Gone Crazy In Alabama

Gone Crazy In Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia, 293 pages

This third and finally book about the Gaither sisters was really terrific.  Delphine, Vonetta and Fern are in Alabama this summer, visiting their grandmother and Great-grandmother, Big Ma and Ma Charles.  They find out a lot of interesting family history, such as they have both white and Native American ancestry.  Also, their great grandmother has a half-sister because their great-great-grandfather was married to two women at the same time.  Ma Charles and her half-sister, Miss Trotter, don't speak to each other directly but argue and fight through their grandchildren who travel between their two houses.  They clearly love their relationship as is.   Delphine wants to see the two of them get together but it may take a tragedy for that to happen.  Funny and realistic, this is a great historical novel about sisters and family for kids.

Game Seven

Game Seven by Paul Volponi, 243 pages

Although this book was a little preachy I still thought it was a good story.  Julio's father defected from Cuba to the United States a few years ago.  Julio Senior, El Fuego, was one of Cuba's greatest pitchers, and is pitching for Miami now.  Life has been hard for Julio's family since his father left.  The whole family is under suspicion of being traitors.  His mother has to work hard just to make ends meet.  Julio had to leave school and get a job to help out and is afraid that he'll never have the chance to play ball on the Cuban team because of his father.  Then a chance comes for Julio to escape Cuba and flee to the United States.  It will mean leaving his mother and sister behind and the trip will be dangerous.  Also, Julio isn't sure exactly how he feels about his father after all of these years.  This would probably have a lot of appeal to teens, especially boys who like sports.

NYPD Red 3

NYPD Red 3 by James Patterson & Marshall Karp, 359 pages

This was typical Patterson book: fast paced and entertaining.  In this story, Tripp, the son and grandson of extremely wealthy New York businessmen, is missing and presumed kidnapped.  The family's chauffer is dead and no one is talking.  To further complicate matters, the two detectives looking into the case, Zach and Kylie, are both having problems with their personal lives right now, specifically with their significant others.  Of course, Zach and Kylie were an item once, and because of their other complications, they are clearly toying with the possibility again.  The kidnapping and murder story is pretty convoluted, which I thought was satisfyingly entertaining but could be perceived as tiredly overdone and silly.  I liked it and I think that most of Patterson's fans will be happy with the new addition to this series.

The Darkest Part Of The Forest

The Darkest Part Of The Forest by Holly Black, 328 pages

Hazel and her brother, Ben, started fighting the fairy monsters in their town when they were just kids.  Ben's music kept the monsters enthralled while Hazel killed them.  Their town has always coexisted with the fairies and usually only the tourists get in trouble.  However, there is one fairy that lives as a human because, when he was a baby a fairy tried to leave him as a changeling.  The human mother demanded her child back but kept the fairy also and since that time the fairies have been more active with locals also.  Hazel, who made a deal with the fairies when she was ten, may be the key to stopping the terror that the fairies seem to bringing to their town, but only if she can figure out the mysterious riddles that someone has been leaving for her and Ben.  This was a great fantasy that I would highly recommend to teens.

Eden West

Eden West by Pete Hautman, 310 pages

Jacob is a member of the Grace and has been raised to believe that an angel is going to come in an ark and take all of the Grace to Heaven.  At 17, Jacob is pretty satisfied with his life until the day he meets a worldly girl named Lynna while patrolling the fence.  And soon after that, another teen, Tobias, joins the Grace with his mother and sister.  Between Tobias and Lynna and the things they say, Jacob begins to question his own faith and the whole mission of the Grace.  This was a really good story and seemed to be a good account of what this type of religious cult might be like on the inside.  I think that a lot of teens who like realistic fiction would enjoy it.

Famous Last Words

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender, 312 pages

I loved this book.  It actually scared me.  I’m not sure why, exactly, because it’s not like it was so relatable to my life and I didn’t think it was that much better written than a lot of other books I’ve read but it had something going for it that really made it speak to  me.  Willa’s mom has just remarried an up-and-coming Hollywood producer, a couple of years after Willa’s dad’s death.  Willa is pretty much ok with this, except that she misses her dad, feels responsible for his death, and has been trying to contact his ghost to get his forgiveness.  Unfortunately it seems she may have contacted another spirit that is in her new house, and for some reason this spirit seems to want to communicate something to her about a rash of serial murders that have been happening in Hollywood.  I would definitely give this to teens who like suspense, thrillers, and horror.

