Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition by Wendell Berry
I didn’t review this one, because I couldn’t figure out how to distill the brilliance of this book into a review. I did, however, post some of the more amazing passages.

The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry by Wendell Berry
From my review: “How do I even begin to review this book? It is dense, thought-provoking, convicting, and mind-changing.”

The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder by Erin Blakemore
From my review: “Erin Blakemore has drawn inspiration, encouragement, determination, and hope from the stories of these characters and their authors, and fortunately, she has shared that with us.”

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
From my review: “This is the type of non-fiction I love, the kind that teaches and entertains at the same time.”

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
I reviewed this one with Kelly – part one on my blog, part two at Kelly’s.

A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheeres
From my review: “She invoked in me huge compassion and pity for these people, for the way they were deceived and betrayed by someone who claimed to love them.”

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: favorites, non-fiction

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For as long as Deuce can remember, she has wanted to be a Huntress, to be given her true name and no longer be one of the nameless brats. But when she achieves her goal, she is assigned Fade as her partner. He grew up outside the enclave, and his strangeness causes Deuce to start to question what she’s always believed, what she’s always been told. I enjoyed Enclave very much – Deuce is a complicated, fierce character, and the transformation of her world and worldview made for a fascinating story. The world-building is also excellent, as well as the interaction between Deuce and Fade. This book works as a stand-alone, but I see that the author has a sequel coming out in 2012. I’m excited to read it – not because she left me hanging at the end of Enclave and I HAVE to read it – but because the world she has built and the characters that people it are worth revisiting.

Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Genre: Dystopian, science fiction
Publisher: Crown
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Wil Wheaton
First line: Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest.

Sandy was right – this book is amazing! I’m not a gamer, so I wasn’t initially interested in reading Ready Player One. Then, Sandy posted her review, which told me everything I needed to know: chock full of 80s nostalgia, action-packed, and narrated by the brilliant Wil Wheaton. Like Sandy, I am the target audience for this book – and so is my husband. He will be reading it soon – all I had to say was: Joust, War Games, RUSH’s “2112″ album, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, etc. etc. etc.

Title: Explosive Eighteen
Author: Janet Evanovich
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Bantam
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public libary
Audiobook reader: Lorelei King
First line: New Jersey was 40,000 feet below me, obscured by cloud cover.

Stephanie is back, baby! I wasn’t all that thrilled with the seventeenth book in the series, but I found Explosive Eighteen thoroughly enjoyable. Sure, Stephanie is still torn between Ranger and Morelli, but there was less about that and more Stephanie and Lulu attempting to be Rangeresque bounty hunters, and that makes for lots of humor. And, of course, these books are all read by the incomparable Lorelei King – I wouldn’t experience them any other way.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, dystopian, janet evanovich, lorelei king, mysteries, non-fiction, science fiction, stephanie plum, wendell berry, YA fiction

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In January 1943, two hundred and thirty women of the French Resistance were sent to the death camps by the Nazis who had invaded and occupied their country…..Only forty-nine would survive.

In A Train in Winter, Caroline Moorehead tells the story of the two hundred thirty women – who they were, what drove them to resist the occupying Nazis and the collaborationist Vichy government, the sacrifices they made to serve their cause, and the families they left behind when they were captured.

The forty-nine that survived Auschwitz and Birkenau did so because of a combination of fate and intelligence – and because they faced their imprisonment and captors as a united force. They learned how to fake health and strength to avoid being chosen for the gas chambers. They learned how to trade and steal for extra scraps of food, for tiny bits of medicine. They watched their friends and companions die, one by one. And they survived the most unimaginable circumstances and conditions – conditions so horrific that even members of their own families didn’t believe the stories they told when they came back.

To be honest, this was a very difficult book to read. I admire Moorehead for undertaking the task of telling the story of these women, but, in my opinion, she kept her focus much too broad. As I look back over the non-fiction that I’ve read this year, the ones that were the most engrossing, the most readable, were the ones that focused on a small group of people and told their stories. In A Train in Winter, the author introduces so many of the 230 women that I became completely overwhelmed. There were simply too many names and stories to keep track of.

