2010 Book Challenge #5 & 6

It was a good reading week, as I finished two and got halfway through a third. (Traveling and staying in a hotel room gives you lots of time to read). Two excellent books, and I even got a few new ones to add to the list.

The Name of This Book is Secret
by Pseudonymous Bosch
Ages: 8+

This book surprised me, because I usually don't like books that break the fourth wall and talk directly to the reader. I often find them distracting. But Bosch really proves that if you do it well, you can do anything. His narrator tells you the secret tale of two kids (but he can't tell you their names, so he makes some up) in a town (that he can't tell you where it is, so he says to use your town) trying to find a terrible dangerous secret (which he doesn't want to tell you about, but he's so bad at keeping secret he just has to.)

Wonderful voice, great plot, delightful characters, this book was a treat to read. Clever and fun.


The Compound
by S.A. Bodeen
Ages: 14+

Had I not been presenting on a panel the next day and needed to be wide awake, I would have stayed up until the wee hours to finish this book in one sitting. It was so hard to put down. But I did wake up early to read the final chapters and was almost late for breakfast. This one's a major contender for favorite book of 2010, and I'm only a teeny way into my list.

When Eli is nine years old, his nuclear-war obsessed billionaire father rushes their entire family into the "Compound" the fallout shelter Dad built so his family could survive a nuclear attack. Six years later, things are not so great in the Compound and Eli faces some terrible choices. I'd say more, but I don't want to give anything away or it will ruin this fantastic book. This one might be a little intense for my younger readers out there.

This week's books:
Inner Circle, Kate Brian
Legacy, Kate Brian

Future books:
Ambition, Kate Brian
Revelation, Kate Brian
Paradise Lost, Kate Brian
Privilege, Kate Brian
Black Angels, Linda Beatrice Brown
Jhegaala, Steven Brust
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
Princess in the Spotlight, Meg Cabot
Princess in Love, Meg Cabot
Heist Society, Ally Carter
Empire, Orson Scott Card
A War of Gifts, Orson Scott Card
Deep Dark and Dangerous, Mary Downing Hahn
Deadtown, Nancy Holzner
Crank, Ellen Hopkins
Mainspring, Jay Lake
How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
Tomorrow, When the War Began, John Marsden
Gods of Manhattan, Scott Mebus
Hellgate London - Exodus, Mel Odom
The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson
The Scent of Shadows, Vicki Pettersson
How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
Holes, Louis Sachar
Wicked, Sara Shepherd
Games of Command, Linnea Sinclair
The Harrowing, Alexandra Sokoloff
It's Kind of a Funny Story, Ned Vizzini
Uglies, Scott Westerfield
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson