Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your bookshelf, be it the physical one or your digital one!
The list is slowly getting shorter. This week there is a list of books that I picked up a while back when I was on vacation in Napperville, IL. And what can I say, I love Anderson's Bookshop, if you have a chance stop by there and take a peak around. They have a great selection of books, signed and not, and if they don't have what you are after, they are friendly and are willing to help you anyway they can. I love them!
This week, most of these I believe I picked up were signed. Yes I paid a bit more for them, but I cherish the books on my shelf, and I am hoping sometime in my lifetime I would love to get all the books on my shelf signed. It would be an honor and frankly, would complete my collection. Most of these books are focusing around heartbreak and pure emotion. I hope you all find the books as thought invoking as I did, and pick one of them up along the way!
This week, most of these I believe I picked up were signed. Yes I paid a bit more for them, but I cherish the books on my shelf, and I am hoping sometime in my lifetime I would love to get all the books on my shelf signed. It would be an honor and frankly, would complete my collection. Most of these books are focusing around heartbreak and pure emotion. I hope you all find the books as thought invoking as I did, and pick one of them up along the way!
Mailbox Pickup:
Title:Personal Effects
Author: E.M. Kokie
Format: Hardback
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
Seventeen-year-old Matt Foster thought that if he could only get his hands on his brother's stuff from Iraq, he'd be able to make sense of his death. He wasn't expecting T.J.'s personal effects to raise even more questions about his life. Now, even if it means pushing his dad over the edge . . . even if it means losing his best friend . . . even if it means getting expelled from school . . . Matt will do whatever it takes to find out the truth about his brother's past. With compassion, humor, and a compelling narrative voice, E. M. Kokie explores grief and self-discovery in this powerful first novel.
I honestly am not sure what pulled me the most toward this book. Whether it was the pure emotion it would take to find your brother's personal effects and only be more confused by what it means. I am not sure I would be up to the task, or the rollercoaster it would be to go through what remained of a loved one. I as well, am not sure what would stop me from finding the answers I wanted out. Maybe that's why I was pulled to this book, the pure fact that I could relate to the character so well.
Now in this book, when I first read the synopsis I thought of the If I Stay series. I hope the emotion, the loss, and most of all the pure heartbreak and loss is there. Without that, I don't believe this book would be all that rememberable. As well, the anger of losing a loved one and not finding the answers he is seeking should be there, without those emotions the character falls apart, and becomes completely fake, or unrelatable.
Now in this book, when I first read the synopsis I thought of the If I Stay series. I hope the emotion, the loss, and most of all the pure heartbreak and loss is there. Without that, I don't believe this book would be all that rememberable. As well, the anger of losing a loved one and not finding the answers he is seeking should be there, without those emotions the character falls apart, and becomes completely fake, or unrelatable.
Title: Unspoken
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Format: Hardback
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.
But all that changes when the Lynburns return.
The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?
But all that changes when the Lynburns return.
The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?
Sarah has created a beast here, and the synopsis does nothing but make that beast larger and more exciting to read. When I got to the end of the second paragraph in the synopsis, I thought I understood what was going on, but when the next paragraph becomes with the Lynburn family coming back, I found myself completely lost. The questioned at the end were never addressed prior to Kami's past, but they create that past in an instant and makes it so the "crazy" girl isn't so crazy anymore.
So a tale about finding the boy you have always loved, and spoken to everyday in your head, or your mind's eye whichever way you choose. However, I find this rather absurd. How can you love someone you have never met? How would you know what they look like? Okay you can dream about them all you want, but seeing them for once changes everything, the perception becomes reality. I understand that last question, Can she still love him, now that he's real? But the rest, that's up in the air when the past gets explained better.
Title:Blind Spot
Author: Laura Ellen
Format: Hardback
Release Date: October 23rd, 2012
Release Date: October 23rd, 2012
There’s none so blind as they that won’t see.
Seventeen-year-old Tricia Farni’s body floated to the surface of Alaska’s Birch River six months after the night she disappeared. The night Roz Hart had a fight with her. The night Roz can’t remember. Roz, who struggles with macular degeneration, is used to assembling fragments to make sense of the world around her. But this time it’s her memory that needs piecing together—to clear her name . . . to find a murderer.
This unflinchingly emotional novel is written in the powerful first-person voice of a legally blind teen who just wants to be like everyone else.
Seventeen-year-old Tricia Farni’s body floated to the surface of Alaska’s Birch River six months after the night she disappeared. The night Roz Hart had a fight with her. The night Roz can’t remember. Roz, who struggles with macular degeneration, is used to assembling fragments to make sense of the world around her. But this time it’s her memory that needs piecing together—to clear her name . . . to find a murderer.
This unflinchingly emotional novel is written in the powerful first-person voice of a legally blind teen who just wants to be like everyone else.
Blind spot I loved instantly. The fact that someone who is blind and was present at the time of a murder, but apparently to records, she was the only one there. Which leaves one question, how can a blind person kill someone? And the better question, did she do it? I love how this synopsis sets her disability, or trait, and expands on that to make the world Tricia lives in a harder and harsher world than what we live in. I am not saying it's all that bad, but her struggle to be normal and normal people's perception probably aren't exactly what she wants.