The first half of the book was spent introducing these women and telling about their activities for the Resistance and the various police investigations that led to their capture, and it took me a long time to become engrossed in the story. The book picked up when the women were taken to Auschwitz, but then the book became difficult to read for a different reason. The magnitude of the atrocities these women experienced was simply overwhelming, and there were times that it became too much and I had to set the book aside. Of course, it is important that the truths of the death camps are told in literature, and I’m glad there are authors who make sure that we never forget. A Train in Winter may not be the easiest read, but the women who embody its pages must never be forgotten.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: history, non-fiction

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When I was first approached about reviewing Bonjour 40, I said no, simply because I had already committed to two book tours in November and two in December. But then, I watched the book trailer:

The video, plus the fact that I’m currently taking French with my high school freshman, and that I’m turning 40 in a year, and that I’ve always wanted to go to Paris… Well, my “no” turned into “yes.” Bonjour 40 is a delightful, witty memoir written in bite-sized installments, since it started out as a blog. Karen Chase has taken those blog posts, and added essays that expound on her history as a travel bug and her experiences taking photos, writing, reading, eating, and loving in Paris.

I have to admit that reading this book induced tons and tons of envy – I literally salivated over the descriptions of the food and of her visit to the famous bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. Karen writes beautifully and her descriptions of Paris and the people and sites and smells and tastes allowed me to live vicariously through her. Karen is a self-professed travel bug, and I can only hope that she will continue to write about her adventures, because I would love to read about them.

Bonjour 40 is available in e-book form for Kindle, Nook, iPad, and iPhone. To give you a taste of Karen’s writing, here is an excerpt:

On photography

Until now, I had been sliding in with the rest of Paris, staying up late and sleeping in. But for a photographer, it’s all about finding the right light, and the best time for that is early morning or late evening. I can look at photos now and tell you approximately what time of day they were taken. Many of mine from the first two weeks were taken between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. That had to change.

So that’s when I set aside a few times to capture Paris at sunrise and sunset. Paris is a nighttime city and so no photo collection would be complete without a shot that captures the flicker and the traffic. Early evening brings the ultraviolet blues and purples, paving the streets with lavender and platinum. But her mornings are devoid of the noise.

At sunrise, the city is naked, stripped down, still resting to gear up before another metropolitan, tourist-filled day. The layout of the streets, and the glorious Seine and bridges wake up with her as she becomes the city of morning light. The air is still cool and clear, the only sounds are of the occasional café opening up or a street cleaner going by. Sunrise brings the glorious red end of the light spectrum, which in Paris makes the stone of the buildings glow as if they are painted with gold.

It was then, cycling across her streets with my camera over my shoulder, that I realized it was in my going off to capture the city on film, that I am capturing internal memories. The memory of me gliding down the empty Champs-Élysées, light just barely touching each leaf of each tree, the morning breeze tugging at my hair—it is a feeling that is photographed within me. As if the memories are taken like photos in multiple-shot bursts, I can visually pull up every frame of that single adventure so they run together like a film in slow motion. Riding. Soaring. Free. Peddling. Living. Moving. Creative. Awake. Wonderful, happy memories.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: memoirs, non-fiction, travel memoirs

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Cover blurb: Jo March, Scarlett O’Hara, Scout Finch – the literary canon is brimming with intelligent, feisty, never-say-die heroines and celebrated female authors. They placed a premium on personality, spirituality, career, sisterhood, and family, not unlike women of today. When they were up against the wall, authors like Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott fought back – sometimes with words, sometimes with gritty actions.

