The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

272 pages

"When Harry Crewe's father dies, she leaves her Homeland to travel east, to Istan, the last outpost of the Homelander empire, where her elder brother is stationed.

Harry is drawn to the bleak landscape of the northeast frontier, so unlike the green hills of her Homeland. The desert she stares across was once a part of the great kingdom of Damar, before the Homelanders came from over the seas. Harry wishes she might cross the sands and climb the dark mountains where no Homelander has ever set foot, where the last of the old Damarians, the Free Hillfolk, still live. She hears stories that the Free Hillfolk possess strange powers--that they work magic--that it is because of this that they remain free of the Homelander sway.

When the king of the Free Hillfolk comes to Istan to ask that the Homelanders and the Hillfolk set their enmity aside to fight a common foe, the Homelanders are reluctant to trust his word, and even more reluctant to believe his tales of the Northerners: that they are demonkind, not human.

Harry's destiny lies in the far mountains that she once wished to climb, and she will ride to the battle with the North in the Hill-king's army, bearing the Blue Sword, Gonturan, the chiefest treasure of the Hill-king's house and the subject of many legends of magic and mystery." -Dust Jacket

My friend and neighbor works at our city library and now that we're visiting the other side of the library more where she works, (teen/young adult/adult section) we can ask her for book suggestions. This was one that she recommended and it was great. Harry is an awesome female character--strong, independent and more than a bit feisty/stubborn/headstrong. It's unclear throughout the entire book just how old she is. I thought she was younger in the beginning than she really was--she's probably in her late teens, early 20's. After she's kidnapped by Corlath, the king of the Hillfolk, she's trained as a warrior, because Corlath recognizes the kelar, the power that he himself possesses, is strong with her and the kelar has shown him that Harry is important to his people somehow. He and his people treat her with great respect but are also wary of her, which makes her feel lonely. Corlath gives her one of their renowned horses which becomes her friend. She also has a big hunting cat named Narknon that takes a liking to her and follows her everywhere. She is sent to train with Mathin, one of the King's Riders, in preparation for the laprun trials, a series of events where young, untested warriors go to prove themselves. During her training, the kelar begins to take over her at times, giving her extraordinary power. She's also given Lady Aerin's blue sword which has not been used in battle since the time of Lady Aerin and which gives the Hillfolk people hope. The ending was great. There's a nice little bit of romance and ends are tied up nicely. I read the book Graceling a few years ago and really liked that the female character was strong and independent, but I hated how she treated men at the end, so much so that it ruined the book for me and I didn't read any of the others in the that series. I'm glad that didn't happen in this book. Strong women can need men without sacrificing what makes them strong. I'm excited to read the prequel and plan on adding this one to my library.

Brotherband Chronicles: Slaves of Socorro by John Flanagan

462 pages

"Hal and his fellow Herons have returned home to Skandia after defeating the pirate Zavac and reclaiming Skandia's most prized artifact, the Andomal. With their honor restored, the Herons turn to a new mission: tracking down an old rival turned bitter enemy. Tursgud--leader of the Shark Brotherband and Hal's constant opponent--has turned from a bullying youth into a pirate and slave trader. After Tursgud captures twelve Araluen villagers to sell as slaves, the Heron crew sails into action...with the help of one of Araluen's finest rangers." -Dust Jacket

This is another solid installment in John Flanagan's Brotherband Chronicles. The Skandians no longer raid coastal villagers but instead hire out their skills to different countries to protect their coasts and shipping vessels. Hal and his crew are sent by Erak to Araluen. Hal adopts a large dog that does something that forces Hal and the Herons to make another hasty departure from Skandia.

{Some spoilers}
After being in Araluen for just a couple of days, and being summoned to see the king by Gilan, a Ranger, they hear that Tursgud has captured twelve Araluens and is taking them to Socorro to sell them as slaves. Hoping the king will understand, Hal, the Herons, and Gilan take off after him. Hal has come into his own and really asserted his authority as captain. Gilan learns to respect Hal and the Herons even though they are young. They disguise their ship after landing in Socorro so that Tursgud won't recognize it and sabotage his ship in a way that has unexpected consequences. Gilan and Lydia run reconnaissance in the gold market to see what kind of diversion they can create and make for a good team while Hal, Thorn, Stig and Jesper pretend to want to sell Ingvar to check out the slave pens and security. Jesper is an expert lock pick and thief. They meet an overbearing slave trader named Mahmel who tells them that once a slave is brought to sell he must be left there. They can't change their minds. So, they have to leave Ingvar with the other slaves. That makes the success of their mission even more important. Of course, like every other Flanagan book, they meet with obstacles yet prevail.

