Two book trailers you should see if you haven't already!

I know lately I've been posting A TON of videos but please bear with me! I should have a review up either today or tomorrow. Until then...enjoy the videos!

Have you read UNBROKEN?

I'm not a big fan of nonfiction but one of my courses this semester made it mandatory that I read certain nonfiction/travel guides. I briefly mentioned one of these novels in a Friday Five post a few days ago and now I'm taking the time to mention another one of those books I was under obligation to read. If I didn't have to write four papers on this book, I never would've read it on my own. (I finished writing those four papers if you')

Laura Hillenbrand's UNBROKEN tells the story of Louie Zamperini, a man who was clearly destined for great things. I won't bore you with many details but I have to say, reading about Louie's life (from when he was a boy to when he became an airman in the war) was incredible. The things that this man went through in order to SURVIVE... I can't even fathom it. I don't want to spoil the book by explaining what went on but I wanted to mention it on the blog because I honestly believe that people should read this book. I enjoyed it immensely; it gave me chills, it gave me knowledge of a war that I knew little to nothing about and ultimately, it gave me a deep appreciation for the men who risked their lives in order to serve their country. And since I can never read a novel without a critical eye, I have to commend Hillenbrand on how incredibly well-written and researched this book was. Her writing ability is astounding, to say the least.  

I'll end this long rambling of mine by posting the book trailer for UNBROKEN. It's such a powerful story and Laura Hillenbrand's narrative lends itself beautifully; if you see it at the library, I recommend picking it up!

Waiting on Wednesday 52

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life. [from goodreads]

I read up on this the other day and it said somewhere that this book would appeal to fans of Supernatural. (Those Winchester boys..... *swoon*) If this is true, then Anna Dressed In Blood promises to be kickass!
Ghost hunting, murderous ghosts and a snarky guy protagonist? I'm so there. :D

Can I distract you with some awesome music?

Hey everyone! I know I've been absent lately from the blog and I'm sorry about that. As you already know, school's been my number one priority as of late and I wish I could say that things have been easier (since the semester's almost over) but that is far from the truth. I'm still busy with homework and I'm not sure when I'll be back completely but I'll try to have a review up by the end of this week. And possibly do a giveaway in the near future. We'll see. For now, though, I'll have to keep neglecting my poor little blog. *pets it* I'll be back soon and updating regularly--especially since BEA is coming up. (And yup, I'm going! I don't know if I'll be attending all three days but I am planning on going for ONE of those days. I have to. O_O)

Before I go, I leave you with one of my favorite songs from Juanes. It's in spanish but the music's catchy. I hope you enjoy it :)

Waiting on Wednesday 51

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

A summer job is exactly the distraction that Chelsea needs in order to finally get over Ezra, the boy who dumped her on her a** and broke her heart to pieces just a few weeks before. So when Chelsea's best friend, Fiona, signs them up for roles at Essex Historical Colonial Village, Chelsea doesn't protest too hard, even though it means spending the summer surrounded by drama geeks and history nerds. Chelsea will do anything to forget Ezra.

But when Chelsea and Fiona show up for their new jobs, they find out Ezra's working there too. Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. ...or will this turn out to be exactly the summer that Chelsea needed, after all?

This cover makes me smile. It looks so...bubbly (despite the fact that the girl is in the rain). I love the color of her coat and how the rain drops are actually chalk marks. Bonus points to the cover designer(s) for combining creativity and cuteness! What are you waiting for this Wednesday? :)

Mini-review: The Treasure Map of Boys by E. Lockhart

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date: July 28th, 2009
Source: Publisher
My Goodreads rating

(Summary has spoilers for the last two books!)

Ruby is back at Tate Prep, and it’s her thirty-seventh week in the state of Noboyfriend. Her panic attacks are bad, her love life is even worse, and what’s more: Noel is writing her notes, Jackson is giving her frogs, Gideon is helping her cook, and Finn is making her brownies. Rumors are flying, and Ruby’s already-sucky reputation is heading downhill.

