Loving Donovan

Loving Donovan by Bernice L. McFadden      288 pages

Life can be so hard for children growing up in broken homes, homes where the parents go full charge at one another in arguments and fights turning to alcohol, etc. and turning away from their children who aren't kept safe from predators.   Even when a Grandmother thinks she is on top of things the nicest people you have known for years can turn out to be devils in disguise then children are forced to grow up damaged by what has been done to them.  Some can rise above but the struggle is a constant battle against the raging demons in their head they are forced to live with in the aftermath.   A good book, with sad things taking place but also strength and love working to overcome invisible enemies.    Not for everyone, but, it might be a help for others in the same situation.   Taken strictly as a story and that is what it is, it is good literature, taken as the topic it deals with and how the people involved deal with the circumstances they have no control over but choose to live it is a book of strength.

 - Shirley J.

Finding Baba Yaga

Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen, 141 pages

“You think you know this story. You do not. A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairytale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, and herself.... A contemporary retelling of an iconic myth about a young woman discovering her voice by a beloved and prolific American storyteller.” I’m not sure that I really liked this very much.  I honestly don’t know who I would give this to either.  I love fairy tales and horror and books in verse have grown on me some and this book has all of that but I didn’t care for it.  I also generally like books by Yolen.  This book was dark and kind of predictable.  It ended up being more hopeful, but it didn’t feel that way.  I think that the contradiction in that bothered me. 

The Undoing of Saint Silvanus

The Undoing of Saint Silvanus by Beth Moore    Audio Book:  12 hrs., 20 mins   Paperback Book:  496 pages                  

I enjoyed this story a lot.   I could picture this being turned into a film with Niecy Nash or Jennifer Lewis playing Adella Atwater.   Jillian Slater lives in San Francisco with her mother.  She hasn’t seen her father in 20 years.   Her mother never had a good word to say about him but when Jillian was a child she loved her father and remembers bits and pieces of time spent with him at her grandmother’s home in New Orleans.   Out of the blue Jillian receives word from her grandmother that Jillian’s father has died and that if she would like to attend his funeral, her grandmother will provide a roundtrip airline ticket for her to come and will provide a room for her to stay as long as she likes.   Jillian thought of her father as a ne’er do well and worse, compliments of her mother’s feelings about him.   Jillian’s mother had always referred to her mother-in-law (Jillian’s Dad’s mother) as the witch or the Ice Queen because the woman never allowed herself to show any emotion and never expressed any compassion toward anyone.    Jillian’s grandmother had been loving and happy when she was a young wife with a baby boy in tow, but, her husband’s philandering and under-handed business dealings hardened her to life and she got harder and more distant with every passing year.    She hired a woman named Adella Atwater to oversee her property and Adella took to the position like a duck to water.   Lots of mystery and intrigue, people with two-faces and loads of ulterior motives.    Jillian decides, what the heck and takes her Grandmother up on the free trip to New Orleans and once she arrives things take a number of freaky turns.   Throw in a bit or two of Tarot, some beignets and you have a strange Cajun brew oh yes, and lots and lots of French Press coffee, too.   Things aren’t always what they seem, and Jillian is not always the nicest person you want to meet.   Past and present class.   Some reputations are earned, some seem one way but not necessarily so.   Good book keeps you interested cover to cover. 

 - Shirley J.

The Archived

The Archived by Victoria Schwab, 321 pages

“Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Mackenzie Bishop is a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Now someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.” This was an amazing book.  Any teen who likes fantasy should read it.

Educated: A memoir

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover               Audio Book:  12 hours     Paperback Book: 512 pages                    

