Tag Archive | death

Between Two Ends, by David Ward (fiction) – jumping into the world of 1001 Arabian Nights

Dec14

Can you truly dive into the pages of a favorite book?

If you remember the stories of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, then you know about the cruel king, the murdered wives, and clever Scheherazade who kept herself alive by telling the king stories each night.

And you know about the brutal world into which the modern Shari has gone, bewitched into the pages of the “unexpurgated” Arabian Nights, where the king’s wicked behavior was not sugar-coated or glossed-over.

So on this World Wednesday, it will take a pair of bronze pirate bookends, a long-dormant wishing well, and all of Yeats’ courage and ingenuity to set Shari free from her enchantment and bring her back to her grandfather… will it be enough?

An exciting tale from the author of The Grassland Trilogy (reviewed here, here, and here) – are you ready to go Between Two Ends with Yeats?
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Book info: Between Two Ends / David Ward. Amulet Books, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [author video]

Recommendation: Yeats wonders why his depressed father insists on returning to Gran’s house now – something dreadful happened there 20 years ago, something that is never discussed with him.

Meeting eccentric Mr. Sutcliff, stumbling upon that old wishing well in the garden, and uncovering a bronze bookend suddenly takes Yeats into the heart of his family’s mystery.

When his dad was a boy, he and adventurous Shari explored every inch of the garden and read every book in his poet-grandfather’s library, including one special copy of Arabian Nights. One terrible day, Shari was kidnapped from their garden, and William couldn’t stop the men as they escaped with her down the well. Losing his friend has kept him on the brink of madness for years and has turned her grandfather Mr. Sutcliff into a recluse, both certain that their Shari had been taken back in time, back into the oft-told story of her namesake Shaharazad, back to the realm of a king who killed his bride on their wedding night, night after night, bride after bride.

By finding the long-lost pirate bookend and sending a wish into the well, Yeats has reopened the portal into Shaharazad’s world. Does Yeats have the courage to venture into the realms of story and imagination with the pirates? Can a modern boy survive in that brutal ancient kingdom? Can he find Shari and convince her to come back to her grandfather?

This skillful combination of now and way-back-when will keep readers turning its 304 pages, traveling with Yeats to a far-off time and place where danger is the only certainty. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Misfit (fiction)

Dec5

Never fitting in.
Moving all the time.
World’s grumpiest dad.
A long-lost uncle who’s a demon?

Jael had hoped for an old clunker car or even a cellphone for her 16th birthday, but her dad didn’t even leave her a birthday card on the breakfast table. Just a note, “Come home right after school. We have to talk.”

Who would ever imagine that she was half-demon? Or that someone on the faculty would attack her at their Catholic school? Or that a cute skateboarder guy would think she was worth talking to? Jael’s hair becomes her crowning glory – just like her mother Lilith’s was – and things get really complicated.

Flashbacks are written in the expected past tense, but the author has chosen to have Jael’s story lurch along completely in simple present tense – a bit odd, but soon the gripping pace of the story lets readers slide over this unconventional writing tic.
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Book info: Misfit / Jon Skovron. Amulet, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Jael’s dad is so strict that she’s never been on a date, never been kissed, never fit in at school. Her mom died when Jael was a baby, but is that any reason for her ex-priest father to keep dragging them from town to town? Always she’s enrolled in a Catholic school, but he forbids her to talk about angels or heaven or hell…

On her sixteenth birthday, he reluctantly gives her a pendant from her mother, but only because it was her deathbed wish. Suddenly, Jael’s dreams are filled with visions of mystical creatures, and she discovers that her mother was a demon – the infamous Lilith – who was killed because she tried to defect from the most ambitious duke of Hell.

Now her uncle-demon warns her that Belial can sense her through the pendant and is coming to exact his final revenge against her mother. Jael has a short time to learn what powers she may have as a half-demon and how to use them to defend herself and her father and her first-ever friends at school.

Can Jael’s uncle cram a lifetime of training into a few days? Will he be able warn her before Belial’s attack? Does Jael truly have the seductive beauty of her mother hidden under the frumpy clothes her father chooses? And Dad was really a demon-hunter?

