Friday Following & Hopping (#23)

Happy Friday! Hello to everyone stopping by my blog via Follow Friday (hosted by paranormal queen Parajunkee).  I'd also like to welcome any of my old followers just dropping in to say hi. :)  Thanks for visiting, and don't forget to leave me your blog links so I can follow you back!

This week's featured blogger over at FF is:
Ninja Girl from Ninja Girl Reads!

And the question is:

Can you tell us FIVE quirky habits or things about you? We all have them...

My answer:

You're kidding-- only five?!  Well, I'll do my best to whittle all my odd little habits down to a short list. ;)

1.  Parajunkee says she loves the smell of tires-- I confess to being addicted to the smell of books... and wood shavings.  It's why I can never "get into" e-books the way I can physical books... they just don't have that off-the-printing-press aroma!  Wood shavings because they remind me of the stable, and also of freshly-carved bookshelves (my dad's a carpenter, good figure).

2.  I completely can't stand odd numbers.  Just an aspect of my weirdo OCD, but everything really must be even.  I can't, for example, eat an odd number of bites or read an odd number of pages.

3. Quirky (read certifiable) places and times where and when I've been known to read:
-- While running on the treadmill at full speed
-- While blow-drying my hair
-- While my mother shops (I used to tag along whenever she went to the mall and walk around with a book stuck in my nose, bumping into kiosks and racks of clothing)
-- While waiting for computer pages to load (I had dial-up until about a year ago... 'nough said!)
--I've never tried this myself, but I have a friend who swears she's taught herself to read while driving!

4. I'm developing an unfortunate (though admittedly entertaining) addiction to Youtube parodies and videos (especially A Very Potter Musical and the Lost Parodies).  I feel like such a member of Generation Z when I go on about anything Youtube... we are all so hooked on technology!  Seriously though, A Very Potter Musical is worth getting addicted to!

5. Something else I'm addicted to... the Traveler IQ Challenge at travelpod.com!  Not to brag, but I can now beat every version of this game (yep, I'm pretty sure that qualifies as bragging).  Still, it's not an easy feat by any means!

ANYWAY, thanks so much for stopping by and wading through my weirdness!  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and wish you happy reading!

Review: Wild Child by Mike Wells

Genre: YA novella-- science fiction
Pages: 110 (kindle e-book)
Buy this book on Amazon for 99 cents

Synopsis:
Briana Fox is the wildest girl in school. She and Kyle have been close for a long time...almost lovers. Kyle is afraid that if he pushes her, he'll have his heart broken and lose his best friend. When Briana discovers a mysterious 'power drug' in an underwater cave, two government agents are desperate to find the source and turn Briana into a human experiment. Will Kyle risk everything to protect his love?

My Take: 
 *I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review, which I have given below.*


Kyle's father may be skeptical of his son's long-time friendship with Briana Fox, but steadier, more down-to-earth Kyle is enchanted by Briana's impulsive and often reckless personality.  So when Briana's wild streak leads her to swim across the boating zone of a local lake-- ultimately into the path of a spinning boat propeller-- Kyle desperately searches for her, all the while fearing the worst.  But far from being grievously wounded, Briana soon resurfaces from the depths of an underwater cave, claiming she's never felt better in her life.  For she has discovered a puddle of something deep at the bottom of the unknown cave, a kind of natural "super drug" which may have the power to save lives...or ruin Briana's forever.  It's like they always say: There definitely must be something in the water.

Wild Child is an immediately engaging story, about novella length with short chapters, but with enough excitement and intrigue for a sprawling science fiction novel.  However, the short length works perfectly, as high school (almost) sweethearts Briana and Kyle's uncanny encounter with a mysterious natural drug which proves to have bizarre effects when drunk, turns into a battle with CIA agents.  From there the action and suspense winds down abruptly with a spectacular and utterly surprising conclusion-- all of this within less than a quarter the length of many books.  I must applaud the author's ability to tell such a story and develop such fully-realized characters as Kyle and Briana over the course of so few pages!  Briana was one of the most unpredictable characters I've ever read about, though her actions are in many ways understandable.  Kyle was a subtler character, but it's easy to admire his devotion and love for Briana-- I'd count myself very lucky indeed if I had a friend who'd make the kind of sacrifices and risks he does for her. 


