Books and Stories Read: February 2010 (Part Two)

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Here are the summaries, sans book covers because I am at work and can barely get LJ to work for me right now. This is why the recaps are in an entirely new post instead of just tacked-on to the old February 2010 post. Anyway.

**08. Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely, Book Four), by Melissa Marr. YA Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy. Read ARC.
**09.

Comments

[checkers65477]

8. a knack for creating super sexy, smoldering characters and putting them in sexually charged situations without getting too explicit or mature for teens. That's a skill.

I agree! That's part of what so many people liked about Twilight, don't you think?

9. Gah. Makes it hard to review, I bet.

10. I'm thinking of adding the first book to my library. Do you think it's ok for middle school? SLJ says Gr. 8 and up--why is that?

12. I read this, sitting at my desk while processing new books. Sat there and read the entire book. Yes, crying. Loved it. (If you like books that touch the heart and make you cry in a good way, you need to read The Truth Trap by Miller. It's older--I'll loan it to you if you can't find it anywhere, though used copies are usually available on abebooks for $1.00 or so. It's my latest read and reread comfort book.

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I'm not sure why SLJ listed The Glass Maker's Daughter as grades 8-up, unless it's because of the age of the heroine, who is 16. When I wrote the Booklist review, I marked it as grade 7-11, and Kirkus said ages 10-14. I feel the age rating is kind of arbitrary at times, to be honest. There isn't anything in the book to prevent 6th graders from reading it that I can remember.

I actually passed on the review for Hunting the Dragon because I disliked it so much, and Booklist doesn't do negative reviews. I'll be curious to see if other journals review it, because I always wonder if it's just me when I really dislike something.

It looks like The Truth Trap was re-released by one of those publishers that does out-of-print books. We don't have it at my library but I think I can find it. It sounds good -- but I saw on Amazon that the murder mystery isn't solved until one of the sequels? Is that true?

I was trying to finish All the Broken Pieces on my dinner break one night and had to stop because I didn't want to go back to the ref desk

[checkers65477]

Agree about the arbitrary age ratings. Sometimes it seems like SLJ puts a book at gr. 8 and up if it has a sexual component to the story. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker for me, but if it's a big part of the story I'm not always comfortable with it. So, Dreamhunter and the sequel, yes. Graceling, no. Breaking Dawn--NO. I could easily add Graceling and it would probably be ok, but many of my avid fantasy readers are 6th grade and I do try to be careful with them. Some of them are still shielded babies, and yay for that. It's funny, though. Parents get more riled up about the F-word in a book. Like it's not flying around the halls all day long. Anyway, I'll definitely add The Glassmaker's Daughter to my list of books to order, and the sequel once it's out.

Yes, Truth Trap and sequels have been re-released with much more appealing covers than the old hardbacks. The old paperback covers aren't bad. And yes, the mystery isn't solved until the third book, but it's worth waiting for!

[crowinator]

Books with a sexual component (i.e., more than kissing) should be grades 8 or up, for sure. Graceling did have a lot of frankness to the sexual relationships among characters.

God, I still remember booktalking How I Live Now to a class of 7th and 8th grades and realizing right in the middle of the whole "and they're cousins! and they fall in true love!" what I dumb idea that was. Live and learn (and never again).