Nate's Reviews

With a murdered royal family and a country on the brink of civil war, Connor, regent of the crown, has a treasonous plot to train one of four orphans in order to pass him off as the long-lost prince. From the start, it’s impossible not to become attached to the orphan, Sage. He is the narrator of this tale, and you never know if he is lying to us, to himself, or to everyone else in the book, but you need to find out. This book was so hard to put down that I had to keep it in my backseat so I wasn’t tempted to read it at stoplights. It will appeal to fans of Megan Whelan Turner, Suzanne Collins, and Mark Twain. Grades 5–9.

This is a self-help book for kitchen confidence. After helping a woman exchange her processed foods for easy make-at-home dinners, Flinn decided to change how people think about home cooking. Nine volunteers were given weekly cooking classes. Flinn emphasizes the importance of not wasting food, of eating for better health, and of knowing where your food comes from.

If you enjoy hiking, camping, trees, bears, granola bars, backpacking, lakes, or noodles you need to read this book. Bryson makes me want to call in sick for the next year, spending the time wandering the forest without having to worry about a schedule. Plus the writing is intelligent and hilarious. Anyone want to walk the John Muir Trail with me next month?

In Handmade Houses, 100 years of information on environmentally friendly building are presented in a rich format of photos and text. This book brings the topic back to its roots and progresses to the reclaimed look that is popular today. Full of inspiration, interviews, and history, it’s perfect for anyone who appreciates architecture. With its numerous ideas for materials and designs, it’s also ideal for anyone interested in building their own handmade house.

Great for the whole family! The Elements is a visual journey into the periodic table of the elements. Each element has a two-page spread of photos and facts that presents information and shows common uses of the element. The Elements Vault builds on this, adding a pop-up atom model, removable historical documents, a poster of the elements’ rainbow spectrum, and samples of real elements (including gold). And don’t miss The Elements: 1000 Piece Puzzle; it’s a great companion to the Vault.

Picking up where Fly by Night left off, and continuing to use the kind of language that sucked me into the first book, poet/con-man Eponymous Clent, 12-year-old Mosca Mye, and Mosca’s fierce goose Saracen, are running from Mandelion after inadvertently starting a revolution. They find themselves in the wealthy, dysfunctional, gated city of Toll, where half the population is active diurnally and half nocturnally. Mosca is exiled to Toll-by-Night, the different and very dangerous place that the town transforms itself into after dark. Privy to information about the kidnapping of the mayor’s daughter, Mosca makes new allies, finds the kidnappers, and reknits Toll. Wonderful language and wordplay make this fantasy world poignantly real and the book hard to put down.

In the first of a projected trilogy, orphaned siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma find a book that transports them back in time 15 years. From old familiar fantasy elements, Stephens creates a new story. The children are treated individually, each with a distinct personality. There is bickering, there are rivalries, but all three hide a fierce, underlying loyalty to one another. Every child will identify with at least one of the three siblings. Perhaps this is the next Percy Jackson.

This is a self-help book for kitchen confidence. After helping a woman in the supermarket exchange her processed foods for easy make-at-home dinners, Flinn decided to change how people think about home cooking. Nine volunteers were given weekly cooking classes, each with a different focus: holding a knife, braising, cooking fish, etc. Flinn emphasizes the importance of not wasting food, of eating for better health, and of knowing where your food comes from. The Fettuccini Alfredo is amazing.