Karl Shoemaker has been going to his high school’s group therapy for a long time, but he promises himself this year will be different. Karl plans to be absolutely normal.

The only problem is that it is hard to be normal when your mother steals money from you to party all night. It is hard to be normal when you have to work five different jobs to make ends meet while also going to school. It is hard to be normal when your friends have similar or worse life situations as you.

It is especially hard to be normal when all your friends are in therapy with you and by not going to the group it looks like you are giving up on them.

There is a new girl in school this year and she fits right in with the Madman Underground, which is the name Karl has for the therapy group. Over the course of the next week Karl will relate to her the many exploits of the Madman Underground and how they always have each others’ back. But if they are such good friends why would he ever want to give them up just to be normal? Karl has a lot of thinking to do and since the Madman Underground always have a crisis or two he will definitely get his chance to decide: stay crazy or be friendless and normal?

Tales of the Madman Underground is a good book for anyone interested in how people deal with many different kinds of abuses or bad home lives. The story is told in an episodic fashion as Karl relates the epic adventures his group of friends have had. Sometimes these flashbacks slows the story down or confuses the main plot but it wraps up really enjoyably if you stick with until the end. I would recommend it for those who want a more realistic drama and it is appropriate for ages 16 and up.

Ever deliver pizza while chugging on a bottle of vodka between stops? Vodka is how Vera has been coping with her life. She recently lost her best friend, Charlie, and now her life is spiraling out of control. Vera and Charlie had been best friends since childhood and grew up next door to one another. They lived so close Vera could hear Charlie’s father yell and beat up his mom on a daily basis. So when they were kids Vera and Charlie built a treehouse together and he would stay there during the warm months. Each year he would add more to the house so it was more livable. It is safe to say Vera and Charlie were inseparable.

But life changes as you get older. Charlie soon goes off to the vocational school and starts getting detentions. Then he meets Jenny Flick and other troublemakers. Charlie is soon torn between Vera and a group of rejects that he has more in common with. Then Jenny starts telling Charlie that Vera is spreading rumors about him. After confronting Vera he breaks off their friendship and becomes an enemy. Six months later a pet store is burned down, Charlie is discovered dead, and his lighter is found in the remains of the store.

Now Vera is haunted by her friend’s death. She knows he didn’t burn the pet store down and that he was a good person, but he hurt her by ending their friendship. So now Vera delivers pizza after school and drinks so she won’t have to think about her dead friend.

But Charlie won’t let her go that easily. Vera sees his ghost occasionally and she knows Charlie wants his name cleared. Can she find a way to get her life under control and face Jenny Flick and save her best friend’s reputation? Or will she ignore it all like she ignored the abuse that happened in Charlie’s home?

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a heartbreaking story of lost friendship, grief, and discovering yourself. Highly recommended and appropriate for ages 14 and up.

Donna’s father died four years ago; right before she started high school. Soon after her older brother left for college. Donna, her mother, and her little sister have all been dealing with their grief in different ways over the course of Donna’s high school years. After her father passed Donna became quiet and reclusive. She believes it is better to feel nothing than experience grief any longer. She has friends but doesn’t say much. She focuses on school and tries to get through each day. But on the inside she misses her father; so much that it socially paralyzes her. Donna will soon graduate high school and then she will be forced out of the cocoon she has built for herself.

Donna’s metamorphosis starts when she attends a funeral for a school mate who tragically died. The funeral is held at the same funeral home that held her father’s. She can’t help but notice how peaceful the corpse looks in the coffin and how well the makeup makes the deceased look dignified. As she gets up to get some air she notices a greeter who wasn’t at her father’s funeral. After chatting with him she discovers he is actually the mortician and is filling in for his brother. She compliments him on his work as she leaves.

She keeps thinking of the mortician the rest of the day, and how he helps prepare the dead to say their last goodbye. She begins to like the idea of helping people with their grief more and more. Soon she makes a choice to apply to mortuary school and intern at the funeral home over the summer after she graduates. What Donna doesn’t expect is that her new direction will help shatter her cocoon of solitude. Her mother objects and wants her to attend the same college as her brother. Donna will not let it go and applies to mortuary school anyway and this begins a feud with her mother.

What started as a simple decision that has brought her peace has now torn apart her relationship with her mother. Donna’s life is turned upside down and she begins divesting herself of her mother’s influence. Can Donna get her life back under control? Can her relationship with her mother be repaired? Can two grieving people who depended on each other for so long find lives on their own? Donna is about to start living life rather than just watch it go by. But life isn’t always unicorns and rainbows. There is always death, waiting for everyone, and perhaps our attitude about death can tell us a lot about our attitude about life.

Putting Makeup On Dead People is an excellent book. It hits the right mix of humor, self-discovery, family drama, and of course death. I highly recommend this book, but it is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to portrayals of physical intimacy and drinking.

In a few short months Iris Anderson’s life has turned tragic. First her father loses part of his leg in the attack on Pearl Harbor that forces America’s entry into World War II. Then before her father arrives home her mother commits suicide.

