Baltimore County Public Library Summer Reading BCPL SRC discussion

Welcome to Summer Reading 2015!

This is the discussion thread you can use to post reviews or thoughts about the books you are reading. Every book review on this discussion thread will be entered into our grand prize drawing. You can also enter by posting your book to the 2015 summer reading bookshelf.

Happy reading!

I often find myself perusing the teen section's graphic novels and manga. In all honesty, this is partly due to my own disinterest in the "sexier"/sexist graphics and manga found in the adult section (I am dying to see any of the writers/illustrators battle evil forces in some of the getups they insist on portraying super heroines in...bah phooey.), but *mostly* due to the fact that I have two teenaged sons who've inherited my love for comic books, et al. We have conversations about some of these series that I really enjoy even more than the stories, themselves.

That's why I cannot WAIT for my eldest to read the trio of stories that make up The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. I'm curious to know what he thinks of dashing knight Duncan's reality (I was surprised and a bit saddened), Gran'pa Greenbax's final realization (I was elated), and Janet's acceptance of herself (you GO, grrrlllll!).

I'm a sucker for graphics which incorporate multiple illustrative styles. The three stories within The Eternal Smile are each illustrated in a different style. Each has a similar message, that I've determined to be akin to, "you are who you are so BE who you are!" but each is told in a different way.

I'm looking forward to reading another Yang's graphics (written with Sunny Liew) titled The Shadow Hero, which I picked up from the library with The Eternal Smile.

We may not read *to* our kids once they become teens, but we can still read *with* them and that's almost as fun :)

Bronwyn wrote: "How do you add a book to the bookshelf?"

Great question! From the "Bookshelf" page you will search for the book on the upper left side of the page. When you fine your book in the results you will click on the "Add to Group" button on the right. This will open a pop up, here you can choose which shelves you would like to add the book to, you can also add other information which is all optional. Once you save your changes your book will appear on the selected shelves.

The Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew, breathes new life into a long defunct super hero named "The Green Turtle" who graced the coloured panels of only 5 issues before being cancelled.

There are many things I love about this:
It is based on a comic series that may, or may not, have been illustrated subversively.
The story is well written.
The story is well illustrated.
Chinese mythology is included.
It brings to light the reality of early Chinatown politics.

Really, the only thing I don't like about it is the fact that the United States was/is so polarised. It's embarrassing. Ugh.

The Shadow Hero is an excellent origin story for "The Green Turtle," a character who didn't last long, but who will be remembered.

Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
I needed a light summer read after reading some pretty intense books. It was that, but it was not great. I don't feel significantly changed due to it.

Just finished reading The Walking Dead volume 23. I am disappointed by how boring it was. Not much happened. There is a new arc started but it's a young love thing and kinda lame lol.

Ellie wrote: "Bronwyn wrote: "How do you add a book to the bookshelf?"

Great question! From the "Bookshelf" page you will search for the book on the upper left side of the page. When you fine your book in the r..."

Thanks for the info! I had no idea we were supposed to be doing that, adding our books that way. I know I didn't do that before in previous years. Oh, my.

We could not see the instructions written to Sharon by Ellie. How do we list our books on this page? Thanks! Sheri K.

Sheri wrote: "We could not see the instructions written to Sharon by Ellie. How do we list our books on this page? Thanks! Sheri K."

It's Message #4 above. Ellie was answering Bronwyn who asked the question.

Off the Page
I've just finished this book. This was my first Jodi Picoult novel and I was curious to see what all the buzz was about. This book is a companion/stand-alone to the novel Between the Lines. This novel alternates between the perspectives :Delilah, a sixteen year old girl who had fallen in love with a fairy tale prince, Oliver, the fairy tale prince whose come to life and is experiencing the real world for the first time, and Edgar who swapped places with Oliver and is now living in the fairy tale. Each time the book changed perspective the color of the font changed, which I enjoyed. Reading Oliver's perspective was quite enjoyable as he was trying to figure out how the real world worked. It was a pretty cutesy and entertaining read.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 rating.

Sounds pretty good. The only Picoult novel I've read is The Storyteller. That was for my bookclub, and I thought it was a masterpiece. I could read it again.

I've created my own shelf for BCPS but how do I add it to the group's shelf?

Sheri wrote: "I've created my own shelf for BCPS but how do I add it to the group's shelf?"

Go up to the top of this page, on the right-hand side you'll see the BCPL icon with a list. Click on Bookshelf. The next page, you'll see a field for you to add the book you want. When you find it, click on Add to Group -- I think it says. I know it's confusing. I didn't even know we were supposed to be doing that. Anyway, I think that's the way to do it; I just added a book this morning. Like you, I made a BCPL shelf under My Books. Hope it works for you.

Sharon - you rock!!!

