This Gorgeous Game--Donna Freitas

When 17 year old Olivia wins a prestigious writing contest sponsored by award winning author Father Mark Brennan, she can't believe her good luck. Being a writer is her life's dream, and winning this contest will set her on her career path. When Father Mark offers to mentor her in the ways of writing, Olivia couldn't be happier. As a devoted Catholic and completely dedicated to her writing career, Olivia believed being mentored by Father Mark would take her places she would never reach on her own.

But when Father Mark begins to call and text her multiple times an hour, follow her, and completely dominate her time, Oliviae starts to realize their relationship isn't typical. Although Father Mark hasn't touched her in any way, Olivia can still tell that something is inappropriate about their interactions. But soon the situation spirals out of her control and she has to dig deep inside herself to try and find her way out... and to still find the love for writing that started it all.

Donna Freitas has written a tale of an inappropriate relationship between a priest and a young girl, but she has done it in a respectful, not sensationalized way. She does not dismiss all priests or Catholicism as wrong; in fact I would think readers who are Catholic might be pleased with the way she portrays the religion. I would easily recommend this book to youth who like clean, religious fiction even though the subject matter seems so appalling. Personally, I didn't enjoy it much but only because it's not quite my literary cup of tea... but in general, I found it to be well written and there is a subset of teens out there who will be looking for a book like this.

Sister Wife-- Shelley Hrdlitschka

Imagine that it's your 15th birthday. Will you celebrate with your friends? Your sisters? Your mothers?

For most girls, turning 15 is a celebration, but not for Celeste. Celeste was born into Unity, a conservative, reclusive, polygamist society. At 15, she is old enough to marry. Recently, Celeste has been questioning everything she's been taught, and has been sneaking kisses with Jon by the river. This is strictly forbidden by the Prophet, and to make sure she is securely put in her place, she is married to a man old enough to be her father... the man who happens to be the father of her lover.

Sister Wife is a tale of religious fundamentalism, polygamy, and hard choices. I wish the author would have written more about what it was like living in that society, what it's like to have multiple mothers and sister wives, etc. Mostly we just get Celeste's mental conflicts and some other side stories told by two of her sisters. It was interesting, but anyone who wants a realistic portrayal of what it might be like to live in such a society should look to a different book. Fans of The Patron Saint of Butterflies, and The Chosen One will like this book.

Andromeda Klein-- Frank Portman

Yes, I've finally done it.

I finally finished reading Andromeda Klein. So, I've kinda had a bad attitude about this book... I wanted it to grab me from the beginning (it didn't). I wanted it to be compelling (it wasn't). I wanted to like the protagonist (I did. YAY. Small victories.)

So, I read the first two hundred pages on breaks, on the elliptical machine, in line at the grocery, you know all those places where you need to distract yourself from reality a little bit. That wasn't the best way to read this book. Last week I needed to drive to a library branch that is over 2 hours away, each direction, so I listened to the book on CD. And that's when I really started to like it.

Andromeda Klein is a teenage occultist. NOT a wicker girl (wiccan) or a bacon (pagan). She works at the the international house of bookcakes (library), sneaks her dead BFF's little brother bagel worm agony (girly mags) in exchange for some of her weegie (spooky and magical) possessions. After some consumption of christmas trees (gin martinis), she meets a boy who's an emogeekian (emo occultist) and at the urging of Huggy, (her holy gaurdien angel otherwise known as alterverse AK) Andromeda agrees to take Byron the emogeekian on as a neophyte as long as he helps her save the library books from the sylvester mouse list (aka extra hours weeding list).

Wha?????

So you can see why this book was a struggle at first. It's told from Andromeda's perspective, so you have to really get used to her special lexicon in order to understand what the heck she's talking about at all. Also, there are hundreds of pages of Andromeda's perspective on all things occult. As a person who has a decent amount of knowledge on such topics, even I was pretty floored by the sheer mass of it all. Still, there was something charmingly compelling about this book, and no matter how much I wanted to toss it out the window, I just kept coming back to it. And, when listening to the audio, the lexicon isn't as much of a struggle and the funny party came shining through. So yay! I've officially read all of the Mock Printz books for this year!

I would recommend this book to... um...well... that precocious teen who won't stray from the 133s who is obsessed with all things occult and doesn't mind dense reading. I'm sure there's one or two out there, right?

Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith-- Deborah Heiligman

So, if you've been reading this blog for a while now, you will know that I don't read much nonfiction. It's not that I don't like it... it's just that I love a good story...

I was lamenting the fact that I hadn't read a good nonfic in a while to a friend and she recommended this book to me. I'm so glad she did because it was exactly what I wanted: A Good Story.

Charles and Emma is the tale of the lives of both Charles and Emma Darwin, in a nutshell. It starts with something the reader will learn is quintessential Charles: a Ben Franklin-style list of the pros and cons of getting married. This illustrates a challenge Charles will face his whole life: should he go with his gut instinct and what his heart dictates, or should he trust logic, science, and rationality. He ends up deciding to be irrational, and marry... but it was the last irrational thing he ever did.

This book takes the reader through the happiness and struggles the scientist Charles and his religious wife Emma endure together. One of my favorite things about this book was that it illustrated how crucial and essential Emma's input, guidance, and skills were to Charles scientific publications. She was very intelligent, edited all his work, and even though she was a firm Creationist, she was happy to debate with him and further his Evolutionary discoveries. Often historical accounts tend to leave out what the wives and children do, but this book focuses on Charles's relationship with his family. They were a crucial part of who he was, and under-recognized in the world of science.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes nonfiction, memoirs, or historical romantic fiction (but be sure to be clear that this is NOT fiction and a little slower paced that fiction would be) . I can't wait to offer this to a teen who needs to read something nonfiction for school, but wants it to be "good".

Once was Lost-- Sara Zarr

Sometimes it seems like YA fiction with a religious theme fit into three basic categories: christian fiction, stories about teens in religious situations typical Americans find oppressive, or books about rebel, atheist, pagan teens. This is a generalization, and know there are notable exceptions, but Once Was Lost took me pleasantly by surprise... even though I do enjoy Sara Zarr's writing.

Once Was Lost is Sam's story. She is a PK (preacher's kid) who has spent the last year taking care of her alcoholic mother and hiding her mom's problems from the sharp eye of her father's congregation. Sam's not sure about a lot of things anymore, but she mostly isn't sure if the God her father preaches about is the God for her... if he even exists, and if he does, why are all these bad things happening? When Jody, the young choir soloist, suddenly goes missing, the whole town is in an uproar. All signs point to crime, and Sam takes Jody's disappearance extremely hard. All at once, everything Sam thought she knew to be true seems wrong and she has lost her place in the world. But sometimes getting lost is the only way to really find oneself.

I appreciated the way Zarr told this story. She could have really been down on organized religion, or made Sam's struggles seem trite or too black-and-white. Zarr handled the subject with a dignity and accuracy, and I think a lot of teens who are learning to think about religion for themselves for the first time will really identify with Sam. There is also an element of suspense to this story that keeps the reader enticed. Once Was Lost will be published in October 2009.

Skunk Girl--Sheba Karim

If there's one thing most people can agree on, it's that high school was a challenging experience socially and developmentally. For Nina Khan, growing up in a lily-white suburban community made her experience especially challenging. Nina is an American-born Pakistani Muslim teenager, and her parents are strictly committed to instilling proper values into Nina.

Nina has not only grown up in the shadow of her perfect-S.A.T- scoring-Harvard-attending sister, but her two best girlfriends are gorgeous in that all-American way. Nina isn't allowed to go out at night, attend sleepover parties, have friend that are male, date, or get into the drinking-drugs-flirtation trouble that most high schoolers experience. Although she isn't in love with her strict lifestyle, for the most part it works for her. She is moderately happy, and has two amazing friends. But when Italian-born Asher moves to town, Nina begins to thoroughly question the morality imposed on her by her parents, while simultaneously dreaming of ways to make Asher like her.

The title Skunk Girl comes from a scene where a classmate notices a stripe of hair Nina has growing from her neck down her back. There are many scenes discussing how Nina feels about her ethnicity, most of them negatively discussing her large amount of dark body hair.

I think this book definitely has place in library collections, as it gives a window into a culture and religion that is often unknown or misunderstood. It felt a little light, and the end wrapped up rather unbelievably, but not all books focusing on cultural differences need to be heavy and depressing. This book is not an award winner (IMHO) but a just-fine read. I would recommend this book to teen girls who want a love story, a tale about cultural differences, or growing up Muslim.

A Blast of Books!

So the past two weeks have included several hours of flying to two different destinations... which means I had a lot of time to read! I thought I would try something new and write a brief blurb about each book, rather than an extended entry like I usually do... this way I can touch on all the things I read.

