The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman

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Set against the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and then just before the outbreak of the Civil War, The Freedom Maze explores both political and personal liberation, and how the two intertwine.

In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer at her grandmother’s old house in the Bayou. But the house has a maze Sophie can’t resist exploring once she finds it has a secretive and mischievous inhabitant.

When Sophie, bored and lonely, makes an impulsive wish, she slips back one hundred years into the past, to the year 1860. She hopes for a fantasy book adventure with herself as the heroine. Instead, she gets a real adventure in the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar plantation in 1860, where she is mistaken for a slave.  

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is still two years in the future. The Thirteen Amendment—abolishing and prohibiting slavery—will not be not passed until April 1864.

Muddy and bedraggled, Sophie obviously isn’t a young lady of good breeding. She must therefore be a slave. And she is.




This book feels a lot like Kindred for the Young Adult crowd: time travel; modern girl/woman turned slave; and two historical fiction books in one.

And it's SO good!

I've been trying to get my mother to read Kindred for over a year, but she has no interest in reading sad stories anymore, so she's sticking to Romance.  I think I could get her to read this one, though.  It's not as graphic as Octavia E. Butler's writing, and there's more of a happy ending.

There are definitely some creepy moments; you can't take a subject like slavery and make it all rainbows and unicorns.

This is the first book I've read by Delia Sherman; I will be sure to read more.

Screwed, by Laurie Plissner

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Flattered by the attentions of Nick, the cutest guy in school, seventeen-year-old Grace Warren, captain of the math team, lets down her guard and gets pregnant the night she loses her virginity. Hopeful that Nick will drop to one knee and propose when she breaks the baby news to him, Grace is heartbroken--Nick wants nothing to do with her.

Her best friend, Jennifer, thinks she should get an abortion, but Grace is certain that her morally upright parents will insist that she keep the baby. After she comes clean to her super-religious, strait-laced parents, they surprise her by insisting that she terminate the pregnancy to avoid humiliating the family.

But when she sees the fetus on the ultrasound, she decides she can't get rid of it. Deciding to save the tiny life growing inside of her, Grace must face the consequences of being that girl - the good girl who got knocked up.




I wasn't a fan of Plissner's previous work, Louder Than Words, but I wanted to give her another chance.  I won't do that again. 

This YA novel feels like it was written by a twelve-year-old, not an established author.  And I have a very hard time believing that staunch Pro-Lifers would suddenly want to force their daughter to have an abortion.  I am Pro-Choice and would never ever ever force someone to terminate a pregnancy.

There was a lot that was unrealistic, but what really pissed me off was all of the slut-shaming.  Why do women do that to each other?  Sex is a natural part of life.  It's healthy.  It's fun.  Yes, teen pregnancies happen.  But they don't just happen to the "bad" girls--those who have sex more than once(!).  Grace is portrayed as so.much.better than those stupid whores who got knocked up.  They're all low-class, low-GPA, unambitious leg-spreaders.  Smart girls don't get pregnant, so Grace is at a complete and total loss about how this happened!  AS IS HER DOCTOR.

I just...can't.

I'm so pissed off at this book.  I won't be reading anything else by Laurie Plissner.  EVER.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Good as Gone, by Douglas Corleone

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Former U.S. Marshal Simon Fisk works as a private contractor, tracking down and recovering children who were kidnapped by their own estranged parents. He only has one rule: he won’t touch stranger abduction cases. He’s still haunted by the disappearance of his own daughter when she was just a child, still unsolved, and stranger kidnappings hit too close to home.

Until, that is, six-year-old Lindsay Sorkin disappears from her parents’ hotel room in Paris, and the French police deliver Simon an ultimatum: he can spend years in a French jail, or he can take the case and recover the missing girl. Simon sets out in pursuit of Lindsay and the truth behind her disappearance. 

But Lindsay’s captors did not leave an easy trail, and following it will take Simon across the continent, through the ritziest nightclubs and the seediest back alleys, into a terrifying world of international intrigue and dark corners of his past he’d rather leave well alone.




I think that three stars is being a bit generous.  It's more like a 2.75: better than okay, but not good enough to say that I liked it.

