Friday, November 6, 2009

Friday Finds (11/06/09)


Friday Finds at the Store is a meme hosted by Jennay at My Tea Time is Book Time. It is totally easy and everyone can join. Basically just post the books you found at the bookstore or library. Now others can see the great finds you had and maybe they will pick it up on their next bookstore/library run. HAPPY readings!!!

From the inside flap of Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns...Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend---thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom---Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.

However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to---perhaps most dangerously of all---her growing attraction to a handsome art student...and attraction that could jeopardize everything.

What did you find?

Review: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Title: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
Author: Deb Caletti
ISBN/Publisher: 978-1-4169-5783-6/Simon Pulse (part of Simon & Schuster)
Age Group/Genre: Young Adult

Sixteen year old Ruby McQueen is the straight laced, good girl...until she finds herself walking onto Travis Becker's front lawn. Hot, rich boy Travis and his motorcycle change Ruby's life. She finds herself acting brave around him and yet not herself. She can't resist Travis and his fast motorcycle and his crazy adventures. Ruby starts sneaking around and breaking into peoples homes. She just can't stay away from him. But is she in love with him or the motorcycle?

At the same time, Ruby is getting frustrated with her mother. Her mom keeps falling for Ruby's dad even though he left them long ago. Her mom is a librarian and finds that her ex-husband, the musician (and the father of her children) is just impossible to stay away from. The visits make her act like that crazy woman in love, but she knows he never stays. Now, is she really in love with him or the guitar?

Ruby's mom notices the difficulties of keeping her distance from this man and also realizes Ruby is falling into the same trap. To save her daughter, they attend a book group with a bunch of fun elderly people. And one of these women is the inspiration to the novel they are reading. After discovering the novel is based on true love that never found each other, Ruby, her mother, and the rest of the book group want to reunite the love birds in the book.

Will the reading group show Ruby and her mom what true love looks like or will they return to their boys with the guitar and motorcycle?

This is such a fun book to read. Honey, Baby, Sweetheart shows the bond of a mother and daughter and the parallels of their love relationships. It is wonderful to read a book that brings the mother/daughter relationship together. It is also wonderful for a book lover to read about a fun book group made of good friends. Caletti does an awesome job writing about the strong feeling of love for someone you can never have and what it makes you do. She adds humor to the story and makes you feel like you're in the story seeing the characters reactions to each other. Come on...Ruby uses mini-pads under her armpits to absorb the sweat while she's doing a speech and there's the funny part where they need to kidnap (or senior citizen-nap) someone from the nursing home...you know you want to read it!!!

I definitely recommend this book. It is totally fun and easy!!!

Favorite parts...

Love can come when you're already who you are, when you are filled with you. Not when you look to someone else to fill the empty space. Miz June page 237

A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem, or as bad or good, as vulnerable or as strong, as sweet or as feisty; we are thickly layered, page lying upon page, behind simple covers. And love---it is not the book itself, but the binding. It can rip us apart or hold us together. My mother has always said that a book is worthy of a strong embrace, but, too, you must be gentle with one. Careful in whose hands you put it. Layers, by their nature, are fragile things. Ruby page 301

My Rating:
Now go and grab your cup of tea (or whatever beverage you prefer) and HAPPY readings!!!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Review: Fever 1793


Title: Fever 1793
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
ISBN/Publisher: 0-689-84891-9/Aladdin Paperbacks (part of Simon & Schuster)
Age Group/Genre: ages 10 and up

Fourteen year-old Matilda Cook lives in Philadelphia, the nation's capital at the end of the eighteenth century. She works for her widowed mom in their family's coffee shop. Her family is struggling when the city is hit with an epidemic and everyone is vulnerable.

Mattie's mom becomes sick and forces Matty and her grandfather to leave the city to escape the illness. However, Mattie isn't safe on the road either and the whole time she is gone she is trying to find her way back to her home town and her only parent.

Will Mattie and her family survive the yellow fever epidemic?

Laurie Halse Anderson writes a well-written story about a teenage girl's experience during the yellow fever outbreak. All the characters in this book are believable and lovable. So, keep the tissues near by because you'll fall in love with these characters and want to protect them through this ordeal.

I don't really remember reading a lot about this epidemic in my U.S. history classes, so this book was a wonderful read. I learned a lot even though this is a historical fiction novel. The back of the book includes an appendix to give more information about the happenings during this time period.

Mattie Cook is a strong female character and I wish I met her when I was in eighth grade during U.S. history. But the book was published that year and I'm kind of sad I didn't discover it then. As a future teacher, I will recommend this book to history teachers to add to their libraries and I want my thirteen year old niece to read it (she's taking U.S. history right now in 8th grade). So, everyone...if you get the chance to read it, please do!!!