Willow-- Julia Hoban



One night Willow's parents, internationally famous anthropologists, drank too much wine at dinner. They asked their teenage daughter, Willow, to drive them home from dinner. Willow lost control of the vehicle and they both died. Willow survived, but is completely emotionally destroyed by the accident. The only way she feels alive and safe is through cutting, that is until an exceptional boy comes along. Perfect for fans of Cut.

My opinion: bleck on the knight in shining armor thing, also it's a bit awkwardly written. However, I know teen girls will eat this one up.

The Compound-- S.A. Bodeen



The Compound is a near-futuristic sci-fi tome that is told from the perspective of 15 year old Eli. He and his family have been living underground in an extraordinary bomb shelter after his billionaire computer genius dad (think Bill Gates) gets word of nuclear attack and rushes his family to the compound he had the foresight to build. Perfect for fans of Life as We Knew It, and even The Host.

My Opinion: Great for both boys and girls. It's definitely a page-turner, but at the end I was left wanting more (could be a good thing?). I could tell this is the authors first novel; she could work on her craft a bit, but it was an enjoyable first book.

Karma for Beginners-- Jessica Blank (no released cover yet)

Tessa's mom is one of those wandering types who bounces from town to town looking for meaning and inspiration-- mostly through men. When she moves them to an ashram in the Catskills and becomes deeply involved with the Guru, Tessa is left on her own. She meets a boy who introduces her to all forms of debaucherous escapism, and tries to find her own meaning for existence before she gets carried away by the desires of others. Fans of Patron Saint of Butterflies, and maybe Outside Beauty might like this book.

My Opinion: Meh. Not terrible, not great. I don't see this particular book being very popular with it's intended audience.

Secrets of Truth and Beauty-- Megan Frazer

This is Dara's story. She was once a child beauty pageant princess, but has grown into adolescence as a pretty but quite overweight teen. After a tragic (in that petty highschool way) incident, and a complete lack of compassion from her parents, Dara travels to find her long lost lesbian sister, who is shunned by the family and lives on a goat farm. This is a story of self-discovery, overcoming life's challenges, and beauty in all forms.

My Opinion: There are a lot of stories about the overweight teen girl finding her voice and confidence these days. See an older post with a list for more. Still, I did find this fairly original and I think girls will like it. Thankfully the ending wasn't toooo schmaltzy.

Girl in the Arena-- Lise Haines


Lyn is the daughter of seven gladiators... kindof. Lyn's family is a part of the Neo-Gladiator culture, and her mother has watched seven of her husbands, therefore seven of Lyn's fathers, be killed in the arena. After the seventh man dies, and Lyn's mother severely falls apart, it's up to Lyn to pull them through. Ceasar's inc, the corporation that runs the Neo-Glads, is corrupt and putting everything Lyn holds dear on the line for money and publicity. When it comes to fighting to the death to save her family, Lyn feels prepared to do so... unless her techie best friend can come up with a way to save her.

My Opinion: I liked this book. I won't rave and wax poetic about it ala Hunger Games, but it was good. Not perfectly written, but I predict this will be very popular with teens. It's a teeny bit sci-fi, but mostly realistic fiction. Although the main character is female, I think both boys and girls will enjoy it.

Marcelo in the Real World-- Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo has a few special interests: he loves horses, classical music, and religious theory. He lives in a tree-house in his parent's back yard, wears blue pants with a white button-up shirt every day, and cannot feel emotion the same way most people do. Oh, and he hears intensely beautiful music in his head, which he calls internal music, and because of this most people think he has Asperger Syndrome. He doesn't; he just lives in a world that's pretty different than the one most people live in, and it's easier on people like you and me to label him in some way.

Marcelo's father hates that his kid is "special." His father, Arturo, is a high-powered attorney and wants Marcelo to work at his law firm for the summer... to join the real world, and to normalize before he sends to him the regular public high school instead of the small special school Marcelo was previously attending. While working in the mail room at the law firm, Marcelo finds that he can feel emotion he never knew existed, and meets people who challenge his ways of thinking. When an issue of morals and good choices arises, Marcelo must decide what to do: should he protect his father's career and pretend that he has no knowledge of the situation, or should he fix the problem at his own family's expense.

