Good Reads

I've decided just to post my book reviews on Good Reads. I will probably not be updating this site. I hope you enjoy my recommendations.

Thanks!

A Great and Terrible Beauty

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.
Stars: ***
Description: Gemma's mother dies and she is sent to a school in England and finds out things about herself and her mother that she never knew. Gemma discovers powers and places that could change not only her life, but her friend's lives as well.
Review: Compelling read, but fantasy lacked something for me. Definitely a hit with teen girls though.

Specials

Specials by Scott Westerfeld.
Stars: ***
Description: Tally is now a "special" and looks down at everyone who is inferior to her. She tries to have Zane become a special too, but he's sympathetic to an outlaw group called the smoke.
Review: I didn't love it. I couldn't put it down, but I didn't love it.

Pretties

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld.
Stars: ***
Description: Tally is now a pretty and is trying to get into the exclusive click the "Crim." She also meets Zane and an ugly guy from her past...
Review: Page-turner, but I didn't like it as well as Uglies.

Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

Stars: ****

Description: Tally is in a world where to make everyone equal they go through plastic surgery. Tally finds out there is an ugly side to being pretty.

Review: Fast and furious plot pacing. An exciting and thought-provoking read. I loved it.

The Wave Traveller

The Wave Traveller by P.R. Morrison.
Stars: ***
Description: Archie's defeat of his family's curse, Huigor, has caused a black hole that is reactivating old curses and sending them towards Archie's hometown Westervoe, Scotland. Archie is now a member of ICE, International Curse Exterminator, and must keep this secret from his two best mates, George and Sid, help his Uncle Rufus fight old curses, and find out something surprising about his parents.
Review: Finally we some interesting female characters in Ruby (mysterious new girl from school) and Miss Napier (works at the ICE headquarters). This is a fun adventure fantasy book for boys. Would definitely recommend.
Sequel to The Wind Tamer
Tid bit: This book won't be published until November 2007. My official review will be in School Library Journal's November magazine.

The Wind Tamer

The Wind Tamer by P. R. Morrison.
Stars: **1/2
Description: Every year, Archie's Uncle Rufus sends funny gifts that his mom hides like an old torch (flashlight). On Archie's tenth birthday Uncle Rufus comes to tell him about the family curse. The eldest Stringweed son is taken by Huigor (an ancient tornado) and returned a coward. Archie and his uncle must find all of the gifts and use them to fight against Huigor.
Review: A fun fantasy read for boys. This is the British cover, that I like much better than the American. Comparable to Harry Potters 1 and 2, but not quite as likeable. Archie's friends are boys and there are no cool girl characters.

Enna Burning

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale.
Stars: *****
Description: Enna has the power to make things burn. She uses this power to defend her country Bayern and her friend Princess Isi. Enna is captured by the enemy and consumed by her desire to burn. Can she save herself or her country?
Review: Bringing back some of the characters from The Goose Girl, this is an even more exciting read. By far my favorite of all of Shannon Hale's books. The characters are deeper and more developed and the story is riveting.
Series: 1. The Goose Girl 2. Enna Burning 3. River Secrets

The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.
Stars: *****
Description: Princess Anidori–Kiladra Talianna Isillee (called Isi) is sent to the neighboring kindom of Bayern to marry the prince. On the way, her evil lady-in-waiting Selia and her guards try to kill Anidori. Anidori escapes with her life, but Selia has taken her place at the palace as the princess, so Anidori—now called Isi—dresses like a peasant uses her ability to talk to animals to tend the geese. One day she meets a palace guard…
Review: Well written, imaginative, fantasy at its best. I own it and would recommend it.
Series: 1. The Goose Girl 2. Enna Burning (my favorite) 3. River Secrets
Tidbit: I've heard the author Shannon Hale speak several times and she is just as entertaining to listen to as she is to read.

Just Ella

Just Ella by Margaret Haddix.
Stars: ****
Description: A feminist Cinders Ella who doesn't need a fairy godmother or a man to save her—she's got plain sense and a mind of her own. She will need both when Prince Charming ends up being anything but charming.
Review: A fun retelling. Definitely would recommend.

