Jul 30, 2010

Book Beginnings on Friday #11


Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. 
 
Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

Join this meme HERE!
 
 
 
"Han Alister squatted next to the steaming mud spring, praying that the thermal crust would hold his weight."
 
 
The Demon King
by
Cinda Williams Chima
 
 
 
 
"Finn had been flung on his face and chained to the stone slabs of the transitway."
 
 
Incarceron
by
Catherine Fisher  




"I believe in ghosts."
 
The Light
by
D. J. MacHale
 
I loved this book! My review is HERE!
 
 
 
   
"He was falling. A moment earlier he had been standing on solid ground, near the edge of the seaside cliff that dropped sharply to wet black rocks below. Now here he was, his face turned toward the night sky and nothing beneath him but open air. His arms windmilled back and his legs pumped wildly as the memories of a life well lived flashed before his eyes with such speed and vividness it made him gasp."

 Town in a Blueberry Jam by B. B. Haywood 
 
 
 
"I'm a stalker. The good kind."

 
Fools Rush In
by
Kristan Higgins 

Friday Finds #20



What great books did you hear about / discover this past week?

Share with us your Friday Finds!


Larklight by Philip Reeve

Arthur (Art) Mumsby and his irritating sister Myrtle live with their father in a huge and rambling house called Larklight…that just happens to be traveling through outer space. When a visitor called Mr. Webster arrives for a visit, it is far from an innocent social call. Before long Art and Myrtle are off on an adventure to the furthest reaches of space, where they will do battle with evil forces in order to save each other—and the universe. A fantastically original Victorian tale set in an outer space world that might have come from the imaginations of Jules Verne or L Frank Baum, but has a unique gravitational pull all its own…

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Matt Cruse is cabin boy aboard the airship Aurora and has high hopes for promotion to junior sailmaker on this voyage - until Kate de Vries, one of the wealthy passengers makes friends with him. All their bravery is required when one night, in the middle of the ocean, they are boarded by pirates.

Wake by Lisa McMann

Not all dreams are sweet.
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.
Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant...
  
Sorcery & Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer


A great deal is happening in London and the country this season.
For starters, there's the witch who tried to poison Kate at the Royal College of Wizards. There's also the man who seems to be spying on Cecelia. (Though he's not doing a very good job of it--so just what are his intentions?) And then there's Oliver. Ever since he was turned into a tree, he hasn't bothered to tell anyone where he is.
Clearly, magic is a deadly and dangerous business. And the girls might be in fear for their lives . . . if only they weren't having so much fun!


Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles

Jazz Reynolds has died in a house fire. But the Reynolds family welcome her home with open arms. Everyone is overjoyed to have Jazz home, everyone except Jazz's sister, Sunny, who is convinced that this girl must be an imposter. She may look like her sister, know everything about her sister, but her real sister is dead...So who is this girl? This is a creepy, taut thriller, where family loyalties shift and secrets are revealed right up until the end...

Shadow of the Swords by Kamran Pasha

Saladin, a Muslim sultan, finds himself pitted against King Richard the Lionheart as Islam and Christianity clash against each other, launching a conflict that still echoes today.
In the midst of a brutal and unforgiving war, Saladin finds forbidden love in the arms of Miriam, a beautiful Jewish girl with a tragic past. But when King Richard captures Miriam, the two most powerful men on Earth must face each other in a personal battle that will determine the future of the woman they both love - and of all civilization.
Richly imagined, deftly plotted, and highly entertaining, Shadow of the Swords is a remarkable story that will stay with readers long after the final page has been turned.


The Wizard Test by Hilari Bell

Dayven has passed the test he wanted most desperately to fail -- he's been proven to have the powers of a wizard.
He had promised never to become one of the deceitful, disloyal sorcerers who believe in nothing and alter people's true destinies -- but now he has no choice. Thrown into an apprenticeship with a roguish wizard, Dayven discovers that loyalty and trust are never simple, and wizards are more deceptive than he could ever imagine.
The path that was once clear -- his friendships, his future, his destiny -- is now shadowed with dangerous twists and turns, and the world he knows must change forever.


