Cleaning Up My TBR with a Giveaway: Down the TBR Hole #12

This meme was started by Lost in a Story.  Here is how it works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Because I have so many to do, I'm going to try to do this weekly, and do 10 at a time.


1.  Lucy by Laurence Gonzales:

Laurence Gonzales’s electrifying adventure opens in the jungles of the Congo. Jenny Lowe, a primatologist studying chimpanzees—the bonobos—is running for her life.

A civil war has exploded and Jenny is trapped in its crosshairs . . . She runs to the camp of a fellow primatologist.

The rebels have already been there.

Everyone is dead except a young girl, the daughter of Jenny’s brutally murdered fellow scientist—and competitor.

Jenny and the child flee, Jenny grabbing the notebooks of the primatologist who’s been killed. She brings the girl to Chicago to await the discovery of her relatives. The girl is fifteen and lovely—her name is Lucy.

Realizing that the child has no living relatives, Jenny begins to care for her as her own. When she reads the notebooks written by Lucy’s father, she discovers that the adorable, lovely, magical Lucy is the result of an experiment.

She is part human, part ape—a hybrid human being . . .

Laurence Gonzales’s novel grabs you from its opening pages and you stay with it, mesmerized by the shy but fierce, wonderfully winning Lucy.

My thoughts:  I feel like at one time I might have had a copy of this one?  But I don't know that I do anymore.  I really feel though, that I might enjoy this some time.

Verdict:  Keep


2.  Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom by Susin Nielsen:

Violet's TV-director dad has traded a job in Vancouver for one in Los Angeles, their run-down house for a sleek ranch-style home complete with a pool, and, worst of all, Violet's mother for a trophy wife, a blonde actress named Jennica. Violet's younger sister reacts by bed-wetting, and her mother ping-pongs from one loser to another, searching for love. As for Violet, she gets angry in ways that are by turns infuriating, shocking, and hilarious.

When her mother takes up with the unfortunately named Dudley Wiener, Violet and her friend Phoebe decide that they need to take control. If Violet's mom can't pick a decent man herself, they will help her snag George Clooney.

In Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom, Susin Nielsen has created a truly original protagonist in Violet and a brilliant new novel that will delight readers into rooting for her, even when she's at her worst.  

My thoughts:  Still sounds like a fun middle grade story, but not sure I'll get to it.

Verdict:  Toss


3.  Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data by Nicole C. Engard:

This unique book is geared to help any library keep its website dynamically and collaboratively up-to-date, increase user participation, and provide exemplary web-based service through the power of mashups.

Nicole C. Engard and 25 contributors from all over the world share definitions, tools, techniques, and real life applications. Examples range from ways to allow those without programming skills to make simple website updates, to modifying the library OPAC, to using popular sites like Flickr, Yahoo!, LibraryThing, Google Maps, and Delicious to share and combine digital content.

My thoughts:  I'm sure I chose this book back when I was looking for a library job, working on my Education Specialist degree in library science, which I haven't finished.  It might be a little outdated now, unless they've done a more recent version.

Verdict: Toss


4.  Annexed by Sharon Dogar:

I look out the window into the street...I'm meant to be at Mr. Frank's workplace in a few hours. We're arriving separately, all of is. We'll walk into the building just like it was any other visit - only this time we'll never walk out again.

What was it like hiding in the Annex with Anne Frank? To be with Anne every day while she wrote so passionately in her diary? To be in a secret world within a world at war - alive on the inside, everything dying on the outside?

Peter Van Pels and his family have lost their country, their home, and their freedom, and now they are fighting desperately to remain alive.

Look through Peter's eyes.

He has a story to tell, too.

Are you listening? 

My thoughts:  I am always wanting to read these books, they call to me.  Not sure, but I will probably want to read this one day.  However, I wonder if I need to keep it on my list since it is one that is popular and might always be well known.

Verdict:  Keep for now
 
  
5.  Slights by Kaaron Warren:

STEVIE IS A KILLER.

But she brings her victims back to life to demand of them: "WHAT DO YOU SEE?P"

Now she's about to find out for herself...

After an accident in which her mother dies, Stevie has a near-death experience, and finds herself in a room full of people - everyone she's ever annoyed. They clutch at her, scratch and tear at her. But she finds herself drawn back to this place, again and again, determined to unlock its secrets. Which means she has to die, again and again. And Stevie starts to wonder whether other people see the same room... when they die.

