It’s here….a summer reading spectacular

I know you all have been waiting for the promised guest blog post by Tessa Gratton, aka the crazy lady.  Here it is–her current favorite reads, straight from her (and her brother) to you.  WARNING:  I now have even more books I want to read.  How about you?  Which books are you heading to the library to get?  Top on my list is Incarceron.  Race you there!  Check out what other cool stuff she can do on her blog.

Best of my blogs

Have you ever wanted to travel to a different country?  Let Rory Stewart take you to Afghanistan in The Places in Between.  In this book he recounts his experiences hiking across Afghanistan with his great big dog.  Read the review on GuysLitWire.  What do you think?  Are you up for adventure?

How do you decide what to read?  Blogger and author Elana Johnson shares how she picks books on What Writers Read.  So what do you think?  Is she a book snob?  Are you?  I read pretty much anything and everything, but somehow I do have to decide what to read next.

Looking for more on Greek mythology now that Rick Riordan has finished the Percy Jackson series?  Check out the review on Guys Lit Wire of this graphic novel on Athena: The Grey Eyed Goddess by George O’Connor.  Bonus material is a review of a Japanese graphic novel that doesn’t draw manga.

Maureen Johnson writes her Manifesto on social media.  It’s a lot to think about.  How do you want to present yourself to the world of the web?  How do you want to participate with others on the web?  While you’re there, check out her books.  They look good!

Looking for something to read while waiting for Mockingjay to come out in August.  Check out the review of The Enemy–a combination of survival, dystopia, and zombies by Charlie Higson.

Who said reading couldn’t pay off?  Read The Clock Without a Face and look for the clues that can lead you to emeralds hidden around the country.  Watch or read an interview with the authors and the reader who found the first emerald.

Check out what Christina Lee has to say about Liar by Justine Larbalestier.  What happens if you can’t trust the narrator?  The review of this book reminds me of Avi’s Nothing But the Truth.  It leaves you wondering what is the truth and if anyone is indeed telling the truth.

Head over to the League of Extraordinary Writers to enter a contest to win a new book series.  They are giving clues each day.  If you can guess the book under discussion, you can win the entire series.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Wow!  City of Glass is the thrilling third installment of  The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare.  If you have not read this urban fantasy series, get yourself to the library or bookstore and pick up a copy.  Don’t wait.  Do it now.

Clary discovers that she is not who she always thought she was.  Instead of an ordinary mundane, she is a Shadow Hunter and daughter of Valentine, the Shadow Hunter who wants to take over the world.  Desperate circumstances joined her with the Lightwoods at the Institute as she learned to fight along side them against demons and Valentine.   Now Clary is desperate to get to Alicante, the City of Glass, to find the warlock Magnor Fell who has the antidote that can save her mother.  Once she gets there, without the Clave’s knowledge or permission, she finds the city is under attack by Valentine, who has possession of the first two Mortal Instruments, and is seeking the third.  The only way the Shadow Hunters can hope to defeat Valentine is by joining forces with the Downworlders.  Will they be able to set aside their fear and prejudice of each other to fight a common enemy? 

If you are in love with this series or its characters head over to Mundie Source to enter a contest to win a free ARC (Advanced Reader’s Copy) of Clockwork Angel (the first in a series that is a prequel to The Mortal Instruments).  All you have to do is declare your passion (love or loathing) for any of the characters.  You’ve got until Saturday to get your entry in.  Even if you don’t enter, head over to read the letters already posted.

This series captures all that I love about fantasy–the battle between good and evil whose outcome balances on the choices made by imperfect humans.  Jace captures the power of fantasy when he explains his choices to Clary at the end.  He used to believe that love would make him weak, but meeting Clary showed him that love is the strongest force of all.  Even though she was raised as a weak mundane and never trained as a fighter, love made her strong.  Jace says, “And then I saw how much you loved your mother, loved Simon, and how you’d walk into hell to save them…Love didn’t make you weak, it made you stronger than anyone I’d ever met.  And I realized I was the one who was weak.”  In the end, it was Jace’s love for Clary that gave him the strength to make the right choice.  It was Clary’s rune to reveal who each Shadow Hunter loved most that convinced them to make to choice to stand against Valentine.  Love is the only force that can defeat evil. 

