The Lathe of Heaven

Book: The Lathe of Heaven
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Audience: High School and Adult
In a Nutshell: one man's dreams become reality- literally

George Orr is afraid to fall asleep. More specifically, he's afraid to dream. Sometimes, the things he dreams come true. Not just in a make-a-wish-and-magically-get-a-puppy kind of way. If he dreamed he had a dog, he wouldn't just wake up and find one on his doorstep. He would wake up to discover he had gotten a dog 2 years ago, and no one in the world would remember the way things used to be- no one except him. The dog thing doesn't happen in the book, but you get the idea.

George is ordered to go to a psychiatrist who specializes in dreaming, a man named Dr. Haber. Naturally, at first Haber thinks George is delusional. The good doc uses hypnosis and a machine called the Augmentor to help George dream something pleasant and hopefully break his fear of dreaming. But being aware of the content of George's dreams gives Haber the ability to remember both realities when things change. Not just that, but having control of what George dreams gives Haber the power to change the world. Like most people, he thinks he has good intentions, that he is trying to create a better world. But nothing turns out quite the way it should, and the dreams reshape history in twisted, only partly positive ways. As Haber gets closer to finding a way to take George's abilities as his own, George must stop him before so much meddling causes the world to fall apart at the seams. Very intriguing sci-fi classic about the interconnection of dream and reality, mind and matter, and the evil that lurks in the heart of man.

It's set in Portland, Oregon, which lends the story that Pacific Northwest geography I love so much. On an interesting geo-historical side note, the book was written in 1971, 9 years before the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Le Guin mentions the beautiful peak of St. Helens several times, but it is Mt. Hood that erupts in the book's dream-altered realities.

If you're wondering where the title comes from (I know I was), each chapter begins with a quote, many drawn from Eastern philosophy, especially Taoist thought. Chapter 3 begins with this quote from Chuang Tse:

Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.

So now you know. If you're wracking your brain to remember what a lathe is, here's some help:

All clear now, right?

It spins chunks of wood and shapes them into things like table legs and baseball bats. More to the point, it was probably the only power tool in existence before 300 B.C., when Chuang Tse, a.k.a. Zhuangzi, a.k.a. Zhuang Tze, etc., was thinking Taoist thoughts. If he were writing today, would he say, "those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the Black & Decker plunge router of heaven"? Who knows.

Howl's Moving Castle

Book: Howl's Moving Castle
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Audience: Grades 5 and up
In a Nutshell: a floating castle, a running scarecrow, a talking fire, a nasty witch, and some magical pink hair dye.

In the fairy tale world, the fair and virtuous maiden who gets the prince and the happy ending is always the youngest in the family. Sophie is well aware of this; as the oldest of three sisters, and a step-sister to boot, she knows that her life will be very unremarkable. It doesn't really bother her that much, and she accepts that her fate is to work hard in her family's hat shop for the rest of her life. But then, against all odds, interesting things start happening to her. The Witch of the Waste puts a powerful curse on Sophie that turns her into an old woman, and Sophie runs off and invites herself into the magical moving castle of the Wizard Howl, which roams the hills around her village. Inside she finds Howl's young apprentice, Michael, a fire demon named Calcifer who lives in the hearth, and a magical door. It opens onto one of three places in the kingdom, and one place in another world: ours. Howl himself is not as evil as his reputation claims; besides, it was a rep he started himself so he'd be a more intimidating wizard. He spends hours in the bathroom in order to look and smell nice, and his favorite pastime is getting girls to fall in love with him, then never seeing them again, but that's a pretty weak definition of evil by fairy tale standards. High school evil, sure, but there are bigger, eviler fish to fry here. Like the Witch of the Waste, who also put a curse on Howl, and it may catch up with him soon. And why is there a very persistent scarecrow following Sophie? She's an oldest daughter: what magic could she possibly have?

Howl's is a fun, energetic tale with lots of interesting characters, twists and turns, cool magic, and a bit of romance. I've been meaning to read it for years, and the anime version by Hayao Miyazaki finally prompted me to do it. I haven't seen the movie yet, but if Netflix comes through, I will tonight. More on that later...

