B&N Recommends

Incarceron  Great new teen offering reminds me of a cross between C.S. Lewis and Narnia with the underlying creepiness of Hunger Games.  Imagine Manor England where the facade is old but in reality anything modern is kept hidden and a prison where no one escapes but is born and dies within its walls.  A crystal key acts as the only go between and communication tool between Claudia (the warden's daughter who has been bred to take over as Queen) and prisoner Finn (feels like he had a life outside the prison but can't remember much) They both will risk everything to reach each other and solve the mystery of what Incarceron is.  This is a huge success over in England and it looks like the Brits are leading the pack in great teen books for the past 6 months.  I like the mix of fairy tale and futuristic prison- reminds me of Jonathan Stroud or Neil Gaiman.  This one works for younger readers as well who liked Eragon.

"...that Jane Austen is still alive today — as a vampire."

That's the premise of Jane Bites Back, the clever and highly amusing new novel from Michael Thomas Ford.

Jane Fairfax is the owner of Flyleaf Books, located in a sleepy little town in upstate New York. Jane Fairfax is also a 234-year-old vampire and the author of some of the most beloved works in English literature. Being undead isn't all it's cracked up to be, though. She hasn't seen a royalty check in centuries, while an entire industry cashes in on her fame with sequels, prequels, film adaptations, self-help books, and worst of all… finger puppets. Then, there's Constance, the novel Jane's been trying to publish since before her "death." One hundred sixteen rejection letters later, Jane finally hits on success, but at what price? Her carefully crafted existence is imperiled by the need to tour and promote her book; a scholar who knows Charlotte Brontë a little too well is threatening to expose her; and a mysterious figure from Jane's past returns to haunt her.

From beginning to end, Jane Bites Back was a fun, engaging read. Drawing on both the current vampire craze and the unstoppable wave of "Austenmania" which began with the 1995 adaptations of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, Ford successfully skewers them both. For readers who love English literature but aren't too sacrosanct about it, there's plenty to enjoy here. In addition to Austen, Lord Byron is a major character (and as big a literary rock star as ever!), serving as both irritant and potential romantic interest. Another major literary figure plays a key role in the novel, but to tell who would be to spoil a deliciously hilarious scene that comes at about the two-thirds mark.

Ford, best known for his gay-themed fiction and non-fiction, successfully makes the jump to 'chick lit' with Jane Bites Back. I've never read him before, but I was sufficiently impressed and entertained that I'm eagerly awaiting the next of his vampire Jane Austen novels, Jane Goes Batty.

Wow. I finished this book after being completely consumed by it for several days and when I finally set it down, all I could think was, "Wow." Anna Jarzab's publishing debut is one she should be immensely proud of as I have very few complaints. The story is told from two points of view: Neily and Audrey. They begin to investigate the murder of their friend, Carly, who had once dated Neily and was cousins with Audrey. Amid the protected and dangerous world of their private school, they begin to unravel what really happened leading up to the night of the murder while they both deal with the devastating loss of their friend. Neily, Audrey, and Carly (by way of flashbacks) are all incredibly deep characters and the way Jarzab writes about their pain was breathtaking at times. It is refreshing to read about characters who are flawed, but you understand why because the author has done such a good job in her writing.

I was also impressed that this teen novel had so much depth to it. It was not just about love and school, it was about fear, loss, failure, hopes, dreams, and many other things that teens themselves go through every day. All Unquiet things is like a Judy Blume book that has been updated for 2010. And that is the greatest compliment I can give!

I keep racking my brain, trying to figure what the best adjective would be for me to sum up this double recommendation. I keep coming back to two: personal and epic.

The Winds of War (first published in 1971) and War and Remembrance (1978) represent a single, cohesive story that manages to capture the enormous sweep of World War II and the Holocaust, but tells it in a way readers can still feel connected to such a massive narrative. Through the fictional Henry and Jastrow famlies, readers are caught up in the currents and eddies of history and tossed around the globe, from London to Berlin to Moscow, from submarines and battleships to the most infamous of the Third Reich's extermination camps.