All my favorite fantasies explore this theme:  CS Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, Madeleine L’Lengle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising,  JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, even Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.  Which stories, fantasy or not, highlight the power of love for you?

Masquerade by Melissa de la Cruz

Yes, it’s yet another vampire series.  I first saw students reading the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz a couple of years ago.  I picked up the first one, Blue Bloods, from a stack of books in my daughter’s room.  I had to grab Masquerade before she lent it to another friend. 

In this incarnation, vampires are fallen angels, banished to earth to make amends for their sin of following Lucifer before the Fall.  They are behind the great museums and finer things of life.  These vampires are immortal, but they cycle through different lives in different times.  As they become of age during their teens, they regain the memories of past lives and gain control over their powers.  Of course, these vampires are all the rich and famous in the social scene of New York City, usually not my favorite cast of characters.

Schuyler Van Allen, however, is an outcast.  Her family’s fortune has declined so she is comfortable wearing castoffs from Goodwill, and never has fit in with her wealthier classmates at Duchesne School.  As she learns about her past and the life of the vampires, she learns that she is even more of an outcast–a half-blood.  Her mother, who has been in a coma for as long as Schuyler can remember, broke all the vampire laws and married a human.  Schuyler is the result.

Now something is stalking the Blue Bloods and killing their young vampires at their most vulnerable time.  Schuyler is convinced that it is the Silver Bloods, a branch of vampires who prey on their own kind, but the leaders of the Conclave refuse to believe the danger is real.  So Schuyler and her Conduit/best friend Oliver head to Venice to seek out Schuyler’s missing grandfather.  He is their last hope for help since her grandmother Cordelia was attacked by a Silver Blood.  Meanwhile, the Silver Blood is getting stronger.  Who among the Blue Bloods is helping it? 

Check out the trailers on Melissa’s website.

Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs

It’s here–the book you have all been waiting to splash into this summer.  Dive into Forgive My Fins for a journey that stretches from a Florida high school to the depths of the sea.  Lily Sanderson has problems, and not your ordinary high school troubles.  Lily has a secret.  She is really a mermaid and the princess of Thalassinia.  She must bond with her mate for life before her eighteenth birthday in just a few short weeks.  The problem is, she is too afraid to tell the love of her life, Brody, the truth.  She worships him from afar while keeping track of his stats on the swim team and working stories with him as part of the news team.  Her best friend Shannen supports her wholeheartedly (even if with not full knowledge).  Meanwhile, Lily must deal with her motorcycle-riding neighbor who lives to annoy her.  What’s a girl to do?

I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  It’s a great book to take along while you relax by the pool or beach.

Best of my blogs

Who says real men don’t cry and real girls can’t kick butt?  We are surrounded by images of what boys and girls are supposed to be like.  Do you believe it?  Think about the real people you know–those who aren’t afraid to be themselves.  It’s hard to classify them, isn’t it.  Good characters should be the same way–hard to pin down in simplistic ways.  Check out Maggie Steifvator’s rant on gender stereotypes.  What do you think?

I just learned that it brings good luck to keep a vampire in your basement.  Read what happens to one girl who goes to feed the family pet in her father’s absence in “The Vampire Box” by Tessa Gratton on The Merry Sisters of Fate blog.

You can also read The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer for free online or pick up your copy in a bookstore near you.  Bree Tanner is a minor character in Eclipse.  If you have forgotten, Bree was one of the newborns in the army created by Victoria.  She is the newborn who surrendered to Carlyle.  He wanted to offer her a chance to change her ways, but the Volturi killed her anyway.

In case you haven’t had enough of vampires yet, the book with all the buzz this summer is The Passage by Justin Cronin.  It keeps popping up everywhere.  In this twist, vampires were created by being infected with a virus from a failed government experiment.  They have swept over the world, killing and infecting the rest of the population.  Now a few holdouts try to save what’s left.  Will you be reading The Passage this summer?

It’s time again for blockbuster books to hit the big screen as blockbuster movies.  Check out the video trailers for Eclipse and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows found at the Book Case.  Will you be in the theater on opening day?