Honestly, it's hard to summarize this book. Most of what makes it so good is the way it's written and how the characters relate to each other. I read this soon after I read Anything but Typical, and while they are different stories, it's hard not to compare them in my head as the characters have similar cognitive issues. Anything but Typical was more well-written, but Marcelo in the Real World was much more moving. Has anyone read both, and what did you think of them?

I would recommend this book to fans of Anything but Typical, Curious Incident of the Dog in the night-time, and even Wendy Mass's A Mango Shaped Space.

The Chosen One-- Carol Lynch Williams

The Prophet is not questioned. The Word Of God is not disputed. The Prophet only speaks words that God has given him in a vision. God told The Prophet that 13 year-old Kyra is to be her 60 year-old Uncle Hyrum's 7th wife.

Kyra has spent her entire life in an isolated community of fundamentalists. She spends her days working their tiny plot of earth, taking care of her 20 brothers and sisters, and finding moments to sneak away and discover herself. One day she happens upon the Ironton County Mobile Library on Wheels... and she learns there is a world beyond the fences that surround their property. When The Prophet decrees she is to marry her Uncle Hyrum, everything in Kyra's mind and body rebels. But no matter what she does, her plan to escape this fate is thwarted. When she is left with the choice to either destroy her family but save herself, or stay and marry her old uncle, she is more than conflicted. Who could choose rationally when faced with violence, abuse, and the though of losing everyone and everything you know forever.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well-written and very engaging. There were parts of the plot that were semi-unbelievable, but that is to be expected out of a book that covers such taboo topics. I would recommend this book to teens who like the T.V. show Big Love, and who enjoyed books like The Patron Saint of Butterflies.

The Way He Lived-- Emily Wing Smith

Doesn't it always seem like people become flawless after they're dead? Especially youth... it's like there's a post-mortem photoshop application for memories... all the dog-kicking, spitball shooting, back-talking, etc gets washed away.

In The Way He Lived we learn about Joel, a boy in his teens who died tragically on a hiking accident. Told in six sections, each with its own narrator who is either related to or a good friend of Joel, this book tells the story of Joel's life through his affect on other people. Each narrator has a unique voice and focuses on a different aspect of Joel. We never really learn exactly who he is, but the picture the reader gains by viewing his life through the eyes of others is a fuzzy-perfect-beautiful image... almost like it's been photoshopped to perfection.

I found myself quite disappointed when each narrator's section ended... but only because I wanted more of each narration! It's usually a good thing when the author leaves you wanting more, and in this case, it really helped the pace of what would have otherwise been a slowish read. It's a very real book, and quite powerful. Religion, specifically Mormonism, is an important element of the book, but not overpoweringly so. Overall, I quite enjoyed this book and I think both boys and girls (especially girls) would too. I recommend this book for teens who like the "dying books", multiple narrators, stories of friendship, and stories of loss.

The Patron Saint of Butterflies-- Cecilia Galante

I'm not sure why, but I kind of have a fascination with religious cults... they are interesting to me for some reason, and this is why I picked up an ARC for The Patron Saint of Butterflies while at ALA this summer.

This novel is told from two perspectives: Agnes and her cousin Honey. Agnes truly believes that if she is good enough, she will be a saint one day. She performs horrifying acts of self-torture to punish herself for sins like running, going outside on a holy day, and little white lies. She totally believes the message of the cult leader, Emmanuel, and respects him more than anyone but God. Honey however, has been viciously abused by the leaders of their cult and dreams of escaping one day. She was abandoned by her mother when she was a baby, and knows no other life than Mount Blessing. One day something terrible happens, and Honey and Agnes find themselves at one of life's crossroads: escape to the secular world rift with sin and temptation, or stay at Mount Blessing and endure the punishments doled out by Emmanuel.

Together, their story is rich and full of different perspectives. The author, Cecilia Galante, grew up in a religious cult similar to Mount Blessing, where Agnes and Honey live. When I read that bit about the author, I wasn't surprised, because she treats the cult context with transparent honesty and respect, but definitely not reverence. It bothers me when authors demonize an institution totally, because in real life, there is almost always some good and some bad in everything... nothing is 100% pure or 100% evil. I liked that Galante alluded to some of the positive aspects of communal living as well.

I would recommend this book to girls (boys might like it too, but the book is notably female character driven) who like duel narratives, stories about religious experience, or tales of overcoming obstacles. It is definitely clean, realistic fiction, but people with strong conservative religious backgrounds /may take offense to the negative portrayal of some aspects of Mount Blessing.