Why I Love YA

While it's not really so strange these days for a woman of my age to be a fan of YA books, I do still sometimes have to explain it to people when they ask what I've read that is good lately, and I really can only tell them about YA books.  As a middle school teacher, reading the same books as my students is important, just to know what is going on in their world.  Plus, when I went back to school and got my Master's Degree in Library Science, I had to start getting more involved in this age group.  I also had awesome librarians that pointed me to some great series, and got me stuck back in the YA world.  I would have to say that Twilight and Harry Potter really got me back into this age level.  Along with my involvement with the Missouri Association of School Librarians and their book awards.  I must admit that really there are so many good books in YA.  There are new, fresh story ideas.  And often they are so much better than what is available as adult books.

Another thing, since this is November, is why I am thankful for YA.  First, I love what books like the Twilight series have done for books.  Say what you will about the series if you don't like it, the number of people coming in and reading went up thanks to them.  Even the girls and older women who wouldn't normally be big readers seemed to flock to the bookstore, inhaling the series, and then asking us for similar types of reads.  I think Twilight led more people to the Sookie Stackhouse series, and probably even helped get it a show on HBO.  I'm also thankful for all the awesome people I've met because of this foray into the YA world.  Such neat authors that are so willing to talk to their fans, awesome fellow bloggers that I've met online and also at times in person.  And I think my knowledge of this type of book has really helped me with certain students.  Some of my favorite moments as a teacher have been seeing kids who fought every step of the way to get reading at school, seeing them fall in love with a book, The Lightning Thief, Twilight, The Maze Runner, etc.  

Now, if you too love YA, you need to look at the image in this post, and click the link to go visit an awesome author, Beth Revis, author of the Across the Universe series.  She is offering all the books you see in the image.  Books I would love to win to read, and share with my students at school.  So while I want to publicize her giveaway, I'm also hoping to win myself!  So go now, what are you waiting for?

Waiting on Wednesday - Once (Eve #2) by Anna Carey

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.
This week I've chosen the sequel to the dystopian teen novel Eve by Anna Carey.  I got to read Eve as an egalley from Netgalley, and would love if I get to do the same with the sequel.  Here is the plot summary from Goodreads:

Sixteen years have passed since a deadly virus wiped out most of the Earth’s population. After learning of the terrifying part she and her classmates were fated to play in the rebuilding of New America, eighteen-year-old Eve fled to the wilds and Califia, a haven for women determined to live outside the oppressive rule of the king of New America. However, her freedom came at a price: she was forced to leave Caleb, the boy she loves, wounded and alone at the city gates. Eve quickly learns that Califia may not be as safe as it seems and soon finds herself in the City of Sand and the palace of the king. There she uncovers the real reason he was so intent on her capture, and the unbelievable role he intends her to fill. When she is finally reunited with Caleb, they will enact a plan as daring as it is dangerous. But will Eve once again risk everything—her freedom, her life—for love?

Brimming with danger and star-crossed romance, and featuring a vivid dystopian landscape, this electrifying follow-up to Eve, which bestselling author Lauren Kate called “a gripping, unforgettable adventure—and a fresh look at what it means to love” is sure to appeal to fans who crave the high-stakes adventure of The Hunger Games and the irresistible love story of Romeo and Juliet.

What are you waiting to read?

While you're here, don't forget to stop by and sign up for my 300 followers in January giveaway!

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 4.1

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged! School is so busy, 3 jobs are crazy! I also am thinking I may not be able to read the nominees for next year's Gateway. I am going to get a friend, and maybe some students to help me. But I'm getting an opportunity to help someone who is opening a new publishing company, and that is really something that I think will be a help to me in the future, something to put on a resume, and something I really want to do. I've got a ton of books written for my hazards posts since I haven't done one since August. So, again, I'm going to divide them into different categories. Today's category is Teen and Young Adult, 3 books I'm going to share.
First is Following Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci. I read the first one a year or two ago, and really enjoyed it. I didn't know there was going to be a sequel until I saw it on the shelf at the store. In this story a body was found in Steepleton and the main character Torey posts it on his blog. A college reporter hops a plane to get there and try to get the story to launch his career, while Christopher's younger brother just wants to find some answers.

