The front of her dress was splotched with blood, but there was no pain. She knew it was not her blood; it wasn't the first time this had happened.
Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.
It was typical of Nancy not to think of herself. She had been in many tight spots while solving the various mysteries that had come her way, but the safety of innocent persons involved had always been her chief concern. p.9-10Nancy Drew joins the circus. Because, of course, Nancy has taken up "trick riding" and is so super good at it that the circus is practically begging her to fill in when one of the horse riders is injured. And, of course, our girl detective just has to do it because it will get her one step closer to solving the mystery of the missing charm. See Nancy's aunt bought her a charm bracelet with five horse charms on it. But it's suppose to have six so Nancy must figure out what is behind the missing charm. And, of course, the circus is in town with the exact people involved in this mystery. It is all very very convenient.
Nancy was greatly admired in River Heights because of her unusual ability to track down elusive clues, as well as her courage and quick-wittedness. p. 12Bess joins a new dance school and when Nancy goes to meet the new owners she finds out that the brother and sister are in trouble! They have been receiving threatening notes and have had to leave both their home country of Centrovian and France because of political reasons. Nancy offers to help. Somehow connected are painting that the brother, Henri, painted and a mysterious man that Nancy meet on a plane.
But I don't know what to tell him about the aftermath of killing a person. About how they never leave you. p.55 e-bookMy mind is blown. This was every bit as good as The Hunger Games, better even than Catching Fire. I am amazed. This is how to write a series with a killer ending and sell the whole damn thing. Honestly, it was an amazing journey that Katniss went through and I am pleased at how it all turned out for her. It is a good and appropriate ending.
I hate the school library. It always smells like old yellow paper and pencil shavings and nerds. April always say, "That's just the smell of history and knowledge." She's ridiculous sometimes. p.44 ARCThis book. I was ready because how gimmicky is naming the sisters April, May and June. It's sort of an eyeroll. And at first I didn't like the alternating chapters because I couldn't keep track of who was talking. But then I got into the rhythm. My favorite girl was May though I identified with April too. Roll them into one minus the superpowers and you have me as a teenager only much less assertive. This book was funny and sarcastic. combined with a great extraordinary story. I loved how each girl reacted to getting this powers and how each used them. I liked the boys and how the girls interacted with them. I was less fond of the "disaster" that the original book description talks about. I expected it to be something amazing and was a bit disappointed. Anyway, I'm glad I stuck out the first couple of chapters because it was worth reading.
"You didn't, like, stab the boy, did you? I mean, I totally disapprove of murdering hotties, but if you need help burying the body, you know I'll bring the shovel."While I'm reasonably certain that using someone else to forget your problems is a bad idea, it makes for a great book. I went expecting it to be a typical chic lit type book, more in line with Sarah Dessen, but I found that The DUFF was very witty and much more relatable for me. Not that I ever did what Bianca did, but I understand the impulse to want to lose yourself in something. But that never works out.
p.73 ARC
Nevertheless, Nancy concluded that circus life was strenuous. As she was wearily removing her costume before going to bed, Erika dashed in, her eyes aglow.
This week I'm reading Mockingjay (Collins)! And then I don't know what else. I"m in a bit of slump now but I do plan on reading a couple of Nancy Drews: The Ringmaster's Secret and The Scarlett Slipper Mystery. I'm listening to The Red Pyramid (Riordian).
Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.
"Freedom is an illusion. It always comes at a price."— Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand)
"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things."— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."— Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
"Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can."— Alice Hoffman (Practical Magic)
"Touchstone watched, suddenly conscious that he probably only had five seconds left to be alone with Sabriel, to say something, to say anything. Perhaps the last five seconds they ever would have alone together.— Garth Nix (Sabriel)
I am not afraid, he said to himself.
'I love you," he whispered. "I hope you don't mind.'"
"To get something you must give something away.— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)
To hold something you must give something away.
To love something you must give something away."
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."— Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)
"Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night's sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a loveless landscape, hoping desperately that their circumstances will improve, but suspecting, in their heart of hearts, that they will remain unloved forever. The best thing to do in these circumstances is to wake somebody else up, so that they can feel this way, too."— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free."— Tom Robbins (Still Life with Woodpecker)
"Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air - moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh - felt as if it were being exhaled into one's face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing."— Tom Robbins (Jitterbug Perfume)
Unless it had all been in my imagination - the angels and the dark creatures - all thing I had just invented. Maybe I had eaten some hallucinogenic mushrooms. Maybe I wasn't even really at work... p.474I'll be honest. I had my doubts for the first couple of chapters. There was too much exposition and that tires me out. But I began to identify the main character as a Bones type and once the action began, the story really moved and I was hooked. Gabriella wasn't my favorite character and she came off as annoying in the beginning, but so much happens to her that I ended up feeling sorry for her. There were some interesting twists and turns and I appreciated that. It was good to be kept on my toes. There was a lot of action in this book and it never bogged down at those moments. My only complaint is my same old one: show, don't tell. It bugs me when there is too much, I'm so smart, but not enough to back it up. Gabriella proves it later, but at the beginning I was doubting her claims. And it turns out there is a sequel so I'll definitely be looking for that. I need to find out what happens next.
