I’m not a huge Mac fan. My family loves our ipods, but that’s about it. I don’t really care much about the growth of the computer industry or the particular person of Steve Jobs, but this book was riveting, and if you’re at all interested in the changes in our use of technology that have taken place over the last 20 years or so, there will be facts that inform and interest you in this book. I learned that Steve Jobs had a hand in so many things, including the success of Pixar, ebooks, and much more. Knowing what was coming — each new innovation from the growth of the personal computer, to the ipod to the iphone to the ipad — built a sort of tension throughout. Knowing that Steve Jobs had lost his battle with cancer right before the publication of the book lent it slightly more weight, and did make me consider the weight of the loss of that creative and innovative mind.

There’s been a lot of press about how the book reveals Jobs to be an unsympathetic and callous boss and person in general, and yes, that’s true. Isaacson doesn’t cut Jobs any slack on the issue, though it is usually manifested as a result of his desire for everything to be perfect.

Jobs cooperated with Isaacson on this project — in fact he asked Isaacson to author his biography — but did not have a hand in the finished project at all. He didn’t read the book before publication and didn’t read it before he died. Isaacson talked to personal friends and family, co-workers, those he had spurned and those who admired him.

This is a long book (although the amazon page says “abridged,” the Simon and Schuster audiobook I have is 20 long unabridged CDs), but I honestly was interested in every single chapter. Because it’s nonfiction, it’s easily the kind of book that you could work your way through when you had time. You could listen to the audio in bursts, or read a chapter here and there when you have time.

AUDIOBOOK NOTES: Dylan Baker read this book and he did a great job. Never did I get lost in the details or glaze over while listening to something that wasn’t interesting. Baker made Steve Jobs’ thoughts and words come to life, and allowed Isaacson’s prose to shine. Though the audio was log, I got through it within a month or so, which is probably sooner than I would have read the big chunkster of a book. But it was compelling enough — even though it was non-fiction and not a suspenseful novel — that I found myself finding time to listen.

Jennifer Donovan enjoys fiction best, but interesting, informative and readable nonfiction fuels her love of reading as well. She blogs at Snapshot.

The arrival of a drifter named Charlie Memphis, hired to help her crippled father with maintenance, throws a stone into the placid waters of their lives. He’s handsome, a stranger, and treats Callie’s mother, Teal, with appreciation—something she doesn’t get from her husband. You can feel the attraction cracking between them, and it’s a wonder that Callie’s father doesn’t start worrying sooner. Callie is also growing up, in that awkward stage between tomboy and young woman. She’s got a crush on Virgil, the high school boy spending his summer working at the drive-in, and a crush on Charlie Memphis too.

One thing I loved about The Starlite Drive-in was how well the characters were fleshed out. People may tip the scale to the side of “good guy” or “bad guy” but, as with their real-life counterparts, they are a mix of both. The Starlite Drive-in is packed with detail; reading this book is a sensory experience. You can easily picture settings, people’s outfits, expressions. I feel as if I would recognize them on the street.

And although the discovery of just whose bones they were won’t be a total shock, the joy of this novel lies not in the revelation of a mystery, but in the journey to get there—a path filled with sun-splashed afternoons, first love and painful revelations, and a woman who made an unexpected choice and had the backbone to keep on with it.

Highly recommended. The Starlite Drive-in is haunting and evocative, the kind of novel that stays with you for a long time. I give it 5 stars.

We have a copy to give away to one of you, thanks to the publisher! Just leave a comment here, and we’ll announce the winner in our giveaway column on February 1. This is open to U.S. and Canadian addresses. This giveaway is now closed.

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Elizabeth is glad she never has to be 12 again, but she still enjoys reading of other’s travails. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.

Jake Epping is a high school English teacher – unassuming, a little boring, no family to speak of. He frequents Al’s Diner, a hole-in-the-wall that serves delicious but very inexpensive burgers, causing rumors that Al uses cats for the meat. One day Jake gets a call from Al and discovers his friend, who the day before was healthy and fit, is close to death from lung cancer. Al shows Jake a portal that exists in the diner’s pantry – a portal that takes those who enter to a beautiful September day in 1958, every single time. And each visit is a total reset of the current timeline – anything that is changed during a trip down the “rabbit-hole” is reset during the next trip. Oh and no matter how much time has passed for the person who uses the portal, only 2 minutes has passed in the real world.

