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Olivia (Livie) Mead trades safety, comfort, and normalcy for a rare and enchanting adventure on her seventeenth birthday, October 31, 1900, when she participates in a women’s suffrage rally. Later that night, in the spirit of a good Halloween fright and under pressure from her friends, Livie agrees to subject herself to hypnosis and experiences the utter bliss of deep relaxation.  Henri Reverie, the hypnotist, tells Livie that because of her birth date, “legend says you are a charmed individual. You can read dreams and possess lifelong protection against the spirits” (9), but from that night onward, Livie’s life changes drastically. Livie’s father, the infamousRead More →

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A good story takes you places. And with Taking Flight, a memoir by Michaela and Elaine DePrince, the reader journeys from war-torn Sierra Leone in West Africa to recital halls in New York City with Mabinty Bangura. With this memoir, readers learn something of West African culture. In a typical household in the Kenema District of southeastern Sierra Leone, marriages are arranged, polygamy is acceptable, domestic violence is permissible, women learn how to cook, clean, sew, and care for children, and a girl child is not a cause for celebration—especially not a girl child born with the skin condition vitiligo that causes a mottled pigmentationRead More →

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One part mystery, one part science fiction, and one part realism with a dash of romance and a huge helping of dystopian fiction, Now That You’re Here by Amy K. Nichols is a multi-genre novel, one that potentially holds appeal for a wide variety of readers.   It plays what if in many of the intriguing ways that Libba Bray posed possibilities in Going Bovine. Set in Phoenix, Arizona, Nichols book explores the presence of parallel universes and whether teleportation—universe jumping—may occur via electromagnetism.  And who better to perform the research than a couple of teens seeking a science fair project? Eevee Solomon, a sophomore at Palo BreaRead More →

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The perfect Devonshire Academy girl, gifted with the privilege of class and education, Emily Bird lives in the stratified world of Northwest D.C.  But her dreams of becoming a shopkeeper in the District on U Street don’t align with Carol Bird’s aspirations for her daughter.  Conversations with her mother make seventeen-year-old Emily feel like being skinned alive.  To further complicate her life, Emily is attracted to Alonso Oliveira, the prep school drug dealer, a Brazilian boy also known as Coffee, but she is already dating Paul.  Although Paul is safe, ambitious, and well-connected, he doesn’t generate any sparks for Emily.  Coffee calls Emily out whenRead More →

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Sometimes a book comes along and I think to myself, “everyone I know needs to read this.”  Imagine my complete and utter delight when, last weekend, I read a pair of books coming out this Fall from Simon & Schuster that took my breath away, opened my eyes, and uplifted my hope for a better life.  And now I will have the opportunity to share these memoirs with you, book friends.  And you must pick them up and in turn share them with everyone you know; really, it’s that important. Honest, clear-eyed, and emotionally impactful, Some Assembly Required and Rethinking Normal are the memoirs ofRead More →

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YA Master Scott Westerfeld is back  this Fall with Afterworlds, a novel-within-a-novel, tightly intertwining a fully developed realistic YA romance with am equally robust spooky paranormal horror story, exploring the many ways in which our stories and our secrets define every aspect of our lives. 18 year old Darcy Patel’s composed-in-one-month paranormal horror story, Afterworlds, has been picked up by a major publishing house, netting her a $200,000 advance and the chance to put college on hold and move to New York City to be a “real writer”.  Naive, star-struck, and plagued with self-doubt, Darcy is not going to miss the chance at the lifeRead More →

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In 1941, seventeen-year-old Zenji Watanabe is Japanese born in America, a Nisei, with the gift of language.  Colonel Blake sees that gift and offers Zenji an opportunity to travel from Honolulu, Hawaii, to places like Manila, but that opportunity comes with a price beyond the patriotism, strange excitement, and pay check valued by Zenji. With the code name Bamboo Rat and his bilingual gifts, Zenji is recruited as a low profile, military spy.  In that role, he learns the difference between civilian Japan and military Japan.  He also discovers the difficulty in befriending those whom he may have to betray and confronts the dilemmas in a country’sRead More →

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Radiant.  Blinding.  Searing. Staring into the sun without eye protection will ruin your eyes.  Looking at a solar eclipse directly blinds you.  Seeing the reflection of the moon in still water enchants the soul.  All of which are also true when you read Jandy Nelson‘s latest  I’ll Give You The Sun.  Evocative prose, rich with finely crafted imagery, description, and metaphor; fully realized, flawed, and oh-so-human characters; gut-wrenching tragedy and heart-stealing love; and a dual narrative structure that moves back-and-forth through time and across perspectives combine to make you feel like you’re staring in wide-eyed amazement at whole sky full of stars. NoahandJude – it’s how the twinsRead More →

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K.A. Harrington‘s Forget Me is a decent little mystery with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure.  Set in a small New England town, aptly named River’s End, the mystery surrounding a doppelganger for a murdered young man unravels at a measured pace until the very end when the secrets, lies, and motives are exposed in one high-stakes altercation on the top of the town’s waterfall. Three months ago, Morgan’s secretive, moody boyfriend Flynn was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run accident on a dark road outside River’s End’s long shuttered family amusement park.  Morgan is still reeling from the loss of her firstRead More →