Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

Peter and his best friend AJ are the best baseball pitchers for their team. Their pitching skills are going to take them far. When Peter is pitching, AJ is catching then when AJ pitches then Peter is catching. They are quite a duo. That is until Peter messes up his arm and is told he can no longer pitch~EVER.

This does not seem to be Peter's year. Not only can he no longer pitch, but he is also starting his freshman year of high school. Also, there seems to be something disturbing going on with his Grampa. Peter's Grampa is a famous photographer. He has taught Pete everything he knows about cameras and taking the perfect picture. When his Grampa seems to miss the most perfect shot of all and then up and gives Pete all of his equipment Pete knows there is something terrible going on. His Grampa also seems to be frequently forgetting things.

Pete's mother insists that he enroll in an introductory photography class. Since he can no longer play baseball then she feels he needs to be in a "club" of some sort. Pete meets Angelika in class. They are soon put together as partners and things start to look up for Pete. Even though Pete has always told his best friend AJ everything he somehow can not bring himself to tell AJ about not being able to pitch again. The only one he really talks to about that is Angelika. She encourages him to not only be honest to AJ about his arm, but also to talk to his parents about what is going on with his Grampa.

Once again I love the emotions that Jordan Sonnenblick explores in his stories! Peter's relationship with his Grampa is so special and you feel for him as he watches his Grandfather fade into the world of Alzheimer disease. You feel for Pete in his awkward 9th grade self wondering what he is going to do with his life now that he can't play baseball. You admire AJ and Angelika for being Peter's best friends and helping him through his emotions. I have to say that once again Jordan Sonnenblick was able to bring a smile and tear to my eye in Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip.

I received my copy as an ARC from ALA in January.

Home For The Holidays(The Mother Daughter Book Club) by Heather Vogel Frederick

Emma, Jess, Cassidy, Megan, Becca and their mothers are all back for a new season of the Mother-Daughter book club. This season the girls and their mothers will be reading the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Since they will all be in different places for the Holidays they decide that they will celebrate together on New Year's Eve.

The girls have picked names among themselves to be Secret Santa to. As each girl opens their gifts each day they are disappointed in their Secret Santa. It seems that their Secret Santa does not know them at all. When the "big reveal" on New Year's Eve comes around tempers are right under the surface.

Becca and her family spend Christmas on a cruise with Megan and her family. Becca's family has a secret that they do not want to share with anyone until after the Holidays. Becca can only think of how this secret affects her.

Megan's boyfriend has just broken up with her over email. She is heart-broken, but when she meets Phillipe the captains son she thinks that maybe life will go on.

Jess is disappointed as she was going to spend the holidays in Switzerland. An unfortunate accident keeps her in the States. When her aunt and uncle invite her family to come to their hotel in New Hampshire they decide to go there.

Emma is invited to go with Jess and her family. Her parents let her go, but she finds that it is not as fun as she thought it would be to be away from her family during The Holiday.

Cassidy and her family go out to California. Her step-father Stanley has a job offer that could take them back to California(where they lived before moving to Concord). Cassidy had longed to go back to California, but now she has established her home in Concord and is not sure that she want to move again.

Through all of the bumps and trials the girls' family and friendships stand the tests of time. I absolutely love The Mother-Daughter book Club series and recommend it as a great read for young girls. My daughter is 19 and when we got this new book in the mail she was so excited! She wanted to read it before I got to it, but was gracious enough to allow me first dibs! This 5th book was just as good as the 1st and I'm looking forward to future books in the series.

Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren-KINDLE #4

Gabriella and her sister Evangelia are in Italy with their mother an Etruscan artifacts archeologist. Both of their parents were archeologists, but now that their father has passed away their mother is on her own in her search for Etruscan treasures. While at their mother's latest discovery the girls decide to do some exploring on their own.

Gabi and Lia find themselves in one of the Etruscan tombs that their mother has been excavating. Knowing that they should never touch anything, Gabi is tempted by hand prints on one of the walls. When she places her hand print in one it fits perfectly. Instead of cold stone there is a warmth emanating from it. She has Lia put her hand into the smaller print which fits perfectly. Movement starts happening and even though Gabi tries to hold onto Lia, the girls are separated.

Coming out of the tomb Gabi finds herself in the middle of a battle between 2 families. She soon realizes that she has been transported to the 14th century where there are lords and ladies and where loyalties can be bought for a price.

Marcello, in the heat of battle, is startled to see Gabi appear. He cannot figure out why a girl would be wearing such clothing and also be in the middle of a battle. He offers Gabi shelter in his castello. He feeds her and clothes her as a proper lady. Marcello is not the lord of the manor. His father is still alive(but has suffered a stroke), and his older brother is still alive although very sickly. Marcello has command of his knights though and they are loyal to him. Marcello is also betrothed to lady Rossi. A union between her family and Marcello's will prove very advantageous.

Obsessed with finding her sister, Gabi insists on being allowed to return to the tombs. With unrest all around and battles at every turn Gaby feels the restriction of being a woman in the 1300's. Also with her growing attraction for Marcello and his for her, Gabi knows she must find her sister quickly and return to the 21st century before it is too late.