The story was compelling and I wanted to keep reading, but I was constantly rolling my eyes at the melodrama and non-stop action.  Seriously.  Simon starts off all manly and turns into an emo teenager.  He kept talking about how he hated violence, but he was constantly getting into fights with other characters.  

I have a hard time believing that all it takes is one clue or roughed-up bad guy to know the exact location where Big Bad Guy is headed.  I like action in my mysteries, but this was over-the-top.

This was a quick read, but would have been better if it were fleshed out more with another 100 or so pages.  I don't think I'll be reading anything else by this author.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

If You Could Be Mine, by Sarah Farizan

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In this stunning debut, a young Iranian American writer pulls back the curtain on one of the most hidden corners of a much-talked-about culture.

Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love—Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship came to light.

So they carry on in secret—until Nasrin’s parents announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage. Nasrin tries to persuade Sahar that they can go on as they have been, only now with new comforts provided by the decent, well-to-do doctor Nasrin will marry. But Sahar dreams of loving Nasrin exclusively—and openly.

Then Sahar discovers what seems like the perfect solution. In Iran, homosexuality may be a crime, but to be a man trapped in a woman’s body is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and accessible. As a man, Sahar could be the one to marry Nasrin. Sahar will never be able to love the one she wants, in the body she wants to be loved in, without risking her life. Is saving her love worth sacrificing her true self?




I really, really, really wanted to love this book: how do two homosexual women in Iran fight to be together?  What a fantastic premise!

But I hated the characters.  Sahar is a total biznatch to Nasrin the majority of the time and I have no idea why they're together.  Sahar makes this monumental decision for their relationship WITHOUT CONSULTING HER GIRLFRIEND.  That really pissed me off.  I also don't understand why she didn't think about any other alternatives.  Why did she turn immediately to a sex change operation?

I dislike when books tell you what's happening instead of showing you: it bogs the story down and leaves me unsatisfied.

Were this novel put in the hands of the right editor, it would be a fantastic story.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

War Brothers: The Graphic Novel, by Sharon E. McKay

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Jacob is a 14-year-old Ugandan who is sent away to a boys' school. Once there, he assures his friend Tony that they need not be afraid -- they will be safe. But not long after, in the shadow of the night, the boys are abducted. Marched into the jungle, they are brought to an encampment of the feared rebel soldiers. They are told they must kill or be killed, and their world turns into a terrifying struggle to endure and survive.

In time, the boys escape. Hunted by the rebels, stalked by a lion, and even pursued by river crocs, they miraculously succeed in reaching safety. However, it is no longer enough. Jacob wrestles with the question of whether we are all really beasts inside. He decides the way through the pain is to record his story.

Daniel Lafrance's powerful, striking, and poignant artwork and the crisp, evocative text vividly capture the haunting experiences of a young boy caught in a brutal war.

This graphic novel is based on an award-winning YA novel by Sharon McKay. Sharon has spent time with child soldiers and based this story on real-life accounts.




This is not a book for children.  Repeat: NOT a book for children.  It's a graphic novel, but don't let that fool you.  I felt absolutely sick while reading this and I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares tonight.  I wouldn't dare give it to a child.

However awful I may feel after I finished this graphic novel, it's nothing near what the children in the Lord's Republican Army in Uganda experience on a daily basis.  Intellectually, I know about Joseph Kony and his group of rebel soldiers.  I've heard of the atrocities he advocates and the kill-or-be-killed mentality amongst his varied groups of soldiers.  This book -- this perfectly-illustrated, emotionally-charged, scary-as-hell look at what a boy goes through after he is kidnapped -- brings it all home.

If you are bothered by children put in terrible situations, don't read this graphic novel.  If, however, you want the experience of what it's like to be a child of war, pick this up immediately.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

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The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. 

But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.




For all of its dehumanization and repugnance, WWII fascinates me.  No matter how much I read, I can't wrap my head around the atrocities committed by the Nazi Party.

I usually read accounts of the war from the early 1940s, so I was interested in this book's focus on the 1930s.  There were so many people -- American, German, and Russian -- that I hadn't heard of before.  At times, it was hard to remember who was who, but Larson does a good job of reminding you who each person is and how each relates back to William or Martha Dodd.

This book focuses on the lives of the Dodds during the nearly five years they spent in Berlin.  Larson doesn't delve into the lives of Dodd's wife and son; instead, he produces an interesting juxtaposition between father and daughter.

