Thursday, July 30, 2009

Unwind by Neil Schusterman - Review

Imagine fighting a second civil war over one issue: reproductive rights – that’s right, pro-choice versus pro-life. And because politicians will always seek compromise, the law changes to make life inviolable from conception to age thirteen. There is a loophole: between the ages of thirteen and eighteen a parents can have their child “unwound" - every part of that child is transplanted into other people so technically life they are still alive.

This is a very creepy, chilling look into the future where the Bill of Life actually kept me awake at night. A world where if you are a troubled teen like Connor, or a not quite talented enough ward of state like Risa, or a tithe like Lev (a child raised in a religious family to be unwound), being sent to camp does not mean getting help. It means an order to be unwound. But Connor and Risa escape, liberating Lev along the way. And find themselves on the run, looking for help, hoping they can make it until they are eighteen. The question is: can they?

This is a dark, haunting, and horrifying look at how people can view life – and we see it through many, many different viewpoints. The characters are real, the situations disturbing, and you’ll have a hard time forgetting the ideas underneath this story. Read it with someone else because you’ll want – need – to talk about it. I’m still stuck on the idea that there was no other choice – that the teens themselves are never included in the decision-making, never given a chance to try again.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Blood Promise Chapter 1

No secret that I am a huge, huge fan of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series. Well, for all of you waiting to find out what will happen in Blood Promise, Richelle has posted Chapter 1 on her web site here.

I'm going to post the first few paragraphs here to whet your appetite.

CHAPTER 1

I was being followed.

It was kind of ironic, considering the way I’d been following others for the last few weeks. At least it wasn’t a Strigoi. I would have already known. A recent effect of being shadow-kissed was the ability to sense the undead—through bouts of nausea, unfortunately. Still, I appreciated my body’s early warning system and was relieved my stalker tonight wasn’t an insanely fast, insanely vicious vampire. I’d fought enough of those recently and kind of wanted a night off.

I had to guess my follower was a dhampir like me, probably one from the club. Admittedly, this person was moving a little less stealthily than I would have expected of a dhampir. Their footsteps were clearly audible against the pavement of the dark side streets I was traveling on, and once, I’d caught a brief glimpse of a shadowy figure. Still, considering my rash actions tonight, a dhampir was the most likely culprit.

I read the book in manuscript form a few weeks ago and promise I'll have a review posted asap. But don't wait - check out the rest of the chapter as soon as you can!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Teaser Tuesday


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can join. Here are the rules
(1) Grab your current read
(2) Open to a random page
(3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
(4) BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!
(5) Share the title & author, too, so that other other participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater (OK I've just finished Ballad - and adored it - but wanted to post a teaser)

Dee's eyes were closed. She said, "Try again."

I cupped my hands around the back of her neck like I'd imagined doing one thousand times. Her skin was warm against my palms, sticky with the heat, smelling of flowers and shampoo. I kissed her again, so careful. There was a long, long pause, and then she kissed me back...

We stood in the shadows there, her wrapped up in my arms, for a long time, and then she started to cry.


What do you think? (I did say I loved it, didn't I?) And what are you reading?

Monday, July 27, 2009

Prophecy of the Sisters

The much anticipated Prophecy of the Sisters releases this week! Stacy from the Youth Team here loved it. If you did too, join us at Menlo Park Library across the street from Kepler's on Thursday Sept 17 at 7PM when Michelle Zink will be hosting a Writing Workshop. VL

Prophecy of the Sisters
By Michelle Zinc

"Twin sisters, formed in the same swaying ocean, One the Guardian, One the Gate. One keeper of peace, The other bartering sorcery for devotion."

An ancient legend tells of the Nephilim, the earthbound angels who were refused passage into Heaven. They mated with mortal women in hopes that their offspring-a long line of twin sisters--would create passage for their Lost Souls into the world of the living. Newly-orphaned, Lia and her twin, Alice, must now take on this family burden which will pit them against each other. One sister, The Guardian, must attempt to guard the gate against the Souls passage into the human world. The other sister, The Key, must attempt to open the gate to release Samael-Beast of the Fallen Angel, whose return would be fatal for humans and allow in the Nephilim.

Problem #1-Lia just found out about the Prophecy and has no idea where to begin.
Problem #2-Alice has been acting very strange lately, talking to someone that Lia cannot see.
Problem #3-Which sister is the Guardian and which is the Key?

Will Lia and Alice fight together on the side of humanity or will they fight each other to fulfill their destiny and aid the destruction of mankind? Would the end of humanity mean the end of everything, or is it merely the beginning of a new world? Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between good and evil.

Romance. Gothic. Mystery. Thriller. Suspense. All in One.

