Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

NIGHTSHADE
       by Andrea Cremer


The reason I read this book was as a favor to my friend.  I was told her daughter,who is a 12 year old Tween, is a self proclaimed Nightshade Trilogy fan (there are three books altogether in the series).  The book that she owns is falling apart, literally, pages falling out, etc. as she has read it over and over.  Because I love Twilight and Harry Potter, she thought I might share her daughter's passion for this book or at least her enthusiasm and at the same time she, who does not read much, would know what her daughter was reading and embedding into her brain.  I was disappointed when I found out.

This is the story about a pack of shape shifting teenagers.  They are werewolves by most definitions but they claim to not be werewolves in the story...and it's true that they have control over their shifting...there's no full moon action in this story.  There are actually two different 'packs' (one being the Nightshades) that are supposed to combine on Halloween night through marriage.  Top Dog of one marries top dog of the other so to speak.  You get the distinct impression in the beginning of the book that typically these two clans are not very friendly with one another but both leaders decide to make a good impression on their followers because after all once the marriage takes place in a few weeks then they will have to get along.

Calla is our heroine and Ren is our hero...or is he?  Calla is to marry Ren but a few weeks before a new kid starts at school "Shay" and he causes all kinds of chaos.  He's human (or is he?) and the humans are typically looked down upon...but he's adamant and wants to know Calla a lot better.  So a little bit of a love triangle happens...which is very dangerous because these packs also have adult packs...grownups, adults, parents that all support this marriage and they are very dangerous folks to deal with apparently.  Some of them give you the distinct impression that they are sort of the mafioso of shape shifting.  Anywho, Shay brings up info to Calla that proves that perhaps her pack are not good people (animals) and perhaps she lives a lie and all hell breaks loose on Halloween night (the night of the wedding)...and this is where we leave off and supposedly wait breathless for the next book to come out (NOT ME!!!!).

I am going to be a bit hard on poor Andrea as a writer because I know she has freedom of speech...but so don't I.  This book and definitely geared toward young teenagers and some of the things it entails...lots of lust...although no sex...but there is sex implied...Calla wants it badly from two different men...constantly.  Women are supposed to do what the packleader says no matter what...for instance Calla's mother is actually sort of hit on by the head mafioso guy even though she is, of course, married to Calla's Dad.  Calla tells her mother to not allow it and before we know it, Calla hits the floor because her mother has punched her...yes folks, punched her closed fisted and told her that the women give certain people whatever they want.  REALLY, Andrea????  Aren't we teaching our young tweens the wrong message here?

Another issue I had was that the teens are all around the age of 16 and 17 and some a little younger and they are attending dance clubs and partying at bars where underage drinking is okay with all of their parents.  Yes, it specifically says that in the book...that these packs of wolves can drink whatever they want and do whatever they want despite the fact that they are underage.  YUCK!  Oh yes and Calla makes her first kill...as that is her job...and it doesn't bother her in the least...

What else?  Oh yes...all the humans are lower life forms and are not spoken of and turn their heads and run away...so it's not like Harry Potter when we, as muggles, are happily unaware.  No, there are select kids that go to the same school with these packs and even the teachers let these kids do whatever they want.  There are no consequences for these kids.  They run everything...and I don't like to be considered a lowlife in any book that I read.  I don't mind being a muggle...because there are those that like the muggles and that try to save and protect the muggles...but not these shifters.  We aren't worth the dirt on the bottom of their paws...hmmmmmm...THAT is a thought in itself isn't it?

So no, I will not find out what happens unless I ask my friend's daughter what the outcome is...but I will not waste any more time reading this series.  I had to force my way through this one and kept hoping it would get better somehow!!

I give this book one star and I feel I'm being generous.  I give it that star for the pretty purple on the cover of  the book and also for the character descriptions.  Sorry...Nightshade is usually my type of story but this one is definitely in the toilet of the supernatural life for me.

To each their own.

Prey by Michael Crichton

Prey by Michael Crichton

This is a thrilling story about technology and experiments going horribly wrong.  Not only do they go wrong but they start to evolve, things start to think...start to copy us, start to try and take over.  It's a small piece of the world that this technology actually starts to control...but the thoughts are planted as to how far technology can go...and how fast it can go horribly wrong.

Our main character thinks his wife is having an affair...he's out of work and home with the kids.  She comes home later and later each night.  Sometimes not at all.  by the end of this story, he wishes she was having an affair.  I bet an affair would be much better than what he actually had to deal with.