Bamboo and Blood
The Inspector O series by James Church has become one of my favorite series. They are set in North Korea and I feel like the author's WAY of writing conveys as much about this closed society as WHAT he writes. He doesn't waste a word - while writing about a place where someone is always listening and a careless word can get you killed... or worse.
The book itself is intriguing. You don't quite know what is going on... because neither does Inspector O. Ostensibly he's been asked to learn about a woman who was murdered, but no one is asking him for a report. You learn that people are disappearing, but only gradually figure out for yourself that it is because they are starving to death, as the book is set during a time period of great famine in Korea. And then there are those french cigarettes... The author does break from style and pull things together for you in the end, so you aren't left with too many questions. All in all a great read and a departure from the usual whodunit.

The Vacationers
This is a New York bestseller? I am starting to doubt some of their choices. I almost didn't finish it due to lack of interest. This is the story of the Post family's vacation to Mallorca which will celebrate the parent's 35th anniversary and the daughter's high school graduation. Other family members join them there. "Secrets" will come out and their vacation is well, in my opinion, pretty boring. I was so disappointed. My recommendation is to skip it.

Fahrenheit 451
Having read both books I now understand why, people compare this to 1984. This is odd, but interesting. I'm very happy this became a classic so that people would continue to read it. I'm also glad audiobooks are around to help with reading classics through more relaxed "eyes."
4.5 out of 5 rating.

Maus, I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Although I am a lover of history, World War II is not my thing. It has never been my thing; however, the premise of this book has always had me interested and I finally picked it up. This is such an emotional story told through an different medium than I normally see with historical books. 5 out of 5 rating.

Sharon wrote: "Sounds pretty good. The only Picoult novel I've read is The Storyteller. That was for my bookclub, and I thought it was a masterpiece. I could read it again."

I've heard reading Between the Lines before Off the Page makes it more enjoyable, but my book club was doing just Off the Page as it can be read alone as well

The Good Girl

This was a very good book. Mia is the daughter of a judge who is in her 20's. She ends up getting kidnapped. This story is told from several different perspectives before she was found and after she was found. As you read you are trying to figure out what happened to her and why she can't remember anything about it.

I just read F in Exams by Richard Benson. None of the answers seem realistic. I thought it would be a compilation of all the test answers I see in memes but it looks like it's all written specifically for this book and most of the answers aren't all that funny.

One of the librarians at my library recommended Y the Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn. The premise is that every male dies except for one. It is well written and I will be getting the rest of them out of the library next time I go.

I also read Take What You Can Carry by Kevin C. Pyle. The cover grabbed my attention so I put it in my stack. This is a graphic novel telling two stories, intertwined. One is of a man detained in an internment camp for Japanese Americans during WW2. There are no words during his story. The other story is of a new kid in town who gets into some trouble for stealing from a convenience store. It's a good read.

Amulet Volume 3: The Cloud Searchers

My 4 year old is almost obsessed with this series. Our bed time routine used to be an endless round of negotiating how many books I would read to him before bed. 3 was always the starting point. Books taken away for not doing what he's supposed to, books added as bonuses, if a story was particularly short, etc.

All he wants is Amulet. I have had to start our bedtime routine earlier so we can get through the books faster. He's never happy with one or two chapters. There's just something about this series. I'm hooked too. This book has both of us eager for the next one.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Shotaro Ishinomori

I was really disappointed by this graphic novel. I didn't like how it strayed from the original story. I didn't realize this was the original comic book series published based on the game. I was going to use this as an intro for my kid but I'll just do it the old fashioned way by letting him play :)

You Can Make Anything Sad by Spencer Madsen

Just nope. I don't know what I thought the book would be about but it's just daily lists of things that the author pities himself about. There are a few gems but for the most part his life is made up of first world problems and it's completely uninteresting. I'm not even going to add this book to the bookshelf because I don't think anyone should bother reading it.

Eyes on You
I found this book through the Overdrive "book club." The premise for this book was to die for. The opening was trapping. Robin just became annoyingly whiny after awhile. I won't ruin the mystery, but I saw it coming from very early on, like chapter 9 or so. The ending seemed a little rushed, but at that point I was getting really annoyed with Robin. I do wish we could have known the ultimate fate of the stalker.
I'd rate this 3/5 stars.

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
I've had an interest in reading this for awhile now. I'm not one to mention movies in my reviews but wow was the movie close to this. I enjoyed the art style in it. Also Wallace is the best. okay? okay.
5/5 rating

I just finished reading Matched by Ally Condie a few days ago. I gave it 4 stars. Here is my review that I wrote

I actually finished this book a couple days prior to this review. Matched is a good book, its not the most amazing book I ever read but if you are looking for something to satisfy your distopian craving give this one a try,

The Society that Cassia lives in controls every aspect of her life. Her calories are monitored, her job is chosen for her and even her physical activity. Cassia doesn't have a say in much of anything; not even who she dates and marries.
When she turns 17, Cassia attends her Matching banquet to see who the Society has picked to be her lifelong partner. She gets to wear a beautiful dress and eat sweets, both of which are rare in this society Cassia's match is her best friend Xander. She thinks he is the perfect match for her because she believes the officials don't make mistakes. However when she puts the Microcard she received into her port computer to review the courtship guidlines, she is surprised when a picture of a boy named Ky appears on the screen instead of Xander's. Her official tells her not to worry and to focus on her life with Xander. However, Cassia can't get Ky out of her mind and as the story goes on her forbidden relationship with Ky makes her question the world around her.