When Al calls Jake he’s just returned from one of his trips down the rabbit-hole, where he has been following Lee Harvey Oswald in an attempt to stop him from killing JFK. While there he was diagnosed with cancer and after realizing he wasn’t going to live long enough to stop the assassination, he returned to the present and decided Jake is the perfect person to pick up the task. Jake agrees to go down the rabbit-hole, taking on the persona of George Amberson, and ends up in Jodie, a small Texas town outside of Dallas. He uses Al’s notes to track down Oswald, while also teaching high school English in Jodie, where he becomes involved in the townspeople and a certain librarian.

Time travel has its own inherent issues and these are addressed in the novel. Al insists that each trip is a reset, but Jake wonders if this is really true. Repeated throughout the book is the idea that the past is obdurate – it doesn’t want to be changed, and any attempt Jake makes to do so is not easily done. Jake also experiences small coincidences that he chalks up to the past harmonizing, but may be more than they seem.

While this isn’t a horror book, there are bad people and they do bad things, so 11/22/63 is not for the faint of heart. There’s also an undercurrent of creepiness that accompanies Jake’s foray into the past. If you don’t mind a few bad things and like time travel and what-if stories, then I highly recommend this novel, which I’ve added to our Five Star Reads.

Notes on the audiobook: I received both the hardcover and MP3 versions of 11/22/63, which greatly increased my reading speed. With a running time of 31 hours this is a great audiobook for a long commute or while doing housework – I listened while wrapping Christmas presents. Narrator Craig Wasson did a great job with both Maine and Texas accents and really brought the character of Jake to life.

Nancy enjoys the comforts and technologies we have today, but wonders if life really was simpler in the 50s. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.

Calli Be Gold by Michele Weber Hurwitz

I have to start off by saying what I don’t like about Calli Be Gold. The cover just doesn’t capture it. I think that in general, whether it’s adult books or kids’ books, a photo of a real person sort of turns me off. Now that that is out of the way, let me tell you what I do like about the book.

Calli is the youngest in the Gold family, and to be honest, she doesn’t feel like she fits in very well. Her sister is on a competitive ice skating team, her brother is a basketball star. These activities keep the family on the go, and 11-year-old Calli just tags along. Her mom and dad pressure her to sign up for extra-curriculars, but she doesn’t like any of them. But one day she encounters a young boy under a table at the skating rink (where she has been taken to watch her sister’s practice, of course). He won’t talk to her, but when her 5th grade class is paired up with his 2nd grade class as peer helpers, she chooses to pair up with him. Noah hides under his desk most of the time and tells her he isn’t good at arts and crafts. They don’t always complete the peer assignments in the right way (like the one where they were supposed to make a face out of pasta), but they excel at the connection part.

As I was reading, my heart tugged for Calli as she struggled to please her family yet still remain true to herself. My heart also went out as I related to Calli’s mother who seemed frantic all the time, yet continued to pile more post-its marking activities on the family calendar.

Then she claps her hands and says those words I dread. “C’mon, Calli, chop-chop.”

“Chop-chop” means we have to take my brother or sister somewhere, and I get to sit in the way back of a minivan that hasn’t been washed in a very long time and watch my life whiz past through a grimy, sticky, steamed-up window.” (page 7)

I know I love a book when I’m crying at the end. No they aren’t usually sad tears; they just move me in such a way that they are So Good I Cried.

The Great Wall Of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Lucy is planning for 6th grade to be her best year ever. She’ll finally have her own room, because her perfect sister is going off to college. She soon realizes that her definition of perfect is going to have to be tweaked. Her recently deceased grandmother’s sister Po Po is coming to visit for a few months, and guess where she’s going to be staying? That’s right — Lucy’s room. Lucy holds on to her privacy the only way she can, by building a “great wall” of her desk and bookshelves to divide the room.

What’s more, a Chinese school is starting up and meets on Saturdays. Her parents want her to go, but if she does, she won’t be able to play basketball, which she loves.

This novel hits all the notes so well. From the first page, Lucy’s voice comes across right on target, as she struggles with who she is and who she’s supposed to be (even her own sister calls a “banana,” yellow on the outside, but white on the inside). It’s true that she likes pizza more than traditional Chinese food, and puts her love of basketball ahead of learning Chinese, but that doesn’t mean she’s a traitor to her race, does it?