The most disturbing novel of 2010... read it if you dare.  

My thoughts:  Hmm, sounds creepy, but not sure if it is one I'd go back to read at some point.  I can probably get rid of this one.  I mean it says it is the most disturbing novel of 2010, so surely someone will be able to remember it if I want to.

Verdict: Toss


6.  51/50: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life by Kristen McGuiness:

After years of living the LA high life, Kristen McGuiness found herself single, sober, and seriously questioning whether she was destined to be alone. How hard could it be to find a guy whose hand she could hold at the movie theater, whose name she could put down as her emergency contact at the doctor's office, and who would know when to tell her she's beautiful? And more than that--where was that euphoric full-body tingle spurred only by being in love?
So she did what any single, newly sober thirty-year-old would do: made a pact to go on 51 dates in 50 weeks. Giving fate the middle finger, she decided that if the perfect guy wasn't going to walk into her life, she'd find him herself. Using "The Onion's" online personals, a sympathetic boss, weekly meetings for recovering addicts, a magical spiritual healer, and good old fashioned blind dates arranged by friends, she embarks on a whirlwind carousel of men she might not normally classify as potential mates.
Her initial plan of landing a man by simply increasing the odds quickly blossomed into more than just coffee with strangers. The experiences became truth-seeking missions, journeys into her problem-riddled past, and spiritual adventures in fear and faith. Of course, she meets a lot of men, but she also discovers unexpected moments of pain and joy within her own family: her divorced mother, incarcerated father, crazy Italian grandmother, and two middle-aged uncles (one conservative, the other gay). And in the end, her attempts to find love lead her to find herself.
At times heart-breaking and laugh-out-loud hilarious, Kristen McGuiness's witty, brutally honest writing gives a valuable true-life spin on "Bridget Jones" and "Sex and the City." 51/50 is a gripping read that will inspire others to follow her courageous search for love. 

My thoughts: There was a time, in my 30s, when I was reading all of these types of books about being single and feeling like I'd be alone forever.  Now, in my 40s, I'm realizing that's just the way it's going to be, and maybe reading these types of books don't help me.  I'll stick to my fictional romance, which I know is fictional and too perfect to be true.

Verdict: Toss


7.  Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene:

A renowned cognitive neuroscientist?s fascinating and highly informative account of how the brain acquires reading

How can a few black marks on a white page evoke an entire universe of sounds and meanings? In this riveting investigation, Stanislas Dehaene provides an accessible account of the brain circuitry of reading and explores what he calls the ?reading paradox?: Our cortex is the product of millions of years of evolution in a world without writing, so how did it adapt to recognize words? Reading in the Brain describes pioneering research on how we process language, revealing the hidden logic of spelling and the existence of powerful unconscious mechanisms for decoding words of any size, case, or font.

Dehaene?s research will fascinate not only readers interested in science and culture, but also educators concerned with debates on how we learn to read, and who wrestle with pathologies such as dyslexia. Like Steven Pinker, Dehaene argues that the mind is not a blank slate: Writing systems across all cultures rely on the same brain circuits, and reading is only possible insofar as it fits within the limits of a primate brain. Setting cutting-edge science in the context of cultural debate, Reading in the Brain is an unparalleled guide to a uniquely human ability.  

My thoughts:  Um, kind of interesting, but probably not something I'm going to sit down and read.

Verdict: Toss


8.  Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs:  Soft Tissues and Hard Science by Phillip Manning:

Many of us have seen dinosaur bones and skeletons, maybe even dinosaur eggs...but what did those fearsome animals really look like in the flesh? Soft-tissue fossils give tantalizing clues about the appearance and physiology of the ancient animals. In this exciting book, paleontologist Phillip Manning presents the most astonishing dinosaur fossil excavations of the past 100 years—including the recent discovery of a remarkably intact dinosaur mummy in the Badlands of North Dakota.

Bone structure is just the beginning of our knowledge today, thanks to amazing digs like these. Drawing on new breakthroughs and cutting-edge techniques of analysis, Dr. Manning takes us on a thrilling, globe-spanning tour of dinosaur mummy finds—from the first such excavation in 1908 to a baby dinosaur unearthed in 1980, from a dino with a heart in South Dakota to titanosaur embryos in Argentina. And he discusses his own groundbreaking analysis of "Dakota," discovered by Tyler Lyson.

