Tag: Reading Challenges

Book Review: The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

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June 7, 2011

7:00 am

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The Great Wall Of Lucy WuThe Great Wall Of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book Source: Checked out from my public library

Who did Regina think she was, telling me how or how not to be Chinese?

Lucy Wu is all set to have the best year of her life. Her older sister, Regina, is going off to college. Not only will Lucy get out of the shadow the Perfect Chinese Daughter, but she will also get their shared bedroom all to herself. She’s looking forward to starting sixth grade and being among the oldest kids in the school, playing basketball, and having a big joint-birthday Halloween bash with her best friend, Madison.

And then, it all falls apart. Her parents announce that Lucy is about to get a new roommate – a great-aunt from China. A new Chinese school is opening in the area, and her parents want her to go on Saturday mornings – when she has always had basketball practice. Nothing is going according to Lucy’s plans.

Shang creates an utterly believable tween in Lucy, blending all the sweetness and prickliness that come with being an eleven-year-old girl. She wants to do the right thing, but sometimes she really wants her way, too. She wants to fit in and have the boy she likes like her back. She doesn’t want to be too different from everyone else. She has been content to fade into the background everywhere but on the basketball court. When a bully makes her a target, her impulse is to hide away. When some of the popular girls spot Yi Po at the mall and make fun of her, Lucy denies being to related to her.

As the weeks pass, and Lucy gets to know Yi Po, she also starts to figure out how to bring together and accept the various parts of her own identity, and how important it is to stand up for herself. Her realistic responses to frustrating situations will have readers cringing and laughing right along with her.

Highly recommended for grades 4-6, this is a stand-out debut novel.

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Book Review: The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal

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June 2, 2011

7:00 am

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The False PrincessThe False Princess by Eilis O’Neal

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book Source: Checked out from my public library

I was a good, quiet, and rule-following girl. The perfect princess, if not for my clumsiness and sometimes painful shyness.

Just after her sixteenth birthday, the Princess Nalia is summoned to meet with her parents. What they tell her could not have come as more of a shock. She is not their daughter, not the Princess. She is a commoner, brought to court as a baby to stand in for the real Nalia, in an attempt to keep the royal heir safe from a prophecy that she would die before the age of sixteen. Now, the real Princess is coming home, and her stand-in will be sent to her only living relative – a previously unknown aunt in a small village – and expected to make a new life for herself. But it is not long before Sinda (as she is now known) discovers that there is much more going on than the King and Queen know, and it just might fall to her save the kingdom itself.

There is a little bit of everything in this debut novel: fantasy, mystery, romance. O’Neal brings the elements together with a master’s touch. The plot is intricate, yet it avoids getting muddled. Characters are developed so that they show both strength and weakness, good and bad. In flowing prose, O’Neal creates a world that pulls the reader in and refuses to let go until the last page. Highly recommended.

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Book Review: What Can(t) Wait by Ashley Hope Pérez

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May 26, 2011

7:00 am

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Since I put together my original list for the Debut Author Challenge back in November, I’ve been eagerly waiting for copies of the books to show up in my library system. And let me tell you, so far, these books have totally been worth the wait.

What Can't Wait (Carolrhoda Ya)What Can’t Wait by Ashley Hope Pérez

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I watch the life that my parents lead, and I know that I want something different. They have worked hard their entire lives with no savings to show for it. My dad dropped out of school in Mexico before third grade; my mom “graduated” from middle school. My brother and sister got out of high school, but they don’t want anything more.

High school Senior Marisa is working hard. All the time. At school, she is trying to keep up with a college-preparatory course load that includes AP Calculus. Even with her affinity for math, it’s hard to stay on top of homework when her after-school hours are taken up with working extra shifts at the grocery store to help support la familia (she hands over half of her paycheck to her parents) and baby-sitting her niece. Her math teacher is pushing her to apply to an engineering program in Austin, but her parents aren’t even eager to see her start school in town at the University of Houston. Marisa sees the life her sister leads, pregnant as a teenager and now in an unhappy marriage to the father, and she knows she wants a different life. While her best friend is happy to live out her life in Houston, Marisa wants to do more. Her whole life, she has tried to be the good daughter, to do and be everything her family needs. When does she get to take of herself?