Daring to Draw Near

Book: Daring to Draw Near: People in Prayer
Author: John White
Audience: Adult
In a Nutshell: from bargaining to dancing, famous prayers in the Bible and what they show us about God and ourselves

I've gotten a little backlogged again on updates, so these will be short and sweet. White examines 10 prayers in the Bible, and by "prayer," he doesn't just mean kneeling with eyes closed and hands folded. All sorts of divine-human interactions qualify: Abraham pleading for the people of Sodom, Jacob wrestling with God, Hannah crying out for a child, David dancing before the ark of the covenant, Jesus' last words on the cross, and more.

I found that oodles of the ideas that I read here were stuck in my head for days, and some are even sticking with me permanently. One main point of the book is that prayer is always initiated by God, and we are responding to him. The way he reaches out and the way we respond both vary wildly, but God is always the one to initiate. It's often through a situation in our lives which creates a need or a question that we bring to him. Whatever the further meaning is behind what's happening to or around us, God's foremost desire is that everything draw him and us closer together. It's something to think about. For those who believe in Christ and want to be challenged and inspired in their prayer life, or for those outside the faith interested in learning more about what prayer really means in Christianity, try this book. I know I'll be coming back to it many times in the future.

Magic Lessons

Book: Magic Lessons (Book Two of the Magic or Madness trilogy)
Author: Justine Larbalestier
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: magical teen will either go crazy or die young- unless her gooey old ancestor can help

Reason Cansino's mother had the gift of magic, but she disavowed it; now she's in a looney bin. Reason's grandmother has the gift, but at 45 years old she's ancient for a magical one. They usually die before they're 20. Reason only discovered from her grandmother about a week ago that she has the gift as well (see Book One: Magic or Madness, for that story), and that her grandmother's back door in Sydney, Australia, actually leads to New York City (New York City?!). Just two days ago, she and a couple magical friends stopped power-hungry magic guy Jason Blake from sucking the magic out of them and taking it for himself. He's even Reason's grandfather- some grampa. Now the door is acting very strangely, swirling and bending in very un-woodlike ways, and it even spits a weird bitey sluggy thing at them. When Reason gets sucked over into the New York side, she enlists the help of Danny, the hunky older brother of her friend Jay-Tee, to help her figure out what (or who) this creature is that's guarding the door home, and why it smells like family to her. (Her magical perception manifests most strongly as smell- it works in the book a lot better than when I explain it.)

Reason's ultimate goal is to figure out a way to beat the rather limited "go mad/die young" option, in order to save herself, her friends, and maybe her mother. A few interesting twists at the end assure us that there is plenty of story left to wrap up in Book Three, Magic's Child, which according to Amazon.com will be out in March 2007. I like Larbalestier's style, and the Aussie slang is colorful, as always; JL is, indeed, Australian, so it's authentic. Another personal tidbit: she is married to Scott Westerfeld, one of my favorite authors lately. I see a lot of cross-pollination in their books, such as the importance of math and number sequences for certain magical powers. Who knows, maybe they've both dug math forever, and they actually met at an "Authors Who Love the Fibonacci Sequence" mixer. The content here gets a little, shall we say, PG-13 in places, so just be aware that it's aimed more at high-schoolish-aged teens.

The Unusual Suspects

Book: The Unusual Suspects (Book Two of The Sisters Grimm)
Author: Michael Buckley
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: killer spiders, frog-girl monsters, attack rabbits and more when fairy tale offspring run amock

Sabrina and Chloe Grimm are the great-great-great-great-granddaughters of Wilhelm Grimm, of Brothers Grimm fame. Two years after the disappearance of their parents, the sisters Grimm have gone to live with their grandmother, Relda, in her crazy old house in Ferryport Landing. As it turns out, fairy tale creatures are real, they left Europe 200 years ago to escape persecution, and they all live in Ferryport (formerly Fairyport)Landing. A magical barrier keeps them in town, where the Grimm family can keep an eye on them. When there's a mystery involving the Everafters, the Grimms are the detectives to solve it. In this second book in the series, the sisters start school, just in time for the mysterious and gruesome murders of two school staff members. In the midst of the investigation, Sabrina puts up with pranks from Puck (the trickster king), and struggles with pre-pubescent bouts of anger and her growing prejudice against all Everafters. Throw in a rampaging herd (flock? warren? pod?) of rabbits and you've got yourself a story.

This series got off to a good start with Book One, The Fairy Tale Detectives, and I've heard that Book Three is good, but this middle child is a little weak. It wasn't bad, but the message about anger and prejudice gets pretty heavy-handed at the end, and the plot doesn't exactly skip right along. Maybe I've just had my fill of fairy tale twisters for now after The Big Over Easy, but this one didn't grab me.

