5 Minutes For Books

Search Results for: guys read

Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child

by

5M4B disclosure

confessions of a so-called middle child

Confessions of a So-called Middle Child by Maria Lennon features misfits, frenemies, fashion, and hidden tunnels.

I didn’t fall in love with Charlie Cooper right at first. I’m not sure why. We are introduced to her as she is visiting her school-ordered psychologist. He’s the author of The Middle Child, and thinks a lot of Charlie’s issues stem from her perceived lack of attention in comparison to her likable perfect older sister and cute little brother. As an older and wiser reader, I also saw her same acting out in her fashion choices and the way she chases after the popular crowd, who are not going to accept her for who she is.

She has a chance to start over. After the attention-pulling (and potentially dangerous) stunt she pulled at her last school, she’s suspended and forced to change schools. Her family moves across town when her dad gets a job working on Houdini’s mansion (this is where the hidden tunnels come in). Her psychologist agrees to release her from his care after her summer of hard work if and only if she befriends the most picked on, bullied, ignored student at her new school.

Charlie has a good start at school. She connects with a couple of girls, but will they stick with her if she’s nice to Marta? Things heat up when Marta proves not to be so invisible and is competing against her new friend Trixie for one spot. Charlie has to decide who she’s going to be. She can’t play both sides. Things come to a head in an over-the-top way, which honestly is what I love about reading middle grade fiction. The last quarter of the book was suspenseful and exciting, as Charlie is right in the middle of trying to solve the problem, and of course ends up fixing herself as well.

CONTENT NOTE:

There’s some mild profanity in Confessions of a So-called Middle Child — hell, used several times as a place, and a couple others. I think it bothered me more because they were used by 12-year-old Charlie. But then I sort of laughed at the unrealistic use of “creep,” by Charlie’s mother, aimed at another driver. I don’t curse, but even I come up with a better substitute than that.

There’s no romance in this novel (other than thinking guys are cute), which is the truth about most middle school classrooms, in spite of what you might read in most other middle grade fiction. I loved the realism on this plot element as well as the real frenemy/foe issues. The slightly less realistic capers just made it fun!

Good As Gone

by

5M4B disclosure

Good as goneSimon Fisk was a US Marshal bringing fugitives to justice who had fled internationally. When his six year old was kidnapped and presumed killed and his wife had committed suicide as a result, Simon changed careers and went into private business recovering children who had been kidnapped in custody disputes. After recovering a boy in Bordeaux in Good As Gone by Douglas Corleone, Simon is stopped by the French police who blackmail him into investigating the kidnapping of Lindsay Sorkin from a Paris hotel or face jail for recovering the boy in Bordeaux using less than legal methods.

The similarities to his own story with his daughter Hailey ten years earlier are striking, and they both repel him from even wanting to try to take on the case – part of why he only went after children kidnapped in custody cases – as well as forcing him to see himself in the parents’ situation. He reluctantly agrees to investigate the case in the short term, just to prove that he can’t be a help.

Using all his expertise from years of tracking fugitives as a US Marshal and recovering children, Simon actually does start to find clues that the French police had missed. He figures out how the girl was taken and begins the painstaking task of figuring out who might have taken her.

Every layer that Simon uncovers shows yet another layer below with more bad guys who’ve gotten involved. There are nonstop twists and turns in this race against the clock to recover Lindsay Sorkin before she becomes yet another statistic like his own daughter, on whom he’s never fully given up.

Along the way, he meets an ally in Ana, a Polish lawyer who works for a man Simon wants to talk to as part of the investigation. She is drawn into the hunt for Lindsay and provides her own strengths and aid, not just a woman wringing her hands and insisting she wants to be a part of it.

The book descends into hells I wish didn’t exist in this world, and Simon and the contacts he calls upon delve into shades of grey in the methods they use to gain the information they need. Regardless, Simon and Ana are fascinating characters with depth to them that helps keep the pages turning.

Granted, much of the book is a little far fetched. Simon’s ability to find that first clue and somehow manage to tease each link into yet another lead to track down the kidnappers is a little far-fetched, but you expect that to some degree in a thriller like this. I was hooked on this quick read, and I anticipate that this will become a series focused on Simon Fisk and, of course, Ana.

Written by Michelle whose greatest fear is that someone would kidnap her own children. Knowing she can’t live her life in fear, she doesn’t. See what she does with her energy instead of focusing strictly on the negative via her blog Honest & Truly! or follow along with her on Twitter where she is also @HonestAndTruly.

A Place At the Table

by

5M4B disclosure

a place at the tableWhen I was pitched A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White, the author’s name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Then I remembered that I read another of her books, A Soft Place to Land (linked to my review). I didn’t love that one, though I wanted to. The characters engaged me, but it fell flat.

Fortunately A Place at the Table hit all the right notes.

I love the opening of the publisher’s description:

Celebrating the healing power of food and the magic of New York City, A Place at the Table follows the lives of three seekers who come together in the understanding that when you embrace the thing that makes you different, you become whole.

