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!

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!

Like "24" for teens

The Long Way Home, by Andrew Klavan. A Homelanders book.
A thrill a minute, this book reads like a pitch for an action movie. I can see it now -- all the narrow escapes, high speed chases, and the scene where our hero just HAS to go into that dangerous place to get the clue he needs to clear his name. It's all in here. If you like that type of movie, you'll enjoy this book about Charlie, who is on the run, trying to avoid both the police, who want him for murdering his best friend, and the Homelanders, a group of terrorists out to destroy America. They seem to think he was a member of their group who has betrayed them, and now they want him dead. But Charlie can't remember whether he was or wasn't. And he can't remember murdering his friend. In fact, the entire last year has been erased from his memory. To find out what really happened, he must return to his hometown, where he connects with some good friends who believe in him. Including Beth, whom he remembers liking a lot. But he can't remember that they had actually been an "item," which apparently they were. Before his life got so complicated. And dangerous.

One interesting element of this book was that the language was suspenseful but 'clean' -- and there were many references to the values that Charlie holds. He remembers many debates/discussions with his American History teacher, who seemed to constantly challenge Charlie's faith in God, his belief in his country, and his willingness to express his admiration of a good way to live. so, though I wouldn't call this overt Christian fiction, it doesn't try to hide positive values or role models from the reader.

This is the second in a series, which began with The Last Thing I Remember. The 3rd book, The Truth of the Matter, is due out this November.

I give it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

Can't Stop Readin' Those...

As addictive as Jay's potato chips, the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins has gripped RB's reading world. The 1st book in the series was selected as the Eng. 10 summer read, and several sophomore classes are embarked upon a research project based on the 2nd book, Catching Fire. The 3rd and final book in the series, Mockingjay, was just released a couple of weeks ago, and true fans have "flocked" to purchase or borrow it. I myself had to wait for my husband and daughter to finish our copy before getting my turn.

The tone of Mockingjay is different from the first two. While they were based on the to-the-death games imposed on the other 12 districts by the ruling "Capital," there was still an element of adventure and suspense. This third book gets right to the point and doesn't let the reader escape from the absolute control and unrelenting terrorism practiced by the Capital. Yes, people died in the other books, but we weren't slammed in the face with the brutality, torture, and genocide. Mockingjay makes it clear that Collins was writing about war, violence, and totalitarian governments. While The Hunger Games could have been compared to the TV show "Survivor," there is no chance that Mockingjay can be considered light-hearted fun. Still well-written and gripping, though. And the love triangle between Katniss, Gale, and Peeta continues . . .

I give this one 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

Appearances can be deceiving

Yet ANOTHER book using the currently-popular writing style of two stories told concurrently in alternating chapters, which eventually merge as the author slowly reveals the common elements. And though I found myself initially irritated by the style, the story grabbed me, and I found myself staying up late and trying to find stray moments to pick up this book to continue reading.

Each of the two stories is about a mother immersed in the early months of parenthood. Lexie Sinclair (aka Alexandra) is tempestuous, fiercely independent, and bright. At 18, she left Devon for postwar London and was soon deeply involved in the art scene - living in Soho, writing as a critic for a magazine, and deeply in love. Fifty years later Elina is an Finnish artist who just had a baby with her boyfriend Ted. She almost died during delivery, and can't remember anything about her life before the baby. Ted is having his own memory issues -- he is starting to remember disturbing new things about his early childhood.

I love the "period piece" descriptions of 1950's London, the dreamy writing style, and generally the language of the book. The characters came alive, and the story was gripping.

4 out of 4 stars

Gothic Romance and Suspense - with a twist

Kate Morton is an Australian author who has erupted onto the world scene with these wonderful stories of 20th century characters involved in mysteries involving both World Wars, secrets, social position, relationships, and the usual assortment of screwed-up family dynamics.

The Forgotten Garden opens with a little girl being found alone on a dock in Brisbane, Australia in 1907. The dockmaster takes her home until he can find out where she belongs - and he and his wife end up raising her. He finally tells her when she's was 21 that she had been adopted, and years later, after she died, her granddaughter travels to England to try to find out where the grandmother had come from. All she has to go on is a white suitcase with a book of illustrated fairy tales inside, which the little girl was carrying when she was found. There is romance, intrigue, and Dickensian settings.

The House at Riverton tells the story of a former maid in one of the fine country mansions owned and occupied by a family of "landed gentry" in Yorkshire, England. The story is told in flashback as the former maid, now in her 90's, remembers her life for a movie director making a film about the rich family, which was made famous when a prominent poet killed himself at one of their parties -- amid suggestions of a love affair with one daughter, an engagement to another . . . What this old woman remembers about what REALLY happened makes the story, but of course the truth is not revealed until the very end.

Both of these are good books to grab when you're ready to curl up under a blanket, sipping a cup of hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire. Dive in!

Both books earn 3.5 stars out of 4

Visiting an old friend. . .

