Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward

  pp 301

Lisa Lutz is the author of the Spellman Files mystery books.  I've only read the first one but I really liked it so I felt pretty sure I'd like this too.  I wasn't wrong.  The funny thing about this is that Lisa and her coauthor, David Hayward, used to be a couple.  Just because they broke up didn't mean they couldn't write a book together!  They divided the chapters and in between are their actual comments to each other, via email.  Hilarious...the murder mystery is okay but the premise and how it was carried out was the more interesting piece to me.
Lacey and Paul are siblings whose parents were killed mysteriously several years before the opening scenes of the novel. Then a headless body appears and Lacey believes it's her ex-boyfriend, Hart.  After that the bodies pile up and send Lacey and Paul in many directions trying to fit all the pieces together while keeping Paul's marijuana growing operation secret.  The last chapter wraps it all up but leaves an opening for future collaborations...if they can stand each other long enough to finish another book!
Kim F

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

I read this book in one day.  It was short and filled with pictures and journal entries along with Jaycee's reflections on what happened to her along with a recounting of her abduction and subsequent life hidden away in Phillip and Nancy Garrido's backyard.  I was struck by how young she sounds but considering she was abducted at age 11 and not rescued until she was 29, this makes perfect sense.  Her story is compelling and I appreciated how she reported honestly but avoided sensationalizing and "blow by blow" accounting of events.  She managed to convey the horror of her situation but also her strength in getting through it and her desire to move forward now and to protect her children while giving them opportunities to grow and mature.   Her therapist must be a genius to help her through the ordeal and let her see a positive future.
273pp
Kim F

Jake by Audrey Couloumbis

Close your eyes and imagine you are a ten year old boy....got it?  Okay, now imagine that your father has died and you live alone with your very wonderful mom.  Okay?  Add to the mental picture a grandfather you only speak with on the phone who sends you a Christmas present every year like clockwork but doesn't really know you and a nice neighbor lady.  Are you still with me?  Okay, now imagine you are at the grocery store with your mom; it's really, really cold outside and there is ice everywhere.  You come out of the store and your mom slips on the ice.  One minute she's there and the next she isn't.  An old lady starts screaming for help.  You don't know what to do.  Eventually, an ambulance comes and takes your mom to the hospital.  You find yourself in a waiting room and some stranger lady comes in and starts asking you questions about who you can contact but all your family is away and you don't know what to do.  Are you feeling how scary that could be?  You will if you read this book. Don't worry, it works out in the end and people come together in the nicest ways but Audrey Couloumbis does a good job of telling a story in a ten year old's voice and making you feel his feelings of fright, loss and worry.
159 pp

The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

How much do you know about the Cuban Revolution?  Not much? Well you won't know any more about it after reading this book.  The revolution is simply the vehicle for telling this story about a teenage girl, Lucia, and her little brother Frankie who are sent alone to the United States by their parents so they can avoid the hardship and complete indoctrination of Castro.  It's also a story about friendship and the misunderstandings that can happen and how political issues can divide people: friends AND families.
Lucia and her brother are sent to a home for Cuban refugees and then to a home with a nice Midwestern couple. They learn English, how to be American children and are eventually reunited with their parents who find a way out of Cuba before the total lockdown. 
If it was better written, this would be a great book to give your Anne of Green Gables lovers but I never really cared about Lucia as much as the author wanted me to.  This will be liked by your hard-core girl readers and no one else.
284 pp

The Golden Ghost by Marion Dane Bauer

This is the perfect book for my youngest daughter who is nine years old.  It's a good length (86 pp) that she can read in one sitting and the writing is clear and compelling but more importantly, there's a ghost in it.  And not only that, the ghost is a dog!  For Elena, who is currently obsessed with The Ghost Whisperer and also with becoming a part time FBI agent, this book has everything.  There's a slight air of mystery, a ghostly dog who leads the main character, Delsie, to saving an old, homeless man and a happy ending...mostly.
Share this with the nine year olds in your life!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

                                                                                   


Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
348 pp
 
The photos are haunting and strange and they lend an air of mystery to this story about time travel, monsters and, of course, peculiar children.  If you like supernatural elements with your mysteries and stories that don't have a definitive ending, you'll probably want to pick this one up.
Kim F

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
387 pp                                                                                      

I can't believe this is a first novel! Beautifully written, every word in place, it's an engaging read and I couldn't put it down. Mystery, magic, love, inspiration...it's all in there but it isn't overstuffed.  It's paced and measured perfectly.  I loved it!
Kim F.
                                                            