The 2nd book is The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch. This is kind of a futuristic/dystopian/science fiction story. There's been war after war in America. People not wiped out by that are dying from illnesses such as strains of the flu. The main character is 15 year old Stephen. He's traveling across America with his dad and ex-marine grandfather. His grandfather dies, and his father is in an accident and so he must find somewhere to go and he ends up in a town called Settler's Landing, a town that seems so perfect for this afterworld. He falls in love with the town outcast, and it turns out the "elders" of the town want to remake their town back to the way things were before the collapse.

Third is a book I've seen on the shelves for awhile, but haven't really picked it up until recently. And it sounds interesting. It's called Reckless by Cornelia Funke. The main character's name is Jacob Reckless. He is able to go to a hidden world through a portal in his father's study and has gone for years, finding lost items and solving quests. One day his younger brother follows him through the portal, and he is attacked and infected. When he comes back Jacob must figure out a way to save him before he becomes a monster from the other world.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was unsure whether to go ahead and post a review of this since it doesn't come out until January, but saw that everyone else seemed to, so here goes. First I'd like to also mention that I got this as an egalley from Netgalley.



Again, people call this a dystopian book, but to me this isn't what I consider dystopian. It is science fiction to me. There is a disease that starts to take out a whole island population, I think in Canada. Of course the government decides on a quarantine to keep it contained. This virus starts by making you feel like you have the flu, then you become really friendly and gossipy and will say whatever is on your mind. The main character is Kaelyn, and she first is introduced to this virus when her friend's father who has been sick says some really kind of prejudiced things to her when she is at their house one day. The story is told through her letters that she is writing to a boy who used to be her best friend. She is writing him because she was not nice to him right before he left the island. So we get to see the whole thing through her eyes. We get to hear about the people of the island panicking when they feel that the government has left them to die. Her father is actually a doctor who deals with this type of issue and so he is at the hosptital constantly and Kaelyn and her mother and brother must make it without him. She also has an uncle and cousin on the island, who it ends up they must take care of them as well at a point.

I like the science details, not too detailed for just anyone to read, like a teen, but enough that as someone who would have been really into the science at that age would be sucked in. Maybe it is the fact that I just saw the movie Contagion recently as well, but it was a good book, and I was hooked. Like another review on Goodreads said, it started a bit slow, but once the disease started taking over, I was at a point I didn't want to put it down. Can't wait to put it on my recommendation table at the bookstore where I work!



View all my reviews

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 3.0

I see all the Waiting on Wednesday posts of the people I follow and realize that at some point I need to get back to doing that one. Not sure what I'm waiting on though, that I haven't already talked about at some time in the past. Maybe next week I can come up with something. So, I will post about 3 books I saw yesterday while working at the store.
First is Forgiven by Janet Fox. From what I see online this is a 2nd part of a series. The first in the series is called Faithful I believe, but I don't know exactly what it's about. However this story sounds interesting to me. I'm guessing it will be set during the time of the great San Francisco earthquake, but not sure. Basically the main character is Kula who has just moved here from Montana, I assume that is where the first book took place. She has come here to save her father, and somehow gets swept up in the upper society in San Francisco through the art world. There is a handsome David Wong, who with his charming ways threatens to break through her reservedness. It says that when disaster strikes, she must learn to unlock her heart. I'm guessing the disaster is the earthquake, and so I'm intrigued in this as a historical type fiction.


Second is more of a humor type book called How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe by Charles Wu. This goes along with the other How to survive a zombie apocalypse type books I think, except I assume it covers kind of all of the different situations. Except, this is a story. The main character is Charles Wu, and he is a time travel technician. He has to save people who try to do the one thing they should never do, travel into the past. His father is the inventor of time travel who then disappeared. So Charles is trying to find his father, and with a book given to him by his future self, same title as this book, he thinks he might find his father.




Third is Zombie High Yearbook '64 by Jeff Busch. This isn't really a book to read, more of a book to look at the pictures and laugh. Not sure how funny compared to Cake Wrecks or Awkward Family Photos it will be. But I thought it was interesting and tied in to all the new zombie related books and novels around. Basically it is a tribute to yearbooks from those days, and it ties in zombie stuff with civil rights movement, and other things in the time period. Sounds like a fun look through for people who enjoy zombies.

