Princess Cora And the Crocodile

Princess Cora And the Crocodile by Laura Amy Schlitz, 74 pages

Princess Cora is tired of doing all of the things that a princess is supposed to do.  She is tired of taking baths, studying, and exercising.  She never has any time to do the things she wants to do.  When she asks for a dog her parents and nanny say absolutely not.  But when she asks her fairy godmother for a pet, she gets a crocodile!  Maybe the crocodile can help her get what she wants.  This was a cute book that will work for younger elementary readers.

Deceptions

Deceptions by Kelley Armstrong, 453 pages

"Olivia Taylor Jones's life has exploded. She's discovered she is not only adopted, but her real parents are convicted serial killers. Fleeing the media frenzy, she took refuge in the oddly secluded town of Cainsville. She has since solved the town's mysteries and finds herself not only the target of its secretive elders but also her stalker ex-fiance. Visions continue to haunt her: particularly a little blond girl in a green sundress who insists she has an important message for Olivia, one that may help her balance the light and darkness within herself. Death stalks both Olivia and the two men most important to her, as she desperately searches to understand whether ancient scripts are dictating the triangle that connects them. Will darkness prevail, or does Olivia have the power to prevent a tragic fate?"  This series continues to entertain.  Give it to fans of dark fantasy.

Poop Fountain

Poop Fountain by Tom Angleberger, 134 pages

“Three friends spend Christmas day breaking into the town of Crickenburg's antiquated sewage treatment plant in order to witness with their own eyes the soon-to-be-replaced ‘poop fountain.’”  This is one of the books in The Qwikpick Papers series.  This is a really fun series for elementary readers.  Kids that like humorous books will like the series.  It’s not necessary to read them in order.

To Hold The Bridge

To Hold The Bridge by Garth Nix, 400 pages

“An entertaining short-story collection from bestselling fantasy author Garth Nix, including an Old Kingdom novella, a short story set in the same world as Shade's Children, and another story set in the world of A Confusion of Princes. Garth Nix is renowned for his legendary fantasy works, but To Hold the Bridge showcases his versatility as the collection offers nineteen short stories from every genre of literature including science fiction, paranormal, realistic fiction, mystery, and adventure. Whether writing about vampires, detectives, ancient spirits, or odd jobs, Garth Nix's ability to pull his readers into new worlds is extraordinary.”  Fantastic stories.  I love most of what Nix has written and this is high on the list of my favorites.  I really enjoyed all but a couple of these stories and even the ones I didn’t like as well were worth reading.  This is a definite pick for teens who like science fiction and fantasy.

Don't Fail Me Now

Don'tFail Me Now by Una LaMarche, 273 pages

"Michelle and her little siblings Cass and Denny are African-American and living on the poverty line in urban Baltimore, struggling to keep it together with their mom in jail and only Michelle's part-time job at the Taco Bell to sustain them. Leah and her stepbrother Tim are white and middle class from suburban Maryland, with few worries beyond winning lacrosse games and getting college applications in on time. Michelle and Leah only have one thing in common - Buck Devereaux, the biological father who abandoned them when they were little. After news trickles back to them that Buck is dying, they make the uneasy decision to drive across country to his hospice in California. Leah hopes for closure; Michelle just wants to give him a piece of her mind. a Five people in a failing, old station wagon, living off free samples at food courts across America, and the most pressing question on Michelle's mind is- Who will break down first--herself or the car? All the signs tell her they won't make it. But Michelle has heard that her whole life, and it's never stopped her before....  Una LaMarche triumphs once again with this rare and compassionate look at how racial and social privilege affects one family in crisis in both subtle and astonishing ways." I really liked this book.  I would give it to teens who like realistic fiction.

Cody And The Mysteries Of The Universe

CodyAnd The Mysteries Of The Universe by Tricia Springstubb, 137 pages

"Cody's best friend, Spencer, and his parents are moving in with his grandmother right around the corner, and Cody can't wait. For one thing, Cody needs Spencer to help solve the mystery of the never-seen Mr. Meen, who lives on the other side of the porch with a skull-and-crossbones sign in the window and an extermination truck out front. How's Cody to know that a yellow jacket would sting her, making her scream "Ow! Ow!" just as they start spying? Or that the ominous window sign would change overnight to "Welcome home," only deepening the mystery? In this second adventure, Spencer's new-school jitters, an unexpected bonding with a teacher over Mozart, and turf-claiming kids next door with a reason for acting out are all part of Cody's experiences as summer shifts into a new year at school."  I like Cody, despite the fact that these books are saccharine sweet.  These books work well for second grade who are transitioning to chapter books.

