Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams

Yes, that Douglas Adams. Hitch-hiker's Guide to The Galaxy Douglas Adams. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Douglas Adams. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul Douglas Adams. Writing one of the most gentle, furious, loving, ranting, powerful non-fiction books to ever break my heart.

Adams (1952-2001) and his friend, zoologist and photographer Mark Carwardine were asked by the BBC to go look at some of the world's most endangered animals, and this is the resulting book.

From New Zealand to Kenya to China, they visit the passionate 'eccentrics' who devote their lives to saving such species and attempt to at least see the animals themselves. Komodo dragons, mountain gorillas, an awkward non-flying bird called an aye-aye, the baiji Yangtze river dolphin- each in terrible peril of being the last of its kind.

Adams' writing is always clever, and in this book he is able to bring some of his trademark absurdist humor into his writing, but reading it, his horror and sorrow come through.

The great joke of Hitch-hiker's is that the ugly and stupid Vogons destroy the Earth to make a hyperspace thru-way - it must have been appalling for Adams to come face to face with the fact that despite our so-called 'humanity', those grunting beasts are us.

Adams died in 2001. The last documented sighting (supported by photographic evidence) on the baiji dolphin was in 2002. In 2006 a massive survey of the Yangtze river and its tributaries failed to find even one. So long and thanks for all the fish, indeed.

I have a very hard time believing in an afterlife, but let me say this- I hope with every fibre of my being that Adams and a pod of baiji are heading for tea at the restaurant at the end of the universe.

Last Chance to See

Quality: 10 Popularity: 7 Overall: 17

High Tide: The Truth About Our Climate Crisis, by Mark Lynas

Fantastic book about climate change and the early impact of global warming that is already disrupting human and animal life. Lynas takes a world tour of global hotspots, and reports on how extreme weather, sea level rise, and changing climactic conditions are affecting them.

Wondering how a glacier his father photographed in Peru in the 1970's was faring set Lynas off on a fascinating journey.

From tipsy forests in Alaska (no, not drunk, but leaning because of permafrost thaw) to taro plots in Tuvalu that are dying because of daily inundations of sea water, Lynas sees the evidence that we are already in what is being called the anthropogenic era - a man-made climate.

Although this book is already out of date (Lynas's figures suggest that nations will have more time to solve our problems than we will- more recent reports, including the IPCC's latest offering suggest that we are experiencing climate change at rates hardly mentioned in early projections) it is more of a travelogue of what is being lost than an argument, so I don't think it loses any power by being 3 years old. If anything, reading it is even more sobering, knowing that those tipsy forests are degrees of magnitude vaster, that Tuvalu is evacuating, that even more glaciers are gone. His writing is accessable and smooth.

Quality: 10 Popularity: 5 Overall: 15

Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of taffeta, hairspray, drunk uncles, and other Quinceanera stories, edited by Adriana Lopez

This was a lot of fun to read, and to me, an intimate look at something I've never experienced.

The 15 stories are a mixed bag of experiences, and some appealed to me more than others, but overall, the quality of the writing was excellent. I loved how the Quince experience or even the lack of a Quince is such a major thread in these lives, and the formality of the roles and the coming of age ritual is very cool.

I think my favorite story out of them all was The Dress Was Way Too Itchy, by Monica Palacios, but I truly enjoyed them all.

Fifteen Candles

Quality: 8 Popularity: 7 Overall: 15

Harmless, by Dana Reinhardt

This was powerful. Three girls try to cover up a wild night out with a lie that spirals out of control and changes not only thier lives, but the lives of others around them. I thought the teen voices were very real, and the ways that Anna, Emma and Mariah each changed through the novel seemed very plausible- Anna's increase in confidence and visibility and her ability to almost convince herself that 'it' happened was sad and real at the same time. Mariah too was a very well written character, with her loneliness behind her cockiness.

This was definitely an 'issue' YA novel but I thought it was well done, well written, and I couldn't put it down, even as my stomach was sinking over the consequences of their 'harmless' lie.

Harmless

Quality: 9 Popularity: 8 Overall: 17

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers

This was a damn good book. Steve is awaiting the trial that will determine the rest of his life. He is being tried as an accomplice to murder, and the way the story is framed through Steve's own screenplay not only makes the story very vivid, but it allows the author to leave out the actual crime- a robbery that went wrong, during which the store owner was killed.

Steve's innocence or guilt is never made clear, it is up to the reader to determine whether he is the 'Monster" of the title, but the way the legal system treats a black teenager is certainly monstrous.

Monster

Quality: 9 Popularity: 8 Overall 17

Won the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

National Book Award Finalist 1999

Gossip Girl: A Novel, by Cecily von Ziegesar

I have to say, I think this is seriously a really good book.

It is well written. Exceptionally well written. I have been reading a staggaring amount of YA stuff this year, and this is one of the few books I have really enjoyed the style of. It is fast, glittery, gossipy, catty, clever, and fun. The characters are well drawn- I would recognize them on the street. The New York details are dead on- perfect, in fact. The exerpts from the web site are fun and drive the story.

