Recent Reading

The Sea of Trees by Yannick Murphy

Kind of tough to get through. Tian, a half-Chinese, half-French girl survives internment camp controlled by Japanese in WWII Indochina. Later travels to Vietnam, then France and then U.S., always burdened by her mother's obsession with Tian's father's unfaithfulness.

Catch by Will Leitch
YA book about small town hero's uneasiness about leaving for college while he develops a relationship with an older woman whose secret will inevitably destroy their relationship.

Looking for Alaska by John Green
Printz Award winning YA book about boy who goes to boarding school, discovers unique group of friends, engages in mischief and adventure before tragedy occurs. Lots of recurrent YA themes but well done.

The Mysterious Matter of I.M. Fine by Diane Stanley
Two kids that R.L. Stine-esque author is attempting to exert mind control over her readers. Fun kids book for its kind of thing.

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett
Sequel to Chasing Vermeer, similarly frustrating in its pretentious aura. Neat illustrations by Brett Helquist, though, and a good idea with what should be a really narrow audience. Thanks to marketing, the audience is wider than it should be.

Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper
YA exercise in depression sequence of events again and again.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Graphic memoir; I read this while at Syracuse. I enjoyed it. If you like the other popular graphic memoirs (Epileptic, Blankets, Persepolis, etc), you'd probably enjoy this book.