Turtle, an eleven-year-old girl, is sent by her mother to stay with her aunt who lives in Key West. Takes place in 1935, so everyone is poor. Except for the people her mother is a housekeeper for. Good story, no magical ending, though.
Teen boy Aremis Slake runs away from his awful life to live in the New York subway. Pretty good book!
Words I Had To Look Up:
...he turned up such a surprising amount of trash, truck, and treasure... (pg. 62) -- Worthless goods; stuff or rubbish. I remember this word from my elementary school reader, and I've always like it!
Bo's dad is commander of an Air Force Base. His new sixth-grade teacher teaches the class improv. His cousin Gari comes to live with them when her mother is sent to the middle east. Good story. How come whenever there is a kid who dad is in the military, dad is the commander of the base?
Quote:
Oh, Winn-Dixie, thought Miss Candy. We're in for it now. (pg. 147)
First in the Alex Rider series, teen Alex is recruited to save the world, or at least the U.K., from free poison computers. Quite a lot of graphic violence, I thought, for a teen book. Get off my lawn, you kids!
A thirteen-year-old lad and his somewhat dim older brother run a rather unsuccessful detective agency. Somewhat bloody for middle school, I thought. But then, thousands are killed in The Lord Of The Rings.
Primrose lives in a small fishing village in Canada. Her parents are lost in a storm, but she never gives up believing they are still alive. Several interesting recipes. Cherry Pie Pork chops sounds the best!
A series of staggeringly brutal events recounted by a man from Afghanistan. I can't say I would care to see the movie, but I do feel like going kite flying.
Blue has to decide whether to fund PBS in broadcasting Fawlty Towers to a new generation of viewers, or help his girlfriend pay the rent. He makes the right choice!
Words I Had To Look Up:
Running-head (pg. 84) -- Text that appears in the top margin.
Contumacious (pg. 100) -- Willfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient.
Quote:
On several occasions car doors had opened unexpectedly while he was riding past, but this was the first time the door was attached to a Mercedes 500 SLC. I must be coming up in the world, he thought wryly, and it's about time.
A collection of stories mostly having the first Iraq War as a theme. Thought it was going to be humorous, wasn't. A couple of stories were interesting, but not really my cuppa.
This volume contains the novels Valors Choice and The Better Part Of Valor. I enjoyed both novels. Gritty military-in-the-future stories. I TOTALLY did not get the final sentence of Better Part Of Valor. Last sentence in ROT-13: Ab bar abgvprq gur gjryir ynetr terl pnavfgref fgnpxrq nybat bar ohyxurnq. I feel a dolt, someone please explain it to me.
Quote:
...and a diTaykan, who looked remarkably depressed for a species who invented flavored massage oil before the wheel...