Turbo Twenty-Three

TurboTwenty-Three by Janet Evanovich, 288 pages

"Larry Virgil skipped out on his latest court date after he was arrested for hijacking an eighteen-wheeler full of premium bourbon. Fortunately for bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, Larry is just stupid enough to attempt almost the exact same crime again . Only this time he flees the scene, leaving behind a freezer truck loaded with Bogart ice cream and a dead body--frozen solid and covered in chocolate and chopped pecans.  As fate would have it, Stephanie's mentor and occasional employer, Ranger, needs her to go undercover at the Bogart factory to find out who's putting their employees on ice and sabotaging the business. It's going to be hard for Stephanie to keep her hands off all that ice cream, and even harder for her to keep her hands off Ranger. It's also going to be hard to explain to Trenton's hottest cop, Joe Morelli, why she is spending late nights with Ranger, late nights with Lula and Randy Briggs--who are naked and afraid--and late nights keeping tabs on Grandma Mazur and her new fella. Stephanie Plum has a lot on her plate, but for a girl who claims to have "virtually no marketable skills," these are the kinds of sweet assignments she does best."  I'm still enjoying this series.  This was a good addition.  I laughed out loud in more than one place.  My only real complaint about this volume is that I felt it ended rather abruptly but overall I still liked it.

The Games

TheGames by James Patterson, 366 pages

"Rio has spent years preparing to host the world during the Olympic games--but they didn't prepare for this ...  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil--home to beautiful white-sand beaches, gorgeous women, stunning natural beauty, and the world's largest Carnival celebration--knows how to throw a party. So it's a natural choice to host the biggest spectacles in sports--the World Cup and the Olympics. To ensure that the games go off without a hitch, the organizers turn to Jack Morgan, the unflappable head of the renowned international security and consulting firm Private. But when events are this exclusive, someone's bound to get left off the guest list.  Two years after the action nearly spilled from the field to the stands during soccer's championship match, Jack is back in Rio for the Olympics. But before the cauldron is even lit, the only thing more intense than the competition is the security risks. When prominent clients he's supposed to be protecting disappear, and bodies mysteriously start to litter the streets, Jack is drawn deep into the heart of a ruthless underworld populated by disaffected residents trying to crash the world's biggest party. As the opening ceremonies near, with the world watching in horror, Jack must sprint to the finish line to defuse a threat that could decimate Rio and turn the games from a joyous celebration into a deadly spectacle."  This was typical Patterson, a relatively fast read, mostly predictable plot, entertaining.  I have to say that there was at least one unexpected twist, which made the story a little more interesting, but also harder to read.  Overall, a solid effort that Patterson fans will enjoy.

March Book Thee

MarchBook Thee by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell, 246 pages

"Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense: Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression: "One Man, One Vote." To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening ... even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma."  Again, this a moving, emotionally charged, well written and illustrated work that will never be a favorite of mine.

March Book Two

MarchBook Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell, 187 pages

This is the second book in the March trilogy.  This graphic rendition of the Civil Rights movement is very powerful and I'm not sorry that I've spent the time reading it but I can't say that it's been one of my favorite books.  I'm sure  that the graphic format will entice people to read it who may not otherwise read much information about this era in history and the story and illustrations are well done.  This just isn't my favorite format.  Many people will be much more moved because of the illustrations, which are stark and designed to cause a rise of emotions.  I think it's a great piece of work that will have a serious impact on the world.  I appreciate it but didn't personally like it very much.

When All Is Said and Prayed

When All Is Said and Prayed by E.N. Joy Book 304 pages


When All Is Said and Prayed is about Paige and her life of many ups and downs. Paige has had 2 husbands, and is now desiring a third. She has had much drama in her life which can be found in previous series written by the author. This book was fine, that's the word for it. The characters, the plot, the development, all of it was just fine. The problem I had with this book was the author's shameful agenda pushing. This book does fall into the religious category, but the religion isn't the problem. I won't go into detail about which agenda was present, just the seeming lack of author integrity. The agenda was a problem because it felt like a break from the story, which I didn't want. All I wanted was to be told what happened. Reading what was an obvious attempt to have me adopt a certain belief made me feel cheated as a reader. It felt like the author stopped the story in order to tell me what to believe about a certain topic. This experience makes me wary to try another of this author's books, but we'll see.

A Simple Favor

A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell      304 pages

"She’s your best friend.
She knows all your secrets.
That’s why she’s so dangerous."

The question is, which "she?"  Is it Emily, who has disappeared and seems to be the best friend of Stephanie?  Is it Stephanie, who has a few secrets of her own (and one of them a pretty nasty one)?  And what about Emily's husband? What the real story on him?

This story begins with a simple favor.  Emily asks her best friend, Stephanie, to pick up Emily's son Nicky after school. Stephanie's more than happy to do so, considering her own son, Miles, is friends with Nicky. Everything's great . . . until Emily doesn't come back.  She doesn't answer texts or phone calls and Stephanie is sure something is terribly wrong. Desperate, Stephanie uses her blog to reach out to her readers for help and also reaches out to Emily's husband, Sean.  When Sean and Stephanie receive the news that Emily's body has been found, the nightmare of her disappearance is over.  Or is it?  Nicky is sure he's seen his mother and now, Stephanie is starting to get suspicious.

And that's just the beginning, with a story that starts unraveling secrets upon secrets and dark plots.