Her father copes by moving Iris out of the Upper East Side of New York to the poorer Lower East Side. He works as a private investigator but his skills as a sleuth have diminished since he now walks on a prosthesis. He can barely pay the bills. Iris herself faces difficulties because she has changed schools. Instead of the private all girl school she is used to she now attends a public school. No one wants to be her friend because of her upper class background. And she doesn’t want to keep her old friends from her private school because they now look down upon her for being poor;  even though one, Grace, keeps calling to talk to her.

Then one day a boy from her school, Tom,  suddenly goes missing. Her father is hired to track the young man down. Iris decides to secretly help her father’s investigation out by infiltrating Tom’s gang of friends, who are called the Rainbows because they wear zoot suits and like to dance in Harlem.

But can she live with the lies she must tell to her would be friends? Will she be able to deal with the classism,  racism, and bigotry that her new friends endure everyday? Can Iris help find one boy in a world where young men are killed everyday in a horrendous war?

The Girl is Murder is a good mystery novel that captures a place and time extremely well. There is lots of Fifties era lingo and Iris is a compelling character who is discovering who she really is while dealing with a horrible loss. Plus the novel leaves open the possibility of a sequel or a series. Recommended to mystery and historical fiction fans. The book is appropriate for ages 14 and up.

Miriam is an average small town girl growing up in Germany. She hangs out with her fiends in the bathroom every morning before school. Sometimes the smoke cigarettes, other times she listens to them talk about their boyfriends or what they did the night before. A small town doesn’t offer much variety for having fun so Miriam lets her friends just drone on and on.  Miriam waits for the eternity of the school day to end only to go home to an empty house, eat, and wait for her mother to come home. Then for one trivial reason or another Miriam and her mother usually end the night shouting at one another. Miriam feels trapped between being a child and an adult, trapped by the small town she lives in, and trapped by her friends boring lives.

Then one day a new girl, Laura, is in her class. Laura is so cool that she evens rolls her own cigarettes. Soon, Laura starts hanging out with Miriam and showing up at the bathroom before school. Miriam isn’t sure what is going on with her new friend but she knows that whenever she looks at her she gets all wonky inside. Soon Miriam’s world doesn’t seem so small and boring anymore because now she has met her first love. Laura knows there is a connection between them as well. But how does a girl from nowhere talk to that someone special, especially someone like Laura. Soon Miriam and Laura start dancing around that attraction between them. They are both trying to figure out how to be more than friends, and how to be themselves, especially in a town where they feel like no one is like them.

Girl From Mars is a great read about first love, the confusion of being a teen and discovering things about who you are and how the world works. It is appropriate for ages 14 and up and contains foul language, drinking, and explorations of physical intimacy. Highly recommended.

Note: This is a reboot of H. Beam Piper’s Fuzzy Series, sort of in the same vein of how the Star Trek universe was rebooted in its latest movie.

Jack Holloway is one of many independent prospectors employed by a large corporation, ZaraCorp, to discover anything of value within the ground of Zara XXIII, a planet that whose mineral and oil rights belong to ZaraCorp. Holloway is a loner, a recluse, and most of all a jerk. On his latest expedition, Holloway discover a lucrative sunstone seam. However he had to blow up most of a cliff to get at it. His actions are against environmental regulations and promptly gets him fired, but when he explains to his boss about the sunstones he is rehired and given a bigger cut of the potential payout. Holloway is easily going to be set for life.

But a problem awaits for him back at his home. A small, fuzzy, native creature has somehow figured a way in the house and is causing all sorts of terror. Holloway and his dog corner the creature and soon he is luring the animal out with gifts of food. But something about the creature rubs Holloway wrong. The animal was smart, maybe even smarter than a dog. The next day the creature is back and has brought his family. Soon Holloway is considering the creatures may be sapient, which means the are intelligent and self-aware like humans. If the creatures are people so to speak, then Holloway can kiss his new sunstone seam goodbye. Colonial regulations call for ZaraCorp to stop exploiting all of the planets resources and leave in order for the resources to be used by the planets native sapient species. But Holloway isn’t quite willing to walk away from lots and lots of money. And Zaracorp would stoop as low as genocide to keep their profits.

Can a jerk be redeemed? Can Holloway discover a way to make money and protect his new fuzzy companions? Or will Holloway idly watch as genocide occurs because he is making tons of money?

Fuzzy Nation is an excellent fun, and humorous sci-fi romp. I highly recommend it for anyone who like classic sci-fi, or someone looking for an sleek adventure story with an environmental twist. Fuzzy Nation is appropriate for all ages, but can be found in adult sci-fi.

Frankie is a sophomore at an elite boarding school called Alabaster. Her father went to Alabaster and is still friends with his high school companions to this very day. They help each other get jobs, promotions, and most of all money. Frankie’s father claims that Alabaster is where she will learn how the world works. But all Frankie can see is that Alabaster is where young white men with money become old white men with even more money. How does she as a female fit into that world?

