The Sunday Salon (on Monday)

Good morning and a belated Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/whatever you celebrate to you all! My Christmas was quiet but very enjoyable, my mother-in-law cooked a delicious meal and we had wonderful quality time with my husband’s side of the family. The weather was gorgeous (almost 80 degrees in Tampa, where my in-laws live) so that was a nice bonus. Unfortunately, I’m not feeling well at all, so I plan to take the rest of today to relax and hopefully my immune system will kill whatever is making me feel so yucky.

As many of you know, I’m traveling to Chicago on Thursday for New Years/my birthday weekend. I’m beyond excited, and I’m really hoping I’ll be able to kick this cold by then! That being said, I’ve decided to take the rest of the year off blogging. I was going to schedule some reviews for this week but as I’m not feeling up to it I’m just going to hold off until next year. I probably will not be around next weekend at all as I will be too busy enjoying the little time I have with family and friends back “home”.

The benefit of holding off on reviews is that I have enough unwritten reviews to last me almost the entire month of January already! And many of these were books I adored. So get excited about those for next year.

That said, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I’m wishing you a wonderful New Years as well. I hope the close of 2011 brings you much happiness and love. As I am reflecting back on this year and what I am thankful for, I have to say that I am so very thankful for all of you who read my blog, comment, and encourage me along the way. I have made so many wonderful friends through this blog and I am so grateful for each and every one of you.

Happy New Year.

The Truth of the Matter by Andrew Klavan

The Truth of the Matter by Andrew Klavan
Published by Thomas Nelson

Charlie West has just woken up in a terrorist torture chamber, with no memory of the last year of his life. All he knows is that he must find the agent named Waterman, who will hopefully shed some light on the memories Charlie will need to unlock in his mind. What he doesn’t know is that a group of terrorists, intent on protecting their cause no matter the cost, are searching for Charlie, and because he’s been trying to stop them for the last year, they plan to kill him as soon as they track him down.

This is going to be a very short review because, as this book was the third in a series that I hadn’t read the rest of, I can’t say it did much for me. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the book, but rather that I was somewhat lost throughout the majority of the novel. The author does a decent job catching the reader up through flashbacks, and the fact that Charlie needs to learn what has happened to him certainly helps, but I still felt like I was dropped into the middle of this thing out of the clear blue sky with no understanding of what was going on.

That’s not to say that The Truth of the Matter is a bad book – in fact, the writing is quite good and the story is definitely engaging – but it would have been a much better book for me personally if I was caught up on the rest of the series.

If you or someone in your life is looking for an action-packed novel with a Christian theme, the Homelanders series by Andrew Klavan would be a good choice, but my advice is to start from the beginning of this series for maximum enjoyment.

A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes

A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes
Published by Zondervan

Mary Rudine, called Mister, is a good Christian girl who goes to church and obeys her mother and God. But when she meets Trey, everything she thought she knew about herself evaporates as she is drawn in by his gorgeous face and charming personality. One mistake leads to a huge secret, and as Mister struggles with this huge decision she must make, she turns to Mary, a teen in a similar situation, for comfort.

A Girl Named Mister is a novel written in verse, a format I’ve come to realize is kind of polarizing. Most people either love these kinds of books or can’t stand them. Fortunately, I’m in the love it camp so from the beginning, I knew this book was going to work for me.

I felt intense compassion for Mister as soon as I began reading her story. She had made a mistake, yes, but this mistake was about to change the entire course of her life. What’s worse, she didn’t know how her mother would react so she didn’t feel that she could share her secret with anyone, leaving her feeling incredibly lonely and isolated. The juxtaposition of Mary’s story with Mister’s was an interesting choice on the part of Grimes, I think, but it worked well. Both girls were struggling with a huge secret, one that they could only take to God, and both girls ended up with a deeper understanding of God’s love because of it. While their stories were hugely different, I could see how Grimes made the connection between the two and it helped me see Mary’s story in a whole new way.

A Girl Named Mister is a quick read but it does pack quite a punch. There’s a lot of heart in this story and in Mister herself. I actually loved this book and for those of you who enjoy novels in verse and either enjoy or don’t mind a Christian theme, I would highly recommend it.

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden
Published by Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon and Schuster

Brie’s older sister, Faith, has just died in a freak accident, leaving Brie devastated and grieving for the sister she wasn’t close to and didn’t really understand. Brie’s parents are deep in their own grief, and therefore completely unable to support her emotionally, and her boyfriend has betrayed her at the worst possible time. To distract herself from her pain, Brie decides to investigate Faith’s death, and what she finds shocks and terrifies her – Faith was involved with a dangerous cult, a cult that now wants Brie to be its newest member.

