Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This book came highly recommended from one of my coworkers who loves this novel. I have a goal of trying to read every novel in my classroom library, and since I had this one, I decided to give it a shot. Bless Me Ultima  by Rudolfo Anaya follows the story of Antonio Marez as he grows into adolescence. Antonio lives in New Mexico with his family. His family has a divided past, and Tony must pick which direction he wants to go. Will he be a priest like his mother desires? When Tony is six, Ultima comes to live with them, a curandera, who heals with herbs and magic. It is Ultima who often guides Tony through his battle between his mother's Catholicism, and his father's desire for freedom. This book is hard to review. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the mysticism and the magic and devils. The story is beautifully described, and the characters are deep and fascinating. The battle Tony fights between what his parents each want for him is also particularly poignant, even though I&

 This is once again a book that I teach with my seniors, and it is one of my all-time favorite books. There is also a film version of this book that is every bit as good as the novel; in fact, Patrick Ness had a significant hand in creating that film. Conor O'Malley is 13. His life is not normal. His mom is horribly sick with what we assume is cancer, and this fact has completely altered every aspect of his life. Conor is determined that his mom is getting better. He is determined that the treatments are helping her. It isn't long before at 12:07 AM, Conor is woken from an awful recurring nightmare by a monster. Conor finds that he is not afraid of the monster, much to its surprise and annoyance. The monster tells Conor that he will tell him three tales, and once he is finished, Conor must tell his own tale, and that tale will be the truth. Can Conor face the reality that faces him? This book is amazing. There are no other words to describe it. The illustrations in this book ar

 I got I Am the Messenger  from a Christmas book exchange, and I was excited to read it. I loved The Book Thief  (and have decided to reread it), and I was hoping this book was every bit as good. Ed Kennedy is 19. He's an underachieving cab driver in an unknown city and country. Ed has no prospects, no future, and he's not even supposed to be driving a cab since he's underage. All of that changes when he and his friends inadvertently stop a bank robbery and help the police capture the robber. Shortly after the incident, Ed starts receiving playing cards in the mail. Each one has some sort of clue written on it, leading to a person in desperate need of help. Can Ed figure out what each person needs? This is a hard review to write. On the one hand, I absolutely loved The Book Thief , and I was really hoping this book would live up to my expectations... but it didn't quite get there. Don't get me wrong, this book was highly entertaining. Ed is hilarious and I loved his

 This was another book we read for our book club. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller follows the independent and murderess Alessandra. Alessandra has been overlooked her entire life, including by her first love, Hector. But, Alessandra has a plan to change everything: convince the Shadow King to fall in love with her, then kill him and take his throne. As she moves to the palace and gets knee-deep in the intrigue, things change. Will Alessandra go through with her cunning plan, or will she give in to her heart and marry the most powerful man in the world? Truthfully, I desperately wanted to like this book, but I just... didn't. It was shockingly sappy and incredibly predictable. I had Alessandra pegged from the very start. She wasn't going to kill the Shadow King, and she was certainly going to fall in love with him. While the journey to get there wasn't as obvious, I knew the outcome from the very start. Murdering Hector and the subsequent discovery of his body c