January (5)
1. The Rose Society of Marie Lu (1/6)
2. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (1/12)
3. Star Wars, Episode 4 a New Hope: being the story of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and the rise of the rebellion by Alexandra Bracken (1/17)*
4. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon (1/21)
5. Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back So You Want to be a Jedi by Adam Gidwitz (1/28)
February (12)
6. Winter by Marissa Meyer (2/1)*
7. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Beware the Power of the Dark Side by Tom Angleberger (2/2)
8. Husky by Justin Sayre (2/4)
9. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (2/5)
10. Discovering We Moore by Wes Moore (2/7)
11. The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare (2/10)
12. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (2/18)*
13. The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith (2/20)
14. After by Morris Glietzman (2/21)*
15. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (2/23)
16. The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose (2/25)
17. Soon by Morris Gleitzman (2/28)*
March (5)
18. The Pennyroyal Academy by M.A. Larson (3/7)
19. The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (3/8)
20. Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (3/16)
21. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier (3/25)
22. In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith (3/26)
April (5)
23. The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten (4/9)*
24. Half Bad by Sally Green (4/10)
25. The Best Night of Your Pathetic Life by Tara Altebrando (4/15)
26. The Rise of the Elgin (Michael Vey #2) by Richard Paul Evans (4/16)
27. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (4/19)
May (10)
28. The After Room by Maile Meloy (5/3)
29. Body of Water by Sarah Dooley (5/6)
30. Pax by Sara Pennypacker (5/10)
31. The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg (5/13)
32. Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by Chris Raschka (5/16)*
33. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo (5/19)*
34. Jack by Liesl Shurtliff (5/26)
35. The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd (5/27)*
36. Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle (5/28)*
37. Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner (5/29)
June (7)
38. Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone (6/4)
39. 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith (6/11)*
40. Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (6/16)
41. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild (6/17)
42. Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick (6/19)*
43. How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon (6/27)
44. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (6/28)
July (16)
45. The Name of the Blade by Zoe Marriott (7/2)
46. Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart (7/2)*
47. Tombquest Book 3: The Valley of the Kings by Michael Northrop (7/3)
48. Red: the true story of Red Riding Hood by Liesl Shurtliff (7/5)*
49. Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray (7/6)
50. I was Here by Gayle Forman (7/10)
51. Will Sparrow's Road by Karen Cushman (7/11)
52. Arcady's Goal by Eugene Yelchin (7/11)
53. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (7/15)
54. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (7/16)
55. Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy (7/20)
56. Standoff by Andrew Smith (7/26)*
57. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (7/27)
58. Being Jazz: my life as a transgender teen by Jazz Jennings (7/28)
59. Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (7/31)*
60. Juba! A Novel by Walter Dean Myers (7/31)
August (11)
61. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savitt (8/6)
62. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez (8/7)*
63. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (8/12)*
64. Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudson (8/15)*
65. The Last Star by Rick Yancey (8/19)
66. Firefly Hollow by Alison McGhee (8/20)*
67. Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (8/24)
68. Riot by Walter Dean Myers (8/27)
71. The Prince without a Kingdom by Timothée de Fombelle (8/28)*
72. Grimm's Fairy Tales Read by an award-winning cast (8/31)
September (7)
73. An Ember in Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (9/6)*
74. A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord (9/9)*
75. Run by Kody Keplinger (9/11)*
76. Audacity Jones to the Rescue (9/12)
77. Neil Armstrong is My Uncle: and other lies Muscle Man McGinty told me by Nan Marino (9/15)
78. Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty (9/ 22)*
79. A Torch against the Night by Sabaa Tahir (9/25)*
October (9)
80. Jackaby by William Ritter (10/2)*
81. Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older (10/8)*
82. The Bronze Key by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare (1010)*
83. The Best Man by Richard Peck (10/13)
84. Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to (Not) Growing Up by Tommy Greenwald (10/14)
85. The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork (10/16)
86. Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.k. Johnston (10/22)
87. Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet (10/23)
88. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (10/29)*
November (9)
89. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (11/2)*
90. Masterminds by Gordon Korman (11/2)
91. Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (11/8)
92. The Job: true tales from the life of a New York City cop by Steve Osborne (11/13)
93. One More Thing: stories and other stories by B.J. Novak (11/15)
94. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (11/16)
95.Masterminds Book 2: Criminal Destiny by Gordon Korman (11/20)
96. Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead (11/26)
97. Ashes by Laurie Halse Anderson (11/28)*
December (10)
98. The Haunting of Falcon House by Eugene Yelchin (12/4)
99. Heartless by Marissa Meyer (12/11)*
100. Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan (12/14)*
101. Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley (12/17)
102. Booked by Kwame Alexander (12/17)
103. Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen (12/18)*
104. Samurai Rising: the epic life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela S. Turner (12/20)*
105. Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm (12/22)
106. The Secret Language of Sisters by Luanne Rice (12/29)
107. The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (12/31)
Samurai Rising: the epic life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela S. Turner. Unabridged audiobook on four compact discs. Four hours and fifty-one minutes. Narrated by Brian Nishii. Recorded Books, August, 2016.
