false 108 793 767 true 5686568 read 2 true 494379 currently-reading 24 true 494378 to-read 163 false 1162763 poetry 137 false 1162880 -classics- 72 false 1163387 young-adult 71 false 1164356 children-s-fiction 59 false 1162732 graphic-novels 41 false 1165485 nonfiction 23 false 1165099 picture-books 23 false 2461049 raya 12 false 1163172 short-stories 8 false 2461054 rakids 8 false 2055401 good-for-storytime 3 false 2005847 comics-cartoons 2 false 1715603 good-for-a-gift 2 false 3478263 audiobooks http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78663175 to: This Is Where I Leave You (Hardcover) by Jonathan Tropper
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77940468 to: Time of the Witches (Hardcover) by Anna Myers
bookshelves: raya, young-adult
Solid YA historical fiction on the Salem witch trials, ideal for recommending to teens tasked with reading a book of historical fiction and not too excited about the prospect. Glam cover (which admittedly makes it appear as though there ARE witches in Salem) helps make it an easy sell (as does its being just shy of 200 pages), and the story adequately explores the way groupthink can quickly slide into hysteria. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77940065 to: Leviathan (Hardcover) by Scott Westerfeld
bookshelves: young-adult
Wow. Never would've thought I'd give more stars to Thomas Hobbes's "Leviathan" than to Scott Westerfeld's. A gorgeously packaged, hugely hyped book, Westerfeld's was one of the YA releases I was most excited about this fall (I enjoyed his smart "Uglies" books). There was some decent world-building, but somehow not enough story or character-building to suck me in. It felt like an ornate decorative frame with no picture inside it, and had a cliff-hanger ending on the assumption than one was riveted enough to be clamoring for the next book in the series...I'm not. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77414495 to: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Hardcover) by Grace Lin
bookshelves: children-s-fiction
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77414253 to: The Day of the Pelican (Hardcover) by Katherine Paterson
bookshelves: children-s-fiction
Enh. Fine, but light years from Paterson at her Great-Gilly-Hopkins best. Someone at her church suggested she write a book about the plight of an Albanian family living in Kosovo in 1998, and that's what this feels like: a book someone in your church suggested you write because they knew you were a writer. If you're in children's library services and feel the need to read the new Paterson out of a sense of duty (and/or interest & excitement), I'm here to say: you don't, or you can at least bump it further down your list of must-read-nows. Good descriptions of life in refugee camps and coming to America knowing little English, but an abrupt, limp ending and nothing excellent. At best, on a par with a Deborah Ellis Afghanistan novel (those I usually give three stars). ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/24428000 to: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (Hardcover) by Dinaw Mengestu
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76394120 to: Big Machine: A Novel (Hardcover) by Victor LaValle
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76393969 to: Safety of Objects (Paperback) by A.M. Homes
bookshelves: short-stories
Bracketed by two 5-star stories: "Adults Alone" and "A Real Doll." ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76393822 to: Citizen Vince (P.S.) by Jess Walter
3.5. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74946559 A Model Year (Paperback) by Gina Myers
bookshelves: to-read
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