State of the TBR Pile: October 2013

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For the next few months, I have two TBR piles (that’s not counting the three ARC piles for work): The Ones I Want To Read and The Ones I Need To Read For Cybils.

First, my smallish Cybils pile (the nominations are open for a couple more days, if you want to see this pile grow…):

The Strangers (Books of Elsewhere 4), by Jacqueline West
Guys Read: Other Worlds, ed. Jon Scieszka
The Hostage Prince, by Jane Yolen (Actually, it’s not nominated yet. Huh.)
What We Found on the Sofa and How it Saved the World, by Henry Clark
The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud
The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Kathi Appelt
The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, by Catherynne M. Valente (Hmm… Not Nominated… yet….)
The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu
How to Catch a Bogle, by Catherine Jinks (Again, not nominated. People. Work on this.)

And for my “want to” pile:

Totto-Chan, by Tetsuko Kuroanagi
Will in Scarlett, by Matthew Cody
Shadows, by Robin McKinley (though, honestly, I tried to start this the other day, and disappointingly, it didn’t grab me)
Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein
Are You Experienced, by Jordan Sonnenblick
45 Pounds (More or Less), by Kelly Barson
The Bitter Kingdom, by Rae Carson

What’s on your pile?

The Clockwork Scarab

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by Colleen Gleason
ages: 12+
First sentence: “There are a limited number of excuses for a young, intelligent woman of seventeen to be traversing the fog-shrouded streets of London at midnight.”
Review copy pilfered off the ARC shelves at my place of employment.

Years ago, I remember when Colleen Gleason came out with the Gardella vampire books. I won the first one, if I remember right, and I remember liking it quite a bit. And so, when I got wind that she was writing a YA books, starring the “niece” of Sherlock Holmes and the half-sister of Braham Stoker, I was excited. And the cover is sooo pretty. I had high hopes.

The basic story is this: There have been a series of disappearances and apparent suicides in late-19th century socialite London. Miss Holmes and Miss Stoker are invited by Miss Irene Adler (I had to remind myself who she was), to help assist in this investigation. There are suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths/disappearances of the girls, and there’s a mechanical scarab left at every scene. There are, of course, several love interests, including a Lieutenant, a mysterious gentleman who goes by the name of Pix, and (most interesting), a time traveler from the future.

That’s all the plot I got from the handful of pages I read. See, in spite of my high expectations (or perhaps because of them?), I couldn’t make it very far in this one. It just wasn’t clicking for me. Miss Holmes was interesting, but Miss Stoker was… off. And I was put off by the talk of clothes and hair, and the swooning over the boys. Much like Etiquette & Espionage, I felt like Gleason was dumbing herself down, and that wasn’t sitting right with me.

True, it has all the markings of a good YA mystery, but in the end, I bailed.

Exile

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by Shannon Messenger
ages: 9+
First sentence: “Sophie’s hands shook as she lifted the tiny green bottle.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Keeper of the Lost Cities
Review copy snagged off the review shelves at my place of employment.

First off: kids like this series. So, take everything I say about it with a HUGE grain of (adult) salt. Also: spoilers for the first one. Obviously.

Sophie is still living with the elves. She’s still multitalented, which many of her age-mates find annoying. She’s still trying to get used to living with her adopted family. And she’s still trying to figure out who the Black Swan are, and why they created her.

It’s a lot for a 12-year-old to handle.

Especially since she found a rare alicorn — part unicorn, part Pegasus — in the woods and brought it home. It could “reset the timeline” (no, I have no idea what that means), and so Sophie’s been given charge (reluctantly) by the Council to tame and train the alicorn. Which, of course, she forms a bond with.

Much like the first one, this one was TOO long. Sure, there was a lot of white space and the text is big, but at 570 pages, I was exhausted before I was halfway through. And, much like the last one, I feel like Messenger has a good story in here. This time, though, she needed an EDITOR to hack her stuff down to 250 pages. (Especially all of Sophie’s anxiety moments. ENOUGH ALREADY.) I did like some of the characters — Keefe, especially– and I thought Messenger tied up the story nicely while leaving some threads for the next book.

(Can I hope for that one to be shorter??)

But, as I said at the first, kids do seem to like this series. It’s good for those who aren’t old enough for Harry Potter or want more like that. But it’s just not doing it for me.

Quintana of Charyn

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by Melina Marchetta
ages: 14+
First sentence: “
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Finnikin of the Rock, Froi of the Exiles

(Spoilers, obviously, for the other two.)

