Monday, March 31, 2014

Gathering Blue

Gathering Blue
by Lois Lowry


Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  "Mother?"

There was no reply.  She hadn't expected on.  Her mother had been dead, now, for four days, and Kira could tell that the last of the spirit was drifting away...Now she was all alone.

Left orphaned and physically flawed in a civilization that shuns and discards the weak, Kira faces a frighteningly uncertain future.  Her neighbors are hostile and no one but a small boy offers to help.

When she is summoned to judgement by The Council of Guardians, Kira prepares to fight for her life.  But the Council, to her surprise, has plans for her.  Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, the young girl faces new responsibilities and a set of mysteries deep within the only world she has ever know.  On her quest for truth, Kira discovers things that will change her life and world forever.
From the book jacket

Review:  First off, I don't see how this is a sequel to The Giver.  It has nothing to do with it.  It's a completely different village/community.  There is a totally different story line.  If you are expecting to know more about what happens to Jonas,  you will be sorely disappointed.  If you look at this book as a stand alone book, it's a decent book.  I didn't think this book was as thought provoking. I figured out the twist well before the main character did (I had to remind myself that this a young adult-or even younger audience book than that).  There was a lot of description in this book and not a lot of action.  The end left me wanting more and I sure hope that the next book in The Giver series tells me more about this community.

Rating:  3 stars

To read the review of The Giver, click here.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

A Well-Tempered Heart

A Well-Tempered Heart
by Jan-Phillip Sendker


Genre: Fiction

Synopsis: Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father's native country.  Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her career and wealth leave her longing for more.  When her personal life falls apart, she finds herself at a crossroads.

One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger's voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation.  In the following days, her crisis only deepens.  Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid.

Why do you live alone?  To whom do you feel close?  What do you want in life?

Interwoven with Julia's story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her young sons to be child soldiers.  This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart.
From the book jacket

Review:  I was surprised to see this book at the library as I wasn't aware that there was a sequel and I didn't feel that The Art of Hearing Heartbeats needed a sequel. But since I loved the first book so much I had to read this one.  The beginning was very slow and strange-it was all about how Julia started hearing a voice.  The story didn't pick up until she arrived in Burma and met with the woman who knew Nu Nu's story.  I waited for the magic of the first book to sweep me away but it never really did.  The story of Nu Nu was not as magical nor as beautiful as the story in the first book.  In fact, it wasn't uplifting at all.  Her story made me sad and made me not like Nu Nu.  I also had a hard time with Julia because I felt like she struggled a lot more in this book and was kind of annoying.  It was still a good book but not as amazing as the first book.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

To read my review of The Heart of Hearing Heartbeats, click here.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Reconstructing Amelia

Reconstructing Amelia
by Kimberly McCreight


Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Synopsis:  When Kate, single mother and law firm partner, gets an urgent phone call summoning her to her daughter's exclusive private school, she's shocked.  Amelia has been suspended for cheating, something that would be completely out of character for her over-achieving, well-behaved daughter.  Kate rushes to Grace Hall, but what she finds when she arrives is beyond comprehension.  Her daughter Amelia is dead. 
 Despondent over having bee caught cheating, Amelia has jumped from the school's roof in an act of impulsive suicide.  At least that's the story Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. 

In a state of shock and overcome by grief, Kate tries to come to grips with this life-shattering news.  Then she gets an anonymous text: Amelia didn't jump.  The moment she sees the message, Kate knows in her heart it's true.  Clearly Amelia had secrets, and a life Kate knew nothing about.  Wracked by guilt, Kate is determined to find out what those secrets were and who could have hated her daughter enough to kill.  She searches through Amelia's e-mails, texts, and Facebook updates, piecing together the last troubled days of her daughter's life.  