Losing Faith is a perfect example of a Christian fiction novel that is more edgy/general market, and therefore (I think) appealing to both audiences. I personally enjoy these kinds of novels immensely, as the characters tend to be realistic Christians, instead of caricatures or perfect people. That was definitely the case in this book – Brie isn’t exactly a model Christian; in fact she’s not sure that she’d even consider herself a Christian at all. Faith, on the other hand, is by all appearances a perfect Christian girl, but underneath the surface her faith isn’t so perfect.

There were many things about Losing Faith that lend itself to recommendation. As I said, the characters seem real and, in the case of Brie especially, there is a true faith journey happening here. By that I mean that her faith in God truly changes as the novel progresses, ultimately coming to her own understanding of what God is and what He means to her personally. As for Faith, she’s only a character in the other characters’ memories, but her faith journey is quite different. She goes from being a normal Christian girl to someone who we learn has become a pivotal member of a cult. Her journey was much sadder than Brie’s because ultimately the reader knows where the journey takes her, but it’s still a faith journey all the same.

The idea of the cult seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but I suppose that these things do exist in the real world. While Jaden made the cult itself fairly believable, when I finished the book I was still left trying to understand how Faith got mixed up with it in the first place. Oh, well. One complaint in an otherwise very solid book isn’t much to be upset about.

What is excellent about this book is the ominous feel it contains, and the fact that the reader doesn’t truly have a full grasp of what Faith was dealing with until the very end of the book, when Brie finally understands. The pacing is spot-on – I was frantically turning pages, desperate to get answers as quickly as possible.

Overall, I really enjoyed Losing Faith. It’s a nice example of a Christian fiction/general market YA fiction crossover, the characters are well-written and believable, and the story itself is one that will grab any reader from the first page. Although it’s faith-based, I would recommend it mostly for older teens because the subject matter can be a bit intense at times. But still – definitely recommended!

Dear America: The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson

Dear America: The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson
Published by Scholastic Press

Piper Davis is a young teenager when Pearl Harbor is attacked, and her entire world changes in that moment. First of all, her older brother is a navy sailor stationed there, so she’s terrified for him and desperate for answers on whether he, and other young men in her community, survived the attack. Second of all, her father is the pastor for a Japanese Baptist church, so when her entire church is interned in Idaho Piper must go with her father from Seattle to the internment camp to be with the congregation. Although Piper is unhappy being ripped out of her life back in Seattle, she soon becomes good friends with Betty, a Japanese girl from her church, and she begins to see the world in new ways.

I hadn’t read any of the other books in the Dear America series before picking up The Fences Between Us, but now I can see the appeal these books have and I can imagine reading more of them for sure. The novel is told in diary format, which works remarkably well as the reader gets the unique opportunity to really get inside Piper’s head and fully understand her emotions as they go up and down during this difficult time in her life.

I read this book as a judge for the INSPY awards, so I definitely want to touch on the faith aspects of the novel. It’s interesting because the book is so seeped in history, it’s more a book about the US internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War than it is a book about faith, but to me this is a perfect example of God being in the details. It was Pastor Davis’ faith in God that led him to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that what the US government was doing to these people was wrong. It was the church members’ faith in God that led them to believe that brighter days would come, that the internment would only be temporary, and that they would get through whatever was thrown at them. And all along, Piper was trying to understand how the loving and just God she believed in could allow something so awful to happen as this war. And if God did allow it, who was right? Was it okay for these people to be in the camps because their country had attacked the US so horrifically? Obviously once Piper got to the camp and saw the conditions her friends and neighbors were living in she understood it was absolutely not okay. But she certainly goes on a faith journey over the course of the novel, just trying to understand where God is and what His plan is amidst all the craziness of war.

The Fences Between Us was an enjoyable read for me. Piper is a very believable teen narrator, her voice is authentic and she goes through many of the same emotional ups and downs other teens do. In her case, everything is just compounded by the fact that she is dealing with the seriously intense fact that war is all around her. I definitely recommend the book for teens (and adults, but this is really a middle grade/YA book) looking for a novel that creates a nice balance between historical fiction and faith-based fiction.

The Sunday Salon

Good afternoon and welcome to The Sunday Salon. Things around here have been kind of crazy so I haven’t been doing as many regular updates as I’d like. That said, it’s already almost 4 pm here and I’m just sitting down to write my Sunday Salon so you can imagine that this weekend is no different! But there are a couple of things I’d like to update y’all on so here goes.

