What I've Read Lately - January

Well, for somebody who ambitiously checked out 23 books at a time, I sure didn't spend nearly long enough reading, because I only managed to get through six and a half books this month.  I just had so much to do, that I hardly spent any time reading.  Hopefully next month I'll do a lot better!

Berserker, by Emmy Laybourne, was different from what I've been coming across lately.  I chose it because I really enjoyed Laybourne's Monument 14 trilogy.  This one is a historical fantasy, I guess you would say, because it takes place in the 1800's and has a set of Norwegian siblings fleeing to America where they hire a cowboy as their guide.  The reason they have to flee is all tied up in a bit of Norwegian mythology, by which some of the siblings have special powers.  So, it reads like historical fiction, yet at the same time it is a totally original take on the teens-with-special-abilities story.  At first I wasn't sure I was going to like it because the writing was done in a somewhat boring way, especially the dialogue which sounded kind of 'formal' I guess you could say.  Interestingly enough, though, after a little while it wasn't bothersome anymore because the family members were all supposed to be new to speaking English and it seems like a lot of westerns are written kind of like that anyway, so it just seemed to fit.  Goodreads shows that this is part one in a series, and I will definitely read part two because I liked the concept and I liked the characters, but if there isn't another installment, that is fine, too, because the book ended in a way that was just right for a stand-alone as well.  (Reading Level: ?/ Middle Grade+)

The Hanging Girl, by Eileen Cook, was pretty good.  I can't really tell you much about it without giving too much away and ruining the surprise parts of the book, but I can tell you that it has a girl who gives tarot card readings to her classmates at school but isn't really psychic, and it has a girl who goes missing, and it has a bit of a murder mystery, and it has a lot of people keeping secrets.  The writing was good, with some of those fantastic lines that I like to copy onto sticky notes and put up on my refrigerator because they are either so deep, so inspiring, or so funny that I like to see them when I'm going about my day doing the things I do in the kitchen (which seems to be a large part of my day).  Anyway, the main character makes some pretty dumb decisions, but somehow she didn't annoy me anyway, and the book has enough suspense that it is hard to put down.  A nice start to the new year.  (Reading Level: ? / Middle Grade+)

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, by Mary Hooper was a big disappointment.  Not only was it not as good as the other historical fiction by the same author that I've read, but I have been waiting more than a year to get my hands on a copy and was really looking forward to it.  It is about the Bubonic Plague outbreak that swept through London in 1665, and it was boring, boring, boring.  I swear it spent almost the whole time describing 17th century fashion, furniture, sweetmeats (basically candy) and how they are made, the symptoms and treatment of the plague victims, and a multitude of remedies provided by apothecaries.  The characters and their relationships were very underdeveloped, as was the plot.  And the ending was so abrupt, I thought I had accidentally turned more than one page.  This was shelved under juvenile fiction, although I don't know why, because the main character was like fifteen years old, and it was a pretty high reading level for a non-adult fiction book.  Not to mention how boring it was.  I doubt many younger readers would stick with it long enough to finish it.  (Reading Level: 6.2 / Middle Grades)

I'm not really sure what to say about The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman.  First off, I didn't finish reading it. Not that I have completely abandoned it, but more like maybe I will try it again at some later time, like when I don't have twenty other books sitting around waiting to be read.  I got through page 32 out of 449 pages, and it took me three days to get that far.  I actually enjoyed the writing - the characters, the premise, the style itself.  What I didn't like was the whole 'daemon' thing (I haven't read his previous novels.  Those of you who have will know what I'm talking about, because apparently we are supposed to be familiar with them, thus the total lack of explanation as to what they really are exactly.) I just wasn't into the concept.  I also wasn't sure I was going to be completely interested in where the story seemed to be going, and, although the accelerated reader website gives it a reading level of only 5.4 and it has a lexile level of HL770, it felt like it had a much higher reading level, like upper 6's into the 7's at least.  Which, of course, means it is not going to be a super quick read like a book in the 4's and 5's.  (It is recommended for high school age readers, although in the portion that I read, it seemed much more like a book you would read to a middle grade child for a bedtime story.  A very, very long bedtime story.  Like it would probably take months to finish.) At 449 pages (of a volume 1 book), I just wasn't up for it right now.

I just loved First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy.  Which is kind of ironic, because I wasn't particularly impressed with her previous  novel, The Creeping.   You can find out what I did and and didn't like about it by reading my post here.