I would not like to live in this book! I think that having everything controlled by a government is bad thing. Matched is great book to remind us to be grateful for the freedom we have to choose and not take it for granted. We may not like one another s choices but we should still love the person even if we don't like the choices the make.
This book left me with a few questions.
1, Why are the citizens only allowed to wear certain colors except on special occasions.
2. How is a person's match determined? Does a computer randomly select a match or do the officials chose a match based on personality or other traits. Hopefully these will be answered in the other two books

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all the great additions to this discussion page as well as the Bookshelf!

Just to clarify, you can add to the BCPL Bookshelf OR post to this discussion thread. Both types of posts will enter you to win at the end of the summer. Any participation counts!

The Bookshelf will only let a book be posted once, so if someone else has already read the same book as you posting to the discussion thread is your best option. Otherwise, it is your choice how you would like to post.

Keep up the super reading!
Ellie
BCPL

Every Last Word
The author's note explains perfectly why she wanted to write this book. She did a good job. There were parts that seemed a little out of order or didn't make much since until later. The therapy parts were well done. Shrink-Sue's response to the twist was understandable to me. The Eights behavior reminded me of eighth graders at times. I found myself comparing this novel to We Were Liars I feel like it accomplished everything I had problems with in that book when it came to twists.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

This book, the first of the series, was just such a fun engaging read. There was a new little mystery at every turn, and like the Harry Potter series, I felt it was a perfect blend of kid power and curiosity plus another side of more serious issues the young characters were dealing with. Not all my questions were answered in this book, but of course that was only to entice me to read the nect one, which of course I will. Had an otherworldy feel to it, all in all, spot on!

Krystal wrote: "Amulet Volume 3: The Cloud Searchers

My 4 year old is almost obsessed with this series. Our bed time routine used to be an endless round of negotiating how many books I would read to him before be..."

ahhh i read this series! it was pretty dang cool, your kid has good taste haha

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die

While this book was a very quick read, it was very average in the beginning. The main character should have known not to trust anyone after the first incident, but whatever. Ty was the main reason I kept reading. The second half had a lot of "what is going on? is this necessary?" to it.
3 out of 5 stars because it was such a quick read.

All the Light We Cannot See

I enjoyed the concept, but I had so much trouble getting into this. I did enjoy it overall, but it took way to long to get into it. I should stop trying to read World War II books.
3.5 out of 5.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl follow a girl named Cath on her adventure through college. Her twin sister has cut her off and told Cath that she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is also obsessed with a Harry-Potter type book series called Simon Snow and writes fan fiction for it. Fangirl is the story of how Cath survives college and its struggles without her sister.

I absolutely fell in love with this book. It was so beautiful and amazing. The plot line was easy to follow and very interesting. People could easily relate to this book. Also, the characters were wonderful. The way Rowell writes get you very intrigued with the book. Months ago I Ickes up this book but immediately put it down because I did not have time to read it. I fully regret that decision.

5 out of 5 stars

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Buttercup is a milkmaid who lives in a village in Florin. One day, some nobles show up in the village and kidnap her. Buttercup is forced to marry Prince Humperdinck. However, she has already fallen in love with a young man named Westley. Buttercup has many adventures in this story that include being kidnapped and then being rescued by a pirate. Westley constantly appears in the story and foils various plots. Will Butttercup marry her true love? Or will she have to marry the rotten Prince Humperdinck?

This is a very exciting book. Once I read the first line, it was very difficult for me to close the book. There are many different plots in this story, and they are all very interesting. This book will remind readers of the fairy tales that their parents read to them at bedtime when they will little children. I highly recommend this book.!

A Place in the Country by Elizabeth Adler
3 out of 5 stars

Overall, it was an okay read-- not the best chick lit, but not the worst either. The characters felt a little contrived and the plot a little far-fetched and lacked reality a bit. The perspective also randomly changed every few chapters. While it didn't detract from the plot, I'd say it didn't add anything either. There were just a lot of ends that while they were technically tied up, were tied up anti-climatically. Like a few others mentioned, the title is a little deceptive because the story isn't about her running her own restaurant, it's a story about her buying it and fixing it. Another thing that bugged me is that while it was set in England, it didn't read like a story set in England at all. I realize that the author is American, but if you're going to set your story in England and have the characters be English, you should do a slightly better job at making it "sound English". In my mind, I visualized the setting to be more Vermont that Cotswold, England.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal commodity of all: the printed book. One day, he meets his young, eccentric neighbor, Clarise. Clarisse and Montag have conversations that causes him to question the job that he has been doing for the past ten years. Is this what he really wants to do? Are books really bad?

