34. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver

#2 in the Delirium Trilogy
Harper Collins, 2012
375 pgs.
for:  YA
Rating:  Loved it - even more, actually quite a bit more, than Delirium!


1st line/s:  "Alex and I are lying together on a blanket in the backyard of 37 Brooks.  The trees look larger and darker than usual.  The leaves are almost black, knitted so tightly together they blot out the sky."  (This is a dream)
Setting:  Dystopian NYC and the outlying woods from NH south to CT.
OSS:  Shifting back and forth between "Now" and "Then", Lena tells the story of how she came back to life after becoming a Invalid and losing Alex, and her time now as a Resistance fighter in NYC, where she is kidnapped with Julian, a young man who is the symbol of everything she abhors.

Lena is discovered in the woods by the leader of a small group of homesteaders lead by a determined 21-year-old named Raven.  Raven teachers her to be strong.  As winter approaches and they have to migrate to the south, all sorts of hardships...and friendships....form.  Six months later Lena is infiltrated into NYC where she is working with other Resistance members to keep their eyes on what's going on and doing whatever the DFA - a  particularly earnest group that are willing to do ANYTHING to keep the "cured" regime going.  No love.  No feelings. ZOMBIES, as Lena calls them.  She's becoming quite brave, pretty savvy, and very likable. This was a really good story --- with an ending that BEGS the next book to come quickly!

72. The Tale of Halcyon Crane - Wendy Webb

read on my phone through Kindle
2010, Henry Holt & Co.
352 pages
written for adults
Rating:  It was okay
Some reviewers called this an "eerie gothic mystery." It was a ghost story, but I didn't find it particularly eerie, or even too mysterious.

Setting:  Contemporary Grand Manitou Island in Michigan
OSS:  After receiving a letter from the mother Hallie has always thought was dead, she travels to her ancestral home to be accosted by a group of ghosts and memories of her NOW dead mother.  Fast, implausbile love interest as well.

70. Sisterhood Everlasting - Ann Brashares

read by Angela Goethals (excellently)
"Four friends, one sisterhood....ten years later"
Random House Audio, 2011
$4000 (TPPL)
8 unabridged cds
10 hrs.
368 pages
Rating:  1.5

Constant, nonstop depressing - not a good ending novel, a whole different feel.

Bee becomes a filthy, self-centered vagabond, Lena has spent ten years alone and out of the sunshine for some unknown reason, Carmen has become a somewhat shallow tv actress, and Tibby has dropped out-of-sight by moving to Australia and stopping communication with the foursome.  So what happens in the six month time period that encompasses this book made me crazy.  Hated the darkness, and hated what had happened to the personalities and closeness of these friends over the ten years.

69. The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown

audio read by Kirsten Potter (she was great)
Penguin Audio, 2011
$39.95 TPPL
9 unabridged cds
10.5 hours
336 pgs.
Rating:  4
NYTimes Review (from 1/16/11) excellent plot summary
The Reading Lark book review - I love her format, and I agree with so much of her thinking!

First line/s:  We came home because we were failures.

Setting:  Contemporary rural Barnwell, Ohio, a small college town and hour from Columbus (I think)
OSS:  Three very different sisters return home at the same time and show us, the reader, why they hate and love each other.

The three sisters told the story as "we," which I suppose was very clever and difficult to write, but which I didn't really like.  The father, a Shakespearean scholar, professor, and fanatic, and  his wife, a stay-at-home mother who was a free spirit in her own right, have raised three daughters in a home with lots and lots of books and no television.  They go to a "hippie/granola" school, then to the small college where their father teaches.  They are all bright, and all tainted in some way - as we all are.  Named for Shakespeare heroines Rosalind (Rose), Bianca (Bean) and Cordelia (Cordy) love each other fiercely, but while comparing themselves to each other run amok.

I enjoyed the book without really liking any of the characters...well, I did like Cordelia.  Everyone has flaws.  They had lots...and they overcame them all so that the ending is a lovely, tidily wrapped up package.  It's nice to know that you can like a book without really liking its characters.  Lots to think about with that, alone!

