Before I Fall

Before I Fall

By Lauren Oliver

4/5 stars

Reviewer: Nichole

How could one very self-centered, obnoxious teenage girl completely grow up and find herself in one day?  When that one day repeats over and over and over again, that’s how.

In the first chapter of the book we meet Samantha, we dislike Samantha, and then Samantha dies.  Or does she?  She wakes up after a horrible car crash as if it never happened and slowly firgures out she is reliving the day again.  Though Sam isn’t sure why she’s been given this opportunity, if it is an opportunity, she uses it to try to change the outcome of her own death.  That’s logical.  Wouldn’t we all?  But at the end of the day, she finds herself back in her bed, waking up to the same day again.

Are there any consequences to your actions if you just get one day to live any way you want, repeatedly?  Does anything you do matter?  Sam has lived her life without fear of the consequences of her narcissistic ways, but things only get worse when she realizes she can seduce a teacher, pick fights, and behave as badly as she wants, only to be able to redo it all again the next day.  Going through a myriad of emotions, Sam explores different relationships in her life with each new revisit to the same day -- some good; some very bad.  She starts seeing her friends in a whole new light, understanding the complexities of why people act like they do.  She starts seeing  people through clearer eyes, not marred by peer pressure and the drive to be among the most popular girls in school.  She spends time with her family and falls in love, filling holes in herself, watching people around her blossom with her sudden participation in their lives.  With each positive change, Sam gets closer and closer to figuring out why she’s continuing to relive this day and righting the wrongs of her life.  As she learns more about herself, you will like Sam more and more, and you will not want her to die.

How’s it end?  You have to read to find out.  It will surprise you.  And you will need Kleenex.

LaRue Across America

LaRue Across America
by Mark Teague
4/5 stars
Reviewer: Dawn

Summary:

Ike the dog has vacation plans for a peaceful cruise with his human, Mrs. LaRue. His plans come to a screeching halt though, when their neighbor, Mrs. Hibbins falls ill from heat stroke and has to go for an extended stay in the hospital. The problem is that Mrs. Hibbins has two mischievous cats and Mrs. LaRue has suggested that she and Ike take the cats along. Unfortunately, cats are not allowed on the cruise ship so Mrs. LaRue has decided to take them all on a week long road trip. What ensues is a hilarious series of postcards from Ike to Mrs. Hibbins begging for bus fare to send the two cats home. Will Ike and the cats be able to survive the journey and will cats and dogs ever learn to be friends? Find out in LaRue Across America!

Review:

What a fun book this one is! Teague has created a book with gorgeous illustrations, a hilarious story, and a little geographical education thrown in for fun. Ike’s efforts to rid Mrs. LaRue and himself of their travelling companions are laugh-out-loud funny. Readers will really get a kick out of the unique postcard illustrations as well. I’d recommend this book for a child who is old enough to sit through a longer picture book or anyone who enjoys a funny story!

Lost

Lost

Author: Gregory Maguire

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reviewer: Cheryl

Winifred Rudge is an author and the great great granddaughter of Ozias Rudge, a man rumored to be the inspiration for Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge.  In search of a story for her next book, Winnie has been researching the international adoption process, but succumbs to the lure of a story idea that has been haunting her lately.  The main character of this budding story is also an author, Wendy Pritzke, who travels to London following her obsession with Jack the Ripper.  Since Winnie doesn’t know where Wendy’s story will lead, it holds a strange fascination for her.

Winnie travels to London herself, hoping to stay with her previously amiable step-cousin in Ozias Rudge’s old house.  When she arrives, however, she finds the place empty, under construction, and apparently haunted.  The mystery of her cousin’s whereabouts, who or what is haunting Rudge House, and where Wendy’s story is going swirl together into a unified tale in which Winnie must face darker secrets than she anticipated.

Lost is the kind of story that gradually sneaks up on you, revealing elements of the main character’s psychology and history as the mystery progresses.  The book is appropriately disturbing and sad in all the right places as befits Winnie’s predicament.  Maguire, best known for authoring Wicked, the novel that inspired the musical, elegantly blends reality with the supernatural.  Although this was not my favorite of his novels for adults, it was the one I read first and the one that hooked me on his special style of exploring the frailties of human nature through reimagining classic tales.  This is not a traditional ghost story, but readers should find it haunting just the same.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy

Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy

By: Douglas Adams

5/5 stars

Reviewer: Marina

“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..."

One really lousy Thursday afternoon the Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial express route.  Arthur Dent and alien friend Ford Prefect are able to escape by hitching a ride on a Vogon Spaceship making Arthur probably the last Earthling in the universe.  Ford and Arthur go on a wild hitchhiking ride around the galaxy full of quirky adventures and characters.  The paranoid android Marvin is probably my favorite, but the two headed alien, super intelligent mice, the creator of Norway, and of course Vogon poetry are not to be missed. 

