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Showing posts from September, 2016

Throwback Review: The True Meaning of Smekday

Throwback review from March 2015 - I remember this one like it was yesterday!!! The True Meaning of Smekday is a middle grade sci-fi contemporary humor novel by Adam Rex. Hoo Boy! I think I’m in love!!! When young Gratuity (Tip) Tucci is assigned a school five-page essay to explain the true meaning of Smekday (previously Christmas, now the day the first aliens invaded and renamed Christmas), she ends up writing a WHOLE LOT MORE than five pages. Instead we get the full story of just what happened to Tip when she determined to find her Mom as the aliens stated that all American humans must migrate to Florida, how she joined forces with the alien J.Lo and kept track of her cat, Pig. I can’t really imagine saying more without giving away too much laugh-out-loud goodness! The True Meaning of Smekday is AWESOME!!! It’s very funny – yet also has enough seriousness and legitimate emotion to have a level of care and investment in the characters to make it, well, a

Throwback Review: The Princess in the Opal Mask

Throwback review from March 2014 - I have the sequel and have yet to read it. So exciting!!! The Princess in the Opal Mask is a YA historical fantasy by Jenny Lundquist. Just as with Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Ascendance Trilogy , this novel has a sense of a fairy-tale, of a fantasy, but does not actually feature any magic or enchantments. Somehow we all put it in the fantasy genre anyway; I suppose because it just has that vibe and time period sense. Anywho, I LOVED THIS BOOK . Let me tell you a little about it, hmm? Princess Wilhamina, since she was introduced to the kingdom of Galandria as an infant, has always worn a mask. Over the years this has caused rumors to rampage from speculating that she must be horrendously ugly, that a look upon her face blesses others, or the one that speaks to Wilha’s deepest personal fears – that those who look upon Wilha’s face die. Wilha herself does not know why she must always wear a mask, but she has learned to stop asking… E

Throwback Review: Shades of Grey

Throwback review from May 2015! Shades of Grey is a dystopian satire novel by Jasper Fforde. In a world where color perception determines the hierarchy of a Colortocracy society, what you can see is everything. That’s why Eddie Russet is trying to secure a marriage into the powerful Oxblood family to combine his better-than-average Red perception to their aristocratic name – yet those plans are upended when he and his father are sent to the fringe town East Carmine. Manners, rules and accepted mores in the Chromatacia seem a bit more lax in East Carmine – dangerously so. Beyond the normal fear of lethal swans and lightening, the sneaky Yellows seem sneakier than ever, the deMauve’s are angling to marry their horrid Violet to Eddie and he’s finding himself fascinated by a Grey named Jane. Riskiest of all is the knowledge Eddie begins to gather in East Carmine – truths behind the ordered, peaceful, rule-abiding Colortocracy that shed light on its deceptions… An

Book Spotlight: Against All Silence

The new novel AGAINST ALL SILENCE (pub date: August 23, 2016).  The book, which is a sequel to SILENCE OF SIX from E.C. Myers, will tell the next part of Max’s story with some recurring characters from its predecessor. E.C. Myers is the author of the Andre Norton Award–winning Fair Coin and Quantum Coin, young adult science fiction novels published by Pyr. It’s a fun read that combines thriller with computer hacking knowledge.  It’s a little Mr. Robot. After being a key figure in the exposing of government corruption, Max Stein has spent a quiet semester abroad in Paris, studying, staying off the Internet, and looking for his long-lost mother. But just as he is about to fly back to the United States for the holidays, trouble manages to find him once again. Max receives a call from Penny, his on-again-off-again girlfriend who is part of the expert hacking duo DoubleThink. She wants him to meet with Ada Kiesler, a high-profile whistleblower hiding o