This story has the feel of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, and has the same storytelling of shifting perspectives between characters.  I felt this was more like Gone Girl, with the slowly building sense of unease and then disbelief as the story continues and you learn more about the characters and their motivations.  I initially couldn't believe how naive (and actually, irritating) Stephanie was, although she redeems herself later in the story.  What I really liked was how as things start to unfold, the characters and their motivations become darker and darker.  It's like a bunch of nasty matroyshka dolls, where you open one and it's got something icky inside, so you open the next one, and it's worse.  The steadily increasing pace kept me turning the pages, and I enjoyed the story up until the very end.

See What I Have Done

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt   324 pages (due out in August 2017 - I read an e-galley)

"Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one."

Or did she?

In this story, Sarah Schmidt recasts one of the most fascinating murder cases of all time and spins the story out of a entirely volatile household.  The brutal murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home left little evidence and many questions. Some people wondered why anyone would want to harm the Bordens, but those close to the family had a different perspective of a father with an explosive temper, a spiteful stepmother and two spinster sisters, Emma and Lizzie.  While the police search for clues, Emma confronts Lizzie, whose memories of that morning are scattered fragments. What is true and what is in Lizzie's mind only?

This story of shifting perspectives is dizzying as you go from reliable to unreliable narrators (or are they all unreliable?) and try to determine just what happened to the Bordens and why. At times, I found myself slightly nauseated by some of the perspectives because the author does such a good job of putting the reader inside a character's mind; if that character is unbalanced, so is the perspective. Dazzling and off-putting, all at the same time.

A Storm of Swords

A Storm of Swords  by George R. R. Martin              Audio Book:  46 hours, 48 minutes      Paperback Book: 1,216 pages      

Book 3 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.   OMGosh!   I am so addicted to this series.   There is so much going on in book 3 your mouth will drop open!    My favorite characters are all up to so much in this story it is unreal!   If you are a fan of the series you will LOVE this book.   Some folks get their just desserts in ways that are so deliciously vengeful you will yell YES!   George R.R. Martin literally charms you with the way he delivers his tales of knights and ladies, kings and queens and the battle to be the one ruler of the seven kingdoms.    I am blown away by how he will kill any character at any time and the reader will never see it coming.    His characters are so real and he paints such in depth word pictures that it is like you are standing there among them.    I actually get chilled when I am reading about the happenings with John Snow at the wall.  Mr. Martin’s words make such vivid mental pictures that he can make you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin after a drenching rain or douse in a river he has just described happening to one of the characters.    The way he describes in such detail the smells of meat cooking or a person who hasn’t paid attention to his/her hygiene or a body decomposing, that the reader actually gets a sense of that.   I have wrinkled my nose right along with the people attending funerals in the book and how one group carry roses with them from the bouquets they leave to cover the putrid smell of the rotting corpse.    You get that sense memory of the smell of a rose.   It’s amazing.     When he talks about the ice for an instant you do feel that cold or the cold metallic feel of the blade of a sword he is describing.   This series of books is like being in sensor round.    It is not just a read, but, akin to a virtual reality experience, only you see it in your mind without the need for special goggles.     I would love to go into all the things that happen, but, I don’t want to give it away, however,  you will be awe struck I promise you by the things that happen to all the main characters and the changes that come over some of the characters as they adapt to their situations.   I hope George R.R. Martin continues writing about the seven kingdoms for the rest of his days that is how long I want to continue hearing about the lives of all these larger than life people who have become so much a part of my reading.    I think Mr. Martin has put a mesmerizing spell on his books because I seriously cannot get enough of them.    He is the Garrison Keillor of the Seven Kingdoms bringing all of us readers who are hungry for more news on our favorite people and creatures the scoop on life in the Seven Kingdoms and who is where in the Game of Thrones.    I LOVE IT!!!!!

Little Virtues

The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by Dick Davis, 110 pages

The first story, or essay, or memoir collected in The Little Virtues is titled "Winter in the Abruzzi".  Only a few pages long, it recalls a time when the author and her family were forced to move to a small town in the rustic Abruzzo region east of Rome as a consequence of their outspoken opposition to the fascist government.  Delicately she describes the life of the village, recalling the sound of the bells calling the old women to Benediction, the miserliness of the local grocer, the time the snow melted and everyone's houses flooded, the taste of oranges that have begun to rot, all the daily routines they had to endure while waiting for the war to end and their real lives to resume.  She concludes by telling, briefly, how her husband was arrested and tortured to death.  That time in Abruzzo was the last time they would spend together, and those everyday experiences are revealed as life itself.

This is a theme that runs throughout The Little Virtues.  Ginzburg does not inspire the reader to great acts of heroism, but to everyday mindfulness.  Her work is characterized by a humble clarity, receptiveness to reality, openness to gift, quiet beauty and deep meaning.

Incryptid Series

Discount Armageddon, Midnight Blue-light Special, Half-Off Ragnarok, Pocket Apocalypse, and Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire, 1766 pages total


So I tried to write a good summary of this series half a dozen times and could never quite get the right wording and vagueness that would compel an interested party to read further, but yet not spoil any of the books. Lacking the words I needed I went to Seanan's website for guidance, or in this case a nice neat summary.
"Cryptid, noun:

1. Any creature whose existence has been suggested but not proven scientifically. Term officially coined by cryptozoologist John E. Wall in 1983.

