New Girl by Paige Harbison WINNER!

The winner of the giveaway as chosen by Rafflecopter is...

MAG M. of GEEK CHIC!!!

Thanks to all who entered and be looking for a new giveaway in the next couple of days! Mag, please send me your shipping address so that I can get your prize shipped to you!

Musing Monday - Football or Books?

Musing Monday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. This week's question:

Did you do any reading in lieu of watching the Super Bowl game yesterday, or were you foregoing reading to watch the game? If you read a book (or books), what did you read?

Well, we are not big sports fans in our house, so we weren't really watching any of the game. However, my daughter went to a church sponsored Super Bowl party, so I had to drive her over there and then pick her up. And in between those times I was doing a lot of homework and cooking dinner. So, unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot of reading done either. Throughout the day, I did alternate through my currently reading books. I am reading  books at the moment and here is the method I have right now...I have them all stacked by my chair. I read one chapter from the top book, then move it to the bottom of the pile, read one chapter of the next one, then move it to the bottom of the pile...and so on. I have so many different books to be reading for different reasons, that this is the best way I can think of to feel like I'm making progress on all of them! So, I bet you want to know what I'm reading, hm?

1. New Girl by Paige Harbison (e-ARC for review)

2. Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr (library book)

3. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (for my Materials for Children class - Scott O'Dell reading requirement)

4. Forbidden Sea by Sheila Nielson (dusty shelves challenge)

5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (doing a presentation on this book for my YA Lit class)

In My Mailbox #6

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren where we get to feature all the wonderful books (whether it be actually in our mailbox, from the library, the store, e-books...whatever) we received in the past week. I had a great week this week! Barnes and Noble had a GREAT coupon this week for 50% off all teen books!! My lovely hubby took me there last night and let me do some shopping, and I also placed an order online. I will include my online order books with NEXT week's IMM...I've got enough to feature this week anyway! :)

The upper 2 rows are books I ordered from half.com for my author study of Patricia Reilly Giff for one of my classes. For those, I got:

1. Pictures of Hollis Woods (excellent book!)

2. Wild Girl

3. Willow Run

4. Eleven

5. Love, From the Fifth Grade Celebrity

6. The Gift of the Pirate Queen (one of my childhood faves!!!)

Then, the bottom row I got from Barnes and Noble using a 50% off teen books coupon! Cound not turn that down! :)

1. Truth by Julia Karr (can't wait to read this - I loved XVI!)

2. Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly 

3. Shine by Lauren Myracle (been excited for this one!)

4. Jars of Glass by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler

5. Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

From Netgalley I received (click on the covers to check them out on Goodreads!):

Kindle freebies that I recieved:

So, as you can see, all in all, it was a great week for books! I didn't even get a chance tot get to the library (they have a couple holds for me), so I expect that my NEXT IMM will be even better!! Would love to see everything you all got this week! Leave me a link! Happy reading!

Feature and Follow Friday # 5

It's that time again! Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read and is a GREAT way to gain new followers and new blogs to follow yourself!!

This week's featured blogger is Progress and Procrastination - go check them out!

And now for this week's question:

Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do they all have a kick butt heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?

Hmm, good question! I think that I definitely prefer books that have strong main characters. I really dislike whiny, spineless female leads. I don't mind if she has, say, psychological issues which make her a "broken" person, but I definitely look at how she handles it. Does she do her best to overcome her issues? Or does she just mope around about it? What makes a "kick butt" heroine to me is one who fights whatever adversities she is faced with, whether it is physical or mental. This is definitely a common factor in all my favorite books. A hot love interest as the lead male helps...and is probably present in at least   75% of my favorite books (maybe more), but is not an absolute must. It's definitely a bonus though...who doesn't want at least a little bit of romance? Another common factor is there has to be a lot of action. I don't like wordy descriptions...just give me the action, please!


Now it's your turn! Tell me about the common characteristics in your favorite books! And let me know if you are a new follower so I can follow you back!! Thanks for stopping by!

Reading With Class #3



Reading with Class is a weekly meme hosted by me, The Once and Future Librarian, where I discuss the books that I have been reading for my college classes.

In my YA Lit class, we read (in my case, re-read) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I NEVER reread books (there are just too many out there!), but I was excited to have the chance to reread my all time favorite book...it has been 18 months or so. Well, it was as good as the first time. I was reminded why it is my favorite book! Now I'm ready for the movie, and I have passed the book on to my almost 11 year old daughter who has requested to read it! Yay, someone new to talk about it with! :)

For my Materials for Children class, I read The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson to fulfill a Caldecott requirement. It's a very simple bedtime story (very much like Goodnight Moon) with simple, but beautiful illustrations. Great bedtime story for toddlers!