Misfit by Jon Skovron

This is another egalley I received from Abrams Publishing on Netgalley.com. This book will not be published till August 1st, but it will be on my staff recommendations as soon as it is. The main character is Jael. Jael has never really fit in at any school, but she's moved all her life, almost every two years if not more often, so it hasn't been that big of a deal. She lives with just her father because her mother is dead. Her father is a bitter ex-priest who used to perform exorcisms. Her mother was a demon. So Jael is a half breed. Because of her father's days of being a priest, she has always gone to Catholic schools. Because of being a half breed, her life is in danger from demons who believe in pureblood only, kind of like Voldemort and his hate of mudbloods. But here, it seems that the few half breeds in the past actually could cause problems for demons. Some of them may sound familiar to you, Perseus, and Merlin. The Perseus connection will draw in some Lightning Thief fans I think. So until she's turned 16, and her father gives her a necklace from her mother, Jael doesn't know much about her mother, her father has kept it from her in an effort to save her, as well as out of his feelings of betrayal and sadness of the death of his wife. He tells Jael not to put the necklace on. But even having the necklace, Jael begins to have vivid dreams which are actually flashbacks to the history of her mom and father. And she begins to learn about her past, and what it means to be half demon.

As with all of these types of books, all Jael really wants is to be a normal teen, which she's been unable to do with all the moving they've done throughout her life. She'd finally felt like she was somewhere she fit in, and now it seems she may have to move again to stay alive. I won't give away anymore of the book, except for the first demon she meets, well, let's say you'll really like his character, I did.

I really liked this book. I love the different look at ancient demons and how they weren't necessarily "evil" in what they were doing. I like the change in the view of hell, even how they go so far as to say it is not actually like Dante's version. (That could be because I was unable to get through Dante's Inferno I hated it so much). I really liked the story, liked the characters, and the look back at history. There was even a retake on the story of Samson, and I really liked it! I feel like the story really leaves off for a series of sequels. I don't know if there will be, and I guess the fact that it hasn't even been published means there are no hints about a sequel yet, but I'm hoping for it! I even sent a question to the author on his website asking him about this.

Great book! Read it when it comes out!

The Cellar by A.J. Whitten

This was another egalley from Netgalley. This book is actually already published, but I still was interested in reading it.

First off, let me say this story was pretty scary! We have two, kind of three, main characters. First are the two sisters Meredith and Heather. They recently lost their father in a car crash, and since have moved in with their aunt and two twin cousins, and while the girls are lost, their mother has begun shopping constantly and not being there for her daughters. The third main character is Adrien, a very attractive and mysterious boy who has just moved into the really crummy rundown house next door to them.

At school all the girls seem to fall in love with Adrien, including Heather. Meredith however senses something isn't quite right with him. Adrien always leaves his sunglasses on, but he does pull them off one time to intimidate Meredith, and she sees maggots and other worms crawling out of his eyes. Turns out Adrien is a zombie basically, and lives with his "mother" or another zombie. Adrien needs to find a body for his mother to move her soul into because her current body is decomposing fast. Adrien however wants to find a new person to live with him and be rid of his mother. He controls hyenas and pirahnas, vultures, flies, all kinds of creatures that help get rid of what he and his mother do not eat. As zombies, they must continue to eat humans to "live". And because they are voodoo type zombies, they also know magic, and that is how Adrien pulls people under his spell.

This is a good story. My only complaint is the jumping back and forth between the three main characters. While Adrien's parts are easy to tell, between the two girls is occasionally confusing until you get some hint of which sister it is. But as I've said before in other blogs, this isn't my favorite way of storytelling. However, again, this was a really good, scary book. I will definitely recommend it to teens, as well as anyone who enjoys zombie stories.

Falling in Love With English Boys by Melissa Jensen

Believe it or not, as much as I enjoy chick lit, I normally don't get into teen "romance" novels anymore. What I prefer in chick lit is that I feel a connection or similarity to the main character, in other words, she can't be married or divorced or have children, as I have or am none of those things. And as I am not a teen, I usually don't get into their romance. (Don't bug me about Twilight, I know it's a teen romance, and I love it because Bella reminds me of myself!)

Anyway, I got this as a stripped copy from the bookstore. I picked it up because I too enjoy a good British accent, I prefer an Irish one, but British is good too. This story also has a diary in it, reminds me a bit of another book I read recently, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, only not as serious. Our main character is Cat, and she has had to travel with her mom, or (s)mother as she calls her, to England so her mother can work at the British Museum on an author named Mary Percival. Apparently Mary had a daughter named Katherine, same name, just with a K, and Cat's mom gives her Katherine's diary to read. The diary is a fun read and look into the past, back into days of going to parties, and the time of going to war with Napoleon. While she is there, there is of course a cute British boy that Cat meets, and of course develops a crush on. Issues arise as you would expect, and so therein lies the romance.

