Of Good Report

Freedom Giveaway!

2011-06-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Head on over to my new blog to enter into the Freedom Giveaway!

www.amilehighpileofbooks.blogspot.com

A new post!

2011-06-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

I've got a new review up on my new blog. Go check it out!
A Mile High Pile of Books

New Book Blog

2011-06-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

I have decided to change my focus a bit and so, to reflect that change, have a new book blog here.
Instead of just trying to follow the bestseller lists, I will be reading whatever sounds good to me and a lot of it is likely to be Young Adult although I will still read adult fiction. I will still be reading mostly current fiction but may add in older books and nonfiction. I won't be giving books movie ratings but I will mention in the review what, if anything, I found objectionable in the book. However, I will be rating the books I read as far as how much I like them. This blog will still be available to read and I will have links on the new blog to the reviews on the old one. I hope that you all will follow me on over to my new blog!

A Turn in the Road by Debbie Macomber

2011-06-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to do a meandering and completely spontaneous road trip, visiting quirky and out-of-the-maintstream places. This road trip, undertaken by three generations of women, sounded like a lot of fun. I would have done it!

Bethanne has managed to do well in the six years since her husband Grant left her for a younger woman. At first she was traumitized but, with the help of her knitting friends, she got back on her feet and established a thriving business. She has been the rock in her children's lives just as she was in Grant's while they were married. She has also grown tremendously since the divorce, gaining in the confidence she was somewhat lacking while married. Grant, however, has been through his second divorce and wants to reunite with Bethanne. He has floundered both personally and professionally and belatedly realizes just how much he relied on Bethanne. Bethanne is unsure about ever trusting Grant again but feels pressured to give him a chance.

The other members of the trio are Grant's mother Ruth who has hopes of seeing her high school sweetheart at her 50th reunion (the reason for the cross-country trip) and Bethanne's daughter Annie who feels betrayed by her boyfriend when he plans a year-long trip to Europe without telling her about it until the last minute.

Bethanne, in addition to considering Grant's proposal to begin dating again, meets someone new on the road which further complicates things. Each of the women has relationships and decisions to ponder. Through their adventures on the road, they learn more about themselves and each other, regret some of their past decisions, and find clarity to make new ones.

Although some reviewers were irritated by Bethanne's indecision, I found it to be a true-to-life portrayal of what it can be like to make such a momentous choice, especially one that is so connected to strong emotions. Bethanne is feeling pulled one way by the wishes of her family and her sense of obligation to Grant (and is swayed by his manipulating, controlling personality) and another way by the exciting, new feelings that Max brings out in her. Her wishy-washy behavior is indicative of just how difficult this choice is for her.

Things I didn't like: Annie's immaturity and whining, I wanted to smack her! I thought that the whole prom reenactment was cheesy. Grant was pretty irritating too.

Things I liked: The ending! I liked Rooster, Max's friend and I liked the way we learned about Max and his life. I liked that Bethanne let go of some of her rigid self-control and just enjoyed the experience. Guess I'm a bit jealous of that...And I liked that it, as all Debbie Macomber's books are, was a very clean read!

Rated PG for a few minor swear words and some adult situations.

Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson

2011-06-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

I really shouldn’t read these kinds of books when I’m trying to lose weight. The daily discussions about food are filled with detailed descriptions of dishes that sound downright delectable. (How’s that for alliteration?) Included at the end of the book are recipes of some of the dishes. It’s just not right.

Unfortunately, the recipes were my favorite part of the book.

Goldy the caterer and amateur sleuth really has her hands full this time. When Goldy’s fellow caterer Yolanda, and Yolanda’s great-aunt Ferdinanda, need a place to live temporarily after their rental is torched, they move in with Ernest McLeod, a private investigator who hires Yolanda to cook for him. Ernest is found dead and his house is later also torched, actually while Goldy and Yolanda and Ferdinanda are in it. Goldy offers her home to Yolanda and Ferdinanda, who came over from Cuba decades earlier. She also becomes highly involved in solving the mystery of who murdered Ernest and who is setting houses on fire, along with a few other mysteries which completely befuddled me and made it nearly impossible to sort out just what was going on even though Goldy lays everything out multiple times. That was a major problem with the book. There were too many story lines and even at the end, it just didn’t gel. Another major problem is that Goldy keeps sticking her nose in to things she knows darn well she shouldn’t. She is married to Tom who is an investigator with the county sheriff’s department. He is frequently upset with her because of this habit of hers but she does it anyway, gets in trouble, and then does it again the next day. It doesn’t make sense to me.

I really wish I liked these books better because, despite Goldy’s proclivitiy for getting into trouble, I like her and Tom and several of the other characters too. My favorite in this book was Ferdinanda, the irrepressible former member of Castro’s army. She had become disillusioned with communism and emigrated to Miami in the 60’s. She was shrewd and tough for an old lady in a wheelchair and I loved the parts with her in them.

Was it a clean read? Yes, for the most part. There was mild swearing in the book and several things best described as adult situations, such as adultery, prostitution and drugs that would make it PG-13, but not too bad overall.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

2011-06-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

I was happy that I had not heard anything about this book before I read it because apparently it was a much-hyped, well-loved book. When that happens I have a hard time being objective and either I fall in line with everyone else's opinion or I become the nay-sayer. I don't really like either choice. I read this one in anticipation of reading Where She Went which I have on hold at the library.

Mia, and her boyfriend Adam, are seniors and musicians which means that they are trying to figure out life after high school. Adam is a rocker whose band is starting to do well in their home state of Oregon and Mia is a cellist with hopes of going to Julliard. After being in a horrific crash, Mia is in a coma. She has a prolonged out-of-body experience wherein she wanders the halls of the hospital and listens in on the conversations of family and friends. She discovers that she has the choice of whether or not to live. She ponders this choice, and thinks about her life both past and future. In this way, we get to learn more about her family and friends.

I suggest reading this book and it's sequel together because, although we have a pretty good idea what Mia's decision is, the book doesn't really feel complete. It is a short book, not quite 200 pages, and reads quite quickly. I liked the story, and most of the characters, but was dissatisfied with the brevity of it. I liked that it wasn't like all the other young adult novels, that it discussed death and choices and the possibility of an afterlife.

Problems: Too many f-words and a little more sex than I care for in a young adult novel. Rated R.

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

2011-06-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

The main voices in Night Road are Lexi, a teenager tossed from one foster home to another until ending up with her great aunt, and Jude who is, well, a helicopter parent. Jude and her family, including the twins Zack and Mia, are a well-to-do close-knit family. Mia has always been shy and insecure, virtually without friends except those girls who want to get close to Zack, who is the all-American teen: good-looking, athletic, and confident. When Lexi goes to her new school, she meets both Mia and Zack and instant friendships are formed. Lexi is welcomed as almost a member of the family and for the almost the next four years all is good.
Their senior year they are, as most seniors are, intent on college applications and are thinking of themselves as adults with the accompanying adult behaviors of sex and partying. Although Jude is strict with her children, she has loosened up a bit and allows them to go to a party where she knows they will drink. She allows it as long as someone is a designated driver. Of course, things go wrong and well, I'm not going to give anything else away.
I keep thinking that this was a young adult novel. It reads like one-the heavy-handed anti-drinking message, the teen romance, even the obvious too-pat ending. I liked the book, really I did, but it just didn't feel like an adult novel.
There were a few things I didn't like about it. I didn't think that Lexi would really make the decision that she did and I felt that the consequences were too harsh but overall I thought that it was an enjoyable book, a tear-jerker and a romance. There was some strong language, enough to make it R-rated.

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

2011-06-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

In the past I have read several of Jodi Picoult's books, wincing all the while at the language but feeling compelled to finish because her stories have so much power and depth to them. I can't say that about this novel of an infertile woman who goes to great lengths to have a child to the detriment of her marriage. The story wasn't compelling enough to overcome the wincing. Actually, I take that back. The bare-bones story was something that could be discussed and hashed-out and argued-over, the problem for me was that the characters were so obviously "good" or "evil".
The woman, Zoe, tried for 10 years to have a child. Max, her ex-husband, eventually couldn't take the stress of it and left her, finding comfort once again in alcohol until his born-again brother convinced him to listen to his pastor. The pastor happened to be a notorious anti-gay preacher. Zoe, after Max leaves, falls apart for awhile but soon meets, and falls in love with, Vanessa. They all end up fighting over custody of the embryos left over from Zoe's in vitro attempts.
So, on one side we have likeable lesbians who just want to have a child, on the other are the evil religious zealots who want to deny them their rights. It was much too obvious how Picoult felt about it all. Throw in a bunch of f-words and some sex scenes that made me squirm and that was all I could take. I just skimmed through the rest of the book and right now I'm not so sure I would read another of hers.
Rated R for language.

Abandon by Meg Cabot

2011-05-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed Rick Riordan's books about Greek and Egyptian gods. What a great way to learn about them! When I saw that popular YA author Meg Cabot had a book about Persephone and Hades, I was anxious to read it but came away feeling rather disappointed. I can't saw that I learned a whole lot about them and the story itself was just okay.

The problem is that Pierce, the voice of the story, just really isn't that interesting despite being wealthy and beautiful, and having died and come back to life. Some of the things she does could be interesting but the way they are portrayed makes them seem ho-hum. It ended up being the stereotypical YA novel where the girl falls for the bad boy and is physically attracted without really knowing him. It also strings the reader along, giving out background in dribs and drabs. It had the possibility of being an interesting book but fell a bit short for me. Really it wasn't a bad book, just not as good as I had hoped. This is the first in a trilogy. Maybe the other books will be better. Rated PG. I thought about making it PG-13, the language is pretty clean but there are some situations that, if they had been described more fully, would have definitely pushed into PG-13.

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

2011-05-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

My 13-year-old son grabbed this book and read it very quickly. He loved it, and I liked it. It is labeled for 8 to 12-year-olds but I think it should be for children just a little older, 10- to 14-year-olds maybe. I can't imagine younger children reading a book this long (432 pages) and complicated. I also found some of the language to be beyond most 3rd graders. Maybe as a read-aloud book, although, beware, there is some violence that might be frightening for some children.

Kate (14), Michael (12) and Emma (11) have lived in orphanges for 10 years after being sent away by their parents. Despite never hearing from them, the three siblings never give up hope that their parents will find them. One day they are sent to a very strange orphanage and, after placing a photograph in an old book that they found, they are whisked away to a time 15 years previous. This starts the non-stop action and adventure with more time travel, an evil witch, dwarves, heroes, and self-discovery.

It is the first in a trilogy. I rate it PG for the violence.

Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

2011-05-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Lina is a young Lithuanian teenager whose life changes dramatically just before the start of WWII. Her family has been targeted as hostile to the Russians and Stalin's regime. The family is taken away from their home with barely enough time to pack a few things. The story, told from Lina's perspective, documents some of the cruelties that the citizens of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia suffered. They mirror many of the things the Jews were suffering at the same time.
Ms. Sepetys did a tremendous amount of work to create a novel that reflects the events of that time as accurately as possible.
I loved reading the book but was haunted by some of the images left by it. For example, one young woman and her newborn are taken from the hospital immediately after the birth, in fact the mother is still wearing a bloody nightgown. They are thrust onto a crowded truck that is taking the captured Lithuanians to Siberia. The baby is unable to nurse properly and starves. The grief-stricken mother refuses to give up the baby. The smell becomes overwhelming and finally the Russian soldiers force her to give up the body. What happens after that is violent and gruesome.
It is a fascinating book about a fascinating time and details things that have been overshadowed by the horrors inflicted by Hitler on the Jews. I had no idea that those people suffered so much.
My one gripe about the book was that it ended abruptly. I wanted to know more about how they were freed after several years of confinement.
Because of the violence and of other adult situations, I would rate this book PG-16. The language isn't bad and I highly recommend the book but some of the subject matter would, in my opinion, be too much for younger teens.

