We're an Open Book
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(Get it ? Cause her name is America…)
This book seems to be lurking around every corner since we started Book and Sensibility three years ago. I finally grabbed the ebook and when I put it in the running for book club selection, it ultimately got…selected. I couldn’t really get a sense of the story from the first book, so I went to the second and figured what the heck since I’ve been taking a lot of 30-minute bus rides lately. I may as well finish it. …
- Narrated by Kirby Heyborne
- Release Date: April 8th 2014
- Pages: 356
- Audiobook Hours: 8 hours 45 minutes
- Genre: Science Fiction ???
- Publisher: Antheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster)
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- Release Date: June 24th, 2014
- Genre: Thriller
- Pages: 256
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (Macmillan)
Kheun’s 2013 debut, Charm and Strange is in the top 5 books I read this year, and when I saw Khuen had a new book coming out this year I had to get my hands on it! …
Publication Date:
Pages: 240
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic)
The Great Greene Heist caught my attention during the #weneeddiversebooks campaign when John Green promised 10 signed copies of TFiOS to any bookstore who hand sold 100 copies of The Great Greene Heist. The synopsis felt Curseworker-ish (sans magic), which was enough for me to delve into reading my first Middle Grade as an adult.
13-year-old con artist Jackson Greene is cleaning up his act. After the Kelsey Job, or the Mid-Day PDA as his friends have dubbed his last con, Jackson is hanging up his cons for good. That is until he gets recruited by his best friend Charlie de la Cruz to rig the school election for his sister Gabby, the girl whose heart Jackson will do anything to fix.
The atmosphere in this novel felt very campy and sort of like a satire. I don’t know if this is a typical of middle grade or if it’s just this novel. The students exist in a school where they are never in class, principals easily accept bribes and all clubs have a budget that the school council president controls. As I read this I imagine it as more as a cartoon or Nickelodeon sitcom than real life.
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At first these two books seem worlds away, one a much-praised modern literary classic the other a backlist YA contemporary climbing its way up the NYT bestsellers list with a film release weeks away.
I found myself reading both books at around the same time and the more I thought about writing the individual reviews, the more I realized these books have a lot in common. Both main characters, Kathy H. in Never Let Me Go and Mia in If I Stay, are young women trying to figure out their future. While Kathy’s path has been laid out since birth Mia gets the opportunity to decide hers.
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At first these two books seem worlds away, one a much-praised modern literary classic the other a backlist YA contemporary climbing its way up the NYT bestsellers list with a film release weeks away.
I found myself reading both books at around the same time and the more I thought about writing the individual reviews, the more I realized these books have a lot in common. Both main characters, Kathy H. in Never Let Me Go and Mia in If I Stay, are young women trying to figure out their future. While Kathy’s path has been laid out since birth Mia gets the opportunity to decide hers.
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- Release Date: March 1, 2013
- Pages: 289
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Publisher: Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic)
June Costa is the best artist in Palmares Três, the lush futuristic pyramid city built a midst a post post-apocalyptic South America. June’s art has always been about expressing herself and the things she loves, but her street art takes on new heights when she teams up with Enki, the 17-year-old reigning summer king of Palarmes Três who, as dictated by tradition, will be sacrificed at the end of the year.
The Summer Prince is a fairly complex novel, there is just so much going on in this world and society I don’t even know where to begin. The world building can be a bit tough to get into, especially for someone like me coming from a Western world. Johnson’s world is so far from anything analogous to American society. The driving force of this novel is the tradition of the summer king; Palmares Três matriarchal society elects one boy to serve as the summer king alongside the Queen and he is sacrificed at the end of the year. The reasoning behind this tradition is a little fuzzy in the book, but this is based on some ancient South American traditions.
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