10. The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir

read on my iPhone (borrowed from TPPL)
2018, Knopf
336 pgs.
Adult CRF (could also be YA)
Finished 1/21/19
Goodreads rating:  3.97 - 13,462 ratings
My rating:  4

First line/s:  "On the day I turn seventeen, there is a meeting to decide whether I should have the baby or if sneaking me to a clinic for an abortion is worth the PR risk."

My comments:  This story switched back and forth between three narrators, and it wasn't until I was reflecting back on the story that I realized how important the third pov, that of Liberty Bell, the reporter, was.  Once I started this book I pretty much read right through, it was hard to put down.  There wasn't a whole lot of religious zeal for me to make fun of, and although it was THERE it wasn't highlighted, which added to its appeal for me.  Very interesting story!

Goodreads synopsis:  A debut novel of family, fame, and religion that tells the emotionally stirring, wildly captivating story of the seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family's hit reality show, and the secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.
          Esther Ann Hicks--Essie--is the youngest child on Six for Hicks,a reality television phenomenon. She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage--and a ratings-blockbuster wedding? Meanwhile, Essie is quietly pairing herself up with Roarke Richards, a senior at her school with a secret of his own to protect. As the newly formed couple attempt to sell their fabricated love story to the media--through exclusive interviews with an infamously conservative reporter named Liberty Bell--Essie finds she has questions of her own: What was the real reason for her older sister leaving home? Who can she trust with the truth about her family? And how much is she willing to sacrifice to win her own freedom?

89. Sanctus by Simon Toyne

read on my iPhone/Kindle/Book/Audible
2011 Harper
486 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 9/5/18
Goodreads rating: 3.81 - 7049 ratings
My rating:  2
Setting: Contemporary Turkey

First line/s:  "A flash of light filled his skull as it struck the rock floor."

My comments: I quite enjoyed this until the "revelation"" at the end, which made me roll my eyes...heavenward, lol...  I actually quite liked the writing, especially the descriptions, but the premise of the story was silly  So, liked and and disliked it....

Goodreads synopsis:  REVELATION OR DEVASTATION?
          The certainties of the modern world are about to be blown apart by a three thousand year-old conspiracy nurtured by blood and lies …
          A man throws himself to his death from the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, a mountainous citadel in the historic Turkish city of Ruin. This is no ordinary suicide but a symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world.
          But few understand it. For charity worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others in the know, it is what they have been waiting for. The cowled and secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel suspect it could mean the end of everything they have built – and they will kill, torture and break every law to stop that. For Liv Adamsen, New York crime reporter, it begins the next stage of a journey into the heart of her own identity.
          And at that journey's end lies a discovery that will change EVERYTHING …
SANCTUS is an apocalyptic conspiracy thriller like no other – it re-sets the bar for excitement and fascination, and marks the debut of a major talent in Simon Toyne.

44. The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

read on my iPhone/Kindle/Book/Audible
2016, Crown Books for Young Readers
384 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 8/1/2017
Goodreads rating:  4.21 - 8280 ratings
My rating:  5 Top-notch fiction
Setting: Contemporary rural Tennessee, somewhat near Nashville

First line/s:  "There were things that Dillard Wayne Early Jr. dreaded more than the first day of school at Forrestville High.  Not many, but a few."

My comments:  This wonderful book is about so many things.  It's about rising above the atrocities of horrible parenting.  It's about friendship, real friendship that touches your core.  It's about grief and about withstanding the hundreds of little pushes in the wrong direction that it might bring.  It's about perseverance and resilience.  It's about living your life for yourself, and finding the little things that matter the most and can sustain you, no matter what. Not only was this a fantastic book for young adults, fut for old adults, too.

Goodreads synopsis: Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.
          The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. The end of high school will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is happy wherever he is thanks to his obsession with the epic book series Bloodfall and the fangirl who may be turning his harsh reality into real-life fantasy. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia—neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending—one that will rock his life to the core.
          Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible Belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past.

18. Irises - Francisco X. Stork

2012, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
288 pages
Rating: It was okay/2

1st Sentence/s: (Prologue) "Kate had finally agreed to pose under the willow tree. Mother came and stood behind Mary at her easel. She placed her hand on Mary's shoulder. 'It's beautiful!'"
Setting: Contemporary El Paso, Texas
OSS:  Two sister try to figure out how to survive when their preacher father dies leaving them homeless and fully in charge of caring for their mother, who is in a permanently vegetative state.

