The two big catalogs for RH and all its imprints showed up yesterday. These are the Summer 06 titles that I liked:
Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M.M. Blume - This is a middle grade novel, and what grabbed me was the description of Cornelia as a girl who "surrounds herself with dictionaries and other books to isolate herself from the outside world". I'm sure there are enough geeky girls out there like I was who need to know about this book. Plus, how do you resist a kid named Cornelia?
The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick - A WWI novel about a young girl who becomes a nurse and realizes that she has visions of when someone is going to die. When she starts to see the battlefields of the Somme and the face of her brother Thomas she goes behind front lines claiming to be a battlefield nurse in order to find and save him. As I've said before, many times, I have a thing for WWI novels and I wish that more good ones were written and read by people who somehow still believe in the concept of glorious war. Drowning in the mud of the trenches was not pretty nor heroic and it helped no one. I can't wait to see what Sedgwick does with this place and time and a girl named Sasha. (And the book's website if very cool!)
Leaving Jetty Road by Rebecca Burton - Three friends (two girls, one guy), the last year of high school and lots of big plans that might change their lives. It's a classic coming of age formula, but when a book like this is done well, it can be amazing. Plus, I like that the author "loves baking cakes, drinking endless cups of tea and eating broccoli." It's a bio that made me smile, here's hoping the book does the same.
Sparrow by Sherri L. Smith - I'll be reviewing this for the Voices of NOLA; it's the story of a young girl who is left without close family when her grandmother dies. She moves to New Orleans to live with an aunt and find answers to who she is and who her family is. In then end there are a lot of friends, a lot of music and a fresh start. It sounds like a pre-Katrina novel but regardless, I'd like to see what Smith does with a young girl alone in the city and there aren't enough YA books set in NOLA, so Sparrow will be welcome indeed.
Burning City by Ariel and Joaquin Dorfman - It's in NYC and its about a 16 year old bike messenger. I always flash back to the late lameneted Dark Angel when I think of bike messengers, although I'm sure this title is not about mutants. It sounds different and fun and shit - Ariel Dorfman writing for young adults. That's worth a look!
House of the Red Fish by Graham Salisbury. Somehow I missed the first book Salisbury wrote about Tomi surviving the Second World War in Hawaii. As a Japanese American it isn't easy and with part of his family under arrest and everyone waiting to see what will happen next, Tomi sets out in this novel to raise his father's fishing boat which was sunk by the Army after Pearl Harbor. I'm impressed that Salisbury is writing about Japanese Americans in Hawaii during the war and I'm really hoping this makes a good YA book for boys in particular that will pack a nice historical punch as well.
And finally, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I should say first that I'm a huge Nick and Nora Charles fan and that the pop culture reference alone caught my attention. It was Leila's review at Bookshelves of Doom today that sealed the deal though - a "baby in the corner" reference! Oh My God! Must read this book!!!
I'm writing the review for Lost Thoughts of Soldiers tonight and looking forward to thinking ab it more about war. I'm writing in the post WWI journal of one of my characters these days and immersing myself in battlefield moments keeps me in the right frame of mind for my guy.
