Tag Archive | love

Zen & Xander Undone, by Amy Kathleen Ryan (book review) – sisters forever, grief binds them still

May8

Book cover of Zen and Xander Undone by Amy Kathleen Ryan published by Houghton Mifflin “Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters” (Irving Berlin)

– but this ain’t no White Christmas happy tale, as the death of their mother sends teen sisters Zen and Xander careening through a summer of bad choices.

Add the letters and packages that arrive from their mother (yes, still dead)… let’s hope they can hold each other up as they tackle a mystery that they really shouldn’t try to solve.
**kmm

Book info: Zen & Xander Undone / by Amy Kathleen Ryan. Houghton Mifflin, hardback 2010, paperback 2011. [author site] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Mom’s death, Dad’s retreat into his office, big sister’s over-the-limit new behavior – the summer before Zen’s senior year is spiraling down, fast.

If Zen could just keep her brilliant big sister from getting too crazy, then Xander will keep her scholarships and head off to a prestigious university, away from the grief that their mother’s death from cancer has cloaked across their lives.

If she could just get Dad to come out of his study and into the daylight, maybe he would go back to being a noteworthy professor, instead of an unshaven zombie-dad.

And if she could just center herself, then Zen could concentrate on preparing for her next black belt karate level, rather than using her skills to kick out against the guys luring her sister down the wrong paths.

And these letters from their dead mom that arrive on special days and holidays… when Zen and Xander check her lawyer’s office for some answers, they open up questions from their mother’s past.

Can their family revive itself during the sisters’ last summer together?
Will searching through their mother’s past ruin their future or rebuild it?
Death ain’t easy, but does living have to be even harder? (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis (book review) – space travel, lies, love

May4

book cover of Across the Univers by Beth Revis published by RazorbillCan the folks in charge really control every bit of what people learn and know?
Can history be rewritten so completely that the truth will never be discovered?

Take a little trip with this book that moves our fear of the different to a whole ‘nother level.

And “May the Fourth be with you” – it’s Star Wars Day!
**kmm

Book info: Across the Universe /Beth Revis. Razorbill (Penguin), 2011.  [author’s website] [publisher website] [book website] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: Frozen for the 300-year space journey to a new Earth with her scientist parents – what will it really be like, Amy wonders. Centuries pass on the spaceship Godspeed for the placid farmers on the Feeder level and stolid techs on the Shipper level, all 20 or 40 or 60 years old, each “gen” all born the same year following the Season of mating, same color skin, same color hair, same color eyes.

Elder was born a dozen years earlier than his gen, so that his training as their leader will be complete when he becomes Eldest. Because the Elder before him died early, he is trained by crotchety Eldest who should have already retired and dislikes the teenager’s questions. Life aboard ship requires harmony and working together and strong leadership and no individuality, says Eldest.

Why didn’t he tell Elder about the lower level below the Feeder farm blocks, a level filled with frozen people waiting to be reanimated when they reach Centauri-Earth? That level’s alarms sound as a Frozen’s cryo is turned off, and a pale-skinned, red-haired teenage girl wakes up. Amy is stunned to find that her parents aren’t awake, that the ship is decades away from landing, that she’s trapped in this tiny world with people who know only a sanitized version of Earth’s history, one that reinforces uniformity and follows a strong leader without questions.

Suddenly other cryos are turned off with no alarms sounding, and experts from the past are dead, sent through the hatch into the vacuum of space by Eldest like any other dead bodies.

Who is killing the cryos?
Are the crazy people in the hospital the only sane ones on Godspeed? Will Amy ever talk to her parents again?
Will the ship ever reach its destination?

A great space thriller, with plenty of questions about ethics, leadership, and humanity. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.