Both 18 year old Kate is about to get accepted with as a premed student with a full scholarship to Stanford and 16 year old Mary, who has an incredible artistic gift, have had very religious, protected lives.  And since their mother's accident two years previously, their lives have been pretty joyless.  Their father, who truly loved them, was a preacher of a small protestant congregation in El Paso, had no car, no money, and lived simply.  Hand-me-downs and Walmart...no trips to the mall.  Painting was a frivolous endeavor, and the University of Texas at El Paso was nearby and the only acceptable choice of college.

And then he drops dead of a heart attack, and there's more and more problems dropped on top of the two girls.  Tough choices.  Interesting relationships with boys, best friends. their aunt and only living relative, and the new young preacher that has been hired to take their father's place.

I read this book in one four-hour gulp.  I knew that if I put it down I probably wouldn't come back to it.  Why?  I like the way that Stork developed his characters.  The plot was plausible.  I could relate to both Kate and Mary.  There was just something....missing....for me, I'm not sure what.  I was expecting to be blown away like I was with Stork's previous Marcelo in the Real World, and I wasn't.  I wonder what I would have thought about this if I hadn't read Marcelo. I'll have to read some reviews and see how others feel.

31. The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta

Audio read by Campbell Scott (who was terrific...)
Audio Renaissance Audiobook/St. Martin's Press, 2007
9 unabridged cds
10.5 hrs.
368 pgs.
Rating: 3.5

This story is told first by Ruth Ramsey, a divorced mother of two girls who teaches sex ed to 9th graders at the local high school. An evangelical church has come into town, and the school board has decided to implement an abstinence curriculum that Ruth must now teach. She's not at all happy about this, she wants to tell kids the truth without sugar-coating or outright lying.

The story is then taken over by Tim Mason, Ruth's fifth-grade daughter's soccer coach and born-again Christian. He lost his wife and his life by overdoing drugs and drinking and has been "saved" by Pastor Tim of the evangelical church, coerced into marrying a young Christian believer, and tries to do what the church tells him is "right", even though it seems to go against his deepest wants.

Then the story starts going back and forth as the two meet and are oddly drawn to each other. After a particularly exciting soccer game he gathers the girls and spontaneously leads them in prayer, which incites Ruth as well as Tim's ex-wife. At the same time, Ruth's two girls decide they want to attend church. It's roly-poly upside-down stuff, but works. I did a lot of eye-rolling, I must say, but couldn't wait to see the outcome.

The outcome. Okay. It was disappointing. Perotta disappointed me there. The story built, and built, and built some more, then BOOM....it ended. Yuck. But I totally enjoyed the first 8 discs. The ride to school flew by, and I sat outside as long as I could before going in so I could listen just a little more....

10. Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature - Robin Brande

For: YA/7-10
Published: 2007
Rating: 4.5
Finished: Feb. 8, 2009
265 pgs.

This was a grabber from the start. Mena has been totally ostracized by her friends, her pastor, AND her parents- even kicked out of her church. We know that she has written some sort of letter that is has gotten her into this hot water - her pastor and many of her ex-friends' families are being sued big-time. We only slowly get the story, which begins on her first day of freshman year. Not only is she ignored by the friends she grew up with - she is bullied and pushed around and embarrassed. And what these "devout" Christian kids do in the name of Jesus and God -- here, in black and white, is a story for young adults about some right-wing religious fanatics vs. open-minded thinkers. And we're talking right-wingers that don't read or watch anything that hints of magic or sorcery (think Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings) and tithe heavily.

Throw in an intriguing, off-beat biology teacher that's about to begin a unit on evolution, a cute, brainy - and male - science lab partner, and a dozen black lab puppies, and you have a story of how one girl begins to fight back, keeping her love of God and the Bible evenly balanced with good sense and creative thinking. Mena become Bible Grrrrl - so she doesn't cop out on her ideals, but shows her humanity. This is definitely a thought-provoking story, and not one that I've seen tackled quite in this way. I liked it a lot.