Alanna: the first adventure

by Tamora Pierce
PRMS paperback 274 pages
genre: fantasy adventure

Alanna and her twin brother want to trade places - she wants to train to become a knight and he wants to continue his education (albeit as a sorcerer, not as a lady). Their distracted father doesn't know the switch has been made and Alanna becomes Alan of Tremond. She makes friends and one enemy with the other pages, squires, thieves, etc. in the city.

Dashes of coming-of-age, magic, and a portent of romance to come. Interesting, but it didn't blow me away. It will be fun to hear what the 7th grade book club girls thought of it.

Amy Inspired

by Bethany Pierce
Hennepin County Library, paperback, 315 pages
genre: Christian fiction, relationships

Interesting choice for book club. Amy is 30, an aspiring writer who teaches at a college to make a living. Her roommate Zoe is an unconventional person, also a Christian, and a writer who has been publishing. The tension between the roommates heats up when Zoe invites her friend Eli to stay with them until he can find a place of his own.

I liked the characters (especially Everett) and the roommates getting their friendship back. I didn't like Amy's dithering about what to do with her life. It seemed the dilemma of someone much younger.