I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

I was so amped to read this book. I'd read the Alex Cross series about the 14 year-old James Bond type kid. And now there is a series about girls who go to a spy school? Awesome!

Cammie Morgan is one of the girls who attends Gallagher Academy - a school that on the surface seems to be a snooty prep school for very wealthy girls. But it is really a school for extremely (we're talking off the charts) smart who attend a school to learn how to enter the world of spies with excellent training. Think Sydney Bristow from ALIAS in high school.

Cammie is the headmistress's daughter. She seems like she may be privy to top secret information about the school, but she's just as much in the dark as her classmates. So when the new school year starts, and there is a super-hunky former spy teaching Cove Ops (that's Covert Operations to the uninformed) she is just as clueless as her friends.

Cammie is nicknamed the Chameleon because she is so good at blending into a crowd and not being noticed by anyone. On her first assignment in Cove Ops class she and her two best friends are supposed to trail one of their teachers during a local town fair. The other two are caught, but no one sees Cammie, until a cute boy strikes up a conversation with her. Her cover as the invisible is blown.

The only problem I had with this book is that a really awesome spy story turned into a spy on the cute boy story. The ending was a bit redeeming though, and I will definitely read the next installment in this series

Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

This graphic novel was awesome! It is about Jane, a girl who survived a bombing in her large city hometown. Her parents move the family to suburbia, where Jane will be "safer." Jane however, is unsatisfied with the new town, and the popular kids at her new school. Her brush with death has given her perspective on life, and she wants friends and relationships with more meaning to them. She sits at a table with a bunch of misfits in the lunchroom, and discovers they are all named Jane. She gets a wild hair up her nose to start a subversive art campaign in her new town, and gets the other reluctant Janes involved. It is really cool to witness these teens getting fired up about art and social consciousness. It made me wish I could go back and do things like that. Well, I guess I don't have to be a teenager, now do I?

Biography booklist

Yesterday's RAIG meeting helped us to put together a list of favorite biographies of our group. Here they are (in no particular order):

• Casting with a Fragile Thread by Wendy Kann ~ A comfortable suburban housewife and mother, Wendy Kann believes she has put her volatile childhood in colonial Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - behind her. Then one Sunday morning comes a terrible phone call: her youngest sister, Lauren, has been killed on a lonely road in Zambia. (Selected by Marge)

• The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of my Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem ~ When a Nazi death squad raided his Latvian village, Jewish five-year-old Alex escaped. After surviving the winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Latvian SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little "corporal" in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. (Selected by Lisa)

• Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda ~ The popular actor looks back to reassess the meaning of his own life and the paths he has taken, from the turbulent 1960s to the tragedy of September 11, and to answer such questions as "What do I value?" and "What, exactly, is the good life?" (Selected by Ann)

• The Late Bloomer's Revolution by Amy Cohen ~ Cohen's memoir starts with an amusing anecdote about traveling to Prague with her mother, who seems cheerfully oblivious to the fact that the handsome young man who joins them for dinner is far more interested in her than her daughter. Unfortunately, Cohen's mother is dying of a brain tumor by the end of the chapter, and though the endless kibitzing of her father, who tries to fix Cohen's love life while dating a string of "older widows and comely divorcees," is entertaining, the other members of her inner circle pale in comparison. (Selected by Anna)

• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls ~ tells the story about her childhood. She talks about living like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Retreating to the dismal West Virginia mining town--and the family-- her father, Rex Walls, had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. (Selected by Christina)

• Catherine the Great: Love, Sex and Power by Virginia Rounding ~ Dutiful daughter, frustrated wife, passionate lover, domineering mother, doting grandmother, devoted friend, tireless legislator, generous patron of artists and philosophers - the Empress Catherine II, the Great, was all these things and more. Her reign, the longest in Russian imperial history, lasted from 1762 until her death in 1796; during those years she built on the work begun by her most famous predecessor, Peter the Great, to establish Russia as a major European power and to transform its new capital, St. Petersburg, into a city to rival Paris and London in the beauty of its architecture, the glittering splendor of its court, and the magnificence of its art collections. Yet the great Catherine was not even Russian by birth and had no legitimate claim to the Russian throne; she seized it and held on to it, through wars, rebellions, and plagues, by the force of her personality, by her charm and determination, and by an unshakable belief in her own destiny. (Selected by Julia)
  

Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe

I was asked to read something recent by Mary Alice Monroe to review for the Friends of the Library newsletter at my library. I probably wouldn't have picked this book up otherwise. It really wasn't that bad.

The story centers Sweetgrass, a former plantation on the South Caroline coast that has been in the Blakely family since the 1700's. Preston Blakely, the current patriarch has been scrabbling all his life to keep Sweetgrass together. He has lots of obstacles in his way - taxes that keep creeping higher, family that sell off their portions (his daugther, Nan, for instance), and a scheming sister who wants to sell the whole shebang to developers. So when Preston has a severe stroke, the fate of Sweetgrass and ultimately himself, rest in the hands of the rest of his family.

The rest of the family consists of his wife Mary June (called Mama June by all), who has never had to deal with the business end of their home. Morgan, his estranged son returns from Montana to help out, and Nona, the former housekeeper returns to lend a hand running the household.

What this whole story boils down to is this: keeping secrets and pain locked up inside you will tear you and your family apart. The book was heartfelt without being schmaltzy, and heart-wrenching without being depressing. It's not my usual cup of tea, but it was engaging and kept my interest through to the end.

Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland

Man, I am a sucker for historical fiction.

And I am super lucky that as I librarian I get to review books for Library Journal. My editor Wanda, sends me about 6 historical fiction books a year, and I get to read them. This was the latest.

While in the past I have mostly been enamored of Tudor history, I have read a few on the French Court. This particular book was one of the mistresses of Louis XIV, better known as the Sun King. This is the king who built Versailles, and made France the greatest kingdom in the world.

Louise de Vallieres was a young girl who came to court while Louis was still a young, vibrant man. Petite (As she is affectionately known) was a great horsewoman and she caught the king's attention with her skills on horseback. Their secret was an affair for many years, and she bore him 4 children, 2 of whom survived.

While the plot of this book was rather quiet for a story of the intrigues of court, I loved the inner world of Petite that was created by the author.

I hope someone writes novels about other famous mistresses, like Madame du Barry, or Madame Pompadour.

Bring it on.

Next Meeting: February 13!

Hello SWFLN members!

This is just a reminder that our next meeting of the Readers' Advisory Interest Group will take place this Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 4 p.m. We will meet at South County Regional Library in Estero. Click here for directions.

Here is what we will be doing:

1. Getting a demonstration of NextReads, a service put out by NoveList.

2. Discussing our favorite biographies.

3. Brainstorming about a new project to help SWFLN member libraries with Readers' Advisory.

4. Learning how to use our new blog!

I look forward to seeing you all then!

~Anna