Lucy indeed learns more about being Chinese as she comes to accept Po Po and herself, just as she is. This is a heartwarming and funny story of friends (and enemies), family, school and basketball. I’ve marked this post with the 5 Star Reads label in honor of this story, but the other two are right up there as well.

Words In The Dust by Trent Reedy

This is a powerful story about an Afghan girl, Zulaikha, who has a cleft palate. She works hard and tries to please her stepmother. She loves her brothers and her sister, but now that her sister is getting married, she thinks more about her future. What will she do when she leaves? There will be more work for her, and she wants to be there for her family, but she also hopes to learn to read like her mother did. And will she ever get married herself when she’s known as “Donkey Face” by the neighborhood boys?

Though set in a war-torn country so different from contemporary America, Zulaikha’s hopes — to be someone, to do something she loves, to be loved and accepted — are common to all. Like many children, she feels helpless and unable to help herself, but in the end, she stands up (respectfully) for what’s important to her. The setting and place adds to the beauty and other-ness of the story.

There are some more mature themes, having to do with the nature of war and the treatment of women, so I’d recommend it to less sensitive kids, probably 5th grade and up (and any adult who is interested in this culture).

Though I am a Round I panelist in this Middle Grade fiction category for the Cybils, my opinions are solely my own and are not meant to reflect the final outcome.

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Though it’s a challenge, Jennifer Donovan can’t imagine one more fun than reading as many of the nominees as she can in this 2 1/2 month timeframe. That’s one reason she doesn’t blog at Snapshot so much anymore.

Australian writer Anna Funder was also fascinated. She lived in West Berlin during the 1980s and obsessed a little about what was behind that wall. In 1994, 5 years after the wall fell, she lived for a while in Leipzig, and later returned to live again in Berlin. She interviewed many East Germans and has written their stories in Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall. The subject matter is endlessly fascinating, and Funder interviews both regular citizens and former Stasi officers. What takes the book up a notch, however, is her writing ability. The book is as easy to read as a novel, as beautifully-crafted as literature. It feels very personal, as the author shares her own thoughts and reactions to people and places.

She interviews Miriam, who nearly escaped to West Berlin as a 16-year-old and was caught and punished brutally, who later was let out of prison and happily married for only a short while, until her husband was taken in for questioning and died in a Stasi remand cell. Her life since liberation has been spent trying to find out what happened to him. The rumours are that the Stasi buried an empty coffin, that her husband hanged himself, that he escaped and is still somewhere. Miriam only wants the truth. She tells Funder of the “puzzle women” in Nuremberg. When the Stasi finally fell, they quickly shredded incriminating documents, but left the shards in huge garbage bags. Volunteers are now painstakingly piecing together these documents. Maybe, Miriam dreams, they will put together something about her husband Charlie, and she can finally be at peace.

Funder, a couple of years later, visits the “puzzle women” and finds both men and women working in pleasant offices, windows wide open. It takes hours to piece together a single sheet of paper, and there are millions. It’s a hopeless, Sisyphean task.

Funder hears tales of live behind the wall; of state-owned television, of underground rock stars (she drinks with the former frontman of a rock band who was once told to his face that he “no longer existed” by a Stasi officer). She sees first-hand the unrepentance and callousness of the former Stasi officers, some of whom act as if the state never died. She meets a woman separated from her sick baby by the overnight building of the wall, and meets that baby, now an adult, raised by doctors and nurses in a hospital ward because his parents were trapped in East Berlin. And over and over she asks the question: is it better to know what happened and bring it all out in the open, or is it better to bury the dead past and begin anew? She doesn’t answer the question per se, but instead leaves it hanging, allowing it to percolate in the reader’s mind as we meet people who have answered it in different ways in their own lives.

Stasiland is an excellent book. It won the Samuel Johnson prize for nonfiction (prestigious prize in UK. I had never heard of it either) and has been translated into many languages. I am also giving it my first ever 5-star rating. It’s that good. I highly recommend it.

Elizabeth is an avid reader who loves well-written books on a variety of subjects. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.

After last year, I resolved to be more diligent from the get-go with reading. I’ve tackled the list of nominees, striving to read at least one book per day, and so I’ve already read 8 or 10 books, and the nominations haven’t even closed yet. That’s good, but there are still so many to be read.