2. That thing that's getting ready to eat your head.

3. See also: "monster."

The Covenant of St. George was founded to uphold one simple ideal: anything that was not present on the Ark—anything they deemed "unnatural"—needed to be destroyed. Monsters. Creatures of myth and legend. All of them would be wiped from the Earth in the name of Man's dominion. Unfortunately for them, not all the monsters agreed with this plan...and neither did all the human beings.

After their rather abrupt departure from the Covenant, Alexander and Enid Healy found themselves alone in the world, but with a simple mission of their own: to protect the cryptids of the world from those who would harm them without just cause. It was a cause that would eventually claim both their lives, leaving their children, and their childrens' children, to take up the fight. Now in the modern day, their descendants struggle to stay beneath the Covenant's radar, while defending the cryptids from humanity—and humanity from the cryptids."

Thanks Seanan. 

Unlike most series this one is divided up between two different, but related main characters, siblings Verity and Alex. For books 1, 2 and 5 you will be with the ballroom dance loving Verity, and for books 3 and 4 with the reptile loving Alex. Since I am more into reptiles then ballroom dancing, I found Alex's books far more interesting. It could also be his actual love for being a cryptozoologist, unlike his sister who treated it like a day job. No matter which sibling the reader is with, there is plenty of danger, excitement, and weirdness. 

My final recommendation: This series is well worth the read, if nothing else for the cryptid world that Seanan weaves, that and the talking mice. Yes, talking mice, and they are awesome. 

Eric Gill

Eric Gill: A Lover's Quest for Art and God by Fiona MacCarthy, 294 pages

"Clear, clean, and hard."  The words could be used to describe Eric Gill's life as well as his art, art and life being inextricably intertwined in his philosophy.  His sculpture, lettering, politics, religion, and relationships were all ideally "clear, clean, and hard."  Such strength of definition, expression, and passion could only be the result of contrast and conflict.  Fiona MacCarthy's biography demonstrates that Eric Gill was indeed a man of harsh contradictions - a recluse and an exhibitionist, a man who craved stability but couldn't stop moving, a rebellious individualist and an ostentatiously devout Catholic, an agrarian thrilled by locomotives, an erotic ascetic - and his life was spent attempting to reconcile these contradictions - to unify work and play, art and craft, community and ambition, flesh and the spirit.  

MacCarthy's biggest revelations - that Gill's sexual adventures included incest with one of his sisters and at least two of his daughters, as well as experiments with homosexuality and bestiality - are made without sensationalism.  This is a reflection of MacCarthy's attitude towards her subject's duality - rather than regarding him as a pious hypocrite, a megalomaniacal would-be cult leader, or a struggling sinner, she casts him as an unfortunately failed sexual revolutionary.  Whether or not this is the best perspective on Gill's life and work, McCarthy's biography remains the definitive biography of a remarkable - and remarkably complex - man.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill.   Made it through 177 of 389 pages.

"The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one's origins. It might also take true love.

Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1910. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen. 

Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city's underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes after years of searching and desperate poverty the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they'll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same."
This is the summary from Goodreads.  Because I stopped about halfway through the book, I didn't feel like I could write a good summary.  I wanted to like this book much more than I did.  It might have been my mood when I was reading it, but as much as I liked parts of the characters, I found the story to be a bit depressing.  The treatment of the children in the orphanage is awful, and while there are small bits of hope, there are also some disturbing things that happen to them.   There was one detail that I found made it difficult to read about one of the characters, and since it's mentioned in the summary, it's not too much of a spoiler if I say that the fact that Pierrot becomes a heroin addict was a turn-off for me.  While Rose and Pierrot both have some aspects to their lives that are somewhat charming, I just found a lot about their lives that was sad.  I didn't get the feeling that something uplifting was around the corner, and it just became a turn-off of a read.

Each book their reader, and each reader their book, right?  This wasn't my book.

Murder on the Serpentine

Murder on the Serpentine by Anne Perry             288 page.

This is #32 (!) in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry, and I believe it will be the final book in this series (from what I saw in a review).  I feel like in her last few Pitt and Monk series books, Anne Perry's heart just didn't seem to be in writing.  However, this book measured up to the books I have enjoyed that are earlier in this series.

In this story, Thomas Pitt, Commander of Special Branch, receives a summons from the Queen.  The body of Sir John Halberd, the Queen's confidant, has been found in the shallow water of the Serpentine in Hyde Park.  At first dismissed as an accident, Pitt is sure that Halberd has been murdered.  At the time of his murder, Halberd was conducting a surreptitious investigation of Alan Kendrick, a man who seems to have an undue amount of influence on the Prince of Wales.  Now, Pitt must navigate his investigation with the utmost discretion and stealth to determine who murdered Halberd, and what secrets he had been about to uncover at the time of his death.