New York City? Food? Journeys towards self-awareness? Count me in!

The novel starts off in 1929 in Emancipation Township, North Carolina, where African-American siblings Alice and James witness a lynching. Then it shifts to Bobby in Decatur, Georgia, 1970, who can advise his mama on her wardrobe, and decorate his church craft within an inch of its life, but doesn’t really fit in with the other guys, especially his super-macho brother.

I didn’t quite get the connection between the two sections, especially the first one which wasn’t very developed, unlike Bobby’s story. But once Bobby goes to New York ten years later, it begins to come together.

Much later in the novel, we meet Amelia, a woman struggling through a bad marriage. She is interesting, and once I stop worrying what she’s doing here, I’m back to enjoying the novel.

In the end, most of the characters come together in surprising yet believable ways. The characters were strong, and the plot matched their development chapter for chapter.

NOTES ON THE AUDIOBOOK

Novels that follow a personal journey are among my favorite to enjoy as an audiobook. I liked this one a lot. You can watch a video of the author Susan Rebecca White talking about creating all the different voices at the Simon and Schuster page. You can also hear an excerpt from the novel, which was narrated by Robin Miles, George Newbern and Katharine Powell, giving a separate voice on the audio to each of the characters’ perspectives as well.

Twerp

by

5M4B disclosure

twerpTwerp is Julian’s story about the events that took place on the block in Queens, 1969. We (the readers) don’t know what exactly happened, but we know that his 6th grade English teacher has required him to write about what happened.

He and the other guys were somehow involved in Danley Dimmel getting hurt, and from the beginning Julian says things like he wishes it hadn’t happened. It takes him a while to get around to that which happened over Christmas break the incident that brought on this assignment, but in the meantime, he writes about what happens on the block and at school, all the way through the end of the school year. These include some hijinx that only 12-year-old boys find fun, and also first crushes and other school drama.

I did find it slow-going at first, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. By the middle of the book, I was charmed by Julian, as well as his big sister, the girls at school, the new man-child from Guatemala, Eduardo (LOVED this character!), and the guys from the block and schoolyard.

I had thought that it was a typical bully story, albeit one focusing on a bully who learns a lesson and reflects on the consequences of actions, but that is not at all how I’d describe this story. It’s soon clear that Julian is no bully. He doesn’t always use the best judgment, but what 12-year-old boy does?

Twerp is sweet and tender and funny, and I recommend it to boys and girls, probably 4th or 5th and up. The author Mark Goldblatt dedicates it to the boys on the block, by name, but adds “Don’t try to figure out who’s who,” indicating that the story is indeed rooted in his own history, and I think that’s what makes the characters and situations ring so true.

The Adventures of Jo Schmo: Shifty Business

by

adventures of jo schmoShifty Business is apparently the 3rd book in a series, The Adventures of Jo Schmo, written by Greg Trine and illustrated by Frank Dormer. This usually bothers my son (age 9), to not read from the beginning, but we were both able to jump in with no questions left unanswered.

Jo Schmo is a 4th grade superhero. She fights crime in her town in the traditional way of superheros — showing up to save the day from bad guys. I’m not sure how she got to be a superhero, but I think there’s a mention made of the fact she inherited it. Her grandfather Joe helps her use the superhero manual to find out more about her powers. She seems to already have mastered the knuckle sandwich and stopping a speeding train. In this story, she begins to learn shape shifting, which has her fighting crime for much of the book as Frankenstein’s monster.

She also has a trusty sidekick, her dog Raymond. I really like the character of Raymond. He doesn’t talk, but Jo interprets his thoughts. An example, which also shows the humor of the novel:

The car thieves sped toward her.

“I stopped a train, Raymond. I can stop a car.”

Raymond gave her a look that said, “If you say so, but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stand over here.”

This was a quick, easy read for my 9-year-old, but he enjoyed the story. It would be more challenging for a beginning reader, but at 105 pages, it’s the perfect length for the transition to chapter books or for older kids who want a quick read or are intimidated by longer books.

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

by

escape from mr. lemoncello's libraryI loved Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein! I had received a review copy months and months ago, so I put it in my 3rd grade son’s hands, and he loved it. He was begging me to read it, but I knew I wouldn’t review it until closer to its publish date, and I had other books I had to get to, but it did keep calling to me. With the release coming up this week, I’m excited to finally review it, and also glad to be able to offer a giveaway.

The town library has been closed for many years, so this generation of children has been without. Mr. Lemoncello, a rich and famous maker of games, loved the library growing up, so he’s donated a bunch of money and built the best library ever, full of high-tech devices (along with books, of course). He’s holds an essay contest to select some 12-year-olds — those kids who have grown up without a town library — to stay the night in the library the night before it opens.

Kyle Keeley is one of those guys. He’s a huge fan of Mr. Lemoncello’s games, and he does what it takes to get an invitation. After a night of fun and hearing about the library’s cool new features, the kids are given the opportunity to play in an all-night game to escape from the library, through a secret exit, not through the doors. The winner is promised fame and fortune and the chance to represent the Mr. Lemoncello game company in commercials.

