Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

From Amazon: When Deanna's father catches her having sex in a car when she is 13, her life is drastically changed. Two years later, he still can't look her in the eye, and though Tommy is the only boy she's been with, she is branded the school slut. Her entire family watches her as though she is likely to sleep with anyone she sees, and Tommy still smirks at and torments her when she sees him. Her two best friends have recently begun dating, and Deanna feels like an intruder. She tries to maintain a close relationship with her older brother, but Darren and his girlfriend are struggling as teenage parents. Deanna learns to protect herself by becoming outwardly tough, but feels her isolation acutely. Her only outlet is her journal in which she writes the story of an anonymous girl who has the same experiences and feelings that she does.

The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

What a fun and dark read! I found myself wondering where the story was taking from the beginning all the way to the end and still find myself wondering about what really happened. So glad I picked this one up.

From Amazon: Flannery Culp is 19, precocious, pretentious and incarcerated. Accused of Satanism and convicted of murder, she and her seven friends (the "Basic Eight") have been reviled and misunderstood on the Winnie Moprah Show and similar tabloid venues. So Flannery has typed up and annotated the journals of her high school years in order to tell her real story: "Perhaps they'll look at my name under the introduction with disdain, expecting apologies or pleas for pity. I have none here." Handler's sharply observed, mischievous first novel consists of Flannery's diaries from the beginning of her senior year to the Halloween murder of Adam State and its aftermath. The journals detail Flan's life in her clique of upper-middle-class San Francisco school friends, who desperately emulate adulthood by throwing dinner parties and carrying liquor flasks. Kate ("the Queen Bee"), Natasha ("less like a high school student and more like an actress playing a high school student on TV"), Gabriel ("the kindest boy in the world" and in love with Flan) and the rest begin experimenting with the hallucinogen absinthe. Squabbles once easily resolved grow deeper and darker when Natasha poisons the biology teacher who has been tormenting Flan. Should the Basic Eight turn on, and turn in, one of their own? Handler deftly keeps the mood light even as the plot careens forward, and as FlanAnever a reliable narratorAbecomes increasingly unhinged. The links between teen social life, tabloid culture and serious violence have been explored and exploited before, but Handler, and Flannery, know that. If they're not the first to use such material, they may well be the coolest. Handler's confident satire is not only cheeky but packed with downright lovable characters whose youthful misadventures keep the novel neatly balanced between absurdity and poignancy.

Chasing Windmills by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I listened to this book and enjoyed it even though it was a bit perdictable.

From Amazon: In the simple and captivating latest from Pay It Forward author Hyde, a chance encounter proves life-changing for two lonely New York City subway riders. Four months shy of 18, Sebastian Mundt has been held a virtual prisoner by his father since his mother died: his father home-schools him and doesn't let him have outside relationships. One night, with his father heavily sedated by his sleeping pill, Sebastian sneaks out to ride the subway and locks eyes with Maria Arquette, a young mother who is caught in an abusive marriage. The two share an instant connection and take to meeting on the subway almost nightly and tentatively planning a future in the California desert town that Sebastian remembers from childhood, where thousands of windmills stretch out across the horizon.

Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer Mcmahon****

I love when I find a new author that I can't wait to read their next book! Jennifer Mcmahon is one of those authors.

From Amazon: Part mystery-thriller and part ghost story, McMahon's well-paced debut alternates smoothly between past and present. In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del's death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate's return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del's spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates, she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth. McMahon does a particularly good job of portraying the cruelty of school children.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris ***

I listened to Dean Until Dark while watching the series based on the book True Blood. Think this made it more fun to listen to that it might have been other wise. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series or not. Maybe I'll wait till the second season of True Blood starts.

Amazon Editorial Review:
Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out....

Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

A fun, fast, funny, and wonderfully intriguing blend of vampire and mystery that's hard to put down, and should not be missed. (Susan Sizemore)

Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin ******

Touching Snow was a shared read with my daughter. We both loved it. Thought it was a sad and dark story but still uplifiting.

From Amazon: Grade 8 Up—To those back in Haiti, "touching snow" means living in America. For seventh-grader Karina, however, life in suburban Chestnut Valley, NY, is far from easy. Her extended family struggles to survive in a world in which they are social and cultural outsiders, where food and shelter are still uncertain, and where a visit from the authorities can mean deportation to a much more desperate homeland. For Karina, though, the biggest threat is within her family. Her stepfather uses brutal force to dominate his wife and stepdaughters. While Karina nurtures dreams of education and connects with caring people who might help her, she is held back by a man who sees his shaky power diminished by any sign of the girls' independence. As Karina and her sisters mature, this conflict escalates to a terrible scale. The author writes with insight about the realities of immigrant life, Haitian American culture, and the double worlds inhabited by many first-generation Americans like Karina. Readers can see the compromises that family members make in the name of survival and the stresses that drive the stepfather's rage, while still holding to the truth that these girls and their mother deserve a life without violence. Although the resolution is brutal, this story is a compelling read from an important and much-needed new voice. Readers will cheer for the young narrator who is determined to step out of the role of victim and build a safe and meaningful life for herself and her family.—Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA

No One You Know by Michelle Richmond ****

I don't know exactly what it is that appeals to me about Michelle Richmond's writing but she has become one of my favorite authors. The voice she gives her characters rings very true to me.

I enjoyed No One You Know even more than Year of Fog.

From Amazon:
Twenty years later, Ellie Enderlin is still haunted by the unsolved murder of her older sister, Lila, a brilliant math Ph.D. candidate at Stanford. With her family in turmoil after Lila's death, Ellie confides in a sympathetic English professor who then uses her confidences to write a hugely popular true crime book. Now a professional coffee taster and buyer, Ellie is on a business trip in Nicaragua when she by chance encounters Peter, Lila's secret lover and the man who the book claimed was Lila's killer, although the conjecture was never confirmed. This intense meeting reopens the painful past and sends Ellie on a renewed quest to find her sister's killer. This thoughtful, gripping page-turner grabs the reader's attention from the first chapter. Recommended for all public libraries. ~Andrea Griffith -- Library Journal

Long Time No Post

It's been a little over a year since I posted! Coincidentally I started a new job a little over a year ago that is much more demanding and I have had little time to post. Less time to read. However, still squeezing in as much reading time as I can.

Currently I'm reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Suggested not only by my daughter Layla's but by a couple of friends. Thought I better get with it before the movie comes out.

I've recently started to listen to audio books. Which I've wanted to for a long time. I'm hoping it will motivate me to exercise more. Ha! It's great to listen to at work while I do time cards. Currently I'm listening to Dead Till Dark and the one before that was The Curse of The Spellmans by Lisa Lutz.