Clicks, by 10 famous authors (Middle school) Date Read: August 2nd (out of 5 possible ivy leaves) In my experience, short story collections tend to be pretty uneven, but Clicks is a horse of a different color. Rather than a collection of unrelated stories on a single theme, Clicks is a novel told through a series of 10 related stories by 10 different authors. The plot is somewhat non-linear -- I'd call it a web, actually -- and you could argue that some elements introduced in the first chapter/story are never fully addressed, but the book works well in spite of that, and I'm endlessly fascinated by imagining how 10 authors from around the world could write one book. It appears that they didn't sit down together ahead of time to lay out the plot and decide who would write which chunk of it. So did they write their stories one by one and pass the full manuscript along for the next author in line to add to, or did they all write simultaneously and then figure out how to mesh everything together? Either way, it seems like Clicks must have taken a lot of revising to join all those related threads of people, places, and things. No matter how they did it, Clicks is really very good. The last two stories didn't appeal to me quite as much as the rest, but that's in part because I don't tend to care for futuristic settings. They also seemed to have a more adult sensibility than the rest. For the record, my favorite was "Lev." And I can't help saying that I preferred the old fashioned cover art on the ARC, though I have to admit that the more modern image they've settled on will sell better.
	A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban (4th grade and up) Date Read: August 6th I know what you're thinking – a book about a kid who plays the organ? But what a fun little book it is, precisely because Zoe feels exactly the way you probably do about organs. Try and resist this, an entire chapter: How It Is I play the organ. A wood-grained, vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag organ. The Perfectone D-60. I loved the snippety little chapters, the sense of humor, and yes, the socks. I will proudly say that I live in Michigan and I wear socks. Goofy ones.
	The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell, by Rachel Herz (Adult non-fiction) Date Read: August 11th I am a nose-nerd. I can tell you what my great-grandma's mobile home smelled like (dust, damp cement, and tea tree oil) or what makes up the first whiff of Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom (popcorn, perfume, cool cement, and a touch of cigarette smoke). I'm also fascinated by how much information Helen Keller was able to collect about the world through her nose. So is it any wonder I was excited to get my paws on this book by the nation's foremost expert on the sense of smell? Let's just say it didn't disappoint, and I learned heaps of interesting stuff about how emotion and olfaction affect one another. I won't say much more than that because I'm hoping to host an interview with the author on my blog closer to the release date in October. In the meantime, amuse yourself with a browse through the kooky perfumes made by Demeter Fragrances.
	A Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz (5th grade and up) Date Read: August 11th This book gets a flat out "Wow!" -- 17 young voices from a medieval village, all speaking through a series of monologues and dialogues. Some are funny, some touching, and all are terrifically well-written and slyly informative. I can imagine a good drama teacher would have a grand old time with this. I know I'd take it over Chaucer any day. ps: As much as I hate linking to the evil chain stores, I've got to ask: Does anyone know why the late, great Trina Schart Hyman is listed as an illustrator on Barnes & Noble's website?
	Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures, by George Sullivan (3rd grade and up) Date Read: August 12th As the title suggests, this book is very much about the pictures. A number of them are uncommon, and a fair handful of those were new to me. (Woo-hoo!) The book is well designed with nifty Braille motifs throughout, and the reproduction of the photos is very high quality. The text, in the form of long captions, is rather basic, both in terms of style and content. The captions are interesting and Sullivan did point out a few little-known facts – that Helen's eyes were removed and replaced with glass ones, for example – but in my typically nerdy way, I found myself wishing that the photos had all been dated. Overall, it's a lovely book to look at, and an excellent supplement for those with a prior knowledge of Helen Keller. I'm pleased to add it to my personal collection. (For those in search of a good traditional children's biography of Helen Keller, I'd recommend starting with Sullivan's previous work, In Their Own Words: Helen Keller.)
	The Romanovs and Mr. Gibbes, by Frances Welch (Adult biography) Date Read: August 13th This strikes me as an odd little book about an odd little man. Weighing in at just 140 pages and devoid of any source notes, it's tough to take completely seriously as a biography. I got the feeling the author may know her subject rather well, but the book itself only skims the surface. On the plus side, I did pick up a few interesting tidbits from excerpts of Gibbes's diary, but many times I found myself wishing for further exploration of Gibbes's character, or an explanation of how the author reached her conclusions regarding this interesting but strange fellow. She may not be off-base, but without more information to back her ideas up, it's hard to know what to think -- particularly since I spotted some tired Romanov myths in the text. The author also assumes a fair amount of prior knowledge, which is probably not a big handicap since only the most devoted Romanov followers are likely to be interested in reading about the life of the imperial childrens' tutor in the first place.
	The Thief, by Megan Whelan Turner Audio performed by Jeff Woodman (Middle School) Date read: August 15th This is the second time in recent memory that a whole bunch of people (ok, maybe three or four) have told me I'd love a book and then…I didn't. Sure, I enjoyed The Thief, but I guess I expected to be completely smitten with it. Instead, my mind wandered from time to time – a hazard with any audiobook, but more noticeable in this instance for some reason. The beginning lagged somewhat for me, but things picked up once Gen started navigating the maze. My favorite parts by far were the stories of the gods. I also liked seeing the magus's attitude toward Gen shift as the story progressed. Overall, I can't help wondering if I would have appreciated this book more if I'd read it in a day or two instead of listening to it over the course of a week and a half.
	A Curse Dark as Gold, by Elizabeth C. Bunce (Middle school) Date read: August 17th Let's just make this perfectly clear: I loved this book. Fairy tales retold are pretty much a sure thing with me, but this one's a humdinger. You think you know Rumplestiltskin? Think again.... Click here to read my full, spoiler-free review.
	If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, by Gennifer Choldenko (Middle school) Date read: August 18th For weeks, this book sat on my TBR shelf. I tried it a couple times and couldn't get beyond page 6 or so. Today I sat down and read the bugger in about two hours. Why the difference? No idea…. This time, I liked it a whole lot. The voices are super, though I do wish Walk's chapters had been done in first person instead of third. Maybe that was supposed to help differentiate between the two main characters. As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't necessary. Walk's voice is surely distinctive enough from Kirsten's to avoid any confusion. Some might try to argue that this book goes a little over the top – especially the Queen Bee character. All I've got to say to them is, you've never been to middle school.
	The Wall, by Peter Sis (5th grade and up -- way up) Date read: August 23rd I appreciate this book, but I'm not sure how much I like it. The layout of the text was difficult for me to follow -- I had to jump in and out of the main flow of narration to read the extra tidbits in the margins, and that's just not something I'm good at. Though I liked what the story had to say, it ended up feeling disjointed to me. I did like the art very much, though, especially the gradual introduction of color to reflect the level of censorship and freedom. Overall, this strikes me as an Important Book. I have friends who escaped from Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Peter Sis has given me a real taste of what their life was like. I certainly understand why so many people are impressed with The Wall, and I am too -- I'm just not in love with the formatting.
	The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman (Adult biography) Date read: August 26th Though I've got some issues with the authors' conversion of facts into dialogue to "make certain stories come alive for the reader" I did enjoy my first introduction to the life of Harry Houdini. Despite my gripes about how non-fiction ought to work (which you can read here and here) the book is quite readable and informative. Judging by my browse through the online footnotes, I can't fault the authors' research, but I still wish they'd stuck to a more rigid standard of non-fiction – though I have to admit they don't go off on fanciful imaginings of their subject's inner thoughts the way Russian biographer Edvard Radzinsky so often does. Surprisingly enough, the theory that Houdini had a secret life as a spy takes up relatively few of this biography's 560 pages. As a Houdini novice, that was fine with me, but I can imagine the Houdini buffs out there might be disappointed that this newly exposed facet of the magician's life wasn't explored more thoroughly.
	Elissa's Quest, by Erica Verrillo (5th grade and up) Date read: August 29th This is probably going to sound weird, but there's no way around it. Elissa's Quest reminds me an awful lot of the first book I wrote. You know, that fantasy that's under my bed? Something about the style and phrasing is very familiar. And yet here I am giving Elissa just three stars – er, leaves. Yep, three leaves. It's a nice enough book, but the story and characters didn't capture me, though I did enjoy the Middle Eastern flavor of the second half of the book. I can't point out anything *wrong* with Elissa's Quest, but I dunno…it's just one of those not-for-me books, I guess.
	The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Ages...?) Date read: August 31st What a terrific graphic novel! And wordless to boot. Click here to read the full review on my blog.
	The Borrowers, by Mary Norton (4th grade and up) Date read: August 31st How does an author/bookseller get to be 28 years old without having read this little sweetie pie? I don't know, but I'm glad nobody caught me before I remedied the situation. There's a reason The Borrowers is a classic. It's easy and charming – the sort of book that makes you finish it, and boy, was I ready for one of those!