The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Christopher is a fifteen year old British boy with autism. Wandering the neighborhood in the middle of the night.....as he is prone to do, he finds the neighbor's dog stabbed with a garden fork. Christopher likes dogs and not people because you can always tell what a dog means, but people have confusing faces. So Christopher decides he must find the dog's killer.
Christopher lives with his father and attends a special school during the day. His mother has recently died of a heart attack. Father begs him not to pursue 'other people's business' and leave the dog mystery alone. But once Christopher mentally latches onto something he can't let go.
Christopher proceeds with his detecting. Life altering events come from his perseverance. He finds that he is capable of more than he thought possible.
I found Christopher's dry and straight forward wit hilarious. I so enjoyed this book. Christopher seemed real and refreshing from the self absorbed characters that are recently popular. He does complicated math problems to calm down and help him focus...which he writes in the book. He loves red food and will dye his food if it is a color that he won't eat. He hates the colors brown and yellow and he gives his reasons, which are pretty good.
I was a bit freaked when he gave a list of his behavior problems.........and I didn't think they were a problem!
A. Not talking for a long time.
B. Not eating or drinking anything for a long time.
C. Not liking being touched.
D. Screaming when I am angry or confused.
E. Not liking being in really small places with other people.
F. Smashing things when I am angry or confused.
G. Groaning (he does this when he has sensation overload)
H. Not liking yellow things or brown things and refusing to touch yellow things or brown things.
I. Refusing to use my toothbrush if anyone else has touched it.
J. Not eating food if different sorts of food are touching each other.
K. Not noticing that people are angry with me.
L. Not smiling.
M. Saying things that other people think are rude.
My only complaints were the use of the word poo, which is a word that is stricken from the vocabulary in our house. It is a sick and nasty word and even worse when used by an adult. Yuck! Also the F word was pervasive throughout the book. Not cool.

Rating 5 I own this book and have read it more than once. I like it just as much every time.
Rating R There were enough F words to warrant this rating. Nothing else is too bad. For this reason I can't really recommend this as a book to read if you are very sensitive or posses a better moral high ground than I do.

I Capture The Castle

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

Cassandra is seventeen and living in a run down castle. Her once famous father leased the castle with the money from his one and only published book. Her lovely sister Rose is moody and depressed with no positive outlook for marriage. Her witty and bright little brother Thomas is still in school. Stephen is the maid's son, left with the family after her death. Stephen deeply loves Cassandra.....she does not return the love. Cassandra's stepmother Topaz is eccentric and breathtaking. And her father, suffering from writer's block is holed up in a bitterly cold room doing crosswords.

The new owners of the castle turn up. Simon and Neil Cotton and their mother. All American, they soon fall in love with the English countryside and Cassandra's famous father. Rose hopes this is her chance to change the family's financial situation. She immediately tries to capture the heart of Simon. The Cotton family is wealthy and friendly. They seem a perfect match for the monetarily and socially challenged Mortmain family.

Cassandra desires herself to be a writer. The book is her journal. From first glance of the Cotton boys until the bitter and surprising end of the Mortmain's relationship with them....Cassandra details it all in sweet with sweet and witty writing.

Rating 4 I loved the writing style and how Cassandra would build up to what she felt was an exciting turn of events. She was also very introspective and truthful about herself.
Rating G Clean.....although I thing the English use of 'making love' really meant something much less drastic.

Love's Enduring Promise

Love's Enduring Promise (#2 Love Comes Softly series) by Janette Oke


This is the sequel to Love Comes Softly. Marty and Clark are settled in their marriage and in their small frontier community. Their children are thriving and the settlement has decided to build a school and find a teacher. The family continues to grow. This includes Marty taking in two neighbor girls after their mother dies and their father feels that they will slow him as he continues with his life.
The school is completed, a teacher procured and a parson found. Land is cleared for a new cemetery. Marty's children grow quickly. Marty tries to help Tommy the neighbor boy after he falls in love with an Indian squaw. Marty's older girls marry. Marty and Clark build a new house.

The tale is sweet and gentle. I wish that Tommy and his love ended up together, it would have made for a better story with more depth. The fact that he ran off and found a white girl was a let down. I had a hard time telling how much time had passed at the beginning of the chapters. Sometimes it was days, or months, or years. By the end of the book time began flying and Marty's daughter Missy had grown up and moved away. There were endearing parts that brought a tear to the eye. I wasn't wildly entertained.
Rating 3 But this is a low 3. It was clean and sweet but not spectacular. It didn't have anything I hated about it so I hesitate to rate it lower.
Rating G

Generation Dead

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

First off........I love the cover.

