Stacking the Shelves - June 30th, 2013

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  And I have a HUGE haul this week.  Well, it feels like it anyway.  First, I want to share something that I came home to find sitting on my front porch on Tuesday:

I saw this box, which as you can see has a Fierce Reads sticker on the lower right side corner of the top of the box.  And I was really excited because Fierce Reads are some awesome books.  Well when I opened it up, this is part of what I saw:

It is a kit to host my own Fierce Reads party!  Also containing four books, one of which I've been really, really, eager to read anyway!  And this is really exciting, because I'm hoping that maybe I can use this box as part of my new high school librarian job to help get kids in the library for reading other than research.  I'll be giving away the things in the box at that event if I'm able to have it.  But, I may have to read through at least 2 of the books myself before I give them away.  Is that wrong?  If you can't tell, the 4 books are:  Of Triton (Poseidon #2) by Anna Banks, Sky on Fire (Monument 14 #2) by Emmy Laybourne, Unremembered by Jessica Brody, and Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2) by Leigh Bardugo.  Sky on Fire is the one I'm really excited about as I loved the first one.  And I'd also really wanted to read Unremembered.  And if you remember from last week, I got the UK version of Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1), so that is cool too. I guess just in case many of the students have read the first in the series for those sequels, I may have to get copies of those too to give away.  

From Netgalley:

I've not read any other books by this author, but with the tagline of "Breakfast Club meets The Walking Dead," how could I pass up this zombie book?

From a Shelf Awareness contest:

This looks like a great book for teens, and I did get some bookmarks to go with it.  Could be another book I give away as a librarian this year!  

Traded for at YA Book Exchange:

It's been a while since I read I Am Number Four, but now I can add The Power of Six to my September is for Sequels challenge this year.  I heard a lot about Shards and Ashes at the RT Convention back in May, so when I saw there was one available on the YA Book Exchange, I immediately looked to see if I had anything from that trader's wish list.  

Books I purchased:

Now, I really want to not have very many times that I post books I've purchased, as I really don't need to be buying anything. But, I am a HUGE Marx Brothers fan, and something I often do when I have down time at the bookstore where I work is search the database for new books on them.  This one popped up, and wasn't really that expensive, and so even though I already have 4 or 5 other Marx Brothers books sitting on my TBR shelf, I decided I had to have it.  The other book is another love of mine, dachshunds.  I'm always looking for new dachshund books at work also, and when I saw this in the computer, I had to order it and buy it too.  Aren't they so cute?!

Whew!  That was a lot to share!  What about you, what will you be adding to your bookshelves this week?

Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell

I really enjoyed the book Total Constant Order by this author, in fact I made it a staff recommendation at the bookstore where I work too.  So I was so excited when I got to meet her at BEA this summer.  And I also got an advanced readers copy of her latest book, Narc, autographed of course!
Now, unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first one, but it was still overall a pretty good book.  I know exactly which students I would recommend this to, and I could actually see it as a possible nomination for our state reader award lists, based on books in the same thread that have been on the lists before.
Narc is a story about exactly what you think, a boy who becomes a Narc in his school.  It all begins when he makes a mistake, he is driving with his sister, and runs a red light.  The cop who pulls him over finds drugs in the car.  Aaron knows they are his, but his sister must have found them in his room and taken them, so the cops find them on her.  They give him a deal to keep both himself and his sister out of jail or juvie, he can go back to school and help them discover who is actually supplying the drugs.  Aaron was always kind of a loner, one might call him a bit of a loser.  But now he comes back, and must figure a way in with the kids that might have the answer to this question.  He starts with a couple girls.  Ones he knows have the big parties, and even seem like they do drugs.  But one, the one he really likes, Morgan, also has a jerk ex-boyfriend, who kind of senses something is off about Aaron.  Aaron's home life isn't great either.  His father died taking pictures of the war.  His mom has been working a ton, and kind of become a bit of an absentee mom.  He knows his sister is up to something, she's too young for a boyfriend, but is out visiting one, someone they don't know.
Some issues I had with the book.  It was a bit confusing in how he was dealing with the situation.  The way he went about getting in with the other kids.  I didn't like the way the police were, I know, it is supposed to be from a teenager's point of view, a teenager being coerced into doing this against his will.  I just don't feel like the cops really worked in the story for what I would think they would actually do.  I did like the use of the Facebook stuff, social media is such a big deal these days with bullying and similar things.  But the way it was put forth in the book was almost barely there, kind of confusing for me.  I feel it could have been fleshed out a bit more.  Although I did really like the way he got some clues about who was doing the online sabotage, based on things he saw.  I won't say what exactly, don't want to spoil that "a-ha!" moment in the book.
One thing I personally LOVED, was all the references to the Marx Brothers. I am such a huge fan of them, in fact was back when I was younger, and even in the 80's, most people my age didn't know who the Marx Brothers were.  Just as it is for Aaron in this book. I love that it was a family thing for him, as it was for me with my grandpa.