Flashbacks to the past adventures and perils of Jael’s parents give the reader insights into the story that are later revealed to her. She never thought her life was easy, but now the fate of humanity may be at stake. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Zahra’s Paradise (fiction)

Nov30

Fraudulent elections.
Violence against protesters.
Hospitals invaded by the Revolutionary Guard.

World Wednesday takes us to Iran in the bloody days following the June 2009 elections which were manipulated by the powerful Supreme Guardian Council. Hundreds of thousands of students descended on Freedom Square in Tehran to demonstrate – many never returned home.

This unflinching graphic novel began as a webcomic about an anonymous Iranian blogger attempting to let the outside world know how Iranians felt about the election results. His family’s search for Mahdi represents all the missing students and the agonies suffered by their families while searching for them. Two chapters are still available on the book’s website with translations in ten languages.

Amir and Khalil also include information on the Omid Memorial, “hope” in Persian, which collects the names and stories of those who have perished in Iran while standing up for human rights since the 1979 Khomeini revolution.

Strong feelings, unfettered language, detailed black and white art – Zahra’s Paradise is not for the faint of heart, but is a call for human rights and freedom.
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Book info: Zahra’s Paradise / written by Amir; artwork by Khalil. First Second, 2011. [book website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Iran, summer 2009 – students protest against rigged elections, and Alavi’s brother doesn’t come home. It makes no sense; Mehdi was studying for his final exams so he wasn’t out partying. As Alavi and his mother search Tehran’s hospitals in this graphic novel, their despair deepens – is Mehdi one the many who have disappeared into Evin Prison, that horror of abuse and degradation?

Alavi prints up missing person posters with Mehdi’s picture, meeting a sympathetic copy shop owner near the university and a beautiful woman who reminds him of well-respected Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. In 2003, Zahra was taken into Evin Prison for questioning and came out in a coffin. Chief Justice Mortazavi said she had tripped; an autopsy showed that she had been tortured and raped.

Swirling connections of corrupt officials and powerful politicians continue to block every avenue that the Alavis pursue in search of Mehdi. The few people who dare to help them are well aware of the risks involved, but what decent person wants another dead son dumped into an unmarked grave in Lot 309? Ah, Zahra’s Paradise, the cemetery named for the wife of the Prophet, has a growing hidden section that no one publicly mentions.

This intense graphic novel about struggle, power, and loss is a brutal testimony to the thousands of Iranians who asked for free elections and were silenced. The closing pages of the book contain their names, page after page in the smallest readable font, as part of the Omid Memorial, so that they may not be forgotten, even though their final resting places be unknown. It is no wonder that the author and artist published this compelling story using only fictitious first names.

Legend (fiction)

Nov28

Elite soldiers and expendable worker drones.
Iffy electrical power and repeated plagues.
Endless slums and a handful of luxury apartments.

Future Los Angeles is a far cry from today’s sunny tourist destination. Most of its 20 million people are doomed to slums because of their mediocre Trial scores at age 10. Those who score too low are removed by the Government as a useless burden on society.

Scoring well on the Trial means high school and college and a good position in the Elector’s own police force. June is the only person who ever made a perfect score and has raced through all her classes in just four years, getting ready to stand as an officer on the front lines with her brother Metias.

When he is murdered by the notorious teen-criminal Day, who’s survived on his own since escaping from prison after his failed Trial, June’s hunger for revenge and Day’s drive to protect his impoverished family set the pair on a collision course with consequences that no one could envision.

Scheduled for Nov. 29 publication, so grab the first book in the Legend trilogy at your nearest indie bookstore tomorrow!
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Book info: Legend / Marie Lu. Putnam, 2011. [author’s website] [series website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: No one expected a 10-year-old to break out of prison like Day did. No one expected a 10-year-old to get a perfect Trial score like June did either. Future Los Angeles only educates the very brightest – the middling ones become drudge labor, the Trial failures are turned over to government prisons or research labs.

Now 14, June is bored with her military college classes and longs to be on active duty full-time like her older brother Metias. Her parents would be so proud of them both, if they were still living… When Metias is killed on a routine patrol, June is not sure she can keep on living, but duty to the Elector keeps her going.

Day moves along the fringes of underground society, stealing supplies to keep his family alive in the slums, even though they think he’s gone forever. Fleetingly captured on security cameras, Day’s exploits against government stations are becoming legendary, even though no one knows exactly who he is.

