Nose in a Book

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Wow, I loved this book!  It was such a quick easy read (probably because I’m not the target audience).  I can see why it won the Newbery Medal this year.  I haven’t read the rest of the honour books yet so I can’t say for sure that it was the best one, but I’m working on it!

Twelve-year-old Miranda, who lives in New York City with her mother, begins to receive mysterious notes.  She doesn’t know who they are coming from and she doesn’t quite understand what they mean either.  On top of that, her best friend Sal, got punched for no reason on the walk home and that caused him to stop talking to her entirely, there is some weird homeless guy living on her street creeping her out and she keeps bumping into the guy that punched Sal, and he doesn’t ever seem to remember her.

This book was so sweet.  Miranda is a totally believable twelve-year-old and a likable one too.  She has some friend issues but she works them out in the end.  What I liked most about the book was that I felt it was uplifting.  Miranda has some problems but nothing insurmountable.  Lately, it seems like there have been a lot of books with children who have truly depressing lives.  I liked that Miranda had a pretty happy life.

I loved the ending.  I don’t want to give anything away because the surprise was what I liked the most about it.  This was a sweet little book that I was able to read in an afternoon.  A definite recommend.  I can’t wait until my seven-year-old is just a little bit more mature so I can read it to him.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (Book One of The Mortal Instruments Series)

Read for: What’s in a Name Challenge, Book with a body part in the title

Clary is 15 when she sees a shadowhunter for the first time.  Shortly thereafter, her mother disappears and she finds herself immersed in world of demons, vampires and the shadowhunters.  I can’t say more without giving away too much of the plot.

This novel just jumped right into the action and then never stopped.  There were several plot twists (some of which were fairly predictable and others that were completely unexpected).  I want to compare this book to Twilight, but there really is no comparison.  The books fall into the same young adult genre that deals with otherworldly beings but that is where the similarity ends.  Clary, the teenage protagonist, is so much more likable and believable than Bella who I always found to be insipid and annoying.  In fact all of the characters were more real.  They had depth and dimensions.  And the writing – well it can’t even be compared.  Clare can actually write!  I found this book to be very witty.  The characters quite often had fun, clever comebacks and the prose was clever as well.

Once I got into this story (and it didn’t take long) I couldn’t put it down.  I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next (my husband was getting pretty annoyed with me, when I kept bringing the book to the dinner table!).  It was definitely an easy, fun read which didn’t require a lot of extra thought (I read a bunch last night while watching the Miss Universe pageant and I didn’t miss much of either).  I’m sure this isn’t destined to become a classic but I can definitely agree that it deserves to be a bestseller.  I can’t wait to read the next one.

I don’t want to sound like I’m gushing over this book, because I can see that there is probably a lot of people who wouldn’t enjoy this novel.  If you are into this genre, it’s definitely worth a read, or even if you are looking for some mindless summer reading (even though summer’s almost over).  I don’t generally read this type of book so I’m having a hard time coming up with a rating.  I think I’d give it a 9/10, keeping in mind that this type of novel isn’t for everyone…

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Read for: Orbis Terrarum – US

Oskar Schell is a nine-year old boy whose father was killed when the WTC came down on 9/11.  He is one of the narrators of this novel and is by far my favourite.  About a year after his father’s death, he finds a key in an envelope with the name “Black” written on it, in his father’s things.  As his father used to set up games and scavenger hunts for him, he assumes this was one that was planned before his death.  Oskar sets out to find the lock that pairs with his key by visiting all of the Blacks in NYC that are listed in the phone book.

The other two narrators in the book are Oskar’s paternal grandparents.  I actually found these parts of the story to be distracting.  His grandparents knew each other as children and were some of the few surviving family members of the bombing of Dresden during WWII.  Their part of the story tells of their childhood and how they coped with this tragedy.  I understand where Foer was going with this part of the story, but to be honest, I just found it distracting.

Oskar, who is of above average intelligence (and some reviews have said he was precocious, annoying and unbelievable), was really a very lovable character.  I actually found him very believable.  I remember how I felt when I heard about 9/11, but reading about this little boy and his search to find meaning in this tragic event reminded me again of how heartbreaking and shocking it was, especially for people who were personally affected by it.

The novel had me laughing and crying and it was definitely an enjoyable read.

Oh yeah, read this reivew over at books I done read.  It says everything I felt but much better.

Post edit: I reread this book and changed some of my opinions.  Read about it here.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either and Big Boned by Meg Cabot

These two books are sequels to Size 12 Is Not Fat which I read a while ago.  I just read both of these so I decided to review them together.  If you’ve read the first book, you’ll find these two to be pretty much the same.

Heather Wells, who works in the residence hall at New York College, seems to get herself tangled up in murder investigations on a regular basis.  Dead bodies seems to have a habit of appearing at her place of work, so much so that people have starting calling it Death Dorm.  Heather tries but just can’t seem to help investigating the murders and of course almost getting herself killed at the end of each book.  (Just like every other murder mystery story.)

Heather is a fun lead character.  She’s kind of silly but she’s smart and kind-hearted and fearless (in kind of a bad way.)  There’s enough romance in these novels to include them in the chick-lit genre but mostly they are just a fun murder mystery.  There is nothing serious or deep about these novels but I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed to be deep or serious.  These are the perfect vacation or just in between the more serious stuff books.  Once again, Meg Cabot delivers!