Trust No One

You can usually tell a good book by the number of times it gets
checked out. I noticed Trust No One, by Gregg Hurwitz, going
in and out several times before I finally snagged it and put it in my pile.
Trust No One is a political murder mystery with action that is as unending as the plot twists and turns. When a secret service agent literally lands on him with both feet, Nick Horrigan realizes the events from seventeen years earlier have caught up with him. Nick has to put to rest his personal demons from the past while trying to keep one step ahead of the people shadowing his every move.
This is the first book of Hurwitz's I have read, but his writing style and off center humor will difinitely have me scanning the shelves for more.

Graphic Versions of Teen Favorites

There are a lot of people in this world who like to read graphic novels (aka comic books), and the format has proven to be very helpful to those who think visually and thus have trouble reading entire pages of text. HCL has just purchased a bunch of new graphic novels to supplement and expand our collection. We've gotten some classics of the genre, like Maus (a retelling of the WWII concentration camp experience with mice standing in for the Jews and cats as Nazis) and The Watchmen (a superhero book which was recently released as a movie). We've also just gotten several graphic novel versions of series books that are already popular among teen readers. Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider, and Maximum Ride fall into this category. Interestingly, several of these seem to employ classic manga style to tell their stories, which should make for a good mix of genres.

An Echo in the Bone

If you have followed Jamie and Claire Fraiser and their travels through time you will enjoy the most recent book in the series, An Echo in the Bone. The sixth book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, was my least favorite in the series so I wasn't as eager to read this one as I might have been. I was afraid Gabaldon had lost her touch, but she is back in spades with this one. It is full of the historically accurate details you have come to expect and sparks fly when several characters finally cross paths. I hope she finishes book eight quickly because she not only left many things unresolved, she quite literally left one character in the dark!

LeAnne

My Bookish Crush

Every once in a while I read a book that causes me to have a "brain crush" on someone--it's not that I'm romantically attracted to them, but they are so brilliant that I'm reverent and filled with awe by them. Michael Sullivan, who wrote Connecting Boys with Books is one of these people, as is teen literature historian Michael Cart. But my biggest brain crush is on Dr. Leonard Sax, a medial doctor and psychologist whose work focuses on gender differences in children. As a lifelong feminist and very opinionated person, his books were a huge revelation to me. Boys Adrift talks about the five factors that are harming modern boys in their quest to grow up, and Why Gender Matters talks about the inherent differences between boys and girls and how we should honor these differences without stifling our kids. Sax's writing is chock full of statistics yet still manages to be interesting and very readable. These books changed my mind about single sex education, and completely changed the way I look at bottled water. If you have children or are interested in how children learn and grow, you might like to try Dr. Leonard Sax.

A Jodi Picoult Tidbit

I first read a Jodi Picoult book when My Sister's Keeper was the "One Book, One County" selection at the library where I worked. I'd never gotten around to reading her because I was convinced her writing would be sappy and bland and altogether not interesting. Was I ever wrong!!! I now love her books and think that she has her finger on the pulse of our society in a way that is really intelligent. For example, her newest book, House Rules, is coming out in March 2010 and features a teenaged boy with Asperger's who is accused of murder. If this were in anyone else's hands, I might accuse them of cashing in on the success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but I know that Picoult will bring something new and fresh to her tale. She will handle her protagonist with sensitivity, and I have no doubt she will deliver a tale that speaks to many people and makes them think.

I Can't Wait!!

If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I'm a big fan of Alan Bradley's debut mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The young protagonist was just so quirky and delightful, and the relationships in the story were just so great, and the mystery was just so fun, I was sad when I was done. The second in the series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is coming out in March 2010, and you better believe I'll be one of the first in line to read it.

I'm also looking forward to Kate Braestrup's second book, Marriage and Other Acts of Charity: A Memoir, which comes out next month. Braestrup wrote Here If You Need Me: A True Story about becoming a chaplain for the Maine game wardens after her husband was killed in a car accident. It's a beautiful book about peace and acceptance, and it's the only audiobook I've ever enjoyed. Braestrup has a unique way of looking at the world, and a lot of wisdom for someone so young and . . . well . . . "normal."

I Love Surprises!!

There are many, I am sure, who would consider me an indiscriminate reader. There are very few topics or genres that I avoid, and if someone gives me a book, I'm usually willing to at least give it a try. Sometimes, though, I will start to read a book with the preconceived notion that I'm not going to enjoy it very much. When these books turn out to be wonderful, it's such a pleasant surprise!

Ordinarily, I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, and I'm particularly not a fan of civil rights novels for children and teens. I just feel that, while rushing to make their point, these books tend to get very simplistic, hollowly written, and manipulative. Morning in a Different Place by Mary Ann McGuigan surprised me, then, by being nuanced, interesting, and moving. It is the story of a 13-year old Irish American girl who is growing up in 1963 with an African American best friend and an alcoholic father. Touching on issues of race, class, and social change, the author offers up a very good read.

Heartsinger is a slender novel by Dutch author Karlijn Stoffels, which is ostensibly the story of two musicians--Mee, who can see into people's souls and sing their sorrows, and Mitou, who brings great joy to everyone who hears her songs. I'm so glad that I ignored my feelings that it was going to be corny and vague, as it is beautifully written! Stoffels weaves together the disparate stories of numerous characters to create a whole that is far greater than the sum of its gorgeous parts. The reader doesn't always understand how the different tales are going to fit together, so when the connections become clear, it's all the more delightful.