Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Mozes Kor

This book tells the horrific experiences of Eva and Miriam Mozes during their time in the Nazi concentration camps. Eva and Miriam are only 10 years old when their family is arrested and placed in a cattle car with only room to stand, no food, no water, and barbed wire on the tiny windows. At the end of the train ride they are relieved until they see where they've arrived, the Auschwitz concentration camp. They are immediately ripped from the father, mother, and sisters, never to see them again, separated because they are considered special because they are identical twins. They are to be patients under the care of a Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele, who is experimenting with genetics in order to make the perfect Aryan race. What follows is a terrifying story of starvation, fear, desperation, and hope. One twin is often injected with a disease that will kill them so that when they die the other twin is killed so that they can compare the two. They are given different kinds of drugs to see their affects and to try to change their eye color or to try and change girls to boys. The Twin experiments were horrible and sadly, they were considered the lucky ones. Very intense, very heartbreaking, hard to read, because of the horror of it and knowing that these things really happened. This is one of those books that everybody should read. I got this as an advanced readers copy through netgalley.com from Tanglewood publishing. This is already available in hardback format, the release date for the paperback, is 10/11/2011

The Betrayal of Maggie Blair by Elizabeth Laird

17th century Scotland was not a safe time, nobody knew this better than teenager Maggie Blair. Maggie's parents are both dead and she lives with her grandmother who most people think is strange and walks around talking about the devil and cursing people. The only thing they have that is worth anything is their land and when a wealthy land owner sets his sights on it he sees an easy way to get it. Maggie and her grandmother are soon accused of being witches and made to stand trial in the church. Many of the villagers testify against them because of their dislike for Maggie's grandmother. The land owner has his maid and mistress make up things and testify against them as well. Mostly because of the testimony of the maid, they are sentenced to be hanged and then burned. Maggie escapes with the help of an old family friend. She goes to stay with her Uncle and ends up in even bigger trouble when they arrest him for heresy. Can Maggie save her uncle? And what happens when the maid who testified against her shows up at every turn just to ruin her. Will people ever forget that she was the witch's granddaugther. Very enjoyable, exciting, historical fiction. Great for ages 13 and up. This was an advance readers copy through Netgalley.com from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishing. Just released in hardcover format.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander Mcall Smith

This is number 12 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. This was another fun read in the series but I was a little disappointed this time around. All the good things were there, the culture, the atmosphere, the Red Bush Tea, but those things weren't concentrated on enough in this outing. I love the fact that Mma Precious Ramotswe is so attached to her white van since I am attached to my jeeps so I understand. The only problem is, we've covered how much she is attached to it in several other books and too much of this book is taken up with her talking about it again. She thinks she sees her old van on the road and spends quite a few pages chasing after it and trying to get it back. Then there is the long awaited wedding between Phuti Radiphuti and Grace Makutsi, and A LOT about wedding shoes, more than I ever cared to know about shoes really. There is a mystery of course, involving cattle being killed and the man being afraid that he will be next. Mma Ramotswe "fixes" it, but doesn't solve the mystery, deciding some mysteries should just be left alone. And don't forget that man stealing hussy, Violet Sephotho, she is running for Parliament now, but won't get very far if Mma Makutsi has anything to say about it. These books are always nice laid back fun reads and the only mysteries I read, but this one just wasn't long enough for me. The van and the shoes shouldn't have taken up so many pages and more pages about Mma Ramotswe and Botswana should have been added. Still, if you're a fan of the series you'll want to read it, to visit with Precious, and have some Red Bush Tea.

A Donkey Reads by Muriel Mandell

This is a very cute Turkish folktale. It's starts out as most folktales do with a poor villager who barely has enough to feed this family. The village has just been captured by the Mongols and when their leader tells everyone they must bring the best thing they have before him as a gift or they will beaten, the poor villager doesn't know what to do. His wife tells him to take their old donkey because it can't even carry the children anymore it is so broken down and old. The Villager takes his poor old donkey in front of the leader and the leader gets very angry at him because his gift is not good enough. He is going to beat the villager until a wiseman steps forward and promises the Mongol leader that he can teach the donkey to read, then he will be worth something. And so the story goes, you get to find out if the wiseman really does teach the donkey to read, and just how he does it. Very cute story that all young children should enjoy. The illustrations are very nice, very classic looking. This was an advance readers copy through Netgalley.com from Star Bright Books.

