Nightingale by Amy Lukavics

When I first read the description of Nightingale, I knew that it would be a book that I added to the collection.  It sounded right up my alley.  1950's, not wanting to conform to the norm, wanting to be a writer.  Then add the insane asylum (an iffy trope for me) and something that sounds like maybe cannibalism and I knew that I would have to read this.

Nightingale goes back and forth in time, dividing this time into "the institution" and "days past".  We learn that June is in the institution because she believes that her parents have been replaced.  Leading up to this incident, June has been under a lot of stress.  She has been writing a horrific sci-fi novel and wants to be published someday.  While her parents map out the perfect future for her with her father's boss's son, June has secretly applied to a writing program.  But the morning after her disaster of an engagement party, June's mother calls her "nightingale" and June is sure that her parents are no longer her parents.

Shipped away to Burrow Place Asylum, June finds herself in a strange kind of nightmare.  She befriends her roommate, Eleanor, who thinks that she is dead, and Eleanor's friends and quickly discovers that things are not normal here.  The nurses and doctor seem off.  The medical treatments are brutal.  The sanitation is questionable at best.  Even worse, when someone speaks up they are bound to disappear or die.  Can June unravel the mystery of the asylum and of herself in time to save them all?

I was surprised by the direction this one took.  It definitely had a twist that I should have seen coming but didn't.  I don't know what was more horrifying: the institution or watching June being forced into a mold at home.  This was a great read and much more horror than I expected. -RYQ

Blankets by Craig Thompson

I was surprised to see that this book came out in 2003.  The way Thomson talks about his teenage years, which I placed vaguely in the early 1990's, made it feel more distant at the time of writing.  You know, I am one of those people who forgets that I graduated 16 years ago so I guess that's not really surprising.

This book, well, it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me.

Thompson tells the story of his coming of age.  I can't think of any better way to describe it.  He tells stories throughout that are memories of his childhood, when he shared a bed with his little brother.  Craig says that he was not a very good older brother, that he was sometimes mean to his brother and that he didn't protect him.  He touches on the inappropriate conduct of a babysitter, a trap that he let his brother fall into and that sent him headlong into religion and the striving for heaven.

Craig takes religion seriously, seriously enough that his pastor asks if he has considered going into the ministry.  Craig hasn't really considered anything about his future.  Then he meets Raina at winter church camp and he is instantly smitten.  When he goes to stay with Raina and her family in Michigan for two weeks in the winter, he begins to see that he may have missed out on some of life.

This book touched on a lot of sensitive and emotional subjects: religion, abuse, first lover, doubt.  However, I felt like all of these things were handled very well.  I can promise that I was invested in this story after my initial doubt that it was for me.  Craig's experience of first love and his realization that he may not have been invested enough in the real world felt like legitimate experiences to me.  They felt real.

This was a touching tale but one which I can see not fitting for everyone. -RYQ

Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson

There is something that I cannot resist about a slim novel and this one comes in at 149 pages plus has a great cover.  I'll be honest and say upfront that this isn't a book for everyone but I really liked it.  It was weird, which I love, and it was scifi without feeling like scifi.

This is our world after the vuvv, an alien race shaped somewhat like coffee tables, have landed.  The vuvv are all about efficiency and when they first landed they promised Earth a world with no more work and no more disease.  However, all of their tech was sold to the highest bidders and now the economy is in ruins.  Adam used to have a normal life but now his father is gone, there's another family living in his basement, and his mother has been unemployed for months.  Adam is a painter in a world where most art is digital and each short chapter feels like a painting.  Adam is trying to find ways to support his family, by recording his relationship with Chloe for the vuvv and entering in an art contest, while dealing with a disease makes digestion miserable.

I thought this was a really interesting book.  It looked at the line between the haves and have-nots in a way that didn't feel heavy handed.  Adam's family used to be middle class and I like how it painted the picture that anyone could lose everything.  Adam's mother never gives up hope and Adam is always trying to come up with a better way.  Great scifi for someone who doesn't necessarily like scifi. -RYQ

Dreamology, by Lucy Keating

Max is the boy of Alice's dreams. Literally. Ever since her father took her to the Center for Dream Discovery (CDD) to help rid her of her nightmares, she's been dreaming about Max. Each night, they eat Oreo pizzas in museums while wearing black tie attire, ride pink elephants along the Great Wall of China, bounce on clouds amid technicolor hot air balloons, and have many a trippy nighttime adventure. Then Alice moves from New York to Boston and... SURPRISE! Who should show up in her class but Max. In the waking-world flesh. After some awkward encounters where Max swears he doesn't know Alice, he finally admits he remembers his dreams of her as well. Unfortunately for the Dream Couple, Max has a girlfriend who is supernice and is becoming friends with Alice. And class clown Oliver (Max's former BFF) is interested in Alice as more than just a friend. So Max and Alice must keep their attraction a secret. But of course secrets like this don't stay secrets for long. What follows is a hot mess of Drama.

