This book was on NPR’s top YA Fiction books for 2009 recently, and the brief description intrigued me: a young girl growing up in NYC in the 1970s finds her life has changed the day her best friend gets punched and her mom learns she’ll appear on the $20,000 pyramid.  Stead crafts a great science mystery, without creating a science fiction novel.  Its clear that Stead takes great influence from A Wrinkle in Time- another well crafted science, fiction novel (but not science fiction).  Does that make sense?  You should read this book if you like science, Back to the Future, time travel, A Wrinkle in Time, and/or the 1970s.

(Also: 9 books to read before the end of 2009.  I’m determined to do it! I had to put leisurely reading on hold while I attended to my first semester of grad school, but its winter break and I’m ready to rock the next 9 books.)