I meant to post this on Friday, but was derailed by an allergy attack.
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
An intense coming-of-age novel about a family full of secrets, set in NYC and Florida right after WWII. It made me uncomfortable because I could see where things were headed, but I couldn’t put it down. In some ways it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite books, Autumn Street by Lois Lowry, although that one is non-romantic and about a child.
A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages by Kristin Chenoweth
I still haven’t seen Wicked (hopefully this month!), but I love Kristin Chenoweth. I laughed out loud many times reading this memoir. It’s interesting, unapologetic, and hilarious!
You Wish by Mandy Hubbard
A funny, enjoyable novel about an outcast who wishes, on her sixteenth birthday, that all her birthday wishes would come true…and they do. However, her last birthday wish was for a certain guy to kiss her, and now he’s dating her best friend. Dolls and My Little Ponies come to life and dramatic transformations occur as Kayla tries to prevent the kiss that could cost her her friend. Very original.
Every Soul A Star by Wendy Mass
A cute novel about three very different teenagers who come together to watch a solar eclipse. Another reviewer on Goodreads smartly described it as an inverse of Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day” (a story that has haunted me since I saw the film version in sixth grade). I learned a lot about eclipses, and really want to see one now!
Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s a collection of essays about, appropriately, celebrating both the bitter and the sweet in life. It took me a while to finish, because it’s very insightful and brought out a lot of emotions. In the end I typed out three pages of quotes that I had highlighted…you’ll notice that I already posted a long passage here last week.
Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez
I won this novel on Goodreads Firstreads. It’s about a pre-teen boy who is orphaned after a flu pandemic, and taken in by a country pastor in an isolated church-dominated town. I appreciated the portrayal of fundamental-type Christians as real, multifaceted people, not caricatures (I haven’t seen much of that in mainstream fiction). But I was disturbed by many aspects of the story, and the ending left me confused and feeling like I had really missed something. It was well-written, but maybe I’m just not literary enough to get it.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
I’m very impressed by the amount of creativity and research that must have gone into this book. It’s a steampunk alternate history of WWI, from the perspectives of an escaped Austrian prince and a teenage girl posing as a boy in the British air force. The book has something for everyone, and if I had tween kids, I would love to read it to them (do tweens allow themselves to be read to? :\). I think it’s an instant classic…something about it reminded me of Roald Dahl. Can’t wait for the sequel!
Books for September: 7
2010 year to date: 52
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