Love You More by LIsa Gardner

2011-05-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

Tessa Leoni is a police officer in the Boston area and a single mom when she meets Brian. They seem to have a good life together until one day Brian is murdered and all evidence points to Tessa. She has been beaten also, giving that as an excuse to shoot her husband, but where is her daughter? Things just don't quite add up for Detective D. D. Warren and she sets out to find the truth.
With an interesting plot and good characters, this was fun to read but had much too much language, and some violence. Rated R.

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

2011-05-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

I am going to keep this a bit brief so I don't give too much away.

Kelsey, whose parents were killed in a car accident, needs a summer job. She finds a temporary job at a small circus helping to care for a tiger. She loves working with the tiger and when he is sold to someone in India, takes the offer to accompany him and help get him settled at his new home.

From that point, Kelsey's life changes dramatically in unexpected ways.

I have to admit that I read this in a very short amount of time. I didn't really care that it was not particularly well-written, I really liked the story line and the escapist, fluff-filled aspect of it. So sue me. I like to escape now and then.

It is the 1st in a trilogy and yes, I am looking forward to reading the next one which comes out in June, yay! (Oh, I feel my teenage self showing up again.)

There really wasn't much other than some kissing and some violence that could be considered objectionable. I'm not going to suggest it to my 10 year old daughter because I don't want her thinking too much about kissing and romance yet but it would be clean enough for her to read. Rated PG.

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

2011-04-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

Warning! Do not read this book!!!

Until next year, that is.

That is when the 3rd book in this series comes out, and trust me, you'll want to have all three at hand so you can just zoom through them all. I threw this one down in disgust when I got to the "end" which wasn't an end at all, just a very maddening cliffhanger. AAaaargh!

I'm not sure I even want to tell you much about it. You might want to read it now.

I will tell you this much: Sophie thought she was a witch living at a boarding school for witches, shapeshifters, and fairies who were out of control, found out she was a demon, had a crush on a demon-hunter, and is now living with her dad (who is also a demon) in England.

The rest will have to wait until next spring.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

2011-04-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

I started reading this book on a day when I really didn't have time for it. Bad move on my part! I was/wanted to get sucked into it and desperately wanted to ignore everything else in my life so I could just read but alas! children have to be fed and taken to the bus stop and music lessons, etc. so I couldn't have the all-day read fest that I wanted to have.

I haven't read too many of Ernest Hemingway's books although I enjoyed what I read, sort of, and I really didn't know much about his life other than he seemed to be a rugged outdoorsman type and a ladies man, so it was very interesting to read about him through the eyes of his first wife, Hadley. She grew up in St. Louis and, although she was 8 years older than Ernest, was said to be quite naive. They met at a mutual friend's house in Chicago and were instantly attracted to each other. They wrote constantly to each other when they were apart, and fell in love through those letters. Soon after they married, they moved to Paris where Ernest could be a part of up-and-coming-writers and artists who were there. Unfortunately, that group also had very loose morals, and the 2nd half of the book you can see the coming train wreck. Actually, that part was quite painful to read. I knew what was coming but compulsively had to know just how.

I thought that it was beautifully written, maybe a bit uneven at times, and there were times when the narrative seemed to bog down a bit. I enjoyed all the appearances of other writers of the time (F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald play a significant role) and loved Hadley's perspective. Many readers suggested reading Hemingway's book A Moveable Feast to get his take on things. The language was fairly clean. There was some sex in the book, not too descriptive but some of the choices they make are definitely for adults only. Rated PG-16.

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde

2011-04-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

I had no clue what this book was about when I started reading it and still had no clue until at least halfway through. Since it is the 6th novel in the series, it would probably have helped to start at the beginning with The Eyre Affair. If I had known more about the series I probably would have enjoyed it even more than I did, and I loved it!

The Thursday Next series (Thursday is a detective of sorts, I guess) takes place in an alternate world where England is run by the Goliath corporation and where there is another world contained in books (Book World). I'm not quite sure I could describe Book World very well. I tried to tell my family what it was like and failed so I apologize for the lack of clarity. Book World is where fictional characters live and it is divided by genre. The characters are constantly on call in case someone in the real world decides to read their book. Thursday Next is part of the real world (or Outerworld) but since she has a series written about her there is also a written Thursday Next who lives in Book World. The written Thursday Next discovers that the real Thursday Next is missing and sets out to find her. Now you can see why I was confused. I think alot of the background is explained in the first book.

What made this book so fun for me, and I did laugh out loud several times while reading, is all the literary puns and humorous allusions. The book was just filled with them and was very very clever about it. I didn't understand all of them, I guess I have some more reading of the classics to do, but I got the gist of most of them. Anyone who is a real bibliophile would appreciate this series!

The language and everything in it was really very clean, I don't remember anything particularly inappropriate but only very well-read teens and adult could appreciate it much. I'm really not sure what category to put it in. Wikipedia called the first novel in the series "genre-busting", meaning that it has a little bit of everything. Rated PG.

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

2011-04-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

I loved the main character in this book! The fact that he was a real person made it even more interesting. Apparently this was a Newbury Honor book and deservedly so. It is written for 10-16 year olds but I enjoyed it too and so did my 10 year old.

Manjiro was just a 14 year old poor fisherman living in Japan in the mid-1800's which was a time of extreme isolation for the Japanese. They did not allow foreigners in their country and if someone left Japan, he was not allowed back in. The people of Japan were taught that everyone else were barbarians so when Manjiro's fishing boat is shipwrecked on a deserted island during a storm, things seemed pretty hopeless for the fishermen. They were starving when the American Whaler happened upon them. Manjiro's companions were very distrustful of the American's but Manjiro was bright and curious and determined to learn as much as he could. He had always felt that he was a samurai deep down inside even though his background made becoming a samurai impossible.

After a couple of years at sea, the whaler returned to New Bedford, Massachusetts. The captain of the ship had come to love Manjiro and took him into his home. It was the first time a Japanese person had set foot on American soil. Manjiro went to school and tried to fit in but found it difficult. He was not always accepted. He managed to learn much and made many friends but when he had the chance to work on another ship and possibly return to Japan, he took it. He had missed his family greatly. Upon returning to Japan he was put in prison until the Shogun recognized his worth.

Apparently the book is quite faithful to the actual events of Manjiro's life and even includes drawings made by him and a picture of him. I thought that his life was fascinating and highly recommend this book! There was some violence that might not be appropriate for younger children. Rated PG.

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

2011-03-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

Turtle (I don't remember them ever saying her real name) has been sent to live with her mother's sister in Key West Florida because her mother's employer doesn't allow children. Turtle's mother works as a housekeeper and it is the middle of the Great Depression. She can't be too particular, she's just happy to have a job. One of her mother's "friends", all of whom are male and kind of shady offers to take Turtle and so off she goes to meet many relatives, most of whom she had no idea existed. Lonely Turtle who doesn't like children discovers that she has several cousins. She learns how to be part of a family and along the way, learns many new things about the culture in Key West and has some pretty exciting adventures. Look for an appearance by Ernest Hemingway (some of the things in this children's book, like children's movies, are things only adults will get). Rated PG for some situations (Turtle's mother had her out of wedlock, there is some fighting, etc.)

Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2011-03-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is one of those books, you know, that is written in a very light easy breezy style that is kind of fun to read but is like eating cotton candy. You are still hungry afterward and fill kind of sick that you ate all that junk.

Meg saves her best friend from marrying a man whom she doesn't really love and who doesn't really love her even though they say they do. He happens to be the favorite son of a small Texas town and they are hopping mad at Meg. Oh, by the way, Meg is the daughter of well-known celebrities and Lucy, the bride-that-wasn't, is the daughter of a former President of the United States. Ted (the groom) was born into money but is also wealthy in his own right due to being a genius inventor. And, yes, they are all incredibly gorgeous.

Things I liked about the book: some of the witty repartee and the amusing incidences.
Things I didn't like: Ted and Meg falling into bed for no reason other than it might be fun (and later getting to know each other), explicit sex scenes, and cardboard characters.

If you are in the mood for cotton candy, you might like this book. That is if the sex scenes don't bother you.

Rated R.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

2011-03-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Beware! This book is not what it seems!

The cover looks just like a children's book but it is most decidedly not, even though the narrator is a 13 year old girl.

Ava Bigtree and her family live on a Florida island and have an alligator wrestling show. Her mother is the headliner. She dives into a pond filled with alligators night after night but after she dies of cancer everything falls apart. The tourists are flocking to a neighboring island with a glitzier show, her father disappears, her sister is obsessed with ghosts, and her brother defects to the glitzy show. It is up to Ava to get things back on track.

My 10 year old started reading this but after a few pages handed it to me to review because she had read several swear words in it. After promising to read it and putting it off for a few days, I finally sat down to read it the day before it was due. I thought that the story was interesting and probably would have let it go overdue except that the language became quite strong. I am still curious about how Ava managed but am going to just let it go. It received quite a few good reviews, many of which called it a dark book, but it is NOT for kids! Rated R for that word.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

2011-03-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

Alice Hoffman's latest book is a chronological series of short stories centered on the founding families and their descendents. Ms. Hoffman's writing is very readable and engaging but I didn't care for the short story format. The stories didn't seem complete enough to me, but then I really like completeness and can't stand things to be left hanging. The stories have a bit of magic or other-worldliness to them which I did like although the concept of the red garden wasn't as fully fleshed-out and I would like.
My main problem with the book was the language and sex in it. The sex was found throughout the book but the language got worse as the stories got closer to modern day. There were several incidences of strong language, mostly towards the end of the book. Rated R.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

2011-03-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

One Crazy Summer is written for grades 4 to 7 and has a subject that isn't often covered by children's fiction. It is set in 1968 in Oakland California where the Black Panther Movement is going strong.
Delphine and her two younger sisters have been sent by their father from their home in Brooklyn to visit the mother who abandoned them 7 years earlier. They expected to have a warm, loving reunion with their mother but instead found a woman who was as cold and distant as possibly could be. She wants nothing to do with them, doesn't allow them in her kitchen, and instead insists that they spend their own money to buy Chinese takeout. She sends them to a summer camp during the day that is being run by the Black Panthers. Delphine discovers that the very traditional view taught by her father and grandmother is very different from the views of the Black Panthers and her mother, who spends her days writing poetry instead of being a mother to her children.
I felt a little uneasy about this subject. It is quite controversial-not just the Black Panthers (a couple of whom get arrested during the story) but the neglect and emotional abuse by their mother who literally abandoned a nursing infant and ran off to write her poetry and who has no desire to know her children. I guess that it would be a good vehicle for discussions about responsibility and do the best you can with what you are given but I can't say that I recommend it. Rated PG.

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

2011-02-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am getting behind on these posts again, darn it! I read this one a few weeks ago. I liked the book and thought it was a really interesting premise but was surprised at some of the things he put in it.

Danny North grew up in a very secluded family compound somewhere in West Virginia or Virginia, I forget which. He is part of a family that are descended from, well, gods basically. They have all, or almost all, inherited certain magical abilities. Some are particularly good with plants or animals, but Danny didn't seem to inherit any sort of magical ability. He was quite ostracized by the family until one day he discovers that he is a gate mage. He is able to create a gate that can be passed through from one place to another, even miles away. The problem is that the family does not trust gate mages and they are usually killed. Danny leaves home immediately and manages to make a life for himself out in the world and even discovers just how great his abilities are.
Alternating with the story about Danny is the story of Westil, the planet that the North family came from 14 centuries earlier. Loki, a gate mage at that time, destroyed all the gates so that the Norths, and other families like theirs, could not return to their home planet which is why the families did away with subsequent gate mages.

