In My Mailbox (16)

Feb 26

February 26, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees!

Got some FAB stuff this week for the Debut Author Challenge ARC tour and some SWEET deals for mah Kindle. Woot!

FROM THE DAC ARC TOUR

I have been SO LUCKY with the books I’ve gotten/will be getting for the DAC ARC tours. I’m seriously psyched about all of them, including these three!

Look at these beauties!!

Above World: Above World #1, by Jenn Reese (February 14, 2012 from Candlewick). Finished this one already, friends, and it was some SOLID middle-grade sci-fi/dystopian. Very clever and zippy. Review going up soon!

Unraveling: Unraveling #1, by Elizabeth Norris (April 24, 2012 from Balzer + Bray). Reading this one now and, guys? IT’S AWESOME. It sucked me right in. And according to the authoress herself, there will be MOAR. As much as I would LOVE to see a book like this as a stand-alone just for funsies, I can’t say that I’m not JAZZED to the extreme that there will be more Janelle and Ben. And I’m not even finished with it yet.

The Catastrophic History of You and Me, by Jess Rothenberg (February 21, 2012 from Dial Books). JUST got this one in the mail and YAY! I’ve been looking forward to reading this book about a girl who literally dies of a broken heart for AGES. Can’t wait!

Thanks LOADS to Tara @ Fiction Folio and Lisa @ Lisa Is Busy Nerding for organizing the tours for these books. Also for being FABULOUS.

BOUGHT

The Highlander’s Sword and The Highlander’s Heart: Highlander #1-2, by Amanda Forester. These were some cheap goodies for the kindle, and I can’t think of anything that sounds bad about either of them right now, mostly because THERE’S SCOTTISH MEN who wear kilts in them. My weakness for kilts and guys who say things like “och” and “aye lass” knows no end. I have high hopes for these two!

I hope you guys got some great things in your mailboxes this week!!

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Five-Star Friday: Going Too Far

Feb 24

Five-Star Friday is a periodically regular (say what?!) feature that I’m planning on running on Fridays (but not every Friday) in which I talk about (or verbally drool over) a book that I’ve read and ADORED (sometimes they’ll be recent releases and other times they might be older…my piles are tall and the bottoms are old). Yay! I always feel so happy and light and wonderful when I am beside myself with delight over a book, and I want to share the love with you all in the hopes that we can all get together and have an embarrassing, squeal-filled love-fest full of lots of high-pitched “Ohmygod, I KNOW!s” and chest-clutching sighs of contentedness. Huzzah!*

Five-Star Friday time, friends! Today, I’m highlighting one of my FAVORITE contemporaries EVER: Jennifer Echols’ GOING TOO FAR.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Five-Star Friday, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Review | Me and Earl and the Dying Girl | Jesse Andrews

Feb 23

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | Me and Earl and the Dying Girl | Jesse AndrewsMe and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Published by Amulet Books on March 1, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Death/Dying/Grief, Young Adult
Pages: 295
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: 2012 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , ,

Waiting on Wednesday (15): Fingerprints of You

Feb 22

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I love it because it is basically a squee-fest where book lovers can choose one book that they are DYING to get their hands on. Check it out!

Fingerprints of You

by Kristen-Paige Madonia

Lemon grew up with Stella, a single mom who wasn’t exactly maternal. Stella always had a drink in her hand and a new boyfriend every few months, and when things got out of hand, she would whisk Lemon off to a new town for a fresh beginning. Now, just as they are moving yet again, Lemon discovers that she is pregnant from a reckless encounter—with a guy Stella had been flirting with.

On the verge of revisiting her mother’s mistakes, Lemon struggles to cope with the idea of herself as a young unmarried mother, as well as the fact that she’s never met her own father. Determined to have at least one big adventure before she has the baby, Lemon sets off on a cross-country road trip, intending not only to meet her father, but to figure out who she wants to be.

Guys, FINGERPRINTS OF YOU sounds twisty and complex and complicated. With the recent-ish popularity of teenage mothers on TV and elsewhere, and the growing understanding of the difficulties they must deal with raising their own children when they are still basically children themselves, I think that this book sounds incredibly interesting and relevant. BONUS: it also sounds plain AWESOME. The first paragraph of this summary reminds me of that movie Mermaids, with Cher and Winona Rider: a mom who acts like a teenager and a daughter who struggles to fit in as they bounce around and find herself and understand relationships without becoming her mom in the process.  And DOUBLE BONUS: ROAD TRIP!!! GAH!! You all know that I LOVE road trips. FINGERPRINTS OF YOU sounds like a solidly juicy coming-of-age that I can’t wait to get my mitts on.

Also, on a totally superficial note, LOOK at this COVER!! It’s so colorful and bright and gorgeous! I’m assuming that it’s maybe supposed to look like a tattoo, because that’s what it looks like to me, but WOW! So eye-catching.

FINGERPRINTS OF YOU is coming out August 7, 2012 from Simon & Schuster BFYR.

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Top Ten Tuesday (15)

Feb 21

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That I’d Save From Aliens

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!

