So, you know when you’re reading a book and you see where the story is going and you know you’re going to be upset/frustrated/angry but you don’t want to throw the book across the room (at the moment, I might hit a student)? Well, I’m there! I’m reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer and I know what’s coming and I DON’T like it!!! I won’t tell you what’s coming because you really should read the book. It’s a modern interpretation of Cinderella. Actually, it ‘s a steampunk version of Cinderella. I’ve been here before and did actually throw the book across the room and refuse to pick it up again for 3 days! I had to because I was reading The Chocolate War for a class (yes, it was a looonnnggg time ago). On the up side, one doesn’t typically get this upset about a bad book er badly written book so, Marissa Meyer, your book inspires great emotion. Still, the main problem is that I’ve read the second book (cardinal sin: reading series books out of order…guilty) and the problem that I’m avoiding still exists! What is one to do?

“WAIT” is the answer, as unsatisfactory as that is! The second book is called Scarlet and is, take a second and think….steampunk Little Red Riding Hood and it isn’t even published yet ( I read the galley version). So, here I sit, desperately wanting to finish the book but NOT wanting to read the heartbreaking part! I will debate myself for a few more minutes and then read on.

If you like to read this kind of stuff…please don’t let my weirdness stop you! It’s a fun book for sci-fi/steampunk/fantasy/fairytale fans!

Whew, it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted anything so, upon finishing my latest book, I decided it was time to post again. I don’t really like reading about war. It’s sad and horrible…the people in these stories usually break your heart, no matter what side they are on. Code Name Verity is just such a story.

Writing, always writing. I am writing it all for them. They read it every day, picking out the important bits…codes, air fields, air planes. Queenie writes her story for her captors. She is taken just after landing in occupied France. It was an emergency landing because their plane had been hit. Her friend Maddie is the pilot for this ill-fated mission. Now, Maddie is probably dead, burned in her crashed Lysander and Queenie is in prison telling them everything they want to know so that she can have small comforts, a blanket, a cigarette, water, her life. War is hell and Queenie and Maddie, best friends, are in the thick of it. Survival depends upon the story Queenie writes on whatever paper her German captors can find for her. But, Queenie is clever…she writes a story within a story, a code, of sorts. Ever on duty, Queenie is a spy and has gleaned important information while in captivity, information the Allied forces need to know. She knows her fate, that she will not get out of this alive but she must find a way to get those pages into the right hands, not just for England but for Maddie, for her family, for herself.

Elizabeth Wein delivers and emotionally charged story of some of the women who were involved with World War II and not just Rosie the Riveter but also as spies and pilots. Her characters are engaging and well-crafted. As the two friends divergent paths unfold, a glimpse into unfamiliar history is revealed. The author’s notes are nearly as interesting to read as the story. Wein reveals her research and just how much truth is in the story. When one thinks of female spies, Mata Hari comes to mind but these two young women are far more real and engaging than their flamboyant counterpart. History buffs and anyone who likes a good war story will not be able to put this down!

I was trying to wait to write my next post until after I spoke to my middle school students about my Girl Power books but, after finishing Shannon Hale’s new Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, I just couldn’t wait! I just LOVE all things Shannon Hale…my one gripe? The cover picture…it’s very, I don’t know, 70s?  I would have thought that her publishers would have used what most of the others are using…real, beautiful models.  Oh well, judge not a book by it’s cover, right?

The Mt. Eskel girls are heading to Asland to be with Britta as she prepares to be married to Prince Steffan.  The girls are excited, anxious, or thrilled to be living in the big city for a year.  Miri will be attending the Queen’s Castle, a place of learning and great wisdom.  Here she delves deeper into the subjects she loves; history, mathematics and learns new ones like ethics, a topic with which she will soon become intimately acquainted.  For, all is not well in the kingdom of Asland.  There is unrest brewing between the “shoeless”, the nobles and the Royal family.  The people are starving yet the king raises the amount of his tributes so he can create a larger army to protect  himself.  Most alarming are the rumors that the rebels are targeting Britta because of something that Miri wrote for an assignment.  These politics are almost more than Miri can handle but she must hone the skills she learned at the Princess Academy if she is to save her kingdom, her home in Mt. Eskel and her friends.
All hail Shannon Hale!  The master storyteller brings to life, once again, Mt. Eskel and it’s people. The volatile political climate mirrors, in many ways, our own and the characters inspire hope that people who care enough can make a difference.  Miri is a strong girl who makes mistakes but rights her wrongs as best she can.  She is logical and thinks situations and actions through to their end to try to see the best way forward.  The very stones of the castle and the mountain she and her friends call home are an important part of the story.  The flaws of the king and queen are believable as is their change of heart.  The story ends on a hopeful note but with an air of finality which might indicate that the Princess Academy girls are, alas for us, settled.

