Nick and Tesla's High-voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

Quirk Books

I have only great things to say about this book! I read it aloud with my son Gabe. He followed along for most of it and was so excited by the experiments at the end of some of the chapters. We can follow along and build what Nick and Tesla built to solve mysteries and save themselves.

Science and is beautiful and cool. I'm so glad there is a great new series out helping to get kids excited about science and learning.

Nick and Tesla are twins. They've been sent by their parents to live with their very strange Uncle Newt. Mom and Dad are studying soy beans in Uzbekistan and feel they would be safer in California for the summer. Uncle Newt has his own souped up lab in the basement where they can perform their own dangerous experiments. They even meet a couple of kids from the neighborhood to help them solve the mystery of the old Landrigan Mansion.

I also loved the interplay of Nick and Tesla. Tesla is the one always ready for action, the one who scares less easily. While Nick is the cautious one. Tesla is a strong and awesome female character!

I'm just can't gush enough about this book and look forward to the next installment!

*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

This was a thoroughly bewitching book. I really liked it. It is definitely not what I expected. There are some twists and turns and gotcha moments that really kept the story moving along.

Briony Larkin is the protagonist and narrator of her story. She believes she is a witch and we open with her pleading her guilt before the court. But then she tells us her story from the beginning and it begins with a boy-man named Eldric.



The prose is beautiful and lyrical, which is really funny since Briony doesn't like poetry and thinks she's terrible at it. We gain glimpses into her past and her family. She loves her stepmother and has nothing but praise for her but we as the audience know or at least feel differently. All is not what it seems. Why does she feel she's a witch? And what time period is she living in? It took me almost til the middle of the book before I was able to pin it down, but that's one of the beauties of this book. It's a totally surreal setting. She almost takes us in and out of time, even though there's no time travel. Supernatural beings exist alongside science, progress, and technology. The author was able to combine all very flawlessly.

But Briony was hard to listen to. She droned on and on about how horrible she was and why she deserved to be punished and unloved, on and on about her guilt. Though we never understand until the very end what's going on. So her voice became a bit tedious by the end, especially since we knew all was not what it seemed in her own head. I'm sure that was part of the point, though, to make us feel like her friends and family and not being able to get through to her until the end.

It's also not your typical boy saves damsel in distress. They saved each other and I loved that!

I only have one other complaint...the whole premise of the book/its world is that witches are inherently evil. This is a fantasy book and I get that but so many people were killed during the inquisition and witch trials throughout history that I get my hackles raised when these stories surface about witches. These stories play down that nasty part of history when they say witches actually existed and they were, of course, evil and thus deserved to die...

I will end on a happy note with one of my favorite quotes from the book:

"I think about the inevitability of death, and whether it's not that very inevitability that inspires us to take photographs and make scarpbooks and tell stories. That that's how we humans find our way to immortality...That's how we find our way toward meaning. Meaning. If you're going to die, you want to find meaning in your life. You want to connect the dots." (p. 351)

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

I read this one for my women's book club. I'd heard of Cheryl Strayed from her book Wild. But I didn't know she wrote for an advice column. That's where this book comes from. This book contains letters from people asking her advice and her responses. She also throws in a lot of life stories, so I'd almost call it a mini memoir.

It's pretty fabulous. I only have a couple of gripes that I'll throw out quickly. Her advice never really takes into account mental illness, but she does make it clear that she is not a psychologist/therapist and that her advice is opinion only in the introduction. I also realize that the people she gives her advice to wrote into her asking for her advice...But still. There's quite a bit of "have some will power and get off your lazy duff and if I can do it so can you" rhetoric. Some was needed and others? Well.....and the If I can do it, you can too is a bit much towards the end...

But really and truly most of her advice is pretty fabulous. She really talks about making the most of your life no matter what you've been through. That's powerful and much needed.

I'm just going to post a few of my favorite quotes throughout the book for the rest of my review :)

A woman who lost her baby six months into her pregnancy writes in about how to get through her grief, how to get unstuck.

(p. 22) "This is how you get unstuck...you reach. Not so you can walk away from the daughter you loved but so you can live the life that is yours--the one that includes the sad loss of your daughter, but is not arrested by it. The one that eventually leads you to a place in which you not only grieve her, but also feel lucky to have had the privilege of loving her."

Advice in love: (p. 18) "...Don't be strategic or coy. Strategic and coy are for jackasses. Be brave. Be authentic. Practice saying the word 'love' to the people you love so when it matters the most to say it, you will."

"Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will." (p. 133)

"When it comes to our children, we do not have the luxury of despair. If we rise, they will rise with us every time, no matter how many times we've fallen before. I hope you will remember that the next you fail." (p. 348)

This is definitely my favorite of 2013 so far.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Juliet Marillier did her homework. It was a beautiful and magical and romantic experience while reading her book. She really did take me away to another time and place. Granted, I never ever want to return to a time where I didn't have indoor plumbing or the Internet...that being said I wish I lived in a place where I grew up around Nature. Becoming to in tune with Nature that you feel her talking and walking with you. You know how to survive and help heal others.

I loved the magic associated with Paganism. I've been studying a lot about Paganism and I find it beautiful and I love reading about it like this. I recognized so many elements of circle casting and calling the elements, leaving gifts for the Spirits and Faeries. And also the clash of culture and religion between the Celts and the Christian Britts.

I cared about all of the characters. Sorsha's brothers. Each one had his own personality, and there were a lot of brothers. You could feel the pain of their father. You could feel the EVIL of the new wicked step-mother.

Even her love interest. I didn't even realize who was going to be THE one for a bit. But boy, such a pleasure to see her and Red's relationship blossom and grow. The love for her forest, her mother, brothers, and Red was palpable.

Just a beautiful story about humanity and love.

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Summary: Liyana is a vessel. Her goddess Bayla will inhabit her body while her soul moves onto the Dreaming. The other desert clans all have vessels being prepared for their god or goddess to come down and help save their people. Until 5 gods do not show up. Liyana's family leaves her banished when Korbyn the trickster god finds her. They set out on a quest to free the other gods and save their people from an encroaching enemy.

My thoughts: World and character-building are big ones for me when reading any kind of fantasy novel. It seems nowadays that authors just kind of throw together a world without fully fleshing it out and some two-dimensional characters to feel it. Not Durst. She packs this novel with myths, histories, and people. I was thrown in and immersed from the beginning. I love mythology and I am amazed when authors can make up their own for their stories and make them sound credible.

Goddesses and gods inhabit this world but they are all very human, with much to learn. I loved the interaction between Korbyn, learning to be in a body again, and Liyana who knows she should not be having feelings for her goddess' lover.

In the beginning Durst threw out a few stereotypes with her cast of characters but I think it was intentional to get the best changes and growth out of them she could. Liyana was a bit on the unquestioning and shy side but she really let her grow into a role of leadership and free-thinking. Is it really necessary that the gods kill those they inhabit? Why can't the vessels learn magic like the gods? The gods are supposed to love us, why are they so petty and selfish?

I just can't give enough praise for this book. It combined all of my required elements beautifully. I am definitely picking up more of her books in the future. And a big fat YAY to some quality young adult fiction.