There's something for everyone in this story; Herman Wouk manages to expertly blend romance and melodrama with scrupulously researched analyses of historical events and military tactics that would be at home in the military history section of your local B&N. He creates a dizzying cast of characters and gives them each their own unique voice. The story centers on two families: the Henrys, a Navy family led by stalwart everyman Victor (nicknamed "Pug"), and the Jastrows — Aaron, a Jewish-American expatriate living in Italy, and his niece Natalie. Pug (who longs for command of a battleship, but instead ends up hopping around Europe as FDR's unofficial eyes and ears) and his sons Byron (a perpetual student) and Warren (a Navy pilot) are pulled into the war. Meanwhile, the attempts of Aaron and Natalie (who falls in love with, and marries Byron) to flee Europe and the Nazis are blocked at every turn, and they eventually find themselves on a collision course with Hitler's Final Solution.

While it's easy to get caught up in the family drama of Wouk's story, what impressed me most of all were his chapters of historical analysis. By and large these were presented as excerpts from the postwar writings of General Armin von Roon, a fictional German general. So not only is Wouk giving an incredibly well-researched analysis of German military strategy during the war, but he's doing it from the perspective of the other side!

The masterful writing evident in the Roon chapters is perhaps only surpassed by the addition in War and Remembrance of selections from "A Jew's Journey," a diary Aaron Jastrow keeps as he and Natalie pinball around Europe evading the Nazis, before ending up in Theresienstadt, the so-called "Paradise Ghetto." The diaries chronicle not only his physical journey, but a spiritual one as well; Aaron's ordeal reawakens his faith, expressed in some of Wouk's most moving passages.

These books certainly aren't for everyone; 1,900 pages is a lot of reading, and it took me the better part of a year to polish them off (I was reading other books simultaneously). It's well worth the effort. I came away from The Winds of War and War and Remembrance feeling not only emotionally moved, but also with a greater understanding of the Second World War and the Holocaust than before I started.

(NOTE: It's also worth your while to check out the TV miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988), both of which originally aired on ABC. They're outstanding adaptations of the novels, though the depth of Wouk's historical research isn't easily translated from the written page to the video screen.)

Two things I absolutely love about this book:the premise and the cover!

Several things I really like about this book: I liked Nora and found her to be a complex character that I enjoyed reading about. I hope that in subsequent books more is written about how she deals with everything. I also really liked the character of Patch- he was so deliciously bad and I loved how he was always matching the darkness and was such a bad boy. Nora's best friend Vee is also a riot and I would love for her to be more than just a side character.

A few things I could complain about regarding this book: Loose ends all over the place. I am hoping that some of the things that were never resolved come up in the sequels. I would also love to know more about how some of the characters came to be (without revealing the plot).

I would recommend this to teens (or adults who like a good story) who like a good romance with some mystery. Like I said, the premise is great and that alone really sucked me in. I will be back for more!

The cover art intrigued me first.  It lacked the fantasy cliches.  But the jacket sounded like a Harry Potter wanna-be, so I resisted.  When I read a favorable review, which also mentioned that the author was a senior writer for Time magazine and a book critic, I took another look at that cover.  What is it about the drab misty glade that is so interesting?  The prose hooked me quickly and I laughed at the good-humored stabs at Harry Potter, Narnia, and Tolkien.  In fact, I wonder if Mr. Grossman didn't write The Magicians in the way he would have liked the others to have been written ... for adults (Arctic fox orgy anyone?).  So if you are a fan of Harry and Narnia and are an adult (at least technically), then you should love this fresh take on all things magical.  In our store there are six of us who have read it, and the number is growing.  Positive reviews abound.

In A Christianity Worth Believing  Doug Pagit writes "My hope is that this book is my invitation for people to pursue a Christianity that is good for world, good for their spirits and good for their faith."

Doug's latest work is by far his best. It is simple and accessible because it reads like an old-school testimony, but it accomplishes this without sacrificing any of the depth needed to address the issues Doug sets out to cover.

Doug invites readers to follow along as he recounts his own faith journey of growing up as an un-churched child and then becoming a Christian while experiencing a Passion play as a teenager. Doug details how he was immediately immersed in the Christian culture and was quickly leading Bible studies and even involved in court cases for Christian rights.

