Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris

Title: Dead in the Family (Book 10 in the Sookie Stackhouse series of novels)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Publisher: Ace, 2010 (Hardcover)
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Adult; Fantasy
Started: May 8, 2010
Finished: May 13, 2010

Summary:
From Amazon.co.uk:
Sookie Stackhouse has finally settled into a relationship with the Viking vampire Eric, and her errant brother Jason seems to have his life in order, too. But all the other people in Sookie’s life – Eric himself, her former lover Bill, her friend and boss Sam – are having family problems. Eric’s maker shows up with Eric’s ‘brother’ in tow, the ailing Bill can only be healed by a blood sibling, and Sam’s brother’s marriage is about to take place …or will it? The furor raised by the coming out of the two-natured has yet to settle; some people are just not ready to sit down to dinner with a man who turns into a dog. And Sookie herself is still recovering from her last ordeal. She’s definitely improving, physically and mentally, but she’s always going to have some dark moments now. The werewolves tell her that there have been strange and ominous passers-by in the Stackhouse woods; now Sookie is about to come face-to-face with one of her more distant relatives …

Review:
A warning now, this will probably not make much sense unless you've read all the previous books in the series. If you don't like to spoiled in any way, play it safe and don't read this.

Finally, my guilty pleasure read. Sadly, I'm finished it now and will probably have to wait another year for the next book, which I will be begging for based on how this one ended. I'll say right off the bat, not much happens in this book. It happens in long series where some books will be more like bridges connecting them to bigger events that happen either before or after, this would be my definition of a bridge book (Book 6, Definitely Dead, had a similar feel). Not much actually happens plot-wise except for a lot of vampire and werewolf politics, but there is some development in secondary areas: Sookie gets to spend more time with her nephew Hunter, Bill has issues recovering from silver poisoning, and Claude turns out to be not as big of an ass as we thought he was. It's not until about three quarters into the book that some actual action takes place, which really makes me want the next book because this one left quite a few things unresolved at the end, so I know Book 11 will be a doozy. I think Claude stole this book for me, I love my male characters that act like bastards, and Claude does it so well, I was laughing my head off at some parts. The book is much darker than previous ones, granted all the books have their dark moments but the overall tone is usually lighthearted, whereas this one is actually kind of depressing due to Sookie's changing attitudes during her recovery. I felt like Alexei's character was thrown together for filler's sake, but his story actually does work out in the overall plot.

Recommendation:
Again, it's darker and not a lot going on plot-wise, but this all builds up to events in the next book (or so I hope). Skip the hardcover version this time around and get it from the library or get the paperback in a year's time (I went with the eBook version myself).

Thoughts on the cover:
The covers for recent installments have been getting better, but still very cheesy. This one is a little misleading because though it alludes to more romance between Sookie and Eric but the book wasn't very romance-heavy this time around. I love the little sparkly details on Sookie's dress, which I noticed they started adding since Book 8, From Dead to Worse.

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced - Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui

Title: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Author: Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Publisher: Three Rivers Press, 2010 (Paperback)
Length: 188 pages
Genre: Adult; Nonfiction
Started: May 11, 2010
Finished: May 12, 2010

Summary:
From Amazon.ca:
“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”

Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and beloved sisters and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her spouse. Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old.

Unable to endure the pain and distress any longer, Nujood fled—not for home, but to the courthouse of the capital, paying for a taxi ride with a few precious coins of bread money. When a renowned Yemeni lawyer heard about the young victim, she took on Nujood’s case and fought the archaic system in a country where almost half the girls are married while still under the legal age. Since their unprecedented victory in April 2008, Nujood’s courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has attracted a storm of international attention. Her story even incited change in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces.

Recently honored alongside Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, Nujood now tells her full story for the first time. As she guides us from the magical, fragrant streets of the Old City of Sana’a to the cement-block slums and rural villages of this ancient land, her unflinching look at an injustice suffered by all too many girls around the world is at once shocking, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable.

Review:
This small biography covers the experiences of Nujood Ali, a girl from Yemen who was married in 2008 at the age of 10 to a man more than three times her age. I've always loved reading about these kinds of female rights issues ever since my mom told me the story of how my paternal grandfather reacted at the time of my birth, he refused to believe his first grandchild (me) had not been born a boy. I realized we're not immune to these kinds of things even in Canada, even in this day and age. Women and girls have to put up with all kinds of crap simply because we're female, and books like these make us explore these issues and make us aware that there are women out there that endure things that we can never imagine, and what happens when practices and traditions are blindly followed and aren't questioned.

