Mercury

I haven't read too many graphic novels, and I am hoping to keep up with the genre more.  The kids like them.  I was excited to read Hope Larson's Mercury.  It was a great graphic novel for me to start with!

Mercury alternates between two stories.  Both stories are set in Nova Scotia and both main characters are teen-aged girls dealing with life stuff.  In the present is Tara.  She and her mom lost their old house to a fire.  Tara is living with her aunt, uncle, and cousin while her mom looks for work out of town to try to help them get back on their feet after losing everything.  Tara feels nervous going back to high school (10th grade) because she'd been home schooled for a while and she doesn't know if she'll get the hang of it.  She does pretty good though and even gets a love interest very soon after school starts.  What connects her to the past is a necklace that her aunt let her have out of her mom's old jewelry box.  The necklace is beautiful but seems to have a mind of its own.

The other story is set in the same place but in 1859.  Josey is living with her family when a mysterious stranger shows up and wants to go into business mining for gold with Josey's father.  They strike up a deal and begin.  He's a handsome stranger, and Josey has to decide how she feels about him even though her mother gets a very bad vibe from the man.  He has a mysterious necklace that he is very protective of.

The elusive pot o gold binds these two stories together.  Read to see how the two stories intertwine and what happens with the necklace that has survived the generations and now lives on Tara's neck.

The book was great.  It was a quick read.  I stayed interested the whole time because Larson takes you back and forth quickly.  It was neat to be reminded that even though  times are different, family, love, and loss are the same no matter what.  I highly recommend this one to all.

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

I borrowed this book from my Mom forever ago and finally got a chance to pick it up.  I've been wanting to read it forever and it totally lived up to my expectations.  I'm really interested to see the movie when it comes out probably next year.

Right now Jacob Jankowski is ninety, or ninety-three...something around there.  He's in a nursing home and trying to make it through each day of sitting around and eating the terrible mushy food.  But in the past Jacob is a young man about to finish veterinary school at Cornell.  Just before he sits for his final examinations - his world changes forever.  He won't be taking over his father's veterinary practice like he thought.  He finds himself alone and on the road.

Jacob hooks up with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth and his life becomes an adventure he'd never imagined.  He finds work, actually gets to tend to the animals after a while, and meets a very beautiful woman.  He learns the ways of the circus, interacts with all of the crazy characters and workers, and he makes it.

But life in the circus isn't always easy.  Money isn't always there.  And it's really hard to work anywhere if you fall in love with your boss' wife....

In the book ninety or ninety-three year old Jacob thinks back about his time with the circus and the reader gets to experience a time and place like none other.  I felt like I was right there.  The descriptions of the circus and the people came to life.  You like Jacob from the beginning and you are on his side throughout as he navigates a life he never dreamed he would be living.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.  It's so fun and unique.  I used to watch Carnivale on HBO before they ended it and it brought wonderful memories of that show back to me.  A great read for all.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I get so wrapped up in keeping up with the newest, latest, greatest YA books, that I often neglect the classics.  I read lots of them in my college English classes, and I know the ones I teach often (Hamlet, Frankenstein, etc...) very well, but I only get through one or two "classics" a year.  I want to do more of this reading, so while my student teacher organized literature circles for my students, I decided to read Wuthering Heights along with one of the groups.

I loved this book.  It made me happy; it made me sad; it annoyed me; it made me want to holler at people; it made me smile.  I read Jane Eyre last summer and liked it a lot, but Wuthering Heights moves far beyond Jane Eyre as my favorite right now.

There's so much story in the book, but it all starts when Mr. Lockwood moves in to Thrushcross and visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff.  Heathcliff is a weird dude, and Lockwood, who isn't the most sociable guy in the world, feels like he's outgoing and nice compared to Heathcliff.  Lockwood visits once and then again and gets stuck at Wuthering Heights before he can make it home.  He spends the night in a room that he really isn't supposed to be in and encounters the ghost of a young girl at the window.  He's completely freaked out and what's more is that Heathcliff rushes in at the disturbance screaming:

"Come in, come in!...Cathy, do come.  Oh, do--once more!  Oh! my heart's darling, hear me this time, Catherine, at last!"

Amazed by this outburst, Lockwood gets the whole story out of his housekeeper, Nelly Dean.  You just love Nelly to death by the end of this book, as she is your eyes and ears into this story, this world.  Nelly has been working for the family for years and she tells Lockwood every exciting, terrifying, lovely bit of the story.