Doug explains that he is a contrarian (a person who questions any majority opinion) by nature. And how this led him to question and explore the roots of the theology and doctrines of the modern western church culture.

For longer than I care to admit, I naively assumed that the popular theology and widely accepted doctrines of the church were well, unchanging biblical truths. I simply took it for granted that were the apostle Paul to show up at my door he would recognize and affirm all of the theology and doctrine I was taught. But the truth is our Christianity has been passed down through a great many generations and our doctrines have been shaped and reshaped by many folks who were simply trying to make sense of things in their time. The danger here is that we have come to view these doctrines as set in stone and allowed them to become stagnate.

Doug presents a unique critique of western Christianity. Unique in the fact that it is not meant to be an argument about who is more "correct" in their theology. Doug shows how Greek philosophy, mid-evil superstition, and modern reasoning have permeated into the story of Jesus and left their mark on our own theology and doctrines. Such as the idea that Greeks, who worshiped vengeful impersonal gods, did not have any frame of reference or understanding of an intimate or personal God such as Yahweh. He walks through the ideas that developed through the centuries to explain Jesus and the Kingdom of God and how they have shaped our own theology.

This book offers us all a beautiful, holistic, compelling vision of the Kingdom of God. One that will resonate with many people who have always felt there must be more to Jesus and the kingdom of God than what you were taught on the flannel-graph. If you are drawn to, mystified, or even intrigued by Jesus, but put off by the religion that bears his name then this book is exactly what you need. It truly is "a hope-filled pursuit toward an alive and well faith for our day."

"I want it to be an invitation to a Christianity that makes sense in the world we live in." - Doug Pagitt

You can give A Christianity Worth Believing   to seminary trained pastors as well as people who can not name a single book of the Bible and they will both enjoy its depth and simplicity.

 

Kafka on the Shore left me breathless.

After years of an unnamed but horrific abuse, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura deliberately plans an escape from his father, a man so evil that he steals souls. As Kafka seeks both his fortune and answers to his past in the seemingly random city of Takamatsu, he finds refuge in the stacks of a library, becoming close friends with the assistant and fantasizing that the head librarian is his lost mother.

Though the magic realism of this novel begins right away - and is at times complex and seemingly random - about a quarter of the way into the book the plot and characters burst into focus and harmony. The secondary plot (involving a mentally-damaged man who can talk to cats and is on his own quest) all of a sudden aligns with Kafka's life, and the entire story dramatically rises in a tornado of crazy events and emotions: murder, incest, and oedipal prophecy. 

The ending of this story was so beautiful that I couldn't read for a full day afterward from the emotional hangover. I can't wait to read more Murakami.

Why does Daniel seem at once so different and why does he make her feel the way he does?  Why does he stare at her with hungry eyes and make her want to throw all of her pastor's daughter tendendies to the four winds?

When people begin to die and Daniel starts acting even more strangely, Grace must chose which side she is on.  Her family, who want her to distance herself from him, or her own traitorous heart that is  telling her despite all she knows, that she loves him.

This is a great read and i highly reccomend it.

The cover alone of "Fallen" by Lauren Tate is exquisite. Beginning with that and following up with an intriguing prologue, I was hooked before I knew it on this story. I love love love books that are a part of a series because it means that when I love it, I will get much much more once I've turned the last page. And I will definitely be picking up the second in the series.

I won't give away too much of the plot in case you begin it with no idea, but you will read it knowing about as much as the main character, Luce, does. You learn about each person she meets and feel every horrible part of her time at the Sword & Cross reform school in Georgia. Luce goes there after an unexplainable death of a friend and the subsequent questioning she receives from the police, psychiatrists, her parents, and her peers that leaves her questioning if she is, in fact, "crazy." She doesn't know what happened or why, but she wants to understand in case she was responsible for his death. I found this flaw in her character and personality to make Luce more believable. She may only be a senior in high school, but she has been through a lot and she is ready to take on this new world of hers at Sword & Cross.