68. Waiting for the Magic - Patricia MacLachlan

Atheneum Books, 2011
HC $15.99
for:  Middle grades
144 pgs. (quick read)
Rating:  5

First Line/s:  It was early on a Saturday summer morning when my mother and father stopped arguing and Papa walked away.  He is a teacher of literature at the college, so he could have said words when he left.  He didn't.  And this time he didn't slam the door.  He shut it with a small soft sound that made me jump.

Setting:  A small contemporary college town somewhere in America.
OSS:  William and his little sister, Elinor, deal with the departure of their father and the withdrawal of their mother when a number of new family members are added to their life.

William and his comical four year old sister/princess are left with a grieving mom and a huge surprise.  I think the surprise would be exciting for any kid....I was really excited at the idea, myself, and about how these two children would feel.  So I'm about to add some major spoilers here....do NOT read on if you haven't read the book, because being surprised - and pleased - a tickled - and excited - is part of the delicious reading experience of this book.

SPOILERS:  So Mama takes them to the animal shelter to get a dog.  But they don't get a dog.  Or two dogs. Or even three.  And throw in a cat.  And, near the end of the book throw in a new sibling.  But the biggest surprise, is the way that the animals and the family communicate.

Lots of gentle humor, complex characters despite the simplicity of the book, I absolutely, 100% loved it - and I don't even like dogs!!!!!

Oh, this woman knows not only how to write beautifully, but how to spin a story.  This one was spun.  Elegantly.

67. Shine - Lauren Myracle

Amulet Books/Abrams, 2011
HC $16.95 (Lib)
For:  YA
360 pgs.
Rating:  4

First line/s:  Patrick's house was a ghost.  Dust coated the windows, the petunias in the flower boxes bowed their heads, and spiderwebs clotted the eaves of the porch.  Once I would have marveled at the webs -- how delicate they were, how intricate --  but today I saw ghastly silk ropes.  Nooses for sawflies and katydids and anything guileless enough to be ensnared

Setting:  Contemporary Appalachia, Black Creek, NC near Asheville.
OSS:  16-year-old Cat comes back to life after pulling her head into her shell for the past three years when her gay best friend, Patrick, is brutalized and left for dead.

Cat ells her story and discovers Patrick's in bits and pieces.  Slowly events of the last three years and events of the last week are illuminated as she unrolls the mystery of Patrick's almost-killing.  It's great to see her spirit come alive again.  It's also true that not everything is ever exactly as it seems.

And big message:  meth is deadly.  And the way it can establish itself in a community - especially one in extreme poverty - is examined in this story.

Lots of good stuff to think about.  It went fast.  Good story and good storytelling.

66. Chime - Franny Billingsley

Dial Book, 2011
HC $17.99
for:  young adults
361 pgs.
Rating:  2.5

First line/s:  I've confessed to everything and I'd like to be hanged.
Setting:  Early 20th century in Swampsea, a swampy town on the moors in England
OSS:  Briony Larkin feels responsible for her sister Rose's mental disabilities, her stepmother's crippling and death, and has to hide the fact that she's a witch and can talk to the spirits in the swamps.

Some part of this book I very much enjoyed - the humor and wordplay between Briony and Eldric for one, but some drove me crazy - the repetition of thoughts (purposely done) and the uncertainty in my mind that Briony wasn't the sister with a mental problem.  There was too much that I couldn't understand, especially the Arm thingy that takes people hands and rips them off (this is something that arises from the swamps).  People seem to accept some things, weird and unspoken things, but totally detest the idea of a witch.  There was just too much that didn't make sense to me.  And I enjoy fantasy -- look back at all the paranormal fantasies that I've read and adored.  This one just didn't do it for me.

This is also about the growing inimacy between Briony and Eldric, the bonds between the two twins, and a town that has lived with witches and demons and swamp creatures for centuries. 

The book has been nominated for a National Book Award (or something similar), that's why I drove all over town to find it and read it.  The blurbs on the back of the book make it sound incredible.  I wish I could agree.

