March books...

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

New Moon is the sequel to last years Twilight. It continues the story of Bella and her relationship with the vampire family the Cullens, particularly Edward. To keep Bella safe after an accident threatens her life Edward and the rest of the family leave. Bella has to deal with this heartbreaking lose, eventually she goes to Jacob but soon has concerns that he may be drawn into a local "cult". The story is good but does not dwell on the vampire issue as much as the last one and the new relationship away from Edward was refreshing.



Forever in Blue: Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

The fourth and final book in the Traveling Pants series is a good conclusion to the story. It follows the four girls as their lives become even more separate and the find their own paths. The girls face more adult issues such as a pregnancy scare and an almost adulterous encounter. In the end the pants are lost and the girls discover that they have learned what they needed to from the pants and are ready to live their lives without the pants but with each other there to keep them strong.




Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

D.J. is a sixteen year old girl who is running her family farm. After her fathers accident he has not been able to do the work so it is up to D.J. and her younger brother to keep things going. A local football coach ends up sending one of his players over to help out and D.J. ends up working with him on the farm as well as training him for the upcoming football season, in secret. Having grown up with two football star older brothers D.J. knows what she is doing. However she finds that playing football bring something to her life that has been missing. She gets the idea that she should try out for her high school football team, much to the shock of her friends and family. For D.J. football does not solve all of her problems but it makes many things better and opens doors.

Alpha Dog by Jennifer Ziegler

This book won me over just by the title. It is the story of Katie, a sixteen year old girl who has an overbearing mother and was just dumped but her boyfriend on her birthday. Lucky for her she has already signed up for a summer school program at a college in Austin, maybe this will give her the chance to start over. Katie moves into her apartment with her ultra cool roommate. Things are not quite working out as she expected when she visits a shelter and adopts an adorable dog. Her dog turns out to be psychotic and gets Katie into all sorts of situations. Katie takes her dog to obedience classes and learns that she need to become the alpha dog not only to her dog but in her life. A good fun book.

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

A follow up story to the award winning Holes, we pick up the story of Armpit who is trying to get his life back on track since his time spent at Camp Greenlake. He is going to school and working to saving money. His friend X-ray shows up with a plan to make some quick money with an investment from Armpit. Their ticket scalping plan soon gets out of hand and takes Armpit to places he never expected to go such as meeting the famous singer whose tickets they were selling, traveling to California and making new friends.



Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

The classic story of a magical nanny who comes to four children in England and changes their lives. Mary Poppins takes the children on special adventures and teaches them many thing. If you expect the book to be like the Disney movie, don't, while the basis is the same Mary is not as sweet as she is in the movie and there are many other differences. It was a decent book but not one that I would read to or recommend to children.