I also found it amusing that the character wants to run into Prince William and hook up with him, as this prince just got married and is no longer on the market.

A fun, humorous read that I really got into. I tried to just keep it for reading during bubble baths, but I really got caught up in the story and ended up finishing it in bed one last week, well last week depending on when blogger lets me publish this post.

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 2.4 Part 3

Okay, third and final part. However, not sure when you'll see this as I'm still having trouble posting my blogs at home even though I can type them up and save them.

First is Are You Going to Kiss Me Now? by Sloane Tannen. This is a teen novel about a girl who is a writer and wins a trip to go interview a bunch of celebs. Her plan goes down on a desert island where she is now stranded with 5 stereotypical hollywood star types. Somehow she is able to post on her iPhone about their amusing adventures as they try to survive and hopefully get rescued. Sounds fun!




Second is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. This is a book I saw when straightening the fiction section at the store. Instead of nuclear war, the weapon of choice is an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP), and it defeats the United States. This weapon will take us back to the Dark Ages, before the invention of electricity. The reviews of this say that it is something that we might actually have to worry about, as our enemies may already have this. Again, a really interesting sounding storyline.









Third and the final for this volume is All the Lives He Led by Frederik Pohl. This is a science fiction book. In this, there is a theme park in 2079 at the site of Pompeii, 2000 years after it's last eruption. It is still unstable and could erupt at any time. A big celebration is planned in honor of the 2000 year anniversary, and there are terrorists who are thinking to use this to their advantage.

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 2.4 Part One

I'm thinking to do this volume in three parts, as I have compiled a list from the last 3 times I worked of 9 books. And I hate to put 9 books in as I always have trouble messing with the pictures and getting them lined up with the info about them. So, here we go with the first 3.

Tighter by Adele Griffin. This is a ghost story I think. The main character is Jamie, and she has moved to a small island. There was an accident there recently where a couple died, and supposedly Jamie looks like the girl. And she can somehow communicate with the spirits. So basically she will have to figure out what the spirits want from her, and what actually happened to the couple. I also have to say, just look at this cover, what a great way to grab someone's attention and get them to pick up the book to see what it is about.

Five 4ths of July by Pat Raccio Hughes. This is a historical fiction, and a boy main character. As the title suggests, we follow our main character, Jake Mallory, over 5 years, beginning with July 4th 1777. Jake is 14 at the time, and celebrating the country's new independence. He wants to get out, away from his overbearing father, and see some adventure, and he does over these years.

Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs. Again, a really cool cover made me pick it up. Even though I haven't really been able to get into any of the mermaid books that are out there. But this sounds like it might be cool. Our main character has the cool name of Tempest, and she is half mermaid. She must decide by her 17th birthday if she wants to continue living on land, or go back to the sea. She has a boyfriend named Mark, and she loves to surf. But surfing she meets a guy named Kai who is very intriguing, and she possibly thinks there is something otherworldly about him as well.

Okay, stay tuned for part 2 of this!

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 2.3

It's been awhile since I did one of these, partly because I haven't been working that much, and partly because I've been really busy. So this volume will actually include both nights I worked this week, but only 3 books, as again, with our lack of employees lately, I don't have as much time to wander and find new books.

First is The Friendship Doll by Kirby Lawson. This is a young readers book, and is told kind of from the doll's viewpoint I think. But the premise is that in 1927 there were 59 of these dolls sent from Japan to America as a friendship offering. These are the tales of the girls that they lived with and the friendships they made. The story goes that only 45 are left, and they hope that after reading, maybe someone will help find the 13 others or solve the mystery of what happened to them.

The 2nd book is a teen book called Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. Again, the cover drew me in when I had to reshelve this book thanks to a lazy customer, but hey, if they hadn't left it sitting somewhere, I might not have seen it, so let's look on the bright side. The story is that this is a family of time travelers. They are prepared as they grow up for this, except our main character Gwyneth, who supposedly was born at the wrong time and missed this gene. But, for some reason, her mother was wrong, and she does time travel. She works with someone named Gideon, where the time traveler gene is passsed through the men in the family. They travel through 18th century London as well as contemporary London.