The first thing I thought of when I finished this book was that it would be an excellent read for a law or civics class. Nujood had no record of her birth, her own parents couldn't determine her exact age, and she was married to a man in his thirties with the promise that he wouldn't do anything to her sexually until after she had reached puberty...and people think this passes for a binding contract? It's amazing that Nujood's divorce was even granted considering the stigma of the issue and the fact that she technically didn't even exist because she had no documents or papers. With a female lawyer agreeing to represent her for free and the shock to the masses of a 10 year old girl asking for a divorce because she'd been raped and beaten by a husband old enough to be her father, Nujood was granted freedom from the agreement made for her by her father.

What's interesting is to compare the issues in this book to others in the world, especially around the concept of familial honour. When my husband and I were in Japan, I had to learn a specific word that I knew to scream out in case I was ever assaulted while we were on the trains and subways. Japan has such a high incidence of sexual assaults taking place on trains that they had to start offering female-only cars. The worst thing is that women don't say anything as the assault's going on because they're in a crowded train with people all around, which makes it so ironic it's almost funny. Women wouldn't dare call attention to the fact that they're being assaulted and shame their family and possibly ruin their chances at marriage (yes, Japan is still very patriarchal). Even here women sometimes don't report assaults or abuse for fear they'll be labelled something they don't want, their names will forever be branded. Essentially you could sum up our upbringing with "don't act like a whore and shame the family". Even in my household, my father had a very specific idea of how girls should act, and I couldn't do things my male cousins of the same age were allowed to do because it "wasn't proper for a girl" and would be looked upon as embarrassing. Granted, my idea of morality is pretty simple, just as I don't like it when girls act with their boobs instead of their brain, I don't like it when boys act like man-whores either, so I may be a prude that way, but at least I'm an egalitarian prude. It's also interesting in that it's not just women who suffer in Nujood's story, her father and brothers go through some harsh experiences too, so just as women in her culture are held accountable for their sexuality, men are held accountable for other things.

Recommendation:
All in all, even though it's a really short book, it's full of debatable issues and discussion topics that are sure to strike up conversation.

Thoughts on the cover:
I never get tired of looking at pictures of this girl because she is oh so adorable. I'm glad they chose a picture of her in traditional dress because only married women dress like that, and it just brings the issue home further because you realize that she is indeed married and is obviously not even close to what anyone would consider a marriageable age.

Seven for a Secret - Mary C. Sheppard

Title: Seven for a Secret (Tales From Cook's Cove series)
Author: Mary C. Sheppard
Publisher: Groundwood Books, 2001 (Paperback)
Length: 189 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Realistic Fiction
Started: May 7, 2010
Finished: May 11, 2010

Summary:
From the author's website:
Fifteen-year-old Melinda is looking forward to spending another summer with her cousins Rebecca and Kate in the small outport village of Cook's Cove on Newfoundland's west coast. Rebecca is a goody-goody who is under the thumb of her stern mother. Kate, the city dweller, is determined not to let a boyfriend block her future. Melinda, for her part, has a tendency to act out. The cousins are like sisters, watching out for one another. When a stranger comes to the village and invites Rebecca to Boston to develop her artistic talent, the girls are suddenly exposed to the possibilities of the outside world. Melinda finds herself not only responsible for keeping family secrets but also faced with deciding just how far family loyalty should go.

Review:
This is the first title in the Tales From Cook's Cove series, chronicling young women from various generations growing up in Newfoundland. I've read the other two titles in the series, so I decided to backtrack and read the first title (the titles don't necessarily need to be read in order). This installment can be seen as a prequel to Three for a Wedding, the most recent title. Seven for a Secret covers the summer of 1960 for cousins Melinda, Kate, and Rebecca. Those same girls are later seen as middle-aged adults in Three for a Wedding. Melinda, Kate, and Rebecca are all 15 going on 16 and are faced with some tough decisions: marry young or stay in school to further their education. Melinda especially is very smart, so her mother wants nothing more than for her to go on to become a nurse. But there are secrets in the Derby family that threaten to make the girls' decisions for them. Melinda wonders why her mother never had more than three children, Rebecca wonders why a man from Boston is intent on bringing her there to further her artistic talent, and all three wonder why Rebecca's birth certificate shows a different birthdate than the one she's always known. Throughout the summer, the girls discover the truths to all these secrets and more, and those answers will change their lives.