Not only that, she’s also: running a bake sale, learning the secrets of heavymetal therapy, encountering some seriously smelly feet, defending the rights of pygmy goats, and body-guarding Noel from unwanted advances.

In this companion novel to The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book, Ruby struggles to secure some sort of mental health, to understand what constitutes a real friendship, and to find true love—if such a thing exists.

Isn't that cover so deliciously cute? I love the original covers much more than the new ones.... but anyways. Ruby Oliver continues to suffer from panic attacks and boy drama. She's still trying to deal with the fact that the school has branded her as the school slut and she's trying really hard not to screw up her tentative friendship with Nora, one of her former friends who turned her back on her when all the list drama went down. She's also desperately trying to figure out who she should really be with: Jackson or Noel? (I vote Noel.) There's still the same heightened sense of emotional turmoil but instead of drowning herself in confusion and panic attacks, Roo is different in this installment. In The Treasure Map of Boys, Roo finally gets that clarity that us readers have been dying for her to have! All those epiphanies that should've hit her in the last two books come crashing down on her in the third book and I kept saying FINALLY!!! Roo, my lovely, it was time for you to stop deluding yourself!

Final Verdict: Don't get me wrong. That last paragraph seems to show frustration with Roo but I wasn't frustrated: I was actually very happy with how the events unfolded in TTMoB and I'm ecstatic that Roo finally "got" it. She realized who her true friends were and that nothing was wrong with her; she (and other people) messed up multiple times but one usually has to make mistakes in order to get to where they should be. Roo's finally there, and I can't wait to see what happens to her in the last book (although I'm a little sad. I'll miss her kooky ways!). Oh and there was kissing in this book. I totally dug those scenes<3  As well as the foot notes... Sigh. I seriously loved this book. Go read this series. :)

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Note: This book is particularly special to me since it's actually the very first arc I ever received from a publisher. (Not that that affects my mini review in any way--I just thought you guys should know!)

Friday Five

1.) I'm starting to appreciate my global contemporary literature class despite the fact that my professor drives me insane. (I'm not a fan of her teaching methods)

2.) I love that despite leaving assignments and research papers until the very last minute, I always get it done hours before class starts and I somehow always get a good grade. (3AM is my magical time, I suspect)

3.) I'm gifting my friend with the entire Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray*. Hopefully she'll enjoy the books as much as I did :)

4.) I keep donating books to my library but I feel awkward since I come with a BAG. Not one or two books but an entire bag--I just tell myself not to be embarrassed but I can see the librarians looking at me funny.

 5.) I finished one of the required books-to-read for my geography class. It wasn't the best book ever, but I found a lot of things to like about it. There were a lot of quotes I liked but this one in particular jumped out at me:

"One result of this freewheeling attitude is that Icelandic artists produce a lot of crap. They're the first to admit it. But crap plays an important role in the art world. In fact, it plays exactly the same role as it does in the farming world. It's fertilizer. The crap allows the good stuff to grow. You can't have one without the other." -pg 163 of The Geography of Bliss

Crap is fertilizer and allows stuff to grow. How absolutely true that is! It's applicable to anything really (the whole "practice makes perfect" notion) but since I always think about writing... I find that metaphor to be a perfect fit. No wonder writers and authors tell you to allow yourself to suck during the first draft, lol.

  


*Has anyone else read it? And did anyone cry furiously at the ending as I did?

Waiting on Wednesday 50

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.
And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.
The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget. [from goodreads]

I really really supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-ly want to read this. It sounds like something I would love and August 2nd can't come soon enough. (although actually...considering that we're already in April...maybe August can be here fast enough. Whatever. I want to read this NAO!)

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Source: Publisher
My Goodreads rating

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

With a uniquely tragic premise, a remarkable main character and beautifully descriptive prose, Wither is one of those novels that totally consumes one's attention as you read--and you find yourself feeling bereft once you've finished.

Rhine had such a compelling internal voice that I instantly connected to her as she tried to cope to her surroundings and forced responsibilities as a new bride. She has this intensity to her that greatly marked her actions and words; but despite the inner strength she has, she's overwhelmed with the jarring change from being a relatively poor young woman to suddenly being catapulted to a life of luxury where anything's within reach (except for her freedom, of course). Her relationship with her sister wives, Jenna and Cecily, was fascinating for me as a reader because it frankly boggles my mind as to how a trio (or more!) of women can share one husband.

