never gets to know very well, and the mystery was just all over the place. I also found that the section narrated from the schoolgirl Nandita really didn't add anything to the story. I thought the writing for the most part was good and that was the main reason I made it through the book. I think the author is talented and would try another of her books in the future.

 

[kofduke]

Save Me, Scottoline

Suburban mom [Rose McKenna] is forced to make a split-second decision after an explosion goes off in the school cafeteria in which she volunteers. Should she rescue her own daughter, Melly, trapped in the bathroom, or lead the girls standing in front of her, who constantly bully her daughter, to safety? Her choice reverberates throughout the little town of Reesburgh, Pennsylvania, as she is cast as the villain by the local news anchor, parents, and the school. While her attorney and husband construct a defense plan that includes filing a lawsuit against the school, [Rose] sets out to seek the truth behind this mysterious, accidental fire. With the help of a construction worker who may know the cause of the explosion as well as an incognito visit to a local factory, [Rose] slowly unravels the truth and along with it some hidden secrets in Reesburgh's dark past, including one horrifying buried memory of her own.

Lisa Scottoline is one of my favorite authors -- she sets fast-moving legal dramas in Philadelphia, so I typically really enjoy both the plot and the characterizations of the city.  However, this one fell flat for me.  The beginning, descriptions of the bullying both of child and mom, really set me on edge, and Rose's maneuverings just pushed believability for me.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

And then, honestly, the reason for the whole conspiracy also just felt ridiculous -- why not just put on the ingredient list that it's produced on factory equipment w/peanuts?  It's really common to say so.  My son doesn't eat M&M's or oreos because they say that.  Rather, let's kill 7 people who know we produce chocolate on equipment with peanuts? 

[kofduke]

Moon Over Manifest, Vanderpole

After a life of riding the rails with her father, 12-year-old Abilene can’t understand why he has sent her away to stay with Pastor Shady Howard in Manifest, Missouri, a town he left years earlier; but over the summer she pieces together his story. In 1936, Manifest is a town worn down by sadness, drought, and the Depression, but it is more welcoming to newcomers than it was in 1918, when it was a conglomeration of coal-mining immigrants who were kept apart by habit, company practice, and prejudice. Abilene quickly finds friends and uncovers a local mystery. Their summerlong “spy hunt” reveals deep-seated secrets and helps restore residents’ faith in the bright future once promised on the town’s sign. Abilene’s first-person narrative is intertwined with newspaper columns from 1917 to 1918 and stories told by a diviner, Miss Sadie, while letters home from a soldier fighting in WWI add yet another narrative layer. Vanderpool weaves humor and sorrow into a complex tale involving murders, orphans, bootlegging, and a mother in hiding. With believable dialogue, vocabulary and imagery appropriate to time and place, and well-developed characters, this rich and rewarding first novel is “like sucking on a butterscotch. Smooth and sweet.”

Lovely Newberry-Award winning, middle years historical fiction.  Abilene Tucker begins delving into the past of the town of Manifest hoping to find her father.  What she finds instead is a place for herself, a young girl who has never had one after years of riding the rails with her dad.

[Igraine]

36) Dolphins at Daybreak Mary Pope Osborne

37) Left Neglected Lisa Genova

[raksmama]

Neon Angel by Cherrie Currie  

A Memoir of a Runaway

http://www.cheriecurrie.com/

 The autobiography of Cherie Currie, the lead singer of “The Runaways” the infamous teenage all-girl rock band in the 70s of which a movie was recently made. I am of the age that I actually remember that group when I was a teen ( and secretly imagined I was singing ”Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch- ch cherry bomb” when I was alone in my room). If you enjoy books about rock stars you’ll love this. I can only read these types of books every now and then because I find very hard to read about people destroying their lives with drugs. Nevertheless it does have a happy end and it is fascinating reading about that time period. I don’t think a group of teenage girls would have gotten away with all the stuff they did now a days.  

