Booklist (THIS IS NOT A BOOK TITLE)

Okay, so, I'm going to be gone for three weeks.  These are some books that I've read that I really want to post on, but I don't have the time.  I read about a book a day, in some cases, and I never get to post on them all.  So, if you want some ideas without a page full of my annoying critique, well, I have it all right here.  Enjoy? 
     
       The Auslander--Paul Dowswell.  Peter is a boy living in Poland when the Nazis invade.  Declared a perfect Aryan specimen, he is taken back to Germany to live with a rich professor, his wife, and their three daughters.  But Peter is shocked by the way the Germans are treating his old kinsfolk, the Poles, and he decideds to help his girlfriend, Anna, make a difference.  Because no matter how hard he tries, Peter still feels like he's an outsider in the country that says it's his . . . An Auslander in Nazi Germany. 

Paul Dowswell's website:  www.pauldowswell.co.uk

     Ruby Red--Kerstin Gier (translated from German by Anthea Bell).  Gwen has grown up in a household of secrets.  The Montrose house is full of them.  But one secret she knows is that select women in her family can time travel.  Everyone says that her cousin is going to be the prodidgal time-traveler.  That's what's expected, isn't it?  But as secrets and lies tend to do, the mystery shrouding the whole thing fall apart, and Gwen is left holding the secret of the centuries in her hands.  Some things, though, are a secret even to her and the rest of the Montrose family, and Gwen is only looking at the tip of the ice-burg.

(This book was an international best-seller in Germany.  It is the first of a triology, but I haven't been able to find the other two books.  I know the second is called Saphire Blue, I think, but I don't know what the third one is.) 

        Ashes--Ilsa J. Bick.  When an electromagnetic wave sweeps the nation, knocking out all the electrionics and turning most of the population into savage 'zombies', a girl who's battling cancer, a solider on leave, and a nine-year-old girl must band together to find safety and food.  What safety they find, though, may be as sick and twisted as the rest of the world.

(I'm sorry, I don't really remember anything about this book other than the basic plot line and that the solider's name was 'Tom'.  It was really good, though, and I recomend it if you're into the whole 'doomsday, 2012, nuclear winter' sort of deal.)

        Define "Normal" --June Ann Peters.   Antonia Dillion sgined up to be a peer counsler, sure, but she didn't sgin up to counsel the baddest girl in school--Jazz Luther, a leather-rocking, piercing-adorned, tattooed bad girl.  Antonia is known as a 'ya-ya', a prissy girl, one who thinks she's better than everyone elses. She's not about to contradict anyone, lest they learn the truth.  And when Jazz does, Anotina thinks that nothing will be normal ever again, even as Jazz introduces her to a very different type of normal.

(A definate read, even though it's sappy and made me cry.  Hey, don't judge, you haven't read it yet.)

       Ash--Malinda Lo.  Ash's father and mother have both passed away, leaving her to work off her step-mother's debts as she watches her step-sisters dress up to go meet and (hopefully) marry rich boys.  The faerie in the wood is the only thing that keep Ash sane, and her visits to him help her remember that she isn't just a servent.  When Ash meets the king's huntress, though, she beings to long for more . . . maybe even something like love?

(This was called a "modern Cinderella" or something on the back of the book.  It is, in a way, but it is sent in a mythical land in the era of fancy dresses, dukes, dutchesses, and formal courting.  It also has blood and creepy fairytales, so that makes it okay.  ;)  ) 

Okay, so, I guess you did get a page full of my comentary.  Sorry 'bout that.  and sorry that there aren't as many books on here as I would like--I guess these were the only ones that were good enough to remember.  So, have fun reading, I suppose, and I'll write again in three weeks!

Manga (THIS IS NOT A BOOK TITLE)

Okay, so I've been a bit self-indulgent of late, and I've been reading manga books.  I know, I know, not the epitome of fine literature, but here are some titles which I think deserve attention for their drawings and story lines.

The Children of the Sea   These books are more 'graphic novel' than manga, but the pictures are more than I could ever aspire to draw.  Also, the storyline is different.  Set in modern-day Japan, I think (I don't recognize the names of all the cities), a girl meets two boys who have a very strange relationship to the sea and the creatures that dwell there.  Read from 'back' to 'front'.

Vampire Knight   Written by Matsuri Hino, this story is a publication of SojoBeat manga. So far, there are 12 volumes that tell a story of a teenage girl who keeps the peace at an academy where the day students are humans and the night students are vampires.  As tensions rise and secrets and identities are revealed, Yuki Cross's memories of her mysterious past resurface to haunt both groups:  vampires and vampire hunters.  Just to let you know, there is a huge cast of characters, and sometimes it is hard to tell certain people apart.

Nightschool  Alex's sister has just disappeared while working at the Nightschool, a school where, again, in the day human students study while at night students of different species gather.  Alex, a weirn herself, must infiltrate the school and find her sister while dealing with a curse placed upon her, the threat of an ages-old creatures come to cleanse humanity of it's imperfections, and a group of Hunters who wish to obliterate Alex and her kind. 

Demon Diary  The art is done by Kara, while the story is written by Lee Yun Hee.  The story is about a young demon lord who is very un-demonic.  He doesn't seem to understand that he must be evil to be a demon lord . . .To tell the truth, I didn't know that Raenaf (the main character) was a male until half-way through the first book, but when the artist takes the time to put detail into her characters the work almost jumps off the page at you. 

Crescent Moon   I didn't like the pictures in this one as much as I did the others, but I like it for it's story line.  It's about a group called the 'Lunar Race', beings who live in the night, like werewolves and vampires, who live in Tokyo who must recover the 'Tear Drops of the Moon', jewels which will prevent the extinction of their kind.  Their princess, a girl who believes she is human, must help them, but she is reluctant to do so.  A cute story, and the characters certainly have unique personalities.

I am sorry that I couldn't remember the authors of three of those.  I can't really remember any other manga books worth nothing right now, but I'll right more when I do.  Oh, I've heard that Bleach is supposed to be good, but I haven't read it yet.