#34 - A Certain October - Angela Johnson

#34        

Title:  A Certain October

Author:    Angela Johnson

Genre:  Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  2016

Dates:  6/29/16 – 7/6/16

Cds/Hrs:  7/7.75

Scotty thinks of herself like tofu – it’s the people around her that give her life flavor.  She’s happy enough to let her friends take center stage, and anyway, she has her hands full keeping tabs on her little brother, Keone.

Then her world comes crashing down – literally.  When a terrible train accident leaves her brother in a coma and kills two of her classmates, Scotty blames herself.  Her friends and family try to help her, but healing means more than just physical recovery.  How can Scotty forgive herself if she can’t take back what happened? 

Although the book has a sad enough theme, Johnson keeps the story upbeat through the eyes of Scotty as she deals with the tragedy, her step-mother and boy and girl-friends.  She tries to focus on the book she’s reading – Anna Karenina because there is a book report she needs to write.  She wants to go to the homecoming dance and moves through her own injuries to participate.  Scotty also had been wanting to get to know Chris better when the accident took his life yet gets to know another boy in her life – Falcon.  They move their relationship to a deeper level.   All in all, I did like this book and the rewarding outcome on a number of levels.

#33 - A Hologram for the King - Dave Eggers

#33

Title:  A Hologram for the King

Author:   Dave Eggers

Genre:  Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  2012

Dates:   6/17/16 – 7/4/16

CDs/Hrs:  7/7.75

“In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last – ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great.  In a Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds.  This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment – and a moving story of how we got here.”

This summary is from the back cover of the CD.  It will be interesting to see the movie how this story is handled with flashbacks and suspenseful scenes.  I'm just imagining what it will look like and the more I think about it now, the more I want to see this story on the big screen.

#32 - Trixie Belden and the Mysterious Visitor - Julie Campbell

#32        

Title:  Trixie Belden and the Mysterious Visitor

Author:    Julie Campbell

Genre:  Mystery

Category:  Kid Fiction

Rating:  B

Published:  1954

Dates:  6/28/16 – 7/3/16

Pages - 282

 “Oh, woe,” Trixie moaned. “Homework on a Friday.  It’s not fair.  It’ll ruin the whole week end.”

This is typical of our Trixie.  She’d rather be solving mysteries than going to school or doing homework.  Even on the home front she would avoid dusting like the plague except that she earns $5.00 a week to do chores around Crabapple Farm where she and her family live.  Honey Wheeler is her best friend.  It’s October now with Halloween just around the corner.  The mystery now is why Diana Lynch is so down and edgy and seems so lonely.  Honey and her brother, Jim, extend an invitation for Di to join them for a weekend.  Di accepts.  One of her problems she shares is wanting to have a Halloween Party yet not wanting the butler to hover and spoil everything.  Another dimension is that Uncle Monty is also in town and a real creep as far as Diana is concerned. 

The excitement builds as the Bob-Whites initiate Di into their group, and pursue the mystery of the uncle who doesn’t seem to be who he presents himself to be.