The Death Cure by James Dashner

image from LibraryThing

This is the third book in the Maze series.  There are so many variables that go in to how you feel about a book. I am trying to sort through my variables right now.  Hey - that sounds a little like WICKED and the trials and all that Thomas lived through in these books!

Anyway - there is a very fine line with books in a series. As a reader devouring book after book it is tremendously annoying when the first few chapters are spent summing up the past book.  But, if you are a reader who is savoring the books as they are written there are often months or even years between installments and details fade.  So, although I remember the big items - I can't remember names or feelings.  Instead it's more like returning memories - bits and pieces that don't always fit squarely together. (Poor Thomas again!!!)

The Death Cure is a book that suffered for me due to my foggy recollection.  I loved The Maze Runner and flew through The Scorch Trials and then waited.  So - as I started reading Cure I had a really hard time. It took me a while to remember why I didn't like Teresa or how I really felt about Brenda.  I never did figure out why Gully had such a messed up face.  And the lack of those details made this hard for me to completely buy in to.  The whole situation is built on lies and perceptions and misinformation and when the reader has a hard time remembering...

So, this is another in a line of 'the future world is a horrible place' books and the final solution is a teenager named Thomas.  I like Thomas.  He has what it takes to be empathetic and impulsive and brave and he is a complete package.  I also liked to hate Rat Man. He is the perfect creepy, manipulative character that you have no choice but to want to punch and since he is the face of WICKED - it's easy to hate them as well.

But, what a world!!! A man made virus has been released on the population following devastating solar flares. WICKED is an organization testing munnies (immune subjects) to attempt to find a cure. But - it's all a secret and the virus is spreading to even the creators of the trials.  There are memory wipes, cannibalizing, virus-sticken victims and lots of running!!

So, Mr. Dashner - your trilogy has made me wonder about my own abilities in times of trial. Thomas made many decisions based on the facts he understood at the moment. And he had the decency to lament and be tormented by those decisions when the entire story came to him. He paid the price for his zeal and his single mindedness.  He also worked for an unexpected solution - willing to make the final sacrifice - but was even that manipulated???

I would highly recommend these - but all in order - not spread out over time!

One more thought - could there be a supplement in the back of books in a series summarizing the previous installments of the story for those who need it and easily ignored for those who don't?  Books add short teasers of new novels - this could be a short synopsis... just a thought :)

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

cover image from LibraryThing

I am a bit ashamed to admit that I have never read this book.

Whew - now the secret is out.

I have guiltily created a whole list of books that librarians and educators regularly talk about that I haven't read. It is honestly a bit embarrassing - and one of my most guarded secrets!!

Well, I decided it's time to start reading some of these oft mentioned books so I can do more than stupidly nod when someone mentions them in conversation.

Lord of the Flies is the first book that I tackled.  And I really liked it!!!  I understand both why it appeals to teachers and the readers.  It has everything a great YA book needs - kids, a new world and no adults!!!

There were shades of Hatchet here.  I wondered if Gary Paulsen flashed to this at any point...hmmmm....

But, what appealed to me the very most was the constant interior battle.  Each of the boys had to decide over and over again whether to give in to their secrets or to hang on to what they had been taught. The cost was terrible - but it's an epic battle. One that teens come face to face with more than we realize, I think.

So  - my first secret stash of novels was a hit...will the next also be a hit??? Stay tuned!

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

cover image by LibraryThing

The world of the Eleventh Plague is a long way from my comfortable office and this blog.  Life has become something completely different.  China and the United States went to war over some hikers in the wrong place at the wrong time. We bombed China and they retaliated with a virus that wiped out the population of the US and maybe Canada and Mexico.  As the cover shows, the United States is now a rusting hulk of what we were.

But, families still exist.  There is still a need for warmth, food, shelter and...

