The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley

This book is about a 12 year old girl named Cedar, her relationship with her new friend Kite, the circus, acrobats and so much more. I guess this book is classified as young adult but I thought of it more as a coming of age story and was surprised to see it classified this way. It is set in Australia so it was fun to learn some new words and phrases that I didn't know like what a squashed fly biscuit is. There are a lot deep thoughts from Cedar in this book that made me think. This book was a lot better than I expected.

Ready or Not

You know you have too many books when you just start looking through your books randomly and find a sequel to a book that you didn't know had a sequel and that you had no idea you even owned. That's what happened to me with Ready or Not. I had just read All American Girl and I assumed it didn't have a sequel. A few days later I found Ready or Not on one of my many book shelves. Hmp!

Anyway, this book takes place about a year after American Girl. I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did the first one. Samantha started to remind me more of Mia from the Princess Diaries but this isn't why I didn't like it. Most of the book is about Samantha's fixiation on one subject and I pretty much figured about her assumption and ultimately didn't like her decision.

All American Girl

Samantha becomes a national hero at age 15 when she stops a presidential assassination. Of course, her whole life in changed whereas she just wants to be herself; a similar premise to The Princess Diaries, also by Meg Cabot. Oh, and she also begins dating the president's son. The book was fun to read.

What's French for "Ew!"?

This is a fun young adult novel. I read another in this, which is about 16 year old Emily and her life since her family moved to Europe. This book focuses on her spring break trip to Paris. Emily has the worst luck but her adventures are hilarious. Oh, the book is written in a series of emails to her best friend in the U.S. I love books in this format. A fun book to read!

Who P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?

I read Who Censored Roger Rabbit? last year and loved it. This book isn't exactly a sequel but it has the same characters. I love the inhabitants of Toontown and their interactions with 1930s Hollywood. It is also pretty funny and I love humorous books. Another highly recommended book.

Free-Range Kids

I was very excited to read this book. It certainly lived up to expectations. It was fantastic. This is pretty much how I want to raise my kids. I want them to be able to grow up with the same type of childhood that I had and not worry about every little thing that might happen to them; but it's hard not too worry! I don't like the trend of the "helicopter parents" and not giving kids any freedom. Skenazy brings data and facts to the argument that kids can do more than we think and the world is truly not a more dangerous place than it was 30 years ago. There was so much in this book that I agreed with. I was laughing aloud at timesl Skenazy is a funny writer at times and her style is very easy to read. I got this book from the library but I need to get my own copy.

The Civil War in Fairfax County

Civil War history is all around me where I live in Fairfax county Virginia. Although I majored in history in college, I have never been into military history.

I found out recently, though, that there could be Civil War trenches in my backyard, literally, as they have been found in my neighbor's yard. Fascinating!

I found this book at the library and decided to read it to find out a little more about the war in my area. It's a short book with lots of photographs. However, it took me a long time to read as I found it tedious in parts and a few times it seemed to abruptly change subjects. The book has a lot of first hand accounts of the war. I did learn some new information from the book but overall it was a tad boring to me.

Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince

I reread this book in July in preparation to see the movie. Have I seen the movie yet? No. Such is the life with 3 young children. I probably won't see it until it comes out on DVD now.

I haven't reread a Harry Potter book in a while. I think this is only the second time I've read it. It was very enjoyable again. I'd really like to reread book 7 now but I just have so many other books to read.

Child 44

I got this book last year from a big box of books that I won from Hatchette. I put it on my book shelves but it really didn't sound that interesting to me. I picked it up in July for a book group read not thinking I would really like it.
But I was wrong. It was a great book! It is set in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. A former MGB officer finds a disturbing pattern of murders. But officially, the state says there is no serial killers because they don't exist in the Soviet Union. He goes against the state to discover the killer. The theme of the book is definitely paranoia. I can't imagine what it was like to live the USSR then and fear everyone and everything.
The book is fast paced with a final twist that I did figure out before the end. I am glad I did read this book and highly recommend it.

The No Spin Zone

I used to listen to Bill O'Reilly radio show a lot and watch his TV show occasionally but haven't for years. (By the way, this seems the theme for this month-books I've had forever and authors I haven't read for a while). I found his show interesting and while I always didn't agree with his opinion, I respected him for it.

This book is broken up into chapters than can be read out of order as each chapter tackles and issue and deals with a person who's been on his show debating the issue.

I liked his first book but I found him more pompous and arrogant in this book. He seems to brag about how his ideas are right or just about himself in general.

The Most Wanted

I read the first chapter in this book and couldn't decide if I should read more or give it up. I decided to plow ahead and was glad I did. Arley is a 14 year girl who, on a whim, starts writing to a man in prison and within the year she becomes his wife. An interesting premise. I got annoyed at Arley a lot, though, and couldn't quite understand why she married Dillon. One chapter is told by Arley, the next by her friend and lawyer, Annie, and so on. It is a very emotional book.

Valentine Princess

I love the Princess Diaries books. I love almost any book written in diary form, though. This is a short book about how Mia and Michael spend their first Valentine's Day. I don't have much to say about it but I did enjoy it, as usual.

Jinxed

This is another book I got from the publisher ages ago. I used to read all of Mary Higgins Clark books but haven't read any for a long time. They all started to run together and sound the same. I think I've read 2 other of Carol Higgins Clark's Regan Reilly books.

This book was a quick and easy read and fun too. There were a lot of different characters whose story lines all came together. The characters were interesting and fun too.

Good in Bed

I've had this book sitting on my book shelf for a long time. I got it probably around the time in was published when some publishers were giving away free books for anyone who signed up. I received it and didn't think it would be my type of book. Especially from the name of the title.