Using state-of-the-art technology to scan and analyse this remarkable discovery, National Geographic and Dr. Manning create an incredibly lifelike portrait of Dakota. The knowledge to be gained from this exceedingly rare find, and those that came before it, will intrigue dinosaur-loving readers of all ages.   

My thoughts: There was a time when I had to read any book about dinosaurs I could get my hands on, and as a science teacher, it really fit in and kept my brain up to date on that science. These days, I just don't have the time.  Plus, I'm guessing there are new updated books with new updated research on this very topic.

Verdict: Toss


9.  Empty by Suzanne Weyn:

A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out...

It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.  

My thoughts: This is a favorite author of mine, and so I'm sure if I want to read this some time, I'll remember based on looking up other books by this author.

Verdict:  Toss


10.  I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison:

When shy Jenny Cooper goes to stay with her cousin Jane Austen, she knows nothing of the world of beautiful dresses, dances, secrets, gossip, and romance that Jane inhabits. At fifteen, Jane is already a sharp observer of the customs of courtship. So when Jenny falls utterly in love with Captain Thomas Williams, who better than Jane to help her win the heart of this dashing man?

But is that even possible? After all, Jenny’s been harboring a most desperate secret. Should it become known, it would bring scandal not only to her, but also to the wonderful Austen family. What’s a poor orphan girl to do?

In this delicious dance between truth and fiction, Cora Harrison has crafted Jenny’s secret diary by reading everything Jane Austen wrote as a child and an adult, and by researching biographies, critical studies, and family letters. Jenny’s diary makes the past spring vividly to life and provides insight into the entire Austen family—especially the beloved Jane.  

My thoughts:  I love a good story that takes truth and weaves it into a fictional story.  And this is one that doesn't seem too well known. So if I take it off my list, I might not remember it later. 

Verdict:  Keep


Final Thoughts:
So, I only kept three out of ten, that's a good week!  And one is just for now, it maybe one I get rid of later.  Have you read any of these?  Would you recommend keeping any that I am getting rid of?  Are there any I'm keeping that you've read and don't think I should bother with?  Now, also, I did get rid of some physical books this past weekend, took them to Half Price Books, even though I didn't get much for them, I spent what little I did get on some new books for my school.  I cleared out 25 physical books!  I might get some more done this week while I'm on spring break. Although today, as this post is up, I'm on the road out of town for a writing retreat, by myself.  I was doing a link up for this giveaway for anyone who wanted to join in, no one else has joined in yet, but I'll go ahead and keep trying it for another couple weeks maybe and see if it ever catches on.  So if you want to do one of these posts any time in the next week, come back and add your link below so I can check your post out!  And don't forget the giveaway below!

   Inlinkz Link Party


Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way.  Just as with the past weeks, you get to pick any book from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice.  Here are your choices:   

These are my 2018 ARCs you can choose from.

Here are my 2017 ARCs you can choose from.

Here are my 2013-2016 ARCs you can choose from.

Just enter in the Rafflecopter below!

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting on Wednesday: Bionic by Suzanne Weyn

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  My pick this week is by an author that I have enjoyed many books from, Suzanne Weyn.  Hoping it will be a good one, and it comes out in October.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Mira has always almost had it all... until it all crashes and burns. She's hurt in a horrible car accident, and the only way the doctors can help is to try experimental prosthetics and chips that are implanted directly into her brain. It's a huge risk, but after months of testing and therapy, Mira is back, and better than ever.

But soon her friends turn against her as their parents call her on unfair advantages and get her cut from lacrosse and the scholarships she was depending on for college. And with her enhanced hearing, she knows how many people in her school and her town are calling her a robot, a cyborg.



Is that true? Is Mira human, or is she somehow something other? How can she overcome the ways people see her and just be herself... especially if she's not really sure who that is anymore?

Suzanne Weyn is always at the cutting edge when it comes to new tech and the questions it raises about the world we live in. 

Sounds like it could be a very interesting read!  And from my past experience, Weyn's books are always pretty quick and easy reads.  So, what book are you eagerly awaiting this week? 

