Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1)

If you have ever needed external motivation to beef up your food storage......here it is.  It heightened my naturally high anxiety level to 'frantic'.  I plan to begin stock piling wood, asprin, batteries, fuel, canned fruit and veggies, and canned chicken, like nobody's business.  And I am beginning to think that my vaulted ceiling was a mistake.  It won't hold in enough heat when the ash comes.  I'm getting ahead of myself.....

Teenager Miranda is your run of the mill girl.  She worries about blog stalking her Olympic crush. She's a little shallow. She wants less homework and worries about her changing friendships.  Then a once a life time meteor collision with the moon goes from block party atmosphere to apocalyptic.  The moon is pushed closer to the Earth causing it's gravitation to spur one natural disaster after another.  No longer is Miranda worried about which sport to play or the fact that she is growing apart from her childhood friends.  Survival is at the forefront.  Sacrifice, starvation, desolation, and death quickly take the place of free spirited American life.  Miranda captures it all in journal entries.

This is a superb work of post-apocalyptic fiction.  It is so believeable that you can't decide whether to keep reading or start hoarding.  It is very simply written and a tad slow at the beginning.  The simplicity makes it scarier on one hand.  The sense of desperation and grueling day to day survival is vivid.  And then sometimes I felt like the simplicity also took away.  I didn't get the sense of urgency that I think would exist during a crisis.  That took it down a point for me.  Also, I am now realizing......hello! Where was your weapon stock pile? How were they going to defend their wood, asprin, and canned chicken for Pete's sake. That part is so unrealistic I can't believe I forgot it was one of the point deductors. And I just have to put in my 2 cents....I realize the author can write any old thing she wants and if I were to author a book I could splatter my opinions everywhere....but I didn't like the Conservative slamming, from President bashing (which granted I would do if the President in the book I wrote were a so Liberal he was suffocating) to making Christians look like Kool-Aid sipping nut jobs. I think I may have been more forgiving if this book wasn't aimed at a younger audience. Just my opinion.



Rating 4
Rating PG 13  Crisis situations, death, destruction, scarey situations, talk of promiscuity.

A Great And Terrible Beauty

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Gemma is left at a Victorian England boarding school after she witnesses the death of her mother in a vision.  She quickly realizes that she is an outsider in a place she used to long for.  Transplanted from India into a group of hostile mean girls, in a society she once ached for but now regrets how her desires came about.  Gemma is paired with Ann, another outcast.  Her quick wit, snarkiness and eventually her powers to see beyond,  cause the elite girls to see her as an asset.  The girls form a secret society using Gemma's supernatural powers.  They begin to realize the power they are capable of.....power to have anything they desire. 

Beautiful title, lovely book cover, likeable and entertaining story.  The drawback for me are the vision scenarios...I didn't get into them, or maybe I did. I didn't like the feeling of confusion, darkness, dreaminess.  It didn't make sense to me or wasn't concrete enough for me to grasp.  The lurking evil wasn't really explained well enough for it to feel as truly menacing as it should have been.  I think the book was capable of being much scarier which would have given it the substance needed to make it a great book.

Rating 3.5
Rating PG 13  Murder, supernatural.....scarey elements, sensuality.

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Macabre......ugh, I love that word.  It says so many things.  It smells sweet like dead leaves.  To say I was stoked to read this book.....so beautiful with a headstone on the cover, is an understatement.  Sadly, so sadly I ended up reading it in snippets.  That is a horrible, horrible way to read anything except a text book.  I like to devour my books.  I digress.......I read it in snippets while I struggled everyday not to hate the school system and the State social workers while I sat behind my desk furtively feeding a child that came to school hungry.  Sorry, I am flashing back and possibly sideways.  I did not saturate myself in the book in a way that the book was due.  So my take on it may not be very honest.

It turned out to be exceedingly witty and crafty.  Bod's (short for Nobody) family was murdered when he was yet an infant.  He was lucky enough to toddle from the house and into the nearest graveyard.  This is where the little tyke ended up living out his childhood, protected and raised by ghosts.  Could there be a better story?  There were times I felt the chill of the graveyard.  I was comforted by the ghostly relationships.  There were thought provoking moments.  I could clap!

