Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction:
Saraswati’s Way by Monika Schroder. Semicolon review here.
Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy. Semicolon review here.
With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo. Semicolon review here.
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Semicolon review here.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King. This YA novel got a lot of publicity, maybe an award or two last year, but it wasn’t one of my favorites. In fact, I found it strange and somewhat tedious.
For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Semicolon review here.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Dead Bodies, Funerals, and Other Fatal Circumstances by Lenore Look. I didn’t think this one was as good as some of the other Alvin Ho adventures, but Alvin is still my hero—even if he is afraid of everything.
The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami. Bollywood. Lots of suspension of disbelief. Did you know that Mumbai and Bombay are the same city, just different names? I am ashamed to say that that bit of geographical knowledge escaped my notices until I read this kind of silly, kind of fun little novel about Dini, her best friend Maddie, and their obsession with Dolly Singh, the filmi star in Bollywood. (Yes, filmi is the word. I don’t know why.) Reviewed by Melissa at Book Nut.
Adult Fiction:
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. My review at Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint.
When She Woke by Hilary Jordan. My review at Breakpoint.
Nonfiction:
The Egg and I by Betty Macdonald. Semicolon review here.
I Loved a Girl by Walter Trobisch. I picked up this book at the church library because I remembered reading it long, long ago when I was a teenager (back in the dark ages) and finding it helpful in the area of boy/girl relationships, dating, and s*x, which are some things we’re dealing with here in Semicolonland. This time through it was helpful, as I remembered, but the ending was abrupt. And it didn’t exactly speak to the particular issue we’re confronting.
My Father’s Secret War by Lucinda Franks. Review forthcoming soon. “I liked it, but . . .”
And that’s it for 2011. I’m reading Winston’s War: Churchill 1940-1945 by Max Hastings now, and it’s not a fast read. It may take me a while to finish, but I am learning a lot about England during the Second World War.