Weeding.

Going through my bookshelf again, getting rind of some stuff I picked up at book sales and the old lending library in the Daily Grind (oh, how I miss you, Daily Grind + Lending Library). Mind Game, by Christine Feehan. This is book 2 of a short series, and it doesn't stand up well on it's own. I quit after a few chapters because 1) it's a (poorly written) smutty book, and 2) nothing makes sense. I guess the reader is supposed to remember all the explanations from the first book. The Keeper of the Isis Light, by Monica Hughes. This was not terribly well-written: the main character sounded like she was from a novel circa 1915 than the mid 1980s. The plot was good enough, though, and there were no comma splices, so I suppose I can give it one thumb up, maybe one and a quarter (full sentences count for a lot in my book). There are 2 sequels to this; the IU library system has all the installments, but MCPL has none, which I thought was interesting, but they are pretty old. Being, by Kevin Brooks. This is very well written but, like Brooks' other books, asks hard questions; life, death, humanity, and identity are topics in this one. The writing is very suspenseful and the story was very interesting. It did end on a rather negative (yet possibly hopeful) note, which I tend not to enjoy so much. Shug, by Jenny Han. This was written in first person present, which is not my fave. I actually have an advanced reader's copy: someone in Pullman was well-connected, and I picked up dozens of advanced copies from the Lending Library before I fled. So there may have been minor changes before publication, but the main thrust of the story will be the same, so my critique will be the same as well: do we really need love stories for 12-year-olds? Seriously, people. I'm sure I'm not the only person who wasn't interested in boys in 7th grade. Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale, by Donna Jo Napoli. The author took a couple chapters to get her feet under her: the first few dialogue bits are rather unreal, but she figures it out. It is written in first person present tense (again, not my first choice), but the writing isn't bad.