Young Adult

Rose Under Fire

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

From the Cybils Shortlist and the sequel to Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire was excellent. Troubling, as books about WW2 often are… seriously, I need a moratorium on concentration camps or something. So sad and horrible and OMG did I mention horrible?

Rose was awesome, I even enjoyed her poetry. And while I might have kind of complained about the Girl Scout camp songs earworm, I enjoyed that, too. Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout and all that.

I even liked the way it ended.

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Emilie and the Hollow World

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Supposedly YA but reads like MG, Emilie and the Hollow World was… not great. Not horrible, put it down never speak to me of it again bad. Just not great.

I’m pretty sure I won’t spend any time on the sequel. Unless I’m just super desperate for something to read. Or, unless I hear that the sequel is better than this one (which never happens with a second book.)

Ho hum.

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Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

I can’t decide whether I’m glad we listened to Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass on audio or not. I LOVED the Spanish in it but my Spanish is bad so I’d have liked to have been able to look some of that stuff up. Not that I didn’t understand the gist of it but still, it would have been more fun to do that (in some ways.)

The book itself, excellent. Very nice change to have great Latina characters. I very much loved that. I really liked Piddy and her mom and Lila. I spent much of today saying “Que lindo!” to myself because Lila said it and it made me laugh (a friend in Panama used to say it a lot) and it was very appropriate at many times today (sarcastically and not sarcastically.)

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2 Graphic Novels

2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

Both of these are from the Cybils Shortlist — and both are good. One is exceptional.

First, Nathan Hale is back with the story of the Donner Dinner Party. Just like the other Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales — this is long, long, long. But I’m not sure how it could be much shorter because that’s a lot of story to tell via graphic novel. I particularly like the last pages — the list of people who died and how, the mythbusting at the end. I’m a fan of this series, in general, and this one was just as good as the others.

March — the first volume. This series is one nobody should miss. Congressman Lewis is telling his story, via graphic novel, and it’s one hell of a good story and a really great idea. I couldn’t put this first volume down and suspect the next two books in the trilogy will be just as good. Must read — for everyone.

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Dr Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets

2014, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

Yawp!

From the Cybils shortlist, Dr Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets was awesome. I loved it. Didn’t want to put it down and I’m not even a very big Walt Whitman fan.

What I loved is that it’s just different enough from every other book about kids and depression/anxiety but familiar enough and true enough to keep me nodding my head.

Excellent. Really. I’d like to read it again (and maybe Yawp a little.)

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Be My Enemy

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Remember when I said Planesrunner was really not my favorite kind of scifi? Yea, I should have remembered that when I reserved the second book in the series, Be My Enemy. It was so hard to get into. So confusing. Even after I settled into the two Everetts, I struggled and skimmed a lot of the confusing science mumbo jumbo. I need my science to feel at least a little like magic and not so much like impossible science.

But, I did like it. Really. I just didn’t love it. And I do want to know what happens next so I’ll probably slog through book three at some point.

Oddly enough, TW is struggling with it too. I told her it gets easier once you sort out the alters but still she’s struggling.

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Beautiful Darkness

2014, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Beautiful Darkness is the sequel to Beautiful Creatures — I started off not liking it as much as Beautiful Creatures. I was also troubled by the addition of Summerville/Charleston references. She’s put Gatlin too close to my hometown (not that it was far from home in the first book re: Santee and Lake Moultrie, but I could hang onto the invisible fake town-ness of it before…)

Anyway, barring that hometown problem, I ended up liking this one a lot. It just took me awhile to get used to less Lena and more of the other supporting characters. I should have liked it right off the bat since I never loved Lena to start with.

I do love Ethan, Amma, Link, Marian, and Macon. Heck, I even like Ridley more than I like Lena. So yea, this was a good darn book once I settled in.

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Eleanor & Park

2 Comments / 2014, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

From the Cybils Shortlist, Eleanor & Park… what to say, what to say. I liked it. A lot. I might have even loved it but… I kept wondering if any of my kids would have loved it when they were teens and I don’t think that they would.

There were so many 80s references. SO MANY. Neither of our girls knew what I was talking about when I asked them about a few of them. It’s one thing to have a few 80s references that a kid can figure out in context but so many? I dunno. Seems like something might be lost in translation. TW and I smiled all the way through it though BECAUSE of the 80s references.

I did particularly appreciate that Eleanor wasn’t a hero… there was no attempt to save her siblings. She didn’t even really try. Or even pretend to try. She thought about it but halfheartedly and with the awareness that she just couldn’t, she wasn’t even sure she could save herself.

I also really liked Park’s parents. And Park, sure I liked Part, too. Surprisingly, I liked the ending. I liked the abruptness of it. I like that we don’t see the complete resolution of all of the problems. The postcard ending — pretty much perfect. And, now I want to go immerse myself in 80s movies and TV shows. Sheesh.

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Fire & Ash

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Fire & Ash was a very satisfying conclusion to the Rot & Ruin series. Very, very satisfying though I’m a little surprised that we didn’t lose more major characters… (trying not to spoil things for those who haven’t read it.)

I’d be disappointed that it was over, being that it’s one of the BEST zombie SERIES EVER, but I’m gonna move to the adult series, featuring Joe Ledger and I’m sure I’ll feel almost like the series hasn’t ended.

BEST ZOMBIE SERIES people. Don’t let its YA label keep you from reading it! (Now if I could just get some zombie trading cards…)

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