Thanks to Sheila at One Person's Journey Through Books for hosting this weekly meme, letting book bloggers share what they've been reading.  I tell you, my reading has become so much more diverse since doing this whole book blogging thing!  Thanks to my fellow book bloggers for the inspiration and book ideas! (And no, you're not seeing double-if you read this post at Second Childhood Reviews, that's because it's same blogger, different blog, and I'm cheating this week!)

Another week gone, another week closer to going back to school.  Ah, well, at least I had a good reading week!



Children's/YA Books Completed This Week:

Escape from Saigon, by Andrea Warren

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan

(Review coming soon on Second Childhood Reviews!)

Adult Fiction Completed This Week:

Another Thing to Fall, by Laura Lippman

Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler

(Review coming soon)

Books I'm Hoping to Get to This Week:

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli (YA)
10 Things I Hate About Me, by Randa Abdel-Fattah (YA)
Mind of my Mind, by Octavia E. Butler

...and whatever else I decide to pick up off the shelf.  After a month of reading for class, I want to keep my options open!

Have a great week, everyone!

Another Thing to Fall, Laura Lippman

All Tess Monaghan wanted was a morning of sculling.  But while rowing at sunrise, she literally runs into the cast and crew of Mann of Steel, a TV show being filmed right there in her beloved Baltimore.   After being pulled out of the water, she expects to be scolded for ruining their shot.  Instead, she is offered the job of watching their young star, difficult to manage star, Selene.  Seems there have been some incidents on the set that lead the producer to believe that someone is trying to get to Selene and stop the production.  While Tess is not sure that being babysitter to a spoiled starlet is really her thing, they offer her almost twice what she usually charges.  It's not long before Tess is drawn into both the stars personal drama-and a murder.  With the help of her best friend Whitney Talbot, and rescued street kid Lloyd Jupiter, Tess finds out what is really going on behind the scenes of Mann of Steel.

In Another Thing to Fall, Laura Lippman has once again provided the perfect popcorn book.  The characters are engaging, the action of well-paced, and the mystery provides a small challenge to the brain without too many clues to have to keep straight.  She does trot out all of the usual Hollywood cliches about spoiled actresses and almost has-been actors trying to make a come-back and egotistical producers who expect everyone to kowtow to them.  But hey, for all I know Hollywood really is like that-it's not like I'm hanging out with the A-Listers!  I guess the reason that those cliches gets trotted out is because the rest of us peasants find something amusing/entertaining/comforting in thinking about the stratospherically famous as being not-so-perfect.  All in all, this book was a great summer read-very satisfying brain candy!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday!  I am still deep into a children's literature class, so all of my titles this week are young adult titles.  But, my big book project is due to day, so I'm looking forward to catching up on some of the new books I've been getting that I've had to put aside.

The View from Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg

Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez

Almost Perfect, by Brian Katcher (Review coming soon!)

Hello Groin, by Beth Goobie (Review coming soon!)

This coming week I am hoping to get to:

Another Thing to Fall, by Laura Lippman

Wild Seed, Octavia E. Butler

I will also get to the following YA titles:

Bait, by Alex Sanchez

Ten Things I Hate About Me-Randa Abdel-Fattah

Have a great reading week, everyone!

Welcome Book Blog Hoppers!

Welcome to Book Addict Reviews!  I hope you find everything to your satisfaction!  This great meme is hosted by Crazy-for-Books to give bloggers a chance to find each other.


Tangent:  Does anyone else think it's strange that the editing program used by Blogger does not recognize "blogger" as a word?  But I digress...


This week we have a question to answer, and that question is...

Tell us about some of your favorite authors and why they are your favorites!



Well, this is a tricky question!  There are so many authors I like for so many reasons.  There are my favorite authors from when I was a kid, my favorite science fiction authors, fantasy authors, etc...My favorite authors for serious literature and my favorite authors for popcorn book (books that, like popcorn, don't have much substance but are still oddly satisfying).  So, I'm going to be completely random and select the first three that pop into my head...

