Bubba and the Dead Woman, C.L. Bevill

This book is exactly what you would expect from the title - a silly mystery involving a big Texan named Bubba (do Bubbas come in any size by XXL?) and the dead woman attributed to his actions.  I was very amused by this tale.  It kept me reading and kept me amused and I even occasionally had to read Dave a passage because I thought it was so funny.  Bubba is amusing, law enforcement in the small town is silly, Bubba's mother is a hoot, and you wish you got more of her.  Self-published, as an eBook on Amazon, it is a light, fluffy, fun, summer read.  It's even free.   And, of course, Bubba didn't do it - but the reader never thought he did - so that's not a spoiler.

Beyond the Deepwoods, The Edge Chronicles....by Colin

I read Beyond the Deepwoods this week, and it was great!  It’s authors are Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. It is the first book in the Edge series and the main character is named Twig.  It is about his quest to find who he really is. Will he make it? Or will he fall prey to the vicious Gloamglozer? One of the things I liked about this book is the fact that you never knew what would happen next. I never knew if it was danger or good fortune that awaited him. Also, I liked the fact that the authors added pictures because it helped me picture the story better. I was able to clearly see what was happening in my head. Finally, I liked the fact that the book had many odd named creatures. For example there are Banderbears, Caterbirds, even Prowlgrins. You never know what the next creature will be called. I think this book is a wonderful book.

The Flight of the Phoenix, Nathan Fludd, Beastologist....by Lauren

My book is called Nathan Fludd, Beastologist.  It is about a boy named Nate.  My favorite part is when the phoenix hatches.  It is so wonderful.  Another favorite part is when Nate meets Grelis.  He accidentally throws her brother off the plan which is really funny.  Finally, I liked the part where he meets Aunt Fludd.  Aunt Fludd is very nice and Nate meets a dodo!  In this book, Nate is left alone to protect the phoenix egg from the people coming to the campsite.  I liked this book because it’s interesting, fun, and adventurous.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by Natalie

I recently read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and it was a great book. I think you should read it.One of my favorite parts is when Harry goes shopping with Hagrid. l liked how J.K Rowling described the town. Another one of my favorite parts was when the orc went free. I don’t know why the orc went into the girls bathroom because I am pretty sure it was a boy.  I saved my favorite for last. This was the battle at the end.  It was between Harry and the one who should not be named (Voldemort). It was a great battle. I think you will like this book.

The Uncoupling, Meg Wolitzer

I was put off by this book, almost from the beginning.  The general idea, that a town full of women are put off of sex by a mysterious spell running through the town, was uninteresting to me.  They all quit, not really knowing why, but most frustratingly, not asking why.  Did no one care?  Did they all take it as the natural course of things?  It made no sense.  

I ended up reading the whole thing, liking it more in some areas, and less in others, and then finally just buckling in and finishing it.  The conclusion was not particularly satisfactory.  

Pretty well written, but not a great read.

Talking to Girls about Duran Duran, Rob Sheffield

I can’t imagine anyone who didn’t grow up in the ages being interested in this book, but being one of those who did, I enjoyed it and it more often than not brought a smile to my face.  This is not a book about Duran Duran, per se.  This is the memoir of a writer for Rolling Stone of coming of age in the eighties and the impact of music on him and the time.  Each chapter is a vignette of his life, then or now, and the impact of music on that life.  Either that or it is a dissection of the music or the musicians he was listening to.  Any of us can think of similar moments in our lives, connected to music.   Those of us who grew up in the eighties can do it with the songs he discusses.  Often I would smile just at the chapter title, for example Purple Rain, remembering the impact of that song and that album and the moments in my life when it was extremely relevant. 

The problem is that, while each of the chapters is interesting in their own right, as a whole the book doesn’t add up to a cohesive story.  Some chapters are more about the author, like the Prince chapter, some are more about the music or artists, like the Paul McCartney.  Each are entertaining in their own right, but what is the ultimate message?  That it was hard to grow up in the eighties?  That music plays a big part in our lives?  I’m not sure what the ultimate message is.  It seems to me that the author was successful with his first book, Love is a Mix Tape, about his wife and her sudden death, and he was asked to write another.  This seems to be the classic, well, what else can I tell you about myself.