65. A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness

Viking, 2011
43 chapters, 580 pgs.
HC $28.95
for: adults
Rating:  5 (I really don't want to give it a 5, but it was lovely writing, a hard-to-put-down plot and storyline, characters that were so well defined I felt as if I knew them,  and a strong, smart, librarian/scholar protagonist.  Everything I love in a book.  And I loved this book.....)

First line/lines:  The leather-bound volume was nothing remarkable.  To an ordinary historian, it would have looked no different from hundreds of other manuscripts in Oxford's Bodleian Library, ancient and worn.  But I knew there was something odd about it from the moment I collected it.

Setting: Contemporary Oxford, for the first third of the book; in the countryside near Lyon, France for the second third; and upstate New York for the third third.
OSS:  Diana Bishop, a noted American historian and college professor who has always tried to ignore her roots as a witch, becomes involved with a vampire while trying to unravel the secret of an ancient book of alchemy.

As I read the last page, I was quite disappointed that I didn't know the final, "final," outcome, but decided to like the ending because of the hugely entertaining possibilities, and started to examine the fine print of the book.   A DISCOVER OF WITCHES IS PART ONE IN THE ALL SOULS TRILOGY.  LOOK FOR THE NEXT NOVEL IN 2012.  NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!

How will I ever remember every character and their part in the story between now and when a sequel comes out?

Witches and vampires and daemons.  All hate each other and have for millenniums.  Humans factor very little in this book (if at all), all the main players are creatures - namely witches, vampires, and daemons.  They are not supposed to mix, to fraternize, and a natural animosity usually even keeps them from being friends.  Until Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont meet.  KABOOM!  Sparks fly.  Literally.

Diana has always suppressed her witch tendencies.  She wants to be ordinary.  But a subhuman amount of adrenaline keep her running, rowing, and doing yoga whenever she's not researching.  She has no close friends (oddly), and the two aunts that raised her after her parents' murder worry obsessively about her. Although she is very attractive and has had lovers before, there are no males in her life. She has kept herself aloof emotionally, which is the perfect for what is about to happen.

Diana is no wimp.  She is no Bella - thankfully.  She is more of a Hermione, with a touch more determination and spunk (though Hermione did gather those possessions as she matured.)  Diana comes from a long line of Bishops, originating, she thinks, from Bridget Bishop who was killed during the Salem witch trials in the late 15th century.

I loved the first third of the book, the part that took place in Oxford.  The French part was really interesting, the American third had so much change and new information to absorb that I didn't enjoy it quite as much.  I can't believe that I decided to read an almost 600 page novel, but I'm really glad I did!

64. Twelve Sharp - Janet Evanovich

Audio read by Lorelei King
Audio Renaissance, 2006
7 unabridged cds
7 hours
320 pages
Rating:  4

OSS:  Stephanie Plum helps Ranger find his kidnapped daughter.

Yup, that's right.  We learn a bit more about Ranger and his past in this book, and the antics are just great.  Laugh out-loud funny in some places.  Lula has started singing in a rock band and chooses outrageous outfits to wear (and Grandma Mazur joins the group for a bit....).  A gay male couple now runs the funeral home.  We are introduced to Melvin Pickle, a sad, shy, guy who is the most recent addition to Stephanie's conglomerations of weirdo friends.

Evanovich is so clever when it comes to some of the apprehensions that Stephanie attempts.  How does she keep coming up with such ideas?  Funny, silly, crazy...and sometimes, she really does get her man (or woman).  This time the crew is looking for a new bounty hunter and the array of applicants they get is downright hilarious.  But the kidnapping of Ranger's daughter and the daunting task of trying to find and catch the kidnapper - who is impersonating Ranger - gets pretty hairy.  It helps to know that Stephanie will always overcome.

Ranger AND Joe are shown about 50/50 in this one.  FFFFUUUUNNNNN!

63. The Dark Tide - Andrew Gross

Audio read by Melissa Leo
Harper Audio, 2008
9 unabridged cds
11.5 hours
434 pages
Rating:  5 at the beginning, 1 after about the halfway point,  so.....2.5 I guess.....
Setting:  Contemporary Old Greenwich, Connecticut
OSS:  When Karen Friedman's husband is killed in a terrorist train bombing, she meets Greenwich Investigator Ty Hauck, and together they try to unravel a mystery that ties Charlie Friendman's death and another death in the area.