The Way We Bared Our Souls

The Way We Bared Our Souls by Willa Strayhorn, 276 pages

Lo is terrified that she has Multiple Sclerosis.  Her aunt recently died from MS and Lo, who has started having symptoms, can't face the possibility that she may have it too.  She meets a man who calls himself Jay and spends time with a coyote called Dakota.  Jay tells Lo that he can help her.  She needs to find four friends who also need help and he can perform a ritual that will help all of them.  Lo manages to find four friends who all have some deep problems, with drugs, illness, or memories that haunt them and they all agree to do the ritual.  However, the ritual has some unexpected consequences that could either save them or ruin them.  I mostly liked this book.  It was well written and it was a good story.  I'm not certain that I liked the ending though, but that's probably a personal preference as opposed to it actually being a bad ending.  I would definitely recommend this to teens who like realistic fiction with a touch of fantasy.

There Will Be Lies

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake, 454 pages

Shelby's mom has always been overprotective, not letting her go anywhere on her own, homeschooling her, and never letting her talk to boys or men.  When Shelby is hit by a car, breaking her leg, her mom starts acting strange, even for her.  Shelby finds out that she isn't insured and her mom pays cash for the hospital bill.  When they release Shelby, she and her mom get in a car that her mom has rented and leave town.  Shelby's mom says that her dad isn't dead, as Shelby thought, but is alive and dangerous and may be after them.  However, Shelby doesn't think her mom is telling the truth and soon, Shelby finds herself in another world called The Dreaming, where Coyote tells her that there will be two lies and a truth and that she must kill the Crone and save the Child or the world will end.  This was a really good realistic fantasy novel that I would definitely recommend to teens who read.

The Bodies We Wear

The Bodies We Wear by Jeyn Roberts, 353 pages

Faye was only eleven years old when some dealers forced her to take Heam, a drug that most people say allows them to see Heaven.  Faye nearly overdosed but survived, and she didn’t see Heaven, but Hell.  However, people like her are outcasts.  She is forced to hide her secret every day and has had to fight the craving for more for six years.  Her one plan is to kill the people who did this to her, for revenge, both for her, and for her friend, Christian, who died that night.  Recently, Faye has met a boy who seems to like her.  He looks a lot like Christian would have, if he had lived, and he knows things about Faye that he shouldn’t, including her plan for revenge.  This was a really good book.  It was pretty strange, but I think a lot of teens that like magical reality will want to read it.

Calendar of Love

A Calendar of Love and Other Stories by George Mackay Brown, 157 pages

A collection of short stories set in the author's beloved Orkney Islands, exploring the landscape and the people who inhabit it.  There are tavern keepers, tinkers, Sikh merchants, Vikings, priests, madmen secular and religious, many sailors, and many wives and lovers of sailors.  There is sadness, treachery, tragedy, drunkenness, repentance, and joy.  

The portrait of a pastoral human community full of flawed characters occasionally illuminated by grace provokes obvious comparisons with William Faulkner, Wendell Berry, and Sholem Aleichem.  Brown, better known as a poet, has a straightforward prose style and an ease with plot that keeps his stories from ever feeling forced.

La Vita Nuova

La Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri, translated by David R Slavitt, 144 pages

La Vita Nuova ("The New Life") is a collection of 31 sonnets written by Dante between the ages of 18 and 30, with prose introductions and explications by the poet.  The result is the story of how, at the age of 9, Dante's life began anew with his first sight of Beatrice, and how that love lasted throughout her life, and even stretched beyond death, into the eternal.

Slavitt translates the whole in a plain style, taking considerable liberties with the text.  The danger of a translation that aims to be "relatable", especially of a work distant in time and place, is that it will destroy what makes the work worth reading in the first place.  Slavitt clips Dante's wings and brings him down to earth.  The mutilated poet is easier to approach, but less interesting when reached.

