Sunday, April 27, 2008

Haunted by Meg Cabot

Haunted is book five in Meg Cabot's Mediator series. Suze is beginning eleventh grade and is not pleased that Paul Slater, who gave her many problems in book four, Darkest Hour, is now attending her school. And even though she and her ghostly crush Jesse have finally kissed, nothing has happened between them since. Add a ghost who believes his brother should have died instead of him and you have another fun installment in the series. I like to give this to fans of Buffy. Suze is a smart mouthed butt kicker. The mix of light chick lit and supernatural plots are a great way to get readers to try something outside of their typical genre.
I am counting this as my second YA Challenge books.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Derby Girl by Shauna Cross

I double checked the Thoughts of Joy blog and we are allowed to change our books for the YA challenge. So I am.
My first will be Derby Girl. Bliss is the perfect name for a Texas pageant girl. Too bad Bliss is more interested in punk rock and vintage clothes than tiaras and evening gowns. She can't bring herself to tell her parents about the roller derby league she joins in Austin and begins leading a double life: by day she may be Bliss, but by night she is Babe Ruthless. Her mom, a former pageant queen herself, has her heart set on Bliss being the third generation Miss Bluebonnet. This is a fun little book. It's great for alterna-teens. I think there is enough band name dropping to also satisfy the music obsessed.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Of course my book group chose a book that fit in with the Once Upon a Time 2 challenge that I didn't include on my initial list. Which is fine since I'm going to count it anyway. The Penelopiad looks at the events of The Odyssey from two points of view: Penelope and the twelve maids killed by Odysseus and Telemachus. The portions told by the maids are particulary entertaining because Margaret Atwood uses a Greek chorus type format. The story is told from Hades, which gives the opportunity for some interesting encounters. I love Margaret Atwood and this book is no exception. I really look forward to rereading The Odyssey at some point to see how this interpretation may change my viewpoint.