I like that the Ranger's Apprentice and Brotherband books are starting to overlap. I'm hoping that Will and Halt might make an appearance sometime. There is a lot of similarities between the two series--Hal's a lot like Will and Thorn's a lot like Halt, but it's still a fun series that stands alone. I love books for kids that are clean and have characters that are admirable and courageous. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Five Kingdoms: Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull

421 pages

"Cole Randolph is just trying to have fun with his friends on Halloween. But their trip to a neighborhood haunted house turns out to be the start of a wild adventure when Cole watches his friends being whisked away through a mysterious passage.

Cole dives in after them, only to emerge somewhere that's very clearly no longer Mesa, Arizona. He soon learns he's come to a place called the Outskirts.

Made up of five kingdoms, the Outskirts lies between wakefulness and dreaming, reality and imagination, life and death. It's an in-between place. Some people are born there. Some find their way there from our world, or other worlds. The balance of power in the five kingdoms has been upset, and the magic there is becoming unstable. It's up to Cole and an unusual girl he meets there named Mira to set things right, rescue his friends, and hopefully survive long enough to find his way back home..." -Dust Jacket

I love Brandon Mull. He's a great person and a great author and we have every book he's written and have read all but the sequel to The Candy Shop War. I love that you know that a Brandon Mull book is a safe read for kids--there won't be anything objectionable. His Beyonders series is probably my favorite of his books. He creates fun worlds for the reader to live in. Having said all of that, the beginning of this book started out really iffy for me. Sometimes I wish his characters were older. It's hard to imagine a 6th grade boy, who's 11 or 12, doing everything that Cole ends up doing. I'd find it a little more believable if he was 15 or 16. But, Percy Jackson and Harry Potter were both that young when they started their adventures so I can cut him some slack for that. I thought the dialogue was pretty corny at the beginning with talk of Cole's crush on Jenna. There again, 6th grade crushes are corny. It was at that age where my friends and I were passing notes back and forth with guys asking them to rank our friends on a scale of 1-10.

Cole enters the Outskirts voluntarily after hiding from the people who take his friends and following them, but then he's quickly caught and marked as a slave. He's then sold to the Sky Raiders who are basically treasure hunters in the sky. They use flying ships to scout out and raid floating castles. Cole becomes a scout, promised his freedom after completing 50 dangerous missions. He meets Twitch and Jace who are also scouts. Jace is arrogant and Twitch is quiet and keeps to himself. Twitch thinks he'll die before completing his missions because most scouts do. The castles in the sky come from one Cloudwall and float towards another where they disappear. They are inhabited by semblances, who can be dangerous and unpredictable. Once a castle is picked, Cole scouts for treasure and runs from danger. His first mission has him encountering a huge scorpipede. He's chosen a Jumping Sword as his one magical item that can help him. He also gains a magical shawl. At Skyport, he meets Mira who has a secret, which is pretty easy to figure out.

Cole's friends from earth, Jenna and Dalton, have been taken to the High King and once Cole goes to Skyport that's the last you hear of them. Cole constantly worries about what's happening to them and continually tries to figure out how to find and rescue them. He helps Mira and Mira promises to help him. Eventually Cole, Jace, Twitch and Mira have to leave Skyport. Up to that point and minus the first chapter, the book and the world Mull created was really entertaining. Where I had a problem was chapter 26 "Brady's Wilderness." I thought the wilderness full of milk lakes with floating chocolate chip cookie islands, life-size plastic dinosaurs, and murderous skeletons felt out of place. Brady was a 6-year-old boy from earth who discovered he had shaping powers and created everything there. He made a semblance of his babysitter to help him. There's a battle on a 3-story piece of cheesecake that I'm sure kids would probably love, but I just felt like after the images of the cloud castles and floating ships, it was pretty cheesy, pun intended.

The other problem I had with this book is the complicated ending. There's the bad guy (the High King) and then there's a group of other bad guys (a mysterious order) who have powers that have not been heard of before. They use shapecraft instead of shaping powers. We have yet to learn what that means. As Mira gets her power back, there's a complicated explanation of how that's done and who's behind the separation in the first place. I think for kids reading this it would be hard for them to follow and understand. I'm sure more will be explained in later books as this is a planned series of five books, one for each kingdom. This book takes place in the kingdom of Sambria.