A cool thing about this book: indie author Mike Wells had actually given away all 200 print copies of Wild Child after his move to teach in Latvia (he currently teaches at Oxford) due to the astronomical costs of international shipping.  He was understandably surprised to find that printed copies of his book were, and are, being sold on Amazon, completely unknown to him at that time!  Clearly Wild Child is indeed, as Mike Wells says, 'the book which refused to die'.  Today it's being sold in e-book and Kindle formats on Amazon, and is currently available for only 99 cents!  That's a superb deal for a superb short novel with a real killer of an ending!  And finally, I must briefly express my love for the cover: Briana's character, her hair, and her expression could not be more perfect! 

Cover: 5/5

Premise: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Waiting on Wednesday X2 (#28)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly blogging event hosted at Breaking-The-Spine.com that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. This week I'm featuring one book whose release I'm anxiously awaiting and another already-released book which I'm waiting on (with somewhat less confidence but equal anticipation) to magically Apparate onto my bookshelf... 

 

Anna Dressed in Bloody by Kendare Blake
To Be Released: August 30th, 2011 
  
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game.
Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.
Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.
As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares. His life depends on it.

So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Deadly by Julie Chibbaro

Genre: YA historical fiction
Pages: 304 (hardcover)
Published: February 2011 by Atheneum Books
Recommended for: MG and YA readers

A mysterious outbreak of typhoid fever is sweeping New York.
Could the city’s future rest with its most unlikely scientist?


 My Take:

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading Deadly.  The story is a fairly simple, straightforward one: Prudence is a student at a private school for girls in the late 1900s, a time when women were expected to grow up and become mothers or domestic workers, office typists at best.  But Prudence has an ideal scientific mind and an unrelenting curiosity: she dreams of forgoing the carefully charted-out life of women in her time and studying diseases like the one which killed her brother several years ago.  She manages to score a coveted and rare job as an assistant to the charismatic and hard-working Mr. Soper, Head of New York's Department of Health and Sanitation, after her new boss glimpses her potential as a scientist and decides to take a chance on Prudence despite her inexperience and gender.

The story is told through Prudence's brief journal entries, which are scribbled through with diagrams and notes about the case she and Mr. Soper must investigate for the Department: that of a series of deadly typhoid outbreaks among wealthy families in the city.  At first the incidents appear unrelated, with no hope of tracing the root of the terrible disease... until Prudence stumbles upon Mary Mallon, aka the infamous "Typhoid Mary".  Mary has been a cook in every one of the households where typhoid broke out, but she herself has never been sick a day in her life... is it possible that she could be a carrier for the disease without showing any visible signs of it?  The medical community of the time is skeptical to say the least, but Prudence and Mr. Soper are in agreement-- Mary Mallon must be contained to prevent the fever from spreading.  But Mary is far from cooperative-- she is a rebellious and somewhat wild woman who repeatedly resists capture, challenging their detective skills as well as their scientific ones.  Even as Prudence struggles to devote everything to the typhoid case, she find her heart torn by her growing attraction to Mr. Soper-- how can she be a scientist if her heart so easily rules over her mind?

Deadly will likely be enjoyed more by middle-grade and young adult readers, due to the very 'young' feel of Prudence's character and the writing.  This is a quick read which sometime manages to be educational as well as entertaining.  I learned a lot about disease and that time period in America, and thank my lucky stars I wasn't born in a time where society limits women as it did in Prudence's time.  The romance was hardly there, but the mystery was intriguing-- Mary Mallon was quite a fascinating character.  She was understandably dumbfounded by a bunch of scientists telling her she was spreading a disease she'd never suffered from in her life, and nobody can blame her for trying to resist the way she did.  The ending was meh-- thought it could have been much better.  The feel of the book overall reminded me of Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury (it's set in a similar time period with another mystery), but I liked Wrapped much better.