And hey, while you're here, don't forget I've started my 5th Annual September is for Sequels Challenge if you want to join in!  Go HERE to learn more about it or join in! 

The Bar Code Prophecy (Bar Code #3) by Suzanne Weyn

As usual I have to start this by thanking both Netgalley and the publisher, Scholastic this time, for letting me read an egalley of this.  I was so excited to get this as I'd really enjoyed the first two books in the series.  Unfortunately, both of them came out, and I read both of them, before I was blogging, at least before I was blogging on here.  It is possible I blogged about them somewhere else, but I don't really know how to get back to that and find them.  So, I was able to look on Goodreads and see what I rated them, and I have to say that my ratings have gone down one star with each book.  While the story was still good this time, I have to say that maybe because of all the dystopians that I've been reading lately, this one felt a little rushed.  It was a very short book, only about 200 pages.  And I assume it will be in the same format as the others, a small paperback.  In this book we start with a new character, and our protagonist from the other novels, Kayla, is now a "legend" you might say in the bar code resistance.  Global 1 has supposedly "solved" all the issues with the tattoo keeping track of all your genetic information so now companies can't fire you for having issues, and supposedly there are no longer nanobots injected when you get the tattoo that can kill you if you have issues that are not genetically desirable.  But Grace, our new main character, believes in Global 1.  Her father works there, and has had issues since the whole big fiasco.  She even works there part time.  But she is about to turn 17 which means it is time for her to get her tattoo.  However, she's been doing a lot of climbing with a cute guy from school, Eric.  And he seems to be interested in her now.  But for some reason he also seems a bit against her getting the tattoo, but he won't really tell her why.  Once she gets her tattoo though, all hell breaks loose.  She finds out she's adopted, and her real father is the "father" of the bar code tattoo.  And her adopted family, that she's always believed is her family, disappears on the same day.  Eric shows up to help her, and takes her into the resistance.  It turns out that both Grace and Eric may be part of some prophecy that the Native Americans think points to the end of the world. I do love that the book brings in meteors coming close to earth as a possible issue.  I enjoyed getting back into this world.  But, my biggest issue is how quickly everything happens.  We jump from event to event with not a lot of details.  I just feel this book could have been fleshed out a bit more to help it fit in with a lot of the popular dystopians out there today.  Then again, maybe this is a good dystopian for someone who just wants a quick read and doesn't need all the extra detail.  So, it's a good story, just a bit disappointing after all the books I've read lately.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Bar Code Prophecy (Bar Code #3) by Suzanne Weyn AND Spring Fling Giveaway Winner announcement!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.
This week I have a book I'm waiting for in 2 ways.  I just found on Netgalley the 3rd book in a series I really enjoy, The Bar Code series by Suzanne Weyn.  I've requested it, and so now I'm waiting to hopefully get approved to read it.  And if that doesn't work out, then I'll be waiting for it to be published in November, which is too far away now that I know it is coming out!  It's a dystopian series, that I feel was out before all the big explosion of dystopian really hit the shelves.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:

Just as in the original Bar Code Tattoo, the year is 2025 and the mysterious, ubiquitous, and seemingly omnipotent multi-national corporation, Global 1, is in power through their agent President Loudon Waters. But now this ominous situation is experienced through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Grace Morrow.
When Grace finds out that she's adopted, her biological father, who's the head of the Global 1 nano-bot injection project, urges her against getting the bar code tattoo when she turns seventeen. Stunned by the revelations, she goes home to find her adoptive family vanished, and she's determined to find them, turning to the anti-bar-code group Decode. As they uncover more information about tracking, Grace must hide deep underground and under cover, trying to discover information that will allow Decode to figure out what Global 1 is up to, and trying desperately to shut the organization down for good.

I can't wait to read it!  I sure hope that I get the chance to read an egalley!

Now, for all you new followers, thanks for following!  I'm actually getting so close to 500 that I think I'm going to do another giveaway later this month or beginning of June for sure.  I may give away things that I pick up at BEA!  And on to the announcement of my Spring Fling Giveaway winner.  It was announced on the actual Rafflecopter, but my winner is Shane Russell!  She should be getting her Barnes and Noble $10 gift card in the mail in the next week!  Congratulations Shane!  Thanks to all my new followers as well, and stay tuned for more reviews, and another giveaway coming up soon!



