Book Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

8:59 AM mixagrip

How I Live Now by Meg RosoffPublisher: Wendy Lamb BooksPublication date: 2004ISBN: 9780553376050Source: LibraryWhen Daisy is sent to visit her aunt and cousins in England, she little expects to stay there so long.  Soon after her aunt leaves on business, the country is invaded by an enemy and bombing of major cities begins.  But she and her cousins are far from cities, living on an isolated and independent farm.  They live an idealized life for many months, until war finally finds their small corner of the world.  Things I Liked: I'm not entirely sure about this one.  I didn't exactly like it and I didn't like the main...


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August Reflections

7:15 AM Nikki

I've read some great books this month! I've read a LOT of E. Nesbit! If you haven't read any of her books, you really should give her a try!!!I read 22 books this month.Children's books: 1; Middle Grade: 8; Young Adult: 2; Adult: 5; Christian Fiction: 2; Christian Nonfiction: 1; Nonfiction: 3.Review copies: 7; Library books: 13; Books I bought: 1; Books I borrowed: 1.My top five:From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. E. L. Konigsburg.The Story of the Treasure Seekers. E. Nesbit.The Railway Children. E. Nesbit.Into the Parallel. Robin Brande. The Colonel's Lady. Laura Frantz. Reviews at Becky's Book Reviews:From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. E. L. Konigsburg. 1967. Simon & Schuster. 162 pages.The Boxcar Children. Gertrude Chandler Warner. 1942. 155 pages.The...


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The Crimson Pact, Volume 1

7:00 AM Nikki

Short stories. Seems I’ve been getting through my fair share of them lately, between the Nebula nominees, Hugo nominees, the most recent Writers of the Future anthology, and more. The hard part with anthologies of short stories is that it’s usually such a mixed bag. There will be some that’ll knock your socks off and others that make you feel like someone’s licking the butter between your toes. It isn’t often we get an anthology that stands really high overall, though sometimes you can find em. Most end up just left or right of middle.THE CRIMSON PACT, VOL 1, was edited by Paul Genesse and based on a framework short story written by Patrick...


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Book Review: Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti

7:50 AM mixagrip

Posted as part of Tween Tuesday, hosted by GreenBeanTeenQueen. Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark VenutiPublisher: EgmontUSAPublication date: September 2009ISBN: 9781606840061Source: LibraryTristan Benway, butler to the Bellweathers, has decided it's time to find a new position.  He's put up with dangerous animals inhabiting the lighthouse, tricks and antics from the obnoxiously loud triplets, and good deeds gone awry from their sister.  After all, there is only so much a respectable man can handle from this zany and incorrigible family, right?Things I Liked: This was a sweet, quirky, awesomely crazy middle grade read. ...


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The Ultimate Top Ten - Blogiversary Edition

4:04 PM Nikki

I thought I would celebrate turning five by composing the ultimate top ten list. A list celebrating the TEN books that I've loved the most of all since I began reviewing in August 2006. I'm thinking it's fair to include one from 2006, one from 2011, and two apiece from 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. November 2006. I've reviewed this one SO many times since the initial review because this book has become one of my favorite-and-best books of all time.A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. October 2007. I think my reading experience of this one is almost as good as the book itself. This is one that I read for...


Name That Book, Episode 17

7:27 AM mixagrip

Name that Book is a biweekly game where you get to guess a book title from the photo clues.Just leave your guesses in the comments. And thanks, as always, for playing!  (Oh, and that photo that is the same in both is not the same word in both titles...) Book 1:Book 2:If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percent...


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The Goblin Corps

7:00 AM Nikki

If you enjoyed THE CONQUEROR'S SHADOW by Ari Marmell, then THE GOBLIN CORPS is more of the same. Only sillier. I know, I didn't believe it was possible, either, but just read the cover blurb: "The few. The proud. The obscene." Yes, yes he went there.The source of said hilarity are the main characters, an "elite" group of goblinesque creatures formed by the evil Charnel King for a special mission: there's a troll, a kobold, an orc, a gremlin, a shapeshifter, an ogre, and a bugbear. Put them all together in their various levels of stupidity and prejudices, mix up a few stereotypes, drop them in the middle of a fabricated training mission with no...