Witty, informative, and inspiring – full of beloved heroines and the remarkable writers who created them – The Heroine’s Bookshelf explores how the pluck and dignity of literary characters such as Jane Eyre and Lizzy Bennet can encourage modern women, showing them how to tap into their new strengths and live life with intelligence and grace. From Zora Neale Hurston to Colette, Laura Ingalls Wilder to Charlotte Bronte, Harper Lee to Alice Walker, here are authors whose spirited stories and characters are more inspiring today than ever.

When I was a young girl, I had a girls’ Bible that had a topical section in the back. It had a list that read: “If you’re afraid, read these verses. If you’re having trouble with a friend, read these verses. If you’re feeling unlovely, read these verses.” It helped me during those tween years that can be so difficult. As an adult, I know which verses are the most comfort to me, and so don’t need a list like that anymore, but I still remember it.

In many ways, The Heroine’s Bookshelf reminds me of that Bible. Of course, I’m not saying that it’s divinely inspired, but it is definitely a book that can act as a guide through some of the difficult things we face as adult women. Erin Blakemore has drawn inspiration, encouragement, determination, and hope from the stories of these characters and their authors, and fortunately, she has shared that with us.

Are you wondering who you are, or how to be the person you know you are? Maybe you’re struggling to hold on to your faith in the face of overwhelming circumstances. Do you want to learn how to be happy, no matter what life brings? Or are you trying to hold on to family ties in spite of dysfunction? Blakemore gives you a guide to the books that will inspire you and encourage you in each of these situations – and many more.

Each chapter focuses on a different issue – faith, ambition, happiness, dignity, compassion, and so on – and explores how the heroine from a particular book can give us a map to follow as we navigate the obstacles and twists that life throws our way. She also delves into the lives of the authors, and explores the reasons they wrote these particular stories. I found the inside information on authors like Louisa May Alcott, Alice Walker, Betty Smith, and Frances Hodgson Burnett to be fascinating. Understanding the circumstances in the author’s life gives such depth and clarity to a book, especially a book that has a personal connection for the reader.

As I read each chapter, I found myself wanting to reread the associated book – or, in some cases, read it for the first time. Reading the chapter on Gone With the Wind surprised me, because I really hate the movie, and have never wanted to read the book. I am now determined to give it a try. I also experienced a longing to reread other books, books that Blakemore didn’t mention, but whose heroines call to me anyway: Persusasion, Kristin Lavransdatter, I Capture the Castle. It is truly the best kind of book that can do that.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: books on books, non-fiction, reading

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The books in this series about kids trying to survive without adults have given my sons and I many enjoyable hours of read-aloud time. While we have enjoyed every title, we all agree that this is the best one since the first. The series is very dark, and books two and three had very little to alleviate the darkness. This book, however, had Nutella and Pepsi, which will only make sense to you after you’ve read it. Our only beef is that Michael Grant doesn’t write faster, and we have to wait until next year for book five, and until 2013 for the final book in the series.

Title: Minding Frankie
Author: Maeve Binchy
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Publisher: Knopf
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Sile Bermingham
First line: Katie Finglas was coming to the end of a tiring day in the salon.

Oh, how I love Maeve Binchy! After Whitethorn Woods and Heart and Soul, I feel like I know the characters in this little corner of Dublin that she writes about. At the heart of Minding Frankie is a motherless baby girl. Her stunned father, Noel Lynch, is trying to get his life together – giving up the “gargle,” going back to college in order to get a better job – but isn’t equipped to do it on his own. Enter his cousin, Emily, from America, who organizes the residents of St. Jarlath’s Crescent to help with baby-minding duties. But can they help convince the ever-vigilant social worker Moira that Frankie belongs with her father?

I haven’t read all of Binchy’s books that include these familiar characters (Quentins, Scarlet Feather, Nights of Rain and Stars), but I plan to. I just wish my library had them all on audio, because Sile Bermingham’s beautiful narration has spoiled me for reading them in print.

