Fax From Sarajevo

Fax From Sarajevo by Joe Kubert

This is a graphic novel based on faxes received by the author from a family trapped in Sarajevo.  During the 1990's Serbs moved into this area and many others and began killing families, women and children for money.  The Serbs were determined to claim the land and leave nothing standing.

I wasn't sure I was going to like a graphic novel.  I like to rip right through the book without giving my eyes a work out.  I will admit though that the graphics really brought this book home.  Also at the end of the book were pictures taken of the family and of the city during the time it was occupied.

I enjoyed getting a bit more in depth about the war.  I also read the book Zlata's Diary which was written by a young girl during the war.  Because she was young she wasn't able to give the same detail.

Rating 4.5 Great book.  I really enjoyed reading something out of the ordinary.
Rating R War, rape, torture, terror.

The Lost Symbol

I was entertained.........so shoot me.  I didn't go into this book thinking that I was reading Chaucer, Shakespear, or even Hemmingway (whom I can't stand, yet other's love).  I knew I was reading this to zone out and have a good time.

The main point of the book was the symbolism in Washington D.C. and it's relation to Freemasonry.  Completely interesting and thought provoking.  I wasn't looking for a scriptural experience so I don't necessarily take what he is saying as truthful even if he did investigate his facts.  I did not enjoy his pot shots at religion through his character Robert Langdon.  If you want to include various religions and your character doesn't believe them then great, but snide little comments by the author, shrouded as character are crappy.

I felt like I moved through the book slowly even though I was enjoying it.  I especially liked the theories of Neonetics (mind over matter/faith/hope/belief studied scientifically).

Rating 4
Rating PG 13  Murder, dismemberment, mutilation, torture.

The Cloud Chamber

The Cloud Chamber by Joyce Maynard


Nate Chance lives on a failing farm in Montana.  It is 1966 and he is fourteen.  The day that brings his family to its knees started early in the morning as usual.  But by the time the school bus returns Nate and his little sister Junie, their lives have been torn at the seams.  The police are in the drive way along with an ambulance.  Nate's bloody father is being dragged from the fields.

Nate's dad tried to kill himself.  The police can't find the gun and soon come back to the Chance farm to accuse Nate's mother of shooting her husband.  Nate and Junie are ostricized at school.  They are not told anything about their father.  They are never taken to see him.  Nate's mother is falling apart.  The farm has to be auctioned off.

The only thing keeping Nate going is his little sister and a strange Bible Study girl at school.  The two teens are partnered up for the science fair.  Nate's dad always had big dreams and knew so many wonderful things.  Nate decides that he and Naomi will build a cloud chamber just like his dad had always wanted to.  The cloud chamber will show radiation from stars long ago exploded. 

The story is sweet and unassuming.  It illustrates the hard times many families go through and how they are still able to pull through even though things may never be the same.

Rating 3.5  The book was a hair depressing but still an okay read for tweens on up.
Rating PG   Attemped suicide

Beastly

Beastly by Alex Flinn

I love fairytale retellings!  Beastly is a Beauty And The Beast from the viewpoint of the Beast.

Kyle is a rich fifteen year old attending a private school in NYC.  His father anchors the news and his mother left them when Kyle was little. 

Kyle is one of the biggest jerks I have ever read about.  He has an entitled outlook on life.  He cares only for appearance.  Kyle decides to play a prank on a new girl at school because he thinks she is ugly and probably not rich.  He asks her to homecoming.  Then he stands her up.  When he returns home after a night of partying and sex (at the age of fifteen) the girl/witch is waiting for him.  The witch tells Kyle that she is going to make his outside match his inside and before he knows it, he is a beast.  He is given two years to find a girl that will fall in love with him and kiss him despite his appearance.

This could have been a great book.  It is based on one of my favorite fairytales.  Instead it was teen smut.  I don't care if anyone thinks that it should be normal for a CHILD in ninth grade to have various sex partners, shack ups, their own limo, alchohol and all name brand clothing.  It isn't normal and shouldn't be portrayed that way.
The book would have been more credible had it contained characters that were at least in their twenties.  What does a child know about true love, having a woman in his bed, etc..........   Uh, nothing.
Each section of the book was prefaced with a chat room session.  It was lame.  I can see that it may have appealed to a very young teen, but it will really date the book in about no time.

And if we are lucky...............they just might make this trash heap into a movie.  I hope the screen writer does a better job than the author.

Rating 2  I will admit that even though this book should not be read by a young teen and therefore is really geared to NOBODY......I was still marginally entertained.
Rating R Teen sex.........young teen.

Crank

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Hopkins writes the whole book in forms of poetry.  I had only heard that the book was a best seller, but nothing else.  When I first began to read I thought the poetry was only part of the opener.  It looked genius!  Then I turned the pages and found that every single one of them had more poetry...........I became skeptical and somewhat put out.  I thought the prose would impede my reading.  It took until about page 20 (which I made it to very quickly) to really get into the rythm.  Thereafter I was hooked.

Kristina goes to meet her estranged father over summer break from high school.  Up to this point she has been an A student.  Kristina has had no boyfriends or even been kissed.  By the time she returns to her mother and siblings three weeks later, Kristina is calling herself Bree, is hooked on meth, and well on her way to lots of sex on speed.