Brandon Mull writes likable characters. Cole is a pretty typical kid but he's brave and not whiney. There's only one other literary Jace I know and he's the most arrogant, sarcastic guy around and this Jace is reminiscent of him in a very small way. I'm excited to see where he goes from the end of this book. He's fiercely loyal to Mira. Twitch has a secret that's exposed in the middle of the book that makes him different from everyone else. He's from Elloweer where shaping powers, like in all five of the kingdoms, are different. Mira is an 11-year-old who's been 11 for decades. Liam is a guy they meet after leaving Skyport. On the surface he seems self-serving and uninterested but he's got serious shaping powers. There are some other characters that will probably play a bigger role in the next books. Overall, I liked this book and definitely liked it enough to finish the series. In the back of this book, Brandon Mull hints that he'll be revisiting the Fablehaven world in 2016 which is exciting.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

398 pages

"On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and drifting into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether a triumph of tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will." -Dust Jacket

Wow. I don't quite know what to write or how to do this book justice in a paragraph or two. This book is a hard read but a completely inspiring one. It had me in tears several times. It's almost unbelievable that one person could experience everything that Louis Zamperini did. Just drifting on a life raft for 40+ days would have been extraordinary enough but everything he endures after that makes the time on the raft look like child's play, sharks, typhoon and all. Zamperini had a will that could not be dominated or broken, although he came desperately close, and those soldiers that he was captured with are examples of why those men are called the greatest generation.

A few thoughts after reading this book:
1. It is hard for me to comprehend how people can be so horribly cruel to one another. The Japanese soldier nicknamed The Bird is the worst example. Why do people do such awful things to each other?
2. The human spirit is indomitable. These men were strong. The POWs found ways to bring some glimmer of humanity and dignity to their circumstances whenever possible. There were some amazing examples of compassion as soldiers shared the very little they had with those who were sicker or weaker than them. The small acts of rebellion brought them a sense of purpose.
3. Love and forgiveness conquer all. When Louie is at his darkest after coming home from the war, the Reverend Billy Graham's speeches help him see that God was with him even in the darkest of times and He provided miracles along the way. There's this amazing part where Louie recalls some of those times. Being able to forgive those who treated him so horribly is a life-changing lesson for all of us. If Louie could forgive The Bird, we can forgive anyone.
4. There were a few Japanese soldiers who showed kindness and compassion towards the POWs at great personal risk. I have great respect for these men as well.
5. The effects of war are devastating. There's one part where Louie goes out to dinner with some of his friends who were also POWs and a small ball of white rice sets one of them off with memories of being imprisoned. How these men were even able to function at all after coming home is a miracle. Not only were they ravaged physically, the emotional damage was at least as bad but probably worse. Freedom truly isn't free.

The Overton Window by Glenn Beck

415 pages

"A plan to destroy America, a hundred years in the making, is about to be unleashed...can it be stopped?

There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It manipulates public perception so that ideas once seen as radical become acceptable over time. Move the Window and you can change the debate. Change the debate and you change the country...Now, in the face of a catastrophic terrorist attack, an apathetic young man is plunged into the maelstrom of political discourse and basic survival as he races to uncover the conspirators behind the destruction, and to save both the woman he loves and the individual freedoms he once took for granted." -Back Cover

This was a decent thriller. The idea that many of the ideas in this book are based on real things and possibilities makes it even more so. It's taken to the extreme, but that's the point. Glenn Beck's always trying to get America to wake up to the loss of our freedoms and the country that our Founding Fathers established. You convince people to give up some of their constitutional rights in the name of security. You blame school shootings on the guns and not the people, etc.. Slowly, you shift that Window until the conversation/debate is what you want it to be to further your agenda. Noah's dad is a real piece of work. I didn't know there's a sequel to this when I finished it, so I was a little disappointed that it left you hanging somewhat, but then again, so did Agenda 21. It's probably more fitting that way because then the reader gets to "write" the ending. It's like saying, "Hey, it's not too late to change things but it will require action."

Inhuman by Kat Falls

375 pages

"To fear is human...

In the wake of a devastating biological disaster, the United States east of the Mississippi River has been abandoned. Now called the Feral Zone, a reference to the virus that turned millions of people into bloodthirsty savages, the entire area is off-limits. The punishment for violating the border is death.