I must confess that it took me three tries to get through this biography. It had more to do with my aversion to violence and war stories than the writing. I also had trouble with keeping all the names straight. I had received a review copy from the author and felt guilty not reading it. The book certainly did not need my review. It received a number of stars and glowing reviews. Then, the author posted about how thrilled she was with the audiobook and I had my way into Samurai Rising.*
The life of Minamoto Yoshitsune was short and tragic. He was an infant when his father, a powerful samurai warrior was beheaded by a rival samurai family. Minamoto's young life was spared (his older brothers were not so lucky) and he was sent to live in a monastery and ultimately train as a priest. He had a warrior's heart though and escaped as soon as possible to train as a samurai. His half-brother was raising an army of samurai to exact revenge for their father and Minamoto joined him. He soon proved himself to be a brilliant, though reckless warrior. The body count is high and the deaths are pitiless and gruesome. Some thought Minamoto a hero, others despised him, his half-brother among the latter. This book is not for the easily queasy!
The narration by Brian Nishii, with his calm voice and fluid pronunciations of all the names and places enhanced my enjoyment of the book. I did miss the inky, watery illustrations and maps drawn by Gareth Hinds, but the book was not far.
A timeline follows the conclusion of the biography. The book was meticulously researched with nearly fifty pages of source notes; but reads like an action/ adventure tale. A six-page bibliography follows, concluding with an index.
Give this book to readers who enjoy history, biography and/ or war stories. Because of the violence, the title is better suited for grades seven and up though I would've let my history buff son read it earlier.
*Thank goodness for audiobooks! I am such a fan of reading with my ears and always have two going. I will always try a book I'm having trouble getting into on audio before abandoning a title altogether.
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Unabridged audiobook on 12 compact discs. 13.5 hours. Read by Fiona Hardingham and Steve West. Listening Library, 2015. 978110890776. (Review from finished copy borrowed from the public library)
An Ember in the Ashes was one of the most hyped debuts of 2015. It was on my tbr from before its publication but I wasn't able to get to it until I found it on audio. Wowzers, am I sorry it took so long! Epic storytelling, intriguing characters and vivid world building along with spectacular performances by new-to-me narrators, Fiona Hardingham and Steve West.
The action starts with a bang as Laia and her brother, Darin attempt to escape a Mask raid of the home they share with their Scholar grandparents, Nan and Pop. Laia suspects her brother is working with the Empire thanks to the smell of metal and the sketches of weapons in his sketchbook. But the Masks arrive to arrest Darin for treason. So, is he working for the Resistance? Laia's parents and much older sister died working for the resistance. She is not smart and brave like them. At Daren's insistence, she flees; but has no idea where to find refuge. The Marshals and the Masks have an iron-fisted hold on the mostly oppressed population of the Empire. In desperation, she searches the catacombs for the Resistance.
Chapters alternate between the first-person narrations of Laia and Elias. Elias is about to graduate from his Mask training. He is Blackcliff Academy's most brilliant and gifted student; but he hates what he is being trained to do and is plotting escape. But no one deserts the Academy. Deserters are always caught and always tortured, usually to death.
The emperor protects himself with elite guards but there is a power struggle going on among the elite in addition to attempts at sedition by the Resistance. Elias finds himself entangled in a three-way competition to become the new emperor. He crosses paths with Laia and their fates become entwined.
Why do fantasy books always seem to be narrated by British narrators? Hardingham and West's performances were pitch-perfect. It turns out Hardingham is not new to me. She narrated another favorite audiobook of mine, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Hardingham's musical voice conveys Laia's fear well. West's growly snarl is my newest voice crush. (I mentioned this in a FB post and someone posted his picture to my timeline - he's not hard on the eyes either!)
A Torch against the Night by Sabaa Tahir. Unabridged audiobook on 13 compact discs. 15 hours. Read by Fiona Hardingham, Steve West, and Katharine McEwan. Listening Library 2016. (Review from purchased finished copy)
The only good thing about being late to the party around a smash hit it that there is less time to wait to read the sequel. I did need to buy my copy though because none of the libraries in my library cooperative had acquired the audiobook yet.
A third narrator was added to A Torch against the Night. Helene's POV alternates with Laia's and Elias' POV and it's quite effective. Not wanting to unintentionally spoil either book one or two, I will say that A Torch against the Night was such a satisfying sequel. It hits the ground running and the suspense remains high for most of the book. I did not skip a day of reading with my ears and had to double up for the final discs. My heart was in my throat for most of the books. There were so many twists and turns and I loved the addition of the Bloodshrike's point of view. There were tears when a favorite character dies and shrieks at a fairly big and surprising reveal. The violence quotient remains high. There was lots of brutality. I cannot wait for the next book and hear that two more are planned.
The performances were first-rate. I highly recommend this series.
Sigh. There was a time when I reviewed everything I read. Then, I reviewed only what I really liked. Lately, I realized that I am not even doing that! I never reviewed two audiobooks that totally blew me away this summer. So here's a double review of two historical fictions not to be missed.
