review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Shiefvator

pub date: October 18, 2011
publisher: Scholastic
pages: 409
source: library
format: audio
appeals: horses, romance, adventure, Printz Honor, male protagonist, multiple protagonist
content: a very few swear words (maybe 4?), some violence from the water horses

thoughts:
This is my new favorite book. Seriously. I LOVED it. I loved the characters, so, so, so much. I loved Thisby, this isolated island with it's own traditions and people set in a modern world. I loved the story. The romance was sudtle and sweet and perfect. And Maggie's words were rich and vivid and created this world I wanted to visit. I wanted it to be real.  

I listened to the audio in my car and by the time I reached the sixth disc (there are ten all together), I couldn't wait any longer. I had to know what was going to happen, how the races would end. So I took it inside and sat on my couch and spent all Saturday afternoon listening. I could've just picked the book up, but I loved the voices, I wanted to just listen.

Have you ever read a book that so involved your emotions, senses, imagination, that when it was over you felt bereft? Lonely? Sad?

That was this book, for me. When I reached the last chapter, I started to get teary-eyed. Not only because the ending was so wonderful and amazing and perfect, but because it was ending. I wanted more. More Thisby. More Puck. More Sean. More Corr and Dove. More, more, more. And there wasn't any more.

Have you ever read a book that so involved your mind that when you reached the last page, you weren't able to let it go? You just wanted to live in it a little longer? Immerse yourself in the story for the forseeable future?

That was this book, for me. I was gushing about the book to my sister and she wanted to listen, so I gave it to her, a bit begrudingly. I wasn't ready to let the story go. So I bought the book, even though I've been on a book buying freeze since the end of December. I reread my favorite parts until I got the audio back from my sister, and listened to the last few discs again. I never relisten to audios, not ever. But this one I wishe I'd listened to again from the beginning.

I want to tell you that the audio was phenominal. The story was wonderful, and the audio added to it so very much. Absolutely so. The two readers, one for Puck and the other for Sean, were amazing. To listen to Maggie's words, in their voices, added a texture to the story that I don't think I would've gotten otherwise. While browsing Maggie's blog, I came across an interview she'd had with the two who voiced Sean and Puck. I enjoyed it, so I thought I would share the link if you're interested.

Really, this book has a place of honor on my shelves. I loved it just that much.

summary:
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

review: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

pub date: October 18, 2011
publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
pages: 341
appeals: adoption, teen pregnancy, realistic fiction
content: swearing, sex though not descriptive, abuse

thoughts:
I love me this book. Love, love, love! Passionately.

The characters in this novel are so real and flawed and believable and whole and awesome. I loved them all.

I loved Jill and Mandy. Their perceptions of the world and how they dealt with crap was so believable. Their struggles and how they dealt with horrible stuff and how they grew. Their insights into their world were so great. They're like real people to me now. I was really pleased with where they ended up, too. I usually find Sara Zarr's endings a little...unsettling, but this one was fantastic. It was actually happy. All the secondary characters were just as amazing. All the little details and peronality quirks were so tangable. Jill's father was dead, and he was a solid character in this book as if he was sitting in the leather chair in their family room.




 
I feel like I'm just blabbering and not saying anything (but I guess that is what I do when I review). It's an amazing story of growth and love and acceptance and moving on. It's beautifully written. Once I started it I didn't want to put it down. I was at work and all I was thinking about was lunch so I could read more, and after lunch I was counting down the hours till I could go home and read more. And then when I did go home and finish the book, I just hugged it to my chest because I was sad it was over. (not really, but you know what I mean)
 
This is a must read book. Please read! You are totally missing out if you don't pick it up.

summary:
Jill MacSweeney just wants everything to go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. You can't lose one family member and simply replace him with a new one, and when her mom decides to adopt a baby, that's exactly what it feels like she's trying to do. And that's decidedly not normal. With her world crumbling around her, can Jill come to embrace a new member of the family?


Mandy Kalinowski knows what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she knows she wants a better life for her baby. But can giving up a child be as easy as it seems? And will she ever be able to find someone to care for her, too?

Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about what it means to be a family and the many roads we can take to become one.

review: Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

pub date: April 5, 2011
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
pages: 368
format: audio
appeals: historical fiction, realistic fiction, family, art
content: clean

thoughts:
Schmidt has a gift of writing real, fully developed characters, including those on the edges of the story.

