Jen's 2012 Book Giving Guide

    Christmas is quickly approaching and as I began my shopping today I thought perhaps you've started as well! Christmas is my favourite time of year and this year I am looking so forward to the smell of mulled apple cider, and our fresh pine trees, the sounds of my favourite Christmas album, and the crinkle of wrapping paper.

Below are my top recommendations for the book lover's in your life. If you shop through the link on Amazon you'll also be supporting this blog (and me) I hope the lists are helpful. It can be a challenge shopping for someone else. If you need a more personal recommendation just leave me a comment or send me an email.

Happy Shopping!

Be sure to share these lists with friends, grandparents and Aunts & Uncles!

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

Published by Harper Collins May 2012

Reviewed from ARC provided by the publisher 

Summary:

When soldiers arrive at his hometown in Cambodia, Arn is just a kid, dancing to rock 'n' roll, hustling for spare change, and selling ice cream with his brother. But after the soldiers march the entire population into the countryside, his life is changed forever. Arn is separated from his family and assigned to a labor camp: working in the rice paddies under a blazing sun, he sees the other children, weak from hunger, malaria, or sheer exhaustion, dying before his eyes. He sees prisoners marched to a nearby mango grove, never to return. And he learns to be invisible to the sadistic Khmer Rouge, who can give or take away life on a whim.
One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids can play an instrument. Arn's never played a note in his life, but he volunteers. In order to survive, he must quickly master the strange revolutionary songs the soldiers demand--and steal food to keep the other kids alive. This decision will save his life, but it will pull him into the very center of what we know today as the Killing Fields. And just as the country is about to be liberated from the Khmer Rouge, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a soldier. He lives by the simple credo: "Over and over I tell myself one thing: never fall down."

My Thoughts:
“Over and over I tell myself one thing: never fall down”. -This book is based on the true experiences of Arn Chon-Pond and his experience when the Khmer Rouge came into power. It is tragic, and disturbing. I am embarrassed to say that I had no idea this happened. I was young during this time period but still-while I was reading I kept asking myself –how did I not know about this? Sometimes I feel like I live with blinders on, which is one of many reasons why books like this need to be written, why we need to be reminded of the horror that can happen.  Books like this, like Sold or like The Boy and Striped Pyjamas, leave me shaken and upset but I think that's the point right? It's so easy to get caught up in our "western lives" that we can forget and/or ignore the atrocities that have happened and continue to happen.
What makes his story even more incredible is not just that Arn survived but that he has done incredible things with his life since. He continues to give back to his community and country.
I didn’t give this book a “rating” on GoodReads...how can I possible rate something like this?? Brilliantly written, this book is a reminder of how lucky I am to have the love of family and a roof over my head. A bed to sleep in. A silent night, without screaming or gun shots or fear of losing someone I love. It makes the worries of my day, small and insignificant.
An important read. Destined to be an award winner.

Other titles about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia: 
A Song for Cambodia - by Michelle Lord
First they Killed My Father - by Loung Ung
When Broken Glass Floats - by Chanrithy Him

Book Review: I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

Published by Little Brown for Young Readers -April 2012

Reviewed from finished copy provided by the publisher

Summary:

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?

Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

My thoughts:

I am a wimp. (or highly sensitive) :)  I avoid scary movies -even the previews, scary television (IMO) like Dexter  or Criminal Minds as well as scary books. This book sat in my to-read pile for some time before I had the courage to pick it up.  I like thrillers, but tend to avoid books about serial killers as they usually give me nightmares. 

 The main character in the story "Jazz" has had his own nightmare to live through. Being raised by a serial killer father...an incredibly successful one at that was no picnic. Though Jazz was raised to believe what his father was doing, what he was witnessing was normal.  

  After his father's conviction, he attempts to pull himself together but always lives with the fear that he will be like "Dear Old Dad". When the killings begin again, Jazz becomes desperate to uncover who the killer is and prove to the world (and to himself) that he won't follow in the family business.

   The writing in I Hunt Killers is superb. Lyga paints a dismal & disturbing picture of death with incredible detail. I couldn't stop reading. I wanted Jazz to be free of his father, and of his past. I was desperate to find out who the new killer was...(no spoilers here).  Did I Hunt Killers disturb me? Absolutely.  In fact, there is a paragraph or two that are still replaying in my head a week later. It's like once you've seen something you can't un-see it.  I'm not sorry I read it, but it won't be one I'll forget any time soon. Perhaps that's the point? 