This story ties into the politics of the time, especially the Boer Wars (it is set between the first and second Boer War).  I found the addition of the information about the war, as well as Britain's interests in South Africa, to be really interesting. Perry does a nice job with slowly increasing the pace here, so that there's a feeling of danger which keeps building through the story.  I also appreciated that Charlotte Pitt, Thomas' wife, has more of a role in this story.  I felt that by the end, I was satisfied and if this is actually the end of this series, I don't feel like I have unanswered questions or feel that it's too abrupt of an ending.

It does help to be familiar with the series before starting this book, although the book can stand alone pretty well.  However, you have more context for a lot of the story and character motives if you've been reading the series all along.

Dracula’s Dark World

Dracula’s Dark World by Michael Burgan       32 pages         

What an excellent book on the national hero of Romania, Vlad Tepes!    And the illustrations are practically 3-D.    Beautifully done, they could be oil paintings, gorgeous.     The biography is so well done, and so imaginatively presented I can’t compliment it enough.   The background of the Dracula name is given.   His father, Vlad the II,  was a member of the Order of the Dragon, a group much like the Knights Templor.   Drakul is Romanian for Dragon and Drakula is Romanian for Son of the Dragon, it was pointed out after Vlad started impaling the enemies of his family (they kept him, his father and one of his brothers in jail for years even later beheading his father and killing his brother as well) that Drakul can also mean devil.    Vlad fought the Turks when they began their crusade to take over Europe.   While Vlad didn’t have a problem with impaling his enemies he also had a warm fuzzy side  on occasion, as he was also loved by many peasants for keeping crime down due to his harsh punishments.   He took care of the people in his realm protecting them from the invaders and he even cut their taxes and gave some of them land.    They enjoyed the fact that he did not cater to the rich for if a rich person committed a crime  he dealt with them the same as any other perpetrator.     Bribery had been common in the past.    Vlad abolished bribery and made believers out of everyone.    The photos of the locations in Transylvania, Wallachia, etc. and the maps showing the territory being discussed both then and now,  give the reader a perfect view of what was going on and how borders fluctuate.    The Turks were an ominous presence back in the 1400s and their quest for domination of the continent would have been scary to go up against.   But after the life Vlad had led, fear was not a problem.    The reader will enjoy the history lesson, the geography lesson and the biography of an often maligned but fascinating character known world wide (thank you Bram stoker).     The tales both good and bad of a many faceted historical figure who hated tyrants and believed in extreme retribution of his enemies have survived for nearly 600 years now and his eccentricities will be the stuff bringing tourists to Turgoviste till the end of time.     This book gets 5 gold stars from me for terrific.

I Am Haunted

I Am Haunted by Zak Bagans     269 pages                  

If you like the cable t.v. show, “Ghost Adventures,”  you will really like this book.     It is like hanging out with Zak Bagans, the lead paranormal investigator on that show and he is telling you all these different things about himself and his life.    A good read.    Zak has a really strong sometimes in your face personality and this book gives a lot of answers as to why he is who he is and why he does what he does.    He divulges some of his biggest fears here too.   I won’t spoil it by sharing them with you, but, you will likely be surprised like I was.    Just adds to they mystery that surrounds him.   It also lets you know why he seems driven to communicate with spirits and to help the people who contact him for help in dealing with hauntings in their environments.    Zak is a very deep person, an empath who picks up on the emotions of others, spirit, human or animal.   You’ll learn who his best friend is, and that he is into vampires.   More on that in the book, he’s also a fang bearing bonafide member of the Sabretooth Vampire Clan in Paris under Father Sebastiaan, see lots of gems to be gleaned here for Zak fans.    Zak even had a  dungeon built in his basement so that when he needs to get away and decompress he can go down there.   Zak has lived a lot of places and currently lives in Las Vegas.   He even mentions how he used to love coming to “the Darkness” here in St. Louis in Soulard until he had a bad experience here with a fan.   He still thinks “the Darkness” is the best event of its kind and while he loved coming here and being a part of it and looked forward to it, after the bad run-in with the fan he talks about in the book, he says he won’t ever participate in it again.    Bummer.   He has a respiratory problem he developed from going into a lot of the haunted places at the beginning season of the show.   Aaron always work a mask and Zak didn’t because he thought the audience wouldn’t understand what he was saying and wouldn’t be able to see his face.    He regrets that now because his health paid a big price for his vanity.   The poem, “Ghost,” by Robinson Jeffers really speaks to him.    He doesn’t believe that Ouija boards are just games.   They can open communication with spirits and not all spirits are kind.   He has a lockdown hangover for 3-5 days after doing an investigation and has to recooperate.    He doesn’t go out a lot any more because he is so haunted by spirits all the time, when he has time away from the show he likes to hang out in his dungeon.    He doesn’t like having guest investigators on the show as a rule and considers the Long Island Medium a faker.   He believes there are people who have psychic abilities but he says fakes like Sylvia Browne hurt people and discredits those with real abilities.   Zak bought a house in Indiana known as the Demon House and feels there is a demonic presence that resides there.   It has even inhabited Zak’s body before.  Zak doesn’t feel spirits should be directed to go to the light and explains why he feels that way.   He has had encounters with fans that are pretty intense (check the one in West Virginia at the McDonald’s,  whoa! ).     He has trouble with relationships because of two female spirits that are attached to him.   They go after the ladies he dates even years after the relationship has ended.    He feels a creative connection to Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Layne Staley of Alice in Chains both of whom committed suicide.    He isn’t into the suicide of it but understands how too much fame too fast can be overwhelming to an artist who just wants to play his music.    The songs he feels most in touch with these artists on are: Kurt Cobain – “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”  and Layne Staley-“Nutshell.”    I think the spirits are driving Zak,  both of these songs seem to come from a deep low place.    Listening to them in a dungeon and getting more reclusive, do be careful, Zak.    I’m glad your peeps stay in touch with you often.

