The Hot Zone

by Richard Preston
Hennepin County Library paperback 316 pages
genre: non-fiction, science, deadly viruses

How interesting! I'm glad I got this after talking to Pam Silverain about it. Written in 1994, Preston covers the Marburg virus, then three different forms of Ebola. He makes science sound like science fiction!

Pages 79-82 describing what Ebola Zaire did to Sister M.E. is horrific! It is so graphic that it reads like a passage from a zombie book. To think of people actually being this sick . . . it's a wonder anyone can survive it. The mortality rate is 90% (or was, at the time this book was written).

The part where the military is moving in on the monkey house in Reston, VA kind of bothered me. I understand about not wanting to cause a panic (and the media is fantastic at whipping people into frenzies), but it seemed a bit over-the-top. It was also interesting to read about the different approaches taken by the CDC and the level 4 military virus-fighters.

Nancy Jaax choosing to work instead of going to see her father on his death bed . . . I think she had her priorities messed up. That and leaving her children on auto-pilot. When your job is more important than the people in your life, it's time to re-think your job.

Page 310 - interesting to think of viruses like AIDS or Ebola as nature's corrective system for overpopulation by humans. Not that I agree, but it's an interesting hypothesis. Ultimately, I found the first half of this book to be quite gripping and the second half to be over-blown and ultimately a let-down. (I am glad, though, that there wasn't a major outbreak of a deadly virus!)

Home, and Other Big Fat Lies

by Jill Wolfson
PRMS hardcover 281 pages
genre: YA realistic, relationships

Eleven-year-old Whitney, aka Termite, is heading to foster home #12. This time, she' going away from big cities and out to logging country. She is active, loud, and mouthy. Her foster brother Striker and Mr. and Mrs. McCrary are nervous about adding her to their family, but the lumber layoffs and spotted owl protection have affected everyone in town. Whitney's presence means a monthly check for foster care. Mr. Cator, the science teacher, is a major character. Other foster children like Honeysuckle, Connie, and Josh (in a box) all add to the story. Nice, light, touches on the challenges in store for kids with no real home of their own.

Funniest / most unique part is Whitney's misuse of common expressions - that "stuck in my claw" and other malapropisms.

Bzrk

by Michael Grant
Hennepin County Library audiobook 9 discs
read by Nico Evers-Swindell
genre: YA technothriller

I did not like this book. It's too dark, violent, and immoral. I don't know why some of my students have liked it so well. There are a lot of characters and it's hard to identify "good guys" because everyone seems pretty awful. Sadie McClure and Noah (Plath and Keats) were my favorites, but not by much. Nanotechnology is being used to control people's thoughts and the Armstrong brothers want to control the leaders of major countries. The twitchers of Bzrk are trying to stop them, but they're not exactly "good guys" in the classic sense of the world. The wanton killing was disturbing. I didn't enjoy this book and will not read the rest of the series.

I found it very interesting that the author referenced A Clockwork Orange (in describing blood). I also find it interesting that Michael Grant is married to Katherine Applegate. I like her writing style. Her stories are so much more human and relateable.

7 May 2014 added:
I found a note I made when I was about one-third the way through this book. Positives: futuristic / potential reality in terms of nanotechnology. Negatives: dark, creepy, scary / too many characters, places, events to follow / who are the protagonists?!?! Sadie? Noah?

Just Like Heaven

by Julia Quinn
Hennepin County Library audiobook 8 discs
read by Rosalyn Landor
genre: historical romance

This is the Honoria and Marcus story. I had previously read the "Miss Winter" and Honoria's brother story (which occurs after this one). Landor has a wonderful voice and I like the era and class of dukes, earls, and proper manners. Delightful, fluffy story.

An Unseemly Wife

by E.B. Moore
Hennepin County Library paperback 309 pages
genre: Christian historical fiction

I've never been a huge fan of Amish fiction, and a story set during the Westward Expansion is even less inspiring to me. Ruth reluctantly goes west with her husband Aaron and four children while nine months pregnant . . . I told Louie if he'd told me we were doing this, I would have said "have fun."

pg 71 - ". . . the end destination made Aaron seem wooly-minded, even greedy in light of the plenty they possessed." Although the reasons Aaron gave for wanting to leave made sense, they really had a nice life already. Why risk everything for more land?

pg. 96 - "This was not who she wanted to be. She believed the tenets of giving and receiving." I like Ruth as a character and her strength. She was a great protagonist.

pg 114 - Part II "Keeping Plain" . . . the delineation between the sections wasn't very distinct other than the lovely section headers.

pg 146 - "No, her children would not be baptized. They would choose at eighteen, the way everyone in their Fold did, and until then no one could deny them the glory of God's love. It wasn't theirs to withhold." I love this! Infant baptism vs. individuals choosing for themselves. It makes a difference!

pg 170 - When Bathsheba went missing, I was so sad. That cow was precious and meant so much to Ruth.

pg 234 - Ely and his bride eyeballing all Ruth's and Aaron's possessions . . . how maddening! I could identify with Ruth's feelings a lot.

pg 247 - Part III "A Wager of Bones" - I finally lost it and cried hard at the end. When Ruth and Esther (dear little Esther!) walked past the people who gathered to watch the wagon burning . . .

This was a depressing story. I still don't like Amish stories. We had a great conversation about it.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs

by Anna Quindlen
Hennepin County Library hardcover 252 pages
genre: realistic fiction, relationships

This was the January book for Eden Prairie library, but I was curious and wanted to read it anyhow. (At the rate I'm going, I'll be ready and able to attend a book club there in 2017. . . ) Although I'm familiar with Quindlen as a writer, this may be the first novel of hers that I've read. It was beautiful and sad and hopeful. Rebecca Winter is a 60-year old photographer who is in financial straits and worried about becoming a "has-been." When she sublets her NYC apartment and takes a cottage in the woods, her life is slowly transformed. I loved the characters - Susan, Kevin (yuk!), Jim, Ben . . . this book is worth reading and discussing. Beautiful.

Shiver

by Karen Robards
Hennepin County Library audiobook 9 discs
read by Shannon McManus
genre: thriller romance

Liked:
Daniel Panterro as a male protagonist, undercover FBI
mystery . . . what were the bad guys after?
reader - effective vocal work

Disliked:
repetition
sloooooooww drawn-out descriptions of things that could only take a matter of seconds real-time. This got very irritating!

Time Out

by David Hill
PRMS hardcover 117 pages
genre: YA mystery

Liked it, but didn't love it. Kit has troubled home life (dad is gone, mom drinks, they fight when they communicate) and runs to escape it. Mark is the "star" on the track team, but Kit can outrun him. One day when Kit is running, a truck gets too close and . . . alternate reality, black holes, teen attraction, etc. It was a nice light read, but not compelling enough to keep. It was on my weed pile, but is in beautiful condition. It will go.