Title: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin
Author: Erik Larson
Genre: Non-fiction, history
Publisher: Crown
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Stephen Hoye
First line: It was common for American expatriates to visit the U.S. consulate in Berlin, but not in the condition exhibited by the man who arrived there on Thursday, June 29, 1933.

In 1933, William Dodd, a history professor with no diplomatic experience, became the first American ambassador to Hitler’s regime. His family accompanies him to Berlin, and his daughter, Martha, quickly becomes a hit in the round of social affairs attended by the diplomatic community – and top-ranked Nazis. This is an interesting picture of Hitler’s rise to power, and a disturbing affirmation that different choices by Americans in power could have changed the course of history, and possibly prevented the magnitude of the atrocities committed by the Third Reich. While I found the subject fascinating, the story became dry and slow in places, which kept me from rating it higher than three stars. However, I still recommend it to readers interested in World War II.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, contemporary fiction, dystopian fiction, history, irish fiction, maeve binchy, non-fiction, science fiction, YA fiction

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Publisher blurb: On 5/13/45, two dozen US servicemen & WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over Shangri-La, a beautiful unmapped valley deep within the jungle-covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea. Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, this Shangri-La was home to spear-carrying tribesmen, rumored to be cannibals. The pleasure tour became a battle for survival when the plane crashed. Three passengers pulled thru. Margaret Hastings, barefoot & burned, had no choice but to wear her dead best friend’s shoes. John McCollom, grieving the death of his twin brother also aboard the plane, masked grief with stoicism. Kenneth Decker, too, was severely burned & suffered a gaping head wound. Emotionally devastated, badly injured & vulnerable to the dangers of the jungle, the trio faced certain death unless they left the crash site. Caught between imagined headhunters & the Japanese, they endured a harrowing hike down the mountainside–a journey into the unknown that would lead them straight into a primitive tribe of superstitious natives who’d never seen a white. Drawn from interviews, declassified Army documents, personal photos & mementos, a survivor’s diary, a rescuer’s journal & original film footage, Lost in Shangri-La recounts this incredible true-life adventure for the 1st time. Zuckoff reveals how the determined trio–dehydrated, sick & in pain–traversed the jungle to find help; how paratroopers risked their lives to save them; & how a cowboy colonel attempted a previously untested rescue mission to get them out. By trekking into the New Guinea jungle, visiting remote villages & rediscovering the crash site, Zuckoff also captures the contemporary natives’ remembrances of the long-ago day when strangers fell from the sky. A riveting work of narrative nonfiction that brings to life an odyssey at times terrifying, enlightening & comic, Lost in Shangri-La is a thrill ride.

Kelly from The Written World and I read Lost in Shangri-la a while ago, and have had a meandering discussion going on ever since. We finally decided we were done talking about it, and now give you our discussion. This is the first half; click over to Kelly’s blog for the second.

Me: This book was different than what I expected, and the biggest surprise for me was how much humor there was in it! Obviously, this was a tragic accident, with 21 people not surviving, but the interactions with the natives were often very funny. Especially the scene when the paratroopers jump in and they’re afraid the natives think they’re women, so decide to prove otherwise.

I really liked the way the author used the journals of the people actually involved to show the way their experiences in Shangri-la changed them. How Margaret’s views of the natives evolved from very condescending (“simple people”) to seeing them as human beings and forming relationships with them. Also the way the paratrooper leading the rescue mission started out wanting to make a name for himself, but then ended up being a truly great leader who put the safety of his team first.

Kelly: I had heard that this was a very conversational-type non-fiction and not really all that dry. I love books that take place during the World Wars, so I was planning to read this anyway, but when I started seeing the reviews talking about the writing style and just how readable the book was, I was glad to read it sooner rather than later. It talked about an aspect of the war I had never heard anything about. I have always been interested in pilots and flying, so that aspect of the book interested me. These people had crashed in a place where it was virtually impossible to get them out, so reading about all the different plans was really interesting.