Twenty Gold Falcons

Twenty Gold Falcons by Amy Gordon
216 pp                                                                                              
                                                                                                

From the author of Gorillas of Gill Park, here's another sort of mystery with many of the same characters from that first book.  Aiden and her mom have moved to Gloria, leaving behind their family farm after the death of Aiden's father.  Aiden has trouble settling in but through a crazy cast of characters, some of which turn out to be relatives, and a story about falcons and gold coins, she gradually finds a way to be comfortable in her new environment.  This is a Mark Twain Nominee for 2012-2013.
Kim F

Hide & Seek

Hide & Seek
by Katy Grant
230 pp                                                                             
                                                           

This is on the new list of Mark Twain nominees.  I can see why it made the list.  I think boys might enjoy the adventure part, the main character is a boy and in the end, he's sort of a hero.

Plot summary:  Chase lives at an Arizona resort with his mom, stepdad and two sisters.  The whole family has to help run the resort.  Chase is really into using his GPS that his dad gave him.  One day, while searching for a geocache, he finds a disturbing note, seemingly written in a child's hand, that seems to indicate someone is in trouble and needs help.  Eventually Chase meets the two young boys who wrote the note and he has to figure out if the boys are really just camping with their dad or is their something more going on.  Then the suspense and adventure begin.

For an adult reader, it's a pretty thin story but I think kids will like it and they'll learn a lot about geocaching, which is a feature in at least two of our library branches..could spark a kid's program, maybe.

Kim F

420 Characters by Lou Beach

420 Characters
Lou Beach
169 pp

Here's one of the entries in the book:  "I lay the book on the floor, open to the middle.  It's a lovely volume, green leather covers, engraved endpapers.  I remove my shoes and step into it up to my ankles, knees, hips, chest, until only my head is showing and the pages spread around me and the words bob up and down and bump into my neck, and the punctuation sticks to my chin and cheeks so I look like I need a shave."

Each of the 169 pages of this book has a mini-story like the one above.  Each of the stories is a perfect moment of prose.  Some are disturbing, some amusing and some are just downright strange but they are all beautifully crafted and incredibly appealing.  Each calls to mind a distinct image and emotion.  The author, Lou Beach, is an artist who's done album covers and illustrated for magazines such as The New Yorker and Harper's. Paintings are interspersed throughout the book.  In fact, each of the stories is sort of like a painting.  The effect is like walking through an art gallery, contemplating each work in the artist's exhibition.  Some you stare at for quite awhile, others receive barely a glance but all move you to marvel at the creativity and to wish you could paint that way.

 I'll be thinking about this book long after I've turned it in.  In fact, I might need to own a copy.  For a librarian who knows the joy of reading for free, that's saying something.
Kim F

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakawa

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Haruki Murakami
pp 607
                                                                                                                                       
                                                         

Exhausting!  Interesting, alleghorical, well-written and a good translation from the original Japanese, but reading this book was exhausting.  I read and read and read and felt like the bookmark never moved very far.  It's the story of a young married man, Toru, who is a pretty passive guy.  He has a law degree but doesn't work; all these crazy characters keep coming in and out of his life and he experiences them in a very passive way through most of the book, yet it is Toru that leads the action in the last 1/8 of the book and finally finds some personal power. The book begins with a missing cat, progresses to a missing wife, finds our main character hanging out in a dry well with nothing but a baseball bat for company and ends with a fairly ambiguous resolution. I can't say I liked this book but I'm glad I read it.  If you like puzzling over symbolism and trying to understand another culture through it's popular writers, then give this one a try.
Kim F                              

Bossypants by Tina Fey

I just realized I put the picture for the audiobook here...maybe I should have listened to it, but I'd probably still be laughing because just reading it was great!  I really like Tina Fey...she's kind of one of my heroes.  She seems so normal but she's brilliant.  Her "Things I Learned from Lorne Michaels" list has implications for anyone working with anyone else and the chapter entitled, "The Mother's Prayer for Its Daughter" is laugh out loud funny while being true, so very true. The stuff she wrote about her dad has just the right amount of reverence and humor. It's nice to read a celebrity book that doesn't cannonize or demonize the parents.
In short, the book is a nice, relaxing, enjoyable break from reading the hard stuff but it isn't stupid candy.  It's more like a beautifully decorated birthday cake made from the finest ingredients.  Enjoy!
Kim F
275 pp