Tara Westover has led a surprisingly dysfunctional existence.     Living isolated on her family’s compound I first thought there was going to be something nefarious about sister-wives and gun hoarding instead, while the topic of sister-wives is addressed it did not take place within Tara’s immediate family.    Though it was condoned within sects of their Mormon faith.     In Tara’s home, her father was a screamer, moody, hysterically violent at times and so was one of her brothers.    Each could flip in an instant from calmly chatting to her father forcing her to load scrap metal into a new contraption he had come up with to cut the metal up.  Unfortunately one of her brothers nearly lost his arm trying to use it and when none of the other brothers wanted to go next her father made her pick up scrap and load it into the machine.    She was nearly hurt several times but diligently obeyed her father.    Her Dad does not believe in the government nor doctors so any time someone in the family was hurt, sick or needed medical care of any kind – her father expected her mother to take care of it.    Her mother self-taught herself to deliver babies, sew incisions and cure with poultices, tinctures and oils.   She learned plant lore and which botanicals were good for what and became quite savvy at natural healing.    She had friends that did energy and chakra work and eventually people came to her wanting to buy her medicinal herbal cures.   So much so that she has a thriving business selling them now internationally.  The kids did not go to school, again her father’s idea since he believes public schools teach nothing but propaganda and control the populace by controlling their minds through what they teach.   He saw government conspiracy in most everything so he and her mother built a bomb shelter and keep it stocked with a year’s worth of supplies for everyone in the family.   They believe a mix of the Book of Mormon and the Bible so they are preparing for the End of Days as foretold in the Bible but also adhere to the writings of  the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, Jr.    Tara’s parents also excused the behavior of her mentally deranged brother believing that whatever he did to her (shoving her head in the toilet was his favorite move, beating her senseless, breaking her bones – pushing her fingers, wrists, etc. the wrong way until they snapped) she deserved.    They never corrected him for the awful things he did, but, they would mistreat her for being headstrong and agreeing with her brother for what he did to her.     Finally, she decided that she wanted to go to school and managed to work it out between her parents, though they fought her tooth and nail on it and others in family services positions, etc. helping her out of the compound.     Much happens along the way and it is certainly a miracle how many things fell into place and how many people were networked to help her along her path.   Having been in that environment so long she is noticeably a bit damaged in her perspective (when witnesses in town would see her brother abusing her and physically hurting her seriously, she would laugh it off like it was all in fun – Why?   The guy is a lunatic and needs to be put away.   But she always held up for him to outsiders and had long ago given up trying to defend herself against him nor try to get sympathy from others in the family.   The brief time she received empathy from her sister – it didn’t last long and now her sister sides with the family against her.    She didn’t really see how outsiders, (people living in town) saw the Westover family until she made a few friends at school and later acquired a semi boyfriend who, after witnessing one of her brother’s rages against her first hand while the family went on about their business as if nothing out of the ordinary was taking place, then Tara herself, though hand prints shown red on her throat and her face was swelling and bruising, her boyfriend refused to ever enter their home again, because Tara played it off even then as though it was all fun and games and she was o.k. though she likely had a concussion.    What a family of enablers to an abuser, yikes!    Tara, while adapting to life in school, she was shunned by some because she really didn’t have a clue as to how to behave in class and was so at sea with the most simple of classes, she basically had to be taught how to behave and how to seek help with catching up on all the topics she didn’t know that she didn’t know, like when she asked in class what the word “holocaust” meant as she had never seen nor heard about it.      She made a phenomenal come back, catching up by reading up on history, working with math tutors, etc.    She ends up attending, Brigham Young University, where she receives a B.A.,  She received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship,    She attended Trinity College, Cambridge where she earned a MPhil and the next year was a visiting fellow at Harvard University!  She returned to Cambridge where she earned a PhD in history.    Amazing!   From such a rough start, with little or no schooling this lady went on to earn degrees at some of the most prodigious universities there are.     It is a worthy read to see how it all took place.    Props to Tara.   Divine providence and self- determination seem to have led this young lady out of the darkness into the light.   Good book, though hard to read at times when she is being brutalized and ostracized.  

The Friends

The Friends by Rosa Guy, 185 pages

“Phyllisia eventually recognizes that her own selfish pride rather than her mothers̓ death and her fathers̓ tyrannical behavior created the gulf between her and her best friend.” This book didn’t age terribly well or maybe I just didn’t relate to it very well.  I didn’t like any of the characters a lot and, although there were parts that I found engaging, mostly I was just glad that I was done.  I wouldn’t recommend it to this to most teens.

The Secret Sheriff Of Sixth Grade

The Secret Sheriff Of Sixth Grade by Jordan Sonnenblick, 193 pages

“Maverick Falconer is just starting middle school and he wishes he were a hero like his father because maybe then he could deal with his mother's drinking and series of abusive boyfriends, not to mention the kids who bully him in middle school (pretty much the same ones who bullied him in elementary school)--but as the year passes he begins to realize that other kids have problems too, and maybe if they can all survive sixth-grade things will get better.” This is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year.  This is a great book for kids who like humorous, realistic stories

Swing It Sunny

Swing It Sunny by Jennifer Holm, 218 pages

This graphic novel is the sequel to Sunny Side Up.  Sunny is back home from Florida, her older brother, Dale, is in boarding school, and her younger brother, Teddy, is annoying and hilarious in turns.  Sunny just wants to live her life and have everything be normal but it’s hard when she misses Dale.  But even when Dale visits, she still misses him because he’s not the same.  This is a nice coming of age story for kids who like graphic novels.

