City Of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments Book Two)

City of Ashes Mortal Instruments Book Two by Cassandra Clare

Clary's mother is still in a magical coma. Luke her Shadowhunter/werewolf father by association is looking after her. Her bio dad, the evil Valentine is on the loose and looking to make a demonic army. Simon, her best friend is still crushing on her and is now in mortal peril by association. Jace and Clary have a twisted and fascinating connection that I can't get over.

I wasn't sure Book Two was going to live up to Book One. Many times book two (movie two) is a vehicle to get to book three, but in this case I think this book held its own. The relationships between Clary and Jace, and Clary and Simon are killing me. There are twists that I didn't see coming. And I still feel like the author has lots of surprises to come. I am wildly suspicious about one turn of events and spend much of my reading time looking for clues to prove my suspicions correct. As soon as I finished this book I picked up the next one. I don't think I want them to be over.

The biting humor is fantastic!

Rating 5 I may have liked this book even more than book one.

Rating PG 13 Demonic violence, sexuality, homosexuality, inference of incestuous relationships. This all sounds pretty severe when I put it down like that........but I don't think it's that terrible. On the other hand I have a high tolerance and tend to downplay things that other people (people with higher standards) get upset over.

The October Country

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

OCTOBER COUNTRY ...that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain...

Oooh it just sounds so......October! I love October and this book just gave me a jump start on autumn. Bradbury's style of horror is so subtle that you don't get the full blow until the story wraps up.

This is a book of short stories. My favorites were.......The Jar, The Lake, The Scythe, and The Man Upstairs. Some of the other stories were just weird and Bradbury's style did take some getting used to. Probably because I have immersed myself in shallow teen reads lately.

Rating 3.5 Some great stories mixed with some less great. I have a hard time ending one story and entering right into another one. Maybe I should be putting the book down between stories.

Rating PG I don't think the stories were that horrifying.

Kingdom Come The Final Victory

Kingdom come The Final Victory by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

This is the final book in the 'Left Behind' series. Christ has returned to earth to reign and Satan is bound for a thousand years. Naturals (the people that lived through the return of Christ and those born after His coming) and glorified beings (the ones martyred or raptured) exist together. Apparently their only reason for existence is to worship. The naturals that were born after Christ's appearance have 100 years to become believers or they die on their hundredth birthday. There are many who do not worship Christ as their Savior. They begin an uprising to build the greatest army the world has ever seen in order to stand as the army of Satan when he is again loosed on the earth.

The concept was an interesting idea it just sort of fell flat for me. At times I skimmed when I was tired or disturbed by their interpretation of scripture. Basically everyone lived for a thousand years and then Satan was loosed. There was no battle. The earth was renewed. The end.

Rating 2.5 Meh.....it was okay. I'm glad I finished the series. The first book, 'Left Behind' was a book that I disagree with doctrinally but I did find entertaining enough. I give it a 4 for entertainment. I read all of the ones after that because I wanted to read the series, but I didn't enjoy them as much.

Rating G

The Dogs Of Babel

The Dogs Of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

Linguistics professor Paul Iverson returns home one day to find his wife Lexy has died by falling from their apple tree. Their dog Lorelei was the only witness to the tragic accident.

Paul decides he must know what happened to Lexy. He takes leave from his teaching position and tries to teach Lorelei to speak, in hopes that she can then tell him what happened.

The story rotates through chapters of coming to know Lexy through Paul's memories and Paul's desperate attempts at dog linguistics. The idea is fresh and interesting. The story wrenched my heart. Lexy was quirky and off balanced. Paul, normally black and white, deviates in order to do what he can for the love that has overtaken his life and then disappeared.

Rating 4 Sweet and sad

Rating PG13 language and nongraphic sex

City of Bones The Mortal Instruments Book One

The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Fifteen year old Clary takes her best friend Simon to an all ages club in New York City. That is the night she finds out she can see demons, downworlders, and demon slayers.
It's no coincidence that Clary is able to see the slaying of a demon that night. She can also see a group of teenage demon slayers. Within days Clary finds out that these people have more to do with her life than any of the ordinary things she was part of before. Clary's mother Jocelyn is attacked and kidnapped in their brownstone home. Jace, one of the demon slayers finds Clary just as she is being attacked by and killing a Ravener.
Jace and Clary form an immediate and intense bond. Simon and Jace both have feelings for Clary. These feelings and the fact that Clary's mother may have been a shadowhunter before Clary's birth, have Clary's life doing a 180 that ends in a twisted sick manner.
The City of Bones is dark and super funny. One thing that is always missing from Twilight (the funny!!!). The teens are sharp and witty. The love and danger intense. I am excited to pick up City of Ashes (the next book in The Mortal Instruments series.)
Rating 5
Rating PG to PG13 some language and sexual tension, homosexuality

