Told alternately between Grace's first hand experience and Faith's historical perspective, Girl Soldier tells the story of the war in northern Uganda and the child abductions of Joseph Kony's LRA.

Grace was abducted by the LRA from her high school in 1996 and held as a child soldier and wife for seven months. During that time she was starved, raped, forced to brutally kill other children, and was left for dead on several occasions. In the chaos of battle one day she escaped with nothing but her gun and prayers. Eventually, she shed her gun and her prayers led her into the hands of the Sudanese army, who helped unite her with World Vision to be rehabilitated and resocialized into society.

Although the book is written with a definite religious bent that can be tedious at times, it does shed light on the war and bring to life the horrors that the Acholi people of Uganda face; from both the LRA and the neglect of their own government.

Now I understand why I never finished this book as a child. I still found it boring as an adult! I guess because very little actually happens, there wasn't enough to hold my interest. I'm not entirely sure how it managed to snag a Newberry Award.

Cusi is a modern Inca boy who lives a secluded life high in the mountains, caring for llamas. He takes several journeys through the book to decide which path his life will take; the life of the ancient Inca or a modern life.

I think for me the story is bare because, while maybe it doesn't need "action", because that would detract from the story, it does need more explanation or detail about the Inca way of life...or even some context about what life is like in Peru. I had a hard time picturing what was happening in the story, and often became confused, and it's a children's book!

Jane Green is one of the only "chick lit" authors I enjoy. Her books sometimes play out like a Lifetime movie, but usually they go bit deeper than that and feel more authentic. This is not really one of those books.

Andi has been trying to make things work in her blended household with husband Ethan and stepdaughters Sophia and Emily. Life would be perfect except for two things: Andi desperately wants a child of her own and Emily is a troubled teenager who brings chaos into their lives. While Andi loves Emily and Sophia, and has come to grips with the fact that she will likely never have children, Emily's latest blunder nearly rips the entire family apart.

I understand that Green wants to tackle a very difficult subject that is becoming more the norm for American families, the blended family. However, three things really bothered me: 1-It is obvious that Green is not from the Bay Area. Her characters use phrases that are unrealistic (especially for a teenager) and her geography is just plain off. 2-The first half of the book is told in the "present" omniscient third person, which is fine. Then, halfway through, in a new section, the narration changes to the first person, from Emily's point of view. As it was a new section of the book, that seemed okay, like the first section was kind of from Andi's POV and this new section was like the other side of the story. But it wasn't. After that the chapters move back and forth in the narration. The inconsistency drove me nuts. 3-It's fairly obvious in the book that Green is dealing with a topic that she knows very little about. And the "happy ending" seems terribly contrived, predictable, and false.

I still enjoyed the book, and stayed up way late last night to finish. But this definitely isn't a book I would name as one of my favorites by this author, either.

Over the last year or so (since the metal chicken incident made the rounds on Facebook) I have loved reading everything by the Bloggess. Her, many of her stories come together in a book, along with some new ones. I love her dark, sarcastic sense of humor. And stories from her childhood, growing up with a father who was a very enthusiastic taxidermist, are absolutely hilarious! While I literally laughed out loud through most of the book, the story about the magical squirrel had tears coming out of my eyes as I simultaneously thought, "That is totally awesome" and "What a terrible thing to do to a child." She also hits on some of the tougher topics of her life, such as her fertility issues, anxiety and depression disorders, her battle with arthritis, and her uncertainties as a mom. While never making light of these topics or writing them off as a joke, she makes it clear that these are real struggles in her life, but that she tries to see them with an edge of humor. After all, that's how we survive this mess we call our lives.

I actually liked her writing better than the Chelsea Handler and David Sedaris I've read, and I hope she really is working on a second book.

After the death of King Robert, the seven kingdoms begins to break up, as Joffery is placed on the throne, both brothers of Robert, Stannis and Renly, claim the kingship, and Robb Stark is raised up by his bannermen as King of the North. The men of the Iron Islands also claim kingship, while Danaerys searches for boats and soldiers to sale back to the kingdoms with her dragons and reclaim the throne for her family. Basically, everyone is at war with everyone else.

