I want it Wednesday

For this Wednesday I found something that seemed interesting.


Summary:
When Alex, a junior at an elite preparatory school, realizes that she may have been the victim of date rape, she confides in her roommates and sister who convince her to seek help from a secret society, the Mockingbirds.

My mom's crazy

Meredith has a lot of problems and they are pretty big. The first one on her list is that her father is a child abuser. Her second problem is he abused her. The third problem is he is coming home to live with Meredith. And the fourth one is her mother is fine with the idea of having him come back into the house. In fact, she's really excited about it. Oh, and her parents want to have another baby.

Meredith's life is messed up and along for the journey she has her wheel chair bound friend, Andy. She likes Andy, but does she really love him? Being with him are her only moments of sanity and sanctuary as she escapes her volatile household.

The reader watches in horror as Meredith's life slowly unravels. How can her life be so horrible? Thankfully she has some adults to back her up, even a no nonsense cop who wants her scumbag father gone.

I loved this book and I think other students will too. It boggles the mind to think that a mother would bring an abuser back into the household, but we all know it happens. Meredith's plight is described very well. You can feel her helplessness sometimes, and I think that makes for a great book.

The ending took me by surprise. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. But I won't give that away.

Students looking for a book about teen issues and abuse I think will enjoy this one.

Historical Fiction Friday

Everyone knows the tale of Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. But what some people may not know is that in the 1600s there was Countess Erzsébet Báthory...otherwise known as the Blood Countess.

Countess Bathory had a fixation on youth. She wanted to stay young. So she killed some of her servants and bathed in their blood. Well, that's one of the stories.

This is an adult novel, but I think teens will find it interesting. I have an ARC and I'll be writing a review soon.

here is a summary:
Johns's creepily enticing second novel (after Icebergs) travels to 1611 Hungary as Countess Erzsébet Báthory--aka the Blood Countess--is being walled into a castle tower as punishment for the murder of dozens of women and girls. She begins writing her life story as an exposé of the many betrayals that have brought about this--as she sees it--outrageous and unjust imprisonment. The steady, calm tone of Erzsébet's narration lulls the reader along so that the first hints of madness in her girlhood engender doubt and discomfort rather than horror, and as her lack of remorse and grandiose sense of entitlement are unveiled, a matter-of-fact self-portrait of a murderer emerges. This is a carefully researched story, gothic in tone and grimly atmospheric, with subtly handled psychology and an initially unassuming tone.

I want it Wednesday

I'm trying to find more books with teen issues. I though this one sounded interesting.,


Summary:

In fifteen-year-old Alyssa Bondar's Russian-Jewish culture, having a few drinks is as traditional asblinchiki and piroshki. So when her mom's midday cocktails turn into an all-day happy hour, it seems like Alyssa's the only one who notices—or cares. Her dad is steeped in the nightly news—and denial—and her best friend Lana is too busy trashing their shared Russian heritage so she can be popular.

Alyssa would rather focus on cross-country meets and her first kiss with her running partner, Keith, but someone has to clean up her mom's mess. But who will be there to catch Alyssa when her mom's next fall off the wagon threatens to drag her down, too?

This book comes out November 8, 2010.

I love Marilyn Monroe. But it's not $30.00 worth of love

I must have been living in a vacuum because I didn't hear about this little gem. Fragments is Marilyn...yes that Marilyn's notes, thoughts and poems. I loved the book she "wrote" entitled My Story. I reviewed it for this blog. So when I found out about this one I ran to the bookstore.

The price is high, $30.00. I'll confess I'm not sure if its worth that much. I haven't read it yet. I have a copy on hold at the library. Amazon.com has a huge discount (who doesnt love Amazon?) and the book is $16.00.

Marilyn Monroe is an icon. Everyone thought she was a ditsy blond she was a smart person. I'm looking forward to getting this book.

Here is a summary:
Marilyn Monroe’s image is so universal that we can’t help but believe that we know all there is to know of her. Every word and gesture made headlines and garnered controversy. Her serious gifts as an actor were sometimes eclipsed by her notoriety—and the way the camera fell helplessly in love with her.

But what of the other Marilyn? Beyond the headlines—and the too-familiar stories of heartbreak and desolation—was a woman far more curious, searching, and hopeful than the one the world got to know. Even as Hollywood studios tried to mold and suppress her, Marilyn never lost her insight, her passion, and her humor. To confront the mounting difficulties of her life, she wrote.

Now, for the first time, we can meet this private Marilyn and get to know her in a way we never have before. Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts—notes to herself, letters, even poems—in Marilyn’s own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos.

These bits of text—jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead—reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances so memorable emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so heartbreaking.

I want it Wednesday

Steampunk is a genre that has caught my attention. However, there seem to be so few novels. Or, rather, I have a hard time finding them. Anyway, I came across this one in a local book store. If you have any title suggestions on YA Steampunk please send them my way.

Summary:
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

The sequel to this novel is Behemoth. It is currently out in stores.

Historical Fiction Friday

In today's spotlight is Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson. This is the sequel to Chains. Ms. Anderson is a local girl( Mexico NY). I've only read one book by her, Wintergirls, which I thought an interesting read but not riveting. Still, my patrons love her stuff so I thought I would bring attention to this novel.

Summary:
Anderson follows her searing, multi-award-winning novel Chains (2008) with this well-researched sequel, also set during the Revolutionary War and narrated by a young African American. This time, though, her central character is male, and the heartbreaking drama shifts from Chains’ domestic town houses to graphically described bloody battlefields. After a narrowly successful escape from Manhattan, former slaves Isabel and Curzon separate, and Curzon is once again on the run. He finds necessary food and shelter as a private with the Continental army, and through Curzon’s eyes, Anderson re-creates pivotal historical scenes, including the desperate conditions at Valley Forge.


Publication Date is October 19, 2010

I want it Wednesday

For this Wednesday I stumbled across a book that I think sounds interesting.

Here is a summary:

When an impulsive carjacking turns into a kidnapping, Griffin, a high school dropout, finds himself more in sympathy with his wealthy, blind victim, sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, than with his greedy father.

Upcoming releases for October

I thought there would be more ghostly good books for this month. However, it seems there are a lot more historical fiction novels(not that I'm complaining). Anyway, there are some good novels in this bunch.

• Trash by Andy Mulligan
• Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler
• Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck
• Daughter of Winter by Pat Lowery Collins
• Jane by April Lindner
• Her and me and you by Lauren Strasnick
• Contagion by Joanne Dahme
• Empty by Suzanne Weyn
• The Blending Time by Michael Kinch
• The last good place of Lily Odilon by Sara Beitia
• Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
• Crossing Over by Anna Kendall
• Bright young things by Anna Godbersen

Historical Fiction Friday

The cover for this book reminds me of Halloween. In fact it kinda creeps me out. So I decided to showcase it today since it is the first of October.

Summary:
Young Tabby Aykroyd has been brought to the dusty mansion of Seldom House to be nursemaid to a foundling boy. He is a savage little creature, but the Yorkshire moors harbor far worse, as Tabby soon discovers. Why do scores of dead maids and masters haunt Seldom House with a jealous devotion that extends beyond the grave?

As Tabby struggles to escape the evil forces rising out of the land, she watches her young charge choose a different path. Long before he reaches the old farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the boy who will become Heathcliff has doomed himself and any who try to befriend him.