The one thing that needs to be said about this novel more so than the other two, is that a lot of the characters' actions are defined by the time period they are living in. You cannot go into this book with a modern viewpoint and judge the girls like we judge our 15-year-olds today. Barely into the 60s, especially in a rural area like that in the book, girls got married young and many didn't finish high school; my mom told me stories about the same thing from when she was in high school in the early 70s. I can't spoil the ending for you, but there will be some actions that will unsettle some readers, so just go into this story remembering that it's rural Newfoundland in 1960, women were still expected to get married and be baby factories.

Now that I've read all three books in this series so far, I still say my favourite is One for Sorrow in terms of the type of story it tells. All the books are wonderfully written, and retain all the great dialogue that I've come to expect from a story about Newfoundlanders. I hope the author continues with this series, hopefully going back further than 1960 and after 1988, it would be nice to get all 7 planned books spanning the whole 20th century.

Recommendation:
If you're a fan of the series or just want to read a good example of Canadian YA literature, read this! Beware, there is a sex scene and mention of teenage pregnancy, so I wouldn't give this to anyone below the high school level.

Thoughts on the cover:
Thank the gods of book covers that these novels got revised covers after the change in publishers after the first book. I like the new covers much better compared to this, though the one for Seven for a Secret isn't without its charms.

The Body Finder - Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: Harper Teen, 2010 (Hardcover)
Length: 327 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Fantasy, Mystery
Started: May 6, 2010
Finished: May 7, 2010

Summary:
From the author's website:
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

Review:
Another pick from the Harper Collins preview night. Just as I'm a sucker for dystopian fiction, I can't turn down a really good mystery either, so when I heard about this book I knew I had to give it a try. This is a combination romance and murder mystery with some supernatural thrown in. Violet has the ability to sense bodies that died from unnatural causes, she can also match up an echo that a dead body gives off to the imprint on the person that killed them. When girls start disappearing and she stumbles upon the first of the bodies, she decides to plant herself at key locations to try to identify the killer by the imprint he'll give off. While all this is going on, Violet is trying to deal with her changing feelings towards her childhood friend, Jay. The romance in this novel is so incredibly sweet, it perfectly captures the early stages of a relationship when you're not really sure you're in a relationship yet but you know you want to be but haven't broached the subject with the other person yet. The author conveys these emotions so well, I almost felt like I was reliving the early days when I first met my husband, just in a different setting. Jay and Violet are very real characters, I felt that they could be any of the kids I teach on a daily basis. Jay is very protective of Violet, but in a sweet and not controlling way, he just made my heart melt, he's such a sweetie. I love Violet's down-to-earth personality despite her weird ability, and the fact that she's described as having curly hair doesn't hurt either (I have a fondness for characters that look like me).

The writing is well done, but I feel that the mystery element wasn't very well developed. Granted, the odd chapters told from the point of view of the killer are downright chilling, but this feels like a romance novel disguised as a mystery. The mystery part of the plot is concluded too abruptly and doesn't really hit it's peak until almost the end of the novel, most of the book focuses on the romance with Jay and Violet, with the mystery essentially forcing their feelings out in the open. I'm not complaining though, I love the romance in this book, I read through it so quickly because I was captivated by it, but don't pick this up expecting a mystery with a dash of romance sub-plot, this is more like a "would you like some add-on plot with your romance?" This is the first in a series and I'm interested in seeing where things go in future books, so I'll definitely be picking up the subsequent installments.

Recommendation:
If you're looking for a really sweet romance with some intense, heart-pounding, predator versus prey thriller-type stuff, read this!

Thoughts on the cover:
Meh, I'm not nuts about it. I think it would have been cooler if there had been an outline of a girl lying in the fetal position in the centre of the flower to highlight that aspect and to echo the title.