After seeing the most-recent HP movie (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) last weekend (was I the LAST person in America to see this?!), I re-caught the Hogwarts bug and decided to go on and read the next (and last!) book in the series, in early preparation for next summer's release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I. The first time I read this book, I was kind of confused by all the explanations of the purpose, locations, and ways to destroy the Horcruxes, and then when they got into the Deathly Hallows - the history, powers, and how they could overcome the horcruxes (right?), I gave up and just skimmed for the basic story line. I knew it was to be the last in the series, and wanted to know who would die, who would win the fight between The Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters, whether the stories coming out about Dumbledore were true or not (was he a good guy who loved and protected Harry or a selfish person just using him?), and whether Harry would survive another encounter with Voldemort -- er, I mean, with You-Know-Who. This time through, however, knowing where we're headed in the story, I was able to take my time and revel in the reappearances of characters I had met throughout the series, and to really enjoy the story. I still think the time when they're wandering around trying to figure out what to do next -- and basically doing not much dragged on too long (apparently, Ron agreed, right?) -- but the formula Rowling had set up for each book required that it take an entire school year. So Rowling was stuck. And maybe the lack of action was realistic, building up frustration and allowing the Death Eaters to really take over and establish their regime. I just had always liked the fast-paced action in some of the previous books. But then - knowing this was the last book, I wasn't in a hurry for it to end, either. Basically, I very much enjoyed the return visit to Harry's world. If you haven't taken a trip through that world lately, grab one of these books, sit down with a cup of hot chocolate, and pass a few pleasant and stress-free hours.
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Twists and Turns

Mrs. Duell had reviewed this book so well that I couldn't help but read it -- and am I glad that I did! It is AWESOME! I loved the movie Mystic River, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane -- but loved it with a spine-tingling dread, and aftereffects of reliving certain parts. I had forgotten all of my mixed feelings about Mystic River until I was about 3/4ths of the way through Shutter Island. WOW! I loved the characters - they are so familiar and multi-dimensional. Teddy and Chuck are U.S. Marshalls sent to the island to investigate the disappearance of a woman from this prison/mental institution for the criminally insane. To complicate matters, a hurricane is blowing in. They encounter not just lack of cooperation, but resistance to their questions -- and as time goes on, they begin to suspect that someone is trying to keep them on the island forever. And then the story REALLY goes off in unexpected directions - to my absolute delight. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mind games, suspense, and thrillers.I couldn't put it down.

Rated: 4 out of 4 stars

Favorite Book of 2008 -- what's yours?

Mrs. Duell challenged all the RB teachers to identify their favorite book that they read this past year (don't you just love all the end-of-the-year Best-Of lists?) Believe it or not, I have kept track of all the books I've read this year (and the movies and plays I've seen -- what a nerd, right?) But that list is at home. Nevertheless, it took me only a moment to think of my favorite. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, was at the very top of a long list of great books that I met this past year. It had suspense, drama, well-developed interesting characters, humor, pathos, and a satisfying ending. It was very well written, which captured my admiration -- it's fun to observe how an author structured a book, and to be still surprised by wonderful turns of phrase, delightful word choices, gorgeous passages... So - what it's about - - - Margaret Lea works at her father's rare book shop and hides the pain of her knowledge that her conjoined twin sister died on the day they were born, in the very operation that saved Margaret's life. After she wrote a biography that reveals her understanding of sibling (and specifically twin) relationships, she was contacted by reclusive author Vida Winter to write her biography. Miss Winter has spent a lifetime telling various biographers varying fantastic stories - but she vows that THIS time she'll tell the truth. Margaret combines interviews of Miss Winter with independent investigations. Vida tells about the once-proud Angelfield family from Yorkshire, who lived in an estate now fallen to ruins. There was eccentric and seductive Isabelle, her sadistic brother Charlie, and Isabella’s oddly disturbing twin daughters Adeline and Emmeline. A governess, a doctor, a few devoted servants, an abandoned baby, and a streak of madness and murder run through Angelfield. What do these characters have to do with Vida Winter? Finding out will keep you pasted to the pages of this wonderful novel. Grab it for a cold winter's day -- or couple of days. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.

4 out of 4 stars

Suspense -- and empathy, too, in this book

Ms. Hayes' freshman English classes have been reading Stuck in Neutral, by Terry Trueman, so I decided to read it, too -- it's been on my "to-read list" for quite a while. It was a fast read, and a real page turner. Shawn is a 14-year-old boy who has cerebral palsy, and therefore has no control over his muscles. We the readers are able to hear his thoughts, and he sounds like any other kid his age, though he is very honest about his abilities and disabilities, his desires and wishes, and his relationships or lack thereof. Shawn can't speak, feed himself, control his bowels, stand, or let anyone know his thoughts. His parents have been divorced for years. Shawn, his brother, and sister live with their mom, and Dad is not too far away. He had written a Pulitzer-Prize winning poem about Shawn years ago that won him a lot of acclaim, and now he is appearing on TV to suggest that too much money is spent to "educate the uneducable" -- and he features an imprisoned man found guilty of murder after he killed his brain-damaged 2-year-old son. Shawn comes to suspect that his father plans to kill HIM, too. And if that IS his dad's intention, Shawn knows he can't do anything to stop it.

This was an enlightening book which made me really think. I found it especially moving that the author has a son much like Shawn - and he must have wondered whether his son has deep thoughts, whether he knows things and is aware of his world as Shawn is. That thought is both sad and hopeful. I highly recommend this book -- and can't wait to read its partner-book, Cruise Control, told from the point of view of Shawn's brother Paul.