There's more. The books in the series cover the senior year of Blair, Serena, Nate et al and the trials and tribulations of their college applications and acceptances- the pressure they feel to go to Ivy League schools. It is really nice, I mean, shockingly nice to read about teens who want to go to college. I feel like I read heaps of YA stuff every week and hardly ever see characters who even think about that. The arts and the classics are daily parts of the characters lives. They play a drinking game that involves Latin conjugations. This too is refreshing.

Naomi Wolf attacked these books, calling them "corruption with a cute overlay", but I think she missed her target on these. The only character who might be 'corrupt' is Chuck Bass, and he is the clumsiest of the characters, von Ziegesar's only major misstep, and only later in the series does his character start seeming off.

Much has been made of the 'sex'n'drugs' in the book (and now in the tv series) but again, it seems silly. There is sex, as there often is in high school, or so they say, and yeah, that Nate sure is a stoner, but really, I think there are kids in America who smoke some pot and turn out ok. Nate's girlfriend Georgina, who has a serious drug problem, is painted as having a serious drug problem, and he calls his rehab advisor to get her help. Blair's bulimia is a serious problem.

These books are fun and worth reading, if only to see what the fuss is about. The first is the best, but they're all pretty great.

Gossip Girl

Quality: 9 Popularity: 10 Overall: 19

See Jane Hit, by James Garbarino

Interesting look at female violence. Garbarino also wrote Lost Boys, and while I thought See Jane Hit was a good book, it felt a little repetitive to me. Social toxicity is his catch phrase, and it's hard to deny that our culture has become desensitised to violence.

Some depressing case studies and frightening statistics, but there wasn't anything in the book that surprised me. I guess it might be the kind of book where if you're bothering to read it, you're probably predisposed to agree with the author that there is an issue at hand.

Quality: 8 Popularity: 5 Overall: 13

Amazing Grace, by Megan Shull

I don't understand how this book got such good reviews.

Grace "Ace" Kincaid is an international tennis star at 16, with modeling contracts and tournament triumphs all over the place, but she needs to stop for a while. The set up is great, an interesting premise, but it almost immediately becomes the same kind of implausable gibberish as Teaching Filthy Rich Girls, with unlikely romances, no one recognizing Grace in her 'disguise' of dyed brown hair in some impossibly perfect small Alaskan town straight out of Northern Exposure complete with flannel shirts and motorcycles and Quirky Locals. Grace spends her time in exile, and then, for no reason I could find, suddenly feels able to return to her 'real life' after donating all her money to the town or something else equally ridiculous.

Amazing Grace

Quality: 4 Popularity: 6 Overall: 10

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Well, I'm glad I finally read it! Very creative, very clever, fun and imaginative.

I don't know what else to say-it was very good.

Quality: 9 Popularity: 10 Overall: 19

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Planet Janet, by Dyan Sheldon

Planet Janet was fun, quick, breezy, and terribly familiar. Cross a young Bridget Jones with Louise Rennison's Georgia Nichols, dye her hair purple, and you have Janet. Complete with the little glossary to help translate those puzzling Briticisms (something that drives me crazy beyond all reason- are editors convinced that Americans are so stupid that they'll never figure out what knickers are?) this book went fast and forgettably. I finished it a few hours ago and if it weren't for this log, I would totally forget about it.

Quality: 4 Popularity:8 Overall: 14

Uglies, Pretties, Specials by Scott Westerfeld

These books have it all — fantastic character development and smart, clippy writing, and they address just about every major issue facing teens today, in an entirely non-preachy way. It is a tour de force. The heroine, Tally Youngblood, hurls herself across that line between safety and freedom, defies societal pressures and expectations to be conventionally beautiful, and tries to address the legacy of the environmental destruction left behind by the “Rusties” — us.

This unflinching series is impossible to put down, and impossible to forget, if only for scenes such as the one where Tally, on the run, encounters fields of genetically modified white orchids which have crowded out every other plant. The questions of what is beautiful and of what is natural and of what is right are worth thinking about.

I can't wait for the next book, Extras, set in the same dystopia.

Uglies, Pretties, Specials boxset

Quality: 9 Popularity: 9 Overall: 18

Alabama Moon, by Watt Key

Moon was raised in the wilds of Alabama by a father whose Vietnam experiences drove him into becoming an isolated survivalist. Moon can read, write, hunt, build shelter, grow food, but has never been around people. When his father dies (unneccessarily) after an accident, Moon tries to make it on his own but is betrayed by a well meaning lawyer, captured, and forced into society.
Moon's lifestyle was fascinating, and the survivalist stuff seemed like it would be right-on, although I have no experience to compare it too. I wish it had gone more into the Vietnam experiences of Moon and Hal's fathers, but maybe leaving that ambiguous worked for the story. I gave it a 8 for quality, but I don't know how easy a sell it would be, and the cover wasn't one that caught my eye. In fact, I thought the cover was kind of the weak point of a fantastic book.

