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Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

After trying to read Going Bovine and feeling like I was too dumb to understand what the heck was going on, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read Beauty Queens.  Luckily, I talked to a coworker who thought this book would be perfect for me, and I decided to give the audiobook a chance.   Shortly after finishing this book, I discovered a blog post entitled “Ten Things I Want to Tell Teenage Girls” and it was as if this entire book was condensed into number 10 . . . in a much less sarcastic way.   I think that might be a big part of what I loved about this book — the sarcasm, that is.  I am an *extremely* sarcastic person, and I just love some tongue-in-cheek satire.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What would happen if a plane full of beauty queens crash-landed on a deserted island?”  Then, this is the book for you! Beauty Queens examines consumer culture, reality TV, politics, rom-coms, the beauty industry, and religion while exploring issues of gender, race, sexuality, beauty, and identity.  While it’s hard to believe that a unified storyline can emerge from a story that tackles so many issues, it really came together nicely.  Although the issues covered in this book are totally serious, Bray manages to be anything but serious and still makes her point.  (She also manages to sound like a full cast of readers in the audiobook!)  I wish I could assign this book as required reading to every insecure girl/woman I know so they could start to see how ridiculous it is that we allow society to put so much pressure on us to be “perfect.”  One of my favorite lines was from an advertizement for Lady ‘Stache Off — “Because there’s nothing wrong with you . . . that can’t be fixed.”  I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of our culture telling me that I need to “fix” myself.  I hope to teach my daughter (and every teen girl I work with) that we’re all beautiful just the way we are thankyouverymuch!

Happy Reading!

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking: Book 1) by Patrick Ness

Some books were just meant to be audiobooks.  I never actually read physical books of Feed or Thirteen Reasons Why, so I cannot say for sure, but I can’t imagine that reading them would have been anywhere close to the experience I had listening to them.  I don’t think I would have done “the feed” justice on my own, and I firmly believe that listening to Hannah’s tapes along with Clay helped me to experience his emotional reactions much better than reading the text would have.  I decided to listen to this book because my current audiobook was almost over and this one was sitting on the NEW shelf.  I recalled that it got a good review, but I didn’t remember anything about it.  Well . . .  I am really glad I “accidentally” took out the audiobook instead of reading the book because it definitely reminded me a lot of Feed!

Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown, a small settlement on New World.  His people came to New World to escape religious persecution, but they found plenty of new problems upon arrival.  The two main problems were the Spackle (lifeforms indigenous to the planet) and a germ that causes “Noise” (the projection of one’s thoughts so that other people can hear and/or see them).  In this first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy, we learn two very important details:  all of the women of Prentisstown are dead, and the boys “become men” at 13.  Todd, the last remaining boy, is feeling anxious and confused about his impending 13th birthday because of all the secrets that are kept from the boys — including details about the actual ritual that will complete his transformation from boy to man.  When, all of the sudden, Prentisstown becomes unsafe for Todd, his adoptive parents (Ben and Cillian — pronounced Killian) send him out into the wilderness with his dog (Manchee), a hunting knife, his mother’s diary, and a map that should lead him to another settlement.

There was a lot to set up in this first book, but it was not overly difficult to follow.  Plus, the action and adventure work well to keep readers hooked while bits and pieces of the history of Prentisstown are revealed.  Definitely a book/audiobook I would recommend to fans of dystopian science fiction.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

The story begins in 1937 in Shanghai, China, where two young adult women who live with their parents make money by modeling for calendars and other products.  Their world comes to a crashing halt when they learn that their father gambled away all the family’s money and assets.  Then the country is invaded by Japan.  May and Pearl travel to the United States to be with husbands selected for them by their father.  The characters are interesting.  History jumps off the page while you are immersed in this tale.

The Innocent by Taylor Stevens

Five years ago, eight-year-old Hannah was kidnapped and hidden in a cult called The Chosen, from which her mother had recently fled.  Her father and other former members of the cult have finally located Hannah in Argentina.  Can they retrieve her before the Prophet moves her again, as has happened over and over?  They enlist the help of Vanessa Michael Munroe, a woman with demons of her own in her past.  She is very expensive, very deadly, and very good at solving complicated problems.  This fascinating  thriller will have you reading late into the night.  The author, Taylor Stevens, was raised in a cult, so every detail rings true.  Highly recommended.

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

Because Perry wants to get into Columbia, he has pretty much always played by the rules.  He understands that he needs to get good grades and that obtaining a recommendation by doing an internship at his father’s law firm is very important.  He works his butt off most of the time, but he’s still a teenager and, therefore, wants to do fun things once in a while.  That’s why he belongs to a band.  And even though many teenagers look forward to their senior prom, Perry and his friends have other plans for that night — they’ve finally lined up a gig at a club in New York City!  Unfortunately for Perry, his dad doesn’t care.  His dad wants him to bring Gobija [the foreign exchange student who has been staying with their family] to prom.

If Gobija had been the teen movie stereotype — hot and anxious to date a geeky American boy — Perry might have been happy about this arrangement.  Since she was dorky and standoffish, though, Perry was looking forward to the end of her stay and tried his best to weasel his way out of this date.  It was rather obvious that things went a bit differently than expected since the book opened with Perry saying, “You shot me!”  The bad news is that, after the initial teaser, I had to go back to the beginning of the story to find out how the heck he got shot.  The good news is that the story moved so quickly that I got back to the wild ride before too long.

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Pressia Belze is one of the masses who were exposed to the blast of the apocalyptic Detonations.  Partridge Willux is a Pure — one  of the fortunates who escaped into a massive, protective dome.  Years after the Detonations, Pures remain sequestered and safe in the Dome while those outside struggle to survive amidst the rubble and unrest.  Each group has become almost mythological to the other — no Pures leave the Dome, no outsiders enter.  But when Pressia turns sixteen and flees to avoid mandatory enlistment by the brutal ruling militia, and Partridge escapes through the Dome’s filtration system in search of his lost mother, the two meet.  Seeking safety and news of Partridge’s mother, they take to an underground network where danger lurks at every turn.  In their flight, they uncover secrets about their pasts and their families, as well as a conspiracy that contradicts everything they thought they knew about the Dome and the Detonations.  This story, the first in  a planned trilogy, kept me awake and reading long past bedtime.  Highly recommended for those who enjoyed Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

Set in bohemian New York City, this book shows what it was like to be a woman and an artist at the turn of the twentieth century.  Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the first to recognize women’s artistic abilities and have women working in his studio.  Clara Driscoll is head of his women’s division and at times his muse.  A colorful cast of characters share Clara’s triumphs and challenges.  Based on truth, this is a moving glimpse into an important time in our history.  Recommended.

The Strain: Book One of the Strain Trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

A Boeing 777 jet arrives at JFK, stops dead and sits on the tarmac in darkness and silence.  Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, head of a CDC rapid-response team, boards to investigate.  The mysterious being that seemingly killed every passenger aboard is the subject of this chilling trilogy about a virus which brings the dead back as vampires.  In a pawn shop in Harlem, holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian has met this evil and may have the knowledge to destroy it.  After a riveting start, the story degenerates into killing after killing, as Eph’s son, ex-wife, and friends are soon in danger.  This one is still a must for all horror fans and will soon be a major motion picture.

The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger

When Lady Duff Gordon, stricken with tuberculosis, leaves her home and family for the hot, dry climate of Egypt, her lady’s maid, Sally, accompanies her.  Much to Sally’s delight, Egypt offers her freedoms she would never have known in London.  She wears native clothing, learns Arabic, and falls in love with their Egyptian interpreter, Omar.  However, her new freedoms may prove her undoing.  A riveting plot with fascinating characters based on real-life events, Sally’s story examines power, race and class distinctions during Queen Victoria’s era.

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

The subtitle gives quite a good idea of the types of things you’re going to find in this book — Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things — but there are just WAY too many awesome things for a simple summary to reveal just how awesome this book is.  Entries range from a few sentences to a few pages, and there are a lot of photos to illustrate the awesome topics at hand.  I loved that the author had such a positive outlook and that he found beauty in so many simple things.  I also loved that the entries were short enough that I could grab this book and read a bit even when I knew I would soon be interrupted — like in the doctor’s office waiting room, while waiting for dinner to finish baking, and when my kids were playing in the bath just to name a few.  Some of my favorites include finding extra fries in the bottom of the bag, illegal naps, and getting gas right before the price goes up (which actually happened to me about 2 days before I read that entry!).  Not quite sold on this book yet?  Try checking out his blog — http://1000awesomethings.com

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Let me begin this review by stating, for the record, that I do not consider myself  a “football fan.”  I don’t hate football, but I don’t go out of my way to watch football either.  I literally watched the Super Bowl for the commercials and half-time show while ignoring the game to get food and drink refills! I also want to mention that many people will try to compare this book to Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen books, since they also have a female main character who plays football, but this book isn’t just a Dairy Queen redux.