Reviewed by Stacy

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Weigh in: Library Fight Riles up City, Leads to Book Burning Demand

At Kepler's we shelve books with mature themes clearly in the teen/high school section. A few with explicit abuse or rape scenes have given us pause to think about placement, but we have kept them there. Where do you think they should be? VL

Library Fight Riles up City, Leads to Book Burning Demand By Jason Hanna--CNN--July 22
A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.

The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city's library director he should be tarred and feathered.

The row even spread to this year's Fourth of July parade, which included a float featuring a washing machine and a sign that read "keep our library clean."

"If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I'd think, 'Never in a million years,' " said Michael Tyree, director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library.

The strife began in February when West Bend couple Jim and Ginny Maziarka objected to some of the content in the city library's young-adult section. They later petitioned the library board to move any sexually explicit books -- the definition of which would be debated -- from the young-adult section to the adult section and to label them as sexually explicit.

Ginny Maziarka, 49, said the books in the section of the library aimed at children aged 12 to 18 included homosexual and heterosexual content she thought was inappropriate for youths. She and her husband also asked the library to obtain books about homosexuality that affirmed heterosexuality, such as titles written by "ex-gays," Maziarka said. "All the books in the young-adult zone that deal with homosexuality are gay-affirming. That's not balance," she said.

The library did not agree with the Maziarkas' suggestions, and the couple appealed to the library board. Ginny Maziarka, a mother of four, began blogging about the issue and the local newspaper picked up the dispute, sparking the opposition.

Maria Hanrahan, also a West Bend mom, set up a rival blog to argue the other side. "I'm against any other party telling me what's appropriate for my child and what isn't," said Hanrahan, 40, who also created a West Bend Parents for Free Speech group. "We don't mean to say these are appropriate for everyone, but we don't feel they should be set apart from other materials or restricted from the young-adult section."

By this time, many more people had become caught up in the issue, which was generating heat. When Hanrahan appeared on a local radio, callers attacked her views, she said. "People were being very passionate on both sides of the issue. I think it divided the community a little bit," she said.

With the debate raging, the city council voted in April against renewing the terms of four library board members, in part because council members thought the board was dragging its feet, library director Tyree said.

The Maziarkas were still fighting to have books moved, having identified 82 questionable titles -- more than double their original list. Then they stopped targeting a list of books and circulated a petition that asked the board to label and move to the adult section any "youth-targeted pornographic books" -- including books that describe sex acts in a way unsuitable for minors. The books could still be checked out freely by anyone. http://randallmelchert.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/westbendpetition.pdf

"We're not talking about educational material. We're talking raunchy sex acts," Maziarka said.
One book she objects to is "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," in which a fictional teenage boy tells about his freshman year in high school, including rape and homosexual and heterosexual sex between teens.

Tyree said book excerpts found on Maziarka's blog had been taken out of context and, in the case of "Wallflower," the criticism missed some of the book's points. "In this book, there were consequences of ... rape, of indiscriminate sex. Those were not portrayed so glowingly," he said.

By the time the library board met on June 2, each side had collected more than 1,000 signatures backing their position. Dozens of residents spoke at the meeting before the board -- still including the outgoing members -- unanimously voted to keep all policies the same.

The demand to move the books was always going to be problematic because no authority has determined that any of the titles are pornographic or obscene, Tyree said.

Book challenges aren't new. More than 500 were reported in the United States in 2008, mostly in schools and public libraries, Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association said. But this one was attracting extra attention. Caldwell-Stone, who monitored the dispute, said moving any young-adult book to the adult section would have been a form of censorship, even if teens were free to check them out.

"The whole intent was shelving books not on the basis of age or reading ability, but because they disapprove of the content with the intent of restricting access. That's a burden on First Amendment rights," Caldwell-Stone said.

Outside West Bend, the fight caught the attention of Robert Braun, who, with three other Milwaukee-area men, filed a claim against West Bend calling for one of the library's books to be publicly burned, along with financial damages. The four plaintiffs -- who describe themselves as "elderly" in their complaint --- claim their "mental and emotional well-being was damaged by [the] book at the library." The claim, unconnected to the Maziarkas, says the book "Baby Be-bop" -- a fictional piece about a homosexual teenager -- is "explicitly vulgar, racial and anti-Christian."

Braun, who says he is president of a Milwaukee group called the Christian Civil Liberties Union, said he singled out the book because it "goes way over the line" with offensive language and descriptions of sex acts. The call for burning the book showed his passion, Braun, 74, said. "I don't sit on the fence when I do these things. When I make a decision to speak up on something, I go for it."

