Review: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

Posted on January 28, 2012 by


Title: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie
Paperback, 304 pages
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: January 1, 2004
Source: Purchased
Buy: Amazon
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Book Summary:
Thirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal life: he plays drums in the All-Star Jazz band, has a crush on the hottest girl in the school, and is constantly annoyed by his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey. But when Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia, Steven’s world is turned upside down. He is forced to deal with his brother’s illness and his parents’ attempts to keep the family in one piece.

Review:
What an excellent protagonist!

Heidi from YA Bibliophile recommended the Jordan Sonnenblick books to me on Twitter not long ago, and when B&N had a big sale I bought them. I can’t pass up a contemporary YA recommendation! To add to that, Sonnenblick has a new book publishing in March!

The story in Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie really is kind of sad, because Steven’s little brother Jeffrey gets sick and that is what the book deals with. However, Steven as a protagonist is excellent and has an awesome sense of humor, so it’s not as hard to read about Jeffy being sick (I mean, it’s still not a happy topic, but, you know).

Maybe the most exciting thing to me is that there is a companion to Drums – After Ever After. Which is also a companion to another Sonnenblick book, Notes From the Midnight Driver. Or so I’m told. I love companions! I can’t tell you anything about After Ever After because it would ruin Drums (don’t go read the summary of After Ever After!) but I am very excited that I decided to buy them all at once so I can read them close together :)

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Fun Five: KM Walton

Posted on January 27, 2012 by

Fun Five
KM Walton

Author of Cracked

1. What color pen do you prefer writing with?
I’m a big fan of blue. And if the pen has a smooth rolling ball then it becomes one of my favorites. I keep my favs at my desk. All for me.

2. How many pieces of jewelry do you normally wear?
Jewelry and accessories are one of my favorite things to plan when I’m getting dressed. I have one of those tall jewelry armoires and it’s filled with costume jewelry. I love options. I always wear earrings, a right hand ring, and a bracelet. Always. I never take my wedding rings or watch off of my left hand. I’ve been known to rock the occasional pin too.

3. If you could never do one chore again, which would you choose?
Laundry. It’s a continuous uphill battle when you have two active sons. However, I’ve followed in the genius footsteps of my mother and trained my boys to help me with the laundry. They take it down, get it in the washer, switch it to the dryer and bring it up – then I fold. I call it “Walton Teamwork.”

4. Describe your last vacation.
Every year my side of the family heads to a small south Jersey beach town. My late grandfather was an architect and back in the sixties he designed three ultra modern beach houses in the town. My mother’s family has been coming there ever since. Some of my family own houses in the town and some of us rent houses for the week. We’re closing in on 100 people! Nothing is better than watching the 25+ cousins play together while the adults sit and talk—you should see how big the circle of chairs gets on some days.

5. What fashion style do you wish could be abolished?
None. I love fashion. I’m not a slave to it or anything, but I love to express myself in what I wear. I’d hate to stop someone else from expressing themselves just because I didn’t like it.

About Cracked:
Sometimes there’s no easy way out.

Victor hates his life. He has no friends, gets beaten up at school, and his parents are always criticizing him. Tired of feeling miserable, Victor takes a bottle of his mother’s sleeping pills—only to wake up in the hospital.

Bull is angry, and takes all of his rage out on Victor. That makes him feel better, at least a little. But it doesn’t stop Bull’s grandfather from getting drunk and hitting him. So Bull tries to defend himself with a loaded gun.

When Victor and Bull end up as roommates in the same psych ward, there’s no way to escape each other or their problems. Which means things are going to get worse—much worse—before they get better…

More about KM from KMWalton.com:
Writing, it turns out, is K. M. Walton’s favorite thing to do in the whole world. Even the hard parts – and there are a lot of hard parts. She is very, very thankful that she is where she is on her journey as a writer. And she can’t wait to see where the road leads her…

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Review: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M Danforth

Posted on January 26, 2012 by


Title: The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Hardcover, 480 pages
Author: Emily M Danforth
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: February 7, 2012
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon
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Book Summary from Goodreads.com:
When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief she’ll never have to tell them that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.