Yet, I am not going to give this book a 5.  If I per chance had read this in a better state of mind....or in one sitting, I may have felt more immersed and connected.  This is possibly not Gaiman's fault....but this is the place where my opinion counts....so....

Rating 4
Rating PG  I didn't find it terrifying.  There was murder.  I don't recall any sexual aspects (it has been at least a month since I read this book) and there were some scary-ish happenings since it was about ghosts and partially living beings.

Blue is for Nightmares

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Stacey has been having nightmares of something horrible happening to her roomate, Drea.  Even worse for Stacey is that the nightmares are accompanied by bed wetting.  Stacey uses the spells handed down to her by her grandmother to help make the nightmares clearer.  At the same time, Stacey is falling for Drea's old boyfriend. 
The teens aattend a boarding school.  There is very little adult interaction with the kids.  The story was fun and fast to read, but lacked any depth.  By the end, it really fell flat for me.  I didn't think the reason for Drea being threatened, and for the nightmares, held a lot of water.  There were no adults or authority figures to help or guide, which seemed a little off.  Also I felt like some of the language was strong for the target audience.

Rating 3 Fun fluff
Rating PG 13 Language and sexual situatuions

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Mary lives in the Forest of Hands and Teeth.  She lives in a village within the confine of fences that keep her and her village safe from the Unconsecrated.  The Unconsecrated have overtaken everything since the Return.  Mary wonders if there is anything outside of the forest, if there is anyone left.
Mary's mother has tempted her with stories of the ocean and now she cannot rest.  Nothing can satisfy her desire to see what is beyond the forest.......to make it to the salty ocean.  Even the love of one boy, the exquisitely haunting desire for another, the mysterious threats of the Sisterhood, or the danger of becoming Unconsecrated herself, nothing is enough to stop her need to go beyond.

I finished this book very quickly, but I am still haunted by the acute pain left by Travis (Mary's love).  Travis is betrothed to Cass, Mary's bestfriend.  He is also the brother of Harry, Mary's betrothed.  Although the book is about zombies that have come about by a virus at some point in the future, it still has the feeling of being in the past.  Between the fear for their lives and the desire for something Mary can't have, the book was gripping, and tore at my heart.

Book quotes that I LOVE.....
Mary says....."Tonight my body pulses with awareness as I kneel by his bed, our fingers intertwined.  We've been sharing each other's breath for what seems like weeks now even though it's only been a few moments.  It's as if there is infinity between our lips and we will never actually touch.  Like math, where dividing by half can last for eternity."

"Suddenly he doesn't feel like my friend but like something more and I have to force myself to remember that he is not mine to desire."    (ugh.......so painful!)

"In the last few days I had already begun to imagine what Travis's and my children would look like, how their tiny hands would curl around my finger.  I had already dreamed an entire life between Travis and me.  And now that was the only life that we would ever lead together-the one in my dreams."

"It is not about surviving.  It should be about love.  When you know love.. that's what makes this life worth it.  When you live with it every day.  Wake up with it, hold on to it during the thunder and after a nightmare.  When love is your refuge from the death that surrounds us all and when it fills you so tight that you can't express it."

Rating 5  This was a good book.  It may not be super fantastic but it still left me feeling it after more than one day so.......I have to give it credit.
Rating PG  It's totally clean despite the desire thick enough to cut with a knife.  The zombies (Unconsecrated) are trying to kill everyone, so the threat is a little scary.

Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3)

Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3) by Richelle Mead

Book three gets even darker for Rose.  She realizes that she might be taking some of the dark feelings that are conjured in Lissa when she uses magic.  It is nearing graduation and Rose is sent out to do her field test.  Instead of guarding Lissa, she ends up being Christian's guard (Lissa's social misfit boyfriend).  Rose's anger begins to get the best of her.  To make matters worse she starts seeing ghosts.  Having made her first Strigoi kills have only made her closer to the world of the dead.
When a huge group of Strigoi attack the Academy, Rose is faced with losing what she has waited so long for (or at least it felt like it) ....Dimitri.
I loved this book just as much as book two.  Rose has more depth and the psychological toll that it takes to put someone else's needs before your own.....always....is delved into.  Her friendships with other characters and her mother, play a larger role this time around.  And of course the romantic tension keeps building. Very bitter sweet.
Rating 4  Still not top notch lit. but I really did go for the wanting what you can't have aspect.
Rating R teen sex, alcoholism, violence, tense and scary.