The personalities of each of the kids comes through and play off of each other — the spoiled rich kid who thinks he deserves everything, the quiet bookworm, the good-hearted helper. They have to solve puzzles to get clues to help them find their way out. The puzzles are presented in such a way that the reader has a chance to think about an answer as well. Watch the trailer for some examples:

I love current middle grade fiction that feels timeless, and I put Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library in that category. There are references to books from current to classic, which I always love, because I think it can pique a child’s interest in something new, but the kids seem to be living that timeless electronic-free life. Though there are references to cell phones and video games, they are peripheral to the story, and this book could just as easily been one that we read growing up.

Like I said, both my son and I loved this book, and I’ve even seen my 14-year-old daughter pick it up with interest. This would be a great family read.

Win it

Just leave a comment here if you’d like to win (U.S. only). Since the book is about fun (fictitious) games, if you’d like to leave a comment and tell what your favorite game growing up was, that would be fun!

We’ll announce the winner in our July 10 giveaway column. The giveaway is closed.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Someday Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham

by

someday someday maybeSomeday, Someday, Maybe: A Novel gives us a glimpse of a woman in her 20’s trying to make it as an actress in New York City. Franny Banks gave herself three years to give acting a try. When she realizes that her deadline is almost up, she entertains the idea of quitting. Of course, she also entertains the idea of extending her deadline or relaxing her standards: Does one commercial count? What about getting an agent?

The 90’s setting was fun, as was the “workplace” setting of an actress trying to make it, be it at acting workshop, an audition, on set, in an agent’s office, or working the part-time job that pays the rent.

And of course, there’s the love angle. The men in Franny’s life include her on-again off-again boyfriend (the right guy, but the wrong timing); the actor; the sweet friend. These characters are all fully developed, and add to the story, as do her roommate and best friend Jane, her father — who she mostly communicates with via answering machine businesses — and the actors and others in showbiz.

This is a story of dreams. What does it cost to pursue a dream? What does it take to catch it? We root for these supporting characters, really everyone, since there are not any purely “bad guys,” but this is really Franny Banks’ story.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is written by Lauren Graham, the actress known for Parenthood and Gilmore Girls. For some, this will be a draw (like it was for me), and for others, you might poo-poo the idea of another “celebrity author.” If you are a fan of the self-deprecating yet self-aware witty banter that Lorelei Gilmore was known for, I think you’ll also like Franny Banks. This novel was a quick, funny, light, warm-hearted read — a great debut.

Marvin Makes Music

by

“Marvin was born to play music.”

So goes the opening line from Marvin Makes Music, by the late Marvin Hamlisch. In this children’s autobiography he writes how he did not care to practice piano as a young lad. In fact, his father and mother had to hunt him down in order to get him to practice music written by “some old guys” by the names of Ludwig and Wolfgang. Marvin would rather have spent his time playing the music which was in his mind. Marvin’s wise father told him though that the only way to be able to play his own music well was to learn how to play classical piano well.

This story tell us how Marvin came to terms with the idea of having to practice and play other people’s music. The book concludes with his acceptance into the Julliard School of Music at the ripe old age of six years old. This is a cute and somewhat informative little story which is inspirational in that it can help a child to see that they can grow up to do big and great things. However, in order to be able to do those big and great things, they will have to work hard at “little” things first. This is definitely a message I can get behind!

I like reading stories about people in show biz. I have no idea why this is, really, as my life is so far from glitz and glamor. Perhaps it’s the vast difference in our lifestyles which completely fascinates me. At any rate, I was eager to read this book and through it, educate myself a little more thoroughly with who Marvin Hamlisch was. He composed more than 40 motion picture scores, won an Oscar for the song/score for The Way We Were and has generally received a lot of recognition for his very hard work. I was poking around online, looking up information about him and I have to tell you that the thing I will remember about him now is that he was the man who composed the musical score for the movie D.A.R.Y.L.. Does anyone else remember that movie? I loved it as a kid!

Getting back to the subject at hand – Marvin Makes Music is a perfectly delightful children’s book with a positive message which promotes hard work. Furthermore, this book comes with a CD of an original song composed expressly for this book entitled, “The Music in My Mind.” This is a very fun book all around and I happily recommend it.

Thanks to Dial Books for Young Readers for providing a copy of this book to me in exchange for my honest opinion.

Carrie blogs about books for children quite frequently over at Reading to Know.

Arctic Fire

by

I haven’t read a good thriller in a long time. They used to be my favorite genre years ago, but I got away from them for some reason. While Arctic Fire by Stephen W. Frey may not be loved by everyone, I enjoyed the fast-paced book. Eventually.