I agree with you on the humour. The scene where the paratroopers prove that they are men was hilarious. The reader is told what the natives were really thinking, but there was obvious some separation between the two cultures. The people on this flight wanted to see the natives and the world that they inhabited. They were not expecting to have to live amongst them for many days. It change the natives world, which is a bit sad, but is what always seems to happen. The ‘white’ culture always thinks that how they live is better and feel the need to ‘change’ things for the ‘better’ for the other culture.

What is the one thing that you have taken away from this book that will stick with you for a long time?

Me: As I listened to this on audiobook, I kept being amazed at the resilience of people. The fact that so few survived and yet were able to set aside their grief and fear and continue on without losing hope – that’s what astounded me.

I am also grateful about how far we have come as an American culture when it comes to the way we perceive cultures other than our own. I know that racism is still very real and pervasive in many areas of our society, but it’s not the norm anymore to look at another culture of people whose ways are different from ours and assume that they are “simple” or “savages.”

I really enjoy reading narrative non-fiction. Are there any non-fiction titles you would recommend to me – and others? I recently enjoyed Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It’s a different type of story – less humor – but amazing and inspiring.

Kelly: I know. They overcame a lot and still managed to keep themselves going. And, the paratroopers jumped into a zone where they had no idea if they were going to make it out again because at that time there was no escape plan in effect. That took a lot of courage. They could easily feel trapped!

I am waiting my turn for Unbroken to come in at the library. I have heard really good things about it. I am sure there is some narrative non-fiction I could recommend, but I haven’t read as much non-fiction this year as I normally do, so nothing is jumping to mind.

Don’t forget, you can read the second half of our discussion at Kelly’s blog.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, history, non-fiction

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On November 18, 1978, 918 people died in a settlement in Guyana known as Jonestown. The people were followers of cult leader Jim Jones, who they called Father. Because of the way they died, mass-suicide/murder by poisoned Kool-aid, the saying “drink the Kool-aid” has become synonymous with the idea of giving up your ability to think and reason for yourself, to direct your actions. But the story goes so far beyond that horrific night and the person of Jones himself, and that is the story that Julia Scheeres was interested in telling. Who were those 918 people? What in their histories and personalities made them attracted to Jones’ church in the first place, enough to be willing to turn over life savings, homes, and, ultimately, their very way of life, to follow him into the South American jungle?

I have not read Julia Scheere’s memoir, Jesus Land, but was immediately intrigued by the idea of a book about the people of Jonestown. I was amazed by how many misconceptions I had of the Jonestown massacre. As a person who prides herself on her ability to think and reason for herself, I admit to feeling a little bit of condescension toward the people who would follow a man like Jones. I also had little compassion for the people who died after giving the Kool-aid to their children.

However, Scheeres has taken these horrible events and unpacked the human element, telling the individual stories of the people who were drawn to Jones. Many of his followers were African-American, drawn to him for his message of racial equality and justice in a time when prejudice was still rampant in our country. Some were senior women, deceived by his claims of healing power. Others were drawn to his radical socialism, the idea of a utopian society where everyone lived in peace and harmony. Some of them were troubled youths who had been in trouble with the law, who found a sense of family at People’s Temple, often for the first time in their lives. She invoked in me huge compassion and pity for these people, for the way they were deceived and betrayed by someone who claimed to love them.

A Thousand Lives is not an easy reading experience. It exuded a sense of doom, because I already knew how things were going to end for these people whose stories I came to know. I do think it is an important book, especially since I have talked to several people since reading it whose knowledge or remembrance of the events are faulty, and who had no idea of how Jones controlled his followers with threats of violence and death.

On a side note, I read an ARC of A Thousand Lives, and it contained the most mistakes of an ARC I’ve ever read. There were missing words, words that didn’t make sense in context, misspellings, and poor punctuation. I hope they have a really good proofreader working on the final copy.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 17 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: non-fiction

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Ripley Publishing builds on its worldwide success with the launch of a new annual in its multimillion bestselling series. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Strikingly True is an all-new collection of the strangest stories from around the globe. An eye-catching red and silver holographic foil cover with lenticular ensures that the book stands out on the shelf.

