Gateway by Sharon Sinn

When Daiyu, a St. Louis high school student adopted as a baby from China, lives an ordinary life - she is spending her summer volunteering and getting ready for high school to begin.  Then she purchases the ring, she is transported, not back in time – but to an alternate universe. The universe is a near replica in terms of geography to her home in St. Louis but the buildings and modes of transportation are different and the people all look Chinese, they speak an unknown language (which the ring enables her to understand). Daiyu learns that she has been called upon to complete a mission to send an evil leader back to his own universe. The only problem is that Daiyu likes him and cannot commit to the act.

I enjoyed this teen alternative reality novel.  It wasn't overly complicated but the issues that Daiyu deals with felt very real.  Is she allowed to have free will or is her fate already decided?  She is starting to forget the world she came from but finds her self caring little about that as she is falling in love with Kalen.  Kalen is a native boy who helps Daiyu adapt to this strange place.  But when by fate she actually accomplishes her mission there is little reason for her to stay so will she follow her heart and return to her parents and the world she knows or stay and make a life for herself with Kalen?   

One of my favorite movies is Made in Heaven starring Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis and the ending of this book reminded me a lot of this movie.  Not a great teen book but a decent one and maybe it will open a new world to teens who only want to read vampire books.

Beekeeper's Apprentice: or on the Segregation of the Queen by Laurie R. King

Featuring Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell

In the early years of WW I, 15-year-old American Mary Russell encounters Holmes, retired in Sussex Downs where Conan Doyle left him raising bees. Mary, an orphan rebelling against her guardian aunt's strictures, impresses the sleuth with her intelligence and acumen. Holmes initiates her into the mysteries of detection, allowing her to participate in a few cases when she comes home from her studies at Oxford. The collaboration is ignited by the kidnapping in Wales of Jessica Simpson, daughter of an American senator. The sleuthing duo find signs of the hand of a master criminal, and after Russell rescues the child, attempts are made on their lives (and on Watson's), with evidence piling up that the master criminal is out to get Holmes and all he holds dear. 

Now I know that I am biased as I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and have tried out various series out there that feature Sherlock Holmes but still find this one of my favorite as he seems much more likable.  King does an excellent job of tying in the original stories and then adapting her characters to fill in the gaps.  I've read this one several times and it always seems as fresh as the first time I read it years ago.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

The novel opens with Harry living under the cupboard with aunt and uncle. He has had a mean, depressed life, but has no joy or love for his life. He is basically a male version of Cinderella. Just before his 11th birthday he gets a letter (actually, hundreds) saying he is in fact a wizard. After the Dursleys try to hide him away a giant man, named Hagrid, finds him on his birthday and takes him to a new and wondrous life. As he goes through platform 9 and 3/4 he meets Ron and Hermione who will be his best friends.  He also meets Malfoy who will be one of his greatest foes.

Before he goes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry, along with his new friend the giant Hagrid, go to Diagon Alley, a magical bazaar. Harry discovers that he is really famous among wizards for conquering an evil Wizard named Vo - um - He Who Must Not Be Named. Along the way, we learn that Voldemort is after a magical artifact called the Sorcerer's Stone (which was, unfortunately, changed from the UK original title of Philosopher's Stone" in all other regions). 

In this novel we get the first ever glimpses of Hogwarts, Voldemort, Quidditch, Dumbledore, Severus Snape, muggles, the Forbidden Forest, the Invisibility Cloak, and any other number of thins Rowling's magical confectionery of an imagination has cooked up for us.

I remember reading this book in early 1999 and being amazed by how fun it was to read and incredulous that the Phoenix library had to import a British edition for us to read.  I've have read this book so many times and especially love hearing it read by Jim Dale.

No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman

Tess's boyfriend, Edgar "Crow" Ransome, brings home for the night a homeless teenager, Lloyd, who slashed Crow's tires outside a Baltimore soup kitchen. During dinner Tess suspects that Lloyd has information regarding the recent murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Youssef.  After peeling the story out of Lloyd Tess gives his story, sans name, to the local paper, so the authorities will get it secondhand.

this causes a ripple affect as suddenly a fellow street kid of Lloyd's is murdered and it causes Lloyd to panic as only he knows the connection.  Tess starts to get visits from a sinister trio of law enforcement agents avid to know her source. Crow decides that it would be in Lloyd's best interest for them both to disappear and flees with Lloyd while Tess suffers growing pressure, including the threat of federal jail time.

We read the story as it goes back and forth between Tess & Crow with a couple of side chapters from 2 of the bad guys. Tess is one of my favorite series and I always relish her books.  This story wasn't particularily complicated as it focused more on how choosing your path can really affect one's future.

666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce

It seems like magic when Jane Boyle finds herself falling in love with fabulously wealthy American Malcolm Doran.  After just a month he proposes and she accepts and decides to move to New York to be with him and his family.  But before she can leave she takes him to meet her superstitious, overprotective grandmother.  Jane is an orphan raised in the rural Alsace region of France by her grandmother and she moved to Paris to study architecture. When they find her grandmother deceased Jane isn't really upset as she was not close to her grandmother but upon getting ready for the funneral finds an envelope with her name on it that contain a mysterious letter from her grandmother and a silver ring that changes everything.

