The Diviners by Libba Bray

OK. So while the storm blew spitty snow and our electricity was out for 12 hours last night, I had to finish this book. By flashlight. It was that good.  I knew it would be. Libba Bray is a fabulous writer. After her book, Beauty Queens, I about had a heart attack from laughing. The Diviners took her knack for witty dialogue and wrapped it in a 1920's bow. Memphis, a numbers runner in Harlem, hides a dark secret. Evie, who aspires to a real flapper girl, can tell something about you if she touches something you own. Theta is running from a dark past.  Their lives converge in New York City. And something is coming. Something dark and old and sinister. 

Bad news: it's the start of a series, which means even after the 578-page first book it still leaves a whole lot of questions unanswered

Good news: it's the start of a series! You want more (NOW!)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The book flap to Gone Girl promised a psychological thrill ride and I certainly got one. Just when I thought I pretty much had it all figured out, another crazy thing would happen to send me wondering just what was really going on. Amy, perfect wife to handsome Nick, suddenly goes missing one morning and all the clues point at Nick.  Readers learn about Amy through her journal entries over the last seven years, beginning with how she met Nick and ending right before her disappearance. We follow Nick in real time as the investigation unfolds. While the police try to find answers, Nick and Amy's story slowly comes out in a series of shocking and disturbing events. If you want a book to keep you reading late into the night, choose Gone Girl.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I've seen The Prestige. I've seen The Illusionist. And I liked them both. So I figured, based on the book jacket - which seemed so very, very like those plot lines - I would like this book, too.

I was wrong about it being like those movies. And I should know better, right?  Morgenstern has crafted a unique book that is magical and haunting and suspenseful. I was intrigued from the beginning when Celia is just a little girl growing up under her circus father and she is able to do what most girls cannot. Thus begins her life duel with another magician, Marco. It is a love story like no other, set in a time and place where in order to be the greatest, you must kill the one you love.

The Book of Jonas by Stephen Dau

   

In The Book of Jonas, I enjoyed Stephen Dau's simply written tale. After a traumatic experience in his homeland forces him to flee to the mountains, Jonas suddenly finds himself in America - a boy with dark skin and an accent and a horrible secret. When the mother of American soldier who saved him starts asking questions he cannot answer, the truth of his past reaches out to grab him.

About halfway through this book I could not stop reading.  Like so many well-crafted novels, small hints at what really happened started popping up in Jonas' stories and memories. I wanted to know - I had to know! - what happened between the time Jonas arrived on the mountain wounded and barely alive, and when he woke up in a hospital and chose to go to America.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healey

Why do the princesses always get the story named after them? Think about it....Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rupunzel...there is no fairy tale called  'The Brave Prince Charming'. And why? Because every fairy tale hero is named Prince Charming. And the Princes Charming are quite upset about that, too.  The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom is their story.

I read this book aloud to my children (ages 9, 7, and 6) and they LOVED it. It gave me opportunity to do some really fun voices for each of the princesses  - Cinderella, Snow White, Rupunzel and Sleeping Beauty-  and Princes, respectively - Frederick, Duncan, Gustav and Liam -who all have very different personalities; . Each character has been delightfully given a backstory to the fairy tale we know and an evil witch who plans to overthrow all of the kingdoms...unless the Princes Charming can work together. Throw in a giant, some dwarves, a dragon and a host of other adventures and you've got a hilarious romp to Save Your Kingdom. 

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

 

My aunt Marcia recommended Cutting for Stone but it wasn't until my library book club decided on this title that I ended up reading it.  Why did I wait? I immediately told my husband he needed to read it. But he didn't right away either and then when he did he was as awash with awe as I was. This is a gorgeous picture of how our choices have lasting repercussions.

It is the story of twin Indian brothers, orphaned at birth, growing up in Ethiopia at a mission hospital. Surrounded by illness and the mystery of who their parents really were, the boys grow up learning the hard lessons of death, love and the bond between brothers.

Cutting for Stone gave voice to the things that shape us and how sometimes one small thing becomes the hinge upon which the rest of our lives turn. Two brothers. One love. A ripping apart. A cutting. This is a beautiful book.

Jackie Urbanovic - Duck books

 

Somehow I missed Jackie Urbanovic's initial duck book, Duck at the Door, wherein she introduces us to her wit and charming characters - including title character Duck. I found Duck Soup first and fell in love with it as a stand-alone book. Only recently did I find that there are other books about this great cast of characters.