The other thing that I resolved to do was to be better about posting reviews. With my first attempt at getting some reviews out there, I’ve decided to feature some titles that are either about or will appeal to middle schoolers, even though there are several in my library bookbag that I know would also fit here. Last year, my 7th grader Amanda was reading many of the titles with me, and I was surprised at how many of the books solidly appealed to her as a 12-year-old at the top of the range. However, most kids also like to “read up,” so barring any content that’s too mature, they are equally appropriate for 10-year-olds. This particular list has a mix of humor, history, adventure, and heart, featuring 11 and 12 year old characters.

Jeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake Cadets by Eric Luper is a classic boys versus girls story. Actually, he’s not really against the Cupcake Cadets — he’s decided to become one! When 11-year-old Jeremy and his best friend Slater do some damage to his dad’s boat, they need to figure out how to come up with some cash. Winning the Windjammer Whirl would net them $500, but it’s only open to Cupcake Cadets. Armed with Jeremy’s sister’s old uniforms and her wig, the boys decide to pose and to win.

I loved the observations that Jeremy and Slater make about girls they learn as they are trying to fit in with them, and the inevitable lesson that boys are not necessarily better than girls is not given in a way that isn’t too much of a “the moral of the story is. . . . ” I recommend this funny novel for kids who like humor and the boy/girl angle will appeal to 4th graders who still think the opposite sex is gross, as well as the 6th grader who might be more interested in figuring out what makes the other half tick.

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson is a suspenseful, adventurous story that also gives a peek into the inner life of an 11-year-old boy. Jack hasn’t had it easy. The reader doesn’t hear details, but we glean that his mother is a manic depressive. She doesn’t like to take her meds, so she sometimes “spins.” During these times, Jack is basically left to fend for himself, surviving off of canned foods. Other times when she’s “up,” she pulls him of school for incredible adventures.

Right before school starts, Jack and his mom take a camping trip. Jack wakes up the first morning, alone. His mother’s car is gone, and she’s not answering her cell phone. He lays low, assuming she’ll come back, but when she doesn’t, he decides that he needs to find her. This takes him on an adventure — walking, biking, and riding the bus. He’s resourceful, turning in cans for the deposit so he can buy some food, and finding unique places to sleep such as a store and a barn loft. When he finds out that the authorities are looking for him, he has to be even more careful.

He was hungry, tired, and worried. Why wouldn’t he just turn himself in? He knew what would happen to his mom, that’s why. He didn’t want her to get in trouble for neglect (even though he knows leaving him was wrong), and he didn’t want to be taken away from her. As adults, our hearts break for a kid like this, but kids tend to take things at face value. As hard as it is to believe, this is more a story of adventure and survival than it is a heartbreaking tale of abandon. That makes it completely age-appropriate for any tween readers. I’m adding this one to our 5 Star Reads list for a fast-paced, yet insightful story that will appeal to the target age range that I couldn’t put down.

Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger is a follow up to the title that won the Cybils award last year, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (linked to my review). I loved the heart and humor in that book, a typical school story about boy/girl issues, bullies, homework, fitting in, and everything you’d expect 6th graders to worry about. This new book picks up the next year. Harvey, Dwight’s nemesis, has taken his mistrust of Origami Yoda a step further, and made his own Darth Paper in an attempt to take Dwight and Origami Yoda down! I like how the kids at the middle school continue to stick up for Dwight, even though he’s odd and some of his actions are hard to understand.

Having been totally wowed by the first book, it takes something special to maintain that level of joy with a book. I still enjoyed this one, but not as much. I think that some people — such as avid Star Wars fans — will enjoy this one more, since the references are even heavier here. That said, this was an enjoyable read — not quite as humorous or filled with heart as the first one — but worth reading. I also know that I’d quickly pick up and recommend any other books by this author, whether in this series or not. He gets kids.

**While I am a Cybils panelist, these thoughts are my own and not meant to reflect the opinions of other panelists or the outcome. Cybils nominations are still open through October 15.

Jennifer reads and writes (these days it’s mostly about what she reads) at her home in a Houston suburb. She blogs at Snapshot.

Wonderstruck follows this same pattern, and I loved it!

I read this book in one day (3 sittings of 30 or 40 minutes each). Though I’m a bona fide booklover, I don’t usually get stuck in a book now that real-life has put real demands on me. However I was compelled to return again and again to the pictures and text to see what would happen.