Another plague is stalking the poor areas of the city, and Day spies as his family’s house is marked with the infected-quarantine mark. Now, getting the plague suppressant for his brother is Day’s main concern – and that means infiltrating high-security hospital labs undetected.

As Day searches for the medicine, the police continue searching for Day. June is assigned to the case and takes to the streets in disguise, trying to capture this renegade before he becomes more of a folk-hero in the slums.

The more Day learns about this plague, the more worried he is for his family. The more June learns about Day, the more she questions the Republic’s actions.

Was Day involved in Metias’s death? Why are the plagues so common in the City? Will June find answers in her brother’s journals or just more questions?

Leap into a gritty future adventure with Legend, recounted by Day and June in alternating chapters, first in a series. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Hothouse, by Chris Lynch (book review) – dead firefighters, heroes or reckless?

Nov15
book cover of Hothouse by Chris Lynch published by Harper Teen

Hero dads?
Reckless heroism?
Negligent heroes?

Losing your dad is difficult at any age; losing the dad you idolized and emulated, just as you’re about to join him in an amazing career together is terrible.

But to have your hero dad suddenly called a villain by the same people he protected and served as a firefighter his whole life? Devastating.

How will Russ and DJ cope with the loss of their firefighter dads during their senior year, especially now that the whole town has turned against them?

Hothouse packs so much emotion into its 208 pages that this intense story has been included on several recent booklists for older teens – catch it at your local library or independent bookstore.
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Book info: Hothouse / Chris Lynch. HarperTeen, 2010. [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer/recap]

My Book Talk:  Two dads – best friends forever, their sons named for each other, firefighters together, dead in a flash.

Their sons must start their senior year of high school without them, their wives wish they could hear the phone ring again from the “Hothouse” fire station. Their community honors the memory of David and Russell as “Outrageous Courageous” heroes and treats sons Russ and DJ like heroes, too.

Russ had always planned to be a firefighter like his dad, practicing his skills at Young Firefighters, ready to graduate from high school, enter the Fire Academy, and work alongside his dad to keep their city safe.

But a house fire rescue gone wrong has changed that, at least the part about working with his dad. No one at school knows how to talk to Russ about it, and now the investigation into the firefighters’ deaths is raising questions about whether they were really fit to work that rescue call.

What is courage?
When are heroes not heroes?
How can Russ keep going when old questions get new answers?

The danger and stress that firefighters face every day can be so hard on them and their families. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Drowned Maiden’s Hair (fiction)

Nov14

Seeking answers from The Beyond.
Unwilling to wait until Heaven to see loved ones again.
Willing to pay anything to hear their voices now…

On this mysterious Monday, welcome to the early 1900s during the height of Spiritualism, when bereaved people became convinced that the chasm between this world and the next could be crossed during seances, that someone could connect them with a loved one for just a little time more together. For every truly gifted medium, there were countless charlatans and tricksters who took advantage of immense grief for large profits.

Seances and bringing forth voices from Beyond are just “the family business” for the genteel spinster Hawthorne sisters, now fallen on hard economic times. Who would guess that a child was suddenly living in their attic bedroom, an orphan child with a heavenly singing voice, an unwanted orphan child who can fit in hidden cupboards and manipulate the ghostly vapors and set chandeliers to swinging?

Wondering how long this arrangement can last? How long the illusions will hold? If there are any true connections to the Other Side? Come back to 1909 with Maud and find out for yourself.
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Book info: A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama / Laura Amy Schlitz. Candlewick, 2006 (paperback, 2008). [author interview] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Locked in the orphanage outhouse, Maud never imagined that she would be rescued by spinster sisters to become a séance angel…

Suddenly Maud has lovely new dresses and books with all the pages and a bedroom of her own! The Misses Hawthorne have all the “modern conveniences” in their large, remote house – this is 1909, after all. They teach Maud new hymns, buy her a blond wig to cover her flyaway brown hair, have her practice tricks for making chandeliers sway and hiding in secret compartments.

