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 Blood Red Road (Young), Ultraviolet (Anderson) and Imaginary Girls (Suma) and listening to In the Belly of the Bloodhound (Meyer).
After fighting for centuries to be together, Ever and Damen’s future hinges on one final showdown that will leave readers gasping for breath. Don’t miss this explosive new installment of the #1 bestselling series that’s enchanted millions across the world!
Haven still blames Ever for the death of her boyfriend Roman, no matter how hard Ever’s tried to convince her it was an accident. Now she’s determined to take Ever down…and destroy Damen and Jude along the way. Her first step is to tear Ever and Damen apart—and she has just the ammunition to do it.
Hidden in one of Ever’s past lives is a terrible secret about Damen—a secret that illuminates new facts about her relationship with Jude, but that’s so dark and brutal it might be enough to drive her and Damen apart once and for all. As Ever faces her greatest fears about the guy she wants to spend eternity with, she’s thrust into a deadly clash with Haven that could destroy them all.
Now it’ll take everything she’s got—and bring out powers she never knew she had—to face down her most formidable enemy. But in order to win, she must first ask herself: is her own survival worth dooming Haven to an eternity of darkness in the Shadowland? And will learning the truth about Damen’s past hold the key to their future?
Meeting his eyes was an awakening. For the first time in Helen's life she knew what pure heart-poising hatred was. --e-ARCI badly want to paint this book with the Twilight brush. I mean, Starcrossed involves a good girl feeling a pull to a boy to a mysterious new boy, a large family that moves into the area and keeps to themselves, the inability for anyone to answer a simple question, a girl who is better at being superhuman than the boy, and a large evil family bent on the destruction and/or assimilation of the smaller good family. And all of that sounds really familiar. And I tried to fight the ongoing comparisons in my head as I was read, but it was all there. It was still a really good book and a compelling book with plenty to offer on its own.
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 Wrapped (Bradbuy) and Starcrossed (Angelini) and listening to Under the Jolly Roger (Meyer).
The British crown has placed a price on Jacky's head, and so she returns to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston to lay low. But laying low isn't in the cards for a spunky lass who finds trouble even when she's not looking for it.
A school outing goes awry as Jacky and her classmates are abducted and forced into the hold of the Bloodhound, a ship bound for the slave markets on the Barbary Coast. All of Jacky's ingenuity, determination, and plain old good luck will be put to the test as she rallies her classmates to fight together to avoid being sold on the auction block in this new installment of the Bloody Jack Adventures.
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| Illustrated by Keith Thompson |
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| German cover that I also like |
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 Behemoth (Westerfeld) and Wrapped (Bradbury). I'm listening to Under the Jolly Roger (Meyer).
Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.
Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.
But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.
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 am reading Besty and Tacy Go Downtown (Lovelace) and Behemoth (Westerfeld).
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.
Although James's laughter irritated me, he looked absolutely endearing, with a dark shadow of beard just beginning to appear. I longed to stroke his cheek to feel its roughness even as I longed to punch him in the jaw for being so obstructive and medieval. p. 132Funny and charming. Those are the two words that come to mind when I think about trying to describe this book. I loved the Wodehouse style writing with the jokes and the very proper way Petronella has of speaking. This had the air of a mystery along with a comedy of manners and I thought it was an entertaining little book.
So we go to Crumbs. Sometimes in the midst of all your boy drama, you just need a cupcake. p.185Plot: It was very Felicity except in high school. I didn't really like that show, or well, I lost interest in it. But this book was alright. There were some loose ends that I wish had been cleared up mostly the subplot involving her dad. It's like all this anger she had and dropped on him and they never discussed it? I don't know. I wish it had been mentioned again.
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 A Tale of Two Castles (Levine) and So Much Closer (Colasanti). I'm listening to The Curse of the Blue Tattoo (Meyer).
In this coming-of-age story set in a medieval kingdom, Andrea is a headstrong princess longing to be a knight who finds her way to modern-day California. But her accidental return to her family's kingdom and a disastrous romance brings war, along with her discovery of some dark family secrets. Readers will love this mix of traditional fantasy elements with unique twists and will identify with Andrea and her difficult choices between duty and desire.
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back. Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury
Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.
Agnes Wilkins is standing in front of an Egyptian mummy, about to make the first cut into the wrappings, about to unlock ancient (and not-so-ancient) history. Maybe you think this girl is wearing a pith helmet with antique dust swirling around her.
Maybe you think she is a young Egyptologist who has arrived in Cairo on camelback.
Maybe she would like to think that too. Agnes Wilkins dreams of adventures that reach beyond the garden walls, but reality for a seventeen-year-old debutante in 1815 London does not allow for camels—or dust, even. No, Agnes can only see a mummy when she is wearing a new silk gown and standing on the verdant lawns of Lord Showalter’s estate, with chaperones fussing about and strolling sitar players straining to create an exotic “atmosphere” for the first party of the season. An unwrapping.
This is the start of it all, Agnes’s debut season, the pretty girl parade that offers only ever-shrinking options: home, husband, and high society. It’s also the start of something else, because the mummy Agnes unwraps isn’t just a mummy. It’s a host for a secret that could unravel a new destiny—unleashing mystery, an international intrigue, and possibly a curse in the bargain.
Get wrapped up in the adventure . . . but keep your wits about you, dear Agnes.
1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling- read by Jim Dale.
Jim Dale is an amazing narrator and I could listen to him all day.
2. The Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo - first five read by Simon Russell Beale, subsequent books read by Simon Jones.
At first I wasn't happy about the narrator change. I hate that. But Simon Jones is a great reader and so I didn't mind.
3. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket - read by Timy Curry.
This is another series that had a narrator change. Books 3-5 are read by the author Daniel Handler took over narrator duties. While he is just alright, Tim Curry is the better narrator. He has the perfect voice for this gothic, dark-humored series. And that leads to ...
4. The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix - read by Tim Curry.
Garth Nix is one of my favorite authors and so far I have had good luck with his books. Tim Curry is once again the perfect narrator for this dark series filled with zombies, magic, and supernatural creatures. His voice for the cat Mogget is dead on.
5. The Key to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix - read by Allan Corduner.
I really love this whole series even if it gets a bit formulaic in the middle. Allan Corduner does a great job of bringing Arthur and the denizens of the House to life.