Transcendence by C.J. Omololu

First, thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishers for letting me read this as an egalley.  I really liked this book.  It is a book about reincarnation.  Which reminds me of another of my favorite book series, The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller.  Yes, Incarnate by Jodi Meadows is also about reincarnation, but it is a little different, and I'm guessing a different planet than Earth?  And of course there is always the book Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn.  All of these books are ones I enjoyed.  And this one didn't disappoint either.  We started out with our main character Cole, short for Nicole, in London with her sister Kat and their father.  They're touring the famous Tower of London where many people were held and later beheaded or executed nearby, including Anne Boleyn.  Cole has a vision of someone being beheaded in the main area of the Tower.  When she has this vision, she stumbles and is caught by a very cute boy named Griffon.  Griffon seems to recognize her at first, although she doesn't know who he is.  Soon she learns that they are connected somehow, and when she is back home she learns he lives nearby and they meet up again.  They get closer, and eventually not only do her visions keep popping up, dangerous things start happening to her.  Griffon tells her she is what is called Akhet.  Basically in this story it sounds as if anyone can be reincarnated, but only some remember past lives, and these are the Akhet.  It seems someone in Cole's life may be from her past, and be after revenge, for something that Cole slowly remembers that she is probably not really responsible for.  But Griffon has his secrets too, and they threaten to come between him and Cole.  Cole doesn't know who to trust when she realizes just where the connection between her and Griffon is from. 
I need to start taking notes when I'm reading ebooks because I know there was something I wanted to remark on, some quirky little part that really made me laugh or stood out to me, but I can't remember it now.  I hope to learn more about Cole's first life she is remembering, the time when she was beheaded.  This will definitely be a recommendation for me when it is published and arrives at the bookstore.  I like that there is going to be a sequel because there was definitely a loose end left with another person Cole met that seemed to know her. 
Finally, this will count as my "J" on my A-Z Reading Challenge for the author's name.

Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn

Funny story, I took this when it was a stripped cover book at the store. Then bought it later at a school bookfair. So I was able to conveniently keep one copy at school to read at lunch, and then, when it turned out to be such a good read, I was able to read it at home as well.

This is the story of two, you might call them star-crossed lovers, people who keep meeting over time as they are reincarnated as different people in different times, and always something keeps them apart, or ends one of their lives right as things are about to start happening for them. It begins with the boy as a Neanderthal I'm guessing, and the girl as a Cro-Magnon. Then they are an Egyptian and a Nubian, then they come back in ancient Greece, and so on and so forth. Almost all the times we see them also seem to be either big historical times, or else very charged with some kind of racial tension. At one point the girl is even reincarnated as a guy, and the guy is reincarnated as a girl.

Fun story, and in the end, modern times, it seems as if they may actually get a chance to be together, although the story leaves off before we could possibly know for sure. But we are left with hope.

Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic by Suzanne Weyn

I am a fan of Suzanne Weyn from her other books that I've read. I did as I always do and looked for any new books she might have coming out and then put them on reservation. So I bought this when it came out, even though it was in hardcover because I had money at time.

It took me a bit to get into this, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Yes, it is a novel about the Titanic. Which made me wonder, why in the world are we so obsessed with Titanic stories? We know how they're going to end, and yet, I personally, can't seem to get enough of them. But, besides that, there was a TON of history, soooooooo interesting. The author even goes into a bit of detail at the end about all the history research she did.

The really interesting history included Nikola Tesla, Harry Houdini, Lily Dale - which they called Spirit Vale, Astor and Guggenheim, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and that is just to name a few. I will highly recommend this book, although as far as I know, we shipped any we got back shortly after they arrived, and I haven't seen any paperback copies. If I was a librarian, I would definitely have a copy of this in my library to share. You know, I tried to donate a book to my school library the other day, a hardcover book, but because they already had a copy that wasn't checked out that much, they said they didn't want it. Well, if it was my library, it would be a book I would totally talk up. If I was a middle school librarian, I would try to go into CA teachers' classes and do book talks often. In fact, one CA teacher I did summer school with when I was my first summer library experience asked me to do that with her classes once a week. I wonder if the librarian at her current school does that now? I'll bet she does, I know that librarian and she is really awesome, I've asked her for advice a lot.

Anyway, such a great book.