#15 How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff ****

How I Live Now is another shared read with Layla. She's already almost done so I need to get busy reading.

From Amazon: Possibly one of the most talked about books of the year, Meg Rosoff's novel for young adults is the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2004. Heralded by some as the next best adult crossover novel since Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, who himself has given the book a thunderously good quote, this author's debut is undoubtedly stylish, readable and fascinating.
Rosoff's story begins in modern day London, slightly in the future, and as its heroine has a 15-year-old Manhattanite called Daisy. She's picked up at the airport by Edmond, her English cousin, a boy in whose life she is destined to become intricately entwined. Daisy stays at her Aunt Penn's country farmhouse for the summer with Edmond and her other cousins. They spend some idyllic weeks together--often alone with Aunt Penn away traveling in Norway. Daisy's cousins seem to have an almost telepathic bond, and Daisy is mesmerized by Edmond and soon falls in love with him.

But their world changes forever when an unnamed aggressor invades England and begins a years-long occupation. Daisy and Edmond are separated when soldiers take over their home, and Daisy and Piper, her younger cousin, must travel to another place to work. Their experiences of occupation are never kind and Daisy's pain, living without Edmond, is tangible.

05/03/06 I really liked this book; a bit of a page turner. However, I'm not sure why I liked it. Left me a bit unsettled knowing there is a deeper under tones to the book yet seen through a young persons eyes who doesn't have the ability to verbalize them the way one would after internalizing and thinking about events that occur in ones life.

Highly recommend it.

#14 Another Part of the House by Winston Estes ***

Another Part of the House was given to me back when I was participating in bookcrossing.com meet ups. Been on my shelf for quite awhile and I look forward to finally getting to read it.

From the back of the book: The dustbowl years were hard in Texas, but for a boy growing up, family love tinged them with magic. For young Larry Morrison these were times of untarnished happiness: cliff-hanging serials at the movies, stickers caught in the feet, swimming down at the pond. But there's pain and loneliness in growing up, too, made bearable only by togetherness. Larry's family is poor, like everyone else in Wordsworth. Then suddenly, death strikes the most loved member of the family and out of his pain and sadness Larry takes the first step toward manhood, as the people and adventures he has known reveal to him the treasure of the vanished innocence of boyhood.

04/27/06 Enjoyed this very much. Sweet and nostalgic. Estes did a brilliant job of depicting depression era Texas.

Loved this quote from the book: "Both of those terrible things had happened in our own family right under my very nose, and here I was still living, eating, sleeping, playing, breathing, and walking around on two legs. Maybe I had been dealing with them all along, as Papa said, and didn't know it. Maybe the dealing with them is what makes the jagged edges smooth and the sharp points dull." The "things" referred to are death and betrayal.

#13 Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt *****

It is set in southern Illinois where Jethro Creighton, an intelligent, hardworking boy, is growing into manhood as his brothers and a beloved teacher leave to fight in the Union and Confederate armies.

My daughter recommend Across Five Aprils to me and I have very high expectations.

04/21/06 My expectations were met and then some! I fell in love with this family that was good and honest during one of the most difficult times our country has faced. Reminded me of why Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents. Oddly felt that this book is very relevant today in regards to the war in Iraq and actually helped me have a bit of a different perspective on views that differ from mine. Not bad for a young adult book.

Audio Books

I am not a big audio book fan because I'm just too easily distracted. However, I've been listening to Dear Zoe by Philip Beard and am really enjoying it. I really thing what is making the difference for me on this one is the reader. So I've decided to start a list of books I'd like to get on CD. I figured here is the best place to compile it so it can easily be referred to. Much easier than some chicken scratch that ends up wilted in my purse after a few months to be finally discarded.

Memory of Running by Ron McLarty/Read by Ron McLarty
Peace Like A River by Leif Enger/Read by Chad Lowe
White Oleander by Janet Fitch/Read by Oprah Winfrey
Narnia Series /BBC version
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo/Read by Ron McLarty
The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks/Read by David Carradine
The Miracles of Santo Fico By Dennis L. Smith/Read by William Hope
Murder on a Girls Night Out by Anne George/Read by Ruth Ann Phimister
Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates/Read by ????
Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper

#12 Island of the Sequined Love Nun by C. Moore ***

Pilot Tucker Case has a weakness--well, Tuck really has two--and the combination of drinking and sex in the cockpit of the pink Mary Jean Cosmetics Learjet puts him on the front page of papers all over the planet. But he finds another job with a mysterious employer--someone with a brand-new Lear 45-- who's willing to pay Tuck generously and ask no questions about his record. The jet and job are on Alualu, a speck in the Pacific Ocean, and Tucker has nowhere else to go. But first he has to get to Alualu, and once there, he faces a hurricane, Shark People, atypical missionaries, and boredom ... and the responsibilities assigned to him by Capt. Vincent Bennidetti, U.S. Air Force, deceased bomber pilot and present-day deity of the Shark People.

#11 Dear Zoe by Philip Beard ***

A 15-year-old girl struggles to cope with private grief in an age of public catastrophe in this awkwardly conceived but sweet, sure-voiced debut. When her little sister, Zoe, dies after being struck by a car on September 11, 2001, savvy, self-aware Tess DeNunzio works through her grief by writing letters to Zoe. Tess's candid observations about her feelings of guilt (she witnessed the accident) and her mourning process give warmth and clarity to her descriptions of daily life in the aftermath. Not sure how to deal with her bereaved mother and uncommunicative stepfather, Tess moves across Pittsburgh to live with her real dad, an underemployed weight lifter with a good heart.

04/12/06 I really enjoyed this audio book. Think the reader was excellent. Never did check out to see who it was and I'm sending it off to someone at paperbackswap.com.