The intensity of the writing made me feel like I was an addict.  It was very powerful.  Kristina's spiral happened so fast that it was unbelievable.......well believable........but crazy.

Rating 4.5  Did I love it??? NO!!!! Was it an eye opener?? YES!!  I hope the Monster never touches my life.
Rating R Rape, sex, drug abuse, addiction, alcohol, teen pregnancy, abortion.

Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

New York's elite society is made up of more than just rich, entitled, old money.  The blue blood in this society is ancient and it is vampire.  Schuyler is fifteen and learning that the marks beginning to show on her skin, her ability to contol minds, her mother in a coma, and her new dog, all tie to one big secret.  She, along with most of the teens at Duchesne, an elite private school, are young vampires.
Not long after Schuyler makes this discovery, she is also hit with the realization that something out there is preying on her kind.  Her ancestry makes her one of the only people able to find the powerful being and put the killing to an end.

Great mix of history, lore, and heavenly beings.  I had a good time with this story.  I especially liked the twist they put on vampirism and the use of the Roanoke Island mystery.  HOWEVER, this is a book aimed at the youth and I was not at all happy with ninth graders acting like they were twenty somethings.

Rating 3
Rating R sex, drugs, alcohol, murders, sensuality

Eve A Novel Of The First Woman

Eve A Novel Of The First Woman by Elissa Elliott

Elliot takes poetic license as she delves into the mysterious lives of Adam and Eve.  The story is told by Eve and her daughters; Naava, Aya, and Dara.  Eve tells about the Garden, her relationship with Adam and her children and the undoing of Cain.  Naava is a self centered beauty.  Aya is the caregiver.  Dara is young, sweet, easily swayed and somewhat overlooked.

Elliot had some great nuggets of wisdom interspersed with eh.  I didn't really like any of the characters except maybe Aya.  By the end I finally came to appreciate the Eve that the author set out in the book.  At the end, Elliot did make note of the obvious reasons she had to use such depths of literary license.  Also she explained where her ideas came from.  I appreciated that.

Rating 2.5  The book didn't do it for me.  I think it had great potential and I am really rating it poorly because Eve didn't fit the mold I had for her, which really isn't the author's fault.

Rating R murder, incest, sex,

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Normally I try to steer clear of memoirs.  In other instances the people tend to be overly self centered and twisted.  I assume that is part of the reason they would have a story to tell.  But I kept having this book come up repeatedly in conversations, so I decided it was time to pick up and give it a try.
Jeannette Walls began her life as the second child of an alcoholic father and a mother so free spirited she basically gave birth and let the children fend for themselves.
The family was on the move, or doing the 'skedaddle' for years before setttling in the poor mining town of Welch, West Virginia.  The children seemed to be in mortal danger from the moment of their existance.  Much of the time they were not supplied with food or clothing.  Their shelter was beyond questionable.  Yet the children survived and pulled themselves from the dregs that surrounded them and became from what I can tell, bright, capable, and even successful people.
At times Rex (their father) had great depths of widsom and charisma and then he would do something so astoundingly wretched to his family I wanted to reach through the pages and smack him.  Rose Mary (mother) did less than zero to protect her children from the ravageous that alcoholism brought upon the family.  As a mother this was harder for me to stomach than the baseless acts of the father.
All in all Jeanette somehow found something within herself that in most of us would have suffocated and died.  She and her siblings did well in school, took care of each other and their parents, and eventually made their way to New York City. 
The clarity and hope that veined throughout the book made it palatable when it shouldn't have been.

Rating 4.5  Only because I don't think I could read it again.
Rating R Alcoholism, child abuse, sexual content, language (The father had a colorful mouth......which I have to say I appreciated most of the time.).

The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Stockett's first book is written about the changing of race tides during the 1960's, in the hot bed of Jackson Mississippi. The focus is on three strong women. Normally I would not enjoy a book based on women because they tend to destroy others to get their strength. I did however love this book. These women put aside their own safety to bring about change in a nonviolent manner. I loved each character as I learned about their lives, their struggle, their anger, their pain, their love and their relationships with the white women they worked for.

Aibileen is a black maid that has been raising white children for her whole career. What pains her is that she loves them and they grow up to be like their mothers, not liking her for the color of her skin.

Skeeter is a young white woman with the deep desire to become a writer. She has gone to college and returned to Jackson. She is living with her parents and trying to fit into Jackson society. She begins to really see the way that the 'help' are treated when her one time dear friend wants to pass an initiative to make sure the 'help' have their own bathrooms outside of the houses they serve in. Skeeter realizes she may have a story to tell.

Minny is another black maid. Minny has a mouth. She has been fired from many jobs and her last one for a 'Terrible, Awful' thing. She was blessed enough to land a job working for Miss Celia. Miss Celia landed one of Jackson's elite men even though she is what the society girls consider tacky and white trash.

Skeeter first convinces Aibileen to help her with her secret book project. Aibileen then convinces Minny and finally many more black maids to tell their stories.....the bad and the good. The book takes off like never expected. The time is just after the murder of Medgar Evers and just near the march on Washington. Bit by bit the times are changing but the women realize they may have endangered their own lives and the lives of their families.

This was a great book to emotionally connect with a time that I am glad I never had to be a part of.

Rating 4
Rating PG 13 Race violence, murder, domestic violence, critical issues, graphic miscarriage, alcoholism.