Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell

Although the skirt hung in a stiff tube around my legs, maybe with my new white silk blouse it didn't look half-bad-
"You look like a giant tube of toothpaste."
Maybe not.
You know those people who have everything planned out? The six year olds who already know exactly who they are going to marry? And the thirteen year olds who are already taking AP classes*? Well, Vassar Spore (named after a woman's college) is one of those. Only to the extreme. She has her entire life planned out, including writing a book, going to Vassar college, marrying for love, having three children by the age of about 35, and the entirety of her life. The Spore family is known for their planning. Everything is planned out. They have schedules of their schedules. Vassar is well on her way to her goal.
Until the box arrives.
The box is from Vassar's grandmother, Gertrude (Gerd). And it totally messes up her plans. Grandmother Gerd blackmails Vassar's parents into forcing Vassar to backpack across Southeast Asia. While Vassar is on her trip, she meets a, to quote the jacket cover, "Malaysian cowboy-slash-bodyguard her own age", she learns secrets about her family, and more then that, she learns to turn her life backwards... and Carpe Diem, seize the moment.
What made people climb mountains? Those lunatics who climbed Machu Picchu, Kilimanjaro, Everest- what drove them to waste all that time and energy to simply get to the top of a land mass?
The title caught my attention. I mean, it's a famous (latin) phrase. The cover also caught my attention. It's interesting. I love the style... the swirly bits in the leaves and her hair, and the natural brown and green. I read the synopsis, loved the idea, read the book, and loved the book. I'd give it 5 stars... This book had a good ending! No stars needed to be removed for a crappy ending.

*I have nothing against these sorts of people. If you have something against these people, I would recommend not saying anything, as I and a lot of my friends are them. :D

Angels on Sunset Boulevard by Melissa De La Cruz

"Hi, Taj. Glad to see you and Johnny are back."
Back?
It all started with a website. TAP is a social site for people- you go and meet friends. You create wishlists and people buy you the things on them. You get free stuff. You get to go to awesome parties. And at these parties the ones who are truly "tapped" get to go through the ritual. They get to drink the drug and have everything disappear. At least for a while. TAP is for people like Taj- people who aren't necessarily happy at life. At least, Taj wasn't, until she met Johnny. Then she met Nick. Then things started getting complicated. Kids start disappearing... at the TAP parties. And in the midst of everything, Johnny Silver, the going to be awesome superstar, disappears. And Taj wants out. But does Taj know more then she reveals? Is the character hiding... even from the reader?
Taj made a face. "What if he doesn't like Kapusta?" she asked, her nose wrinkling at the thought of eating the pungent cabbage and sauerkraut slaw. She'd only mentioned it to Nick as a joke.
"How can he not like Kaputsa?"
This book strongly reminded me of the Spy Girl books... of which I haven't done reviews (I don't think.). It is a very interesting book, with likeable characters. I didn't like the ending, though. I realize it's the first in a series (*grinds teeth togther* agh! They should say so on the cover so poor innocent people like myself don't go read it, then realize that they have to get the next stupid book!), but the ending was entirely a let down, really. I liked Taj, and I don't get why she... does the things she does at the end. That aside, it was a well written book with an interesting premise. I'd give it three stars.

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

He had never disobeyed the order to hide. Even as a toddler, barely able to walk in the backyard's tall grass, he had somehow understood the fear in his mother's voice.
Luke is a third child who lives in a country where third children aren't allowed. No one is supposed to have more then two kids, but there are always some who break the rule. They create shadow children, thirds who have to hide their entire life to avoid the population police. It's not a happy life for Luke- when the forest next to his farm gets cut down, he has to avoid going outside altogether. Then avoid the kitchen. He feels useless, he can't go outside and help farm. he can't do anything inside, either, to avoid anyone coming and looking in windows. He's trapped. Until he meets Jen. Jen's another shadow child, one who communicates to hundreds over the internet. And she has a plan. A crazy plan.
Would he dare? Of course he wouldn't but still, still- The first time he looked out the vents and saw maple leaves shot through with shades of red and yellow, he panicked.
The first thing that went through my mind when I picked up the book was "ooh... cool cover. Cool title." Thing that went through my mind when I read the synopsis: "That. Sounds.... interesting." So I brought it home from the library, and read it. It was a quick read (though that was probably helped by the fact that a) I'm a quick reader and b) this version was in large print), but decent. Warning, however, it was sad. Quite a bittersweet ending... it had hope for the future, but it was also incredibly filled with despair. I'm not quite sure what I think about the end, so I took off a star just to be safe. I'd give this book three stars (though it might be four if I could make up my mind about the ending.).

