Gone from RB, but never done with the reading....

For future updates, please join my reading community on Goodreads.com. Search for me: Doreen Fritz, and you'll continue to see my book reviews. . . .

Happy reading. And it WAS great to be a bulldog!

Finishing a Trilogy

In Timelock, David Klass finishes his futuristic warning about the eventual destruction of our planet due to human's careless and selfish habits. Jack (Jair) meets his parents after time-traveling to the future. But the final battle against the Dark Lord must be fought and won in order to change the otherwise inevitable extinction of all plant life and of the human species. And Jack must decide two things: in which time he belongs (the one in which he was born (future), or the one in which he grew up), and the woman with whom he will spend his life (P.J, his high school girlfriend, or Eko, the ninja priestess from the future). Will Jack accept his destiny? Klass did a great job of creating a deep, believable, and inspiring trilogy. And each of the three individual stories stands strongly on its own while continuing to develop the running thread of the environmental disaster story. 3 out of 4 stars.

A Successful Sequel

Sequels get a bad rap. Especially if they're in a series of more than two - the second one is often seen as the weak link, just a placeholder til the creator gets to the "big finish." This book breaks that mold, though I had my doubts in the first couple of chapters. (Jack's and Gitmo's never-ending smart-aleck bantering seemed forced, and got to be annoying). Whirlwind continues the story of Jack Danielsen, who in Firestorm discovered that he was sent from the future because he is the only one able to save the world from an ecological disaster. His "parents" (actually just people who posed as his parents and raised him in a small Pennsylvania town) were killed by superhuman people from the future who came back to stop him. But others came back, too, and they taught Jack about his powers and prepare him for the battles ahead. These partners included a talking dog named Gitmo and a beautiful martial arts expert named Eko. Firestorm ended after a nearly fatal, but ultimately successful battle with Dargon, the bad guy in this story.

In Whirlwind, Jack , who has been on the move since the end of Book #1, returns to his hometown to apologize to his girlfriend P.J. for just disappearing without notice. But he finds out that she has been kidnapped by the Dark Lord, the father of Jack's old nemesis Dargon. To find and rescue her, Jack must follow the trail to the Amazonian rain forest, where the Dark Lord is engaged in an all-out effort to eliminate the rain forest, thus destroying the Earth's atmosphere. When Jack's meditative trances transport him to the place where P.J. is being held captive, he sees that the Dark Lord has the ability to transform himself into a huge tarantula that tortures and torments his prisoners. Jack discovers that in this battle, he is not destined to be the "chosen one" who will save the day. Instead, the Dark Lord speaks of a wizard with unimaginable powers.

By the end of this book, I was anxious to get started on #3, Timelock. 3 out of 4 stars!

Monsters and Mind Games

Fire is a monster. She can read minds and can often change or guide another person's thoughts. She is also an 18-year-old girl. In the world created by author Kristin Cashore (author of Graceling), there are both animal and human monsters. All are feared or hunted and collected, but never accepted as "normal." But Fire has been raised by Lord Brocker, alongside his adopted son Archer. As Fire and Archer have grown into their late teens, they have moved beyond friendship into love, but Archer has grown to be jealous of everyone that Fire even looks at or talks to.

They live in an agricultural area in the north of The Dells, a country on the brink of war. Both Gentian and Mydogg, rulers of nearby lands, are plotting (separately or together?) invasions. Cansrel (Fire's father), who had worked side-by-side with the previous king, Nax, had also been a monster, but he was a tyrant who enjoyed torturing others and wielding his cruel power -- a reputation that horrified Fire.

Now, with the threat of war looming, Fire accompanies Archer to the capital city to help the Dells by using her powers. There has been a threat made against the king, Nax's son Nash, and Fire's task is to find out who's behind it and to stop the murder. Nash rules with the assistance of his brother Brigan, the commander of the royal armies. Spies and thieves own the roads, and thrive on the undercurrents of intrigue that threaten the peace. The land is riddled with tunnels that provide shelter for the homeless, and secret passage for messengers traveling between various plotting factions. One of the dangers that Fire uncovers is the presence of a new kind of monster, who seems able to remove people's memories, remove their natural inclinations to defend themselves, and even force them to kill. Can Fire find this "monster" in time to prevent disaster?

The book is fast-paced with lots of action and suspense. There is also quite a bit of romance, as more and more characters and their ever-increasing relationships are introduced. And family relationships (parent-child, sister-brother) as well as varying levels of friendships are also explored. The author is on a roll with her descriptions of these stories of fantasy and adventure.

