5/30/09
Book #92 Eyes Like Stars: Theatre Illuminata, Act I
5 out of 5
Product Details
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (July 7, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312380968
ISBN-13: 978-0312380960
Product Description
All her world’s a stage.
Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
That is, until now.
Enter Stage Right
NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.
COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE’S sidekicks.
ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie’s weakness. The symbol of impending doom.
BERTIE. Our heroine.
Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.
Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience.
Open Curtain
What a wonderful debut! I wish I had the imagination to write something like this myself. It is one of those reads that you can't put down until you finish it. Bertie grows into her own during this story and I can't wait until the next one is released to find out what happens next with this cast of characters. A book for any theater loving geek to enjoy.
5/29/09
Book #91 High Voltage Tattoo
4 out of 5
Product Details
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Collins Design (January 20, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061684384
ISBN-13: 978-0061684388
Product Description
High Voltage Tattoo is a graphic perspective on today's global tattoo culture by Kat Von D, star of The Learning Channel's L.A. Ink and one of the most talented and popular artists working today. Designed in a style that is reminiscent of a handmade Gothic journal with its red padded cover, ornate typography, and parchmentlike pages, it throws the door wide open to tattooing culture in the way only an insider like Kat can.
High Voltage Tattoo traces Kat's career as an artist, from early childhood influences to recent work, along with examples of what inspires her, information about the show and her shop, her sketches, and personal tattoos. The book goes deep into tattoo process and culture: readers can see up close the pigments, the tools, and the making of complex, even collaborative, tattoos.
With a foreword by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, the book features images and stories about celebrities, rockers, pro skaters, and everyday citizens, including Slayer's Kerry King, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Margaret Cho, Jackass' Bam Margera, David Letterman, and many others. It profiles and showcases the work of artists Kat has selected from all over the world, her interviews with people who have compelling tattoos and stories, and amazing images of extraordinary tattoo work. Numerous portfolios throughout the book showcase a range of relevant subjects, from the black and gray portrait work for which Kat is famous to a popular tattoo theme, such as the rose or biblical images. There is a knockout ten-page full-body spread of Kat—clad in a yellow bikini and seven-inch, rhinestone-studded red stilettos—that catalogs in detail all her personal tattoos on her front, back, left, and right sides—even her hands and head.
I have to say this is one fascinating book. The mini autobiography on Kat von D herself is nicely done and gives us a great background on her life and how she ended up with her tattoo obsession. The pictures alone can be looked at for hours.
Book #90 Need
3.5 out of 5
Product Details
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books (December 23, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599903385
ISBN-13: 978-1599903385
Product Description
Now fans of Stephenie Meyer and Melissa Marr have a new author to devour . . .
Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.
Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.
With suspense, romance, and paranormal themes, this exciting breakout novel has all the elements to keep teens rapidly turning the pages.
The story took awhile to get to, but then it was a page turner. I really think that this one needs a sequel! Nicely combines pixies/faries and werebeasts into a cute romance. If you enjoyed Tithe, you will like this, although it is not as dark.
5/27/09
An American Idol Recount?
5/26/09
Book #89 In the Kitchen: A Novel
3 out of 5
Product Details
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Scribner (June 16, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 141657168X
ISBN-13: 978-1416571681
Product Description
Gabriel L ightfoot is an enterprising man from a northern E ngland mill town, making good in London. As executive chef at the once-splendid Imperial H otel, he is trying to run a tight kitchen. But his integrity, to say nothing of his sanity, is under constant challenge from the competing demands of an exuberant multinational staff, a gimlet-eyed hotel management, and business partners with whom he is secretly planning a move to a restaurant of his own. D espite the pressures, all his hard work looks set to pay off.
Until a worker is found dead in the kitchen's basement. It is a small death, a lonely death -- but it is enough to disturb the tenuous balance of Gabe's life.
Elsewhere, Gabriel faces other complications. His father is dying of cancer, his girlfriend wants more from their relationship, and the restaurant manager appears to be running an illegal business under Gabe's nose.
Enter Lena, an eerily attractive young woman with mysterious ties to the dead man. Under her spell, Gabe makes a decision, the consequences of which strip him naked and change the course of the life he knows -- and the future he thought he wanted.
I really had to struggle to finish this book. The writing and descriptions are extremely well done, but I am not a descriptive type person. I just wished the book had moved quicker and there wasn't so much detail.