Crissa-Jean Chappell

All in all a good book for what it was supposed to be about.  I did really like the ending, both the climax when it all went down, and the "afterward" part.

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

I can pinpoint the teachers who led me to some of my quirky favorites in movies. First, my grandpa. No, he wasn't ever a "teacher" per se, but I do feel that he taught me in many different ways, and shaped a lot of who I am. He was an engineer, and I know it is from him that I developed my interest in astronomy, and probably other science. But whever we visited my Grandpa and Grandma Moritz's house, there was a big yellow book called Why a Duck with a cartoon picture of Groucho Marx's head. It is from my Grandpa that I got my love of all things Marx Brothers. I can even remember him laughing at certain parts of the movies when we'd watch them at his house when we went into the air conditioning during the annual family garage sales.

Second is my 8th grade science teacher/principal. I went to a private school, and so the principal was also a teacher, Mr. Riedl. In fact, he was a science teacher, my current occupation. But I remember watching Court Jester, with Danny Kaye one day at school when I was in 7th or 8th grade. Again, I can remember him laughing loudly at the "Flaggon with the Dragon" part of the movie. From this I became a Danny Kaye fan.

Third was my freshman year, my Citizenship class teacher, Mr. Jarvis. In class he showed us the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy. I remember watching the beginning and thinking, wow, another boring school movie, but still being glad we were watching a movie instead of doing work. But if you've seen this movie, you know it is not a boring movie at all. It is a hilarious look at modern day technology, a coke bottle, and how it can corrupt very simple cultures in ways we can't even imagine.

And the last teacher, leads into this book, my junior year American History teacher, Coach Durham. He showed us Gone With the Wind. I fell in love with it. I wanted to be Scarlett and have all the beaus after me. In a way, I have always felt like Scarlett, in that I never quite wanted what was right for me, and often didn't realize the good thing until it was gone. Of course, the reader that I am had to go out and read the book. And then in the early 90's a sequel called Scarlett was published. And I loved that too, even though the critics weren't huge fans. It made me cry, and I felt so much for Scarlett and all the bad choices she made, again, relating to her in that way at least.

When Rhett Butler's People came out in 2007, I ordered it from the book club I belonged to at the time. It has sat in my bookshelf of books to be read since that time. I couldn't quite bring myself to pick it up. Not sure why, just couldn't. But now, once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I fell right back in love the with the story. And I loved all the way we got to see into everyone's thoughts in this story. I worried as it started that it would only go up to the time when Rhett got married to Scarlett. Needless to say it followed right on through the end of Gone With the Wind and past. Totally didn't go with Scarlett, and while yes, I do love that story, I do like how this one ended a bit better. I cried, I smiled, I just loved this book. I can't gush enough about how much I liked it. Again, not sure the critics were big fans of this one either, but I loved it. I think I need to get the movie out again and watch it. I loved seeing Rhett's side of the story and his family, and Melanie Wilkes's side, etc.