Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity

Elizabeth Wein

Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Summary (from the publisher):  I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team

Review:  It is going to be very hard to write a review of this book without giving anything away, so I will just say that I loved this book.

Well, okay, I'll say a little more.  If you read the back cover or the first page, you'll realize that the main character has been captured by the Nazis as a spy and is basically sentenced to death.  So there are some disturbing parts that talk about torture or concentration camps, but the main focus of the book is the beautiful friendship that develops between two ordinary British girls who get involved in the war effort in England in a way that is out of the ordinary for women.  I was intrigued by the details of life in Britain during the war and life in the French Resistance, but I was captivated by the bravery, cleverness and strength of the two friends. 

As I was reading, I had a few complaints about the narrative style - it's basically a journal where the writer refers to herself in the third person (which was hard to get used to) and is interrupted frequently by Nazis (which breaks up the story a little) but I ultimately decided that these only served to enhance the story.  I also found the frequent references to Peter Pan a little weird.

I think this could be a good book for a book club, if the members don't mind a few tears while they read.

Rating: 5 stars

Silly Tilly

Silly Tilly

by Eileen Spinelli

illustrated by David Slonim

Genre: Picture Book

Synopsis: Tilly is not an ordinary goose.  She takes her baths in apple juice.  She wears a pancake as a hat.  She tries to ride the farmer's cat.  But is Tilly too silly?  And when she stops having so much fun, what happens to the farm?

From the book jeacket

Review: I loved the rhyming text in this story showing how much of a silly goose Tilly is.  My kids actually giggled throughout the beginning of the story and that is hard to come by.   They don't quite get humor all the time (they are 4) but they got it in this book.  They really thought Tilly was quite silly but also liked to admonish Tilly "we don't do that!!!"  The barnyard animals get tired of Tilly's antics and they tell her to stop being silly.  Then the farm realizes that they haven't laughed in a while and they apologize to Tilly (sorry, I just gave away the ending but I bet you figured it out all ready).  This was a fun book to read and it flowed really well (sometimes I think the meter of rhymes don't work perfectly but this one didn't have that problem).  The illustrations were as silly as the story was.  It's definitely a book I would check out again.

Rating: 5 stars

Tough Chicks

Tough Chicks

by Cece Meng

illustrated by Melissa Suber

Genre: Picture Book

Synopsis:  From the moment Penny, Polly, and Molly hatch from their eggs, the whole farm knows they are truly tough chicks.  They wrestle worms, rope roosters, and are often found under the hood of the tractor.  All the other animals animals, and even the farmer himself, tell Mama Hen to make her chicks good.  "They are good!"  Mama Hen always replies.  But could her chicks be too loud, too independent, and too tough?

Cece Meng and Melissa Suber have created a delightful farmyard romp that's also a resounding endorsement for letting girls be girls-even if they're loud and tough and like to play with tractors.
From the book jaecket

Review: I loved this book and it's message.  I think my kids really liked the book too.  I loved that the little chicks didn't do what other "good little chicks" did like peck the ground for corn, build a nest, and peep.   They ran around the farmyard playing in the mud, checking out the tractor's engine, swinging from the cow's tail, and just being incredibly active.  The Mother Hen learned to be really proud of her chick's actions and tried to ignore the other animals when they told the Mother Hen to make her chicks be good because she already thought they were good.  At the end of the story, the chicks, with their unusual behaviors, save the day.  This book has the message that you don't need to be like everyone else, you can be however you want to be and you should be loved and respected for how you are.  I though the illustrations were quite cute as well.

Rating: 5 stars

The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife

Paula McLain

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary (by the publisher):  A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill-prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.

A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley

Review: I didn't love this book, but I thought it was a well-written, well-researched, informative look into a different era.  As someone who has fairly traditional values, I didn't approve of the Hemingways' lifestyle at all, but part of the appeal of the book was learning how people actually did live in post-war France.  I was sympathetic towards Hadley, while at the same time not understanding why she married Ernest in the first place, or why she stuck with him after his affair.  I think she was just a naive girl who got carried away by love and romance, and wasn't raised to be strong and independent like girls are now, so I tried not to judge her too much.  Ernest came across as a self-centered, selfish, egotistic man, but somehow I came away from the book really wanting to read The Sun Also Rises.  We are discussing this at my book club tonight, so I will be interested in what everyone else thought.

