Anna and the French Kiss

by Stephanie Perkins
Hennepin County Library audiobook 8 CDs
read by Kim Mai Guest
genre: YA romance

This one is much more tame than the author's Lola and the Boy Next Door. Now I know which readers to booktalk which title to . . .

Anna's author dad sends her to school in Paris for her senior year. She loves neatness, film, and her best friend Bridget (back in Atlanta, GA). She doesn't speak any French and doesn't know anyone at her new school. She quickly makes friends with Meredith, Josh, Rashmi, and Etienne St. Clair.

At first, I was struck by how very young Anna seems - more like a fourteen-year-old than a seventeen-year-old. But then I thought of how often I've been uncomfortable reading about younger teens acting like much older ones . . . and it's nice to have this more innocent character.

Likes:
- details (old films, bananas and elephants, etc.)
- Paris!
- Etienne
- friendship and romance
- narrator's vocal work - superb!

Dislikes:
- repetitive whining
- pointless "pain" at imagined slights
- generally juvenile approach to relationships

More scraps of paper found in car (added 11.8.16):
Anna is painfully young and immature for a high school senior (but a nice change from an unnaturally worldly 15 y.o.) The first two chapters are vapid and irritating. The author actually uses the term "the female race" - wow. This was slow to get going. Almost boring at first.

The Boys in the Boat: The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics

by Daniel James Brown
CHS hardcover 236 pages
genre: non-fiction history

I'm glad I borrowed this from Chaska High School . . . I had tentatively thought about buying it for my collection, but with my budget in decline and not many students reading non-fiction . . . it wouldn't be a wise purchase for me.

It was, however, a wonderful book to read! This is the "young readers" edition. The story of the young men who rowed for Washington in the early 1930s (and especially the story of Joe Rantz) was captivating. The author alternated between the rowing story and Rantz' life story. Rantz' mom died when he was only three or four, he went to live with an aunt but got scarlet fever and was deathly ill, his stepmom convinced his dad to leave him to fend for himself when he was only ten, and on and on it went. His fortitude and perseverance amazed me. I loved his personal story the most. The "boys" and their strength, talent, and hard work took them to the Olympics in 1936 (Jesse Owens, Louie Zamperini, . . . ) What a great story!

I love the part on page 168 when he is looking out over Lower Manhattan and sees the Statue of Liberty. "For the first time, Joe realized that he and the boys would not just be rowing for gold. They would be rowing for a way of life, a shared set of values. Liberty was perhaps the most important of those values. But to the boys from Washington, America also stood for trust in one another, for mutual respect, for humility, and for fair play. These ideals were part of what had drawn them together as a crew."

This is a very worthwhile title and I'm so glad that the author got to meet and interview Rantz prior to his death in 2007.

Broken Soup

by Jenny Valentine

PRMS hardcover 216 pages

genre: YA realistic

Rowan (15?) / brother Jack died on holiday / little sister Stroma / mom is grief-stricken / dad is absent / Bee becomes friend / Harper drives an ambulance

I booktalked this then thought - wait a minute! The mystery starts with a negative . . . do my students even know what a photo negative is? How old is this book? Published in 2008, I guess it isn't that unusual. But I read it to see if it would still "work" with my students who are almost all Smart-phone users and social media fanatics.

Character-driven story, but I didn’t connect with characters or their struggles much. Rowan is parenting her mom and Stroma, but her attraction to Harper and new relationship with Bee don’t ring very true. Ending a non-emotional event (Harper moving on; Rowan showing her fortitude.)

Pg 81 is where title comes from – Stroma drops a breakfast tray she has made for Rowan, making a mess of food and broken glass. “I tried to make things all nice and now look at this broken soup!” I like to “find” the title in the text, but this metaphor felt forced. Rowan and Stroma are living in the mess of their mother’s grief and inability to parent them.

Pg 137 makes me sad. “We were never fooled into expecting an afterlife, life the life we got given somehow wasn’t enough. . . . “ Wow. If it weren't such a blase' book (for me, at least), it would have been super depressing. Dealing with grief AND no faith in an afterlife.

This was an easy "delete and donate" title. It has never been checked out by my students and is in beautiful shape.

Saffire

by Sigmund Brouwer
Hennepin County Library paperback 316 pages
genre: Christian historical fiction

Although I didn't like this quite as well as Brouwer's Thief of Glory, the story of the Panama Canal and political intrigue kept my attention. James Holt is an interesting character who was in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show and has Teddy Roosevelt as a friend.

