Lincoln's Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin

Since we can't know exactly what folks said over a hundred years ago, this otherwise factual book is often considered fiction.  Still the people really existed and there really was a plot to still rob Lincoln's grave and hide the body to use as ransom to get a well know expert counterfeiter out of prison.  So, we get to meet all the coney men and counterfeiters in business at the time of Lincoln's assassination.  There were lots, counterfeiting and getting the fake money into circulation was big.  It made lots of real money for the criminals.  Coney men were the folks who put the fake money into circulation.  These criminals were not always the brightest and sometimes they were a little scared of getting caught and did get caught.  How they almost got away with robbery and how the secret service saved the day is an exciting way to get a bit of history.
JDW 8/22

First Frost by Sarah Adddison Allen

I think fans of Nicholas Sparks and the Good Witch Movies on Hallmark would really enjoy this magical romantic story.

The Waverly family is the center of most of Allen's stories and the years do pass so readers might want to start at the beginning, but it isn't absolutely necessary.  Its October and everyone is waiting for First Frost and hoping for the party filled with food cooked by Claire Waverly who has a magical touch with food.  But Claire is deep into candy making and doesn't think she will get round to it.  Her daughter and husband pretty much lead their own busy lives.  Bay, helps her aunt even as she dreams of an unreachable boy in school.  Now, Claire has a talent for evoking emotions with her cooking whether it be peace, joy or something else altogether.  Bay is someone who just knows what goes with what and where so she knows which kids belong in college and belong together dating wise.  Bay's mother Sydney is known for creating the most fantastic and original hair do's.  Her husband Henry is from a family known to produce the strongest men in town and so it goes.  Part of the picture in this book is a receptionist at the hair salon who is most unreliable and has an out of wed-lock baby and a man in a suit who seems to be haunting the Waverly sisters and of course the apple tree in the backyard that lobs apples at people trying to entice them into eating and finding out their future.  Don't forget the house that needs a good talking to occasionally.  Romance prevails, Claire, creates a feast, more folks discover and embrace their quirky gifts and all ends quite well. 
Wonderful quick read.
jdw 8/22

Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia

This story follows One Crazy Summer and P.S. Eleven.  It is the continuing story of three sisters
Delphine, Vonetta and Fern.  The girls fight, tease, and otherwise get in trouble till everyone is on their last nerve.  Their father and stepmother send them to Alabama for summer vacation with their grandmother and other elders in the family, probably to get a much need break themselves. They learn their family's story including their start as slaves.  Tragedy strikes when Vonetta disappears into a tornado that damages a lot of property. Vonetta is found and all the girls grow up a bit.  I especially loved the greats and grands in this story who are so wise to the way of young slightly unruly girls and know just how to handle them.  You don't need to read the other books to appreciate this mostly fun and funny read but you're going to want to go back and read them too.
jdw8/22/15

