Each choice you make creates a fork in time,
a new path in the multiverse through history –
Which dimension holds Meg’s happiness? Read more about this new book
Dead-on books for Dia de los Muertos
Stories about making people dead aren’t as interesting to me as the ones that talk about – or to – the dead. For Dia de los Muertos, a pair of dead/not-dead tales from the BooksYALove shelves.
Haunted high schools… double scary books!
High school can be frightful for some folks, and when you add in some ghosts who never graduate… just plain spooky! Tread the haunted halls in these BooksYALove faves (and watch your back)… This way to scary school stories
Scary book pair #2 – enemies seen and unseen
Another pair of scary BooksYALove favorites for the witching season: if blood-spatter and dire peril aren’t your thing, search the tag cloud (over there on right) for something else!
Somewhat scary & completely wonderful: spooky season books pair #1
Y’all know that I cannot read horror books; my imagination is just too good and needs no super-terrifying prompts.
I can take on scary tales in measured doses and do love mysteries, of course..
So as we count down the days till Hallowe’en, check out BooksYALove favorites to get you ghoul and ready for some frights! Today’ pair, future based on past inequities and past predicting the future: Click for today’s titles
DNFs, train wrecks, and award season = reviewer fatigue!
Aspens at Grand Mesa, Colorado, Sept. 2014
Sometimes you just need to get away from it all, right?
But for this avid reader and intrepid book reviewer, the “stepping away for a little while” got a bit lengthier than planned.
A combination of factors is usually the culprit – simple burnout, outside distractions, and so forth.
But this time around, it’s been harder than normal to get back in the book recommending groove despite my best intentions.
Y’all know that I try hard to choose books outside the big bestsellers and copycat stuff for BooksYALove. But sometimes, things just don’t go the way I expect.
Like when… a book gets noticed by the big wide world before I can craft just the right no-spoilers booktalk to post = Revolution by Deborah Wiles, a compelling novel about young people in Jim Crow days during the summer of Voting Rights activists coming to Mississippi.
Darned if those National Book Award folks wouldn’t wait till I’d finished writing my recommendation before they announced it as a 2014 finalist! So I won’t write here about Revolution, but will urge you to read it along with Deborah’s post on NerdyBookClub talking about how some vital things have hardly changed in Greenwood since that pivotal summer of 1964. (Luckily, I already raved here about John Corey Whaley’s Noggin which is also a finalist)
Like when… books that sounded so good, so interesting, and so worth reading turn out to be flops. I have very wide-ranging reading tastes and am very selective about requesting review copies, so I can almost always think of someone I know who would love such-and-such book (not every book is for every reader, of course).
But a few titles in a row lately have just been flat-out duds, due to writing that needed stronger editing (no, that girl isn’t poignantly introspective; she’s a whiner) or pop references which are already dated. If I knew who’d written the jacket-flap copy on some others, I’d give them a piece of my mind as the book in my hands bore no resemblance to their description of plot, motivation, etc. Yep, I finally have some DidNotFinish titles, despite my best efforts to choose ones worth our time to read.
Like when… I just can’t turn the page because I know that a character I’ve become emotionally invested in is about to do something incredibly stupid – it’s like watching a train wreck about to happen. A couple of books are waiting on me to be ready for the inevitable outcome – great books, but I’m not yet ready to uncover my eyes and let those characters go and live with their bad decisions. I will, and y’all will get the recommendations of these books, but not right this minute.
Like when… I couldn’t get to KidLitCon blogger conference this year, so I missed my current and new Kidlitosphere friends, all the great discussions about Diversity in YAlit and Kidlit, and the refreshed attitude toward blogging that this gathering always gives me.
Like when… we really are on vacation – watching the aspens turn golden or discovering an orchard stand with heirloom apple varieties is more important than jumping into someone’s fictional world.
So… a little breather, some homemade apple pie, some visits with family and I’ll be back. My To-Be-Reviewed pile has some dandy books which will be published in winter and spring, and you won’t want to miss them!
**kmm
Curses and Smoke, by Vicky Alvear Shecter (book review) – love, class conflicts, Pompeii
Old gods and older gods,
gladiators and slaves,
Pompeii is prosperous and proud…
Enjoy Curses and Smoke for its glimpses into the port city’s everyday life, its recounting of the weird phenomena observed prior to Vesuvius’ most famous eruption, its love story between owner and owned.
Forget not the past…
**kmm
Book info: Curses and Smoke: a Novel of Pompeii. Vicky Alvear Shecter. Arthur A Levine Books, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: As handsome Tag returns to her father’s gladiator school at Pompeii, Lucia’s unease about her upcoming marriage to an old man and the recent loss of her mother are echoed by the earth’s tremors.