The story follows two different characters living in two different eras set in two different towns. We first meet Ben Wilson who is 9ish years old in 1977 and living on Gunflint Lake, Minnesota with his aunt, uncle and cousin after his mother’s death. Feeling out of place and following a lead, he decides to run away to find his father who he’s never met. The second part of the story is told completely in pictures. Rose is a 9ish year old girl living in 1927 in Hoboken, New Jersey.

These two kids share some amazing parallels. They are both deaf. They both run away from home, and they both end up in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Obviously you have to suspend some disbelief, but what child can’t do that? And in fact — what child doesn’t want to do that? This adult sure did.

At the end of the story, the author gives some fascinating notes about the origin of the story and gives a hat tip to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, as he says that any work in which runaway kids end up in a museum should. He also challenges the reader to find more parallels, and I immediately thought of a few (and would undoubtedly find a few more if I read it a second time, which I’m sure I will at some point).

I recommend this book for 3rd or 4th grade on up. There are some mature themes, such as the question about who Ben’s father is, and the idea of children being (or at least feeling) unloved. Though I think my own 2nd grade son would enjoy parts of this story, I want to wait for him to read it until he can fully appreciate all elements of this wonderful book. My 8th grade daughter, who loved Hugo Cabret, was quite interested in reading this one right away.

This is a 5-Star Read for sure. Because of its unique hybrid format, it would make a great gift.

Jennifer Donovan may have just figured out why she loves middle grade fiction so much, because she gets to suspend disbelief in a completely realistic way. She blogs at Snapshot.

I’ve been purposefully avoiding all the buzz about Anne Ursu’s new middle grade novel, Breadcrumbs. As with most books I’m planning on reviewing myself, I didn’t want others’ opinions to influence my own, but I also just wanted to know very little about the book before getting into it, because the synopsis itself was very minimal, yet intriguing. From the back of the book:

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. But that was before he stopped talking to her and disappeared into a forest with a mysterious woman made of ice. Now it’s up to Hazel to go in after him. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.”

What I found was complete magic.

Magic, fairy tales, and an alternate reality all come together in a young girl’s world, when the friendship that makes her life feel whole suddenly and inexplicably disappears. Though her active imagination should make her even more wary of going off on her own to make things right, she bravely pushes aside her fears of the darkness of the world and risks everything to save her friend.

Hazel, the fifth grade protagonist, is devastated after Jack, her next door neighbor and long-time best friend, just drops out of her life. There was a slight argument, and then Jack had an accident, and suddenly he was different. The second part of the story leaves the reality with which we are all familiar, but enters a world of characters and fairy tale (the original kind, remember, a la Andersen and the Brothers Grimm) that will surely entertain readers.

My eleven year old son was pulled in to the story immediately, and we read most of the first half aloud together. (Time constraints forced us to finish it separately, but I must make a high recommendation for this as a read aloud!) He says he really liked the story, how unexpected things kept happening, and how it was incredibly imaginative. For me, I was blown away by the writing itself. Beautiful doesn’t even begin to cover it. It was wrought with emotion, and everything that Hazel feels is so perfectly captured in the author’s words. The rich language of the narrative paints a vivid picture, and though my advance copy had several blank pages with the words “Art to come” printed on it, based upon the gorgeous cover, I have confidence that the handful of illustrations included in the novel will be wonderful.

Breadcrumbs is the type of middle grade novel that young readers will enjoy, and their parents (and teachers, too!) will be happy they’re reading. The language and storytelling is complex, and the plot encourages readers to think critically about what is happening, and the many, many literary references dropped throughout the story will make kids chuckle to know that Hazel loves to read the same wonderful books they enjoy, too. I’m joyfully applying our Five Star Reads label to this lovely book, and I hope that both children and their parents will choose to spend some time with Hazel as she heads off on a trail to find her friend.

Two lucky readers will be receiving their own copy of Breadcrumbs, along with bookplates signed by the author Anne Ursu. Please leave a comment here to be entered, and this giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. We’ll announce our winners on 10/12.

We have several winners to announce:

• The winner of Guys Read: Thriller is #17 Martha C.
• The winner of I Don’t Know How She Does It is #21 June.
• The winner of Rules of Civility is #10 Rosita.

Don’t miss a thing: Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Dawn loves to be swept away by a good book, from novels all the way down to picture books, a good story is a good story. She tells her own story on her blog, my thoughts exactly.