This is the world that Steve lives in - has always lived in.  He was born after P11 (the Eleventh Plague) hit. His life is that of a salvager roaming the Eastern part of US with his grandfather and father.  As the book begins, they are burying Grandpa.  Although Grandpa is dead, his voice and his presence looms large over Steve and his dad.  Grandpa believed that the only way to survive was to stay away from everyone, believe no one and keep moving.  Steve has only known this philosophy. There is no warm fuzzy connection with others - the only way someone would help you is for a price.

Then Steve and his dad have a run in with a pair of slavers and everything that Steve has ever known is turned on it's head. When his dad is injured in a fall and is befriended by Marcus and Jackson and taken to Settler's Landing - the voice of grandpa is challenged by real friendship.  Steve sees the inside of a house for the first time, learns what a school is and what others are willing to give up for a friend.

Although this book is another in the long line of "the world is a horrible place and only teenagers get it" genre. I really liked this one. It felt a bit different. The problems were all personal - there was not a secret agenda or a mysterious technical problem to solve. Instead - it was all about a young boy and the baggage created by a past image of the world and the issues of facing new experiences.  There is a little love interest - a bully - some explosions and death.  I liked it!

Heist Society by Ally Carter

cover image by LibraryThing

Not my favorite.

This book moves along like a movie script - scene by scene.  That works in a movie as you watch the characters and you learn about them by seeing them interact and grow.  I don't think it works as well as a book.  I constantly felt like I was missing something.  There were back stories and forshadowing and it was really hard to keep it all on target.

The basic story is about Katarina Bishop, a regular old boarding student.  Yet - as the story begins she is in the process of getting expelled from school for putting the headmaster's car on top of the fountain in the middle of campus.

But she didn't do it.

The school is her attempt at leaving her crime family and becoming a normal teenager.  And it quickly ends as she is framed for a great prank that her friend Hale actually carried out to get her out of school and back with her family.

Turns out her art heisting dad is being accused of a crime he didn't commit by a madman who will stop at nothing to get his paintings back.

Then the madman contacts Ally and makes a deal with her to let her get the paintings back to save her dad.

Seriously???

A ruthless criminal known around the world by his reputation of killing and mayhem is willing to make a deal with a 15 year old girl.

Seriously???

Oh yeah and she just happens to have a millionaire for a best friend/boy friend.

See the problems?

This may be a hit with the middle school crowd - but I really didn't like it.  Too predictable and too movie like and too...well just too much!

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

cover image by LibraryThing

I loved the earlier books in this series  - Graceling and Fire and this is the final book.

It begins after the end of Graceling - after the evil King Leck is killed and his little daughter Bitterblue is ready to rule the kingdom of Monsea.  The reader was left with a happy feeling -all is well.

But as Bitterblue begins you begin to realize that life did not move along as happily as we readers expected.  Instead, Bitterblue is the too busy princess trapped behind a mountain of paperwork as her kingdom slowly disintegrates around her without her even knowing it is happening.

And she is bored enough to try something a bit drastic, so she begins to sneak out of the castle at night, disguised as a common spy.

And she makes friends.

And she grows up.

What she discovers is a whole bunch of secrets and facades and a coverup that just doesn't end.

The book is about her discovering why things aren't as they seem and what she can do about it.  Sound a little bit like growing up???

I read the other two books several years ago - and in typical Beth fashion I just devoured them and can't remember most of the details.  So, it made it a little harder to completely understand all of this book. On the other hand it was more in line with the story  - since this was to have taken place 10 years after the end of Graceling.

A couple of my favorite parts...

I really liked Bitterblue. After the mind control of her graced father - she was a breath of fresh air.  But, I liked the memories of her mother even more. She was a woman doomed from the very beginning - yet filled with secrets.  In a great twist...Bitterblue discovers a code embroidered into the sheets and pillowcases her mother incessantly labored over. A code that was a diary telling of the atrocities of her husband and her inability to defend them.

My very favorite part though was Bitterblue's penchant for math. As her father worked to take over her mind her mother would remind her to practice difficult math problems in her mind. This practice calmed her and focused her and allowed her to defend herself from her father's devious attempts. It made me wonder if that might be helpful for some of us when our emotions and fears begin to take over.  To occupy your mind with the logics and patterned rules of math could calm and focus in a very interesting way...something to think about.