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Book Review | The Académie | Susanne Dunlap

Feb 20

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | The Académie | Susanne DunlapThe Academie by Susanne Dunlap
Published by Bloomsbury on February 28, 2012
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 368
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
two-stars

Eliza Monroe—daughter of the future president of the United States—is devastated when her mother decides to send her to boarding school outside of Paris. But the young American teen is quickly reconciled to the idea when—ooh, la-la!—she discovers who her fellow pupils will be: Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine Bonaparte; and Caroline Bonaparte, youngest sister of the famous French general. It doesn’t take long for Eliza to figure out that the two French girls are mortal enemies—and that she’s about to get caught in the middle of their schemes.

Loosely drawn from history, Eliza Monroe’s imagined coming of age provides a scintillating glimpse into the lives, loves, and hopes of three young women during one of the most volatile periods in French history.

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Filed Under: 2012 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , ,

In My Mailbox (15)

Feb 19

February 19, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees!

This week is about quality not quantity, friends. Check it!

FROM NETGALLEY

Kill Me Softly, by Sarah Cross (April 10, 2012 from EgmontUSA). Guys, I am SO EXCITED about this book. I’ve been waiting for it basically because it sounds like Once Upon a Time in a book, and THAT sounds BANANAS. 

(Thanks muchly to Egmont USA for this gem!)

FROM THE LIBRARY

Virtuosity, by Jessica Martinez. I love reading about young people who have creative talents like drawing or music or dancing, mostly because I can’t really do any of those things at all, so I get to pretend vicariously that I’m artistically gifted. This book is about a violinist who gets caught up in some relationship dramz that could affect her winning a major competition. VIOLINIST. #mydreaminstrument

Lady of the Forest and Lady of Sherwood: Sherwood #1 and #2, by Jennifer Roberson. ROBIN ‘OOD!! Maid Marian!! And a pox on the phony king of England, Prince John!! I love Robin Hood, and I’ve heard admittedly both good and not-so-good things about Jennifer Roberson’s Sherwood series, but I love the Robin Hood legend so much that I’m going for it. I had NO IDEA though that the first book is a DOOR STOP. Good thing I LOVE door stops!

How about you, my dears? Anything tremendous in your mailboxes?

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Graffiti Moon: The Artwork

Feb 17

So I talked about how Cath Crowely’s AMAZING book GRAFFITI MOON has pretty words in it. But as I was reading, I couldn’t help wondering what exactly all the artwork Lucy and Ed talk about and bond over looked like. It was all so important to them, and I had a major hankering to see the things that inspired them as artists and brought them together as kindred spirits in so many ways. I trolled the internet and found some images. The pictures link back to their sources, so click on ’em and peek around.

Also, in my internet travels to unearth some images of works mentioned in GRAFFITI MOON, I stumbled across this post by Adele from Persnickety Snark, an AWESOME Aussie blogger. She apparently had the same urge as I did and so she made a post, too. Check out her post for some other images and a little commentary as well.

V&A Chandelier, by Dale Chihuly

V&A Chandelier (detail), by Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is Lucy’s IDOL. And seriously, you guys NEED to check out Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures, if you think you might be interested in them. It’s a NO BRAINER that Lucy would idolize him. His stuff is STUNNING.

Solitude, by Rosalie Gascoigne

This was Ed’s favorite Rosalie Gascoigne painting.

No. 301 (Reds and Violet over Red/Red and Blue over Red) by Mark Rothko

Lucy and Ed have some good, deep talks about this Rothko.

Till the Heart Caves In by Michael Zavros

I kind of love this. Lucy uses this drawing to describe what being in love feels like. Her words are STELLAR and beautiful (I believe this is from p. 66 of my ARC): “It’s of a horse falling, tumbling from the sky, legs to the clouds. There’s no way to right itself. It seems to me it doesn’t know how it got there, or where it is, or why it’s falling…it’s got something to do with how love should be. ‘You should feel it like a horse tumbling through you’.”

Filed Under: Young Adult Tagged With: ,

Book Review | Graffiti Moon | Cath Crowley

Feb 17

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | Graffiti Moon | Cath CrowleyGraffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Published by Knopf on February 14, 2012
Genres: Aussie YA, Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Pages: 260
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
five-stars

Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she’s going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He’s out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy’s stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she’s managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they’re suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

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Filed Under: Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , ,

Book Review | The Garden Intrigue | Lauren Willig

Feb 16

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | The Garden Intrigue | Lauren WilligThe Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig
Series: Pink Carnation #9
Published by Dutton Adult on February 16, 2012
Genres: Adult, Europe, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance
Pages: 388
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
five-stars

Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can’t bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage.

New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus’s side. An old school friend of Napoleon’s stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the American envoy; eloped with a Frenchman; and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus’s poetry.

As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend’s entertainment.

Emma is at a crossroads: Should she return to the States or remain in France? She’ll do anything to postpone the decision-even if it means teaming up with that silly poet Whittlesby to write a masque for Bonaparte’s house party. But each soon learns that surface appearances are misleading. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted- especially Augustus’s feelings for Emma.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Adult, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,
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