42 Eventown by Corey Ann Haydu

read the book!
2019 Katherine Tegen Books
328 pgs.
Finished May 6, 2019
Goodreads rating:  4.03 - 456 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting: contemporary/dystopian Eventown, USA

First line/s:  "Jenny Horowitz likes horses and the color pink and asking questions about things I don't want to talk about."

My comments:  It's hard to separate my thinking about this book as an adult versus my thinking about it as a kid would.  I pretty much knew what was going on and what was going to happen, but most probably it would be hazier for a nine, ten, or eleven year old.  Like The Giver, this book gives the reader a chance to ponder upon the questions: What would it be like to live in a perfect world?  It was an OK so-so book for me as an adult, but would probably be quite a bit more than that for me as my 10-year-old self.

Goodreads synopsis:  The world tilted for Elodee this year, and now it’s impossible for her to be the same as she was before. Not when her feelings have such a strong grip on her heart. Not when she and her twin sister, Naomi, seem to be drifting apart. So when Elodee’s mom gets a new job in Eventown, moving seems like it might just fix everything.
Indeed, life in Eventown is comforting and exciting all at once. Their kitchen comes with a box of recipes for Elodee to try. Everyone takes the scenic way to school or work—past rows of rosebushes and unexpected waterfalls. On blueberry-picking field trips, every berry is perfectly ripe.
          Sure, there are a few odd rules, and the houses all look exactly alike, but it’s easy enough to explain—until Elodee realizes that there are only three ice cream flavors in Eventown. Ever. And they play only one song in music class.
          Everything may be “even” in Eventown, but is there a price to pay for perfection—and pretending?

37. Naked in Death by J. D. Robb

#1 Eve Dallas (homicide detective in 2058 NYC)
listened on Audible
1995 Berkley Publishing Group
306 pgs.
Adult murder mystery/police procedural
Finished 4/22/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.12 - 138,089 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: 2058ish NYC

First line/s:  "She woke in the dark.  Through the slats on the window shades, the first murky hint of dawn slipped. slanting shadowy bars over the bead."

My comments:  I notated five or six years ago that I’d read this book and that I didn’t like it. However, I’m not sure what book I read but it wasn’t this one. Nothing was familiar, not even the teeniest tiniest detail. Mystery – excellent. New York City of the future – worked nicely. Large amount of romance/sex between the protagonist and the too-good-to-be-true first suspect – not so much. If Roarke is always going to be immediately on hand with every possible transport or helpful technological aide, I’m not going to like further books at all. Dallas’s sort-of-partner Feeney is likeable, as is her boss.  It was read really well, great different voices and accents. OK, I’ll try number two!

Goodreads synopsis: Here is the novel that started it all- the first book in J.D. Robb's number-one New York Times-bestselling In Death series, featuring New York homicide detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke. 
          It is the year 2058, and technology now completely rules the world. But New York City Detective Eve Dallas knows that the irresistible impulses of the human heart are still ruled by just one thing: passion. 
          When a senator's daughter is killed, the secret life of prostitution she'd been leading is revealed. The high-profile case takes Lieutenant Eve Dallas into the rarefied circles of Washington politics and society. Further complicating matters is Eve's growing attraction to Roarke, who is one of the wealthiest and most influential men on the planet, devilishly handsome... and the leading suspect in the investigation.

38. The Matchstick Castle by Keir Graff

read the book from Bosler Library
2017, G. P. Putnam's Sons
277 pgs.
Middle Grades Realistic Fantasy
Finished 7-4-17
Goodreads rating: 3.59 - 138 ratings
My rating:  Probably, personally, a 2, but please read below
Setting:  Contemporary Boring, Illinois

First line/s:  "It was supposed to be the perfect summer.  I was going to camp out, build forts, have adventures, and score the championship-winning goal in the New England All-Star Under-12 Soccer Tournament.  When I wasn't doing those things, I was going to stay up late with my friends, eat as much junk food as I wanted, and pretty much do whatever I felt like until sixth grade started in September.  It was going to be epic:  the all-time, best summer ever."