This is not to say that I did not enjoy this book, I did very much.  But this is because it brought me back to my youth in the eighties.  As he mentioned songs and albums, they brought me back to the moments in my life that I was listening to them.  Dancing with a boy to Purple Rain, rocking out in the car to Kiss (the song, not the band).  I remembered stalking the record store and asking Rod what should I buy next.  Having the same love affair with music that he did.  One that has long mellowed.  I don’t remember the last time I bought a full album, but then who does anymore?  I haven’t even bought all that many singles lately.  But as with Rob Sheffield, these songs defined my youth, and it is engaging to read how they defined his.

Jackson Jones, by Lauren

I previously mentioned this book, when Lauren read it the first time, but this time Lauren wanted to tell you about it.....Here is her review.

Jackson Jones is a wonderful book.  The main characters are a boy named Jackson and an elf girl named Meeka.  Jackson falls into his great aunt Harriet’s hair and discovers a new world in which he meets Meeka.  He visits a book store where he gets a magic book called “How to be Yourself” then Jackson and Meeka find a doorknob on the floor.  They eat before exploring the doorknob, but Jackson throws up and then has to eat vegetables.    After food, they go to the reading room.  After the reading room, they go to the doorknob on the floor and go to a forest.  Then, in the forest is a river where Jackson finds stones calling his name.   After the forest Jackson goes home.  

I liked this book.  There are lots of crazy things and items in the book.  It starts out, after all, with Jackson falling into his aunt’s hair.  How could that possibly happen?  There are all sorts of strange animals in the book, like blue chickens and other miscolored animals.  And stones call out to people to pick them up.  The book has lots of random questions, like “what’s Spanish for couch?”  and “what’s the cosine for 7.88?”  I found this book very interesting.  I would recommend it for kids who like adventure.  It is a fun book. 

Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman

Feeling a little brain dead with a summer cold, I wanted some comfort reading, so I took this off the shelf.  I have read this book 4 or 5 times previously, and it has maintained a spot on my bookshelf for many many years.  In fact, my copy of it is a 1966 95c first paperback edition (with the cover above).  All this by itself says good things about this book.

This is the story of a new teacher in the New York City public high schools in the early 1960s, but one of the things that is amazing about it is how timeless it is.  Except for a little bit of slang, anything that happens in this book fifty years ago (OMG, 50????) could just as easily happen today, and probably does.  Overwhelmed by overwhelming bureaucracy, poor school conditions, and students with a lot more going on in their lives than school - parents in prison or dead, no room to do homework or even sleep at home, demands on them to make money rather than pay attention to school, the teacher in this book tries to make a difference, but is often tempted out of these conditions into an easier teaching life at a tonier school.  But this is the story of how she connects with the students and her impact on them as well as their impact on her.  It remains, fifty years later, an uplifting story about teaching - and a good read!

Also...take a look at the NYTimes profile of the author, Bel Kaufman, at her 100th birthday, from this past May.  Very entertaining as well.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Allan Bradley

I have read so many good reviews of this book, and then there were two sequels out, I thought I might finally read it.  Unfortunately, it did not live up to its reviews.  This book is a quaint little book, along the line of Alexander McCall's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, although not as entertaining in ways because as amusing and precocious as Flavia is, she is not as worldly as Precious.

Told from the point of view of a smart and emotionally neglected 11-year old, this book is the story of Flavia and her finding of a body in her garden and all that ensues from that find, including her father's arrest, her kidnapping, and lots of biking around and trespassing.  In the end, I found no connection to Flavia or to any of her family, I figured out the murderer well before she did, that being telegraphed in the writing, and I was less than satisfied with the story.  It was all a little too quaint.  It also could just have easily been found in the young adult section, although much of that has more going for it than this book did.

Fibble, Dale Bayse. By Colin

The book Fibble was a very good book. It is the fourth book in the Heck series. The main characters are Milton and Marlo Fauster who recently switched souls. In this book Milton and Marlo (while in each others bodies) both find the place they’re in a little suspicious, so they sneak around a little bit. Then they realize they got a little more than they bargained for sneaking around. Can they get out of this mess or will the demons finally catch them? The first thing I liked about Fibble was it was a little confusing and I liked it that way. Every once in a while I would forget if it was just plain Milton and Marlo then later I would realize that they were in each others bodies and it would confuse me, making me think, “Did Milton or Marlo do this?” Another thing I liked was the storyline. It seems like all Heck books are mysteries and I like mystery books because I like trying to use my guesses to figure out what will happen next. Finally I really like the fact that there are a bunch of names that are spoofed off of Dante’s Inferno. The name Fauster, Milton, and Marlo are all names for the   devil. Overall, Fibble is a great book.