A mind-boggling array of incredible and bizarre facts, stories, interviews, lists, and features are all presented in a bright new design. Look out for a special section on weird Olympic facts, and some stunning features on tattooed ladies, ancient mummies, and walls of death, among many others. Fascinating interviews with some of the planet’s most extraordinary people explore their motivations, while the popular “Ripley Research” boxes explain the science behind some of the most unbelievable tales in the book.

Strikingly True also includes a dramatic 8-page gatefold pullout that celebrates the sideshow performers who appeared at Ripley’s first ever Odditorium—at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. With something strange to entertain and shock every member of the family, Strikingly True is sure to continue the massive success of the expanding Ripley’s book brand.

It is a happy day in our house when a new Ripley’s book arrives. I do have three boys, ages 13, 12, and 9, after all. But, to be honest, it’s not just the boys who find themselves poring over the pages, marveling and exclaiming over the astonishing pictures. Natalie and I are just as fascinated by the crazy, weird, and sometimes disturbing – but all true! – stories presented in these books.

One of the things I love the most about these books, is that it gets even my most reluctant reader excited about books – and that is always a good thing. The fact that the three boys will crawl into one bed before sleep at night and read the pages out loud to one another, often asking for “just a few more minutes” before they have to retire to their own beds and shut off the light is something that makes this mother’s heart happy.

The holiday season is just around the corner (I know, I know – it’s not even officially autumn yet, but you know as well as I do that once school starts back up, we just snowball to the end of the year!) and this book would make a fantastic gift for any of the kids in your life.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's non-fiction, non-fiction

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David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, has a reporter’s nose. He can smell a story. He hears those little anecdotes or offhand comments that most of us barely take note of, and he chases the whole story down. Then he writes the story with human interest and unbiased honesty. I admit that some of the articles in this collection interested me more than others, but that was simply due to subject matter and not to writing style. Grann has become one of my favorite non-fiction authors.

Title: The Bourne Identity
Author: Robert Ludlum
Genre: Spy thriller
Publisher: Bantam
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Scott Brick
First line: The trawler plunged into the angry swells of the dark, furious sea like an awkward animal trying desperately to break out of an impenetrable swamp.

It is interesting how different the book version of The Bourne Identity is from the film, which I saw first. The book was written in the middle of the Cold War, before computers, cell phones, and all the other gadgets we’re used to see strewn through modern spy thrillers. It made for a different story, but equally good. Ludlum knows how to spin a tale – but I wish he had edited it a bit more. There was a lot of repetition of phrases, a tactic that was meant to show the fractured state of Bourne’s mind, but listening to these mantras over and over on audio became a bit tedious. I will still continue the series, though, as I love the characters and the audiobook narrator.

Audio notes: Scott Brick is probably my favorite American audiobook narrator. His voice is smooth and dark and he alters it just enough for the different characters’ voices. He also is adept at various European accents, which is necessary for the Bourne books.

Title: While I Live
Author: John Marsden
Genre: YA dystopian fiction
Publisher: Scholastic
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: We were halfway up the spur when we heard it.

Oh, how I missed Ellie! I loved Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began series (You can find my reviews under his name on my Reviews by Author page.) and I was sad when I finished it. Then I discovered that he wrote a follow-up trilogy called the Ellie Chronicles, and I treated myself to them with some Christmas money at the beginning of the year. This book has everything I loved about that series: action, relationships, realistic emotion, and authentic characters. It picks up shortly after the last book in the Tomorrow series, and it felt like no time had gone by between finishing that one and starting this one. I am looking forward to the other two books in this trilogy, but I’m making myself wait just a bit, as I will hate to say goodbye to Ellie when I turn the last page.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, dystopian fiction, history, non-fiction, science fiction, spy thrillers, thrillers, YA fiction

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