Review: Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst

genre: young adult/middle grade
book 12 of the Young Adult Reading Challenge 2010

Something creepy lives under Julie's bed: the Wild, that magical realm of fairy tales and stories, where bad guys are really bad and the princesses always do the right thing. And when the Wild escapes and those that Julie loves get caught up in it, it's up to Julie to fight her way through the stories and put the Wild back in its place.

OH what a clever premise. Sometimes it took a little mind-bending for me to fully appreciate the depth of it, such an interesting alternate reality. I love reading about fairy tale characters in a different context, and this was such a unique take on the fairy tale world. Sometimes the pacing was a tiny bit off for me - a few parts went by too fast, but it absolutely kept me reading. Julie is a sympathetic character and its certainly a "girl power" sort of story. Between the girl power and the fairy tale peeps, I had a fun time reading this one.

Review: The Book of Mormon

genre: scripture

I have never reviewed any scripture on this blog, that's for sure, but I'd like to record that for the first time as an adult, I have read The Book of Mormon straight through in a short period of time. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, translated by Joseph Smith. It's the story of ancient peoples who lived in the Americas before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon tells of their dealings with each other and with God and teaches us how we need to live to be in harmony with God's commandments.

The thing is, this book is amazing. The language may not always be the easiest to read if you're unfamiliar with it (and it certainly gets easier the more you read it), but the ideas, stories and teachings really do affect the way I live my life. They have provided the basis for the set of principles I use to make choices and as I re-read it this time, so many instances came into mind where certain passages really helped me at hard times in my life.

The characters in it are so familiar to me now: Jesus Christ teaching the little children, Abinidi and his willingness to die for what he knows is right, Alma the Younger's change of heart, Moroni's love of liberty for his people, Helaman's group of young soldiers whose faith allows them to fight like men. There are so many powerful lessons within its pages, it's my testimony that it is a book that was given to us by God to help us know who we are and how we can be happy.

review: The Memory Thief by Rachel Keener

genre: adult fiction
source: publicist

When Angel sets fire to the trailer that was her home and escapes into the surrounding tobacco fields, her greatest hope is for a chance to tell the story to the person she believes is out there waiting for her. The few trinkets she takes with her are the remnants of her past that pack the punches of the hurt she's endured. And while Angel is at the crux of our story, we also meet Hannah, the daughter of two missionaries. Her incredibly strict upbringing as a long-skirted "Holy Roller" doesn't prepare her for for her sixteenth summer on the Carolina coast, where suddenly all the rules she was taught fly in the face of the joy she discovers.

What is the relationship between these two people? It didn't long to figure it out, but I loved the mystery of discovering the intricacies of how it happened and how it would resolve itself in the end. There is so much deception, so many heartbreaks - everyone in this book is hurting. Usually that would make a book drag and depress me, but somehow, THIS one didn't. Angel's "trailer trash" upbringing, Hannah's way of dealing with her choices, it made for such interesting reading - I believed it. I believed their pain and their different ways of suffering it. I ached for Angel and her tobacco field solace.

This book just flows, not always in a straight line - we keep switching plots until finally things converge, but I never felt lost in the shuffle. I let myself get carried away by their grief, hoping at some point that things would resolve. And even though I would've liked a tiny bit more at the end, I also see why it works perfectly. I'm giving this book my "comfy nest" award because it's been a good long time since I've read such a harsh story that was written with such grace.

Review: A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes

genre: non-fiction

I have a thing for words and where they come from. I love learning about the random history of stuff, also, and so when I was offered a chance to check out the book A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi," I happily waited for my book to arrive.

The subtitle of this book is "The Origin of Foreign Words Used in English." I love it!! It's not the sort of book you have to read straight through. Words and phrases are listed alphabetically, with a definition and an example sentence, so you can skim, skip around or even look up something you read and don't know. I also like that it will explain how the word is used if it happens to be different from what it actually means. The Latin phrases are particularly useful if you watch crime dramas. Plus, parts are actually quite funny.

If you have a word lover in your life who needs a gift or if you like to have books around that are interesting to browse through, this is a good bet.

Review: The African Queen by C. S. Forester

genre: adult fiction

Have you seen the movie, the one with Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart? I remember watching it with my mom several times when I was younger, so when I saw a fabulous old version at a used book sale, I grabbed it.

Rose is the adult sister of a Christian missionary. She's been in Africa for years, working alongside her brother as his housekeeper and companion. Allnut is a man-of-all-work, engineer and "captain" of the tiny boat The African Queen. When the German army has conscripted all their native converts and Rose's brother dies, she's left alone until Allnut shows up. Rose, in her patriotic zeal, comes up with the idea to create a "torpedo" out of some of the supplies left on the Africa Queen.

And she wants to travel down the Ulanga river so they can torpedo a giant German warship that patrols a huge lake and be heroes for Britain.

Crazy, no? But somehow, the story WORKS. These two completely incompatible characters somehow mesh into this amazing team. We travel down the river with them - with its rapids and bugs, passing by towns full of German soldiers and through nasty swamps. Of course there is love (steamy for the time, I'd imagine) and it's so lovely to watch Rose and Allnut grow and change. I enjoyed the writing - some parts are fast moving and intense, others are slow and rambling, kind of like the river they are trying to navigate. I liked that even though Africa and the river were often Rose's enemy, sometimes, you could see how Africa was helping Rose - letting her become a strong and independent woman, helping her to find a passion for something.