What it comes down to is this book is a blast and you need to read it.  Now.  Go Get it.  It’s awesome. 

Born To Fly

Born To Fly
by Michael Ferrari
5/5 stars
Reviewer: Sue
(Caudill 2013 Nominee)

Summary:  

This WWII story of adventure seeking 11 year old Bird is sure to capture your attention.  Bird’s mechanic father teaches her to fly, is her best friend, and really believes she can do anything.  When he is sent overseas after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he leaves behind a young girl who is struggling to make sense of things.  A Japanese-American boy joins Bird’s class and after a tense start, they become friends.  Finding evidence of an enemy submarine in the area, discovering a spy conspiracy, and having a murder and sabotage case at the local plane-engine factory keep Bird and Kenji thinking and busy.

Review: 

Be ready for a lot of action with this book.  Not only is there planning and plotting, there is also conflict between characters.  It is not a predictable story line, and I couldn’t put this book down!

Chicken and Egg

Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes

by Janice Cole

4/5 stars

Reviewer: Nichole

If chickens could write a book for us about how to better appreciate them and what they have to offer, it wouldn’t differ much from the book Ms. Cole has written.  The only exception would probably be that they wouldn’t have so many chicken recipes included.

Put together almost like a calendar, this is a charming collection of interesting recipes which aims to guide the reader toward using seasonal foods, and the eclectic variety presented have only two aspects in common -- chicken and/or eggs.  Like most cookbooks, there is ample explanation about terminology, techniques, equipment, etc., and where there are pictures they are inspiringly beautiful.  There is bound to be something for everyone, but I was particularly drawn to mouth-watering things like Bittersweet Fudge Pound Cake, Rosemary Chicken Burgers with Fried Onions, and Bacon and Egg Breakfast Tarts, which look like delectable breakfast pizzas.  No more bland scrambled eggs or baked chicken for readers of this book.  The author is not only a writer and chicken lover, but a recipe developer, and since she lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, the same general climate as our own.

What makes this book special is the enchanting mixture of personal stories that Ms. Cole includes about why raising chickens is a fulfilling experience for her.  If you haven’t looked at chickens as both a pet and a provider for your family, then this book could be enlightening.  Reaching the memoriam in the end and finding out one of her hens died tugged hard at my heartstrings.  It’s not all for chicken-raisers, either.  You will learn all sorts of interesting things about chickens and eggs, such as the color of the inside of a chicken’s ears will reveal what color egg that hen will lay.  The trick is to find the chicken’s ears!

With ever-increasing interest in knowing where your food comes from, eating organic and local, Chicken and Egg provides us a great background in raising our own chickens, harvesting our own eggs, and eating the bounty that chickens provide.  I dare you to read this while you’re hungry.

I Shall Wear Midnight

I Shall Wear Midnight

By Terry Pratchett

5/5stars

Reviewer: Cheryl

Tiffany Aching is a young lady whose journey began in Wee Free Men where, as a 9 year old girl, she faced the Queen of Faerie in order to rescue her kidnapped little brother.  However, it is not necessary to read all three previous books of her story to enjoy this one.  In I Shall Wear Midnight she has completed her training in witchcraft and is now going about the mundane business of being the witch of the Chalk.  It’s hard work and hardly glamorous, and to make matters worse, an evil spirit has begun to creep into people’s minds, spreading fear and misinformation about witches.  Tiffany encounters attitude changes in friends and the village folk she cares for, and gradually it becomes clear that she must defeat this ancient evil to make the world safe once more in spite of itself.  To help in her quest, she brings along the Nac Mac Feegle, a clan of tiny blue faerie beings with a taste for mischief and brawling.  Their antics provide a big dose of comedy to lighten this dramatic tale and a balance for Tiffany’s good sense and responsibility.

In the midst of the humor and adventure, we learn some serious things along with Tiffany.  She remains herself in a world where those differences can be dangerous.  She must choose to do good for people even when they don’t appreciate it, and she has to find the strength to see the world beneath the world and not end up cackling.

Over the course of almost 40 Discworld novels, Sir Terry Pratchett has had a lot of time to cultivate a rich and complex fantasy world.  While you may be seeing only a half dozen characters in depth in any given story, there is a sense that everyone you meet is someone.  Much of this setting draws on the folk traditions of the British Isles, so it has a comfortable country tone.  For all their extraordinary attributes, his characters are realistic and interact in very normal ways.  The result is a world that relates well to our own.  Even while immersed in this place of magic and surprises, we get the impression that the author is winking just off stage, letting us know that there’s more of our world here than first impressions would reveal.