The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater is the true story of two teens and the crime that changed their lives. Sasha and Richard are two teens who lead separate lives. The only time they are connected is when they are both on the No. 57 bus after school, and only for eight minutes tops! One day an incident happens between the two that will change both of their lives forever!
Teaser from page 5: Surely it's not too late to stop things from going wrong. There must be some way to wake Sasha.
This book is divided into three parts: Sasha, Richard, the incident. The incident part is by far the best! On the strength of that, I give this book 4 stars.
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)
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In Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Will's older brother is shot dead and Will wants revenge but has to follow "the rules." He is more than ready to do Rule No. 3. You may be wondering what that is, but you will have to read the book for the answer. Before Will can do Rule 3, he has to take the elevator to the last floor, and this ride he experiences something he never has before!
Teaser from page 48: I yanked and pulled and snatched and tugged at the drawer until it opened just more than an inch. Just wide enough for my fifteen-year-old fingers to slither in and touch cold steel.
This book is written in verse so it is a very quick read. It kept my interest for the most part. I thought the story line rang true as it would play out in real life.
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)
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The Last Girl--My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad is a true story! Nadia was born and raised in Kucho, a small village in Iraq. Life was okay and she enjoyed her large family. She had plans for her future, but that all changed when Isis moved in and took over. Her life became a nightmare!
Teaser from page 60: I couldn't see them as people. Like the guns they carried and the tanks they drove, the men themselves were just weapons to me, and they were aimed at my village.
This is not an easy book to read. Nadia went through unspeakable horror! This book opened my eyes to what these people had to deal with. I give her so much credit for telling her story!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)
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I Know You’ll Find Me (Dangerous Attractions Series) by Jennifer Youngblood is a fast-paced book with romance and danger. Victoria, a dance instructor, discovers her boyfriend is not the nice guy she thought he was when she goes to tell him she will go with him to the Bahamas but sees something that makes her run away instead! She takes her teenage son and younger daughter with her to Utah and her best friend, Zoe flees to Florida. In Utah she begins to fall in love with a cop named Hudson but can she trust her judgment after a bad marriage and then the criminal boyfriend? She is also afraid her ex-boyfriend will try to find her and kill her so is reluctant to share too much with Hudson.
This was a good book. I liked Victoria and Hudson. It was also a nice touch to include a dog, Coco in this story. It only had a little bit of suspense near the end of the book with the majority of it centering around Victoria and Hudson’s budding romance. (Karen's review, 4 stars)
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Relentless by Julian Edelman is a memoir about a football player on the New England Patriots. It is all about football and all the hard work demanded for professional NFL players to be successful. I enjoyed reading about Mr. Edelman’s journey and found his early start in football very interesting. Throughout the book there are small excerpts written by others regarding Julian Edelman that I found interesting as well. I never realized he had so many injuries during his career! There are a lot of game highlights that he shares too that I enjoyed. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a Patriots fan or who likes playing football and has dreams of becoming a pro.
Teaser from page 9: If you're focused on that distant goal, you're missing what's right in front of you, and that's what you can control. If you're doing everything else in your life fundamentally sound, and you're identifying weaknesses and you're working consistently hard to improve those, you're on the right path.
(Karen’s review, 4 stars)
Gerard's review 11/15/17, (5 stars): If you are a Patriots fan, you will enjoy Relentless by Julian Edelman. Julian shares about his life, including how his dad showed him tough love! I enjoyed him telling about playing in pee-wee football and high school. Julian Edelman is a great player, and I miss seeing him play now that he is hurt. Go Patriots!
Teaser from page 45: For a long time, being small didn't make a difference. I was one of the best players on the field so I never thought of it as a disadvantage.
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Some of my favorite books to read are non-fiction books about events that I am not up to speed on. Fire on the Track by Roseanne Montillo is one of them! It centers on women running track in the late 2's, early 30s. Most people did not even think women should be running at all! Three women are the main focus: Betty Robinson, Babe Dickerson and Stella Walsh. I enjoyed this whole book, especially the part that is about the Olympic games in Germany with Hitler watching!
Teaser from page 12: Had she ever been timed? Price asked. Had anyone ever used a stopwatch to see how fast she could run?
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)
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The Empress by S. J. Kincaid is the sequel to The Diabolic which I loved! Tyrus is on the throne now and Nemesis is at his side. Nemesis is really a great character. I am glad it was told through her point of view. There is good action again that had me tuned in from page 1. The twists and turns in this book were very good leading up to a surprise ending. I look forward to reading book 3 in this series.