Generally speaking, the series has got orphans searching for their parents and lots of odd, sometimes macabre goings-on. Sound familiar? It's worth a try for Lemony Snicket fans in search of something to tide them over until The End arrives on Friday the Thirteenth of October (how perfect).

Children of the Great Depression

Book: Children of the Great Depression
Author: Russell Freedman
Audience: Grades 6-10
In a Nutshell: title says it all

Changes, hardships, and daily life during the Great Depression come into sharp focus through the eyes of the children it affected in another well-written, expertly-researched offering from Russell Freedman. From lack of food and clothing to 12-year-olds and younger needing to leave school to work in factories, mines and fields, from sharecroppers to boxcar kids on the move, from the Dustbowl to the Lone Ranger, the book discusses what conditions were like during the Depression for children in different parts of the country with different economic backgrounds and different races. It also covers the sorts of things kids did for fun, from an afternoon at the pictures if they had a dime, to playing with homemade toys or listening to the radio.
The rich selection of photographs comes from the archives of FDR's Farm Security Administration, which produced over a quarter of a million pictures from all areas of the country between 1935 and 1943. Freedman always does good work, and this is no exception. If you want really well-researched and readable non-fiction alongside the best photos and other historical tidbits available, he's your man.

The Big Over Easy

Book: The Big Over Easy
Author: Jasper Fforde
Audience: Adult
In an Eggshell: Humpty Dumpty had a great fall- and it was no accident

Two days after meeting the author, I finished the book (slightly behind schedule). It was a fun read, although I have to say it wasn't as good as the Thursday Next series. However, it was actually the first book he wrote, so it's a good sign that his later writings have improved.

Like I mentioned in the Fforde entry below, in this book Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Detective Sergeant Mary Mary (as in "quite contrary") investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty. Jack's work has long been hampered by the state of modern crime-solving. The readability of an investigation once it is published in Amazing Crime Stories has become more important than finding the truth. Twists, turns, not too many cliches, and a detective with unique and interesting foibles will all help a case get recognition, funding, and a fair trial. It doesn't hurt to be part of the powerful and selective Guild of Detectives, either, which Jack is not, but the pompous but popular Friedland Chymes is. All sorts of fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters are mixed into an otherwise normal portrayal of Reading (rhymes with wedding), a town west of London. Normal, except for the anthropomorphized pigs. And a revered but never explained artifact called the Sacred Gonga. And the presence of really boring aliens who love paperwork and Fawlty Towers. So maybe normal is the wrong word. But like with the Thursday Next series, the combination of the mundane, the fantastic, and the just plain batty is good for all sorts of chuckles, and the occasional guffaw. Don't look for tight plotting or edge-of-your-seat suspense; just laugh when it's funny. If you don't think it's funny, you should put it down.

Puns, plays on words, and plays on well-known characters and stories abound, and they're much more over-the-top than in Thursday Next. Mr. Fforde shared an interesting tidbit of his writing process relating to all the story references. He wrote The Big Over Easy first, followed by The Fourth Bear. At this point, he had used up most of the fairy tales and nursery rhymes he knew, so he moved on to literary characters in his next book. Knowing that this one could very well end up on the unpublished shelf with the first two freed him up to write whatever he wanted, however silly or outlandish it was. And thus The Eyre Affair was born. See what nice trivia you can pick up at author appearances? Great for impressing your friends and co-workers. As long as they're big bookworms like you.

Bodies from the Ash

Book: Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii
Author: James M. Deem
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: bodies from thin air do tell tales

In this book about the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the focus is on the bodies. Which is interesting, because technically, there are no bodies. After a basic summary of the day of the eruption, Deem outlines a few excavations of buried Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum over the years; some were undertaken for noble archaeological reasons, others simply to grab stuff. The focus, however, is on those who died. The speed and intensity of the pyroclastic flow (one of my favorite terms- look it up) instantly killed and buried thousands of people, leaving empty, body-shaped pockets (Antibodies? Unbodies?) after the bodies disintegrated to nothing but bones. My dance and movement-trained sister might call it negative space. The plaster casts made of the non-body holes in hardened ash reveal the last moments of the people (and dogs) of Pompeii in disturbing detail. A combination of historical records, archaeological evidence, vulcanology (no, not Spock), and educated guessing allows scientists to piece together theories of who these people were and what their final moments might have been like. I've been fascinated with Pompeii ever since it was the cover story in an issue of National Geographic World when I was a kid. Natural disaster, mystery, and gruesome evidence: non-fiction doesn't get much better than that.