And finally, this isn't really a book to read, but one that I could use as a single person. I'm always looking for cookbooks for just one or two people so I don't end up with a ton of leftovers. I often get bored of leftovers really quickly. Especially if the recipe isn't really that good. On our new cookbook table we have one called: The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. This sounds like it has a lot of recipes, even Julia Childs types of recipes, but it helps you to not waste food and save money as a single person. Don't know when I'll buy it, I've promised myself not to buy anymore cookbooks until I actually start cooking out of the ones I have.

2011 Debut Author Challenge 7: Entwined by Heather Dixon

I was not aware of the 12 Dancing Princesses Fairy Tale until I saw it one day at the bookstore where I work and picked it up and read it really quick. It was a good story. So when I read the premise for this book Entwined by Heather Dixon I was eager to see how the fairy tale could be adapted into a teen book. Let me say that I think they did a great job. I got sucked in and could barely put it down. This is also one of my books for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge.

The original story was published by the Grimm Brothers. The basic story is that there are 12 princesses, sisters, locked in a room each night. But each morning their slippers are worn out as if they have been dancing all night. The king can't figure it out, so he promises his kingdom and one of the princesses to the man who can solve the mystery. The one who solves it is given an invisibility cloak and warned not to eat or drink anything from the princesses, and to pretend to be asleep when they go to bed. He does all this, then follows them using the invisibility cloak and discovers where they sneak off to and tells the king. This is one version of the story, but all are very similar.

In Entwined the reason the princesses are "locked in" is because they are in mourning. At the beginning of the book we meet their mother who is sick because of her pregnancy with her 12th child. She dies when she has the child and the king is so upset he leaves to go fight in a war. Leaving the girls at home to be in mourning. Mourning means no dancing, wearing black, no going outside, the windows are covered, basically being locked in the house. Now, in the past the castle was changed by magic, and there are still some things left. The princesses also learn about secret passages and find their way down to a secret ballroom to where someone named Keeper controls the dancing and ballroom. Each of the princesses in this story have a name for a plant of some sort, in alphabetical order, beginning with Azalea, the oldest, to the newborn Lily. There are of course several suitors in the story. When the king comes back from war he sees that the girls' slippers are worn out from their going to dance each night, and so he sends out a message to get someone to help figure out the mystery. When these gentlemen are at the palace, the girls are allowed to go outside and it is almost like not being in mourning.

I loved the emotional side brought to the story, and how the father is trying to win back the love of his daughters that he has somewhat been away from due to Royal Business, or R.B. as they call it in the book. This was a really good fairy tale. After all the dystopian novels I've been reading lately with often depressing endings, it is nice once in awhile to get lost in a happy ending again. I will definitely recommend this!

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

The 4th book in the Mortal Instruments series is the first book I've bought on my own Nook that I didn't already own. (Twilight of course had to be the first, and soon I'll own the whole Twilight series on my Nook so that I can read it whenever and wherever I am without having to carry the huge books around.)

Normally I don't like when books change character viewpoints back and forth. But this book did it very well, and perfectly for the story. Although there were some times that I was like, NO! Go back to Clary and Jace! And on my Nook, it doesn't give you the separation of extra space or anything like a normal book would, but that's okay. I figured it out.

In this book, they are back from Idris, the different supernatural groups all have their representatives on the council. Clary is now finally getting to train to be a Shadowhunter, although at her age she is way behind where she should be from all the missed years of training. There have been several Shadowhunters turning up dead. In different areas to throw suspicion on Werewolves, Fairies, and Vampires. Clary's friend Simon is having trouble at home, his mother is beginning to suspect something is up, and she finally does and he has to make her forget, and so he leaves, becoming homeless until the new band member Kyle invites him to stay with him. Simon is also juggling both Isabella and Maia. Jace is acting strange. One moment he is so loving and there for Clary, the next moment he's pulling away and saying it would be better if they were apart. Jace keeps having dreams of killing Clary. Turns out Clary's actions at the end of the last book have some unforeseen consequences. A great book, left hanging at the end again, and now have to wait for the next one to come out!

Although, I guess I could go ahead and read Clockwork Angel to keep me in the world while I wait.