This is the first book in what should be an interesting series. I did have some problems with it however. There some inappropriate scenes in the book where there is drug use and stealing and other types of bad behavior. The worst was when a teenaged married girl attempts to rape 13 year old Danny. Some of the inappropriate stuff I could see being necessary to the plot but the rape scene added nothing and I found it extremely distasteful. Because of that scene, and the drug use, I wouldn't recommend this book to younger teens, however for adults who enjoy science fiction or fantasy, I found it to be very enjoyable reading. Rated PG-16.

The Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card

2011-02-16T10:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the first book in another Orson Scott Card series. I don't know how he comes up with these to begin with and to have two series starting at the same time is just mind-boggling, especially considering just how complex these two series are.
Rigg is a pathfinder which means that he can see the paths that people and animals leave behind. After his father dies, Rigg travels to find other family members and learns that his father had kept many secrets from him. He gathers a couple of traveling companions along the way and together they discover a huge secret about their world.
A parallel story is told alternately with Rigg's story which was quite confusing until the end. I knew that the stories would connect at some point but they took a lot longer to do so than I expected. I found the second story harder to read and in fact, the whole book moved rather slowly at times. By the end of the book I was very much caught up in the story but at times it just dragged. The most interesting part was how the book dealt with time travel and its consequences. For instance, when one of the characters travel back in time and warn their earlier selves about some danger so that they then avoid that danger, do they then still have to travel back to warn themselves or is everything changed?
Much cleaner than The Lost Gate, Pathfinder was written for a somewhat younger audience than The Lost Gate was but had enough violence that I would rate it PG-13.

Matched by Ally Condie

2011-02-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

This was much better than the Lying Games. Cassia and her family live in a future, dystopian society where everything they do (eat, read, wear, etc.) is very carefully controlled for the good of society. Those in charge have decided that the downfall of the country in the past has been because of too many choices and they now determine everyone's lives in order to guarantee a happy and well-ordered future for their citizens. Even marriage partners are determined through a matching process when children turn 17. Cassia has just been matched to her best friend, Xander but another familiar face showed on her screen for a few moments before Xander's face was revealed. Cassia is unable to forget that face and is intrigued by Kyl, whose face she saw.
The story line moved slowly at times but I enjoyed the process of Cassia and Kyl getting to know each other as well as Cassia's conflicting emotions. She didn't want to hurt Xander, she wants to follow the rules, she doesn't want disorder in her life but she feels herself unable to resist the feeling of freedom that comes from making her own choices.
There was some violence as well as a budding romance that make this a definite teenage book. Rated PG-13.

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

2011-02-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

I think I'm going to have to keep my comments short if I am ever going to catch up on these posts so here it is: don't let your children read this book. Trashy, trashy, trashy!! With dangerous and deadly stunts, forgettable characters,
poor writing, foul language, drugs and drinking, etc. it is just not worth it. There are so many good books, way too many to waste time on this one. Rated R.

Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

2011-02-16T09:45:00.001-08:00

Warning! Do not attempt to read this book. (Unless lots of strong profanity, sex, and violence are appealing to you)

This behemoth of a fantasy seems very similar to a lot of other series out there with fantastical creatures but is more crude, sexual, and violent than I care to read.

Library Thing

2011-02-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

I just found Library Thing (www.librarything.com). Who knew such a thing existed?

Sure, I've done GoodReads but I really like the setup of Library Thing and will probably spend way too much time on it and neglect my house and children in the process. But I will be cataloguing my books which is worthwhile, right?! And I will be connecting with other book lovers in the process.

Has anyone else used this site? Did you find it worthwhile?

By the way, my son has been complaining about my lack of posting and begging me to do another review. I blame it on all the snow removal I have had to do lately. Okay, that's just a lame excuse and I promise that I will repent and do some more reviews soon! And I pray that this interminable winter doesn't ruin my good humor. I just may turn into the Grinch or, even better, the wicked witch of the west. At least Oz was warm.

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

2011-01-16T17:27:00.001-08:00

This cover is creepy-looking, isn't it? It was intriguing to me but gave me the willies at the same time. Really interesting book. It took awhile to get in to the story line but was well worth it in the end. Unfortunately it's another series and the next book isn't due out for awhile. I loved how it brought a lot of different fairy tales into play but in a different way than you might expect. The fairy tales were a major part of the story but not the story itself.

Jacob's father has been missing for years with no word from him. Jacob is intrigued by the mirror in his father's study and discovers that it leads to another world where fairy tales are real but the happily-ever-after is not. He alternates between the mirrorworld and the real for several years, spending more and more time in the mirrorworld where he is a treasure hunter. His younger brother Will follows Jacob one day and is injured by a Goyl, a man made of stone. Because of this injury Will is slowly turning to stone. Jacob frantically searches for a cure along with Clara, Will's girlfriend who followed Will through the mirror.

Don't be fooled into thinking that because this book contains fairy tales that it is appropriate for younger children. It definitely isn't. The story line is quite dark and even depressing. There is some rather startling violence and some scary creatures. The mirror world is being taken over by the Goyls and is not a happy place. There is also some sex in the book so beware. You may want to read it first before recommending it to your middle-schooler. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone younger than that. It really is more of a Young Adult book. Rated PG-13.

Behemoth (and Leviathan) by Scott Westerfeld

2011-01-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, it’s tough to come back after a 3-month hiatus! Taking the GRE, a daughter getting married just before Christmas, preparing for the holidays, all those things really took a toll on my free time and my blogging. Did I quit reading? Of course not!
I couldn’t possibly blog about all the books I read in the last three month but I will at least talk about some of my favorites, starting with this one by Scott Westerfeld (he wrote the Uglies books). I actually have read only the 2^nd book in the series (Behemoth) but purchased Leviathan for my 12yo son to read on the plane to Utah for my daughter’s wedding. He devoured the book. I loved Behemoth and am anxious to read Leviathan. The story is a clever blend of historical fiction and fantasy with a little romance thrown in. It is set during World War I in Europe. Deryk (Dylan) is an English girl pretending to be a boy so she can be an airman. Alek is the heir to the Austrian throne who fled his home after his family was killed. What makes this a fantasy are the new Darwinist creatures that the British have, and the unusual machines of the Germans. Lots of fun to read with wonderful illustrations, I highly recommend this book for middle school readers and older. Rated PG for some violence.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

2010-10-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

My 18-year-old voracious reader of a daughter read this one first. She didn't just read it, she devoured it and went on to read the Mortal Instruments trilogy also written by Cassandra Clare. Since she loves to read but is particular about what she reads (she has no problem stopping if she is reading a book she doesn't love whereas I tend to plod on through it), this is high praise for this book and author.
Tessa has come from America to London after being invited by her brother who is her only living relative. She is immediately kidnapped by a couple of older women who imprison her and teach her how to use some special skills she didn't know she had. She is rescued by a shadowhunter. Shadowhunters protect humans from demons and downworlders (creatures who are not human such as werewolves, vampires, etc.). It is 1878 and the Victorians aren't aware that such things even exist. Tessa is taken in by the Shadowhunters who help her to find her brother while fighting the evil in London.
I am finding that I enjoy young adult literature more and more. Is it getting better or am I just discovering it? Not sure. Anyway, this was an enjoyable read and my biggest beef with it was that it didn't end at the end! Nope, there are two more books. Unless you are patient, you may want to wait a couple of years and then you can read them one after the other instead of waiting impatiently for the next one to come out like I am having to do. There were definitely dark elements to this book and some violence that make it PG-13.

Juliet by Anne Fortier

2010-10-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

Most of us have seen or read some version of Romeo and Juliet at some point (right?) and have a basic understanding of the story. At first glance at the title I thought, "Ho hum, it's another one." Ah, but then I read the blurb and my interest picked up considerably. Anne Fortier doesn't do a remake of Shakespeare's play but she goes further back to Siena, Italy in the 14th century. She intersperses the story of Giulietta Tolomei and Romeo Marscotti in the 1300's with the story of Julie Jacobs in the present day. Julie discovers that she is the descendent of Giulietta when she goes to Italy to learn more about her family. What follows is part historical fiction, part romance, part action and suspense, and all of it was well done and quite fun to read! Very little language issues, some violence, and a little sex make this a PG-16. The sex was the main problem for me. There was a discussion about inspecting the sheets after a wedding night that would make me feel squeamish about a younger teen reading it. All in all, however, it was quite clean. I highly recommend it!

Summer is almost over

2010-08-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

And I will be able to have a coherent thought again...I think. Summer is great, I love the more relaxed atmosphere and sleeping in, the swimming and barbecues but it brings with it constant interruptions and occasional fights. There is nonstop commotion in my house these days and I am longing for time to myself in a quiet house. My youngest starts kindergarten, ending my 25- year era of having a preschooler in the house. I don't think I'll be crying.
Here are a couple of quick thoughts but I'm saving the more formal posts for, well, next week when I can Really think.
Thought #1: Mockingjay isn't on the bestseller list yet since it just came out but I am sure it will be and will hold sway for many weeks just like the other two books in the trilogy. I got my copy Wednesday afternoon but couldn't start reading until after dinner. I finished it the next morning but I feel like I need to read it again when I'm not so tired...and after everyone else has had a chance at it. I loved the book and am happy with how it ended but found that it is quite dark and violent and definitely not appropriate for younger children or squeamish teens. I think they need to put these types of books in a new category, one that encompasses its true readership because I definitely don't qualify as a young adult but I really enjoyed this series and I know a lot of other adults who feel the same way. I read another young adult book just before it that had many many f-words in it and was not nearly as entertaining. Just goes to show that profanity is not necessary to the plot. Never has been, never will be. There needs to be a new category for that type too-labeled as YA but not appropriate for anyone.
Thought #2: James Patterson has two books on the bestseller list this week. That just shows how quickly he churns these things out and how little actual thought is put into them. Insipid, formulaic plots mostly written by other people...why is this guy so popular?

See you next week when I'll be doing a little happy dance (probably a good thing you can't actually see me)!

L.A. Candy and The Carrie Diaries

2010-07-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

Whew! I have been way too busy lately! Sorry about that.

I decided to lump these two together because my issues with them were pretty much the same. I listened to them while I was sewing pioneer clothes for my teenaged-daughter so she could go on a trek. I'm so glad she's not like these girls.

Both of these books are targeting teen girls yet they are so full of strong profanity, sex, drinking, and drugs that they are completely inappropriate for anyone. Please don't let your daughters read these books! They are garbage and belong in the trash can!

Rated R for both of them.

This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

2010-06-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

This Body of Death starts out with the retelling of a decades-old murder of a toddler at the hands of 3 preteen boys. The details in the retelling are very cringe-worthy and disturbing so I tried to skim through it. The whole book is interspersed with more accounts of this heinous crime and, although I knew that it had to tie in to the main part of the novel somehow, I was surprised when the truth was finally revealed. I thought that the book was interesting but the foul language, some of it incredibly bad, started to come more often about halfway through so I just skimmed to the end.
The main story is that of an age 20-something young woman goes missing and then is found to be murdered. Her ex-lover is put in the spotlight for the murder although many other suspects are found as well. Scotland Yard is called in to help solve the murder even though the new director is just a temporary fill-in after the previous director's wife is murdered (this is mentioned quite a bit in the book but the actual story of it is in a previously-written novel). She (DI Ardery) asks him (Thomas Lynley) to help her out since she has only been on the job a few days. In that short time she manages to alienate much of the office. They revere DI Lynley however.
The first book in this series about Inspector Lynley is The Great Deliverance, published in 1988. She has written 19 books about Lynley so far. There is also a BBC series about him. However, I thought that This Body of Death was too profane to read, with one particular word making it rated NC-17, so I don't plan on reading any more of her novels.