Book #88 Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Scribner (March 24, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1439110072
When Josiah took a teaching job at a Midwestern college, Isabel and their sons moved with him from New York City to Ohio, where Isabel taught acting, threw herself into the college community, and delighted in the less-scheduled lives of toddlers raised away from the city. But within a few months, the marriage was over. The life Isabel had made crumbled. "Happens every day," said a friend.
Far from a self-pitying diatribe, Happens Every Day reads like an intimate conversation between friends. Gillies has written a dizzyingly candid, compulsively readable, ultimately redemptive story about love, marriage, family, heartbreak, and the unexpected turns of a life. On the one hand, reading this book is like watching a train wreck. On the other hand, as Gillies herself says, it is about trying to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness, and loving your life even if it has slipped away. Hers is a remarkable new voice -- instinctive, funny, and irresistible.
5/25/09
Book #87 Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, The
5 out of 5
Product Details
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Voice (June 9, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401340903
ISBN-13: 978-1401340902
Product Description
A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history-the Salem witch trials.
Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.
As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.
Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the witch trials of the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.
I absolutely loved this book! It had all of my favorite things: a little romance, a little magic and historical fiction. This was a wonderful debut. It reminded me a little of The Book of Unholy Mischief: A Novel by Elle Newmark. I finished this one in a day.
Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in his her locker
"Anyway, I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it's the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I'm doing a good thing, right?"
Here are a few of the titles:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
His Dark Materials trilogy
Sabriel
The Canterbury Tales
Candide
The Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
The Godfather
Mort
Interview with the Vampire
The Hunger Games
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Animal Farm
The Witches
Shade's Children
The Evolution of Manthe
Holy Qu'ran... and lots more.
Click the link in the title for the full story.
5/24/09
Book #86 Everyone Is Beautiful: A Novel
4 out of 5
Product Details
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 17, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400066433
ISBN-13: 978-1400066438
Product Description
Lanie Coates’s life is spinning out of control. She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends, and a comfortable life–all so her husband can realize his dream of becoming a professional musician. But somewhere in the eye of her personal hurricane, it hits Lanie that she once had dreams too. If only she could remember what they were.These days, Lanie always seems to rank herself dead last–and when another mom accidentally criticizes her appearance, it’s the final straw. Fifteen years, three babies, and more pounds than she’s willing to count since the day she said “I do,” Lanie longs desperately to feel like her old self again. It’s time to rise up, fish her moxie out of the diaper pail, and find the woman she was before motherhood capsized her entire existence.Lanie sets change in motion–joining a gym, signing up for photography classes, and finding a new best friend. But she also creates waves that come to threaten her whole life. In the end, Lanie must figure out once and for all how to find herself without losing everything else in the process. Katherine Center’s Everyone Is Beautiful is a hugely entertaining, poignant, and charming new novel about what happens after happily ever after: how a woman learns to fall in love with her husband–and her entire life–all over again.
This reminded me a lot of Jennifer Weiner, as the book delivered believable characters and you could imagine the day to day activities of Lanie and her life. I really enjoyed this Mom Lit read.
5/23/09
Book #85 You Are So Undead to Me
4 out of 5
Product Details
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Razorbill (January 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595142258
ISBN-13: 978-1595142252
Product Description
Q: HOW MANY ZOMBIES DOES IT TAKE TO RUIN A SOCIAL LIFE?
A: NOT MANY.
Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a whole bunch of semi-dead people with killer issues. All Megan really wants is to go to homecoming, but when you're trailed by a bunch of slobbering corpses whenever you leave the house, it's kinda hard to score a date. Let's just say Megan's love life could use some major resuscitation.
Megan's convinced her life can't get any worse - until someone in school starts using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into scary, hardcore flesh-eating Zombies. Now it's up to Megan to stop the Zombie apocalypse. Her life - and more importantly, the homecoming dance - depends on it.
I really enjoyed this young adult paranormal. I think it would appeal to most teenagers and it gives a different twist on this genre'. I was getting a little tired of vampire romances and this one was a cute page turner and a quick read.
5/22/09
Book #84 Pleasure Unbound (Demonica, Book 1)
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Forever; First edition (June 20, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044640103X
ISBN-13: 978-0446401036
She's a demon-slayer who hungers for sensual pleasure-but fears it will always be denied her. Until Tayla Mancuso lands in a hospital run by demons in disguise, and the head doctor, Eidolon, makes her body burn with unslakable desire. But to prove her ultimate loyalty to her peers, she must betray the surgeon who saved her life.
Two lovers will dare to risk all.