Tagged by Mara Purnhagen

Can Kate Morgan stand up for herself - without being labeled a snitch?
Kate is just as confused as her best friend, Lan, when she arrives at Cleary High to find the building's been "tagged" with a life-size graffiti mural. Could the culprit be one of their friends or classmates? And is the kind-of-amazing creation really vandalism, or a work of art? She's tempted to stay out of it - mostly because, as the police chief's daughter, she's worried about being labeled a snitch. But when the same mysterious graffiti starts appearing throughout the state, putting more pressure on the authorities to catch the vandal, her investigative instincts kick in.
Now Eli, Kate's favorite coworker at the local coffee shop, is MIA. With Lan preoccupied with her own boy troubles, Kate needs to figure out some things on her own. Like why she can't stop thinking about Eli. And what she will do when all the clues about the graffiti point to someone she's close to.

Magic in the Mirrorstone: Tales of Fantasy

In this anthology for teen readers, fifteen best-selling and acclaimed authors--including Holly Black, Cecil Castellucci, Cassandra Clare, Eugie Foster, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Gregory Frost - weave all-new stories filled with magic. Comic and dark, epic and entertaining, these stories will introduce readers to the new voices of Mirrorstone beside the treasured favorites of Young Adult fantasy.

X Isle by Steve Augarde

Ever since the floods came and washed the world away, survivors have been desperate to win a place on X Isle, the island where life is rumoured to be easier than on what's left of the mainland. Only young boys are in with a chance, the smaller and lighter the better. Baz and Ray are two of the lucky few to be chosen, but they soon discover that X-Isle is a far cry from paradise. Ruled by Kido, a dangerous religious fanatic, it's a violent, unpredictable place where terrible things can happen at any moment. Beaten, bullied and in constant fear of Kido's explosive temper, the boys dream of life on the island without their captors. Together with Gene, the island's genius mechanic, Baz and Ray come up with an ambitious plan. A plan that will blow Kido and his men right out of the water. But are they really prepared to kill to secure their freedom? Powerful and compelling, "X Isle" is a fast-moving thriller that will keep you guessing right to the very end.


Gods of Manhattan by Scott Mebus

Look. What do you see? Sidewalks, skyscrapers, pigeons? But there’s more. More that only twelve-year-old Rory Hennessey can see. More that only Rory can reveal to others.
So, look again. What do you see? Layered on our own New York is a spirit city inhabited by warrior cockroaches, malevolent subway trains, kung fu rodents, hungry gargoyles, and children made entirely of papier-mache. Built by history and legend, it’s ruled by the Gods of Manhattan, lions of New York like Peter Stuyvesant and Babe Ruth.
Now everyone is racing to find Rory—the boy who can see. The boy who can change the destiny of New York. 


Immoral by Brian Freeman

In Duluth, Minnesota, a young woman, Rachel Stoner, has gone missing. Cop Jonathan Stride, a sharply focused detective despite the stresses of his troubled personal life, is quick to suspect her stepfather of murder. And yet, he has his doubts. Even for a man accustomed to power, the accused seems remarkably convinced he'll go free. Could he be telling the truth? While Stride endeavours to make sense of the conflicting pieces of evidence, a young woman's body lies half-buried deep in the woods. But if it's not the body of Rachel, where is the missing girl? Is she dead, or is the terrible, unexpected fate that awaits Graeme Stoner one he does not deserve? In this dark, involving mystery, nothing is as it seems, and readers will be gripped to the very last page as the shocking truth gradually emerges. 

The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu
 
See that girl, the one with the bright red hair, overstuffed backpack, and aura of grumpiness? That's Charlotte Mielswetzski. And something extra-ordinary is about to happen to her.