Finally - to continue to control the people of Monsea, the royal advisors have taken away learning from the subjects. Printing books and teaching one another to read is forbidden and an offense that means imprisonment.  Talk about oppression.  In our freedom we take that for granted - but the book plays out what happens when the people don't know.  Very interesting.  It is one of the threads that Bitterblue discovers - and most kids won't really get.  But, adds so much!

I would recommend this book.

The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley

I really enjoyed this quiet story of tragedy, love and hope.

cover image from LibraryThing

Julia Forrester and her sister are stellar opposites. Julia has lost her son and husband in a horrible car accident and her sister, Alicia, has a house filled with family.  Julia is reeling from the loss and so paralyzed with grief that almost a year has slipped by.  As the spring comes to England it's time to get off the couch and see what is left of her life.

Alicia hovers nearby attempting to smooth out the life of her younger sister just as she always has.  And that brings them to the estate sale of the house where the girls' grandparents lived.  It's a crumbling old home that has been in the Crawford family for generations. And, just as Julia's life has fallen in ruins -so has the house.

But through chance meetings at the sale and in the subsequent days after - Julie begins to notice life.

This is a book of twists and turns. Each time I thought I knew what was next - I was mistaken. There are family secrets for generations which are laid bare due to time and circumstance. And Julia's biggest surprise shreds her fragile psyche, but gives her the strength to move on.

This is a great story. It mixes jolly old England with WWII, orchids, sister rivalry and a good old love story.  Highly recommended!

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

cover image from LibraryThing

I have been accused of liking books where nothing happens - where the characters are the story and that's about it.  

Well...this is another one of those stories... and I LOVED IT!!!

Henry Skrimshander. What kind of a character do you think he is?  Henry sounds a little nerdy, a little demure, a little bit in the background. But Skrimshander makes you stop and take notice. It's not a name you skim over.

Does that describe Henry?  Maybe. Henry is a baseball fanatic.  More than that though - Henry is the perfect baseball machine. He lives and breathes fielding and really nothing else. His goal in life is to be a shortstop. It may not even matter where that shortstop is -although the Cardinals are his ultimate favorite. That is due to a book Henry has mad his own story - The Art of Fielding by Aparicio Rodriguez, the best shortstop to ever play for the Cardinals.  


Henry is discovered by an ox of a catcher - Mike Schwarz who hails from a small liberal arts college - Westish - nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan.  Mike is the kind of contagious do-gooder who mothers everyone into being more of a person than they would be on their own. And his true love is Westish.  

There is also the president of the college, his messed up daughter who runs away from her husband and returns to live with her daddy, and Henry's very eccentric roommate.

But - mostly there is Henry. A kid who does everything right. A kid who makes his skills something most player only dream of. 

and then...he starts to think about it.

I have to tell you that reading about his baubles and brain freezes reminded me of my own swimming lessons way back in jr. high. I had taken swimming lessons for years and really loved to swim.  I could jump of the diving board and dive into the deep end with out pausing. Then one day,  I vividly remember standing on the end of the diving board absolutely frozen in fear.  It was impossible for me to jump off. I just couldn't do it again. and you know I never did. I haven't dived off an edge since. 

What in the world happens?  How can you have seasons of error free games and then not be able to toss an easy out at first base???  That is Henry's dilemma.  I have a feeling we can all relate to that!

One more thing before this review is finished. I read this book on my nook. So convenient and light weight and so disappointing.  I have discovered that books for me are a kind of commododity. As I read I am thinking about who I can recommend them to  - who I can share them with. This was no different. But, if it's on my nook it's only on my nook. I can't hand it to my baseball fanatic brother-in-law or my Cardinal fanatic nephews. I can't pick it up off my bookshelves and remember the spring vacation when I read it.  Books are more than the story for me...the physical book holds such appeal.  It's making me reconsider ebooks.