The Six - Mark Alpert

Adam has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and is confined to a wheelchair.  He uses VR programs to escape reality.  One day he is in his dad's office using one of his programs when a hacker named Sigma invades the program.  Sigma tells him that since he is dying the government has selected for the Pioneer Project.  Sigma exits the program just as his dad and Colonel Peterson return.  Adam tells him about the hacker, and then asks his dad about the Pioneer Project.  Just as his father begins to explain a big boom rocks the building.  Adam, his dad, and the Colonel escape and his dad asks again who the hacker was.  Adam tells him it was Sigma, his dad starts to tremble and uses and axe to cut the communication lines.  It is to late though, as Sigma has escaped and gone into the Internet. Sigma is a AI program designed by his dad to be smarter than all other AI's, and was buried in the computer system of the Department of Defense.  While Adam is recovering in the hospital he meets Shannon who was a year behind him in school.  She gives him updates on Ryan Boyd, who was his best friend, and Brittany Taylor, the girl who he had a crush on.  His mom bursts into the room crying because they are putting him in the Pioneer Project.  He won't be Adam in the flesh anymore, he will become Adam in the machine.  The next day they make their way to the Pioneer Base in Colorado.  In an auditorium twelve teens and their parents are told the AI program Sigma has taken over a Russian lab along with missiles to defend the lab.  Adam's dad then talks about the Pioneer Project and how they want to transfer everything that makes someone human into a robot body.  The drawback to all of this is once the memories, emotions, intelligence, ect. is transferred the human body will die.  Everyone is given two days to make their decision.  As Adam rests at home his mom tells him she doesn't agree with what his father is doing.  In her view he is playing God, and Adam in a robot body would take away his soul making Adam not Adam anymore.  The next day his dad takes him to see Ryan after school gets out.  Ryan is sorry for not keeping in touch, but he's had other things going on.  Things begin to get heated between them and Ryan says he has to go.  After this conversation Adam decides to be part of the project.  Adam and his dad head back to Pioneer Base they encounter Shannon who has also decided to take part.  Shannon introduces him to Jenny and DeShawn, two of the other volunteers.  Later that night he meets the other two volunteers Marshall and Zia.  Zia and Adam get off on the wrong foot as she thinks she should be first to have her mind transferred, and thinks Adam's dad is playing favorites.  Adam's dad says he is going first because he knows Adam can handle it.  The next day the procedures begin.  Adam is panicked and confused after the transfer.  When he spots his body he runs toward it, and seeing himself cold and gray makes him want to be human again.  He is confined to quarters as his dad and the other scientists make sure the transfer has gone smoothly.  Shannon tries to see him, but he won't let her in.  A few days later Jenny begins her transfer.  She is freaking out during the transfer and there is the risk of loosing her.  Adam transfers himself into her Pioneer.  He sees a memory of Jenny's brother locking her in a closet when she was two.  Once he transfers the memory from her to him she calms down.  Adam is present at the rest of the transfers in case he's needed to help like he did with Jenny.  Once all the transfers are done the Pioneers head to the gym for training the next day.  They are testing out the Pioneers by tossing a football around.  When Zia comes into the gym she and Adam have words.  She threatens him with the blowtorch she added.  It is then General Hawke interrupts and says they are going to begin training.  All the Pioneers go through an obstacle course to determine who becomes the leader of the group.  Adam and Zia are the two who complete it, and the tiebreaker is a half-mile sprint.  Zia wins by intercepting Adam's wireless sensors to make him feel pain.  Zia is placed in charge and Adam is second in command.  Shortly there after Adam is told Ryan has been kidnapped, and the General believes Sigma had human help.  Adam wants to find this person and hurt them.   He calms down by hanging out with Marshall and DeShawn.  The next morning they learn how to transfer themselves to RQ-11 drones.  Adam shows off a bit and Zia doesn't like it at all.  After the exorcise Adam finds Jenny in his quarters and she wants the memory back.  He gives it back and they spend time in another memory with human bodies.  The next day they are to practice transferring to the Russian T-90 tank and practice driving and firing the gun.  His dad finds him and says that they will be on a plane to Russia tonight to confront Sigma.  Adam is shocked as General Hawke hasn't said a word to them at all.   After the tank exorcise Zia orders them to practice transferring to their secondary Pioneers at different distances.  When DeShawn figures out how to control both at once he gives the instructions to Adam.  He dances to a Kanye West song.  Zia comes over and isn't happy about him screwing around.  She attacks him and he enters into Zia's Pioneer to stop her.  While inside of Zia's Pioneer he sees a memo saying Ryan has been killed.  When he exits Zia's Pioneer he sees she has damaged his main Pioneer beyond repair.  Adam is angry at Hawke for keeping Ryan's death a secret.  When he shoves the General in anger the General pulls out the Pioneer kill switch.  Is this the end for Adam, and is the mission to confront Sigma in jeopardy?

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I thought it was an interesting look at how humanity could preserve itself after the physical body dies.  How many of us would jump at the opportunity to live forever even if it is in a robot body?  This book also reminded me of the show Caprica where Dr. Daniel Graystone created the Cylons as part of a government defense contract.  His daughter Zoe Graystone, a computer genius, created an avatar of herself in virtual reality with all of her memories and emotions.  When she is killed in a terrorist bombing her avatar feels everything that happened.  Zoe's avatar is captured by her father in virtual reality and downloaded into the first cylon.  This is very similar to when Adam and the rest of the six are transferred into the Pioneer bodies.  The difference is they went willingly while Zoe's avatar was forced into the cylon body. 