Page 34 - this was funny to read as the Clinton / Trump election mess is in the news constantly. "After all, if one takes delight in observing vitriol, blatant lies, character assassination, cronyism, and corruption, then American presidential elections provide first-class entertainment - happily repeated by newspapers of all stripes." (In reference to the early 1900s, of course!)

I put a marker in page 78/79, but I'm not sure why. I really *must* get the post-it note bookmarks! It might have been the racial differences - very Jim Crow-like. Or it may have been people's response to the music in the plaza. Or . . . I really do like his writing style.

page 95 - I love when James Holt leaves his parting shot about feminism purposely to yank Amador's chain. "Waldschmidt made a sound like he was coughing on a hairball. Amador turned a stony expression toward the far wall. And Raquel gave me a warm smile with those perfectly curving lips. All told, three perfect reactions."

page 152/153 - when he shares how his dad taught him to stand up to his fears (the dogs attacking), it made me sad. Louie and I did some "tough love" parenting, but nothing like that!

page 207 - When he is talking about the technological wonders of the turn of the century - telephones, ten story buildings, Kitty Hawk, Model T, etc. . . . "And in this time of wonder, nothing was more wondrous than what was unfolding around me - the connecting of the oceans, proof that there was not much left for humans to achieve." I love that historical perspective!

page 258 - With the dying Gerald Dawson's confession, Holt is closing in on the truth! I liked the mystery element of the story a lot, even though I didn't connect all the dots very well.

Again, liked but didn't love this one. Would have enjoyed the discussion at book club, but we were in Maui!

Queen of Shadows (book 4 of Throne of Glass)

by Sarah Maas
Hennepin County Library hardcover 645 pages
genre: YA fantasy

I retain my love/hate relationship with this series. (I have book five on hold . . . ) I feel as though the author *changes* the characters from one book to another. Their motivations, feelings toward themselves and others, etc.

But I am still fascinated by the story line and am looking forward to seeing how it all ends. At one point in this story, I thought, "the evil characters and their power are too great. There's no way this can end well." Hmmm.

My favorite moments - Manon and Elide, Lysandra and Evangeline, . . . some of the unexpected parts would be spoilers, so I'll just leave it at that.

Loving Frank

by Nancy Horan
Hennepin County Library audiobook 12 discs
read by Joyce Bean
genre: adult fiction, realistic

I only listened to two discs. This wasn't working for me. The main character has an affair with Frank Lloyd Wright and is pretty obsessed with him. The rest of her life (husband, children) suffer because of it. I just didn't want to read the whole thing.

"In this groundbreaking historical novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly." Okay. I'm just not that interested. I think I was initially looking for more information about Frank Lloyd Wright after reading the book about Svetlana (Stalin's Daughter) . . . but I'll just check Wikipedia. I don't want to invest this much time in this book, no matter how fantastic it is.

Wisdom's Kiss: A Thrilling and Romantic Adventure Incorporating Magic, Villainy, and a Cat

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Hennepin County Library audiobook 5 discs
narrated by Anne Flosnik and Michael Page
genre: YA fantasy fiction

Quirky little story, but it kept my interest. The narrators did a good job with the different voices for the different characters, but I liked the female much, much more. Page's "Feliss el Gato" was so obnoxious I almost stopped listening. (I "get" that the character is a self-absorbed egomaniac, but it was hard to listen to him.)

From Goodreads:
"Magic, cunning, and one very special cat join forces in this hilarious, extraordinary tale by the author of Dairy Queen and Princess Ben. An incredibly creative tale told with diaries, memoirs, encyclopedia entries, letters, biographies, even a stage play, all woven together into a grand adventure."

Fortitude / Trudy - the barmaid who can "see" things (danger, hope, the future of a sort)
Thomas / Tips - the ne'er do well kid who becomes an acrobat in the Emperor's Circus
Wisdom / Dizzy - she bugged the heck out of me. What a flighty, selfish girl.
Benevolence / Ben - my favorite character, a queen with class and smarts
Temperance / Teddy - Wisdom's sister, we don't get to know her much

Enjoyed listening to it (mostly) but wouldn't buy it for my collection. The cat / dog piece was enjoyable.