I also read The Memory Bank by Carolyn Coman to fulfill a modern fantasy requirement. It had just caught my eye at the library. It really reminded me of something Roald Dahl might write. In particular, it reminded me of Matilda. A little girl, Hope, whose parents don't seem to care about her, in fact don't seem to like kids at all. They abandon Hope's little sister Honey by the side of the road, and tell Hope just to forget about her. One night a man comes and takes Hope away - basically her memory bank has overdrawn (because all she ever does anymore is sleep), and she needs to get her account squared away. Hope encounters a whole new world where she is valued and wanted. And she discovers she may be on the right path to finding Honey. The story was neat, and it was chock full of beautiful illustrations. Great middle grade read!

Well, that is about all I read for school this week. It was a busy week for me so not a lot of reading got done :( Trying to fit more reading time in this week!

Waiting on Wednesday #5

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we feature a yet-to-be published book that we are looking forward to.

This week I am featuring Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale. I actually have this book sitting on my kindle (thanks to Netgalley and Delacorte) just waiting to be read. It is expected to be released on Valentine's Day.

Goodreads Summary:
"When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die.
Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all."

I think this sounds amazing! So, tell me, what book are you looking forward to?

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Publisher: Walker Childrens
Release Date: January 17, 2012
Number of Pages: 262
Where I got this book: Netgalley eARC
My rating: 5/5

Goodreads Summary:

"Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?
For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death."

First, a big thank you, thank you, thank you to Netgalley and Walker Childrens for the chance to read and review this book! Wow...I had goosebumps reading this book! I was hooked into this story from the very first chapter!

Plot:
The book starts with "the accident." While having fun with her friends, Delaney falls through a patch of thin ice. Her friends try desperately to rescue her, but due to the thin ice and the risk of falling in themselves, it takes them (and by "them", I really mean Decker) 11 long minutes to pull her out. Delaney has been underwater this whole time. 7 minutes is generally the maximum length of time someone can survive being under water. She is taken to the hospital, and remains in a coma for a week. To the medical staff's complete astonishment, she wakes from the coma and other than a few "tremors" she seems perfectly fine - a miracle! She is released from the hospital after a barrage of tests, although she has an odd new symptom...it appears that she is "drawn" to people who are near death. It starts as an "itch" inside her brain - the stronger the itch, the closer to death they are. This itch leads her to Troy Varga (or is he drawn to her?) who has been in a similar near death experience and has the same ability to pick out the dying. But, it's what he does with this ability that sets them apart. Is this ability a gift or is it a curse? Is Delaney meant to be with Troy, a guy who knows what she has been through, or is she meant to be with Decker, who has been by her side since grade school, and saved her life? Was her life even worth saving? This story answers all these questions and takes you on a page- turning thrill ride that will leave you breathless!

Characters:
Delaney was a very likeable character that the reader can easily sympathize with. She has been through an ordeal that is unimaginable...and not easy to recover from. She's confused by many things...everybody around her thinks that she is a walking miracle, but she's not so sure. She doesn't understand why her life was spared. If she is meant to do something special with her life. She is confused by this new "ability" of being able to identify the dying and what she should do about it. Does she try to save them? Well, like I think most of us would, she tries. But finds that it's not as easy as it sounds. Some people don't want to be saved. I felt like I could easily identify with her, and I think most readers will too.

Then there's Decker. I loved him. Although I wanted to slap him a few times in the book when he was seeing another girl...Anyway, he was just a good guy. He was very confused about his feelings about Delaney, which made him all the more realistic, I think. Despite his mixed feelings though, he was always there when Delaney needed him. Always. And I loved him for that.

And finally, there's Troy. Wow. I have to be careful here not to give too much away. He pretty much creeped me out from the beginning. He was just messed up. I felt bad for him...but I found myself yelling at Delaney to get the heck away from him! Troy made the story though.

My final thoughts:
This book just had everything: creepiness, edge of your seat action, romance, strong emotions, sadness, happiness, personal revelations...just absolutely fabulous. I highly recommend this book. A fabulous debut for Megan Miranda...I can't wait to see more from her!!

This review is also posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Netgalley.