I find it more difficult to follow the story, once it leaves the more personal stories and begins talking about the battles. The same thing happened when I read The Lord of the Rings. It's hard for my brain to keep up with who is who and who is on which side, and the battle scenes become a big blur for me. However, since the narration is from the points of view of different characters, the story keeps moving a long, and I never lost interest, even if I got confused a few times.

I really admire the female characters in this book. They are strong, and some of them very wise. I would love to see a sword fight break out between Catelyn Stark and Cersei Lannister. And as I read the teaser for the next book, it would seem that some more strong ladies are about to join the cast.

The first book I purchased and read on my Kindle! I have heard a lot of people talk about the show and the books, so even though fantasy isn't my favorite genre, I thought it would be worth checking out.

I think I like fantasy more than I thought. It took hardly any time at all to read this book! The story is basically the intrigues you would expect to find in a story of courts, and kingdoms. Houses mistrust one another and fight, alliances are forged and betrayed, and as it all ends in this first book, four entities claim the throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

I love that the story is told from the perspectives of the characters, and not an omniscient narrator. Few, if any, of the characters can be simply characterized as "good" or "bad", they are all flawed and honor-bound in their own ways. Good does not always win, and beloved characters die. Sometimes I am completely unsure of where the author is going, and it is extremely rare that I find that in a book. I simply cannot wait to dive into the next book, and only hope that it doesn't take too long for Martin to finish writing the series.

In this collection of short stories, Dean tells the unremarkable stories of completely unremarkable people, but in a way that totally draws you into their stories. Somehow, in the span of about 10 pages, you completely know these characters, understand their struggles (or lack of), and still feel their stories are complete in the end. I really enjoyed this book, and can't wait for Dean's new novel to be available. She is definitely one of my favorite authors now!

Loewen's aim in this book is not to correct every misrepresentation or outright lie in American public school history courses. He begins with the 12 most commonly adopted high school history textbooks (from the late 80s and early 90s) and critiques how they present specific events, historical figures, and ideas. He finds that much of the lore surrounding our notions of significant events is simply false, and our deification of historical figures often makes them one-dimensional and boring. In fact, much of his argument is that high school students aren't bored by history, but they are totally over the non-stop cheerleading for America. He proposes a curriculum focused on current events or overarching ideas, where students are guided to look at primary and secondary sources of historical information to come to their own conclusions. Every story in history has multiple points of view, and being able to identify those points of view makes history more emotional, which makes it more memorable.

Honestly, this book makes me wish I could go back to school, take a bunches of history classes, and become a high school or middle school history teacher. I have always loved history, though Loewen is right on the mark because I didn't always love my textbooks. I'm posting his five questions teachers should use to teach history here so that I don't forget, just in case I'm ever in the position to use them. 1-Why was this written/painted/created? Who was the audience and what was the creator trying to accomplish? 2-Whose viewpoint is represented? 3-Is the account believable? Do contradictions exist? 4-Is the account backed up by other sources? 5-Hows is one supposed to feel about the America that has been presented?

Wow. Brilliantly sadistic. I screamed. I cried. I made strangled noises. Mockingjay concludes the Hunger Games trilogy with the harsh realization that, even with the best of intentions, power corrupts and innocent blood will continue to be spilled.

Katniss Everdeen is no longer a pawn of the Capitol. But as a strong symbol of the rebel forces she really just becomes the pawn of District 13 President Coin. Will the cycles of senseless violence and the abuse of people, their use as pawns, ever stop?

And how do we teach our children, who have often learned to become amused by violence through our casual programming and propensity toward violent games and entertainments, to value life. Even if that life belongs to our enemies, or the children of our enemies?

It finally happened. The arrival of the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy from Amazon has brought my amazingly productive spring break to a halt.

As Katniss begins to realize that her small act of survival/rebellion is sparking discontent among the districts of Panem, she becomes again a pawn of the Capital. Can she be squashed, by being thrown back into the arena for the 75th annual Games, or will her strength as a symbol of rebellion grow beyond the Capital's ability to contain it?

I finally tore myself away from the book around 4am because I desperately needed some sleep. I really am enjoying this series, but sometimes Katniss disappoints me. I want her to be a strong, smart warrior ready to fight for justice. But, she is very human. She is often oblivious to hints being dropped around her. She plans to escape more often than fight. So I move back and forth between believing the author is a genius, and wanting to slap our heroine silly.

On to book 3!