April ~ 2011

49. Scent of the Missing: Love & Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog...Susannah Charleson
I've always been interested in working dogs, so this book was a fun read! I think I'd like volunteering with a similar group. I've got some similar books on hold at the library.

This book focused on the first two years of her dog Puzzle; I want to read more about some older dogs who have been doing this for a while. Also, I wish she had talked more about the technical aspect of it, but I did enjoy the personal stories she added in.

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In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Susannah Charleson clipped a photo from the newspaper: an exhausted canine handler, face buried in the fur of his search-and-rescue dog. A dog lover and pilot with search experience herself, Susannah was so moved by the image that she decided to volunteer with a local canine team and soon discovered firsthand the long hours, nonexistent pay, and often heart-wrenching results they face.

Still she felt the call, and once she qualified to train a dog of her own, she adopted Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever puppy who exhibited unique aptitudes as a working dog but who was less interested in the role of compliant house pet. Puzzle's willfulness and high drive, both assets in the field, challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years.

Scent of the Missing is the story of Susannah and Puzzle's adventures together and of the close relationship they forge as they search for the lost--a teen gone missing, an Alzheimer's patient wandering in the cold, signs of the crew amid the debris of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of whole-body dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner in a noble enterprise that unfolds across the forests, plains, and cityscapes of the Southwest. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone and to unravel the mystery of the human/canine bond.



I'll probably be reading a bunch of YA/J books for a bit. Turtle has a stack he wants me to read, so we can talk about them.


50. Birth of a Killer: The Saga of Larten Crepsley...Darren Shan

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This adventure story traces the early life of master vampire Larten Crepsley. Sent to work in a Dickensian factory, young Larten kills the abusive foreman and flees. He takes shelter in a cemetery crypt where he meets the 500-year-old vampire General Seba Nile, who explains to the terrified youngster that vampires aren't evil. Although they drink human blood, just as the legends say, they do not harm those on whom they feed. When he invites Larten to travel with him as his assistant, the boy agrees. As the first entry in a projected series, this story includes quite a bit of exposition. The plot action covers more than 20 years, taking Larten through his first "blooding" and into full vampire status, and features his first meetings with mysterious Cirque owner Hibernius Tall; Seba's vampire ally Paris Skyle; and the vampaneze Murlough. At times, the pacing feels rather rushed with the effort to introduce many important characters, settings, and themes from Shan's "Cirque du Freak" saga (Little, Brown). Transitions are often abrupt, jumping several years between chapters. A cliff-hanger ending promises further revelations. "Cirque du Freak" aficionados will be intrigued by this glimpse into Crepsley's formative years, but the uninitiated will want to read the original books first.


51. The Grimm Legacy...Polly Shulman

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Feeling left out from her stepfamily at home and from her classmates at her new school, Elizabeth is delighted when she gets a job at the New York Circulating Material Repository, a library that loans objects of historical value. She's particularly intrigued when she's given access to the Grimm Collection, a secret room that holds magical objects from the Brothers' tales, e.g., seven-league boots, a mermaid's comb, and the sinister mirror from "Snow White." However, when the items start to disappear, she and her fellow pages embark on a dangerous quest to catch the thief, only to find themselves among the suspects. This modern fantasy has intrigue, adventure, and romance, and the magical aspects of the tale are both clever and intricately woven, from rhyming charms to flying-carpet rides. The author brings the seemingly disparate elements together in the end, while still making certain that her protagonist's problems are not completely solved by the world of magic. Shulman's prose is fast paced, filled with humor, and peopled with characters who are either true to life or delightfully bizarre. Fans of fairy tales in general and Grimm stories in particular will delight in the author's frequent literary references, and fantasy lovers will feel very much at home in this tale that pulls out all the stops.



52. The Worst Witch at School...Jill Murphy (two books in one - The Worst Witch and The Worst Witch Strikes Again)

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Mildred Hubble is the worst witch at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches - she's always getting her spells wrong. But she manages to get by until she turns Ethel, the teacher's pet, into her deadly enemy.

Summer term at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches has just begun and disaster-prone Mildred Hubble is in deep trouble again - all because of the new girl, Enid Nightshade, who isn't nearly as placid as she look.



53. The Zombie Chasers...John Kloepfer

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Zack Clarke's suburban Phoenix neighborhood seems normal–until almost everyone mysteriously transforms into a zombie. Zack, his geeky friend Rice, and his eighth-grade sister Zoe's glamorous but snarky friend Madison are seemingly the only ones unaffected. That means that all the zombies in the neighborhood–including Zoe–are determined to devour them. They need to defend themselves but can only find a plastic baseball bat and a fire extinguisher. Meanwhile, Zack and Zoe's parents are at a parent-teacher night at their school–do they even know what's going on? This first volume in a new series leaves readers hanging at the end, but it's a quick, fun read, loaded with jokes and middle-school sarcasm. Kloepfer's descriptions of the zombies and their feeding habits, and Wolfhard's cartoon characters with guts and drool hanging out, are not for the faint of heart (or weak of stomach).