Reconstruction Amelia's a stunning debut page-turner that brilliantly explorers the secret world of teenagers, their clandestine first loves, hidden friendships, and the dangerous cruelty that can spill over into acts of terrible betrayal.
From the ebok

Review:  I could NOT put this book down-I read it in one day and stayed up way too late!  This book was fast paced and engaging.  I tried to figure out the whole book what happened to Amelia and who would have hated her enough to push her.  I would think one person but then the author would make me believe someone else was guilty.  More and more secrets were revealed and I had to keep reading.  This book really hits on angst of high school and the cruelty that can come along with it.  There were curse words and discussion (and some description) of intimate moments (not too graphic) that could make the book slightly uncomfortable especially knowing that we are talking about high school students as young as sophomores.  I was disgusted by what some of the high school students did but I had to view this as a book and nothing else (or else I would have been more disturbed).  Towards the end, pieces start to get put together and some of them just didn't seem to fit together well.  We figured out character motivation at the end but some of them seemed to not make too much sense to me (unless I just didn't follow because it was late by the time I finished the book!)  Some things seemed superfluous.  The end was a little anti-climactic as well. But overall it was a really good, fast enjoyable read that I would recommend when you are in the mood for a thriller.  

Rating:  4 stars

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials
by James Dashner


Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.  No more puzzles.  No more variables.  And no more running.  Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back.  But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy.  They had food, and shelter, and safety...until Teresa triggered the end.  In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland.  Government has disintegrated-and with it, order-and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim...and meal.

The Gladers are far from done running.  Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial.  They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks.  And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder-does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind?  Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?
From the book jacket

Review:  I really enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed the first book.  We get answers to questions and we start to understand a bit more about the society who created these trials and why these children are participating.  But you won't have all your questions answered-there are plenty of unanswered questions and I have been told that most are answered in the third book.  This book is full of action, suspense and drama and is quite the page turner.  There are some disturbing events as the story is fantasy and set in a futuristic world where terrible things have happened.  You have to be prepared for that going into the book.  There was a twist that I wasn't expecting and I didn't like because it changed my opinion of one of the characters whom I had previously really liked.  I am looking forward to seeing where the series goes next.

Rating: 4 stars

To see my review of The Maze Runner, click here.

Friday, March 21, 2014

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman


Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis:  Sussex, England.  A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral.  Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother.  He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road.  Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways.  The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy.  And Lettie-magical, comforting, wise beyond her years-promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.  It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.
from GoodReads

Review:  This was not a book for me.  It was strange, dark and disturbing.  I think it is well written but you have to like the fantasy genre in order to like this book.  You have to be prepared for very strange things to happen.  You have to be ready to be bothered by things especially knowing that the boy is only seven years old and must have been scared out of his mind. Perhaps I was not in the right mindset for this book.  It may take more thinking and analyzing it to really enjoy it and pick out the meaning behind everything.  It just wasn't for me.

Rating: 2 stars

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Change of Heart

Change of Heart
by Jodi Picoult


Genre: Fiction

Synopsis:  Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love?  Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy's dying wish?

One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart.  Now her life is a waiting game.  Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice.  In short, waiting for a miracle to happen, waiting for a miracle to happen.

For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises.  The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world.  In a heartbeat, though, something happens that changes everything.  Now, he has one last chance for salvation, and it lies with June's eleven-year-old daughter, Clare.  But between Shay and Clare stretches an ocean of bitter regrets, past crimes, and the rage of a mother who has lost her child.

Father Michael's decisions as a young man led him to devote the rest of his life to God.  But when he comes face-to-face with Shay, he is forced to question everything he's been taught to believe about religion, about good and evil, about forgiveness.  About himself.

Can we save ourselves, or do we rely on others to do it?  Is what he believe always the truth?
From the book jacket

Review:  This book posed an interesting question of whether an inmate should be allowed to die how they want to die because of religion.  After reading Picoult's book Keeping Faith, which was all about religion, this book didn't seem as novel (no pun intended).  One of the main characters in Keeping Faith returns in this book to talk about religion.  Generally I like when I meet characters again but all of Picoult's books I had previously read have never had repeating characters and for some reason I didn't like it in this one.  I read the whole book and I was intrigued by what was going to happen and what was going to be the twist at the end but it wasn't one of my favorites.  The ending left me a little confused.  I think it was supposed to have been somewhat of a twist but I really don't know what it meant.

