Young Adult

Blood Red Road

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Blood Red Road, post apocalyptic YA fiction – on audio. Fun stuff. Oddly enough, there’s a bit of a summer king storyline (one of the other Cybils books had a summer king storyline.)  I enjoyed the book quite a bit, there were some great female characters but Saba made me nuts – I’m not sure she ever really learned anything, no matter how it ended or how there were points in the story when it looked like she was learning some important life lessons.

Looks like there is a book 2, we’ll have to listen to that to see what happens next. I hope Emmy grows up and kicks her sister’s butt.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Blood Red Road Read More »

Dragon Castle

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Dragon Castle was a wee bit like Tuesdays at the Castle – just a wee bit. What was different was that Rashko’s parents are dumb, and his brother’s not so smart, either. At least that’s what Rashko thinks. What was also different was that the author seemed to be having a whole lot of fun. That’s really what made this book good – the reader never loses the fun.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Dragon Castle Read More »

Angelfall

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

The End of Days! Angels destroy the world, or much of it, in Angelfall – and I loved it. Well I didn’t love the destruction of the world but I loved the story of Penryn and Raffe (and the supporting cast of characters, evil and not evil – and what is evil, anyway.) What happened to Penryn’s sister… OMG. A wheelchair bound, vegetarian, seven year old became… gah!

Must. Have. Book. Two. ASAP.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Angelfall Read More »

Middle Grade Fiction, YA Fiction — One Cybil, One Not

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

How the heck did The Encyclopedia of Me end up on my bookshelf if it’s not a Cybil? This is really not the kind of book I’d just pick up and nothing about the cover screams “must read” to me. So weird.  It’s not a bad book, just not my thing and I’m so far behind on my reading lists that taking time to read this one wasn’t smart. Oops. I liked bits and pieces of it but I found the encyclopedia idea a bit tedious. I’d have rather just had the story of Tink/Isadora and her family/friends without the encyclopedia entries because that part was good. (If you’re looking for a book about autism and families, this one is interesting.)

A YA scifi/fantasy that is on the Cybils list and was good, was The Shattering. It’s written by the same author who wrote Guardian of the Dead that we listened to earlier in the year? Last year? Recently. So we had some ideas about what it would be like – and it was, though less Maori mythology than I expected there to be. And, the same thing happened in this book that happened in the last one – it runs just a little long.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Middle Grade Fiction, YA Fiction — One Cybil, One Not Read More »

Two More Books – One Fun, One Not Fun At All (#readathon)

2 Comments / 2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Dewey's Readathon, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult /

First  – A little book I noticed on the library shelf and thought it might be fun to read and interesting for the kids to flip through, The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions from Pop Culture That You Should Know About… before it’s too late.

I’ve read/watched/heard most of the stuff featured here and it was fun to think about old movies and old books – One I haven’t read but am going to have to check out one of these days is The Scarlet Plague.  And now I have the urge to watch Tank Girl again. Or Mad Max. Or even Waterworld. Heh.

Now the not fun at all book, from the Cybils Shortliste – Requiem Poems of the Terezin Ghetto.  Nothing fun about Holocaust poetry. Nothing at all. I’m glad I read it, though.

(Readathon page count: 1,032)

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Two More Books – One Fun, One Not Fun At All (#readathon) Read More »

Frost

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Frost is one of the creepiest books I’ve read in a good long while. The house was creepy, obviously, but the brother/sister were creepy, too. Heck, even Leena is a wee bit creepy even without the weird house and/or the… well I won’t give it away.

The question is, was it the house or was there REALLY a reasonable explanation. I vote it was a combo of the two and the next time someone tells you a girl went crazy and died in a house and from then on, only men lived in the house – hang onto that idea and if you’re female, get the hell out no matter how awesome and cute the little Victorian is.

Just sayin’.

Not my favorite from the Cybils shortlist but man it was creepy.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Frost Read More »

Catching Up on Graphic Novels

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Young Adult /

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed someone had reviewed Books 3,4, and 5 in the Amulet series on our library website. That caused me to realize that Elly and I have fallen way behind on our Amulet series so I reserved books 4 & 5 immediately. I’d planned to read them during #readathon but book 5 was due back today and could not be renewed because it has holds so… I read them both yesterday.

And, excellent series. I have yet to tire of these characters, except for Emily’s mom who is pretty much a waste of a character, if you ask me.  Is there some reason that she’s so… clueless and blah and I just missed the explanation for that? Her father blah blah blah, yea, I get that but still, she needs to get her shit together or I’m just gonna skip over every word in her bubble from now on.

I really liked seeing what happened to Max and I’m glad Miskrit is back!

Here’s hoping we won’t fall so far behind again!

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Catching Up on Graphic Novels Read More »

Two More YA Cybils

2 Comments / 2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

How come all of the books from the Cybils shortlist that I wanted to read on audio are just now coming available, all at once? Gah.  We’re almost ODing on audio books… and poor TW, one of the books is one she had already read. Oops. She was a good sport and listened to The Girl of Fire and Thorns anyway and only gave away one spoiler. She also provided some info that was not really accurate, so a spoiler that could have been a spoiler wasn’t a spoiler after all. Heh.

I liked the book but it did get a little frustrating listening to Elisa go on and on about her looks, how fat she was, how beautiful and confident and capable everyone else was, blah blah blah. It took her an awful long time to grow up and beyond her weight. And really, I’m not sure she ever completely managed it. So that was depressing. Hopefully, if there’s a second book, the author can do away with all of that and just let Elisa enjoy her food and let us enjoy the story.

~~

I started Misfit on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. Yay for me for finally finishing a book (I started two others last week and tossed them in the library bag to take back – I just could not read either of them. That’s a lot of book quitting for me!) It was an easy book to read, enjoy and finish – and then wonder how long it will take for a sequel. Surely it’s going to be a series, there are Three more Dukes of Hell to deal with…

I loved Jael. I really loved everything about her.  A good strong female heroine who didn’t need to spend time worrying over what she looked like or how much she weighed or how popular she was. Breath of fresh air. Really. 

(PS. The Cover of the book on Amazon is a lot better than the cover of my library copy.)

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Two More YA Cybils Read More »

Above

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Above was a very odd, creepy bit of YA fantasy. At least I hope it was fantasy because did I mention it was odd and creepy?  What are the differences between the beasts, the freaks, the homeless, and the mentally ill – and can they find SAFE/sanctuary/home – together?  And can they get it back, or create it again (better? differently?) once SAFE is breached? Fascinating. Very, very fascinating plot, characters, prose.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Above Read More »

Red Glove

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

When we started listening to Red Glove, it took a few chapters for me to remember what happened in White Cat and who all of the characters were. Once I settled into the story, I started wondering whether this was a trilogy or a longer series. It IS a trilogy and this might be the best “second book” ever – I sure liked it more than White Cat and now I’m really excited to read Black Heart.  Poor Cassle. And what the heck is going to happen to his mother, because that’s one heck of a job she pulled on the Governor…

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Red Glove Read More »