Tricia normally is used to piecing together the bits of color and images she gets to see the world around her, and I know that I take sight for granted, and I don't know what I would do if I couldn't see all the beauty around me. So how would I handle if I couldn't entirely see the murder I was around, and what if my mind actually pushed it behind. Would I want to remember what happened, and explain it to the people? There is a choice in this book, and a world that I don't entirely understand; I hope this is nothing but grand.
Title: Cold Fury
Author: T.M. Goeglein
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Release Date: July 24th, 2012
Jason Bourne meets The Sopranos in this breathtaking adventure
Sara Jane Rispoli is a normal sixteen-year-old coping with school and a budding romance--until her parents and brother are kidnapped and she discovers her family is deeply embedded in the Chicago Outfit (aka the mob).
Now on the run from a masked assassin, rogue cops and her turncoat uncle, Sara Jane is chased and attacked at every turn, fighting back with cold fury as she searches for her family. It's a quest that takes her through concealed doors and forgotten speakeasies--a city hiding in plain sight. Though armed with a .45 and 96K in cash, an old tattered notebook might be her best defense--hidden in its pages the secret to "ultimate power." It's why she's being pursued, why her family was taken, and could be the key to saving all of their lives.
Action packed, with fresh, cinematic writing, Cold Fury is a riveting and imaginative adventure readers will devour.
Sara Jane Rispoli is a normal sixteen-year-old coping with school and a budding romance--until her parents and brother are kidnapped and she discovers her family is deeply embedded in the Chicago Outfit (aka the mob).
Now on the run from a masked assassin, rogue cops and her turncoat uncle, Sara Jane is chased and attacked at every turn, fighting back with cold fury as she searches for her family. It's a quest that takes her through concealed doors and forgotten speakeasies--a city hiding in plain sight. Though armed with a .45 and 96K in cash, an old tattered notebook might be her best defense--hidden in its pages the secret to "ultimate power." It's why she's being pursued, why her family was taken, and could be the key to saving all of their lives.
Action packed, with fresh, cinematic writing, Cold Fury is a riveting and imaginative adventure readers will devour.
Cold Fury is one of those books that drew me in the moment, I read the synopsis. Now I have to say I am bias on this so take what I am about to say with a grain of salt; I absolutely loved the Jason Bourne series and frankly this book oozes every bit of that series. I am holding this to a similar standard, and I will make sure that doesn't play into the review of the book. I may even have to take my spy DvDs and hide them away prior to reading this. :P
The issue I have with this book is the age. How could Sara know the necessary skills, and the martial arts or whatever that it would take to be held up to that series? I am a bit intrigued by Sara, and her persona. And what exactly is it that the mob is after with her parents? Why is Sara wanted dead? And the notebook? I am sure the notebook is more or less the ledger or accounting information of who owes who, and names. But if it was me, I would turn that book over to the police and try to get my parents back that way, not chase after the mob and take it into my own hands. I will have to get into the book to more or less give a better perception.
The issue I have with this book is the age. How could Sara know the necessary skills, and the martial arts or whatever that it would take to be held up to that series? I am a bit intrigued by Sara, and her persona. And what exactly is it that the mob is after with her parents? Why is Sara wanted dead? And the notebook? I am sure the notebook is more or less the ledger or accounting information of who owes who, and names. But if it was me, I would turn that book over to the police and try to get my parents back that way, not chase after the mob and take it into my own hands. I will have to get into the book to more or less give a better perception.
Title: The Tragedy Paper
Author: Elizabeth LaBan
Format: Hardback
Release Date: January 8th, 2013
Release Date: January 8th, 2013
Tim Macbeth, a seventeen-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is “Enter here to be and find a friend." A friend is the last thing Tim expects or wants—he just hopes to get through his senior year unnoticed. Yet, despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “It" girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim's surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, but she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone ever finds out. Tim and Vanessa begin a clandestine romance, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.
Jumping between viewpoints of the love-struck Tim and Duncan, a current senior about to uncover the truth of Tim and Vanessa, The Tragedy Paper is a compelling tale of forbidden love and the lengths people will go to keep their love.
Jumping between viewpoints of the love-struck Tim and Duncan, a current senior about to uncover the truth of Tim and Vanessa, The Tragedy Paper is a compelling tale of forbidden love and the lengths people will go to keep their love.
When I read this I thought immediately, "The Modern-day Romeo and Juliet." I hope this book holds up to that idea. A book in which a forbidden romance is pursued and while at school Tim needs to write a paper called The Tragedy Paper. Tim being nearly a nobody, with absolutely no social status or social identity, he's attracted to one of the most popular and noticed girl in the school, Vanessa. The problem with this love and this romance is the fear of losing that social status, and what it would mean to lose the person you love because they don't want to fall from the perch.
However, there is a flip side to the whole situation. What if Vanessa did give up her status, gave up everything to show how much she cared for Tim, and in the end the Tragedy would be how everyone turned their back on Vanessa? I doubt that will happen in this book, simply because that's not as big of tragedy as the first. I think completely that the book will focus on Tim and his loss of Vanessa, it's something I would rather read about and something I find a lot of readers can relate to. The loss, of a love one to a situation out of our control.