Ffun with Fforde

I'm going to branch out and talk about an adult author today. Crazy, I know! Of course, his recent books are about nursery rhymes and fairy tales, but give me a break. I can't go cold turkey off the young stuff.

I went to see Jasper Fforde speak at a local Barnes & Noble a few nights ago. He's the author of the Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, and so on), and most recently the Nursery Crime series. The first Nursery Crime is The Big Over Easy, in which Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and Mary Mary investigate the death of Humpty Dumpty. The second book is The Fourth Bear. Just bought it, haven't read it yet, but the story has something to do with the rights of anthropomorphized bears and the lucrative but illicit ursine porridge trafficking industry, among other things.

Mr. Fforde is a very entertaining speaker as well as a very clever author, and it's well worth the excursion if he's appearing in your area. The Thursday Next books are literary crack for English majors (and lots of others) the same way Harry Potter is for kids (and lots of others). JFf's websites are also nicely done and good for a bit of daft fun, you might say. If you were British. Here's the Nursery Crime Division site, with links to the others. I couldn't decide who to buy his book for, so he signed it like this:

Fantastic.

Most exciting news of the evening: his next book will be the fifth installment of Thursday Next. His publisher shot down Apocalypse Next as a title, but I'm sure he'll think of something equally clever and punny.

I even got an awesome Ginja Assassin postcard w/ signing.

My only disappointment: the new Porridge t-shirt was not available for purchase.

Oh well, that's what the internet is for, I suppose.

The Tenth Power

Book: The Tenth Power (Book Three of the Chanters of Tremaris trilogy)
Author: Kate Constable
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: girl fulfills prophecy by singing the magical songs of all nine Powers- but wait, there's one more?

When we last saw Calwyn in Book Two (The Waterless Sea), she had bittten off more magic than she could chew, it turned around and bit her in the butt, and now she has lost all her powers of chantment. Chantments are songs that work like spells to work magic in the world of Tremaris, and only for those with a gift for it. There are different types of chantments that control the powers of Ice, Winds, Iron, Beasts, Seeming, and more. A chanter is usually only capable of singing one, maybe two types of chantments, but there is a prophecy that tells of a powerful Singer of All Songs who will change the world, one way or the other. A very ambitious- make that megalomaniacal- chanter named Samis would love to put that on his World Dominators Guild resume, but it was looking like the title would go to Calwyn. That is, until she lost it all.

Now Calwyn and friends are trudging their way to her home of Antaris, where the priestesses with the Power of Ice live in seclusion behind a massive ice wall, and boy, is Calwyn cranky. Not that she doesn't have her reasons. She lost all her powers, it should be spring but winter is mysteriously holding out, and her true love, Darrow, is off searching for Samis across the world. When they arrive at Antaris, they discover that not only is a mysterious illness is affecting only chanters, but a mean and nasty priestess has taken leadership and everyone's living in fear. Something is very wrong with the world of Tremaris itself; the chanter's sickness and extra-long winter are only the latest symptoms. Calwyn has an idea how to make things right, so she, Darrow and the rest head off to save the world.

The trilogy overall is an engrossing fantasy tale. I'd call this last book the weakest, but still enjoyable. The narrative occasionally jerks along to get from one major event to another, and all the elements of plot and character didn't culminate into a big three-book finish quite as well as I hoped they would. Still, there's enough grand finale magic and prophecy fulfillment to make the trilogy a satisfying read for fantasy lovers.

I won't give away the Big (though not as big as I'd hoped) Magical Moment at the end, but I will say that it brought to mind a song from a Fred and Ginger movie I just watched this week. The movie is Follow the Fleet, and the song by Irving Berlin starts like this:

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance

Peeps

Book: Peeps
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Audience: Teen to Adult
In a Nutshell: kiss the wrong person, get a vampire parasite

And now for something completely different: from a cute pink pig to the bloodsucking dangers of unsafe sex. But hey, at least this isn't a sequel!