First line:  As the morning sun canted sharply through the bedroom window, Charles Friedman dropped the baton.

This is a very good story, which starts out tight and clear.  But once the mystery begins full throttle and Ty and Karen begin to "like" each other, it slows down....a lot.  But the really, really irritating thing for me is the way that whenever the characters have a dialogue with one another, they say each other's same repeatedly....over.....and over....and over again. Blech.

The bad guys are very bad.  The good guys have flaws.  The rich don't know how good they have it, or want more.  High finances, hedge funds....if you're not on top of that sort of thing, you're more or less along for the ride, because the details went right over my head.  I was excited about this author when I began reading, but don't think I'll be reading another of his for awhile, unless I forget.

61. State of Wonder - Ann Patchett

Harper, 2011
HC $26.99, TPPL
for:  adults
353 pgs.
Rating:  5

First Line/s:  The news of Anders Eckman's death came by way of Aerogram, a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both the stationery and, when folded over and sealed along the edges, the envelope.

Setting:  First 50 pages, Minnesota; remainder of book, the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, particularly west of Manaus, where the Lakashi tribe live.  Contemporary.

Dr. Marina Singh:  American mother, Indian father, born and raised in Minnesota with her mother, visiting, as a child upon occasion, her father in Calcutta.  Trained until residency as a doctor - on obstetrician, then switching to pharmacology and working for Vogel Pharmaceutical.  Now 42, she shares an office with fellow cholesterol researcher Anders Eckman and is seeing her boss, the head of Vogel, in secret, since that's how Mr. Fox wants it kept. As a secret.

But Anders, after being sent on a mission to find a Vogel researcher in the Amazon of South America, dies of a fever in the rainforest.  And it's Marina that's sent to figure out what happened and how the vague research of Dr. Annick Swenson is progressing.  It's not easy to find Dr. Swenson, who has made sure that her location in the jungle is a total secret.  Dr. Swenson had been Marina's mentor in her med school days, and there's a mysterious connection between the two that we slowly discover. Marina's search for Dr. Swenson and what happened to her friend and coworker becomes quite a story.

Magnificent writing.  Fascinating setting.  A mystery to solve.  A great amount of research.  And a satisfying story, that I hated to end.

Marina thought of the crickets and the meadowlarks, the rabbits and the deer, the Disney book of wildlife that slept in the wide green meadows of her home state.  "No bullet ants," she said.  Her scalp was soaked, her underwear, the ground beneath her feet loosened as streams of water sluiced between the trees.  The heard a high whistle piercing through the thunder and wondered if it was their imagination.  Imagination played a major role in the jungle, especially during a storm.

What a wonderfully satisfying story, the perfect way to pass a weekend of laziness.  I read her Magician's Assistant awhile ago, I've got to put some of her other's, particularly Bel Canto, on my upcoming radar.

60. Sweethearts - Sarah Zarr

Little Brown & Co., 1988
paper $7.99
220 pgs.
for: YA
Rating:  3.5

First Line/s:  A dripping faucet.  Crumbs and a pink stain on the counter.  Half of a skin-black banana that smells as old as it looks.  If I look at these things and at nothing else, concentrate on them and stay still, and don't make any noise, this will be over soon and I can go home without Cameron's dad ever knowing I'm here.

OSS:  When Cameron Quick reappears in Jennifer Harris' life after being the closest of friends as children, she is thrown for a loop.

Setting;  A ruralish area in Salt Lake City, contemporary times.

Cameron and Jennifer were best - and only - friends when they were young and they were both outcasts and bullied and unhappy.  They had each other, and that made their lives a lot better.  But then Cameron and his family disappear without a word, and Jennifer is left unsettled and wondering...for years.  She sheds weight, gains confidence, changes schools, and has a good life.  And then Cameron reappears.  Mysteriously.  And keeps disappearing, then reappearing.  Jen has a great boyfriend, lots of great friends, a stepfather that has helped stabilize her life, but with Cameron's reappearance she thinks, rethinks, remembers, and makes some interesting choices and decisions. 

