The Spindlers

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by Lauren Oliver
ages: 8+
First sentence: “One night when Liza went to bed, Patrick was her chubby, stubby, candy-grubbbing and  pancake-loving younger brother, who irritated her and amused her both, and the next morning, when she woke up, he was not.”
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Review copy picked up at KidlitCon

Who doesn’t love a Good Quest? One where the Heroine sets off on a Noble Errand, overcomes Incredible Odds, and Defeats the Greatest Evil while Learning a Valuable Lesson? (Labyrinth, anyone?)

The Spindlers is everything you want from a Good Quest Novel. Liza doesn’t really hate her younger brother Patrick, but he is, well, a boy, which means he’s irritating, annoying, and a thorn in her side. But he is her brother, and the morning he wakes up… different… she knows that his soul has been captured by the spindlers.

And it’s up to her to get him back.  (Since none of the adults in her life believe her, of course.)

She heads down in the basement, armed only with a broomstick; falls through a tunnel; and lands in the world Below. The best way to describe Below is this: it’s a cross between Roald Dahl and Lewis Carroll. It’s not quite as dark as Dahl, though it is dark, and it’s not quite as absurd as Carroll, through there are absurd moments. But it’s definitely as delightful as both.

I’m not going to fill you in on the details of Liza’s quest, because it’s best if you experience that for yourself along with her. I will tell you this: even though it’s a by-the-numbers quest, Oliver has a knack for writing characters that you grow to love, and building a world that’s at turns fascinating, scary and humorous.

I can just see kids wanting to read this one over and over again. (Shoot: I want to!)

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

State of the TBR Pile 11: Cybils Edition

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Now that the Cybils nominations are closed, it’s up to us, the Esteemed Round 1 Judges to read everything and figure out what is best.

Which means, my TBR pile has grown by leaps and bounds. (So much so that at the library where I pick up my holds, they’ve stopped putting them on the Hold Shelf, and instead put them on the Shelf For People With Lots of Holds.) This is just what I’ve picked up this week, too!

A Greyhound of a Girl, by Roddy Doyle
The Cup and the Crown, by Diane Stanley
13 Secrets, by Michelle Harrison
Deadly Pink, by Vivian Vande Velde
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Snow in Summer, by Jane Yolen
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, by Claire Legrand
The Book of Wonders, by Jasmine Richards
The Drowned Vault, N. D. Wilson
Wings of Fire, by Tui T. Sutherland
Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin
The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet
The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
Beswitched, by Kate Saunders

The piles have some Meaning to me, the short version being (from left to right): I’d like to read, I should read, and I need to read. And this is only the beginning…

As for Other Books that I really would like to get to when/if there’s time, there’s this pile:

The Crown of Embers, by Rae Carson (because I loved the first one)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo (because I’ve heard good things about it, and it was nominated for a National Book Award)
Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, by Katherine Marsh (for one of my book groups, which I’m hosting)

What’s on your TBR pile?

Vessel

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by Sarah Beth Durst
ages: 14+
First sentence: “On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family’s tent to see the dawn.”
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Liyana is one of the Turtle People, the people of the desert. Every hundred years, the gods and goddesses they worship come back from the  Dreaming, entering a Vessel that has been prepared in order to walk among their people, helping them with magic live for another hundred years in the desert.

Liyana is the vessel for the goddess Bayla, and even though she doesn’t want to die, she does want to do her duty. But then, something goes wrong: Bayla doesn’t come. Liyana’s clan leaves her to die, but shortly there after the trickster go Korbyn shows up with some bad news: someone has trapped the gods and goddesses and if they don’t save them, then the entire Turtle People will die. (The stakes are even higher than Korbyn realizes: the emperor of the Crescent Empire is planning to invade in search of a lake, in order to ease the Great Drought that has affected his people.) His plan: find the vessels for the rest of the gods/goddesses captured and then find the gods/goddesses and rescue them.

So far, so good: Durst makes interesting use of the idea of freedom, worship and sacrifice for the greater good. Liyana is a strong, likeable girl, someone who was willing to make the sacrifice of her life to help her clan, but in the face of another decision and path, would willingly look at the other options. (There was another vessel who wasn’t as open to other ideas, and she irritated me to no end.) And an extra bonus to her for writing a great fantasy character of color.