Denton Little’s Deathdate

Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin, 346 pages

Denton Little has always known what day he would die.  Unfortunately, he was slated to die young, but that’s just the way it is.  The day before Denton’s deathdate becomes very full, very quickly, with hangovers, crazy classmates, harassing police officers, girlfriends, best friends, new crushes, and family drama.  This story is actually really funny in places but also interesting in the premise of knowing when you are going to die.  I would definitely give this to teens that like humor and realistic fiction.  Despite the technology allowing people to know when they will die, this doesn’t read like science fiction at all.

The Door In The Moon

The Door In The Moon by Catherine Fisher, 349 pages

This is the third book in the Obsidian Mirror series.  Jake has been kidnapped, pulled into the past through the mirror by someone completely unexpected.  He has a real chance at finding his father this time.  Sarah realized that Jake was being taken and followed him through the mirror. Venn has come back to himself, from Summer and the Shee, drawn by Jake’s disappearance.  Wharton, who went to find Venn, is now trapped by Summer in the Wood unless Gideon returns to Summer.  Rebecca has arrived to help Maskelyne and Piers guard the house.    Some wish to use the mirror for their own purposes, some to recover those they have lost and some wish to destroy it.  Some of these wishes could destroy the world.  This book doesn’t complete the story but it’s a solid teen fantasy series that I’m enjoying enough to look forward to the next book.

Bernini and the Art of Architecture

Bernini and the Art of Architecture by TA Marder, 321 pages

When Maffeo Cardinal Barberini became Pope Urban VIII in 1623, one of the first messages he sent was to his favorite artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini:  "It is a great fortune for you to see Barberini made Pope, but our fortune is even greater to have Bernini alive in our pontificate."  Bernini was not only known throughout Europe as a great sculptor, he was also recognized as the greatest practitioner of the characteristically Baroque art of bel composto, the unified use of painting, sculpture, and architecture.  

It is fitting, therefore, that there should be an extensive study of Bernini's major architectural projects written for a mass audience.  That is precisely what TA Marder delivers in Bernini and the Art of Architecture - an accessible in-depth examination of Bernini's career as an architect, studying not only his great surviving works such as his Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Cornaro chapel, and his magnificent contributions around and within St Peter's Basilica, but also showcasing lesser known works and projects that were never completed, such as his design for the bell towers at St Peter's and planned renovations of the Pantheon and the Louvre.

As much a biography as it is a survey of artworks, Marder's book emphasizes Bernini's development as an architect and his struggles with the caprices of fortune, fame, and patronage, and the book is both more enlightening and more interesting as a result.

Flowers in December

Flowers in December by Jane Suen   140 pages

I felt a little rooked when I saw on Amazon that Jane Suen’s short work was listed as 140 pages. In actuality, the story itself is only 113 pages.

This is the story of losing a parent and finding yourself. Thirty-eight-year-old Connor Norton lives in the “city,” which I took to be New York, but it could have been any city in the U.S. He isn’t married, has a demanding career that requires him to work a minimum of sixty hours a week.  He likes it, but he’s no longer in love with it.  He goes back home to Rocky Flats as little as he, mostly on the obligatory holidays.

Now his mother has died. He is instant regretful that he didn’t spend more time with her. But upon his arrival back in his hometown, Connor begins to enjoy the slow pace of life. He becomes instant friends with his mother’s neighbor, the girl at the flower shop, and the mortician and his daughter. He even falls in love with Tom, his mom’s orange tabby.

Flowers in December has great bones. Unfortunately, it has poor execution. I would say to the author, “Keep it up. You have talent. You just need to work at it more before you publish your next work.” Suen overuses everyone’s names in paragraphs and often the same sentence is repeated within a paragraph just worded differently or turned around  It’s for these reasons that I give Flowers in December receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

The Carnival At Bray

TheCarnival At Bray by Jessie Ann Foley, 240 pages

"It's 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she'll ever find her place in this new world. When first love and sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of Dublin and on to a life- altering night in Rome to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie discovers an untapped inner strength to do the most difficult but rewarding thing of all, live." I liked this book a lot but we have it in adult and I'm not sure that it shouldn't be in young adult.  I would probably recommend it to high school teens that like either realistic fiction or recent historical fiction.

