In My Mailbox (23)

IMM is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren.  The idea is to share books bought, borrowed, scavenged, traded and won.  For more information click here.

It's been a while since I've posted IMM and I've decided not to try and catch up too much. The borrowed list are from this past week, while the bought and ARC lists are from the last few months.



Borrowed:

The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes

Legend by Marie Lu

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth*

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary by Keshni Kashyap*

Bought:

Shine by Lauren Myracle

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

ARCs:

Tempest by Julia Cross*

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould*

Where it Began by Ann Redisch Stampler*

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield*

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz 

(not pictured)

Titles marked with the asterisk * are 2012 debut novels. 

Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have)

Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski 

New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2011

357 pages (ebook)

4 out 5

2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house - parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have.

If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.  -- Description from Amazon.

Every teen's dream is to have freedom while still in high school. I had a taste of this myself and it was way cooler then than it is now, primarily because someone else was paying the bills.

April and Vi work out the perfect plan to be roomies! after April's father and step-mother opt to move to another state. April cannot stand the thought of being torn away from her school, her friends, and most importantly, her boyfriend Noah.

This is definitely an "I learned my lesson--kind of" book. I know I couldn't have pulled something like that off, but April and Vi manage to work it out. And the way to go about it, it's awfully fun to do "bad" things. Well...most bad things.

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Full disclosure: I purchased the ebook of this title for my own reading enjoyment.

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 by HitRecord & Joseph Gordon Levitt 

New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2011

87 pages

5 out of 5

The Universe is not made of atoms; it's made of tiny stories.

To create The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, known within the hitRECord as RegularJOE--directed thousands of collaborators to tell tiny stories through words and art. With the help of the entire creative collective, Gordon-Levitt culled, edited and curated over 8,500 contributions into this finely turned collection of original art from 67 contributors. Reminiscent of the 6-Word Memoir series, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 brings together art and voices from around the world to unite and tell stories that defy size.

This is a cool little book that I feel the need to feature. The description mentions the 6-word memoir series, and although these entries are not limited to six words, they can be just as profound, sad, funny, and even a little sexy. These snippets make you think and encourage sharing of the book.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Yes, it is completely crazy that it took me this long to read this series*. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to selecting books. I don't want to read something just because everyone else is reading it. I finally picked up the first book thanks to a friend of mine. He's not a book reader, so when he told me that The Hunger Games kind of interested him, I immediately offered my copy...I just had to read it first.

It can take me years sometimes to get around to reading something, but the very next day I picked it up. Two days later, I told him he could take it and was already a third of the way through Catching Fire. Shortly after that, I was on to Mockingjay. Then I put it down...for a while. Part of this could have been that I was just burned out on Panem. But part of it was definitely that I wasn't immediately gripped by the story as I had been with the first two. I'd been in the world long enough to know how it worked and was quite ready to see how it was going to come crashing down.

I didn't read any of the reviews when Mockingjay came out. I knew someday I would get around to reading it and I wanted to come to the series knowing only what the description told me. I'd been told quite a few times that I just had to read it, and my librarian co-workers were shocked that I--one of the teen queens--had not gotten around to it. I knew that there were some people who didn't like as much as the first two, and I can't understand that. It took a little more effort for me to keep reading as well.

One thing I really liked about the final book was that it did not do what I expected at all. People who, in any other series, would have lived, died. I've been mulling the ending over for a couple of weeks now, and I do like it. The truth of things is that even after people who are loved die, life goes on. I feel like this was really captured in the ending. The Epilogue wasn't absolutely necessary, but it does show that there is comfort in memory and shared experience.

Ultimately, I'm glad I finally picked up this series and saw it through. My friends have read it through as well and both were pissed at the ending. Of course we'll all looking forward to the movie!

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*Note: I finished the series in Oct. of 2011.

January Reads

I've decided to do a monthly listing of all that I've read and maybe highlight titles I really enjoyed. I've seen monthly wrap-ups on a few blogs, some I follow and others I don't. So this idea is definitely borrowed but not copied exactly. At least as far as I know.


January Books:

1. Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
2. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
3. A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt
4. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
5. Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't have) by Sarah Mlynowski
6. Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
7. The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
8. You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney

The only challenge these books meet is my goal to read 100 or more books.

Fav of the month

Otherwise things have been busy, though not so much here on the blog. Some major life changes are taking place which is eating up a lot of my brain power and time. I've started some reviews, but noticeably they aren't up. I'm hoping to remedy that soon.