But that relief soon turns to heartbreak, as Cam is forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and not making waves, and Cam becomes an expert at this—especially at avoiding any questions about her sexuality.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. To Cam’s surprise, she and Coley become best friends—while Cam secretly dreams of something more. Just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, her secret is exposed. Ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self—even if she’s not quite sure who that is.

Review:
YAY. Yay.

The first thing I thought when I finished The Miseducation of Cameron Post is that I would have LOVED this book when I was a younger reader flying through Catcher in the Rye and Perks of Being a Wallflower. I’m saying this in hopes to begin to explain the content of this book, because what I write won’t do it justice. And saying I would have loved it then doesn’t mean I didn’t love it now, because I did.

The story that Emily Danforth has created is epic. Not epic in that there are dragons and tsunamis and swords, but epic in a contemporary sense. Which isn’t a word I often use to describe contemporary.

Cameron Post’s story starts from before her parent’s accident and continues through as she deals with their death and finds out about herself. Much of the content is based on her thoughts of being attracted to girls, so you can imagine the emotional turmoil she had when everyone else was expecting her to have a boyfriend. And The Miseducation of Cameron Post isn’t just one story about Cameron figuring things out, which is what I loved. It’s a big read – 480 pages – but none of the pages are wasted. There are several major events throughout the book – it easily could have been split into several novels, but I much appreciated that the story came together as a whole and had so much content.

This is a book that will live for years and be recommended to the readers ready for a literary read. As I mentioned, had I found this book browsing the library shelves as a teen with Catcher in the Rye withdrawal, I would have absolutely loved it and I feel this will be the case for many readers for years and years. It’s a story that is timeless and should be read by anyone who recommends books so that they are ready to pass it along to the right readers.

Excellent contemporary.

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Waiting on Wednesday: This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Posted on January 25, 2012 by

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It is a weekly meme that allows you to share a book you can’t wait to read!

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

June 19, 2012 from St. Martin’s Griffin

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

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Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Brown

Posted on January 24, 2012 by


Title: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Hardcover, 236 pages
Author: Jennifer E Smith
Publisher: Poppy
Publication Date: January 2, 2012
Source: Book Expo America
Buy: Amazon
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Book Summary from Goodreads.com:
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan’s life. She’s stuck at JFK, late to her father’s second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley’s never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport’s cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he’s British, and he’s in seat 18C. Hadley’s in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it.

Review:
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a fun, cute contemporary.

My favorite part of this book is that it is over 24 hours only. For some reason reading about one day in a person’s life really appeals to me from time to time. (Side note – Intensity by Dean Koontz is also in a 24 hour time period and that’s my favorite of his books, but anyway.)

Hadley is in an airport on her way to her father’s wedding in London, so as you can imagine much of the novel is spent in the airport and on the plane, since it’s quite a long ride across the ocean. This is a very fun (and unique) setting for a book, and brought some things into consideration that would not be normal in real life-namely the fact that you’re sitting next to a stranger for many hours in a row with nowhere else to go.

Some parts are expected and some are slightly unexpected, so I found myself very satisfied at the end of this book. If you’re buying gifts for Valentine’s Day I think this would be cute to gift :)

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The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe Giveaway

Posted on January 23, 2012 by

It starts with an itch you just can’t shake.

Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat.

A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you’re dead.

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn’t?

About Megan Crewe (from her website):
I’m still living in Toronto, now with my husband and two cats of my own. By mornings I write; by afternoons I tutor children and teens with special needs. When I’m not doing either, I’m reading everything I can get my hands on (about an equal mix of YA and adult fiction, with the occasional nonfiction title thrown in), learning Fut Gar kung fu, and planning my next overseas exploration.

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Review: Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

Posted on January 21, 2012 by


Title: Unraveling Isobel
Hardcover, 304 pages
Author: Eileen Cook
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon
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Book Summary from Goodreads.com:
Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother.

But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.

Review:
I should pay more attention to the blurbs of books, honestly. Lisa McMann calls Unraveling Isobel creepy? How could I not listen to that?

