Reading After Harry

This is a completely random entry, but I had to post this blog banner when I saw it.  SO TRUE.  Oh, Harry, I have yet to find your replacement.

I only scoped out this blog for a few seconds, but it seemed pretty awesome (though the site's owner is taking a five week blog hiatus, so....backreading, anyone?)  Check it out here!

Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

Book Jacket

As the youngest and only female member of the Knights Templar, Bilqis SanGreal grew up knowing she wasn't normal.  Instead of hanging out at the mall or going on dates, she spends her time training as a warrior in her order's ancient battle against the Unholy.

Billi's cloistered life is blasted apart when her childhood friend, Kay, returns from Jerusalem, gorgeous and with a dangeous chip on his shoulder.  He's ready to slide back into Billi's life, but she's met someone new: amber-eyed Mike, who seems to understand her like no one else and effortlessly stakes a claim on her heart.

But the Templars are called to battle before Billi can enjoy the thrilling new twist to her life.  One of the order's ancient enemies has resurfaced, searching for a treasure that the Templars have guarded for almost a thousand years--King Solomon's cursed mirror, a source of unimaginable power.  To save the lives of millions, Billi will have to put her heart aside and made sacrifices greater than she could have imagined.

Review

Devil's Kiss (though inaccurately named...get your characters straight, title!) has so much potential.  The Knights Templar are a mysterious organization that I have little to no knowledge of.  Making them a modern day rag tag group of men, plus Billi, sworn to fight against things that go bump in the night is an awesome idea.  If you like the supernatural but want something a little different, this is definitely a book to check out.

But.  Oh, book, you just never lived up to your potential!  The relationships between Billi and her father and between Billi and Kay were nicely strained and realistic for the first 3/4 of the novel.  But around the climax, everything sped up into "....c'mon, really!?" land.  Epic love sprang from tiny seeds, secrets were revealed, and emotions were suddenly twenty times stronger than ever before.

One nice thing I should point out:  this is so not a love triangle book.  The book jacket doesn't do the plot justice, but I promise there is very little angst.  Maybe a page, and then it turns awesome. 

I loved the mythology.  But the novel as a whole never sat well with me.  Still, it was engrossing enough that I read it in two days, so obviously it was not all bad!  I keep flipping between compliments and critiques, so your best course of action is to read it yourself and form  your own opinion.

Three out of five hungry dead.

Release Date:  September 2009
Reading Level:  Grade 9+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  YPL CHA


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of Devil's Kiss:

A Myriad of Books
Tina's Book Reviews

White Cat by Holly Black

Book Jacket

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers--people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands.  And since curse work is illegal, they're all criminals.  Many become mobsters and con artists.  But not Cassel.  He hasn't got magic, so he's the straight kid in a crooked family.  You just have to ignore one small detail--he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Cassel has carefully built up a facade of normalcy, blending into the crowd.  But his facade starts to crumble when he finds himself sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams of a white cat that wants to tell him something.  He's noticing other disturbing things too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers.  They are keeping secrets from him.  As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories.  To find out the truth, Cassel will have to outcon the conmen.

Review

This is a book that, when discussing, quickly reduces me to flailing wildly and babbling, "IT'S SO GOOD!" over and over.  Because it really is.

It's no secret that I love fantasy books.  But my favorite subgenre is urban fantasy, where magic and the supernatural is woven into everday life.  Holly Black has that mastered.  As I read about curse workers and how they fit into the United States' past and present, I was very nearly convinced that it made perfect sense and was actually true.  Brilliance!

Cassel is a fantastic protagonist.  He is incredibly smart, but his confidence sometimes causes him to make dangerously dumb moves.  He is part of a family of conmen and mobsters, and the relationships between Cassel and his grandfather, mother, and brothers are just heartbreakingly realistic.  There is love and loyalty in the family along with a scarily large amount of deception and sometimes hatred.

The plot is twisty and the surprises are often gasp-worthy.  This was the second time I read White Cat, and I was pleased to see all the clues laid out to those clever enough to notice them.  This book could easily be read as a standalone, but it will have a sequel, Red Glove, on April 5th.  In my opinion, a story that is completed but is open to successive stories is the best way to write a series, so thank you, Holly Black!

*Bonus*  For my second reading, I actually listened to the White Cat audiobook.  Jesse Eisenberg is the narrator, and he became Cassel seamlessly.  Crush on Jesse Eisenberg is now official.

Five out of five protective gloves.

Release Date:  May 2010
Reading Level:  Grade 9+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: YPL BLA


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of White Cat:

New York Public Library
Novel Novice

Reading Rant: Spoilers

I am not the sort of reader who flips to the back of the book first to see how everything ends.  I'm the sort who will plug my ears and desperately sing "LA LA LA LA" when I overhear someone talking about a book I haven't read.

Today I checked in the sequel to a book I'm reading.  Devil's Kiss is really unique, spinning the supernatural trend into something new and unexpected.  So when its sequel, Dark Goddess, crossed my desk, I couldn't help but smile fondly at its cover.  Then, against my better judgment, I flipped it open and glanced at the book jacket.

