VBPL Recommends

For those of you who may not know: Katie, Lennis and I are contributing book reviews/recommendations on a group blog along with other VB library staff. Feel free to subscribe for great recommendations every week!

The site is VBPL Recommends.

Or if you what to see what the three of us have reviewed individually, here are Katie, Lennis and my reviews.

Happy reading.

I just came across this quote and thought I'd share...

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be digested and chewed. -- Francis Bacon

Here's hoping you're doing a lot of chewing!

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

After our discussion of How I Live Now, I was reminded of another young adult book I read last October called Unwind. Unwind also puts teens in extraordinary circumstances where they are required to grow up quickly and take care of themselves.

The story takes place after a war between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice has ended, and a compromise has been decided on where abortion is illegal, but parents can decide to "unwind" their children between the ages of 13 and 17. The process of unwinding involves donating all of the teens' body parts to those who need them. For various reasons, Connor, Risa, and Lev are on the run from the officers who enforce the unwinding process.

There is also an added twist with the practice of "storking." This involves leaving a baby on someone's doorstep. If the family doesn't catch you leaving the baby, they have to take it in as their own.

The story is at times exciting and heartbreaking. I was impressed with Shusterman's ability to write a story about such a controversial topic without pushing his own opinion on the reader. I could not tell from reading the novel whether he was Pro-Life or Pro-Choice.

Unwind is one of the best young adult novels I've ever read, and I can't say enough good things about it. I couldn't put it down.

Coraline

Please remind me to read more of Neil Gaiman. Strike that. Remind me to listen to Neil Gaiman tell one of his entrancing tales. Yes his talents are many. Not only does he create a new world to explore but he makes it come alive by giving voice to all the characters that people his world.

Meet Coraline. No its not Caroline although the man who lives upstairs can't help mispronounce it. She lives with her parents and in an Alice in Wonderland turn of events finds a passageway to an alternate universe through a door in the living room. This is when it gets good. Meet the Other Mother and the Other Father who welcome Coraline and urge her to stay with them. There is something very strange however about these Other parents. Maybe it is their black button eyes. Maybe it is the strange sense Coraline gets by their insistent offerings.

Gaiman, yes, I need to read more of his stuff. Read his journal if you've got the time. Kick back and relax a bit...