Summer break is well and surely over…I LOVE my job but there’s just something special about summer, even if you don’t go anywhere exotic!  Anyway, I truly did not read much of anything over the summer!  I re-read Bitterblue (see May 16th post) but nothing new sooo, I’m going to have to get back into the habit of reading daily!  In the meantime, though, I thought I’d write about girls…Yes, yes, I will also write about boys later but today, it’s all about my girls!

One of these books is not like the other:

      
I love a good story, regardless of whether the main character is a boy or a girl.  That said, I do REALLY appreciate authors who truly get girls and create strong, independent, smart, female lead characters. These girls kick butt!  They carry the story on their shoulders and do it with grace!  They certainly DON’T need a boy to save the day…they can save it themselves!  Some of my favorite books with these amazing girls are listed below. They can fight, shoot, run or survive just as well as the boys can.  They face the same kinds of challenges that boys in other books do and they get through just fine, thank you!  Even the movies are starting to get in on the whole strong girl thing. Take the movie Brave, for instance.  It’s not based on a book and the main character fighting for control over her own life is a wonderful, flame-haired girl (I just LOVE red heads)!

Now, most of these books are in fantasy or science fiction/adventure genres (though there are a couple of historical fiction tales, as well)…I’m not really discussing Chick Lit or other genres (though there are some fantastic female characters in them, as well) because these three lend themselves particularly well to showing off the ways that girls can be strong, besides talking, comforting, thinking, etc.  Besides, I REALLY like action/adventure/fantasy/sci fi!

Anyway, girls who enjoy reading about girls who don’t let anything stand in their way should definitely check out my Girl Power list!  Boys, just because these books feature girls as the lead character, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t read them…in fact, you should, for future reference!

Girl Power List

Beauty

The Hero and the Crown

The Blue Sword

The Outlaws of Sherwood

Scarlet

Wrapped

Hunger Games

Graceling

Fire

Bitterblue

Alanna: the first adventure

Trickster’s Choice & Trickster’s Queen

Bekka Cooper series

Tiger Lily

The Glass Swallow

Daughter of the Forest series

Wildwood Dancing

Cybele’s Secret

Divergent

In the Forest of Hands and Teeth series

Delirium

Maximum Ride series (by the way, the last of this series is out and will be in the VWL soon)

The Iron Thorn

Leviathan series

Fever Crumb

Ashes, Ashes

Article 5

Skulduggery Pleasant series

Goose Girl

Enna Burning

Princess Academy

Scorpio Races

Where I WISH I was going!!!

So, 5 days and 6 hours and my summer break begins!!!  I’m pretty excited about it…sleeping late, coaching swim team, swimming laps, walking, spending time with family, catching up with friends and, of course, READING.  Our library now has a virtual collection that we can check out on most of our devices, which means that I can check out books without having to take so many home with me!  I travel to VA and have a sleek, cool Honda Accord Coupe (red, of course).  I love my car but the packing space is limited…especially when you have 2 kids (furry, four-legged, and space taker-uppers). My iPad (thanks to my brother and last year’s birthday…not sure how he’s going to top that!), is a wonderful thing.  It’s small, easy to carry and can store tons of books. Anyway…looking forward to all of it so you may or may not hear much from me after today!  Have a fantastic summer and happy reading!

I love Kristen Cashore!!!  She’s the author of Graceling, Fire and now, Bitterblue.  It’s a rare writer who can make you laugh through a list of characters and their traits!  I especially love that, in her book, the writer of the character biographies is a librarian…named Death!  How marvelous!

It’s been 8 long years between Graceling and its sequel, Bitterblue.  Fire came in between and quenched my thirst for a bit but 8 years is a very long time to wait for a story to continue.  Katsa and Po figure into this story, though Po more than his fiery partner.

Bitterblue has grown from a frightened 10-year-old into a formidable if insecure young woman of sixteen.  She is now the queen of a country that has barely survived the horrible brutality of her father, King Leck. She is surrounded by advisers left from his reign who seem to support her but, when she sneaks out into her city, she discovers that things are not as they seem from behind her desk in the castle.  That night she finds herself in a pub where there are storytellers.  Some of the stories she knows because she lived them but others intrigue her but nothing mystifies her more than a Graced young man who steals from his fellow listeners.  His grace is not stealing, though, because Bitterblue catches him at it.  Still, he and his friend Teddy come to her rescue later and they develop a cautious friendship.  Unfortunately, it’s a friendship built upon lies.  There’s no way Bitterblue can reveal that she’s their queen. She needs the information that they bring her about her kingdom, things she needs to fix if she’s to become the queen that her mother believed she could be.  The unfathomable horrors that her father inflicted upon his kingdom and his people are not so easy to forget yet that’s exactly what someone seems to be trying to force everyone to do.  There is someone who is killing those who speak the truth about Leck and Bitterblue must not only find the murderer but also find a way to discover exactly what her father did so that she can begin to help her kingdom and herself heal.