Jordan is much more than a girl who happens to play football — she is the quarterback and captain of one of the best high school football teams in Tennessee, a possible recruit for the University of Alabama [Roll Tide!], and the daughter of an NFL player.  Football is in her blood and it has been her life for nearly all of her life, so she is very upset when a new quarterback moves to her school during the fall of her senior year. This is precisely when she needs to prove herself to college recruiters, and Ty is both a threat to her playing time AND a [really cute] distraction.  Add the fact that Jordan’s dad isn’t really supportive of her playing football, throw in a changing relationship with her best friend [who is a guy], and you get a whole lot of story in one book. Luckily, it’s not too much to keep straight and it’s all very believable.  The best part?  There’s enough about practice and games to keep football fans interested without overdoing it for people who couldn’t care less.  A great coming of age story with a side of teen love!

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Charles Frazier, the author of the best selling  Cold Mountaun and  Thirteen Moons, hits a home run  once again with  Nightwoods, the intriguing and suspenseful story of a young woman living a solitary, isolated life in rural North Carolina.  Luce is content with her life as the caretaker of an abandoned lodge, far from the nearest small town.  Her harsh upbringing has led her to belive that people will only hurt and disappoint her, so she lives off the land, with only rare human contact.  Her world is upended when she becomes the guardian of her murdered sister’s children.  Damaged by witnessing their mother’s brutal murder, they will not speak and are interested only in setting fires.  As she struggles to find  a way to bring the children back to reality, Luce also finds her own life opening to both hopeful and sinister elements that will alter her views forever.  Although set in the  1960s, this timeless story will touch readers who enjoy stories with lush settings and compelling, characters.

Payback Time by Carl Deuker

Mitch True has wanted to be a reporter ever since his dad took him to see All the President’s Men when he was little [in a theater that shows old movies, of course].  He has been on the school paper, The Lincoln Light, since freshman year.  He assumed he would become the editor during senior year because his only competition, Alyssa Hanson, was not a very talented writer.  Alyssa got the editor position based on a popular vote and then moved Mitch from lead reporter to sports.  Although he was initially unhappy, Mitch quickly realized that Alyssa made a great editor and that the sports writer position was likely to give him a lot more exposure before graduation.  But this story is not just about how some kid learned to adapt when his life plan didn’t pan out.  It’s a whole lot juicier than that!

When Mitch and the sports photographer, Kimi Yon, went to interview the quarterback, they noticed something fishy about a new player.  He was throwing amazing passes before practice started but pretended to be only mediocre when people started paying attention to him.  He also looked older than the rest of the guys on the team.  Everyone knew Coach McNulty was unhappy coaching high school football and wantedto get hired on at a college . . . so, could he be cheating by bringing in a guy who was ineligible to play?  Mitch and Kimi decided to dig up the truth and to get this story out.  But there’s just one problem — they’re not even close to guessing this guy’s secret and have no idea how much danger they could be in if they dig too deep.

The Great Divorce : A nineteeth-century mother’s extraordinary fight against her husband, the Shakers, and her times by Ilyon Woo

In the early 1800s a woman had few rights.  If she married, she didn’t own property.  If she separated from her husband, she usually didn’t have custody of her children.  Eunice Chapman, a small woman, enlisted the support of New York State legislators to get custody of her children after her husband joined the Shakers at the Watervliet site.  This true story reads like fiction.  It is balanced and enlightening.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman’s newest book, The Dovekeepers, is a mesmerizing story based on the 1st century battle at Masada between Jewish zealots and the Romans who were determined to eliminate them.  According to 1st century historian Josephus, over 900 Jews, expelled from Jerusalem, sacrificed everything to reach what they hoped would be a safe haven in a Judean desert fortress. The  story unfolds in the voices of four incredible women, each with different backgrounds and talents but dedicated to the survival of their faith and families. The tragic and iconic final battle of the small outpost against the vast might of the Roman military, and the survival of two women and five children, is both horrifying and uplifting.  This is a book that you won’t want to put down!