October #6 - THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN

Title: The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie

Publisher: Little, Brown & Co.

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 978-0-316-01368-0

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone, I think

Setting: Spokane Indian Reservation, Reardan and Wellpinit

1st Sentence:

I was born with water on the brain.

Comments:

Junior leaves the reservation to go to school in nearby (22 miles) farm-town Reardan where the only other Indian is the school mascot. In the process he learns many things - some good and some not so good. This is a great YA story but I had the feeling I was reading one of the top future challenged books. There are racial slurs, bigotry issues and talk of masturbation (the shame, because teenagers don't engage in this activity!)
The book also deals with death, familial relations and drunken Indians - definitely firestarter topics! I think it should be a must-read starting in Jr. High!

October #5 - 14

Title: 14

Author: JT Ellison

Publisher: Mira Books

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-7783-2556-7

Series or stand-alone: #2

Setting: Nashville, TN

1st Sentence:

Prologue
Would the bastard ever call?

Comments:

Back in the mid-1980s, the Snow White Killer was active killing young women with ebony hair and painting their lips ruby red. He killed ten and then stopped. Now, twenty years later and more bodies are turning up bearing his signature and homicide LT. Taylor Jackson and her crew are on the case. Something doesn't add up though, and that could make this one even worse, for everybody involved.

Once again, strong women and good storytelling. How can you possibly go wrong with a combination like that?!? I liked ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS and I liked this one as well. The worst part for me will be waiting for the next book, JUDAS KISS.

October #4 - THE BECOMING

Title: The becoming

Author: Jeanne C. Stein

Publisher: Ace Books

Copyright: 2004

ISBN: 0-441-01456-9

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: Mission Beach, CA

1st Sentence:

Forward
My name is Anna Strong.

Comments:

This is book one in another vampire series featuring Anna Strong, a bounty hunter turned vampire. She is taken in by Dr. Grant Avery, a nightwatcher and fellow vampire, to learn the ways of their kind but comes up against secrets and control issues as she tries to find the man who left her for dead and turned her into one of the undead.
I found this to be a successful first book and I'll definitely be looking for the rest. Anna is a strong female character, one of my favorite kind.

October #3 - AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE

Title: Against medical advice

Author: James Patterson and Hal Friedman

Publisher: Little, Brown & Co.

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-316-02475-4

Series or stand-alone: Non-fiction

1st Sentence:

I'm seventeen years old and lying like a pathetic, helpless lump in the backseat of our family car, being transported to a place that treats crazy people.

Comments:

This book documents the journey of Cory Friedman, who one day just before turning five had the urge to shake his head, and spent the next decade plus fighting his often debilitating and crippling Tourette's syndrome and OCD. The story was good although the writing was pretty elementary because it's told from Cory's point of view. It moved along at a quick clip and the subject matter is just something you don't find a lot to read about. I was quite thrilled to put a name to my own OCD tendencies. I'm a "checker".

My sister-in-law laughs every time we discuss OCD though, because I saw a bumper sticker that I liked once. It said, "I have CDO. It's the same as OCD, only in alphabetical order the way it SHOULD be. I shared it with her and it cracks us up every time we talk about it.

Back to the book, I was disappointed however, because the only thing James Patterson had to do with this book was lend his name for sales. It's written by Cory, from Cory's point of view, yet his name shows up nowhere on the cover. I wasn't too impressed by that.

October #2 - SPEAK OF THE DEVIL

Title: Speak of the devil


Author: Shari Shattuck


Publisher: New American Library (Signet)


Copyright: 2008


ISBN: 978-0-451-22480-4


Series or stand-alone: #2


Setting: Shadow Hills, CA (a suburb of LA)


1st Sentence:

The fierce wind swept across the dusty, faded green sage, bending brittle branches and tugging roots from the parched earth.

Comments:

I read the first book in this series back in November 2007, and while I liked it I thought it was a tad overwritten. Not so much with this book. The overwritten part.

Greer Sands and her son Joshua are living comfortably in their relatively new to them town of Shadow Hills, CA, even with Greer and her long-time psychic abilities and Joshua with his new-found abilities. Joshua is out for a hike one day and meets a boy who is working for the fire camp. Days later he comes across the same kid and notices some bad juju with his aura. He befriends him and gets him a job working for his mom's boyfriend who is doing some landscaping business for some new developments in town, developments that have quite a lot of opposition. And then the fires begin. And it looks like arson. Can it be stopped before the whole town burns to the ground?

Again, a quick and easy read with likeable characters and an easy to grasp psychic line (if you're that kind of person -- which I am.) The only thing that caught my attention in this book was an overabundance of adverbs and I know some readers who are really turned off by that so you may not like this.

But I think other readers who are fans of Kay Hooper or Tina Wainscott would like this series and I'd recommend it to them in my library.