In this realistic novel, Pérez brings the reader intimately into Marisa’s world, viewing it through her eyes. The dialogue is peppered with Spanish phrases, echoing the speech of many bilingual teens. Secondary characters are vividly drawn, and glimpses of their perspectives illuminate Marisa’s conflicts. Her life is full of complications that come with being a child of immigrants. Although the particular challenges she faces will be unfamiliar to some readers, her struggle to balance her own needs with those of the people she loves is universal.

Book Source: checked out from my public library

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Book Review: The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

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April 14, 2011

7:00 am

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The Goddess Test (Goddess Test, #1)The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I spent my eighteenth birthday driving from New York City to Eden, Michigan, so my mother could die in the town where she was born.

Four years ago, Kate’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months to live. Sure that the end is now near, she has insisted on moving back to her tiny (so tiny, it’s not even on the map Kate uses to get there) hometown in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She also insists Kate finish high school; Kate’s plan is to just keep her head down and spend as much time with her mother as possible. Still, she manages to get on the wrong side of Ava, the Captain of the cheer squad before the first week is out. And then, well, then things get weird.

After Ava dies playing a prank on Kate, a mysterious young man brings her back to life before Kate’s eyes. He claims to be Hades, Lord of the Underworld, and there’s a price to pay for Ava’s life: Kate must spend the next six months with him and face seven tests. He will keep her mother alive while she does. If she passes, she will become a goddess and Henry’s wife, spending six months of every year for eternity in the Underworld. But she is the twelfth girl to face these tests, and the others all died in the process. Can she pass the tests no one else has managed? More importantly, does she want to?

This retelling of the Persephone myth is first and foremost a romance, and readers uncomfortable with the genre may find themselves disappointed. For everyone else, this is a refreshing twist on the paranormal tales that have taken the YA world by storm, with a bit of murder mystery as well. Henry (Hades), in the role of romantic leading man, is dark, brooding, and tortured, and it will take a special leading lady to break through his emotional defenses. Kate – strong and independent, but inexperienced in matters of love and romance – faces tests of her character and moral fiber while falling in love for the first time. And also trying to stay alive long enough to pass those tests.

The book gets off to a bit of a slow and confusing start, with a prologue that provides information to the reader that Kate – the narrator – does not receive until much later. In the early chapters, the pacing is uneven, but once Kate enters Henry’s domain, the story finds its footing. Readers familiar with Greek mythology will figure out the major players (and solve the murder mystery) well before Kate does, but this is a solidly developed and satisfying romance.

Carter’s debut YA novel is the first in a series – volumes two and three are slated for publication in 2012 – and readers will be eager to find out what happens next.

On shelves in April 2011

Source: e-ARC via NetGalley, by request

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Science Challenge!

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April 10, 2011

7:00 am

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We already know I’m turning into a sucker for reading challenges, so it should come as no surprise that as soon as I heard about the Science Book Challenge (via Library Chicken), I had to dive right in.

Especially since I got an email from the library yesterday telling me that it was my turn to download the e-book version of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

A few other candidates for this month’s special Challenge reading list:

Of course, I might also want to finish Possessing Genius. Decisions, decisions. In the meantime, I’ve joined the Facebook Group for the challenge. I’ve got some reading to do!

Quarterly Report

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April 2, 2011

6:30 pm

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Here we are, three months into the year. We’ve entered Daylight Saving Time, which means it’s dark when I get up instead of when I leave work (I don’t think much of this trade, frankly). It’s Springtime, so we’re ping-ponging between days of torrential rain and days of 90-degree (that’s 32 degrees for you non-Fahrenheit folk) sun, and we haven’t yet hit May Gray and June Gloom. It seems like a good time to check on those 2011 Reading Challenges.

First up:

This challenge is going exceptionally well, mostly thanks to NetGalley. I’ve read:

So, 13 books out of, um, 12? Clearly, I should have gone for a higher level of challenge. Especially since I still have a bunch of e-ARCs lined up on the nook, and I just checked out the library’s e-copy of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Next:

Okay, so those three ARCS from Hachette are still waiting for me to get to them. They’ve moved from the coffee table to my desk, where they are in grave danger of disappearing under a stack of knitting magazines and ukulele sheet music. I should probably rescue them. And I have both The Great Wall of Lucy Wu (which should be interesting reading right after Battle Hymn, eh?) and Across the Universe checked out of the library, but I haven’t started reading them. What have I been reading that actually fits the challenge?