It was different when Lucia was a little girl roaming the hillsides and Tages was the medical slave’s small son at her side, before he was sent away to learn the healing arts in Rome, before her mother’s untimely death, before these sulfurous emanations near Vesuvius began.
As Lucia tries to break her betrothal to elderly Vitulius and Tag tries to cure his father’s failing memory, rich young Quintus arrives at the school to play at being a gladiator – with a hidden agenda.
Is there any way for Lucia to escape her dreaded marriage?
Can Tag ever end his captivity in the gladiator school?
Are the old Estruscan gods angry that Romans took their sacred grounds at Pompeii?
Why will no one listen to Lucia’s ideas about the strange things happening?
A richly detailed story of love, loss, and the human spirit fighting against the inevitable. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Puppy Love, by Destiny and Hapka (book review) – new dog, new friends, new love?
Her rambunctious puppy +
a handsome dog trainer (with an accent!)
= a perfect match for her! (right?)
Lauren is sure she can get Adam’s mind off dogs, but can’t see how much Jamal in their puppy kindergarten class would like to spend time with her…
Another winsome book in the Flirt series where A. Destiny shares co-writing credits with several different authors; check out Portrait of Us too (my no-spoiler review here).
**kmm
Book info: Puppy Love (Flirt series) / A. Destiny and Catherine Hapka. Simon Pulse, 2014. [Flirt series site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: As 15 year old Lauren swoons over a cute dog trainer and wonders how can she get the senior to look at her and not just her goofy pup, she may be missing a fellow dog owner’s longing glances.
Finally getting a dog after her so-allergic sister goes away to college is a dream come true for Lauren, but if she can’t break Muckle’s bad habits… well, her best friend Robert is unhappy about the chewing and so is Mom.
Puppy kindergarten is the answer, and Adam who teaches their class for teens is so handsome. Meeting hunky Jamal is nice, but their Irish-accented leader is the one for her, she just knows!
Adam’s enthusiasm with dog agility training, plus mishaps in class and at the dog park are making it difficult for Lauren to show him how perfect they are together. And now Robert is plotting something with Jamal… is she just chasing in circles like Muckle? (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Me On the Floor, Bleeding, by Jenny Jagerfeld (book review) – thumbtip gone, mom gone, Maja is… where?
Maja really wouldn’t harm herself.
Mum really wouldn’t forget their weekend plans.
Dad really wouldn’t assume the worst (yes, he would).
A classic outsider at her high school, Maja is willing to wander a bit further in search of the truth than the adults in her life are comfortable with.
Not the first book-in-translation that I’ve featured on BooksYALove, but its publisher is my first small press from Sweden. Hope to see more YA from Stockholm Text in the future!
**kmm
Book info: Me On the Floor, Bleeding / Jenny Jagerfeld; translated by Susan Beard. Stockholm Text, 2014. [author site in Swedish] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: When Maja is injured at school, everyone worries that she did it on purpose… except her mom, who’s gone missing. The Swedish teen’s search turns up more answers than she was looking for.
If she hadn’t been trying to make a bookshelf instead of sculpture for art class, the 17 year old wouldn’t have mangled the tip of her thumb in the electric saw after hours.
If Mum had answered her text, Maja wouldn’t have taken the train to an empty house for her visiting weekend and found Mum’s mobile phone left behind.
If Justin next door hadn’t helped Maja clean up after yet another accident, they wouldn’t have gone to the coffeehouse together, or the bar, or his room.
And Maja keeps flashing back to the whirling saw blade and the blood and Mum’s increasingly odd communications. Where are the answers?
Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something That Matters, by Laurie Ann Thompson (book review)
Unfair things bother you, a lot.
It’s time to do something about it!
But how to make it happen?
If you have an idea for fixing the world, jumpstart it by getting this book at your local library or favorite independent bookstore, and visit the Be a Changemaker website to share your stories and questions.
How are YOU going to change our world for the better?
**kmm
Book info: Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something That Matters / Laurie Ann Thompson. Beyond Words/Simon Pulse, 2014. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My book talk: Ever gotten so angry about something that you vowed to make it right? Started a great helping project, but run out of ideas or enthusiasm? Get good advice on making a difference in the world from those who’ve tried, failed, and then succeeded so that you can devote your energies to your cause.
Each chapter begins by profiling a youth-led nonprofit group along with their challenges and successes. Be sure that you think through your passions, skills, and the problem that’s bothering you before jumping into your venture. Learn how to work the media, plan a stellar event, and avoid burnout so that your idea goes the distance.
With good research, a dream team and adult mentor who share your vision, and savvy planning, you can truly Be a Changemaker and make positive things happen with the tools and tips in this book. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)