Recommended for fans of Darren Shan, King, Kootnz, Jeff Lindsay, and those with strong stomachs. 


To purchase for your E-Reader

Adult Book Review: The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

Published by Knopf Canada October 2011

Reviewed from personal copy

Summary

"I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart." So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a young child, Moth's father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from her forever. The summer she turned twelve, her mother sold her as a servant to a wealthy woman, with no intention of ever seeing her again.

These betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes, where eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as "The Infant School." Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are "willing and clean," and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth.

Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a female physician, Moth learns to question and observe the world around her, where her new friends are falling prey to the myth of the "virgin cure"--that deflowering a "fresh maid" can heal the incurable and tainted. She knows the law will not protect her, that polite society ignores her, and still she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There's a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.

My Thoughts:

      In The Virgin Cure we meet Moth. A young girl thrust into the world of cruelty much too soon. I adored her. I wanted to lift her out of the book and take care of her, protect her and give her the care her mother never did. I am fascinated by the time period in this story, the role of women, the power of men, its amazing how far we've come in our society, but it's also clear there is still a long way to go. I loved that the character Dr. Sadie was based on a relative of Ami's, and that it was family history that inspired the book. I now find myself researching that period in time (recommendations welcome) I'm reading anything I can find on it. It's a testament to the book itself that it has inspired new interest in me. 
     I am a huge fan of Ami McKay. The Birth House (her other novel) is one of my all time favourites and being that it's found in the "adult" section of the library that is saying a lot. I've been waiting for this, her second novel for what seems like forever, but for an author of Ami's talent it's worth the wait. She is a skilled story teller. Her words are like magic on the page, and I often found myself re-reading line after line so I could soak up and savour the beauty in each and every word.  Highly Recommended.

Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

Published by Harper Collins October 11th 2011

352 Pages

Reviewed from ARC provided by the publisher

Summary

How do you choose between your family and your history?

A late-night phone call on a Sunday evening rarely brings good news. So when Sylvie, a recently-widowed mother of two, receives a call from the head teacher of the school she's on the board of, she knows it won't be something she wants to hear. The school was founded by her grandfather, and she's inherited everything he strived to build up - a reputation, a heritage, the school and the grand old family house. And with this inheritance comes responsibility.So when her son Scott is whispered to be involved in a scandal that led to the death of one of the boys he coaches at the school, it throws the family into chaos: Sylvie has to decide between her loyalty to the school that has been part of her family legacy for years and her son who she feels wants nothing to do with her. She starts spying on the dead boy's father, making an unlikely connection.Sara Shepard's compelling new novel tells how hard it can be to really, truly connect to people, how making quick, easy judgments can come back to haunt you, and how the life you always planned for - and always dreamed of - often doesn't always turn out the way you  imagined at all...

    I am a Sara Shepard fan. I really enjoyed the Pretty Little Liars series. Fast paced page turners are frequently the books that I love the most. There are a few "slower-moving" stories that I have relished reading as well. Stories whose plot, character development or language draw me in. Unfortunately, Everything We Ever Wanted just wasn't one of those books.
   The book has a lot of things going for it. Strong character development and an interesting storyline, and I had to finish it to find out what happened. I just wasn't able to connect with the characters. I felt apathetic to their lives and problems.  The one character I cared about was Scott, I wanted to know the role he played (if any) in the boys death. I wanted things to work out for him. When I think more about it I wanted life to work out for Joanna too. I really wanted to love this one, and there were moments when I thought the pace would pick up but overall it fell flat for me.

The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Published by Double Day September 13th 2011

387 pages

Reviewed from ARC-borrowed from friend

Summary:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

How do I even begin sharing my thoughts on this book? This intricately woven story has completely swept me away. The story moves back and forth through time, with many people & pieces and yet they all fit together perfectly. At the heart of it, is the story of love and sacrifice, believing in the unimaginable possibilities the world has to offer. The author's writing has a depth that encaptured all my senses- I was truly transported into The Night Circus and when I had to stop reading because my "real" life interrupted, like the patrons in the book, I rushed to go back as soon as possible. I long for sweet carmel apples, and chocolate mice, a red scarf and a silver card that gives me unlimited admission. I wish this Circus was real. This is not a book I will soon forget, and I hope the feeling that came over me as I finished the final line of the story, will stay with me, I'll hold on to it as long as I can. Highly Recommended -One of my favourites....ever.