Calico Joe

 Dates Read: July 2013
As with Where we Belong, I picked up Calico Joe at the airport, but didn't start reading it until I was home and needed some nighttime reading material. This book was very short and sweet. I wish I knew more about baseball, just to even better understand the story, but my lack of baseball knowledge did not hurt my reading or understanding the book. I loved it! A great story set with a baseball scene.

Summary: (from amazon.com)

Whatever happened to Calico Joe?

     It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring. The first baseman for the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third and headed for home. The next day, Jim Hickman, the first baseman for the Cubs, injured his back. The team suddenly needed someone to play first, so they reached down to their AA club in Midland, Texas, and called up a twenty-one-year-old named Joe Castle. He was the hottest player in AA and creating a buzz.

In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen.  The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.

Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever…

In John Grisham’s new novel the baseball is thrilling, but it’s what happens off the field that makes CALICO JOE a classic.

Where We Belong

Dates Read: July 2013
On the way home from my business trip, I was not in the mood to do technical reading, but I wanted something to read to kill time at the airport and on the plane so I picked up Where We Belong (and Calico Joe). I ended up talking to coworkers while killing time at the airport, so instead this was a great night time reading book. And it was great - except that I stayed up waaaay too late for a few nights because I couldn't stop reading. 

The story alternates between two perspectives and I found myself constantly reading one perspective and then wanting to read the next chapter to get the other perspective. Definitely a fun, girly read!

Summary: (from amazon.com)

Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six-year-old television producer living her dream in New York City. With a fulfilling career and picture-perfect relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door . . . only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had locked away forever.

From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s meticulously constructed world will be shaken to its core, resurrecting memories of a passionate young love affair that threaten everything that has come to define her. For the precocious and headstrong Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to reevaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light.

As Marian and Kirby embark on a quest to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves. A place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever.

Quintana of Charyn

The three books in the Lumatere Chronicles.

Dates Read: June 2013
This weekend I read the third and final book in the Lumatere Chronicles, "Quintana of Charyn". First, let me say that I read the first two books a few months ago, so I didn't remember all the details. With that said, this book was still wonderful and outside of a few, minor, insignificant points that I probably didn't connect because I didn't remember what happened in the earlier books, I had no trouble finishing this book and understanding how the story concludes. I'm not sure this book would be good for middle school students (due to some of the sexual references and scenes) but I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend this series to someone who wants a toned down version of a book that's along the lines of Lord of the Rings or something along those lines - with multiple lands, territories within the land, battles, friendships, a kingdom struggling to rebuild, etc. 

Summary: (from amazon.com)

Separated from the girl he loves and has sworn to protect, Froi and his companions travel through Charyn searching for Quintana and building an army that will secure her unborn child’s right to rule. While in the valley between two kingdoms, Quintana of Charyn and Isaboe of Lumatere come face-to-face in a showdown that will result in heartbreak for one and power for the other. The complex tangle of bloodlines, politics, and love introduced in Finnikin of the Rock and Froi of the Exiles coalesce into an engrossing climax in this final volume.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume I

Dates Read: March to May 2013
Bobby and I have been gotten hooked on BBC's "Sherlock" series and CBS's "Elementary" series so I decided to stick with the Sherlock Holmes theme and read the stories. I finished Volume I (of II) this month. It was absolutely wonderful! The short stories are the perfect length and are absolute page turners. The longer stories are also page turners and the chapters are the perfect length, too. Even after reading 700 pages about Sherlock and Watson, I find that I still want to read more (yay for Volume II) and am not at all sick of reading about their adventures.

Summary: (from barnesandnoble.com)

The Complete Sherlock Holmes comprises four novels and fifty-six short stories revolving around the world’s most popular and influential fictional detective—the eccentric, arrogant, and ingenious Sherlock Holmes. He and his trusted friend, Dr. Watson, step from Holmes’s comfortable quarters at 221b Baker Street into the swirling fog of Victorian London to exercise that unique combination of detailed observation, vast knowledge, and brilliant deduction. Inevitably, Holmes rescues the innocent, confounds the guilty, and solves the most perplexing puzzles known to literature.

Splendors and Glooms

Dates Read: March 2013
Continuing with my Young Adult reading, I decided to read Splendors and Glooms, a 2013 Newberry Honor winner. I thought the book started a little slow, and it was a little hard to get into the book (in fact, at one point, I almost returned it to the library without finishing it). I'm glad I kept going with the book, though, because the ending was great and was a definitely page-turner. I could see why this book was a Newberry Honor winner - the writing was great, the plot was unique and interesting, and overall it was a great story.

Summary: (from Amazon.com)

The master puppeteer, Gaspare Grisini, is so expert at manipulating his stringed puppets that they appear alive. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, is spellbound by Grisini’s act and invites him to entertain at her birthday party. Seeing his chance to make a fortune, Grisini accepts and makes a splendidly gaudy entrance with caravan, puppets, and his two orphaned assistants. 

Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are dazzled by the Wintermute home. Clara seems to have everything they lack — adoring parents, warmth, and plenty to eat. In fact, Clara’s life is shadowed by grief, guilt, and secrets. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion of kidnapping falls upon the puppeteer and, by association, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall. 

As they seek to puzzle out Clara’s whereabouts, Lizzie and Parse uncover Grisini’s criminal past and wake up to his evil intentions. Fleeing London, they find themselves caught in a trap set by Grisini’s ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it’s too late. 

The One and Only Ivan

Dates Read: March 2013
I don't know why, but I'm on a big Young Adult kick right now. I think it's the appeal of having quick, easy, thoughtless books to read that take my mind off of work and allow me to relax. Most of my YA books have come from recommendations from the Everyday Reading blog so when she recommended The One and Only Ivan, a recent Newbery winner, I decided to give it a try. And oh my goodness this book did not disappoint!! I read it in one sitting because I could not put it down! Ivan is wonderful and the story is gripping, and sad, and exciting, and just an overall joy to read!

Summary: (from Amazon.com)

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

The Secret Prince

Dates Read: February 2013
This is the second book of the Knightley series (I read the first book earlier this month). Although it was the second book, it started a little slow. Once I got to the halfway point (about 200 pages in), I was hooked and couldn't put it down. The first book felt very Harry Potter-like. This one still had a Harry Potter feel, but it started to stand alone and take on its own non-Harry Potter storyline. The nice thing about these books is that they don't have a cliffhanger ending. So although I'm anxiously awaiting Book 3, I don't regret having read the first two books in the meantime. 

Summary: (from Amazon.com)
Knightley Academy is back in session, and Henry Grim is confident that nothing else can prevent him from earning his knighthood. But Henry and his friends quickly discover that their professors have made some troubling changes to the curriculum—and there’s an old classroom filled with forgotten weapons. It is the discovery of this classroom that prompts Henry and Valmont to become the unlikely leaders of a secret battle society. But disaster strikes as Henry, Adam, and Frankie find themselves stuck as Partisan School servants—and something is rotten in Partisan Keep. When Henry is discovered by a secret society of outlaws with a sinister purpose, he must come to terms with a great sacrifice that will take him away from everything he has ever known and wanted. The stakes get higher and tension mounts in the second installment of Violet Haberdasher’s fresh, fast-paced, and always surprising Knightley Academy books.