Where do you get your ideas for writing?  Cynthia Kadahota shares her sources of inspiration in a guest blog post..  Hint:  It involves lots of staring out of windows.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Yeah, I know I missed the movie, but I finally had a chance to read The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks now that school is out.   As of now, it is my favorite of Sparks’ books.  Of course, that may change with the next one I read. For me, each of his books are a visit home.  For someone he didn’t grow up in eastern North Carolina, he certainly captures the flavor of the setting of my childhood.   While reading The Last Song, I felt like I was back at my uncle’s trailer in Surf City on Topsail Island.  I remember seeing turtle tracks in the sand, but I never guarded a nest like Ronnie did.

Ronnie is less than happy to spend the summer with her dad and little brother Jonah in a sleepy beach town near Wilmington.  She has spent the last three years refusing to speak to her dad–or have anything to do with the music they shared–because he left his family after her parents’ divorce.  Even though she and her mom constantly fight, Ronnie would rather be hanging out in the clubs of New York City than be bored to tears in the South. 

Within her first few days at the beach, Ronnie finds herself the focus of two very different guys.  Will is definitely not her type–a popular volleyball player who could have his pick of girls at the beach.  Marcus seems to be more her style with his tattoos, but there is something seriously disturbing about him.  Within her first week in town, Ronnie finds herself accused of shoplifting signed classic rock 45s from a music store–a crime that she really didn’t commit this time.  Underneath the tough girl exterior and seething anger, is a gentler side of Ronnie–one that breaks up fights to protect a small child and one that sleeps out on the dunes to protect  a nest of sea turtle eggs.

The events of this summer change the course of Ronnie’s life, but will it be too late to right the wrongs she has done?  As she learns, you can’t get back lost time.  All you can do is move forward.  At it’s heart, The Last Song is a love story, but not just a romance.  Ronnie’s summer echoes the greatest love story ever told–that of God’s love for us. 

By the last few chapters, I was sobbing aloud as I read it.  My daughter asked me what was wrong, and I answered, “He died.” (No, I’m not telling you who died.)  She responded that he’s not real.  You don’t have to cry.  I know he’s not real, but some characters come to life on the page.  Which characters seem real to you when you read about them?

Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore

I have never laughed so hard while battling the forces of evil as I did while reading Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore. 

Sarcastic girl reporter and Nancy Drew wanna-be Maggie Quinn takes on the demonic forces of darkness.  Not only is it a full time job to avoid all the hoopla and pressure surrounding the senior prom, but Maggie must also deal with the terrifying dreams that now disturb her sleep.  No fan of the Jocks and Jessicas who rule the school, Maggie now finds that she is the only one who can defend them from the strengthening demon from her dreams.  Somehow Maggie must navigate the path between her mom (who freaks out an any and all mention of the supernatural) and her grandma (who encourages Maggie to accept her gift.  Did I mention that Maggie’s rational, scientific mind has trouble accepting all of this?  Not to mention that she now has two guys vying for her attention:  Brian, a former “Jock,” and Justin, a graduate student of “weird.”

For a dark book battling the forces of evil, this book generated a lot of laughs.  Maggie’s wisecracks may not win her many favors from the principal, but I loved it.  The good news is, Clement-Moore has more books for me to laugh my way through.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Coming straight from Hong Kong, Kimberly Chang and her mother discover a very different future from what they expected in New York City.  Living in an unheated apartment filled with rats, roaches, and broken windows, Kim helps her mother with finishing work in a sweatshop clothing factory in Chinatown.  Kim’s limited English leaves her confused and frustrated at school with a less than understanding sixth grade teacher.  She is accused of cheating when she asks for a pencil and does not understand the teacher’s mortification or her classmates giggles when she innocently asks for a rubber, or erasor.  In spite of these difficulties, Kim strives to regain the confidence and excellence in school she left behind in Hong Kong.

Once she wins a scholarship to a private secondary school, Kimberly must straddle two very different worlds.  By day she is the scholarship minority student who doesn’t quite fit in with her wealthy classmates.  By night she assists her mother with piecework in the steaming factory.  Her work is needed to help them survive and repay their debts to family.  These two worlds never meet until Kim is forced to choose between two boys who love her and her own dreams for her future.

Jean Kwok weaves a  story where Kim’s spirit and determination triumph over the harsh poverty and crushing challenges of her life.  The most squalid scenes are framed in lyrical words that transcend their surroundings and haunt the heart. It is by far the most breathtakingly beautiful book I have read in a long time.

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