FINDING GRACE by Alyssa Brugman

Published in 2001 by Delacorte Press

Synopsis: 

Rachel lives in Australia and is a brand new graduate of high school. She is ready to head off to college but she needs a job and a place to live that is close to the university.

She finds both when the enigmatic Mr. Preston offers her a place to live just a few blocks from campus in exchange for watching over a woman named Grace. 

Rachel knows that Grace was brain damaged in some sort of accident, but not much more than that. Grace can walk and feed herself - but that's about all she can do. She cannot talk, she cannot bathe herself, she cannot communicate in any way.

Rachel spends the night with Grace, feeds Grace and watches over her much like a nanny watches a small child. She gets time off for classes, when the nurses come for physical therapy, and when Mr. Preston comes over to spend time with Grace.

My Review:

The author

I expected nothing from this book. Several year ago, I picked it up from a pile of books that were being shipped out of my school building because they weren't part of the curriculum any longer. The book sat in my to-be-read while for so long that I thought (because of the title) I was picking up one of the religious titles I had bought a couple of years ago. 

This wasn't the book that I was expecting, but it was a good book. Not much goes on, but it is a good coming of age book about transitions, love, rivalry, and dedication. 

I rate this book 4 start out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: FINDING GRACE by Alyssa Brugman.

THE ASSAULT (RECON TEAM ANGEL #1) by Brian Falkner

Published in September of 2013

The Assault (Recon Team Angel #1) is the first in a series of books about teenage human soldiers used to infiltrate the ranks of alien invaders of Earth through secret missions.

The premise is that a group of aliens called Bzadians arrived at Earth and settled in the Australian Outback because it was most like their home. Their ships had no propulsion systems to let them take back off of Earth and humanity was persuaded to let them settle in Australia.

But, it turns out that these original ships were the advance force for a full-fledged invasion. Australia became their stronghold and the from their the Bzadians invaded Asia, Africa and Europe. Now, only the Americas hold them off. 

Because of the slight, short stature of the Bzadians, human teenagers have been recruited to undergo plastic surgery and go behind enemy lines to gather intelligence and, if possible, actually do some damage.

In this book, the target is the massive rock formation known as Uluru or Ayers Rock. The aliens have been building around it and through it the entire time and clearly have a lot invested there. Recon Team Angel is supposed to secretly "parachute" into the Outback, hike to Uluru, blend in with the aliens,  check out what is going on and, if possible, deal with it.

But, immediately there is a problem when the team leader barely survives his insertion into the Outback thanks to someone tampering with his equipment. Which means that one of his team must be a traitor...

This is a solid action-based science fiction story. It is long on adventure but it does manage to work in some character development as well. It even goes so far as to give the point of view of some of the alien soldiers to add a little complexity and depth to the story. The strength of the story is action and there certainly was plenty of that and it was well done.

I rate this YA novel 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Assault (Recon Team Angel #1)

The Pilots by James Spencer

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An excellent book of vignettes about World War II's Pacific Theater

Published in 2003 by Putnam Adult

The Pilots consists of a series of short stories, mostly about American pilots of B-24s in the Pacific Theater in World War II. The stories are all related to one another but any one of them is also a stand-alone story on its own (in fact, the author notes in the back note that 5 of the stories were previously published independent of one another in magazines). The dust jacket liner notes call it a novel-in-stories.

Spencer's book consists of 15 vignettes about the lives of two pilots. The first one is about their childhood. It is by far the weakest of the stories. It has the least to do with the war, but it is a decent little story about the Great Depression. The rest of them give us a little taste of the action in the air over the Pacific but also a sense of life back on base and on the atmosphere of the pilots on leave in Australia.

The book is a breeze to read and quite enjoyable. As a memoir in fiction, one can assume that some of it really happened to Spencer, some of it is based on things he heard about and some of it he just made up. Either way, I enjoyed it.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Pilots by James Spencer.

Reviewed on July 10, 2006.