March 2012
11 posts
12 tags
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M....
4 star Nineties Culture, Homosexuality, Sexuality, Christianity, Family, Orphans, Friendship, Teenagers, Growing Up Twelve-year-old Cam kissed a girl the night her parents died, and the event shapes her next five years as she loses friends, finds new ones, has adventures, gets her heart broken, and gets shipped off to a school to “cure her” of her lesbian tendencies. Cam is...
Mar 28th
1 note
16 tags
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore...
3 star Fairy Tales, Essays, Life, Relationships, Literature, Gender Studies, Children, Growing Up A collection of essays exploring the female perspective on fairy tales: varying from how they influence a life to their “true” meaning to how they make a reader feel and more. There is little cohesion between and even within the essays; stronger editing might have improved the quality....
Mar 25th
15 tags
All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis
3 star Aliens, Christmas, Christmas Carols, Choirs, Modern Society, Humor A cute and funny Christmas novella by an award-winning science fiction author. Meg is put on the commission to try and communicate with the six aliens who have shown up on earth but have yet to do anything but glare. She befriends a choir director (aka romantic interest) who helps her communicate with the aliens in a...
Mar 19th
12 tags
Snakecharm by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
3 stars Shapeshifters, Conflict, War, Peace The story is too torn between the serpent/avian conflict and the search for a falcon criminal. The focus bounced back and forth so much that it was unsatisfying. It feels more like a set-up book to bridge the gap between the first and third books. Also, Zane’s voice seemed lacking considering it was from his point of view. It could have been written in...
Mar 13th
1 note
15 tags
Matched by Ally Condie
1 star Dystopian Society, Possible Future, Romance, Teenagers, Authority Problems, First Love This book takes the perfection-seeking society of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and the teenage turmoil of Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies and still somehow manages to produce a dystopian novel that is poorly developed, ill delivered, and bland. Cassia is “matched” (a perfect mate is...
Mar 13th
16 tags
Strange Mr. Satie by M. T. Anderson illustrated by...
4 star Biography, Erik Satie, Composers, France, Music, Surrealism A weird yet charming little children’s biography about a weird yet charming man. I love children’s biographies because they get to the heart of a person so quickly; I had never heard of Satie before reading this but he is definitely worth reading about. The surreal images are well matched to the descriptions of...
Mar 13th
11 tags
Crush by Richard Siken
5 star Life, Fear, Longing, Desperation, Sex, Homosexuality, Frustration This is one of the best books of poetry I’ve ever come across. Every poem is an experience; a collection of words arranged in a way that makes sense and makes you wonder why no one ever thought of it before. Siken makes you feel things you don’t understand or maybe just can’t explain. His poems, full of...
Mar 10th
4 notes
12 tags
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
4 star Family, Deaf Culture, New York City, Belonging, Museums Wonderstruck is a book with two stories, one told in words and the other in pictures, that mirror and enhance one another as the lives of Rose and Ben grow more complicated and eventually unite. Ben has just lost his mother and sets out to find his father while Rose, born deaf, seeks a place where she is wanted. Though the frequent...
Mar 10th
12 tags
Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
3 star Family Problems, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Children, Foster Care, Teenagers Kristina’s three oldest children have lives (and problems) of their own now, and Hopkins uses her compelling free verse narrative to let Hunter, Summer, and Autumn tell their stories. Unfortunately, the three teens are not as compelling as Kristina: they are somehow less vibrant and it is harder to care...
Mar 6th
1 note
30 tags
Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy...
5 star Fairy Tales, Essays, Life, Relationships, Literature, Gender Studies, Children, Growing Up Kate Bernheimer basically sent out a bunch of letters to male writers who she felt had been influenced by fairy tales and demanded/goaded/coerced them into writing essays for her. There is a companion called Mirror, Mirror that has the female perspective. The beauty of these essays is that they...
Mar 5th
4 notes
12 tags
Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
4 stars Shapeshifters, War, Peace The war between serpent and avian shapeshifters has gone on for so long that everyone has forgotten why it began. Now Danica, about to ascend to the avian throne, and Zane, about to succeed to the serpent throne, have arranged to be married in order to stop the constant fighting and deaths of their people. The two are soon faced with the tasks of enforcing a...
Mar 5th
5 notes