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!
Well I took last week off, and many of you I am sure missed my lengthy Future Friday and the other Review I normally would do. I got sick and well the Flu claimed me for most of the weekend, and with great sadness I have to say that my reading habits have started to suffer as well. I am hoping to get back in the swing of things and caught up. Anyways here's the Monday inventory list of all the books that appeared over the last week.
Mailbox Pickup:
Title:Saving Fancesca
Author: Melina Marchetta
Format: Hardback
Release Date: September 8th, 2004
Release Date: September 8th, 2004
Francesca used to think her biggest problem was transferring to St. Sebastian's--a school only recently turned coed: "What a dream come true, right? Seven hundred and fifty boys and thirty girls? But the reality is that it's either like living in a fish bowl or like you don't exist."
But now there's this matter of her usually vibrant and annoyingly optimistic mother Mia refusing to get up in the morning. Her taciturn father doesn't have much to say on the subject, her beloved little brother Luca is anxiously looking to her for answers, and her so-called friends from her old neighborhood seem to have abandoned her. So, Francesca keeps it all inside--her frustration with school (there aren't enough girl's bathrooms and no girl's sports teams); her fear making new friends (with the few girls who do go to St. Sebastian's); and her overwhelming hatred of the smug Will Trombal, who despite being completely infuriating, is also incredibly cute. Keeping this to herself when all she wants to do is spill it to her mother is killing Francesca, but with Mia trying to make herself well again, Francesca will have to figure out how to save herself.
But now there's this matter of her usually vibrant and annoyingly optimistic mother Mia refusing to get up in the morning. Her taciturn father doesn't have much to say on the subject, her beloved little brother Luca is anxiously looking to her for answers, and her so-called friends from her old neighborhood seem to have abandoned her. So, Francesca keeps it all inside--her frustration with school (there aren't enough girl's bathrooms and no girl's sports teams); her fear making new friends (with the few girls who do go to St. Sebastian's); and her overwhelming hatred of the smug Will Trombal, who despite being completely infuriating, is also incredibly cute. Keeping this to herself when all she wants to do is spill it to her mother is killing Francesca, but with Mia trying to make herself well again, Francesca will have to figure out how to save herself.
Here is an author that I love to read. There is something about her work that will pull you into a book without warning and will drag you under every one of their tribulations against your will. Melina Marchetta is a fantastic author of a remarkable caliber, she caught my eye in Jellicoe Road and I have most of her work on my shelf to get to. Her art in contemporary tragedies and even some romance makes her work that fantastic.
So with Saving Francesca is a family tragedy that revolves around trying to save yourself. I honestly don't know what I expect out of this book, and frankly I've heard a lot of praise for this book. I picked up fairly cheaply, and believe me it wasn't the price I was looking at when I picked this up. Melina, I would pay almost any price for your books.
So with Saving Francesca is a family tragedy that revolves around trying to save yourself. I honestly don't know what I expect out of this book, and frankly I've heard a lot of praise for this book. I picked up fairly cheaply, and believe me it wasn't the price I was looking at when I picked this up. Melina, I would pay almost any price for your books.
Title: The Piper's Son
Author: Melina Marchetta
Format: Hardback
Release Date: March 8th, 2011
Release Date: March 8th, 2011
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.
Award-winning author 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.
Award-winning author 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.
I don't need to explain anything here. It's Melina Marchetta with a follow up to Saving Francesca. I want to read the two and give my honest perspective on the pair. I can't imagine these two would be anything would but grand. Now I will be honest, I just got Saving Francesca and there is a series of books ahead of this on the timeline, but I will get around to these both ASAP. The Piper's Son, being a follow up, I am curious as to what happens in the first for the need of a follow up or why a follow up was done. Either way, I can't imagine why this book would do anything else except exceed what I am looking forward to.
Title:A Monster Calls
Author: Patrick Ness with Siobhan Dowd
Format: Hardback
Release Date: March 24th, 2009
Release Date: March 24th, 2009
The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.
