Evernight by Claudia Gray (21/81)

Bianca wants to escape.

She's been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

Then she meets Lucas. He's not the "Evernight type" either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him.

"I couldn't stand it if they took it out on you," he tells Bianca, "and eventually they would."

But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.

I blame one of my fellow bookclub ladies (Legs) for recommending me this book .... And I was not disappointed ....

A couple of things if you loved Stephenie Meyers then you are going to love this book .... And make sure you have dinner prepared for the family because you will be too busy reading to worry about cooking it !!!!

This is a great wee book and just when you have an idea what is going on another wee twist sneaks in .... Thankfully the second in the series is out now (which I will be racing down to my bookstore to get ) and the third comes out later next year !! ....

I have been reading alot of teen novels at the moment and really enjoying them ... I don't want to give away to much of the story-line but it is about a school called "Evernight" where things just aren't want they seem !!! ........ And the connection between Bianca and Lucas !!! Lets just say in Facebooks terms "It's Complicated"

I loved this book and cannot wait to read the next in the series ....

I rate this book 5*****

The Sin Eaters by Andrew Beahrs (30/81)

Category: Authors That Are New To Me
C2008 238pages 5stars

Bill is a unfortunate lad. Made an orphan by plague and tricked into the practice of sin-eating, he is now an outcast. Sarah, fleeing from her village, discovers Bill and finds herself unable to pass him by. Sarah knows what it is to harbor the weight of sin and she is compelled to help Bill, perhaps as only she is capable of doing. Faced with the first act of human charity in many days, Bill agrees to travel with Sarah, unaware of who or what she is fleeing from, but hoping that she possesses the ability to set him free.

I found this ARC at a Friends of the Library sale. It is a small, unassuming thing but it caught my eye. I put it in my basket thinking, if nothing else, it will serve a place in my BookMooch inventory. It has sat on my shelf for five months and I haven't given it a thought since then. But yesterday it called to me and I've been hard pressed to set it down.
This book is so full of beautifully descriptive and evocative phrases. Mr Beahrs is truly a wordsmith. I could visualize each scene so easily, there was no work, no effort to ground myself in this story. I was there. And these people! I was drawn to them all. More than just the titular sin-eater, each character was a fine study on how every act sets others in motion. How our sins weigh on us, how they drive us, bring us close, tear us apart. This is a fine tale - it will be one of my favorite books for this year.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

"The clothes are warm she says. They are for a girl and I will not wear them and I fold these hands before me and cross my legs. I do not care that my yard flops free. I think to myself that I have enough girl inside me already. I have eaten the sins of more than one. Were they to sing, there are enough to make a chorus."

"There is no greater crime than setting a fire... It gorges on anything that men can build. It makes men's labors into dust, and their dreams into nonsense. Fire is a treason to all - those scorched, but also those spared...Men's greatest hopes turn cinder-black. Their faith chars."

"Mothers and daughters speak to each other without words, using a tongue made up of history, and wrongs done and favors owed and wounds well known."

"The world teems with life and the living, so richly that it sometimes seems impossible for any life to be lost. But all are. To save some bit of life, if only for a while, to offer breath and blood to another, if only for a little time...that is such a gift!"

Africa Explored - 56/81

Africa Explored by Christopher Hibbert, new author category

This book covers the exploration of Africa by European explorers, covering over 100 years. I have mixed feelings about the book, so I'll try to explain why.

First, I liked the format. It was clear, concise writing, with a few unfamiliar words, but a glossary in the back. And there were maps, which was really important, as I tried to follow the explorers as they traveled.

And the subject itself was ambitious. Hibbert tried to be fair, portraying both the native Africans and the Europeans with warts and all. He made an effort not to 'take sides' but to show people as they really were. I certainly learned a lot. This was a historical era that I knew virtually nothing about.

