I hate cliff-hangers!

I just finished listening to Ashes.  I heard such great things about this dystopian read, and I can see why.  It has everything -- love, loss AND zombies.  But just as it was getting really interesting...

CLIFF-HANGER!

Do we really need another apocalyptic series??

Whatever happened to the arc and structure of a story?  Beginning, climax, resolution??

Ok, I'm done.

3 decades, one cover

I like Pete Hautman. I've only read a couple of his books, but I like his writing. I can't muster enthusiasm for What Boys Really Want. No matter what it's about, the cover tells me it's something else. Every time I see the cover, I find it reminiscent--jarringly reminiscent--of Patricia Hermes' What If They Knew. Which I read something like four hundred times as a kid. (What can I say, it was a book and it was in my room; therefore it was a go-to when I was supposed to be sleeping.)

 It's bad enough when recently-published books have similar covers, but it's just weird to me when a book has such a throw-back sort of cover. But then I'm probably one of, like, six people on earth who knows the 1983 book, and of those six, I'm probably the only one aware of current teen books. But I can't bring myself to give this one a chance, because the only vibe I get from the cover is "it's the mid-80s and you're reading under the covers with a flashlight." Which is totally unfair to the book, but they're designed specifically to get our attention--for better or worse, I guess.

Anything But Typical

I read this book because it's on the middle school summer reading list.  I can see why it's recommended, but honestly I had a lot of problems with the voice.

The story is supposed to be told by a 12 year old who struggles with autism.  But the voice seems more like that of an adult... maybe even a therapist.  Jason not only understands the inner workings of his non-neurotypical mind, but how other people see and experience him.  I find this really frustrating.  Even the most advanced 12 year old would have trouble understanding how other people experience the world differently than they do.

The general story is creative and slightly cheesy.  He writes stories that parallel his experience as atypical.  The end is saccharine.

The biggest problem I have is that the kids who read this story are going to expect that children who are "different" understand themselves and how they affect other people.  Most adults struggle with this.  I think it sets kids up for a very difficult situation next time they meet someone who thinks differently than they do.

I Hunt Killers

A believable teen crime novel!!  You have to read this one.  Click here for my full review. 

As I Wake

This is by far the strangest book I've read ... well, in recent memory anyway.

I usually rate my books in LibraryThing as I read them but I just don't know what to make of this one.

It has the unsettling approach that Grace did -- dropping the reader into an unknown world. And I have to admire the author for trying to explain the world through experience.

But I'm just not sure I understand what happened. Maybe I need to read it again...