Unhallowed Ground

Unhallowed Ground by Heather Graham

Sarah has recently returned to her home town and purchased the home she has coveted since her youth.  The historic home is in one of the oldest cities in Florida, and is ripe with ghost lore and history.  Sarah finds herself in the middle of a ghost story and possibly the target of a serial killer.  The walls of her beloved home are filled with dead bodies from ages past. Her nights are haunted by a historical ghost that just happens to look like the handsome detective Caleb Anderson (yum). Her days are filled helping Caleb search historical records that some how seem connected to the disappearance of young women in present time.

I had a fun time with this book.  It was a quick and easy read.  The setting was fantastic and made me want to head down to Florida (which I have never wanted to do before).  The historical aspect along with the thrill of the grisly and ghostly findings was the perfect mix.  Not to mention the heated romance between Sarah and Caleb.  Total sucker for a little cop love.

Rating 4  Certainly not top notch lit, but fun.
Rating R Things eventually heat up between Sarah and Caleb.  Definitely R rated love.  Danger, murder, ghosts, descriptions of dead bodies.

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.

The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm by Kenneth Tarr

This is an end of days book. Just the kind of book I should never read........mostly because I will never have built my food storage to its maximum requirement.

Steven is raising his children alone in Utah County. He lost his wife to a polygamist group in Southern Utah. His brother John is obsessed with dooms day preaching........and is therefore prepared. There are earthquakes, dam breaks, floods, tornadoes, plagues, wars, nuclear bombs, asteroids, tsunamis, break down of government, martial law, the mark of the beast, weapons removed from all Americans, the rise of the Antichrist, the desperate need for food storage and bomb shelters, and the need to know how to build a handcart. Yes this book has it all.
After natural disaster, plague, riot and death, Steven and his brothers are called to take the first company of Saints back to Missouri. Steven also finds a new wife from his new ward. She helps infiltrate the polygamist group that kidnaps one of his children.

I was pretty entertained........and scared witless. All I can say is I hope the end of the world is nothing like this, or I hope it is ages away because I don't want to be there. Steven and his family, although stricken with many trials don't seem to have the anxiety factor that I would feel. They get along fairly well.
In some ways the book seemed over the top with doom, but I guess if the world is going to end there is probably more than one way to do it. Sure it isn't the best lit out there but all in all I was truly entertained and plan to read the second volume to see what happens when the Saints move east.
Rating 4
Rating PG The book is clean of filth like sex and bad language but the natural disaster alone is terrifying.

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

In this edition of A Clockwork Orange, the last chapter is added, which was original to the British book, but taken out of the America version.

The language in this book is a mix of Russian, English and invented slang.

Alex is a teen (Nadsat ......or Russian numbers 11-19) hoodlum with a gang of other boys. Society is over run by the likes of these boys. They spend time in bars, getting high, street fighting and committing heinous crimes against society. Alex likes to shoot up and then listen to classical music. He hallucinates and gets all worked up.

Alex is the leader of his small gang. He at times feels threatened by the other members and beats them up.

The boys beat up an old man coming from the library. They go out into the country and break into a house. They knock around the husband and tear up the book he is writing (A Clockwork Orange) and rape his wife. The final act that puts Alex in prison; the boys go to an older, wealthy part of town where they plan a break in. They want to steal goods from the home. They are unable to gain access through the front door so Alex climbs into an upper story window. By now the old person living there has called the police. Alex comes downstairs and eventually knocks the elderly in the head with a statue. She later dies, solidifying Alex's time in prison. As the police arrive, Alex's buddies chain him up and leave him because he beat them up earlier.