I think teens will eat up this story as well as anyone looking for a Twilight-like escape. I liked the characters and found myself becoming attached to some of them and downright rooting for others. I'm not sure Fallen, as the first in the series, will have the same success as Twilight*, but I do think the story is set up quite nicely for an extraordinary second novel!

*Only because, while the story is amazing, Fallen is also a set up to know who is good and bad, unlike Twilight where most readers immediately either hated or LOVED Edward.

XO,

Scarls17

When first told to try the Southern Vampire Series, I was skeptical at first since I had heard about a show on HBO (True Blood) based on them and it didn't really seem like "my thing." I was so wrong! Dead Until Dark is the first of 9 (for now) books by Charlaine Harris about the feisty heroine, Sookie Stackhouse. It took me less than one day to finish and I bought all of the rest the next day so I didn't have to wait for the next book should I finish while the bookstore was closed for the night. This book (and the rest that followed) were laugh-out-loud funny! Sookie is such a dynamic character and she fills the pages with uproarious wit and stubborn panache. Her exploits, while firmly in the realm of fantasy, are so well-written that I felt as though I was right there with her, tending tables at Merlotte's.

The premise behind the Southern Vampire Series is also part of the appeal of the novels. While reading vampire novels in the past, I have always wondered what it would be like if the vampires were no longer condemned to the hidden underworld. Charlaine Harris begins her first novel of the series by answering this very question. In the series, vampires have just "come out of the coffin" due to the invention of synthetic blood. Since they have synthetic blood, they do not need to be a danger to humans and announce themselves to the world. Sookie sees the announcement on television and her bar, Merlotte's begins to carry True Blood, just in case. Sookie meets her first vampire when he comes into the bar for a drink and is drawn into the vampires' no-longer-hidden world due to her own abilities as a psychic and her blossoming relationship with the small town's very own resident bloodsucker.

Dead Until Dark combines so many elements of fiction, I recommend it to everyone. If you are looking for humor, fantasy, romance, drama, or just something new to try, I very highly recommend trying out Dead Until Dark. In the style of truly entertaining reading, it is extremely addictive and very hard to put down so beware! Should you wind up hooked on them as myself and so many others, the next books are Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #2),  Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #3),  Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #4),  Dead As a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #5),  Definitely Dead (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #6),  All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #7) , From Dead to Worse (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #8), and  Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #9) .

Austenland will never be the same.  This first release from the new teen publisher, Quirk Classics, brings readers back to the quiet English village of Meryton, but this time England is overrun with zombies and the Bennet family is trained zombie killers.  All of the romance and intrigue from Jane Austen's original is intact, featuring the classic characters of Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and more; however, now they not only have to survive the gossip and ridicule of their time, but also the brain-eating hellspawn they have sworn to destroy.  Purists may faint on sight, but over 80% of Jane Austen's original material is retained with small "adjustments" and "additions" by author Seth Grahame-Smith included throughout the book.  A fun read for horror enthusiasts and Austen fans alike.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies also comes in a hardcover Deluxe Heirloom Edition with 30% more zombie action than the original New York Times bestselling paperback!

Also from the publisher: Sense and Sensibility and Sea-Monsters

How would you feel if you had to hide your beauty every time you left home? Fire, a half-monster, half-human living in the unstable Dells, feels the need to do just that every day. Born with fiery red-orange hair which men literally lose their minds over, Fire hides her true nature and refuses to use her powers of mind control against her innocent neighbors. Despised for her gifts, and her corruptor father, yet mindlessly adored, Fire lives an easy life in her friend, Lord Archer’s village until her presence is personally requested in the King’s City by Prince Brigan. King Nash wants her to use her abilities against the enemies that are slowly suffocating the young king and his noble hold on the Kingdom of Dells.      

What unfolds is a romantic adventure full of colorful characters, repressed secrets and heart-breaking decisions. Author of the highly praised Graceling, Kristin Cashore proves in this companion novel, Fire, that she can create an amazing fantasy world with stomach-turning romance and teeth-clenching adventure.

