Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

The Slanted Worlds

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by Catherine Fisher
First sentence: “The Bomb fell in a split second of silence.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Obsidian Mirror
Content: There’s some violence and (much like the first one) this takes some effort to follow. Not for the reluctant of readers. It’s in the YA (Grades 6-8) section of the bookstore.

A few spoilers for the first one, obviously. You’ve been warned.

Both Jake and Venn have become increasingly desperate to use the mirror, to make it work right. Jake, in order to find his father. Venn, because he wants to turn back the clock to get his wife back. Neither of them know of the outside forces controlling the mirror — that’s a knowledge known intimately to Maskelyne, an old, old time traveler, who may have been the one who invented the mirror — but both are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the mirror safe, and bring back the ones they love. Including involving Summer, the leader of the Shee, the fae-like creatures.

I have realized while typing the above that I could recount the plot of the entire book and it probably wouldn’t make any sense to those who haven’t read it.

There are other factors, as well: Sarah’s still around, trying to destroy the mirror and rid the world of Janus, and she’s willing to involve the Shee as well.  In fact, the Shee is the wild card here: Summer is the chaotic evil here, working toward her own end, but we have no idea what that end it.

There’s a lot of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff in this book, time looping in and back and forward on itself in incredibly fascinating ways. Jake is the real focus of the book; its his quest to find his father that we follow most closely. It was a good thing to focus on one arm of the conflict, though I did miss having Sarah around.

But at the end, I was left wondering: how is this all going to come together in the next book? How are we going to resolve the tension between needing to rescue those trapped in time and the need to destroy the mirror to save the world?

I suppose I’m just going to have to read the third one and find out.

The Forgotten Sisters

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by Shannon Hale
First sentence: “Miri woke to the rustle of a feather-stuffed quilt.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Princess Academy, Palace of Stone
Release Date: February 24, 2015
Review copy snagged from the ARC shelves of my place of employment.
Content: There’s some violence, but nothing graphic. And some kissing, which may be ew-inducing in the younger set. Still, I think it belongs in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, though it might do better with the 5-7th graders.

Miri finished her year at the Palace and was looking forward to going back home to Mount Eskel, seeing her family, enjoying getting back to the life she once had before the Princess Academy changed her path. But, her winding road isn’t finished yet: the neighboring country, Stora, is threatening invasion, and in order to pacify them King Bjorn has offered up some distant cousins as a bride to the aging Storan king. And Miri is sent, unwilling and unprepared, to the swamp of Lesser Alvan to find these cousins and whip them into shape for a royal wedding.

What Miri finds when she gets to the swamp are three motherless girls — Astrid, Felissa, and Sus — who have been resourceful enough to find a way to survive without the help of the castle. They were supposed to be getting an allowance, which has been stolen by the local village overlord. They were supposed to have servants and a family, and they’ve been robbed of that, too. However, they made to, and once Miri figured out how to connect with them, things went well.

In fact, Astrid and Sus were my favorite characters. Felissa was nice enough — her main characteristic, as Hale often reminded us, was smiling — but Astrid was tough, no-nonsense, responsible, and just plain amazing. Sus soaked up the knowledge, and there’s a scene at the end (I won’t spoil it) where she talks coolly and rationally and logically and in the end makes everyone listen to her. Miri,too, was a bastion of resourcefulness: she adapted to the swamp life and fought back against the bandits and robber barons. She fought for justice and did so in a way that wasn’t violent.

The thing that kept running through my mind while reading this was that it was a girl power book, but not in the way we usually think of it. Usually, we want our girls to be like guys: kicking butt, fighting. But, Hale has given us girls and women who Do Things and stand up to people without violence, without force. In fact, you can look at this book as the myriad of ways women survive what men in power do to them. From making decisions to making war to actual physical violence, men can be (are often?) cruel and unthinking. But, women can survive and flourish.

It never got didactic or heavy-handed, though I did think some of the twists and turns of plot were a bit much. It came together in the end, though, in a very satisfying way. Because above all, Hale is a consummate storyteller. And this is definitely a good story.

I Was Here

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by Gayle Forman
First sentence: “The day after Meg died, I received this letter:”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy pilfered from the Penguin rep pile.
Content: There is drinking, illusions to pot smoking, language, and some tasteful sex. It’s also a post-high school graduation book. For these reasons, it’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

Cody and Meg have been best friends for as long as Cody can remember. Since her mother was gone pretty much all the time, Cody practically grew up at Meg’s house. Meg’s family became her family, Meg’s dreams her dreams. Until they graduated, and Meg got a full-ride scholarship away from their small Eastern Washington town and to a fancy liberal arts school in Tacoma. Suddenly, Cody was the one left behind.

A year later, though, Meg committed suicide. Leaving Cody behind again.

An aside here, in case this sounds crass: this book isn’t about Meg’s suicide. Not really. It’s about Cody, and her reactions to Meg’s suicide. Dealing with grief, dealing with loss, dealing with the reasons why. Meg isn’t a character in this book, even though you kind of get to know her. She’s a reason. A cause.