Skinned

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

Lia Kahn lives in the not so distant future. After the wars and natural disasters, only the poor live in cities. Only the poor have babies that are not genetic masterpieces.
Lia's father has high credit. She does not live in a city. She is rich and popular. Whatever Lia does or likes is the next hot thing.
Lia takes her sister's place in the family car with the destination coordinates already places in the GPS. Cars are rarely 'driven' by a live driver. In an out of the ordinary, bizarre fluke, Lia is in a car wreck. Her body badly burned and limbs ultimately lost, her family chooses to turn her into a 'mech'. Her brain is scanned and put into a mechanical body, made to look and feel as close to human as possible. Lia has to learn to speak and move all over again. Once she has control of her new body, Lia is taken home.
Even though Lia feels like Lia most of society sees her as a non-living machine. Lia tries to find her place in a world she didn't choose to become a part of. Befriended by Auden, a boy that she would never have been friends with before the accident, Lia tries to find out if she still belongs with the humans or if only the mechs understand her now.
The friendship between human boy and mech leads to disaster and Lia is faced with the fact that she is indestructible and this could prove dangerous to any humans she is around.

A fun futuristic book with a great look at the expanding bounds of technology. There were times when the relationships didn't seem deeply investigated enough. I also felt like the book ended in a sigh instead of a bang.

Rating 4
Rating R Excessive use of profanity. Sexual content but not sexually graphic. Teen sex. Lesbianism.

The Templars

The Templars The Secret History Revealed by Barbara Frale

In recent years the mystique surrounding the templars has become popular thanks to author Dan Brown. The Templars is not another fictitious book. Frale is well educated in templar, papacy and crusade history. She works in the Vatican archives. Frale was able to use old and forgotten documents to put together this insightful book.

She explains how and why the templars were formed, to whom they answered, how long they supposedly lasted, their secret rituals, and how they finally came to an end.

The book read like a text book. The information was good and considering this was non fiction it did get dry. I had a hard time following the people and the time. She jumped around on the timeline because her layout was more topic based. Also at times I felt like a needed a diagram to figure out where the people belonged. I am not entirely familiar with far reaching Catholic history so I spent some time confused over what seemed like quick change of papacy and other leaders.

By the time I reached around pg. 150 I was able to keep it all straight but I think that is because the book stayed to mostly one time period and there were fewer historical players.

Rating 3 for the information but I would have to rate it lower for the confusion.

Rating PG Rituals include homosexuality and hazing.

To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

It has been ages since I read this book. It was definitely time to pick it up again. I remember liking it but I loved it so much more this time.

Scout and Jem live in Maycomb (a small southern town) in the early 1930's. They are being raised by their father Atticus and their black help Calpurnia. Atticus is a lawyer.
Scout and Jem meet Dill. A boy that moves to Maycomb every summer. They quickly become friends. They spend much of their time fixated on Boo Radley, the mysterious neighbor that never leaves his house and has become legend in their minds. The children make up skits about him, dare each other to enter his yard or peek through his windows. Once in awhile they find small gifts in a hollow tree, which they think are from Boo Radley.
As the years slip away, Scout and Jem are faced with the wrath of the small town as Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white girl. Jem is turning into a young man and he always looks to Atticus as an example. Atticus tells Jem that defending this man is something he must do in order to live with himself.
As the trial approaches the children are accosted by one time friends and neighbors. Atticus is always wise and forgiving. He makes sure that Jem and Scout do not fight to defend him and do not speak unkindly to their accusers.
The trial plays out with Jem and Scout hiding in the balcony of the courtroom. Jem has a mind for law just like Atticus. He is convinced that the evidence proves Tom (the defendant) innocent of his charges. The jury returns a guilty verdict anyway.......despite everyone seeming to know that Tom is not guilty. Jem is bewildered and crushed. He cannot understand why the people of the town would let the accusation stand.
The father of the alleged rape victim is livid with Atticus for shaming him in court. He threatens to take revenge. Atticus however does not believe his threats will ever come to fruition once the anger ebbs away.
But Mr. Ewell bides his time and attacks Atticus' children on their way home from the Halloween pageant. In a wild turn of events their lives are saved by their legendary neighbor Boo Radley. Making their wildest dreams come true.

I cannot describe the emotions evoked by this book. I can see why it is so popular. As I read, I couldn't make myself understand how anyone could ever believe the things people used to believe about race. This book is so applicable even today, whether it is about race, religion or gender.

Rating 5
Rating PG Despite the accusation of rape it was never graphically described. I would probably read this to my nine year old or let her read it herself. Hard lessons must be learned. Well worth the read.