Whenever someone asks me what the best book I've read this year is, I answer with The Hunger Games. In Katniss Everdeen's world, which is set in a not-so-different future, America has come to be run by a totalitarian government, and has simply been divided into thirteen districts. The people of Katniss's District 12 live mostly in poverty, thanks to the legend of District 13. The story goes that District 13 tried to rebel against the government, which then nuked the entire district. In order to keep the remaining twelve districts from trying anything similar, the government came up with the Hunger Games.

Every year, all children from the ages of 12-18 must enter their name in the Reaping. One boy and one girl from each district are selected at random to participate as tributes in the Hunger Games, in which all twenty-four children must fight to the death in a diabolical stadium. The Games are all broadcast live, and they don't end until there is only one child left alive. The prize for winning? Food, wealth, and a sturdy home for the winner and their family for the rest of their life. Poor children can enter their names into the Reaping more than once for an extra rations of food, making their chances of being picked even greater -- but the risk is worth it, since the government controls the trade of food between districts so tightly. The Games are a symbol of the government's power to the people of the districts, but to those who live in the Capitol (a place of great wealth, vanity, and frivolity), the Games are pure entertainment. It's a twisted mess of survival and reality television where drama and danger can earn you helpful gifts from your sponsors based on how much the Capitol viewers like you.

16-year-old Katniss, of course, ends up as a tribute in the Hunger Games. Katniss is a born fighter -- she alone has provided food for her family since her father died. She relies only on herself, and is very clever and stubborn. She has a real chance of winning the games and coming home like she promised her little sister she would. She steels herself to be ready to do what's necessary to get home, but when the Games begin, she finds that she has more trouble with the concept of killing the other tributes than she realized. This compassion, and the subsequent anger and frustration at the world she lives in, is part of what makes Katniss such a relatable narrator. She is forced to become a person she doesn't like (which includes killing and participating in a fake romance to garner sympathy from viewers) in order to survive.

Once you pick up The Hunger Games, you won't be able to put it down. It's definitely a thrill ride, with Katniss facing inevitable death with every turn of the page, but it's also got plenty of heart, as Katniss struggles to remain herself through this horrible ordeal. The series is classified as Teen, but it has widespread appeal, and adults will love it, too.

And once you've devoured The Hunger Games, you can pick up the second book in the trology, Catching Fire, which was just released. Catching Fire is just as terrifyingly good as the first book, but it delves even more into the history and politics of the Capitol and the Districts, and you'll discover the lengths the Capitol is willing to go to in order to crush any sign of a rebellion.

Kate DiCamillo has done it again!

Peter, a young orphaned boy was taken in some years ago by an embittered soldier, who was his father's comrade. He has spent the last few years learning how to be a good soldier like his father, and although he wants to respect his dead father, his heart lies elsewhere. One day, a fortuneteller's tent pops up out of nowhere, and a force compels Peter to visit her and ask a question. Once he meets her, he doesn't even need to ask his question, but is told, "You must follow the elephant. She will lead you there." After all these years, he is faced with the hope that his little sister is still alive and that he will actually find her if he can just figure out this elephant of a riddle.

This captivating story unfolds with a dreamlike quality. The chain of events set up by the arrival of the fortuneteller constantly provokes us to ask ourselves "What if?" The beauty of this story lies in that single thought, and questioning the impossible. "What if?"...when the impossible proves not to be, one cannot help but be filled with hope.

This is a timeless fable that could definitely earn a Newbery, but more importantly inspire kids and adults in abundance. This book feels like Amelie-meets-children's-literature, and I can't wait to start recommending it.

Haunting story about first love and being the newcomer in a small southern town.  The residents of Civil War memorial, DAR and buttermilk pie Gatlin South Carolina don't like anything or anyone who messes with their way of life.  When creepy Macon Ravenswood's niece Lena comes to town and lives with him in the "haunted mansion" she doesn't stand a chance of fitting in.  Ethan Carter Wate has spent his young life trying to get out of Gatlin but feels strangely drawn to Lena.  Could they have a shared past and possible future?  Did I mention it is also a ghost story... Things fall apart pretty fast waiting for Lena's 16th birthday which in her family means life altering changes.  Beautiful Creatures is well written and deals with Romeo and Juliet teen angst without language, drugs and adult behavior issues- perfect for younger teens and even adults who love a good love story.