It’s been a few months since the Charyn king was killed, and Charyn is in upheaval. Froi is recovering from his wounds (to put it mildly), Quintana is pregnant and in  hiding, in the valley bordering Charyn and Lumatere. Isaboe and Finnikin are fighting, mostly because Isaboe, who is expecting their second child, is obsessing over Froi (he hasn’t returned from his assignment to assassinate the Charyn king). It’s all very complicated and political. As the book progresses, it doesn’t get any less so: the setting up of a country (or re-setting, I guess) is a messy affair. There are fits and starts, miscommunications and offenses, second guesses and traitors. It’s not a pretty story, laid out in nice, neat rows, but rather a realistic one: in this political game, where the futures of several countries are at stake, the question is how many lives is it going to cost?

(I’m glad I didn’t have to write the jacket blurb on this one.)

I wish I had had the opportunity to read this series like M did, one right after another. Well, actually: she read Finnikin, started Froi, didn’t like the book because it wasn’t Finnikin, put it down for a while, picked it back up, finished it, demanded Quintana, and then RAVED about it.

It took me a bit longer, and I think the book suffered for the wait. because it took me a while to get into the characters and the world again. But, thankfully, Marchetta remembered that it’d been a while since Froi came out, and helped me remember the important bits as we went along. While it’s not as dark as the previous two books, it’s still an intense ride. Marchetta keeps us on the edge of our seat the whole way through (which is a considerable feat, seeing as the book is 500+ pages long) , wondering if the outcome will be what we want, and wondering how she is going to get there. I loved this book for many reasons, but two stand out. First, that it was a messy book, which made it more real. This isn’t a fairy tale. This is a political drama, and I appreciated the mess. It kept me interested. The second thing was that the relationships were so complex. All of them. Marchetta has a gift when it comes to writing relationships. And not just romantic ones. Friendships were complex. Parent-child relationships were complex. And loves were complex, deliciously so. And because of that, everyone (EVERYONE!) had a growth arc. There were no simplistic characters. I can’t tell you how happy that made me.

And the end, oh the end. (Endings have been meaning a lot more to me lately, for some reason.) I should have seen it coming (M did!), but I didn’t, and it was perfect in so many ways.

Which means the only thing wrong with this book was that it was over, and there are no more stories to tell about these characters. And that makes me impossibly sad.

Untold

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by Sarah Rees Brennan
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Welcome to Sorry-in-the-Vale.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Unspoken
Review copy greedily stolen from the package the publisher sent to the bookstore, then hoarded on my shelves until I finally devoured it.

To catch up (spoilers for Unspoken, obviously.):
1. Kami’s imaginary friend, Jared, is real.
2. He’s part of an old sorcerer family.
3. Who used to rule Sorry-in-the-Vale
4. His uncle, Rob, is more than slightly batty, and is killing people because blood gives him power.
5. Kami wants to stop him.

In many ways, this is very much a second book in a trilogy. The first was a brilliant set up. This one, while still interesting and laugh-out-loud funny at times,  had the feel that everything is building toward some grand conclusion. Though we never quite get to it in this book.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad book. On the contrary, it’s actually quite good. Even though I felt like I was spinning my wheels — will Kami and Jared get together? Will Lillian ever stop being a Royal Snob?  Will Angela and Holly work out their differences? Will Ash ever grow a backbone? — it was done in a way that I didn’t mind the spinning. At all. It was also because I adore Kami. I hate to call her plucky, but she really is. She’s smart, and determined, and bossy, and willing to do ANYTHING for her family, friends, and town. I love her.

And the ending? Oh. My. Gosh.  If I wasn’t already convinced that endings can make or break a book, I would be now. The ending is brilliant. And painful. Because now I have to WAIT for the next book.

It was worth it, though.

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: October 2013

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I almost forgot about this; some months, the first Sunday creeps up on me too fast. We’re adjusting to M being gone, and even though we get to “talk” to her via Facebook and email, there are still times when we miss having her around.

As for the rest of them, they’re doing the usual: homework, bickering, spending too much time on the computer, and (of course) reading.

C is nearly done with this one, but has put it aside.

It’s not because she doesn’t like it, but rather because she doesn’t want Amanda and Leo’s story to end. From what she’s said, it’s quite a wonderful conclusion to the series.

A has joined Battle of the Books. It’s basically an elementary school competition here in town. Interested 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders read a list of books then create teams and compete, answering questions about the books read. Neither M or C were interested in doing this, but A seems to be liking it. Currently she’s reading

and says it’s “very emotional” right now. She’s not that far into it, though.