It's been quite a while since I've read a book intended for younger readers, so I thought it was about time I reviewed some.  Monstrous, by MarcyKate Connolly is the first one I gave a try.  It was pretty good.  For younger readers.  It was a nice fantasy story, with a girl who is reminiscent of Frankenstein, a wizard, a dragon, a curse, a king, and a bit of a mystery.  I don't think I would have made it through if it wasn't for the reanimated girl.  (Dragons just are not my thing.)  It would make a good bedtime story, not just because of the fact that fantasy books make good bedtime stories, but also because it had a nice story-book feel to the writing.  And it would be an especially good choice for a gifted child, because there are a lot of clues leading up to a realization that they would enjoy picking out.  I thought about purchasing a copy, but I am short on bookshelf space and I didn't really care for the ending so much, so I decided against it.  But if you have plenty of bookshelf space and a kid who likes bedtime stories, this might be a book you should buy.  (Reading Level: 4.7 / Middle Grades)

I'll get straight to the point here.  I did not like On the Free by Coert Voorhees.  It is about a group of juvenile delinquents who go on a wilderness hike to get straightened out, but there is a disaster and then they are just trying to survive.  It is told in three parts, by three different characters, with some of the events retold in the different perspectives.  But it is told in this weird mix of third person and (maybe?) first person. (It was very strange.  I don't want to waste any more time on this book by going back and looking at it.  It mostly felt like first person until all of a sudden you notice that it is in third person for a while.)  The characters were pretty much being themselves, and then they would do something that makes you say what?  That doesn't make sense.  The lead female character is boring and annoying.  And the ending?  Stupid.  It was so abrupt that it felt like the author just got tired of writing and quit.  There wasn't really any closure.  Don't bother reading it.  Find something else off my book lists with the keyword survival instead.

NOW I Get It

Last week my neighbor was sharing with me that her granddaughter finally finished the book she had been writing.  While telling me about the process of finding an editor and working to get it published, she mentioned that, for the lowest fee, most editors will read two pages of your manuscript.  And I thought to myself, two pages?  How in the world can anyone know if a book is going to be any good in two pages? 

Remember my page 69 test a few months back?  That didn't go so well.  Trying to predict how good a book would be from reading one page was extremely unreliable, so how could only two pages possibly be much better?

Well.  I guess I just had to start reading the right book while the conversation was fresh in my mind.  Because after just two pages, I was like, now I get it.  The book I'm talking about is First We Were IV, by Alexandra Sirowy.

It started for pranks, fun, and forever memories.
A secret society – for the four of us.
The rules: Never lie. Never tell. Love each other.
We made the pledge and danced under the blood moon on the meteorite in the orchard. In the spot we found the dead girl five years earlier. And discovered the ancient drawings way before that.
Nothing could break the four of us apart – I thought.
But then, others wanted in. Our seaside town had secrets. History.
We wanted revenge.
We broke the rules. We lied. We told. We loved each other too much, not enough, and in ways we weren’t supposed to.
Our invention ratcheted out of control.
What started as a secret society, ended as justice. Revenge. Death. Rebellion.

I just grabbed this off the new releases shelf at the library and read the blurb inside the cover.  And I thought, Okay. This might just be good.  So I took it home and when I read the first chapter, which is only two pages long, I was like yeah baby, that's what I'm talking about (ha, ha, not really, but I was really impressed and super excited to read the book).

You can read those two pages here.

See what I mean?
This first chapter was absolute perfection.  It had so many things to draw the reader in and make them say give me more!  I actually read it twice.  Maybe even three times?  That's how much I loved it.  But did the rest of the story deliver the goods, so to speak?

Absolutely.

Funny thing is, the farther into it I got, and the more I thought about it afterward, the more and more I liked it.

First, you have a concept that is pretty darn original - four friends, sort of social out-castes, each very different from one another, but who have a tight bond.

You have a mystery for a back-story.
You have these four friends forming a secret society.
You have this society, which creates mischief and mayhem for a whole variety of reasons.
You have lots and lots of secrets.
You have everything, somehow, going horribly wrong in the end.

I loved that concept!

Then you have the characters.  For the most part, those characters were so vivid!  Their personalities were so distinct and bold. Only the narrating character seemed to be less, but that is because she is the one remembering and thinking about and commenting on her friends and her history with them, which is a big part of how they are developed.

I loved those characters!

And then there is the dialogue.  It was incredible.  Not only were there deep comments and witty banter, but the things that came out of those characters' mouths were so them.  Their personalities were illustrated as much by what they said as by any of the other myriad ways an author can define a character.  And did I say deep comments? And did I say witty banter?  It's the kind of dialogue that is written in The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.  You just can't get enough of it.

I loved the dialogue!

Then, of course, the writing.  Because that is was pushes a book into the four and five star category for me.  The writing was pretty awesome.  The author just had a way of describing things that was so creative and unique.

Here are a few examples:

"He beat the air with a wooden figurine."  

"...the stench crawling up my nostrils..."  

"Graduation stood on my chest..."    

The character is not just waving the doll for them to see; he is upset. The smell is coming gradually, maybe stealthily, and is definitely unwelcome.  The prospect of graduation is a weight; it is causing distress.  The words that the author chooses convey so much more than if she had just said, he waved the doll in the air, or I was dreading graduation.  She interjects emotion with her writing, saying so much more so creatively with so many less words.  (Not to mention that she is using that good old literary device, personification, which makes things so much more interesting.)