It took me the first forty or so pages to really get into it. Troy Jensen fighting a bull in Mexico but maybe he’s really a spy and now he’s on a crab trawler off Alaska and he has a brother Jack who is a Wall Street Trader who feels consistently inadequate. It was confusing to say the least at the start of the book, as it jumped between the two brothers’ lives without giving direction as to who the main character was or where the book was going.

But once it got going, it moved quickly. Troy was killed and thrown off the Alaskan crab boat because he ran afoul of the potentially insane head of Red Cell Seven, the secret intelligence group he belongs to. His brother Jack, who never feels he can live up to his little brother, doesn’t buy into the story. His father who challenges the electric bills at his home simply accepts Troy’s death too easily. And Troy has escaped death too many times to be the only one swept overboard by a rogue wave, as the Jensen’s are told.

Jack decides to quit his job and head to Alaska to investigate for himself, and the action truly picks up at that point, with his adoptive father (and Troy’s real father) adamantly opposed to Jack getting involved whatsoever. At this point, it does turn into somewhat of a more typical thriller, following many of the expected twists and turns, albeit enjoyably so.

The ending, however, is not so formulaic. Without giving anything away, I’m pretty sure that Frey is hoping for a sequel to Arctic Fire. There are simply too many loose ends, some purposely so, that feel as though there should be another two or ten chapters yet to come in the book, even as you turn the last page. That was frustrating to me, as I imagine it would be to most people. But if there’s a sequel, I’ll definitely read it.

Arctic Fire has an interesting commentary on the United States, especially given our current political climate. Many of the supposed good guys simply aren’t. They have gone past even the motto that the ends justify the means, and it’s disturbing to think of how easily this could happen. Neither liberals nor conservatives are painted as having the right way to deal with all the very real terrorists who are out there. I can only hope that we don’t truly need a Red Cell Seven and that it’s a figment of Frey’s imagination in Arctic Fire.

Cash Out

by

Dan Jordan’s life on the surface appears to be pretty good. He’s days away from cashing out his stock options and leaving the soul-sucking job that’s made him millions, and looking forward to moving his wife and kids to a dream life on the beach. But after limping out of the doctor’s office after his vasectomy, he’s thrown into a van and tied up by 3 guys who look vaguely familiar. After a confusing encounter they toss him back on the street, and while at the grocery store buying frozen peas for his swollen area, Dan is viciously kneed in just that area by a large bald man.

Cash Out is fully of wacky characters – Dan’s best friend, a Zen cage fighter; his neighbor Crazy Larry, who parades around in a skin-colored Speedo, throwing knives at his garage door; the sex therapist who is counseling Dan and his wife Kate; Janice from Finance who can’t seem to wrap her head around the fact that Dan just can’t do those reports she needs so desperately (TPS Reports anyone?). Dan himself isn’t that nice of a guy and one begins to get the sense that maybe he’s getting what he deserves when he’s blackmailed by the IT geeks that threw him in the van. As a former journalist-turned-speechwriter for the CEO of a dot-com that made millions during the second tech bubble, Dan resents his current life and does some stupid things that could threaten his beach life dream.

Cash Out is a fun, quick read, albeit one that’s not exactly realistic. Fans of Office Space will enjoy this zany romp and be thankful their lives are not quite so exciting.

Nancy wishes she could cash out and move to the beach. She writes about her boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.

Frankenstein, a Madeline Parody

by

“In a creepy old castle all covered with spines,

lived 12 ugly monsters in two crooked lines.

In 2 crooked lines they bonked their heads,

pulled out their teeth,

and wet their beds…

The ugliest one was Frankenstein.”

Just in time for Halloween comes the most monstrous parody I’ve ever read. Written by Ludworst Bemonster*, and winner of the coveted “CaldeNOT Horror” award, Frankenstein tells the story of the little French monster who manages to be charming in spite of himself.

You guys, this book is so awesome. My twins are 15 and long past Madeline, and they loved this book. They remember reading Madeline–we loved her too–and Frankenstein had them in stitches. From his tormenting of the aptly-named Miss Devel to the incident when he eats the ceiling into the shape of a rabbit, Frankenstein is terrible and funny at the same time.

Every detail is pitch perfect, from the illustrations to the rhythm and rhyme of the story itself, to the “CaldeNOT” award on the cover.

Although of course this book is perfect for the 3-6 age set (like the original Madeline books), Frankenstein is a book that will be adored by older siblings and parents as well. Like I said, the twins loved it and read it out loud to each other. (Can I get a collective “Awwwww…”? These are boy/girl twins more prone to bickering than anything else.) This book would make a great addition to any library. After all, don’t you want to know the equivalent coolness of an appendix scar? I’m not telling, but it’s monstrous of course.

*real name author Rick Walton and artist Nathan Hale. I know, if my name was that boring I’d change it too. Oh wait…

Elizadevel adores Madeline but she might like Frankenstein even better, or at least as much–she doesn’t play favorites. Also, she has had lines from Madeline stuck in her head for 2 days now. “They smiled at the good and frowned at the bad…” sigh… Read more at her blog Planet Nomad.