One example of the male centric attitude at Alabaster is a secret society that Frankie’s father used to belong to: The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. It’s a male only club that pulls pranks, but also is made up of the most influential male upperclassmen of Alabaster. These are the future businessmen, lawyers, and politicians; those who could most impact the world.

But Frankie can’t join because she is a woman. What is worse is that the Order wouldn’t even conceive of letting women be a part of it. It just so happens that  Frankie’s new boyfriend is the leader of the current Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. But what is better is that she discovers that the order has lost the Order’s journal that details its notorious history.

Frankie decides then what she will do. She will find the Order’s journal, and then covertly take over the Order through an anonymous email address. Then with the Order’s help she hopes to pull off the best school prank that Alabaster has seen in decades. Then she can prove that she is just as good as any man.

Except Frankie gets carried away with proving herself. What is she really after? And once the pranks start piling up who will take the blame? Is Frankie willing to betray her friends, boyfriend, and the school just to make a point? Does Frankie even know what point she is making? Or has she just fallen to the basest of motivations: revenge?

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is an amazingly entertaining and thought provoking book. It is highly recommended and appropriate for ages 14 and up.

Seth is a teen with best friends Kady and Luke,one day Luke says he got hold of the rare comic featuring the city of make believe city of Malice. When Luke disappears the next day, Seth gets worried.

So he does the chant and ritual said to get him into the world in the horrifying comic that involves kids getting in bad situations getting chased by horrible creatures. But then when he wakes up he isn’t in his bed he is in a different world on a train. And he finds out that Malice is real and the creatures are out there to kill him and some to suck time out of him.

He finds out that all the missing kids are here and if you die in the Malice you die in real life. This world is controlled by the evil Tall Jack who is selling these mysterious comics and controlling this world.He also meets up with some other kids including one who saved his life from a chitter monkey a monkey that sucks time out of you. Seth saw a victim die when it bit her. And in her pocket was two white tickets that on the train can take you anywhere or take you home. And the black tickets can take you anywhere but not home.

Now everyone thinks he is missing to. And Kady is worried to0 because he is gone. But one night while she is talking to her cousin she finds out that she never went to visit her and that her mom is a professional hypnotist and what really happened is that she disappeared for four months and came home one day dazed and couldn’t remember where she was because when you come out of Malice you cant remember anything.And she does the chant and ritual to get back to Malice and save Seth. She uses the ticket and finds him. And they find a wise woman and they ask her about how to defeat Tall Jack.

If you want to find out what happens to Kady and Seth and if they will ever get out and defeat him or stay there forever. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because it is part comic part book and all action I would recommend it for people who like action and don’t mind some scary things.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Liesel is a young girl growing up in a small German town during World War II. She has a best friend, Rudy, who is a talented athlete and her partner in crime. She has her foster parents, Hans and Rosa. Hans is always gentle and helps her learn the power of words. Rosa is firm with Liesel and makes her work very hard, but cares very deeply.

In a way Liesel has a picturesque childhood. There is plenty of adventure, trouble, and a loving family. But there is a darker side to life during war. Her biological mother was tied to the Communist party and must give up Liesel and her little brother in order that they may survive. But Liesel’s brother dies on the way to live with Hans and Rosa. Also, her foster home is on the outskirts of Munich and near the concentration camp Dachau. Jews are routinely paraded through the streets as they slowly walk to their doom.

How can you have a happy, loving life, when the world around you only wants death? How will Liesel cope when Hans brings home a mysterious young Jewish man? How can you be a carefree child but hide a human being in your basement from the hands of death?

The Book Thief is a wonderful book that shows us the beauty of living, the horrors of war, and the tenderness of death. Highly recommended for those interested in historical fiction, World War II, or coming of age tales. It is appropriate for all ages.

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

Will and Alona are on opposite sides of high school’s  social spectrum. Alona is the queen bee and the most popular girl in school. Will is the sullen emo boy who stays away from everyone except for his best friend Joonie. Alona and Will never had anything to do with each other while Alona was alive. Ever since Alona was hit by a bus, buried, and mourned by her friends, Alona’s life (or afterlife) has been pretty lonely. So she is surprised to find that Will can see and hear her while she is haunting the school.

If he can see her then perhaps he can help her move on to wherever ghosts need to move on to. It’s hard to ask someone as socially low as Will for help but he is her only chance. The problem is that Will just doesn’t see her, he sees every ghost who haunts the school; and the all want his help. If Alona is going to move on she will need to use her superior social skills to organize the school ghosts, and deal with Will’s mood swings.

But there is a darker mystery that Alona has yet to discover. Will is being haunted by a dark force that is full of spite and hatred. If she doesn’t act quickly the evil spirit will tear Will apart before she can figure out how to move on. Or does she need to help Will because she has actually grown to like him? But he is so not popular so that couldn’t be it!

The Ghost and the Goth is a fun light read and a perfect quick distraction. I really enjoyed this book and I think you will to. Highly recommended and appropriate for all ages.