If you have not already discovered Kristen Cashore, you absolutely must read Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue!  There is action, adventure, horror, sadness, grief, budding first love, strong, committed love and so very much more!  You will laugh and cry reading the stories of Katsa, Po, and Bitterblue and rail at the terrifying injustices of King Leck.

I doubt many people reading this blog know much about me.  I was adopted as a 6 week old and have had an amazing life, as a result!!!  One afternoon, I ran across one of our library volunteers in the halls who wanted me to return a book for her and she told me a bit about it.  The book is called The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald.  It’s an adult book so I just nodded politely until she got to the part about the main character, Henry, being a “practice baby”.  Turns out that in the early part of the 19th century, colleges had very intense “Domestic Economics” programs that taught eager young women how to run a household and raise a child.  Practice babies were on loan from local orphanages.  The “mothers” would stay for a week in the “practice house”, caring for the child and juggling the house work.  There was always a teacher or house mother to oversee  and instruct the student mothers…it was sort of an on-the-job-training atmosphere.  The children usually stayed for a year, after which they were up for adoption.  Many of these children were in high demand because they had been raised using the latest “scientific” methods.  What I found was that it was a very cold and confusing place.  Back in the late 40s, when Henry was born, the general thought was that mothers should handle their children as little as possible.  They should be fed, changed, and clothed but not coddled. When the baby cried, you let it cry.  If the basic necessities were taken care of, then the baby just needed to learn to comfort itself. By the early sixties, the practice houses and Domestic Economics classes had fallen out of favor and were closed up and Dr. Spock changed the ideology about child rearing…thankfully!!!

Since she couldn’t consult the grown children or read journal articles about them, Gurnwald interviewed experts on child psychology.  They explained what kinds of challenges these children might have faced as teens and adults.  The most common problem was probably “attachment disorder”, which, simply put, is the inability to connect emotionally with others.  Her character Henry learns to be the “perfect” child.  In other words, he learns how to get what he wants through manipulation. He also has trouble making decisions.  As a child, it was deciding who was his best friend or who was his favorite “mother”. Henry loved art and drawing but even determining his favorite color was a difficult challenge.  Later, as an adult, he could not land on a personal artistic style.  He was much better at copying other people’s styles.  By the end of the book, I felt very sorry for Henry because, though we came from similar circumstances, we had completely different experiences.

I think back to my childhood.  I don’t have a fantastic memory but what I do remember was pretty good.  My mom was always there when I needed her, no matter the time of day or night.  Even though I was not blood-kin, she had a sixth sense about my brother (also adopted) and me.  She just KNEW when we needed her or when something important was about to happen.  Even now, as an adult, I can’t think of anyone to whom I am closer. I do have some residual issues possibly stemming from having been adopted.  According to several counselors I’ve seen over the years, my insecurity  with relationships is likely related to my adoption.  I’ve known about it since before I even understood what it was.  My parents always explained that we were special and chosen (a fairly typical explanation to adopted kids).  We knew that, for some reason, we were given up by our birth mothers…this reason was explained as we got older, of course.  I guess that knowing that I was given away, even if for a very good reason, left me wondering if something wasn’t inherently wrong with me.  At 47, I’m still working on this.

I have met my birth mother and enjoy a fairly good relationship with her.  I have 3 half-sisters who are wonderful and interesting women.  I am very grateful to her on so many levels.  I was not put into an orphanage or aborted.  I love both of my families and am grateful for the gift of life given to me by both of my mothers.  Still, I do wonder whatever happened to these “practice babies” and if they were able to find joy or at least contentment.

By the way…the book was great and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading grown-up books 🙂  The ending of it, while a little abrupt, left me feeling a little bit hopeful for young Henry House.

For more information on these practice houses:

What Was Home Economics?

Home Management Houses

Home Economics: 1900-1950

Practice Babies: NPR

Orphan raised by 8 mothers

People have been asking “Why do you like horror movies?” My mother asks me all the time “How can you watch (CSI, Criminal Minds, Walking Dead, etc.)?” as she’s shaking her head wondering how she raised a woman who likes to watch this kind of stuff.  “I just do” is my only answer.  It’s also a question that has been bandied about concerning young adult books.  Sometimes, I think kids like to read about people whose lives are worse than their own; who have problems bigger than theirs.  I don’t know if it’s because they want to see how the characters handle the situations so that they can be inspired to tackle their own issues or if my answer to my mother is also theirs.  I do believe that reading about someone close to their own age who solves a problem or survives the catastrophic event helps kids deal with their own insecurities and issues.  I read a great blog post by a young woman taking a course on Horror Literature and she had some interesting insight.