And if you think that sounds convoluted, just wait: 

As their waking and dreaming worlds begin to blend together in some very odd ways (bulldogs riding motorcycles, anyone?), Max and Alice realize they're in danger of losing their sanity. They track down Dr. Petermann, the scientist who worked the CDD when they were patients there, and he referrs them to Professor Yang, another (former) CDD scientist...just as he is arrested for illegal parrot smuggling. 

Soon Max and Alice, along with Oliver and Alice's NYC BFF Sophie, are road tripping from Boston to Maine to track down Dr. Yang, who is apparently the one responsible for their condition. But will she be able to stop Max ans Alice's dreams before they permanently lose their grip on reality? 

To find out, you'll have to read!

Dreamology, the debut novel for author Lucy Keating, was a quick and fun read I breezed through in less than 48 hours (I took several breaks in between sessions). Unfortunately, it wasn't very deep. The romance lacked chemistry, characters lacked dimension, and the dream sequences seemed forced-weird (and were so frequent that they actually kind of took away from the story). Overall, Dreamology was a decent first book effort for Keating. But as is with most dreams upon waking, it isn't particularly memorable. --AJB

Great Falls by Steve Watkins

Shane's older brother, Jeremy, has done three tours as a Marine.  On his last one, he saved a life and earned a Purple Heart.  His helmet cam caught it all and the video made it to YouTube.  Now, everyone in town just sees Jeremy as a hero, including his step dad, but he's living in the family basement, not at home with his wife and kids, and he carries his gun with him everywhere.  He doesn't like crowded areas and he drinks a lot.  Shane is worried about him and because Jeremy has always been there for him, he is determined to be there for his brother.  He covers for him.  He helps with his wife and kids.  He defends him.

When Shane has the worst football game of his life, he is relieved to see his brother waiting for him in his truck.  Jeremy claims that he just wants to go up to the hunting cabin they used to go to, just get away for a while, and Shane goes along with it.  That's just the first step in a crazy journey.  It is almost immediately apparent that the trip was a bad idea.  Soon they're renting a canoe and buying camping gear and heading down the river.  Shane just isn't sure if they are running away from something or toward something.

However, I did have some problems with it.  Shane is so passive.  It's understandable because Jeremy is the older brother who has always taken care of him and because his step father runs a tight ship. It felt like Jeremy was making bad decisions that were obviously bad.  I know that it was a way of showing Shane's devotion to his brother but I wanted to shake him.  

It was exciting, fast paced, and well written.  -RYQ

Summer of Sloane, by Erin Schneider

The day before Sloane is set to depart for Hawaii, where she plans to spend the summer, her best friend, Mack, drops a bombshell: Mack and Sloane's longtime boyfriend, Tyler, slept together. Twice. And now Mack is pregnant with Tyler's child. Understandably upset, Sloane immediately unfriends Mack and punches Tyler in the face, breaking his nose and fracturing her hand. Not the best way to begin the summer.

Once in Hawaii, Sloane receives multiple (as in hundreds of) apologetic calls, texts, emails, messages, etc. from both her ex-boyfriend and ex-BFF. Basically, they won't leave her alone. Sloane ignores all if it, though. It's not like there isn't plenty to distract her from the trouble back home. Namely, a romance with cute boy Finn. Then a tragedy makes Slaone re-think how she reacted to Mack and Tyler's betrayal and wonder if, maybe, things can be fixed. Eventually, Sloane is able to make peace with everything and move on with her life.

Erin Schneider's novel Summer of Sloane has so much angsty drama it's like reading a novelization of some cheesy daytime soap opera. Every single character comes with a ton of over-the-top baggage, and their reactions to events are often blown way out of porportion. This was my problem with this book. What should have been an easy, beachy read was instead a dramafest that exhausted me more than would reading a novel that delt with serious topics. It was just too much. But then after the ridiculous amount of drama, things are wrapped up far too neatly. Sloane makes peace with her issues far too quickly for all she went through. Other characters, too, come to easy resolutions. It felt like the author tried too hard to tie things up. 

If you're craving a TON of drama (and I DO mean a TON!), this one is for you. Otherwise, skip it and go for something else. --AJB

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar

Carolina's friends are planning fabulous summers, filled with shopping and pool parties and sleepovers. But not Carol, age 12. She's stuck in the middle of the New Mexico desert, helping her family prepare the family ranch for sale and prepare Grandpa Serge for his move into an assisted living home. 