My comments:  This book reminded me somewhat of the books I read and loved as a kid - Gone Away Lake and The Lemonade Trick, The Four Story Mistake and Half Magic.  I can't remember anything at all about those books except that I loved them.  This gave me the same feel.  Except....now I'm old.  And I didn't like it at all, it was just too far-fetched and ridiculous.  So I'm betting there's lots and lots of youngish kids out there that are going to love it like I loved those old titles of long ago.  So I can't rate it, really. Or I shouldn't.   I'd rate it a 2, but that's an old fogey's rating.  I'll leave this to the experts ... and the kids.

Goodreads synopsis: Brian can think of a few places he'd rather spend his summer than with his aunt and uncle in Boring, Illinois. Jail, for example. Or an earplug factory. Anything would be better than doing summer school on a computer while his scientist dad is stationed at the South Pole. 
Boring lives up to its name until Brian and his cousin Nora have a fight, get lost, and discover a huge, wooden house in the forest. With balconies, turrets, and windows seemingly stuck on at random, it looks ready to fall over in the next stiff breeze. To the madcap, eccentric family that lives inside, it's not just a home--it's a castle. 
          Suddenly, summer gets a lot more exciting. With their new friends, Brian and Nora tangle with giant wasps, sharp-tusked wild boars, and a crazed bureaucrat intent on bringing the dangerously dilapidated old house down with a wrecking ball.

MOVIE - The One I Love

R (1:31)

Limited Release 8/22/2014

9-18-14 at the Loft

RT Critic: 80  Audience: 78

Cag:  4/Liked it a Lot - Quirky

Directed by Charlie McDowell

Radius - TWC

Actors: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson

My comments:  As I was leaving the theater, I heard a women bemoaning, "I didn't get it."  There's only a little part that you're not supposed to get, it's what I call fantastic realism.  It was fun, clever, and really well acted.  SPOILER ALERT:  The two leads play two different people brilliantly.  Mark Duplass is particularly believable.  It makes you think, but not too hard....

Rotten Tomato Summary:  The highly anticipated debut feature from acclaimed author Charlie McDowell, THE ONE I LOVE is an original tale that continues to showcase McDowell's keen observations of human relationships with a distinct and comedic voice. THE ONE I LOVE, written by Justin Lader, was produced by Mel Eslyn and executive produced by Mark Duplass who stars opposite Elisabeth Moss. On the brink of separation, Ethan (Duplass) and Sophie (Moss) escape to a beautiful vacation house for a weekend getaway in anattempt to save their marriage. What begins as a romantic and fun retreat soon becomes surreal, when an unexpected discovery forces the two to examine themselves, their relationship, and their future.

47. The Book of Blood and Shadow - Robin Wasserman

2012 Knopf Books for Young Readers

450 pgs.

YA Fantasy (but mostly CRF)

Finished: 10/13/2013

Goodreads Rating:  3.61

My Rating:  Liked it (3) 

Acquired: TPPL

Setting: Contemporary college town New England and contemporary Prague

1^st sentence/s:  "I should probably start with the blood."

My comments:  I really liked the first part of this story, but it got more and more convoluted and complicated once the teenagers went to Prague. Relationships were explored nicely until Nora and Max were identified as a couple...and that's the problem. Their whole relationship was only identified, never really fleshed out, never SHOWN, only told about.  It wasn't believable, though most of the rest of them were.  Much of the book was letters written 400 years ago in Latin, translated by the protagonist.  She was able to glean a lot of information without giving enough clues to the reader.  It was just too sketchy in a lot of places, and left me with a ...what???.... feeling.

Goodreads Review:  It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. 

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

17. Two Graves - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Pendergast #12
read by Rene Auberjonois
14 unabridged cds/ 16.5 hours
Hachette Audio, 2012 $39.98
484 pgs.
TPPL
Goodreads rating: 3.93
cag rating: 3/Liked some of it....

My comments:  I was on and off about this one. I think that if I had read even one previous story about this odd FBI agent I might have liked him better. I didn't really like him at all until the last chapter, when his personality took a complete turnaround, almost unnaturally. The fighting scene, which the entire book was building up to, may have been enjoyed by lots of readers but for me it dragged on and on and on. The antagonist is still on the loose, so I'm sure an upcoming title (or titles) will include him. I do like the way that two other stories were woven into the book along with the main plot. I'd love to read more about Corey....  (Oh, one more comment.  Although I love the flawless reading the Mr. Auberjonois gave it, the way he read the protagonist helped instill in me the feeling that Pendergast was incredibly pretentious!) 