The Sleepwalker

TheSleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian, 284 pages

Lianna's mom has been missing for over a month.  Everyone is convinced that she went out sleepwalking one night and probably fell in the river and drowned.  Even Lianna believes it, although she doesn't want to.  As Lianna struggles to come to terms with her mother's probably death and help her younger sister and her father also cope, she is trying to carve out something resembling a normal life, while worrying that she or her sister may have her mother's sleepwalking problem also.  This was a fascinating book.  I wasn't completely surprised at the ending but in some ways I was relieved as I imagined even worse outcomes than the actual end, which was sad, and in some ways horrific.  People that like realistic mysteries will like this story.

Ghost

Ghost by Jason Reynolds, 181 pages

Ghost is good at two things for sure; running and causing trouble.  His goal is to be a basketball star but when a local coach sees him run he starts running with the track team, under the condition that he stays out of trouble in school.  But staying out of trouble is hard and even though Ghost wants to run, he isn't sure he can keep up his end of the bargain.  As he begins to make friends with his teammates he's more determined to stay out of trouble and with a little help from his friends and his coach, he just may make it.  This was a good read for kids who like realistic fiction, especially kids who also like sports books.

The Shadow Cabinet

The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson, 376 pages

“The thrilling third installment to the Edgar-nominated, bestselling series. Rory and her friends are reeling from a series of sudden and tragic events. While racked with grief, Rory tries to determine if she acted in time to save a member of the squad. If she did, how do you find a ghost? Also, Rory's classmate Charlotte has been kidnapped by Jane and her nefarious organization. Evidence is uncovered of a forty-year-old cult, ten missing teenagers, and a likely mass murder. Everything indicates that Charlotte's in danger, and it seems that something much bigger and much more terrible is coming. Time is running out as Rory fights to find her friends and the ghost squad struggles to stop Jane from unleashing her spectral nightmare on the entire city. In the process, they'll discover the existence of an organization that underpins London itself--and Rory will learn that someone she trusts has been keeping a tremendous secret.”  I thought this series would just be a trilogy but from the way this story ended that certainly isn’t true.  I’m looking forward to the next book and would give this series to teens who like supernatural stories.

The Curse Of Tenth Grave

The Curse Of Tenth Grave by Darynda Jones, 342 pages

"As a Part-time PI and fulltime grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister's hair before she wakes up? But, "How do I trap not one malevolent god, but three?" was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension. There's just one problem. One of the three stole her heart a very long time ago. Can the Razer, a god of absolute death and destruction, change his omniscient spots, or will his allegiances lie with his brothers? Those are just a few of the questions Charley must answer, and quick. Add to that a homeless girl running for her life, an innocent man who's been charged with murdering the daughter of a degenerate gambler, and a pendant made from god glass that has the entire supernatural world in an uproar, and Charley has her hands full. If she can manage to take care of the whole world-destroying-gods thing, we're saved. If not, well..."  This series just keeps getting, in my opinion.  I've really enjoyed all of the books in the series.  This definitely has more appeal to women who like fantasy, romance, and irreverent humor.

Unbound

Unbound by Ann E. Burg, 345 pages

“The day nine-year-old Grace is called to work in the kitchen in the Big House, everyone warns her to keep her head down and her thoughts to herself, but the more she sees of the oppressive Master and his hateful wife, the more she questions things until one day her thoughts escape--and to avoid being separated she and her family flee into the Dismal Swamp, to join the other escaped slaves who live there.”  This novel in verse was a good story.  I would recommend it to kids who like historical fiction.

The Ghosts Of Heaven

TheGhosts Of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick, 359 pages

"Four linked stories of discovery and survival begin with a Paleolithic-era girl who makes the first written signs, continue with Anna, who people call a witch, then a mad twentieth-century poet who watches the ocean knowing the horrors it hides, and concluding with an astronaut on the first spaceship from Earth sent to colonize another world."  Sedgwick's stories are always odd.  Sometimes I like them and sometimes I don't.  I liked this book, although it's definitely not my favorite.  The second and third stories were my favorites in this collection however.  I didn't really like the fourth story, except as how it tied into the other stories.  Sedgwick tends to meander around his point so that his books are more work and less fun.  If I'm reading for pleasure I'm not really looking to work that hard at understanding what's happening.  That being said, teens who like off-the-wall stories that have a science fiction bent toward them, might enjoy this book.

The Third Twin

The Third Twin by Cynthia Omololu, 328 pages

“Identical twins. Identical DNA. Identical suspects. It's Pretty Little Liars meets Revenge in this edge-of-your-seat thriller with a shocking twist. IT STARTED AS A JOKE. When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Alicia was always to blame for everything. NOW THE GAME IS ALL GROWN UP. The girls are seniors, and they use Alicia as their cover to go out with guys who they'd never, ever be with in real life. But sometimes games just aren't worth playing. A boy has turned up dead, and DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to only one suspect--Alicia. The girl who doesn't exist. IDENTICAL TWINS. IDENTICAL DNA. IDENTICAL SUSPECTS. Ava insists that if they keep following the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But Lexi isn't so sure. She must find the truth before another boy is murdered. BECAUSE EITHER AVA IS A KILLER . . . OR ALICIA IS REAL.’ I really liked this story.  I’ll admit that I guessed part of the ending pretty early in the story but I didn’t have all of it or any of the details.  This was well told and has enough suspense to keep teens reading until the end.

