Wait for me

by An Na

Mina is living a lie in so many areas of her life. Her mother expects her to get accepted to Harvard, but her grades aren't even close, and she's been spending time with her new boyfriend Ysrael while her mother thinks she's studying for the SAT. Mina finds it easy to lie because she doesn't want to disappoint her mother, but also because her mother is a difficult, bitter, and pushy person. Her own life has been a big disappointment, and she doesn't want more of the same for Mina. Mina has a chance to run away with Ysrael, but finally decides she can't desert her hearing-impaired younger sister, Suna, who gets little of her mother's love or attention. Waiting is the theme running throughout the story--Mina waiting to leave home and live her own life, her mother waiting to reap the rewards of her sacrifices, Suna just waiting to be noticed. This novel received starred reviews in several review journals, and it is a well-written work, but there was something about it that just didn't reach me. I call this a "gray" novel. The action is flat, no highs and no lows. There was very little character development, and the tone throughout was melancholy. I don't remember even a tiny bit of comic relief. However, I have no doubt that this is a book that would be just what some teens need to read, and it does end on a small note of hope. Some of you should give it a shot. Another Tayshas book for 2008-2009.

----reviewed by Mrs. Sams

INCANTATION

by Alice Hoffman

Set during the Spanish Inquisition, this dark and mysterious novel tells the story of man's cruelty to man. Narrated by Estrella deMadrigal, a young girl who has no idea that she belongs to a Jewish family who was forced to convert to Christianity one hundred years before, Incantation is the story of escalating violence and mob rule. Friends betray friends, and no one is safe. As soldiers come for Jewish families, and burn books in the Plaza, fear falls on Estrella's family and church members. She reads the newest edict in the center of her village, ordering everyone to turn in people suspected of being Jews, based on a list of ways a hidden Jew could be distinguished. From that point on, her life unravels before her eyes, and she is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. A short and quick read, Incantation is one more evidence of Alice Hoffman's skillful storytelling. It is on the 2008-2009 Tayshas list.

---reviewed by Dail Sams

CURES for HEARTBREAK

by Margo Rabb

Mia Pearlman narrates this melancholy story about surviving after the death of a beloved mother, and the serious heart attack of her father. Mia's mother was diagnosed with melanoma and died 12 days later, giving Mia, her older sister Alex, and her father little time to prepare for their loss. In the months that follow, Mia's life seems to pass in a gray fog. Her dad spends most of his time on the couch watching TV. Mia fails two classes and has to attend summer school, while her sister prepares to go off to college. Once Alex is gone, Mia and her dad gradually become closer and support each other by trying to eat healthier. Mia seems to deal with her grief and fear by reading all the time--books about orphans and romance novels-- and by fantasizing about boys and sex.

Things begin to change when her father starts dating Sylvia, a vivacious cancer surviver. Her father is happier, and within months has proposed marriage. Mia wants her dad to be happy, but doesn't much like Sylvia. After sending out wedding invitations, they hear from a woman and her son Sasha whom they had met in the hospital. Sasha had cancer, but was in remission. Mia thought he was going to die, but instead, he got well and went traveling to Europe and Nepal. That was a hopeful thing for Mia, who had had enough of death and sickness in her young life. One perfect day of talking and hiking with Sasha gives Mia even more hope that she will be able to live a normal, happy life. When Sylvia suddenly dies before the wedding, Mia is guilt-stricken because she had had a huge and ugly fight with her the night before. Her father assures Mia that it's not her fault, she is comforted by Sasha, and small glimmers of hope slowly touch her life again.

This was a hard book for me to get through. It was a little too heavy for me, and the language put me off. The last part of the book which includes Mia and Sasha's sweet relationship, made it worth the read. This story includes an afterword in which the author tells her own story about her parents' deaths, and that the writing of this books was a significant part of her own passage through grief. Many of the chapters of this book were published previously as short stories in various magazines. Cures for Heartbreak is on this year's Tayshas list.

----reviewed by Dail Sams

PEAK

by Roland Smith

What a great book about conquering the tallest place on earth, and so much more! I was unenthusiastic about reading this book, but I loved it from the first page. "Peak" not only refers to the summit of Mt. Everest, but also is the name of the hero of the story. After getting in trouble with the law for climbing a skyscraper in New York City, 14-year-old Peak Marcello, is let off the hook when his biological father shows up to take custody of him with plans to take Peak out of the country altogether. The judge is happy about this solution, because Peak's stunt had become a media circus and his Honor wanted the whole thing to go away. Josh Wood, Peak's father, is arguably the best climber in the world. He had written authoritative books on the subject, and he was currently leading a group of climbers to the top of Everest. Josh was secretly making plans to take Peak up the mountain because if Peak made it to the top, he would be the youngest person ever to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, thereby giving Josh's climbing company tons of great PR and millions in advertising endorsements.

By the time he reaches Tibet, Peak has been befriended by Sun-jo, a Nepalese boy his own age, and the grandson of a respected Sherpa, the local men who act as guides and carry gear up the mountain for those who make the attempt. What follows is an intense story of conquering Mt Everest, dealing with bitter cold and lack of oxygen, avoiding Chinese officers who are trying to find Sun-jo, conquering fear and utter physical exhaustion, and finally learning in the end that selflessness is more rewarding than making it to the highest point in the world. Peak is on this year's Texas Lone Star reading list.

--reviewed by Dail Sams

Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult

This gripping and incredibly sad book is the story of one bullied high school boy and how events beyond his control ruin his life and the lives of many of his classmates. The title refers to the time it took Peter Houghton to enter his high school and shoot twenty-nine students, ten of whom died. One student who was not shot was Josie Cormier, Peter's one and only friend in early childhood and the daughter of the woman judge presiding over the case. Picoult, the author of The Pact, My Sister's Keeper, and of a number of other best-selling works, has created a story told from multiple viewpoints, so that by the end of the book, the reader feels sorrier for everyone else involved than for the victims of Peter's shooting spree. Though Nineteen Minutes is not a tale completely bereft of hope, it does brilliantly illustrate what destruction cruelty and revenge can bring about in people's lives. This book is on the 2008-2009 Tayshas reading list.