  • This Girl Is Different by JJ Johnson
  • Bumped by Megan McCafferty
  • The Goddess Test (Goddess Test, #1) by Aimee Carter

All courtesy of NetGalley, and none of them were on my list back in January.

 

And finally:

Um, yeah. That one. I’m still reading Possessing Genius… when I’m not reading something on the nook and/or from the library. So many books, so little time.

How are your Reading Challenges going?

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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March 24, 2011

7:00 am

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Delirium (Delirium, #1)Delirium by Lauren Oliver

My Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book Source: e-ARC via NetGalley, by request

The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it, and when you don’t.

Ninety-five days. That’s how long it will be before Lena turns 18 and has “the procedure”, a sort of brain surgery to prevent Amor deliria nervosa, the disease of love. After that, she will complete her education, be married to a suitable young man, and have however many children the evaluators deem appropriate. In the first few chapters, the reader gets acquainted with Lena and learns that she has plenty of reasons to fear ever falling in love. As in any good dystopian scenario, though, all is not well in this new loveless America, and Lena begins to uncover the truth behind the many lies she has been told.

The idea of love as an eradicable disease, and that its elimination would create a perfectly content society, is an interesting one, but it never really becomes clear how the destruction of the “sickness” became the U.S. government’s number-one priority. The book lacks the solid world-building really needed to support the reader’s suspension of disbelief, but sympathetic characters, suspenseful action scenes, the promise of secrets revealed, and the specter of doomed romance all combine to keep the reader turning pages to the end.

There is a little echo of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in the way the government has taken control of so many facets of people’s lives, especially their relationships, and there is a big echo of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the way a metaphor becomes literal. In Lena’s world, love really does make you crazy. It really might kill you. And it really can save you in the end.

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Reading Challenge Update: January

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January 15, 2011

11:00 am

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Here we are, halfway through the first month of the year. Let’s see how I’m doing on my 2011 Reading Challenges.

At the moment, I’m at 1/12. Technically, I’ve finished two e-books in 2011, but I started one of them in the last few days of December 2010. The one I started and finished in 2011 was Lauren Myracle’s forthcoming YA novel Shine, in e-ARC format, courtesy of NetGalley. I’ll have a review up next week. I’ve started another e-ARC, Sonya Sones’ first adult novel, The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus. Like her YA books, this is a novel-in-verse. It’s very funny so far.

Um, yeah. Those three ARCS from Hachette are still sitting on my coffee table, and I’m waiting for the other titles on my list to show up in my library.

This one, I confess, is not going so well, either. I’m one chapter into Possessing Genius. I’m enjoying it so far. It’s just, you know, I have these shiny new ARCs calling to me from the nook….

I’ll get back to you next month.

How are your Reading Challenges going?

More Debut Titles!

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January 8, 2011

7:00 am

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Remember my nice little list of 12 titles for the Debut Author Challenge?

Yeah. That list is getting a little longer.

During the week after Christmas, I got a box from Hachette. Inside the box were four ARCs of 2011 titles. One was Julie Anne Peters’ She Loves You, She Loves You Not, which I read right away and reviewed. Peters is an established YA author – one I admire and whose work I enjoy quite a lot – so that one wouldn’t count for the Debut Author Challenge. The other three books I tucked away to read after the New Year, since they were all debuts!

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill
The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill

Dark Parties by Sara Grant
Dark Parties by Sara Grant

Forgotten by Cat Patrick
Forgotten by Cat Patrick

And then, of course, I stumbled on someone else’s list of TBR debuts, and I saw a few that I just couldn’t resist adding to my own list:

Yes, 2011 is looking like a very good year for YA debuts. And May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (April 2012) looks really good for next year.

Introducing Trillian

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December 26, 2010

7:00 am

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For Christmas, I got my very own nook!

Wow, you can really see the difference between the e-ink upper screen and the lower touchscreen. That’s my red shirt reflected there.

I’ve named it Trillian, and of course I gave it a “Don’t Panic” screensaver.  The wallpaper is Dore’s Don Quixote in his Library.

With Trillian in hand, I’ve decided to take on a third reading challenge for 2010.

I’m going for the “Addicted” level – 12 e-books in 2011. I don’t have a list prepared for this one. We’ll see what I download.