WOW WOW WOW! I loved this story! I read it on my Kindle, but I think I may have to go buy the trilogy(Cascade is already out and Torrent is coming out soon), just for the covers of the books! They are gorgeous! There was suspense(biting my nails) and toe-curling kisses(sigh) that kept me turning the pages late into the night.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Tom and Benny Imura survived First Night when the world as they knew it turned upside down. Where the dead became reanimated. They lost their parents that night.

Mountainside is their home now. A town surrounded by fences to keep the zombies away. Benny is now 14 and has to choose a job in order to keep receiving his full rations. Tom earns a living as a bounty hunter. He goes out into the Rot & Ruin to find people's family members and put them to death permanently.

Benny loves to hang out with Charlie Pink-Eye and his hoodlum friend The Motorcity Hammer. He loves to hear their stories of how they kill zoms out in the Rot & Ruin. In Benny's mind compared to Charlie and Hammer his brother Tom is a coward.

As time has finally run out for Benny to find a job he agrees to go with Tom out into the Ruin to see what the "family business" is really like. What he learns is that Tom doesn't just randomly kill zombies. He teaches Benny that each zombie used to be a REAL person, a member of a family and deserves that respect. Tom "quiets" the zombies he is sent out to find. He reads them a letter from their family member and he then quiets them so they are no longer roaming around as zombies. It gives closure to the family member. This confuses Benny as he has a strong hate for the zombies and after all of Charlie's and Hammer's stories he has never thought of them as being real people.

Benny finds that not all bounty hunters are as compassionate as his brother Tom. In fact he hears about a place that some of the bounty hunters take innocent children to and make them fight zombies. When Benny happens to get a collector card of the "Lost Girl" one day he finds that this is a "mythical" girl that is supposedly out in the Ruin who may know some of the dealings of the bounty hunters.

As a storm rages over the city and the fence fails Benny finds out to what lengths these bounty hunters will go to protect their interest in the gaming park. Benny and Tom go out into the Ruin to rescue Benny's friend Nix and to find the Lost Girl who may be able to show them where the games take place. What happens while out in the Ruin is horrible and will change their lives forever.

Oh my goodness! Why have I waited so long to read this book? It was soooo good! Really though I'm glad I waited because I have my copy of Rot & Ruin and the sequel Dust & Decay autographed by Jonathan Maberry. Dust & Decay comes out in August but I snagged an ARC copy at the TLA conference I went to. Yay me! Anyway, this was such a good book. I had to close it several times because I couldn't take the suspense, but then I would have to open it and read on to find out what happens! Even though this is a zombie book I was more interested in the human relationships that were going on. Excellent read!

FOUR OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE CLASSICS

I was thinking today of some of my favorite books and realized that among my favorites are four must-read classics. Over the years I have read all four of them several times. They never seem to get old to me. Also all four of them have been made into some excellent movies!

My number one favorite is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen:

An excellent book, but also it has been made into several excellent movies. Two of my favorites are:

 The first Pride and Prejudice movie that I ever saw was the BBC production with Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. So I am rather partial to it. I remember going camping one time and taking my black and white TV with me. I hauled it down to the restroom to plug it in so that I wouldn't miss a part of the 6 part series on PBS. My absolute favorite production though is with Colin Firth. Even though at first he wasn't my picture of what Mr. Darcy would look like he kind of grew on me! Here is a lovely musical version of P&P entitled Bride and Prejudice that makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it:

My next favorite book is Christy by Catherine Marshall

I fell in love with this book when I was a teenager. I love the characters Christy and the Dr. I always hoped that Christy would end up with him instead of the preacher. I loved Christy's idealism and how she grew up by the end of the book.

This book actually was made into a series with Kellie Martin playing Christy. I have all of the DVD's. There were a couple of movies made after the series stopped, but they didn't add up to the original show:

My next favorite book is Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Who could not fall in love with Rhett Butler? And oh my word is Scarlett something else? I always hoped that Scarlett would get her act together and realize how much Rhett truly loved her. Of course Margaret Mitchell left us hanging. Many years later Alexandra Ripley wrote a continuation of Scarlett's story in Scarlett which was pretty good, but not in comparision with GWTW. And the movie reproduction of Scarlett just stunk!

But the movie production of GWTW was excellent and who wouldn't fall in love with Clark Gable as Rhett Butler?

My last favorite is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte:

Poor tragic Jane. An orphan forced to live with miserable relatives and then sent off to a foundling home and later to become a governess. Finally finding true love only to be thwarted by her love's crazy wife kept in an upper room at Thornfield Hall. Forced to shift for herself once more she stumbles upon relatives that she didn't know she had. Still longing for true love she spurns becoming a wife of convenience and heads back to Thornfield only to find that it has burned to the ground and her love deformed by the fire. Ever the kind and loving Jane, she marries him and they live happily ever after.

My favorite movie productions are:

I love the movie with George C. Scott and Suzanna York. He is just the right amount of crusty and she is a perfect Jane. But I also love the BBC production with Timothy Dalton. I find that he makes a very handsome Mr. Rochester though and according to the book Mr. Rochester was not very handsome!

Here are my copies of the books:

Have you read any of these and do you have a favorite? I would love to hear your favorite classics!