So Far Behind!!

I really have been reading, but mostly in preparation for my second newspaper column on kids' books.... Here's a quick list of what I've knocked out, with some mini-reviews:

Change of Heart -- Jodi Picoult -- Too much candy for a nickel, as my Mama would say.

Tennyson -- Lesley M. M. Blume -- A YA I read hoping to review it, but it was a real mixed bag. Beautiful writing interspersed with clumsy comic relief. This was a Booksense pick for March, so I was disappointed that it didn't totally deliver.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair -- Laura Amy Schlitz -- Another juvie novel, set during the Spiritualist period of American history. Totally yummy -- creepy, and moving, and just a terrific read.

Thirteen Reasons Why -- Jay Asher -- Wow. This one knocked my socks off. Before Hannah Baker committed suicide, she recorded messages for the people who either set this event in motion, perpetuated it, or failed to pick up the clues and help. We "hear" the tapes with Clay Asher, who listens to them with a growing sense of anger, helplessness, and desperation for what might have been. Asher gets everything just right -- none of us really leaves high school behind us, do we? The expected, but nonetheless subtly moving, ending provides a sense of hope out of the ashes of Hannah's life.

Now that I have my "required" reading done, I'm reading my own stuff again -- right now it's David Rosenfelt's new one -- a la Harlan Coben, most decidedly NOT an Andy Carpenter... I'll let you know...