Croak

Croak 1 by Gina Damico Young Adult Fantasy Fiction Lexington is a disgruntled teenager. Actually, it is worse than that. She has a big chip on her shoulder, but no one can say why. She is sent to live with her biker uncle to straighten her out. It turns out that he is the Grim Reaper! One of the grim reapers, anyway. The reapers' job (of course) is to take the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Lex becomes a reapers' apprentice. This is the job she was meant to do. This is a smart alecky book with a nod to classical mythology. Since the author called it "Croak 1" it is obvious that this is book one in a trilogy or longer.

Going Underground

Going Underground
by
Susan Vaught
young adult contemporary fiction

I might not be the most up to date on what teenagers are up to these days, but Susan Vaught is. I would not have even thought of the plot of this story. A 14 year old and his 13 year old girlfriend are understandably curious about sex. They engage in some petting and they take photographs of themselves naked. They then send the pictures over their cellular telephones to each other - sexting.
Because of a wrinkle in a state law, even though the children are close in age, the boy is charged with rape, and producing and distributing child pornography. He will also be labelled a sex offender for the rest of his life. He is not allowed to socialize with children and a number of other restrictions. Everything about his future seems to be restricted. The only adult that even gives him a chance is a drunken cemetery keeper!
The book certainly brings up a number of ethical questions about the way that well meaning representatives may pass laws that don't work out the way they intended.
I would not feel comfortable recommending this book to a 13 year old, but others might. I recommend that this book be on a college reading list for an ethics or law class. It also could be the subject of an adult book discussion or for a reading circle for parents of teenagers, especially if those parents, like I, have never given the idea of sexting a thought.

Dying for a book

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

P. J. O'Rourke

Her Fearful Symmetry

Her Fearful Symmetry
by
Audrey Niffenegger
adult fantasy/romance contemporary fiction

Many people (including myself) were waiting for another book from this author of "The Time Traveler's Wife". It starts off innocently enough with an aunt dying and leaving her flat in London to her twin nieces whom she has never met. From there the plot takes some twists as we find out more about the mother (who was a twin to the aunt) and about the goings on at the flat and the cemetery next door. There is a housebound neighbor and a cemetery volunteer neighbor. Add to the mixture The Kitten of Death (who is not at all terrifying).
This book is one part Gothic novel, one part stodgy British literature, one part Victoria Holt romance, one part Charlotte Bronte angst-riddled tale, and one part Phyllis Whitney mystery (except that it is set in modern times). Now I realize that I have dated myself with references to 1970's authors. So be it.
I wasn't sure what to expect in this book. I'll give away a major plot point - it is a ghost novel. It is a cozy, familiar read with a standard mystery setting, best enjoyed in front of a fireplace while wearing a smoking jacket and sipping Earl Grey tea.
As to the title - it is a clever play on words about twins being mirrors of each other and also using a word that sounds like "cemet'ry".
In a completely unrelated note, I will put this book on my list of books for genealogists to enjoy. Cemeteries are an essential part of any genealogist's research and Highgate Cemetery has some mighty fine tales to tell.

American Girl

American Girl
by
Monika Fagerholm
adult fiction
This is a novel for adults. It was originally published in Finland but written in Swedish. It is set in Finland.
This is NOT the American Girls book series for children.
This is NOT the magazine for children.
I hope this is now clear which book I am reviewing. I hate it when you can't tell which book it is from the title.

That being said, I picked up this book because it had glowing reviews on the back and because it was set in Finland. I know a number of 3rd or 4th generation Finnish Americans and I have flown Finnair (the official airline of Santa Claus), and I enjoyed "Sisterchicks on the Loose" when they head to Finland so I figured it might be interesting.
I struggled to get through this book. It was set in some kind of stream of consciousness confusing style where the reader could not tell if what was being said was reality or fantasy and the time periods jumped around a whole lot. Maybe this book lost something in translation. It says on the cover that it is part of a series. I have no desire to read any more books like this.
The cover says that it is about two girl friends that discover the body of an American teenager in a swamp. Yes, this does happen, but mostly the book dashes around from character to character, time to time, and perspective to perspective until the reader is completely confused. I would tell you more about it, but I'll be da**ed if I know what happened, even after reading the whole book.
Maybe if someone reworked this into a screenplay and simplified everything I would have a clue.
There is a death, so I guess you could call this a mystery, but mostly I would call it a mess.

Christmas Sweater

Christmas Sweater: a Novel
by
Glenn Beck
Adult fiction novella

At 284 pages and 5.5 x 7.5 inches, this little book can be read in one day to help someone get into the spirit of Christmas. What if someone gave you a present that you really didn't like, but that was all they had? What if that person died and you never had a chance to say how sorry you were that you were ungracious and inconsiderate? We all have regrets like this. For author Glenn Beck this story is too real. It is based on an event that happened in his childhood with the death of his mother, although he changed some details.

This book joins others in the tradition of other Christmas novellas like "The Christmas Shoes" by Donna VanLiere. I would not say that it is the best of them, but deserves a place on the Christmas novella shelf.

It is not a particularly Christian book or evangelical, but about forgiveness and moving on. God (or an angel or however you interpret this) makes an appearance and the lesson is in the Judeo-Christian tradition. In the bio section I see that Beck was raised Catholic and later became Mormon, so this makes sense.

Quote:
A-tone-ment...It's a chance to fix the unfixable and to start all over again. It begins when you forgive yourself for all you've done wrong, and forgive others for all they've done to you.

The book is set at Christmas and Christmas is essential to the story, but really it is about not being mired in the past.

I have to give a big thumbs up to the jacket designer, Lisa Litwack, jacket illustrator, Robert Hunt, and whoever did the interior design and illustrations. This is a very attractive book, with small pictures of knitting needles and yarn used as paragraph dividers, pen and ink drawings, and illuminated manuscript-type letters beginning the chapters. I was slightly disappointed with the text, but the book itself is beautiful.
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I see that this is also available in a children's version - "The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book" and for political reasons, on Amazon.com's blog someone has added tag headings of "brainwashing", and "wingnut welfare" to the entry. ??? I suspect that the Amazon people will eventually edit these tags.