March 27, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday (41)



Title: Nantucket Blue
Author: Leila Howland
Pub Date: 5.7.2013
From goodreads.com: For Cricket Thompson, a summer like this one will change everything. A summer spent on Nantucket with her best friend, Jules Clayton, and the indomitable Clayton family. A summer when she’ll make the almost unattainable Jay Logan hers. A summer to surpass all dreams.
Some of this turns out to be true. Some of it doesn’t. 
When Jules and her family suffer a devastating tragedy that forces the girls apart, Jules becomes a stranger whom Cricket wonders whether she ever really knew. And instead of lying on the beach working on her caramel-colored tan, Cricket is making beds and cleaning bathrooms to support herself in paradise for the summer.
But it’s the things Cricket hadn’t counted on--most of all, falling hard for someone who should be completely off-limits--that turn her dreams into an exhilarating, bittersweet reality.
A beautiful future is within her grasp, and Cricket must find the grace to embrace it. If she does, her life could be the perfect shade of Nantucket blue.

March 26, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday (42)


This week's topic:
Top Ten Books I Recommend the Most

Being a bookseller, you would think this would be an easy topic.  The problem I've found though, is that generally when people come book shopping they want to leave with something in their hands.  A lot of the time I want to give them something we don't have in stock.  So I'm going to make this my no holds barred, if I could give someone any book these would be what I would give them.

For the Contemporary fan:

The Princess Diaries
Meg Cabot

Anna and the French Kiss
Stephanie Perkins

Saving Francesca/The Piper's Son
Melina Marchetta

Secret Society Girl
Diana Peterfreund

If I Stay
Gayle Forman

For the Fantasy/Adventure fan:

White Cat
Holly Black

Delirium
Lauren Oliver

 Anna Dressed in Blood
Kendare Blake

Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas

Tiger Lily
Jodi Lynn Anderson

I can't wait to see which books you guys picked!

March 14, 2013

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Pages: 550
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

From goodreads.com: It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery....

Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found.

With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.


I read The Book Thief for my YA book club.  We've never read historical fiction, so we decided to takle both this and Code Name Verity in the same month.  We're clearly crazy people.  Usually I fly through books, but this one took me two full weeks.  I wanted to take my time with it and got super invested in the characters.

I don't even know how to start reviewing a book like this, so I don't think I will.  Instead I'm going to share some of my favorite non-spoilery quotes with you.

"In the years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer - proof again of the contradictory human being.  So much good, so much evil.  Just add water." (164)

"For some reason, dying men always ask questions they know the answer to.  Perhaps it's so they can die being right." (469)

"The Book Thief - Last Line
I have hated the words and
I have loved them,
and I hope I have made them right." (528)

"He tasted dusty and sweet.  He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchists suit collection." (536)

I think The Book Thief is such an important book and it's told in a very interesting way.  I never jump right for historical fiction when I see it on the shelf, but when I hit books like this I know I need to change that.  I really loved The Book Thief and highly recommend you add it to your TBR lists, if you haven't read it already!

March 12, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday (41)



This week's topic is
Top Ten Books at the TOP of my Spring 2013 TBR List

I am always terrible at reading the books I put on this list, crossing my fingers that this time I'm better!  (Pictures are links to goodreads.)

Entice - Jessica Shirvington

Attachments - Rainbow Rowell

Vortex - Julie Cross

This is What Happy Looks Like - Jennifer E. Smith

I Hunt Killers - Barry Lyga

Everbound - Brodi Ashton

Such a Rush - Jennifer Echols

Requiem - Lauren Oliver

Hysteria - Megan Miranda

A Midsummer's Nightmare - Kody Keplinger

I can't wait to see what you all are planning on reading this spring!

March 6, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday (40)




Title: Transparent
Author: Natalie Whipple
Pub Date: 5.21.13
From goodreads.com: Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is.

An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years—everything from spying on people to stealing cars to breaking into bank vaults.

After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough. She and her mother flee to a small town, and for the first time in her life, Fiona feels like a normal life is within reach. But Fiona’s father isn’t giving up that easily.

Of course, he should know better than anyone: never underestimate an invisible girl.

March 5, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday (40)


This week's topic
Top Ten Series I'd Like to Start But Haven't Yet

I know there are so many series that I've been meaning to start, but haven't.  There are more and more that pop up every day and it's totally impossible for me to keep up with them all.  Here are a couple that I've been wanting to start, but just haven't had the time and/or the proper motivation to yet.  Also, I'm trying out a  little bit of a new format this week.  The pictures should all be links to the first books in the series on GoodReads so you can easily add them to your own TBR lists.  Let me know if you like it!











Are any of my series on your list too?  Or are there ones that I've overlooked that I need to check out, like, now?  Let me know!