The place where it broke down for me — though not enough to give up on the book — was when the group finally confronted the emperor and found the gods. I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief: for even though Liyana was capable and strong, I’m not sure she’d have made such a connection with an emperor (yes, he was young and handsome), so quickly. Her relationship with Korbyn, forbidden though it was, was a whole lot more believable. Maybe it’s just because I’m down on instalove.

But, the end? That I believed and enjoyed. And I love that Durst can write a compelling fantasy story in. one. book. and doesn’t need a whole trilogy to work out her storyline. For that alone (though the story really is compelling and intriguing, even if it is a bit slow in parts), this one is worth reading.

Audiobook: Home

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by Julie Andrews
read by the author
ages: adult
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I picked this one up for my commute audio book mostly because I like Julie Andrews. I’m not a huge fan or anything, but I like her well enough. She’s, well, nice and she’s aged so beautifully, and I have tons of respect for her, that I figured: why not read her memoir of her childhood.

And for the most part, it’s not a bad book. I especially enjoyed the audio form, listening to Julie (we’re on a first-name basis now that I’ve finished the book) tell stories about her parents (you can tell she adores her dad); her step-father, whose name she ended up with (he was quite creepy); her life in vaudeville (she ended up supporting her family for quite some time); her leap into Broadway (a bit of a fluke and a lucky chance); and her time with My Fair Lady and Camelot.

But, I didn’t love the book. I don’t think it was because her life lacked conflict; there was all sorts of ups and downs as she was trying to figure out who she was (other than that cute girl with the freakish voice) and how to make her way in the world. I also don’t think it was because she ended the book just as I though it was getting really interesting. No, it was because Julie Andrews can’t ever say anything truly bad about anyone or anything. Even her step-father, who really was quite creepy to her a couple of times (he gave her her first kiss, tongue and everything. Ew!), whom she was never really close to, she was unwilling to actually speak harshly about.

The other unintended side effect of that was that she tended to gush about everything. It was always “lovely” or “marvelous” or “exquisite” or “grand” or “delightful”, and sometimes all at once. I did get to the point in the book where I swore if she gushed about one. more. thing., I was going to toss it out the window. (I didn’t, even though she didn’t stop gushing.)

So, there you have it: Julie Andrew’s virtue of being nice to everyone is actually a fault when it comes down to it. At least in memoir writing.

Which is just too bad.

Sutton

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by J. R. Moehringer
ages: adult
First sentence: “He’s writing when they come for him.”
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I know: a review is supposed to go here. Except that I was asked by my lovely friend, Wendy, to do a guest post for her Words and Music feature. Be impressed: somehow, with her help, we managed to come up with a playlist for this book. Go check it out.

(Please.)

Evel Knievel Days

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by Pauls Toutonghi
ages: adult
First sentence: “Everyone knows that the Ancient Egyptians mummified their dead.”
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I was in the mood for something weighty, in between all the YA and MG books I was reading, and I wandered around the bookstore looking for something suitable. I finally settled on this one, mostly because I was curious about a book (and an author) who can make more than one of the managers go all *swoon* every time they mention him.

Khosi Saqr is living a quiet life in Butte, Montana. He was raised by his single mom, and aside from a trip to a museum in Seattle, he’s never left Butte. Content, at age 23, to get up, go to work at the local historical museum, and be the taster for his mother’s (who is on medication for Wilson’s disease and has lots of allergies) Egyptian catering business (she’s white; it was his father who is Egyptian; she commandeered his family recipes), Khosi never really expected much from his life.

Then Butte’s Evel Knievel Days come around, and Khosi’s life is turned upside down. Next thing he knows, he’s done the impossible: gotten on a plane (against his mother’s recommendation) and flown to Cairo to find his father. What he does find is a mess: his father, a compulsive gambler and an equally compulsive liar, is getting remarried. And has neglected to tell his fiance, or his family, that he has a (living) son and ex-wife. Everything comes to a head when Khosi comes down with yellow fever, and his life hangs in the balance.