Expelled

Expelled by James Patterson & Emily Raymond, 296 pages

“One viral photo. Four expelled teens. Everyone's a suspect. Theo Foster's Twitter account used to be anonymous--until someone posted a revealing photo that got him expelled. No final grade. No future. No fair. Theo's resigned to a life of misery working at the local mini-mart when a miracle happens: Sasha Ellis speaks to him. Sasha Ellis knows his name. She was also expelled for a crime she didn't commit, and now he has the perfect way to get her attention: find out who set them up. To uncover the truth, Theo has to get close to the suspects: the hacker, the quarterback, the mean girl, the vice principal, and his own best friend. What secrets are they hiding? And how can Theo catch their confessions on camera?” This was a little better than some of other Patterson’s books.  It had a little more depth than I’m used to seeing.  I liked it and would recommend it to teens who like realistic fiction.

Gem & Dixie

Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr, 282 pages

Gem always took care of Dixie when they were little girls.  Their mom was often too busy, sometimes with drugs and alcohol, and their dad left.  Now that they are in high school, they have grown apart.  Dixie has become outgoing and social, and Gem has turned inward.  Gem wants to have her relationship with her sister back, but doesn’t know how to get it.  When their dad comes back to town and wants to reconnect, Gem is suspicious and worried about Dixie getting hurt.  This was a good story about growing up.  I liked how Zarr showed the relationship between the two sisters as it developed.  This would be a good book for teens who like realistic stories.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler            Hardback Book: 303 pages               

I loved this book!    I learned about it when reading a magazine that included an interview with Kristen Stewart (of the film series “Twilight” fame).    She mentioned in the article it was her favorite book.   I remembered the title and thought I would check it out.   She was right.   It is a most excellent story.   Near and dear to my heart this story is.   When I read the inside cover to see what the story was about I was hooked.   It is a great telling of the story of the Tull Family.    Dad is a salesman younger than the mother.  Mother is a beauty nearly considered an old maid because she has not accepted any of the many marriage proposals she has received from all of her suitors over the years, till she was swept head over heels by savvy talking, tall handsome Beck Tull, that is.    They have a good life together while it is just the two of them but once the children come, and Beck is on the road all the time, things begin to change.   Beck begins to stay on the road more and more, and his wife Pearl assumes role of both parents though the reader will often question her ethics.    As more distance grows between Beck and Pearl, an animosity grows in her or perhaps was always there just comes to the forefront more and more as time passes.       Little things the kids do begin to grate on her nerves and she lashes out smacking them hard across the face,  screaming at them and threatening to throw them out the window or other bodily harm.   The oldest Cody responds by being belligerent, not doing great in school and running the streets making mischief.   He doesn’t really have friends only the occasional partner in crime.  When Cody was a baby and got really sick once, Pearl got so scared.  She and Cody were home alone, she didn’t know any one (she wasn’t the type to seek out people to become friendly with), Beck was gone and he was her only help as far as she considered it.   She did eventually get Cody’s fever to break and he did get well, but, that close call made her think, what if Cody had died?   Pearl decided then and there, she needed a spare child in case something happened to the first.    She told her husband when he returned from his most recent trip.   “We need to have another child.”   Beck was astonished, “Really?”   He was all for it, as Pearl was never much for romance.  They got on it right away.   Enter child number 2, Ezra.    Where Cody was brash and in your face and fearless, Ezra was meek and mild with a smile that lit up his face that everyone who met him seemed to fall under a spell and always liked and praised him.   This miffed Cody something awful.    Their mother made no secret that Ezra held a special place in her heart.  Cody spent his life doing everything he could to make Ezra’s life horrible, yet, Ezra adored Cody and hero worshipped him.    Some years later along came Jenny who always seemed to fall for the wrong guy.   Her relationships were always flawed though she tried her best.    One day Beck just tells Pearl he is leaving and does so.    Pearl thinks he will return, even though she receives a note from Beck now and then with postmarks from all over the country telling how great he is doing occasionally enclosing a small check to help with expenses for the children.   Pearl doesn’t tell the children right away but just says, “Your father is busy on the road.”    This goes on for quite sometime and while she assumes the children have figured it out, they don’t pay much attention to their father’s absence believing he is working on the road.    There are so many things that happen, the story is so well developed, the characters so real and the situations described with such finesse I had to force myself to put the book down when I had other things I needed to do.   This is such an excellent book, I highly recommend it.     There is so much more I could tell you about this intriguing book, but, I don’t want to give too much away.   I think you will find yourself reacting Charlie Brown’s, “Arggghhhhh!”  out loud a lot while reading this one.   It is gripping.   Well done, Anne Tyler.

