Confessions of a Closet Catholic (YA)

Confessions of a Closet Catholic (YA)

Justine, who is Jewish, has a best friend who is Catholic. Jussy wants to be like her best friend so she decides to give up being Jewish for Lent. She realizes it might be hard to explain this to her family. Jussy is very close to her Bubbe (grandmother) who gets sick. This book accurately portrays the desire to fit in that most MS girls feel. MS girls will like this book a lot. Jussy is a good, realistic character.

Plum Lucky

Plum Lucky (5/5)

This is one of the Stephanie Plum between the numbers books. This is my favorite series. This time, Diesel returns and helps Stephanie with her grandmother issue (Grandma has been kidnapped by a mobster because she took his money). This book has the usual Plum humor, car explosions and sexual tension. A good, quick read, as usual.

Blue Lipstick (YA)

Blue Lipstick (YA) (4/5)

This is a book of concrete poems which is cool. The poems tells the life happenings of Jesse. This is a quick read and I think MS and HS girls would like it.

Snow Falling in Spring (YA)

Snow Falling in Spring (YA) (4.5/5)

This is a memoir of the author growing up in China. It tells of her father being put in a military prison, of accusations being made over tiny little things, and the strength of her grandmother. The author believed education was very important and took it upon herself to learn. This was a good, quick read and I think HS girls would like it.

Boo in bed

Boo in Bed

Here is Boo, in one of the dog/cat beds. He is a purebred blue point Ragdoll. He was 13 lbs at 1 year of age. He turns 2 shortly and I'm curious to see how much bigger he is now. His full name is BooBerry Radley.

Night Road (YA)

Night Road (YA) (4.5/5)

Cole is a vampire but he doesn't like to be called that. There is a whole culture of hemos who live in the Colony. They have rules about feeding off of humans. Sandor, a friend of Cole's, makes Gordon a hemo and now Sandor and Cole must take a road trip and teacher Gordon the tricks of the trade. This book is an interesting take on vampires. It seems to be the first book in a series. I could see HS boys and girls liking this book.

Hell Phone (YA)

Hell Phone (YA) (4.5/5)

Nick buys a used cell phone so he can call his girlfriend every night. He doesn't realize what he is getting by buying this particular cell phone. It is linked to Fleck, a man rotting in hell. Whoever owns the cell phone is the person who Fleck tries to get to help him escape from hell. Fleck escapes and Nick's life continues its downward spiral. The ending was a bit over the top but I could definitely see MS and HS boys liking this book.

T4 (YA)

T4 (YA) 5/5

This is a verse novel that tells the story of a deaf girl hiding from the Nazis. During WWII, disabled people were euthanized because they were deemed to be useless. This girl's family let their priest take her into hiding. This book once again illustrates the horrors that were done by the hands of the Nazis. It is so disturbing. The verse format makes it seem more personal so it is more powerful. MS and HS boys and girls would be the reading audience for this book.

How Nancy Drew Saved My Life

How Nancy Drew Saved My Life (4/5)

Charlotte Bell is a nanny with bad luck at love. She takes a new nanny job in Iceland and falls for her boss. Charlotte has boned up on the Nancy Drew books and tries to learn from Nancy's resourcefulness, with limited success. This is cute chick lit but nothing great. I like the author's book The Thin Pink Line better.

Diamond Willow (YA)

Diamond Willow (YA) (4.5/5)

This is a verse novel and tells the story of Willow, an almost 13 year old girl who is feeling lonely. Willow takes her dog sled to her grandparent's house. Roxy, one of the sled dogs, gets hurt on the way home and Willow feels responsible for it. When her parents decide to put Roxy to sleep, Willow decides to take action to save her.

This book is a good, quick read. I think both boys and girls would like it. It could be a read-aloud for upper ES students, and would work nicely as well for MS students.

Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom

This book tells about The Blood Orphans, a band whose glory days are far behind it. This is a very gritty novel, showing the sex and drugs of rock and roll. Each of the band members has his own baggage to deal with. This novel is pretty graphic, with the sex and the language, so that could be a turn off for some readers. I enjoyed hearing the names of bands that I used to listen to--Nirvana, Jane's Addiction etc. This is not a book showing the happy side of rock and roll fame!

Hate that Cat (YA)

Hate that Cat (YA) (5/5)

This is a follow up verse novel to Love that Dog. This book continues the story of Jack and how he uses writing to work through some life issues. He is lucky enough to have his teacher from last year, who was very understanding and supportive of his writing, to be his teacher this year too. Jack starts out hating this big fat black cat but realizes that things are not always what they seem. This is a cute, quick read.

Pet of the week--Maggie's baby picture

This is Maggie, shortly after we brought her home. She was tiny then and her tail looked extremely long compared to the rest of her. She has sort of grown into it now.

Perfect (YA)

Perfect (YA) (5/5)

Victory! I can finally get the cover loaded!

This is a good ya book about dealing with an eating disorder. The teenage girl begins her eating disorder after her father dies. Her mother is shutting down with grief and this is her oldest daughter's way of dealing with it. She begins to attend a therapy group to get help with her issue. There she meets Ashley, the popular girl from her school who also has an eating disorder.

This book shows the struggle of overcoming such a disorder. It shows the importance of therapy and family and support. This book should be required reading for MS and HS girls.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (4/5)

This book is made up of letters. Juliet is a writing and begins to correspond with people in Guernsey and how they made it through World War 2. She gets interested in their lives and ends up going there to visit. This book has elements of history, action, romance and mystery to it. I enjoyed it. It is a good, quick read.

Marked

Marked (YA) (4.5/5)

Zoey is marked to become a vampire. She has a power that most new vampires do not have. Zoey goes to the House of Night--a vampire school and gets a vampire mentor. She begins to learn about becoming a vampire. Her power makes her a threat to the evil girl vampire. It doesn't help that the evil girl's ex-boyfriend is interested in Zoey. This is the first in a series and I will continue to read the books. HS girls, especially those who loved Twilight, will like these books.

Too many books at once!

I'm reading several books at once:
Night World Book 1 (YA)--vampires
Marked (YA)--vampires
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Loving Frank
How Nancy Drew Saved My Life
Love Walked In
My Best Friend's Girl
Perfect (YA)
Rock Bottom--Review book

If only I didn't have to work :-)