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

by

My first introduction to the world of Marvel Comics was in high school when various guys from my church youth group became super interested in the X-Men. I started to hear names like Wolverine and Siren and then those same guys began dividing the youth up into two teams. Each individual on each time was given a secret “code name” based on an X-Men character. I have conveniently forgotten who I was assigned to be. My next run-in with Marvel was when I watched Raimi’s Spider-Man back in 2002. You know. The one with the upside-down kiss. Beyond that, my experience with comics was with Marvel’s rival, DC Comics. My brother and his best friend used to watch re-runs of the old Batman show starring Adam West.

Still, despite my limited interactions with Marvel, when I saw Marvel Comics: The Untold Story come through, I was curious enough to read it. After all, comics are fun, right? I like the idea of superheroes conquering evil villains and I can stretch the limits of my imagination far enough to enjoy a good story which involves some unbelievably flashy costumes. I can enjoy that very much. But it will be harder to do so now.

Unfortunately, reading the history of Marvel Comics, from its conception by Martin Goodwin as Timely Publications in 1939 to its present state, made me greatly distrust comics when it comes to telling a good story. The fact is, they don’t try to tell a good story. They just like to make money. (I realize that most publishers like to make money. But I harbor the thought that authors like to take a little time to write a good story that is worthy of publication.) In the case of Marvel, they were spinning out as many publications as they could on tight deadlines at the expense of quality.

Stan Lee, the former writer, editor, president and chairman (all at different times) of Marvel Comics was quoted as saying to a film director, “I can’t understand people who read comics! I wouldn’t read them if I had the time and wasn’t in the business.” (page 103) The editors would over assign stories so there was a backlog of tales which could be stored and used as back up if someone was “late or drunk and lied about it.” (page 26) Deadlines were constantly looming over the writer’s heads and they didn’t always have time to sit and think through their story lines and so produced what were sometimes admittedly fairly sloppy work product. But the idea behind producing comics wasn’t to create quality work – it was to give the masses what they wanted and to take their money.

Furthermore, the office environment of Marvel Comics was not one to be admired. The writers worked for hire, which meant that they did not own the rights to any of their creations. They created Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, etc, for the sake of the company who held all of the copyrights. Back in the ’40’s and ’50’s this wasn’t so much of an issue but once the idea of the Almighty Copyright took root, the individual writers at Marvel began to feel disgruntled that they weren’t profiting from their own ideas and designs. Writers were used by Marvel to write, not to share custody of characters with. The feeling that Marvel owed their employees is not a foreign concept to us nowadays but it was a change in the industry which created an atmosphere of jealousy, anger, and bitterness. The office, which was (and is) based in New York was loud, busy and hectic. The walls of the office were described by Sean Howe as being covered in posters of pin-up girls. There were few women physically present in the office, but Howe paints a picture of an office full of men who liked sex, drugs and alcohol. Logically then, all of those things had great influence in the writing of the comic books. The writers fought, bickered, yelled, and were very tense working in a high stress environment. Howe relates stories of a few employees who died young from heart attacks after working at Marvel. The job was just so stressful.

Truly, all of the above doesn’t sound very pleasant to me. Because the office environment of Marvel felt so tense, so did the reading of its history. I can’t really say that I enjoyed this book because it was so full of examples of anger and resentment. Yes, Marvel and its writers created quite a comic empire and yes, they have become quite popular and successful. But all of this came about at the expense of so much happiness, and resulted in products that Stan Lee himself didn’t quite understand. Yet people have loved and enjoyed these marvelous characters such as Captain America, Spiderman, Dr. Strange (who is very strange) and all of the rest. Reading Marvel Comics: The Untold Story has definitely tainted my opinion of these comics. So much so that I wouldn’t take the time to read a history of DC Comics so that I can like Batman ignorantly if need be! I would have liked this particular history much more if Howe had stuck to facts of how the company was built up, but I suppose you cannot do that unless you discuss the writers and the people behind it. I think I would have rather just not gotten to know them.

Due to the fact that I know many people enthusiastically love and adore Marvel Comics, I know that what I’m saying here might not be received very happily. (Apparently Marvel writers lived in constant fear of their readers becoming upset by story lines. The writers occassionally received death threats when they killed off a beloved character or took an unpopular road with a series.) If what I’ve said bugs you, then understand that all of the above is stated from the perspective of someone who hasn’t read a single comic book (and now likely won’t). I do have plans to watch the Captain America movie. (My brother and his wife love it!) But to dive any deeper into the world of Marvel is going to require me to forget its history – which is not something I’m typically inclined to say.

Thanks to HarperCollins for sending a copy of this book my way in exchange for my honest opinion.

Carrie writes about book (normally not the comic type) regularly over at Reading to Know.

The Deposit Slip

by

In The Deposit Slip, the debut novel by Todd M. Johnson, Jared Neaton is a lawyer looking for his breakthrough case–that is, the case that will bring in enough money to keep his fledgling law firm from going under before it really gets started. He thought he had found it, until a big loss in the courtroom left him struggling to make ends meet. Just as he is wondering if it was such a good idea to leave the big firm and strike out on his own, his old mentor calls with a mysterious referral that promises a very large payout, if he can find the truth and win the case.