Rating: 4 stars

The Rook

The Rook

Daniel O'Malley

Genre: Fantasy

Summary (from the publisher):  "The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, THE ROOK is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.

Review: The first thing I thought is that Becky would never pick this book up because she would hate the cover!  I have to say, the cover didn't do much for me either, but I picked it up anyway because the main character's name is Myfanwy, and I used to know a girl with that very unusual Welsh name in high school.  The beginning of the story was a little confusing, since the main character wakes up with amnesia and has no idea what is going on, but I quickly became immersed in her story and soon couldn't put the book down.  The story is written from the amnesiac Myfanwy's perspective, interspersed with letters written to her from the original Myfanwy, which gives an interesting perspective from two very different characters who are actually the same person -- it sounds confusing, but it actually works really well in this story!  I kept trying to think what other books it reminded me of, and while it has some similarities to The Night Circus mixed with The Bourne Identity, it's probably most like Men In Black, but with a female protagonist and a British sense of humor.  It's well written and well edited, full of action and also funny, and all-in-all just a really fun read.  (But Becky, I think Brian would like this more than you.)

Rating: 4.5 stars

Sister

Sister

by Rosamund Lupton

Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Synopsis: Nothing can break the bond between sisters ...When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life - and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face. The police, Beatrice's fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.

(From the Publisher)  If you want a more detailed summary, check out Goodreads

Review:  This book was so captivating from the get go.  The story is written in letter form from Beatrice to Tess.  Beatrice tells her sister all about her investigation to find out what happens to Tess but also tells her about what is going on in her life during that time.  She also shares her emotions, most specifically her grief.  We really get to feel what Beatrice is feeling and I have to admit that I did shed some tears.  We also feel the deep love between the sisters not only when they were grown up but also when they were younger, as Beatrice would have flashbacks to their childhood, especially when talking about the medical questions that arise in the book.  I was quite caught off guard by the end.  I did NOT expect it and I also feel like the book wasn't quite over.  I wanted another chapter!  But all in all I really enjoyed reading this book.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars

The House At The End of Hope Street

The House at the End of Hope Street
by Menna van Praag

Genre: Women's Fiction

Synopsis: Distraught that her academic career has stalled, Alba is walking through her hometown of Cambridge, England, when she finds herself in front of a house she’s never seen before, 11 Hope Street. A beautiful older woman named Peggy greets her and invites her to stay, on the house’s usual conditions: she has ninety-nine nights to turn her life around. With nothing left to lose, Alba takes a chance and moves in.

She soon discovers that this is no ordinary house. Past residents have included George Eliot and Beatrix Potter, who, after receiving the assistance they needed, hung around to help newcomers—literally, in talking portraits on the wall. As she escapes into this new world, Alba begins a journey that will heal her wounds—and maybe even save her life.

Filled with a colorful and unforgettable cast of literary figures, The House at the End of Hope Street is a charming, whimsical novel of hope and feminine wisdom that is sure to appeal to fans of Jasper Fforde and especially Sarah Addison Allen.

Review: This book is not one that I would normally pick up.  I have very little time to browse library shelves (due to two 4 year olds!) so I grab books that look interesting to me (by the cover) after browsing the new fiction shelves for 2 minutes.  But I'm so glad that I picked up this book!   This book is about the stories of 3 women who lose their way in life and need some help.  Enter a magical house that only appears to women who have lost hope.  This house and the owner who has the gift of sight provide everything that the women need to set their life back on track even though the women don't know what they need. I thought it was fun that there were ghosts and women who talked from their picture frame like in Harry Potter. I loved reading the stories of the women's lives although it drove me nuts how the author hinted at the gory details of what drove them to lose hope and then left me hanging.  I was so glad that the ending gave me closure.

Rating: 4 stars