Lane McEvoy can't imagine why anyone would risk it. She's grown up in the shadow of the great wall separating east from west, and she's curious about what's on the other side--but she's not that curious. Life in the West is safe, comfortable...just how she likes it.

But Lane gets the shock of her life when she learns that someone close to her has crossed into the Feral Zone. And that she has little choice but to follow. Lane travels east, completely unprepared for what she finds in the ruins of civilization...and afraid to learn whether her humanity will prove her greatest strength or a fatal weakness." -Dust Jacket

I finally bought this one after it'd been on my Amazon wish list for quite awhile. I figured it'd make a good beach read for our summer trip to Oregon. I honestly wasn't expecting that much from it, but felt like dystopia would be the way to go on vacation. I was pleasantly surprised.

This book followed most of the other dystopian novels in terms of love triangle. There's one girl and two guys--the bad boy (Rafe) who's handsome, sarcastic/arrogant (almost as good as Jace's in The Mortal Instruments) yet damaged and the good guy (Everson) who's handsome, strong yet damaged. If there was one thing that bugged me about this book it would be who Lane seems to have fallen for by the end. I felt like they didn't spend enough time together to form any sort of real feelings for or connection to each other. Of course this will be a trilogy or more, so we've got other books to sort through that and the way the book ended it will be interesting to see if/how that can be resolved.

What I liked about this book was the complexity of what the virus does. Once Lane crosses the wall, she finds that there are varying stages of infection. You are infected through being bitten mostly. In the first stage you get a high fever. Then you start to change into a form of whatever animal virus you have. There were over 50 strains and so people can mutate into tigers, lions, monkeys, etc. or even combinations of more than one. The transition to feral can take years and so Lane meets "Manimals" as they're called, who are still quite human living with other humans. The catch is that these people can turn feral at any moment and become dangerous, even killing those they love. It was fun to imagine what the Manimals looked like. One of them proves to be incredibly dangerous to Lane and plays a pivotal role in the end of the book--which left the story on a huge cliffhanger.

{Spoiler Alert} The other thing I liked about this story was how Lane's dad had prepared her for what's beyond the wall through the stories he had told her. It creates a scenario where she seems tough enough to be able to handle what's thrown at her and it was fun to see her figure out how those stories translated to real life. She has no idea that her dad is a Fetch, but once she is blackmailed into finding him, what he's taught her and told her through those stories proves invaluable to her. It also creates a strong connection between her and Rafe because Rafe has also been told stories by Lane's dad. There's a really vulnerable moment for Rafe related to that that I thought was great. Chicago was a crazy, dangerous, entertaining place to read about with a decent twist that led to the whole heartbreaking mess at the end. I hope I don't have to wait too long for the next book.

This author was good enough that sometime I'll check out her other books.

Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth

285 pages

"Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation's faction leader did the same. Tobias's transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child.

Newly christened 'Four,' he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future--and the future of the entire faction system.

Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again." -Dust Jacket

This book is basically four novellas that supplement the Divergent world. Two of the stories take place before Four meets Tris and two after. There's a little bit of new information and some scenes retold from Four's perspective, so overall it was sort of like icing on a bittersweet cake since if you've read the series you know how it ends and I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I'm a Tobias fan so I'm sure if Veronica Roth puts out a Four book about the events in Insurgent I'll be a sucker and buy it.

You Can't Have my Planet, But Take my Brother Please by James Mihaley

245 pages

"Giles is the last person anyone would expect to save the planet. He's not as charming as his little sister, and certainly not as brainy as his goody-goody older brother. But when Giles witnesses an alien realtor showing the planet to possible new tenants, he knows someone better step in and save the world. Humans have messed it up--an alien mediator tells Giles that if he can manage to clean up Manhattan, then maybe they'll let us stay on the planet a little while longer. He can ask for help from three other humans (should he ask his brother? his best friend?), and the aliens also give him an 'attorney,' a droid in the shape of a parking meter, and access to one of the maddest scientists in middle-grade literature. Can Giles save the planet? Let's hope so." -Dust Jacket

I picked this one for our July family read. I honestly couldn't wait to be done with this book. I wanted to stop reading about a third of the way through but because we do an activity with the book I had to finish to figure out what I wanted to do. I enjoyed it so little that I finally decided that our activity would be a concentration game with ways to help the environment just so I wouldn't have to remember specifics about this story.  It was so badly edited, as in the worst I've probably ever seen with typos and all kinds of mistakes. It was also a book that you could tell the author just really wanted to get an environmental message across so he crafted a bad story to fit it.

