Who wants to help hook a girl up with some spectacular book suggestions?

My 14-year old niece Shelby is tres reluctant when it comes to reading for pleasure and I’d like to help encourage her to step away from the computer and television (ironic coming from me I know!) and dive into a good book.  Being a blogger that focuses on YA and all I should have some fabulous selections for her but the thing is most of what I read wouldn’t appeal to her right now. I can ease her into some great choices but not before I get her actually reading!

This is where you, my wonderful readers, come in.  Shelby is way into sports and animals and I need some awesome recommendations that suit her interests.   Because I’ve not read much with that focus I’m definitely falling short in first hand experience with titles.  I can definitely research publisher sites and bookstores (and will), but would love to hear your opinions.

What can you recommend?

**sigh**

Mars is all sorts of dreary right now y’all.  She tried and tried and tried to make Venus her BFF but for some reason the planets just weren’t aligning.  Welcome to the second installment of Michelle is from Mars This Book is From Venus, my acknowledgment that not every book is destined to be finished.

Title: The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Author: Deb Caletti [website] [facebook]
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: Audio
Source: Purchase
Parental Advisory: language — so far anyway
Teachable Moments: acceptance, self esteem

Describing Venus (from publisher):
Quinn is surrounded by women who have had their hearts broken.  Between her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother, Quinn hears nothing but cautionary tales.  She tries to be an optimist — after all, she’s the dependable one, the girl who never makes foolish choices.  But when she is abruptly and unceremoniously dumped, Quinn starts to think maybe there really are no good men.

It doesn’t help that she’s gingerly handling a renewed relationship with her formerly absent father.  He’s a little bit of a a lot of things:  charming, selfish, eccentric, lazy…but he’s her dad, and Quinn’s just happy to have him around again.  Until she realized how horribly he’s treated the many women in his life, how he’s stolen more than just their hearts.  Determined to, for once, take action in her life, Quinn joins forces with the half sister she’s never met and the little sister she’ll do anything to protect.  Together, they set out to right her father’s wrongs…and in doing so, begin to uncover what they’re really looking for:  the truth.

How Mars & Venus Don’t Meet:
Oh Venus, how I tried to align with you.  I really really did.  I listened to two whole CD’s hoping against hope that your story would pick up, would draw me in and make me want to invest in you.  But alas, Mars just ended up circling space aimlessly on her own without an orbit to be found.

Why?  Why was Mars so unlucky in the Prince Charming department?  Because there was NO prince charming.  What was there?  A whole galaxy’s worth of man bashing.  Mom, grandma and auntie have all been stung in the love department and boy are we poor listeners paying for it.   More than that, the men we’ve met so far deserved it.  There wasn’t a redeemable male of the species that was even remotely desirable or endearing or charming or anything remotely positive.

Quinn’s father was a self-absorbed, selfish ass who went through women faster than a child with a cold goes through tissues.  Oh and he collects artifacts of his relationships.  I know there was a purpose for that but frankly I didn’t care enough to continue on to find out what it is.  Quinn also had a winner of boyfriend who, at the moment this Mars decided to break free of her Venus, had apparently been thinking with the lower half of his body so much that it changed their entire relationship in a not so good way.

I should also speak to the narration making it difficult to follow the story.  I think each chapter started with a flashback of some sort but it was difficult to decipher at times and made the story feel disjointed and confusing.

Sadly, there wasn’t anything in the first two CDs that gave me any real inkling that the story would get any more compelling or interesting for me. It appeared that it would be more of the same and frankly I just couldn’t imagine spending another 7-plus hours trying to find something to enjoy.

Maybe your Mars & Venus Align:
My inability to get into this book should not be the only thing you hear.  I’d much prefer you end this post on a positive note.  Please visit these reviews to get more information and make a more informed choice:

Sophisticated Dorkiness
A Patchwork of Books
Harmony Book Reviews
Bookshelves of Doom

Title: Grace
Author: Elizabeth Scott [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Provided by Publisher (at ALA)
Parental Advisory: suicide, death, criminal activity, violence
Teachable Moments: terrorism, dictatorship, freedom of choice, government relations, political oppression

“I was supposed to kill the Minister of Culture.  I was supposed to stand in the front row of those gathered to listen to him speak and press my left hand to my right writs in a way that would push the wires bound under my sleeve together.

I was supposed to do that and then watch the world burn.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb.  But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom.  In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert.  Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

Opinion:
Grace is an extremely powerful, and sparsely written, story about a young girl who strives to better her life by overcoming the oppression of her nation’s government. Having been designated an Angel, Grace’s one reason for existence is to give up her life to thwart Keran Berj the supreme ruler of the country she lives in.  The only problem is she refuses to do so.  When the time comes for her to inflict her destruction she is not able to rise to the task and take herself along with those she is targeting.   It is then that she takes flight and the terrifying escape she is attempting turns into the beginnings of the life she’s always wanted.