Gone - Michael Grant

Title: Gone
Author: Michael Grant
Publisher: Harper Teen, 2009 (Paperback)
Length: 553 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Dystopian, Science Fiction
Started: April 29, 2010
Finished: May 5, 2010

Summary:
From the publisher's website:

In the blink of an eye.
Everyone disappears.
Gone.

Except for the young. Teens. Middle Schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. And just as suddenly there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to figure out what's happened. And no way to get help.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your 15th birthday, you will disappear just like everyone else.

Review:
I went to a Harper Collins preview night for new teen releases just last week, so a lot of the stuff I'll be reviewing in the next month or so will be Harper Teen titles. This is Book 1 of a planned 6 book series, book 3 just came out as well, so it'll be a long one, but I don't think that'll be a problem for me. I loved this book, not only because I love dystopian fiction, but because this is The Lord of the Flies updated and modernized...with some X-Men influences thrown in. Sam and Quinn are buddies living in Perdido Beach, a small coastal California town, and one day in the middle of History class, their teacher disappears, poof! They meet up with their friend AStrid in another classroom and she confirms that her teacher and a few of her classmates disappeared as well. The children remaining in the school eventually figure out that every person over the age of 14 is gone, and that there's a dome-like barrier enclosing a 20 mile radius centering on the nearby nuclear power plant, what they suspect is the cause of the situation. To make matters worse, the kids discover that some of their peers possess psychic powers: Sam can make light shoot from his hands, and Astrid's autistic little brother can do a number of things including telekinesis. Just as things are getting chaotic, students from the nearby Coates Academy private school come into town wanting to join together as a society, with a boy named Caine posing as a leader. Of course, absolute power corrupts absolutely, so Caine and company end up being purely twisted and Sam and company end up in a power struggle to keep everyone alive.

The story is fast-paced and never boring, the writing is witty with modern teen/pre-teen dialogue, and there's a delightfully twisted aspect because the kids are completely cruel to each other. If you thought The Lord of the Flies was shocking in terms of violence and cruelty, the book makes The Lord of the Flies look like a kindergarten teacher in a Christmas sweater. The kids in Gone aren't savagely cruel like the boys in The Lord of the Flies, but in a more modern warfare type of cruel. Instead of dropping rocks on people, The kids in Gone encase kids' hands in cement to prevent them from using their powers, and send a pack of wild talking coyotes to attack a daycare centre full of children. As soon as I read this, the first thing I thought of was that this could replace The Lord of The Flies in schools as a more modern choice that appeals to kids. The themes of the "dark heart of man" are the same, and the circumstances are eerily similar, just with some supernatural influence added. Although I appreciated The Lord of the Flies in terms of themes, I hated the story, and I know a lot of my students feel the same way; but I could definitely see kids getting into the story in Gone.

Recommendation:
A modern Lord of the Flies (but better!) A different type of dystopian story similar to Garth Nix's "Shade's Children". Read this, you'll love it!

Thoughts on the cover:
I like the focus on two characters on the front with another two on the back. Sam and Astrid look like they're supposed to (though Astrid's lipstick colour bothers me for some reason), as well as Caine and Diana on the back. I love how stunned Sam and Astrid look and how nasty Caine and Diana look. The covers look like they keep this theme with the next volumes, Book 2 has Caine and Diana on the front with Sam and Astrid on the back.

The Sunday Salon - Comic Books and Literacy

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day. For those of you not familiar with the day, it is the first Saturday in May and comic book stores in the US and Canada (not sure if this exists elsewhere as well) can participate buy purchasing special comic books prepared by publishers which they in turn give to their patrons for free. The books can be anthologies or snippets of various popular series and indie titles, whatever the publishers wish to put out for that year. Stores may have different policies, some stores may only give out one book, others may give out several, some go all-out and dress up and have giveaways and barbecues.My husband and I love Free Comic Book Day, and we make it a point to go every year. We pick up the freebies and pick up any issues of comics we've missed out on (we love comics but find it difficult to make it to the store once a month like the regulars do).