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The Sunday Salon: Week In Review #34

12:49 PM Nikki

Reviewed at Becky's Book ReviewsSarah's Ground. Ann Rinaldi. 2004. Simon & Schuster. 192 pages. The Twenty-One Balloons. William Pene du Bois. 1947. Viking 180 pages. Huge. Sasha Paley. 2008. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages.Into the Parallel. Robin Brande. 2011. Ryer Publishing. 392 pages.Further Chronicles of Avonlea. L.M. Montgomery. 1920/1989. Bantam Classics. 200 pages. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Jules Verne. 1870. Puffin Classics. 280 pages.The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared. Alice Ozma. 2011. Hachette. 304 pages.© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Revi...


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The Reading Promise

7:48 AM Nikki

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared. Alice Ozma. 2011. Hachette. 304 pages.It started on a train. I am sure of it. The 3,218-night reading marathon that my father and I call The Streak started on a train to Boston, when I was in third grade.The Reading Promise itself--the promise shared between this father and daughter--was quite simple. The father would read aloud at least ten minutes every day to his daughter. He must get the reading in before midnight. It could--if necessary--be done over the phone. But for the most part it was a commitment to share quality time with one another, and with books, each and every day. Of course,...


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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

7:22 PM Nikki

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Jules Verne. 1870. Puffin Classics. 280 pages.In the year 1866 the whole maritime population of Europe and America was excited by a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon. I didn't seek out an abridged version of this Jules Verne classic. But when I discovered that the edition I'd checked out from the library was abridged--after I was four or five chapters into it--I didn't try to 'fix' it either. I'll start with the good news. I definitely liked this one more than Journey to the Center of the Earth! There were times I actually thought Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was a good read. That the story...


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Retro Friday Review: The River Between Us by Richard Peck

10:36 AM mixagrip

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Angie of Angieville and "focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc."The River Between Us by Richard PeckPublisher: PuffinPublication date: 2003ISBN: 978-0142403105Source: Library (audiobook)Howard Hutchings has a lot to learn about his family's history. While visiting his extended family, he hears all about his grandmother Tilly and what happened one year when her family took in two strangers from the South.  Delphine and Calinda are not your typical young...


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Deadline

7:00 AM Nikki

Full disclosure. I loved Mira Grant's novel, FEED. I didn't think I would because I was a tad tired of zombies, but FEED was still awesome...especially the ending which was absolutely incredible. Sure there were some things that made me say "meh", but I personally thought the characters were fun (specifically in the latter half of the novel when the story got really grim and bleak), and the setting was fantastic. Not to mention, Mira Grant's writing appealed to me with its accessibility and her sense of pacing. If was my personal pick for the Hugo this year. I bought copies of her books and lugged them to WorldCon so I could stalk Mira...


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The 21 Balloons

7:53 PM Nikki

The Twenty-One Balloons. William Pene du Bois. 1947. Viking 180 pages. There are two kinds of travel. The usual way is to take the fastest imaginable conveyance along the shortest road. The other way is not to care particularly where you are going or how long it will take you, or whether you will get there or not. I should have believed my mother. She's been trying to tell me that this was a good read for many, many years. And she was right. This is a good read. I'm not sure I'd say it was the best, best book I've ever read. Or the best Newbery I've ever read. But this book is anything but boring! It surprised me in all the right ways.The...


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Book Review: Enclave by Ann Aguirre

8:19 AM mixagrip

Enclave by Ann AguirrePublisher: Feiwel & FriendsPublication date: April 2011ISBN: 9780312650087Source: LibraryDeuce has spent her life hoping she'll be chosen as a hunter.  When she receives her name and the huntress' marks at fifteen, she is content with her life in an underground home.  But when she's paired with a hunter named Fade and they are sent on an impossible mission, her perspective of the world begins to change.  The freaks that occupy the tunnels between enclaves are changing and her world is about to turn upside down.Things I Liked: I enjoyed the glimpse of another possible future.  I thought it was...


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Cliquey Clique: Giveaway Winner

11:26 AM mixagrip

I know you are all waiting with baited breath to know if you won Populazzi.  First, though, I wanted to list off all the delightful books you mentioned as your favorite (or one of your favorites) high school clique book.  I haven't read many of them myself, but if you're in the market for one, here are some suggestions (we got some movie suggestions too!):Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkinsbefore i fall by Lauren OliverBreakfast Club (movie)The Carrie Diaries by Candace BushnellThe Clique series by Lisi HarrisonDork Diaries series by Rachel Renee RussellThe Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder (got three...