My youngest is still trying to make her way through it. I've extended the deadline for finishing a few times. The older two finished but didn't really like it either. There were a few sort of funny parts but the characters weren't memorable. The author could have just said, "Hey kids, do your part to take care of the planet" and saved us all the drudgery of 200+ pages.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

225 pages

"When the Darling children are visited by Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, he convinces them to fly away to the island of Neverland, where children never grow up! There they meet the Lost Boys, a giant crocodile, and the evil Captain Hook." -Back Cover

For years we've had an "8 O'Clock Club" at our house. My mom started it with my siblings when they were young and we adopted the tradition when my kids were young. Its name came from reading at 8:00, right before kids went to bed. When my kids were younger that's what I would do, but as they've grown up we've changed the times but it's always been called the 8 O'Clock Club. The last few summers we've read in the afternoon and I've read out loud to the girls while they eat treats. I was planning on doing that again this year but my almost-15-year-old daughter told me that it's hard for her to concentrate when someone else is reading. I figured they'd be getting too old for me to read to them eventually. I still want us to experience the joy of reading something together so this summer I decided to try something different.

We've seen every Peter Pan movie but we've never read the book so I thought we should. I went on Amazon and bought cheap copies, enough for each member of our family to have one, even my husband who doesn't really have time to read. Then I gave us all a deadline for finishing. Those who finish get to participate in an activity of some sort related to the book. We all finished (even my husband who read it while he was at scout camp) and then we had a treasure hunt.

As far as the book goes, Tinkerbell swears, which bothered my kids because they don't. My youngest crossed out the word Tinkerbell uses (a##) in her copy. The book is more violent than the movie and because it was written so long ago had some references that we didn't quite understand. Knowing the story definitely helped and it was fun to see the differences, to see how some movies quote the book line for line and some change parts. It was written in a very whimsical way and had some tongue-in-cheek humor that I found pretty funny. I had to read most of it out loud to my 10-year-old because she really struggled with it. The vocabulary is probably more high-school level and I had to explain a lot of things, but we finished two hours before the activity after reading 35 pages out loud! I was proud of her for sticking with it. This month's book will be easier.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

280 pages

"Bound for Antarctica, where polar explorer Ernest Shackleton planned to cross on foot the last uncharted continent, the Endurance set sail from England, in August 1914. In January 1915, after battling its way for six weeks through a thousand miles of pack ice and now only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked inside an island of ice. For ten months the ice-moored Endurance drifted northwest before it was finally crushed. But for Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men the ordeal had barely begun. It would end only after a near-miraculous journey by Shackleton and a skeleton crew through over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization." -Back Cover

I vaguely remember learning about this in school and I think I even read this book, but I wanted to read it again. Shackleton's ship was so aptly named it's almost eerie. What those men endured and accomplished together is truly amazing. The fact that for the most part they all stayed pretty positive and optimistic is unbelievable. Shackleton was loved, admired and feared by his men. He knew how to lead men. He knew how to avoid conflict by putting certain people together and keeping others apart. He knew how to get them to keep going even when they didn't think they could or want to. Every man (except the stowaway) had been handpicked and many of them had traveled to Antarctica with him before.

Two thoughts ran through my mind throughout this book: the importance of keeping a journal or record of some sort and the idea that we are almost always stronger than we think we are. There were so many times in this book where you just wondered why Mother Nature couldn't cut them a break. They'd work so hard to get to land and then waves or storms would deter them. They'd use their dog teams to take treacherous trips back for supplies only to have to then kill the dogs to either eat them or save the food they had to feed them. That was probably the lowest point of the story for me. They never gave up though. When Shackleton set out to sail for South Georgia as a last hope for his men, it seemed so unfair that he would then have to hike over a glacier that had proven itself to be impassable to reach the town. This is a story that is so inspiring. It's suspenseful--I had a hard time putting it down. It reminds you of what the human spirit is capable of.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

725 pages

"In this dazzling and long-awaited conclusion to the acclaimed Mortal Instruments series, Clary and her friends fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother.

Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.

The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris--but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?

When one of the greatest betrays the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee--even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...