I liked mostly that it's such a different kind of story in a unique place. That it's a World War I story in a part of the world you don't often read about made it interesting too. It's not particularly gripping (I couldn't really read it once I fell in bed) but I'm really glad I read it. I'm excited to go watch the movie again.

book 1 of 8 of the Orbis Terrarum Challenge
book 1 of 5 for the Classics Challenge 2010

Review: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

genre: chick lit

Good, sturdy Rachel. She always does the right thing. She's an obedient daughter, a responsible lawyer in a big New York firm and an incredibly loyal friend, especially to the friend she's had the longest: Darcy. And now that Darcy is getting married, Rachel is trying to keep being good and sturdy, despite the fact that she, Rachel, is NOT married and has no prospects. But, on the night of her 30th birthday, she ends up with Darcy's fiance and soon decides that maybe he is the man she's really supposed to be with.

Well? Did I like it? Yes-ish and no. Rachel is a very sympathetic character - often whiny, but she often feels the way so many of us feel sometimes - like you can see the fun going on around you but you can't figure out how to be a part of it. Her loneliness, too, can really feel familiar. I guessed that the author had been a lawyer (I was right) because everything to do with that part of her life felt authentic.

Obviously there is all kinds of sleeping around with people's significant others', and even though you know that going into it, it's still a bit annoying. Is there no one who doesn't fool around? One character even stated that there are "no moral absolutes" which, wow, can get you thinking. And while I was usually interested in the plot (I had to know how it worked out in the end, of course), Rachel's inner monologue, while sometimes funny or clever, sometimes just DRAGGED and I had to exclaim out loud to "get on with the plot already!"

Okay. That's all. It's a beachy-read, probably fine if you like a bit of fluff now and then.

Review: Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson

genre: young adult

What is Saving Maddie?

It's a book about faith. About finding your own faith. About the reasons why make our choices. About forgiveness and trying to look beyond others choice's into who they really are.

Joshua knows who he is. He's the preachers son. He's the leader of his church youth group. He's proud that he doesn't drink and not ashamed to be a virgin. Not really.

But when Maddie, his best friend from childhood moves back, it's clear that she's no longer the preacher's daughter that he knew. The way she dresses and behaves is enough to show Joshua (and everyone else in town) that something happened to Maddie to turn her away from church life.

Joshua is asked to save her.

And in the process, of course, he falls for Maddie, who is a mix of the girl he knew and someone else completely. She's not easy to save, though, and she makes him work hard to figure out what he really believes on his own terms.

The book feels real: the church community, the interactions between Joshua and his parents, Joshua's emotional upheaval about Maddie - I believed all that. As much as I didn't like all the language and fooling around amongst the high school crowd, I believed that too. I liked Joshua as a character because as one of those "good kids" myself, I know the desires that always lurk beneath the surface. I like that sleeping around and getting drunk isn't glossed over or portrayed as a great idea, and although I don't love reading about teenagers doing that stuff, I obviously know that they do and that all kids will have to make choices about those issues at some point.

I think what Johnson does with his book that interests me is that he doesn't paint any of his characters as completely black or white - no one is all bad-guy or good-guy. Despite all of Maddie's choices, you can tell that some level of faith is still there. We all SHOULD look at the choices we make and be sure that we're doing what's "moral" because of our own relationship with God, not just because our parents or the Bible tell us so.

Like my friend Melissa said in her review, the book ends with hope, which is a great way to end anything.

Orbis Terrarum Reading Challenge

For the third year in a row, I am going to join in the Orbis Terrarum Reading Challenge. I'm not even making a list this year, I'm just going to list them as they come to me :)

By the end of November, I should have read EIGHT books, all by authors who have a country of origin/residence than I do!


1. The African Queen by C. S. Forester (Egypt)
2. Skellig by David Almond (England)
3. Exodus by Julie Bertanga (Scotland)
4. African Nights by Kuki Gallmann (Kenya)
5. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani (Iran)
6. Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire (Cuba)
7. Thursday's Child by Sonya Hartnett (Australia)
8. Chekhov: The Major Plays (Russia)

Review: War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

genre: science fiction

I had a vague sense of what this book was about - the classic story of man versus aliens. But I didn't know who won in the end and I had no idea that it was so...deep.

Our unnamed narrator is living a serene life in the British countryside when the arrival of a strange capsule captures the attention of his town. The contents of that capsule turn his life, and the lives of everyone nearby, into nearly instant upheaval. Life within our solar system is suddenly a completely different reality and survival against an unknown enemy is the goal.

I liked reading this story from a first person narrative. We see what he sees, but with the benefit of his retrospective knowledge. He's honest about himself and is frank about the rather gruesome details of the battle between Man and Martian. His language is firm and...educated, I like that he was able to explain his experiences and how he viewed them so succinctly. Sometimes, truthfully, this story was pretty terrifying. His thoughts about the ending of the human race really make you stop for a moment and try to imagine a world where such a thing is possible - and that mind-set shift when one goes from being the hunter to being the hunted.

I know why this story has lasted. Despite his constant labeling of towns and knolls and cities (which drove me crazy), this book flows with a certain fearfulness, an awareness that there is more to our reality than we think, and that the things that seem most far-fetched may be waiting for us around any corner.