Rating: 3 stars

Saturday, March 8, 2014

The Midwife of Venice

The Midwife of Venice
by Roberta Rich


Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers-a gift aided by the secret "birthing spoons" she designed.  But when a count implores her to attend to his wife, who has been laboring for days to give birth to their firstborn son, Hannah is torn.  A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the payment he offers is enough to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea.  Can Hannah refuse her duty to a suffering woman?  Hannah's choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the baby and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life.  Not since The Red Tent or People of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the boundaries of history.
From the back of the book

Review:  This book is very readable-it's fast paced, an easy read and engaing.  But there's not enough depth to the book.  I didn't really feel the characters or their actions.  I felt like I was watching the action rather than being drawn in to be a part of it.  The descriptions of the city of Venice and Malta were very exact and perhaps too honest.  I didn't need to read all about the sewage in the city and the disgusting smells of people.  There was too much of that and too much description of childbirth and other things related to newborn.  I also felt that there wasn't enough meat to the story.  There didn't seem to be enough storyline to make a 300+ page book but yet it held my interest.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner


Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name.  He has no recollection of his parents, his home, or how he got where he is.  His memory is empty.

But he's not alone.  When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade, a large expanse enclosed by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade  All they know is that every morning, for as long as anyone can remember, the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened.  Every night, for just as long, they've closed tight.  Every thirty days a new boy is delivered in the lift.  And no one wants to be stuck in the Maze after dark.

The Gladers were expecting Thomas' arrival.  But the next day, a girl is sent up-the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade.  And more surprisingly yet is the message she delivers.  The Gladers have always been convinced that if they can solve the maze that surrounds the Glade, they might find their way home...wherever that may be.  But it's looking more and more as if the Maze is unsolvable.

And something about the girl's arrival is starting to make Thomas feel different.  Something is telling him that he just might have some answers-if he can only find a way to retrieve the dark secrets locked within his own mind.
From the back of the book

Review:  Seeing as how I have read quite a few young adult dystopian fiction books recently, it's hard not to compare books and series.  This book was different in the fact that the main character was male.  I almost had to give up on this book after 20 pages because I was utterly lost and confused and perhaps the author did that on purpose so that you know how Thomas feels being taken to the Glade with no memories-even memories of some language.  I am not a fan of books where I don't know what on earth is going on-Dashner has created his own slang and curse words that are used over and over again in the first 20 pages and part of the time I had no clue what people were talking about.  Luckily, I stuck with the book because it became so much more intriguing.  The concept of a society of young men who have figured out how to survive and how to meet their needs was very intriguing.  The maze and the purpose of the maze was definitely captivating.  The book was full of action but it was also a little horrifying and suspenseful.  Be prepared to be a little disturbed.  The book is fast paced and you will definitely not want to put it down.  You do need to be ready to get into the series though as the end lets us know a little bit more but whets our appetite for the next book.

Rating: 4 stars

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See


Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  In 1937 Shanghai-the Paris of Asia-twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives.  Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree-until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that to repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides.  As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, from the Chinese countryside to the shores of America.  Though inseparable best friends, the sisters also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries.  Along the way they make terrible sacrifices, face impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are-Shanghai girls.

Review:  The first book I read by Lisa See was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  I loved that book, the story was beautiful and it was well written.  I read Peony in Love next and it was good but not great but the writing was still beautiful but the story was a little odd.  This is my third book by Lisa See and I didn't love it, it was just OK.  I'm waiting for another book by Lisa See that makes me fall in love with her writing again and this one certainly did not.  It was captivating enough but there were moments in it that I just don't like reading about, there were unlikable characters and there were moments with Pearl and May that made me not like them.  I didn't feel emotionally connected to them at all even with the tragedies that they encountered throughout their journey.  I was very interested in Pearl and May's lives in Shanghai as I didn't know how modern the city was and how free women could be in the 1930s in China.  But the book got less interesting as Pearl and May arrived in Los Angeles to live with their husbands.  The book left you hanging at the end but I'm not sure I'm interested enough to read the next book in the series.

Rating: 3 stars