54. Zombiekins...Kevin Bolger

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All is well in Dementedyville, U.S.A. That angry mob wielding pitchforks and torches? Why, they're just going over to the yard sale at the spooky house owned by Widow Imavitch! That's just where fourth-grader Stanley is headed, too, and he leaves with Zombiekins—a Frankensteinian stuffed animal that is part bear, part bunny, part lizard . . . and ALL EVIL! At school the next day, Zombiekins' bite turns the class tattletale into an undead monster. (“In some ways it's an improvement,” admits Stanley.) When the plush terror escapes, no realm is safe—not music class, the playground, or the teachers' lounge. Even the little kids have been transformed into “kinderzombies.”

A couple of zombie books from Turtle. They were okay, although I can definitely see why young boys would like them!



55. Land of Painted Caves...Jean Auel
This was just alright...certainly not the climatic ending I was expecting. I really hope she changes her mind and writes some more. I hate that she ended this way.

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What began 30 years ago with Auel's best-seller The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980), namely the phenomenally popular Ice Age-era Earth's Children series, comes to an end in the sixth installment. Now a wife and mother, Ayla lives among the Zelandoni, the people of her mate, Jondalar, but she hasn't forgotten the ways of the people who raised her. Ayla is training to become a spiritual leader, and her devotion to this calling takes its toll on her union with Jondalar. On their journeys, Ayla and her friends contend with earthquakes, a band of marauding rapists, and even an outbreak of prehistoric chicken pox.



56. The Sisters Grimm: FairyTale Detectives...Michael Buckley
Very cute!

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Buckley has created a world in which humans and fairy-tale creatures live side-by-side in rural New York in an uneasy alliance. Brought here by Wilhelm Grimm in an attempt to save them, the Everafters are now kept in check by the man's descendants. Enter Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, two sisters seemingly abandoned by their parents, who have been brought to live with a grandmother whom they thought was dead. Heartbroken and wary, the girls are immediately swept up in a mystery that includes giants, pixies, fairies, and witches. Readers well grounded in their fairy tales will get the most pleasure from recognizing the characters–Prince Charming, Jack-the-Giant-Killer, the Three Pigs, the Magic Mirror, and more–but the fast pace, sly humor, and cleverly inserted vocabulary lessons will entertain even those who are meeting the characters for the first time.



57. Libyrinth...Pearl North
I loved this one! Awesome plot!

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Despite her seemingly humble role as a library clerk in a forgotten colony, Haly is the keeper of a remarkable secret. In a world in which books are both revered and feared, she has the power to hear the words of the tomes around her. When a rival group called the Eradicants, who believe that the books are evil, plots to destroy the ancient library where she lives and works, Haly is forced to make difficult choices to protect the lives of those around her. This debut novel is based on the premise of librarians as the protector of knowledge, defending literature from those who have abandoned the written word.



58. Family Skeletons...Rett MacPherson

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Victory "Torie" O'Shea is a thirtysomething wife, mother, amateur genealogist, and museum docent living in Missouri. When local shopkeeper Norah Zumwalt asks Torie to research her family tree and a short time later ends up brutally murdered, Torie feels compelled to investigate the crime, despite warnings from the local sheriff to mind her own business. What she finds is a decades-old murder, a mysterious case of mistaken identity, and a bizarre love triangle. MacPherson's story has an appealing down-home style and offbeat charm, and Torie, a midwestern version of Kinsey Milhone, is smart, sassy, and full of Missouri spunk.


59. A Veiled Antiquity...Rett MacPherson

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Missouri historical tour guide and genealogist Torie O'Shea (Family Skeletons, 1997) brings down-home sensibilities and acute insights into small-town life when she investigates the death of a reclusive woman whose body is found at the bottom of her basement steps. Although the woman was not a native of New Kassel, Torie is surprised at the lack of kinfolk at the funeral and at the woman's will, which states that no one outside the town can bid on her antiques-filled house. Poking into the woman's home while doing a little informal detecting, Torie finds a key and some old documents written in French taped to the underside of the kitchen table. She and the sheriff are stunned when the woman's documents appear to point to the identity of the famous man in the iron mask. What, they ask themselves, would someone in a small Missouri town be doing with such valuable letters?

This is a cute little series I heard about a while ago and finally decided to read. I love that the heroine is a genealogist and works for the historical society, but she's my age (30's) and not significantly older.