The God of the Hive: a novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King

2010-06-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Someday I want to have the time to go back and read all of Laurie R. King's series about Sherlock Holmes and his much younger wife Mary Russell. This is the second one in the series that I have read and I really enjoyed it, even more than the one I read last time. (See review about The Language of Bees.)

I would suggest that you start at the beginning of the series which is The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Otherwise, at least read The Language of Bees first since The God of the Hive is a continuation of that one.

Some people think that it is akin to sacrilege to write about Sherlock Holmes and I thought at first that it was a cheap trick, until I read the books. I feel that she has written a couple of intelligent and entertaining books and would expect them to be on par with the earlier novels in the series. These books are entertaining without being fluff. I had to keep a dictionary on hand to look up unfamiliar words but there weren't so many that it became obnoxious. There was very little profanity or anything else particularly objectionable in the book. There was some violence with a couple of people being killed but, all-in-all, it was quite clean as well as well-written. Rated PG for the violence.

Innocent by Scott Turow

2010-05-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

This is a sequel to Turow's book "Presumed Innocent" written some 20-odd years ago. Rusty Sabich is now a judge. His son is all grown up and a practicing attorney. It starts with the death of Rusty's wife (who happened to be bipolar) but then goes back about a year and a half in order to set up the sequence of events leading up to the time of her death.
I read the first book and remember liking it but not much else about it so I was intrigued by a sequel that appears so many years later. It didn't take long to discover that it wasn't worth reading. What with the profanity and nasty sleazy sleeping around that the main character does, it just made me sick. Don't bother with this one! Rated R.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

2010-05-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

Jodi Picoult is great at delving into controversial issues and really making you think about things. In "House Rules" she deals with Asperger's Syndrome which is a highly-functioning form of autism. It is a fairly new term and so may not be well known to most people. Autism has been on the rise and, quite controversially, has at times been blamed on immunizations. Although that subject is brought up in this book, it is only a minor part of the story, however an entire book could be written on that subject alone. The focus of this book is an 18-year-old young man who has been diagnosed with Asperger's. He struggles with many things in his daily life and the difficulties are quite well outlined in the book. His extreme interest in forensics gets him in trouble when he is accused of murder. He has to withstand the stress of a trial, which I found quite interesting in how they dealt with his disability given that he is prone to outbursts and tantrums when under stress. It was a very interesting story and I enjoyed it quite alot but the language...oh the language! Jodi does like using the f-word. There are some other less profane words that are used as well but there were just too many f-words for me. This is definitely not a clean book. None of hers are and as much as I like the way she writes, she has shown that she won't write a book without that word. I don't think I'll be reviewing her in the future. Rated R.

Caught by Harlan Coben

2010-05-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

I thought that this one would have language problems just judging by the cover and the type of book it is and so was pleasantly surprised that it is quite clean, or at least comparatively so.
It starts with a missing teen, one who is not likely to be a runaway, and then moves on to a sleazy reality show that "catches" pedophiles. The reporter on the show loses her job and starts to have second thoughts about the social worker she fingered as a pedophile. In the process of finding out the truth, she discovers a decades-old college prank that went wrong...obviously there are lots of twists and turns to this one. It kept me anxious to find out what would happen next. There is some profanity and some definitely adult discussions and definitely some violence but no sex scenes and not the worst profanity. I'd put this one as a PG-16.

The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspea

2010-05-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator in 1930's London which is quite unusual for a woman but Maisie is quite unusual. She managed to pull herself up from the servant class to get an education and spent time in France during WWI as a nurse. Yes, her work often puts her in harms way but she is more than capable. Mr. and Mrs. Clifton are from Boston and Maisie has been recommended to them. Their son, who was a cartographer-a mapmaker, went missing during WWI and his remains have just been recently discovered along with letters written to him from a mysterious woman. It appears that their son had been murdered and not just killed by shrapnel as they originally thought. They ask Maisie to help them find this mysterious woman.
I don't know if it is because of the time period in which she writes or if Ms. Winspear would write like this whatever the time period but it is very very clean. No profanity to speak, no sex scenes, a little violence due to the subject matter but no graphic details, some adult discussions but nothing that would make me blush, just a nice solid mystery with interesting characters and plot lines. I really enjoyed this one and want to read the whole series someday.
Rated PG for adult subject matter.

The Black Cat: a Richard Jury Mystery by Martha Grimes

2010-05-18T16:25:00.002-07:00

I haven't read any of Martha Grimes books before although she apparently has been writing them for a long time. Her Richard Jury series goes back to 1981 with "The Man With a Load of Mischief". Set in England, mostly London it seems, Richard Jury is the Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard and in this book is investigating a possible serial killer. Young women belonging to escort services and very expensively dressed with Jimmy Choo or Manolo Blahnik shoes are being killed. Along with the murder investigation, Grimes brings in cats and dogs who communicate by telepathy and quite a few interesting characters. If I ever have time, I'd like to start at the beginning of the series. There were several f-words in this one and some English swears that mean nothing to me but other than that not much at all. I have to wonder if the earlier books left out the f-words. Rated R for those f-words (about 6 or 7 I think).

The Aloha Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

2010-05-18T16:25:00.001-07:00

Bonnie, one of the women from the Elm's Creek Quilters, is going to Hawaii to help a friend set up a quilter's retreat. The timing is good for Bonnie as her quilt shop has closed, the Elm's Creek Quilter's season has come to an end, and she is in the process of divorcing her unfaithful husband. Bonnie is able to find peace and friendship, and learn about Hawaiian quilt-making, while enjoying the beauty despite her husband's efforts to sabotage her stake in the Elm's Creek Quilters.
I have read one other book from this series and find that they are enjoyable and quite clean. I liked the other book better than this one, Chiaverini sometimes gets a little too detailed about the quilt-making, but still enjoyed it. There are sixteen books in the series and it starts with "The Quilter's Apprentice" but the author says that it isn't necessary to read them in order. Some of the books are historical in nature, some are contemporary, and some have romance.
There wasn't really much profanity in this book but there were some adult situations, talk about an affair for instance, that would make it not appropriate for younger readers. I would rate it PG.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

2010-05-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

While reading this book I was reminded why I try to be aware of what my children are reading. This is a young adult book and looks like the sort of book my daughters would be interested in reading. My 20-year-old read it before I did and when I asked her about it she sort of shrugged and made a face that said "not so hot". My 17-year-old started reading it and quit after only a little.
The story is of a girl who relives the last day of her life several times, kind of a "Groundhog Day". She and her 3 friends are popular seniors and are constantly bullying the other kids in the school. As Sam relives that day, she learns many things about herself and her friends, and some of the other students. She discovers why many of them act the way they do and by the end she is trying to change for the better. I liked that part of the story although I really didn't like the ending at all but the overall tone of the book, kind of the "teens will be teens" sort of attitude towards sex, drinking, smoking, etc. that really bothered me. Just about any kid who was decent was at the bottom socially. There are a lot of sexual references (Sam expects to lose her virginity that night and seduces a teacher), lots of drinking and drug use, and lots of language although not the worst kind. Really not appropriate for younger teens and with older ones, I would suggest reading it first and then making that decision based yourself. It could bring up topics for discussion (bullying, drugs, partying, etc.) but I'm glad that my 17-year-old didn't read it. I consider this one rated R. There was just too much in that was objectionable.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

2010-05-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know where they get off calling this a young adult book except for the fact that it is about high school students but the language and the sexual references are horrendous! I couldn't read much of the book and there is no way I would let my teenaged daughter read it. It is about a guy named Will Grayson, and another guy also named Will Grayson who didn't know each other and end up meeting somehow. There is also a flamboyantly gay character who talks about his crushes constantly and is planning to produce some gay-themed musical. Really, really awful. Rated R.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

2010-05-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ethan Wate is tired of living in his small southern town where nothing exciting ever happens and everyone is completely predictable. Ever since his mother died, his father has closeted himself in his study working on his book. He rarely even gets dressed and never seems to notice Ethan. Only Amma, the housekeeper, is around to keep Ethan going. He is on the basketball team and is rather popular at school but life is pretty boring for Ethan. Then Lena Duchennes moves in with her mysterious uncle and Ethan's life changes completely. Lena isn't like any of the other girls in town which is fine with Ethan but not with anyone else. He spends more and more time with her and consequently is shunned by classmates except for his best friend. The more Ethan finds out about Lena and her family, and Amma, the more he realizes how many secrets and how little he really knew about his hometown.
I enjoyed the book but not as much as I thought I would with all the rave reviews it got. It was a good story that almost but didn't quite gel for me and the ending left quite a few things hanging which really bothered me until I found out that there will be a sequel to it, due out in October. I plan on reading the sequel but am not pining for it like I am for the 3rd Hunger Games book.
There was a little language and violence but it's perfectly fine for teens to read. PG-13

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

2010-04-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Teenage suicide is a difficult subject to tackle. First-time author Jay Asher puts a spin on the subject by having Hannah, the girl who committed suicide, send out cassette tapes to select people, outlining why she did it and how each of the recipients of the cassettes played a part. Clay Jensen had a crush on Hannah and was very surprised to receive the mysterious package containing the tapes. The book follows Clay as he listens to the tapes and follows the trail that Hannah outlines. Very very emotional and disturbing at times, it could also engender some good discussions of how our actions can affect others and other pertinent topics for teens. I didn't think that it would be good for younger teens at first but after thinking about it, teenagers face alot of this type of behavior starting in middle school so unless they aren't mature enough to handle discussions of rape or molestations, maybe it would be good for younger teens to read. Rated PG-13 for the rape scenes, discussion of suicide and other difficult topics.

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans

2010-04-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

Alan Christofferson's life has completely fallen apart. Everything that had been so good about it is now gone and he considers ending his life. As he is making the decision to do so, six words enter his mind: Life is not yours to take. He decides instead to walk across the country from his home in Seattle to Key West, Florida. This book is the first in the series, in fact he only makes it to Spokane by the end of the book. So far, once he starts walking anyway, the book is a collection of little stories of the interesting characters he meets and the places he stays. I'm not sure if the entire series will be like that. There is some indication that there will be some characters that continue to play a role in his life.
I liked the book despite it having some of the same attributes that James Patterson's books have, ie: very short choppy chapters with lots of blank spaces. Honestly, it could have been half as many pages and I did find the short chapters to be rather distracting at times but noticed it less the more I got into the story. I liked Alan. He seemed to be persevering and caring despite his problems. Of course, the book was quite clean like you would expect it to be. In fact I can't think of anything objectionable in it. Rated G.

