April Showers Bring... Books!

Nothing quite like a good book on a rainy day. Or a sunny one. Or a somewhat windy with high clouds day.

Apparently I found plenty of good days this month. Here are the good books I weathered during April:

Stealing Princes – Tyne O’Connell – This is book two in a series. The first one is Pulling Princes. I liked the first one; it’s a lot of fluff, British girls' boarding school and all that. The second book I was not as hot on; the main character sort of drove me crazy for most of it. Anyway.

Poison Study – Maria Snyder – This is a very clever plot. A young woman accused of murder has the choice of death or becoming the king’s food taster. The characters and relationships are great! One word of warning – this has a few adult moments – like when she remembers why she killed the man she murdered.

Weedflower – Cynthia Kadohata – I really loved this book by the same author as Kira-Kira. I actually liked it even better! It’s about a young Japanese girl during WWII and her experience in an internment camp. Really good!

Sorcery and Cecila – Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer – This was so much fun! It’s written in letter format by two different authors writing as young women in post-Napoleonic England. The best way to describe it is Jane Austen meets Harry Potter. Oh yes, there’s magic too.

The Circuit – Francisco Jimenez – I actually read this for school and really enjoyed it. It was written by a professor at Santa Clara University and is his story of life as a child migrant farm worker in California.

Breaking Through – Francisco Jimenez – This is the second book about Jimenez’s life, focusing on his young adult years. These books are so insightful and really give you a glimpse into his struggle and success.

Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger – Can you believe I had never read it? And now I’m supposed to teach it in a week. So, I’ve read it. And I’d like to edit it! But the themes, symbolism, and journey are very profound.

Physik – Angie Sage – This is book three in the Septimus Heap series. The first two are Magyk and Flyte. The fourth just came out – Queste. These are fun, fantasy books. They follow Septimus (a seventh son of a seventh son) and his family and friends. A good read for kids who like Harry Potter.

Until next month...

p.s. - If anyone knows of any good books for reading on a tropical island, I'm looking for books to read in Hawaii... (Yes, I did take one look at Mitchner's Hawaii... and thought better of it. I'm not going to read the whole time!)