It's true. I am hard on my books. You don't get your money's worth till you've slammed them against the wall a few times. Broken their backs. My books are my family - the more they hurt me, the more I hurt them. p.6 ARCSheer beautiful sadness. I cried and by cried I mean tears streamed down my face through the last part of this book. It was so inherently sad and hopeful and there was beauty and pain. I don't even know. To lose your brother, your own twin, is horrible, but Jonathan lost a piece of himself and doesn't know how to put himself back together. His friends, his Thicks as he call them, do their best for him but they miss Telly too. And Jonathan could care less about being a genius poet or school or anything. But he receives an ultimatum from his principal to write a World War II veteran's biography and to play a song of her choosing at graduation or repeat his junior year. Through listening and writing the man's life story, Jonathan begins to connect with his own loss. And through his guitar he learns about deep sadness and breaking the cords to play it out.
I'm way past writing for the fun of it. Lots of times it's not fun. I write because I have to.Provided by Traveling ARC Tours
If Stalin or Hitler arrested me and tossed me into one of those camps, I would carve words with my fingernails. If they cut off my fingers, I would write with my teeth. If they pulled out my teeth, I would blink my worked to any listening bird. If they cut off my eyelids, I would fart code into the trosposphere.
You'd have to kill me to stop me from writing.
It's how I breathe.
p.175 ARC
This was getting way out of control. I already knew this conversation was going to end in an argument, though, so I just plowed ahead. "Okay," I said. "We need to use these things for good, not evil."
Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.This week I'm reading The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June (Benway) and Karma Bites (Kramer and Thomas). I'm listening to The Red Pyramid (Riordian).
"Nancy ought to go as the Queen of Mystery," Bess remarked. "I'll bet it won't be long before she's in the midst of another case." p.177Nancy gets involved in a mystery surrounding some party thieves. A gang is going around posing as guests and stealing the valuables from the hosts. The owner of the party planner business is about to get sued and it's up to Nancy to clear his name and catch the bad guys.
The library of the Academy was a vast and hushed collection of room. Great oak cabinets of books, some of them chained, stood in ranks down the galleried halls. p.221 ARCI must admit that I was surprised to find out that Incarceron was only two books. I mean everything else in the book world seems to be a trilogy. So it was refreshing to find that the author wasn't going to drag out this story over an unnecessary three books. Consequently there is tons of action and a satisfying conclusion. I approve. Sapphique moved the characters along, never keeping them anywhere long enough to get comfortable and kept me on my toes. I also approve.
And yet my mother was able to see something in me that no one else could eve imagine, not even me. Love gave her second sight, and I don't think science has a name for that. p. 5 ARCDid I love this? Well, I'm not in love with it. It was good, wanted to be quirky and failed a bit. But I found it to be a very touching story and it brought tears to my eyes a few times. I felt for Dylan and his father, both dealing with the huge loss of Dylan's mother. Dylan's father did annoy me. He didn't seem to have the ability to see what Dylan was feeling. It was like he wanted to be a good father and he didn't know how. Dylan came off confused and lonely and sad though he tried to hide it most of the time.
To Janie, this room doesn't feel like a part of the house. It's more just a door to another world, a portal to sorrow, from which Dorothea appears and disappears at random. p.46
In Incarceron he had dreamed of them, his symbol of Escape; now he realized they were still that, that he was still imprisoned. Perhaps he always would be.
Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.This week I'm reading Adios, Nirvana (Wesselhoeft) and Shadow of the Sun (Kreitzer). I'm listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) and The Red Pyramid (Riordian)
I like libraries. It's a comfort that knowledge can be saved for so long. That what we learn can be passed on. p.107This is a kick ass book in more ways than one. It was like Buffy/Underworld awesome. I hadn't anticipated the level of violence but it is on par with The Hunger Games or Rampant. That stuff doesn't bother me but just a warning if it bothers you. Sisters Red is, of course, a Red Riding Hood fractured fairy tale. It's an interesting Buffy-esque take on the tale, but that really lends itself to kick ass heroines and bad ass wolves. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments combined with all the fighting action. And, as a librarian, I really appreciated how much the March sisters like the library. Very very cool.