Cody heads to Tacoma to clean out Meg’s apartment and discovers an encrypted file. Suddenly what seemed like a simple suicide looks more suspicious. And with the help of one of Meg’s roommates (stereotypical Korean computer whiz) and an ex-boyfriend (tortured rock soul whom Cody ends up “saving”) Cody tries to make sense of the senseless.

In the end, it was less of a mystery than I hoped for and more of a romance. And while the romance was okay, I kind of thought it took away from the whole grief thing. Cody is hurt, and maybe one needs a Man to heal, but it kind of felt out of place here. Forman is a good writer, though, and she got across Cody’s raw grief and her questions that didn’t have answers and her need for closure.

A good read, if not an exceptional one.

State of the TBR Pile: February 2015

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I’ve finally worked through the library books on my stack. Just in time to put more on hold because of the ALA Youth Media awards… There’s just too many books!

Currently on the nightstand pile:

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (old Christmas gift I need to read)
With a Name Like Love, by Tess Hilmo (ditto)
Trigger Warning, by Neil Gaiman (I meant to get this read before it came out)
I Will Always Write Back, by Martin Ganda and Caitlin Alifrenka (I heard an interview with them on PW Kids Cast, and now I’m curious)
The Door in the Moon, by Catherine Fisher (I want to finish this trilogy!)
Half Wild, by Sally Green (Because I liked the first one)
Red Butterfly, by A. L. Sonnchsen
The Tapper Twins Go to War, by Geoff Rodkey (another PW Kids Cast interview)
The Mark of the Thief, by Jennifer Neilsen (Because I liked her other ones)
The Winner’s Crime, by Marie (I’ve been very patient about this one)
The Forgotten Sisters, by Shannon Hale (Because Shannon Hale)
Seeker, by Arwen Elys Dayton (though I read a meh review about this one, so I might not read it…)

What’s on your pile?

The Shadow Cabinet

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by Maureen Johnson
First sentence: “The curtains at 16 Hyssop Close hadn’t been opened all day.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged from the box from the publisher rep.
Others in the series: The Name of the Star, The Madness Underneath
Release date: February 10, 2015
Content: There’s a lot of murder in this one, some of it gory, but never graphic. Other than that, it’s just intense. The series is in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore, but I wouldn’t oppose giving it to a younger kid who was interested in ghost stories.

First off: spoilers for the other two books, obviously. You’ve been warned. (And if you haven’t read them, you really should. They’re excellent.)

Two years is a long time to wait for a book. And in the process, I’ve forgotten all the anxiousness I experienced when I finished the last one. So I do have to admit, that this one took a little bit of time to get back into the swing of things.

It begins forty years ago, with the grisly murder of 10 teenagers by a pair of odd, unusual twins named Sid and Sadie (though in my mind, Sadie was always the Thrilling Adventure Hour Sadie…). It’s a violent way to begin a book (then again, they are murder mysteries) and it’s important, though it doesn’t come to fruition until the end. The main story is the two prongs leftover from Madness: trying to figure out what happened to Stephen when he died and trying to figure out where crazy Jane took Charlotte. Both of those lead Rory and the rest of the ghost team: Thorpe, Boo, and Callum down increasingly crazy paths.

Things I really liked: I loved the addition of Freddie, a new ghost hunter. She was spunky and funny and a breath of fresh air in the midst of Rory’s loss. And I loved that MJ brought back Jerome from book one. Even though he’s mostly kept in the dark, he plays an important role in all of the crazy that follows.

It’s as good as Name of the Star, I think. And it sets up an epic conclusion (I hope). Now, it’s just waiting until that conclusion comes.

Fairest

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by Marissa Meyer
First sentence: “She was lying on a burning pyre, hot coals beneath her back.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress
Content: There are some sexytimes, but it’s entirely off-stage and only vaguely alluded to. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore, like the rest of the series.

This wasn’t the Marissa Meyer book I was expecting to review this year. I wanted Winter, the final installment in my series, the one that will hopefully bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. So, I kind of jokingly asked our Macmillian rep when he was here a couple weeks back if he had an ARC of it for me. His response? “Oh, you haven’t heard? They’ve pushed that off in favor of telling Queen Levana’s backstory.” Me? “WHAT?”

This one goes back an unspecified number of years (10? 15? 20?) to when Levana was 15, the younger sister of a very beautiful, and very cruel princess. A princess who used her mind-manipulation powers to control Levana. To make Levana do things she wouldn’t usually do. To hurt Levana. It’s also the story of the damaged (emotionally and physically) Levana trying to find love in inappropriate places (ie, with a married guard), and manipulating people to get what she wants. And, it’s the story of how Levana became queen (mostly by an accident of fate), and how she ended up with Winter.

Sometimes, going back and telling a character’s backstory works. Say, like Kristin Cashore’s Fire. It was needed to fully understand what she was going to tell in Bitterblue. But this? I enjoyed Levana as a cardboard villain, the fairy tale Bad Queen. I really wasn’t looking to find her sympathetic, to understand Why she was the Bad Guy.