These stories always start the same.  Jurassic Park for instance...we think...wow...a park where we can see dinosaurs, real life dinosaurs.  Wow!!!  Yes!!!  But one of my favorite lines from Jurassic Park was Jeff Goldblum's line where he says something along the lines of they were so busy thinking about if they COULD do it, they didn't stop to think whether they SHOULD do it.  I am not putting that in quotes because I'm sure it's not exact but you catch my drift, I'm sure.  This book is not about technology for entertainment such as live dinosaurs.  This one is about injecting teensy weensy cameras into your blood stream so they can see what the heck is wrong...the size of nano particles.  A great idea, right?  I mean, they would travel through the chambers of the heart, the lungs, etc.  Doctors could see EVERYTHING.  I was thinking...hey, maybe then they could tell me what was wrong with me and maybe I could enjoy food again...lol...sorry...I digress.

So it sounds great.  But some problems develop.  Lots of problems.  You want to know more?  READ THE BOOK!!!  I picked this book up at a thrift store on a Saturday.  I was done by Thursday.  I couldn't put it down.  It was thrilling, suspenseful and very creepy!!!  Very creepy.  LOVED IT!!!!  It's been a while since I've read a book that I just had to finish...but lately I've found a few.  I'll be reviewing another one later this week (sorry too tired tonight to do more than two reviews).  This book made me want to pick up other Michael Crichton books that I've had on the shelf but hadn't yet read.  Airframe will be next...but after I vary the genres a little bit.  I try hard not to clump all my books together like that.  Not everyone loves the same types of books and even though I only have a few followers, I have to think ahead to when I have a few hundred, right???

So yes, I give this book a fabulous five stars.  I loved it and will probably read it again in a few years.  A must read if you love reading about technology...but you don't have to be a geek.  There is enough information for us non-geeks to understand what is going on but not too much to cause us to get confused and say never mind!  We get the gist...and that is what we need in order to go for the thrill ride.  After reading this book, I will never walk through another swarm of gnats at the beach without being a little more afraid than I used to be.

"Julia's original email says, "We have nothing to lose."  But in the end they lost everything--their company, their lives, everything.  And the ironic thing is, the procedure worked.  The swarm actually solved the problem they had set for it.  But then it kept going, kept evolving.  And they let it.  They didn't understand what they were doing.  I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.  I hope it's not.  We might get lucky."

--Prey by Michael Crichton pg 502

Breathe My Name by R.A. Nelson

Breathe My Name
R.A. Nelson

Okay, I don't know what is going on but I'm having trouble adding in Amazon associates so that you can purchase a copy of the book right here...it looks like a lot of people are having the same trouble and it doesn't look like anyone can resolve it.  So I'm not sure you will be able to order this book through my blog...but here goes anyways....

This was an interesting book...hmmmm, no, that might not be the right word for it.  I have to say, I read this book with a different perspective than most will read it.  As a foster parent...a mother of children who have seen and lived through things they just shouldn't have seen and lived through.  This is a book about one such child who survived a mother who had severe issues...maybe schizophrenia?  Not really sure what her diagnosis was...it might even say in the book but it's been a while since I actually read this that I had to go back through and refresh my memory a bit.  So we have this teenage girl on the verge of adulthood...18 years of age who doesn't just have the struggle of life between being Mom and Dad's kid and an adult but also the struggle of a past with a Mother who she no longer has a relationship with who is actually in an insane asylum and the memory of siblings who do not have the same opportunities she has been given (I don't want to give too much away so am going to leave it at that).

Then we also have the VERY strange twist of someone wanting an eye for an eye...and trying to ensure it happens...and then that same mother who took away the happy thoughts of childhood giving this 18 year old girl her the gift of an adult life which if she wasn't there, she wouldn't have.

Like I said, it's an odd book...at first I was thinking this would be a great book for some of the teens I know who were adopted out of foster care to read...but after getting to the end...ummmm....no.  There's violence...a twist that is twisted and unexpected.

I did like the thoughts that the main character (Frances) has in the story.  The story makes you question what it would really take to not only forgive or to get forgiven but what about eternity?  What does it take to buy your spot in heaven after doing something so wrong it seems you can never make things right?  Here is a quote I found to be a very neutral answer to that question.