First of all, I was so pleased and excited to be accepted as a judge for the INSPY awards this year in the category of Literature for Young People. This past week, the winners were announced, so please stop over there and check it out if you haven’t already. I have not reviewed any of the five books that were contenders this year – yet – but I am planning on posting all five days this week with each day devoted to one of the novels. So far I only have one of the posts written but I am determined to get those done. So watch for my thoughts on each book this week!

In other faith-based bookish news, yesterday Amy announced that the Faith and Fiction Roundtable is going to be quite a bit different in 2012. If you don’t recall, Faith and Fiction Roundtable is a group of bloggers who read and discuss faith-based books together, and then everyone posts about each book on the same day – the idea being to generate some real discussion about the books. I participated this year, when it was a specific group of bloggers – the same people all year – reading and discussing the six books. It has been a great experience for me personally, although I know that Amy has been less than satisfied with it overall. So she’s decided to change it up and leave it open to anyone who wants to participate! Plus, in 2012 we’ll only be reading four books, which is a more doable commitment, I think. So please pop on over to her blog, check out the selections, and join us next year for one or all of them!

I have been thinking a lot about what I want my reading to consist of next year. I have decided to eliminate 95% of review copies, for one thing. Basically, I’ll cease accepting all review copies with the following exceptions: TLC Book Tours (and I only plan to do one per month), netGalley, and audiobooks. For another thing, this year I am going to get serious about all those unread books on my shelves, and the way I’m going to do that is by joining the TBR Double Dare. I honestly don’t know if I can stick it out all three months, but it’s something I would like to focus more heavily on all year. In fact, I’m setting a goal for myself of reading 75 of my own books next year (books I have owned prior to January 1, 2012). That sounds like a lot, but it’s probably only going to be about half my books for the year so if I can do that I’ll be thrilled.

As far as what’s been going on with me aside from bloggy stuff, not much besides work, to be honest. I am very ready to have a couple of days off for Christmas (just Christmas Day and the day after, sadly) and I’m REALLY excited for New Years weekend, when I will be traveling to Chicago! For my Christmas/birthday present my sweet hubby was generous enough to buy me a plane ticket, after I explained to him that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was to see my family. It worked, and I’m so excited to spend three days with some of my favorite people as I conclude 2011 and move on to 2012.

What about you? What do you have going on this weekend, and what are your plans for the holidays?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Published by Katherine Tegan Books, an imprint of HarperCollins

In the not-too-distant future in Chicago, the city is divided into five factions, each focusing on a particular human virtue. There is Candor (honesty), Abnegation (selflessness), Dauntless (bravery), Amity (peacefulness), and Erudite (intelligence). Tris, born into Abnegation, must make a choice at the age of sixteen as to which faction she truly belongs in. She chooses Dauntless, and subsequently is pulled into a grueling initiation that causes her to question everything she thought she knew about herself, her family, and her society.

Divergent is one of those books that I just knew I would love, long before I began reading it. Set in Chicago (my hometown)? Yes, please. Kick-ass female main character? Yes, please. A book that’s been compared to The Hunger Games? YES. I’m happy to say that Divergent lived up to the very high expectations I had for it. I absolutely loved this book.

Tris is a fantastic character and I was drawn to her immediately. She is physically tough and very smart but also has a realistic vulnerability to her that makes her very believable. I empathized with her struggles to come into her own in the Dauntless faction, and with the internal conflicts she had as she left her Abnegation family and friends behind.

The non-romance romance between Tris and Four definitely captured my interest. I rooted for them from the start and hoped that they would figure out how great they would be together. The friendship that developed between the two of them was realistic to me and I believed in them as a couple.

I have to admit that the world-building in Divergent wasn’t as perfect as I would have liked. I feel that I have a good idea of what this society is really about, but what’s missing is how did they get to this point? But since this is the first book in a series (of course) I am confident Roth will give the reader more details in the following books.

I feel that I haven’t said very much about what made Divergent such a hit with me, but I enjoyed it so much that I don’t know how else to explain my feelings! I know this book has been compared to The Hunger Games, and I can see why, but they really are two very different novels. Pick up Divergent and let me know what you think!

Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie

Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
Published in the US by Drawn and Quarterly

Aya lives in the Ivory Coast and is nineteen years old in 1978. She is smart, has a good head on her shoulders, and is destined for success – the quintessential good girl. Her friends, Adjoua and Bintou, aren’t as much so as Aya, and they get themselves into some interesting situations. In their home of Yop City, there is a marketplace where lovers meet at night, and what happens on these evenings soon becomes the town gossip.

