Tuesday, September 30, 2014

September is for Sequels Wrap-Up



The September is for Sequels is hosted by Lisa Loves Literature.

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MY GOALS

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Week 1 Quick Recap

Total Books Read/Finished: 1

Total Pages Read: 521

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Week 2   Quick Recap

Total Books Read/Finished: 2
Total Pages Read: 841

Week 3  Quick Recap

Total Books Read/Finished: 3
Total Pages Read: 1215


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WEEK 4 PROGRESS

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer


Pages Read: 254

The Infinite Sea

Pages Read: 300

SEQUELS FINISHED:






Total Books Finished: 5
Total Pages Read: 1760

Monday, September 29, 2014

Falling For Autumn Read-a-thon Wrap Up






Challenges:

*Read at least 4 books
(Scarlet, The Ifs, The Giver, Tuesdays at the Castle)
* Read 150 pages a day
(mostly a fail)
* Read a book with an autumnal colored cover
(red, orange, brown, gold)

(The Giver might count)
*Read a book with a male protagonist
(The Ifs, The Giver)
* Read the first or last book in a series
(The Giver & Tuesdays at the Castle)

Pages Read:

Day 1: 
146 (almost!)
Day 2: 
141 (almost, again!)
Day 3: 
180
Day 4:
158
Day 5:
70 
Day 6 & Day 7:
45

Total Pages Read: 740

Books Finished:



Books With Progress Made:


Did you participate in this read-a-thon?
How did you do?

Anticipating October 2014 - New Releases



October 2014
New Releases

{Covers link to Goodreads}

MOST ANTICIPATED



Most Anticipated Spooky Reads




Piques My Interest

    

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What October releases are you looking forward to? 

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Book Blogger Hop (Sept 26 - Oct 2)


The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings Of A Coffee Addicted Writer and this week's question is: 

How do you think reading will be in 100 years time? Will there be any printed books left? How about ereaders? What will they look like?

My Answer:
Well this is certainly a fun question!

I do think there will be printed books left but the majority of them might be in museums or belong to private collectors.

Ereaders will probably be extremely advanced from what they are today. e-reading might be as simple as downloading a book into your brain or whatever small gadget you implant into you hand for easy access without the risk of dropping it, losing it, or having it stolen. Our whole lives will probably revolve around this device, much like the smart phone of today. Who knows if we'll advance that much without destroying the planet and ourselves, though? 

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Stacking the Shelves #35


Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by TYNGA'S REVIEWS that features the books we bought, borrowed, were gifted, and were given for review.

{Covers link to Goodreads}

Borrowed from library



The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
(The 5th Wave #2)


AMAZON FREEBIES
I always add a link to Amazon so you all can grab these freebies as well but if it's striked out it's no longer free.



The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
(I feel like I just made out like a bandit finding this for free!)
|Amazon|



Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard


The Awakening by Kate Chopin
(This is a classic that I've read before but I wanted to share with you all since I've never seen it free before!)
|Amazon|


The Hunted One by Meg Collett
|Amazon|


The Order of Ascalon by Daniel J. Franks
|Amazon|



Into the Darkest Fire by Juliana Haygert
|Amazon|



Storm (The Elemental Series #1) by Brigid Kemmerer
|Amazon|

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Did you miss last week's Stacking the Shelves?
Go see if last week's Amazon Freebies are still available! 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Book Review: The Ifs by J.D. Pooker

I received a free ecopy of this book from Mother Daughter Book Reviews and the author in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: The Ifs
Author: J.D. Pooker
Publisher: Little Devil Books
Publication Date: April 22, 2013
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Length: 148 pages
Source: book tour


SYNOPSIS:
Landon and Broden are brothers. Sometimes they get along. Well, sometimes they don't. But when they find out who's behind the weird happenings in their house, they are called to battle.


Battle? Whoa. Not just one of their fun play-battles iether, but a real battle in the forest with the most unusual creatures and the wildest of animals. 

Can the brothers pull together when they need each other most?

MY THOUGHTS:
Broden and his older brother Landon don't always get along and are constantly starting fights with each other. But like almost all siblings, they will have each other's backs when the going gets tough. When weird things start happening, they discover the existence of 'Ifs'. Soon after, they are asked to help the 'Ifs' and the brothers join forces to help the good 'Ifs' and defeat the bad. 

A great story with fantasy elements that all young children will love! I've seen this book categorized as and for 'middle-grade' readers but I think it's actually geared towards a much younger audience. Nonetheless, I do believe any young children looking for an adventurous and imaginative story will love 'The Ifs'. 


I'd definitely suggest 'The Ifs' to any children with younger or older brothers and/or sisters. This fun story has a lot of life-lessons revolving siblings including sibling rivalry, jealousy, and getting along. Landon and Broden seem to enjoy bickering and fighting but they still love and care for each other.


My Rating:

3.5 stars

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Book Review: Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

Title: Tiger Eyes
Author: Judy Blume
Publisher: Atheneum / Richard Jackson Books
Publication Date: 1981
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Length: 206
Source: Borrowed


Literary Awards:
Buckeye Children's Book Award for 4-8 (1983)
Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award (1985)

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (1983)
Iowa Teen Award (1985)
California Young Readers Medal for Middle/Jr. High (1983)

SYNOPSIS:
After Davey's father is killed in a hold-up, she and her mother and younger brother visit relatives in New Mexico. Here Davey is befriended by a young man who helps her find the strength to carry on and conquer her fears. 