Witch and Wizard by James Patterson

2010-04-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

Of course, after I say how much I love young adult fiction, I read several in a row that I really didn't care much for. This one was the worst and I really couldn't even finish it. The writing is horrible! I don't care for James Patterson's style and won't read his adult fiction any more because of his language but I was willing to give his young adult stuff a try. The language didn't seem to be bad and I didn't really find anything objectionable in it (I didn't finish it though) but it was so poorly written that I couldn't go on. The chapters were, again, way too short and choppy. The plot seemed like it could have been decent if better written, a brother and sister are kidnapped by the government and accused of being a witch and wizard and condemned to die. They deny it and then discover that they are a witch and wizard. I rate it PG based on what I read but really can't recommend this one at all.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2010-04-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

I liked Shiver better than the last two reviews but just a little. The main character, Grace, at least has a brain and uses it. Sam isn't a bad guy. He truly loves Grace but he knows that at some point he will change into his werewolf form which is what provides the tension in the story. Grace has known Sam for years, ever since she was dragged away and bitten by wolves and he rescued her. He has been her wolf that she looked for every winter but never saw in the summer until now. In this book, werewolves are wolves when it is cold and human when it is warm and as they get older their time as humans gets shorter and shorter. He manages to remain human by staying with Grace but they both know their time together is short.
I thought that this story was more inventive than some of the others but there were definitely holes in the plot. Grace's parents are conveniently very neglectful and in fact hardly seem to live in their own home which makes it possible for Sam to live there for months without them being aware. What really bothered me was that he slept in Grace's bed for months and yes, they eventually make love. I really don't think this one is appropriate for teens at all because of those two things: neglectful parents which some teens may wish for and a boyfriend sleeping in the girl's bed for months. Rated PG-16.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

2010-04-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Another fallen angel book that doesn't quite hit the mark. I liked Fallen better though. This one has the main character, Nora, falling for a guy who treats her horribly for seemingly no reason. She also makes poor decisions that leave her in very dangerous situations. Unfortunately there weren't any interesting secondary characters to prop up the likeability of this book. They all felt like cardboard cutouts of characters rather than fully fleshed-out ones. There needed to be a whole lot more about the fallen angel/good angel battle and less of the sexual tension/angsty parts of the book. I wouldn't bother with this one. Rated PG-13 although I don't think I would like my teenage daughter to read too many of these books. I feel like that whole bad boy/good girl thing with all the sexual stuff isn't really a good to read very often.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

2010-04-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Luce has been expelled from her exclusive private boarding school due to an unfortunate incident that led to her being charged with manslaughter. She is sent to a reform school called the Sword and Cross where she meets some very interesting characters and manages to get in trouble once again. She is torn between two boys, Cam and Daniel. Cam is very tempting and makes it hard for Luce to say no, Daniel is very intriguing and leaves her wondering.
I liked some aspects of this book and thought that the actual writing was solid. However, some of the secondary characters were actually more interesting than Luce who came across as wimpy and wishy-washy. I didn't like seeing her make so many poor choices that led to her needing to be rescued. I would have liked to see her stand up and do what she knows she should instead of just going along with whatever someone else decides. I didn't really like her very much. I thought that the story itself was interesting. There seem to be a lot of fallen angel story lines lately. There were a lot of things that didn't get resolved because a sequel is coming out in September. I would have liked a lot more answers to things instead of being left hanging. The book tends to drag at times.
This one is definitely for teens, not any younger. There is a lot of sexual tension, some language, violence, and some scary intense scenes. Rated PG-13.

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

2010-04-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I am liking young adult fiction more and more. This one was labeled as for ages 9-12 but I felt that it could appeal to anyone, and could be a bit too difficult for younger readers. It involves the same characters as her previous books (The Thief, The King of Attolia, and The Queen of Attolia) but is not considered a sequel. However, I would recommend reading the others first because I found some things a little confusing for awhile.
Sophos, who is next in line to be Sounis (the king of Sounis), finds his home suddenly attacked. He is kidnapped, beaten, and finally sold to work as a slave in the most humble of circumstances. I don't want to say too much more than that other than I found the book quite enjoyable and plan to read the others! There is some violence and a few swear words, enough for a PG rating.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

2010-04-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Especially after those last two books, it was really nice to read just a sweet nice novel, which is exactly what this is. It almost reads like a young adult book, except for some love-making scenes. Those scenes weren't really too bad but keep the book just out of young adult range.
Emily was raised by her single mother in Boston. She literally knew nothing about her mother's past so when her mother was killed in a car accident, she was shocked to find out that she had a living grandfather. Not just any grandfather either, hers was literally a giant standing 8 feet tall. He was willing to take her in to his home so she made the trip from Boston to the small town of Mullaby, North Carolina. There she found that her mother's past, the one she had run from, was not anything like what she expected. She also found quite a few quirky characters and town secrets.
I really enjoyed the story. It was just right for a quick light read. There was very little objectionable language and the other stuff I mentioned before. Rated PG-16 for the sex scene.

Solar by Ian McEwan

2010-04-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Written by the author of Atonement, which I haven't read or seen the movie but is supposed to be really good, there were high expectations for this book. I don't know if the critical expectations or met, they didn't seem to be according to many of the reviews, but since the whole subject matter was rather repugnant I failed to read the entire book. I got fairly far into it before I just got sick of it.
The main character is Michael Beard, a Nobel prize-winning scientist who is on his 5th marriage. The first 4 failed mostly due to his numerous affairs but this time his wife is cheating also and is much more blatant about it than he is. She had found out about his affairs and decided that she could cheat too. (You see what I mean about the subject matter?)
I just got sick of the whole thing. Yuck. There was enough language and other stuff to make it a definite R.

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

2010-04-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

This novel of the Vietnam War got rave reviews and is supposed to be a very accurate portrayal of what the war experience was like. Knowing this before I started reading the book, it came as no surprise that the f-word was very prevalent in the book. I didn't get very far into it and have to just assume that there was a lot of violence and possibly other things that I didn't want to read. I assume that most of you wouldn't be all that interested in this type of book anyway but just in case you or someone you know has an interest, be aware-the language is awful! Rated R.

Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein

2010-04-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Alexandra (Alex) Cooper works for the DA's office in Manhattan. She gets called to the scene

of a ship grounding where dozens of the passengers, illegal aliens from the Ukraine, have panicked and jumped into the waters. Several of them have lost their lives but at least one was dead when she hit the water. It turns out that this is a case of human trafficking, sex slaves being brought to this country much as other slaves were brought here a couple of hundred years ago. The same night a congressman, Ethan Leighton, is in a car accident and is found to have a mistress who has borne him a child. Alexandra is working both cases and it soon becomes clear that they aren't entirely unrelated.

With political intrigue, scandals, and a good smattering of local history, I enjoyed reading this book even though the action lagged at times and the plot wasn't as tight as I would have liked. This is the 12th book in the series and I think that it would be beneficial to start at the beginning. There were quite a few references that I just didn't get. Despite the subject matter, the author really kept things quite clean. There wasn't much swearing or sex in the book, some violence and of course the subject matter itself is very adult. I especially liked the interplay between the main characters of Alex and Mike. Rated PG-13. She has a wonderful website at www.lindafairstein.com

Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers

2010-04-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

Marta Schneider was born to an abusive alcoholic father and a sickly mother in Switzerland in the late 1800's. She desperately wants to get an education but her father forces her to quit and go to work when she is 12 years old. She is still determined to succeed despite the constant negative comments from her father. Her mother tells her to follow her dreams. She manages to eventually find her way to Canada where she buys and runs a small boarding house. She meets a man who becomes her husband whom she follows first to western Canada and then to California. Life is still a struggle for Marta but she never gives up hope that things will be better for her four children. She is especially hard on her daughter Hildie whom she fears is too weak. Hildie has dreams of becoming a nurse but her mother protests that nursing is too much like being a servant. Hildie becomes a nurse despite her mother. Eventually the frustrations she has had with her mother leads to a confrontation with her.
This is the first book in a two-parter. The second will come out about 6 months from now. The story is based on the lives of the author's mother and grandmother and came out of her trying to understand the rift that took place between them. The author, Francine Rivers, is known mostly as a Christian author and the book reflects her belief. It is filled with religious references, to prayer and faith mostly.
I really liked this book and read it quickly even though it is nearly 500 pages long. There is very little swearing or sex, mostly just adult situations such as rape, infidelity, racism, etc. I would rate it PG-13 for those situations. I am looking forward to the next book called Her Daughter's Dream!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

2010-04-15T04:11:00.001-07:00

Major Pettigrew is a 68-year-old widower who seems to be a bit of an anachronism is modern-day England. He may live in a small country village but even they have access to modern amenities yet he distrusts things like the internet and cell phones and clings to traditional morals and manners. Mrs. Ali is a 58-year-old widow of Pakistani ancestry who runs a local shop. She doesn't quite fit in local society because of her race despite having been born in England. The two meet and discover that, notwithstanding the obvious differences, they have much in common including a love of Kipling.

Major Pettigrew has always been conscious of how others view him which is at least partly why he clings so much to old-fashioned manners. He can get quite tedious about them in fact, which is why when he defies local convention to be with Mrs. Ali, it is quite delightfully shocking!

I loved these two main characters enough to tolerate all the deliberately-annoying minor characters in the book. At times I wish that Major Pettigrew were a little less polite and had a little more backbone and would tell them all off! I'm just glad that he had enough spine at the end to do the right thing.

I found this to be a pleasant enjoyable book and with very little objectionable parts. There was some minor swearing and some instances of unmarried adults sleeping together but no graphic details were involved. Rated PG-13 for some adult situations.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

2010-04-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

I thought that this book sounded really good. It had some good things going for it: set in my home state, historical novel-WWII which is my favorite era, focused on female characters, what's not to like? The small town in Cape Cod has a female Postmaster (as she says, it is Postmaster not Postmistress no matter who holds the job) and a newly married doctor's wife who has suffered her share of heartache, and the whole town listens to the radio show of an American woman in London. America has yet to enter the war and the townspeople try to live life as normal but fears are still present.

I knew soon after I started reading that this book was going to irritate me because the author places the town of Franklin in Cape Cod. There is a Franklin Massachusetts but it is nowhere near Cape Cod. The town described in the book is Provincetown. If she didn't want to call it Provincetown why use the name of another real town? Why not use a fictional name?
My other beef with the book was that some of the characters behave in a way that makes you want to shake them and ask "What's wrong with you?". (If you plan on reading this you may want to skip to the next paragraph. I don't want to give anything away.) For example, when the doctor goes missing his wife does Nothing to try to find where he is! for months! His landlady notices that he is gone and that he left his wallet and all his clothes behind but does nothing! What?!? Other that and the fact that I prefer at least some happiness in the end, it was a pretty good book.
I liked the historical references especially the stories of some of the Jewish refugees. I like most of the characters, especially Frankie and Iris. I appreciate reading about strong female charaters.
However, I didn't appreciate some of the language. There were several f-words (but not much else by way of swearing) and there was a sex scene that was too much for my taste. Rated R.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2010-04-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Maybe it says something about my level of maturity, but I really like children's books and young adult books, quite often more than a lot of the adult novels out there that seem to be trying too hard to be adult. The Graveyard Book is targeted to 9-12 year olds but anyone could enjoy a nice little book like this. Some reviewers put the age as 11 and up. I think that some 9 year olds would like it if they aren't too squeamish. It does start with murder and was written by the author of Coraline. I didn't read the book of Coraline but I saw the movie and thought that it was rather creepy.
As I said, the book starts with murder, in fact the first sentence is: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." The villain kills 3 members of a family but the author gives just the bare minimum of information necessary to know what has happened. The 4th member of the family, a toddler known for getting out of his crib, manages to escape down the street and into a graveyard. The villain, who has been told he must eliminate all members of the family, follows but is scared away by the inhabitants of the graveyard, the ghosts who come out at night and who decide to adopt the toddler as their own. They name him Nobody Owens, Bod for short. The ghosts teach him and care for him until he is old enough to go out on his own but the danger still lurks out in the world. For reasons that I never fully understood, the entire family including Bod needed to be killed.
What I really like about this book were all the quirky characters found in the graveyard and how much they cared for little Bod. I also liked watching Bod grow up and learn about the world around him, a world much different than most of us experience. Apparently, the book is loosely based on The Jungle Book, with a graveyard full of ghosts instead of a jungle full of animals. Actually, I was reminded of the Series of Unfortunate Events books where creepy characters and bad experiences happened to the children in the book but they remained resilient. I would rate this PG with a caution for parents. Some 9 and 10 year olds might find it a little too creepy and spooky.