Aliens on Vacation by Clete Smith

Aliens on Vacation is about a boy, Scrub, who has parents that basically ignore him. They both have to go on business trips during Scrubs summer vacation and decide to ship Scrub across the country to stay with his Grandmother who he's never met. His grandmother owns and operates the Intergalactic Bed and Breakfast. Scrub thinks it's a hangout for Trekkies and people that believe in aliens. He starts thinking things aren't really what they seem when he walks in first thing and reads,
House Rules for a Successful Visit:
1. Leave nothing behind
2. Take nothing with you
3. Dress appropriately
4. Two arms, two legs, one head
5. No harming the natives

He realizes maybe things aren't what they seem. Scrub stays very busy during the summer trying to help his grandmother with the "visitors" and keeping the town Sheriff from shutting the Bed and Breakfast down. Oh and too bad the Sheriff has a really cute daughter, just Scrubs age, who seems to be really nice. All in all Scrub has one heck of a summer, gets to know his grandmother and learns a lot about responsibility, all while having the best summer of his life. At least the most unusual one anyway. --- Great book for kids 10 to 13 or older. Very fun read. This was an advance readers copy through netgalley.com from Disney/Hyperion publishing and is set to be released 5/03/2011

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

The Land of the Painted Caves is number 6 in the Earth's Children series which started out with the Clan of the Cave Bear.
I was really looking forward to this book I had read the series over again as soon as I found out number 6 was being released. This series has been 30 years in the making and I loved them so much. Maybe that was reason enough not to get too excited about this one, maybe there was no way it could live up to my expectations. This wasn't a bad book and since this was an advance copy maybe the editors will fix some of the things that weren't really right with it and make it more enjoyable. The main thing is that nothing really ever happens. The advance copy was a 757 pages long trade paper and NOTHING all that exciting happened in all those pages. It was too many repeats of things already covered in the other books. The titles repeated again and again, the tea preparations, the Mothers song, another bunch of renegade men for Ayla to deal with. At least Jondalar does something unexpected but it wasn't a good thing and it made me not like him any more and it ruined that for me. The beginning starts out with Ayla still an acolyte, training to be a Zelandoni (a shaman or medicine woman) they go on a tour of sacred cave sites to see the paintings put there by the ancients. They go from cave to cave, page after page and talk about the different paintings and what they think they all mean. This takes up a good half of the book. Very little happens through the whole thing, in places it was like she thought about writing something and you thought ok something is going to happen now but then she would just stop where she was going and start in about tea or introductions, or how "pleasures" really do make babies. I would liked to have seen less repetition and less about her having to make water and using the night basket, her moon cycles, Wolf taking a dump in the caves, and about her holding her daughter up to make water, it was all WAY unnecessary. I would loved to have read about them trying to start trade meetings with the clan with Ayla using their sign language, finding and raising more horses and showing other people how to train them. I also thought there should have been more about their daughter Jonayla, she's there, but her character just isn't explored enough for you to really get to know her. All in all, if you've read the whole series so far you'll want to read this one just to finish the story but don't be expecting anything much to happen, or for this to be a big wonderful finish. Now I wish she had just finished it with Plains of Passage or Shelter of Stones. If I ever read them again that's where I'm stopping.

Ascension: A Dark Breed Novel by Sable Grace

Ascension is the start of an exciting new paranormal series from a debut author. Kyana is half Vampyre, half Lychen (Vampire, Werewolf) she works for the order, tracking demons that have escaped from hell so she can kill them or capture and return them to hell where they belong. Now all hell has broken lose, literally. Turns out there really are gates of hell and somebody had the key. Demons and all things that go bump in the night have been turned lose into the world and the only thing that can save the humans are the other things that go bump in the night. Kyana and her friends, Haven, a witch, Geoff, a Vampyre, and Ryker a demi god have been assigned that duty. The gods of Olympus (Greek mythology) are trying to save what humans they can and keep them safe while Kyana has been charged with finding the key to relock the gate so no more dark breed can come through, while saving the special "chosen" people that are destined to be gods. The gods of Olympus are slowly losing their power and have been using "chosen" humans to replace themselves. Kyana has her work cut out for her and along with all that, she is falling for Ryker a demi god who has turned her advances down before but who she can't stop thinking about. Ryker turned Kyana down because he is in love with her and wants to be mated to her Lychen side for life. The only problem is that Kyana embraces her Vampyre side and sees sex as a game and nothing more. Now Kyana is starting to fall for Ryker and is wondering whether she should let the Lychen side win and devote herself to only him. Gods, demons, vampyres, dragons, witches, and more, all with a little romance thrown in makes for an exciting read. The ending has a twist that really makes you want to read more of the series. We've all read about vampyres and weres but this throws the gods from the Greek myths in for good measure. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to book 2 in the series. ---- I got an advanced readers copy through Netgalley.com and Harper Collins publishing, it's release date is April 26th.