October #1 - DEWEY: THE SMALL-TOWN LIBRARY CAT WHO TOUCHED THE WORLD

Title: Dewey: The small-town library cat who touched the world

Author: Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-446-40741-0

Series or stand-alone: Non-fiction

Setting: Spencer, IA

1st Sentence:

There is a thousand-mile table of land in the middle of the United States, between the Mississippi River on the east and the deserts on the west.

Comments:

This is a charming story about Dewey Readmore Books, a cat who was dumped into a library bookdrop in Spencer, Iowa on the coldest night of the year and was succinctly adopted by the library staff including Library Director Vicki Myron and then by the entire town, and finally the world. He remained the library's cat for eighteen years and this book is about Vicki's life, her life with Dewey, Dewey's life with the town and how he gained world-wide recognition. A sweet story about a local (to me) feline.

Vicki Myron was my Public Library Management instructor and from time to time we'd see Dewey. I am sure that his absence has impacted the town greatly and I am glad that Vicki was able to tell their story.

September #7 - OLIVE'S OCEAN

Title: Olive's Ocean

Author: Kevin Henkes

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Copyright: 2003

ISBN: 0-096-053543-1

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting: Cape Cod

1st Sentence:

A Beginning
"Are you Martha Boyle?"

Comments:

Martha's classmate, Olive, was killed in a hit-and-run bicycle accident and her mother visits Martha to give her a section from Olive's journal. Martha heads out to spend the summer with her family at her grandmother's home on Cape Cod and she will gain perspective on the death of her classmate, her relationship with her grandmother, her feelings about boys and her plans to be a writer.

I read this book during Banned Books Week 2008 because it was one of the most challenged books during 2007 and I'm still not sure why. I thought it was a touching story about growing up and dealing with issues that go along with that.

September #6 - LIFELINES

Title: Lifelines

Author: CJ Lyons

Publisher: Berkley Books

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-0-425-22082-5

Series or stand-alone: #1

Setting: Pittsburgh, PA, Angels of Mercy Medical Center

1st Sentence:

Monday, July 1, 6:45 P.M.
July 1st. The most dangerous day of the year.

Comments:

From the author's website:

Angels of Mercy Medical Center is a top-flight teaching hospital and trauma center. People come to Angels for the best care anywhere little do they know of the drama behind the scenes.

The lives of four women will intersect as they meet the challenges of saving lives, finding love and developing friendships despite their differences and the secrets they each try to protect.

The bonds these women form surpass mere friendship as they become each other's heroes, helping to save lives, avoid heart ache and face their worst fears.

I thought this was a great debut novel with a lot of grit and realism (it helps that the author herself is a physician). It has strong female characters, great character interaction and a very scary premise (yet another reason not to go to hospitals.) I look forward to more by this author.

UPDATE: CJ's new book WARNING SIGNS comes out January 27, 2009!

September #5 - ARE YOU THERE, VODKA? IT'S ME CHELSEA

Title: Are you there, Vodka? It's me Chelsea

Author: Chelsea Handler

Publisher: Simon Spotlight

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4169-5412-5

Series or stand-alone: Non-fiction

Setting: Several

1st Sentence:

I was nine years old and walking myself to school one morning when I heard the unfamiliar sound of a prepubescent boy calling my name.

Comments:

Love, love, LOVE Chelsea Handler. After reading her first book MY HORIZONTAL LIFE several years ago, I was in love. And when she got her own late night show (Chelsea Lately), life was even better.

This book is a collection of short stories infused with her raunchy style of humor including one on her arrest for DUI, her dad's bladder stones, dating an orange-head, dining in the dark, massage at an oriental parlor, a boyfriend and dog love, regifting, dieting and getting jumped, her love affair with little nuggets and a trip with her dad to Costa Rica. Fun stuff here.
After Chelsea, my life will never be the same.

September #4 - ASHES TO ASHES

Title: Ashes to ashes

Author: Jennifer Armintrout

Publisher: Mira

Copyright: 2007

ISBN: 978-0-7783-2494-2

Series or stand-alone: #3

Setting: Chicago, IL

1st Sentence:

Prologue
"Hey, Baker! You give her the seven o'clock meds yet?"

Comments:

In this book, the Oracle escapes and is working in tandem with the Soul Eater. Carrie, Nathan, Max and Bella must work together to find the Oracle and stop whatever destruction she has planned.

I'm glad that there are only four books in this series. I really liked the first book which made me buy the rest. The second book made me furious. This book was better but still not as good as book one and I found myself happy, then mad, then sad, then okay again. Not my favorite way to be. I'll have book four read sometime in October or November and then that will be that. I'll miss Carrie Ames, but I'm glad I was introduced to this author because of her.