The Princess Protection Program by Alex London

 Rosamund has been asleep in a tower, surrounded by thorns for 100 years.  Then suddenly she is awakened by someone with body odor and chapped lips kissing her, Yuck!  Prince Percy proclaims his undying love in a carefully prepared speech, but Rosamund isn't ready to commit to marrying someone she just met. She runs to the castle bathroom, where she finds a magic door that leads to a place where fairytale princesses can escape the unpleasant parts of their stories.  At first, it seems like a great place.  She gets to know Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Snow White and other princesses (and one prince) who didn't like the choices their stories where giving them.  The head mistress is a fairy godmother, and seems to have the fairytale refugee's best interests a heart. Outside the gates of the "school" is another story.  There are teenagers who spend their whole time eating pizza or looking at the cell phones but also monsters that want to return the royals to their stories. Although Rosamund knows the dangers, her natural curiosity compels her to explore this other world, and as she does, she learns things that suggest her new sanctuary is not all that it appears. 

This is a story aimed at the kids who like the "Whatever After" series or the "Descendants" books. It is cute, but also deals with serious questions like, "what if following your dreams means hurting someone else?" and "How much freedom are you willing to give up to be safe?"  Some elements of the story make it appropriate for fairly young readers.  For example, nobody actually gets hurts or kills anyone, and their is a pretty strong idea that no one is truly evil, they are just misguided. One of my favorite parts of the book is a battle between some unicorns and a dragon. The unicorns are the sparkly kind with brightly colored manes whose flatulence smells like freshly baked cookies.  Protective parents should be aware, however, that the reason there is one prince at the academy is because he prefers to find another prince, rather than a princess, for his happily-ever-after.  If you are not ready to expose your third grader to that concept, then you might want to avoid this book.  Otherwise, it is a fun addition to the fractured fairytale genre. (224 p, 2024)

Faith by Beverly Watts

 Faith third of the many Shackleford sisters.  The other two have married well above their station, but Faith doesn't have her sister's stunning looks or vivacious personalities.  When her father finds he needs time to recover from an injury, Faith agrees to accompany him to Torquay for his recovery.  While there she meets sees a light bobbing around the derelict mansion next door to the one they are renting.  When her father finds out about it, he is sure there is a treasure there, and convinces Faith to go and search for it.  What she finds is a ring, still on the previous owner's severed finger.  The discovery plunges her and the owner of the house, a recently returned sea captain, into dire trouble. As they try to solve the mystery of the ring, they reluctantly admit their attraction to each other. 

When I checked this book out, I forgot that the first one in the series had more sexual element than I was comfortable with.  The true was the same with this book.  98% of the book was just fine, but one chapter suddenly depicts them jumping into bed together.  The description was at a level some might not object to, but it was too much for me. Actually, the references to sextual arousal, though pretty tame, were throughout the book.  I think I need to start a companion list to my "clean romance writers" list.  This one will be "Not so clean romance writers to avoid."  Watts will be my first addition. (2021, 254)

Heroes by Alan Gratz

Frank and Stanley's fathers both serve in the Navy Air Corps at Pearl Harbor in 1941.  The boys, one white and one Japanese American, enjoy making up comic book characters and plots together.  One Sunday the boys go with Frank's sister's boyfriend to tour the USS Utah, when suddenly bombs start dropping all around them.  As the boys struggle to get to safety through all that happened during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and afterward, they both have hard lessons on what it really means to be a hero.

I saw this one on the shelf, and being someone who enjoys WWII historical fiction, decided to give it a try. It is a pretty historically accurate description of trauma and destruction of that event. Gratz doesn't sugar-coat anything.  The reader sees soldiers get shot, blown up, even body parts fall from the sky.  Even though Gratz doesn't spend a lot of time describing each scene of blood and gore it was enough that it gave me, a 59-year-old lady, bad dreams. Not only does Gratz describe the battle, he also deals with the instant prejudice Stanley's family suffers after the battle is over. I can imagine a certain set of young readers who would really like this book, and another set who would be really upset by it. This is way more hard-core than the "I Survived" novels.  I suggest a parent/teacher/librarian read the book before handing it to a child. (272 p. 2024)

Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs

 Ben Ripley has survived his first year at Spy School, and even thwarted a an evil plot to kill a lot of people. Now it is summer and all Ben wants to do is go home and hang with his old friends.  It is not to be. Someone failed to tell him that in Spy School summer camp is mandatory. Not long after he arrives at camp, he starts receiving threatening communications from SPYDER. The camp's leadership's attempts to protect him play right into SPYDER's plans.  Can Ben and his friends outsmart SPYDER again, even when it seems they are always one step ahead?