I was hooked the moment I started to read this book. It reminds us of the Cold War era, and makes me feel relieved that we do not live under the daily fear of communism and nuclear war. This book is also linked to history, so I recommend this book if you really like history. I also think that people who enjoy classics will enjoy this book.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I was going to give this a 2 star rating, but because of Oskar, I give it 3. I really liked Oskar and sympathized with him. I just wish the story had only been about him. The other story line was so convoluted, and I just couldn't get into it. I was touched by Oskar, however, and with his quest, and his love for his father.

I just finished reading Dead Ice by Laurel K Hamilton. I loved this book. It's the 24th book in the Anita Blake Vampire Series.

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

An Angst filled book about a girl who doesn't want to write but was given something even better to hold onto and write about. Being told she is a princess of a principality in Europe and having to deal with all that coming out in the open.

Ted Dekker's novel Red definitely contains a hero with an exciting story. It is the second novel in his Circle series. I read Black before the summer reading program began, and you'd definitely want to read it first in order for the plot of Red to make sense. This is a fantasy adventure series with Christian themes and parallels. The hero, Thomas Hunter, finds himself caught between two parallel realities, which he moves between through his dreams. He (and the reader) become unsure which reality is the dream. Thomas learns that a virus is about to be unleashed on the world, the outcome of which will be the complete decimation of the human population. In Black, Thomas races to stop the virus but is unsuccessful. In Red, he tries to rescue the one woman who is capable of producing the anti-virus that could save the world. These are long books but very exciting. For those with Biblical knowledge, it's interesting to ferret out the connections.

Americanah

It took me time to get into, but that maybe because adult fiction isn't normally my thing.
I read this for the Book Riot reading challenge topic for 2015 of a book by someone from Africa. No much happens on the outside, but so much happens at the same time.
4 out of 5 stars.

Through the Woods

This was a graphic novel. It was a little different than ones I normally read as it is a collection of short stories.
It has a horror element also.
I'd describe it as beautiful and eerie.
4.25 out of 5 stars.

Son by Lois Lowry

A young girl named Claire gives birth to a son, but her son is taken away from her. Claire lives in a place where feelings are almost non-existant. However, Claire still has feelings, and the longs to be reunited with her son. This book follows Claire's travels as she looks for her son. Claire wants her son so badly that she will give anything to find him--even her own life.

Do you ever wonder about what will happen to humans in the future? If you do, then this book is for you because society in the future is a main theme. I was hooked the moment I read the first line of this book. Those who enjoy adventure stories will also like this book. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Scout Finch is a girl who is growing up in Alabama during the 1930s. She has a brother named Jem who is four years older than her. Her father, Atticus, is a lawyer. In this novel, Scout soon learns about the racial injustice that plagues the region. Througout the novel, Scout realizes that her neighbors have some very racist views towards African American people.

This novel is an example of historical fiction. If you like history, you are going to enjoy this book. It reminds us of all the progress that humanity has made with racial injustice since the 1930s. This book wants to grab the reader and put him/her in a time machine that goes 80 years into the past. I would give it 4.25 out of 5 stars.

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Matty has been living from a blind man named Seer ever since he started to live in the Village six years ago. He came from a place where evil thrived. Now, it is up to him to bring Seer's daughter, Kira back to the village from that place where he came from. Meanwhile, evil is finding a way into the Village. Will the villagers find a way to stop that evil?

Messenger is the prequel to Son. If you are interested in possible future societies, then this book is for you. It is as if you boarded a time machine and traveled to the future to the year that this book takes place. This book is full of excitement! I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakesphere

The Montagues and the Capulets are two Italian families who have been feuding for years. One day, Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, meet each other at a party. They fall in love instantly. However, their love for each other most overcome the barrier of hatred. Which will prevail, love or hatred?

If you are a fan of romantic novels, then this book is definitely for you. Those who enjoy Shakespeare and other classics will also enjoy this story. Many readers will be hooked once they read the first line of this story. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Kira lives in a society where the weak are discarded. She has a twisted leg, and the only person who protected her is her mother. Now that her mother is dead, Kira prepares to fight for her life. However, she has a special talent that keeps her alive. Does the Council of Guardians just want to keep her alive so that they can use her talent?

Gathering Blue is the prequel to Son and Messenger. This book is full of suspense. When the reader reads the last line, he or she will be so curious that he or she will have no choice but to read Messenger. I would give it 4.25 out of 5 stars.