Weekly Reads: Everything Leads to You

Everything Leads to You is the newest book by Nina LaCour. I had read, and enjoyed Disenchantments, so I was excited to pick this one up as well. Both books I've read by LaCour have focused on that summer post-high school, pre-rest of your life, and I think that's such a great time for a YA book. Teens look at that summer as a summer of greatness, and the characters in her books always seem to excel at that.

Everything Leads to You is a love story that's wrapped up in a mystery. Her writing style is so magical that you will see every movie scene described in the book as if you were viewing it on film, and you will feel like you're falling in love for the very first time.

Just a beautiful book.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of—and behind—the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.
 
A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
 
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

Weekly Reads: The Impossible Knife of Memory

The Impossible Knife of Memory is the newest book by Laurie Halse Anderson. I'd previously read Wintergirls and have had Speak on my list TBR forever. Halse Anderson has a way of drawing you in to her characters like no one else can. And when they hurt, you absolutely ache for them. I'm writing this with dried tears still on my cheeks. This book will leave you emotionally drained in only a way a truly excellent story can.

My rating: 4 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.

Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.

Weekly Reads: Two Boys Kissing

Two Boys Kissing is the newest book from one of my favorite authors, David Levithan. This title is on my list of Mock Printz books that I'm working my way through and I had been chomping at the bit to get my hands on it to devour it. It did not disappoint. Awws, lol moments, and inevitable sobs it was a truly great read. My immediate response upon finishing was how lucky today's teens are to have quality books like this, especially those that are struggling with being different, or those that need to be more compassionate and understanding to others.

A brief review: this story is told from the perspective and narration of a generation of gay men who have died from AIDS. Their story is spent viewing the lives of seven gay boys and their varying stories, while interspersing some of their own stories and struggles as a collective whole. The main storyline is of Harry and Craig, best friends, and ex-boyfriends who are trying to set the world record for kissing, at 33+ hours. Each boy in the story gets a glimpse of the news coverage of this event, both positive and negative, while their stories are being shared.

My rating: 5 stars.

Mock Printz potential: I will be very surprised if this isn't a Printz Honor book in January. Stay tuned.

Summary from goodreads:

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. 

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

Weekly Reads: Breadcrumbs

 I listened to Breadcrumbs on my trip to M adison WI and back. To be honest, I didn't really get in to it at the beginning. I listened to a disc and then didn't listen to any more until the drive home. On the drive home I finished three discs in a row before I needed to take a break to do some Glee singing to keep myself alert and awake.

The book was just ok, in my opinion. It's fairy tale inspired, which I love, but I just didn't get truly wrapped up in the book. It's a good fantasy read for children, but left some to be desired as an adult reader.

My rating: 3 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else. 

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," Breadcrumbsis a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

Weekly Reads: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Tana is your average high-school girl, if you consider a girl who was bitten by her vampire mother and still bears a horrific scar to be average in any way.  When Tana wakes up in a bathtub after a crazy party, the house is eerily silent.  When she seeks out why, she discovers a bloodbath—all of her friends have been murdered and drained by vampires, and she is unsure if the vampires are still lurking around.  Upon finding her ex-boyfriend Aiden, bitten, but not yet turned, and a helpful vampire, Gavriel, they escape the house and the chasing vampires to travel to their nearest Coldtown—a designated area set up for the infected, the turned, and the vampire curious and obsessed.  The one drawback?  Once you enter a Coldtown, you can never leave. Rest assured The Coldest Girl in Coldtown isn’t your normal teen vampire book.

My rating: ****

Summary from goodreads:
Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

Weekly Reads: Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger

There are a handful of writers that consistently have fun summertime "beach reads" published in the May to July months each year.  Each spring, I start counting down their publication dates until I have my hands on these books.  Beth Harbison is definitely one of these writers.

I have read everything she's written, and they're always great, light, fun reads.

