It's What We're Reading Wednesday

Welcome to What We're Weading Wednesday.

Please feel free to grab the sweetest reading clip-art you ever did see and use it on your own posts.  I paid real cash money for it, so it's legitified.

I do my best to read all of your posts and comment as well.  I do notice and get my feelings hurt if you don't link back to me.  insert pouty face here.  I surely do love hearing from you in my combox as well!

Now for my own weekly review...

The cover art was dark, and the inside flap description was downright scary, but once I started reading Shelter by Harlan Coben, I couldn't put it down.

Mickey Bolitar, is the nephew of Myron Bolitar.  Apparently Myron is a famous character from Coben's adult novels, which I've never read, so that whole relationship was lost on me, but maybe it matters to you?

Mickey is a likeable new-kid-at-school with a lot of problems at home.  His dad was recently killed in a car accident.  His girlfriend disappeared after the first week of school.  His mom is in rehab.  When a crazy old lady tells him that his dad is still alive, Mickey starts actively looking for solutions to his problems.

This is a one minute trailer for the book.  It's the first book trailer I've ever seen, and I am very impressed!  You can catch a glimpse of the crazy old lady in the video.

Shelter is extremely violent.  Mickey gets badly beaten up when he frees his tortured girlfriend from the strip club where she is enslaved.  Did I mention torture?  Did you catch the part about strip club?  And enslavement?  He also witnesses a murder and has the typical bully problems at school.

Imagine a scene in a strip club where the high school kid notices that the older men are groping the women, despite the signs that discourage touching, and that the women all look sad.  Honestly, I did not think it would be possible for a YA book to deal with such issues in an age-appropriate manner, but Coben walks a fine line and doesn't include any racy descriptions or gratuitous scenes.  Actually, Coben's description of an audition for a dancer position at the club is downright funny.  Mickey Bolitar rescues his girlfriend and embarks on a life dedicated to saving the helpless.

Of course, Shelter ends with developments on the overarching mystery, "what happened to his dad?"  Nearly every YA book has to set up a series.  While Shelter may not be great literature, it was a decent read with a decent message.

Comparable to The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp minus the fantasy elements and Catholic themes, Shelter is written for teenagers.

Rachel Isadora's The Princess and the Pea and Rapunzel are richly colored re-tellings of the original fairy tales.  Isadora uses oil paint and collage as her medium and the effect is stunning.  Africa is a beautiful setting for these oft-told tales.

In this version of Rapunzel, like many others, the Prince and Rapunzel exchange marriage vows in the tower.  The witch discovers Rapunzel's "activities" when the girl complains that her dress is too tight.  Rapunzel is thrown out into the wilderness.  She and her twins are rescued at the end.

I love a good picture book with lovely illustrations and not too much text.  Jill has an amazing attention span, but I get easily bored.  Twelve Dancing Princesses retold and illustrated by Brigette Barrager keeps us both entertained.

Amazon displays the following quote on the Twelve Dancing Princesses page:

"Barrager brings a fittingly soigné aesthetic to this retelling" - Publishers Weekly

I haven't the foggiest idea what that means...unless it means "charming pictures and succinct but delightful prose."

Here you can see the behind-the-scenes creation of Twelve Dancing Princesses on the author's own blog!

Barrager and Isadora are both author-illustrators that I am going to seek out from now on.

I recently requested some Bobbi Brown beauty books from my local library, but I have not had a chance to read them as Susan and Lucy have absconded with them.  Beauty Rules is written for women in their teens or twenties, so I can skip that one and jump right in with Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual.

Their take-away thoughts:

• Bobbi says you shouldn't use make-up that's more than eighteen months old.
• I should buy them all new make-up.
• Bobbi says your under eye concealer should be two shades lighter than your skin tone and you shouldn't use under eye concealer to conceal anything else.
• Bobbi uses real/normal people in the photos, not models.
• I should buy Susan new foundation that is not a powder because she has dry skin.
• Bobbi Brown likes Obama.

I am slightly grossed out that my girls didn't know about not using old make-up.  Mothering fail.  I have noticed an increase in the wearing of blush and a decrease in the wearing of eyeliner and I am seeing some lovely shimmery eye lids too.

So....if I check out some books on household organization and cleaning, what are the chances that Susan and Lucy will read up on those subjects and start organizing and cleaning things?

Maybe I'll start small and get some books about cupcakes and cake pops next.

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