A Younger YA

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Grades 4-7ish

All Zoe wants is to one day play the piano at Carnegie Hall. The problem is she has no idea how to play. Zoe's dad, who is afraid to leave the house and obsessed with Living Room University certificate programs, ventures out and ends up coming home with a PerfecTone organ instead of a baby grand.

This is a funny and heart warming story.

Great YA!

The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees

Frankie Torres is a pretty typical high school student who lives in the shadow of his older, very popular, soccer star brother Steve. Frankie has a best friend, Zach, who is a bit of an outcast, obsesses over his crush, Rebecca Sanchez, whom he wants to ask to Homecoming, and spends afternoons and evenings working at Los Torres, his family's restaurant. Frankie is a great kid who gets mixed up in a lot of bad situations. Torn between doing what he thinks is right, what his friends want him to do, and doing what would be loyal to his brother.

I thought this was a terrific multicultural and current YA!

Hour Game

Hour Game by David Baldacci

Sean King and Michelle Maxwell (both ex-secret service agents) new investigative firm has taken off. They are called in to assist on a new case involving a burglary at the home of the wealthy and well-entrenched Battle family. At the same time, King and Maxwell are busy chasing a serial killer who is emulating famous serial killers of the past and putting his own spin on things. The lines between the two cases begin to blur and King and Maxwell's lives are put in danger more than once as they chase one or two killers who are always a step ahead.

This is the second in the King/Maxwell series. These books are very fast paced and exciting. I look forward to read the next in the series! I love the King/Maxwell duo!

Another fun Cabot

Teen Idol by Meg Cabot

Jenny Greenley is the kind of girl who everyone at school likes. She is, as she says, mayonnaise. She keeps everything together. Jenny is so trustworthy, that she is the top secret advice columnist for the school paper and is also chosen for a top secret mission to show around a "new" student who is really teen heartthrob Luke Striker incognito.

Another fun read from Meg Cabot!

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green

In John Green's debut novel, Miles "Pudge" Halter sets of for Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama at the start of his junior year in search of his "Great Perhaps." Miles has never really had school friends but has always been content with his nose buried in biographies in search of famous last words. But now he wants more. Miles becomes entrenched with the fascinating and beautiful Alaska Young, a brilliant new roomate Chip "the Colonel", the rhyme dropping Takumi, and the pretty Romanian Lara. Culver Creek begins to open a whole new wide world for Miles as he reaches towards the Great Perhaps and greater understanding of the world at large.

I became a huge John Green fan after reading An Abundance of Katherine's so I was anxious to go back and read his debut novel. It does not disappoint. I look forward to many more Green novels in the future.

Virgin River #5

Second Chance Pass by Robyn Carr

In the fifth installment of the Virgin Rover Series, Paul returns to Virgin River struggling with his feelings about Vanni and his loyalty to his late best friend Matt. There are a lot of changes for the people of Virgin River and the town itself in this book. A lot of major developments, sad times, happy times, and of course drama which kept me turning the pages deep into the night.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Lockwood rents the manor Thrushcross Grange from the master of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff. Upon arrival, Lockwood walks the four miles to Wuthering Heights to meet his new landlod and is greeted very strangly by a group of strage and suly people. Lockwood grows ill and as his servant Nelly Dean nurses his back to health, she tells the story of the Earnshaws, Heathcliff, and the Lintons.

I read this for a group read and discussion. It is one of those books that I have always wanted to read and felt lik I SHOULD read. I am glad I read it but there were many characters I did not like and made me angry. I do not see Heathcliff as either romantic or heroic. I just don't see it.