Compound, by S. A. Bodeen (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*creepy parts about "Supplements"

To check this read out from NOLS, click HERE!

Dust Lands Book 2: Rebel Heart, by Moira Young (2012)

It's late afternoon.  Since morning, the trail's been following a line of light towers.  That is, the iron remains of what used to be light towers, way back in Wrecker days, time out of mind.  

Picking up the story where Blood Red Road left off, Jack is on his way to tell Ike's girl the bad news.  He's headed to a tavern in the storm belt called The Lost Cause.  All he wants to do is tell Molly, and then get back to Saba in Big Water.

The Tonton used to be dirty, rough, violent thugs, but now they are clean cut, organized.  This makes Jack feel uneasy.

It means that the enemy have changed their game.

The Tonton follow the Pathfinder and work to make his vision for New Eden come true.  Young, healthy adults are branded on their forehead to populate and New Eden.  These landgrabbers are called Stewards of the Earth, miracles to heal the earth.  Everyone else is eliminated or enslaved.   Homesteads are forcibly taken, family members are murdered.  

Saba wants to meet Jack in Big Water, but things don't go as planned as they start their journey.  First a disturbing message from Maeve from Jack.  Then Saba learns that the Pathfinder put a price on her head.  She is haunted by the ghost of Epona.  And she has an unusual attraction to the Pathfinder, Seth.

Read Rebel Heart to find out what happens to Jack and Saba.  Even though there are parts of the book that aren't ever answered, like when Ariel tried to help Saba with her demons, it's still a good read.

Rating:  6 out of 10 stars
* inferences of rape, prostitution, sexual references, language

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith (2010)

I was still bleeding...my hands shaking.

 

Seth Grahame-Smith wanted to be an author.  He worked at a five and dime while growing up in Rhinebeck, New York - home ot the oldest inn in America.  After he graduated from college, he planned to work at the store for nine months, during that time he'd work on his unpublished novel.  Nine years later, he has abandoned writing.

 

Henry has been coming to the store for a year. 

 

"Why did you abandon it?"

 

Seth couldn't help but feel that another conversaton was going on.

 

The last time Henry came into the store, he gave a small package to Seth.  Inside brown paper and twine were 10 leather-bound books.  Journals from the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln.

 

For 17 months, Seth sacrificed everything for those 10 books.

 

This novel is the story...

 

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars

*language, smoking

 

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Reached, by Ally Condie (2012)

Every morning, the sun comes up and turns the earth red, and I think:  This could be the day when everything changes.  Maybe today the Society will fall.  Then night comes again and we're all still waiting.  But I know the Pilot's real.

The third book in the Matched series, Reached concludes the story of Cassia, Ky and Xander.  Xander is an official, a physic.  Cassia is a sorter.  And Ky is a pilot for the Rising.  They wait for the Pilot's voice to start the Rising.

 

This is it.

 

The Rising said it would look like this.

Reached was a solid conclusion to the love triangle of Cassia, Xander, and Ky.  I loved the poetry, art, and descriptive language throughout the book, and even though the first half was a bit slow, I really enjoyed the second half.  I liked seeing how questions were answered and what happened to each character.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Every Day, by David Levithan (2012)

I wake up.
     Immediately I have to figure out who I am.  

Every morning, A wakes up in someone's body.  He only gets to stay in that body for one day, to live that life for one single day.  He is never the same person twice, but every person he's ever inhabited is the same age as it.  He also doesn't thinking of himself as male or female (my interpretation for writing this review).  On day 5994, A inhabits the body of Justin, a 17-year old jerk.  A meets Justin's girlfriend and everything changes.

I have spent years meeting people without ever knowing them, and on this morning, in this place, with this girl, I feel the faintest pull of wanting to know.  And in a moment of either weakness or bravery on my own part, I decide to follow it.  I decide to find out more.

They go to the ocean for the afternoon.

I want to give her a good day.  Just one good day.  I have wandered for so long without any sense of purpose, and now this ephemeral purpose has been given to me - it feels like it has been given to me.  I only have a day to give - so why can't it be a good one?  Why can't it be a shared one?  Why can't I take the music of the moment and see how long it can last?  The rules are erasable.  I can take this.  I can give this.

How does someone make a meaningful life living one day in other people's lives?  Every Day is a gorgeous read.  The resolution is perfect and I would be so disappointed if David Levithan every made a sequel or a companion novel.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*sexual references, drugs, religion, mild language, gay relationships, sexual identity

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Fire, by Kristin Cashore (2009)

Larch often thought that if it had not been for his newborn son, he never would have survived his wife Mikra's death.

Seventeen-year old Fire is the last human-shaped monster in the Dells.  Her beauty stuns those who see her, and most people either want to marry her or kill her.  She can also control the minds of anyone near her.

The kingdom is in danger; war is on the way.  Fire is called to the capital city to help the king.  
She learns about the various spies for the king's enemies, but one is the most mysterious.

...Fire sat alone, puzzling over the boy.  His right eye was gray and his left eye was red, which was strange enough itself.  His hair was blond like wheat, his skin light, and he had the appearance of being ten or eleven...He was sitting facing her, a rodent monster in his lap, a mouse with glimmering gold fur.  He was tying a string around its neck.  fire knew somehow that the creature was not his pet.

