Trixie Belden and Mystery in Arizona, Julie Campbell

Trixie and crew are all going to their friend Di's uncle's ranch for Christmas vacation, and their families will join them later. However, when they get to the ranch they find that all the hired help ran out and the kids wind up working instead of vacationing.

This book pissed me off. You can tell it's TRYING to be sensitive, but it gets so racist in spots I could scream. Also, I wanted to smack Mart Belden. A fictional character. In a book from the fifties.

Swoon, Nina Malkin

Dice has psychic visions that effect her a little like epilepsy. One day her best friend Pen falls out of a tree and she is possessed by a ghost attached to the tree. A ghost Dice is totally hot for, of course.

Dice casts the ghost out from her friend, which somehow brings him into the real world--where he proceeds to try to wreck everyone's lives.

This book is really readable, but it makes diddly-squit in the way of sense. Like Dice and the ghost decide their answers are at the cemetery, but they get distracted there and don't go back for like two weeks.

A Wrongful Death, Kate Wilhelm

[Reread]
It's been so long since I read this that I didn't remember much about it. This is a good way to approach mysteries.

A woman finds important evidence against a big corporation and flees with it, taking her young son. Barbara Holloway, also fleeing from some stuff, finds the woman unconscious and bleeding in the rain one day. The woman disappears before Barbara can find help.

Before she even gets back home, Barbara finds herself accused of helping with the woman's disappearance.

The Marrow Eaters, Harris Moore

This book is part of the Frankenstein Horror Series. From what I can figure out, the stories in the series did not have much in common (which is weird, because the premise in this one lends itself neatly to a series) except the series name and the lurid cover art.

Nuclear tests in the desert awaken an ancient, mindless creature who must eat human marrow until he gets his hands on a jewel that will restore his strength. Unfortunately, one of the scientists found the jewel and gave it to his wife. Also there is an ancient book that explains everything.

No sex in this book at all, which I found surprising.

Edge of Midnight, Shannon McKenna

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the idea of a total badass getting all weak in the knees just for YOU is a very powerful fantasy, and probably why I have crushes on so many martial artists (Jiang Liu Xia, Tony Jaa, hit me up).

On the other hand, while there was something in a sex scene I never heard of (and now want desperately to try), sometimes she says no and he keeps going. Consciously. This turns me pretty much all the way off. It's probably a thing the author is into, but no.

So I'll probably try another of these books, but I'm wary.

Anastasia's Chosen Career, Lois Lowry

Anastasia has to do some research into her chosen career, and she decides that a modeling class will help her with that, somehow. The class seems shady at first, but turns out to be fairly legit, and she meets new friends and learns some life lessons and junk.

It finally struck me that the humor of this series is more from an observational adult perspective than anything else, and that's probably why I'm not really into it.

What My Mother Doesn't Know, Sonya Sones

Novel written in sort-of verse about first lust and first love and all that junk. Readable, fairly decent.

When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead

Some kid runs up and punches Miranda's friend Sal for no reason. Sal seems to drop Miranda like a hot potato after that.

Miranda starts making new friends, but one day she finds a weird secret message and everything seems ominous and strange.

I liked this book, it was strange and oddly compelling.

The Kingdom of Gods, N.K. Jemisin

The last of the trilogy, this novel was about the godling Sieh, which somehow was exactly what I wanted.

Sieh meets two children one day and agrees to be friends with them. But when they make it a blood oath, all hell breaks loose. When Sieh wakes up again it is years later and he, the child-god, has begun to age.

Even though I figured out most of the big revelations, this book was amazing. I'm not kidding, I loved it best of the series, and when I read the first one I thought I would die of love for it. So, there's that.

Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies, Andrea Beaty & Dan Santat

When I saw this book in the dollar store I pretty much had to have it.

It's not a bad book, either. Ferocious space bunnies' planet is detroyed, so they wind up on Earth near a summer camp, which they take over to build a new rocket. It's funny and fun, and the illustrations are great.

I would normally put a book I liked at this level into my next lot of kids' books--but I can't help it, I need this title on my shelves.