Titles can be deceiving. I loved the book. The title isn't really what the book is about. I loved the main character Cannie. She was smart and funny. The book did get a little too fairy tale-ish for me in parts, but overall I really enjoyed it. I had no idea there was a sequel and I will have to get this soon. I will also check out some of Jennifer Weiner's other books since I liked this one so much.

The Audacity of Hope

I have been wanting to read this book for a while and finally snagged a copy on paperbackswap.com.

It is interesting to read this as it was written before he even campaigned to be president. It usually takes me a while to get through non-fiction books and this was no exception. I loved the little excerpts about his upbringing and life now. I must admit I don't know a whole lot about politics so I had to re-read some sections a few times.

Overall, he comes across as an every day regular person. It is truly astonishing that he has risen so fast in the political world. I think his book, Dreams from my Father, is more my style as it is more autobiographical and less political.

One interesting tidbit that I didn't know is that the title of the book came from a sermon from Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Pompeii

This work of historical fiction takes place in the 4 days before and several days after the eruption of Pompeii. It follows the story of an aqueduct engineer, Marcus Attilus, and how he uncovers problems in the aqueduct that is related to the pending eruption of Pompeii.

I must say, it started out slow to me but then I really got into it. It made me do some more research on the eruption of Pompeii and some aspects I did not know about. I had heard of the philospher Pliny but I did not know he had a connection to Pompeii. The action after the eruption is very intense. There is one element I didn't like with Marcus Attilus and a woman named Corelia but I can understand why it was there.

The Cuckoo Sister

Katie's older sister Emma was kidnapped as a baby. Fast forward, 13 years later and Rosie shows up at Katie's front door. Is she really Emma? She is so different than Katie had imagined Emma would be.This is the premise for this novel that makes you think what you would do in this situation. Difficult decisions, frustration and anger are main themes in this book.

The cover I have of this book makes Katie and Rosie look more like 15 and 17 rather than 11 and 13. This cover looks more appropiate to me.

Josie and Jack

This whole book had a dark, creepy feel to it. Josie and Jack are teenaged brother and sister, living in western Pennsylvania with their father, a college professor, frequently absent from their lives and he isn't really all there. They are home schooled with not much contact with the outside world but Jack has more contact than Josie. They eventually both run away and...well, I don't want to spoil the story of what happens next.

The book has a very V.C. Andrews feel to it, if you know what I mean. The story keeps moving and you keep wondering what's going to happen next and the climax is shocking.

Reading retrospective: May 2004

I only read 2 books in May 2004.

One was Three Wishes by Liane Moriarity. I got this book as a ARC. I don't remember much about it except that it was set in Australia and about 3 adult triplets.

My other read was Adrian Mole: The Lost Years by Sue Townsend. I don't remember exactly which Adrian Mole book this was but I highly recommend the Adrian Mole books. They are hilarious! They are written in diary form by Adrian Mole starting at age 13. He is a British teenager. The British slang is great and the book are very funny.

Just Don't Make a Scene, Mum

Kids and parents. Parents and kids. This novel tells the viewpoint of several British teenagers and how they think their parents embarrass them. It also gets the point of view from the parents. It was a quick fun read and very funny. Apparently more books about the same teens, which I may read some day.

Eleven Karens

Eleven Karens by Peter Lefcourt is fun book and an interesting way to write a novel. It is a fictional memoir about a nameless man and the eleven Karens he's met throughout his life. It starts in elementary school with the first Karen and goes to the final Karen in middle age. Each chapter or section of the book is about a different Karen and how that Karen enriched his life. There are also footnotes in each chapter, which I found interesting in a fiction book like this, about certain aspects a culture that he talks about in the chapters. This was a fun book, very enjoyable to read.

Afternoon of the Elves

This book wasn't exactly what I expected. Hilary becomes friends with the outcast Sara-Kate after Sara-Kate shows her an elf village in her yard. Is the elf village real or not? Is Sara-Kate an elf? These are all questions Hilary has as well as the readers of this book. The realization of who Sara-Kate really is both surprising and sad.

Sweet Sixteen Princess

Another book in the princess diaries series by Meg Cabot. This short book revolves around Mia's 16th birthday. As usual, her grandmother wants something totally different than Mia wants. This book was short and fun and I read it in the middle of reading Giants in the Earth to take a short break from that book.

Giants in the Earth

I learned about this classic book after a discussion on a book group about Laura Ingalls Wilder and someone mentioned this book about pioneer life in the Dakotas. The book was written in 1924 in Norwegian by a Norwegian immigrant and later translated to English.
It falls the lives of several Norwegian families setting up a life on the Dakota prairie. I felt this book had a dark undertone, especially with the depression that one woman, Beret, struggled with. It was mostly interesting but some parts were slow too and it took me a month to get through this book. The ending was a little surprising. I thought it was going to end one way but it ended another.
I love historical sagas and although this was not my favorite, I still enjoyed it a lot.

Booking through Thursday

I saw that National Library week is coming up in April, and that led to some questions. How often do you use your public library and how do you use it? Has the coffeehouse/bookstore replaced the library? Did you go to the library as a child? Do you have any particular memories of the library? Do you like sleek, modern, active libraries or the older, darker, quiet, cozy libraries?

My answer:

I loved going to the library as a child. It was a small town library in an old building. The upstairs was the children's floor. I always got out several books at a time. I probably read most of the books in the children's and then young adult section. I knew the library so well that I knew when they got a new book in and I was often the first person to check it out. When I moved also to the adult section as a teenager, I decided to read every fiction book starting with A authors. I never got very far but it was fun trying.

Now, I don't use the library very often. Why? Because of my massive to be read shelves at home. I have enough books to read without getting them from the library. I still do frequent library book sales though; I can't pass up a library book sale. I have started going more frequently with my kids and they get out several books a week.