And Then There Were Four

And Then There Were Four by Nancy Werlin, 415 pages

“Let's not die today. Not even to make things easier for our parents.  When a building collapses around five teenagers-and they just barely escape-they know something strange is going on. Little by little, the group pieces together a theory- Their parents are working together to kill them all. Is it true? And if so, how did their parents come together-and why? And, most importantly, how can the five of them work together to save themselves? With an unlikely group of heroes, sky-high stakes, and two budding romances, this gripping murder mystery will keep readers guessing until the last page.” This was typical Werlin.  I love her books and I really liked this one as well.  I could have done without one of the main character’s stream-of-conscious” thoughts, but except for that, which wasn’t awful, just a little distracting once in a while, I would highly recommend this to teens who like thrillers and mysteries.

The Forgetting Spell

The Forgetting Spell by Lauren Myracle, 344 pages

“The Forgetting Spell is beloved and bestselling author Lauren Myracle's second book in the unforgettable Wishing Day series, perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Ingrid Law. Most people in Willow Hill think Darya is the prickliest of the Blok sisters. What they don't realize is that on the inside, Darya is soft and gooey from feeling everything, all the time. When Darya turns thirteen, the goo gets stickier--and as Darya's Wishing Day approaches, all she wants is to forget the silly tradition ever existed.” I keep choosing books to read, not realizing that they are the second book in a series.  However, that really didn’t matter with this book at all.  I’m planning to go back and read the first book because this was so good, but I didn’t need to read it to follow this story at all.  I would definitely give it to grade school kids who like stories about magic and fantasy.

The Sisters Chase

The Sisters Chase by Sarah Healy            Audio Book 9 hours, 29 minutes   Hardback Book:  304 pages                  

Very well written.  Did you ever notice writers sometimes have a catchphrase they seem to use over and over throughout a book?    Sarah Healy’s was “Mary nodded.”   Every time that line showed up, “ Mary nodded”  I went,  “Pa rum pa pum pum.”  J     Holiday humor and right on time.   J   I did like this story and it is one of those pageturners that you want to keep reading to find out what happens next?    It really is such a well developed story about a dysfunctional family.   The mother, Diane, does her best to look out for her girls, then something happens to take her out of the picture whereas the girls are left to fend for themselves and Mary proves a very resourceful girl even if she has led a very sheltered life.   Mary does her best to survive regardless what that takes and the girl is smart and doesn’t miss an opportunity.   Hannah, 14 years younger than Mary is a small child throughout most of the book and is a sweet child till she hits puberty.   Lots of action, Mary is such an escape artist she outodes Houdini.   It’s a book about family, it’s a book about road trips, it’s a book about survival and has some scenarios almost “Thelma and Louise” like.     I really liked this book.   I think you will, too.

The Beginning

The Beginning by Catherine Coulter 534 pages

This book contains Book 1 (The Cove) and Book 2 (The Maze) of Coulter's FBI thriller series.

The Cove

Sally St. John is in a crisis, everyone is looking for her and she doesn't have any answers to give them. Her father has been murdered and everyone thinks either she did it or her mother did it and Sally is covering up for her. The most dedicated to finding her is Special Agent James Quinlan, who won't stop until he has the truth from the terrified and yet surprisingly strong Sally. Oh yes and there's a small town that is so picture perfect it's practically unbelievable just like its inhabitants.

There is action and romance in this story. I myself don't understand why there has to be romance in these stories, but a man meets a woman and despite the crazy circumstances they find affection for each other and so on and so forth. I enjoyed this story. There was enough action that the (in my opinion) unnecessary romance didn't take away from the story. I guess I'm picky when it comes to dialogue, the way this writer writes people talking almost sounds wooden like it did on the Dragnet TV and radio show. Nevertheless, it kept me turning pages and wondering who did what. It wasn't entirely unpredictable, I could easily tell when someone was going to sneak up on Sally, but it wasn't the bad kind of predictable. I did like the ending of the story and how things were wrapped up, I'm pretty sure I laughed at the antics.

