The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Reading Level: Young Adult

(4 out of 5)

If you have read Ms. Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy you will want to read The Gathering. If you haven't read The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning I highly recommend that you do. All three were amazing. The Gathering starts a new series called Darkness Rising and is about another group of kids that the Edison group has put together.

Maya lives in Salmon Creek which is a small medical research town on Vancouver Island. The town is so small it's not on any maps, only has about two hundred residents, and the school houses sixty eight kids from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Strange things have been happening. First Maya's friend Serena, who was the captain of the swim team, drowns in the lake. Then a year later cougars start appearing around Maya and they won't go away. Her best friend Daniel has a hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations. The sexy new boy Rafe makes Maya feel different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than it's share of skeletons in its closet.

I'm excited because on Ms. Armstrong's website it said that by the end of this trilogy we may see some of the characters from the Darkest Powers series. I'm ready for the next book but it won't be out until next year.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Reading Level: Adult
(Haven't Read it Yet)

This is one of the books in my pile just waiting to be read. I love a good zombie story or movie. So I'm looking forward to reading this one. Because I'm not sure when I will get to it I wanted to put it on the blog in case someone else out there loves zombies too.

R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, noidentity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy’s memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim’s human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between. (Taken from the Book Jacket)

Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffery Stepakoff

Reading Level: Adult
(Haven't Read it yet)



I have a ton of books I want to read and none of them have been grabbing my attention. I blame my TV watching for my lack of interest in my books. I've been catching up on Glee and Farscape has grabbed my attention. Netflix is evil. We bought a Roku to hook up to our TV so we can watch all the Netflix instant TV shows and movies right on the TV. It's addictive. And I can't forget about all the awesome TV shows and movies we have here at the library. And while my books were winning out for awhile, lately the TV is in the lead. While I have tried to read and watch at the same time I get distracted. Why wouldn't I trying to do two things at once.


Fireworks Over Toccoa is a love story. Lily Davis Woodward was married just days before her husband was sent abroad to fight in WWII. When her husband and the rest of the soilders return home a huge party is planned, fireworks included. Lily meets Jake Russo, a handsome Italian immigrant, during the fireworks display that he is responsible for. During that encounter he steals Lily's heart and soul leaving her torn between doing what is right and following her heart. This looks like a really good one. I'm going to read it eventually.

Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

Return to Paradise is the sequel to Leaving Paradise. For the review on Leaving Paradise click here: Leaving Paradise

When this book first came out the library didn't buy it so I went and bought it but didn't sit down to read it until the other night. But the library owns it now and you also have access to Leaving Paradise. I read Return to Paradise in 3 hours. I couldn't put it down once I got started. I'm very happy with the ending.

At the end of Leaving Paradise Maggie has found out the truth about who was really behind the wheel of the accident and Caleb has left her to go to Chicago. Eight months later Caleb finds himself in trouble again and instead of going back to jail his old probation officer is taking him and five other teens traveling around giving talks on reckless driving. Maggie just so happens to be on this little excursion as well. In the four weeks they are together tempers fly, sparks ignite, and the truth comes out. Can Maggie and Caleb get a fresh start?

52 Michigan Weekends by Bob Puhala

The mark of any good book I borrow from the library, is when I have found it so fabulous or useful, that I need to buy a copy for my OWN library. "52 Michigan Weekends" is such a book.

Perhaps it's because Michigan is a neighboring state to our own Indiana that I found the information so useful. Perhaps it's because the economy is so bad that we find ourselves taking many short trips with the kids instead of the traditional long vacation that makes the information this book contains more practical for us. Whatever the reason, "52 Michigan Weekends" has proved to be worth its purchase price.

The book is divided into sections, based on what season you should see these sights, starting with Spring (and I'm not just trying to be alliterative there!) Some highlights of interest to residents of Northwest Indiana include Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, and things to do in the area around New Buffalo. We've been through New Buffalo a number of times, little knowing what to do or where to go once we got there besides use the bathroom and buy a burger at Redamak's! But now that we have this book, we've got a little inside knowledge that will prove helpful next time we're in town, including hints on nice places to spend the night, should we so choose. There is a little something for everyone; those who like to be physically active will especially enjoy the Winter section. Those of us who prefer to read and relax will enjoy Pulhala's writing style about the region, even if the towns are too far away or the activities not on our usual list of things to do.

In short, if you're from the region and are tired of fighting the traffic to head to Chicago for your fun, you may want to pick up this book and heard north instead! There are at least a few weekends worth of good times listed for everyone.

Submitted by Gerti

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks

This is the second book I've read by famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, and while different in subject matter than his book "Uncle Tungsten" which involved his experiences as a boy fascinated by chemistry, the brilliance and humanity of the great doctor come through the same way in this book, which involves his treatment of patients institutionalized because of encephalitis lethargica, or "sleepy sickness."

It took me more than my allotted 6 weeks to read, mainly because even when I got to the epilogue, I couldn't stop reading, because Sacks couldn't stop writing! Even after the many chapters on the patients he's treated, Sacks talks about the stage and screen adaptations of this popular text (most notably the film version by Penny Marshall starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams), and about the history of the "sleepy sickness" that occurred during and after WWI and which so changed the lives of the people it touched, patients, and families. I checked out the movie while reading the book (since it took me so long!), so it was interesting to see Sacks' take on the filmmaker and her 2 main stars, whom he calls Bob and Robin. This chapter itself makes it worth the fine I'm paying right now, because it is a fascinating look at all the effort the Hollywood team made to meet and study the patients with this particular disorder in order to portray them accurately in their movie. I am dismayed that the library doesn't have another famous play about such patients, called "A Kind of Alaska" by famed playwright Harold Pinter. Hint, hint, library book buyer!

As for the background of the disease, it is terrifying to think that one can have a cold or flu, and 20 years later end up with Parkinson's-like symptoms that may lead one to being institutionalized. Unfortunately, such a nightmare did happen for hundreds of people, and although I have studied the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 before, this particular disease, while occurring around the same time, has gotten no Nova specials, even though it is horrifying in its own way that sufferers were condemned not to death, but to a form of living death that Dr. Sacks (among others) awakened them from decades later thanks to a drug called L-Dopa. Their stories are truly inspiring and show the resilience of the human spirit despite impossible odds and challenges. One patient especially (Ed W., who is portrayed by DeNiro in the movie as Leonard) strikes me as brilliant and his comments on his own condition and how he is trapped within his frozen body are among the most heart-breakingly moving.

If Sacks can be said to have a flaw as a writer, it is that he can't stop writing (a flaw we share, it seems!) Sometimes on a page, I couldn't decide whether to concentrate on the voluminous footnotes or the text itself, and sometimes upon turning a page, forgot which of the two I was actually reading. But that's my problem. I strongly recommend the book for those with interest in medicine, psychology, or Parkinson's disease, because it provides brilliant insights on them all. I have checked out another book from Sacks, and another book on the disease he describes here, and eagerly look forward to reading them both.

Submitted by Gerti