Yes, the Misses Hawthorne are no longer wealthy, so they hold séances to make a living. They help grieving people “hear” their lost loved ones from The Beyond, now assisted by Maud acting as any child who died young. If truth from the doctors and religion from the preachers won’t satisfy a wealthy patron that someone dear has indeed died and gone to heaven, then the Misses Hawthorne are more than willing to act as go-betweens with the Spirit World on their behalf…for a fee.

Moving to a seaside villa to be closer to a grief-stricken mother whose daughter drowned is another new experience for Maud – ice cream! The sea breeze! Sneaking out in the night to play in the sand! For no one outside the house must ever see her, must ever know that a child lives with the Hawthornes…

So, will Maud always have to live hidden in the attic bedroom? What does Muffet, their deaf and mute servant, think about all this trickery? Why does pretending to be dead Caroline feel different from acting as the other child spirits? Is Caroline really speaking to Maud in her dreams?

Go behind the scenes with Maud as she is swept along with the Misses Hawthorne during the height of the Spiritualist movement – and listen for Caroline’s voice…
(One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Icefall, by Matthew Kirby (book review) – deadly secrets in the ice, sent by the gods?

Nov2

As the glacier above the wooden fortress creaks and groans…
As the fjord begins to ice over, with no word from home…
As the royal children and their guardians realize that treachery is locked into their hiding place with them…

Our world Wednesday book takes us to the far North and far, far back in time, when the people who would become the Vikings battle winter’s fiercest blasts sent by the gods, as well as attacks from mere mortals.

Singing odes of gods and kings, reshaping history to suit the ears of the victors, skalds tell countless stories from memory. Is it Solveig’s destiny to walk the storytellers’ path, instead of being a dutiful daughter to the king?

Another wonderful, unusual tale from Matthew J. Kirby, who brought us The Clockwork Three (my review here).
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Book info: Icefall / Matthew J. Kirby. Scholastic, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Book Talk: Solveig wonders if winter will trap them in the mountain fort, waiting for word that her father has defeated an attacking king, listening to the glacier creak, worrying, worrying.

The king had sent her, her young brother the crown prince, and her older sister Asa away from the battle for their safety. When his best warriors arrive to protect them in the hidden fortress, Solveig knows that the berserkers would rather be fighting alongside her father instead of guarding them as the fjord ices over.

As the cold nights grow longer, the king’s storyteller gives them tales of the gods and of great battles. The skald finds that Solveig has an ear for story and a memory for detail – would she like to learn the storytelling arts? Finally, something worthwhile for this middle child – not pretty enough to marry off to forge an alliance, not a boy to be a warrior-prince.

A sudden outbreak of illness in the fort – a curse? Poison? The plague? Secrets told, promises broken, tempers flaring among the restless warriors. Will their father triumph over the invader who tried to steal Asa as his bride instead of negotiating? Will young prince Harald survive the winter? Will any of them?

A story from the days when storytellers kept history and hope alive through their ballads and odes, Icefall brings readers to the glacier’s edge, watching with Solveig over the stormy sea, hoping that the sails in the distance bring news of victory instead of danger. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Morpheus Road: The Light (fiction)

Oct31

Happy Hallowe’en on this Mysterious Monday…

A monstrous creation becomes real.
The created stalks its creator with malign intent.
[cue eerie, spooky music and more than a few nightmares]

The graphic novel character that Marshall invented visits him in his dreams, then in the dark corners of night, and then…his best friend Cooper disappears and is presumed dead. Marsh knows that Coop’s not dead – ghosts just don’t lie about such things.

This is the first book in D.J. MacHale’s frightening Morpheus Road trilogy. Marshall’s adventures (and nightmares) continue in The Black (book 2) and The Blood (book 3) – find all three at your neighborhood library or independent bookstore. And be sure to have a flashlight near your bed at night – who knows when Gravedigger might visit your dreams?
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Book info: Morpheus Road: The Light / D.J. MacHale. Aladdin, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Graphic novel fan Marsh creates “Gravedigger”– long black coat, pickaxe over his shoulder, grinning white skull. Drawing helps him forget just a little how his photographer mother died 2 years ago, trapped in the ancient temple she’d just captured on film. Her assistant brought back her photos and this golden glass ball covered in weird designs, but couldn’t bring her back.