MY THOUGHTS:
Davey Wexler is reeling from the traumatic loss of her father. She cannot seem to get out of bed let alone cope, and when she starts fainting at school, her mother decides to move her and her little brother across the country to live with their aunt and uncle. Her aunt and uncle assume the role of stand-in parents as her mother loses herself more and more over the tragedy. Davey tries to assimilate into her new life and school, but as any teenager, she has problems being exactly what everyone wants her to be. 


This book really just reminded me of why I don't read contemporary novels very often. There isn't much of anything going on in them besides every day life and that pretty much bores me when it comes to books.
I do think this is a good story for teens that are trying to find ways to cope with their own problems, though. I always found it helpful to escape into someone else's life via books when I was a teenager. 



There were a few things in this book that caught my attention and reminded me of how different life is today compared to the 70's- 80's (which is when this book was published so I'm only assuming that that those are the decades it might be set in).
An example is that the main character, Davey, is fearful for her life and sleeps with a breadknife under her pillow and when she moves to her aunt and uncle's (arriving via airplane), she unpacks the same breadknife to put under her pillow. We definitely can't fly with breadknives anymore. 

Another example is that when she visits the school nurse after fainting the nurse hands her two aspirin and makes her take them. Even in my highs school days they weren't allowed to just hand out aspirin or Tylenol to kids and aspirin seemed to be this nurse's go-to 'cure' for lots of kids' ailments.
There's even one instance where Davey's overprotective aunt nonchalantly hands 15 year old Davey some Brandy to drink and no one seems to bat an eye. People would go nuts over this stuff these days. How the times have changed! 

I mostly decided to read this book because it was adapted into a movie and also because it has been challenged and 'banned' at some point in time. With 'Banned Books Week' coming up, it seemed like a good choice. 
I watched the film shortly after and I feel the need to point out that while Davey fancies herself 'in love' with Wolf (a 20 year old man that she meets) in the book, there is no 'hooking up' between them like there is in the movie. I felt like changing the movie to be a little more race-y might have helped their sales, but it was awkward and unnecessary. 

Overall, while I didn't quite enjoy it, I felt that this book had some 'troubled teen' themes that needed to be addressed such as loss of a parent, relocating to a new school and how that affects a teen, and some mild alcoholism. 

My Rating:

3 stars

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday #34


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.


Top Ten Books On My Fall TBR List

Fall is always the time when I want to read spooky stories so most of these will be horror stories! 

{Click on Cover to go to Goodreads pages}

1. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

2. 

The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco

3. 
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

4. 
Breathe: A Ghost Story by Cliff McNish

5. 
The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn

6. 
The Ghost's Grave by Peg Kehret

7. 
Horns by Joe Hill
I might re-read this before the movie comes out.

8. 

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James

and a couple for after Halloween

9. 
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

10. 
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier


Monday, September 22, 2014

Falling for Autumn Read-a-thon


Ner over at 'A Cup of Coffee and a Book' is hosting her very first read-a-thon!

“Falling for Autumn is read-a-thon where we welcome the Fall/Autumn by reading as many books as possible during a week. It’ll take place from September 22 to 28, with daily guest-posts, interviews, challenges and giveaways. Everyone is free to enter by signing-up and sharing the official blurb by leaving a link to this post on twitter, Goodreads or Facebook. For more information, please visit A Cup of Coffee and a Book

Sign-ups are open until September 24th! 

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I meant to get this post up sooner but my internet and phone have been down for the past 2 days! (The horror!) I had to have my provider come out and re-wire everything! 

This will be the 2nd read-a-thon I've participated in this month! The last one just ended on Saturday and I reached my goal for pages read but not for amount of books read so hopefully I can do a little better this week! I have 6 books out from the library that I need to read in the next week or two so this is going to be continued motivation to just keep reading! 

I am currently already participating in the month-long 'September is for Sequels' challenge so hopefully this read-a-thon will continue to motivate me to finish any sequel goals I put on myself. Plus I just really want to breeze through my TBR pile before September is over so I have all of October to read books from my spooky/horror-themed TBR pile! 

There are 'challenges' for this read-a-thon, similar to those from the BookTube-a-thon which I participated in last year. You can choose which challenges you want to do and it's not necessary to do them all. 

* Read a total of four (4) books;
* To read at least 150 pages per day;
* To read a book with an autumnal colour on the cover (red, orange, brown, gold);
* To read a book with a male protagonist;
* To read the first or last book in a series;

Because it's only a 6 day read-a-thon, I will try to read 4 books but I don't know if I will reach that goal.
 I will also try to read 150 pages per day.
I might read a book with a male protagonist.

I might read the first book in a series.
I most likely won't get around to reading an autumnal colored cover novel. 

BOOKS I MIGHT READ



I'm currently 306 pages into 'Scarlet' by Marissa Meyer so I'll go ahead and finish that. 


The Ifs by J.D. Pooker
(I need to read and review this soon!)

The Giver by Lois Lowry
(It's been over a decade since I read this but with the movie coming out, I'd like to re-read it and also, I need to read something for Banned Books Week!) 

The other library books I have to read are:



Wonder by R.J. Pallacio
(I think this has a male protagonist.)

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
(This is the first book in a series)



Doll Bones by Holly Black

The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit



Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory
(second in a series)

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
(This one is also the first in a series)

Do you think any of those could count as an autumnal colored cover? 

Hopefully I'm not getting in over my head and won't be too overwhelmed by keeping up with a read-a-thon just two days after my last read-a-thon. I just really want to stay motivated and participate as much as I can while I still have time to waste on sitting around reading all day.