Alex spends two years in prison. (He is committed to a fourteen year term.) He plays the music on a stereo in the prison chapel. He is housed with many other men in one cell. Finally he beats up one man for laying on the same bed. The man dies and the government decides they must do something about the over crowding. They use Alex as a guinea pig in their new treatment.

Alex is taken to some new buildings on the prison grounds. They tell him he will be cured of doing evil and returned to society within two weeks. He gets very excited. He is shown to a nice room that he doesn't have to share. He is given good food and what the doctors tell him are vitamin shots because he is malnourished. Then he is taken to watch movies. He is strapped to a chair and his eyelids are held open. Alex is made to watch graphic violence with classical music. The 'vitamin' shots make him ill. He is conditioned by the government to become ill at the mere thought of violence. When he is able to become ill without the medication and only violence, he is returned to society.

Alex goes home and finds his parent's have rented out his room to someone else. He wanders the streets, goes to a bar, gets high. When he comes down from the high he is suicidal. He can't even think of ending his own life without becoming sick from the violent images in his head. He decides to go to the library and find out a way to kill himself without violence. At the library he runs into the old man that he and his friends beat up on the streets years ago. The old man attacks him along with the other old men in the library. The police come. Alex sees that one of his old gang and one of his enemies have become policemen. They take him out to the county and beat the tar out of him and leave him there. Alex wanders until he just happens upon the house where he and his friends beat the husband and raped the wife. He stumbles to the door and is taken in by the man. The man recognizes Alex from the newspaper article about the government's experiment. He gives Alex food and a place to sleep. He does not realize Alex is the person that broke into his home over two years ago. Alex and his friends would wear masks when committing some of their crimes. The man also named Alexander tells Alex that he will call some of his friends and they will use him as an example that the government has gone too far in taking the will of a person away. The friends come and take Alex to an apartment where they lock him in. By now, because of some of the things Alex has said, Alexander has identified him as one of the people that raped his wife which lead to her death. Alex falls asleep on the bed and wakes to some of his favorite music playing in the next apartment. Unfortunately for Alex he is now conditioned to become violently ill at the sound of this music because it was used during the graphic scenes he was forced to watch. He cannot escape the sound and gets sicker and sicker. Finally he throws himself from the window. The fall is not enough to kill him. He ends up in the hospital.

The government sees that they have gone too far with their experiment and 'cure' Alex, or return him to his former state. His parents come and tell him he may come home. He goes back to his old life and forms a new gang.

The final chapter, formerly left out of the American version; Alex is out with his new gang and begins to feel depressed. They want to go out and cause harm and chaos but Alex doesn't feel like it. The other boys go about their business and Alex goes out for some tea and milk. He sees Pete a member of his old band of friends. Pete only nineteen but newly married to a lovely girl. Alex and Pete talk for a minute. Pete and his wife leave to go to a party. Alex begins to realize that he is not depressed, at the ripe old age of eighteen he is just maturing out of his violent stage. Now he thinks he should begin looking for a wife so they can have a baby.

I loved this book. At first the language threw me off, but you figure it out quickly. (There is a Nadsat Glossary if your book doesn't contain one.) The violence is terrible but strikes a chord. I liked the controversy that it put forth about how far to go to 'cure' society of its many ills. I truly thought about this because of the socialism that is ever creeping nearer under the guise of 'government help'. Honestly, even though I know it is wrong to take someones will away........I was really glad that they did it to Alex. He was a beast.

The book became a little far fetched for me towards the end. The fact that Alex just happens to show up at the same location he committed a crime years ago and the victim and he form some kind of relationship....felt a little contrived. Also the fact that he was repaid with violence by just about everyone he crossed was a bit over the top. And finally his turn towards good by growing out of violence? In some sense most people mature and grow out of some of their youthful mistakes but I'm not sure about growing out of violence to the degree.

Rating 5 I totally recommend this book, BUT...........

Rating R violence, rape, language, drug use, murder.

