christianreader | January and February books (Reply)

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett - The staff at Unseen University is forced by endowment and patrician-meddling to take up the sport of football (soccer football, not American football). This book brings back all my favorite UU characters, but they kind of take a back seat to some new characters who work as servants in the university. But really, the new characters are pretty awesome, too. My only complaints about this book are: 1) Given that there's a character called "Juliet", I thought for sure there would be more riffing on Romeo & Juliet; and 2)The all-important football game doesn't come until the end of the book. But this book was a super-fun and the usual Pterry, who obviously hasn't lost any of his story-telling ability despite the early-onset Alzheimer's.

Baby by Joseph Monninger - Teenager Baby is on her last-chance foster home with a dog-sledding older couple - but will it last? This book is okay, but it's very by-the-numbers. If you've ever read a "rebellious foster kid on his/her last chance" book (which I totally have, it's kind of its own YA/children's subgenre, right beside "books about dogs that end up dead"), you probably don't need to read this one.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - Sixth grader Miranda's life gets weird after her best friend Sal ditches her, when she starts receiving notes which accurately predict the future. This book won the Newbery Award this year. I felt like something was missing from this book, although I can't pinpoint exactly what. And the endings weren't that satisfying to me. I liked the book, but didn't love it.

Offworld by Robin Parrish - After returning home from the first manned mission to Mars, four astronauts must try to find the reason that all other humans have disappeared from Earth. The back cover compares this book to Lost, but I'd say it's more Bourne Identity - lots of physics-defying action, a few crazy car chases, and even a man who's lost an important part of his memory. I personally found it hard to get past a) The fact that all this crazy stuff was happening to these people in the span of just over a week (even though this is sort of explained towards the end of the book) and b) The afore-mentioned breaking of the basic laws of gravity and such. I also didn't like the deus ex machina part(s) of the book (even though the "deus" in question was the Christian God). I finished it because I wanted to see how the ~mystery~ would work out. But, if you like action-packed books, then you might like this novel.

Culture Making by Andy Crouch - Christian Non-Fiction about how to deal with culture. I had heard a lot of positive things about this book, and so I expected it to be really good. And, it's not that it's a bad book, but... I think I am tired of theory. And I kept waiting for this book to translate from theory to practice. Crouch has some very good ideas, like how we can't always be criticizing or retreating from culture. I just... wanted him to tell me something practical, and he really didn't.

Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin - Story of a 12-year-old autistic boy who writes original fiction on the internet. I like the way the author made it so you could relate to both the main character, Jason, and his mom in particular. Heartbreaking stuff, but it seems accurate. A good story, but I don't think it's as great as some people think it is.