Must-read book of 2009

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I can't remember the last time I finished a book and immediately wanted to read it again from the beginning. When You Reach Me is a mystery that will confuse the reader up until the last ten pages when all will be made clear. Miranda, a young latch-key kid living in NYC in the late 1970s, is generally a good kid. She helps her mother prepare for her turn on her favorite TV game show, loves re-reading her favorite book (A Wrinkle in Time) and is beginning to figure out how to really be a good friend. When she starts receiving strange letters that don't make sense, though, she is confused and somewhat scared. The letters ask her to write a letter of her own and tell her that if she does, her friend's life will be saved. The slow unfolding of this mystery is never boring. I liked everything about this book from the characters and their development down to the chapter titles, which I usually don't pay any attention. Every detail was just right and every word belonged. Kudos to the author for making this novel work even with the time-space complications. Highly recommended for all readers.

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New book!

If I Stay by Gayle Forman


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mia is a talented cellist who loves her family and her rocker boyfriend. Her life is great...before. After the car accident that kills her family she must decide whether life is worth living or if she should join them. Through flashbacks and memories, readers learn all about Mia's relationship with her friends, boyfriend and family members.

Fans of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones will love this book. If you like to be moved to tears, this is the book for you. Make sure you have kleenex nearby! This book is available in our new YA fiction section.

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Exclusively Chloe by Jonathan Yang

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Chloe-Grace is a celebrity child who’s led a life in the tabloids thanks to her adoptive parents. Her mom is an Oscar award-winning actress and her dad is a rock star. Chloe has led a pretty awesome life of shopping and being famous up until now, but now she’s starting to question everything. Would it be better to be anonymous? And how will she ever know if people really like her for the right reasons? When Chloe gets a make-under and goes undercover at a public school she discovers love, friendship and herself. I liked it!


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Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
"I went away for the summer, fell in love, and everything changed. It's the oldest story in the world." (p. 337)



It may be the oldest story in the world, but of course Sarah Dessen makes it feel fresh and new. Auden grew up too fast thanks to parents who fought all the time and the academic drive she inherited from/did to please her mother. Visiting her father (and his new wife and baby) during the summer before college in the small beach town of Colby, she meets Eli, a boy haunted by his past. Eli and Auden, both insomniacs, begin to spend their sleepless nights together wandering the town of Colby and eventually helping Auden complete childhood experiences she missed the first time around. Sub-plots abound and are all richly explored. Another fabulous book by Sarah Dessen! A must-read for teens who have ever enjoyed one of her other books or for anyone who likes teen romance books that are fully developed.


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48 hr personal challenge UPDATE: 12.5 hours read/listened
# books finished: 4

3.5 hours in: finished FIRE!

Fire is the companion novel or prequel to Cashore's debut novel (which I LOVED), Graceling. In case you haven't read it yet (go get it!! now!!), Graceling is about a world of seven kingdoms where some people are born with special gifts, graces. The main character, Katsa, has the gift of killing people, but is tired of being manipulated by the king to inflict harm on others. She and Prince Po, another Graceling who is almost her match in a fight (and other ways!), much work together on an adventure that reveals the most dangerous Grace of all.

Fire is loosely related to Graceling. I don't want to say too much since this book won't actually be released until September. Speaking generally, I'll say that I've fallen even more in love with the way Kristin Cashore builds new worlds and for her ability to create kick-butt female characters who are complex and real. What made so many teens here at the Millicent Library swoon over Graceling, though, was the romance. Fire is even more romantic. I promise!

I wish I could say more about this one, but I'll hold off until after September 9. !!
If you want to know more about Kristin Cashore, visit her blog/website. She lives in Massachusetts!

(many thanks again to my friend Nicole who lent her ARC from BEA to me!)

48 hr personal challenge UPDATE: 3.5 hours read/listened
# books finished: 1 (almost done with 2nd)

So a few weeks ago a blogger that I read hosted a 48 hour Book Challenge. The idea is to read as many books as possible and blog about them, too. I couldn't do it at that time, but now I'm totally game. I've got a free weekend, it's RAINING and I have a huge stack of good books I can't wait to read.

My goal: to read for at least 20 hours and finish at least five books (including ones I've already started)

Here are some of the titles I may or may not get to this weekend:

YA SciFi/Fantasy

ARC (advanced release copy!!) Fire by Kristin Cashore (almost finished)
Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby
NEW Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd
How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

YA Fiction

NEW Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
NEW Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
NEW Exclusively Chloe by J.A. Yang

Audio (great for still getting other things done like housework! and walking the dogs!)

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (halfway through already)
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Graphic Novel

NEW Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang

Adult

NEW The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale (YA connection: Hale wrote The Princess Academy, The Goose Girl series and Rapunzel's Revenge, a fabulous graphic novel!!)