Jane discovers that she has magical powers and that she's a witch from a long line of witches!  She decides to continue her plan of going to New York and marring Malcolm.  But when she meets Malcolm's family, one of the oldest and most powerful in New York, she discovers that nothing is as it seems and starts to question if her love of Malcolm is even real.  She quickly discovers that her magic will be useless against them, especially Malcolm's very intimidating mother, Lynne. But as her wedding day gets closer, Jane discovers that there's more to the Dorans than she thought, and her magic might be the only thing that will save her.

Fun, light read that gave another element to a supernatural romance.  I did like how the ending was left open and felt much more real than I expected as Jane has to decide to either go on her own or run away with Malcolm.

Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino; translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander

Meticulous high-school math teacher Ishigami frequents the modest box-lunch shop Benten-tei because of his crush on Yasuko Hanaoka, a young mother who works there. Yonazawa and his wife Sayoko, who manage the shop, speculate regularly about Ishigami's visits, but Yasuko seems oblivious to his attention. Although she and her daughter Misato are Ishigami's apartment building neighbors, they've never spoken outside of the shop.

But when divorcee Yasuko Hanaoka is forced to kill her abusive ex-husband in defense of her daughter, Ishigami offers his help to dispose of the body and provide an alibi based on "perfect defense based on perfect logic," his plot to save her from arrest. As the police investigation proceeds, Ishigami isolated world is broken as detective Kusanagi reports going to college with him.  He mentions this to physicist Manabu Yukawa while playing chess and this prompts Yukawa to reconnect with Ishigami. Thus begins a intrigute cat and mouse dance.

Meanwhile Yasuko's past comes in the form of wealthy Mr. Kudo who used to visit her when she worked at a bar.  He has found her at her new job and works at winning Yasuko's heart but will her conscience to Yukawa allow herself to fall in love? 

As the police chip away at the alibi, it is slowly revealed that the math genius' devotion to Yasuko is based not only on love but also on the purity of committing the perfect crime. Yasuko has to remain a pawn to the math teacher's plan, but she wonders how long and how far he will go.

Higashino won Japan's Naoki Prize for Best Novel with this stunning thriller about miscarried human devotion, a bestseller in Japan.  Wow, was this an intense book.  Reminds of the Alfred Hitchcock movies where you just didn't know where the story would take you.  The ending chapters kept me guessing and had me gasping as the real story unfolded.  I think this may be one of the best books I've read so far this year.

My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals: Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes by Melanie Dunea

Melanie Dunea, an award-winning photographer, wrote to 50 famous chefs and asked them to describe their ideal last meal. Their answers, compiled in this weirdly absorbing and gorgeously designed volume, range from the comforting (Lidia Bastianich bids adieu over a plate of linguini and clams) to the cheekily self-aggrandizing (Laurent Tourondel wants nothing more than a BLT sandwich from his own restaurant). The meals are curiosities, and the few recipes included are pleasant enough; it's the photographs of each chef that make this book so irresistible. One needn't have heard of them, much less dined in their restaurants, to appreciate their portraits: from a graceful Gabrielle Hamilton nursing her son to a dashing Guillaume Brahimi reclining in front of the Sydney Opera House, each image is iconic, surprising, and quite often, oddly appetizing. Marcus Samuelsson poses, impishly, in a Japanese-style headband made of salmon; Wylie Dufresne leans like a centerfold on a table stacked with American cheese; and Anthony Bourdain poses totally nude, strategically wielding a butchered leg bone. But perhaps no picture is more memorable than Dan Barber's, a soft-featured New York chef, posing alongside a massive boar named Boris. His last meal is rack of boar, of course: "If I'm going, so is Boris."


Now I heard about this book because it was featured on Top Chef All-Stars as one of the final challenges for the top 3 - they had to give 3 other chefs their last meals.  So I was intrigued enough to find the book at the library.  I knew something or recognized about 75% of the chefs featured. My main complaint is the font - it is really hard to read and I wished the questions had been in the same order for each chef so I could have browsed easier.  Some chefs were very verbose and some said very little. But it was fascinating to learn a bit more about each one by what they love to eat.

Wicked Appettite by Janet Evanovich

Featuring the 7 Deadly sins - this one focuses on gluttony.

Lizzy Tucker has a way with cupcakes, and she’s inherited a great-aunt’s 1740 saltbox house in Salem, Massachusetts, plying her trade at Dazzle’s Bakery in town. Who should turn up in her living room but Diesel, who we met in Visions of Sugar Plums, who is extremely handsome, very strong, and not entirely human (if not entirely angelic). Diesel is locked into a cosmic battle with his cousin Wulf, specter-thin with more than an air of sulfur about him.

Lizzy, who may or may not have a secret, special ability, is needed by Wulf and Diesel to recognize objects of magical power. Lizzy gamely attempts to make sense of oddly magical occurrences (in possession of one of the magic charms, she can’t stop eating; in possession of another, she wants household goods and babies now), while simultaneously dealing with some fairly specific threats involving Wulf and resisting Diesel’s obvious affection and attraction.

fun weekend read and I enjoyed having some new characters to read about as well as a few from other Stephanie Plum novels.  Maybe some more cross-overs to come? Looking at Evanovich's website she states these will feature the 7 deadly sins - so maybe only 7 will be in this series.