William.  Poor, old, boring William.  I don't think descent into war would have changed if someone else had been the Ambassador, but Dodd was certainly not the right person for this position.  He was an introvert who preferred reading and writing to participating in the social niceties required of such a post.  And he certainly didn't have the cojones to stand up to his superiors back in the States, much less those who reported to him in Germany.

His daughter Martha, however, was his complete opposite: flirtatious, ambitious, and the life of the party.  She was power-hungry, selfish, and held no qualms about going from lover to lover & pitting them against each other.

Neither protagonist was very endearing.  Since this is a book about the beginning of the Holocaust, that's not too unexpected.

Erik Larson covers a vast amount of information; wait until you're in a position to concentrate before delving into this non-fiction account.

Escape from Camp 14, by Blaine Harden

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A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence: he saw his mother as a competitor for food; guards raised him to be a snitch; and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.



Well, that was sobering.  I had absolutely no idea -- NONE -- that things were so bad in North Korea; I felt sick to my stomach on more than one occasion.  It was really hard to listen to the account of Shin's life in Camp 14: starvation; torture; lack of parental affection; and worse.

I can't even...

It really puts things into perspective, you know?  I have a good job, a wonderful husband, two great children, fantastic friends, and a loving extended family.  I don't live under a constant threat of execution.  I'm not in a constant state of hunger.  When I'm cold, I can put on warm clothes, sturdy shoes, and a comfy coat.  If I disagree with a government policy, I won't be arrested for sending a letter or expressing my opinions.

I listened to the audiobook version, as narrated by the author.  He did a great job with the voice-over work, but the editing was shoddy.  Maybe it's because I work in multimedia production that I noticed the timing and voice quality issues, or maybe it's because I listen to a lot of audiobooks.  In either case, I'm surprised that Blackstone Audio released this recording as their final product.

Surviving the Angel of Death, by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri

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Eva Mozes Kor was just 10 years old when she arrived in Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele.

Subjected to sadistic medical experiments, she was forced to fight daily for her and her twin's survival. In this incredible true story written for young adults, readers will learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil.

The book also includes an epilogue on Eva's recovery from this experience and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis.Through her museum and her lectures, she has dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and working for causes of human rights and peace.




I don't know why I continue to do this to myself.  Hey, I think, I haven't read anything scary in a few days.  Why not pick up a WWII memoir?

You would think I'd know better.  Clearly, I am a glutton for punishment.  But I am fascinated by the atrocities and heroics of the early 1940s, so I read on.

Josef Mengele was a truly horrifying doctor  human being monster who experimented on Jewish prisoners held at Auschwitz concentration camp.  He was especially interested in twins: how they came to be; how they were the same and different; how he could create twins and multiples in order to grow the Aryan German race.  He would inject one twin with a deadly disease and when that child died, he would kill the other one so he could study the differences between the two.

Like I said, horrifying.

I imagine Eva Mozes Kor as an old woman, sitting in an old leather chair in a small cozy room, recounting her story for posterity.  I can't even begin to imagine the strength involved for a child of ten to survive Mengele's experiments.

This is a great book for younger teens who are learning about the Holocaust.  It's not terribly graphic and feels more like a grandmother telling her grandchildren about growing up during that time period.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert

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This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story" (mostlyfiction.com).

Dear Alan Brennert,

Aloha!  I must apologize for not having read this book sooner.  It's been on my To Read list for quite some time, and I even own the audiobook.  I should have listened to my friends and read your novel sooner.  

I am in love.

Rachel is my new favorite person.  I don't care that she's a fictional character.  She is strong.  Caring.  Quick-witted.  I can't imagine being a young child separated from my family and sent to live in a new place with complete strangers.  Though Rachel's first few years are tough, she is tougher.

I was completely captivated by her life, by the Hawai'i you described (I miss it!), and by the clash of cultures throughout Rachel's time in the settlement.  I cried ugly tears (stupid onion-cutting ninjas!) at several points, but the heartache was soon replaced with understanding.

What a powerful novel.

The S-Word, by Chelsea Pitcher

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First it was SLUT scribbled all over Lizzie Hart’s locker.