The ALA will help the library oppose the claim if it goes forward, Caldwell-Stone said, adding she felt that was unlikely because "it has very little basis in law."

Back in West Bend, the Maziarkas and their supporters are gearing up for another go at the library, in part because the board now has its four new members. They do not want books burned, but they do want action. "We want parents to decide whether they want their children to have access to these books ... and we want the library's help in identifying [them through labeling and moving]," Maziarka said. "It's just common sense."

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

If I Stay Review




Can't believe we had not posted about this one yet. If you did not catch this release at the beginning of the summer, make sure you do before life gets complicated again next month. Though they are nothing alike, not since the Book Thief had a book made me cry. If you read it already, write and tell us what you thought.
--VL


If I Stay by Gayle Forman
The opening pages of this exquisite book are rare music in teen literature. Our heroine, Mia, a cellist who loves her rocker parents, adores her little brother, and is beloved by her alternative rock boyfriend, is -- of all things -- happy. Moreover, she has the extraordinary gift of being able to listen to her own happiness as it vibrates around her in the disparate melodies of those she loves.

A rare snowfall dusts her town with a thin layer of unforecast, giddy snow that has melted by the time her family -- school cancelled, work aborted -- boards the Buick on an impromptu, self-made holiday. Beethoven's Cello Sonata no. 3 plays on the radio until it is overwhelmed by "a symphony of grinding, a chorus of popping, an aria of exploding, and finally, the sad clapping of hard metal cutting into soft trees." All are death-silenced but the one uncertain cellist of the aforementioned no longer happy life.

While her body is in coma, Mia's consciousness watches the grieving who call, pray, promise, plead and, of course, sing to her, entreating her to stay. Adam pulls her with his need. He can bear not having her to love if she leaves for Julliard, but he cannot bear for her not to "be," so stay among the living, please.

Mia's memories blend with the scenes at the hospital, the living and the dead wandering among one another elucidating the choices to be made and the depth of what is lost. What arises from Mia's bedside is a gorgeously told, heart aching romance, not just with Adam, but with life.

Reviewed by Vivian

If I Stay Video

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Letters are Back

Correspondence is back in a new guise as e-mails that weave into fictional narrative much the way letters used to intervene in the plot. This thought sent me searching for my copy of that revelatory (to me, anyway) book from 1991, which we keep as a crossover in the teen section at Kepler’s:



Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence
By Nick Bantock
Told through gorgeous, puzzling postcards and letters that you must remove from their envelopes to read, these books are as lush and beautiful as the best graphic novels , as romantic as an Austen period piece and as beguiling as a ghost story.

Griffin lives a lonely existence designing artistic postcards in London. He receives a card from Sabine, a woman on a faraway Pacific island, who claims to be able to “see” his art as he is creating, or destroying it, alone in his studio. "I share your sight," she writes and over their correspondence she details drawings no other person has ever seen or decisions Griffin has made in his creative process but that are invisible in the finished piece.

As their correspondence grows intimate, Griffin’s awareness of the bleakness of his life deepens. Griffin and Sabine’s words begin to ache with an urgency to see and know one another. Unless of course, this proves impossible should one be the invention of the other.

To piece together these letters, to hold them in my hand, still tingles with the voyeuristic thrill of discovering something very, very private.

Reviewed by Vivian

Monday, July 20, 2009

The Vatican and Harry Potter

So - have you seen Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yet? Did it live up to your expectations?

Apparently Harry now has the pope's blessing (as reported in Variety)- really! So while fundamentalists have considered the depiction of magic in Harry Potter incompatible with Christian belief and the Vatican had previously condemned his wizardly ways, the character is decidedly more mature in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a shift that drew an official thumbs-up last week.

In an article called "Magic is No Longer a Surprising Trick," the Vatican's official daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano gave the film its seal of approval, noting that Harry "is aware that the world of magic, which he grew up with in the past, is not exempt from malice." It praised the film for promoting "friendship, altruism, loyalty and self-giving."

That's quite a reversal from just 18 months ago, when the Vatican paper slammed Potter for being a negative role model and cited Pope Benedict XVI, who six years ago as a cardinal warned against the boy wizard's "subtle seductions" which, he said, "act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul."

Now I guess we have to see whether this will mean more people going to see the film!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Wings to be made into a movie by Disney

According to Entertainment Weekly (Jul 15, 2009, 02:57 AM by Tanner Stransky www.ew.com) Aprilynee Pike's Wings is to adapted for a movie by Disney - starring Miley Cyrus!