And Hubby has convinced K to read

None of the other girls have had any interest in this favorite series of his, and at first, K wasn’t that enthused. (And when asked, she said, “Not so good.”) But, she eagerly asks to read, and even though she’s a bit flummoxed wtih the 19th-century boy stuff, she’s entertained.

The big thing for us, though, is next weekend we’re driving to St. Louis to see Rick Riordan on his House of Hades tour. (Hubby’s not.) The rest of us are thrilled. Pictures forthcoming!

Until then… Happy reading!

Audiobook: Persuasion

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by Jane Austen
read by Greta Scacchi
ages: adult
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

It’s been nearly five years since I last visited Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth’s story, and I thought, especially after liking Emma so much and because of this article in Slate where they ranked it dead last, that maybe it wouldn’t be nearly as good this time around.

Maybe it was the reader — she was delightful — but I really do think that no matter how much I like to pretend otherwise, Persuasion will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s not funny or witty, though it is poking fun at snobby class-conscious people. No, what I said last time still holds:

This book is the best one of Austen’s because it’s a re-finding of love lost, it’s the rekindling of hope, rather than the blush of first love. Anne and Wentworth were torn apart — by pride, prejudice, situation, class… all of which are Austen themes in her other books — and yet they overcome all in order to be together.

It’s still my favorite.

The Beginning of Everything

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by Robyn Schneider
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Sometimes I think that everyone has a tragedy waiting for them, that the people buying milk in their pajamas or picking their noses at stoplights could be only moments away from disaster.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged from the ARC shelves at my place of employment.

Ezra Faulker is the Golden Boy. Junior class president, captain of the tennis team. Surrounded by friends, doted on by parents. Driving a BMW, with the Perfect Girl on his arm. Then, after a party where he interrupted  his girlfriend having sex with someone else, he got into his car, drove away, and… was blindsided by a jerk who blew through a stop sign. His car? Totaled. His knee? Smashed. His life as he knew it? Gone.

Fast forward to the start of his senior year. He’s been an invalid all summer, his friends haven’t come to visit, and he knows his place at the Top of the Heap is gone. He’s signed up for a bunch of AP classes and debate, where he runs into is former best friend, Toby. And the new girl, Cassidy.

Before I go much further, in many ways, this was John Green-lite. It has much of the same feel of a John Green book — privileged kids with their angst and soul-searching — but in without much of the philosophy and depth that John Green adds to his books. In some ways, that’s a good thing: the kids in this book come off less as pretentious and more as real, interesting teenagers. And I liked that. Even though Ezra’s injury wasn’t life-threatening, it still was a massive change for him, and he had to learn to adapt (or be a jerk about it). Cassidy, fresh from boarding school with a tragic backstory of her own, walks that line between free spirit and muse. There are some moments that are classic — their date to the playground, or watching the Disneyland fireworks, or the debate hotel room party — and others that seem forced. And the ending? Not perfect, but also unexpected, which made me happy.

Overall, it’s a good discovery novel, one that I enjoyed reading.

September 2013 Wrap Up

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I thought I was prepared, and had this all ready to go up this morning. Then I remembered that I got sick over the weekend and spent it vegging rather than doing Blog Work (or much of anything, really). At least I caught it today. As a reminder: CYBILS NOMINATIONS OPEN TOMORROW. Go forth and nominate.

No surprise, my favorite this month was:

The Dream Thieves

It don’t get much better than this, folks.

The rest of the rest

Middle Grade

Hollow Earth
Life of Ty: Penguin Problems
Runt
Treasure Hunters

YA:

Winger
Frozen
The Madman’s Daughter
The Spectacular Now

Adult:

Tara Road (audio)
The Golem and the Jinni

What were your favorites this month?

A Couple of Quick Kidlit Remdiners

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First off: nominations for the Cybils open on Tuesday. I’ve been busy thinking of books to nominate for each category (follow the link for category descriptions), and then back-up books for those just in case my first choices are already nominated by the time I get to the computer. The nominations are open to everyone, and are for books published between October 26, 2012 and October 15, 2013. You’re going to nominate something. Right???

Registration for KidlitCon 2103 is open. You should come, and not just because it’s going to be in Austin, TX. Need some convincing?? Check out Bookshelves of Doom, Jen Robinson, Charlotte’s Library, Mother Reader, and Fuse #8 for some thoughts. I’ve already registered, asked for the days off of work, and got myself a roommate (hopefully), so I’ll see you there. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, learning, and getting the chance to hang out with my people.