During his first week in New York, Cal had a one-night stand, and now he's infected with the parasite that causes vampirism. A parasite? Who knew? The parasite's victims are known as parasite-positives, or peeps, to those in the know. Peeps quickly develop a voracious appetite for meat, including human, and grow to hate the things they once loved. That might be as general as sunlight (which doesn't kill them, they just hate it), or as specific as Elvis or potato salad. Cal is a rare variety of peep. He's a carrier, which means he has some of the advantages like increased strength and heightened senses, but without the insanity and desire to eat his neighbors. Under the direction of a secret vamp-tracking organization called the Night Watch, he's managed to track down all the girls he'd slept with (or even just kissed) before he realized what had happened to him, and now he must find his progenitor: Morgan, the mysterious girl who infected him. Her trail leads Cal underground to a world of abandoned tunnels, infected rats, and something dark and ancient awakening deep Underneath.

I've got a weakness for teen vampire novels, and I love everything Scott Westerfeld writes, so this one was kind of a no-brainer for me. Westerfeld does something interesting here: odd-numbered chapters contain the actual story, and even-numbered chapters are about parasites. Not the fictional vamp-asites from the story; just a collection of real parasites and how they survive. Disgustingly fascinating. Some theme or idea usually ties the parasite chapters to the surrounding story. The Peeps approach to the vampire legend gives too much credit to the almighty world-controlling power of biology, IMHO. I believe there's more to life than the carbon we're made of, or simple stimulus-response and survival. But the book is still a great read, and I really enjoyed it. Westerfeld has a great ear for cool that serves to give him a distictive, readable style without him resorting to just an orgy of product name-dropping. (Look, kids! I said "iPod!" Am I hip yet?) In other words, I think his books will still read cool in 10 years.

For a much more succinct teaser, here's an excerpt from Scott Westerfeld's website:
"I came up with the four important features that any vampire novel (of mine) had to include:
natural selection,
sexual attraction,
parasitic infection,
and Elvis memorabilia."

Or if you prefer a more graphic blurb (as in graphic novel), try the Unshelved Book Club's take on Peeps. I love those guys. Imagine a sitcom set in a public library and you've got Unshelved.

Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride

Book: Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Illustrator: Chris Van Dusen
Audience: Grades K-2
In a Nutshell: "Look, look, pig taking a ride! Pig taking a ride!"

This is also the second of a new series, but I'm done apologizing. There, I said it. I've read a lot of sequels this summer, so what?

Just so you know, the posts won't always be coming so fast and furious. I used to keep track of all my reading in a database before I left Washington and my work-related access to Access. I've got a bit of a backlog written in Ye Olde Spirall Notebooke, but I'm almost caught up. Hey, if anyone has suggestions for a good web-based database that I could transfer Access files into, please let me know. I am largely ignorant on the topic but willing to learn.

On to Mercy. Mercy is a pig. She lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson, who love her like their own child. Mercy loooves hot buttered toast. Her first appearance was in Mercy Watson to the Rescue, in which she did, indeed, save the day, despite the fact that she was only looking for hot buttered toast.

Every Saturday after lunch, Mr. Watson and Mercy go driving in Mr. Watson's pink cadillac. Mercy always wants to drive, but she never does- until one afternoon, when Mr. Watson gets distracted by an elderly stowaway in the back seat, and Mercy grabs her chance to take over. A high-speed police chase ensues, ending with a gentle lesson on the importance of seat belts. Thanks to the Watson's over-starched elderly neighbor, Eugenia Lincoln, we also explore the definition of "folly," and also the value of it. But such philosophical ponderings don't get in the way of a fun little easy chapter book with a small number of well-chosen words and lots of colorful pictures.

If you're wondering where the nutshell quote came from, you'll have to read the author's note at the end for the whole story.

Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything

Book: Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything
Author: Lenore Look
Audience: Grades 2-3
In a Nutshell: spunky second-grader learns to love immigration and swimming lessons

This is a sequel. I'm sorry. I have a problem.

When we last saw our heroine at the end of Ruby Lu, Brave and True, Ruby's cousin, Flying Duck, and had just emigrated with her family from China, and they're staying in Ruby's house. Ruby likes immigration at first: all the excitement, the parties, her role as a local tour guide, and her new playmate. Flying Duck is deaf, so Ruby also gets to learn some Chinese sign language, which is the hit of 20th Avenue South. Like it says at the end of chapter one: "Flying Duck was just perfect. Having a cousin from China who was deaf was as good as having a cousin who had a third eye in the middle of her forehead."

