Extras by Scott Westerfeld. A nice little twist in the series. We get to see Tally Youngblood from Aya's point of view. Aya is an Asian girl who was a littlie when the mind-rain happened. O sea, when people didn't have to become pretties and have their brains messed with. She lives in the craziest city where everything is based on popularity. Every one of the million citizens have a popularity rating and Aya's is in the 600,000's when the book starts. That means she has to work for everything she gets. When you get up into the thousands you get bigger houses and more clothes etc. Very interesting set-up. Once again, teens may learn a lot from this book about judging others and putting importance where it belongs. I, myself, couldn't learn a thing from it. Seeings as how I'm already so famous and live in such a big house with closets stuffed with the latest fashions and such.

I do hope he writes another book! Although I did see a picture of him, Scott Westerfeld, flipping somebody off and I am just not sure about what kind of cat he must be. Hmmm... I guess I can read what he writes anyway.

On another note, I made posters for the bookfair as a contest for the students. They had to match the picture of the author to a picture of one of their books. Well, I wanted to include Cameron Dokey, since I have been reading so many of her books lately... and there was not a picture to be found. I searched and searched on line, NOTHING! Shocking... now I am just dying to see what she looks like. Take the challenge and see if you can find a picture of her. Maybe she has a horribly scarred face, or maybe she is a MAN! Think about it. :D

Washington Avalanche 1910 by Cameron Dokey. A little piece of historical fiction. It was a fine book. A little slow at times but not slow enough to make you put it down. A girl runs away from her wicked step-brother, catches the train, then gets stuck in the mountains because of an avalanche. The avalanche really happened in 1910 and trapped the trains for days, gotta love historical fiction!

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Wow. Loved this book. It is set in Denmark and I felt such a conection with the characters from Denmark because so many of my ancestors came from Denmark. I loved learning a little more about the character of the country. The main character is a young girl whose friend is a Jew, the story takes place after Germany had taken over Denmark. Sad times. Anywho, the book was fabulous! I like to think that I would have been a part of the Resistance fighters.


Specials by Scott Westerfeld. The Tally Youngblood saga continues. I didn't like this one as much as the others. I think the problem was that I kept thinking of a student in BC, Tim, that was into hurting himself. He eventually committed suicide, very sad. So, with that memory it was hard to separate myself from the story and I just kept hoping that the book wouldn't influence teens to be dumb. Rather the story should empower people to know that no matter what happens in their lives the ultimate control of who you are lies within. We control our own destiny. By the by, I didn't really like the ending either. But it is still a definite must read.

Golden by Cameron Dokey. I have been reading a number of books by Cameron Dokey lately. She writes a book that twists a fairy tale a little. This book is about Rapunzel, turns out that Rapunzel is really bald, true story. The characters are fun in this book and it, of course, ends happily ever after.




Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. This princess has a wide girth and loves food. She gets in trouble for eating all of the time. I like her. She has a hard life, that only gets worse. Wicked aunt and all. There is a little Cinderella meets Sleeping Beauty and some magic as well. Everything needed to make a great story.



A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson. Wow... do I love this author. She is way more "classy" than me, always talking about paintings and opera and ballet that I do not know a lot about. (Thankfully I recently checked out some Baby Einstein board books that showed most of the art she mentioned, so I was right there with her on that part.) She also uses words I am not familiar with like "epergne" (something on the table) and "shantung" (describing a suit) and plenty of words in French, Italian, Latin and who knows what else. I guess it is good for my brain to read things that stretch me a little. I do know much more about ballet than ever before. Anywho, loved this book!!

I had to wait a long while to get these books. I put them on hold at the library but I was at least 16th in line. So, finally, after a couple of months I got the first two books. Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld is super-dee-duper. After Breaking Dawn I took a long break from reading. Almost an entire month! OK... not really, but the other books I read were not gobbled, they were read just every now and then. However this delightful book broke right through my reading blues. I gobbled them right up. Tally Youngblood is an almost unwilling heroine. Stumbling into doing great things. I think he chose such a great name for her, especially her last name. Youngblood. Most of all the other characters are known by only their first names: David, Shay, Av, Croy... but Tally Youngblood, she deserves such a strong name.

Any who, the books are about a time in the future when they have taken away the issues of looks. At sixteen everyone is given an operation to become a pretty. The uglies go to school until they turn sixteen, then they can be turned into pretties. Young pretties party all the time and just have fun. Middle pretties choose careers and work. Crumblies just hang around till death. Tally's best friend turns sixteen before her and she is left alone with all the younger uglies at school. She makes a new friend, Shay, who changes her path forever. Pretties is the second book in the series. You can imagine what happens.... Better read them!

I am breathlessly waiting for the next two books, Specials and Extras. Coming soon, only one person is in front of me on the list. May I just say that I wish I had a hoverboard!

I Walked to Zion, True Stories of Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail, by Susan Arrington Madsen. This was our book club book for July, but I just barely finished it. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The book shares about 30 accounts of children coming across the plains. It was fun to read their experiences from a younger point of view. I cried many times thinking of how grateful I am that I don't have to try and make my kids walk across the plains and only eat some flour today. Most of the kids were super positive and many of them enjoyed the journey, just walking and playing. There was so much suffering, however. I am eternally grateful for the efforts of the pioneers and I am grateful for this great state we live in!

This book was one of Stephenie Meyer's favorites listed on her Myspace. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman was an interesting read. It turns out that Anansi the spider really does exist and he can come live in our world as a human whenever he likes. Who knew?

It is set in England with touches in Florida. A young man with a semi-miserable life gets to know his real family and his real self. The book is almost a thriller, not too scary, but with a little action. There is a little love... but I have found that when men write about love it lacks a little spark. It was a good book and I am glad I read it.

So... of course I re-read New Moon and Eclipse again before I got Breaking Dawn. I enjoyed them so very much... Then, I went to a release party at Hastings with Bonnie and her sister Sunnie. We also met up with my newly found cousin Mandy there. It was fun to look at the decorations and take fake prom pictures. They also had a dance floor sectioned off and I watched teens having a great time there. It is so surreal to be old, I tell you what.

I won a button in a trivia contest for knowing how old Carlisle was, 362 years old if I remember correctly. That was a bennefit of re-reading the books the week before. We bought specialty drinks named after the characters of the books (Italian sodas).
Great fun. But the best part of the evening was getting right at the front of the line. Even though a teenage girl butt right in front of us because she thought it supposed to be in alphabetical order. The register was for those whose last names started with A-G. She asked me what my last name started with and stood right in front of me because her last name started wtih "B." Silly girl.

Turns out that there were two registers for our line and I bought the first book of the night in that register. Winner! We were out of there so quickly it was amazing. But, then I had to read the book.

Breaking Dawn was a disappointment, but I am not really sure why. Ticee didn't like it because Edward seemed to disappear, there wasn't enough dialoge or character development, it was anti-climatic and the characters we had grown to love seemed to no longer exist. Maybe that was it, I'm not quite sure. But I can't say I didn't like it, I just didn't love it. Bummer. I will have to read it again later and see what I think next time. Oh yeah, and Stephenie, the easiest and fastest way to get more blood in our bodies is an IV. Just FYI...