Sketches packed away as school ends, Marsh looks forward to summer with his wild friend Cooper. But Coop has done one crazy thing too many, and his parents take him up to their old lakehouse – no cell phone, no computer, lots of time to get his act together.

When Marsh’s dad is out of town, eerie things start happening – a breeze that traces patterns in the powder on the counter when no windows are open, a gravelly voice on the phone that says “You must journey along the Morpheus Road,” Gravedigger luring him to the deserted gym with blood-covered walls…

Gravedigger is just a character from his own imagination, right? But that bony hand on Marsh’s shoulder felt too real, and Gravedigger keeps showing up, talking about the Morpheus Road.

Coop disappears from the lakehouse, so Marsh and Coop’s sister head up there to help search. When Sydney starts seeing Gravedigger too, then maybe Marsh isn’t just imagining this, and they all might wind up dead! 352 pages for those who love to be frightened… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

A little scary or a lot scary (fiction)

Oct24

Seems like Halloween is more than just a one-day event now, as folks often celebrate the whole month of October!

Get yourself in the spooky mood with these great books which range from deliciously shivery to keep-the-lights-on scary (links to my full recommendations):

Baseball, high school romance, and a zombie invasion! I Love Him to Pieces is No.1 in the graphic novel series “My Boyfriend is a Monster.”

Pulled into Ghostopolis before he’s dead, Garth must find his way back to the living world.

A seance, a missing brother, a mystery in The Haunting of Charles Dickens.

What does The Mermaid’s Mirror show? Will Lena sleepwalk into the California surf and never return?

Is every vision thrust upon The Vespertine at sunset fated to become reality?

Swordfights, heroes, and soulless monsters – in modern-day Paris? Die For Me…

Lenah gladly traded her Infinite Days as a cruel vampire to regain her humanity, but her vampire companions want her back.

She carves charms against “the evil eye” for townsfolk, but something truly evil is swirling its way up the river, drawing Plain Kate along for the deadly voyage.

Hansel and Gretel’s tale gets a frightening new twist in Sweetly.

An old evil with a young face, The House of Dead Maids tells a chilling backstory for Wuthering Heights.

Ready for Halloween!
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[image from http://www.fundraw.com/clipart/clip-art/3163/Man-Fighting-Skeleton/]

Hereafter, by Tara Hudson (fiction) – dead, yet tied to the living

Sep6
book cover of Hereafter by Tara Hudson published by Harper Teen

Mysterious Monday lingers on, bringing you an unusual story of ghostly Amelia, seemingly anchored to the river after her death.

So many ghost stories and legends are told in the Ouachita Mountains of southeast Oklahoma, from Jesse James’ missing million dollars hidden near possibly haunted Robbers Cave to the notorious Belle Starr.

Are there truly ghost seekers like Joshua’s grandmother? We’ve heard of love that lasts even beyond death, but can a dead spirit and a living person fall in love?

Enjoy this eerie debut novel and cheer for Joshua and Amelia as she tries to recapture memories of her life and her death while being pulled by evil forces beyond the river.
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Book info: Hereafter / Tara Hudson. Harper Teen, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: Amelia races through the dark river waters to save a young man from drowning…even though she’s already dead. She doesn’t know how she died or where or even when, but she does know that she must save him from dying into her dreary hazy world.

No one on High Bridge Road saw her rescue Joshua, not his high school buddies, not the rescue squad from their small Oklahoma town – no one ever sees her wandering near the “haunted bridge.” Amelia wonders why she could lift his head above the water when she can’t carry other real things.

When Joshua returns to the scene of his accident and recognizes her as his rescuer, Amelia is startled into speaking – and he hears her, too! As they spend more time together, Amelia begins to remember tiny fragments of her life, always returning to the river. Joshua is charmed by her, and she revels in his company.

But a malignant force in the river is pulling at her – dead Eli claims that she must always stay at the river, that she must lure others to their death at the High Bridge, that she must become his and his alone.

Did Amelia really cause Joshua’s car to go into the river? Can she find out enough about her life to discover the truth about her own death? Is Eli right about her destiny as part of the haunted High Bridge’s future?

This mysterious love story from first-time author Tara Hudson brings a new twist to the ghost stories of Oklahoma’s wilderness forests. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.