Teen lives (and re-lives!) her own "Groundhog Day"

Sam has it all - the perfect (to DIE for!) boyfriend, three wonderful best-friends, and the privilege that is bestowed on all popular kids to get the best of everything offered at school -- the best cafeteria table, the right to act silly in the hallway without fearing ridicule from others, the look-the-other-way from teachers, and -- best of all -- the assurance that they will get LOTS of roses delivered to them on Cupid Day from all their admirers. Today, February 12th, is the day -- in honor of Cupid Day, Sam and her friends Lindsay, Elody, and Allie have all dressed identically in fur-trimmed red tank tops and sexy black mini-skirts. On the ride to school the girls are all alternately teasing, encouraging, and offering advice about tonight, when Sam is finally going to be the last of them to lose her virginity. Throughout the day Sam interacts with other kids, teachers, and each encounter builds up to a party at Kent's house that night where her boyfriend, the dork who has liked her since they were kids together, and Lindsay's enemy (whom they all have labelled "Psycho") show up. On the way home from the party, with Lindsay driving, there is an accident, and Sam dies. But she wakes up the next morning, and it's February 12th again. Sam remembers vividly everything that happened yesterday - including the horrible accident. But nobody else is aware that the day is repeating. Sam sets out to do things differently, so that she won't die this time. And things do turn out differently for some of the people in the story -- but not for Sam. She ends up re-living her life 7 times, and each day is very different from the ones that came before. Although I thought I would find the "Groundhog Day" theme tiresome, this story really grew on me. Sam's problems with her friends, family, and boyfriend rang true, and I loved how she learned and grew throughout the story. You will leave this book with a wonderful feeling in your soul.

On the road again . . .

The book opens with a young boy (12) waiting sleeplessly in his room for his mom and her new boyfriend to come back. He is all packed, ready for a trip across the country. But this isn't a fun vacation -- his mother is sending him on a Greyhound bus from Stockton, California to Altoona, Pennsylvania. Chain-smoking and impatient, she can't wait to dump him so that she can run off to get married (again) without being bogged down by her son. Sebastien is shy, he stutters, he knows nothing about bus schedules or transfers, and he begins the trip with only the $35 his mother reluctantly gives him. His inner voice expresses the anger and frustration with his mom, but he has gotten used to keeping his thoughts to himself, as he remembers beatings, ridicule, and other consequences of speaking up. Somehow Sebastien is taken under the wing of Marcus, an ex-con also traveling cross-country, and the two of them share adventures, dangers, and a growing knowledge of how to work the Greyhound system -- where to sit on the bus, where to eat at the stops, and how to deal with the drivers. This book has been compared to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I would agree. Marcus is like Jim in his wisdom (or is it just life experience and street smarts?) Some of the best parts come during the conversations that Sebastien and Marcus share about life, troubles, literature, the future, and so on. It's also enjoyable to read about the "world of Greyhoune" (history!), and the places they visit - each stop seems to have its own culture, which the author represents in the characters these two encounter along the way. A question I had at the end - is this autobiographical? (the question sparked by the photo of a young boy, dated "circa 1981" accompanied by the specific dates that are spread throughout the book. Hmmmm.....) All in all, this was a great "vacation read," and a quality representative of the "road trip" genre. I would give this book 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

People are the same everywhere

(This book takes place in contemporary Jeddah, a coastal city in Saudi Arabia.) Nouf ash-Shrawi, 16, disappears 3 days before her wedding. A truck and a camel disappear, too. She comes from a wealthy family, and her brother Othman asks his old friend Nayir, a desert guide, to find her. After a couple of weeks Nouf's body is found. When Nayir goes to the coroner's office to claim the body for the family, he overhears an argument between two people: the coroner and a lab assistant, Katya. Nayir, devout and modest, is horrified to see a woman who is unveiled working where she might be with men. But when the police officially close Nouf's case, citing an accidental death by drowning, Nayir and Katya end up working together to track down some unexplained details - things that Nayir couldn't understand about the crime scene, and things that Katya noticed during the autopsy that are being swept under the rug.

What I loved about this book was the realistic way it portrayed the lives of both men and women in a modern and changing Mideastern world -- in a country that is caught between preserving the "old ways" that have identified their culture and the new ideas brought through commerce and communication with the rest of the world. What is one to think about a woman who doesn't recognize that those traditions and rules that were intended to protect her, but rather sees them as stifling? Nayir, who has no experience with women (he is an only child who was raised by his elderly uncle), feels that he is putting his soul at risk as he pursues the truth for the sake of his good friend Othman -- even if it means violating society's rules about men and women being alone together.

This book develops its characters well as it describes the culture and society without judgement. It's also a page-turning mystery. If you like this book, you will probably also like its sequel, City of Veils.

4 out of 4 stars!