I read the inside of this book, in which Patrick Ness talks about Siobhan Dowd and why he wrote this book. It touched me, and I understand why he gave credit to her. There is so much heart and emotion in his note, and the reason behind picking up and finishing this novel. I am going to have to look at Siobhan sometime.
When I first looked up this book it was on a book clubs read for the month, and I put it on my list for books to get later on. It wasn't until later where I had a few dollars to spare and just had to pick it up. As well after finishing The Knife of Never Letting Go, that solidified my faith in Patrick Ness's work. He's a grand author and with Siobhan's started work, there possibly couldn't be any downfall.
Title: Such a Rush
Author: Jennifer Echols
Format: Hardback
Release Date: July 10th, 2012
Release Date: July 10th, 2012
A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.
When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.
Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.
But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.
By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying.
Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.
When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.
Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.
But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.
By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying.
Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.
Such a Rush was a hard pickup. I feel that I'm a bit old for this book, and it's out of my age-range. However, I did pick it up because it was on my list of "sounds interesting." I just hope that the book has a good series of romantic scenes and the relationship is at least halfway decent. As well, the book as my on edge; as many of you know who follow the books I do read, I hate...hate love triangles. I know it's a bit much to expect out of a book I haven't really looked into or started for that matter, but I don't have my hopes set high in this tale. There is just too much that has me on edge, and I just hope it doesn't ruin my involvement in this book.
Title: Flesh & Bones
Author: Jonathan Maberry
Format: Hardback
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
Reeling from the tragic events of Dust & Decay, Benny Imura and his friends plunge deep into the zombie-infested wastelands of the great Rot & Ruin. Benny, Nix, Lilah and Chong journey through a fierce wilderness that was once America, searching for the jet they saw in the skies months ago. If that jet exists then humanity itself must have survived…somewhere. Finding it is their best hope for having a future and a life worth living.
But the Ruin is far more dangerous than any of them can imagine. They are hunted by fierce animals escaped from zoos and circuses. They must raid zombie-infested towns for food and medical supplies. They discover the very real truth in the old saying: In the Rot & Ruin…everything wants to kill you.
And what is happening to the zombies? Swarms of them are coming from the east, devouring everything in their paths. These zoms are different. Faster, smarter, infinitely more dangerous. Has the zombie plague mutated, or is there something far more sinister behind this new invasion of the living dead?
In Flesh & Bone, Benny Imura, Nix Riley, Lou Chong and Lilah the Lost Girl are pitted against dangers greater than anything they've ever faced. To survive, each of them must rise to become the warriors Tom trained them to be.
But the Ruin is far more dangerous than any of them can imagine. They are hunted by fierce animals escaped from zoos and circuses. They must raid zombie-infested towns for food and medical supplies. They discover the very real truth in the old saying: In the Rot & Ruin…everything wants to kill you.
And what is happening to the zombies? Swarms of them are coming from the east, devouring everything in their paths. These zoms are different. Faster, smarter, infinitely more dangerous. Has the zombie plague mutated, or is there something far more sinister behind this new invasion of the living dead?
In Flesh & Bone, Benny Imura, Nix Riley, Lou Chong and Lilah the Lost Girl are pitted against dangers greater than anything they've ever faced. To survive, each of them must rise to become the warriors Tom trained them to be.
This is on my list, the whole series that is. I just need to get around to it, and this series is a lot of why my posting and my writing has suffered somewhat. I am looking to get back into the swing of reading like I used to. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong. I just haven't had the time like I would love to, and read the lot of books that are sitting on my shelf just begging to be opened.
The Benny Imura series just sounds great, the whole zombie feel and how each of the people trained must grow up and become more in essence. I want to get into this riveting series, and my eagerness may be my downfall in this series, it just sounds so fantastic that my worries for this series is almost non-existent. I hope for the sake of this book and the review to come (sometime) that's not that case.
