What I've Read Lately - April

So, I only managed to get through six books this month, because I have been spending  A LOT of time on another project, leaving me very little time for reading.  Hopefully I do better next month, because I have twelve library books on my waiting-to-read shelf with rapidly diminishing renewals.

After reading the prologue of The Named, by Marianne Curley, I thought to myself, Wow. That was boring.  And annoying.  And not very well written.  Then I read chapter one.  And I thought to myself, still boring, even more annoying and just as poorly written.  Which is when I tossed the book onto the couch next to me and started watching House Hunters Tropical Getaway or something like that.  Which was way more entertaining than this book.  Don't even bother trying to read it.

So, my sister gave me Daughter of Smoke & Bone, by Laini Taylor on Easter and said I should read it because it is really good.  She said it was about angels and demons but not really, and she said it was really different and some other stuff I don't really remember now (even though it has only been a week!).  I was kind of skeptical, because, to tell you the truth, I am usually not into books about angels and demons (translation -  human girls falling for hot ones).  But, I took it home and was too lazy to walk down to my office after abandoning the first book I attempted this month, so I grabbed this one from where I had left it on the snack bar and gave it a try.  Well, she was right. It was really, really good.  It was about angels and demons, but not really.  And it was really different.  In fact, it was so incredibly original, it is almost right up there with Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys series.  (If you read my review of that, here, you will know how significant that is!)  Anyway, it took me a little while to get into it, but once it introduced the 'demons' and started the whole mysterious thing with the TEETH, I was hooked.  And it just got better from there.  So thank you, Janelle, for the fantastic recommendation.  And you all can thank me for passing it on, after you read it, too.  (Reading Level: 5.8 / Upper Grades)

I had Thanks for the Trouble, by Tommy Wallach, sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for so long, I forgot what it was even supposed to be about.  It turns out that it is about a teenage guy who doesn't talk and a teenage-looking girl who claims to be 246 years old.  The girl tries to get the guy to realize that he's not really living, but should, and the guy tries to get the girl to realize that she hasn't yet lived enough.  It was super interesting and also funny, had great writing, and the characters were so full of personality it was unbelievable.  It does have quite a bit of profanity, though, so it's probably best for the older readers.  (Reading Level: 5.5 / Upper Grades)

Wow.  The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton, was eerily similar to All the Crooked Saints, but with an entirely different feel to it.  So I decided to add it to the longer review along with that book.  If you haven't already read it, you can find it here.

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door, by Karen Finneyfrock,was an okay read.  It is about a social outcast bullied by the mean girls, who is befriended by a new guy in school who shares with her his secret that he is gay.  The author did a nice job with the pacing and thought processes of the main character, Celia, and I really enjoyed the banter between the two new friends.  I also really enjoyed some of the poetry she wrote.  What I didn't care for was the way the author kept throwing in these email exchanges between Celia and her older cousin who constantly spouted social justice messages at her.  They just felt like the author's attempt to stand on her soapbox and indoctrinate this generation of youth.  Also, I found the descriptions of the books Celia was reading quite bizarre - she is a freshman in high school and English is her favorite subject.  She is working her way through the library by the Dewey decimal system.  She has already read The Catcher in the Rye, but also recently read Charlotte's Web (Did the author just pick famous books and slap the titles into her story?), and she says that The Fall of the House of Usher is about a house with a crack that gradually gets bigger until the whole house falls down.  What? (Has the author actually READ that story?) Not a bad read if you have plenty of time for a lot of books, but if you have to find time to squeeze reading into your busy schedule, you are probably looking for something better.   (Reading Level: 5.7 / Upper Grades)

I loved, loved, LOVED Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle.  It is hopeful and sad, ugly and beautiful, and creepier than the creepiest thing I have ever read.  The writing is absolutely stunning, and it is overflowing with original ideas.  The only thing I wish the author had done differently would be to leave out the short but graphic scenes (rated R material) - she could have explored the relationships in the story without throwing in the explicit details.  Definitely a book for more mature readers, but if you fall into that category, you seriously have to get your hands on a copy.  (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)