The very first sentence gave away a hugely important event of the first book!!  AGH!  Why would a publisher do that?  I get that it's the second book, but don't people sometimes check out the jackets of the whole series before reading the first?  You don't just throw around character deaths all willy nilly.

Ugh.  I'm still excited to finish Devil's Kiss, but it won't be nearly as awesome anymore.  *le sigh*

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Book Jacket

What does God expect of us?  Is our faith just about going to church, studying the Bible and avoiding the most serious sins--or does God expect more?  Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?

Ten years ago, Rich Stearns came face-to-face with that question as he sat in a mud hut in Rakai, Uganda, listening to the heartbreaking story of an orphaned child.  Stearns' journey there took much more than a long flight to Africa.  It took answering God's call on his life, a call that tore him out of his corner office at one of America's most prestigious corporations--to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world.

The Hole in Our Gospel is the compelling true story of a corporate CEO who set aside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change his own life.  He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel--the whole gospel--was always meant to be a world-changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us.

Review

If you want to pursue the American Dream--saving money, buying bigger houses, retiring with a boat or luxury car--then don't read The Hole in Our Gospel.  Richard Stearns, the current president of World Vision, calls Christians to stop placidly sitting in church pews while half of the world lives in extreme poverty.  Poverty in the form of extreme hunger, a lack of clean water, disease, no education, and a life devoid of hope. 

If we call ourselves followers of Jesus, then...we have to follow Jesus.  He went to the poor and the diseased.  He loved them, and he healed them.  We are to do the same!  Stearns effectively stabbed me in the heart and made me realize that far too often my own gospel, my good news, has a hole.  I too often use only words as my good news, without any actions to support them and give them meaning.

As a result of reading this book, I've sponsored a child in Senegal with monthly donations.  And my fire to commit my future to missions--potentially orphanage work--has been renewed. 

Christ has no body on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which

Christ's compassion for the world is to look out;

yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;

and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

--Saint Teresa of Avila

Five out of five calls to action.

Release Date:  March 2009
Reading Level:  Adult Non-Fiction
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: not yet owned by Dunlap


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of The Hole in Our Gospel:

Blessed is the Kingdom
Never a Dull Moment

Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper

Book Jacket

Here are some things you will find in this book:

1.  Crinkles the cat, at least until he disappears.
2.  Fantastic friends like Mimi and the glamorous Augustine Dupre, who is from France.
3.  A boy with some unfortunate habits.
4.  And finally, four girls named Grace, which is entirely three Graces too many.

Here are some things you will not find in this book:

1.  A lost friend.
2.  The world's largest sandwich.
3.  A new neighbor who can do handstands.

Maybe they will be in the next book.  We will have to wait and see.

Review

Just Grace is a cute book that gives a younger spin to the "journal as a book" trend.  The added drawings and comics (especially great is the Not So Super superhero comics) are funny, but don't blend as well with the story as other books have done.  Like Happyface or Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, both of which blew me away with their awesomeness.

The story of a girl who tries to make someone feel better, but inadvertantly makes things worse, is a good one.  It's a perfectly fine book, but I have to say I didn't much care for it.  I think its biggest problem is that Grace doesn't sound like a grade schooler.  She is too clever and too observant.  If Harper would have run with that and made her a genius child, then fine.  But the language feels as though it is trying to dumb itself down, the whole of which just took me outside the story and made me too aware of the work that went into it.

Three out of five postcards.

Release Date:  April 2007
Reading Level:  Grade 2+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  BLUESTEM


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of Just Grace:

Bugs and Bunnies
Mundie Kids

Imogene's Last Stand by Candace Fleming

Book Jacket

Imogene Tripp has a passion for history.

When she was a baby, her first words were, "Four score and seven years ago."

In preschool, she finger-painted a map of the Oregon Trail.

So when the mayor wants to tear down the Liddleville Historical Society to make way for a shoelace factory, it's up to Imogene to fight for the town's past.  Will history be demolished?  Or will Imogene make history?

This spirited and funny book will inspire you do don your Paul Revere costume and join Imogene in shouting out, "The bulldozers are coming!"

Review

Wonderful.  Imogene inspires kids and reminds adults that every person can make a difference in the world by fighting for what is important.  In this case, Imogene withstands social apathy and governmental hostility in order to make sure her beloved Historical Society isn't torn down in the name of progress.  It's a great reminder that sometimes the quiet things in life are more important than loud and "important" ones. 

Imogene and her father are fantastic characters.  The names of the the supporting characters and hilarious clues to their personalities (Officer Ditzwilliam, Mayor Butz).The president of the United States is an hopeful nod to future equality.  And Imogene's habit of quoting famous people is a lovely reminder that we are also makers of history when, at the end, she quotes herself.

Five out of five protests.

Release Date:  October 2009
Reading Level:  Grade K+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  MONARCH