Dirty Laundry by Daniel Ehrenhaft

I'm sort of a corny TV and movie addict in general. I am a dork.
Self professed "dork" (not really) Carli is an actress. She's been assigned a role as a "Sheila Smith" in a new TV show, about girls who live in a boarding school. But Carli doesn't know what boarding school is like. Why would she? She's never gone to one, never wished to go to one. Which is why she is assigned to Winchester School of the Arts. Winchester is the "laundromat" for students- it's where all the other schools send their dirty laundry. The kids who were expelled. The delinquents. Everyone there is there for a reason. Most of them have stories. Like Fun (who is REALLY Fellini Udall Newport, but hates his name, for good reason). Fun was expelled from Winchester. His father wants him to graduate high school, though. His father is the director of the show that Carli has been cast in. And Carli "Sheila" needs someone to show her the ropes of the school, to make sure that she actually figures out how to be Sheila. And everything is just hunky dory until Carli gets there, and finds out that a girl, one of the only "normal" people there, Darcy, has disappeared. In one of her shame spirals, Carli decides to find Darcy. The mystery pulls together people who Carli never thought she'd meet, much less be friends with, and brings a whole new understanding to all of their lives.
Which brings me back to the series: My character is not a dork. Her name is Sheila Smith, by far the worst of the bunch: the shcemer who won't let anyone stand in her way, the queen bee, the foul seductress... place every standard Mean Girl stereotype here then triple it. (Yikes!) But the problem is...
I am a dork.
This is another one of those fluffy girly spy mysteries. Like "I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You" and "My Fair Godmother" (although that isn't a spy book, the characters seem pretty similar) and, (although I haven't done a review on them) the "Spy Goddess" books. I liked this book, though. It was interesting, I liked the characters, and the mystery was intriguing. The ending is completely bizarre, but somehow the author seems to make it work. very odd. but anyway, I'd give this book four stars.
"You think this is humorous?"
The color drained from my face. "No, I...I don't know. Headmaster Stanton sounds like a Muppet." It was the first thing that popped into my head. "Or someone who's just breathed in, like, a big balloon of helium. Doesn't he?"
For some reason this struck Fun as funny. He started laughing. He laughed so hard that Stanton stopped talking. He laughed so hard that every single kid in the dining hall turned to look at us, standing in the entranceway- the last four students to arrive on the tragic opening day of the new Winchester school year.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder (My Life on the Dork Side) by Julie Halpern

"You know," I say, "with Chloe Romano as your homecoming date, you could be homecoming king." Barrett lets out a scream of terror.
Jessie isn't exactly a nerd. Well, she is a little. She's a self professed "mathelete", she aces virtually every test she takes, and she loves the first day of school. She is also in one of the "cool" clubs, because of her brother, Barrett, the punk-rock band member and best brother she could wish for. She has a bazillion skirts, a crush on her brother's friend, Van, and two friends who she is suspecting are actually pretty crappy.
When her friends go punk, and one goes after Van, Jess's life seems to be falling apart. Barrett is leaving for college in a year, her friends have abandoned her, Van seems to be less wonderful then she had thought, and now she has been invited to, horrors of horrors, join the Dungeons and Dragons club. But things aren't really always how they seem, and becoming a "nerd" may just be the best thing that's ever happened to Jess.
"Um, hey, how's it going?" Real smooth-like. "Good. Just listening to Bob Dylan and studying for precalc. I pretend that the music helps me study, but I think it just gets songs stuck in my head and helps distract me from how stressed out I actually should be."
I am, if you don't already know, a total nerd, and a dungeons and dragons player/lover. So, when I saw this book, I was like... "cool cover. cool name. wonder what it's about." and then I read what it was, and I had to read it. It was fantabulous. I loved it. It was quite accurate when it came to being a DnD player, "I order an ale," Eddie interrupts again. "If you insist on interrupting the DM, you may soon find yourself struck blind by purple lightning.", I loved the characters, especially Jessie, but I also loved her "friend" Char, and her brother. I'd have to say her brother was my favorite character. This was a very hilarious book (like Julie's other book, Get Well Soon,) and it is hard trying to figure out what quotes to use from this book. I'd have to say that I'd give this book five stars. (extra points for being a nerdy book.) I would definitely say though, that you should be careful when reading this book. The author uses quite a few swear words, and other inappropriate (to some ages) language.
This is a particularly brutal week for quizzes and tests. (Why do teachers do that? Is it some teacherly conspiracy to put students over the edge? Are they sitting in the teachers' lounge evilly laughing about it right now?)

The King's Rose by Alisa M. Libby

All of the court looks different to me now, somehow both clearer and more confusing than it appeared when this year began. Henry is besieged by those who undoubtedly would do him ill if it would benefit them to do so. During dinner I see him conferring with Edward Seymour, and the sight of it nearly knocks the wind out of me. I scan the faces before us and imagine in each of them a unique self-interest, a unique abuse or destruction of our king in the name of God or family or the true church- whatever that church may be. And I know, now, that I am no way different from any of them.
This is the story of Catherine. Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of king Henry of England, Father of the infamous Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. This is her story. Catherine is just a common girl. A beautiful, young girl who happens to be a Howard. Who happens to be a pawn in the most dangerous game. She's not who she says she is- she's acting. It's all just an act. Just a part Catherine has to play, or risk her life. If she isn't who she is supposed to be- if she isn't Catherine the virgin. Catherine the rose without thorns. Catherine the queen, she is "Catherine the dead". When Catherine (For the good of the country) commits treason against her husband, things start happening that are out of her control, but for the first time she can be her. She doesn't have to act anything.
There is so little that I understand about this life- I wonder if I am the only one who feels so lost. We are all merely wandering down a road, in single file. We are not sure where this path will lead us. We do not know when we are walking headfirst into darkness. We are not sure when, or if, the sun will shine again.
I thought this book was very well written. I don't usually enjoy romances- this was a romance, and I liked it. I don't usually like books written in the present tense- this one was written in present tense and it didn't irritate me. I enjoyed Catherine. I could sympathize with her, and just the fact that she has so many faults makes her human. She was a good main character. I would give this book four and a half stars, but leave that it has a huge amount of romance.
This was a different Catherine who received these letters, who responded to that kiss- since then I have been transformed by the king's eyes, by the royal jewels around my neck and a cloth-of-gold gown... but who is the real Catherine: the shadow or the light? The smoke or the flame?