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Library Loot: Third Trip in August

8:56 AM Nikki

New Loot:Kill Shakespeare. Vol. 1: A Sea of Troubles created and written by Conor McCreey and Anthony Del Col.Powder and Patch by Georgette HeyerThe Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women, 1800-World War II edited by A. Susan WilliamsMy Name is Mary Sutter by Robin OliveiraThe Woman in White by Wilkie CollinsMacbeth by William ShakespeareAgatha Christie an AutobiographyGreat Expectations by Charles DickensThe Armada by Garrett MattinglyA Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha ChristieJane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor: Being The First Jane Austen Mystery by Stephanie BarronCount Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. JamesThe...


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Into the Parallel (YA)

7:05 AM Nikki

Into the Parallel. Robin Brande. 2011. Ryer Publishing. 392 pages.They said it couldn't be done.Well, that's not exactly true.They said it couldn't be done by a 17-year-old girl sitting alone in her bedroom on a Saturday morning.Well, that's not exactly true, either, since it's not like there's some physicist out there who specifically made that prediction--"A seventeen-year-old girl in her pajamas? Never!"--but the point is, no one is going to believe me even if I can prove what happened, which I'm not really sure I can. But I know I did it. I was there. I didn't imagine it or dream it or go into some sort of altered state that confused...


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The Word for World is Forest

7:00 AM Nikki

Before there was Avatar there was Ursula K. Le Guin's THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST. Written in 1972, and the winner of the 1973 Hugo Award for best novella, Tor decided that the current furor over sustainable ecology would make this novel a timely re-release. At the very least it's an entertaining comparison to Cameron's blue-peopled visual extravaganza.The similarities will be obvious from the start: humans can now travel to the stars and will take other planets' natural resources for their own use; the nature-loving natives who just want to preserve their way of life; the racist Army dude who is willing to do anything to fulfill his objective.If...


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Sarahs' Ground (MG)

7:13 PM Nikki

Sarah's Ground. Ann Rinaldi. 2004. Simon & Schuster. 192 pages.My older sister, Fanny, put me in a closet once when we were children. She, being the elder, had her reasons, I suppose. Sarah's Ground opens in the spring of 1861. Our heroine, Sarah Tracy, is a young woman with a unique opportunity. Having lied on her application, she's been hired by a preservation association (or society?) to oversee Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. The estate isn't in the best condition, and, it needs some attention, some care, to restore and preserve the legacy of this historic home. Sarah Tracy is the woman for the job. And this novel focuses...


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What's On My Nightstand (August)

5:41 PM Nikki

These are the books I'm currently reading--or thinking about currently reading! (5 Minutes for Books--What's On My Nightstand)The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. This one is definitely a chunkster--at a little over 900 pages--but so far it's good. So good I don't even mind how heavy it is! Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer. I am enjoying this more the second time around. I don't know that I'll finish it this month--though I hope to--but I am enjoying this one.Lighthouse by Eugenia Price. Yet another historical fiction. This time set in America. I am liking it so far. I just wished that my library had the rest of the books in the series!I,...


Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

8:11 AM mixagrip

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny HanPublisher: Simon & Schuster Children's PublishingPublication date: May 2009ISBN: 9781416968290Source: Won in a contestBelly has spent every summer she can remember at the beach house with her second family.  Every year, she's looked forward to her time spent there as the best of the year.  She's been in love with Conrad for almost as long as they've visited, and best friends with his brother Jeremiah.  But the summer Belly turns sixteen is special - things are different and she can feel it.  It is a summer of romance and friendships and sorrow and joy. Things I Liked: This was...


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Further Chronicles of Avonlea

11:10 AM Nikki

Further Chronicles of Avonlea. L.M. Montgomery. 1920/1989. Bantam Classics. 200 pages.I love L.M. Montgomery. I do. I just love, love, love her books--her novels and her short stories. Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea are short story collections set on Prince Edward Island during Anne's time. (I get the impression that these stories are set around the time of Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, etc. She has NOT married Gilbert yet.*) There are fifteen short stories:Aunt Cynthia's Persian CatThe Materializing of CecilHer Father's DaughterJane's BabyThe Dream-ChildThe Brother Who FailedThe Return of HesterThe Little Brown...


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