2011 Debut Author Challenge 6: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Before I get started on my review, let me first say that at the 2nd session I attended at the MASL conference today I got reinspired to try to do book reviews for teacher and library magazines. Wish me luck, and don't let me just forget and not bother with it! I do know that the review will have to be much more tight and much better writing than I do here on my blog. I know I should probably take more time with my entries here, but so far I just kind of like posting as I think. Feels more authentic and personal. Also, very excited to meet both Jay Asher, author of 13 Reasons Why, and Heather Brewer, author of the Vladimir Tod series, tomorrow. And while it's always cool when Heather Brewer replies to my Tweets, or even my Facebook posts, it was cool that she seems to be looking forward to meeting one of her minions as well! Plus, Jay Asher replied to me today too! So exciting! I love technology. Although, with such cool authors as these, it makes it harder to understand the authors I tweet that don't even bother to ever reply, even when I link to my reviews. Oh well. It is what it is. It's obvious who the really COOL authors are.



And, on with the review. Blood Red Road is another ARC. I waited a bit to get to it, while it sounded good, when I first picked it up, I had some trouble getting into it. But once I did, well, let's just say it was a day or two of not wanting to do anything other than read. I even wished I didn't have to go to family birthday parties so I could stay home and read, and there was cake at the party!!! And cake is my weakness. But back to topic.



Our main character is named Saba. She lives with her twin brother, her younger sister, and her father in a place called Silverlake, that is actually a dried up lake now. This is set in a future world, when things have gone wrong, from the few bits and pieces we get, I'm assuming some kind of disease or plague or pollution of some sort. At the very beginning, her brother Lugh is kidnapped, her father killed, and she is left alone with her sister Emmi, who she doesn't much like. Saba sets off to find Lugh, and along the way they get caught and taken to Hopetown where Saba is made to fight in cages. Kind of a gladiator type thing. Made me think of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for some reason. Saba does really good, winning all her fights. She meets a boy there, Jack, and a girl named Epona, who is part of a group of girls out to win freedom for all. They are able to escape and burn down Hopetown. Saba finds out from another girl that her brother has been taken for a sacrifice. The king wants someone to sacrifice every year to extend his life. This king is obviously crazy and we find out just how much.



This was a really good book. I can see it being a very popular book for teens. My only complaints, and they are minimal, first, I understand why they use a slang type of speech, it fits the type of life the main characters have had, but it is still hard for me to read that as I'm so used to correcting grammar in papers I have to grade. The one other thing I didn't like is that they didn't use quotation marks when someone was talking, so sometimes I'd have to go back to re-read what I hadn't realized was someone talking to help my mind make sense of it. Nothing about the story was bad, just some things that my brain had a little trouble processing. But as I said, it didn't stop my brain from wanting to pick up the book and read constantly! I liked the way the relationship between Jack and Saba developed, its highs and lows were very good, and relatable I think.

Plague by Michael Grant

This is the fourth book in the Gone series by Michael Grant, which I was introduced to last year when I was a reader selector for the Truman books. This is a really great series, and this last book I think was one of the best ones. The town is still kind of trying to keep going. You've got the "bad" guy Caine, out on the island that was once owned by a Hollywood couple that I guess were modeled on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. He's living there with Dianna, who decides that she wants to just stay there and try to live as normal a life as possible. They have electricity, a little, they have food, and no one else to eat it all. Sam is leader, but not really. Albert has kind of taken over, he is running all the business and so people now look to him to take care of them. Well, he is finding that they are probably going to run out of fresh water soon, so he sends Sam and Dekka and Jack out to find the water at a lake. While there they find another mutant named Toto who has been alone at the military base all this time. Toto's power is telling if someone is telling the truth or think they are telling the truth at least. This comes in handy when Albert decides to bring Caine back to save them from these horrible bug creatures now out to attack them. The title refers to everyone having flu, but this time is is really bad, some kids cough so hard they cough their insides out. And these bug creatures are hatching out of kids and seem to be indestructible.

You've got all your same old characters, with some kind of new ones. I loved the way you got some hope when they found the lake with the military base and some food, but then Caine and Drake come back, and hope goes away.

2011 Debut Author Challenge 5: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Another ARC. And I kept hearing great things online about it, how picking it up and not being able to put it down. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of the coverwork, it doesn't really draw me in. It's cool looking, don't get me wrong, just wouldn't have grabbed me or made me think what it was about.

Well, the things I read going on and on about how great this book was? They weren't exaggerating. When I picked it up, I could barely put it down. I finished it in 2 days, while teaching and having to work at the bookstore one of those nights. As I read it, I thought in my head that this reminded me of the Hunger Games. Anyway, it's great, awesome, I even recommended it to one of my students as I was reading it, and it's not even published till May! So, let's get on with the summary of the story.