Cover: 4/5

Premise: 5/5

Characters: 3/5

Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

In My Mailbox (#16)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. The idea behind IMM is not only to put new books on our radars but also to encourage blogger interaction. IMM explores the weekly contents of our mailboxes: books bought, received, won, and borrowed, along with other goodies and swag.

You know you had a really good day at the library when you feel kinda like a burglar, lugging your bag chock full of books to the checkout desk ala How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  This was one of those weeks, so much that I'm doing In My Mailbox today instead of waiting until Sunday.  (Usually I post these on a bi-weekly basis, if ya hadn't noticed.)

Anyway, here's what I got:

From the Library:

-- The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver

-- A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly 

-- Fruits Basket volumes 12+16 by Natsuki Takaya

-- Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

-- The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

-- The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey

-- Huntress by Malinda Lo

Reviewed this week: 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzama

What's in your mailbox this weekend?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Genre: YA dystopia
Pages: 495 (hardcover)
Published: May 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books
Recommended for: Hunger Games people.  Definitely.

My Take:

Wow, just wow.  I was blown away by how intense and absolutely enthralling this much-buzzed-about new dystopia is.  Divergent is a quick read despite being nearly 500 pages-- because, believe me, before long you'll most likely find yourself physically incapable of putting it down for even a second. 

Tris has always lived in Abnegation-- the faction where her father is an important politician, and where charitable goals of selflessness and good will towards others rule every action taken by its initiates.  In Tris's city, every individual must choose to belong to one of five factions depending on what they believe is the most important virtue: the Candor believe that honesty is the only thing which can keep humanity from descending again into the apocalyptic chaos of the past, the Amity are dedicated to peace, the Erudite to the gaining of knowledge to prevent ignorance.

 Although Tris was raised in Abnegation, the faction who strive to live their lives for others, and knows that leaving would break her family's hearts, she cannot help but feel drawn to the raw excitement and reckless freedom of Dauntless-- the warrior faction who value bravery over all else.  Tris is told that she is a Divergent-- someone who does not fall neatly into any of the factions-- but what exactly that means, she doesn't yet know.  Only that to be Divergent is to be considered extremely dangerous by those who run the city behind the smoking curtains... the very people whom are doing their best to make sure that the morals of every faction grow more and more corrupt each day.  Tris and her fellow initiates must face physically and emotionally grueling trials in order to be initiated into their new faction-- but the biggest test of all, for Tris, might well be if she can know her own heart well enough to make terrible choices in the face of death and city-wide corruption.

Divergent raises a ton of questions which will likely have you pondering your own psyche.  The clever and unique structure of the five factions was really fascinating to me-- I'm OCD, so I have an unhealthy adoration for categories of any kind.  The factions reminded me of the four Houses in Harry Potter; the initiation process of the grim training and arena battles of The Hunger Games.  There's plenty for Hunger Games fans here, I think: constant action and suspense, treachery among fellow teens trying to win the top training spots which was reminiscent of HG Arena baddies like Cato and Clove.  Tris is a lot like Katniss, too.  They're both underdogs, but also both very strong gals-- Tris doesn't take any crap, and she's quick to see where both Abnegation and Dauntless fall short of their supposed faction manifestos.

I didn't mention romance in my little synopsis, but there's a great one here.  Four is the enigmatic and athletic young mentor assigned to train Tris and the other initiates of her new faction for their initiation.  His and Tris's falling in love isn't unexpected by any means, but wow, are the moments they spend alone together amazing.  Four is going to be featured in a heck of a lot of My Book Boyfriend posts-- I can see it coming already!  The last 75 pages or so of this book were mind-blowing and, if possible, twice as intense as the rest of the story.  Another painfully abrupt cliffhanger promises a new dystopian trilogy on the way...but Divergent is definitely a stand-out.  Veronica Roth is a superbly gifted new author.  As for which of the five factions I would pick at the age of sixteen... Dauntless sounds like a constant thrill ride and is definitely out of my comfort zone.  But in the end, I think I'd end up choosing Erudite, home of those who constantly seek knowledge.  All the best parties are in the library, after all.  ;)    

Cover: 5/5

Premise: 5/5

Characters: 4/5

Plot: 5/5

Overall Rating: 5/5

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Genre: YA contemporary
Pages: 336 (hardcover)
Published: March 2011; originally published 2010 in Australia
Recommended for: anyone up for an amazing, emotional contemporary roller coaster ride

Synopsis:
The award-winning author of Finnikin of the Rock and Jellicoe Road pens a raw, compelling novel about a family’s hard-won healing on the other side of trauma.
 