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

2010-04-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Angelology is the study of angels and Angelologists and those who pursue the study of angels. In this case they are also pursuing the angels themselves in order to eradicate them because the angels or Nephilim (offspring of angels and humans) seek to dominate and control mankind. Both the Nephilim and the Angelologists are currently seeking something that has been lost for thousands of years.
Evangeline is an unsuspecting nun in a convent in upstate New York. She gets pulled into the search when a young man asks to do some research at the convent. It turns out that the convent has been involved with the angelologists for many years. Through the memories of one of the elderly nuns we get to go back to London in the 1930's and learn the background of the story. She and Evangeline's grandmother had been angelology students at the time.
Evangeline and the young man, Verlaine, along with a few other key players are in a race to get the hidden treasure before the Nephilim do and they must do it without the power of the Nephilim.
I thought that the book was interesting with a unique twist on angels and history. It moved along well for the most part, dragging a little in the middle but really a pretty good effort until the end. I really hated the end and felt that the rug had been pulled out from under me. There wasn't much language or sex, more violence than anything else. Rated PG-13

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

2010-04-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

I was aware of the author's previous book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and was appalled that someone would desecrate that wonderful book in that way. How dare he!?! So I have to say that I was more than a little skeptical when I saw that this book was on the bestseller list. Surely not! But I have decided to be open-minded about things and so I read it and was pleasantly surprised at how well done it was. Was it perfect? Not at all. However it is still something fun to read. It is written in the style of David McCullough's books (John Adams, 1776, etc.) containing journal entries interspersed with narrative. The author claims that a secret journal written by Lincoln was found and he uses these "journal" entries to put forth the assertion that Lincoln was a vampire hunter, one of the best in fact. He also claims that the real reason for eradicating slavery has to do with vampires! I actually really enjoyed reading this one and might have to give that other book a try sometime.
Very clean, nothing objectionable whatsoever except for the violence, they are killing vampires after all and the vampires themselves are pretty violent too. PG-13 for the violence.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

2010-04-07T06:26:00.002-07:00

I really love children's books and this one was particularly well done. It had the added bonus of having multiple pictures done by the author, pictures that were just beautiful. The cover art is a good example of it. The author is of Chinese descent and used the folk tales that she remembered from her childhood to create a wonderful story about a Chinese girl who wants to improve her family's fortune. The tales are woven into the storyline throughout the book and are very fun to read. It is written for ages 9-12 but would make a good read-aloud book for younger children. Rated G.

Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag

2010-04-07T06:26:00.001-07:00

After 4 children find a dead body while running through a park, a small California college town discovers that things there aren't quite as tranquil as they seem and that some families, or most families, have secret problems that they do their best to keep secret. The teacher of the 4 children who found the body, came upon them soon after the discovery and finds herself involved with the investigation especially after a handsome FBI agent comes on the scene.
I thought at first that this was going to be an interesting story but it turned out to be much more obscene, disgusting, and depressing than I thought. It was very very obscene and violent. Even without those issues, I would have a hard time recommending it because it was extremely depressing with physical and emotional abuse of the children involved, and one case in particular being very disturbing. Rated NC-17.

Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline

2010-04-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

I've always wondered what it would be like to be a twin. Most of the time I think that it would be nice because you would always have someone who really knows you. They say that even twins that don't grow up together can be remarkably alike. In this book, however, the whole twin thing doesn't work out so well. I knew of identical twins who would trade places sometimes just for fun but Bennie didn't want Alice to take her place, didn't even know that she was going to try until after Bennie finds herself buried alive. Apparently Alice didn't like her own life too much.
This was a very fast book to read with lots of action and kind of fun. It is pretty predictable at times but I still enjoyed it.

The language wasn't too bad no f-words and only a few mild swear words, some violence, with sex the main problem. Alice is a naughty girl! There are romance novels out there that are more descriptive than this is however it is more than I would want my unmarried teens to read. I am wavering between a PG-16 and an R rating for this one. I think I would make it R because of what Alice does (not nice at all!)

Big Girl by Danielle Steel

2010-04-02T05:23:00.000-07:00

Why do I keep reading Danielle Steel? This book was awful! Not because of the language or anything but because it was poorly conceived and written. This "big girl" is 25 pounds overweight and a size 14/16. Somehow this ruins her life and her family is constantly pointing it out. Obviously Ms Steel, who is maybe a size 2, has no idea how much the average American weighs. And they still manage to have enjoyable lives. There were a few f-words and a couple of sex scenes but what I really found objectionable was the story line itself and Ms. Steel's poor writing. She tends to repeat the same phrases over and over. I'm not going to read her books any more. Rated R.

Poor Little #@&% Girl by Jackie Collins

2010-03-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to put the cover picture up for this one and really don't want to talk about it much. Just take my word for it. You don't want to read it. Blech. (As if any of you would read a Jackie Collins book...)

Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

2010-03-24T10:34:00.001-07:00

This is so not the sort of book I typically read. Not at all. But for some reason I really like it despite the language (I counted 5 f-words) and the sexual-innuendos and 1 sex scene. I used to avoid anything with vampires, werewolves, demons, etc. like the plague but I guess Twilight changed all that and now there are so many series out there that have vampires, etc. that it just seemed inevitable that I would like at least one of them. (Yes, I like Twilight too.) In the Hollows series, Black Magic Sanction is book 8, it's the characters that draw me in. I like them, I really do! Especially Jenks, the pixie who tends to be a bit crude but is very funny. No, not clean reading and full of dis-jointed storylines and plot holes, but the characters pull me in.

Rachel Morgan is a witch who is a bounty hunter. She is on the lookout for witches doing things illegally and who use black magic until she ends up using black magic too and gets shunned by the coven (the witches governing body). It's not her fault that she was kidnapped by the demon Al but the coven doesn't want to listen. They put her in Alcatraz and threaten to give her a lobotomy but she is saved by her friends, who include the pixie, demon, a vampiress, and other witches. Like I said, so not my type of book. Rated R.

The Midnight House by Alex Berenson

2010-03-17T10:08:00.001-07:00

I didn't care too much for the last book I read by Alex Berenson. (See review here) I liked this one a whole lot better, probably for some of the same reasons that others didn't like it. There wasn't as much action and there was more psychological drama. Berenson delves into the why's of torture more and has less of the how-to's.

CIA Agent John Wells takes a much-needed several month break. He spends several months in the New Hampshire mountains before being called back to Washington D.C. He is asked to solve the seemingly inter-related murders of several people who belonged to the same highly-secret interrogation group that had operated out of Poland in what was called "The Midnight House". It is here that while discreetly investigating the murders, John discovers that something went terribly wrong with the interrogations of a couple of terrorists. The psychologist overseeing the medical and psychological aspects of the mission is very disturbed by the things that have happened but when she voices those concerns, she is dismissed. She eventually breaks down. and commits suicide. Soon other members of the group are dying or missing. Could there be a connection?

While this book is cleaner than most of this type, there isn't nearly as much profanity as there could be, the violence is enough to make it rated R.

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

2010-03-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

I loved Very Valentine (see post) and so was quite excited to see that the second book in Adriana Trigiani's trilogy come out. I love Valentine and her family! The only down-side I saw in this book was that there wasn't much about her Gram in it.
It starts out with Gram's wedding to Dominic. They live in Italy so Gram turns over the reigns of the Angelini shoe company to Valentine and her uptight brother Alfred. Just as Valentine is trying to grow the company, her love life is heating up. How will she handle both? Will she have time for love while devoting herself to making and selling gorgeous shoes? Could it get any better than a book about romance and shoes? I loved it! I love all the funny quirky interactions with her family and especially with her gay friend Gabriel who moves in after Gram leaves and completely redecorates (I want him to come to my house) and makes fabulous holiday dinners and decorations! I am seriously going to make the glittered pumpkins for Thanksgiving. Oh, and I want love letters like Valentine's. Trigiani manages to write a fun romantic novel without being either sappy or pornographic, a rarity these days. I would rate it PG-16 solely for the adult situations.

Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian

2010-03-12T10:53:00.001-08:00

When the pastor of the local Baptist church skips town within days of the murder/suicide involving one of his parishioners, naturally you think that there are some things he isn't telling. When you discover that he is now living with a woman he just met, you question things even more.
*Spoiler Alert* (You won't be reading this anyway, right?)
But when you find out that he was having an affair with the murdered woman, that is just too much. Stephen Drew did all that, and was a cold and unlikeable character to boot. However it wasn't until the second character had her turn to speak (the book is told in 4 parts with each main character having a chance to tell his/her side of the story) that I had to quit reading. The language was awful!!! especially in that second section. After that I skipped to the end of the book and read the ending. I had it figured out anyway so no big surprise there. Honestly, even if the language wasn't so bad this one isn't worth reading. Rated NC-17 for that awful word that is used multiple times, ugh.

The Heist Society by Ally Carter

2010-03-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

When I read the inside flap on this book to see what it was about, I thought "Oh great, let's glamourize criminals". I have to say, though, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, fast, and full of the sort of teenagers I would like to have hanging around my house (I don't have any valuable art so it would be okay.) It is a sort of Ocean's 11 for teenagers.
Kat Bishop is the main character and being an art thief is the family tradition. She has been doing it since she was 5 and used as a distraction while her parents did the stealing. She decides to walk away from it all and enrolls herself at an exclusive New England boarding school (a con in itself). She gets expelled after allegedly pulling a prank. She finds herself pulled back into the world of art thieves when her father is accused of stealing 5 valuable paintings from a really bad guy named Arturo Taccone. Taccone tells Kat that she must get her father to return the paintings or bad things will start happening. Her father insists that he did not take them. Kat must then pull together a heist in order to get the paintings to give them back to Taccone so that he won't hurt any of her loved ones.
There is very little to complain about other than the bad examples of the main (and very likeable) characters being thieves and con men. Rated PG.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

2010-03-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

Incarceron is a prison that was supposed to be a paradise. Separate from the outer world and completely self-contained, its prisoners aren't sure there even is an outer world. Finn, who was "cell-born" and remembers nothing except for the last three years, has fits and prophetic visions which could be flash-backs. He is determined that there is more to life than life with his fellow Scum gang members. After finding a key, and knowing what it was when no one else does, he is determined to escape. Claudia is part of the outside world and is the pampered daughter of the Warden of Incarceron. She wants to escape an upcoming arranged marriage to a less-than-intelligent and rather aggressive prince and is determined to find out more about Incarceron.

I was completely confused by this book at first because it is so different and things aren't always explained. The basic questions such as "why do they pretend to be living in the 1600's when the setting is obviously in the future" take awhile to be explained. Don't give up on it! It's well worth taking the time to slog through the first 50 pages or so until you can get caught up in the story. I think what I like best, even more than the characters (I liked Finn and Claudia but I think I liked Attia the best), was just how creative and unique it all was.