T.B.
8/13/15

Steven Universe - Rebeca Sugar

Steven universe is your normal everyday kid. Or is he?

Steven's life is not was it seems. He is part of the Crystal Gems. A group of magical beings that fight monsters that try to cause havoc in his home city. A cute story about team work and facing every day challenges when you are growing up as a half-alien.

Cute art and colorful designs once you pic up this comic book you won't want to stop reading.

Read all about while you wait for the show!

Deadly Design - Debra Dockter

Kyle and Connor are twins, but Kyle was born two years later.  Their parents are carriers of a fatal disease called spinal muscular atrophy, and their mom has had six miscarriages.  They went to a fertility doctor who designed them in the lab, and while Connor was inside his mom Kyle was frozen in the lab.  Kyle started asking questions right after his preschool graduation.  His dad explained things to him later that day.  Connor knew they were twins, but was told to keep it to himself until their parents felt it was the right time to tell Kyle.  Fast forward eleven years to Connor's last track meet and graduation a few weeks later.  Kyle is considering not going to either one.  Emma, Connor's girlfriend, is trying to convince him to go.  She tells him that Connor would want him there to support him.  After getting the guilt trip by his father Kyle goes to Connor's last track meet.  He runs into Cami, Emma's best friend, and she is surprised to see him there.  After the meet they all go to Luigi's to celebrate.  Cami and Kyle are off to the side while Kyle's parents praise Connor and Emma about how they will graduate in a few weeks and then after the summer head to Kansas State University.  Later that night Connor comes in Kyle's room and they play video games for half the night.  The next morning Kyle goes to wake Connor up and finds him dead in his bed.  The day after the funeral Kyle's parents tell him Emma wants him to read Connor's valedictorian speech at graduation.  He reluctantly agrees, but thinking he's not worthy to read his brothers words.  At graduation Kyle reads the speech that would make Connor proud of him.  Shortly after graduation the autopsy results come back saying Connor died from a heart attack.  Kyle goes and gets tested, and the tests come back clean.  As Kyle comes back from getting a job application he hears on the news that Alexis Warren collapsed and died, a day before her eighteenth birthday.  His parents knew her and her parents from the fertility clinic where Connor and Kyle were made.  Later that night Kyle does some research and he finds a blog for another kid Triagon Summers, who also died on his eighteenth birthday back in April.  The next day Kyle tells Cami what he found out, and asks her to take him to the fertility clinic where it all started.  They see his dad walk out of the clinic when they get there.  Kyle talks to Dr. Preston who says all he can do is direct Kyle to Dr. Hodges, the same thing he told Kyle's dad.  Dr. Hodges tells Kyle's dad, Kyle, and Cami that Dr. Mueller, the one who started Genesis, disappeared eighteen years ago.  Dr. Hodges explains to them how after fertilization happens the embryos with undesired traits are discarded, leaving only the best traits.  Dr. Hodges suggests they find who ever is left and do genetic screens on them.  Kyle puts out a Facebook post about a missing dog named James M. to try and make contact with one of the other Mueller babies.  He goes out for a run and encounters a bully named Teddy.  As they start to fight and Emma shows up and intervenes.  After the fight is broken up Emma tells him she needs a fresh start and she's leaving and moving to Minnesota.  Kyle says good-bye to Emma the next morning, and goes to eat at Don's Diner where Cami spots him and joins him.  They see a strange man they had noticed at Connor's track meet and the Sac and Save taking pictures.  They think nothing of it and make plans for later that night.  They set off fireworks as a distraction from everything, and Kyle contemplates about how things will never be the same again.  On the Fourth of July Kyle and his parents head down to Dallas to have tests run on him.  He meets a few other of the kids made by Dr. Mueller, and runs into James M. in the flesh.  Amber only has a few weeks till she's eighteen and James has a month. Kyle runs into Amber again and as they are talking Kyle sees a woman that was also at their hotel.  As Kyle tries to figure out who she is Amber collapses and dies. The doctors tell everyone they tried to save Amber but couldn't.  They have mapped out their DNA and found a sequence that causes catastrophic heart failure around the age of eighteen.  Their solution is to put a pacemaker into James to keep his heart going.  If it doesn't work then James will die in a few weeks.  While waiting for the taxi outside the hotel Kyle spots the same person who was at Connor's track meet taking pictures.  He chases after him and the guy gets hit by a car.  Before the guy dies he tells Kyle he was made differently, and he won't make it to seventeen.  Can Kyle figure out a way to live beyond seventeen? 

