Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I really enjoyed this book.  I liked the characters and the situation and the surprise twists and turns.  Moriarty has a way of making the reader expect one thing and then gently twist the story to a different place.

The premise is a school parent event - a trivia night for parents to raise money for equipment.  This takes place Australia - so the event also included alcohol - something that wouldn't happen in the schools where I have worked.

Moriarty starts the story with parents fleeing the trivia event - and then builds the tale by backing up to a morning months earlier when a few future kindergarten moms gathering for a roundup sort of day.  The pecking order appears quickly with a one new mom nervously trying to figure out her place. She is sort of swept up with Madelaine - one of the more flashy moms and it all feels good until...There is an event that very first morning - a little girl is bullied and her mom goes ballistic.  And that sets this group of parents on an unexpected path.

Now my favorite part. Each of the chapters ends with a snippet of a police or reporter interview with a few of the parents. Clearly there is a death. But that is all you really know...who and why and where.

My only complaint is the title for this book and the picture. I felt like the broken candy cheapened the seriousness of the topics in the pages.  Although this was an easy read - brings forward darknesses that are ususally hidden.  This is only my opinion  - and I would strongly recommend this to others.

I loved this March book club read!

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

image from LibraryThing

I am still not completely sure how I liked this book.  It was hailed as a great alternative to Harry Potter.  I am not so sure I would agree with that description.  I think it is more a bored teenagers' bored view of magic and the disillusionment that can come when you get what you wished for.  Now - that doesn't sound very Harry Potterish.

Plus I feel truly sorry for any book compared with Harry - it just isn't going to measure up in my reading world.  Harry was for all ages - The Magicians seems mostly for out of sorts teens.

Even though I was not in love with the book I could not stop reading it. I wanted to know what happened in Fillory, what happened at Brakebills, what happened to Quentin.

So the basic story is a hidden magical school in upstate NY.  Quentin, a very anti-social, anti-excitement, anti-everything sort of teen gets in to his shock and hidden awe.

The book chronicles his life in Brakebills, his love for Alice and his ongoing escape into the fictional world of Fillory.  So - Fillory is a book that he loved as a kid and keeps returning to as if that is the seat of all magic. Every magical moment seems to be compared and found lacking to Fillory.

So I thought his schooling would build to a big ah ha moment - but it built to a creepy secret graduation ceremony that included personalized demons and secret codes from the head of the school.  And the book continued.

So - what does a graduated magician do in the real world - absolutely anything they want and you can imagine the problems that causes.

Then there is a quest - sort of  - and a horrible battle - way gruesome - there are deaths and there are survivors.

But - this book lacked the undertone of good vs. evil.  This was just magic for magic sake and the questions that Quentin and his friends bantied around were the meaninglessness of magic in a world where there was no need.  I found it all rather depressing and anti fun.  That is what magic brought in other stories - fun.  I know there is often a down side - but there was joy and positive energy.  That does not exist for the Magicians.

The end was a bit of a shock to my system.  Not what I expected.  But - it did make me want to pick of the next book and start reading.  So even though this was not my favorite - I have hope for Quentin!!

The September Sisters by Jillian Cantor

So, how does a family continue after a daughter disappears? Especially if it is the sweet little sister, the one that everyone loves, the one who trusts and smiles and makes her older sister jealous? How can life go on?

That's what this book is all about. How do you continue?

Abigail is a 8th grader and her younger sister, Becky disappears from their house one night. No one knows what happens. She was just gone. As is the life that Abigail and Becky knew.

Suddenly people look at Abigail differently, her father and mother are both suspects and that makes everyone even more suspicious. Then school starts...Abigail's friends begin to fall away - her dad is overly protective and won't let her out of his sight and her mom can't seem to get out of bed.

This is a story of loneliness and friendship, of love and hate, of fear and freedom and of the surprising people who help you understand it all.

In the MS library

Wolf Rider by AVI

So, this is another book with an unfortunate title. It's an excellent suspense novel - but I expected it to be about Native Americans or Eskimos or something - who else would ride a wolf.

Instead this is the story of a boy, Andy, who answers the phone one evening and is told about a gruesome murder committed by the man on the other end of the phone. But, no one believes him. NO ONE! His father thinks he's crazy, his guidance counselor thinks he is hiding his anger, the police think he's making it up, and the girl who was the victim thinks Andy is coming on to her when he tries to warn her.

This story draws on the angst and frustration of a teenager who has information that NO ONE else believes. What can he do but try to solve it himself.

This is a cliff hanger and page turner!