In this future society, the people decided that if people only chose one way/society of approved areas to be a part of, that would keep there from being war. Abegnation is the one our main character Beatrice is from. Now, I've never heard the word abegnation, so wasn't sure exactly what this group did until they explained. The other factions were easy to understand, Candor - honest, Dauntless - bravery, Erudite - knowledge, and Amity - happiness. Anyways, Beatrice is the age where she must choose which faction to spend the rest of her life in. There is a mental simulation game that determines which area they would be best in, but they can choose whatever they want. Beatrice gets unexpected results, she is something called a Divergent, but must keep it a secret, in fact, the test examiner changes the results to hide this. Beatrice doesn't choose her own faction, even though it means leaving her family, because the motto is Faction before family. She goes to Dauntless. Her brother Caleb also stuns her by choosing Erudite instead of Abegnation. So we follow Beatrice, who becomes Tris, into Dauntless. This is an extreme life. Jumping on and off trains to travel places. Jumpingn off buildings, fighting other new members to determine just who will actually get to join and who will be sent away to live factionless.

A great dystopian story. Not sure if it left off in a way that could be a sequel, but I'd go back to this world to see how things work out. Can't wait to make it a staff rec at the bookstore I work at!

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 1.9 Part 1

I have so many books from working this past Wednesday, and then last night, I am going to split this blog into two parts to save myself some time. So check back, hopefully later tonight for the rest.

First is going to be Eliza's Freedom Road by Jerdine Nolen. Now this is really a young readers book, not teen level. But I am a sucker for any Civil War story. And this one really hits close to my childhood. Why? Because at the private school I went to from 1st-8th grade, for handwriting, at one point we had to just copy from books. And the book I copied from most of the time was a book about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. And this story is about a young slave named Eliza who has her mother sent away, and soon the owner is talking of selling the slaves, especially a young girl like Eliza who will be a very big moneymaker. Eliza decides to run away using the stories her mother taught her about the Freedom Road.

Next is Balefire by Cate Tiernan. I guess this is actually an omnibus of a whole series all in one book. There are two girls who look almost identical, one of them has just moved to New Orleans where the other one already lives. And it isn't just a separated at birth kind of thing, it's much darker. Don't know much more than that, but it sounds great.

Third is Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter. The main character is Kylie whose life seems to be going downhill, parents getting a divorce, boyfriend dumping her, grandmother dies, and now she has a stalker. Her counselor decides to send her to a school supposedly for troubled teens. Turns out the school is actually home to vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, and shapeshifters, and supposedly Kylie is one of them.

Falling Under by Gwen Hayes is about a girl named Theia who lives a pretty sheltered life, but she dreams about a boy with haunting eyes all the time. Then one day he shows up at her school, and of course she's pulled to him, even though he seems hot and cold to her. She soon learns what he really is, and still thinks she wants to be with him.

And the last one I'll talk about now, and then I'll just do a part two with the other books, is Subject Seven by James A. Moore. Another teen book. In a way the storyline of this somewhat reminds me of I Am Number Four. There were several children genetically modified and raised in the Janus Project. These children are sent away after the original Alpha kills the the head scientist and his guards and escapes. In the future, they begin to feel a call, and feel like their bodies are being taken over by something that they can't control. It is compared somewhat to a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. They are gathered back together by Subject Seven and find out they were supposed to be killed instead of adopted out, and must band together to save themselves.

The Past Midnight Series #1-2 by Mara Purnhagen

When I checked out the Nook again last week, I was unsure what book I wanted to read first. So I went to my Goodreads page to my young adult books to read area and searched through. I wasn't really getting excited about any of them until I came to one called Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen. As someone who has gone on a few "ghost hunts" and is very interested in this, I decided this would be the book to start with. Especially in honor of going to see the premier of the American Ghost Hunter movie this summer and getting to meet the cast of Paranormal State tv show.