Love will be sacrificed and lives lost in the terrible battle for the fate of the world in the thrilling final installment of the classic urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments!" -Dust Jacket

Okay, so it's been more than a year's wait for this "conclusion" to the Mortal Instruments. I was a big fan of the first three books, although the whole Clary & Jace are brother and sister bit was so disturbing that you knew it couldn't be true. I'd have to say that this series has gone about three books too long. After City of Glass, I thought that the author was continuing on so that Jace could finally get over his self-doubt but he continues to struggle with it. So you had a crappy, evil father--be better than he was and get over it. He's still probably my favorite character just because of his snarkiness, but seriously, the whole idea of characters being together and then something keeping them apart, then being together, and back and forth, was very overused in this series. They can't be together because they think they're brother and sister, then they find out they're not and are back together, then Jace is possessed and goes off with Sebastian, then they get him back, then they can't be together because Jace is full of heavenly fire, then he's not.

This is not a series I would necessarily recommend. Insert rationalization: These books are long and I've been invested for a few years, but there really are some objectionable elements to this story. As much as I love Alec and Magnus individually, I don't like their relationship. I also thought it was lame {spoiler alert} that when Jace & Clary finally get together in that way, it's in a demon realm and he's just happened to bring protection along. Seriously? I like that they stay true to each other throughout the series and are always fighting for the other person, but that whole thing could have been much more romantic--say maybe preceded by a Shadowhunter wedding?

Now, to the part that bugged me the very most. Sometimes series need to continue for the sake of the story, and sometimes an author just publishes more books to make money. I feel like the latter is true in this case. I read the first book in The Infernal Devices series and felt like it was regurgitation of The Mortal Instruments--different characters, same storyline--so I didn't read the others, although I hear it's better than The Mortal Instruments. Then some of those characters show up in City of Heavenly Fire and some new characters are introduced for the author's new series The Dark Artifices. I'm okay with even all of that, but she should have let Jace & Clary's story end instead of inserting some cliffhangers about them right at the very end of this book. I really don't want to have to start the next series to see Jace & Clary have their happily ever after...or not. She's always messing with Jace. Hasn't he been through enough in over 2,000 pages?

{Spoiler alert} I get attached to characters easily. I don't like to see the main characters die (Tris in Divergent for example) but if you're going to have an epic battle against "the greatest evil they have ever faced" you'd think there'd be some fallout and sacrifice from it besides just Simon having to trade his immortality and memories so they could all get out of the demon realm. Had Simon's memory not been partially restored by Magnus at the very end I would have felt like there was a great enough sacrifice for victory but everything's so neat and tidy at the end. It sort of leaves you feeling a little shorted. I thought about the Beyonders series. Really great characters died in their fight against evil and it made it seem worth it. This victory was just sort of hollow. Their fight with Valentine was more exciting. So, I'm still a fan but a mediocre one who'd love for these characters' stories to finally come to an end.

Happy, Happy, Happy by Phil Robertson

228 pages

"Duck calls--though the source of his livelihood--are not what makes Phil Robertson the man he is today. When asked what matters in his life, he's quick to say: 'Faith, family, ducks--in that order.'

It isn't often that a person can live a dream, but Phil Robertson, aka The Duck Commander, has proven that it is possible with vision, hard work, helping hands, and an unshakable faith in the Almighty. Phil's is the remarkable story of one man who followed the call he received from God and soon after invented a duck call that would begin an incredible journey to the life he had always dreamed of for himself and his family. In the love of his country, his family, and his maker, Phil has finally found the ingredients to the 'good life' he always wanted." -Dust Jacket

A&E's Duck Dynasty is fast becoming one of only a few shows we can watch together as a family and not worry about language or anything else that is objectionable. The show makes us laugh and I love that every episode ends with a prayer and the family sitting around the table eating together. I love that they help each other. I love that the family has their arguments but they never hold grudges or hard feelings for very long. I also like that Phil still lives in the same house even though he's wealthy. This book is just an extension of all of that, but I got it to see how Duck Commander got started and to read about Phil's childhood and college years since I'd heard he had a wild phase. Phil gives some great advice in this book about families, teenagers, faith and our country. I admire him for being true to his beliefs and doing what he feels God has called him to do. I also admire Miss Kay for being a good, patient woman. For the Robertsons, it's all about family and that's a good reminder for all of us.

Cragbridge Hall: The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris

336 pages

"Imagine a school in the year 2074 where students don't read history, but watch it happen around them; where running in gym class isn't around a track, but up a virtual mountain; and where learning about animals means becoming one through an avatar. Welcome to Cragbridge Hall, the most advanced and prestigious school in the world.