Speak Softly. She Can Hear

Speak Softly. She Can Hear by Pam Lewis

I can't even give this book a star. I usually never back down from a book but this was such trash that I couldn't spend any more time when there are such great things out there to read. The characters were disgusting, loser, manipulative, nasty freaks. The plot was sick. I thought it sounded intriguing from the blurb, but it didn't really give a good idea about what the book was about.

Homebody

Homebody by Orson Scott Card

Don Lark is about to sink all the money he has into the grand Bellamy mansion. He plans to renovate the place while living there for a year, then sell and make some money. Don has had some hard past years with a divorce and then the death of his baby girl at the hand of his drug induced ex.
He meets realtor Cindy when he checks out the dying mansion. They begin a passionate couple of days.........of kissing until Don realizes that Cindy is not the girl for him, after she reveals a past shame. He also realizes that he might be able to date again despite the fact that Cindy has her own problems that he can't fix.
Don meets the Weird Sisters, his ancient next door neighbors. They try to tell him to knock the house down and hint at some kind of evil lying in wait next door.
As Don brushes off the warnings and begins the renovation, he finds Sylvie, a squatter, living in his new purchase. Sylvie bugs Don but he feels the need to take care of her. He lets her remain in the mansion as he starts the demolition. Weird little things begin happening that Don attributes to Sylvie. He is also blackmailed by a lawyer and the former homeowner with the help of a nosey realtor. In order to protect Cindy and himself........although nothing happened between then, Don pays $20,000 to get the lawyer off his back.
During renovations Don gets closer to Sylvie and begins to care for her. She too has a secret to tell Don. She thinks that she accidentally murdered her roommate in the tunnel leading from the basement to the gully in back. Sylvie and Don go into the tunnel and find the body..........turns out *SPOILER* the body is Sylvie. The roommate murdered her and the person Don is falling in love with is a ghost, trapped in the house by her shame, guilt and sadness.
Don goes next door to get more information about the house from the elderly neighbors. He finds them fading away. As he fixes the house, it gets stronger....as was Sylvie. Extraordinarily Don finds that the old women escaped from the house years ago when they were whores and the house was a bordello........it still has a hold on them and as the house grows stronger, they are weakening.
Don decides to find Sylvie's killer and make her face Sylvie. Now that Sylvie knows she didn't cause harm to her former roommate.........Lissy she is fading from this life and Don is desperate to save the only woman he has loved in years. Lissy meanwhile has been leading the life she took from Sylvie..........including using her identity.
Lissy comes looking for Don once he makes a connection with her. She needs to cover up her past transgression........killing Sylvie, by killing Don, the only person that knows what really happened. Lissy comes to the house and is met by the fading ghost of Sylvie instead of Don. In some magical way Lissy's body has taken on the name of Sylvie because that is what it has been called for ten years. It wants to be reunited with the spirit that goes with the name. As Sylvie and Lissy fight their last battle, the body and spirit touch and the spirits of the women trade places. Sylvie now has a body! Lissy is sucked into the need of the house. For Don to save Sylvie and help her keep her body from the disembodied Lissy, he must break down the load bearing wall of the house (it's spine) to weaken and kill the house. Once that is done, Don and Sylvie (with a new body) escape next door. They find the old women regaining strength. The old Bellamy mansion is finally destroyed and flattened. Don and Sylvie plan on getting married and the old women leave their house to the new couple. Now that the Weird Sisters are free from the pull of the ancient house they want to get away.
Card takes his time getting to the point, but he entertains enough that you don't mind too much! I was right at the point where Sylvie finds out the dead body in the tunnel is hers and I was challenged to a game of air hockey by my 18 month old. It killed me to have to square off with the baby instead of find out what happened..........but duty called. I was fully entertained by this book. Probably not the best Card book but a good enough read.
Rating 3.5 The story doesn't get super hot until at least half way through.
Rating PG 13 language and some heavy making out.

