The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood

I read this book because a patron recommended it to me. Widge is a boy who has been bought from his master and is apprenticed to a man, Mr. Bass, who wants to steal Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, for his own theater company, and he wants Widge to help him. Widge was taught a shorthand writing by his former master, which Mr. Bass wants him to use while watching the play. Widge is good at the shorthand, but when he goes to the play, he is caught up in the story and misses large pieces of the dialogue. He returns to a second play to get the missing pieces, and on the way out, he discovers that this writing tablet is missing. When Widge returns to the theater to recover it, a player catches him, and to cover his tracks, Widge declares that he is there because he wants more than anything to be a player himself.

Some of the plot is a little predictable (that Widge’s conscience will rule out), but the excitement in the book is in what will happen when his old master discovers him, and there are a few side stories that keep it interesting. The ending is exciting, with a duel between Widge’s two masters, but the very end is a little hokey. Overall, it is a very good book despite those few little things.

Where the Lilies Bloom by Bill and Vera Cleaver

The reason I read this one is that it is the featured juvenile selection for FCPL’s On the Same Page program, and it was excellent. Set in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, it follows the Luther family in their trials. At fourteen, Mary Call is the responsible one in her family of a dying father, a simple older sister and two younger siblings. She promises her father to keep his death a secret so that her family can stay together. In order to make ends meet, the children take up “wildcrafting”, which is the gathering of plants and roots for pharmaceutical companies. They make enough money just to get by before the winter comes. Mary Call tries to stay strong for her brothers and sisters, but the longer she has to hold it together the harder it gets. The characters, even some of the side characters, aren’t flat. Even the villain of the story will surprise the reader by the end, which is one of the things I loved about the book. Mary Call seems so certain about everything, but by the end, the people around her show her that things do not have to be the way she thought they had to. If that doesn’t make any sense, go and read the book. Ha!

Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes

It’s not often that a book makes me stay up to the wee hours of the morning to to finish it. It’s even less often that a book makes me cry. This book did both. This is the second novel by this author I’ve read (the other being Sushi for Beginners), and the covers of both make them seem like lightweight chick lit. Both were definitely not. Rachel’s Holiday is told from the point of view of a drug addict, Rachel. The really captivating part is that, from the beginning, the reader is inside Rachel’s head, and Rachel seems to be completely unaware that she is an addict and that her drug addiction is destroying her life. When she overdoses on sleeping pills, her family forces her to go to a rehab clinic. It is amazing to read this book because the reader does not realize that she is a drug addict, just as Rachel does not because she is in denial. The reader goes through the process with Rachel to get beyond the addiction to try to lead a normal life. This is a really well-written book. The end.