Twins Abby and Derick Cragbridge are excited as new students to use their famed grandfather's inventions that make Cragbridge Hall so incredible. But when their grandfather and parents go missing, the twins must follow a mysterious trail of clues left by their grandfather. They must find out where their family is, learn who they can trust, and discover what secrets are hidden within Cragbridge Hall.

Abby and Derick soon realize they are caught in a race with a fierce adversary to discover their grandfather's greatest secret--a dangerous discovery that could alter both history and reality." -Dust Jacket

This was a pretty good book, although the "greatest secret" was pretty obvious. The thing I liked most about this book was the way it reminds the reader or introduces the reader to some historical events, in particular Blackbeard's demise, Frederick Douglass learning to read, and the story of the Endurance in a way that's interesting to the reader. I found myself wanting to learn more about these events after reading this book. I also liked what Oscar Cragbridge said about tragedy and why one shouldn't want to or try to alter history.

Abby & Derick were likable enough. Abby was rejected by Cragbridge Hall but her grandfather got her in. She's accused of not being good enough to be there and ostracized by everyone but Carol, who eventually becomes her roommate. The fact that Abby has failed at things in her life proves to be a big asset at one point of the book because it's taught her to persevere. Rafa is a TA who is skilled with avatars and he plays a crucial role in this book as well.

I think my kids would like this book, especially my youngest two. There's a sequel coming out soon so we'll see if that one's even better.




{SPOILER ALERT}
List of characters (so I can remember when the sequel comes out!):
Derick & Abby Cragbridge - Twins, given lockets by their grandfather which help them know something's happened to him. Abby gives hers to who she thinks is a police officer early on but who really works for Muns.
Jefferson & Hailey Cragbridge - Abby & Derick's parents
Oscar Cragbridge - Grandfather, Inventor, Founder of Cragbridge Hall
Carol Reese - Abby's roommate and friend, sometimes annoyingly talkative
Rafa - Older student who helps Derick save his grandpa using a gorilla & rhino avatar
Charles Muns - Businessman who hires scientists to try to figure out time travel, arch rival of Oscar Cragbridge who kidnaps him and puts Jefferson & Hailey on the Titanic to try to get Oscar to reveal his secrets
Mr. Hendricks - Teacher at Cragbridge Hall who's kind to Abby & Derick but who works for Muns. Had a locket stolen from Coach
Minerva Entrese - English teacher at Cragbridge Hall who is cold at first but it's only because she used to work for Muns and she knows she's being watched. She's trying to appear to not be sympathetic to Oscar. She stopped working for him and helps Abby & Derick rescue their grandfather.
Coach Horne - Basketball coach, trusted by Oscar Cragbridge. Had his locket stolen and it winds up being the one Mr. Hendricks had. Tries to stop Hendricks after Abby goes through the Bridge to rescue her parents.
Coach Adonavich - Also trusted by Oscar Cragbridge and has a locket. Helped stop Hendricks as well.

Update

I haven't done much reading this year due to a big house remodel we've been working on. I have missed reading--my stack of books waiting to be read is growing taller and taller. I am almost done with a book I picked up and wanted to read to see if it would be good to recommend to my kids. School's out in a couple of weeks and I have a fun plan for reading with my kids this summer. Two out of three are teenagers but I'm still going to make them read with their mother! I think it's hilarious that my 14-year-old has been reading two series I recommended to her last year which she started and stopped back then, saying that she thought they were boring. Then her friends recommend them at school this year and all of a sudden she can't put them down.

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

384 pages

"Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary people extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man, you must crush his will.

Now, in what was once Chicago, an astonishingly powerful Epic named Steelheart has installed himself as emperor. Steelheart possesses the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said that no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, and no fire can burn him. He is invincible. Nobody fights back...nobody but the Reckoners.

A shadowy group of ordinary humans, the Reckoners spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in.

When Steelheart came to Chicago, he killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David has been studying, and planning, and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He has seen Steelheart bleed.
And he wants revenge." -Dust Jacket

I'd seen this book floating around on bestseller lists and read several reviews about how great of an author Brandon Sanderson is, so I decided to give it a go. The book's description sucked me in too.

This is a comic book in novel form where almost all of the superheroes are bad guys. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I have to admit, Sanderson pretty much had me hooked once I started reading some of their names: Steelheart, Nightwielder, Firefight, Conflux, etc. For ten years David has studied the Epics and their weaknesses, keeping notes on their strengths and weaknesses with the intent of one day getting his revenge on Steelheart. Sanderson gives the Epics pretty cool powers as well as different levels of power so more powerful Epics can rule over lesser ones and use them for their own purposes. Meanwhile the humans barely get by and live in fear.