There was a smattering of language and definitely some violence and it was much too dark for younger children. I would consider this only for older children but I think that a lot of adults would enjoy it. Is it just me or is Young Adult fiction more interesting than adult fiction these days? Adult fiction seems to be too sex- and murder-oriented and way too self-consciously adult, as in "this is adult fiction so I must use bad language to prove that these are grown-ups in these books". Rated PG-13

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

2010-02-26T07:44:00.000-08:00

When nationally renowned painter Robert Oliver attacts a painting with a knife in the National Gallery of Art, he is sent to a mental hospital and consequently becomes the patient of Andrew Marlow, a psychiatrist who also paints. Robert says only a few short sentences to Marlow and then refuses to talk at all. He spends his time painting the image of a woman over and over. In order to understand his patient, Marlow spends time talking to Robert's ex-wife and ex-lover. He finds out from these women that Robert has been obsessed with this woman for years. Marlow also reads several letters that Robert had in his possession that eventually help clear up the mystery of the woman and why Robert would attack the painting.
I enjoyed the story and all the painting references that made me wish I were an artist but I found that this novel tended to bog down in way too many details. The story line moved along much too slowly for my taste. Also, there just wasn't enough difference between the voices of Mary, Kate, and even Marlow (I kept thinking that he was female and had to remind myself that he wasn't.) It would have been a much better book if it were 100 pages shorter. Having said that, I really did like the story. There wasn't a whole lot of language or sex in it, well some sex and some of that was extra-marital, but just enough adult stuff to make it PG-16.

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

2010-02-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

Four 17-year-old high school students make a pact to become pregnant because they love babies and think that they will be great mothers. They are surprised and shocked when the news isn't received well by their families and when it causes problems for the mother of one of the girls. Susan Tate is a single mother who is also the high school's principal. Her daughter is Lily. She has never married but still has a close relationship with Lily's father. They live in a small town in Maine, a small, conservative town that is outraged by the girls' behavior and concerned that there will be other girls who will want to copy them.
The book wasn't all that great, the idea that intelligent, active, college-prep type girls from good homes would do this is a lot to have to swallow. I have a 17 year-old daughter and I can't imagine any of her friends thinking like that. I know that she wouldn't but she is the middle child of seven and remembers what the younger ones were like as babies. She knows how much work it is and wants to get a college degree and get married before she even thinks about such things. If you think that your young daughter might have romantic ideas about having kids then the book could be a platform to open the discussion up about it but honestly, even then it wouldn't be that helpful. The author spent too much time talking about how the daughter's pregnancy impacted her mother's job and not enough on why teenage girls shouldn't be thinking about getting pregnant, or even having sex at all.
The language wasn't bad but there were a couple of sex scenes, not with the girls but with Susan and Lily's father. Lily is aware that when her father visits, he sneaks into Susan's bedroom. Hmmm, so much for setting a good example for your daughter. Rated PG-16 for those scenes and for the adult situations in the book.

Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz

2010-02-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

This is the first in a trilogy by Jayne Ann Krentz. It isn't necessary to read her other books in order to read this one but I think it would definitely help understand some of the relationships going on, such as the whole Arcane society/Jones family/Winters family/Nightshade stuff. I've read a few of her other books (some under the name Amanda Quick) and would have been a lot more confused about things if I hadn't. I usually like the whole paranormal/romance/mystery type books and have enjoyed the Amanda Quick books for a fast light read but this one just seemed to fall flat to me.
Chloe is a private investigator with "talent". She is able to sense peoples' dreams and can "read" their footprints to know their emotions and other things. She is approached by Jack Winters, also with "talent", to help him find a lamp. This particular lamp was one used by his ancestor and invested with certain mystical qualities that Jack needs to help heal him. He has been having blackouts and has developed a new disturbing talent, one that literally gives people nightmares. He is afraid that he has inherited the family curse, one that will cause him to go insane.
There wasn't much language in the book, really pretty clean that way but there were a couple of of sex scenes that were much too descriptive and I found it disturbing that they were so quick to fall into bed. After a couple of times of having sex, she comments that she really doesn't know him very well. The sex scenes make it R even though every thing else is pretty clean.

Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

2010-02-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I have read an Anne Tyler book. I don't remember much about the other books by her that I read other than they all seem to be set in Baltimore and that she likes to write about quirky characters. I wasn't sure what to expect from Noah's Compass but I did expect more than I got. The main character, Liam Pennywell, just seemed to float along with life, never really living, never really emotionally invested in anything or anyone, including himself. The book starts with Liam losing his job teaching 5th grade boys at a private school. He moves out of his apartment into a smaller, drearier one and gets assaulted his first night there. Nothing much comes of the assault. Noah doesn't remember it and it doesn't seem to affect him much. He goes along and things happen in the book but they never seem to lead to anything. He ends up not really changing at all from the beginning of the book. I'm really not sure why she wrote it. I can't say I really hated the book but I didn't like it either. I'll probably forget about it pretty quickly. There wasn't much to complain about as far as profanity or anything offensive goes. I guess I'd rate it PG for the few adult situations.

Young Adult books

2010-02-13T04:23:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start reviewing YA fiction as found on the NY Times Best-selling Children's chapter book list (wow, that's a mouthful). After reading The Hunger Games (review coming soon) I remembered how much I enjoyed that type of book. Not sure exactly what that says about me but I know a lot of adults liked The Hunger Games, not just me! Besides being enjoyable to read, YA fiction tends to be a whole lot cleaner, of course. I will be having my son help me review them from time to time. He loves to read and is a better writer than I am! He is 11, almost 12, and so will give reviews from a tween boy's perspective.

The Wolf at the Door by Jack Higgins

2010-02-13T04:14:00.000-08:00

This is the latest in the author's long line of Sean Dillon books. Sean Dillon is part of an elite intelligence unit working out of London. He and his associates have been targeted lately by an unknown group, a group that seems to have ties to the IRA or Sinn Fein as it is sometimes known.
I read the last book in the series and found it too profane and violent to finish. This one wasn't quite as bad but the whole thing is confusing unless you have read the earlier books-all 16 of them. Since they do tend towards violence and profanity, it's not a series I could recommend. I don't plan on reading any more of them. Rated R for language and violence.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2010-02-11T05:11:00.001-08:00

My 11 year old son brought this home from school one day and read it in a day or two. I had heard that it was good but knew nothing about it so I borrowed it and read it, stopping only when I absolutely had to. If I had read it first I'm not sure I would have let him read it. There is some rather disturbing violence in it and I think it should be only for teenagers and older and only if the teens can handle the violence. I asked him about it and he didn't seem to think that it was too bad. Hmmm, not sure how I feel about that! He has shown a lot of interest in this blog and so I asked if he wanted to review it for me.

My son's take on the book:
This was an enjoyable experiance. I recommended this to about everyone. If mom said that I shouldn't have read this, who know's what I probably shouldn't have read before! I'd still call it pg-13, but I didn't take it as seriously as I would have with a movie. This is a popular book, and it's a New York TImes bestseller, so if you're reading this, go and get the book! P.S. I read the sequel. It's just as good, but it has a little more drama and a little less of violence. But it still has a good amount of violence, and the last book has plenty or dramatic sequences. P.S.S. My mom did not write or edit this.

Okay, as you can tell I really didn't write or edit his comments and apparently I need to be more aware of what he is reading. I have made the assumption that if it looks like a young adult novel, it must be okay but I need to be better about screening them I guess. The tough thing is that he flies through books faster than I can and a book that he checks out at school can be read before I even know he has it. Does anyone else have this problem?
He is right though, it is a really good book! It takes place in the future when the United States is no longer and the new country of Panem consists of the Capitol plus 13 districts, one of which has been destroyed. Many years before the districts had banded together to try to liberate themselves from the Capitol's oppressive regime. They were defeated and as punishment the Hunger Games were implemented. Each district has to send a boy and a girl who are between the ages of 12 and 18 for an annual televised event in which they must fight each other to the death. Like I said, it's pretty violent. I would rate this PG-13 with a caution for more sensitive teens.

True Blue by David Baldacci

2010-02-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

Mace Perry, former cop and just out of prison after being set up for a crime, is determined to get her good name back (the one she has is awful, ha ha). She figures the only way to do that is to solve a big crime. After lawyer Ron Kingman finds the body of a coworker in the company refrigerator, Mace gets involved to solve the crime. What she doesn't realize is just who is behind the killing and I'm not going to give that secret away. Her sister, the chief of police in Washington D.C., warns Mace to leave it alone but Mace is determined. Apparently nothing will stop Mace from solving this crime, with Ron right by her side.
I enjoyed reading this book and really wasn't sure how profane it would be. I've read books by David Baldacci that were relatively clean (The Christmas Train, Wish You Well) and others that were quite profane (The Camel Club series-and no, I didn't read all of them, they were too awful for me). This is kind of in the middle, maybe even on the cleaner side except for some adult situations, the prison guard scene comes to mind. There is profanity but not the worst kind, violence, and the adult situation that I mentioned as well as a few other scenes that might make you cringe a bit. I rate this one a PG-16.

Treasure Hunt by John Lescroart

2010-02-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to think that profanity is a prerequisite to being on the NY Times bestseller list. It sure seems that way lately. This is another in a long line of books that has way too much profanity! This one is set in San Francisco with a private investigative service called "The Hunt Club", it's founder being Wyatt Hunt. Mickey Dade is an all-around errand boy and driver for the firm but gets more involved in a particular case that happens to have a very beautiful young woman needing help when she is a suspect in a high profile murder, the murder of a non-profit fundraising activist for whom she works.
This one started out seeming pretty clean but went downhill about 50 pages in. Too Bad! Rated R for language.

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

2010-02-02T12:55:00.001-08:00

The latest in James Patterson's Alex Cross series has me swearing off his books from now on. It's just another example of extreme violence and profanity. This time Alex's niece is murdered in a particularly violent way and he is determined to bring her killer to justice. He discovers that she was involved with some very high-profile and dangerous people.
Rated R for violence and language.

Ford County by John Grisham

2010-02-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize at first that this was a collection of short stories. I am used to reading John Grisham's lawyer-related books that involve lots of action, etc. but this was something new, a little more slow-paced, a little less legal drama. I happened to listen to the audio book which was read by the author. I thought that was great for about the first 30 seconds and then it became very irritating. He reads slowly and e-nun-ci-ates every word with little inflection, yikes it was tough to listen to! At first I didn't really care for it, probably because I was listening to it, but after awhile the stories started to grow on me. I think I liked the last one the best. It's about a young man who is gay and gets AIDS. It's set in small-town Mississippi (just like the other stories) in the late 1980's when the AIDS crises had everyone worried about catching it and there was lots of prejudice. His wealthy family hires an elderly African-American woman to care for him, using the future ownership of her rental home as incentive. I found it a very interesting examination of different types of prejudice. The language wasn't too bad, some stories worse than others and the scene at the strip club was a little cringe-worthy but all things considered, it wasn't too bad. I rate it PG-16 for some language and adult situations.

Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn

2010-02-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

It's getting to be very very predictable. Any action/crime novel is usually filled with f-words and extreme violence and this book is no exception.

It is now several days since multiple explosions near the National Counterterrorism Center have killed nearly 200 people in Washington D.C., many of them public officials and CIA operatives. Three of the known Al Qaeda terrorists involved are still at large and hiding somewhere in the country. Agents Rapp and Nash are taking a lot of flack for their interrogation methods but are determined to succeed in their mission to find those involved.

Rated R for violence and language.

The First Rule by Robert Crais

2010-02-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

Frank Meyer and his family are brutally murdered. His former life as a mercenary brought him in contact with a detective named Joe Pike. When Joe finds out about the murders, he gets involved to try and solve them and to punish those who did it. Somehow the organized criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union are involved and most of the book is spent in action-packed chase and battle scenes.
I couldn't read very much of this one either. Very very violent and lots of strong obscenities. Rated R.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

2010-01-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

I didn't have to get very far into this book before I realized that it was completely unreadable. Its extreme profanity and violence made my stomach turn. I am now officially done with Stephen King and will not read nor review another of his books. Blech! He could have done something really good with this premise, a town that mysteriously gets covered by an impenetrable dome, but instead this very thick 1000 page novel is only good as a doorstop. Rated NC-17 for a certain word and extreme profanity and violence (some reviewers I read complained about a very graphic rape scene, glad I didn't read that).