It seems that Erin Larson, in the course of settling her late father’s estate, has found a bank deposit slip for over $10 million dollars. He had never mentioned the money to her, and the bank insists that no such deposit was ever made. Her first lawyer has dropped the case, and threats of being run out of business have kept the rest of the lawyers in her area from agreeing to represent her. Mystery aside, Jared is loathe to take the case mainly because it is in his hometown, where his father lives and which he has been avoiding for years. After meeting Erin, however, Jared is intrigued enough to sign on as her attorney.

As things progress, Jared is faced with the question of how far he will go to find out the truth behind the deposit slip and, even more frighteningly, how far his opposition will go to keep the truth from coming out.

Throughout the book, Johnson gives us a detailed look into how winning a court case – or even getting it to trial in the first place – can hinge on such tenuous factors as the personality of the judge or the ability to present a flimsy argument in just the right way. And while I don’t know how many attorneys employ such underhanded practices in real life as the bad guys in this novel, their machinations certainly make for a lot of interesting plot twists!

While the main storyline centers on the court case, The Deposit Slip also gives us a picture of how Jared negotiate the fractured relationship with his father and wrestles with the choice of whether to forgive him for the past. All in all, an enjoyable read with a good balance of character and action.

We are pleased to have one copy of The Deposit Slip available as a giveaway (US or Canada mailing addresses). Simply leave a comment if you’d like to win. We’ll announce the winner in our giveaway column on August 22. This giveaway is now closed.

Don’t miss a thing: Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Year Zero

by

You guys, this one was just so fun!

Year Zero opens with Nick Carter, a lawyer who was never a member of the Backstreet Boys and who thinks he is likely on his way out from his job at a fast-paced highly-competitive office that specializes in music copyright. He’s at work when he receives two very odd visitors—one dressed like a mullah with red hair, and one dressed like a curvaceous nun, the sort that seem to show up in video games and never in real life. They present him with a unique problem. Apparently our attempts to reach life on other planets succeeded in 1977 with the show Welcome Back, Kotter. While aliens didn’t appreciate our filming skills or sense of humour, they went into spasms of ecstasy at the theme song. Soon, they were tuning in to Earth’s radio stations, which produced music far in excess of anything any other civilization had been able to. And since music is the highest of the 50 Noble Art Forms, well, you can imagine. They were so enamored with Earth’s rock music that they restarted their Universal calendar to reflect the year that this music was discovered, so that 1977 our time became Year Zero everywhere else.

There is, however, a Universal Law that states that the laws of the civilization that produced an artform must be followed. Now, 2012 our time and Year 35 for the rest of the universe, aliens started coming out of their happy daze and realized that they owed every man, woman and child on Earth (with the exception of North Korea) just under 4 trillion dollars each in copyright violations, as they’ve been downloading and sharing our music out in the remotest galaxies. The mullah and the nun—they dressed like that because they’ve learned that our planet respects religion—are brother and sister Frampton and Carly from the planet Zinkiwu*, where life-forms are physically close to human. They’ve come to see if something couldn’t be worked out with our lawyers, since there are certain trouble-makers that think they should simply destroy our planet to take care of the issue altogether. They did think they might have gotten THE Nick Carter, and are both a little sad when Nick has to reveal he was never in a Boy Band.

Of course Nick has to save the day, and of course that will involve more aliens, space travel, the cute girl who lives down the hall and is luckily a musician herself, his boss, and Bill Gates. (the story about Bill confirms something I’ve always suspected) It’s an entertaining romp.

Year Zero was an absolute delight. I giggled my way through it. The riffs on Microsoft alone were wonderful. It skewers lawyers, the music industry, music lovers, aliens, and more. This is a perfect book for a relaxing afternoon. I highly recommend it.

*sadly, wimpy planet names turn out to be way more common than cool sci-fi names. (from p.118)

 
Elizabeth already knew that the answer to life, the universe and everything was 42, and she has longed for a Babbelfish to help her out in everyday life. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.

Sandra Boynton’s Moo Baa La La La App from Loud Crow

by

This is the second app I’ve reviewed that has come from Loud Crow and I’m beginning to think they might be geniuses at capturing the essence of kid-lit and bringing it to the next level. In my first review of Benjamin Bunny I appreciated how they were respectful of the fact that it was a classic and would not hold up well to over the top animation, but with Sandra Boynton’s Moo, Baa, La La La they added so much zany interactive fun I loved it as much as my son did.

From the opening page to the end this app is so much fun. Sandra Boynton re-illustrated and re-coloured her original book just for this app so it really feels fresh. My son laughed out loud at the slingshot cats being chased by dogs and losing their collars. I liked the last little duck (just keep clicking those ducks until he arrives) with the unexpected ‘quack’. There is so much to interact with I could go on and on,  but I think the fun is discovering them for yourself.