It all began when Old Earnshaw who had two children, Hindley and Catherine went away to Liverpool and came back with a new little rough-looking, black-haired, wild child with him.  You may expect a give when your father goes out of town and returns, but certainly not a new little brother, and a wild, gypsy seeming child at that.  Hindley doesn't like the new little one, Heathcliff, and Catherine doesn't care for him at first either.  But time goes on, and life steps in.  Hindley leaves, and Catherine and Heathcliff become best of friends.  Old Earnshaw dies, Hindley comes back and treats Heathcliff badly.  Catherine likes Heathcliff, but can't marry him because he's "lower" than her...but she really does want him.  Heathcliff hearts Catherine say something about this and leaves and disappears....and it all gets going from here.

This book has so much love and so much hate that it seems impossible sometimes.  The story spans generations and turns and twists all the time.  I was always wondering what was going to happen, who would be together, why the characters just couldn't be honest with each other.

I was completely happy and satisfied with this book, and it is one that I will read again and again definitely.  This is one classic you should pick up if you haven't already.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

What happens when you die?  Well, for Sam Kingston, you wake up and get a chance to do it all over again - six more times.

Sam and her girls, Lindsey, Ally, and Elody, are on top of the world and the social landscape of their high school.  They rule the roost and are, well, a little bitchy.  Sometimes a lot...

In Before I Fall you get to follow Sam and her friends during their day - Cupid Day at school - the day when roses get delivered with notes to people.  The girls get tons of roses, of course.  They eat at their usual lunch table.  They giggle and discuss Sam's "big plans" that she has for the night with her boyfriend Rob.  They plan to attend a party that night at Kent McFuller's house.  They go, they have fun, they get into a little drama, and then they're on their way home.  It rains, they swerve, Sam hears something, and then....

Beep, Beep...she wakes up.  And it's still Feb. 12.  Sam is caught in some kind of strange time and relives this last day of her life over and over.  Each day she notices things, changes things, and realizes things.  She sees people differently.  She notices things she never even paid attention to before.  She appreciates the little things that she will miss when she's really gone.

This book was amazing.  While the chapters are long, it's so good because you get to notice the details right along with Sam.  This book reminds us of what really matters, and it reminds us to notice what's going on around us and not take things for granted.  I loved being on this journey with Sam.  I felt like everything unraveled and made sense to her and me one precious second at a time.

You will love this book - that's all there is to it.  It's got love, drama, kisses, bullies, high school, friends, questions, answers, excitement, terror, sadness, EVERYTHING.  Read and see what happens during these seven days....you won't regret it!

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

I was lucky to snag an advance reading copy of this book.  I loved the previous two Moon books, so I was anxious to see what happened to Miranda and how she and Alex met.  If you don't know, this series is about life in the world after an asteroid hits the moon, knocking it closer to earth.  The gravitational pull changes, volcanoes erupt, tsunamis wipe out the coasts...it gets bad.  The worst part is that the ash from the volcanoes blocks out the sun.  It gets cold and no one can grow crops.  In this last book of the series, Pfeffer brings her two main characters, Miranda and Alex, together.  Life picks up in Pennsylvania, but eventually Miranda's dad, his wife, a new baby, and three strangers show back up at Miranda's house.  She's glad to see them, but life with all these people now crammed into their house is a little more hectic than it was before.  There are people everywhere, and moreover, they only have food for their family and now it has to be shared.  As Miranda's family grows, she has to deal with all the hardships that come with this new world.  Interestingly though, a real-live teenage boy, Alex, is with the new group, so maybe there's hope that Miranda can have some happiness after all.  This book follows the family as they try to survive in the world they live in.

I really liked this third book.  Honestly, I didn't love it quite as much as the first two, but that could be because I already knew the basics, and this book didn't hold any new moon information.  I liked knowing what happened to the family and seeing what had happened since I left the characters on their own.  What I will say about these books is that they are painful to read but yet so interesting.  I don't know what it is about reading about life like this.  It scares me and makes me wonder if I would survive if something this bad happened.  But it also gives me hope because I know that many people will do what they can to keep being good, strong, honest people even in the face of the worst adversities.  I love this series.  Scary but fun, compelling reads.