The ranch is a haunted place that feels like it hasn't seen rain in 100 years (and, according to Grandpa Serge, it hasn't). Here, in this dusty and parched landscape, poisonous snakes and hungry coyotes roam. Then there are the ghosts of the past. But strangest of all is Grandpa Serge, who has dementia and won't stop rambling about bees and drought. Often he is caught in the past, but sometimes he seems oddly alert for a man with his condition. At first, Carol is afraid of him. He is often cranky. But she gradually warms to the old man, who enchants her with fairy tale-like stories about a long-gone village built on the edge of green-glass lake, a magical tree that gave immortality to those who lived there, and the bees that kept the magic alive. He tells these stories as if they are true, and swears that the bees will return and bring back the magic. Soon, Carol is wondering if these might be more than just stories. Because what if?

What if?

Author Lindsay Edgar's middle grade novel Hour of the Bees is pure magic. Character development, especially the relationship between Carol and Serge, is fantastic. And the settings are so vividly-described you (the reader) feel as if you are there! 

This one is amazing! You should read it! --AJB

When We Collided, by Emery Lord

When I first started hearing about When We Collided, the third novel by Emery Lord, I worried it would be another Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl-Meets-Unrealistically-Sensitive-Boy sort of story. You know the kind.

I mean, here we have Vivi, who breezes into town on a cloud of Marilyn blonde hair and magnetic energy. She carves her initials into trees, makes friends with strangers, believes in past lives, and dresses in ballet slippers and painted butterfly wings. She's artistic, she's quirky, she's charming. She's the sort of girl all the boys fall in insta-lust with, the type all the mousy wallflower girls aspire to be. She's Stargirl, she's Helen of Troy, she's the unattainable love interest in every John Huges movie, she's every female character John Green ever created. She seems too good to be true.

Then we have Jonah, the local boy who gets pulled into Vivi's orbit. He's quiet, contemplative, and very sensitive. He's mature beyond his years. He's also a fabulous gourmet cook. He doesns't have much experience with girls, doesn't really have time for them, and can't believe a girl like Vivi would even notice him, much less insert herself so dramatically into his life.

If that were all these characters were, I'd have lost interest in the book before the first 50 pages. But Vivi and Jonah both are more than they first appear. Far more.

Vivi has recently been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. She and her single mother have come to Verona Cove for the summer, in part, at least, to give Vivi a fresh start and help her escape the trouble she left behind in Seattle. Unfortunately, Vivi wrongly believes the "fresh start" bit to mean she can stop taking her meds. At first she's ok. But then the manic highs associated with her disorder start up again. In fact, it is during one of these highs that she meets Jonah and what is left his family. But for every high, an equal low awaits. Vivi's behavior becomes more and more unpredictable, cumulating in a violent confrontation with her illigtimate birth father and a near-fatal moped accident. 

Jonah too is dealing with more than a boy his age should have to. Following the death of his father, Jonah's mother descended into a severe depression. Most days, she won't even get out of bed. So Jonah has stepped up to care for his horde of younger siblings (make lunches, get them to their daily activities, mediate arguments, etc). He also must help with the family restaurant. He feels inadequate. Not only does he feel like he's failed to help his mom out of her slump, but he also feels there's no way he can fill the shoes his dad left. He can't be everything he needs to be. Some days, he feels his family is broken beyond repair and nothing he says or does can fix it.

I guess what I'm saying, is this: These characters have depth. They're more than the stereotype. More than the formula. And the author's use of alternating viewpoint chapters really helps the reader get inside the heads of both Vivi and Jonah. Despite their flaws and dramas, they're good for each other. They're what each other needed, at least for the moment. 

Being that this is a teen romance, there's no Happily Ever After/Riding Off Into the Sunset Together. Nothing is permanent. Vivi and Jonah must move on with their lives. But the ending is satisfying. A little cheesy, too. But satisfying. You get the sense that the characters will be OK even though they must part ways.

Overall, a good Beach Read. --AJB

From Where I Watch You, by Shannon Grogan

This book definitely gave me a big surprise! I was attracted to this book simply because of the cover which had a pink heart and an amusing title. I also expected a sweet story about a baker girl who receives romantic notes from an anonymous person. It did say suspenseful in fine print, but for some reason, I didn't think much of it until I actually began reading the story. So beware! From Where I Watch You is not only suspenseful, but it's also creepy and sad. You may not able to put this book down.

The main character Kara is struggling with her sister's death, her father's abandonment, and her mother's sudden and extreme turn to religion. She's got a stalker, she's scarred by a past incident that's keeping her from developing meaningful relationships, and she's trying to figure out how to get to a baking competition in San Francisco, one that will hopefully help her escape life in Seattle. On top of all this, Charlie, the boy she loved for ages, has returned after a long absence.

The mystery of who Kara's stalker will definitely keep you reading and if you love to bake, you will love the baking elements in this story. *JK*