Alabama Moon

Quality: 8 Popularity: 6 Overall: 14

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney

Greg is in middle school and his mother is making him keep a diary. The whole thing is sprinkled through with cartoons (the character apparently started as a webcomic) and covers 7th grade.

Fun and quick. Definitely geared to young readers, and although I enjoyed the cartoons and the slapstick, I thought it was kind of mean. This sounds so mushy, but I really really wished he'd be nicer to people. And although it was funny, the bit about the dad hitting them with the nearest thing was a little off to me- the newspaper, sure, but the bricks? I don't know. I can see young readers getting a huge kick out of it, but even 6th graders might be over it already.

It sounds so overly sensitive and special, but book after book about kids with absolutely no empathy for others is getting me down, even when they're funny.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Quality: 6 Popularity: 8 Overall: 14

Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr

Deanna was 13 when her father caught her having sex with her brother's best friend, and nothing has been right since then- the other kids at school brand her as a slut, and her homelife is bleak, etc etc.

This was a quick read, but I don't think it will grab attention, and I thought it never really went into the anger Deanna was hiding- she was so listless and lifeless. The only character who rang true (to me at least) was Stacy- and her storyline was so sad and hopeless it was a total 'bummer'. I am not sure what "the message" of this book was- was it pro-abstinance? Pro-choice? Was Zarr suggesting that Stacy and Darren shouldn't have had April? Why was there forgiveness all around? I can see teens picking it up, maybe mostly for the title (who didn't get that song stuck in their head?) but can't get really behind it.

Story of a Girl

Quality: 5 Popularity: 5 Overall: 10

Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Tyler is an outcast because he sprayed the school with grafitti, and he lusts after perky Bethany. Yeah, really.

Great cover. I think it will move based on the strong cover, and Anderson's reputation as a writer, but this book left me pretty high and dry.

Tyler's social exclusion because of the Deed seemed overdrawn, Yoda was a cliche character, as was Bethany, as was Chip, etc etc. I mean, really, is it too much of a stretch to come up with a name besides Chip for That Guy? Bethany- how many teen books/movies have That Perfect Unattainable Girl That The Unpopular Guy Really Loves and Understands? And so she gets drunk and slutty- oh, well, if you want to read it, you'll find out, so I won't go on and on, but seriously, it was a let down of a book and the ending was so sudden and startlingly wholesome- like, immediately after he turns 18, Tyler's whole life changes? Really implausible plot, cardboard characters, weak Teen Issue Drama, it was really A Very Special After School Movie.

Twisted
Quality: 5 Popularity: 7 Overall: 12

Lemonade Mouth, by Mark Peter Hughes

For some reason I had a hard time getting into this book- maybe the revolving narration threw me off- but once I settled in I really enjoyed the different voices, and the story seemed very real to me, maybe because I remember what a huge thing battle-of-the-bands were in high school- it all felt so exciting, and this book really brought me there. I loved all the Rhode Island flourishes- the Mel's Lemonade, etc, and think Rhody kids would get a kick out of that. I think this would be an easy 'sell' to readers. I wasn't crazy about the cover art, but LOVE the website.

Lemonade Mouth

Quality: 8 Popularity: 8 Overall: 16

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, by Robert Frank

Fantastic, fast and fascinating look at new money in America. From yacht-size to butler school to charitable 'investing', he studies how money is handled by the newest class of multimillionaires.

Although the book is a breeze and fun to read, it is a seriously researched book, and Frank does discuss the widening gap between the rich and the rest of the country.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich

Quality: 9 Popularity: 9 Overall: 18

Dairy Queen, by Catherine Murdock

Dairy Queen is about a girl named DJ who plays football and does a disproportionate amount of work at the family farm.

I had a really slow start with this book- it almost lost me, in fact, and I think it might lose kids who start it hoping for a quick grab. Once I was into it, though, I really grew to love DJ and her "I am not a cow" issues. The further I got into the book, the more I rooted for her, and although I am not and never have been and never will be a football fan, I did get excited in the game scenes.

Quality: 6 Popularity:6 Overall: 12

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

Ooof. This was a heavy, heavy book.

Pecola is poor, black, and friendless. She suffers abuse, incest, racism, etc. Very graphic, very violent, very disturbing book.

I can't criticise it without sounding vile, so let me just say that it was not a book I enjoyed, and if you are like me at all, awful things stay in your head long after you read it, and I just really don't want that.

The Bluest Eye

Quality: 8 Popularity: 7 Overall: 15

Tomorrow, When The War Began, by John Marsden

This was a fast, fun and gritty book.

Ellie and her friends return from a camping trip to find that their homes are deserted and looted, and that a foreign power (China, from all I could gather but never named here) has invaded the country. There are great action-adventure scences, some great battle scenes, and the Hell, the outback hollow where the teens hide out is described in effective, compelling detail. The real interest of the book was how the different characters deal with the threat, and in how their ethical dilemmas unfold, as they unexpectedly have to deal with life or death choices.

Although I did thoroughly enjoy this title, I haven't gone on to read any of the sequels, which is strange for me. We'll see.

Tomorrow, When The War Began

Quality: 8 Popularity: 8 Overall: 16