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Seventeen year old Lennie is trying to make it through being back at school after the sudden, tragic death of her beautiful sister, Bailey.  Their mom left when they were young and the girls lived with their grandmother.  Dealing with death is hard enough on a teenager, but Lennie's issues become even more complicated when she not only starts to have strong feelings for the amazingly hot, beautiful, talented new boy at school, Joe, but also Toby - her sisters boyfriend.  She's never been in a relationship or even kissed many people for that matter, so when she has to deal with feelings for two guys at once, it's a lot.  And the one person she wishes were there to talk about it with - her sister - is dead.  In Jandy Nelson's debut novel, Lennie's life is put right out there for the reader to follow.  This book is beautifully written and full of emotions:  passion, sadness, confusion.  I absolutely loved it and couldn't put it down.  What I loved most of all was just the descriptions of love.  First, true, forever loves are amazing and the way that Nelson writes about Lennie's feelings will hit home with adults and teens alike.  You must read this book.  It is amazing!

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

I knew this book would be intense when I started.  I was drawn in immediately and just couldn't stop reading.  Wow.  That's the main word I feel right now....just, wow.

On May 2, 2008 Nick Levil, a student at Garvin High begins a shooting spree in his school commons area before school.  This is a day that no one will forget, especially his girlfriend Valerie.  Nick turned the gun on himself but not after killing and wounding students, teachers, and Valerie herself.

Dealing with a tragedy like this is hard even if you aren't even directly affect by it.  But Valerie is right in the middle of it all.  She went out with Nick for three years.  She loved him.  They made a "hate list" together naming all the people who got on their nerves at school.  Nick read names from the list during the shooting.  Valerie steps in the way of one of his bullets that day.  She gets shot.  She sort of saves another girl's life.  But she's a part of this.  The police want to know her involvement.  She's dealing with so much.  After summer, Valerie has to go back to school and face them all....the students on the hate list, the teachers, the people who hate her...can she do it?  Is there any way she can become "normal" again?  Is there any point?

In this book Valerie deals with it all:  parents, her shrink, kids at school, everyone.  She has to tackle her issues and figure out how she can go on with her life or if that is even possible at all.  What's worse is that she loved Nick...she still loves him...

It doesn't get much more complicated than this.  Like I said earlier, this book completely drew me in from the first moment.  Some of it was hard to read and it got to me at times, but it was a great read. 

the dead & the gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Shop Indie BookstoresI read Life As We Knew it last year and loved it.  the dead & the gone is the companion novel to this one.  it can be read alone or before or after the other book.

Alex Morales is 17 years old and a junior in high school.  He lives in New York and is a good kid.  He's got two little sisters and his parents at home in their basement apartment.  His dad takes care of the apartment building, and Alex's mom just started working as a operation room technician after going back to school to get her education.  Alex is on scholarship at a private Catholic boys school where he is in the student government and on the debate  team.  He works after school at a local pizza joint and helps out his family however he can.  His life isn't the most amazing in the world, but it's good....until....

The meteor hits the moon, knocking the moon closer to earth.

What follows in this book is a day by day account of what happens to Alex and his family once the moon has been hit.  At first no one knows what's going on, but bit by bit Alex starts to realize that life will never be the same.  What's even worse is that after he doesn't hear from either of his parents for a few days, he begins to think he never will.  Will Alex's parents return?  How will he take care of his sisters?  They are ok for a while, but soon food becomes scarce, the sun stops shining, and dead bodies begin to pile up on the city streets of New York.

This book was really interesting because it was different from the first one.  In the first book, Miranda, the main character, was from a small rural Pennsylvania town, and this book shows what happened in the big city.

What I am even more excited about is that the final book in this trilogy This World We Live In, comes out soon this spring.  In this new book, the paths of Miranda and Alex cross and we'll  get to see what the world is like a year from when this all happens.  I'm really wondering if they'll all die or if the scientists will figure out a way to fix the problem or if they'll find new ways to survive.

Both of these books are great, you should pick on up now!

How to Say Goodbye in Robot - by Natalie Standiford

WOW!!!!! This book was amazing.  I saw that Reading Rants said this was probably her favorite of the year, and I can totally see why.  It's that good. 