Books I read last year, from best to worst

1	Ready Player One	Cline, Ernest	5
2	Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key	Gantos, Jack	5
3	When Zachary Beaver Came to Town	KimberlyWillisHolt	5
4	Bad Boy: A Memoir	Myers, Walter Dean	5
5	Clementine	Pennypacker, Sara	5
6	The Things a Brother Knows	Reinhardt, Dana	5
7	One Crazy Summer	Williams-garcia, Rita	5
8	Ivy Bean, Book 1	Barrows, Annie	4.5
9	Close to Famous	Bauer, Joan	4.5
10	The Penderwicks	Birdsall, Jeanne	4.5
11	The Penderwicks on Gardam Street	Birdsall, Jeanne	4.5
12	Strings Attached	Blundell, Judy	4.5
13	Plain Kate	Bow, Erin	4.5
14	Frindle	Clements, Andrew	4.5
15	Matched	Condie, Ally	4.5
16	Blindsided	Cummings, Priscilla	4.5
17	The Running Dream	Draanen, Wendelin Van	4.5
18	Dead End in Norvelt	Gantos, Jack	4.5
19	Small as an Elephant	Jacobson, Jennifer Richard	4.5
20	The White Giraffe	John, Lauren St.	4.5
21	Rose in a Storm: A Novel	Katz, Jon	4.5
22	Schooled	Korman, Gordon	4.5
23	Touch Blue	Lord, Cynthia	4.5
24	Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto	Luper, Eric	4.5
25	Rot & Ruin	Maberry, Jonathan	4.5
26	Amy & Roger's Epic Detour	Matson, Morgan	4.5
27	Black Radishes	Meyer, Susan Lynn	4.5
28	Project Mulberry	Park, Linda Sue	4.5
29	The Higher Power of Lucky	Patron, Susan	4.5
30	Without Tess	Pixley, Marcella	4.5
31	Ninth Ward	Rhodes, Jewell Parker	4.5
32	Between Here and Forever	Scott, Elizabeth	4.5
33	Between Shades of Gray	Sepetys, Ruta	4.5
34	The Marbury Lens	Smith, Andrew	4.5
35	The Other Side of Dark	Smith, Sarah	4.5
36	The Scorpio Races	Stiefvater, Maggie	4.5
37	Borderline	Stratton, Allan	4.5
38	Daughter of Smoke and Bone	Taylor, Laini	4.5
39	How to Save a Life	Zarr, Sara	4.5
40	The Future of Us	Asher, Jay	4
41	The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin	Berk, Josh	4
42	The Penderwicks at Point Mouette	Birdsall, Jeanne	4
43	The World According to Humphrey	Birney, Betty G.	4
44	Zombies vs. Unicorns	Black, Holly	4
45	The Gardener	Bodeen, S.A.	4
46	Kendra	Booth, Coe	4
47	All The Broken Pieces	Burg, Ann E.	4
48	Stay	Caletti, Deb	4
49	Thirteen Days to Midnight	Carman, Patrick	4
50	Dark Eden	Carman, Patrick	4
51	The Death Cure	Dashner, James	4
52	What Happened to Goodbye	Dessen, Sarah	4
53	Wither	DeStefano, Lauren	4
54	Ten Miles Past Normal	Dowell, Frances O'Roark	4
55	Enchanted Ivy	Durst, Sarah Beth	4
56	Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25	Evans, Richard Paul	4
57	Bunheads	Flack, Sophie	4
58	The Skin I'm in	Flake, Sharon G.	4
59	Where She Went	Forman, Gayle	4
60	Turtle in Paradise	Holm, Jennifer L.	4
61	The Secret Year	Hubbard, Jennifer	4
62	Tales of the Madman Underground	John, Barnes	4
63	Hunger	Kessler, Jackie Morse	4
64	Liar	Larbalestier, Justine	4
65	Savvy	Law, Ingrid	4
66	Where the Mountain Meets the Moon	Lin, Grace	4
67	Rules	Lord, Cynthia	4
68	Jeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake Cadets	Luper, Eric	4
69	The Light (Morpheus Road)	MacHale, D.J.	4
70	The Mermaid's Mirror	Madigan, L. K.	4
71	The Rock and the River	Magoon, Kekla	4
72	Judy Moody, Girl Detective (Book #9)	McDonald, Megan	4
73	Cryer's Cross	McMann, Lisa	4
74	Luminous	Metcalf, Dawn	4
75	Recovery Road	Nelson, Blake	4
76	Throat	Nelson, R.A.	4
77	Delirium	Oliver, Lauren	4
78	This Dark Endeavor	Oppel, Kenneth	4
79	Rickshaw Girl	Perkins, Mitali	4
80	The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen	Perkins, Mitali	4
81	Anna and the French Kiss	Perkins, Stephanie	4
82	She Loves You, She Loves You Not...	Peters, Julie Anne	4
83	The Summer I Learned to Fly	Reinhardt, Dana	4
84	The True Meaning of Smekday	Rex, Adam	4
85	Boyfriends with Girlfriends	Sanchez, Alex	4
86	Okay for Now	Schmidt, Gary D.	4
87	Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines	Sheff, Nic	4
88	The Last Summer Of The Death Warriors	Stork, Francisco	4
89	Pie	Weeks, Sarah	4
90	Dust City	Weston, Robert Paul	4
91	See What I See	Whelan, Gloria	4
92	Miles from Ordinary: A Novel	Williams, Carol Lynch	4
93	Beatle Meets Destiny	Williams, Gabrielle	4
94	After Tupac and D Foster	Woodson, Jacqueline	4
95	All These Things I've Done	Zevin, Gabrielle	4
96	Dream Factory	Barkley, Brad	3.5
97	The Compound	Bodeen, S.A.	3.5
98	First Day on Earth	Castellucci, Cecil	3.5
99	Crossed	Condie, Ally	3.5
100	Low Red Moon. Ivy Devlin	Devlin, Ivy	3.5
101	The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane	DiCamillo, Kate	3.5
102	You Against Me	Downham, Jenny	3.5
103	Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief	Draanen, Wendelin Van	3.5
104	The Absolute Value of Mike	Erskine, Kathryn	3.5
105	The Lonely Hearts Club	Eulberg, Elizabeth	3.5
106	We'll Always Have Summer	Han, Jenny	3.5
107	The Big Crunch	Hautman, Pete	3.5
108	Everything on a Waffle	Horvath, Polly	3.5
109	All Unquiet Things	Jarzab, Anna	3.5
110	Framed	Korman, Gordon	3.5
111	Dust & Decay	Maberry, Jonathan	3.5
112	The Black (Morpheus Road)	MacHale, D.J.	3.5
113	Hold Me Closer, Necromancer	McBride, Lish	3.5
114	The Anti-Prom	McDonald, Abby	3.5
115	You Don't Know About Me	Meehl, Brian	3.5
116	Cruisers Book 1	Myers, Walter Dean	3.5
117	The Knife of Never Letting Go	Ness, Patrick	3.5
118	Trapped	Northrop, Michael	3.5
119	family	Ostow, Micol	3.5
120	The Fox Inheritance	Pearson, Mary E.	3.5
121	Keeper	Peet, Mal	3.5
122	Blood Wounds	Pfeffer, Susan Beth	3.5
123	Following Christopher Creed	Plum-Ucci, Carol	3.5
124	Sorta Like a Rock Star	Quick, Matthew	3.5
125	Bleeding Violet	Reeves, Dia	3.5
126	Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick	Schreiber, Joe	3.5
127	I,Q	Smith, Roland	3.5
128	Empty	Weyn, Suzanne	3.5
129	The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place	Wood, Maryrose	3.5
130	Feathers	Woodson, Jacqueline	3.5
131	The Replacement. by Brenna Yovanoff	Yovanoff, Brenna	3.5
132	Chime	Billingsley, Franny	3
133	Bitter End	Brown, Jennifer	3
134	Rose Sees Red	Castellucci, Cecil	3
135	Dark Song	Giles, Gail	3
136	Just Grace	Harper, Charise Mericle	3
137	Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact	Hartley, A. J.	3
138	Eight Keys	LaFleur, Suzanne	3
139	Saving Francesca	Marchetta, Melina	3
140	Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have)	Mlynowski, Sarah	3
141	Peter and the Starcatchers	Pearson, Ridley	3
142	Virals	Reichs, Kathy	3
143	The Prince of Mist	Zafon, Carlos Ruiz	3
144	You Killed Wesley Payne	Beaudoin, Sean	2.5
145	Violence 101	Wright, Denis	2.5

I almost peed my pants

This is the best audio book I've listened to in a long time. Jack Gantos has brilliantly written the experience of the awkward 11-year- old boy. Every character is meticulously flawed and charming. It's an obviously personal story.

The wide-eyed look at the quirky town of Norvelt will have you laughing out loud.