I just finished reading Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  It is not horror in the traditional monster, blood & guts, slasher story.  It is based on a story you might see featured on the evening news.

Willa and her mother escaped a horrible situation back in Texas.  Her father was a heavy drinker and violently abusive.  One night, Terry packs as much as she can, grabs Willa and flees into the night.  Willa barely remembers Budge until the day she was forced to.  It was all over the news…the bloody murder of a mother and two little girls, and a third one is missing…Budge is the prime suspect.  Worse, the police say that he is headed east where Willa and Terry now live the perfect life with the perfect man and perfect teenaged girls.  How can it be that quiet, calm Willa is the child of a murderer?  As she tries to balance the good things she does remember of her father and the man who killed his wife and children, Willa must uncover the secrets her mother kept and figure out who she is now.

Pfeffer’s dark tale is about a monster of a different sort…the human kind which is actually more frightening than the made-up ones you find in traditional horror because he is a real person you might have passed on the sidewalk or riding along the highway.  Young adult authors are accused, unfairly, of writing sensational stories that are “ripped from the headlines” merely to sell books.  I’m not sure I understand why it’s a bad thing to write about what we see everyday when adult writers do it all the time and don’t catch any flack.  Even the so-called “classics” were popular fiction at one time.  You can’t tell me that Frankenstein wasn’t sensational fiction back when Mary Shelley wrote it and I’d be willing to bet that critics blasted it as such.

Young people in modern times need a way to explore darkness from the relative safety of their own homes.  We don’t send our children on quests to find themselves like our ancient ancestors did.  If a book can help show a teenager that, despite how horrible a situation might be, A. it could always be worse, and B. there is a way out then I’m all for dark and frightening tales of horror.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned, recently, how very much I love steampunk.  I love everything about it…the clothing, the jewelry, the gadgets and, of course, the books.

I have just finished a really great and truly steampunk novel called The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross.  I checked it out from my library in ebook format and really enjoyed reading it on my iPad and thought it quite apropos to be reading it on a gadget.

Finley Jayne is an unusual girl.  You can’t see it but, when she feels threatened, you will know it.  She is currently working for the August-Raynes family as a lady’s maid but runs afoul of Felix, the eldest son and a scoundrel. One night, she is on her way home from working very late and Felix approaches her with evil intentions.  When he makes his move, Finley’s darker side takes over…literally, and she slams him into a wall!  Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the message and comes at her again, cursing.  The thing inside of her gives her the strength of 10 men and she defends herself with force, leaving Felix in a puddle of blood.  He was lucky to still be alive but now, Finley is on the run.  Her feet take her directly into the path a speeding contraption driven by one Lord Griffin Greythorn.  On impact, Griffin is certain he has killed the young girl but he and his giant friend Sam pick her up and take her home for Emily, resident genius and gifted healer, to look after.  This action changes the course of all of their lives, for better and for worse. Whether she realizes it or not, she is like these new friends, each of whom has a secret.  They band together to fight a terrifying threat.  The Machinist is a reprobate who has developed a new kind of automaton.  He sends them out to commit crimes for him.  At first, the thefts seem random but, soon a truly sinister plot is uncovered and Griffin and his friends must work together to defeat him before it’s too late.

In fine steampunk form, Kady Cross embraces all things mechanically Victorian.  Her characters are intriguing, each with a secret buried just beneath the surface; some innocuous like unrequited love, others more deadly.  Finley, herself, has an interesting past of which even she is unaware.  The only problem I had as I read was that I felt like I had stepped into the middle of a series and, as it turns out, I did.  I went in search of what I was missing and found The Strange Case of Finley Jayne, the first book in the series but, by then I was too far into the story to stop so that will be my next read.  The ending clearly leaves room for a sequel but I’m also hoping for a prequel!  While the idea of any kind of corset is uncomfortably confining, an armored one with weapons built in sounds like a must-have for a Victorian lady who wants to take care of herself!  If you are as big a fan of steampunk then this is a series you cannot miss!

Other steampunk novels include the following titles.  The ones in bold are in the VWL.

Steampunk! an anthology
Steampunk Poe
Clockwork Angel & Clockwork Prince/Clare
Airborn/Oppel
The Dark Deeps/Slade
Pastworld/Beck
Fever Crumb/Reeve
Iron Thorn/Kitteridge
Lady of Devices/Adina
Steampunk Detective
Viridis/Taylor

Pictures from Flickr, Creative Commons area

If you are interested in buying some really fantastic steampunk stuff (clothing, jewelry, etc.) you absolutely must check out Etsy.  Everything there is handmade and beautiful.  They have some steampunk owl jewelry that I drool over all the time and will buy, one of these days.