The main character is Charlotte Silver. Her parents are famous for a ghost hunting show they film. The difference is that her parents go out to debunk ghost stories. In fact they have their van for the show that is black with the word "Doubt" written on it. After a research trip to Charleston, something paranormal attaches itself to Charlotte and her parents have to face the fact that maybe there is some truth in it. Charlotte's mother is more open than her father. It turns out there are some parents who want to know what happened to their daughter, also named Charlotte. Up until now, the Silver family has moved constantly. Charlotte and her sister convince their parents to settle down near Charleston for Charlotte's senior year. And so for the first time Charlotte is able to make real friends, even a best friend named Avery. Avery has some secrets, and these secrets will be another mysterious thing to pull Charlotte into the paranormal world. That is the story behind the first book, Past Midnight.

The 2nd, or as it is called 1.5 book in the series, was a very short book, only like 83 pages on the Nook, and actually only available as an ebook. And in this, there is a huge rainstorm and flooding down in this area, and tons of coffins are washed out of cemetaries. Charlotte's parents of course volunteer to help with this, and now there is a mystery in the coffins that are found. There is a creepy man who is hanging around the cemetary that the Silver's are trying to help clean up, and he has a strange connection to the old man who cares for the cemetary. It was a really good book for as short as it was. I'm so glad the author went ahead and made it into an ebook. One thing that really connected with me in this, was the boy, Noah, that Charlotte likes. She finds out from Avery, that after homecoming, he said he was only interested in Charlotte as a friend. I felt the hurt she felt, knowing I've felt that way about several guys, only most of the time I never had anyone tell me that was all it was.

And the actual 2nd book is called One Hundred Candles. In this book, if you've heard of the 100 candles game, it does take place. A fellow student named Gwyn has other students come to her house to play this. Everyone tells a ghost story then lights a candle, until 100 stories have been told and all 100 candles have been lit. At that point the room is supposed to be filled with ghosts. Charlotte knows her parents would have a fit at her doing this, they disapprove of things like this and the Ouija board. But she is hanging out with a football player from school that supposedly is interested in her. And he holds her hand, and kisses her, and treats her really well. We also start out the story with the Silvers going to participate in an investigation in an old insane assylum with another really famous author. Now, while this person has a different name for the book of course, I wonder if it is supposed to be modeled after an actual author with a very similar name. I think is is Hans Holder? Something like that. When they are in the asylum, the assistant grabs Charlotte and is twisting and hurting her arm while he is possessed by something. And it is this something that Charlotte and her family must figure out to do. At the same time her parents are growing apart as her mother becomes more accepting and her father refuses to change his point of view on ghosts. The ending was very dramatic, and it left me hanging for book 3, which is supposedly out this fall? I hope!

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 1.8

Saw several books on Tuesday night that I would be interested in reading. Even actually saw one in the young readers that sounded pretty good.

First is Timeless by Alexandra Monir. Our main character is named Michele Windsor, who is from a famous blue blood family. She discovers her great-great-grandmother's diary, and as she reads through it, she gets transported back in time to the Gilded Age. She meets the man of her dream in the past, but also learns some family secrets, and must try to deal with both of her lives. This is a teen book.

Second is the young readers book: The Danger Box by Blue Balliett. Now this author has had several bestselling kids' books in the Chasing Vermeer series. None of which I've read, although they sound like they have a decent plot. But this book sounds really good. The main character is named Zoomy, a 12 year old with pathological myopia, and at the beginning of the story, his absent alchoholic father shows up and leaves a box for him. Inside the box is only an old notebook, but it leads to lots of adventures. It is a journal that Zoomy goes through and then tries to find out more history about the author.

Third is a grown up book called Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran. Her other books have been about Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Both people that I enjoy reading about. I haven't read her books, but if this one is good, then I'll put them on my list. As you can tell by the title, it is about Madame Tussaud, she who is famous for the wax museum, but she was also an eye witness to the revolution. The royal family is impressed with her talent and invite her to the palace. But as tides turn, she is now considered a traitor for this favor she has been shown. And to save herself she is commissioned to make the death masks of the beheaded royal family.

Fourth is the book Living Hell by Catherine Jinks, a teen novel. Again, this author has many teen books, none of which have quite appealed to me when I picked them up to read the summaries on the jacket flaps. However, I picked it up anyway, and it sounds very intriguing. The main character is a 17 year old boy named Cheney. He has lived his whole life on a spaceship searching for an inhabitable planet. The spaceship hits a radiation wave, and at first it seems everyone is okay, there is no damage. But what has happened is the ship is now an organic organism, and it thinks the humans living in it are parasites and sends things to kill them, just like white blood cells would in our body. The science teacher in me LOVES this story idea!