Above World by Jenn Reese

In the future, since the world's population had grown past the point of sustainability, people created ways of altering their genetics so that they could live in the ocean - the kampii - like merfolk, the skies - the winged aviars, the deserts - the centaur-like horse people, and many other altered humans.
Aluna is a thirteen year old kampii, about to swallow the ocean seed and grow her tail. But, she has seen that the breathing necklaces that keep her people alive are failing, and so she decides to go above world to find help. Her tekie friend Hoku follows with a message from the past that his grandmother gave him that may help matters. Together they meet the aviars and fight the mutant upgraders who are harvesting body parts from anyone that they can catch.
An action packed sci-fi thriller, this book will keep you reading and wanting to find out what happens next.

Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman

I found this book to be intriguing and interesting. Pamela,an American writer now living in France, shares the differences between the American and French views on pregnancy, child birth and child rearing. I wish that the US had such high quality subsidized child care and nutritious school lunches as the French do. I am impressed with the French attitudes about paretnal authority and children's autonomy. I really liked the parts about food and helping children to learn to enjoy a variety of foods and not be picky eaters.

As a mother of 3 children, and a teacher, I find it fascinating to learn about the culturally different attitutdes about child development.

Some of the "French" attitudes about children are similar to what is mentioned in the book Free-Range Kids - that children can and should learn to be autonomous and responsible for their own actions.  I think that we could learn a few things from the French about that.  Other things, like the fact that breastfeeding is not seen as important and is discouraged in France, I disagreed with.

Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

This book picks up 7 months after the end of the book Rot & Ruin. Tom and Benny and Nix brought Lilah, the Lost Girl back to town and she has been living with the Chongs, and Tom has been training Benny, Morgie, Chong and Nix in Sammurai and Zombie hunting and surviving skills.
Tom, Benny and Nix plan to leave town and go east in search of the jumbo jet they saw and the civilization it might represent. Chong goes with for the first night to see them off - or at least that was the plan. In reality, they cannot leave without confronting Gametown, where children are tossed into pits to fight the zoms while adults place bets on it. Once again, we are faced with the question of who the real monsters are - and it is not the zombies.
This book is very intense, filled with action, mystery and a bit of romance.
I hope the author continues this series.       

Rot & Ruin by Johathan Maberry

Intense.  Majorly intense. 
In one night - the "last night", the apocalypse struck in one fell swoop.  Unexpectedly, without warning, the entire earth was struck with a virus that turned the majority of the population into zombies - who then bit most of the remaining living people and turned them into zombies.  Thirteen years later, in a small, mountainside area is now a town poplulated by some of the few remaining surviving people.  One of them is 15 year old Benny, whose brother Tom is a Zombie Bounty Hunter.  Benny hates Tom and thinks he is a coward, until he goes out into the Rot & Ruin with him and sees what he really does as his job.  Benny learns that the living dead are not the real monsters, instead, it is some of the living who should be feared.
This book shows man's inhuman side and in that respect, reminds me a bit of Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness (which was made into the movie Apocalypse Now.)
Totally excellent book.
And by the way - did you know that the CDC has a preparedness plan for a zombie apocalypse?
http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp
Just in case you need to know that.

unPLANNED: The dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader's eye-opening journey across the life line by Abby Johnson with Cindy Lambert

Abby Johnson shares her story of how she became involved with the Planned Parenthood organization in order to help women by providing them with birth control in order to prevent and reduce the number of abortions. She loved helping women so much that she eventually became the director of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Tx. She shares her experiences through the years with the Coalition for Life group that prayed on the other side of the fence at her clinic trying to talk women out of getting abortions. Eventually, after 8 years, she assisted in an abortion and actually seeing what happens along with the fact that, for the first time, Planned Parenthood had given her a goal of increasing the number of abortions at her clinic in order to bring in revenue, Abby changed her mind and joined the "other side".

I appreciate the fact that Abby presents a fair and balanced view of both sides of the issue. I found it sad that she experienced rejection from two different churches - one because she worked at an abortion clinic and later, another church because she had quit the clinic and was no longer seen as pro-choice.
I appreciate that the Coalition for Life just prays for and helps women and does not participate in the killing of abortion doctors and bombing of clinics and other outrageous things like that.
I also like that they pray for the people who work for and volunteer at the Planned Parenthood clinics.
I personally have always thought that both of the groups - those that are pro-choice and those that are anti-abortion are too extreme and I have been offended by the ones with the graphic signs and appalled by those who justify murdering doctors because they see it as saving lives.
I hope that Abby's group prays for those extremists as well. 
I think this book really shows the power of prayer and it's role in Abby's life.
I found this book to be very thought provoking.    

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

What an enchanting book! When Elizabeth gets an after school job working at the New-York Circulating Material Repository, she learns that magic really does exist and that many of the magical objects referred to in the Grimm fairy tales are kept in the repository. The Table-Be-Set, which fills with food when asked to is a fun magical object. Snow White's wicked stepmother's magic mirror is mean and bad-tempered. Some of the magical objects from the Grimm Collection, however, have disappeared and some have been replaced with non-magical duplicates. Together with her friends, co-workers Anjali, Marc and Aaron, Elizabeth is drawn into the mystery.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

What a totally awesome, fantastic book! 
An intriguing look at what life was like in the early 1960s in the south for black people before and during the civil rights movement.
What was it like to work as a black maid for a white family then?  The issue is explored with stories of several women in a fascinating tale.
The characters are well-developed and interesting and the story is one that you just can't put down.
I look forward to seeing the movie.