Bonemender, by Holly Bennett

This has been one of the Abe books that goes out often, and after reading it folks usually want to go on to read the Bonemender's oath and Bonemender's Choice, the third book in the trilogy. I enjoyed reading it, but didn't find anything unique about it - nothing that hasn't already been done by the Inheritance series in particular. Now if I hadn't already read that series fairly recently maybe I would have enjoyed this more...

Exodus, by Julie Bertagna

This was a terrific book - a futuristic view of our civilization a hundred years from now, when the polar icecaps have melted and the world is flooded. There are still islands with people living on them on former mountaintops. Mara is living on an island she knows as Wing. It took me a while to figure out that Wing is all that is left of Scotland. Her village is about to be swallowed by the rising sea and Mara, after researching on her handheld computer, has devised a plan to save the villagers by traveling by fishing boats to a "sky city" built above the ocean to withstand the storms that lash the earth. But the sky city of New Mungo is a closed society to refugees. So Mara must find a way in, and find a way to rescue the refugees she meets there. The futuristic New Mungo society is interesting, as are the different bands of refugees. All are believable, as is the dilemma posed by how to deal with refugees when to take them in means to overwhelm the available resources.

What my mother doesn't know/What my girlfriend doesn't know by Sonya Sones

What my mother doesn't know (2002) is a love story told from the girl's point of view. Sometimes a girl's heart and her head disagree about a guy. When that happens the girl has a tough decision to make. Sophie thinks she is in love with Dylan, so why is she thinking about Murphy...the guy who's very name is synonymous with dork, nerd, wimp? Sophie is in for some surprises when her heart starts paying attention to Murphy.

What my girlfriend doesn't know (2007) starts where the 1st book left off, but is told from Murphy's point of view. Having Sophie for a girlfriend is better than anything he's ever imagined. But how much abuse is she willing to stand as everyone in school laughs at her and Murphy together? He loves her, and watching her lose her friends over him hurts.

I really couldn't put this book down till I finished it and found out how it ended.

Dairy Queen, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

It's too bad the cover of this book has that cow with the tiara....This book IS funny, but not cow in a tiara kind of funny. It's the kind of funny where you recognize the characters and what they are going through and it makes you smile - you KNOW people like this. D.J. Schwenk, the main character, is from a family that does not talk about the stuff that's going on in their heads. At the opening of the book she is working like crazy to keep the farm going while her dad is laid up with knee surgery, and trying to keep up at school, and maybe finding a little time to have a life of her own. This was fun to read, and I laughed out loud.

The God box, by Alex Sanchez

Sanchez makes a valid point about homophobia and how destructive it is to gays and straights alike. But in this book the gay main character's doubts and confusion and unhappiness seemed neverending. I thought the moral of the story was a little heavyhanded, and would have benefited from lightening up a little. The other books by this author are better.

Tithe, Ironside, Valient - by Holly Black

These three books, all subtitled "a modern tale of Fairie" by Holly Black are dark and sinister. The world of Fairie in these is a dangerous place for humans and fey alike -don't expect to find Tinkerbell. The author says they can be read in any order and are not a series, but if you are particular about that kind of thing (me too), watch the publication dates and read them in that order. The urban New York setting makes these a little darker than the Melling series that is set in modern Ireland, tho the world of Fairie in both series has a lot in common.

Nick and Norah's infinite playlist, by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

I've been hearing that the movie is great, and VERY funny. But it's funny - I read this book a year of so ago and never once thought of it as a comedy. It's a smart love story between two people who are on the rebound from disasterous relationships. Conventional wisdom says their relationship will never work, but Nick and Norah are anything BUT conventional. Romantic, wrenching, and you can almost hear the music.

Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini

I hardly need to tell anyone what fun this series is to read - but if the purpose of this blog is to talk about the books I've been reading, then these 3 are the reason I haven't entered any new postings in quite a while. I think each of these books is better than the one before it, and that isn't always the case with books in series. The action is fast paced and the host of human and magical characters that we meet in the saga are never dull. Eragon, with his dragon Saphira at his side, grows up to claim a destiny that the young man never dreamed of. Friendships, loyalties, and love that he finds along the way steady him as he fights old evils and new foes, with treachery where he least expects it. A teriffic fantasy series.

Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld

This book and it's sequel, The Last Days, are my favorite Westerfeld books and my favorite vampire books too. (Well, there is that whole Twilight series too - but that's another review). There's no magic, no superpowers involved here. And no V word, either. Vampirism is spread by a parasite. Cal has been infected by the parasite, but is a carrier. He is still sane and able to control the V urges, but he will transfer the parasite to anyone he so much as kisses. Cal resolves to do the right thing, and begins working with a secret organization that works to control the spread of the plague. This is a modern take on the old vampire legends and is a great read, as so many of you at CHS know for yourselves.

I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak

Ok, to be honest I think this book is weird. Entertaining in places, thought provoking in places, and overall weird. The story concerns a nineteen year old who is driving a taxi for a living and feels he's wasting his life away. One day, playing cards begin arriving in the mail with addresses written on them - addresses of people who need his help. He begins living a sort of secret life of helping strangers. And it keeps getting weirder from there........

Looking for Alaska, by John Green

Miles Halter is tired of his dull, ordinary life and is ready for a change when he begins school at Culver Creek prep school. His life does change as he becomes part of a tight group of friends led by beautiful, sexy, smart and screwed up Alaska Young. With her guidance, Miles experiences his first drink, his first smoke, first prank, and some other great firsts. Then one more first - first death of a loved friend. This is a hard hitting story with equal parts humor and tragedy.

The summer king, by O. R. Melling

This is the perfect kind of book for a hot July afternoon spent inside, lost in fantasy. The author, O.R. Melling knows her Irish legends and lore and knows modern Ireland as well. The main characters in The summer king flip back and forth between modern day Ireland locations and Faerie with ease, taking the reader along for a fast ride. The plot concerns twin American teens Laurel and Honor. As the book opens Honor is dead, having fallen off a cliff the previous summer while tracking a faerie being near their grandparents' home in Ireland. Laurel is now returning to Ireland searching for answers to her sister's mysterious death. The search sweeps her into the alternate reality of Faerie, full of beutiful and dangerous beings who care little for the humans they encounter. But where Laurel and Honor find love as well...

Three cups of tea, by Greg Mortenson

Good non-fiction account of what one person can do to change the world for the better with determination, and at what cost to his personal life. Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber, who attempted climbing K2 in the Himalayans. The attempt failed, but he was so moved by witnessing Pakistani children being schooled in the open air and without the benefit of trained instructors that he returned to the US determined to raise the money needed to build one school. One school turned into many schools, and the account is a great reality check. We really don't know how good we have it here in the United States. A friend lent my this book this summer, knowing that I would like it. I do, and only later realized that it is an Abe book for 2009.

Hawksong, by Amelia Atwater Rhodes

Ok, you all knew this before I did - this is a great fantasy book. I've seen this go off the shelf over and over and be talked about word of mouth for a couple of years now, and I finally have gotten around to reading it this summer. Danicae Shardae, the main character, is a princess of a shape-shifter society - a delicate blonde beauty of a girl whose avian form is a golden hawk. Her avian race has been in a devastating war with the serpent race for as long as anyone can remember. On the eve of her ascension to queen, the prince of the Serpiente comes to her with a bold and risky plan for peace. Zane Cobriana suggests they marry and join their two kingdoms. It's a plan as frightening as it is bold. Danicae is desperate for peace, but there is a natural revulsion between bird and snake, and the romance is tense and dangerous for all.

Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith

I bought this book this summer to read myself, and have to add it to the high school library!

This is historical fiction set in Stalinist Russia in the 1950's. In Stalin's Russia there is no crime - crime is the product of Western capitalism. But children are disappearing, and Leo Demidov of the State Security Force secretly suspects a mass murderer is preying on innocent children. Leo risks his job, his family, and his life in his attempt to stop the murders.I couldn't put this down - it's interesting for the inside look at Stalinist Russia and the paranoid terror the state imposed on it's citizens. Leo's awakening conscience leads him to discover that the murderer isn't a stranger....