Edited by raksmama - 6/22/11 at 12:41pm

[cathe]

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Exciting futuristic novel about a teen boy working as a "ship breaker" scavenging for copper wiring in grounded oil tankers. He and a crewmate discover a newly beached clipper and think they've stuck in rich, especially when they rescue its sole survivor, a wealthy "swank." But things don't turn out exactly the way they thought and the adventure begins. This was a well-written, page turner that would appeal to teens, as well as adults. I'm definitely going to read more by this author. I hear Windup Girl is very good.

[raksmama]

Sound like some thing ds (13) might like. Is it about the reading level of the Percy Jackson series?
 

Originally Posted by cathe 

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Exciting futuristic novel about a teen boy working as a "ship breaker" scavenging for copper wiring in grounded oil tankers. He and a crewmate discover a newly beached clipper and think they've stuck in rich, especially when they rescue its sole survivor, a wealthy "swank." But things don't turn out exactly the way they thought and the adventure begins. This was a well-written, page turner that would appeal to teens, as well as adults. I'm definitely going to read more by this author. I hear Windup Girl is very good.

[cathe]

I'd say maybe a littler older . . . 6th grade and up. Maybe even older depending on the kid. There is some violence. I would put it on the age of Hunger Games.

[cathe]

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

At 18 years old, Victoria is emancipated from the foster-care system and is on her own. Living on the street and sleeping in a park by a garden she created by foraging the city, she finally realizes she needs a job and convinces a local florist to take her on. Soon, Victoria's understanding of the language of flowers makes her arrangements in demand--but still Victoria must face her past. As the book alternates between past events and present, we find out how Victoria learned the flower language and wait to find out if she will be able to correct the mistakes she made and regain the happiness she ran away from long ago.

 

I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down. The writing was excellent, the characters vivid, the story heartbreaking, and the language of the flowers original and interesting. My only small criticism is that the ending seemed a bit too quickly tied up--but this does not stop me from wholeheartedly recommending this book.

[Bufomander]

FremontMama,

You were asking about The Sherlockian.  (I like Laurie King's stuff, too -- and she actually gets a brief mention in Moore's book!)  It's set at the turn of both the 20th and the 21st century, and it is  based on many historical events, though Moore added much to his novel about Arthur Conan Doyle's missing journal, the reason Conan Doyle resurrected Sherlock Holmes after sending him to his death at the Reichenbach Falls, and the Sherlock Holmes societies around the world.  I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoy King's books -- but it's probably not a fair comparison as they are very different types of books to start with.  It was fun, though!

78. What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen
79. Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
80. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
81. Faerie Winter by Janni Lee Simner
 

[cathe]

Boy by Roald Dahl

Fun glimpse into the childhood of Roald Dahl, one of my favorite children's authors. There were funny parts like his first ride in an automobile and painful parts, like when he goes through the windshield of said car and gets his nose all but sliced off. Or when he has his adenoids removed without anesthesia. But both the good and bad parts, plus the interesting characters make this an enjoyable book for kids 4th grade and up, as well as for adults.

 

[NewCrunchyDaddy]

Originally Posted by cathe 

Boy by Roald Dahl

Fun glimpse into the childhood of Roald Dahl, one of my favorite children's authors. There were funny parts like his first ride in an automobile and painful parts, like when he goes through the windshield of said car and gets his nose all but sliced off. Or when he has his adenoids removed without anesthesia. But both the good and bad parts, plus the interesting characters make this an enjoyable book for kids 4th grade and up, as well as for adults.

 

Did you know he wrote the screenplay for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice?  Crazy.
 

[cathe]

Originally Posted by NewCrunchyDaddy 

Did you know he wrote the screenplay for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice?  Crazy.
 

Really??? No, I sure didn't.

[cathe]

Originally Posted by jalilah 

Sound like some thing ds (13) might like. Is it about the reading level of the Percy Jackson series?
 

I just noticed that you put the age of your ds as 13 -- so yes, I'd recommend Ship Breaker for that age.