Goodreads synopsis:  For twelve years, he believed she died in an accident. Then, he was told she'd been murdered. Now, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast discovers that his beloved wife Helen is alive. But their reunion is cut short when Helen is brazenly abducted before his eyes. And Pendergast is forced to embark on a furious cross-country chase to rescue her.
But all this turns out to be mere prologue to a far larger plot: one that unleashes a chillingly-almost supernaturally-adept serial killer on New York City. And Helen has one more surprise in store for Pendergast: a piece of their shared past that makes him the one man most suited to hunting down the killer.
His pursuit of the murderer will take Pendergast deep into the trackless forests of South America, to a hidden place where the evil that has blighted both his and Helen's lives lies in wait . . . a place where he will learn all too well the truth of the ancient proverb:
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

28. Numbers - Rachel Ward

Chicken House/Scholastic, 2010
$9.99 (library)
325 pgs.
For YA
Rating:  2

I saw Chaos in the bookstores, which is the next book in the series.  The premise sounded good, so I got Numbers to read first.  Interesting idea, but the plot was slow and the characters were not very interesting or likeable for me.  I just never felt like I could get into either Jem or Spider's heads at all, and the foster mother certainly needed more fleshing out.....

Jem's a foster child, her mother overdosed when she was very young.  She's been shuffled from foster home to foster home since, making no friends, living with a huge chip on her shoulder.  She doesn't look many people in the eye, because when she does, she sees a a list of numbers that's a date.....and she figured out quite young that the date signifies when they are going to die.  There's nothing she can do about it, so she's become a loner.

She meets Spider, a tall, smelly, black young man that's in one of her school classes, and despite the fact that he doesn't have long to live (she never tells anyone about this), they become friends.  Then an unexpected incident sets them both on the run from the authorities..  As they set off across the countryside together they end up closely bonding.  It was very s s s l l l o o o o o w w w w for me.  Not enough going on, including conversation.  Just didn't sit right with me. 

So I guess I won't be reading Chaos, which I think is about Jem's son, sometime in the future.

41. Savvy - Ingrid Law

Published: May, 2008
Newbery Honor Award
Grades 5-8 (Tween)
348 pages
$16.99
Dial Books for Young Readers

Hmm. This was a fun book. However, it seemed endless. It took forever to read it, and I had to force myself to go back to it every time I put it down. But I enjoyed it - its quirkiness, and it's great storytelling. I guess it was just a little too long-winded for me. It's been out for over a year and none of my students has read it, or even talked about it. I wonder how one of them would enjoy it? I'll have to put it "out there" next year, see what comes of it.

What I call a "realistic fantasy" that takes place in the Nebraska/Kansas area. Good setting. I wanted a map to go along with the story, and one of the websites below has a good one. And why a map? Because Mibs Beaumont, two of her four siblings, and the two teenaged "preacher's kids" sneak onto a bus and go for a RIDE. Mibs is hoping to get down to Salina, Kansas, where her poppa is in a coma from a car accident, but Lester, the driver, had other stops to make before Salina. And quite the riproarinest adventure ensues.

And why realistic FANTASY? Because everyone in the Beaumont family, upon their 13th birthday, has been given a SAVVY. They never knew what it would be, and as Mibs' birthday approached she was quite excited about it. Her mother's savvy that she did everything perfectly. Her brother, Fish, created hurricanes, winds, rains. Her oldest brother Rocket's savvy was electricity, which he had a difficult time controling. Of course Mibs' savvy is nothing she ever dreamed it would be. And as it appears, she and her companions are on the pink bus, making the world a much more memorable place.

For more details, take a look at one of the websites below. They're very well done. In the meantime, I'm gong to have to decide how to rate this book. I wonder if I would have liked it more if I'd listened to it? Another hmm.

Official Savvy Website (the audio review is particularly good) including a downloadable teacher's guide.

Listen to the book! (Or at least the beginning of it) and play games - an interactive site.