Teaser from pg. 28: Then I determined to go find the reasons for his weakness for myself. There was one man in this superstructure who had the answers.
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)
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Will's Red Coat by Tom Ryan is a true story about Tom who lives a simple life in the mountains of New Hampshire with his two Schnauzers, Atticus and Will. It is the story of how his dogs helped him become a better person and how he helped his dogs, especially Will who was an older rescue dog in bad shape with biting and incontinence issues that no one else wanted.
This book has a wonderful theme: old age is not a disease and it's never too late to love or receive love. I enjoyed the parts about his dogs and the wildlife, especially the bear who became their friend. I really liked the nature parts of this book where he included the reader on his hikes through the forests and mountains. Sometimes though, he went off on tangents about his beliefs and philosophy which I found boring and thought distracted from the story. Of course, I cried when one of his dogs had to be put down. It just brought back the feelings I felt when I had to put down several cats. That is why I gave this book only 3 stars.
(Karen's review)
Gerard's review 11/13/17, 5 stars:
Will's Red Coat by Tom Ryan is a true story which makes it that much better! Will is an old dog. Most people think it does not have much time left, but Tom decides to take him in. His friends did not think this was a wise choice.
This book is a story of love! If you are a dog lover, this book is one you will love reading. I give credit to Tom for writing this book about his dog!
Teaser from page 17: "No. I meant what would you have me do if you were the one who was old, in pain, alone, and had no place to call home?"
This is the second book I read by this author. The first one was Following Atticus, which I also loved.
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Warcross by Mari Lu is teen science fiction that had my head spinning trying to figure out how everything worked. This is about a worldwide, popular virtual reality game with tournaments that people actually attend! Emika Chen is what is referred to as a bounty hunter who helps the cops capture bad guys, primarily ones who illegally bet on Warcross games. She is a hacker who got an offer to work for the creator of Warcross, Hideo Tanaka, to figure out who was sabotaging his security system for the games. Emie lives in NYC, travels by skateboard, has a big debt and is being kicked out of her apartment for not paying rent when she gets his offer. She accepts and her life changes completely!
I liked this book, but there is a lot of things I really don't understand about how all this advanced technology works. Sometimes it seems as though the players are physically in the game and other times as though it is their avatar playing. This is fast-paced and very interesting, but a lot of things just didn't make sense to me. I like Hideo and think Emie should stick with him, but have a feeling she is going to defect to the other side. I like his big invention too!
(Karen's review, 4 stars)
Gerard's review, 11/8/17, 5++ stars: Warcross by Marie Lu is about the game played worldwide called Warcross. It is an obsession to most people. When one young down on her luck girl, Emika, hacks into the opening game of the tournament, she becomes known to all. When she gets a call from the game's creator, she does not know what will happen to her. Teaser from page 10: I fire the stun gun once more, this time at close range. It hits true. His body goes rigid, and he collapses on the pavement, trembling. Marie Lu knows how to write and it is on full display with this book! I was engaged from the get go! Emika is a great character and it was a joy to follow her. There is good action and an ending that leaves everything up in the air! Do not miss it!!
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In Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, Aza is a young 16-yr.-old girl who is consumed by her own thoughts. She and her best friend, Daisy, decide to investigate the disappearance of a billionaire. There is a reward if you find him!
It took me a while to get into this because at first it was kind of girlish! That being said, Aza and Daisy were fun to follow! The story line was so-so, but the writing kept me wanting to keep reading. I liked it and think it is well worth reading.
(Gerard's review, 4+ stars)
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Caroline by Sarah Miller is about the Ingalls family and their move from Wisconsin to Kansas and their time in Kansas during the late 1800s. This book is told from Caroline’s point of view. She is the mother of two girls, Mary who is 5 and Laura who is 3. She is pregnant with a third during her trip to Kansas and has Carrie while in Kansas on the prairie. This book is closer to the actual historical account than the Little House on the Prairie books. In this book, the only characters that appear besides the Ingalls family is Mr. Edwards.
This book is historical fiction that gives a very clear picture of what pioneer life was like. It is slow moving but has lots of emotional scenes. I think women would definitely enjoy it more than men. I thought it was nice revisiting the Ingalls family again and learning more about Carolyn.
(Karen’s review, 3 stars)
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In Deep Freeze by John Sandford, a local woman has been found dead, frozen in a block of ice! The town is small and everybody knows everybody's business. Virgil, a detective, is familiar with this town and is back again to try to find the killer.
Teaser from page 9: "Come on, Gina, get up"--but the fact was, Gina Hemming was deader than the aforesaid deer, looking up at him with half-open blank gray eyes.