Some of those memories involve learning about and watching the abuse that Cameron's father inflicted upon his family, particularly his son, and once, on her.  This was a very interesting book to read.  I kept thinking I'd already read it, but it must have been some of the scenes reminded me of other stories, because I'm quite sure I haven't read this before.  Okay.  Checked and saw that I read it when it first came out.  Guess it wasn't as memorable the first time around....

56. Divergent - Veronica Roth

First in a new series
Katherine Tegen Books (Harper Collins) 2011
HC $17.99
for:  Young Adults
487 pgs.
Rating:  4

First Line/s:  There is one mirror in my house.  It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.   Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.

Setting: Chicago, somewhere in the future.
OSS:  Beatrice Prior has come to the vital point in every 16-year-old's life, when they must choose one of society's five factions  in which to spend the remainder of their days.

Dauntless (the brave), Candor (the truthful), Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful/happy), and the Erudite (the smart).  Beatrice has been born and raised as an Abnegation.  She loves her family - her parents and her brother, Caleb.  But when the time comes to choose the faction in which she best fits, it's more than difficult.  Because if she chooses anything other than Abnegation she will have to leave her family, her home, everything she knows.....forever.

In a story that intertwines a somewhat recognizable dystopia with rethinking the parameters of war and peace, we watch the initiation of Beatrice (who renames herself "Tris") into a new and exciting faction, where she finds new friends, new foes, (a boyfriend, of course), and a life that she could have never imagined.

I read this in one day....staying up late.  Tris is a great character, brave, smart, loving....and really, quite real.  I was quite drawn to her.  You had your stereotypical nasty peers, lots of action and adventure, and the requisite layers of bad guy vs. good guy. It's left so that you know there will be sequels.

55. Pray for Silence - Linda Castillo

Book No. 2 in a series set in Ohio's Amish Country
Minotaur Books, 2010
HC $24.99 TPPL
for: Adults
Rating:  4
First Line/s:  Officer Chuck "Skid" Skidmore wished he hadn't indulged in that last cup of coffee.  If it wasn't for the new waitress at the diner, he would have stopped at just one.  But damn she was cute.

Setting:  Contemporary Ohio Amish Country (a tourist town)
One sentence summary:  Ex-Amish Police Chief Kate Burkholder,with the help of State Bureau Investigator John Tomasetti (with whom she has an off-again on-again relationship since her last big murder investigation), investigates the brutal murders of an entire Amish family.

This one is pretty gritty...a whole family tortured and murdered.  Mother and father, a baby, two sons, 10 and 14, and two daughters, 15 and 16.  The girls' murders have been particularly horrendous, and Chief Burkholder is reminded of her own past.  She relates to Mary Plank, the 15-year old who appears to be the person whom the murder revolves most around.  She finds Mary's diary that explains her affair, her drinking, and the unspeakable things that were done to her while she was under the influence.  But she's very much in love. However, she never names her lover, or gives enough clues so that Kate and her crew can pinpoint him.

There are a number of suspects, and as they gather more clues, getting closer and closer to the killer, it's pretty hard to put the book down.  I can remember being grossed out by the first book, although this one is pretty graphic and horrendous, it's a good...but sad....murder mystery.  It's been over a year since this was published, so I'll have to check and see how prolific Linda Castillo has been!

54. Darkness Becomes Her - Kelly Keaton

Simon Pulse, 2011
HC $16.99
274 pgs.
for:  Young Adults
Rating:  4.5

First Line/s: Under the cafeteria table, my right knee bounced like a jackhammer possessed.  Adrenaline snaked through my limbs, urging me to bolt, to hightail it out of Rocquemor House and never look back.

Setting:  Over a decade after the 2009 hurricanes ruined New Orleans, now called New 2.  It's no longer part of the USA, and it's home to people that are.....different.

One sentence summary:  Ari, a 17 year-old searching for her mother and her roots, discovers the horrifying legacy that has been passed down to her through centuries of tormented women.

