Posted in Adventure, Books, Charlotte's Picks, Fast-paced, Readers' advisory, Science fiction, War/Military, Young Adult on June 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
With thanks to my BookExpo-attending colleague, who returned with an advance reader copy, here’s a sneak peek at a young adult book to be released in October 2009.
This alternate World War I adventure kicks off with a middle-of-the-night escapade in an AT-AT walker a two-legged stalking tank, followed by aerial acrobatics aboard a living hydrogen [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Fantasy, Melissa's Picks, Readers' advisory, Young Adult on June 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Bobby Pendragon is a typical 14-year-old boy. Well, sort-of. On the night of the big semi-final basketball game, right after he gets kissed by the coolest girl he knows, his Uncle Press shows up and tells Bobby he needs to come with him — he needs his help. Uncle Press looks so serious that Bobby [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Children's, Fantasy, Graphic novel, Jessica's Picks, Readers' advisory, Young Adult on May 26, 2009 | 6 Comments »
The Wizard of Oz could have been awfully boring. Dorothy could have traveled to Oz, seen some munchkins and a flying monkey or two, and skedaddled back home. It’s the sort of story that would have entertained young children, but only young children.
And that’s what the Bone series is like, at first. Forced to [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Characters, Clever dialogue, Coming of Age, Fast-paced, Historical fiction, Neil's Picks, Readers' advisory, Sense of place, Thrillers, War/Military on May 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As City of Thieves opens, an American screenwriter is paid to write an autobiographical essay. He can’t find anything of interest in his immediate background, but he has always suspected that his Floridian grandparents have more to tell about their experiences in Leningrad during WWII. When he asks them, they’re finally ready to tell. So [...]
Posted in Adventure, Characters, Classics, Fantasy, Neil's Picks, Quick read, Readers' advisory on May 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This is a re-issue (minus one story) of a collection of novellas and stories that were written in 1962 and 1970 as prequels to SFWA Grandmaster Fritz Leiber’s popular Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Confused? Trying to track the history of these stories, I am too.
But never mind all that. Forget that this is [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Classics, Historical fiction, Neil's Picks, Readers' advisory, Sense of place on May 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Australia has come up several times in recent reviews here on Blogging for a Good Book and it’s got me thinking about the land Down Under in fiction and on film.
I loved Tim Winton’s Breath, a coming-of-age story about Australian surf culture in the 1970s. Peter Carey is another great Aussie novelist: try The True [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Children's, Morag's Picks on April 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of the Newbery Honor Winners of 2009, The Underneath tells a rare story that will appeal to readers old and young alike. If you enjoy dog stories such as Because of Winn-Dixie and Shiloh you will enjoy The Underneath. The language is poetic and if you like to read of swamps and bayous and chocolate [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Characters, Fantasy, Humor, Jessica's Picks, Readers' advisory, War/Military on April 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The other week, when Charlotte mentioned in passing that K. J. Parker was her favorite new author from last year, she created a monster. I was a perfectly normal person before I cracked open Devices and Desires (ably described here), but now I am a maniac, risking life and limb to get my paws on [...]
Posted in Adventure, Andrew's Picks, Books, Historical fiction, Readers' advisory, Sense of place, Setting, War/Military on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Stephen Pressfield is known for his detailed and thoughtful accounts of historical and imagined wars – his Gates of Fire took the romantic gloss off the Spartans’ battle at Thermopylae and showed the hardness of the society that could produce such feared and honored warriors. Until his most recent book, he specialized in ancient military [...]
Posted in Adventure, Books, Charlotte's Picks, Coming of Age, Fast-paced, Readers' advisory, Science fiction, Young Adult on February 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.
I’d like to just quote the first 1 1/2 pages of this book and have done with posting. That’s how I got sucked into it, and I don’t even like talking animals. Ness’s violent, thoughtful [...]
