Welcome to our new blog!

Reba Recommends now has its very own blogspot! I'm excited to have my own page where you can read my opinions and recommendations for Young Adult books. Please tell me what you think! You can leave comments here, or email me at rtierney@braintreema.gov. Either way, I'll respond back to you soon.
                - Reba, Thayer Public Library's Young Adult Librarian

January 24, 2011

I’ve been so busy reading, I’ve been forgetting to post. Sorry! OK, I have lots to catch up on. Here we go. I zipped through reading I, Drakula by Bekka Black. I know another vampire book. I can’t help it, I’m weak! Anyway, this book was a retelling of the classic Dracula, told entirely through e-mails and text messages. I think it was a format that worked, especially for this retelling. It added to the sense of urgency and panic when phone calls, messages and e-mails went unanswered, or people became unreachable. There are some differences from the original novel, and while having read the original is not required, it helps a lot with understanding this book. (Similar to reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).

In keeping with my little mystery theme, I also read the book Suspect by Kristin Wolden Nitz. This book was about a girl Jen, who is now 17 and will be spending the summer helping her Grandmother run her Victorian Bed & Breakfast. Sounds simple, right? But Jen’s mom disappeared when she was young, and her Grandmother has planned a mystery weekend, hoping to recreate the past, and jog the memories of several participants, trying to solve the mystery of Jen’s mother’s disappearance. Does it work? What really happened to Jen’s mom? Add a little dash of romance, and you have an enjoyable, entertaining read. I really liked Jen as a character, which made me eager to find out what really happened to her mom. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery/suspense novels.

Thanks to snow days, I’ve been able to read more than usual, so I also had time to finish The Daughters by Joanna Philbin. Yes, Philbin, the daughter of Regis and Joy. This book? Okay, and that’s about it. Nothing new. Not a bad story, and the characters were relatively likeable, but it was so predictable.

And my last update, I just finished Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride. I LOVED it! Everyone should read it now. Loved the writing, the plot, the characters. It was just so much fun to read. And even though yes, it was a paranormal story, it didn’t seem trite and played out, it seemed fresh and interesting. I also love that the title and all the chapters relate to songs. It’s kind of like playing a little game while you read, trying to identify all the songs. I’m so hoping for a sequel!

I just started a book called Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler, who wrote Twenty Boy Summer (which I read in February). I really liked Twenty Boy Summer, and Fixing Delilah sounds good, so I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Oh yeah…I’m also still reading East of Eden. I kind of have this method for tackling the classics. So, I figure out the date that I have to have the book read by. Then, I count the number of pages, and whatever number I come up with, I divide by the number of days that I have to read it in. This gives me how many pages I need to read per day. I know it sounds crazy and kind of complicated, but with the classics, sometimes I need a method to tackle them. Anyway, I’m reading around a chapter a day and I’m still really liking it. That’s it for now, hopefully I’ll get one more post in before the end of the month!