Virtualibrarian’s comments: This is a damn good read, and I’m glad Justine Larbalestier recommended it. The description below makes it sound a little dry, but all of the historical details Smith weaves in only brighten the rousing story. Ida Mae will have you rooting for her from day 1 as she risks all to pursue her dream. The supporting characters are subtly defined but rich and compelling. A great read that I highly recommend.

Amazon description:

During WWII, the government recruited women pilots to fly non-combat missions, e.g., ferrying planes. Driven by a desire to fly and wanting to help her enlisted brother, Ida Mae decides to pass as white so she can join the program. The author has an expert grasp on her subject, and readers will learn plenty about the Women Airforce Service Pilots, from their impractical uniforms to the dangerous missions they flew without reward. Ida Mae’s unique point of view gives her special insight into the often poor treatment of women: when a pilot friend gets frustrated by a stunt they are asked to perform, Ida realizes, Lily’s just finding out what I’ve been living with my whole life. She’s never known what it was like to be hobbled by somebody else’s rules. Key scenes demonstrate how much Ida has sacrificed by passing, as when her much darker mother visits her on Christmas and, à la Imitation of Life, poses as the family housekeeper. Although this book feels constructed to educate, readers will find the lesson well crafted. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)

Virtualibrarian’s comments: I picked this book in the hopes that it would offer me advice on my own behaviors. It does offer some interesting insights into why so many women/girls are non-confrontational, and provides some exercises for re-thinking the way we act and think. I thought much of the exercises and practical advice was too simplistic, however, at least for adults. Moreover, I’m a bit perturbed by the author’s lack of any background in psychology. Overall, it’s worth borrowing from a friend or the library; not buying.

Amazon description:

In The Curse of the Good Girl, bestselling author Rachel Simmons argues that in lionizing the Good Girl we are teaching girls to embrace a version of selfhood that sharply curtails their power and potential. Unerringly nice, polite, modest, and selfless, the Good Girl is a paradigm so narrowly defined that it’s unachievable. When girls inevitably fail to live up-experiencing conflicts with peers, making mistakes in the classroom or on the playing field-they are paralyzed by self-criticism, stunting the growth of vital skills and habits. Simmons traces the poisonous impact of Good Girl pressure on development and provides a strategy to reverse the tide. At once expository and prescriptive, The Curse of the Good Girl is a call to arms from a new front in female empowerment.

Virtualibrarian’s comments: This book is tricky to classify. It verges from realistic to supernatural to psychological thriller to horror to mystery… and so on. But it is a thrilling, captivating read that will set your head spinning. I greatly enjoyed the story of this screwed-up NY teen and consider it the finest example ever of one of my favorite devices, the unreliable narrator. Impressive, and irresistible.

Amazon description:

Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.

But since I want to use this Virtual Library to record everything I’ve ever read, I’m going to create this list of bombs. I’ll even link to their amazon pages, because hey, why not. They could probably use the press.

• Gone Tomorrow, Lee Child
• Nights in Rodanthe, Nicholas Sparks

Virtualibrarian’s comments: People sure like this book. Post-apocalyptic dystopias are my favorite, but this one left me underwhelmed. Maybe it was all the hype. Certainly McCarthy is a beautiful writer, but this novel lacked any real story, and even the relationship that serves as its center was lacked profundity and development. But this is just one person’s opinion; going by the reviews, you’d think this was the next 1984.

Violence, in McCarthy’s postapocalyptic tour de force, has been visited worldwide in the form of a “long shear of light and then a series of low concussions” that leaves cities and forests burned, birds and fish dead and the earth shrouded in gray clouds of ash. In this landscape, an unnamed man and his young son journey down a road to get to the sea. (The man’s wife, who gave birth to the boy after calamity struck, has killed herself.) They carry blankets and scavenged food in a shopping cart, and the man is armed with a revolver loaded with his last two bullets. Beyond the ever-present possibility of starvation lies the threat of roving bands of cannibalistic thugs. The man assures the boy that the two of them are “good guys,” but from the way his father treats other stray survivors the boy sees that his father has turned into an amoral survivalist, tenuously attached to the morality of the past by his fierce love for his son. McCarthy establishes himself here as the closest thing in American literature to an Old Testament prophet, trolling the blackest registers of human emotion to create a haunting and grim novel about civilization’s slow death after the power goes out.

Virtualibrarian’s comments: Conceived as a “Desperate Housewives” for tweens, this first entry in the series is a little formulaic but likeable. The 4 (living) girls all battle demons that made me sympathize with them, and while I’m not interested enough to read the sequels, I was intrigued enough to go onto wikipedia to find out what ultimately happens. The writing is unremarkable–in fact, it lacks personality, like a middle entry in ghostwritten series. But overall, as far as trashy tween literature goes, it’s better than Gossip Girl and not too bad.

Grade 9 Up–Rosewood, PA, is filled with mansions, Mercedes, and fortunate girls like Alison, Spencer, Emily, Aria, and Hanna. These five friends are bound together by a horrible secret–never fully revealed in the book–until the summer after seventh grade, when Alison goes missing. Now high school juniors, each of the remaining girls is going through a trying time and has a new secret. Spencer is falling for her sister’s boyfriend, Aria is involved in a relationship with her teacher, Emily has issues with her sexual identity, and Hanna has an eating disorder. They think that no one knows about these things, until all four of them begin to get mysterious notes, e-mails, and text messages from someone by the name of A. They are afraid that Alison is back, and the mocking tone of the messages makes them worry that she could be ready to divulge their hidden past. In the end, her body is found, but they still receive the messages, leaving readers to wonder what happens next. Shepard writes a suspenseful page-turner that will have teens thirsting for more. The plot is quick-moving and encapsulates the feelings of many teens.
–Kristen M. Todd, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY

Amazon.com Description
When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip”) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens – called Boov – abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland” (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?

In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.

Listen to the mp3s here!

Watch Professor Pausch’s “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” on YouTube.