In the beginning of the novel, there are some really jerky people in Doug's life. His brother and the gym coach at his new school being two examples. Yet Schmidt has a way of showing why a character is the way they are, and with that new insight, no matter how jerky they are, it's hard to hate them. Which is AMAZING storytelling. The only character that I never really understood, especially at the end, was Doug's father. I didn't feel forgiveness towards him. But all the rest...POW! What GREAT characterization.

He is also amazing at playing my heart strings. One chapter I was so happy because things were FINALLY going well with Doug. But by the next chapter, something would happen that made me cry, literally cry. Twice I had tears running down my cheeks, I was so involved with Doug and his story, I had to keep listening long after I arrived home (I listened to it in my car and the narrator was wonderful).

I was very happy in the way the book ended--very hopeful. There was a while there where I was wondering if that would be possible. But it was. Yay!

The organization of the novel was also AMAZING. I loved how Auduban's artwork tied in so well with the story and the lessons Doug learns throughout the year of the novel. And since I listened to the book, it was rather nice how well Schmidt described the bird paintings because I didn't have the book to seem the birds myself.

So, if you haven't figured out how I feel about this book, let me tell you right out. I LOVED it. LOVED it.

And I'm not lying.

summary:
Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman + GIVEAWAY

pub date: April 5, 2011
publisher: Dutton
pages: 258
source: ARC from ALA Midwinter
audience: older teens
appeals: music, romance, contemporary, realistic fiction
content: language (including the f-word), sex (though not descriptive)


blurb from goodreads:
It's been three years since the devastating accident ... three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.


Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other.


Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.


the preamble:
Have you ever had a book that just hit you so strong you couldn’t let it go? I’ve had a few throughout the years--The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (just to name a few). I would’ve loved the book anyway, but at that particular time in my life when I read it, it just spoke to me stronger than it would’ve other wise. That is Where She Went for me, right now. 


I first read Where She Went in January, and I’ve kind of been obsessed with it ever since. I reread it twice in three days. Even now I’ll just pick it up at random times and read chapters or paragraphs or even just a page. Especially the end. I love it that much.

On the other end of the spectrum, my friend Jaye read the book, and though she loved it too, she will never read again. In her words, it is sad and depressing.

Which, I must agree with.

But it just makes the end of the book that much more satisfying. Reading Adam and Mia’s experiences over the past three years, the struggles for both characters, and then seeing them come out at the end successful and strong makes the rest of the book worth reading again. At least for me.

I have rewritten this review over and over again, and each time it just sounds lamer. It just doesn’t translate my feelings for how much I love this book.

But I attempt it once again…

actual review:
Gayle Forman has a powerful way with words. Where She Went is beautiful. The characters are drawn so well, so real. Their struggles and growth are written so vividly. I got sucked in and did not want it to end after the end. I cried and laughed and loved right along with the Adam.

I loved being in Adam’s head, of seeing things through his point of view. It wouldn’t have worked if it had been Mia. A lot of her struggles we already know, of healing and lose. But to have it filtered through Adam? Awesome.

There is so much that is left unsaid in If I Stay. I hadn’t even realized how much until this book. I just filled in the unexplained with my own happy ending. But my happy ending was totally different from Foreman’s happy ending. And hers is so much better.

Like If I Stay, the present action takes place is just two days while a good portion of the story is in flashback. Which means memories of Mia’s family. How I love them. There are scenes from If I Stay told from Adam's point of view—super cool. I loved reading about when Adam met Mia and why he first fell for her. Then there are the three years of loneliness and heartache when Adam doesn’t have Mia or even understand why she left.

Love, love, LOVE Where She Went.

It is perfection.

now to the CONTEST!

Since you've stuck with me this long, I'm giving away my ARC of Where She Went. I've preordered the hardcover and though it is really difficult for me to giveaway my ARC (I am attached to it), I don't need two copies of the same book. I can only read one at a time and I really want a finished copy. So anyway...

This will be a short, very easy, giveaway.

It will close Sunday, March 13 at midnight.

Must have a US or Canadian mailing address.

I want to give the book away to someone who really, really wants it. If you fit that description, please enter! If it will just sit on your bookshelf for months unread, this contest is not for you.

Enter Here