The Maze

Lacey Sherlock is a new agent with the FBI and she has joined for a specific reason. She wants to take down the man who killed her sister seven years ago. However, even though she helped the FBI catch him, there are lingering doubts that she and her boss (and of course lover) Dillon Savich have to iron out. Lacey's family is the epitome of dysfunctional. She finds out that her sister wasn't all she thought she was and that her killer is a lot more tenacious than she gave him credit for.

I liked this story as well. It was almost an identical twin of the story before it, but that wasn't a bad thing. Both have women in crazy circumstances who get helped by handsome FBI agents and they get together in the end. What I didn't like about this book was how scared Lacey was ALL the time. I get it, there's mean people who want to hurt you, but did it have to mentioned so often that she was scared? It just made her seem wimpy, but she wasn't a wimp, she did what needed to be done. There was more fear than steely resolve and that bugged me. One other thing that bothered me was both Quinlan and Savich got gut feelings at interesting times, they only seemed to get them to suit the plot and at other times it was non-existant, for me it took away the authenticity although I understand why the author did it. Other than that I enjoyed it. The dialogue was still wooden and some of the writing was stilted in places, but as far as plot goes it was good.

Sunny Side Up

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm, 216 pages

Sunny isn’t having the best summer.  Instead of their regular family vacation, she has been sent to visit her grandfather in Florida.  He lives in a retirement home with no kids around.  Sunny is bored and lonely and worried about her family.  Her older brother, Dale, is in big trouble, and she thinks it’s partially her fault.  Sunny is afraid that this could be the worst summer ever, unless something can turn it around.  This was a great slice-of-life graphic novel for kids.  It’s set in 1976, but even if the setting is dated, the story isn’t.  I would recommend this to fans of Raina Telgemeier.

The Sunshine Sisters

The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green Book 371 pages

Take one self-centered movie star mother and three neglected daughters and you have a recipe for dysfunction. Ronni Sunshine is so busy being fabulous, that she doesn't realize her home is not the happy one she would like the world to think it is. Her daughters, Nell, the sullen one, Meredith, the insecure one, and Lizzy, the charmed one, have never been close and don't really know how to be. But they will need to get it together because when their mother gets old, she will have something to tell them and they aren't going to like it.

It took me the longest time to finish this book and I'm not altogether sure why. It wasn't a bad plot or bad writing, I think the author did a good job, especially with dialogue. However, the story didn't really pull me in, at least not in a can't put it down kind of way. I wouldn't say the characters were especially likable, but they were real. You could feel the animosity the girls had for their mother and the sadness they felt at not being a real family. Each suffered in their own way from the hurt their mother had unwittingly given them. Also you can feel Ronni's regret at not having treated her daughters better. She lost her husband and her children cringe whenever they hear from her (or from each other), so at the end of her life she just wants to make things right. Overall this was a decent book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of fiction, but I don't see myself coming back to read it a second time.

Okay For Now

OkayFor Now by Gary D. Schmidt, 360 pages

"As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer--a fiery young lady. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon's birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage."  I read this for the first time the year that it came out.  I re-read it recently and I think I liked it more the second time around.  I had only rated it 3 stars on Goodreads and I changed it to 4 after this time.  Definitely a good novel for teens who like realistic "problem" novels.  I read this one in the ebook version because no hard copies were available.

The Porcupine Of Truth

The Porcupine Of Truth by Bill Konigsberg, 325 pages

Carson is spending the summer in Billings, MT to be with his dying dad who he hasn’t seen since he was three.  Carson and his mom live in New York City and his mom left his alcoholic dad but is back to take care of him.  Billings is nothing like New York and Carson is sure that it will be the worst summer ever until he meets Aisha.  Aisha is hot, but she’s also an African-American lesbian who’s been kicked out of her home by her Christian dad.  Carson and Aisha manage to find a way to have an epic adventure and learn a few things along the way.  This was an awesome book that I think a lot of teens would like.

Jupiter's Legacy

Jupiter's Legacy, by Mark Millar, 120 pages

This is one of those comics where I heard the plot and thought, "That sounds interesting"; then the copy arrived and I saw the cover and thought, "This does not look promising"; then I read it and thought, "Meh. It was... alright." Here's the general idea: a group of people discover a mysterious island and then become the world's first superheroes, with superpowers and all.  Then they have children who also have superpowers but are basically entitled and resentful of their parents.  Infighting happens, the families kind of break apart, and then there's a dramatic conclusion that paves the way for the second book that I will not be reading.  It wasn't bad- just not for me.  I was hoping more for an Astro City sort of non-canon superhero comic.