The store we normally go to was completely crazy when we went yesterday, but in a good way; they had an artist signing, the freebie table, as well as their usual selection of stuff. It was great, I saw kids with their parents picking up copies of the Bone series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the usual manga crowd. There were a ton of adults there too without kids, but seeing the kids with the comics reminded me of when we took our nephews one year (we take them on our geeky excursions to further corrupt their impressionable minds). Our oldest nephew is out of the comic phase, and our younger one prefers novels now, but there was a time when they were younger when the only things these kids would read were comics and manga, and me being their teacher aunt, did everything I could to encourage them to read regardless of what they wanted to read. This continues even now, I'm probably one of the only mothers/aunts etc. that buys books for my teenage nephew rather than video games (I'm not a total prude, I do buy them video games too, but I like to think they appreciate them both equally). I was pleased at the comic book store we frequented, they had a special where they offered 4 free books to every customer, but if you had a library card on you, you could take 8 freebies. The store itself supplies our local public and school libraries with comic and graphic novel titles, so this was pleasing to see them incorporate that into Free Comic Book Day.

I constantly tell other teachers and parents to supply their students/children with age-appropriate comics or graphic novels if they have a struggling or reluctant reader, some kids just need visuals to go with the text, our oldest nephew was like that. Boys especially appreciate these literary formats, but a lot of people protest that they aren't "real" reading and that all kids should be reading novels. I find this to be plain old-fashioned, and that we should encourage kids to read anything appropriate for their age and maturity level, be it instruction manuals, magazines, comics, novels, advertisements, anything that gets them interested in reading and has them using their literacy skills. As with our nephews, they eventually found other formats they liked and moved on from just reading comics, but at that time, it worked for them. There are lots of comics and graphic novels appropriate for kids, and there are some made just for adults, but a comic book store should be able to point you in the right direction, or a teacher or librarian with some knowledge of them. If you think your child or student may be the type to just dive right into comics or graphic novels or manga and never look back, find kiddie-friendly titles and encourage them to read them, you might even find some titles and read them yourself, comics today are way more than just superheroes in tights.

The Book of Awesome - Neil Pasricha

Title: The Book of Awesome
Author: Neil Pasricha
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books, 2010 (Hardcover)
Length: 390 pages
Genre: Adult/Young Adult; Humour
Started: April 28, 2010
Finished: May 1, 2010

Summary:
From the author's website/blog:
From neighbors with pools to ordering off the menu at fast-food restaurants to fixing electronics by smacking them, The Book of Awesome takes on life’s sweet feats with all the honest humor and winning enthusiasm that has earned Pasricha’s blog its millions of followers. But while powered along by Pasricha’s distinctive, fresh, and hilarious voice, The Book of Awesome isn’t about one man’s favorite things, but rather a catalog of the universal little pleasures we all share. With its focus on the many things that bring us together rather than the few things that split us apart, it’s a book that will appeal to people from all walks of life — housewives and college kids, children and senior citizens alike. Arising out of Pasricha’s riffs on popping bubble wrap and getting a trucker to blow his horn is an unexpected, genuine sort of inspiration, as The Book of Awesome offers up a hearty cheer for all the little things we take for granted.

Review:
The Book of Awesome is just one of those kinds of books that everyone who appreciates a concept like this just has to own. It's a feel-good book, like those Chicken Soup books, just less religious and more fun. The author runs a blog called 1000 Awesome Things which is the original idea that lead to this book. Basically, the page heading is the concept and then the author elaborates on the subject or gives a funny anecdote. It's a celebration of all things awesome yet ordinary, and some of them will make you feel nostalgic and make you laugh, like "Mastering the art of trick or treating", and "Dangerous playground equipment". Then there's my all-time fave: "Fixing electronics by smacking them", seriously, when doing this actually works, you feel awesome. There are also some sweet ones, like "Remembering how lucky we are to be here right now", and "Smiling and thinking of good friends who are gone", so it's not all laughs, but guaranteed this book will make you both laugh and cry. I can't stress enough how indeed awesome this book is, I have the e-Book version on my eReader and bought the physical one for my husband, and all I could hear while he was reading it was him laughing his head off. This book is for all ages, though younger kids might not get some of these ideas, but I'm sure some older teens might and definitely adults. So go out and read this book, it really truly is awesome!

Recommendation:
Awesome. Need I say more?

Thoughts on the cover:
It's hard to imagine a cover for a book like this, there's no way to really have images on the cover 'cause it deals with so many things, but I think they got it right here: black cover with colourful text, simple yet fitting.