Kid's Read Review

36. Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road: Book One) - Kate Klise

Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise (sisters)
Published: April, 2009
Harcourt/HMH
$15.00
160 pgs.
Quick read
Rating: 4
Front endpaper: house floorplans and "slice"
Back endpaper: Pictures and info on interior features

Meet I. B. Grumply (actually, Ignatius), Seymour Hope and his cat, Shadow, and Olive C. Spence. A grupmy, 60ish, has-been author, an abandoned 11 year-old boy, and an almost 200 year-old ghost are the protagonists in the story, set in Ghastly, Illinois, in a falling down old house on 43 Cemetery Road.

Grumply has rented the house for the summer, hoping that it will help loosen his writer's block so that he can write the 13th book in his children's "Ghost Tamer" series. He does not realize that the house comes with an abandoned 11 year-old and the house's original owner, the ghost of an unpublished writer of graphic epistolary novels. Through a series of letters we meet them, attend to some of the goings-on in the town, and watch as they build a relationship, then a family.

This is an entertaining, funny book that took no time at all to read, with all sorts of lighthearted nods to the dead and macabre, particularly with names that are tongue-in-cheek plays on words....the realtor, Anita Sale, the lawyer, E. Gadds; the book publisher, Paige Turner; M. Balm, the chief librarian; Barry A. Lyve, pet store owner.....to name a few.

35. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe

For: Adults
Hyperion, 2009
371 pgs.
$25.99
Rating: 4 Liked it a lot
Endpapers: In cursive text, a recipe to end "man's mortal suffering." (understood more after reading the book)

"Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it isn't real." This is a quote in the book that I keep thinking of.

Harvard grad student Connie Goodwin is looking for her dissertation topic in American colonial studies. Her advisor, Manning Chilton, a prominent historian, is hounding her to get going. But Connie's hippie mother, Grace, has called from Santa Fe to see if Connie will spend the summer cleaning out her dead grandmother, Sophia's, old house in Marblehead so that it can be sold. Abandoned for over twenty years, the ancient place is overgrown, unelectrified, and fascinating. On her first night in the old house, she finds an old key in an ancient family Bible that contains the name Deliverance Dane. Trying to discover some background on this Puritan name, shy Connie meets a like-minded steeplejack named Sam, and together they start hunting for clues.

The story takes place in 1991 and during the time of the Salem witch trials. I think it was set in 1991 because the author wanted our protagonist to really research, hunting through documents, libraries, churches, graveyards, museums, for information instead of sitting down at a computer. It works. It's a great story that I didn't want to put down. Read it on the plane flight back and forth to PA last weekend, and the time flew.

SPOILER: My only tiny negative comment would be about the character development of Manning Chilton. You know right from the beginning what he's all about, and it would be nice to have had this introduced slowly....I like to not guess the ending or the culprit untilt the story advances a little more. Oh well. This was minor.

A wonderful summer read. Especially after The Lace Reader, which also takes place in the Salem area, an area I'm somewhat familiar with, which adds an extra bit of fun. Now I really want to go check out the older parts of Marblehead!

25. 11 Birthdays - Wendy Mass

2009
267 pgs.
Rating: 4
$16.99

This was a really cute story. It has the same premise as Groundhog Day with Bill Murray (which I've watched at least a half dozen times). Leo and Amanda have been best friends from birth. Born on the same day, "fairy" Angelina D'Angelo tells their parents that they should celebrate the birthday together every year, and with a few pushes and tweaks from her, it happens. But at their 10th birthday party, Amanda overhears Leo telling his friends that he's only doing it because he has to - hurting Amanda's feelings so badly that they don't speak from then on.

Zoom to their eleventh birthday. It is a disaster for Amanda, and she's confused and upset when the alarm rings the next morning when it's not supposed to - it's Saturday. Wrong. It's her birthday again. It repeats, with many of the same problems and sadnesses. Days 3 she feigns sickness to stay home from school, and when day 4 begins exactly the same way, as her birthday, she is fit-to-be-tied. That is, until she discovers that the same thing is happening to Leo - and nobody else. They make up, the have fun, the try to discover old and new clues that will help them break the "spell." We're certainly rooting for them!