Her 2013 novel is Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger, and I've been desperate to start reading it!  Of course it should come out when I'm crazy wrapped up in the last couple of weeks of my masters program.  Oh, have I mentioned that I'm graduating tomorrow???  Because yeah, that's happening.

But back to fun summer reads....

Summary from goodreads:

Ten years ago, Quinn Barton was on her way to the altar to marry Burke Morrison, her high school sweetheart, when something derailed her. Rather, someone derailed her—the Best Man who at the last minute begged her to reconsider the marriage. He told her that Burke had been cheating on her. For a long time. Quinn, stunned, hurt, and confused, struggled with the obligation of fulfilling her guests’ expectations—providing a wedding—and running for her life.

She chose running. With the Best Man. Who happened to be Burke’s brother, Frank.

That relationship didn’t work either. How could it, when Quinn had been engaged to, in love with, Frank’s brother? Quinn opted for neither, and, instead, spends the next seventeen years working in her family’s Middleburg, Virginia, bridal shop, Talk of the Gown, where she subconsciously does penance for the disservice she did to marriage.

But when the two men return to town for another wedding, old anger, hurt, and passion resurface. Just because you’ve traded the good guy for the bad guy for no guy doesn’t mean you have to stay away from love for the rest of your life, does it?

Other books I've loved by Beth include:

• Shoe Addicts Anonymous
• Secrets of a Shoe Addict
• Hope in a Jar
• Always Something There to Remind Me
• When in Doubt, Add Butter
• Thin, Rich, Pretty

Any other authors I need to add to my summer time must read list??

Books by the Quarter: 4/4

**ready unless I read another book in december
October

The Dog Stars was a somewhat slow moving book at the start, but a book I really enjoyed.  It's an adult novel, but hinges on the end of the world (or after the end of the world) setting that I so dearly love.  I even suggested this book to Kyle to read as I thought he'd identify with the main character.
****


I was excited to read The Heist Society, because I thought it'd be in the same realm as the Pretty Little Liars books that I adore.  It was just... meh.  It's an adventure with some mystery throughout, but it wasn't really a page turner.  I don't know that I'll read any more in the series, but will likely give the authors other series a try.
***


Thirteen Reasons Why is a dark, depressing book I've been wanting to read for awhile.  I read this on the flight home from San Francisco, and that wouldn't be my recommendation.  It is a raw story of teen suicide and a lot more.
****


I read Marriage Plot for book club, and didn't really enjoy it.  I went to the book club, even after not loving the book, to see if others could tell me why *they* loved the book, but no one did.  It was very beautifully written I just never felt connected to anything or anyone in the story.
***


Ready Player One was one of my favorite reads of 2012.  I was obsessed with this book from the get go, flew through the book, but never wanted it to end.  The book is set in the future where everyone "plugs in" to a gaming system, and the game system creator designs a quest for participants to complete after his death.  Any gamer or child of the 80s would eat up this book.
*****

November

In November, I read some children's books to kick off my Children's Book Review blog, and also to supplement my coursework.


****

****

*****

****


I also read Eat and Run after meeting Scott Jurek (and having my book signed by him).  It was a motivational book, as the guy is an insane ultra runner, and I loved having a glimpse at his childhood and personal life throughout the book.
****


It took me awhile to get through the Diviners, as a) it's a giant book and b) it was a bit of a slog.  It reminded me a bit of season 6 of Dexter, and that just threw me the entire book.
***

December

I finished the Matched series, Reached, and really enjoyed how it turned out.  I won't reveal too much, but it was definitely a series worth reading.
****


Starters is another dystopian series I have been planning to read for awhile.  It was entertaining but fairly predictable.
***


Meant to Be is one of the books I was most excited to read in 2012.  I had heard it stated as the best YA book of 2012.  My thoughts:  It was a good story, and one I would have devoured as a teen, talking about MTB=meant to be, in reference to people ending up together forever.  It's a good message for teens, but a little "duh" to me as an adult.  With that aside, the story lines were good!  I probably would've loved it had I not had such high expectations for it.
***