The author also does a great job of sprinkling metaphors throughout, both simple and complex:

"We were together, tripping with words and laughter, giddy to play mad scientists to our monster." 

"The members of the Order of IV had been thrown off the stage and into the audience ..."

In fact, she uses an extended metaphor throughout the entire book to describe the relationship the four friends have with one another, and how it has and is still evolving.  Heck, she even throws in a motif here and there to help make her point!

What else?  At first glance this doesn't seem to be a book with some deep truth.  But after a while you realize that it is teaching a valuable lesson:  Sometimes you can get too caught up in something and things can spiral out of your control.  And sometimes you don't see the signs until it is too late to do anything about it.  The author really hits this home with the cryptic foreshadowing comments that come at the end of a lot of the chapters. (Which is not uncommon for writers to do, but she does it so well!)

Needless to say, I loved the writing!

Was there anything I didn't like about this book?

Well, the only think I really disliked were a few instances of disappointing PC, as I am really not a fan of political correctness.  Luckily, those comments were few and far between enough to not ruin my enjoyment.  And probably nobody under the age of twenty would even notice, so for the target audience this is unlikely to be an issue.

The book does have some interludes between the chapters in which the non-narrating characters get to tell things from their perspective via supposed video clips recovered from the police after everything happened.  Which is nice, because you get insight into why they made certain choices, but is not nice in the sense that I don't really like the device.  And I have come across it often enough in other books that it sort of spoiled a bit of the originality that I loved so much about this one.

Also, I did do some eye rolling about the teenage thought process of the narrating character, because, no longer being a teenager myself, I can look back at my own teenage thought processes with a roll of my eyes as well.  Her dumb ideas and decisions became less and less of an annoyance as the book went along, though, because the whole point was that she and her friends were getting in over their heads and it was affecting their decisions.  Which is also why the bits of bad behavior didn't bother me at all in this book.  (See my previous post here if you're wondering what I mean.)  But as the author has the narrator comment in her hindsight, "The good ideas were falling from the sky."  Which just about explains the whole thing, and is one of those fantastic comments that I like to copy from books and stick on my refrigerator (which I will be doing presently).

It actually took me a whole week to read this book.  Not just because I spent a lot of time running errands and working on my blog, but also because I didn't want to rush through it.  I wanted to savor it.

So now I get it.  Sometimes a book comes along where the writing genius shows up in the first two pages.  Sometimes that book, like this one, will be great from beginning to end.

Come to think about it, now I also get why so many books seem to crash and burn after the beginning.  It's the first few pages that get you noticed, and then it's up to someone to make sure the rest of the novel follows through.

 And sometimes, of course, the first two pages will really be nothing special, but by the time you've finished the book you realize it doesn't even matter because it was something amazing regardless.

Check out my upcoming post, NOW I Get It, part 2, to read about some other books that have great beginnings and find out if they keep the good stuff coming as well as this one did.


Rating:  4.5 Stars
Reading Level: not available
Age Appropriate: Upper Grades
Page Count:  448
Genre:  Thriller/Suspense, Mystery
Keywords: friendship, murder mystery, family secrets, secret societies

A Method to My Madness

I am starting off the new year with 23 books on my waiting-to-read shelf.  Yes.  My previous record was 18 (see my post about it here), but I had a really good reason this time, not just a general lack of self-control.  You see, I had four books left over on my shelf from back in early December while I was trying to kill some time waiting for my son and had nothing to do but peruse the library shelves.  Now, once I get down to only four books, it's definitely time to head back out and get some more, just in case some of those are no good and have to be abandoned.  And God forbid I am left with nothing to read.  So I never, ever, let my bookshelf run dry (so to speak).

So, I actually have been having this itch to buy some more books, even though my bookshelf space is officially full.  (I have finally filled up the double bookcase that I bought about three years ago, after having more than run out of space on my office bookshelves.)  So I went to my favorite online bookstore, BookOutlet.com, to see what kind of deals they had.  I spent pretty much a whole day browsing through something like four thousand book titles, making a list of books that sounded interesting and also of those that were selling for like three dollars or less.  The problem was, I don't like to buy books if I don't already know they are good enough to reread or share with someone else.  And there were a bunch of books that looked interesting and were really cheap, but only had a few copies left.  So what was I to do?

Well, since it was time for me to make another library run anyway, I went out and grabbed copies of the ones on my list that were at the branch closest to my house.  Which explains why I checked out 19 books this morning, when I already had four here.  See?  A very specific method and not just madness.

I think it took me something like three  months to finish the hoard I had accumulated at this time last year, but this time I checked out several books from the juvenile fiction section, which tend to be a faster read.  So I'm pretty optimistic that I can get through them all by the time February is over.  Here's what I've got, just in case you want to read any already for yourself and compare notes once I've gotten through them: