Library Loot & IMM

A good week. I picked up one title on hold at the library and thanks to Eva, I ended picked up a couple more and putting one on hold. Made a few suggestions while I was at the library. The YA librarian was out so I'll have to check with her later to see if she can purchase my recommendations. Got a gift from Edi at Crazy Quilts and two from Paperback Swap. And a word to all the bloggers who host contests: please let winners know when to expect their prizes. It's nerve wracking watching for the mail. Personally, I'm always worried a book will be lost or stolen (It's happened) so it helps if I have a timeframe. In My Mailbox is hosted each week by Kristi at Story Siren and Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Eva hosts Library Loot at A Striped Armchair. This week I added to my teetering pile:
From the library:
Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins. The trick with historical or cultural fiction (and Secret Keeper is both) is to create a story where the reader forgets that they are in another time or place. Though Secret Keeper takes place in 1970’s India, the themes are universal. Especially engaging is protagonist Asha, a strong and selfless young woman in a culture and time when such traits are more burden than complement. Not only does Secret Keeper have a great story to tell, it also offers even-handed insight into Indian culture and leaves the reader both heartbroken and uplifted. From Reading Rumpus.

Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers. I'm a huge Myers fan. I've seen some buzz about this but not enough. The author is prolific and has a long successful career. I'm looking forward to reading this. Walter Dean Myers weaves elements of magical realism into a harrowing story about drug use,violence, alternate perceptions of reality, and second chances.
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. I picked this up because Eva's LL post reminded me and Nymeth's review. She writes: The Fox Woman deals with what it means to be a woman and to be restrained by convention, what it means to be a person and be burdened by expectations – other people’s as well as our own. In addition to gender and identity, it deals with longing and disappointment and communication and the boundary between animal and human. All in a beautifully told story infused with Japanese myth.

The Gifted by Nikita Lalwani. Thanks to Eva, another book. Found this review at I read: Nikita has captured the Indian family of the 80's very well. A strict disciplinarian father who sees excellence in education as the only way out. An emotionally tuned in but
clueless mother, Shreene, who can see her child's changing personality but is incapable of understanding why. An impressionable child, who is living in two cultures, yet is complete withdrawn from both. Her only release from her anguish being an entirely odd addiction.

In my mailbox: The No.1 Ladies' Dectective Agency by Alexander McCall. I'm not going to admit how long I've known about this one. It's now a hit HBO series that I haven't watched but when I saw it available at Paperback, I requested it. Fans of the book seem to love the series so hopefully I'll get to it before the season is over.

So Not The Drama by Paula Chase. This is one of those titles I have been patiently waiting for. This will definitely be passed on to the kidlet. She's my unofficial reviewer. We have Paula's Don't Get It Twisted and it was a hit. No doubts about this series.

Aluetian Sparrow by Karen Hesse. This was a gift from Edi. Found this review at Paper Tigers, a cool site by the way if you don't know about it: This haungtingly beautiful verse novel describes the experiences of the Aleutian people who were evacuated from their island during the Second World War and made to live in camps on the mainland. The teenage narrator describes the difficulties of being in a totally alien environment far removed from her way of life: 'abandoned in the dark suffocation of the forest ... we cannot, from any corner of the camp, catch a glimpse of open water.' Many Aleutians fell sick or died, and almost all were unhappy, unable to earn their livelihood, deprived of their culture, and unpopular with the 'white' people. ~Audrey Baker