Disney has found a new starring vehicle for Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus: The company snatched rights to the young adult novel Wings and has plans to develop the title around Cyrus, according to Variety. The book, written by Aprilynee Pike, revolves around Laurel (played by Cyrus), a 15-year-old girl who grows up home-schooled in a small town before heading off to a large high school. There, she realizes she's unlike the other kids, as she sprouts a pair of wings and realizes she's a fairy. Pike says that Wings is the first of a four-title series.

So - I liked the book but am not at all sure about Miley Cyrus playing the part. What do you think? And who would you have preferred to see in the role?

Monday, July 13, 2009

Demon's Lexicon

You may or may not know Antonia. She is the buyer here at Kepler's, and she is hard to please. So when she says "I loved it!", we all jump to read and look to like. Darn' if she ain't always right.

Problem is she is often way ahead of pub date so we need to wait to be able to actually get the book into someone's hands. Mercifully this latest "loved it" is already in print:

The Demon's Lexicon
By Sarah Rees Brennan

Alan and Nick have been on the run for as long as they can remember. Their Dad started running from the magicians when they were both small, but he died years ago. Since then Alan has been running the show, taking care of both their mother and Nick.

Now they are both almost grown. Nick has turned sixteen, a strong and brutal fighter, while the older Alan is more gentle until backed into a corner - and with his gun, he never misses. While remaining loyal guardians for their insane mother, they continue to fight and flee the magicians and their demons.

But then Mae and Jamie come into their lives. Jamie has been marked by a demon - a three tier mark meaning only death. But there may be a way to save him--if one of them is able to make the greatest sacrifice and take the mark upon themselves.

The bond between the brothers is unbreakable until the unthinkable truth is revealed. Only then can Alan and Nick make their choices--straining their bond to its very limits. This fascinating fantasy explores the bonds of love between families and shows how far we will go for the ones we love.

Reviewed by Antonia

Controversy!

The word "slut" appears in the first line of Margo Lanagan's book, Tender Morsels. The next few paragraphs describe an unsettling sex scene between a witch and a dwarf. For some parents and/or teachers this will simply be an upfront way of indicating the challenging content of an interesting novel for young people, for others it will signal the end of children's literature.

The novel is a reworking of Grimm's Snow White and Rose Red fairytale and also contains a gang rape and a frank description of a miscarriage - so yes, it's described as uncompromising and controversial.

Publication of Tender Morsels in the UK is leading to renewed calls for a clearer system to let parents know about the nature of the books that their children/teens are reading.

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, believes the front of a book should offer a good clue to the buyer. "Book covers can tell you a lot," he said. "A book with a cover illustration by Nick Sharratt, who does many of Jacqueline Wilson's covers, tells you a lot about what is inside, while a book cover by Ian Beck, one of my favourites, tells you this is a different kind of book."

He also said, "I don't think there should be areas that children's books can't deal with. Why should there be, given that children are likely to encounter much stronger subjects in real life, ranging from divorce - which once used to be something terrible and awful that you must not talk about - to drug trafficking and sex?"

For Pullman, calls for censorship or for an age-related classification system are not the answer. "This idea comes from a misguided fear and a murky sense of nostalgia about the way books used to be."

So, apparently, there is a warning on the inside of the book jacket. Michael Rosen, a former UK children's laureate, suspects that age guidelines would be pointless. "If you have a book in a house that says it is for a nine-year-old, is that going to stop an eight-year-old picking it up?" he asked. "A book is a public place and you can't control it. That is why we call it the republic of letters. It was the Puritans who were worried about people's private desires. Attempts to control reading are the last tendrils of puritanism."

You can read more about it in The Guardian here.

So - have you read the book? And if so, did you think it was too strong for teens? Would you have changed it? Should it be an adult title? And do you believe in labelling books? Let me know.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Ok, so just heard from Coert and turns out he is another of the illustrious Kepler's/Borrone's alumni. Most of the Brother's Torres was written right here in Menlo Park.

So if you are looking for inspitation . . . come see us! VL

Saturday, July 11, 2009

I liked the simple Book Trailer for Brothers Torres. It also captures a moodshift, like the book. Brings to mind the Buffalo Springfield lyrics. VL

Friday, July 10, 2009

The Brothers Torres

I really liked the way that this book handled its mood--more like a stage play than a novel. It starts out playful and quirky, with little details giving you a hint of what's to come. Then, in "act three" the air thickens and there's nothing playful or funny anymore. V.L.

Brothers Torres
By Coert Voorhees

Growing up in small border town in New Mexico, Frankie Torres has always lived in the shadow of his older brother Steve. Steve is worshipped as a soccer hero by his fellow high school students and adored as a perfect son by his parents. Frankie is neither a sports superstar, nor an A student, nor a social favorite.