Teens all over America are returning from the dead. With so many 'differently biotic' stumbling around new ways of tolerance and rights must be navigated.
Phoebe and Adam (Goth girl and Lame Man) have been best friends and neighbors for year. Their high school has a good undead program and is attracting the undead from all around. Phoebe takes a shine to Tommy, one of the undead boys. Tommy joins the football team that Adam plays for. Attention is quickly drawn to Tommy and the rights of the undead are challenged.
By cover appearances you get the feeling this will be teen fluff and giggles over the 'corpsicles, wormburgers, zombies....etc.......'. Turns out that even though the language is timely, witty, and spunky, the core issues are not light reading. It is a new age battle over equality. Once the living die, their death certificate strips them of all the rights Americans take for granted.....even the right to go on living.
I would have loved it if the book delved further into the reason for the dead returning to life. It felt like a gaping hole not knowing what made the zombies tick......although I guess it leaves it open for imagination. The civil rights movement in a fresh way was definitely something to think about. Although you could surely see the tides washing ashore in the same paths taken by the former civil rights movement.....peaceable vs. violent.
By the end of the book I was surprised and sad. This was a great read. It was light enough verbally to still be a fun read despite the depth it touched on.
Rating 4.5
Rating PG violence

The Angel

The Angel by Carla Neggers

Keira has a deep Irish history. She is an American artist that illustrates Irish folklore. Keira decides to pursue one mysterious legend about an angel statue all of the way to Ireland. As she delves into the legend of fairies, three Irish brothers and a missing angel statue, a chain of events is set off in Boston and Ireland. Ultimately eerie murders and mysterious happenings are soon attributed to the devil himself. Keira's uncle a Boston detective and her new found love interest Simon try to unveil the murderer........

Loved the Irish setting. I've always found Ireland and its folklore intriguing. I also really liked the detectives. I always have a soft spot for the uniforms. It was a hair scary when you began to wonder if the devil really was the one killing everyone.

Rating 3.5 Great summer read. I liked the romantic parts and the mystery. Nothing breath taking or super unique.

Rating R Murder and sex but not overwhelming amounts.

Evermore

Evermore by Alyson Noel

Ever's family is swiftly taken from her in a tragic car crash. She is the only one to survive. Along with the guilt she also walks away with psychic power and the ability to read auras. She is whisked away to live her her rich lawyer aunt in Laguna Beach. Ever has a hard time dealing with the psychic noise and her changed life. She befriends the kids on the fringe knowing they are the only ones to accept her strange behavior.
Ever's life falls into a predictable pattern......go to school in hoodie/ipod to drown out psychic noise, sit through classes full of information she now already 'knows', go home to empty spacious house and wait for visit from dead little sister Riley. Even though it isn't what it used to be, Ever's life is as calm as she can make it. Then Damen arrives. Hot and lusted after by the whole student body for his Italian good looks. And despite the hoodie and mood swings he still likes Ever.
Damen seems hot and cold toward Ever. The touch of his hand makes all of the psychic noise go away and she feels normal again. Eventually Ever learns Damen's story. He is immortal and he has been searching for her.....his lost love. Ever is faced with letting Damen go and resuming her life...making it as normal as possible or sticking with Damen and choosing to possibly never see her family again in heaven.

So.......I was sucked in. I am now officially obsessed with immortal love of all kinds. I now really want to read the next book in this series......Blue Moon which will be released on July 7th.

Rating 5 Yes I will read this again........and now I have to buy it because I borrowed it from my neighbor. Love true/soul mate love.........I really do. I am in love with love.

Rating PG 13 Ever takes to alcoholism for a brief time when she realizes that when she is toasted she can't hear the thoughts of others or see their auras. Also she and Damen get frisky but don't go all of the way. I wouldn't be really happy to have my teen reading something like this that gave them the same kind of desires however it is probably clean compared to many teens real lives. So even though this is a young adult series I would hesitate to recommend it to a young teen..........but mom's go right ahead and get your fix.

The Girl Who Could Fly

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester

This sweet little book was recommended by my neighbor and Stephenie Meyer. It brought to mind The Mysterious Benedict Society/X-men/with a dash of Little House.

Piper is born to a straight laced up tight farm family. She is their only child, born late in life. Not long after Piper is born, the McClouds discover that she is not as 'normal' as they are. First Piper can float and hover. By the time she is nine she learns she can fly. Once this discovery is made by the whole farming community, Piper is whisked away to a school for 'special children with special talents' where she can be kept safe.

Once in the new safe place, things don't go how you think they would. Instead of fostering their special abilities, they do the mundane. Why? It takes time but Piper finally makes friends and they help her shee what kind of 'special' place she is really in.

Sweet story that I think my nine year old would love. Also entertaining enough with foreshadowing and acceptance dilemmas that it also held me captive. I love to pick up a good clean book and this surely fit the bill.

Rating 4 Good story, good characters, not super fast paced.

Rating G Clean