Shadows Of Sherwood

Shadows Of Sherwood by Kekla Magoon, 355 pages

After Robyn’s parents are taken in the night she is left alone, with just a handful of items her father left for her.  She quickly falls in with several other kids and young adults who, like her, are against the new regime.  She and her friends start by trying to help themselves but quickly expand to helping all of the poor in Sherwood.  Robyn will continue to help until she can find out what happened to her parents, as long as she can evade capture by the Sheriff.  This was a fun retelling of Robin Hood for kids.  Give this to kids looking for adventure stories.

Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer, 827 pages

"Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana. Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long. Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series."  I loved this book.  I think it's my favorite, maybe even more than the first book in the series.  Highly recommended to teens who like fantasy, especially fairy tale retellings.

The You I've Never Known

The You I'veNever Known by Ellen Hopkins, 590 pages

This young adult novel in verse tells the story of Ariel who's been moving around with her dad for as long as she can remember.  Her mom ran out when she was little and she and her dad have always traveled to new places. Ariel longs for some stability and is thrilled when she and her dad finally stay in the same town for her junior year of high school.  Ariel hopes that she can graduate from here also, especially since she's made some really good friends.  There's even one very good, maybe more than a friend, that she can't tell her dad about because the friend is also a girl.  Another, coinciding story, is about Maya, who wants to get away from her controlling mother.  Maya and Ariel's stories come together in a way that I found predictable, but the story was still good.  Hopkins is pretty decent about telling stories in verse.  Sometimes I'm able to forget that I'm reading poetry and just read the story.  Maya's sections are told in prose which helped me enjoy this book more.  Realistic fiction fans will want to read this.

Inheritance

Inheritance by Malinda Lo, 470 pages

This is the sequel to Adaptation, which I read four years ago.  When I got a little way into this one I remembered a little of the first book.  This book is clear without that story though, but reading this one before the first would probably make someone want to read the first one.  Reese and David have been adapted with alien DNA and as a result have extraordinary abilities.  They can feel other people’s emotions and can communicate telepathically.  The Imrians seem to be holding back information as do their own government.  Reese knows that what they can do is important but mostly she wants to be able to live her life and figure out how she really feels about David and Amber, the Imrian girl who she was dating.  But until they figure out how to control their gifts and uncover the secrets everyone is hiding about their adaptation that won’t be possible.  I liked this story.  This is a good science fiction story for teens.

Golden Age

GoldenAge by Jane Smiley, 443 pages

"A lot can happen in one hundred years, as Jane Smiley shows to dazzling effect in her Last Hundred Years trilogy. But as Golden Age, its final installment, opens in 1987, the next generation of Langdons face economic, social, political--and personal--challenges unlike anything their ancestors have encountered before. Michael and Richie, the rivalrous twin sons of World War II hero Frank, work in the high-stakes world of government and finance in Washington and New York, but they soon realize that one's fiercest enemies can be closest to home; Charlie, the charming, recently found scion, struggles with whether he wishes to make a mark on the world; and Guthrie, once poised to take over the Langdons' Iowa farm, is instead deployed to Iraq, leaving the land--ever the heart of this compelling saga--in the capable hands of his younger sister. Determined to evade disaster, for the planet and her family, Felicity worries that the farm's once-bountiful soil may be permanently imperiled, by more than the extremes of climate change. And as they enter deeper into the twenty-first century, all the Langdon women--wives, mothers, daughters--find themselves charged with carrying their storied past into an uncertain future. Combining intimate drama, emotional suspense, and a full command of history, Golden Age brings to a magnificent conclusion the century-spanning portrait of this unforgettable family--and the dynamic times in which they've loved, lived, and died: a crowning literary achievement from a beloved master of American storytelling."  I liked this series.  It's got a lot of depth so it's definitely for people that want to spend more time with a book but I liked the progression of the story and the reality of the family's issues. 

One Crow Alone

One Crow Alone by S.D. Crockett, 305 pages

“A new Ice Age is descending. . . .  Food is expensive. Fuel is rationed. People are hungry, cold, and desperate.  Living in an isolated Polish village with her grandmother, fifteen-year-old Magda Krol has no idea of the troubles sweeping across the planet. But when her village is evacuated without her, Magda must make her way alone across the frozen wilderness to Krakow, and then on to London, where she dreams of finding warmth and safety with her long-lost mother.  In One Crow Alone , the prequel to After the Snow , S. D. Crockett turns back the clock to follow practical Magda (Willo's stepmother) through a world of growing lawlessness, hunger, brutality, and fear.”  I read After The Snow and liked it ok but it didn’t stick with me because reading this didn’t really remind me of the other book at all.  I did really like this one and would definitely recommend it to YA dystopia fans.