--reviewed by Dail Sams

I'd Tell You I Love You, But then I'd Have to Kill You
by Ally Carter

Cammie Morgan, a.k.a Chameleon, attends The Gallagher Academy, a top-secret, exclusive boarding school for girls in training to be spies. She speaks fourteen languages and takes courses like "Covert Operations" and "Culture and Assimilation." Cammie is called Chameleon because she is really good at looking normal and blending in, an essential skill for spies. She never dreams she will get the chance during her sophomore year to become the ultimate normal girl. During a covert operation into the small town of Roseville, where Gallagher is located and where everyone believes Gallagher is a snooty, spoiled rich girls school, she is approached by the best looking guy she has ever seen. So begins months of sneaking out for "research" and "undercover operations" with Josh, aided and abetted by her roommates who are totally ignorant about normal guys, except the newest roommate, Macey, who really is a spoiled rich girl. Cammie not only has to keep her true identity a secret from Josh, but she also has to avoid getting caught by all the Gallagher teachers, including her mother, Gallagher's headmistress. Not the most realistic story in the world, but lots of fun, nevertheless. I'd Tell You I Love You... is on this year's Texas Lone Star reading list. Expect to see more in this Gallagher Girls series.
---reviewed by D. Sams

Odd Hours

by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is one of the most unusual and endearing characters in modern literature. (My opinion only, but a number of critics agree with me.) The Barnes & Noble website will tell you that he is one of just a few characters in all literature who can be recognized by his first name alone. Odd has supernatural gifts that continually draw him into adventures, usually involving truly evil people and a significant amount of violence. And shining through all the darkness is Odd Thomas, fighting, sometimes almost completely by himself, against that wickedness. Odd Hours is Koontz's fourth installment of the Odd Thomas saga. In this story, Odd finds himself traveling with the ghost of Frank Sinatra and his spirit dog, Boo, to a small California coastal town. There, Odd gets a job cooking for an elderly former actor. He's not there long before he has a terrifying dream in which a young, pregnant woman figures prominently amid a burning, armageddon-like scene. Odd has no idea what the dream means, but he knows he has to look for the woman. The moment he locates her, his troubles with the evil men of the town begin, and he finds himself in the middle of a plot to incinerate four large U.S. cities with nuclear weapons. Suffice it to say that Odd has his hands full for the rest of the book. Koontz has succeeded again in creating a tense, and frightening story of good against evil, featuring an original character, marked by gentleness and grace.

--reviewed by D. Sams

BEING
by Kevin Brooks

This book had grabbed me and was dragging me along by page 2. I had to keep reading. The main character, Robert Smith, discovers during a routine digestive tract checkup that his body is filled with alien stuff. He doesn't have any of the normal organs, but plastic boxes, shining filaments, metal bones, and white and black liquids. He wakes up before he's supposed to, and hears scary men in black suits discussing the contents of his abdominal cavity. He realizes they mean him no good, and proceeds to take over the situation so that he can escape. After being on the move for a couple of days, he makes his way to a girl's apartment whom he had met a year earlier. This girl, Eddi, has the computer equipment and knowledge to create a new identity for Robert, and she realizes she will have to leave her own life behind and go with him, because Robert's pursuers will never stop looking for him, and they will eventually find her. Within another couple of days, Eddi has arranged for them to leave the country for Spain. There they live a carefree life for months, and the plot slows down considerably. Within pages of the end of the book, the men in black suits track them down, shatter their idyllic life, and I realized there just wasn't time to tie up all the loose ends, of which there were many. I certainly hope Kevin Brooks is planning a sequel, or he will be leaving a lot of frustrated readers! However, unfinished plot notwithstanding, this is a great sci-fi thriller and a good story about learning to trust. Being is on the 2008-2009 Tayshas list.

--reviewed by Dail Sams

Not Like You

by Deborah Davis

I have to say that it took me until the last page to like this book. Another title on this year's Tayshas list, Not Like You has many of the things I really dislike in a book--a depressing plot, dysfunctional and angry characters, and too many "mature" references. But I just couldn't help cheering for Kayla, the main character, on the last page, when it became obvious that she would not allow life to defeat her.

Kayla lives with her single, alcoholic mom, Marilyn. For the fifth time in two years, Marilyn is moving them to a new place, because she just can't make things work where she is. Her solution for trouble is to leave. After a year in foster care a few years back, Kayla is willing to do whatever it takes to help her mom out, including helping with groceries and rent from her own earnings, even though she is only 15. For a change, this move is toward someone, instead of just away from trouble. Marilyn has found her own mother from whom she has been estranged for many years. But when they arrive in her home town, they find that Marilyn's mom has just recently died. They stay anyway, and Kayla finds herself making some friends and putting down roots. She meets a guy much too old for her, but he treats her well, and Kayla is smitten. Meanwhile, Marilyn's attempt at a fresh start doesn't go as planned, and she starts drinking again. This makes Kayla furious, and she finally decides that it's OK to live for herself instead of constantly propping up her mother. She steals some money from friends and takes off for Denver, where her boyfriend is living with his band. Some hard knocks move Kayla in the right direction, when she realizes she's done what she swore she would never do--she's become like her mother at her worst.

--reviewed by D. Sams

Check out the new Tayshas list for 2008-2009. Most of these titles are available for checkout at the LHS library. Go to:

http://www.txla.org/groups/yart/Tay0809.pdf