But oh, was this book depressing! It wasn't the fault of the writer. It was just the feeling I came away with. It seemed that in Africa, the strongest, most aggressive, most bloodthirsty group was the one that came out on top. Those who were peaceful were always exploited by someone else. This was true no matter what the ethnic group. Some of the worst excesses described were committed by Africans. One example was the slavetrader who snatched a baby from its mother and dashed its brains out, so the woman would walk faster.

I guess I had an idea that the Europeans were basically the ones exploiting the Africans, but as I read, I discovered that was not necessarily so. Even before Europeans outposts were established, some African tribes and Arabs engaged in the slave trade. One European who arrived early in the 18th century described a man as a slavetrader and a very good person. To me, in the 21st century, I just don't see how anyone could describe a person engaged in such a trade as a 'good person.'

But the Europeans were certainly not blameless. Richard Burton, in particular, struck me as a really nasty sort of person. He loved describing in lurid detail the sexual customs of the tribes, and tried to experience it as much first hand. And he delighted in the most cruel, barbaric practices. He wrote a friend with similar tastes complaining that no one had been tortured yet in his honor, but he had hopes that the next village would be better in that respect.

All in all, I would only recommend this to people interested in the history of Africa or European exploration. As entertainment, it was pretty grim.

Tales from the City by Armistead Maupin (37/81)

Category: Authors that are New to Me

I’d been meaning to read this book for years, and then on holiday in San Francisco, our apartment had a copy on its shelves. As it is the definitive San Francisco book, I had to read while I was staying in the city.

I loved the references to the city and I found it a compulsive read, but I didn’t ever fall in love with it or the characters. I was interested in the characters in the way that you might be interested in gossip about celebrities – I never really cared, but it filled up some time without having to think too hard. It struck me as rather a shallow book and the characters, despite being overtly quirky, never seemed real.

Moreover the naivety of the 1970s and the sexual free for all didn't sit comfortably with me, knowing that the scene it was portraying was later to be hit by AIDS. I found it hard to read it in the light way it was written with this hindsight.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris (29/81)

category: Books by Joanne Harris
C1999 242pages 4stars

When I was a child, I used to listen in terror to the story of the gingerbread house, of the witch who tempted little children in and ate them. I look at her shop, all wrapped in shining paper like a present waiting to be unwrapped, and I wonder how many people, how many souls, she has already tempted beyond redemption.

Father Reynaud first spotted Vianne Rocher during the carnival celebration and when their eyes met he had a feeling that she was trouble. He began to worry when Vianne settled her Chocolaterie directly across from his church. Seeing the shop open on Sunday mornings, he fears her wares are tempting his flock to break their dutiful fasts. So Reynaud denounces Vianne's sweets directly from the pulpit. He makes his own diet more stringent, as an example to the devout, even though he secretly dreams of her dark confections. But his plan backfires. Instead of closing down, Vianne announces a Grand Festival du Chocolate to be held on Easter Sunday morning and Reynaud knows he must now take matters into his own hands.

When I started this novel, I did not realize that the Lenten season played such a big role in it. I actually gave up chocolate for Lent a few years ago, and the memory of that experience, I am sure, heightened my appreciation of Chocolat.
They say that every story has two sides and I really enjoyed reading the alternating passages from Vianne's and Reynaud's perspectives. Even though they are not labeled as such, I could tell immediately which character was speaking, and that, in my mind, meant that Harris did a good job of giving each a distinct voice.
I read the book in one day and I have to say that it felt perfectly self contained - it was neither too short nor excessively drawn out. I've been reading some longish books recently so I appreciated such a succinct story.
I am not really one to expound on themes and motifs, because I'm not really good at that, but I could not help but notice how much the color red appeared throughout the text. Not just on Vianne and Anouk but gradually on all her regular customers. Red scarfs, red coats, red dresses. It was utterly pervasive. I took it to mean that they were all awakening to life, to passion and vitality. But that's my own opinion, make of it what you will.
Very enjoyable. I will never look at an Easter Basket the same way again! Now, onto the sequel!