Breathe a Ghost Story

Breathe a Ghost Story by Cliff McNish

Jack (what an awesome name!) is a severely asthmatic boy living with his mum in an old haunted farm house. Jack is able to sense things from objects and has been touching things to gather the stories of the farm house he just moved into. Soon he realizes that he is not only able to sense things he can actually see things. He begins to see the Ghost Mother. A woman that had lived in the house long ago. She and her daughter lived there. The Ghost Mother did not go to the great beyond but has stayed in the house. There are also ghost children. The children have come into the house at different times and are different ages. The haunting gets pretty creepy. The Ghost Mother has evil intentions. The descriptions of the Nightmare Passage, where you go if you don't go to heaven, are frightening. The Ghost Mother steals the energy of the ghost children and this leaves you feeling semi violated. She also possess Jack's real mother at one point.
Rating 4 I did like the book quite a bit. I wasn't really scared, but I can see that it would be scary for the age group it is aimed at.....4-8 grade.
Rating PG Clean language but scary and the scenes of stealing energy seemed creepy and violating but not really violent

Blind Side

Hmm, Strangely small picture.........

Blind Side by Clair M. Poulson

The book was about Noletta, a law school student. She is a victim of a random shooting, after stumbling upon a crime scene. After being shot in the head and left to die, she recovers, but is stricken blind. About 2 years later the book continues with Noletta back in law school and living with her guide dog Taffy. (She had Taffy at the time of the shooting. Taffy attacked the shooter, but was not injured herself. Taffy had been Noletta's pet, but was later trained to be her guide dog.) The person that shot Noletta knows she is still alive and tries to find out what she remembers and then kill her. Also, since the dog was a witness, the killer dog naps the dog.

A Salt Lake City detective, Martin, begins working her case.

*Spoiler* He and Noletta become very close as the case begins to climax.

Noletta is also involved with Walton a fellow law student. Creed, Walton's cousin is also vying for the affection of the lovely Noletta.

The book was more interesting than I thought it would be. It was a book club choice, not made by me. These are books that I generally read. I was hoping for one that I wouldn't normally pick up. The writing style is very simple, which bothered me at times. I would find the characters saying things that didn't seem like conversation normal people would have, like I thought they used names too frequently during dialog, instead of either pronouns or not saying the name at all. The dialog was not detracting, but noticeable to me. Also, the author's choice of names cracks me up. Some of them are quirky. I simply attribute that to the author living in rural Utah. Utah seems to have it's own unique names.

Although this is published at LDS fiction, the LDS faith was brought up maybe 3 times and only in passing. It seemed like it was an attempt just to get it published by an LDS publishing house. So if you don't want to read LDS fiction, don't be put off, it really never came up.

Rating 4 Entertaining enough. I liked the main character and the cop (of course). I enjoyed the characters enough that I would have liked to know more about them as time went on.

Rating G I am again, glad to be able to pick up a book that I know will be clean.

The Thieves of Heaven

The Thieves of Heaven by Richard Doetsch
This book is about Micheal St. Pierre, a thief with morals. The opening is enough to reel you in. He gets caught thieving, even though he is a great thief, because he stops to help the victim of another crime. Michael is later released from prison and has sworn off thieving. He opens his own business and life is going well for he and his gorgeous wife Mary. Events quickly turn for the worst when Mary is diagnosed with terminal cancer and Michael has no way to pay for the treatments. In steps August Finster, tempting Michael with a heist and enough money to care for Mary. Michael carries off the heist and finds that he has stolen the keys to heaven for the devil himself. Michael then tries to return the keys to the rightful owners, the Catholic church, as his wife's life slips away. Time is running out because if Mary dies before Heaven's gates are unlocked again, she will remain in purgatory for eternity and her soul will be lost.
Very entertaining in a Dan Brown kind of way. I really enjoyed the premise. It was completely fictitious and running completely against my own beliefs, but once I made myself stop comparing the two things I was ready for the ride. I was very entertained and loved the characters......Michael, Mary, (not the devil so much), and Paul (Michael's best friend and parole officer. Who doesn't just LOVE cops? I can't think of anybody!!), and Simon the sniper priest (A good sniper priest really comes in handy when dealing with evil.)
Rating 4
Rating PG 16 There was swearing, the F word, and some sexual content.