60. The Scorch Trials...James Dashner
I really liked The Maze Runner and this one was just as good! I can't wait for the final book to come out - there were so many cliffhangers in this one! If you liked the Hunger Games Trilogy, you should definitely check out this one.

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Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?



61. The Dead-Tossed Waves…Carrie Ryan
Not quite as good as the first book, but it did set up nicely for the third and final one. Can't wait to find out how it all ends.

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Timid, thoughtful Gabry has grown up safely in the city of Vista She lives in a lighthouse with her mother, Mary, the daring heroine of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte, 2009), whose job it is to kill Mudo—zombies—as they wash ashore. Then one night, Cira, Gabry's best friend, and Catcher, Cira's brother, convince her to sneak outside Vista's walls. With the attack of one Breaker—a fast zombie—everything changes: a friend is killed, Catcher is infected, and Cira is imprisoned and destined for the Recruiters, the army that protects the loose federation of cities left after the Return. Feeling both guilty for having escaped punishment and self-destructive after the revelation that Mary in fact adopted her, Gabry pushes herself to cross the city's Barrier again.



62. Guide to Search and Rescue Dogs…Angela Eaton Snovak


63. My Haunted House…Angie Sage
Turtle didn't finish this one because he thought it would be scary and it wasn't. It was more cutesy than anything else. Definitely recommend for young girls (2nd-3rd grade), but I won't read anymore of them. I do want to try her Septimus Heap series...I heard it's great.

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Araminta Spookie lives in a sprawling haunted house. She spends her days hunting for ghosts, avoiding her cranky Aunt Tabby, and helping her nocturnal Uncle Drac. In the first book, her aunt wants to sell the house and the little girl does all she can to scare away potential buyers. Things turn out better than expected when the ghost-loving Wizzard family shows interest but decides instead to move in with the Spookies.



64. The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda…Tom Angleberger
Awesome, awesome! It had a great message that really needs to hit home with Turtle lately. Plus, I learned how to make a cool origami Yoda!

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For Tommy, the only question is whether or not Origami Yoda is real. Of course he's real as a small puppet on Dwight's finger. But does the oracle possess magic power? In order to find out, he decides to compile scientific evidence from the experiences of those who asked Origami Yoda for help. His friend Harvey is invited to comment on each story because he thinks Yoda is nothing but a "green paper wad." Tommy also comments because he's supposedly trying to solve the puzzle. In actuality, the story is about boys and girls in sixth grade trying to figure out how being social works. In fact, Tommy says, "…it's about this really cool girl, Sara, and whether or not I should risk making a fool of myself for her." The situations that Yoda has a hand in are pretty authentic, and the setting is broad enough to be any school.



65. Reckless…Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Funke is one of my favorite YA authors and this book was right up there with her Inkheart trilogy. Lately I've been loving books that reference fairy tales and this one had a lot in it. I wish I could get into Jasper Fforde's books that are like this. Maybe I'll try them again this summer.

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Funke takes readers on a new adventure into a magical place where the dark side of fairy tales holds sway. Jacob Reckless, like his father before him, escapes into the Mirrorworld, and all is well until his younger brother, Will, follows him in and falls under the enchantment of the Dark Fairy. Through an injury, she turns him slowly into a Goyl, a person made of stone. Jacob is determined to rescue his brother and restore him to himself. Accompanied by his companion, a shape-shifter girl/vixen named Fox, and Will's girlfriend, Clara, Jacob journeys with Will to find the antidote to the spell. With a large cast, including a dwarf, powerful fairies born from water, deadly moths, man-eating sirens, unicorns, and the terrifying Tailor with fingers ending in blades and needles, the story includes multiple fairy-tale motifs as the characters grapple with fear and despair while on their seemingly hopeless quest. The action picks up midway through the book and races to an exciting climax.




66. Lover Unleashed…J.R. Ward
Another good one in the BDB. I hope she writes about Blaylock and Quinn next!

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Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, seductive cloth as her brother. Imprisoned for eons by their mother, the Scribe Virgin, she finally frees herself-only to face a devastating injury. Manuel Manello, M.D., is drafted by the Brotherhood to save her as only he can-but when the human surgeon and the vampire warrior meet, their two worlds collide in the face of their undeniable passion. With so much working against them, can love prove stronger than the birthright and the biology that separates them?




67. Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out…edited by Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West
Great book! Gave me a lot to think about especially since I will be applying to library schools this coming winter.