Oh, it's not the very cute kitten that appears out of nowhere and demands to go home with her. It's not the sudden arrival of her cousin Zee, who believes he's the cause of a mysterious sickness that has struck his friends back in England. It's not her creepy English teacher Mr. Metos, who takes his mythology lessons just a little too seriously. And it's not the white-faced, yellow-eyed men in tuxedoes, who follow Charlotte everywhere.
What's so extraordinary is not any one of these things....It's all of them. And when Charlotte's friends start to get sick one by one, Charlotte and Zee set out to find a cure. Their quest leads them to a not-so-mythical Underworld, where they face rhyme-loving Harpies, gods with personnel problems, and ghosts with a thirst for blood.
Charlotte and Zee learn that in a world overrun by Nightmares, Pain, and Death, the really dangerous character is a guy named Phil. And then they discover that the fate of every person -- living and dead -- is in their young hands.


Kiss & Hell by Dakota Cassidy

Delaney Markham doesn't just see dead people, she hears them too. And FYI - communicating with tortured souls all day can really wreak havoc on your love life. Sans boyfriend, Delaney makes the best of her gift by holding séances to make ends meet - that is until one incredibly annoying ghost just won't go away.
Besides being sinfully hot - in a college professor sort of way - all signs point to Clyde Atwell being much more than the ordinary spirit. In fact, he's a newbie demon whose first assignment is to take Delaney back down to hell with him. Yeah, like that's going to happen on the first date.

Double Helix by Nancy Werlin

Eli Samuels, barely out of high school, is offered a job at prestigious Wyatt Transgenics by its founder, a legendary molecular biologist. The salary's amazing, the work is interesting, and Dr. Wyatt seems to want to mentor him. It's almost too good to be true. But Mr. Samuels is vehemently against Eli's taking the job, and he won't explain why. Eli knows that there's some connection between Dr. Wyatt and his parents - something painful for his father. Something to do with his mother, now debilitated by Huntington's disease. As Eli works at the lab and spends time with Dr. Wyatt, he begins to uncover some disconcerting information - about himself.

Jul 29, 2010

#139 - "The Light" by D. J. MacHale


Summary:
Marshall Seaver is being haunted.
It begins with mysterious sounds, a fleeting face outside a window, a rogue breeze - all things that can be explained away. That is, until he comes face-to-face with a character who only exists on the pages of a sketchbook - a character Marshall himself created.
Marshall has no idea why he is being tormented by this forbidding creature, but he is quickly convinced it has something to do with his best friend, Cooper, who has gone missing. Together with Cooper's beautiful but aloof sister, Sydney, Marshall searches for the truth about his friend while ultimately uncovering a nightmare that is bigger and more frightening than he could ever have imagined.

My rating: 5/5

My thoughts on the book:
I loved this book! It's the first book of the Morpheus Road trilogy! First of all, I have to say that I absolutely loved the foreword by D. J. MacHale. I grew up watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? & when I read the first Pendragon book, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that he's behind the tv series, so in the foreword he speaks of his love for scary & supernatural stories. I wouldn't call this book scary or horror book, but a mystery, suspenseful & supernatural book! The story starts slowly, but I enjoyed every second of it! Actually, from the beginning I was gripped & I couldn't put it down until I finished it! I also loved that it wasn't predictable at all! The first half of the book is really fun & the second half becomes more eventful. In the end there was actually one scene that was a little scary ;) I loved the story & I absolutely loved the characters! They're well developed & they were like real characters that you can meet in your every day life! They felt that real... The epilogue was a pleasant surprise & when I read it, I guessed what the title of the 2nd book will be & I was right ;) One if my favorites books this year, so I  recommend it & I can't wait for the sequel!

Challenges:

#138 - "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins


Summary:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.
 
My rating: 5/5
 
My thoughts on the book:
The first thing I'm going to say is WOW! The Hunger Games was good, but Catching Fire is awesome! I loved it & it's now one of my favorite reads this year! Actually, I'd place it in my top 3! I highly recommend it & if you still haven't read it, what are you waiting for? I can't wait for Mockingjay!
 