Scott has created a diverse setting where outside of the city and hills she has opened up what feels like the outer ring of hell.  This section of land, through which Grace and Kerr must travel to arrive at the border to freedom, is a devastating dust bowl.  It is dark, grimy and hotter than an oven.  A  place where there is clearly no comfort to be had for the people relegated to living there.  They are down-trodden and desperate in every way, begging for money and hopeful to sell their wares to the riders on any train that comes through their horrifying spit of land. It was so vividly written that I could feel the dirt and sweat on the passengers traveling on the train, it was stifling and exhausting and just uncomfortable all the way around.  Feelings I believe Scott wanted the readers to endure to be part of the story.

As a character Grace is light on words, she is direct both in her conversation and inner dialogue.  Having lived the life she has — extensive training and preparation to die at her own hands — she routinely conducts herself in the moment knowing that things will change quickly and abruptly.  The only problem is that despite her training and all that she is expected to believe about her cause she can’t quite justify going to that ultimate violent extent.  It’s that inner turmoil that makes her so complex and dynamic.

Friendless, for the most part, Grace quickly begins a tentative exploration of her traveling companion Kerr.  As the journey moves forward she learns that he turns out to be more than she had bargained for.  Without giving away who he is and what he’s done I’ll say that Kerr brings his own set of issues to the story and to their relationship. These issues are not black and white and like Grace provide for a fair amount of reflection.

This book was not light-hearted fare.  It was dark and a good portion of it explored the minds of people who are willing to do anything to survive.  The heavy plot includes crime against others, succumbing to the will of others and ultimately death (both by murder and suicide).  There isn’t any love or caring it is truly about surviving to live another day by any means necessary.  What amazes is how despite all of the oppression and overwhelmingly bleak living conditions there is hope. In Grace’s decision to live, in her choice to take the risk of disobeying her People Scott shows us the potential for something better, for something more.  That is the core of this story.

For such a quick read this book packs an incredible punch.  Not only does it afford the reader the ability to explore the mind of a would be suicide bomber but it allows for the drawing of our own conclusions surrounding the outcome of events that put the young lady in that circumstance to begin with.  An intense read that explores deep emotion and controversial subject matter, Grace is one that would be fantastic for upper middle grade and young adult classrooms.  It speaks to tolerance, freedom of choice and a number of other governmental and religious leaning issues.

Title: Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters
Author: Natalie Standiford [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Scholastic
Format: Paperback
Source: Provided by Publisher (picked up at ALA)
Parental Advisory: drinking, language, sex
Teachable Moments: navigating class status, development of one’s character

“The family members gathered around her sat perfectly still, with a studies lack of emotion.  No one wanted to appear upset at the possibility of a change in Almighty’s will.  Such a change, however, would affect the fate of everyone in the room to a great degree.  Almighty was very rich, and her son, his wife, and all of their children were completely dependent on the money she controlled.”

Summary (from the publisher):
The Sullivan sisters have a big problem.  On Christmas Day their rich and imperious grandmother gathers the family and announces that she will soon die…and has cut the entire family out of her will.  Since she is the source of almost all their income, this means they will soon be penniless.  Someone in the family has offended her deeply.

If that person comes forward with a confession of her (or his) crime, submitted in writing to her lawyer by New Year’s Day, she will reinstated the family in her will.  Or at least consider it.

And so the confessions begin….

Some involve love.
Some involve hate.
Some involve life.
Some involve death.

Opinion:
Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters is a story told from multiple points of view.  One each for the three sisters and some commentary from their eccentric grandmother Almighty for additional flavor.  On the whole the girls live a high-class wealthy lifestyle, the only problem is it’s all by Almighty’s hand.  This means that they must tow the company line in order to maintain the life to which they’ve become accustomed to.   Of course, Almighty is more than aware of this fact and manages to exert her authority and control over all of the Sullivans at every turn.

I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of this book.  The idea that I would see the same events from several different points of view gave me the opportunity to experience different nuances — in that way Confessions excelled quite nicely.  Standiford wrote it in such a way that there were several points of all three stories that intersected.  The sisters spoke of the same events but the small differences that each brought from their individual experiences enhanced it for the reader.

The strength of this story, however, came from the diverse cast of characters Standiford created.  Almighty, the matriarch, was rigid and overbearing and over-compensated for her shortcomings with her money.  Her son and daughter-in-law were a bit unconventional with their parenting skills but did take an interest in and very clearly loved their children.  Two older sons were off at college so the focus of their participation in the family affairs was limited but appropriately placed and the youngest child brought the cute and cuddly factor.  The bulk of the story, however, centered around the three girls — Norrie, Jane and Sassy.

These three sisters, for reasons all their own, were led to believe they had perpetrated some tremendous injustice against Almighty that required an apology.  This apology would be the only way that their grandmother would leave the family in her will and keep them from being destitute.  All three feared for the eventuality of the Sullivans becoming beggars on the street.  It is here that we branch into the stories of all three girls who explain the situations that have brought them to Amighty for their apology.

I freely admit, the beginning of the book was a bit slow.  It took me a bit of time to get into Norrie’s story.  Her demeanor was so reserved and at times felt emotionless that it was difficult to really find her compelling.  I’ll also add that I didn’t feel the spark between she and the boy she fell in love with.  While Standiford handled the age difference (it was relatively sizable) with dignity and without any hint of impropriety I still felt it a bit disconnected.  It wasn’t until the very end of her story — where all the real action I won’t ruin for you happened — that I was finally able to get into it all.