Melina Marchetta reopens the story of the group of friends from her acclaimed novel Saving Francesca - but five years have passed, and now it’s Thomas Mackee who needs saving. After his favorite uncle was blown to bits on his way to work in a foreign city, Tom watched his family implode. He quit school and turned his back on his music and everyone that mattered, including the girl he can’t forget. Shooting for oblivion, he’s hit rock bottom, forced to live with his single, pregnant aunt, work at the Union pub with his former friends, and reckon with his grieving, alcoholic father. Tom’s in no shape to mend what’s broken. But what if no one else is either? An unflinching look at family, forgiveness, and the fierce inner workings of love and friendship, The Piper’s Son redefines what it means to go home again.

My Take:

So... I've finished another Melina Marchetta book!  It's become my goal to read all of her books by the end of summer.  The Piper's Son picks up where Saving Francesca left off, though you definitely wouldn't have to have read Francesca to read this one-- the characters are the same people, but they have changed so drastically from one book to the next.  Tom was a lovable if immature high school boy determined to be a great guitarist in the first book, and here he is a broken young man, wrestling with the problems of the family and friends he left by the wayside after the tragic death of his Uncle Joe-- a death which still haunts each member of the Mackee family in ways most of them are still too terrified to explore.

The book switches from the (third person) POVs of Tom and his aunt Georgie.  Georgie is a thirty-something single lady pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's kid (the ex is still very much up for debate).  She's at war with herself over her feelings for her ex, Sam, and like Tom, is having a hard time coping with Joe's death.  Melina Marchetta writes with such striking rawness about human emotion-- with so much gritty truth that occasionally this book took a depressing turn as the characters did.  But as always, there is so much hope and a number of laughs (Tom's friends kept ragging on him about how he cried when Frodo and Sam made their way to Mount Doom in The Return of the King movie-- I just wanted to sob 'me, too!'). 

I'm really enjoying reading books by Aussie authors set in Australia, though really life there isn't so drastically different from that of the US.  I admit it's partly because of all that wondrous Aussie slang.  For example, I never knew that 'footy' was Aussie short-slang for football (always thought it was a kind of baby shoe).  And I'd never heard the word 'pashing' (means snogging, or making out) before reading this book.  Ah, learn something new every day, right? ;)

I loved how Tom slowly realizes how much he needs his friends: Francesca, Justine, Jimmy, and the whole gang.  And the emails Georgie sends to Joe's address-- never to be opened, of course-- were as heartrendingly honest as the emails Tom sends Tara, the girl who he thought he once thought he was in love with, are highly entertaining with their exchanges of sarcasm... as well as very telling about the strength of their relationship.  Tara was one of my favorite characters from Saving Francesca, so I wish she'd had more of a physical presence (she was in Indonesia for mostly the entire book).  But she was always right there with the gang, in a way-- in their constant texts and emails, and always in Tom's heart and mind.  The Piper's Son is a beautifully written, heartfelt and very honest, down-to-earth novel. 

Cover: 5/5
Premise: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Overall Rating: 5/5
*This book qualifies for the 2011 YA Aussie Reading Challenge*

Waiting on Wednesday (#27)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly blogging event hosted at Breaking-The-Spine.com that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. This week I'm featuring one book whose release I'm anxiously awaiting and another which I'm waiting on (with somewhat less confidence but equal anticipation) to magically Apparate onto my bookshelf... 

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
To Be Released: November 15th, 2011




Words are the most dangerous weapon of all.

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she’s spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.  Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can’t be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country’s only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

Shine by Lauren Myracle
Published: May 2011


When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.
Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.



So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?