FAVORITE QUOTES:

Yesterday Toinette Arnauld was eating - eating! - in the confessional. I could smell the sweetness on her breath, but I had to pretend to maintain anonymity.
"Blesh me, mon pere , I have shinned." I could hear her chewing, hear the flat little sucking sounds she made against her teeth. I listened in growing rage as she confessed to a list of trifling sins that I barely even heard, the smell of chocolate growing even more pungent in the enclosed space by the second. Her voice was thick with it, and I felt my own mouth moisten in sympathy. Finally I could not bear it any longer.

A hundred children will awaken to the sound of Easter bells, and their first thought will not be, He is risen! but Chocolates! Easter Chocolates!

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge - 3/81

Category: Hugo Award Winners (1/9)

Okay, so I'm a little behind. I think I can still do it!
Rainbows End won the 2008 Hugo Award, which is why I decided to pick it up and read it. I am a fan of science fiction, although it is not my favorite genre (that would be fantasy - similar, but not the same). This book is almost in the realm of speculative fiction, as it only takes place a little more than fifteen years in the future, and relies on the world remaining pretty much the same.
The book takes place over the course of several weeks, with most of the action happening in a single night. It is 2025, and our world looks very similar, although there are obvious differences. Technology has continued moving forward in leaps and bounds, paving the way for medical miracles and wearable computer hardware. Most young people have grown up with "wearables" - contact lenses and clothes that allow them to surf the internet and communicate as long as they are in range of the network (which means pretty much anywhere). The world has suffered from some horrendous events, which are mainly unspecified, but seem to be terrorist attacks as well as natural disasters. Two of the characters in the book are high-level Marines, and it is interesting to see how the past affects the way the military does things.
The main character is Robert Gu, a former world-renowned poet who lost much of his life to Alzheimer's. The medical establishment was able to cure him, and now he is making his way back in this strange new world. He lives with his son and daughter-in-law (the Marines), and their daughter Miri. In order to get up to speed with his clever grandaughter he goes to a local school for retraining - he is there with high school students and other elderly people who are trying to learn the same as him. From this point the plot gets rather complicated, and it is difficult to summarize without taking up paragraphs.
I really enjoyed Vinge's look at the future. It is easy to see how our world could become such a virtual place. One of the most entertaining and fascinating pieces of this future is the "belief circles". These are virtual realities created by fans of a particular author or work. An example from the book is the world that Terry Pratchett fans have created, which, if you tune in to their network, makes your world appear to be Discworld. It is very interactive and creative, as fans all over the world contribute to their particular belief circle to make it more fun for everyone. Vinge also does a great job of showing how not everyone is up to speed with all of the new technology. It's very much like today - some people are super internet-savvy, while others barely know how to use a mouse.

These Is My Words - 55/81

These is My Words, by Nancy E. Turner, audiobook category

I enjoy historical fiction sometimes, but I'm not much into the Western. But this one was recommended by a friend. She just loved it. I decided to give it a try, but couldn't get a paper copy. But they did have the audiobook, so I checked it out.

I am so glad I did! I was absolutely hooked from the very first CD. It starts out with an Indian ambush, the death of a child, and a brutal attack on some unsuspecting girls, and that was just the first CD!

The story is told as journal entries of Sarah Agnes Prine, traveling from Arizona to Texas. I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, but for various reasons, Sarah and her family head back to Arizona.

Sarah goes through all kinds of heartache, but the core of the story is a romance. I loved the characters, and I loved Sarah. I absolutely understood her independence, her desire for learning, her wish to be 'good' like her friend Savannah. And the romance was just so wonderful.

I've stayed up late, just because I can't stop listening to see what happens next. This was fun to do as an audiobook. The narrator was great. And it was so much more suspenseful this way. I am such a fast reader, but with an audiobook, you can't just rush ahead. You have to wait! Several times I went to see my family and told them everything that had just happened and that I just couldn't wait to see what happened next!

I don't know anything about the author, but I know that after reading this, I have to find out if she wrote anything else. Highly recommended.