Huntington Public Library Adult Reading Challenge

  I've enjoyed every Kate DiCamillo book I've read and this one is no exception. She is the master of creating an atmosphere and a feeling with timeless settings and whimsical characters. It occurred to me now that Anne Tyler hits me in a similar way--except I have to account for the fact that "Ferris" is a middle grade novel. The feelings are the same though! One thing--and this is probably because I am an older grown-up reading this, but the pattern throughout this book with the vocabulary words and the beloved teacher who drilled them into Ferris and her friend Billy, while very well done and most likely necessary, kind of wore me down. I guess there's a part of me that is stubborn and believes to just put the impossible words in there and the reader will eventually look them up.

 The guardian's heir leave the Grey Tower to tell the Black tower that doom is coming. Then a girl eaves the grey tower to ask the balk tower to restore summer. The landscapes they separately travel through and the people they meet are bizarre and phantasmagoric - these changes are wonderfully weird and creative to read.

This was a charming read that played well to the line between fantasy and reality. I really enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspect of this story, and the eccentric nature of one main character. This was an easy read, and lots of fun!

  Vivi, a young witch living in a magical town in Georgia has her heart broken and in a drunken attempt to get over it, curses the boy who broke her heart. Nine years later, the boy, Rhys, reappears in her town- as handsome and magically capable as ever. Despite the shakeup, things appear to be status quo until the magic of the town starts to go haywire. Vivi begins to realize that the curse she placed on Rhys may actually be real, and the two have to work together to lift the curse, restore the magic to rights, and maybe reconcile along the way? Cute and cozy, but still steamy, The Ex Hex is a whimsical, witchy journey into a town you wished you lived in, with a leading man you also wish was your boyfriend.