Margaret Atwood-I love her because her books are always full of poetry.  Her use of language is so fluid and descriptive.  She really just finds the perfect turn of phrase.  Also, the whole feminist literature thing is pretty much a turn on for me.  Reading The Handmaid's Tale in college literally changed my life, not in some corny self-help way, but just in the way I looked at the politics of marriage and reproduction.

Stephen King-His books are the best brain candy EVER!  I started reading him in high school, and when I read Carrie and Pet Semetary I found out how delicious it is to be scared by a story.  I really think that his characters are some of the best written in popular fiction, and way more relateable than some characters in books considered more high-brow.  Even if he'd only written The Stand and the Dark Tower series, he'd be my hero, but the fact that he is so prolific makes him a great writer to love!

Jen Lancaster-Jen is the only non-fiction author who's books make me squeal with glee!  I love her sense of style, her sense of humor, and her sense of self.  Bitter is the New Black made me laugh so hard I wet myself (I won't tell you if I mean that literally or not!).   Like my other friend crush, Kathy Griffin, I am just sure that Jen and I are destined to bump into each other on the streets of Chicago and become fast friends and she will invite me back to her house to meet Fletch and the animals and we will trade witty, sarcastic remarks about pop culture all night long (OK, I know that sounds stalkerish, but I promise there are no restraining orders in my future).

Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez

Title:  Rainbow Boys
Author: Alex Sanchez
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Pages:  233
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Level:  9th Grade and Up





Plot Summary:
Rainbow Boys tells the story of Nelson, Kyle and Jason.  Nelson is the stereotypical gay male-a little swishy, with multiple piercings and multi-colored hair.  Kyle is a quiet, sweet boy, a swimmer on the high school swim team.  Jason is a popular jock, deeply in the closet.  When the novel begins, Nelson is completely out to everyone, including his very liberal mother who is the chairperson of the local chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).  Kyle is out to Nelson and the other teens in their GLBT support group, but not to his family.  He also is deeply infatuated with Jason, looking at his picture in the yearbook so often the page is fading.  Jason is dating Debra, and trying with all of his might to pretend that he is not having feelings for other boys.  When the other guys make gay jokes, or harass Nelson (whom they call Nelly), he laughs or turns away.  Finally he gets up the courage to go to a meeting of the support group, and is horrified to find Kyle and Nelson there.  When he runs, Kyle follows him.  The two boys strike up a friendship when Kyle agrees to help him with his math.  Slowly, as Jason spend more time with Kyle, he breaks up with his girlfriend and comes to terms with his true orientation.  Nelson, meanwhile, has decided that he is in love with Kyle, and tries to put the moves on him.  When that doesn't work, he descends into depression, binging and purging and having unprotected sex with an older man he met on the internet.  Afraid he may have contracted HIV, he sinks even lower, refusing to go to school.  Turns out that Nelson, who is so open about his sexual orientation, doesn't really know any more about how to go about this whole dating business than anyone else.  An act of gay bashing makes Jason realize that it is too dangerous not to stand up for himself and his friends, and leads to him finally coming out to his family.

Review:
If the above summary reminds you of a soap opera, you are not far wrong.  There are a lot of issues tackled in this book, from sexual orientation to gay bashing to bulimia to alcoholism.  Despite the somewhat soapish nature of the plot, the subjects are all handled in an honest way, without any sensationalism or gratuitous detail.  

Each of the boys comes from a very different family.  Nelson lives with his mother, and has almost no contact with his father.  Nelson's mother is the epitome of what gay-accepting parents should be.  She stands up for her son and his right to be who he is, and is actively involved in working for gay rights.  Kyle's parents are well-meaning, though his dad is constantly pushing him into sports.  That's the only reason Kyle joined the swim team, though he finds that swimming is something that helps him clear his head.  When he comes out to his parents, they are taken aback, and both of them struggle to understand how he became the way he is.  When push comes to shove, however, and they find out that he is being harassed at school, they stand up for him.  Jason's dad is an alcoholic-a violent one at that.  He found Jason and another boy experimenting when they were 10, and ever since he has called him pansy or faggot.  It is only after Jason brings Nelson and Kyle back to his house after they were jumped on the street, and his dad starts in on them, that he is able to stand up to him and tell him his deepest secret.  There's no storybook ending here-Dad does not suddenyl decide to go to AA and become a PFLAG member.  He leaves the family and disowns Jason.