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

Okay, I really enjoyed this book but I don't get why it is a YA title.  Maybe British teens would appreciate the language but the maturity of the story and the nuances?  I'm just sayin'.  This is one of a series called the Tiffany Aching Adventures.  Tiffany is a witch, THE witch in her surround and this time she is pursued by the Cunning Man. Perfect for Halloween!
kimf
355 pp

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

You know, even a little story about a woman who hits her head and can't remember the past ten years can be extremely affecting if it's well-written, as this one is.  The setting is Sydney, Australia, but it could be anywhere in the world where people fight with spouses, misunderstand each other, struggle with personal issues and fight sadness and depression.  And yes, I'm a complete and total sap that my son loves to call, The Fountain, because I cry at Hallmark commercials, but I spent the last three chapters of this book with a snotty nose and tears running down my face.  Maybe you won't cry, but I definitely found this one a good read and a nicely written story. Two thumbs up!
KimF
424 pp

The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen

I really enjoy this series.  It's rooted in old folklore and mythology, reasonably scary and well-written.  I've been a fan since the first book, The Spook's Apprentice.  If you have older elementary kids who are looking for a scary series, you might recommend this.  The vocabulary is challenging but it's an engaging series.
KimF

Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol

I really liked this graphic novel (and I'm not a big reader of graphic novels) about a young girl of Russian heritage who feels sort of alienated from both her family and the other students at her private school.  Then she falls into a hole and meets a ghost named Emily, who befriends her....or does she?  You'll find out if you read Anya's Ghost.
Kim F
pp221

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

309 pp
"Children are not guaranteed the luxuries of family, Ms. Wells, he said. If people are unable to exist within the parameters that have been created for them, they lose any claim to titles like son and daughter."
What does it mean to be a family?  What parental behaviors are necessary for the development of healthy children?  Does it matter whether parents try or not? Are these even pertinent questions explored in the book?  I don't know but I do know I enjoyed reading The Family Fang and thinking about how messed up this family was...or was it?  Either the Fang parents messed their kids up irrevocably or they prepared them better than most parents for adulthood.  It's kind of fun to think about.
Caleb and Camille Fang make art out of chaos.  They create situations and then let them unfold, filming everything.  When they have children, the children become a part of the process.  They aren't given a choice and eventually the children rebel.  Then Caleb and Camille plan their biggest art project ever.
I don't want to give anything away so I will say no more except that the book is a quick read and I liked it alot.
Kim F

America's Boy by Wade Rouse

pp340
I went to college with Wade and while I didn't know him well, I remembered him having a sharp wit which could be cutting.  My mental picture of him is a somewhat heavy kid with glasses who wore an oversized knit sweater...a lot.  When Wade's book came out, I told myself I would read it someday.  It caused a bit of a stir because he was publicly announcing he was gay.  No one who really cared about Wade minded that he was gay but a number of people were upset that he wasn't able to be honest about it. 
I thought Wade's book was wonderful.  He paints a picture of growing up different in a small, rural community, finding comfort of sorts by stuffing himself with food.  At one point he talks about how it was more acceptable to be fat than to be gay.  His portrayal of family members is poignant and sometimes downright hilarious.  His honest picture of what it was like when he gave up food and embraced exercise, finally admitted his sexual orientation and his first forays into dating as a gay man and his ultimate discovery of Gary, the love of his life are told with self-depricating humor and frankness.
Ultimately, Wade's family accepted him in ways he didn't realize until he came to terms with his own feelings about himself.  We all have family issues but Wade's book showed his family realistically but lovingly.  That's not easy to achieve.
Kimf

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn

pp304 by Carrie Vaughn
What can I say about this one?  It was a quick read..would be good for an airplane ride.  There was a light mystery, a lighter love story and a bit of family redemption thrown in for good measure.  Celia is the daughter of superhumans, who've spent their adult lives fighting crime as vigilante heroes.  But Celia has no powers.  After a stupid stunt in her teens, she is estranged from her parents for years until "the trial of the century" begins and Celia discovers the reason for her parents' amazing powers and eventually does her part to "save her city."  The book is listed under the FANTASY section but it would probably fit MYSTERY better or SCI-FI, maybe. 
Kim F

Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

by Joanne Proulx.
This book was pretty uneven for me.  It may be because I was reading it on a plane and at the end of long days of vacation, right before I was falling asleep!  A young high school boy suddenly finds he can predict deaths and he feels it very strongly when the person dies. It makes him a little crazy and a minister tries to use him to the church's advantage but he finally figures out how to make things work as best as possible. Lots of references to popular music.  Not bad.
Kim
358 pages