My Rating

Now go and grab your cup of tea (or whatever beverage you prefer) and HAPPY readings!!!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Review: The Queen of Everything


Title: The Queen of Everything
Author: Deb Caletti
ISBN/Publisher: 978-1-4169-5781-2/Simon Pulse (Part of Simon & Schuster)
Age Group/Genre: Young Adult

Jordan MacKenzie lives with her normally sane, optometrist father. But things start to change when he gets involved with a married woman and kills someone. Jordan tells the story of the summer that changed her life. She talks about her hippie mom and her artist step-dad that run a bed and breakfast, her best friend Melissa and their job at a weight loss company ran by a Christian couple.

But the story is about Jordan and her quest to find who she is and realizes that she doesn't like being known as the daughter of the guy that killed someone. She is always talking about the advice that Big Mama gave her throughout her childhood. And while all this is going on, she struggles with the everyday drama of a teenage girl...does this boy really like me and how far should I take things with him?

Will Jordan find peace with herself and with her dad???

This book was kind of hard for me to get into. It wasn't like Wild Roses which I loved. However, the story did get better towards the end when it started to concentrate more on Jordan and her identity. Don't get me wrong, the story about her normal dad gone stalker was different and nice to read about, but I wanted more into Jordan's story and her young adult life.

I don't have much to say about this book because I wasn't wowed by it. I think I was more motivated to read the whole story because I wanted to know who Big Mama was. She was the one lady in the beginning of the book that made Jordan see clearly and I wanted to be introduced to her. So, if your looking for a quick read...pick this one up, but it probably isn't worth buying.

Favorite line...
What I'm saying I guess, Jordan, is, when you need help, there is always something to bring you home. Jackson page 314

My Rating:

Now go and grab your cup of tea (or whatever beverage you prefer) and HAPPY readings!!!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Author Update: Ann Brashares

Author Ann Brashares (I spotlighted her in August) announced on her site that she finished a novel. My Name is Memory will be published by Riverhead Books in June 2010.

Make sure you check out her site to read an excerpt from the new novel.

Author Spotlight: Jodi Picoult

Another month, another spotlight and this month I will be working on books by Jodi Picoult.

I decided to dedicate a month to reading as many of her books because I really enjoyed My Sister's Keeper and thought I definitely need to read her other ones.

Now here is the little bio...I took the info from her site (if you want more information, be sure to click on her photo up top to get to her site)

Jodi Picoult went to Princeton and studied creative writing. While she was there she had a few short stories published in Seventeen (the magazine). After her jobs as a technical writer for a Wall Street brokerage firm, a copywriter at an ad agency, an editor at a textbook publishing company, and an eighth grader English teacher...she went to Harvard to get a masters in education. She lives with her family in Hanover, New Hampshire

Here are the books...
Songs of a Humpback Whale (1992)
Harvesting the Heart (1993)
Picture Perfect (1995)
Mercy (1996)
The Pact (1998)
Keeping Faith (1999)
Plain Truth (1999)
Salem Falls (2001)
Perfect Match (2002)
Second Glance (2003)
My Sister's Keeper
(2004)
Vanishing Acts (2005)
The Tenth Circle (2006)
Nineteen Minutes (2007)
Change of Heart (2008)
Handle with Care (2009)

Books adapted into movies and made for TV movies...
The Pact (2002) Movie on Lifetime
Plain Truth (2004) Movie on Lifetime
The Tenth Circle (2008) Movie on Lifetime
My Sister's Keeper (2009) Feature film

Now go and grab your cup of tea or J. Picoult's prefered french vanilla coffee (or whatever beverage you prefer) along with a Jodi Picoult book and HAPPY readings!!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Shout Out...Another contest and more


Escape In A Book is giving away books to two different winners. Each winner gets to choose one book from the ones up top. It is open internationally so click on the image above to enter...gogogogogo (ends November 30).

+ Any of the books from The Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare (City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass).
+ Any of the books from the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Blood Promise).
+ The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
+ Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
+ Paper Towns by John Green
+ Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
+ Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
+ Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
+ Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
+ Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
+ Looking for Alaska by John Green
+ Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn
+ The Host by Stephenie Meyer
+ Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Check out all these books that you can choose from at [Bloggers [[heart]] Books]. You can pick one from above and win...it is open to everyone and ends November 6...gogogogo!!!



You can win these five books from Sharon Loves Books and Cats. You just need to click on the image above to enter and it is available world wide...gogogogogo (Ends November 7).

Alaine at Queen of Happy Endings is giving away these books. Make sure you click on the image above to enter. It is open until November 25th to everyone...gogoggogo!!!