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This compilation of witty, insightful, and readable writings on the various aspects of alternative librarianship edited by two outspoken library professionals is a sequel to Revolting Librarians, which was published in 1972. The contributors, including Alison Bechdel, Sanford Berman, and Utne Reader librarian Chris Dodge, cover topics that range from library education and librarianship as a profession to the more political and spiritual aspects of librarianship. The contributions include critiques of library and information science programs, firsthand accounts of work experiences, and original fiction, poetry and art. Ten of the original librarians who wrote essays for Revolting Librarians back in 1972 reflect upon what they wrote thirty years ago and the turns that their lives and careers have taken since.




68. A Comedy of Heirs…Rett MacPherson

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As a genealogist for a historical society in New Kassel, Mo., Torie O'Shea must examine her own family's history in this third entry in MacPherson's cozy series (A Veiled Antiquity, etc.). As she prepares to host her family's annual Christmas reunion, Torie is sent an anonymous packet of newspaper clippings. They reveal that her great-grandfather Nathaniel Ulysses Keith was shot to death in 1948 on his front porch while his family was inside the house. Because she had been told as a child that Keith died in a hunting accident, Torie now wants to know which story is true. Like a bloodhound on the scent, she scans library microfilm records to prove the veracity of the articles, then visits the county sheriff for further information. What she learns isn't pleasant: her ancestor was a brute to his children and publicly unfaithful to his wife. The list of people who wanted to kill him is as long as it is convincing. Torie's best sources of information, however, are the relatives about to descend on her home. When an aunt tells her that Keith's wife and children sat listening to his groans until he died, Torie is horrified. Could her great-grandmother have sanctioned the murder? Not according to another aunt who was inside the house that day. But since that aunt didn't see the killer, it's up to Torie to ferret out the culprit and clarify her family history. Torie's large, eccentric family provides plenty of entertaining characters, and MacPherson skillfully connects the family's many subplots (pregnancies, sibling rivalries, new romances) while keeping the murder at the center of the intrigue. Although the title promises comedy, there's much more than humor at stake in this heartrending tale of family pride and the coverups to keep it intact.


69. A Misty Mourning…Rett MacPherson

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Seven-months pregnant Missouri genealogist Torie O'Shea takes time off from her historical society job to travel to West Virginia at the invitation of a family friend, 101-year-old Clarissa Hart, in this absorbing small-town cozy, the fourth in an excellent series. The night after she and her 80-something grandmother, Gert, arrive at the Panther Run Boardinghouse, Clarissa suffocates in her sleep. Was it an accident, or murder? The local sheriff believes the latter, and Torie is a prime suspect because Clarissa's new will leaves the boardinghouse to her. In order to clear her name, Torie has to use her skills as a historian to unravel a tangle of mystery and intrigue leading back to the early years of the century, when her great-grandmother kept the boardinghouse and Panther Run was a "company town." Fans of O'Shea's earlier adventures may be disappointed not to see much of her husband and mother, but grandma Gert is a delight, and a large cast of minor characters, including two of Torie's more distant relations, adds to the fun.

Absolutely love this series! Quick reads and she's a genealogist!




70. Gladiatrix…Russell Whitfield
Really interesting book! Lysandra was hard to like as a character because she was just too damn arrogant, but eventually she grew on me. I'm reading the non-fiction version now.

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The Ancient Roman public's hunger for gladiatorial combat has never been greater. The Emperor Domitian's passion for novelty and variety in the arena has given rise to a very different kind of warrior: the Gladiatrix.

Sole survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of Asia Minor, Lysandra finds herself the property of Lucius Balbus, owner of the foremost Ludus for female gladiators in the Eastern Empire. Lysandra, a member of an ancient Spartan sect of warrior priestesses, refuses to accept her new status as a slave. Forced to fight for survival, her deadly combat skills win the adoration of the crowds, the respect of Balbus.

But Lysandra's Spartan pride also earns her powerful enemies: Sorina, Gladiatrix Prima and leader of the Barbarian faction, and the sadistic Numidian trainer, Nastasen. When plans are laid for the ultimate combat spectacle to honor the visit of the emperor's powerful new emissary, Lysandra must face her greatest and deadliest trial.



70. Killing Cousins...Rett MacPherson
71. Blood Relations...Rett MacPherson
72. In Sheep's Clothing...Rett MacPherson
73. Thicker Than Water...Rett MacPherson
74. Dead Man Running...Rett MacPherson
75. Died in the Wool...Rett MacPherson
76. Blood Ballad...Rett MacPherson

I really liked this series and I would love to read more, but it looks like she dropped off the face of the world! Her website isn't even active anymore.



77. Gladiatrix: The True Story of History's Unknown Woman Warrior...Amy Zoll

This book was okay, but not what I was expecting. I thought it would be more about female gladiators, but most of the book was about males. There were just little snippets here and there about females and hardly any at all about the skeleton recently found that is thought to be a gladiatrix.