Both of these feature totally fictional characters set during a notable historical event, neither of which, I am embarrassed to admit, I had ever heard. But then, I always learn the most interesting things by reading literature for young people.
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez. Unabridged audiobook on 10 compact discs, 12 hrs., 50 mins. Read by Benita Robledo and Lincoln Hoppe. Listening Library, 2016. 9780735289475. (Purchased)
Set in New London, Texas in 1937, where a deadly explosion at a school killed scores of children, Out of Darkness tells the story of Naomi and Wash. Fifteen-year-old Naomi is Mexican and her five-year-old half-siblings are bi-racial. They've recently been summoned by Naomi's white stepfather to live as a family in New London. Her half-siblings mix easily but Naomi is immediately confronted with racial hatred aimed at Mexicans. All the boys in her high school make assumptions and all the girls hate her because of those assumptions compounded by her beauty and apparent disinterest. She does, reluctantly at first, become interested in Wash, an ambitious African American boy with college prospects. She and Henry, her step-father, share a terrible secret. Henry has supposedly repented and become a Christian, but with each passing day, his resolve waivers and Naomi finds herself the object of his advances.
This just shredded my heart to bits. Nothing like listening to a book and knowing from disc one that lots of terrible things are going to happen. Evocative and layered, this elicited so many emotions-like falling in love with the characters and wanting to keep them safe; like the fury of unrelenting wrongs and injustice. This was one tough but powerful read. The audio performance was first-rate. The narration by new-to-me narrator, Benita Robledo was commanding. I will definitely be interested in listening to more of her performances. Lincoln Hoppe served as the voice of the "Greek Chorus." Highly recommended!
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Unabridged audiobook on 7 compact discs (8 hrs., 48 min.) Read by Jorjeana Marie, Cassandra Morris, Will Damron and Michael Crouch. Listening Library, 2016. 9780147525451. (Purchased)
Salt to the Sea is told from the points of view of four young people as the losing German army retreats from Russian forces across East Prussia. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse shepherding a group of refugees to Gotenhofan to attempt to gain passage on the ship, Wilhelm Gustloff. She encounters Emelia, a young Polish girl and Florian, a deserting German soldier. There's also the POV of Alfred, a delusional German Navy seaman who finds multiple ways of shirking his responsibility. Each hides secrets both tragic and dangerous. The chapters are short as the point of view shifts quickly from person to person. Be patient with the set-up for as the pieces of this puzzle begin to fit together, the suspense will prevent you from putting the book down (or, in my case, stop listening). So will the love you may be surprised to have for some of the characters. Even the secondary characters are so vividly drawn that I wept over some.
I was unaware that the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlaff was the worst maritime disaster in history. As she did in Between Shades of Gray, Ms. Sepetys brings a little known segment of World War II to vivid life. While all the characters are completely fictional, what happened to them in the book, really happened to refugees.
The four performers did a wonderful job. Three of the four were new-to-me narrators. Cassandra Morris' performance as Emelia was particularly affecting. I'm not sure who voiced Alfred, but his portrayal was creepily smarmy as fitting Alfred. Great job.
Both books will require a sophisticated reader for both structure and content with Out of Darkness being more appropriate to a high school reader. Out of Darkness won a Printz Honor in January and Salt to the Sea is getting some award buzz for the 2017 season.
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith. Unabridged audiobook download. 9 hours, 19 minutes. Read by Philip Church. Listening Library, 2014. (Free download courtesy of Audiobooksync.com)
Because Grasshopper Jungle reviews indicated a mature audience and I work in a 5th through 8th grade middle school, my copy of it languished on my tbr since it pubbed. I wanted to read it, but kept moving more age-appropriate books ahead. I tend to read more mature YA books with my ears so when audiobooksync offered it (and many other fantastic titles) this summer, I marked my calendar.
Toward the end of this past school year, two eighth graders, a boy and a girl, who are vociferous readers were combing my shelves in search of a book to read. It really became a long and rambling book talk as titles were recommended but one or both had already read them. Somehow Andrew Smith came up. The boy threw his hands over his eyes and staggered back saying, "Grasshopper Jungle! Oh my god! That book traumatized me! I am scarred for life!" He would not elaborate when I asked what he meant. The girl, an aspiring actress, with sophisticated and eclectic taste, rolled her eyes and asked me if I read it. When I responded that I had not but wanted to, she told me that it was intense and mature but pretty good.
Two excellent readers. Two wildly different reactions. One ready. One not. I happen to know both fairly well. The boy had commented that other books "traumatized" him - usually books with themes of sexual identity. I think he may be struggling. It doesn't stop him from seeking more out.
After reading the mindf*ck that is Grasshopper Jungle, I get it. Crude, lewd, hilarious, complex, loopy, and brilliant. It's a story about friendship, first love, sexuality, politics, unethical scientific research, survival, and the telling of history. It's pretty bloody brilliant but not for everyone.
The new-to-me-narrator's performance was perfectly voiced and perfectly paced.
