Charlie Fletcher's Silvertongue

This is the conclusion to Stoneheart and Ironhand, which should be read first to fully understand this installment.

George and Edie are still fighting the battle against the evil seeping out of the London Stone and the Walker, who has managed to stop time. London is enshrouded in snow and the people have all disappeared, and George and Edie are left to fight the evil with the help of the the statues of human that have come to life. I loved the descriptions of London, and the many battles are exciting. Edie also comes to terms with her mother's death, and George struggles to place himself in the universe-- there was more here than I felt I got from the book. Was either reading too slowly or too quickly. Really, really enjoyed this series, although I would love to see a website detailing all of the statues and characters portrayed.

The Book Aunt gives a much more detailed description.

Carol Beach York's Remember Me When I Am Dead(1980) was sad to read because it is one of the few remaining books in my march through the alphabet, but it also isn't in style anymore. A slim volume, it concerns two sisters, 9 and 7, whose mother has died. Their father has already remarried, and their stepmother is very nice, but the older of the girls is obsessed with her mother, and keeps writing herself disturbing notes from her. At the end, it's revealed that the younger sister is actually doing this to get her sister sent away, but the parents decide to send both girls away. This was supposed to be suspense, but just doesn't seem relevant today. The book has been sitting unloved for eight years on the shelf. Sigh. Weeding, here we come.

I was really enjoying Peter Abrahams' Reality Check, but it is more of a high school book, considering how many times the f-word is used, and the two instances of people ending up unclothed in bed. Oh, well. From the publisher: "After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search."

I really, really wanted to like Shana Norris' Troy High, which took Homer's Iliad and set it in a high school, with the war being between the football teams, but it somehow didn't live up to my expectations. May still purchase it, because others liked it.
Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf
Katie's Bookshelf
Meliscellaneous

Read some adult literature! Yarrow and O'Donnel's Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail was just disturbing. My children are so sheltered from advertising that it would never occur to them to buy an article of clothing at full price and only wear it for a month. The other day I had on a navy wool turtleneck that is almost 25 years old! Wow. I hate shopping, so this was just an eye opening book for me. Also learned that Gen Y is from 1978 to 2000, which was helpful to know.

Loved Adriana Trigiani's Lucia, Lucia. In fact, I think for break I will check out a lot of other books by this author. Set in 1950s Greenwich Village, it's the story of an Italian woman who goes against the dictates of the day and wants a career. Would be okay for high schoolers, if they would be interested, because the language and situations were mercifully calm for adult fiction, which might well be one reason that I enjoyed it so much!