Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr

Sam Taylor isn’t sure she believes in God anymore. Her mom’s in rehab and her father doesn’t have time for her. She distances herself from her friends. She feels lost. And she needs to keep all of her feelings and worry inside because she’s the pastor’s daughter.

When a local girl goes missing, the entire town comes together. Sam’s father acts as the family’s spokesman, meaning he has even less time for Sam. He’s also getting scarily close to the pretty young youth group leader while his wife’s in rehab.

Zarr does a great job of understanding how teen girls think (or at least the less shallow ones.) Sam is realistic in her doubts. It’s completely believable that she would pull away from her friends, fellow church members, when her perfect family has become less than perfect. I love Zarr’s books and this is no exception.

Columbine by Dave Cullen

This is an extensively research play-by-play of the tragedy that was Columbine. Cullen tirelessly interviewed parents, teacher, police officers, FBI agents—anyone who could shed some light on what and how Columbine happened. So well written, I couldn’t put it down.

I was in college when the shooting at Columbine occurred, so I didn’t recall a lot of the details until I read this. The story is strung together with the timeline of April 20, 1999 interspersed with details of the killers’ lives. Amazing and disturbing.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Pearl and May Chin are Beautiful Girls. They model for advertising and portraits of these sisters appear all over Shanghai. The daughters of a wealthy rickshaw company owner, Shanghai is all theirs—their friends are wealthy foreigners and the Shanghai elite, they are fashionable and smart. They have it all. That is, until their father loses everything to a gambling debt and sells both sisters into marriage. At least they marry brothers, so they will always be together.

This is the gripping story of the sisters’ exodus from China, into their husbands’ family home in Los Angeles. Their story begins in 1937, just before the Japanese invade China. The escape reads like an adventure story and a family saga rolled into one beautifully written package. See did a great job of making you feel like you’re there, running for your life with them.

I read (listened) to this book for the China Challenge over at Biblio File. This book is great on audio! Janet Song is a wonderful narrator. The sisters were so alive to me that I found myself wanting to know more about their lives after the book ended. Great listen!

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn

After losing her corporate job in London, Flinn decides to follow her dreams to Paris instead of returning to Seattle. Her dream: to graduate from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. You know, the famous cooking school that Julia Child went to? Yeah, that one.

Flinn’s memoir of her time at Le Cordon Bleu is funny and charming. During her time at the school, she moves in with her friend-turned-boyfriend, gets engaged, and gets married. As if cooking school wasn’t stressful enough! Flinn doesn’t disguise the fact that Le Cordon Bleu is hard--especially for someone like Flinn—who has never worked in the food industry. She gets off to a rocky start, but eventually wins over even the toughest chefs and earns her diploma.

This book is great for anyone who likes food and food memoirs. I really like that she included recipes at the end of every chapter. The recipes are not typical French fare. Instead, she included recipes from her friends, family, and ones she made up sometimes incorporating French ingredients or themes.

The Hate List by Jennifer Brown

What happens when your boyfriend becomes a mass murderer? That’s what Valerie Leftman was left behind to deal with in The Hate List. Sure, she and Nick had made a “hate list”, but they didn’t really mean it. At least she didn’t.

This brilliant young adult novel deals frankly with the aftermath of a school shooting. Valerie stopped the shooting spree by jumping in front of the next potential victim. At this, her boyfriend turned the gun on himself. No one wants to believe that Valerie didn’t know about it. She’s wracked with guilt that she was somehow inadvertently responsible. But she’s also a hero.

This book explores the steps of grieving and the healing process in a compelling story that teens will totally get. Without it being preachy or sappy.

I loved this book! It seems weird to say that about a book that touches on something so tragic, but this is so well-written. Valerie is a completely believable and likeable character. Brown does an excellent job of telling Val’s side of the story.