Overexcited Readers (working title)

However you wish to post is fine, but please include all important information i.e. the book and author, reason chosen, what you thought of it; and if you wish, a short description. If you know anyone who would be interested in joining please let me (Sarah) know and I can invite them! All questions, comments, and smart remarks are welcome. (As long as the smart remarks aren't too vicious, but I'm not too worried.) :)

Monday, July 24, 2006

The Time Traveler's Wife

FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New WritersOften lighthearted, thoroughly original, and ultimately profoundly moving, Audrey Niffenegger's first novel tells the story of two people destined to be together: Clare, a perfectly normal woman, and Henry, a time-traveler.
According to the unique rules that Niffenegger creates, Henry travels unexpectedly and mostly to his own past, often when he is "all stressed out and [has] lost his grip on now." As Henry explains when he first meets Clare: "…the person you know doesn't exist yet. Stick with me, and sooner or later he's bound to appear. That's the best I can do." And while it's true that Henry travels to different moments in time, he also travels from them as well. He frequently gets lost in time and doesn't know "when" he is.
But the real story of the book is the lifelong love Clare and Henry share as they try to make the most of the times they have together -- the times when Henry is not traveling.
Subtle but powerful, The Time Traveler's Wife is a book whose importance becomes more evident with each turn of the page, provoking readers to ask themselves if they've made the most of the moments of their lives --moments so fleeting, they could be time travelers themselves. (Fall 2003 Selection)

This book is amazing. It takes so patience to get into, because at first the time traveling aspect is a little confusing. A must read!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Kira-kira

by Cynthia Kadohata

Borrowed this book from Becky and LOVED IT!!! It's written for late elementary/middle school aged kids, but it was one of those really well written kids books that I as an adult still completely enjoyed. This book is HQ.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
kira-kira (kee' ra kee' ra): glittering; shining

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering — kira-kira — in the future.

Luminous in its persistence of love and hope, Kira-Kira is Cynthia Kadohata's stunning debut in middle-grade fiction.

Stargirl

by Jerry Spinelli

I found this book on a coffee table while I was at Holden Village and thought that it looked interesting. Turned out to be a great book - quick read. I would definately reccomend it.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out—under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes—for Leo and for the entire school. After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body.But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. Somewhere in the midst of Stargirl's arrival and rise and fall, normal Leo Borlock has tumbled into love with her. In a celebration of nonconformity, Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the fleeting, cruel nature of popularity—and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Holes

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.


This was a really good, fast read. It took me about 3 days of before bed reading to finish it. I liked it a lot!

The BFG

From Barnes & Noble

Kidsnatched from her orphange by a BFG (Big Friendly Giant), who spends his life blowing happy dreams to children, Sophie concocts with him a plan to save the world from nine other man-gobbling cannybull giants.


So cute! I never read this as a child, so it was fun to see what all the fuss was about. The dorky Speech Path in me was trying to figure out what language disorders the BFG had!