Jane’s story, on the other hand, was great.  As a girl with a more mischievous and rebellious nature she brought a light-hearted and entertaining tone to the book. Having said that, her rebellion against the Sullivans is born of the deeply rooted sadness that appeared as a result of a non-familial event.  She’s built up some pretty sturdy walls and uses a very public airing of the family’s dirty laundry as a way to keep everything locked in tight.  It was a great ride of ups and downs.

The most tragic (in some ways) story of the three was Sassy’s.  She too was keeping a very difficult secret from everyone.  A secret that caused much internal conflict and  ultimately some revelations about not only her state of mind but Almighty’s as well.  It was her story that facilitated the resolution to the story.

The biggest character on any page, without a doubt, was Almighty herself.  More than being the main focus of everyone’s ire and consternation she was the character in the story that showed the most change. She started out as a very proper woman who closed herself off to her family but over the course of the three girls apologies she recognized qualities in herself that she wanted to change.  It is her transformation by the end of the story that is most compelling.

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters is good for young girls and women interested in a story that shows depth and change of character.  There aren’t loads of twists and turns and there aren’t any grand sweeping to die for love stories but this quiet book about family is a lovely read.

Welcome to the first edition of TV Talk!

Even though this is primarily a book blog I want to be able to chat about some of my other favorite forms of entertainment and one big part of that is television. So here I am, excited to be adding this to my weekly features here at Galleysmith.  Now that the new Fall season is upon us I’ll be posting every Sunday (baring unforeseen circumstances) a brief recap of the shows I follow.

I’m going to be honest, I watch a lot of television.  Like a lot a lot.  So this isn’t going to turn out to be a full on in depth plot and character analysis for each show.  You’ll get a nice brief summary of the big doings in each show and what my general feelings were.  Be forewarned there may be spoilers so if you haven’t watched yet you shouldn’t read the summary for a show.

I’m also happy to discuss shows you watch too!

Here’s what I watched this week:

The Vampire Diaries

Holy.Hotness.Batman.

I could ramble on about how the show makers amped up the sexy but really my jabbering on about it won’t do it justice.  Let’s just say that now that it’s Fall and we’re finally back in Mystic Falls we’re seeing plenty of skin, having plenty of banter and innuendo, and boy oh boy are is there some hard core smoldering. And by smoldering I mean you Mr. Damon Salvator!  I wouldn’t want to forget that this episode is full of death too — total death, kinda death and death avoidance.  It’s kinda everywhere.

Sure, we still have whiny Elena and yea there’s a bit of insipid Caroline and we even have a new power player in Bonnie but big shouts out go to the new kitty in town Katherine.  Those hundreds of years have done her justice!  She’s the perfect bitch to add to the small town equation.  Oh and did I mention that she’s a doppleganger for Elena?  Yup, totally got the twin thing going on.

**whispers** she even got to get nakey nakey with Damon in a sizzling fight scene that included clothes stripping and some making out.  Nope, not jealous.  Totally not jealous.

Anywhoo, Katherine also brought the bad boy out in Stefan who up until this point has been a monotone version of boring the likes of which equated to instantaneous fast forward fodder for me.  Especially when he was with Elena.  **yawn**  Now Kat…she brings out the heartless jerk in him and THAT I can watch!

So, I’m totally on Team Katherine cause she’s bringing the Damon levels of bad ass bitchery to the female side.

Holla!

Nikita

Speaking of bringing the sexy sexy this remake (like the third or forth I think) of the famous french film La Femme Nikita focuses on a young woman who is forced to be a secret government assassin after being framed for a crime she doesn’t believe she committed.  Nikita has escaped her captors, has fallen in love, has watched her fiance die at the hands of said government assassins, and has taken it upon herself to exact revenge.

With Nikita around loads of people die, lots of stuff blows up, and there are too many costume changes to speak of.  She’s the picture of retribution for all the wrongs done to her and the population in general.  Don’t let this all fool you though because Nikita does good too.  That do-gooding is done in a round about way, meaning she saves people the government is trying to kill just to piss them off, but it’s done none-the-less. Did I mention she’s got a partner?  Or maybe a worker-bee, I’m not sure.  Either way there’s more to the story (in a twisty “oh my god did that just happen?” way) that said government abductors don’t know about it and that makes things all the more interesting.

We’re supposed to get a bit of a vibe (love! sex! obsession!) between she and her former handler but honestly I didn’t feel it much in this opener.  Mainly because she and Michael didn’t share but one or two scenes.  The jury’s still out there but it has potential because, well, Shane West is cute as all get out.

So, for now Nikita is on my to watch list we’ll see if it gets better or gets stale.

That, my friends, is all she wrote for this week.  Sunday evening brings with it the season finale of True Blood and the week ahead appears to have at least a couple of shows that might interest me so next week we might have even more to chat about!  What shows are on your radar?