Lari's Bookshelf

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie My rating: 5 of 5 stars As someone who was born in Spokane and raised for a time in Coeur d’Alene, I really connected with the geography of the place in the book. Junior is a Spokane Indian and he makes the hard decision to leave the school on the reservation to go to Reardan many miles away. He has to hitch-hike and occasionally he misses school because his family is poor and has no money for gas. He deals with being an outsider both with his tribe and in his new, mostly white, school. The relationship between him and his best friend on the reservation becomes strained, and many in his tribe view him as a traitor, especially since he also plays on the rival school’s basketball team. But as the story progresses, Junior discovers things like what it means to be a part of a tribe, and how he personally comes to terms with the enormous amount of grief in his life. Beautiful book! One of my favorites for always. Will rea...

Click to view on Amazon Leaving Fishers by Margaret Peterson Haddix Dorry has just left her small town, the only home she's ever known, and moved to the big city because her father was laid off at his factory. She is completely alone. No one seems to acknowledge her existence at her new high school, and she is readily ignored and even insulted when she tries to approach other teens. No one bothers to get to know her, except for a tight knit group of kids who call themselves "Fishers." They invite her to sit with them at lunch, and then proceed to invite her to their church activities. They shower her in love and acceptance and call her "friend." Dorry is so happy to have some friends, so she doesn't mind that they are a little odd. She tries to not feel uncomfortable when they pray over their food at school, and how they constantly talk about religion and God. Eventually Dorry finds herself at a Fishers retreat, where, she is unwittingly "wil...

Click to view on Amazon Genre:  Science Fiction - YA  (Going towards the   2012 Genre Fiction Challenge !) The question, "What would you do if everyone was no longer safe on the planet earth?" is answered by a scientist who concludes that the only hope for humanity is to send a bunch of teenagers into space. That is essentially the premise of The Comet's Curse (Galahad Series Bk. 1). The earth is casually orbiting the sun, when a comet, like a proverbial black cat crosses its path, showering the earth and a cloud of comet dust. Many find the phenomenon to be beautiful, but it turns out to be deadly, as the dust somehow contaminates the atmosphere and introduces a wholly foreign virus to the human race. The virus only seems to infect those who are 18 or older, and civilizations crumbles as people realize their days are numbered. When a scientist proposes the plan to send young colonists into space with a mission to colonize a potentially habitable plane...

Click to view on Amazon A Great and Terrible Beauty By Libba Bray Release Date: December 9, 2003 (U.S.) Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers Pages: 403 ISBN-13: 978-0385730280 (hardcover); 978-0385732314 (paperback) Genre:  Romantic Suspense - YA  (Going towards the  2012 Genre Fiction Challenge !) Interested in something with magic, adventure, secret sisterhoods, love, betrayal, sinister forces, and more?   A Great and Terrible Beauty a young adult novel which has all of these, and it is an interesting blend of different elements of genre fiction. It is the first of a three part series. The novel is set in Victorian England, and it follows the story of Gemma Doyle. It begins in India, where Gemma lives with her parents. It is her 16th birthday, and she is in the market with her mother. They have a fight after Gemma becomes angry that her mother does not want to return and take the family back to England. Gemma becomes lost in the market ...

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry Release Date: October 5th, 2010 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pages: 458 ISBN-13:  9781442402324 Wow. This book. Wow. I don't even know where to begin. At first, I didn't know what to expect. Sure. I read the publisher's description. Benny Imura, just another teen coming of age in a post apocalyptic world. Right? Kind of. Yes. But this is not just some cliche YA thriller/horror. This has some real substance to it. The book doesn't rely on the icky-zombie-gross-factor to keep the reader invested in finishing the story, not that there is anything wrong with that, but there was more to this novel than a horde of zombies and a collection of desperate survivors trying to figure out how to get by in a crazy new world. This book is about relationships between people. Especially the relationship between Benny and his brother Tom. See, Benny hates Tom. He thinks he's a coward. He remembers Firs...

Today, I'm highlighting books about girls meeting the challenge of having everything, even their rights as a human, stripped from them. These books are about girls in captivity or slavery of some kind or another. The thing I appreciate about all of the following books, is that they are based on real experiences girls have faced in the past, and even today. While the African slave trade among European and American colonists is history, and World War II concentration camps are over, there are countless girls still caught in international sex trafficking rings  around the world , as well as girls being brainwashed to be plural wives to men much older than themselves in the United States. Each of these books has a protagonist with a unique background, but they all battle the challenge of oppression. Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper "Amari's life was once perfect. Engaged to the handsomest man in her tribe, adored by her family, and living in a beautiful village, she ...