He pulled the string, too tight.  The mouse's legs began to jerk.  Stop it, Fire thought furiously, aiming her message at the strange presence that was his mind. 

He loosened the string immediately.  The mouse lay in his lap, heaving with tiny breaths.   The boy smiled at Fire, and stood up, and came to stand before her.  "It doesn't hurt him," he said.  "It's only a choking game, for fun."

She stared at him coolly, so he could not see her bewilderment.  "A choking game?  All the fun of it is on your side, and it's a sick kind of fun."

He smiled again.  His lopsided, red-eyed smile was somehow distressing.  "Is it sick?  To want to be in control?"

"Of a helpless, frightened creature?  Let it go."

"The others believed me when I said it didn't hurt him," he said, "but you know not to.  Plus, you're awfully pretty.  So I'll give you what you want."

Rating:  2 out of 10 stars

* mild language, sexual inference

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

The Rise of Nine, by Pittacus Lore (2012)

6A.  Seriously? 

Beginning exactly where The Power of Six left off, The Rise of Nine shows what happens after Six meets Marina and Ella in Spain.  They're headed to India to find Eight. 

Narrated by John (Four), Six, and Marina, The Rise of Nine is the exciting addition to this series!  The group has separated and Six, Marina and Ella find Eight; John has found Nine.  The teens quickly realize how serious the situation is.

"This isn't playtime.  We're at war, dude - war."

The Rise of Nine is filled with twists and turns, similar to the other two.  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

The other books in this series:

 

From What I Remember, by Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas (2012)

I am jolted away by sunlight, flooding the room.

Graduation is two days away.  Kylie is the valedictorian, Max is the best-looking guy at school, Will is Kylie's best friend, and Lily is Max's girlfriend.  Kylie and Will do not belong in the luxurious world of Max and Lily.  Their worlds never intersect.

Except when a teacher assigns a group project for seniors on the second to the last day of school.  She also assigns partners.  Kylie is partnered up with Max.  Kylie never skips an assignment, no matter what.  Max has no intention to doing the assignment.

Max does something he never has done before.  He texts Kylie and asks her to meet at a Starbucks before starts.  Kylie is relieved to finally get the final assignment done, but someone steals her backpack.  Her backpack with her laptop.  Her never-ever-backed-up laptop with her original screen play and valedictorian speech.

The chase begins!

Max and Kylie find themselves in Ensenada, Mexico, on a wild adventure.

From What I Remember is an entertaining read for an older audience.  The publishers say for kids 14 and up, but it's really more for 16-years and older.  But once you start this read, it's hard to put it down!

Rating:  8 out of 10
*extreme language, homosexuality, underage drinking, sexual inferences

Personal Effects, by E. M. Kokie (Sept 2012)

Of all the lame sh** on Pinscher's backpack, his War Is Not the Answer sticker pisses me off the most - even more than his Practice Nonviolence button, which makes me want to practice some violence on his face.

Seventeen-year old Matt Foster has a lot to deal with right now.  His older brother, T.J. was killed in Iraq six months ago.  Matt's trying to make some sense of his brother's death, but his father just wants to shut the memories away, pretend like it didn't happen.

On T.J.'s list visit home, he asked Matt if he was serious about enlisting in the army.  

"Do. Not. Enlist."  Each word bounced off my brain.  "Period."

Matt's father has removed all of the pictures of T. J. from the house.  He's also hidden the flag and the small bag of things T. J. was wearing when he was killed.  Matt wants to know more about his brother.  He wants to learn as much as he can about T. J.'s last moments.

All that's left of T. J. is in that bag.

No way Dad would just throw away the flag from T. J.'s coffin.  Wherever it is, the bag has to be there, too.

I'm not giving up.

Three footlockers filled with T. J.'s personal effects show up.  Matt is determined, but his father wants to keep them locked away.

Dad's honoring T. J. by pretending he isn't dead and ignoring every big of evidence that proves him wrong.  But me?  What am I doing?

There is something I can do. And I already know what.  

Personal Effects is a deeply emotional read.  I found it to be hard to put down.  

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

*language, homosexuality, gay slurs

Sisters of Glass, by Stephanie Hemphill (2012)

I feel Giovanna's fire
as Mother prepares me for suitors,
polishes me
while Giovanna polishes glass.

Italy late-14o0s

The Barovier family has shaped glass on the island of Murano since 1291.  All Baroviers children are schooled to understand every aspect of glass.  Maria's father, Angelo Barovier, invented a clear glass, crystallo.  For 7 years the Barovier house was the only manufacturer of crystallo.  Then the secret recipe escaped.

Even though she has an older sister, Giovanna, her father insisted on his death bed that Maria needed to marry a noble.  Maria is now 15-years old; it is time her family found a proper suitor for her.  The family desperately needs Maria to make a good match.

If I marry well, then Marino
may take a wife
and acquire a large dowry
for our family.

Sixteen-year old Giovanna, has to watch Maria the family prepare her younger sister for marriage.  Giovanna is older, prettier, more graceful, and everyone loves her.  It is tradition for the oldest daughter to marry first.

Sisters of Glass is a novel-in-verse.  It's a entertaining, quick read, even if the ending isn't quite believable.  Very romantic!

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

This book is not available at NOLS...yet!