tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67558429108043593552012-01-24T11:24:47.910-08:00Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-36179700528322678352011-05-23T20:30:00.000-07:002011-05-23T20:30:00.340-07:00

Recently I received James Howe's Addie on the Inside to review for VOYA. I had been aware of Howe's Bunnicula series but had never read anything by him. In any case, the front cover of Addie calls the book a "companion" to The Misfits, and then I found out that another book called Totally Joe fit in there somewhere.Let's just say I like to be thorough! Which naturally means that I felt compelled

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-18096006725007167512010-08-12T12:45:00.000-07:002010-08-12T14:44:34.114-07:00

A slightly different version of the following review was first posted in a "Writing Children's Literature" online course I recently took from Western New Mexico University.Ice by Sarah Beth Durst is a young adult fantasy novel consisting of a modern-day retelling of the fairy tale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” There is also a fair amount of “Beauty and the Beast” mixed into the story.

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-8852679774959920572010-08-12T12:30:00.000-07:002010-08-12T14:17:28.591-07:00

A slightly different version of the following review was first posted in a "Writing Children's Literature" online course I recently took from Western New Mexico University. There are no major spoilers in this review.Pretty Dead is a short young adult novel by Francesca Lia Block, the popular (and, to some, controversial) writer of the “Weetzie Bat” books. Pretty Dead is narrated by Charlotte, a

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-47899835178029983922010-08-10T09:30:00.000-07:002010-08-11T08:21:22.166-07:00

A slightly different version of the following review was first posted in a "Writing Children's Literature" online course I recently took from Western New Mexico University.As far as I know, “Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer” is John Grisham’s first attempt at a book for younger readers. Obviously, he is well known for his mainstream legal thrillers, several of which have been made into movies. This

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-89666530926822414512010-01-10T09:39:00.000-08:002010-01-10T09:42:41.384-08:00

This is another book I can't really review here because I'm reviewing it for Magill Book Reviews, but I highly recommend Jacqueline Carey's Santa Olivia. This is a science fiction book unrelated to her Kushiel's Legacy fantasy novels.I will say that along with Lev Grossman's The Magicians, I will be nominating Santa Olivia for the Hugo and Nebula awards this year.

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-66032797282890703142009-08-13T04:30:00.000-07:002009-08-13T04:30:00.513-07:00

I can't review this book here because I'm under contract to review it elsewhere. So I will just say that I highly recommend Lev Grossman's The Magicians.Click here to see what other authors have said about it (scroll down the page for blurbs and reviews).

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-89918179925169646842009-08-11T19:44:00.000-07:002009-08-11T19:45:34.259-07:00

I've recently begun reviewing for SFReader.com, and my first two reviews for them appeared a few days ago. The books are Maledicte by Lane Robins (review here) and The Calling by David Mack (review here). I would also encourage you to check out the rest of the site: SFReader has a treasure trove of archived reviews, and they also have their SFWatcher movie reviews on the same site.

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-61449781519816496892009-07-02T07:00:00.000-07:002009-07-07T12:21:51.299-07:00

Last week I saw My Sister's Keeper, starring Abigail Breslin, Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vassilieva, Jason Patric, and Alec Baldwin. The movie is based on the book of the same title by Jodi Picoult; it is considered by many to be her best work. I was slightly reluctant to see the movie, in part because I wasn't sure that the book's alternating first-person narration would translate well to the screen,

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-87653874371686335312009-05-12T21:00:00.000-07:002009-06-08T13:55:18.595-07:00

There is so much that 19 Girls and Me gets right that I suspect I'm more disappointed than I otherwise would be with the one aspect I think it gets wrong. Nonetheless, this is a lovely children's book and one that I will consider giving as a gift.Written by Darcy Pattison and illustrated by Steven Salerno, this picture book first grabbed my attention with its terrific eye-catching cover. The

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-65727134262703313512009-04-14T19:00:00.000-07:002009-04-23T13:46:17.358-07:00

I find it an interesting juxtaposition that my review of Jodi Picoult's Handle with Care comes right after my commentary on the Battlestar Galactica finale, for reasons I think will become obvious. Please note that there will be detailed spoilers after the cut, not only for Handle with Care, but also for Picoult's earlier novel, My Sister's Keeper, and for Battlestar Galactica.Judging by the

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-58592627101841985822009-03-25T13:00:00.000-07:002009-03-25T15:20:35.864-07:00

[Please be aware that there are massive spoilers behind the cut!]In an effort to avoid posting spoilers, I didn't even title this post as I wanted to, which was: "Why This Atheist is OK with Battlestar Galactica's Divine Explanation".First, I have two caveats. The first is that I have a personal connection to this show, so I know I'm not completely objective. However, it had already been my

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-25122874464743178932009-02-02T19:30:00.000-08:002009-05-22T19:13:17.379-07:00

[Due to a slight mix-up, this review did not appear in VOYA as it was supposed to, and therefore the editor has given me the go-ahead to post it here. We're limited to 250 words for VOYA reviews, and our reviews are written for the audience of librarians who work with young adults, so this will sound quite different than the reviews I usually post here. However, I wanted to go ahead because this

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-80067983710827811892008-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:002008-11-30T16:44:35.120-08:00