But just like her Samurai Sumo Sidekick toy, the excitement of immigration fades for Ruby. Everyone is speaking Cantonese around the house now, and Ruby, who is practically flunking out of afternoon Chinese School, can barely understand a word. And she's no good at chopsticks, but her mother puts all the forks away so they can "practice." But never fear, everything gets worked out, but not without the help of a few magnets her little brother sticks up his nose. Ruby also handles her fear of swimming, friendship troubles with neighbor Emma, summer school, and a stray dog named Elvis with equal spunk. Elements of Asian culture are nicely integrated into the story without sounding pedantic, and a clever glossary of Chinese and other tricky terms brings up the rear to help young readers. Fans of Junie B. Jones and Ramona should give Ruby Lu a try.

Skybreaker

Book: Skybreaker
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: Indiana Jones at 20,000 ft. with pirates instead of Nazis

Here we have a very worthy follow-up to Airborn, one of the best teen books of 2005. I know, I know, another sequel. Can I help it if authors are writing lots of sequels to my favorite books?

Rather than give you the background on this one myself, I'm sending you to the source. Go check out the official Airborn/Skybreaker website, which is fantastic and well worth a click or two.

Welcome back. So here's my spiel.

At last a student at the Airship Academy, Matt Cruse is on a training assignment when his ship goes too high and spots the Hyperion, a legendary airship thought to have crashed with all its treasures and crew forty years ago. Matt alone knows the last known coordinates, which makes him a target for good and nasty treasure hunters alike- from the ruthless ex-pirate John Rath, to his own friend and first love, Kate DeVries, to the mysterious and beautiful gypsy girl, Nadira. Pirates, gypsies, lost ships, and gold? Who could possibly resist such a combo? Not I. And Oppel does not disappoint. Matt, Kate, and Nadira team up with young captain Hal Slater, whose ship, the Sagarmantha, and crew full of sherpas is one of the few "skybreakers" capable of flying high enough to find the Hyperion.

The Saga makes it to 20,000 ft. and finds the Hyperion with its load of frozen crew members, a collection of rare zoological creatures like a yeti, and a workshop full of inventions. The owner was something of a batty recluse, but a brilliant inventor. But where is the giant pile of gold they expected? Before you think this is adventure is going too smoothly, let's throw in John Rath the ruthless pirate, who doesn't give up easily, and some previously unknown high-altitude creatures that resemble giant flying squid with electrified tentacles. The love quadrilateral between Matt, Kate, Hal and Nadira also keeps Matt's life from getting too simple.

I could not put this book down. Cliched as that may be, it's true, and it's not true very often.

Behind the Curtain

Book: Behind the Curtain (An Echo Falls Mystery)
Author: Peter Abrahams
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: steroids, kidnapping, and Big Business villainy in a small town

Eighth-grader Ingrid Levin-Hill loves Sherlock Holmes, and she shares his talent for noticing small details that lead to solving big mysteries. Ingrid's powers of observation have put her in the middle of another mystery in this sequel to Down the Rabbit Hole. I know, two sequels in a row. This one stands a little more on its own than Infernal Devices, but both the Echo Falls Mysteries are so good you might as well read both, anyway. There are two mysteries afoot this time. On the one hand (or foot), her older brother Ty is the only freshman on the varsity football team, and he seems to be getting strong very quickly lately. Pair that with the sketchy characters he's been hanging out with, and Ingrid has her suspicions. Not a lot of mystery there in the What, but plenty in the Who and How. On the other foot, there's the new, high-powered female VP at the Ferrand Group, the local 500-lb.-gorilla of a company where her dad used to be the only VP. His stress over job security is off the charts, and he's passing the fun on to the rest of the family. Now throw in a very odd invitation to Ingrid from Chloe Ferrand, who never talks to her anymore, but now suddenly wants Ingrid to come swimming at the mansion. Inside pool, of course, daahling. What does Ingrid's grandfather's farm have to do with all this? Who knows, but Chloe brings it up over dinner. To top it all off, Ingrid is kidnapped out of her garage. Why doesn't anyone believe that it happened? Escaping from the locked trunk of a moving car may have gotten her out of a Saturday "Math Fest", but there are much more believable alibis to dream up.