Altar of Eden by James Rollins

2010-01-28T06:45:00.000-08:00

Author Steve Berry wrote a review of this book on Amazon (find it here). I reviewed Steve Berry's latest book The Paris Vendetta just a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it. James Rollins writes similar books and is just as enjoyable. He too has about the same amount of violence and language problems but I have to admit I read the whole thing despite the language. It wasn't constant but it was enough to make me cringe. However, I found it really hard to put down the book. It is set in Louisiana's Cajun country with 2 people who have a painful past connection. They reconnect after a trawler shipwrecks while containing very interesting cargo, genetically engineered animals, some of whom have escaped. The animals seem to be unusually intelligent and very deadly. Jack Menard is an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol and is one of the first on the scene. He calls in Dr. Lorna Polk, a state veterinarian. Together they search for the missing animals and try to unravel the mystery behind them. The action is pretty much nonstop, possibly over-the-top at times but a fun read which is why I had a hard time putting it down despite the profanity. Rated R for several f-words and for violence.

Sizzle by Julie Garwood

2010-01-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

With a tired, over-used, entirely predictable plot this book is mis-named! Lila Prescott (who is beautiful, rich, smart, humble, and incredibly nice) needs a bodyguard and gets one in the form of FBI agent Sam Kincaid who just happens to be available, and incredibly good-looking with chiseled abs and can speak many languages because of the travels of his diplomatic service father, oh and he's really nice too, and his family happens to own a castle in Scotland where they are titled. Although Lila tells Sam that she is really picky about men and doesn't go to bed with just anyone, she and Sam sleep together within days of meeting. The whole thing is really just an excuse for the sex scenes. Yuck! Rated R for the sex, and language.

U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

2010-01-21T04:13:00.000-08:00

I read several of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books several years ago and loved them except for the language. I stopped reading her books because of that language. Reading this book reminded of why I liked her books and why I quit reading. She is a very interesting writer but there were way too many f-words, along with some explicit sex scenes. Ugh.
Mary Claire Fitzhugh was a cute little 4-year-old when she was kidnapped, and the mystery of that kidnapping has never been solved. Michael Sutton was 6 at the time of the kidnapping, 21 years ago, but has recently remembered some things that he feels might help solve the case. He seeks out Kinsey's help although she is somewhat skeptical of the accuracy of his memory. The action flips back and forth between the two time periods while Kinsey eeks out the details of the kidnapping, and a related kidnapping of a little girl named Rain. Kinsey also learns more about her family, her grandmother in particular.
It really is an interesting series but I can't recommend it because of all the language. Rated R.

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb

2010-01-21T04:01:00.001-08:00

Kindred in Death starts with the brutal rape and murder of the 16-year-old daughter and only child of a New York police officer. It was a tough way to start because the description was quite graphic. Not good for the mother of a teenaged girl. Her parents had left her home alone for a couple of days, believing that their extensive security system and the good sense of their daughter would keep her safe. Not So! The girl had a secret boyfriend and let him into the house. Hmm, teenagers, even the smart ones, aren't yet ready to be left on their own! That's my feeling anyway.
This isn't the first book that I have reviewed by J. D. Robb. They have both been part of the Eve Dallas series which is set in New York in 2060. I would like to say that they were readable but both have had a LOT of strong language, this one even had the one that makes it NC-17, and lots of sex and violence as well.

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

2010-01-16T16:25:00.001-08:00

After Michael Crichton passed away in 2008, this manuscript was found on his hard drive. Written in 2006, it hadn't been published, probably with good reason. It isn't very good and is quite rough and unpolished. It's also a very cliche-ridden pirate novel with the storms, kidnappings, sex, monsters, hangings, etc. that you would expect to find in a pirate novel. One reviewer called it a rated R Pirates of the Caribbean. There was a word in it that I didn't know so I looked it up and found out that it was a vulgar term for a part of the female anatomy. Other than that there wasn't much swearing but there was plenty of violence and sex. I wouldn't bother with this one. Rated R.

The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry

2010-01-16T06:26:00.001-08:00

I'm not quite sure how to describe this book. There were a lot of plots and subplots going on and it's a bit tough to summarize. There's quite a bit of Napolean in it because some people are searching for the treasure that Napolean had supposedly stolen and hidden away. There are a couple of conspiracy theorists who think that a few people are out to ruin the world's economies. There is a Paris Club, a group of uber-wealthy types who do want to create chaos so they can profit. There is an old man out for revenge on the ones who killed his son. And there is agent Cotton Malone who manages to get in the middle of it all.

All of this confusion kept me from really liking the book. Many of the reviews I read say that this is not the author's best novel and mention earlier books that they loved (such as The Templar Legacy which is the first of the Cotton Malone books). I think that it would be helpful to read the series from beginning to end. I really like the fact that Steve Berry includes so much history in his thriller novels, kind of like Dan Brown does. I think that he is a good writer, maybe this just wasn't the book to show it. I really like that he and his wife have a foundation called "History Matters" that is dedicated to the preservation of our history.

As far as cleanliness goes, it would be hard to find a book of this genre that is cleaner. Of course there is violence, but even that's not too bad, and other than a few mild swears and some adult situations, it is rather clean. Rated PG-13 for the violence, etc.

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell

2010-01-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

Kay Scarpetta is a forensic pathologist who normally lives in South Carolina but lately has been based in New York and is doing pro bono work for the Medical Examiners office. This book is the 17th in the Scarpetta series. I think that the series sounds interesting but the language is just so awful that I can't stand to read the books. Rated R for language.
I am going to make a list of the authors I refuse to read any more. Patricia Cornwell will definitely be on that list!

Breathless by Dean Koontz

2010-01-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

I usually enjoy Dean Koontz' books but I have to say that this left me feeling very let down by it's disjointed story line. It started well with a couple of interesting people, a veterinarian who is damaged by her past, and a man who for some reason decided to live an almost hermit-like existence a few years ago. Add in a very deranged man with a sense of purpose in his actions and some odd behavior by various animals, the story seemed to be building towards something really interesting but it fell very short of that. Other characters and story lines were introduced but the book never came to a satisfying conclusion. There were many many questions left unanswered and some of the story lines didn't seem to have anything to do with the others.
The language was fairly clean. The only thing I found objectionable was the violence committed, or thought about, by the deranged man. Rated PG-16 for the violence.

Southern Lights by Danielle Steel

2010-01-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

I am not very fond of Danielle Steel. Oh, I'll admit that now and then I'll read one of her books and then I promptly forget about it. There's not much staying power to them. This one is forgettable just like her others.
Alexa and her daughter live in NY where Alexa is an assistant District Attorney. When a major case comes up, involving a serial killer who targets young women, she receives some threats against her 17-year-old daughter. She decides to send her to her ex-husband from whom she has been divorced for 10 years. She hasn't seen him in all that time and still harbors pain and hatred for him to the point that she doesn't trust men and doesn't date. Still, fear for her daughter causes Alexa to send her daughter to Charleston to live with her dad until the end of the trial. There, Savannah gets to know the southern half of the family.
There really wasn't much to this book. I think that it was just a vehicle for Ms. Steel to show what she knows about southern culture. I lived in the south for 18 years and can attest to the fact that she did get some things right but much of it was just stereotyping. My favorite thing about the book was that she exposed the fact that when a southerner says "Bless your heart" it is quite often accompanied by a negative statement. They are really good at couching insults in very polite language and it can take days to figure out that you've been insulted.
Several f-words make this rated R. The weird thing is, there was hardly anything else objectionable in it but when she did use an obscenity, it tended to be the f-word.

Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman

2010-01-02T06:36:00.004-08:00

This is the latest in the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman. Delaware is a psychologist working for the police department in L.A. along with his partner Milo Sturgis. The book begins with the discovery of two bodies in a partly-finished home in a very expensive LA suburb. One body is that of architect Desmond Backer and the other is an unknown female. Backer is a notorious womanizer and charmer and sometimes eco-terrorist. The home belongs to a foreign prince.
I can't recommend this book to anyone, lots of profanity including way too many f-words, lots of sexual references, really not much to recommend it at all. Rated R.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

2010-01-02T06:36:00.003-08:00

Addie Downs lived a lonely life. Her parents had died, her brother had been in a car accident that left him brain-damaged, her best friend turned on her in high school, she worked painting pictures for a greeting card company and could go weeks without leaving her home. She manages to finally lose the weight but the negative experiences of high school, where she was teased for her weight and her efforts to help her friend, still keep her feeling shy and awkward. Online dating hasn't helped her much. One night, her friend Val shows up at her door, panicked and bloody. Addie is hesitant but lets her in. It turns out that Val, in an effort at revenge while at a high school reunion, has done something stupid and is afraid of being caught by police. Addie helps her friend once again although it goes against her better judgment.
I think the basic premise of the book was interesting but it didn't live up to its potential. Also, there were lots of f-words and sexual references in this book and I can't recommend it as worthwhile reading.

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler

2010-01-02T06:36:00.001-08:00

This is another entertaining, fast, fun book from Clive Cussler. It is set in 1907 when the railroads were scrambling to beat out the competition and a panic on Wall Street has spread economic fears throughout the country. Someone keeps sabotaging the Southern Pacific railroad and it's owner is furious. He wants to complete a section of rail through the Cascades before winter sets in, and financial ruin. He brings in the Van Dorn detective agency, and specifically Isaac Bell. Bell is handsome, intelligent, and resourceful but the villain manages to elude and wreak havoc on both coasts however eventually Bell gets his man.
We know who the villain is halfway through the book, and know that Bell would eventually find him, the big questions were why he was doing it and how would Bell manage to stop him. It was a fun book to read, pretty much nonstop action. Cussler is reliably clean, very little profanity or sex, even though Bell and his fiancee manage to spend a few nights together. There is some violence with the villain having a surprising method of killing his victims. Rated PG-13 for the violence and some adult situations and some profanity.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

2009-12-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

I listened to Audrey Niffenegger's first book, The Time Traveller's Wife, for awhile and then had to quit listening because the language was just too profane. I hoped that this book would be cleaner and it was. There were only 3 f-words versus who knows how many in her first book. There was a little bit of sexual content too but not too bad. Too bad I didn't like the book. I liked the first 2/3rd's of it but the last 1/3rd really upset me. I mean, I hated the ending and was really mad about it. I felt like throwing the book across the room but it was a library book so I refrained myself.

Elspeth and Edie are twins who haven't seen each other in 20 years. Elspeth is in London, has a much younger lover, and is dying. Edie is in Chicago and lives with her husband and 20-year-old twins named Julia and Valentina. When Elspeth dies, she leaves her entire estate to the twins, Julia and Valentina, with the stipulation that they live in her London flat for a full year after they turn 21 and their parents aren't allowed to enter the flat. The neighbors consist of Elspeth's former boyfriend Robert who works in the cemetery next door, and Martin, a man whose wife has left him because of his extreme OCD. Julia is headstrong and bossy, Valentina is shy and retiring, but they are inseparable to the point of rarely ever being apart. Elspeth, despite being dead, can't quite leave them alone. Valentina has grown tired of Julia's bossy ways and would like to strike out on her own but Julia won't stand for it. Valentina devises a drastic method of getting her way.
If you decide you want to read this, be aware that there are those f-words and the little bit of sexual conduct, but also be prepared for what I thought was a terrible ending. Rated R.