It has been several years since I read the first in this series, but in keeping with the "spy" theme of my previous reading, I thought it would be fun to revisit it. It was fun.  I enjoyed the characters, and was pretty impressed with the mystery plot.  I didn't really see the solution until quite near the end.  I found it even more amusing that they also openly mock James Bond (see previous post:).  I have rarely been disappointed by Stuart Gibbs.  He is a really solid middle grade writer and I need to remember to recommend him to my young patrons more often. (352 p. 2014)

The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky by Mark Oshiro and Adam Silvera

Brett has moved in with his best friend's family while his adopted mom battles cancer. The loss of his home with her has thrown Brett into deep mourning which he deals with by binge eating and drinking. His best friend, Reed, tries to support him as much as he can, but is dealing with his own feelings of loss about his parents' divorce. As Brett's mental state swirls deeper into destructive behaviors, his only life line is a girl, Malory, who is a "super fat" and is struggling with self acceptance. The three are a hot mess but eventually find the path to healing and acceptance. 

One book that I have thought about writing is either a fiction or a memoir of my own teenage eating disorder, so I was interested to read this one.  It was clearly written by someone that has gone through the experience. Bretts thoughts, feelings and mood swings are authentic and sympathetic.  The reader comes to respect and admire his steps to get help, even when he makes one stupid choice after another.  There were some really poignant scenes and some laugh-out-loud ones.  One part of the story that is heartwarming is the amount of affection and devotion between Brett and Reed.  It was nice to read about, but I kept wondering, would two teenage boys really be that warm and fuzzy to each other?  I hope Reed is based on someone the author had in his life as he was going through his disorder but I think it is more likely it is a depiction of someone the author wished he had had in his life.  The reader should beware that this is a fairly gritty book.  The dialog between the kids contains a lot of language and explicit discussion topics.  It sounded authentic to me, not gratuitous, but it was still hard for me to listen to. Still, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone looking for a story on this topic. (313 p. 2024)

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margaret Magnusson

 When you die, do your really want your children or others to have to clean up your mess?  That is the driving question behind this charming little self-help book.  Ms Magnusson tells us she is "between 80 and 100) and would like to share with us the important practice of "death cleaning". Death cleaning is going through your things, getting rid of many and deciding what will happen to the rest after you die.  She has some wonderfully practical advice for dealing with clothes, photographs, pets and keepsakes.  She also gives tips about what to tackle first, and suggestions like starting early so that you won't feel rushed at the end. 

The book is incredibly charming.  It is as if the reader has flown to Sweden, and sat down in a small, clean sitting room to chat with a wise and lovely octogenarian. The writing is completely free of pretence, and Magnusson states things frankly, but with sensitivity.  As an example, when talking about pets, she says something like, "if you want a pet for your final years, choose an elderly dog or cat that won't need a lot of exercise, and is unlikely to outlive you.  If you can't be sure you will be able to care for the pet until the end of your life, you should consider not getting one at all."  I think everyone who has aging parents would like their parents to read this book. It gives the reader permission to respectively discard things that are usually hard to get rid of.  It also depicts preparing for death, not as a drugary, but as an opportunity to review your life-long memories and serve your surviving family members. One charming thing about the book is occasionally Magnusson goes off on a memory tangent. The little stories she tells of her life make the whole book feel personal and friendly. This book is quite popular right now.  It is a more palatable approach to dejunking and organizing than Marie Kondo's book, The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, and one I hope I will remember as I move deeper into senior citizenship. (2020, 144p)

Great Courses: The Secret World of Espionage

 Espionage has been a part of society as long as there has been society.  This fairly new Great Courses recording explores the nature and history of espionage focusing on the last two hundred years in Europe and the US. There are lectures on misconceptions about spies, women spies, coding and decoding, famous spies, and double agents. The course concludes with a discussion of new challenges to espionage in the modern computer and internet age. 

This Great Courses offering is different from others I have listened to because it isn't a set of lectures given by one professor. Instead, there are short discussions with a variety of professors and one x-CIA officer on each of the topics. The format was engaging and I found the lecture series very interesting and entertaining.  There were some of the historical figures and events that I recognized, but many that the speakers assumed people know about that I had never heard of.  I was a bit amused that they kept on bringing up James Bond and how unlike that fictional character real intelligence agents are. The recording is only four hours long, and I think it would be a great choice for a couple to listen to on a road trip. (2023)