Crossed

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while know that I loved the first book in this trilogy, Matched.  I love even the symbolism on each of the covers on these books.  It's no accident that Cassia is safely in her bubble on the first cover and coming out of the bubble carefully (with her foot) and by force (with her hand) on this cover.  In this installment, Cassia follows her heart and lets it lead her to the person with whom she wants to be.  He's keeping a secret, and he doesn't feel it's his secret to tell.  Will Cassia find the guy she seeks?  Will the government keep interfering with her plans?  Read this next installment to find out!  (I'm trying to write this vague for those of you who haven't read the first one yet). 

Fins are Forever

This is one of the things I love about reading books on my Kindle.  When I finished reading Forgive my Fins, my Kindle asked me, "If you liked that one, would you like to download the sequel?" (or something along those lines).  My answer?  Of course!  The book was on my device in less than a minute.  How cool is technology?
Lily's cousin Doe is out of control. Lily's dad, the mer king, sends Doe to Lily on land to get her back on track.  When Doe does everything Lily tells her not to (including going after a guy Lily thinks is totally wrong for her), Lily wonders what her father was thinking.  After a visit from an old friend and many twists and turns, the story goes to a very unexpected place.  I love it when books surprise me and take me somewhere I didn't see coming!  Follow the adventures in one of the classic literary themes that "Things are not always as they seem."  

Forgive my Fins

This is another of the Lonestar books from this year.
Lily Sanderson is a normal girl...who just happens to be a mermaid princess.  She has to meet a man and fall in love or else lose her place in the line of succession.  Guys underwater aren't to her liking, so she gets in touch with her human half and moves to land.  She's picked the perfect guy.  He's dreamy.  He likes to swim.  And he might actually know she exists.  She creates a plan to tell him how she's felt for the last three years, but someone gets in the way, and things go terribly wrong.  Through a series of misadventures and the opposite of anything Lily might have chosen, she learns what she really wants.  I really enjoyed this book!  It was a fun read!

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

This was another book club book which is classified "adult."  If you've read The Help, this has a very similar setting.
Follow the journey of a young lady who struggles with the unusual quirks of her mother's mental illness.  When her life takes a dramatic turn and she moves to a new town, CeeCee wonders what "normal" really is.  Luckily, she's surrounded by love and people who support her as she learns life lessons.  You laugh.  You cringe.  And you get really frustrated with people...maybe even hate one. 
If you're interested in books like this, let me start you off with some from our library like The Great Gilly Hopkins (one of my all-time favorites that I used to teach at my old school). 

Zen and the Art of Faking It

Another Sonnenblick.  Can you tell I like his writing? 
Follow the adventures of a boy who finds himself in a new town.  His father is a bit of a swindler, and it always means that the family has to relocate and start again.  The boy has gotten good at reinventing himself in each new town.  In this town, inspired by a chance to shine in his social studies class, the boy decides he's going to be a Zen master.  He goes to the library (imagine that...a librarian liking a book where the main character makes good use of his library  :), and the librarian helps him find materials to study.  The boy stays up hours learning the ways of Zen and impressing his classmates the next day with principles he's just learned.  Will the girl he's trying to impress figure him out?  Will the librarian (who happens to be his teacher's sister) rat him out?  What happens when he's put to the test in a basketball change.  Read Zen and the Art of Faking It to find out!

The Heretic's Daughter

I read this for a book club to which I belong.  It's classified as an adult book, so it's not in our library.  However, if you're at all interested, let's start  you with The Witch of Blackbird Pond or Ann Rinaldi's book A Break with Charity.
I've always been intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials (ever since a wonderful English teacher named Mrs. Bailey recommended The Witch of Blackbird Pond to me.  I LOVED it!).  This book takes real people who were accused in Salem and fictionalizes what their day-to-day life must have been like.  Follow a family as they move to a new town, care for an ailing family member, invoke town gossip, and ultimately are imprisoned for things they did not do.  You will be amazed by the strength of character and endurance through difficult times.  Great book!

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

What motivated me to read this at first was the fact that this book's sequel, Ever After, won a Lonestar Award this year.  Come to find out, this book won a Lonestar, too.
Imagine if one day,  you're taking care of your little brother, helping with his breakfast like you usually do, when he falls.  His nose starts bleeding, and you can't get it to stop.  What follows is a trip to the emergency room and an awful diagnosis...leukemia.  Your mom has to quit her job to take your brother to all of his treatment appointments, and your dad doesn't know how to deal with it all.  Your family goes over $20,000 in debt, and things are looking bleak.  Also in there, you're getting behind on your work, and you can't figure out the mysterious ways of the girls in your life.  Follow the adventures of figuring out life, the importance of friendship and family, and the very sarcastic, quick-witted narrative of the main character in Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie.  I laughed, I cried, and I loved the book!

Moon Over Manifest

I will eventually take a course where we read many of the books that won the Newberry Medal of Honor.  I decided to try to get ahead and read this one.  At first, it was just...okay.  I'm so glad I was patient with it, though!  The characters were endearing, and by the end, I loved the way every part of the story worked together for the twists and turns at the end I didn't see coming. 
Imagine if you're living in the depression era and your father, the only family you've ever known, sends you to a strange town to live with a friend of his whom you've never met.  What follows is an induction to a strange town with a unique past and a strange cast of characters.  From bootlegging, deceit, plague cures, and love and loss, this is an EXCELLENT book!