Be on the lookout for lots of reviews over the weekend!!

Forest of Hands and Teeth video

Go check out Jackie & Sylvia's response via YOUTUBE to zombie thriller The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. It's ridiculous!!

DULL BOY by Sarah Cross

Dull Boy by Sarah Cross

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Avery is not normal. He has superhuman strength and the best superpower ever: he can FLY. It's a lonely life as a superteen, though...until he meets some other teens with cool powers and an adult named Cherchette who has powers and claims to also have answers AND solutions to his fears. Now Avery faces a difficult decision: who does he trust? There are some good twists in here and the ending was definitely unexpected for me. I'm looking forward to the sequel! Wish I could give it 4 1/2 stars...


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Catching Fire!!!

So I have a confession to make. I got a copy of Catching Fire in the mail from a friend of mine who went to Books Expo America (BEA for short) and I read it. In one sitting. While chewing my nails down to nothing. I wish I could share it with some of you, but I have to send it back to my friend. You can read it yourself starting September 1st, but in the meantime, just know that IT IS AWESOME. I didn't believe it possible, but it may actually even be better than Hunger Games. !!

While you're waiting for the book to be released, here's a little trailer to keep you excited:

Do you love Generation Dead?? Two pieces of news related to that book:

1. There's a NEW book in the series:Kiss of Life came out May 12!! Whoo!! Our copy is on the way. :)

2. Author Daniel Waters is looking for places to stop on his Zombies Across America tour. Go to his blog and tell him in the comments that he should come to the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts!!!

Blog address again: http://mysocalledundeath.blogspot.com/

Let's get an author visit!!

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Talia has been asleep for 300 years, ala Sleeping Beauty. Jack is bored on vacation in Europe and stumbles across her sleeping village, the beauteous Talia...and can't help kissing her. Although Talia has been wakened by what she believes is "true love's first kiss," the witch/fairy Malvolia is still threatening Talia in her dreams. Told in alternating chapters, A Kiss in Time follows what happens next. Although Talia's transformation in the book is a bit less believable than Jack's, I had great fun reading this book. It was fun seeing Talia figure out the 21st century, especially the behavior and dress of young adults (in modern-day Miami no less!). People certainly don't wear ball gowns anymore! Her diplomatic skills came in handy with Jack's younger sister and mother; Talia managed to bring out the best in everyone and eventually that's what draws Jack to her. (I want to be able to give this 3 1/2 stars.)


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The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Zombies are the new Vampires! well, probably not. But this book certainly kept me on edge and gave me crazy zombie nightmares. Mary lives in a small fenced-in village in the middle of the Forest with Unconsecrated (read: ZOMBIES) moaning at the fences all day long. The Unconsecrated want to eat human flesh and create more zombies. In the first chapter Mary's mother is infected and Mary must watch her mother transform into a zombie before being released into the forest. ugh...bad day. Mary's existence is ruled by the Sisterhood, a religious order that governs over the village. While living with the Sisters, however, Mary discovers that there may be life outside the village. This reignites her hope in some day seeing the ocean, a mythical place that her many-greats grandmother is rumored to have visited. When Mary (and some others including the two men who love her--yes, it's also a romance) escape from the village after a zombie attack, she must convince the others that there is hope and there may be a world without the Unconsecrated.



This book is being optioned for a movie--it will definitely be a horror film (which mean I probably won't see it!!). I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes suspenseful books, romance or action scenes where zombie heads are being whacked off left and right.


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Breaking Dawn first page!

For all you Twilight fans out there, here is the first page of Stephenie Meyer's newest book! Breaking Dawn isn't coming out until August 2nd, but you can get a sneak peek here.

I can't wait to read more about Bella and her engagement to Edward! (I'm personally hoping she realizes her HUGE mistake and ends up with Jake).

UPDATE: Check out the cover!


2ND UPDATE: a fan blog took pictures of the whole first chapter of Breaking Dawn from the Eclipse Special Edition...see it here!

New books!

J Fiction:

Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes
Confessions of a Serial Kisser by Wendelin Van Draanen
100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson

YA Fiction:

Me, the Missing and the Dead by Jenny Valentine
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
How to be Bad by e. lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle
The Market by J.M. Steele

Science Fiction:

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
The Gravity Keeper by Simon Bloom

New books!

Fiction and SciFi
First Shot by Walter Sorrells
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Lucky by Rachel Vail
Skin Hunter by Kathleen Duey
FrostBite (A Vampire Academy Novel) by Richelle Mead
Borderline by Bonnie Rozanski

Graphic Novels
A Nightmare on Elm Street by Dixon/West/Almond
Laika by Abadeis