David is obsessed with joining the Reckoners and so he studies them and starts to predict who they'll hit next so that he can find them. He sort of helps/hinders them when they go after an Epic named Fortuity. One thing that bugged me just a little throughout the book was the constant reference to how inaccurate/unreliable hand guns are and how rifles are better. I just didn't think it was necessary. David's knowledge of Epics and their powers comes in handy on several occasions and I liked that he knew so much about them. It made the story more interesting.

There were some great twists at the end which will of course play into what is inevitably going to be a series. Why can't authors write good stand-alone books of this sort anymore?! It's frustrating to have to wait a year or more but I'll definitely re-read this one before the next one comes out this fall. It was hard to put down so I'm sure I missed some smaller details as I read it fast. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, the biggest one being what caused Calamity and why were only some humans turned into Epics.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

526 pages

"The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered--fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she's known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris's new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature--and of herself--while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love." -Dust Jacket

An Amazon review spoiled the ending for me as soon as this book came out and so I haven't wanted to read it until now. It was definitely worth it. I love books that take you on a gut-wrenching journey and leave you with deep things to think about.



{SPOILER ALERT. Do not keep reading if you don't want pretty much the entire book spoiled.}


The thing that I read on the Amazon review was how upset the person was that Tris died. I think that is what caused the low-star reviews from so many people, but now, having read the book, I think those reviews were a bit unfair. All of us like a happy ending, and when we don't get one we often decide to hate the whole book/series instead of looking at whether or not it was necessary. I was that way when I first read Mockingjay but after reading the series again I felt like it was the only way for it to end. Life doesn't always give you a happily ever after. I think it's one of those things where the author had way more time to think through the story and we, the readers, have an instant gut reaction to it.

When Insurgent ended, I was wary of what would happen in the third book. You find out that the world Tris has lived in is not the "real" world, but an experiment and that now that they know that the Divergents are supposed to go and help it. I wasn't sure what Tris going into the real world would bring and how it would change her. I wasn't sure what time period we would be in, but it's still a dystopian novel and still set hundreds of years in the future. I think that having them go out into a world that is just as broken as the one they'd always known really forced the characters to decide even more who they are and want to be.

I think this series really does boil down to the choices we make and why we make them. In the very beginning, Tris has to decide what faction she wants to join. Does she want to stay in Abnegation, whose virtue is selflessness? Or does she want to join the Dauntless and be brave? I think the author does a beautiful job in the end of showing us that she is both. Even though her brother has betrayed her time and time again, she sacrifices herself for him. Tobias had told her that Abnegation only encourages letting someone die if they are doing it out of love. When Tris asks Caleb why he's willing to die for her to release the memory serum, he tells her it's because he wants her to forgive him. She realizes that it's not the same thing and that she can't let him die for that reason. Yes, it's heartbreaking--I sobbed to the point where I almost couldn't keep reading--but it's courageous and selfless, the ultimate sacrifice.

This book would not have had the same impact had it only been written from Tris's POV like the first two. We would have been deprived the opportunity to see the journey Four (I still love that name more than Tobias) goes on as well and the battle that rages within him, and the complete and total heartbreak and despair he feels when Tris dies. When he discovers that he's "genetically damaged" it makes him make decisions that have serious consequences. It's Tris's love that makes him see that he's still the same person and a good person. I like that he and Tris have the blowup where he tells her that she needs to respect his ability to make his own decisions even when he makes terrible ones. They decide to stay together because they want to, because they are good together. I liked the analogy of Tris comparing herself to a sword and Four being the whetting stone that she continues to throw herself against.

I still love Four the most. I love that there was no love triangle in this series. I love that Four & Tris have a real relationship, with conflicts and challenges. I love that they find their way back to each other before the end so that you feel like they didn't leave anything unsaid or undone before the heartache. I love that Christina develops into such a good friend and saves Four from taking the memory serum to erase all of his painful memories, instead telling him that Tris would hate him for taking it. You get the feeling that he will become the strong person Tris always knew he was and that her memory will guide him. There's still that part of me that wishes they could have lived happily ever after, but like Four says towards the end, "I suppose a fire that burns that bright is not meant to last."

Here's what the author had to say about the ending.

2013 Book Total

Happy New Year! I might actually have time to read again after a busy holiday season. I've missed it.

2013's Book Total:

23 books

8,181 pages