I quite enjoy graphic novels from time to time, and I’d heard good things about Aya (I think from Eva but I can’t be sure) so when I saw my local library had it I couldn’t resist.

There were many things I enjoyed and appreciated about this book. I know almost zero about the Ivory Coast, so this was a nice peek into the culture there and the history of what was going on in that country in the late seventies. In fact, it made me want to read more books set in the Ivory Coast – any suggestions anyone? I liked Aya as a heroine quite a bit. She was a smart and determined teenager, trying to do the right things, but she still had fun with her friends. She felt realistic to me. I liked the illustrations quite a bit; they really brought the story to life for me. Sometimes when I read a graphic novel, I think the story is better than the illustrations or vice versa, but not in this case. I felt the story and the illustrations complemented one another beautifully.

If you enjoy graphic novels, Aya is one that shouldn’t be missed.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Published by Random House

In 1943, right in the heart of World War Two, an Army Air Forces plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean and disappeared. Louis Zamperini was a lieutenant on that plane and somehow, miraculously, he survived the crash and ended up on a life raft, fighting the elements for his survival. Unbroken is the story of his  miraculous journey.

I don’t think I would have decided to read Unbroken if it weren’t for book club. And I have to be honest and say that I didn’t love this book, although it seems that I am in quite the minority with this opinion. To be fair, there were things I liked about the book and once it got going, I couldn’t put it down. But the beginning was such that had it not been a book club selection, I wouldn’t have made it past the first 100 pages.

The reason I say this is because I simply couldn’t bring myself to care about Zamperini as a person for the entire first section of the book. Hillenbrand recounts his childhood in exquisite detail, and to be honest, he was not a very good kid. He wasn’t just a misbehaving child, he was a juvenile delinquent! And while reading about his time in the Olympics was mildly interesting, it didn’t add enough to his personality for me to care about him. At our book club meeting, some of the ladies were saying that after finishing Unbroken, it’s clear why Hillenbrand spent so much time detailing Zamperini’s childhood, and while I’d agree with that statement, the fact of the matter is that as I was reading it I wasn’t interested. So for me, that was a problem.

But once the action really got going – when the plane crashed and Zamperini and two others were stranded in the middle of the ocean – I couldn’t put the book down. This story is absolutely astonishing as these men survived impossible odds and lived through situations that I cannot even fathom. Their story is beyond remarkable and kudos to Hillenbrand for telling it. I think she told it in a fascinating and compelling way and I was hanging on her every word. It was heartbreaking to read, because every time I would think their journey through hell and back was over, something even worse would happen. It was excruciating! But this is truly a story of courage and of surviving the absolute worst odds one can imagine. It’s inspiring.

While I enjoyed the majority of Unbroken and would still recommend it, I have to be honest about my reservations with the beginning of the book. I personally would have stopped reading this book after fifty or so pages had it not been for book club, which is a shame. This is an engaging and important read about a truly amazing man, and even though I had some trouble with it, I would still recommend Unbroken.

Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman
Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins

Tom Violet’s life is a lot different from what he thought it would be at thirty-five. His job in corporate America is about as depressing as possible, his marriage has so many problems he doesn’t even know where to start, and the novel he’s spent years perfecting is sitting in a drawer because he doesn’t have the confidence to get it published. His father, an actual published author, has just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and despite this success has marital issues of his own, so is staying with Tom for the time being. Despite all of this, Tom is determined to turn things around for himself … if he can only get around to it.

I’ve been hearing good things about Domestic Violets since its release, so when the fabulous Heather loaned me her copy, I picked it up right away. I’m here to tell you that the hype you may have heard about this book is completely accurate – Domestic Violets is hilariously funny with a surprising amount of depth as well.

Tom Violet is the kind of character you can’t help but root for. He’s essentially a good guy who, at thirty-five, is still trying to figure out his place in the world. He would like to have a better relationship with his wife. He would like to quit his job and publish his novel. He would like to stop crushing on his twenty-something coworker. Yet he can’t seem to do any of these things. His struggle to make changes despite feeling completely stuck, while laced with moments of hilarity, was heartwarming and actually inspiring. The insights that Tom eventually gains into his own life are surprisingly poignant and he ended up showing real growth as a character.

I can’t quite describe what made Domestic Violets so compelling, but for whatever reason I was completely drawn into this story and had extreme difficulty putting it down. I think it’s a combination of the realistically flawed characters, excellent writing, and perfect pacing that kept my attention so well. Whatever the specifics, I was captivated by this novel and loved every second I spent with it. I very highly recommend it!