Ashfall By Mike Mullin (His website is currently selling autographed copies for pre-order.) Release Date: October 14, 2011 Publisher: Tanglewood Press Pages: 472 ISBN-13: 978-1933718552 Genre: YA, Post Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi What if the super volcano known as Yellowstone National Park blew its top? Alex thinks that it's going to be just another weekend playing World of Warcraft while his folks are away visiting family. What he doesn't expect is his house to catch on fire because of a super volcanic eruption thousands of miles away. The cataclysmic events that ensue describe a frightening world covered in a layer of deadly ash. The violence in the world after the volcano is described through Alex's experiences. It isn't long, after the deafening noise which lasts days, that he sees a man kill another for food. Alex realizes that to survive, he needs to be willing to protect himself, and utilizes his martial arts training to get by in this new unfriendly wor...

Clean By Amy Reed Released: July 19, 2011 Publisher: Simon Pulse (Imprint of Simon & Schuster ) Pages: 288 ISBN-13: 978-1442413443 Genre: YA Fiction GoodReads Blurb : "Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They’re addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. But they’ll all have to deal with themselves and one another if they want to learn how to live. Because when you get that high, there’s nowhere to go but down, down, down." This book is one of the best teen books I've read in a long while. It takes an unapologetic look at the ugly face of teen drug addiction. The five different characters in the book are addicted to different drugs for different reasons, and all come from different backgrounds. (Except the fact that they are all white, some...

After reading a news article about a fourteen-year-old, recently published author , I thought it would be nice to share some popular books written by teen authors. Teen Angst? Naaah . . . A Quasi-autobiography   by Ned Vizzini "Teens who have trouble gaining perspective on those eventful junior high and high school years can take solace in the witty and down-to-earth observations of Ned Vizzini's "quasi-autobiography." Reflecting on his time as a New York City student possessing creative flair and a taste for memorable anecdotes, this talented writer relates his experiences with Nintendo playing, high school cliques, buying beer, sexual opportunities, jobs, and parents. . . . Teen Angst? Naaah... is a hilarious look at getting older . . ." - GoodReads Page Halo  by Alexandra Adornetto "Three angels are sent down to bring good to the world: Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, a teenage girl who is the least experienced of the trio. ...

Do not judge this book by its cover. Ultraviolet By R. J. Anderson Scheduled Release Date: September 1, 2011 (U.S.) Publisher:  Lerner Publishing Group Pages: 312 ISBN: 9780761374084 (Print); 9780761379478 (ebook) Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Fic "Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her." Alison is a 16 year old girl who wakes up in a mental hospital. She has no memory of how she got there, but as time and therapy soon show, her last memory before her psychological breakdown was of a fellow classmate, Tori, disintegrating. Tori has since gone missing, and the community and police suspect Alison. She was the last one to see Tori and was found with Tori's blood on her hands. Alison believes that her rare abilities may have killed Tori. Immediately, I picked up on the fact that the narrator is a synesthete. Synesthesia is when different neural pathways in the brain, connect different regions...

I filled out another Harry Potter trivia quiz as I glanced ever so frequently at the clock at Borders. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was about to be released. I, and a few other of my Potter-smitten friends, looked forward to being one of the first to buy the much anticipated book on the stroke of midnight on the release date. It was the summer of 2000, I was 15, Y2K had come and gone without major incident, and a few weeks before I had discovered the Potter books for the first time. I fell completely and utterly in love with the world Rowling had built. I relished every chapter illustration, every backstory, every page, every new spell . Those books were the first in which I truly became emotionally invested. I sobbed when Harry lost Sirius in Order of the Phoenix . It has been 11 years since the summer of Goblet of Fire , and while my enthusiasm for Potter has waned and crested like a wave, I still love it. I plan on reading it to my daughter when she is o...

Ward Against Death by Melanie Card Scheduled for Release in August 2011 by Entangled Publishing , LLC 292 pgs ISBNs: 978-1-937044-08-4 (epub); 978-1-937044-09-1 (print) Genres: Romance, Fantasy, YA/Adult Crossover Here's a young necromancer who can't catch a break. Coming from a long line of necromancers, Ward de'Ath is still young and trying to make a name for himself. The story begins with Ward performing a "wake." This means Ward has been hired by nobility to bring a young woman back from the dead for fifteen minutes to say a final "goodbye" before burial. What Ward doesn't expect is the dead Celia Carlyle to awaken and enlist Ward on a quest to find out who murdered her. The plot picks up early on. Ward risks everything, his life and career, to aid Ms. Carlyle and solve the mystery of her death. Ward quickly realizes he can't trust Celia, and it becomes obvious that Celia views him as a means to an end. The reader immediately gets...