Book roundup
Mar. 28th, 2009 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sesanaWow, it's been forever since I posted again. Very quick book roundup, since I've been reading a lot lately. Three VSBA books, one that just looked good.
Deadline, by Chris Crutcher: VSBA number one. The main character, who is 18, goes in for a sports physical and is told he's dying, with possibly a year to live. He decides that he won't seek treatment and, since he's 18 and can make this decision himself, he won't tell anyone, including his family, that he's sick. He also decides to spend his last year doing everything he always wanted to do, but never felt confident enough to try. For him, that means trying out for football with his brother, pursuing the girl he's had a crush on for years, and questioning one of his teachers and what he teaches. And it's awesome. For many YA readers, Crutcher's name alone is a rec. It's certainly the best book of his that I've ever read.
Dark Water Rising, by Marian Hale: VSBA number two. To cut the plot down very simply, it's set during the Galveston Hurricane. Kind of an odd book, in a way. It's actually very short, about 250 pages, but it has about half a dozen subplots on top of the issue of the hurricane. And it's overwhelming in a book this size. It's not that it's badly written, it's just that there's a little too much trying to happen in such a small book, especially when the actual disaster is probably going to be the real draw of this book. I still liked it, and it was still worth reading, but it could have been better.
Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale: VSBA number three. It's based off a fairly obscure Brothers Grimm tale, Maid Maleen, and now that I read the original I can see that it's actually quite faithful to the original. A princess refuses to wed the man her father has arranged for her to marry, because she wants to marry a different prince. As punishment, she and a servant are locked in a tower for seven years. The book is told from the point of view of the servant, Dashti, in the form of a journal Dashti is writing in. It's set in an entirely fictional land, which the author says is mostly based on Mongolia. To be honest, the description of this book did nothing for me. I actually put off reading it. But once I finally picked it up, I literally couldn't put it down. I read it in less than 24 hours. It's a great fairy tale, with great suspense, and a great love story.
Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature, by Robin Brande: Not a VSBA book! This was one that I just had to read from the description. The main character, Mean, was raised in a very conservative Christian community. She does what she thinks is right, and ends up alienating herself from her church, her former friends, her parents, and opening the entire community up to lawsuits. (Exactly what she did is something the author reveals over the course of the book, so no spoilers.) She gets some relief from the "godly" crusaders when they change their target to a science teacher who covers evolution, and refuses to devote any class time to intelligent design. So here's the thing about the book, and the part that I loved: our heroine never loses her faith. She begins and ends the book as a Christian, even after horrible bullying at the hands of Christian and an expanded worldview. Here's the message that I wish more media could pull off: you can believe in God and accept science at the same time.
That's all that I've read since the last time I posted. I still have quite a few books left on the VSBA list to read, so I'm still working on them. Maybe after that I'll be able to read some of the new books I got for the library that really appeal to me, because not all of the VSBA books are ones that I would pick up on my own. Often, I'm glad that I have the VSBA list to get me to read books that I might not have otherwise, so it's a good thing.
Deadline, by Chris Crutcher: VSBA number one. The main character, who is 18, goes in for a sports physical and is told he's dying, with possibly a year to live. He decides that he won't seek treatment and, since he's 18 and can make this decision himself, he won't tell anyone, including his family, that he's sick. He also decides to spend his last year doing everything he always wanted to do, but never felt confident enough to try. For him, that means trying out for football with his brother, pursuing the girl he's had a crush on for years, and questioning one of his teachers and what he teaches. And it's awesome. For many YA readers, Crutcher's name alone is a rec. It's certainly the best book of his that I've ever read.
Dark Water Rising, by Marian Hale: VSBA number two. To cut the plot down very simply, it's set during the Galveston Hurricane. Kind of an odd book, in a way. It's actually very short, about 250 pages, but it has about half a dozen subplots on top of the issue of the hurricane. And it's overwhelming in a book this size. It's not that it's badly written, it's just that there's a little too much trying to happen in such a small book, especially when the actual disaster is probably going to be the real draw of this book. I still liked it, and it was still worth reading, but it could have been better.
Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale: VSBA number three. It's based off a fairly obscure Brothers Grimm tale, Maid Maleen, and now that I read the original I can see that it's actually quite faithful to the original. A princess refuses to wed the man her father has arranged for her to marry, because she wants to marry a different prince. As punishment, she and a servant are locked in a tower for seven years. The book is told from the point of view of the servant, Dashti, in the form of a journal Dashti is writing in. It's set in an entirely fictional land, which the author says is mostly based on Mongolia. To be honest, the description of this book did nothing for me. I actually put off reading it. But once I finally picked it up, I literally couldn't put it down. I read it in less than 24 hours. It's a great fairy tale, with great suspense, and a great love story.
Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature, by Robin Brande: Not a VSBA book! This was one that I just had to read from the description. The main character, Mean, was raised in a very conservative Christian community. She does what she thinks is right, and ends up alienating herself from her church, her former friends, her parents, and opening the entire community up to lawsuits. (Exactly what she did is something the author reveals over the course of the book, so no spoilers.) She gets some relief from the "godly" crusaders when they change their target to a science teacher who covers evolution, and refuses to devote any class time to intelligent design. So here's the thing about the book, and the part that I loved: our heroine never loses her faith. She begins and ends the book as a Christian, even after horrible bullying at the hands of Christian and an expanded worldview. Here's the message that I wish more media could pull off: you can believe in God and accept science at the same time.
That's all that I've read since the last time I posted. I still have quite a few books left on the VSBA list to read, so I'm still working on them. Maybe after that I'll be able to read some of the new books I got for the library that really appeal to me, because not all of the VSBA books are ones that I would pick up on my own. Often, I'm glad that I have the VSBA list to get me to read books that I might not have otherwise, so it's a good thing.
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Date: 2009-03-29 03:03 am (UTC)