WWW Wednesday

What are you currently reading?
Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein
Rhoda, Emilia, and Teo moved to Ethiopia from the United States in the 1930s. They wanted to escape the racial tensions and judgement that came along with a white woman raising a black child. They fell in love with their new country. When war with Italy threatens, they find themselves caught up in a new conflict. Will their new country save them or tear them apart?

This is the first of Wein's books that I've read and only a few chapters in I'm already very much invested in the story. She has remarkable way of writing characters we want to care about. I love what I've read already and don't expect that opinion to change.
 
What did you recently finish reading?
The Tightrope Walkers by David Almond
Dominic Hall feels like life is pulling him in many different directions. He wants to spend time with both Holly Stroud, his gentle and artistic neighbor, and Vincent McAlinden, a local thug with a reputation for being dangerously unpredictable. His mother encourages him to focus on his education and reach for higher things while his ship-builder father wants him to stay grounded in his current reality. Dominic can't even make heads or tails of his own nature. What sort of person is he really?

This book lacks the magical elements common in Almond's books. It's a fascinating exploration of growing up and discovering yourself. Dominic makes good and bad choices, heads in directions we wonder if he can come back from, faces nearly overwhelming odds. Mostly, this is a story of the constant state of becoming we find ourselves in as people.
 
What do you think you will read next?
Between Now and Never by Laura Johnston
This is part of my continuing effort to read stuff I wouldn't normally pick. A teen romance, this one promises a car accident, amnesia, and FBI involvement.