See also, the earlier review of the earlier Heck books.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Last Straw, Jeff Kinney - by Natalie

You should read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Last Straw.  I will give you three reasons.  One, because he has a little brother and his little brother is funny.  Two, Greg has a crush!  He loves Holly Hills.  He wanted her to love him and then he found out that she was not the girl for him.  Third, his dad nearly sends him to military camp.  His dad does that because a boy he hated went there and came back well behaved.  There are many more things about Greg's life in the book.  If you want to know more about Greg, then read the book.  I thought the book was pretty funny and I enjoyed reading it.

Matilda, by Roald Dahl. By Lauren.

Matilda, by Roald Dahl, is an interesting and amazing book.  It is about a little girl named Matilda.  She’s kind and smart.   Matilda gains psychic powers and with her brilliance she can punish her parents when they are beastly to her, which is often.  Matilda helps her teacher, Miss Honey, get her house back from Miss Trunchbull.  She also teaches herself how to read.  I think you should read Matilda because its funny and enjoyable.  I’ve read it four times and I think its a great book!

Doc: A Novel. Mary Doria Russell

This is the second book I am recommending this year.  I have to admit I maybe a bit biased about this one.  Mary Russell is someone I heard about throughout my graduate school days, and eventually met, a few years after she wrote her first novel, The Sparrow.  Since I (kindof) know her, I have sought out her books as they come out.  On the other hand, they are really delightful books.  She won the Arthur C Clark award for The Sparrow and was nominated for a Pulitzer for A Thread of Grace.   But this one may be my favorite since her first.  Doc is about Doc Holliday, famous of the shootout at the OK Corral.  But it is about how John Holliday became "Doc."  It is about him coming to terms with the hand life has dealt him and trying to deal with his life limited by illness and circumstance.  She describes it as the story of the one season of happiness in his life.   I, like Russell, fell a little bit in love with Doc over the course of this novel.    I wanted more.

The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi

     I really wanted to like this book.  It is the winner of both a Hugo and a Nebula award, so I had really high hopes.  Then I started reading it.  It took me about 100 pages to get absorbed into the world Bacigalupi created here, a post-apocalyptic, or rather a post-globalwarming, post-cloning world, run by the major agricultural companies, limiting the seeds and foods available, and producing infertile seeds, so that new seeds are always needed from the ag companies.  There is limited available energy, having used all the easy energy, so things are powered by animal, cloned mammoths do all the heavy lifting.  Everything we take for granted now is a rarity.   It took a while to figure out this world, but after I did, it was fascinating.  The world pulled me in.  The characters, however, not so much.  Not one of the major characters pulled me in, gained any sympathy from me, or any concern.  I did not like any of these characters, even the titular Windup Girl, who was the most interesting of the bunch.
    In the end, I found my interest really flagging, and found myself sludging through the last fifty pages to get it done.  Overall, interesting, but not recommended.

Throne of Fire - Rick Riordan

This summer I am trying an experiment with the kids.  Each of them will write short book reviews of the books they read.  I am expecting them to do at least one a week each.  We'll see how this works.  This is the first, from Colin, on The Throne of Fire, by Rick Riordan.  He gave me more of a book report than a book review, but we are working on how to tell us what he thinks of the book without telling us about the book.  Let the kids know what you think of their reviews as you read them, to help them get better as the summer goes on. - T

     The Throne of Fire is a great book about Egyptian mythology. It is the second book in the Kane series. IThe main characters are Carter and Sadie Kane. It is told by Sadie and Carter who switch positions every few chapters and tell that part of the story from their point of view. Apophis, the Chaos Snake, is rising from his prison and is going to swallow the sun! Their only hope of saving the world lies in Ra, the Sun God, who went into exile millions of years ago. To awaken him they must find three well hidden and well guarded scrolls. Then they must read the scrolls and when they do they have a high risk of getting burned inside out!  Of course they have some help but not the kind they want. They get to have the dwarf god accompany them and his protection isn’t the best kind. He either yells boo or takes off all his clothes except underwear. 

       I liked the fact that the book was based on real mythology.  I also really liked all the crazy things that happened.  The descriptions made it even better because I could really imagine what things looked like.  In all, I think Throne of Fire is an awesome book. I can’t wait for the next book!

                                                           -Colin