Gorgeous

Gorgeous by Rachel Vail

Summary (from HIP)
Ninth-grader Allison has always been the least attractive among her sisters, but when she allows the devil to possess her cell phone in exchange for a gorgeous appearance, Allison must confront the power and deceptiveness of appearances.

Personal Thoughts
I needed a break from the Max series, so I decided to finish reading this.  (Yes, I have multiple books started at any one time.)  Okay, so the next "Max" book was checked out, but still...it was a nice break.  I'm normally not into chick-lit, however a student recommended this book so I thought I'd check it out.  I must say, I actually enjoyed it and wanted to know what happened to Allison in the end.  It was a nice story with a good conclusion that didn't feel contrived.  I would recommend this book for sure.

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
Summary
Max and her flock are still trying to save the world.  Who can they trust?  Who will help them?  The end is near...or is it?

Personal Thoughts
Holy cow!  Another excellent installation.  I can't keep talking about it or I'll be a spoiler!  And, I'm not a spoiler.  All I can say is that I LOVE IT!

Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever

Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever by James Patterson

Summary (from Booklist)
Max and her flock are back in this new volume in the Maximum Ride series, a follow-up to The Angel Experiment (2004). In a flying fight with Erasers, Fang is injured so seriously that the flock takes him to a hospital. It's obvious he's not a normal human (having wings and avian DNA), so it isn't long before the FBI shows up. Anne Walker, the lead agent, takes the flock home to her Virginia farm, where she tries to mother the kids and enrolls them in a nearby private school. Living a somewhat normal life for the first time, Max, 14, manages a date and a first kiss, and others in the flock begin the quest to find their birth parents. Then everything falls apart.

Personal Thoughts
I can't stop!  I'm already half-way through the next one.  This series is wonderfully paced, action-packed, and doesn't give a lot away.  There were some twists that I saw coming, but in the end even those twists were twisted! Love it!

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment  by James Patterson

Summary
Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel are six kids who are 98% human and 2% bird.  But otherwise, they're pretty normal.  Raised in a lab like rats in a cage, they're now free thanks to their father-figure Jeb who sprung them from "The School."  Now they are being pursued by Erasers - wicked, wolf like creatures who work for the School.  The flock's missions are to rescue Angel from the School, track down their missing parents, get revenge on a traitor, oh, and save the world.

Personal Thoughts
I picked this book up because it was popular with the kids and I like to know what they're reading.  I was not looking forward to reading it, however.  I delayed and delayed.  I picked it up on Sunday morning and COULDN'T STOP READING!  Wow!  I've read a lot of other James Patterson [adult] books and this outshone them in terms of action and intrigue.  Plus, all of the characters seemed richly developed.  Now I'm invested.  I have to know what happens in the next book. 

*Highly recommended

Pop

Pop by Gordon Korman

Summary (from publisher)
When Marcus moves to a new town in the dead of summer, he doesn't know a soul. While practicing football for impending tryouts, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with an older man. Charlie is a charismatic prankster—and the best football player Marcus has ever seen. He can't believe his good luck when he finds out that Charlie is actually Charlie Popovich, or "the King of Pop," as he had been nicknamed during his career as an NFL linebacker. But that's not all. There is a secret about Charlie that his family is desperate to hide.

When Marcus begins school, he meets the starting quarterback on the team: Troy Popovich. Right from the beginning, Marcus and Troy disagree—about football, about Troy's ex-girlfriend, Alyssa, but most of all about what's good for Charlie. Marcus is betting that he knows what's best for the King of Pop. And he is willing to risk everything to help his friend.

Personal Thoughts
I had to abandon this book.  I just couldn't get into it right now.  I will, however, try again when I'm not so bogged down with other things.  If you have read it and would like to add your personal thoughts, please comment.

The Seance

The Séance by Iain Lawrence

Summary (from HIP)
Thirteen-year-old Scooter King's mother is a medium; his hero is Houdini. When the great escape artist appears at the Orpheum, it is Scooter who finds a dead man in Houdini's Burmese Torture Tank. Certain that the killer meant to get rid of his idol, Scooter is determined to identify the culprit. Then, two more killings occur.  Now Scooter need's Houdini's help to solve the crimes before he ends up in jail.

Personal Thoughts
Eh.   I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.  I just wasn't overly impressed with this novel.  I had the murderer picked out very early on in the game.  There wasn't a lot of "spooky" involved in this story and I was expecting more with a title including the word séance.  Also, there were lots of characters and that gave little time for deep development.  This book is also filled with a lot of period references and slang which, in my opinion, weighed down the story.  I did like how Lawrence demystified several tricks that mediums use during séances to dupe people into believing their powers.  If you're looking for a quick murder mystery to solve, this would be a good book to read.

Everlost

Everlost by Neil Shusterman
read by Nick Podehl

Summary (from Goodreads.com)
Nick and Allie don't survive the car accident...but their souls don't exactly get where they're supposed to get either. Instead, they're caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It's a magical yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.

When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he's found a home. But Allie isn't satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the "Criminal Art" of haunting and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

Personal Thoughts
This is a very interesting presentation of a purgatory-type existence.  I didn't love the book at first but it started drawing me in.  After awhile, I just had to know what the McGill was and why he was so gross and nasty.  I have to say that part of the draw was the wonderful reading that Nick Podehl did.  He even managed to make the voices different and really draw the characters out of the text.  I ended up listening to five minutes at a time because I couldn't "put it down."  I'm looking forward to the sequel, Everwild, to see what happens to Nick and Allie and how they work to free souls from Everlost.

I, Q: The White House

I, Q: The White House by Roland Smith

Summary (from book jacket)
In Book Two: The White House, readers are taken on another thrilling caper.  But it's going to be even more difficult for Q and Angela to sort out the "good guys" from the "bad guys" when the new playing field is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Personal Thoughts
I enjoyed this book.  It has a few twists I didn't see coming.  It was a little predictable at times, but I was still guessing at who the moles in the White House were and if they would actually succeed in whatever terrorist attempt they would be making.  It was a great follow up to Book One.  My one complaint is that this felt very much like it was written only as set-up for the third novel.  The ending, while complete for the book, requires a conclusion, which I'm assuming we'll see in the third installment.