The mysteries are not all that mysterious here, and most readers will guess whodunit, but that doesn't detract from the fun of a good, old-fashioned mystery. The true strength is in the characters, and especially in the dialogue, which is straightforward and short but very funny, sometimes coming across like a deadpan series of one-liners, or an old comedy routine. Topping the list of memorable characters is Ingrid's wonderfully independent and crotchety grandfather. He does things like use dynamite to create a pond and import rare frogs to make his farm a protected habitat in order to foil the Ferrand Group's attempt to buy him out. Exchanges are also particularly funny between Ingrid and Joey Strade, the police chief's son and a potential love interest. All the awkwardness of talking to a friend who's becoming interesting, but in snappy, one-liner form.

Peter Abrahams is better known for his adult mysteries, none of which I've read, but I certainly like the looks of his writing style from what he has to offer for teens. I may have to cross over into the grown-up end of the pool.

Infernal Devices

Book: Infernal Devices (Book Three of the Hungry City Chronicles)
Author: Philip Reeve
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: cities in the far future move around and eat each other

First of all, if you haven't read the first book in this series, called Mortal Engines, go do it. I'll help you get started. Here's the opening sentence: "It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea." Intriguing, eh? In this part sci-fi, part adventure series, it is at least 500 years into the future. Earth experienced something called the 60-Second War, which devastated civilization and the landscape of Earth as we know it. Cities were rebuilt on the principal of "Municipal Darwinism," in which the strong Traction Cities survive by attacking weaker cities, absorbing their raw materials, wealth, and people as their own. I don't mean armies of people go forth and attack each other; I mean the actual cities do. Picture a tiered wedding cake, but with less frosting and more guns, then put it on tracks like a tank. Our heroes are Tom Natsworthy, an idealistic young man from London, and Hester Shaw, a young woman with a nasty scar marring most of her face and an ice-cold vendetta against the man who gave it to her. When they are literally thrown out of London onto the barren Hunting Ground below, they are forced to travel and survive together, and Tom discovers that the heroes of London are not all they're cracked up to be.

An all-out war is brewing between the Traction Cities and the few Static Cities that survive on the ground, and that conflict brings us through to Book Three, Infernal Devices (There's a Book Two in there, Predator's Gold, and it's really good too, but I'll just let you find out for yourself).

WARNING: If you want to read Mortal Engines without any spoilers, stop now. I'm talking about two books later, and there's just no way to avoid giving a few things away.

It's been fifteen years since the events of Predator's Gold. Tom and Hester Natsworthy and their teenage daughter, Wren, live a quiet life in Anchorage-in-Vineland, a former Traction City now in long-term parking in a forgotten corner of the Dead Continent (formerly known as America). Wren is kidnapped by a well-organized group of juvenile delinquents called the Lost Boys after their botched attempt to steal something known as the Tin Book from Anchorage's library. The book (which is actually made of tin) has something to do with Old Tech submarines or weapons, and lots of people are interested in it- including Nimrod Pennyroyal, a wanna-be-explorer and now mayor of the ocean-going pleasure city of Brighton. Stalker Fang wants it too. She was once known as Anna Fang, the aviatrix and hero of the Anti-Tractionist League. After her death she was resurrected as a robotic Stalker with a human brain, though few memories remain of her former life as a human. She leads the militant Green Storm, which has been waging brutal warfare on Traction Cities for 10 years. Tom and Hester travel to the Lost Boys' underwater base of Grimsby looking for Wren, only to discover that something has gone horribly wrong there. They continue on to Brighton, where Wren has been sold as a slave. Meanwhile, surgeon-mechanic Oenone Zero resurrects the Stalker Grike (last seen in Book One) and makes him bodyguard to Stalker Fang for reasons of her own.

Be warned, this one ends with a big fat cliffhanger. the fourth and final book, called A Darkling Plain, has been released only in the UK right now. Overall, I would put Hungry City Chronicles with Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials on a short list of series with the most engrossing world-building, best page-turning adventure, and characters that stay with you. (I have my share of reservations about Pullman, but I won't get into that right now, and none of my issues involve questioning his great talent.) HCC is a really fantastic series with both action and great characters enough to really sink your teeth into and chew on for a while. It's one of the only series I not only buy for myself, but buy without reading first. Now that I think about it, maybe I should do a little dealing with Amazon.uk for that last book...