Yes, this one held my attention completely.  I guess I enjoy these dystopian adventures.  This one, of course, includes the smolderingly handsome love interest. Sebastian is the interestingly different part vampire whose family is one of the Novem, the ruling elite of the new New Orleans.  However, Ari holds a power that she doesn't understand at all - many people that she encounters, the ones that know of her mother, show that they are ... afraid ... of her.

I slowly figured out the mystery before it was revealed, but it was fun doing so.  Someone with more of an interest/background in Greek mythology would probably figure it out long before I did.  But I'll read the sequel when it comes out, A Beautiful Evil, coming in February, 2012.  It will continue the adventure, I'm sure.

If I knew New Orleans, the layout and the history, it would be even more enjoyable, because the description is excellent.

52. The Other Rembrandt - Alex Connor

Silver Oak Publishing, 2011
Pap $14.95
for adults
392 pgs.
Rating:  4
First line:  His body was bent over, his head submerged in the confines of the basin, his knees buckled, trousers pulled down.
Setting:  London, Amsterdam, and New York
OSS:  Marshall Zeigler, who has always avoided his family's interest and business in the art world, finds himself pulled into it when his father is brutally murdered.

The entire story revolves around letters that Rembrandt's mistress, Geertje Dircx (oh, how I wish I knew how that was pronounced) wrote while she was incarcerated in a prison/asylum.  She tells of the Rembrandt, and of Rembrandt's students who, under Rembrandt's tutelage and instructions, painted portraits in his style and passed them off as the great master's.  The letters have been secretly held by Marshall's father, Owen, and could change the whole world of Renaissance art.

Four murders take place surrounding these letters, and Marshall has to piece it all together.  Woven into the fabric of the story are the letters that Geertze Dircx wrote.  She had been treated horribly by Rembrandt, and had secrets to tell, of Rembrandt's cruelty, of an illegitimate son, also a painter, and of the art scams pulled off by Rembrandt.  And, apparently, some of this is based on actual hints and facts that have been passed down through the years!

There are many characters, and we must decide who to trust, who is telling the truth, who has secrets of their own to hide.  I figured out the culprit about 2/3 of the way through the book, but the surprise twist at the end surprised me, and keeps me wondering still.  The book kept my attention and made me think.  I liked it.

51. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman

Audio read by Nancy Travis
Hachette Audible Audio, 2005
5 unabridged cds
6 hrs.
224 pgs.
Rating:  4
Publisher Weekly starred review

1st line:  Be careful what you wish for.  I know that for a fact."

Setting:  a Florida college town, present
One-sentence summary:  A woman who has led a self-imposed solitary, invisible life (an "ice queen"), gets struck by lightning, which leads to her allowing herself to slowly melt.

Wow.  Incredible writing.  The first half - at least - was terribly depressing.  But mesmerizing, I couldn't stop listening.  Then, the second half.  Still beautifully written, sad, depressing, but mesmerizing.  Nancy Travis was an exceptional reader for this book.  What a picture these eloquent words painted.

Our unnamed protagonist, ever since making a child's self-absorbed wish when she was eight and then feeling it tragically came true, has become a self-made ice queen.  She is unhappy, makes crazy-wrong choices, and seems to stumble through an uninteresting life.  After any years as a librarian in a small New Jersey town, she moves to Florida to be near her brother, Ned, and his wife Nina. 

And then she is struck by lightning.  She loses the color red.  She hears constant clicking in her head.  She has to reteach her left side to move correctly.  And she becomes even more entranced with death.  She seeks Lazarus Jones, a man who was said to have been struck by lightning, died for 45 minutes, and then "come back."  

So much happens in this somewhat short book.  Sometimes our protagonist (I can't really believe that we never learn her name!) drives me crazy.  She is self-absorbed and single-minded about it.  The people she meets, pushes away, befriends, and loves without realizing she is loving, are well-flushed out and enticingly interesting.  Her brother Ned and his wife, Nina.  Her friend, Renny.  Her New Jersey cop lover and her Florida orange-grower, lightning-survivor lover... even her cat, Giselle.  Interesting twists and turns,  paths and fairy tales, butterflies and rain, fire and ice.

