One imperfect letter, one missing page

153. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
This is the graphic novel version of Neil Gaiman's book of the same title. I read it because it was the only copy of the book I could get easily and it was worth it. It's a quick read, only partly because it's a short graphic novel. The real reason is because it's quite a page turner. The pictures, in addition to the language, draw you into the story and, unlike so many graphic novels, really do seem to come alive on the page. Even thinking about it now, it's like I was watching the book happen, not reading it.

The story is strong, and is about a little girl who moves with her parents into a new home. It reminded me, in the best way, of Spirited Away. Coraline finds a door that is supposed to open into a brick wall, but instead leads her to another world. She must battle an evil woman trying to be her mother, in order to free her family and friends. Gaiman's writing, as usual, is terrific and the drawings are wonderful. I cannot wait to see the movie and read the actual novella, of course.

154. Wide Awake David Levithan
First off, I'm a big fan of David Levithan. I've read several of his books and liked them all. I liked Wide Awake too -- the premise was good, our main character, Duncan, was strong and liked his relationships with his friends and boyfriend. But I think Levithan spent too much time on the message in his book and not enough on the story.

The book is filled with scattered italicized sections of text that represent excerpts from speeches given by the president-elect of the novel -- a gay Jewish man named Abe Stein. I think, instead of enhancing the novel, there are too many and they draw the reader away from what I felt was the real story -- the idea that these teens who cannot vote were out on the front lines, as it were, trying to get people to support Stein.

Levithan's other characters are interesting, but in some ways I think this book lacks the excitement his others have. Over on Amazon, School Library Journal's review said that Duncan's boyfriend, Jimmy is 'too flat to care about,' but I partly disagree. The real problem is that Duncan and Jimmy don't have a good relationship. I think Levithan missed a chance to create a strong, independent character in Duncan. He wrapped everything up too neatly, and that, I think, is the biggest flaw of the book.

I enjoyed reading it -- I stayed up too late finishing it. But it lacked the same energy and desire that I've found in his other books. But, at the same time, I enjoyed reading it. It's a timely YA novel good for kids who aren't quite sure about politics and how to stand up for what you believe in.

155. Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response by Aaron J. Klein
I picked this book up because I'd come across a similar title and was reading reviews and all of them pointed to this book as the one book on the Munich Olympic massacre that people should read. I'd watched the movie Munich and a few short documentaries on the massacre, but my knowledge of the events was limited to popular culture. But after reading Aaron Klein's book, I feel as though I've discovered the truth.

Striking Back was published in 2006, so Klein is able to look at the events from a post 9/11 point of view, which I found to be extremely important. He was given unprecedented access to materials that remained hidden from public view until he asked.

What makes this book so good is not just limited to Klein's access to documents and people. It's the way he gives us an inside look at everything. We're not just talking about the athletes -- their families, the Israel Olympic Committee, the Israeli government, Mossad, the German government, as well as the terrorists themselves. But even then, Klein takes us on another journal.

It would be all too easy to write a biased book, focused on just the events of Munich, glossing over blame and Israel's response through rose colored glasses. Klein does not fall into the trap. Not only does he leave no one untouched, he explains the failings of both countries and then goes on to talk about Israel's response. While Munich takes a fictional view of realistic events, Striking Back fills in all the holes. Klein writes of the assassinations -- of the guilty, the supposed guilty and the accidental assassination of innocents.

Klein's writing is strong, he doesn't cushion the truth nor shy away from it when it's less than flattering. I found it to be a chilly story, even moreso because in some ways this feels like the beginning of something we've become used to -- non-state sponsored terrorism ending in a war that no one can win ad that is still going on.

155 / 170 new reads. 91% read!

58. Final Warning by James Patterson
The fourth and perhaps final book in the Maximum Ride series. This was not the best book and probably not worth the wait. It was interesting, but Patterson came off as too preachy for my liking. I get that kids need to learn about global warming and that he felt the need to education, but it read too much like a science book in some parts. An approach more like Westerfeld in Peeps might have been more appropriate. Also, I thought it tried to tie things up neatly and failed completely. And, of course, he left it open to more books, should he choose to write them. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I did. It just wasn't as good as the others.

59. The Demon of Dakar: A Mystery (Ann Lindell Mysteries) by Kjell Eriksson
This was a fantastic book for a variety of reasons, the main one is that Eriksson took our "bad guy" and made him completely and utterly likable. Usually in mystery books (at least the ones I've read), the bad guys are bad guys, regardless of their motives and/or states of mind. In Demon of Dakar, there are the clear cut bad guys and then there's Manuel Alavez. He is unlike any bad guy I've read about for a long time. I loved the way Eriksson wove his tale, both from our history of the events as (and before and after) they happen. I really loved this book, and if you like a good mystery with extremely good character development, I recommend this one.

60. Blood Debt by Tanya Huff
It took me forever to read this book, not because it was bad or long or ... pretty much anything negative. It took me a long time because it was the last book in the Blood series and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what happened. I'm still not sure I like what Vicki has become, but I must say that I love how the book kind of shifted to being from Mike's point of view. After finally finishing it, I realized I'd kind of falling in love with Mike. I applaud Huff for doing such a good job with the last of the Blood books. A good ending (of sorts) to a good series.

61. The Eternals by Neil Gaiman
A good, though very easy read. Gaiman's reworking of an earlier comic series about gods. The writing is fantastic and the drawings are even better. I didn't really know a lot of the characters, but it did make me want to go see Iron Man, if only because his character in the graphic novel is kind of hilarious. I hope Gaiman writes more of these style graphic novels. I enjoy his alternate take on history.

61 / 120 new reads. 51% read!