But one week after Lizzie kills herself, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it—in Lizzie's looping scrawl.

Lizzie’s reputation is destroyed when she's caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on prom night. With the whole school turned against her, and Angie not speaking to her, Lizzie takes her own life. But someone isn’t letting her go quietly. As graffiti and photocopies of Lizzie’s diary plaster the school, Angie begins a relentless investigation into who, exactly, made Lizzie feel she didn’t deserve to keep living. And while she claims she simply wants to punish Lizzie’s tormentors, Angie's own anguish over abandoning her best friend will drive her deep into the dark, twisted side of Verity High—and she might not be able to pull herself back out.

Debut author Chelsea Pitcher daringly depicts the harsh reality of modern high schools, where one bad decision can ruin a reputation, and one cruel word can ruin a life. Angie’s quest for the truth behind Lizzie’s suicide is addictive and thrilling, and her razor-sharp wit and fierce sleuthing skills makes her impossible not to root for—even when it becomes clear that both avenging Lizzie and avoiding self-destruction might not be possible.



Can we just talk about the cover for a second?  It.is.perfect.  A scarlet letter.  Scratched-in words.  A title that evokes humiliation.  The S-Word.  Like its friends—the c-word and the n-word—it is not to be uttered.  It is dirty, uncouth, and disrespectful.  It carries weight.  It destroys lives.

Slut.  Suicide.  Shame.

The cover drew me to the book, and the description bowled me over.  In the wake of Steubenville and the suicides of Audrie Potts, Rehtaeh Parsons, Hope Witsell, and Felicia Garcia, this is a book that I needed to read.  I was overjoyed when I was approved for the galley!

Unfortunately, the book was not as wonderful as I had expected.  The writing felt very choppy and disjointed, and quickly turned from supposed-to-be-witty dialogue to a soliloquy on the ramifications of slut-shaming.  And while I agree with those sentiments, it detracted from the plot.  I want the author to show me, not tell me.  

The book was predictable, with flat characters and too many plot points; it would have been better had they been limited.  If the characters had been fleshed out a bit more, and more attention paid to developing the action, this would have been a four-star book.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

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Two Pulitzer Prize winners expose the most pervasive human rights violation of our era—the oppression of women in the developing world—and tell us what we can do about it.

An old Chinese proverb says “Women hold up half the sky.” Then why do the women of Africa and Asia persistently suffer human rights abuses? Continuing their focus on humanitarian issues, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn take us to Africa and Asia, where many women live in profoundly dire circumstances—and some succeed against all odds.

A Cambodian teenager is sold into sex slavery; a formerly illiterate woman becomes a surgeon in Addis Ababa. An Ethiopian woman is left for dead after a difficult birth; a gang rape victim galvanizes the international community and creates schools in Pakistan. An Afghan wife is beaten by her husband and mother-in-law; a former Peace Corps volunteer founds an organization that educates and campaigns for women’s rights in Senegal.

Through their powerful true stories, the authors show that the key to progress lies in unleashing women’s potential, that change is possible, and that each of us can play a role in making it happen.


***Trigger warning: this review contains information about sexual assault that may be upsetting to survivors***

I finished this book a few days ago, and it's taking me longer than expected to gather all of my thoughts and feelings.

First and foremost: Holy. Smokes.

I thought I'd dealt with some pretty crappy events in my life, but nothing compares to what hundreds of millions of women endure: sex trafficking; forced prostitution; government-sanctioned gang rape; female genital mutilation; maternal health and mortality; and brutal attacks. All based on gender. All because they are women.

As horrifying as the stories and statistics show, there also some incredible sources of inspiration: Mukhtar Mai, the young Pakistani woman who was gang raped as a form of "honor revenge" on the orders of a tribal council. Rather than commit suicide, as was expected of her, she pressed charges. Though her life was in jeopardy and the courts were less than helpful, she carried on. Even when then-President Pervez Musharraf threatened her, took away her passport, and put her under house arrest, she continued to fight.

The book is filled with such stories. And my sensitive self cried during most of them.

The book also lists different ways that individuals can help! The first thing I did when I finished listening to the audiobook? I set up a Kiva account. I am now the proud lender of four differing projects in four areas of the developing world. I can't change the whole world, but I can help individuals improve their own lives.