The Lowdown:  

Beatrice has moved around a lot.  Her dad is a biology professor, and he's always looking for a new school, new grants, new programs.  Her senior year of high school, they pack up to move from Ithaca to Baltimore.  She's used to it and doesn't really have all that many emotions about moving.  She'll do school, graduate, and move on.  She's a robot girl...nothing there.  At her new school she meets the normal girls, chipper and perky, but robot girl feels a new connection with Jonah - ghost boy.  Neither Bea nor Jonah is the happiest person in the world, but together, they click.  They  tune in to a late night radio show called Night Lights, and their friendships begins.  No one really gets them,  but that's just the great part about it...they don't care.  What they've found is friendship at its best.  But all friendships and relationships go through rough times.  Jonah tunes out sometimes.  He finds out some crazy information about his dead brother, and Bea wants to help him through.  Read to find out how this unique relationship survives, grows, and changes through their senior year. 

What I Liked:

I LOVED every moment of this book and didn't want it to end!  The characters, Bea and Jonah, as well as all the supporting characters are amazing.  The story is unique and I was pulled in immediately.  I loved the radio show.  Uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time, these characters will stay with me for a long time.  I haven't felt this attached to anyone since Octavian Nothing.

Read This If...

You want a true, unique story about love and friendship.

You've ever given of yourself to a relationship.

You've ever been loved and hurt by someone.

You want to have your world rocked by this amazing book!!!!

Love is the Higer Law - by David Levithan

The Lowdown: 

I've never been to New York city, and I will certainly never know what it must have been like to be in NY on September 11, 2001.  But David Levithan's book Love is the Higher Law shows what the experience was like for three teens there when it happened.  This book shows glimpses into the lives of three teens on and after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 9-11.  Claire was at school and went to get her little brother immediately after it happened.  Peter had actually skipped school that day to get the new Bob Dylan CD at Tower Records.  And Jasper actually slept through it all and didn't wake up until noon that day.  All three had very different experiences and reactions to the events.  Afterwards they have lots to deal with and think about.  As  time passes, the stories of these three intersect.  What mattered before doesn't matter now, and they rely on each other to make sense of the world as they knew it and the world as it is for them now. 

What I Liked: 

Mainly I just like that Levithan is tackling this subject.  In his afterword to the book he says that not as many books have been written about 9/11 as he would have thought.  As each year passes, the memory of the attack becomes more distant.  Today's freshmen in high school were around 6 when 9/11 happened.  This is a great book to show what it was like for teenagers experiencing the tragedy in their own backyards.  It's important to understand grief and feelings and how we are all affected by things like this.  The book shows how each kid deals with it differently and that no one way to view the tragedy or deal with it is right or wrong...they just are.  I liked that Levithan focused on the kids and their stories as opposed to the details of the day.  This book is really real and really important as we still continue to make sense of our country and its history.  The characters in the book come together to help one another.  Hopefully as they wonder, we can always do that in our world:

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we really came together, if we really found common humanity?  The hitch is that you can't find a common humanity just because you have a common enemy.  You have to find a common humanity because you believe that it's true.

I love this idea.  And even though it's been a while since 9/11, we are still living in a world that is forever changed because of it...war, fear, government power...Levithan's book helped me look forward and try to keep this positive idea in mind:  that people can be good and helpful and that maybe out of pain we can create a better world.

Read This If...

You'd like to experience life in NY.

You want to read about relationships.

You can handle taking another look at the attacks on 9/11.

You want to believe that "love is the higher law."

You want to read about friendships.

If I Stay - by Gayle Forman

Wow.  First, I have to say I really, really loved this book.  It's short (196 pages) but packed full of so much.  Ups and downs; funny parts, sweet parts, sad parts; goods and bads; friends and family--it's amazing.  

Mia is a 17 year old girl who is a cello genius.  She loves music and music runs in her family, although none of them are into classical music.  She has friends at school and a really talented boyfriend, Adam, who went to school with her but is away at college now.  He also tours with is band which is making it big right now.  Mia loves her family and has decisions to make:  stay with Adam, go to Julliard, etc...but no decision is bigger than the one she has to make unexpectedly one day when her family is in a devastating car accident.  A

After the accident, Mia find herself looking down at her own body watching from the outside.  As she gets flown off in a helicopter, she keeps watching and has to decided if she stays or not.  The book tells  the story of Mia and her decision.  Flashbacks and present action are woven artfully together.  In a short amount of time the reader gets to know so much about Mia, her family and friends, that you feel like you are sitting right there in the waiting room with them.  

This is a horrible situation, but somehow, the book was happy at times and funny.  I enjoyed Forman's writing style and the realistic way she portrayed family relationships and friendships. I highly recommend this book to teens and adults alike, I think you'll love it.

Grade: A