Emergence of Christian Culture

The Emergence of Christian Culture in the West: The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages by Henry Taylor, 358 pages

A lawyer by training, Taylor wrote The Emergence of Christian Culture in the West as a labor of love.  Although extending as early as the first century and as late as the twelfth, the focus is on the development of culture between the fourth and seventh centuries, the critical period when paganism waned and Christianity triumphed.  In the process, classical pagan models in art, philosophy, poetry, and prose were taken over and transformed - baptized - by Christian creators to serve Christian ends.

The book is somewhat marred by the author's commitment to a post-Protestant, rationalistic pure gospel.  Not only are the apostolic fathers counted as innovators if they do not conform to this, so are the other New Testament authors, particularly St Paul.  Worse, he is haphazard in his application of this principle, as when he cites the use of the brazen serpent as a prefigurement of Christ in the Epistle of Barnabus as an indication of a trend of increasingly allegorical interpretations of Scripture, only to mention in a later chapter that Christ Himself makes the identical claim in the Gospel according to St John.  There is also a certain amount of chronological snobbery, as when he excuses St Augustine for believing in demons, on the assumption that the saint is mistaken.  These shortcomings are mostly compensated for by Taylor's generally excellent aesthetic sense.

June Totals!

Congrats to Krista R, who read the most books and pages and earned the most points in June!  Krista has graciously chosen to forgo his prize this month and asked that it be awarded to a blogger chosen at random.  On that note, Jason S, Julie E-C and Dennis M are the winners of our random drawings this month - we'll be contacting you about claiming your prizes shortly!

Check out the rest of June's results below:

June Stats:

Blogger	Books	Pages	Points
Krista R	20	7,056	25
Ed W	18	6,668	18
Jason S	14	4,821	14
Jeff S	10	4,530	12
Dennis M	13	3,143	17
Molly P	9	2,373	9
Julie E-C	7	1,962	7
TOTALS	91	30,553	102

A Table by the Window

A Table by the Window by Hillary Manton Lodge   320 Pages

I got tired of waiting for this novel from the St. Louis Public Library, so I read Book 2 in the “Two Blue Doors” trilogy, Reservations for Two a while back. I had a love/hate relationship with that one.  I posted reviews for it, so you can go peek at my thought, if you so desire.

Still I was interested in reading Book 1 so I could get the backstory.  Basically it’s the story of Juliette and Neil’s long-distance romance. All the other plot points from Book 2 are here: The passing of Juliette’s beloved grandmother, her mother’s cancer diagnosis, the introduction of Juliette’s family members, and the restaurant world/food writing world that Juliette loves. 

It becomes clear the how and why of Juliette learning that the man she called Grandfather may not be her biological ancestor. Still, I think I’m going to have to wait for Book 3 (Coming May 2016, according to the end of Book 2) to have this issue resolved.

I’m glad I read Book 2 first. Maybe because A Table by the Window didn’t pull me in as much. However, I was familiar with the characters, the plot, and the writing style so that may have had something to do with it. 

I give A Table by the Window  3 out of 5 stars.

Metaphysical Poets

The Metaphysical Poets: A Study in Religious Experience by Helen C White, 411 pages

They are a diverse group: the intellectually omnivorous John Donne, the saintly rural vicar George Herbert, the questing exile Richard Crashaw, the country doctor Henry Vaughan, and the very nearly forgotten Thomas Traherne.  Their lives stretched from 1572 to 1695.  At the same time, they were clearly linked - young Herbert knew old Donne, Crashaw was a disciple of Herbert's literary executor Nicholas Ferrar, and Vaughan credited his conversion to his reading of Herbert.  All were rooted in the Anglican Church of Andrewes, Hooker, and Laud, although pulled in various ways by Catholicism (Donne, Crashaw), Puritanism (Traherne), and Hermeticism (Vaughan).  All were suspicious of enthusiasm, all sought a way to express their religious experiences in poetic form, and all succeeded to some degree.

White conducts a reasoned, careful examination of these authors and their works, with each getting a biographical chapter followed by a critical chapter, along with introductory chapters on the historical period.  There aren't extensive selections from the poets, however, so readers not already somewhat familiar with at least some of their works are unlikely to profit much - this is a study, not an introduction.