A Classic War Protest Novel

I remember loving Vonnegut when I read him in college, so I was eager to get back to him. This was a quick read, but not as wonderful as I had remembered. I agree with other reviewers that this is "threaded with compassion, and behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement." But - he made his points to a fault. Especially irritating was his repeated "so it goes" statement every time someone (or a group of people) died. Although "cute" at the beginning, it brought a feeling of "oh, no, will he say it AGAIN?" dread each time a death was forthcoming. And death there was, as this novel tells about the bombing destriction of Dresden, which was so thorough and horrific that it has been compared to Hiroshima in its brutality. The main character, Billy, lived through the event -- and, in fact, many others in which everyone around him died while he survived. He re-lives the experience through the wonders of time-travel, which he learns from the aliens who kidnap him and display him in a zoo -- the Tralfamadorians. I admired the creativity and humor that permeated throughout the novel, and sympathized with the moral intentions of the author. But Billy was just a doofus of a main character. Read this for its historical perspective (a 1960's look at World War II). 3 out of 4 stars

International Woman of Mystery - at age 15!

Ally Carter has done it again! Her previous series (Gallagher Girls) involved a private girls' school that trained its students to be spies. This mile-a-minute story follows a girl who is in a family of high-stakes thieves. Like, they steal things like Monet paintings. Ready for a more normal life, Kat (Katarina) had created a secret identity so that she could enroll in a prestigious boarding school. But now somebody has set her up (there is actual video of her somehow putting the headmaster's car on the fountain in the quad), and she is expelled. At the same time, someone has set her father up to take the fall for the theft of five long-"lost" paintings -- from one of the most notorious evil mobsters in the world. And that guy has threatened to kill Kat's father - and everyone else Kat loves - if the paintings aren't returned. So -- it's time to get the gang back together. Kat assembles her old friends (fellow thieves and cons) and her cousin Gabrielle to pull the most daring of stunts. They need to steal the paintings from the place the REAL thief hid them -- a highly secure museum in London. And besides the danger involved in the job, Kat has to deal with her growing feelings for her billionaire friend (potential boyfriend?) Hale.
This book has earned 4 out of 4 stars!

A not-so-surprise ending

Yes, spoilers here. So don't read on if you like the suspense of a slowly-revealed mystery. But then, that's my biggest objection to this book -- her usual twist at the end is such a disappointment. This novel introduces us to Jacob, an older teenager with Asberger's Syndrome who has been accused of murdering the college student who tutored him on handling social situations. Jacob's fixation on forensic science has led him to follow local and national cases, to conduct his own tests, to set up "crime scenes" at home for his mom and brother to "study," and to insist on a regular daily viewing of a CSI-type TV show during which he records observations in several notebooks. This "hobby" brings him to the attention of the local police and leads to his arrest after the murder.

Jacob's mother Emma, divorced and employed as an advice columnist in the local paper until forced to quit after Jacob's arrest, hires a VERY young and new attorney, Oliver, to defend him. Throughout the book we readers are well-educated about Jacob's "condition" - and about the hardships that his mother has endured in trying to ensure for Jacob a life as normal as possible. But now his only hope lies in claiming that Asbergers is the cause of his loss of control -- for while his mother doesn't believe he is capable of murder, she apparently somehow thinks that he is guilty, and will try anything to keep him out of prison. Jacob's younger brother Theo has not had a normal childhood, either -- the whole family's routines, eating habits, etc. revolve around Jacob's unpredictable tantrums, quirks, and preferences.

Although it went on in minute educational detail about Asberger's Syndrome, the descriptions made it seem as if Jacob's traits represent the full spectrum of AS -- whereas I know that the syndrome can take a wide range of characteristics, and can vary greatly from person to person. Picoult obviously had a reason to write this novel, and as always her characters are painted clearly and deeply -- but the mystery itself was a disappointment. I would give this book only 2 out of 4 stars.

2 for the price of 1!

Two wonderful young adult authors collaborated to write this book, in alternating chapters, each author covering a boy named Will Grayson.

John Green's character lives in Evanston and is a timid but intelligent and well-read friend of an outgoing and huge boy (who happens to be gay) nicknamed Tiny. David Levithan's character lives in Naperville and is an "angry young man" who is coming to the knowledge that he is gay. Though a girl named Maura is always trying to draw him out, and would probably like to be more than a friend to him, his best friend is someone from Ohio that he met online, Isaac, with whom he spends hours chatting in IM.

The Evanston-based Will likes a girl named Jane who hangs out with Tiny - but he's too afraid of rejection to take a chance on asking her out. Tiny has written a musical, and gets both the Gay/Straight Alliance and the Student Council at school to sponsor it.

Somehow all of these characters eventually meet in downtown Chicago as their lives surprisingly intertwine. The book shows off both authors' strengths, and fills the bill as a typical young adult novel caught up in the angst that both Will Graysons experience as they try to come to terms with what life throws at them, and with who they are.

3 out of 4 stars