The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The Carbon Diaries 2015
by
Saci Lloyd

Could this really happen? Are we reading fiction or an account of the future?
On the first day of rationing Mum couldn't get on the bus because she had forgotten her carbon card.
The government has decided that we need to cut our carbon emissions by 60%. Now the UK has become a guinea pig for the rest of the world, and two months into carbon rationing the country seems to be falling apart. In between blizzards we've had blackouts, food lines, looting, and thousands have lost their jobs.
Under the new system, each person is allowed 200 carbon points to spend each month. That has to cover our expenses for travel, food and heat.
The only thing that seems normal now is my band, the Dirty Angels. The Angels were so hot at practice. I played this wild bass.
The government has installed smart meters on every house. If you go over your monthly limit the smart meter starts controlling your energy use. What used to be personal before rationing has now become political. Go too much over your monthly limit and you will get a red envelope from the Carbon Department. Then you are in real trouble.
Because of my sister, Kim, our whole family has been put on "CO death row." We have to get our carbon use down. It is 2015. The new world of carbon rationing is destroying my family. This is my carbon diary about the first year of carbon rationing in the UK.

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Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Finding a mummified body of a child is not the best way to start your day! Eighteen year old Fergus McCann finds the remains of a small girl while poaching turf with his uncle in 1980s Ireland. Thus begins a seamlessly interwoven novel of multiple story lines. Fergus is confronted with several life altering situations - discovering more about the little girl, his developing relationship with Cora, being blackmailed into running packages for the IRA, the trauma of having his older brother, a political prisoner, on hunger strike. There is never a slow moment in the book, the pace is fast. The characters are believable with catchy, involved dialogue.
The novel explores the vagaries of growing up, coupled with the political tension in Ireland during the '80s. Fergus has to grapple with becoming an adult as well as battling family, religious, and national problems. A beautiful book.

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Caleb + Kate by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Caleb + Kate by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma.
Find out how he feel and she feels as our modern-day Romeo and Juliet's relationship develops. Told from both Caleb and Kate's point-of-view, the reader follows rich and pampered, Kate whose life changes from boring to intriguing when she meets rough Caleb. Set in the Pacific Northwest, this novel explores the doubts and frustrations of teen love.

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Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An unexpected and totally enjoyable find.
Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell
A ghost story, a relationship story, a mystery, all rolled into one. Iris finds herself haunted by the spirit of a boy named Elijah who disappeared years ago. Why did he pick on her to haunt? What is the mystery behind his disappearance and why the secrecy when she begins to ask questions?
Pursuing this mystery, Iris uncovers years of secrets some involving her father. Mitchell packs a lot into this novel and keeps the suspense from page to page.
So, what exactly did happen?


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The Juvie Three by Gordon Korman


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Juvie Three by Gordon Korman
Juvie is not a good place to be. Arjay, Gecko and Terence are serving time for one type of offense or another. Douglas Healy needs boys to live in an experimental halfway house; the three agree. Rules are simple: live with Doug in an apartment, go to therapy, get good grades, do community service.
But, when Terence tries to sneak out, the other two boys get into a fight trying to stop him. Doug intervenes and ends up unconscious. The boys steal a car and get Doug to the hospital. Then Doug doesn’t come back to the apartment! Why? Turns out he has amnesia. What are the boys to do now? No one wants to admit to the authorities they are on their own. How can they help Doug and stay free?
You’ll develop a relationship with the boys and their struggle.



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Something Rotten by Alan M. Gratz


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Something Rotten
by
Alan Gratz
________________________________________
Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark – namely the Copenhagen River which is so polluted that it smells. This is the first of many clever tie-ins to Shakespeare in this loose contemporary retelling of Hamlet. If you’re not a Shakespeare fan, don’t worry, the story carries itself.
This charming, witty novel opens with the death (perhaps murder) of Rex Prince head of the Elsinore Paper Plant. Hamilton Prince, the heir apparent to the Prince family fortune, has gone a little crazy since his father's death and his mother's remarriage to his uncle. Enter Horatio, Hamilton’s best friend who is tasked with finding out who murdered his father.
Horatio has a cocky way about him and a barbed tongue reminiscent of many teens. You will love him; he will soon become your favorite protagonist.
The many parallels to Hamlet are interesting, but Gratz wisely avoids producing a carbon copy of the tragedy. So enjoy and see if you can figure out the mystery.



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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A Swedish suspense story. Stieg Larsson was a journalist and agitator. He lectured on right-wing extremism and racism. He lived with the love-of-his life, Eva Gabrielsson, for over 30 years. They never married because marriage required registering and they feared this would lead to them being found and attacked by his right-wing enemies.
As a form of relaxation Stieg took to writing. He finished three novels and was taking these manuscripts, packed in WalMart bags, to a publisher. He never made it; on the stairs outside the publisher he had a heart attack and died.
The publisher read the manuscripts anyway, liked them and published the Millennium trilogy, as the books were called. They were an instant and huge success of international proportions.
Now the plot thickens, Stieg left no written will, so according to Swedish law, Stieg's estate was inherited by his father and brother. His partner of 32 years got nothing! This sparked a dispute between Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg's relatives. She claims that they "were never a part of our lives" and that they are not the right persons handling Stieg's estate.
A fact complicating the matter is that Eva has the laptop with the partly finished script for the fourth book in the Millennium series. And she will not publish the script unless she is given the full rights to manage the other three novels in the series, the novels which she and Stieg worked with together. However, Stieg's father and brother have not been willing to agree, and this has resulted in a stalemate. So what will happen next?
But wait, you think this is a plot line for a novel…… think again. This is the truth surrounding Stieg Larsson and his world acclaimed books that will soon be made into movies.
You can read the whole true life story in Time Magazine, May 24, 2010
And you can read the 3 Millennium books at the library
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo

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