So, I’m not quite sure what to think about this now that I’m done. It was weird: part magical realism (he’s hallucinating a ghost that gives him advice), but not really. Part a foodish book (his mother cooks Egyptian food and he goes on about the eloquence and importance of dishes), but not really. Part a coming of age book (he goes to Egypt to find his father and reconcile with him after 20 years), but not really.

That said, I liked the book. Toutonghi has such a comfortable way of writing, a very companionable way of writing that even though it wasn’t really a lot of things, it was entertaining. I liked Khosi as a character, I liked going on his (somewhat weird) journey with him, and I liked the outcome: he was able to find a place to belong, and break out of his shell.

So, yeah, I can kind of see what the managers are talking about. He’s a good writer and an interesting storyteller. I’m not sure it was what I was looking for, but it was enjoyable at any rate.

Frozen Heat

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by Richard Castle
ages: adult
First sentence: “Oh, yeah, that’s it Rook,’ said Nikki Heat.”
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Others in the series: Heat Wave,  Naked Heat, Heat Rises

On the one hand, I miss the fluff of the first two novels in this series. It used to be that it’d just be a recap of the season, with a plot that loosely ties together different episodes. But, starting in the third book, these took on a life of their own, and in this one there was very little about the season that I recognized. I wonder if that’s because there isn’t much to work with, or because the story in the books is so far removed from the story on the show that it really is its own animal now.

That isn’t to say that I didn’t like it: I did. But much like seasons 3 and 4 of Castle, the books have become more serious, and I can’t help but miss the fluff.

It’s been 10 years since her mother’s murder, and although Nikki Heat has moved on, she hasn’t forgotten. So, when a woman shows up dead in a meat truck, shoved inside Nikki’s mother’s suitcase, she realizes that she has her first lead on her mother’s case in a long, long time. She digs in, and comes across firewalls — in her precinct, in her personal life, in the secrets she’s digging up  — and is thwarted on every turn by the dead bodies that keep piling up.

Of course, her lover and sometimes partner, journalist Jameson Rook, is there to help sort out the puzzle pieces, whisk her off to Paris (for research! And for a RTWOTC — Romantic Trip While On The Case),  and to be emotional support when things get too much for the stoic Nikki Heat.

Hubby asked me when I finished how this held up as a mystery. Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m not well-versed enough in the genre to tell if this was a good mystery, or if it was just a by-the-numbers one. But, I was entertained, it did keep me reading, and I didn’t figure out the twist ending (though, to tell the truth, I wasn’t working that hard, either.)  But, since it’s so far removed from the show at this point and has resolved things that the show has left hanging, I’m curious to see what the writer(s) of this one come up for next year’s book.

Could be interesting.

Circus Galacticus

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by Deva Fagan
ages: 11+
First sentence: “My parents always told me I was special.”
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Trix is a 15-year-old orphan girl  stuck as a scholarship student at the boarding school from hell. She’s resigned to spending the rest of her education there, hoping that a gymnastics scholarship will get her something different. Then she gets kicked off the team (for something she didn’t do), so the next best thing? Running away and joining the circus.

Except the Circus Galacticus is no ordinary circus.

It’s actually a spaceship, part of a galactic rebellion called the Tinkers that are working against both the government as well as the Mandate. It’s all a bit too complicated to go into here (and, to be honest, I’m not sure I got it all), but the basic gist is this: the Tinkers are okay with genetic mutation (like blue skin or turning into a porcupine boy or a questionable relationship with gravity) where as the government and the Mandate want to stamp them out. (It’s all very X-Men crossed with Star Wars.)

Trix is very unsure about how she fits into this universe: after all, she’s just a girl from earth who happens to have a bit of a meteorite that her parents left her. Except there’s this mandate thug out to get her. And weird things seem to be happening. And so, she settles in for the ride of her life, making new friends, enemies, and frenemies in this community of outcasts.

