Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale

I really like this book. I've decided I'm a fan of Shannon Hale. Just enough adventure and romance, with a keen descriptive of life as a young woman.

I'm hosting a book club on this book and will leave a better review after I get everyone else's input.

Lily's Crossing, by Patricia Reilly Giff

Cute book.

The story takes place during WWII. Lily is 9 (?) and lives with her grandmother and father (an engineer), they vacation at Rockaway Beach during the summer. Lily meets a new friend who is a refugee from Hungary, his family has been left or lost in Europe. Lily learns about honesty and friendship.

I probably wouldn't read it again, not for lack of enjoying it, but just because once was enough.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski

This is the book for Oprah's book club this week. She says she loved this book. I thought it was good. Not at all an upper.

Edgar Sawtelle is a mute. His family runs a dog breeding business. Edgar's estranged uncle returns home after several years away. After his father dies of unknown causes and his uncle seduces his mother Edgar runs away from home. He learns about adulthood while on the run, and decides to return home.

Parts of the book were a little abstract for my liking. An entertaining story. It has over 500 pages and I read it in a little less than a week.

All in all, one and a half thumbs up, the missing half thumb is because I didn't appreciate the ending.

Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner

I had zero expectations coming in to this book. It was good. I had no idea what it was about, it was recommended to me by someone (I don't remember who). But everyone that I know who has read said it was a good book. Even when I was flying up to my dad's for a girls weekend, the pilot walked past me as I was boarding the plane and said, 'Good book.'

It is about Lyman Ward, the grandson of Susan Ward. He is writing his grandmother's autobiography. So the story is partly about her too. Susan grew up in the Hudson River Valley and marries Oliver Ward who is an engineer for coal mines in the west (circa 1870-1880). It talkes about her marital struggles and their life together. We also learn the story of Lyman and his own personal struggles.

It was not a happy book. But entertaining.

Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

So, I may get rotten fruit and vegetables thrown at me for this review.

In all honesty, the best I can say for this one is: it was fine.

I'm a huge fan of the series, but this one felt slow, and the ending wasn't as climactic as I would have liked to to have been. And there were times when I thought things were really just beaten into the ground. Yes, I get it, you are so amazingly attracted to Edward that it's hard to function sometimes. Yes, I get it, things don't look good. Yes, I get it, Jacob is so in love with Bella and it's just so unfair that she doesn't feel the same....

I could go on. Maybe it's just because I'm more of a Jacob fan than and Edward fan, this just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

I almost gave up half way through, but I wanted to see if it would shape up any better in the end.

So for me, this wasn't the best in the series.

* Please keep the booing and hissing to a minimum.

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech

I really enjoyed this book!

It is found in the juvenile section at my local library, and it was clean enough for any juvenile in my home to read.

I relate a lot to the lead character, and I cried by the end. I won't give away the ending.

Basically: Sal's mother leaves her and her dad for a trip to Idaho to refind herself. Sal finds out that her mother is not coming back and can't cope with that reality. Her dad moves her to a new town and she makes a new friend: Phoebe, whose family appears 'perfect' but then her mother leaves also, so Sal and her friend set out to determine what happened to her.

The story is told as Sal is driving from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents so she can visit her mother. Again, I won't give away the ending, but I just about sobbed. One sentence in the last chapter had be crying out loud.

I really enjoy the way the book is written. When a book is written with words that make me feel what the narrator is saying, I feel that is a very good story teller. I will probably rent another work by this author.

***** (that's 5 stars if you can't tell).

The Winter Garden Mystery, by Carola Dunn

Good book, very fast read. I enjoy the main character, and a good mystery.

Light read.

Drawbacks: Two of the characters are gay, and the person that gets killed is not married and pregnant, the dad is not really determined.

Death at Wentwater Court, by Carola Dunn

Good book.
I'm a mystery fan, and this was enjoyable. The only unsavory part was an attempted rape, but not much detail is given about it, so it was still PG.
I enjoy the setting (in England) in the 1920's.
It has a little bit of romance, but not over the top.
The first in the Daisy Dalrymple Mystery series, I will definitely be going back for the next one. Here is what the book summary says:
'No stranger to sprawling country estates, wealthy Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground at this particular mano house, having scandalously traded silver spoon for pen and camera to cover a story for Town and Country magazine. But her planned interviews with the inhabitants or Wentwater Court give way to interrogation when suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a dire fate on the tranquil skating pond. Armed with evidence that his fate was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard to examine an esteemed collection of suspects -- and see that the unlikely culprit doesn't slip through their fingers just as the unfortunate Astick slipped through the ice...'

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith

Good, Light, Funny, Clean.

I enjoyed this very much. Fun to look in to another culture, and feel like you're there.

It was also amazing to me that this was written by a man, some of the thoughts were all woman! I read it in 2 1/2 days, so that says how fast of a read it is. And I only read during nap times or when my kids are in bed at night.

Not much in the way of suspense if that's what you're looking for, but I was thoroughly entertained nonetheless.

Up A Road Slowly, by Irene Hunt

This was a good, fast read. The narrative wasn't exactly in the style that I prefer, I felt a little detached from the character, Julie. But it was a happy coming of age story, and had lots of little tidbits about girlhood that I could relate too.
It's found in the children's section at our local library. Definitely clean enough for a daughter of mine to read. A good one if you're in a pinch.

The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly

This book was recommended to me by my sister Emily. In her words is was so freakin cool.

My sentiments don't exactly match hers.

It was an interesting read, and I enjoyed it. But it was on the darker side of the works I would normally read.

David's mother dies, his dad remarries. The only solace he finds are in his books. But then a series of events sucks him in to a world of fairy tales. They are all familiar fairy tales, but told in the way they 'really' happened. In other words, not at all how we know them to have turned out.

There were not swear words, which is huge to me. A slight hint of the possibilty of one of the character being gay, which was not okay to me, but nothing in your face.

All-in-all: it was fine, a quick read, but dark.