"One thing I am sure of--death is a very big place.  There is room for all kinds of people."  So she categorizes heaven and hell together into one place called 'death' and leaves it at that.

Okay...as far as imagination and character development...great job on the main character...everyone else was sort of background info and that was okay...you got the idea of who the people were and what they were about.  You felt the sadness when Frances meets her father, you can feel the regret, the choices, the disgust.  You can also feel that Frances no longer fits into that world...and wonder how she ever did fit into that world.  It's amazing how children move from such a horrible situation and learn to thrive in a wonderful family.  I have seen it firsthand and this book did a good job of showing it.

The twist is the story is totally unexpected...but I almost felt like it didn't fit.  It wasn't what this book seemed to be about...kind of like you have this puzzle before you and one piece left and it's a nice piece but it's not the one that fits into THAT puzzle.  ODD...that's the best word for it.  It wasn't horrible...just odd and a bit unsettling.
For the feeling of discontentment the book left me with, I'm going to leave this book with three star...maybe even 2.75 stars.  I wouldn't let young teens read it...it's disquieting...young adults perhaps.  I didn't walk away glad that I had read this book...but it made some good points...showed me a person with a certain perspective some good character development and transition (but not very universal).  I also for the sake of the author will say I'm not a person who enjoys reading about mentally ill mothers...a personal thing so that could be part of my disquiet as well.  When a child is afraid of her own mother, when she knows that there is something not quite right but no one else knows or maybe she has everyone else fooled, it is a heavy burden to bear, that fear.  An excerpt from the book that was a perfect description of that fear for me, and I will leave you with this...

"In the night, in my imagination, there is no light where she is.  Momma moves on the tips of her big fingers, scrabbling along on a dirty concrete floor like a spider.  She is a spider.  That is what she has become.

Maybe that's what she always was.  Only none of us knew, because she kept it hidden.  And through everything, all the times she was kissing us or playing games with us or being the queen of our pretend kingdom, really she was a spider underneath everything, just itching to break free.  And every night the stiff little spidery hairs were coming to the surface, and she had to be careful to pluck them off each morning so that no one would suspect she was really a spider.  Toward the end she began to smell different too.  That was her spider smell coming out.

But still none of us knew.  We didn't know a person could be a spider.  We didn't know that in the middle of the night she would crawl out of her bed and get down on her fingers and toes and climb up the wall and scuttle across the ceiling just to keep in practice, because she knew she would be transformed into a spider again soon.  Now she gets to have her wish.  She can be a spider all the time."

---breathe my name, R.A. Nelson, chapter 1, pgs 4-5.

Technical Difficulties

Hi, All, I just wanted to let you know that I'm having technical difficulties with the site and am trying to wait for them to be resolved before publishing the posts that are ready to go. I have three or four posts that are waiting for blogspot to fix their issues surrounding Amazon Associates.

Once that happens, I will ensure that all the posts are up and running the same day!

I have been reading some really great material...and some not so great material...so stay tuned!

I hope everyone stayed safe and dry through Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. We didn't even lose Power, thank the Lord!!! And of course, it was a GREAT DAY TO READ!!!!

I am hoping to have my technical troubles resolved by this time next week so check back. I am trying to find a help desk somewhere to contact. Of course there isn't one...grrrrrr

Check back soon!

The Critical Librarian!!!!!

The Secret Life of Bees by sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd


"You have to find a mother inside yourself.  We all do.  Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside." --August Boatwright, The Secret Life of Bees.

Quite a time after I started the book, I have restarted and finally finished this novel.  This story is described as a sort of coming of age novel but I found it to be so much more than that...probably because of my own experiences and perspective.  As you know, everyone brings his or her own perspective to each book one reads, so for me, reading a book about a motherless girl caused me to connect with Lily in so many ways.  She was searching for something and she found it where no white man thought she should find it at the time in a house full of "colored women."  I can relate to that as well as my family didn't agree with some of my friends as I was growing up.  I've seen a world of difference since my childhood days.  As August says, I have found the mother inside myself, as I'm breaking the cycle and have become a foster parent but I think she meant that you have to find that part of you that you can rely on to take care of you.  I think I'm still searching for that, and we probably all search for that our whole lives.

