http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10794589-life" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320463268m/10794589.jpg" />Life'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10794589-life">Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal'>http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/200052.Mal_Peet">Mal Peet

My rating: 3'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/355406900">3 of 5 stars


Life : an exploded diagram
By Mal Peet

Forbidden love
Class barriers
Politics
War
Environmentalism
Some major explosions, both literal and not.

This book has them all.  A story that spans generations set against a backdrop of war and global politics. It describes minute facets of the characters lives in intimate, colorful and satisfying detail. Clem came, a “wartime mishap,” whose birth was brought on by a German air raid over rural England is smart and has a gift for drawing. He attends school on scholarship which brands him as trying to “get Above Yerself.”.  Clem falls in love with Frankie, the daughter of a wealthy man. Both know this romance can go nowhere but they become deeply involved.
Mr. Peet’s narrative drips with sentimentalism about the past; it’s full of delightful colloquialisms and humorous anecdotes. For example, imagine Clem trying to find out about sex through Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Mr. Peet depicts the uncertainty of both young love and of the nuclear threats of the time.
Does love conquer all and win out in the end?




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Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Virtuosity is all about addiction. Addiction to music, winning, competition, drugs, winning, forbidden romance, winning, violin, and did I mention WINNING?
Carmen and Jeremy are preparing for the biggest violin competition in their lives. To win means assured fame and fortune; to lose means the virtual end of your violin career.
Carmen and Jeremy are the favorites to win. They are competing directly against each other and they are both addicted to WINNING. However, they have a huge crush on each other. The competition brings anxiety, tension, disappointment, frustration, fear of failure; when you start praying to break a leg or some catastrophe so you can get out of this situation.

Despite the interference of an annoying controlling mother, Carmen’ struggles to succeed without her anti-anxiety drugs but can she succeed

It doesn’t go at all the way you’d expect. Wait for the ending and the aftermath.


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