Destroy all Cars is one of the funniest books I’ve read in awhile.  James has a huge hate-on for cars, which he considers to be the gas guzzling, environment destroying symbol of everything that is wrong with Consumer American lifestyle.  James is also a bit of a slacker and he cuts the elbows out of his sweaters to make them look cooler, so it’s hard to take him too seriously.  The book is written as a series of essays James writes for his long-suffering English teacher, the subjects of which range from four page rants against his ex-girlfriend (Write About A Person Who Has Influenced You) to discussions about how much he wants to move to Norway to descriptions of his failures dating girls.  The essays are intermixed with scenes from James’ life and his conversations with friends and family.  

An excerpt:

“Went bowling with Gabe on Friday Night.  We were meeting a girl named Renee, who Gabe likes.  He wanted me to be his wingman.  Though I do not possess extensive “wingman” skills I agreed to go. 

Gabe’s mom drive us in the Ford Expedition.  I felt like an evil warlord sitting in the back of it, looking down on smaller more fuel-efficient cars.  I said nothing, though.”

As a small child, Grace was dragged off the tire swing in her backyard by a pack of ravenous wolves.  She didn’t die, though she has some scars from the event, but ever since she has been fascinated by the wolves.  She watches them ever winter, and knows them all, but one in particular grabs her imagination: the wolf with the yellow eyes.  When a guy in her class is killed by the wolves, the town goes into a state of panic.  The men of the town form a hunting party, and though she tries to stop them, later that night Grace finds a boy bleeding on her back porch.  A boy with yellow eyes, just like her wolf’s.  

Shiver is a book for all you Twilight fans.  It’s a romance, a mystery and an adventure.  It’s told in alternating perspectives between Grace and her boyfriend Sam.  Sam and Grace are meant for each other, but they both know they have only so much time before fate takes over.  Grace’s best friend Olivia has wolf problems of her own, and nasty-but-popular Isabel is mourning her dead brother and has blackmail on her mind.  Sam and Grace have to make their world safe before it’s too late
 

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This is the latest book by the author of Elsewhere, and it is even better.  In Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, Naomi falls down the stairs at the front of her school, hits her head and passes out.  When she wakes up the first thing she hears is James telling the EMTs that he is her boyfriend.  When they get to the hospital, Naomi knows her name, but she doesn’t know why she is in the hospital, what year it is, that James is not her boyfriend, or that her parents are divorced- she has forgotten the last four years of her life.  Once she gets out of the hospital, she has to try to start living her life again, but it’s not easy.  Along with her memories, she’s lost her likes and dislikes: why she’s dating boring, binge-drinking athlete Ace; why she spent hours every day co-editing the yearbook; what made her mad enough at her Mom to give her the silent treatment for three years; why she hates her Dad’s fiancée.  Everyone expects Naomi to go right back to her old life, but without her memories, she’s no longer the person she was. 

This is a really good story, and an excellent read.  It’s partially a family story, and partially a romance, but mainly it’s about a girl who is trying really hard to put the pieces of her broken life back together.  While her amnesia is in no way a good thing, in some cases it gives her a new perspective on her choices and lets her try things that she might not have in her pre-accident life.