Janet Tashjian's Larry and the Meaning of Life (2008) is her third book about Josh Swenson, a.k.a. "Larry". In the first book, The Gospel According to Larry (2001), super-bright teen Josh is startled when his vehement anti-consumerism blog gains a large cult following and more momentum than he ever could have imagined. In Vote for Larry (2004), Josh realizes that he can perhaps channel his

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-25230290139086475442008-10-21T10:18:00.001-07:002008-10-23T14:19:48.099-07:00

I've been doing a lot of reviewing in other venues lately; between that and the stress of good old Hurricane Ike (yes, we were in a mandatory evacuation zone), most of my leisure reading has been comfort re-reading of childhood favorites. I did manage to sneak in a few new books here and there, though.Hell Week by Rosemary Clement-Moore. I really enjoyed this fun, well-written book, especially

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-68027853394458204332008-06-19T15:19:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:08.403-08:00

I don't have anything to review at the moment, as I'm currently wading through several books I'm obligated to read for reviews or essays elsewhere. But I go through withdrawal if I go too long without talking about books, so here's a partial list of Books I'm Really Looking Forward To, in no particular order.City Without End, the third book in Kay Kenyon's The Entire and the Rose quartet, due

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-11687841744391960532008-06-11T10:09:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:08.688-08:00

It wasn't my intention to review another picture book so soon, but I keep coming across them, and this one is special for a couple of reasons. The title is Hold On to Your Horses, and it was written by Sandra Tayler and illustrated by Angela Call. (I chose my favorite interior illustration to show here.) The story is both charming and useful, and the illustrations are nothing less than

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-4973155556998236482008-06-09T08:19:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:08.998-08:00

This past Saturday, we attended the last ballet of the season for the Houston Ballet: La Sylphide and A Doll's House.Even though we have season tickets to the ballet this year, it's still pretty new to me, and I've never had any formal training as a dancer or a dance critic. So please excuse in advance my lack of appropriate terminology, and of a historical knowledge of classical ballets. (End

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-34069108059946095722008-06-07T14:29:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:09.301-08:00

I first came across Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat books during my young adult lit class in library school. They weren't required reading for that class, but another student spoke very highly of them and I eventually sought them out. I found them to be lovely and charming, and I followed them to FLB's Violet & Claire, which was much darker in tone and subject matter, but still contained the

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-66197882434612049002008-06-05T08:37:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:09.623-08:00

Picture books in the The Misadventures of Gaspard and Lisa series, written by Anne Gutman and illustrated by Georg Hallensleben, are originally published in French but some are also available in other languages, including English, Spanish, and German. And although I own one in English and one in German, I thought it would be more fun to display the covers of the Japanese editions, for two reasons

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-41467821588246775312008-06-04T08:08:00.001-07:002008-06-04T08:20:54.409-07:00

I've customized this blog to get three columns, plus the "read more" expansion for posts.Whew! I know how to code in html, and I still found this whole process to be pretty complex. Fortunately, through blogger's help boards, I eventually found my way to a helpful article that gave me code to copy and paste, and told me where to put it. I then found someone else's instructions on how to

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-37916903824791078142008-06-01T19:15:00.000-07:002008-06-04T08:04:25.419-07:00

I recently added this review blog to a "Books and Blogs" webring of reviewers associated with Library Thing, and was tagged by Literary License with this meme. So here goes:Author Meme Rules: Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-15562887048839052252008-05-12T15:49:00.001-07:002008-12-10T15:20:09.746-08:00

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence: And Other Stories is a collection of stories by John Kessel. The publisher, Small Beer Press, made the book available both through LibraryThing as an Early Reviewer title, and through the Small Beer website as a free PDF download (still available here as of May 12, 2008). As well as, you know, a book you can buy.This book is worth purchasing solely for

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-53622906086881500142008-04-16T13:02:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:09.883-08:00

Although I have neither children nor plans to have them -- in fact, I'm not terribly comfortable around children -- I adore children's books. Picture books, chapter books, young adult novels, you name it. There's a certain freedom and beauty, and sometimes dignity, to children's books that can't always be found elsewhere.On a recent trip to Denver, a friend introduced me to the Tattered Cover,

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-64844256426903230602008-03-31T12:34:00.000-07:002008-12-10T15:20:10.145-08:00

[minor spoilers]The Somnambulist, which came to me through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, is an ambitious, interesting, and atmospheric novel that tries too hard and risks becoming inaccessible to many readers. Author Jonathan Barnes infuses the book with tantalizing tidbits from literature, philosophy, and history, but some readers may spend more time worrying that they’ve missed

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-62195766858408916062008-02-08T19:49:00.000-08:002008-12-10T15:20:10.301-08:00

I first encountered Mary Doria Russell's fiction in her debut novel The Sparrow, which was followed by a direct sequel, Children of God, both of which are perhaps best characterized as literary science fiction. I don't normally read historical fiction, but on the strength of Russell's superb characterization and scene-setting, I will read any fiction she writes no matter what the genre.Dreamers

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755842910804359355.post-17820466575457222692008-02-08T19:31:00.000-08:002008-02-09T11:14:06.361-08:00

My name is Amy Sisson, and I'm a writer, book reviewer, and librarian. Currently I review for VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocate), which is a library journal aimed at young adult librarians; Magill Book Reviews; and Magill's Literary Annual. Those books are assigned to me, although I occasionally do have some say in what I get. But like all reviewers, I also receive review copies of many titles that

Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11048079879080286675noreply@blogger.com0