50. Forever - Maggie Stiefvater

Third - and final - book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series
(after Shiver and Linger)
Scholastic Press, 2011
HC $17.99
for: YA
392 pages
Rating:  5

This book was mesmerizing, by far my favorite of the three.  The font was the same deep cranberry color as the cover illustration.  The story was, once again, told in four voices: Grace, the girl who now spends her winters as a wolf, Sam, her one-and-only, who has been "cured" of slipping from lupine to human, Isabel, reluctant friend to the wolves....cool...almost cold...and.daughter of the powerful lawyer that will do anything to kill the wolf pack, and Cole, the only one who chose to become wolf...brilliant, famous, beautiful, and cynical.

There are twists and turns as spring approaches and Grace returns, shifting back and forth between wolf and human at inopportune times.  And Thomas Culpeper, Isabel's father, has finally gotten the Minnesota state government to allow a wolf massacre.  The time is approaching, and the four friends must figure out how to save the rest of the pack.  And with the help of a young police officer and Cole's scientific genius - they do!  I've got to admit, I shed a few tears near the end of this story.  That in itself surprised me, that I could feel such emotion for these characters and the relationships they had attained.  Quite powerful, actually.  Quite a story.

48. Where Do You Stay? - Andrea Cheng

Boyds Mill Press, 2011
HC $17.95
for: Middle Grades
133 pgs.
Rating:  4

First line/s:  "Mr. Willie pulls every last weed in the driveway cracks, then sweeps the concrete clean.  Aunt Geneva comes out to pay him, but Mr. Willie doesn't want any money.  'A sandwich would be nice,' he says."

Setting:  Contemporary Cincinnati, Ohio

One-Sentence Summary:  After 11-year-old Jerome goes to live with his aunt and cousins after his mother dies of cancer, he has to learn to live without his precious piano.

Mr. Willie also played the piano, though he now is a squatter in the falling-down carriage house of the falling-down (and empty) big house across the street.  His fifteen-year-old cousin Damon is mouthing off to his mother, disappearing, and possibly getting into trouble.  His nine-year old Cousin Monte is afraid of everything.  And his Aunt Geneva is determined to adopt him, as she feels was his mother's wish.  The turning point in the story comes when a couple purchase the crumbling house across the street, not to tear it down, as everyone had thought, but to create a school. 

Isn't this one of the homeliest/unappealing book covers you've ever seen?  It certainly doesnt' say "pick me up!"I wasn't sure how to rate this book, 'cause I'm not sure how kids would like it.  Throughout the book, Jerome is comparing everything that happens to him to his mother's last days and death.  However, it's not particularly depressing, and it's a great way to worm yourself into Jerome's mind.  And the storyline is engaging and proceeds in a believable manner.  I discovered that I rather liked the whole package as I mulled it over after reading.

47. You'll Like It Here (Everybody Does) - Ruth White

Delacorte Press, 2011
HC $16.99
for:  middle grades
258 pgs.
Rating: 4

First Line:  "When I was in the third grade on the California coast, a crazy man came into my classroom one day and started waving a knife around.  He said he was an alien hunter."

Setting:  North Carolina, then an alternate, somewhat identical, universe


One-sentence summary:  The Blue family, Meggie, David, Mom, and Gramps, try to find a place where they can live a normal, happy family life (spoiler coming) since they had to flee from their own planet.

There's really no way to review this book without spoilers....I was glad I hadn't read the flap information too thoroughly so that I was somewhat surprised when I got to Chapter 4 for the big reveal.  Sure there were hints, but they were delicious ones. The Blue family has to flee their much-loved home in North Carolina and end up in an alternate universe, in a town called Fashion City,  which is heavily controlled and life is boring and there are no choices.  People survive by taking "Lotus", which keeps them tranquil and laid-back, unquestioning and unable to revolt.  "The Fathers" are responsible for everything - and they are to be unquestioned.  However, when Gramps is forced to go to "Vacation 65," from which no one returns, the family has to take quick and immediate action to find another place to live.

Utopia.  The Giver. Alternate universes.  Not a setting or storyline you'd expect from Ruth White. I liked it.