I think if I didn't have the perspective that I do have, this would have been an easy read.  It has some seriously traumatic events but I have to say I didn't cry.  I probably would have cried if I hadn't seen the movie though as I was expecting these things.  I don't typically rate movies but I definitely give Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah and the other main characters (sorry, I am not going to look up names) kudos for bringing life to these characters.  I am glad that I read this book.  It's probably not one that I will read over and over.  I may read it again someday ten years from now but it was a good story, I'm glad I read it, now I can move on with the next story if that makes sense.  I think because it's filled with so much emotion...it's a heavy story to lay on your heart.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Happy Reading!

Because of Winn-Dixie (Children's book) by Kate DiCamillo

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

This is a book for the whole family...a great read aloud book.  I was interested in this book because it is one of my favorite family films.  Great actors that play fabulous characters, a very funny dog...and a heart warming story.  And as everyone knows, many a favortie film is based on a truly fabulous book.  So I had purchased this book in hopes of reading it aloud to my children as it's a chapter book.

Well as it happens...my 7 year old has ADHD and cannot sit through even one page of a chapter book at bedtime (the meds wear off by then) and my other kids are too old (12 & 16)...but since I had started reading to the 7 year old...I was hooked and had to finish.  So Saturday afternoon I took an hour or so and read Because of Winn-Dixie.  This is going to be a longer post because I believe there are no coincidences in this world and there were many things that came together around the reading of this book.   First of all, it was the weekend after Mother's Day which this year was a bit hard for me.  I don't have a relationship with my biological Mom...I haven't lived with her steadily since I was 11 years old.  She, when I was about 13, decided to move to Florida with her boyfriend at the time, and I didn't see her for years.  She has a really hard time putting her kids first...she always has.

I do have a fabulous stepmom who I love dearly and usually Mother's Day doesn't bother me at all but for some reason this year it made me sad.  I'm also a foster mom and have two kids that I may be adopting but there's a lot going on in the world of foster care and adoption subsidies which may make it hard for that to happen, not to mention my seven year old foster daughter has many behavioral issues which reared their ugly heads on Mother's day causing me to have to leave a BBQ earlier than I would have liked.  My older boys who typically get helpful on Mother's Day weren't being very helpful either, and I was feeling a bit...well okay, I was downright crabby.  So I turned on the TV to watch movies and it being Mother's Day, The Secret Life of Bees was on.

Because of my own abandonment issues, I could totally relate to the child in this movie so I watched it.  Then I realized I had started the book a long time ago and never finished it.  I believe I even mentioned it in this blog but it has never been reviewed.  So this past week I picked it up again after finishing Witch & Wizard.  I started from the beginning as I didn't remember much.  I cannot believe the similarities in the stories...one being a children's book and the other an adult story.  So I'm going to review Winn Dixie here and I'm not going to pick up another book till I finish The Secret Life of Bees as I believe these two should be reviewed right next to each other.  So here goes my Winn-Dixie review.

The characters are so loveable in this story...they are well developed and each so in need of others from the start.  Of course, not one of them realizes as they are all so lost in their own troubles.  And sometimes when we are lost in ourselves, it takes much more than people to help us find our way...in this story, it's a zany dog and a strange piece of candy that brings these folks together (yes, I just said folks).  Because this is a children's book, these people are brought together literally at a party, and even though the story doesn't go beyond the party, you know that everything is going to be better for all involved, including the dog.  The story is of  a little girl, a preacher's daughter, living in a new town where she has no friends as of yet.  Her mother had abandoned both her and her Dad when she was little and she didn't remember much of her.  She tries to get info out of her Dad but he is so lost in his sorrow that he doesn't like to talk about her not realizing how much more he is hurting his daughter by not sharing his grief with her.

I would love to get a child's perspective of this story so if anyone reads this blog and then their child reads the story, please send me an email or comment.  I would love to know what he or she thought.  There are many appealing qualities to a child...the animals, a bit of mystery surrounding each of the characters.  But at the same time there are some great messages for adults.  Gloria Dump's tree, Opal's need to hear about her mother and to know about her father's grief, Amanda's reason for having a pinched up face, Otis' need for and yet fear of playing music and more.

I do not have to separate this book out into an adult and child rating as I think it's great for both.  Read it together and talk about it.

I loved this book and the Critical Librarian gives this book 5 out of 5 stars.   I highly recommend it, and if you'd like...click the link above in this post and purchase it from Amazon.com!

Happy Reading!

Want to read Witch & Wizard by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet?

Get it right here!

Happy Reading!

Karen