As a mom who loves to use voices during read-aloud time, Duck Soup gave me every opportunity to do so. Add to that a great plot line where Duck's friends are sure -SURE!- that Duck is IN the soup (GASP!)...and you see how this is a winner. 

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 

If ever there was a writer whose dialogue makes me laugh out loud (or want to meet his characters in real life), it's John Green. Sadly, I did not get to meet him before we left the Indy area. Perhaps we can blame this on the fact that I only recently discovered his work.

I have since read two other books by Mr. Green, both of which won the Printz Award : Looking for Alaska, and An Abundance of Katherines. 

Funny enough, it was The Fault in Our Stars that I enjoyed most. It centers on Hazel, a teenage girl who has cancer and doesn't really live until she meets Augustus Waters at a cancer support group. While this has all the makings of a weepy romance produced by Hallmark, this book has enough wit and realism to make Hallmark look away. It is possibly one of the best books I've ever read which deals with the messiness and ugliness and truth about dying.

Chloe and the Lion by Marc Barnett and Adam Rex

First off, I love Adam Rex's style. And this whole book concept is brilliant. You can see from the cover that both author, Marc, and illustrator, Adam, have roles to play. In the grand style of Mo Willems' pigeon and so many other recent children's authors, the reader is front and center in the book, being told things from their points of view. My kids go gaga for this!

If you want a book that is fun to read aloud AND will make your child grab the book out of your hands the minute you're done so they can read it AGAIN to themselves, well -here is a great one.

Look at Me by Jennifer Egan

I was first introduced to Jennifer Egan's work via A Visit from the Goon Squad, which my husband read and recommended. Rightfully so. Now only did Goon Squad win the Pulitzer, it was my gateway drug to Egan's fabulous writing which focuses not on plot, but on the motivations of characters.

Look at Me centers on a young model who after a car accident must have her face (and thus her identity both inside and out) reconstructed.  Like all Egan books, though, you are introduced to a number of characters who are all struggling with who they are and how they are shaped by their experiences and  the people who surround them.

That sort of synopsis alone would not typically draw me to any book. It sounds too mystical for my liking. But this is a stunning look at how we are all made into the people we are. By following a host of very different characters in academic, fashion, and journalistic arenas we can't help but look to our own life and say, look at me.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

                                                           

Ah, this book.  This book left me breathless. It drew on Welsh mythology involving flesh-eating horses that would rise out of the sea. One girl and one man (who made me think of Man from Snowy River...) who both, for their own reasons, decide to ride one of these wild beasts in the Scorpio Races. It is no surprise that this book won the Printz Award.


I had previously read Shiver and Linger by Stiefvater, which pale in comparison to this stunner.  (I guess Shiver is being made into a movie, as will Scorpio Races eventually). But, movies aside!

                                             


The Scorpio Races was recommended to me as a "if you like Hunger Games try this out" book. When I went into it, I was expecting another 'games' type scenario. Not at all, and yet the female protagonist, Puck, held a similarilty to Katniss in her determined spirit. This is not a book for just girls. I would hand this to anyone and say, "Read!"

  (ht Allie at Hyberbole and a half for her awesome art)

The Predicteds by Christine Seifert

 Like so many books that end up in my library bag, I picked this one because I liked the basic idea put forth in this book: what would happen if a test could reveal what you would do in the future? And what if everyone knew the results? Sounds interesting, right? This was a quick read, with fairly predictable characters which I wouldn't have minded so much if I felt this had more....something. In my writer's mind, I could see this having so many layers of interest, but it stayed pretty flat for me throughout.  Still, with it's subtle "who did it" theme, it kept me entertained.

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Most recently I finished The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.  In some ways it reminded me of Charles Frazier's writing (author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons, both recommended reads...even if you already saw the Cold Mountain movie...books are always better! Ahem.)  My husband loves books where it shows what it means to be a man, dealing with struggle and pain and loss. This book is one I intend to have him read for those reasons, but also because the main character, Talmadge, has a quietness about him that made his simple life choices in the face of turmoil all the more poignant. 

Here is the synopsis from Amazon: 

"At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Just as the girls begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, and the shattering tragedy that follows will set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect but also to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past."