Bella at Midnight

Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley.
Stars: ***
Description: Another interesting spin on Cinderella, but this time the father is alive; he just doesn't want anything to do with her. Bella is taken to a wet nurse as a baby and grows up in that family (no one came for her when she was weaned). The same wet nurse also cared for the youngest prince previous to Bella. The young prince continues to visit...
Review: I liked it, but if you are going to read a Cinderella story read Margaret Haddix's Just Ella or Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted which are much better.

The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
Stars: *****
Description: Lily Bart is 29 years old, beautiful, of high social standing, but has no money. She must marry a wealthy man and soon. Can she sacrifice herself to the expectations of society and her own standards of comfort?
Review: A interesting view of American culture at the beginning of the twentieth century. Lily is a intriguing and multi-layered character and her struggle between comfort and conscience is relevant today as ever. Single women in particular will appreciate Lily's plight.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery.
Stars: *****
Description: Anne spelled with an ‘E’ is, as Mark Twain observed, “the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice.” Brought to Prince Edward Island by mistake, Anne must convince Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert to adopt her. All would be well if Anne could stay out of scrapes, like dyeing her hair green, long enough for Marilla to make up her mind.
Review: One of my favorite books as a child and one of my favorite books as a adult. Montgomery's writing is magical and many a young girl (including me) has wanted to be just like Anne with an "E".

Mary Barton

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell.
Stars: *****
Description: Henry Carlson, the son of a factory owner, flirted with Mary Barton a factory worker. Carlson is found shot. Who killed him? Jem Wilson who has loved Mary all his life? Or John Barton, Mary’s father, who is a radical trades unionist fighting against the higher classes? Read the story that Charles Dickens found so compelling that he wrote to Elizabeth Gaskell and asked her to write for his magazine.
Review: Gaskell creates characters of all social classes that are sympathetic and fully dimensional. An amazing story of forgiveness and redemption.

Little Women

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
Stars: *****
Description: The story of four very different sisters during the middle of the 19th century. Jo March is rough and wild and wants to be a writer. Meg March is the eldest and resentful of the family’s poverty. Beth March is quiet and often overlooked until a kind neighbor gives her a piano to play. Amy March is the youngest and the most spoiled. Together the sisters play, fight, fall in love, and grow up.
Review: Although the book should have ended about 50 pages before it does, Alcott's classic coming of age story is one of my all time favorites. Every girl can find a character to love and relate to out of the four March sisters. One to read again as a adult and enjoy it in a new way.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Stars: *****
Description: Miss Maudie explains to Scout that, "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (98). In this Pulitzer Prize-winning coming of age story, Scout learns what it means to kill a mockingbird when her father Atticus Finch defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town during the 1930s.
Review: A timeless coming of age story.

Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
Stars: ****
Description: Written as a prequel to Jane Eyre, Rhys tells the history of Bertha Antoinette Mason and allows the reader to decide whether she was “mad” or misunderstood.
Review: In general I do not agree with people writing prequels and sequels to other author's works. Too often the writing is mediocre in comparison to a classical genius. Rhys, however, manages to create a modern literary classic worthy of study in its own right.
Book Group Questions: http://bookgroupsecrets.pbwiki.com/f/Wide+Sargasso+Sea.doc

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
Stars: *****
Description: Jane Eyre becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall where she is irresistibly drawn to her older employer Mr. Rochester, who appears to care for her in return, however, the secrets of his past could destroy them both.
Review: Don't sell yourself short by just watching the movie! Bronte's masterpiece is Victorian prose at its best with a dash of Gothic Literature.
Book Group Questions: http://bookgroupsecrets.pbwiki.com/f/Jane+Eyre.doc

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Stars: *****
Description: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single gentleman in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” is how Austen begins her unforgettable comedic satire of the marriage mart in Regency England. The Bennets have five marriageable daughters but which sister will the wealthy Mr. Bingley and his even wealthier friend Mr. Darcy choose?
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was 12 years-old and I loved it. I have read it over 20 times since and each time I still delight in the language, wit, and characterization. Austen truly began the modern novel.