Young Adult

Fiddlehead

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Steampunk, Young Adult /

I love Cherie Priest and I really like the Clockwork Century series — Fiddlehead might be my favorite in the series mostly because I love what she did with Lincoln (he doesn’t die) and with Grant (he’s awesome, even in is often inebriated state.) I love Belle and how so many of the characters from the series came together to end the war AND get to work on the saffron aka necrotic leprosy problem.

Loved Mary Todd Lincoln. Loved, loved, loved and I stayed up way to late to see how it all ended (perfectly.)

Fiddlehead Read More »

Flesh & Bone

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

#3 in the Rot & Ruin series (what I often call one of the BEST zombie series ever written), Flesh & Bone, was excellent. I really want a set of trading cards. I also wish library jackets weren’t taped down to prevent me from properly seeing the darn cards. And, it turns out Texasebeth is reading another zombie series by Jonathan Mayberry for adults that has one of the characters from Flesh & Bone as the lead. I’m gonna have to read that series … once I find out what happens to Benny, Nix, Chong (OMG, CHONG!), and Lilah.

Sanctuary seems really really creepy. And also, I will never look at dog whistles the same way again. DOG WHISTLES. Jonathan Mayberry is genius.

Flesh & Bone Read More »

Curtsies & Conspiracies

2014, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Steampunk, Young Adult /

I sent Michelle a copy of Curtsies & Conspiracies for her birthday so I decided to read it in celebration of her birthday. Seemed fitting, right?

I enjoyed it — still not as much as I liked the Parasol Protectorate but I definitely enjoyed it. Like Michelle, I really like Vieve and wish she had more of a primary role. I’m kind of hoping we see a third series spin off for her… or something… Not that I don’t like Sophronia and the other girls, I just like Vieve more. I also wish Carriger wrote faster, darn it.

Curtsies & Conspiracies Read More »

The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne

2014, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

From the Cybils Short List, The Bronte Sisters (and brother, because you can’t actually have a book about the three sisters without mentioning the poor brother — more than mention him, give him just about as much page space as the sisters…)

A pretty good book for kids who don’t know much about the Brontes. A little boring for me since I seem to have read quite a few books about them. The photos were a nice touch — helped with the dryness of the text from time to time. Nice job including sections from their works. Overall, nicely done.

The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Read More »

The Good Neighbors: Kind

2014, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’m doing a great job of catching up on series I’d started and let slide. Holly Black’s The Good Neighbors series, for instance. I read #3, Kind last night.

It was good but who didn’t see that coming? Apparently all of Rue’s human friends? This is a good graphic novel series. Very Holly Black-like. I sometimes find the illustrations a little confusing. Sometimes the guys seem drawn a little too similarly and I have to do a double take when I realize this is not the guy who I thought it was? Otherwise, a perfectly enjoyable faerie graphic novel.

The Good Neighbors: Kind Read More »

Cybils Shortlist (2013)

1 Comment / 2014, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Reading Lists, Young Adult /

Yippee! It’s here! The list! The Cybils shortlist. You’ll notice SciFi/Fantasy is now called Speculative Fiction. Which is fine but I’m not going to change my category on the sidebar. I’ll probably end up jumping and back and forth between calling it scifi or fantasy or specfic. Oh so complicated but you know it when you see it, right?

Elementary and Middle Grade

Fiction Picture Books
– Count the Monkeys
– If You Want to See a Whale
– Journey
– Mr Tiger Goes Wild
– Open This Little Book
– Sophie’s Squash
– The Bear’s Song

Nonfiction
– Anubis Speaks!
– Barbed Wire Baseball
– How Big Were Dinosaurs?
– Locomotive
– Look Up! Bird-Watching In Your Own Backyard
– The Boy Who Loved Math
– Volcano Rising

Easy Readers
– A Big Guy Took My Ball
– Joe and Sparky Go to School
– Love Is In the Air
– Penny and Her Marble
– The Meanest Birthday Girl
– Urgency Emergency: Big Bad Wolf!

Early Chapter Books
– Dragonbreath #9
– Home Sweet Horror
– Kelsey Green, Reading Queen
– Lulu and the Dog from the Sea
– The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems
– Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat

Poetry
– Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems
– Forest Has a Song: Poems
– Poems to Learn By Heart
– Pug and Other Animal Poems
– The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses
– What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms and Blessings
– When Thunder Comes

Graphic Novels
– Bluffton: My Summers With Buster Keaton
– Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite
– March Book 1
– Monster on the Hill
– Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Donner Dinner Party
– Squish #5
– The Lost Boy

Speculative Fiction
– Jinx
– Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase
– Rose
– Sidekicked
– The Rithmatist
– The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
– The Water Castle

Middle Grade Fiction
– Escape From Mr Lemoncello’s Library
– Prisoner B-3087
– Serafina’s Promise
– The 14 Fibs of Gregory K
– Ultra

Young Adult

Graphic Novels
– Bad Machinery
– Boxers & Saints Boxes Set
– Captain Marvel #1: In Pursuit of Flight
– Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
– Templar
– Uzumaki: Deluxe Edition
– War Brothers: Graphic Novel

Nonfiction
– Breakfast on Mars
– Imprisoned
– The Boy on the Wooden Box
– The Bronte Sisters
– The President Has Been Shot

Speculative Fiction
– Conjured
– Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin)
– Pantomime
– Shadows
– The Summer Prince
– The Waking Dark
– William Shakespeare’s Star Wars I didn’t read it.

YA Fiction
– Dr Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
– Eleanor & Park
– Out of the Easy
– Rose Under Fire
– Sex & Violence
– Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Cybils Shortlist (2013) Read More »

And All The Stars

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I decided to go ahead and buy And All the Stars since I finished the book I took to the hospital on Sunday and was book-less. (Though I’m guessing I’d have broken down and bought it eventually because I really don’t like leaving my Cybils shortlist unfinished.) And now… I’m officially done with this year’s Cybils Shortlist challenge. Yay.

And All the Stars is an Australian book and I find Australian books to be odd, in general. There’s just something about the voice… I guess maybe it’s an Australian voice? hah. I dunno. Just odd. And when it’s SciFi or Fantasy, it’s even odder.

This one was pretty odd. Aliens and blue skin with stars vs green skin people and weird powers and just mayhem. A bunch of kids save the world, which was fun. There’s also some gender stuff in there and some strong female characters.

Overall, I liked it. Not my favorite of all of the Cybils but I certainly didn’t hate it.

And All The Stars Read More »

Boy21

2013, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I’m not a fan of “boy” YA and when the boy YA is also sportscentric, I know it’s either going to be a total snoozer for me OR it’s going to be one of the best books ever.

Boy21 — one of the best books ever.

I was worried, particularly at the beginning, but right about the time Finley met “Boy21” I had settled in and was hooked. I read the book straight through after that. Now I’m left wondering what happened to Finley, Erin and Russ. I hope they all three had good, happy lives.

Boy21 Read More »