Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by JK Rowling
Young Adult Fiction
5/5
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Currently reading AGAIN!
As all great books go, they deserve to be read over and over again. Since I saw the recent midnight showing of the HP6 with my kids, I couldn't stop thinking of Harry and needed to read the book again!

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
Young Adult Fiction
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Currently Reading.

This has already proven to be a tough read for me. I am about eleven pages into it and my heart is beating fast. I usually do not read anything pertaining to violence against children or women because of my own inability to understand and absorb the harsher realities of life. This is a fictional work of course but the violence of rape and murder are very real and possible. I am continuing to read this book because I have a feeling it will triumph and bring a possible understanding to what may lay beyond.

The Hourglass Door

The Hourglass Door
by Lisa Mangum
young adult fiction
4/5


Finished! At first I thought this book was predictable like I knew everything that was going to happen from the beginning but it took a turn and I ended up reading all four hundred pages in about a day and a half. I really loved the romance side to this story. I think I am becoming a hopeless romantic myself as I get older. It was nice to read something different other then wizards and vampires. It was a first for me to read a story based on time travel, mystery and young love. I loved the story line. A young Italian boy, Dante, wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit in the late 1400's. As a punishment he was sent through a door to be banished from his own time and entering into another time over five hundred years later where he meets Abby, a young girl tired of her predictable life and longing for some excitement and spontaneity. I kept reading through the night as their love started to unfold and the mysteries of time travel unveiled but towards the end it started to fall flat for me. But then then the ending took me for a ride. It was suspenseful, thrilling and romantic to the very end. It was left open for the next book in 2010. The Golden Spiral. AH! please oh please let Dante and Abby get back together and have some crazy out of know where tie to each other.

The Catcher in the Rye

the Catcher in the Rye

by J.D. Salinger

Classic American Literature
4/5

I recently took on a new book challenge. Six Classics within six months. I watched a movie called Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and there was a reference to The Catcher in the Rye many times. I thought I would check it out and start my challenge with this read. I was told by several people that it was a bit of a controversial book and wasn't allowed to be read in some schools. I was home taught my eighth grade year and wasn't able to read this book until now. I can see why there may be some concern with book. It was chalked full of profanity almost to the point I thought I should give up on it. However, I was drawn into the book because of the character building of Houlden. A young adolescent boy who was tossed out of several boy schools for his lack of academic accomplishments. At first I tried to figure out the book as I was reading it waiting for it to have a purpose, but then I realized this book is the type of book where the author draws you in by telling you a story just on character building. I liked the story. It was a quick read of only 214 pages.

Moonraker's Bride

Moonraker's Bride
by Madeleine Brent
young adult fiction
4/5

Finished!. I was sad when I finished this book. I loved the mystery with just a touch of romance. It was one of those books that as you were reading it drew you in and when you put it down it left you forgetting something. When ever I paused from reading, I was still thinking about Luci and her trials of running an orphanage in China all by herself and only being seventeen. When her luck changed and the mission field came in to relieve her of her duties, Luci was sent to England to be with a family that agreed to donate money to the orphanage and take her in as her their own daughter. Of course there was a down side to all this and Luci was finding herself entangled in a dark mystery of treasure hunting and family feuds extending from generations before she was even born. I really enjoyed this book. I am not one for heavy romance nor mystery but I was pleasantly surprise at how smoothly the author kept me interested.

Gathering Blue

Gathering Blue

by Lois Lowry

Young Adult fiction

4/5

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Another great read from Lois Lowry. Gathering Blue is the second companion read to The Giver trilogy. Kira was born with a twisted leg and was seen as useless and a reliability for the community for which she and her mother Katrina lived. Kira's father had suffered and died from the mutilation of beasts in the forest before she was born, leaving Kira's mother to fight for her daughters life. As years passed, Katrina begun to teach Kira the art of thread. Kira soon discovered that the threads would sing to her creating a special talent that no one else possessed. Before her teaching in the dying of thread had begun, her mother fell ill and passed away. After her grieving and the spirits had left her mothers body, Kira knew she would no longer be protected from the women in her village. She would have to stay strong as her mother would often tell her despite her deformity. She fears for what her future will be but is spared by the Council of Guardians. Her life is spared because of her unique gift of threads. She is relocated from her cot in the village to the Edifice where she finds comforts she has never known before. Running water, a bed above ground and food unimaginable. In exchange for these privileges she is to thread the Singers Robe making repairs and threading the future onto its bare shoulders. But soon Kira realizes that there is a great mystery to the Council of Guardians and secrets that surround the community which she resides. She will discover the truth about her parents deaths, the world she lives in and her purpose to the council.

The Giver

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

Young Adult Fiction

5/5

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I instantly fell in love with this adventurous story! I finished all 179 pages in less then a day. Everything about it kept me turning pages one after the other and I did not want to put it down. Lois Lowry has quickly become one of my favorite young adult authors. This tightly written story takes me to a place where everything is perfect. No pain, No fear, no hunger and no war. Everything is under control and governed by the committee of Elders. All is in the sameness as everyone else. There is no color, no love, no choices and no one knows any different. Progression is placed in age and age only matters once you have progressed to twelve years. This would be the beginning of your adulthood. In your adulthood you are assigned a job given to you in a ceremony before the community. As Jonas sat with his group of twelve year olds waiting for his assignment, great embarrassment came across him as his number (19) was skipped over during the ceremony. Soon after the closing of the ceremony He was asked to step forward. Unsure and filled with anxiety, Jonas walked forward. He was reassured that he was not skipped intentionally by not being assigned but he was "selected" to be trained as one of the most honorable positions in his community. The Receiver. As Jonas starts his training with the Giver, he discovers all the true pain and pleasures of life that he must bare so that all of his community can live with security and order. He experiences the horror of war, pain, suffering and starvation from the passing of the Giver. As well as life pleasures, love, feeling, and happiness all which has been denied his entire life. Lois takes us through a fantastic journey of Interdependence in humanity and ends with Jonas discovering the true motivations behind the community of Elders. Jonas has to make a choice. Something he had never been able to do before. To leave his community and face the unknown and perhaps starvation outside his community or stay within the blindness and security of his community and starve in other ways. He would have to live a life hungry for love, color and feelings. My fingers gripped to the pages as I discovered Jonas's choice and you will too!