This was a quick, fun read. Nothing spectacular — though one has to admit that the idea of a flying circus tent is pretty cool, especially when it turns out that the flying circus tent is actually a somewhat sentient being — but nothing mundane either. Fagan does have a tendency to use the word ass (a lot!), which was kind of jarring (Really? Butt wouldn’t work?) in a middle grade book, but other than that, it was good, clean fun.

And, to be fair, I’m kind of getting tired of middle grade fantasy series, so to have one that works just fine as a stand alone is quite refreshing. (Please don’t write a sequel!)

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.) 

Wildwood

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by Colin Meloy/Illustrated by Carson Ellis
agest: 10+
First sentence: “How five crows managed to lift a twenty-pound baby boy into the air was beyond Prue, but that was certainly the least of her worries.”
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What if, across the river from a small community outside of Portland lay an Impassable Wilderness? And what if, a 12-year-old girl, Prue, and her friend, Curtis, were able to get past into the Impassable Wilderness because that’s the direction they saw the crow’s fly with Prue’s baby brother? And what if, when they got into the Impassable Wilderness they discovered an entire community: one with talking animals, and Dowager Governesses and a civil war looming? And what if, they got caught in the middle of it?

What then?

On paper, this book has everything it needs to be a grand middle-grade fantasy. Talking animals both good an evil? Check. Bandits in the forest?  Check. An evil queen/governess who vaguely reminded me of the White Witch in Narnia? Check. Golden eagles big enough to carry a person? Check. A baby kidnapping, and a subsequent sacrifice for evil gain? Check. A winning hero and heroine who manage to Figure Things Out (and on the other hand, Completely Dopey Parents who are Utterly Clueless)? Check.

So, why didn’t I like this one more than I did?

I think it’s primarily because it was too. long. Unfortunately, a side effect of Harry Potter is that fantasy writers think they need 540 pages to tell a 250 page story. Really? I don’t need all the extra stuff: the inner monologues, the extended prison scenes, the tender asides. Perhaps the world was too big for one book (well, yeah: there’s a sequel), but even so, I think Meloy spent too much time on building the huge world and not enough on tightening up the plot to give me what I wanted — in this case, for Prue to rescue her brother — without all the extra stuff. (I really am spoiled when it comes to reading. I just don’t have the patience.)

That said, it definitely works as a “mood” book. I did feel like I was in Portland in the fall: it’s a rainy and dire world that the children have found their way into. The pen-and-ink illustrations reminded me of the ones Jon Klassen did for the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, and they were scattered throughout the book providing a needed break from the endless prose.

I guess what I’m really saying is that I think this is one of those books that adults think kids should like. And maybe some will. But, as an adult, I sure didn’t like it all that much.

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl

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by Ben Hatke
ages: 9+
First sentence: “Zita the Spacegirl!”
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Others in the series: Zita the Spacegirl

Picking up right where the first installment left off…

Ever since saving the planet from the asteroid (sorry, mild spoiler there), Zita has rocketed to Fame. She’s flying with Piper and her robot friends from planet to planet, signing autographs, looking for a jump crystal so she can return home.

Then, on one far-reaching planet, she discovers a robot that is such a big fan that it dresses up like her. Then it really kind of looks like her. Then, while Zita and Mouse are off enjoying the circus, it takes her place, leaving her stranded yet again. She steals (well, “borrows”) a spaceship, which puts her on the wrong side of the law, and manages to get rescued by non other than Pipers ex (girlfriend? wife?), who helps Zita catch up with Piper and the impostor robot on a planet that needs saving from the Space Hearts.

A pause right here: the Space Hearts? So very clever. Evil hearts (yes, really) that attack a planet until its completely devastated, controlled by a Queen Heart. Too cool for words.

Like Zita, this one is colorful, creative and a whole lot of fun to read, from the oldest person in my house (yes, Hubby did pick it up) down to the youngest. Zita’s a great heroine, and there are some surprising twists and turns as we follow her adventure and her ultimate quest to get home. Another quick side note: I didn’t pick up the first before diving into this one — I know: silly — but I didn’t need to. Hatke got me up to speed quite quickly, and I was able to take off and enjoy this story.

But much like the Amulet series, the next one can’t come out fast enough for me.