It is this authenticity and honesty that makes the book so appealing.  Each of the boys could represent someone I know, or should I say that I know someone who went through what each of these boys did.  The characters are well-developed, and you feel sympathy for each of them.  The plot is well-paced, and the events feel real.  When Kyle's mom finds his gay porno mag, you wince right along with him.  When Nelson gets so depressed he can't get out of bed, you remember what being 17 was like yourself,  how intensely teens feel everything.  Sadly, the boys harassing Kyle and Nelson are also completely believable.  The book was written in 2001, but even with all of the advances in gay rights and awareness that have happened in our country since there are still too many boys like them in our schools.

Sanchez does an excellent job of balancing the personal stories of the boys and some heavily debated societal issues.  When the boys want to start a Gay Straight Alliance at their school, there is the expected opposition from religious groups.  The teachers ignoring the harassment the boys are getting, and in fact blaming them for it because they can't act more "normal", is something that is still true.  Parental acceptance of gay youth differs, though I like to think that more parents are supportive than there used to be.  Overall, this novel brings home the issues that gay teens face every day in a very accessible, personal way.

The God Box (imported from Second Childhood Reviews)

Title:  The God Box
Author:  Alex Sanchez
Publsiher:  Simon Pulse
Pages:  248
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Level:  8th-12th Grade






Plot Summary:
Paul is a high school senior in a small Texas town.  He and his girlfriend Angie have been together since middle school, and they enjoy the same things-listening to their favorite Christian rock CDs, singing in the church choir, and being members of their school's Bible study club.  Paul tried not to worry about the fact that while he loves Angie, he does not feel the same attraction for her that most boys describe feeling for girls.  He prays on it most nights-prays that he will lose the "unnatural" feelings he has towards boys so he can be a good Christian.  Enter Manuel, new to school and the first openly gay teen Paul or his friends have ever known.  Manuel is also devoutly Christian, and Paul is thrown into turmoil.  Is it possible to be Christian and gay?  Slowly Manuel opens his eyes to new interpretations of the Bible passages that get trotted out to "prove" God's hatred of homosexuals, but it is not until one terrifying night that Paul decides that being true to himself as one of God's creations is the best way to honor his creator.

Review:
I loved this book, and I'm not even going to try to find some cute, book-reviewer way to say it.  I think that this book should be required reading in every Christian school/Sunday school/Bible study in the country.  If you looked up the definition of "Christian" in the dictionary, Paul's picture would be there.  He loved the Lord, and strove every day to live up to Jesus's standards.  He was kind, and compassionate, and actively engaged in his faith.  But he had been taught that his attraction for men negated all of the prayer and good deeds he's ever done.  Manuel slowly, one Biblical argument at a time, dismantles all of the dogma Paul had been taught.  Their Bible discussions are thoughtful and thought-provoking.  Manuel is not written as some raging queer radical-he's just an average kid, same as the rest, only comfortable enough with himself to live openly as gay.  Even in the face of taunts and danger (sounds a little bit like Christ himself, doesn't it?), he stays true to who he believes God wants him to be.  I really believe that this book put in the hands of the right child at the right time could literally save lives.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It has been all young adult, all the time in my house this week!  I am deep in the midst of reading books for a webquest assignment, a diversity in young adult literature presentation, a literature share, and book reviews. The books I've reviews on my new blog, Second Childhood Reviews, are listed below.  Come on over and check it out!  Here's how my week went:

Baby Be-Bop, by Francesca Lia Block

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Luna, by Julie Anne Peters

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

The God Box, by Alex Sanchez (review coming soon!)

Right now I am starting a novel about a high school boy who falls for the new girl, only to find out she was born a bay, called Almost Perfect.  I also have some more Alex Sanchez books and some more Francesca Lia Block books to get to.  I'll be reading Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant, as well as The View of Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg, and Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.  I may even get to an adult novel this week, of time permits.  I hope that everyone has a great reading week!