If you like Sandra Boynton I think you’ll agree this is a great app to capture the fun she brings to her board books. As with most apps there is a read-to-me and read-yourself option which is great for pre-readers and beginning readers. I see there are three other Sandra Boynton titles also available including one of our family favourites, The Going To Bed Book.

I can’t wait to see more from these Loud Crow guys. I think Sandra herself said it best, “It is such a cool enterprise.” (Click through to check out more of her thoughts as well).

You can buy the app for apple devices through the itunes store, and it is also available for Android on amazon.com.

Tennille lives in the Great White North with her hubby and two sons. She enjoys sleep but is learning to appreciate caffeine as a perfectly viable substitute.

Revived

by

Editor’s Note: One of the perks of having a mom who is a book reviewer is being able to dig into her stash. Occasionally our kids get to the books before we do, and then we sometimes actualy never get to them. In this case, we ask them to write up the review.

So there’s this girl named Daisy. She’s on this drug called Revive (see how that ties into the title? Sorry, didn’t know if you caught that). Daisy is 15, and is basically a nomad, because every time she is revived she has to move so that no one will recognize her. When she was a small child she died in an accident and was brought back to life by this drug called Revive (see kids, drugs are good for you!). It’s a top secret government project, and she is being raised by two government agents. But then she moves to Omaha, Nebraska, and meets Matt and Audrey who become her new BFFs. Sorry to leave you at a cliff hanger but don’t worry she does NOT fall in love with Matt and end up saving the day. Actually she does. Never mind.

I loved Revived. It was a creative read and had some interesting twists. (Never would’ve guessed she’d go for Matt.) I think the character was pretty realistic and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and not only because it gave me something to do besides study for my math test. In fact, I’ve already read it three times. I especially could sympathize with the constant moving and having cute guys fall in love with me, though not so much being brought back to life with a secret government drug. That’s still on my To-Do list.

Elizabeth’s daughter Ilsa, age 15, loves to read and write snarky reviews for her mother. And yes, they’ve moved a lot. Learn more at Elizabeth’s blog Planet Nomad.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict {Review}

by

If you are like me, you finished Trenton Lee Stewart’s 3rd Mysterious Benedict Society novel The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma and wondered what would happen next. My daughter, who had urged me to read all the books after she fell in love with them, thought that the 3rd book seemed like an ending. It did wrap up, but I hoped that there would be more adventures from Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance. If not something else about these beloved characters, I trusted that he’d write something new, and I would like it just as much.

With The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, we are actually treated to the best of both. It is somewhat familiar, taking us back to the mysterious Benedict’s childhood. We meet 9-year-old Nicholas as he’s being moved to yet another orphanage. He is extraordinary, mysterious, sharp, and precocious. He’s also a bit lonely. The mean guys at the orphanage — the Spiders — are determined to show him up, but he and another outcast, John, team up to avoid their pranks. They also meet a girl from town, Violet, who is deaf (so of course, the brilliant Nicholas learns sign language overnight by speed reading a book on it).

There is indeed a mystery to be solved: Mr. Collum, the not-so-nice director of the orphanage, is convinced that Mr. Rothschild has hidden a fortune somewhere within the manor (which he converted to an orphanage in his estate in honor of his wife). Nicholas, John and Violet are determined to find it for themselves as a way to save themselves from their own sorry state.

I enjoyed getting to know this group of new characters, couched in the somewhat familiar MBS clothes of Mr. Benedict’s past (he still has a nose like a turnip and is plagued by narcolepsy). This book is just as good as the others — clever and intriguing, if not quite as humorous. I am hoping that more volumes in this series will tell us what happens to Nicholas next.

You can still enter to win a copy of this novel if you click through and leave a comment the giveaway post. The giveaway closes Tuesday night, so be quick!

Leaving a comment here won’t help you win, but I’d love to know if this series is new to you or if you are excited to hear about a 4th book from Trenton Lee Stewart.

Pro Files: Baseball

by

It would be an understatement to say that I’m not the world’s biggest sports fan. But, I am married to a man who wears his favorite team’s logo with pride, and my children are learning to follow in the footsteps of their sports-loving dad. As a result, I find myself looking differently at sports-themed books, knowing that there will likely always be interest in having them on the shelf.

Sports Illustrated Kids has released a new book this spring geared directly at Major League Baseball fans. Pro Files: Baseball: Intel on Today’s Biggest Stars and Tips on How to Play Like Them includes information on fifteen MLB players, with stats through the 2011 season. With names like Mariano Rivera and Dustin Pedroia, even I could recognize some of these guys! (As the wife of a huge New York Yankees fan, I’m happy to report that they saved the very best for last, as Rivera closes out the book!)

This is the type of book that I know my eleven year old son will read again and again, as young baseball fans tend to also be fans of reading stats and such, and the background information on each player is engaging. As a little leaguer himself, I’m hoping that my son finds value in the sections that speak directly to technique and form, since he works on his own variety of skills on the field every week.

