Skin Hunger

Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey is a fantasy novel with two different story lines. The first is about Sadima a poor farm girl whose mother dies giving birth to her and is raised by her brooding father and brother. Sadima discovers that she is able to communicate with animals when she meets Franklin a servant from the city. He encourages her to come to the city when she is old enough. After several years, Sadima heads to the city and discovers a new life living with Franklin and Somiss his master who are secretly working as magicians in a world where magic has become illegal. Somiss is cruel and selfish and Sadima tries to find a way to save both Franklin and herself.

In the other storyline, Hahp is a second child who has been given to the wizards to train in the magical ways. He is taken to the school where the students are forbidden to work together in anyway and they are kept dirty and hungry until they learn to conjure their own food. Many of the boys die of starvation. Hahp resents the wizards and his father for sending his there and vows his revenge.

The connection of the two stories is not revealed until near the end. And the ending leaves the book open for a sequel. In fact, it is the first book of a planned trilogy called A Resurrection of Magic. I can’t wait to read the next book. I hope that the author writes it quickly!

Girlfriend Project

If you are looking for a light-hearted, quick read The Girlfriend Project by Robin Friedman is just the book. It isn’t anything new, but it is a fun. Reed wants a girlfriend. He’s a senior in high school and has been afraid of girls since he asked one out as a freshman and she laughed in his face. However, now Reed has grown several inches, gotten contacts and doesn’t look like so much of a dork. With the help of his two best friends, Ronnie and Lonnie, Reed starts the girlfriend project in an attempt to learn about girls and find the perfect one for him.

If you like this book, then you will really like 24 Girls in Seven Days by Alex Bradley. It has a similar plot with the main character’s friends helping him find a date for prom using a dating site. However, I liked this one better. There’s more to the story and it is an entertaining guy’s eye view of dating.

Both of books are fun reads filled with humor and romance!

Stuck in the 70s

Today is the last day of the trimester before final exams. It is usually a busy day. However, if you need something to read during final exams. This is a fun read.

Stuck in the 70s by D.L. Garfinkle is a light-hearted book. Tyler wakes up in the middle of the night to find a gorgeous naked girl in his bathtub. Shay thinks this is a practical joke. One minute she is partying in 2006 and the next thing she knows there’s a dorky guy staring at her insisting that it is now 1978. Spoiled rich girl Shay wants nothing more than to get back to 2006 while Tyler wouldn’t mind if she would stay for a while. They strike a deal. Tyler will try to figure out a way to get her back to the future and Shay will help Tyler shed his science geek reputation and become part of the popular crowd. Soon Shay is turning Tyler’s life upside down with her modern ideas.

This book is told in alternating chapters by Shay and Tyler so the reader sees both sides of the story. It is a fun story of finding love and one’s true identity and what is really important in life. It is not a deep book, but a fun read.

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn is the best revenge against that arrogant, good looking jerk that sits across from you in Math class. Kyle Kingsbury is very good looking. The problem is that he knows it. And he doesn’t mind letting everyone know that he is better than they are because of how he looks. However, Kyle messes with the wrong girl. Kendra is a witch—a real witch. Kyle decides that it would be funny to ask her to the school dance and then stand her up. He intends to humiliate her in front of the entire school. But Kendra gets her revenge by turning Kyle into a beast—a real beast. The curse can only be broken if Kyle can find a girl he can love who will fall in love with him. This is a great new take on the Beauty and the Beast story and a fun romance.

Tithe

We got another nice snow last night--probably 5 inches. It is really pretty out. I like the way the snow looks before it has been all tracked up and dirty. It is pretty as I look out the library windows and see snow on the top of the buildings and on the tree branches.

I am not a huge fan of fantasy books. I usually purchase them for the library because of good reviews and then never read them. However, many of the library’s patrons really like fantasy and every once in a while I will find a book that I really should read. Tithe: a modern faerie tale by Holly Black was one of these books. It has been very popular so I thought that I would grab it and see why everyone was reading it. And, like all the fantasy books I read which isn’t many, I enjoyed it.

Tithe is a strange, but a good read. Debauchery, despair, deceit, and grisly death-what more could you ask from a fairy tale? 16-year-old Kaye has always been considered a freak. Part of that is because she has spent most of her life in seedy bars with her mother’s struggling rock bands. But part of it is also because of her childhood memories of being friends with fairies. When Kaye meets Roiben, the wounded and incredibly good lucking elven knight, she is unprepared for what happens next. Her childhood friends return to tell her that Roiben serves the evil Unseelie Court and that Kaye has been designated as a tithe, a mortal sacrifice that binds the courts together. But what if Kaye isn’t really mortal? You will enjoy reading about Kaye who is a clever, courageous heroine with an appealingly wry voice, and Roiben who is a gloriously damaged and darkly noble tragic hero. This book is a fantastic example of urban fantasy. And, of course, there are a couple of sequels.

Right Behind You

Go Giants! I was glad to see them win the Super Bowl! I think that I am always rooting for the underdog! However, I am tired of the Patriots and want to see someone else win. Plus I really like the idea of Peyton winning last year and Eli winning this year. What a great story!

I watch a lot of the pre-game stuff. I can't believe that Paula Abdul has a new single out! She was popular when I was in high school, but hasn't done much except reality TV since. The song sounded too computerized--I wasn't sure that she was even singing! I wasn't too impressed with the commercials this year. I did like the one with the dog training the clydesdale. That was cute. Otherwise, none of the others really stuck out except maybe the baby investing online, but that was a little creepy! Oh well, I enjoyed the game.

I just finished reading Right Behind You by Gail Giles. The book reminded me a lot of Looking for J.J. which I read a couple of weeks ago. I am surprised to find two books about children killing children published so close together. I really like Right Behind You, maybe even more than I liked Looking for J.J. Looking for J.J. was more of a mystery to find out what happened. Right Behind You tells what happened from the beginning so there is no mystery involved there. But it is a great story of redemption and forgiveness.

At the beginning of the book, Kip is 9 years old when he douses a 7-year-old neighbor with gasoline and sets him on fire in a jealous rage. He is put in a psychiatric hospital for juvenile offenders where he spends the next 5 years of his life, trying to deal with what he has done. At the age of 14, he is released from the facility and encouraged to change his name and start a new life. So Kip becomes Wade and he moves to a small Indiana town to begin again. Things are good at his new school where he makes new friends, finds a girlfriend and joins the swim team, but Wade is filled with guilt and shame and struggles with keeping his past hidden—after all does he really deserve to be happy?

Feels Like Home

I was thinking about The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton the other day, so I was really surprised to find the book Feels Like Home by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo. In this book the main character Mickey loves the book The Outsiders. It was something she shared with her older brother Danny before he went away. Danny was 6 years older than Mickey, but he always took care of her. He made sure that she had a front-row seat at all his football games and he never left her alone. Danny was the town hero his senior year when he helped bring home the first State Football championship in decades. But then tragedy struck and Danny was blamed and he left town in shame.

Feels Like Home starts 6 years after the tragedy. Mickey is now 15-years-old and her father has died. Danny returns home for the funeral even though Mickey has not heard from him for 5 years. Mickey has not forgiven him for leaving and she does not want him to be part of her life now. She is struggling to get past the grief and to deal with her brother’s return. To add to her struggles, her best friend Christina, whose mother would like her not to be friends with a “gringa,” tells her that Ricky Martinez, the new football star in town, likes her. This book does a great job showing the small Texas town’s obsession with football and racial and social conflicts. Plus it is just a really good story about the complexities of being a family.