He is, however, a good friend and a dependable worker at his family's Mexican restaurant while his brother is constantly off at games and practices. What Frankie practices is blowing things up in the desert with his best friend and different ways to eventually, when he gets the courage, ask Rebecca Sanchez to the homecoming dance.

But now Steve is courting a tough crowd of cholos, staying out late and lying about it. Frankie loyally helps his brother keep their parents in the dark. He gets it that Steve is experimenting with the respect and masculine power that the local gangs command, but he is scared. When Frankie awkwardly gets into a confrontation over Rebecca with the wealthiest kid in town, Steve & his new friends step in to defend him.

At the turn of a page the story turns from humorous to dangerous. The violence escalates as both sides retaliate. Debts of loyalty accrue and the very air becomes flammable with the flaring testosterone. It may be up to little brother Frankie to be the hero and douse the big macho flames.

Reviewed by Vivian

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Teaser Tuesday


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can join. Here are the rules
(1) Grab your current read
(2) Open to a random page
(3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
(4) BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!
(5) Share the title & author, too, so that other other participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading Crazy beautiful by Lauren Barayz-Logsted. And oh, I like it.
Here's my teaser:

If I'd known then what I Know now...
I'd have touched everything in sight, everything I could get my hands on. I'd have grabbed the nearest girl I could find and, not caring how crazy she thought me, touched my hands to her face just to know what that feels like.
Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?
I, never having loved before, have no real answer to the question.

It's so good so far.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Strange Angels by Lili St Crow - Review


Sixteen-year-old Dru has a sixth sense for sensing paranormal activity – ghosts, suckers, werewulfen, and the like. She moves from town to town with her father hunting them down. It’s not an easy life and she’s a tough girl. But is she tough enough to survive the night when her father does not make it back from a mission?

Dru teams up with Graves, a homeless goth boy, to survive. But he has his own problems – a werewulfen bite of all things. Can Dru still trust him? And then there’s Christopher, who keeps turning up in the most unexpected places. Who is he and what side is he on? And who else is hunting Dru? And why?

This is a different look at the paranormal world and monster hunting in general. It’s a dark, creepy, and sinister world to live in, and Dru and her friends are very well drawn. It’s an action-packed adventure that is as unusual as it is tense and scary.

One complaint: I didn’t like the constant inner monologue and think it would have worked far better if cut drastically. But it didn’t keep me from enjoying this start to an interesting new series.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

In My Mailbox

Time to talk about the books I acquired this week again and how excited I am to read them. And I'm always excited to talk about the new books I get. Again thanks to the very creative Story Siren and Alea of Pop Culture Junkie, the blogs where this meme started. Last week I was over the moon because I got a copy of Blood Promise. And it was so good. I've been struggling a bit to write a review because I don't want to give it away and it is just filled with twists and turns. But I'm working on it. Until then, know that this is very much Rose and Dimitri's book and the choices they make.

Now to this week's books - and what a week. Three fabulous books - all three I really, really wanted.

1. Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater.
Everyone must know what a fan I am of Maggie's writing. I loved Lament and this is the sequel to Lament. And I think James was probably my favorite character in Lament so I just can't wait to start it. (Of course I also loved Shiver and would kill for that sequel too...)

From the back: In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament, music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.


2. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

From the back: Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

3. Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

From the back: In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering. Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

So that's what I got to read this week. Taking Ballad and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to read on the plane to London next week. What did you get?

Friday, July 3, 2009

Shiver Video and Contest

The very talented Maggie Stiefvater, author of Shiver (which is being released August 1, 2009), has made her very own SHIVER video. (Maggie - you are SO talented!)




And she is holding a contest. Entries are available by posting the embedded trailer all over the internet! And there are PRIZES. Here's what she has as prizes:
Two ARCs of SHIVER, mailed out as soon as the contest is finished.
Two finished copies of SHIVER, mailed out as soon as she get her author's copies.
Two CDs of the music she wrote for SHIVER and LAMENT.
15 minute live-chat with the author to talk about my books, your books, your dog, or whatever!
Read more about the contest on Maggie's blog here!
And don't forget to let her know I sent you! :)

And just want to remind you that SHIVER is fabulous. If you want to go back to my review you can read it here.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Waiting for Wednesday


This meme is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and lets you know which books we can't wait to be published. There are so many great books that will be published this Fall but this week I want to talk about The Hollow by Jessica Verday.

Cover copy says: When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again...but also special.

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her — one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

Oh, it sounds so good, it has a GREAT cover, and you can read the first chapter here (thanks Jessica!)

You can find out more about Jessica Verday at her website here and can sign up here for a goodies package. But oh, waiting is never easy...