The Pact (a love story)

The Pact (a love story) by Jodi Picoult

This is my second time through this book but I really love Jodi Picoult's way of taking twists and turns and tackling timely and touchy issues.

Chris and Em grew up in each other's pockets. Both families always expected them to eventually fall in love and get married. Their last year of high school begins and their futures seem right on track. They have been in a relationship since their early teens. They each have a bright future with their individual talents. To all eyes looking in, they seem like the perfect couple with more maturity than everyone else their age.

Then in the middle of the night their parents are awakened with a phone call sending them screaming to the local hospital. Chris is injured and Em has been killed by gun shot. What seems to be a random act of violence or an accident becomes what one family believes to be a murder and the other a suicide pact gone awry. The families of Chris and Em have been like family to each other. Now with one child dead and the other alive the neighbor's relationships are ripped to shreds.

We learn about Emily through those left behind......everyone of them telling the story of the person they thought they knew. All leading up to the terrible truth about how and why Em died.

Picoult again makes me ache for her characters. Even though this story is tragic I still feel like it was a love story. I feel for the parents and most certainly for Chris. How will they ever move beyond this pivotal moment that spun their lives in a direction they never saw coming?

Rating 4.5 A shocking emotional roller coaster. Loved it, but didn't feel as much for the parents as I did for Chris. I know I shouldn't be judging them because who knows what I will really know about my kids when they get older? But at some points in the book I really disliked the mothers, especially Em's.

Rating R Teen sex, sex, sexual abuse (which leaves me shuddering and forcing my kids to avoid public restrooms to this day), and suicide/gun violence.

Wings

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel Sewell is fifteen and just beginning high school. For years she has lived in a small cabin at the edge of the woods with her parents. Laurel was home schooled there. Times are changing for Laurel and far more than she first suspects. Her family has now moved to a larger town where her father runs a book store and Laurel is entering public school.

Despite feeling out of place Laurel makes friends with Chelsea and David. David seems to be interested past the point of friendship and Laurel may be also. Just as she should be finding first love and well on her way through puberty, Laurel discovers the reason she has always felt different. She is a faerie. As her only close friend, David is the one she turns to. David and Laurel search for scientific proof of the amazing turn of events.

At the same time Laurel's mother is about to sell the family land that Laurel was raised on. When the new buyer comes to make an offer, Laurel has the sick feeling that he is not a good man. While helping her parents prepare their cabin and land for sale, Laurel takes off into the woods. As she sits playing her mother's guitar, Laurel is approached by a striking young man with the features of a model and oddly colored hair. His name is Tamani and he is able to answer all of the questions Laurel has about herself.

Laurel is quickly stuck between a sweet and tender relationship with David, a human boy, and a soul shaking, breath taking love with the faerie Tamani. Her feelings for both are mixed as they help her defeat the trolls that are ready to take over her family land. The land that she has learned possesses the gate to her old faerie world.

Wings is the first in a four book series and is also being made into a Disney movie. With the wave of fantasy literature now hitting the YA market, Wings is as fresh as the blossom on a faerie.

The love between Laurel and each boy is compelling. I want her to be able to have both! The faerie side of the story is bright and interesting, much less dark than recent YA books I have read.

Rating 5 Fresh take on fantasy/young love.

Rating PG Trolls come to a violent end. The romantic parts are clean.

The Holy Secret

The Holy Secret by James Ferrell

By the author of 'The Peacegiver' (rating 5) comes the next instructive parable. I hate to lay it out there like this.......but it wasn't quite as good. Basically the book is a conversation between two adult men about learning to love things that are holy including the temple and the scriptures. A younger family man comes to an elderly ward member looking for answers after hearing him speak in sacrament meeting. He comes to realize during the talk that he doesn't love the temple or the scriptures. He wants to learn how.
It felt to me like the book began strong. It had a good break down of how to go through the scriptures asking questions in order to participate or have a conversation with the scriptures....thus gleaning more than merely buzzing through them just to gain another tally mark. The elderly man spoke about finding similitude's of Christ in other scripture stories. This is something I may have EVENTUALLY come up with, but I liked having it pointed out. I suspect for those of you who were either active as youth or didn't skip institute to make out with your boyfriend may have known these things already. So this book could be a great reminder.
Another aspect of the book that may have been one of the best parts, was the break down of the sacrament prayers. I took notes.
By the end, when we were getting to the temple parts......which is what I was truly interested in, it began to fade a little for me. I am on board with the vicarious work thing so I guess this part was just reminder for me. But who doesn't need a refresher? And then it ended......and I mean abruptly.
Rating 4 Some great info. made easy to read. Some of it was just refresher. Not up to par with Ferrell's first book.
Rating G