I thought this book was just okay. The story line was good enough; however, some parts of the book dragged. The ending was a bit anti-climactic.
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)
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In Scythe by Neal Shusterman, there is no war, no disease, and nobody goes hungry in the world. The only problem is overpopulation! That is where being a scythe comes into play. You fix that problem. Citra and Rowan are both picked to try to be a scythe, but do not want any part of it! However, to decline is not in their best interest.
This book was way better than I thought it would be. Citra and Rowan are both really good. The story flows well and the twists and turns are well done to say the least! Do not miss this one--it's a must read! I look forward to book 2.
(Gerard's review 10/30/17, 5++ stars)
Teaser from page 29: But a perfect world needs no improvement. Like most everything else we do, education, from grade school through the highest of universities, is just a way to keep us busy.
We both also liked Unwind by this author too and also recommend that one.
(Karen's review, 5 stars: LOVED THIS BOOK! SO GLAD I READ IT!) Scythe by Neal Shusterman is about a utopia future where humanity has overcome disease, aging, crime, and natural death. Government has been replaced with the Thunderhead that makes sure everyone in the world has what they need. It watches everything that happens and stores people's memories. (Anyway, guess we'll find out more about the Thunderhead in book two.) People can still get hurt, but what normally would kill someone like falling 12 stories from a window now makes them "deadish." They can be taken to a revival center where they get good as new in just 2-3 days and get delicious ice cream when they wake up. Since there is a problem of overpopulation, a special group called Scythes do the service of "gleaning" people on a random basis. Gleaning is just a nice word for legalized killing. The Scythdom have their own set of laws they must follow. When Citra and Rowan are chosen by Scythe Faraday to become his apprentices on the road to becoming a scythe, both reluctantly accept for different reasons. Scythes have power not only to take life, but also to grant immunity from being gleaned to people and Scythe's families have immunity as long as the Scythe lives. I was very intrigued by this book. It is well written and very thought provoking with several twists tossed in that really shocked me! I loved this book so much, I think I will actually re-read it just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Citra and Rowan come from very different backgrounds but are both smart, moral and find themselves in difficult situations. I also liked all the humor, some of which made me actually laugh out loud, and really cool things in this book like being able to "turn the corner" and go back to being any age you want, having years named after animals, and having healing nanites so wounds can heal themselves. I highly recommend this to older teens or adults who like thought provoking books about the future. This is one of my top 2 favorites of the year, the other being Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst.
SPOILER ALERT - STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T YET READ THIS BOOK. IF YOU HAVE, I'D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THESE QUESTIONS:
(1) Exactly how did Scythe Faraday fake his own death and how did Scythe Curie know about it?
(2) Why did Citra's fingers turn really cold when Scythe Faraday let her try on his ring, but when Scythe Goddard gave his ring to Rowan to take over giving immunity to the loved ones of those they gleaned, nothing happened. Nor did anything happen when Rowan put it on after decapitating Scythe Goddard (which I really liked by the way). I thought it was funny he put it in the dirty water bowl at the monastery.
(3) I thought the ending was fantastic and was so happy it didn't end with a cliffhanger as to which one was chosen or stop before knowing if the winner gleaned the loser. What did you think about the ending?
The Cat Who Saw Stars by Lilian Jackson Braun is about a small-town journalist named Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and YumYum. He takes a little vacation to his beach house in Mooseville and visits with the townspeople. Some strange things happen that Koko senses. Supposedly, Koko has extra sensory perception. Some in the town believe UFOs visit and Qwill is not buying it but Koko always watches the sky.
This book really poked along for me and I was not impressed by any of it. I like cats so that is why I picked it up; however, the cats had a very small part in the book. None of the characters made me care about them much and were not well developed at all. I thought most of the book was very boring and kept waiting for it to get better but it never did! The only people I would recommend this too would be anyone who needs help getting to sleep or who is on a beach vacation and wants to read a book about someone else on a beach vacation. This author wrote many books, but I don’t think I’ll be reading any of them. (Karen's review, 2 stars)
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In The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian, Annalee goes missing and her family fears the worst. Where is she? Lianna, her oldest daughter, starts to take an interest in the detective looking into this. Will he find the answers she is looking for?
Teaser from page 19: The thing I kept coming back to was how pedestrian my mother's last night really was. There were no warnings, no ominous asides, nothing that could be construed by even the most rabid conspiracy theorists as foreshadowing.
This is a short book, just a little over 250 pages. The story line is pretty good. Part of the book dragged for me and a little more action would have been welcomed. It did have a surprise ending!
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)
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