I went into this book assuming it was generally about Isobel and her possible mental illness, not knowing that I was going to be so scared that I would only read this in the daytime. Yes, the summary does mention ghosts, but there are different ways for ghosts to be written about. Here’s a warning: Eileen Cook knows how to scare the pants off of you. Or that’s true if you’re a wuss like me, at least. There’s a reason I don’t read much in the thriller genre.

Overall, minus the feeling scared bits, I did enjoy Unraveling Isobel. I enjoyed Cook’s writing style, and the plot kept moving along at a nice pace. It’s a mix of thriller and mystery, so as you work your way through the book as a reader you get to work out clues and coincidences with Isobel. Some are easy to figure out and some are not, so even the most sleuth-y will be entertained (plus, it’s slightly harder to be a detective when things like possible ghosts/mental illness are involved).

I fully intend on picking up another novel by Cook now, as I know I enjoy her writing style. I also intend on paying more attention to obvious references to creepy in the future. (Or everyone could make it easier on me and make the titles very obvious. Like Anna Dressed in Blood.)

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Fun Five: Lauren Oliver

Posted on January 20, 2012 by

Fun Five
Lauren Oliver

Author of Liesl & Po, Delirium, Pandemonium, Before I Fall

1. What is your favorite Christmas song?
God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen!

2. How many scarves do you own?
About 16!

3. What time are you usually in bed by?
It so depends. On weekdays, about 10:30 pm…On weekends, I’m often still up at 4 a.m.!

4. If you had an extra day in the week, what would you do with it?
SLEEP. And spend time with my family and friends.

5. Tell us about a pet you’ve had or wish you had.
I’m dying to have a teacup pig! They’re SO cute and very clean and smart and affectionate, and I love the idea of hearing their little hooves tapping away across the floors of my Brooklyn apartment.

About Pandemonium:
I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

About Lauren from LaurenOliverBooks.com:
I pursued literature and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and then moved back to New York to attend NYU’s MFA program in creative writing. I simultaneously began working at Penguin Books, in a young adult division called Razorbill, and while there, I started work on Before I Fall. I left in 2009 to pursue writing full-time, and now I happily work in my pajamas every day.

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Review: Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano

Posted on January 19, 2012 by


Title: Fever (The Chemical Garden #2)
Hardcover, 368 pages
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publication Date: February 21, 2012
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon
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SPOILERS FOR WITHER FOUND BELOW

Book Summary from Goodreads.com:
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago – surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous – and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion…by any means necessary.

Review:
Wither is actually one of the dystopians where I remembered most of what happened without having to go back through and skim or read a bunch of reviews. YAY! So I started Fever with a good attitude, knowing what was going on, etc.

The first part of Fever put me off a bit – the carnival of girls was a little much for me to read. It wasn’t as compelling to me as the Wither setting, and it was also a bit creepy. Once Rhine and Gabriel get past that to continue on to Manhattan, it was very hard to stop reading.

When I finished this book and stopped to reflect on what happened, I kind of went bug eyed. Fever is a normal sized YA book but SO much happened (written beautifully, nonetheless) that I can barely believe it was only one book. I’m still kind of in shock about that bit.

I found Fever to be quite a bit more complicated than Wither, and also more disturbing overall. I’d label this one better suited for YA readers with a little more mature taste, as Rhine and Gabriel go through quite a bit and not much of it is very pretty.

This was a great follow-up to a book that I really enjoyed. I think that most fans of Wither will really enjoy Fever, and it will definitely hook most anyone into reading further books in the series.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy

Posted on January 18, 2012 by

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It is a weekly meme that allows you to share a book you can’t wait to read!

Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy

May 1, 2012 from Simon Pulse

Charlotte and Oliver have been friends forever. She knows that he, Abe, and Trip consider her to be one of the guys, and she likes it that way. She likes being the friend who keeps them all together. Likes offering a girl’s perspective on their love lives. Likes being the behind-the-scenes wordsmith who writes all the lyrics for the boys’ band. Char has a house full of stepsisters and a past full of backstabbing (female) ex-best friends, so for her, being friends with boys is refreshingly drama-free…until it isn’t any more.

When a new boy enters the scene and makes Char feel like, well, a total girl…and two of her other friends have a falling out that may or may not be related to one of them deciding he possibly wants to be more than friends with Char…being friends with all these boys suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

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