Eidolon cannot resist this fiery, dangerous woman who fills him with both rage and passion. Not only is she his avowed enemy, but she could very well be the hunter who has been preying upon his people. Torn between his need for the truth and his quest to find his perfect mate before a horrific transformation claims him forever, Eidolon will dare the unthinkable-and let Tayla possess him, body and soul...
Book #83 How to Ditch Your Fairy
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books; 1 edition (September 16, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599903016
ISBN-13: 978-1599903019
Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all—especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.
5/19/09
5/17/09
Book #82 I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing but True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother, and Friend to Man and Dog
Product Details
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (March 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399155287
ISBN-13: 978-0399155284
Product Description
Meet the men in Diana Joseph’s life: “The boy,” Diana’s fourteen-year-old son, who supports the NRA and dreams of living in a house with wall-to-wall carpeting; Diana’s father, who’s called her on the telephone twice, ever, and who sat her down when she was twelve to caution her against becoming a slut (she didn’t listen); Diana’s brothers, or, as her father calls them, “the two assholes”; Diana’s ex-husband, a lumberjack with three ex-wives, yet he’s still the first one she calls when she’s in a jam; and Diana’s common-law husband, Al, an English professor who’s been mistakenly called mentally challenged. Ostensibly organized around the various men in Diana’s life, this is really a memoir about what it’s like to be a modern, smart woman making her way in the world.
This is one of those books that make your life seem normal. The author manages to tell her story without making you feel sorry for her even though she has a tough life. Parts were just really funny and I almost felt guilty laughing about them only to realize that was the point. If you can't laugh at life, you cry.
5/16/09
Book #81 Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 24, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446578924
ISBN-13: 978-0446578929
Book #80 One More Bite (Jaz Parks, Book 5)
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (January 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316022098
ISBN-13: 978-0316022095
Book #79 You're the One that I Haunt (Nicki Styx, Book 3)
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Avon (February 24, 2009)
Language: English
The devil went down to Georgia . . .
Nicki Styx has always known that the devil's in the details—but does he have to move in next door, too? Worse, he won't take no for an answer. Nicki would never leave her beloved boyfriend, ER doc Joe Bascombe, but hell hath no fury like a devil scorned. He's determined to make Nicki's life a living hell—even if it means exposing Nicki as an unwilling ghoulfriend to the dead.
Now, just when she was getting used to being able to see and hear—and help—spirits, Nicki's got a whole new set of problems. With ghosts descending from all sides, the bereaved knocking down her door, and Joe trying to take things to the next level, Nicki may finally be in over her head. It would be so easy to dance with the devil . . . but if Nicki crosses over to the dark side, she may never leave.
Book #78 Swoon
5 out of 5
Product Details
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse (May 19, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416974342
Product Description
Sin is coming...prepare to swoon.
Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intensely drawn to him -- but not at all crazy about the havoc he's wreaking.
Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent -- and irresistible -- adversary before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him.
What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?
I enjoyed this very original young adult paranormal. The action was fast paced and the characters were well developed. The author truly has a way with words and I was at first dismayed by the length of this book, it went very quickly and I stayed up way too long to finish it. Candice (aka "Dice") is very likable and Sinclair really reminded me of someone straight out of a Jane Austin novel. The only downfall with this book is that I can't see a sequel in the works.(finished 5/8/09)
5/7/09
Book #77 The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult (April 16, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0525950982
ISBN-13: 978-0525950981
This is so cool......Web Cam Hummingbirds
I just saw the momma hummingbird come out of her nest. They are supposed to hatch around May 10 -- stay tuned!
5/4/09
Book #76 Red (Dead World, Book 1)
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Tor Paranormal Romance (November 4, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765359146
ISBN-13: 978-0765359148
Gina Santiago is a member of an elite tactical team in charge of protecting the world. She’s devoted her life to apprehending the most heinous criminals that prey on society—and now she’s after the worst one yet.
On her own, with no backup, the trail takes her to a dusty, tight-knit town on the fringes of society, where everyone’s a suspect. Even the sexy sheriff, Morgan Hunter, is not telling her everything. Gina knows he’s trouble, but she’s inexorably drawn to him.
The closer Gina comes to finding out the secret of this sleepy little town and its big bad sheriff; the closer she comes to catching the predator, the more scared she gets—because she’s beginning to realize that she has a secret too. A secret that will change Gina’s life… and make her the killer’s prey.
5/3/09
Book #75 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: MTV (February 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0671027344
ISBN-13: 978-0671027346
Standing on the fringes of life...
offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.
Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.
Book #74 His Other Lover
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Avon A (August 4, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061706256
ISBN-13: 978-0061706257