Action photos and realistic graphics accompany the magazine layout style of the text, and the entire presentation is interesting and most definitely appealing to young baseball fans. Even a few non-sporty moms like myself just might find themselves reading a bit here and there. Maybe I can retain a few facts and surprise both my son and husband the next time they watch Rivera wind up to pitch!

Dawn finds herself on her town’s baseball bleachers a couple times a week each spring, though she admits to sometimes sneaking a book with her. She can be found blogging away at my thoughts exactly.

Rock On

by

I will begin this review by admitting that I did not read Rock On: A story of guitars, gigs, girls, and a brother (not necessarily in that order) myself. I handed it to my oldest, Elliot, who’s in Grade 11. He devoured it, and before I knew it, the twins (Abel and Ilsa, Grade 9) were reading it too. All 3 were loud in their praise. From my (admittedly limited) experiment, I would say that 100% of teens love this book! You can’t really get much higher praise for a Young Adult novel. Here’s what they had to say about it:

Elliot: Rock On is a really good book. It’s a short read, but does a good job of pulling the reader in. The book is about a high school band trying to make it big. They have a blog and hold auditions for a bassist, but also have limited resources at their disposal. I think it’s great that they don’t have an easy way making it to the top. It’s hard and requires work and effort on their part. They have to work in band time with school and family time.

The protagonists are dynamic characters, which adds depth to the novel, and really makes the reader get to know the characters better and relate to them more. These guys aren’t just people you read about in a story, they’re characters that you can see at your own high school, people you might actually know. This gives the book a more personal feeling and also adds depth to the novel. I also really enjoyed this book, because I’m a drummer in a garage band, and I would like to be able to play full time and get good and what not. But I don’t really see that happening.

The basic plot is a small garage band who needs a bassist, and then have their first concert. Orion “Ori” Taylor has some problems with his older brother. He always looked up to him, and then the brother went to college and had problems. Out of his brother’s shadow, Ori comes into his own and gains popularity, which makes his older brother jealous, and their relationships disintegrates. Finding ways to solve that is a main part of the plot.

They really need to work on more songs and get a bassist because they are competing in their school’s Battle of the Bands. Their band doesn’t have a name. Their progress is impeded by their lead singer’s family problems, but they manage to get some decent practice time in, and score a really good bassist. I really liked this book.

Ilsa: Rock On was a good book. I really liked it.

It’s about friends being there for you even when you have a psycho older brother. The plot contains a few twists, although there weren’t any huge surprises. But it’s really well-written. I couldn’t put it down.

Abel: Rock On: A story of guitars, gigs, girls, and a brother (not necessarily in that order)is a pretty awesome book about teenagers in bands. Ori Taylor, the person that formed the band, doesn’t have a good relationship with his older brother, but through the band, their relationship improves. I would recommend it for anyone.

Elizabeth must admit that she loves it when her kids devour books and then rave about them. Read more at her blog Planet Nomad.

First You Try Everything

by

A novel about a marriage dissolving is not the type of reading material I normally gravitate to, and I have to say that the 50 page rule was under serious consideration for First You Try Everything. But before I knew it I was way past page 50 and diving in head-first.

Evvie and Ben have been married for 12 years. Neither one had idealistic childhoods, and what started out as a strong relationship based on a shared love of music and culture ended up as a marriage lacking in communication and similar expectations. Ben decides he doesn’t want to be married to Evvie anymore and leaves her to pick up the pieces of their shattered life together. When Evvie meets 2 guys on a bus who promise they can bring her and Ben back together, she embarks on a scheme that is obviously a very bad idea from the beginning, but Evvie just wants Ben back.

Evvie is obviously not quite mentally balanced – her high highs and low lows are obvious to the reader, but Ben is either too close to her or willfully ignores the signs. Her brother Cedric, who lives with them and works at a grocery store, appears to have Asperger’s, or is at least somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Ben says he doesn’t love her anymore, and it’s clear he really just doesn’t want to deal with her eccentricities anymore.

I love the cover of First You Try Everything – it’s quite the apt depiction of the slow but steady unraveling of many facets of the novel: Ben and Evvie’s marriage, Evvie’s sanity, Ben’s attempts to distance himself from Evvie. The title, however, is only accurate from Evvie’s point of view, as Ben basically decided he wanted out, with no attempts at working things out with her. Most multi-perspective books have me siding with whoever’s telling the story at the time, but I just couldn’t get behind Ben’s actions. And as crazy as Evvie may be, I liked her. A lot.

First You Try Everything is a fascinating look at the dissolution of a marriage and the extremes some people will go to save what can’t be saved.

Nancy is often thankful for her fairly normal life. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.

Recent Posts

Categories

Privacy Policy    |     Disclosure Policy
Terms & Conditions
© 5 Minutes for Mom

Let’s Socialize

Pinterest is Our FAVORITE!

Find and Follow Us at
pinterest.com/5min4books