But I read this anyway. And I still feel the same: I’m not sure it was a necessary diversion, but perhaps I’ll be proved wrong when Winter finally comes out.

El Deafo

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by Cece Bell
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s a little talk of Love (she has a crush) but other than that, it’s quite accessible for the 3-5 grader. It’s in the middle grade graphic novel section at the bookstore.

This one has been on my radar for a long time, and (like too many other things), I can now say I Should Have Read it Sooner!

It’s the mostly-true (except for the part where she’s a bunny) story of Cece Bell, and her experiences as a deaf child in the 70s and early 80s. She lost her hearing due to a bout with meningitis when she was four, and as a result had to wear a hearing aid and use a Phonic Ear during school. It’s not something she really enjoys at first, even though she realizes it gives her a sort of super-power.

But, the story is really only incidentally about being deaf, it’s more about finding a way to belong and a friend. Bell is very practical about the friends she made, not sugar coating anything. But, it’s not a harsh book; on the contrary, it’s a very sweet and often hilarious story. And it’s good that it’s out there to remind readers that it’s because of our differences that life is interesting.

Very highly recommended.

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: February 2014

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It’s been cold and windy and rainy the past couple of days (I’m not complaining; it’s not snow!), and so we’ve actually spent quite a bit of time reading. It’s been quite lovely to curl up with a good book (or three).

As for the girls, this is what’s been on their plate. Joelle Charbonneau is coming to the store tomorrow, and in preparation, I read this:

C heard me talking about it, picked it up, and basically devoured it. She asked for the other two, which I picked up at the library yesterday. She’s quite intrigued by this series.

A has been working on book reports, and doesn’t have much time for pleasure reading. (Well, she does, but she’s choosing to watch the entirety of Psych, so there’s that.) The next report is on myths and legends, so she picked this:

I hope she likes it.

As for K, her teacher told her that she needs to quit reading “comic books” (a fact that made me angry when she came home and told me. Obviously, that teacher needs to be educated about the benefits of graphic novels. Sheesh!), so we went to the library to find some longer books. We picked out a dozen for her to look through and she came home with these four.

Hopefully, she’ll find one that she likes and that will satisfy her teacher’s request. (grumble)

What are you planning on reading this month?

January 2015 Wrap Up

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I have read a bit more than this, but several aren’t due out until March, so I’ve scheduled the reviews then, and then I’m knee-deep in discussions for the Cybils award, and I’m not going to publish the reviews of those books until after the winner is announced (on February 14th). So, out of what I reviewed this month this was my favorite:

The House of Silk

There are other important books and fun books and just good books, but it’s the Sherlock Holmes mystery that truly captured my imagination.

As for the rest:

Middle Grade

Absolutely Almost
Dory Fantasmagory
Dory and the Real True Friend
The Map to Everywhere
Stella By Starlight

YA:

All the Bright Places
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future
The Testing

Adult:

The Bishop’s Wife
Fables for Our Time

Nonfiction:

Just Mercy
Yes Please (audiobook)

What were some of your favorites this month?

Audiobook: The House of Silk

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by Anthony Horowitz
Read by Sir Derek Jacobi
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: While there’s nothing “objectionable”, it does, in the end, feature murder, and the solution is pretty tough to take. Still, I think it’d be a good book for all the teen Sherlock lovers out there. It’s in the mystery section at the bookstore.

I’ve been meaning to read this one for years, I swear. I like Sherlock Holmes, and this one is actually sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate, and Horowitz has written some fun middle grade books… and and and.

I finally got around to it because Horowitz published Moriarty, and I remembered that I did want to read House of Silk. Thankfully, the library had an audio version, and so I opted for that.

And what a ride. First: I loved Jacobi’s narration, from his slightly gruff Watson to his more elegant Holmes. And the wide variations of English accents were amazing. The only time I felt he was off was when he did an American woman, but I was able to forgive that.

The conceit is that Watson is writing this at the end of his life, with the intent that it would be hidden and released in 100 years, because the scandal was too great for it to be published during his lifetime. Which sets up an ominous tone that permeates the whole book. Holmes and Watson (married now, and his wife was away so he was back at 221B Baker Street) were solicited by a man, Carstairs, who felt he was being threatened by one of the Flat Cap Gang from Boston. That leads Holmes and Watson down a tricky, twisty, dark path and into the deepest darkest secrets of some of the most powerful men in Britain.

I know I’m being vague. But, really: the less you know, the more enjoyable the ride. And the ending had me flabbergasted. I had some of it figured out — in retrospect, nothing comes out of left field, which is nice — but when the final revelation came I was sufficiently amazed at Holmes and disgusted by the depravity. As well I should be.

I don’t know if I would have liked it as much had I read it; I prefer the TV shows to the stories, and listening to it gave it the feel of one of those. Or maybe it’s just because Horowitz knows action and plotting… which lends credence to my middle grade/mystery crossover theory.

Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.