Their husband Linden was a character that inspired both sympathy and umbrage: his world is filled with veiled truths that it was difficult for me to hate him but his absolute lack of trying to understand what was around him and simply accepting things as they came was incredibly discouraging. This, however, doesn't stop me from waving the Team Linden flag. (I like Gabriel, I do, but Linden seems a better fit for Rhine in my opinion. But who knows what'll happen in the next two books?))

DeStefano's writing was one of my favorite things about the book: it was simplistic and yet there were moments that read like poetry. The imagery that DeStefano was able to convey with only a few words was amazing; she also handled the polygamous plot line with expertise and unbiased--there weren't any subliminal messages of THIS IS WRONG anywhere throughout the book. It simply was what it was. The world building might be a little iffy to some (there's very little mention of the scientific aspect that's described in the summary) but I was okay with that--I'm a newcomer to science fiction so Wither was a good way of dipping my toes into the genre. I guess you could call it a "soft" science fiction and I look forward to seeing how DeStefano will flesh out those subplots later on in the trilogy.

Gorgeous writing and an arresting set of characters made Wither a truly fantastic book and I can't recommend this book enough: if you see it at a bookstore, a library, someone's house--grab it. (Well, ask if it's at someone's house. Seriously though, plead for it!) Wither is more of character-driven novel than full out science fiction but if you enjoy introspective character growth combined with an unusual premise (like I do), then you'll definetely enjoy it!

Bookish news

I love finding out about the latest book deals, cover releases, and the like. Here are some tidbits of news that I've come across in the past few days. These are the only ones that I'm aware of at the moment so if you have any other cool news to share, I'd love to know!

Gail Carriger, author of The Parasol Proctorate series, announced on her blog that she's releasing a new YA series: "The Finishing School Series is set in the same world as The Parasol Protectorate series, only 25 years earlier, and features a finishing academy located in a giant caterpillar-like dirigible floating over Dartmoor in which young ladies are taught to . . . finish . . . everything . . . and everyone . . . as needed. There will be steampunk etiquette! There will be well-dressed espionage! There will be Victorian fake food. There will be flying mechanical sausage dogs named Bumbersnoot. I am excited. The first book will come out in 2012. And I am writing it . . . next." (Steampunk! YA! I like this!)

And since we're on the subject of new series.... Sarah Rees Brennan, author of The Demon's Lexicon trilogy had a similar announcement: "Author of the Demon's Lexicon Series Sarah Rees Brennan's YA gothic romance trilogy beginning with LISTEN FOR A WHISPER, about a budding journalist who investigates when she realizes the town she has lived in all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets and a murderer, and the truth may lie with the ruling family who have just returned to the manor on the hill and in the whispers she hears in her head from a boy who may not be imaginary after all."


Oh, but it gets better! Read on!

Similar awesomeness from Victoria Schwab:
"Author of THE NEAR WITCH Victoria Schwab’s THE ARCHIVED, about a teenage girl who must return the restless, ghost-like Histories of the dead to their rightful place in a labyrinthine supernatural library known as the Archive; when more Histories begin to wake and escape, she must stop the doors between the worlds of the living and dead from breaking open, all without falling victim to a beguiling History who is more human – and more disarmingly attractive – than the others, to Abby Ranger at Disney-Hyperion, by Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency (World English)."



Lots of goodness yes?! But I'm not finished, not yet.

Susan Dennard's debut (which will be available in 2012) which was originally known as The Spirit-Hunters has a new and official name! It's now called Something Strange and Deadly. Go on and congratulate her ;)

 
 
 And last but certainly not least...Miranda Kenneally has a cover for her book!




Isn't it pretty? I would totally pick that up.  You can read an excerpt of SCORE on Miranda's site.

Synopsis:  "What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though—she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team…and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate."

A world of football and boys seen through a girl's eyes? I iz interested.