Challenges:

#137 - "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien


Summary:
The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take the accursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor–the dark Kingdom where Sauron was supreme. Their guide was Gollum, deceitful and lust-filled, slave to the corruption of the Ring.

Thus continues the magnificent, bestselling tale of adventure begun in The Fellowship of the Ring, which reaches its soul-stirring climax in The Return of the King.

My rating: 4/5

My thoughts on the book:

Jul 28, 2010

"Waiting On" Wednesday #20: Blameless, Poison, Behemoth, Mockingjay & Sympathy for the Devil!




"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Want to participate?

Go here!




My "can't-wait-to-read" choices are:

Blameless
(Book 3 in the Parasol Protectorate series)
by
Gail Carriger

Publication date:
September 1, 2010 

If you haven't read Changeless, don't read the summary below, 'cause there are spoilers! 

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.
Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.
While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.



Poison
by
Sara Poole

Publication date:
August 3, 2010 

In the simmering hot summer of 1492, a monstrous evil is stirring within the Eternal City of Rome. The brutal murder of an alchemist sets off a desperate race to uncover a plot that threatens to end the Renaissance and plunge Europe back into medieval darkness. Determined to avenge the killing of her father, Francesca Giordano defies all convention to claim the position of poisoner serving Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, head of the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy. She becomes the confidante of Lucrezia Borgia and the lover of Cesare Borgia. At the same time, she is drawn to the young renegade monk who yearns to save her life and her soul. Navigating a web of treachery and deceit, Francesca pursues her father's killer from the depths of Rome's Jewish ghetto to the heights of the Vatican itself. In so doing, she sets the stage for the ultimate confrontation with ancient forces that will seek to use her darkest desires to achieve their own catastrophic ends.


Behemoth
(Book 2 of the Leviathan trilogy)
by
Scott Westerfeld

Publication date:
October 5, 2010

The Behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.
Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship
Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.
Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's ahead.



Mockingjay
(Book 3 of the Hunger Games trilogy)
by
Suzanne Collins

Publication date:
August 24, 2010

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year. 




Sympathy for the Devil
Anthology 

Publication date: 
August 1, 2010

The Devil is known by many names: Serpent, Tempter, Beast, Adversary, Wanderer, Dragon, Rebel. His traps and machinations are the stuff of legends. His faces are legion. No matter what face the devil wears, Sympathy for the Devil has them all. Edited by Tim Pratt, Sympathy for the Devil collects the best Satanic short stories by Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Stephen King, Kage Baker, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Kelly Link, China Mieville, Michael Chabon, and many others, revealing His Grand Infernal Majesty, in all his forms. Thirty-five stories, from classics to the cutting edge, exploring the many sides of Satan, Lucifer, the Lord of the Flies, the Father of Lies, the Prince of the Powers of the Air and Darkness, the First of the Fallen... and a Man of Wealth and Taste. Sit down and spend a little time with the Devil.

WWW Wednesdays #18

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?
 
This weekly meme is being hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading!


What are you currently reading?
 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
 
 
What did you recently finish reading?
 
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Light by D. J. MacHale
 
 
What do you think you’ll read next?
 
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
 

Jul 27, 2010

Teaser Tuesdays #24

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


 
"Katniss, the girl on fire, has left behind her flickering flames and bejeweled gowns and soft candlelight frocks. She is as deadly as fire itself."
 
Catching Fire
by
Suzanne Collins





 
"From the invisible roof vast chains hung in loops like great bridges, each link thicker than a man. In some of them the uber-spiders had nested, creaming the metal with sticky web."
 
Incarceron 
by
Catherine Fisher



These are more than 2 sentences, but I just couldn't resist ^_^ 
They're not really spoilers, 'cause they're from the end of the prologue!
 
"My story may sound like a fantasy, and maybe some of it is. But many things happened over that week that can't be ignored or explained away as having sprung from an overly imaginative mind. People died. Lives were changed. That was no dream. After what I saw and experienced, there's one other bit of reality I have to accept. I believe in ghosts."
 
The Light by D. J. MacHale