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.

The Testing

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by Joelle Charbonneau
First sentence: “Graduation Day.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s violent, but not graphically so. And there’s kissing, but no sex. Which means it’s in the YA section (grades 6-8) of the bookstore. However, much like Hunger Games, I’d be wary of more sensitive readers liking it.

This book has been out for two years now, and I’ve been putting it off for just as long. Mostly because the whole post-apocalyptic/dystopian genre has been SO overdone, that I really didn’t want to read yet another one.

Then we scheduled Charbonneau to come to the store — they’ve been working on it since the first one came out and the rep mentioned it was set in a futuristic Wichita — and I was tasked with reading and reviewing the book before she gets here. And so I did, smacking myself when I finished for waiting too long to get around to this one.

Sixteen-year-old Cia Vale has just graduated from her colony’s small school near the top of her class. She’s excited: in this post-Seven Stages War America, now called the United Commonwealth, that means she’s likely to be chosen to attend The Testing in the capitol, Tosu City (aka Wichita, though it took me nearly the whole book to figure that out). Except her father — a former Testing candidate and University graduate himself — doesn’t want her to go. However, once Cia’s been chosen, she can’t say no; refusing the Testing is an act of treason, punishable by death.

So, Cia travels to Tosu City with her father’s warning — TRUST NO ONE — echoing in her ears, and discovers what he meant. The Testing is not just high-pressure and high-competition for the twenty university slots. It’s deadly.

While the plotting and writing isn’t as tight as Suzanne Collins’s, it’s still a quick, engaging read. Charbonneau sets the stakes high right away, with Cia’s roommate committing suicide, and doesn’t let up until the final pages of the book. There are twists and turns — some of which I saw, some of which I didn’t — and Cia is a good, strong narrator to carry this story on her shoulders. It’s definitely post-apocalyptic; Charbonneau cleverly gave us a brief history of how this country came to be in a series of short written test questions early on. The dystopian part is harder to see — Cia comes to hate the Testing officials, and the government as an extension, but I’m not sure I ever felt the way she did about the officials. Unlike, say, President Snow in The Hunger Games. (Yes, comparisons are inevitable.) I do think, on the other hand, that it’s a tighter, more interesting story than Divergent (yes, there’s a love interest, which I think was mostly unnecessary).

But the best thing about waiting to read this one is that the whole series is out already. And I don’t have to wait to read the second one. And I’m invested enough in Cia’s story that I’m quite curious to find out what happens next.

Just Mercy

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by Bryan Stevenson
First sentence: “I wasn’t prepared to meet a condemned man.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s intense, and there are some graphic elements, as well as swearing. It’s not for the tender-hearted (I had to put it down several times and read other books because I couldn’t handle the nature of the story). It’s in the adult non-fiction sections of the bookstore.

This one has been on my radar for a while as one I’d need to get around to reading. But what really prompted me to pick it up was listening to Serial. The two don’t really have a ton in common, but there are similarities. Both deal with minorities being imprisoned, mostly unjustly. Both are difficult, at times, to listen to/read. Both are important.

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer from Harvard in the mid-80s when he went to Atlanta to do an internship there. He got involved with a death-penalty case in Alabama, where he determined that the man was accused falsely. Stevenson became involved in the case to the point where he started the Equal Justice Initiative, a group that advocates for people on death row, as well as for children and for those with mental disabilities who have been imprisoned for life.

I took away two things from this book: First, our justice system may work “as well as it can”, but that usually means “for those who can afford it.” If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear after reading this: our system is broke. It favors those who are white, those who are healthy, and those who are well off. Especially in the South. It saddened and depressed me that this isn’t history. This is happening in my lifetime, not in some distant past.

The second thing is that Stevenson is an incredibly hopeful individual. He’s practical, yes. But he’s also hopeful, and Christian, and just Good to do this work for people society — people like me — have written off. It makes me want to go out and give everyone I meet a second, or third, chance. Yes, there are people out there who are beyond hope, but I think, especially after reading this, that there aren’t that many people who are completely unredeemable.

It was a tough book, emotionally, for me to read (it didn’t help that I went and saw Selma while reading this as well). I cried a lot. My heart broke. And I had to think about the way I treat and judge people.

I am grateful that there are people like Stevenson out there doing this work. And I’m glad he wrote this book if only to make people like me more aware.

Dory

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Dory Fantasmagory
by Abby Hanlon
First sentence: “My name is Dory, but everyone calls me Rascal.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Dory and the Real True Friend
First sentence: “My name is Dory, but everyone calls me Rascal.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged from the publisher rep.
Release date: July 2015
Content: It’s pretty basic, short, and liberally illustrated with pencil sketches throughout. It’s in the beginning chapter book (grades 1-2) section of the bookstore.

I don’t often read beginning chapter books anymore. K is past that age (and prefers graphic novels, anyway), and it’s just not where my interest lies. That said, every once in a while, a book comes along that I just have to pick up, and in the end, just makes me smile. I ended up reading this one becuas while it’s been on my radar for a while, it was making it as a finalist for the Cybils that convinced me  I really ought to read it.

And I was thoroughly charmed.

Dory is a 6-year-old with a VERY active imagination. She’s the youngest child, and her two older siblings don’t ever really want to play with her. So, she plays with her imaginary monster friend, Mary, and goes on a ton of adventures. That’s really all there is to the plot. (Well, in the second book, she goes to first grade and eventually makes a “real” friend, whom everyone thinks is imaginary.) But what these have going for it is that Hanlon gets first graders. Seriously. She gets their quirks, their habits, their curiosity, their silliness. And she makes Dory an absolutely fantastic character. She’s someone you want to spend time with, laugh with, and who just makes you happy.

My only criticisms are superficial: I’m going to have a hard time getting boys to read this. But, much like Princess in Black, I think that boys are really going to enjoy Dory and her crazy imagination. And secondly, everyone’s white. It’s a little thing, but Dory didn’t have to be white, and her best friend didn’t have to be white, but they are.

Even so, they are adorable books. And adorable wins every time.