Ender's Shadow and A War of Gifts

Ender's Shadow and A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card (469 and 128)

Ender's Shadow is actually part of a six book collection that is told from other peoples perspective. I have included it here with A War of Gifts since both of these books happen concurrently with Ender's Game.

Ender's Shadow follows the young and unbelievable character named Bean. He like all kids is exceptionally smart but there is something a little different about him. He also represents the next best chance for Earth if Ender should fail. For that reason he is pushed mercilessly toward the final conflict. I think this book was mainly written to answer the questions we are left with at the end of Ender's Game. Namely about the inner workings of battle and command school. In some ways I found this to be better but lacking that sucker punch that makes Ender's Game such a great novel.

A War of Gifts focuses on the removal of religion from the battle school trainees and their rebellion against such strict practices. I think this book is meant to be more philosophical and highlight the humanity that is being given up to make soldiers. This is also only a side novel that does not really add anything to the overall plot though both Bean and Ender are in it. It does however have a very nicely done cover.

I continue to enjoy reading Card's work in the Enderworld and look forward to reading the multitude of books still remaining.

Odd Interlude

Odd Interlude by Dean Koontz, 279 pages

After saving the world from nuclear Armageddon Odd and company are beginning to make their way back to Pico Mundo when they decide to stop at Harmony Corners. Harmony Corners has everything weary travels need a cozy diner, service stations, and cottages for rent. Overseeing this homestead is the Harmony family. When Odd and company stop at there for the night they discover there is much more to this secluded place than meets the eye.

while being shorter than most of the books and being more of a side adventure to the main story this was actually a pretty good. It a bit more supernatural element than the previous book. Despite being an interlude in the series it has just as much mystery and action as any of the books, and stays just a good.

Island of Legends

Island of Legends by Lisa McMann, 478 pages

Now that the magical land of Artime has been restored it is time for Alex to focus on other things, such as rescuing Sky's mother, and defending Artime borders once again. In the meantime he practices honing his skills and and using his magic to create life as mentor used to, and to send a rescue expedition to the underwater Pirate Island. In Quill High Priest Aaron works rebuild the divide between his people and and Artime by rebuilding the wall between the two and spreading rumors of an impending attack by the former unwanteds that live there. He also discovers a hidden jungle filled with dangerous secrets that he plans to use to increase his power and cement his control over the rest of the island.

The first three books of this series were fairly good, but I was a little disappointed in this fourth book. To me some of the decisions the characters make seem questionable. This book also jumped around a fair amount with lots of characters which can make it a little hard to read at times. While not as good as some of the previous books it wasn't actually bad, there was a lot of character development, and expansion of the world that the characters inhabit. 

Odd Hours

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz, 352 pages

On his way back to his beloved town of Pico Mundo Odd is drawn to a small California coastal town by his unusual gift. Once their he begins to have a strange recurring dream of an all consuming red tide, that could signal a catastrophe that would change the world. With the help of his ghost dog Boo, a new companion who just might rival his old pal Elvis, and the mysterious Annamarie whom he trusts completely, Odd must figure out what his dream means and save the world from those who want to destroy it.

While it lacked some of the supernatural elements of some of the previous books there was enough suspense to keep me wanting to know what happens. It also seems like it is setting up events for the couple book by introducing the mysterious and very cryptic Annamarie. Overall this series is still capable of keeping readers glued to its pages. 

X'ed Out Trilogy

X'ed Out, The Hive, and Sugar Skull by Charles Burns (64, 56, 56 pages. 176 total)

I started reading this trilogy after finding the third book sitting on a table where it did not belong. Thinking that it was a one off I gave the graphic novel a quick read. When I finished I was left thinking what did I just read. I could not make any logical sense of it. Utterly confused and seeking clarification I turned to the internet and quickly found out that there were more books. Hoping they would clarify everything I stopped my research and read them. While this helped a little with the overall plot it introduced even more weirdness. I am still not sure what this is truly about, though I have my suspicions (note: my suspicions cannot be included as they may be spoilers...).



I cannot say that I would recommend these books to anyone, and I would advise not to let kids read them because of adult themes. If anyone has read them and can tell me exactly what the author is trying to say please feel free to let me know.