Strong Motion

 Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen, 508 pages

This was Franzen's second novel. Much of novel centers around the Hollands. Louis, his father Bob, his mother Melanie and his sister Eileen.

Louis has moved to Boston for a job at a radio station. Soon after, his grandmother dies from an earthquake and his mom inherits a house and shares in a chemical company named Sweeting-Aldren. Louis discovers that money does strange things to people. His new girlfriend Renee is a seismologist and she finds information that implicates Sweeting-Aldren in causing the earthquake and others. 

The plot also includes a Christian fundamentalist church that is protesting abortion clinics. 

I would say this book is uneven. There are parts of it that are very good but other parts that are lacking. The plot is intriguing and Franzen does an excellent job writing his characters. Much of the novel is about people and what drives them but there is no real exploration of why Melanie is so obsessed with the inheritance. The biggest other shortcoming is that almost all but one of the women are written in a negative light. Despite its shortcomings, I would still recommend this book to fiction readers. 

Zoey and Sassafras: Unicorns and Germs (Zoey and Sassafras Book #6)

Zoey and Sassafras: Unicorns and Germs (Zoey and Sassafras Book #6) by Asia Citro, Illustrations by Marion Lindsay  96 pages

In this episode, Zoey and her best friend, her cat, Sassafras, learn about bacteria. The story opens with Zoey and her mom making homemade yogurt. The look on Sassafras’s face when Zoey stirs some store-bought yogurt into some warm milk is s cute. She may like yogurt, but there’s no way that stuff is touching her tongue.

Suddenly, the science project they are working on is interrupted by an earthquake!  A big one! The shaking got worse before it eased. Then the magic doorbell rings. Mom stays behind to clean up the mess while Zoey and Sassafras run to the barn. As she opens the barn door, Zoey encounters a huge, rainbow hoof.  Her eyes travel up, up, up and up until she sees a rainbow mane and a shiny golden head, all attached to a ginormous horse.

The horse, a magic horse don’t forget, says to Zoey, “HELLO. I HAVE OW. GIRL HELP? The unicorn, whose name is Tiny because it’s a baby unicorn, is hurt. To help him, Zoey and her mom must figure which bacteria is causing the infection on Tiny’s leg. They conduct experiments in to determine what the best course of action should be.

Unfortunately, it seems to take forever for the bacteria to grow, leaving poor Tiny in pain.  That’s the part I didn’t like and why  why “Zoey and Sassafras: Unicorns and Germs” receivs 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Love In The Time Of Global Warming

Love In The Time Of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block, 230 pages

I have really liked a few of her books, but I don’t like all of Block’s stories.  This was one I didn’t like as well.  This is a kind of modern retelling of the Odyssey.  Pen has seen everything destroyed by the Earth Shaker.  She doesn’t know what has happened to her family and sets out on a journey to find them.  Along the way she meets companions who journey with her and they encounter monsters, sorceresses, giants and much more.  Everything in this story was just so odd it was hard for me to keep track of what was really happening.  It read pretty quickly, so I did finish it, and I felt the end redeemed the rest of the story a little bit, anyway.  Teens that like her other books will probably like this one.  Science fiction/fantasy lovers might give this book a try.

Hang Wire

Hang Wire by Adam Christopher, 373 pages


This is one of those books that has four or five story lines that slowly converge in a finale. That makes for a slow and somewhat confusing start. To make it worse there is also a time element to give us more historical events. I honestly almost put this book aside as I had made it through 80 pages or so and still had no idea what the plot was, just that it involved a serial killer or two.

For those that might be interested in the book that basic plot is as follows. A retired immortal is trying to live peacefully on Earth but an ancient evil presence keeps trying to destroy the world.
The book is set up to be a thriller/suspense but only somewhat delivers. There are too many "and this will destroy the world" events going on make it believable and honestly how many books end with "and then the world was destroyed"? So we know good will prevail which takes some of the excitement out of it.