This was an intriguing book.  It shows how much we trust science to make everything perfect, including children.  Most parents will do anything for their children, but what happens when science takes over?  What is to stop the scientist from using the children as guinea pigs for their own personal goals?  Children are the future of humanity, and if we let science manipulate them then humanity may not have much of a future. 

T.B.
7/30/15

Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca

During Kelsey's junior year of high school, her family moved away. She started fresh at a new school and gladly left behind her first two years of school. During her senior year, however, her past found its way back into her life. When David moves to her new school, she can't avoid the memories of the fact that they'd been inseprable best friends. That was before he started dating girls who hated her and suddenly things became complicated. One event changed it so that for an entire year she didn't have any communication with him. Now he's back in her life and she has to figure out if she ever really let go of the past.

This book is told in alternating chapters between present (senior year) and past (freshman and sophomore year). It jumps between the fact that Kelsey is currently at odds with the fact that David is in her life and the way things had been between them. The novel is fairly typical in the teen drama department. You have the tension between David and Ryan's current boyfriend - not only in terms of Kelsey's affections but also because they're both competing for spots on the baseball team. There's also drama as Kelsey sees her best friend dating someone and not seeing the same side of the girl that she sees. Then there's also the fact that Kelsey doesn't fully understand her own feelings - then and now - as she struggles with him being just a friend and not more. When it comes to the big culminating event that drove them apart, it's a little bit anticlimactic. In my opinion, it makes Kelsey's reaction to completely cut him out of her life a little juvenile and that their entire relationship meant nothing to her. 

The novel is a good read if you're looking for teen romance and a tale of second chances. The drama is fairly typical, but what would the life of a teen be without drama? It has more meat than other teen romances, so it is worth picking up.
MMK

The Messengers by Edward Hogan

In the Final Destination movie series, people try to cheat death. In this novel, certain people are messengers of death. While one messenger believes death is inevitable once they receive the message, another tries to change the course, hoping that there aren't negative consequences.

Frances has this odd condition where she blacks out and the draws a weird picture when she wakes up. To everyone else, the drawing are abstract shapes but to her, the drawings have emerged as detailed pictures of someone's death. None of it makes sense until she meets Peter who has her deliver a postcard. The day after she delivers the postcard, she witnesses the exact scene she saw on the card. Peter explains to her that they are "Messengers." They draw people's death and have two days to get the person to see the picture (even though the people only see shapes) or else someone they love will die instead. Peter has always delivered the message, but when Frances draws the death of someone she knows, she intervenes and prevents the person from dying. Now she's on a mission with Peter's help to do what they can to cheat death. When Death changes the game, though, they begin to wonder if they really have any chance of making a difference. 

The struggle of being a messenger really pulls you in, although the novel has a slow start. Frances is dealing with a lot of personal issues with a mother that's abandoned her and a brother that's on the run. A lot of time is spent on that and her memories of her brother, and while it seems to drag out the story, its importance does emerge at the end. The story is really engaging and pulls at you emotionally as you realize the sacrifices these people make and the burden they carry. Every picture is a mystery and you're right along with them, hoping that they're successful in solving it. Then, once they get on the path to saving people, the stakes are raising and you're praying for a happy ending. Failure is ultimately devastating to them and to you. I think this novel takes place in England, so there are some language things that seem odd, but nothing that detracts from the story. The only thing I really did not like in the novel was the death of a cat, which seemed a little cruel, although maybe I'm just overly sensitive as a cat lover.

This novel draws you in the with mysteries of a messenger. With a ticking clock over their heads, they're up against Death and you're along for the ride. It is definitely worth the read. 
MMK