New! The Dark and Hollow Places

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

About: Annah knows she has a twin sister, but she forgot her long ago. Back when they went to play in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, she and Elias lost her, and after that there was no going back to the village. Life's been hard, but Elias has taken care of her, and living in the Dark City can help one to forget the horror of the Unconsecrated—if you try hard enough. But when Elias disappears, Annah's world crumbles. To her, life isn't worth much more than the walking dead who roam the wasted world she lives in. It's not until she meets Catcher that she cares to start living again. Yet Catcher has secrets. Dark, terrifying secrets that link him to a past she's longed to forget and to a future too deadly to consider. Annah must decide: Can she continue to live a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the answer to all her problems? (from amazon.com)

This is the third book in The Forest of Hand and Teeth series. I do enjoy Carrie Ryan's books. I like how each of the books are about different character but they are all intertwined and related to one another. This book isn't out until March 2011. I hope the time flies by so that I can read what happens next.

Mockingjay Midnight Release Party!

Book stores around the country will be holding Midnight Release Parties for Suzanne Collins' third and final book to her Hunger Games Trilogy, Mockingjay. I've recently pre-ordered my copy and will be dutifully attending a midnight party. The Barnes & Noble I get to go to will be having a party from 10:00 pm till midnight, along with live performance by local band, Kiss Me Kill Me (I'm not sure who they are but it seems a little funny but exciting). I'm sure everyone has heard about or read the previous books but if not HERE is my review for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, also here is what Mockingjay is about.

About: 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.

Be sure to check out your local Barnes & Noble to see if they are holding a Midnight Release Party HERE. I'm so excited to go and get my copy of Mockingjay! Be sure to check back for pictures of the event and eventually a review!

The Hunger Games - Ultimate Prize Pack Giveaway

The Hunger Games Ultimate Prize Pack includes:

• a black babydoll t-shirt (M) with District 12 design
• a hardcover journal
• a sheet of magnets
• a sheet of stickers
• a collection of buttons
• two Mockingjay Pendants
• one Mockingjay brooch
• one Mockingjay Bag Clip
• one Hunger Games charm bracelet
• three unique pair of earrings: District 12, parachute, and Mockingjay
• a pair of Hunger Games keychains
• two slap bracelets
• two bookmarks
• three sets of rubber bracelets, with three unique phrases

For a chance to win this ultimate prize pack, visit The Trades for the contest.

New! You

You by Chalres Benoit

About: Fifteen-year-old Kyle is a member of the “hoodies.” So named for their ubiquitous hooded sweatshirts, they are the slackers/burnouts/freaks common to every high school. In fact, Kyle would be the first to admit his commonness—he gets picked on by bullies, he serves detention, he pines after a girl. The deadness he feels is impinged upon by the arrival of Zack, a private-academy transfer who wears sports coats, quotes philosophers, laughs at Shakespeare, and seems to have every student and teacher in the palm of his hand. Zack takes on Kyle as a sort of project, but his swank parties and daring escapades soon turn to deeds far darker. This is a brutal, fast, and satisfying read. (from amazon.com)

This book sounds so good. Its unlike your typical teen books, this is suspenseful and mysterious. Benoit has an interesting way of writing the book, the book is from the second person view—you, the reader, are Kyle. I cannot wait for it to come out on September 1st. Its already jotted down in my calendar.

Review: Breakfast At Tiffany's

Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote

About: With her tousled blond hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, Holly Golightly is top notch in style and a sensation wherever she goes. Her brownstone apartment vibrates with martini-soaked parties as she plays hostess to millionaires and gangsters alike. Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate goal - to find a real life place like Tiffany's that makes her feel at home. (from amazon.com)

Review: For some reason this 100 page story took me forever to read. Not that it was a bad book, or hard to read, I just felt like I never had time or was always reading something else. So it has sat in my purse for about three weeks now and finally I have finished it. When I first began reading this book I immediately imagined Holly Golightly as Audrey Hepburn, but about 25 pages in Holly took on a completely new image for me. She was just simply Holly Golightly, crazy, non-emotional, talkative, 'fake', beautiful, Holly Golightly. I absolutly loved her character, I loved the way everyone seemed to be inlove with her because of her charm, small frame and how she was always flawlessly beautiful even when she threw clothing on. The movie is actually very close to the book, except at the end I was waiting for the scene where she runs from the car in the pouring rain in her beige trench coat screaming "Cat, cat, where are you cat!" and Paul 'Fred' Varjak runs out and they kiss and find the cat and are happy. Yet in the book, she doesn't find the cat and 'Fred' doesn't ever kiss her even though he loves her. I like how Holly is just always herself throughout the book, she doesn't really change, she does eventually realize that Cat did belong to her and that she will never know how much she loves something until she throws it away. I really like the way Capote writes and how the story was all from the nameless Narrator's voice. I liked the part when Mag moved in and I simply did not like her, I like when Holly and 'Fred' go horseback riding in central park, when they steal masks from the store, when Holly plays her guitar (I kept thinking of 'Moon River' in my head), or the wild parties Holly has, how she bought fred the ugly bird cage, the way Holly talks...I just all around enjoyed this book. It was a fun quick read. Deffinitally one to buy.

Review: The Dead & The Gone

The Dead & The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
About: An asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, and every conceivable natural disaster occurs. Seventeen-year-old Alex Morales's parents are missing and presumed drowned by tsunamis. Left alone, he struggles to care for his sisters Bri, 14, and Julie, 12. Things look up as Central Park is turned into farmland and food begins to grow. Then worldwide volcanic eruptions coat the sky with ash and the land freezes permanently. People starve, freeze, or die of the flu. Only the poor are left in New York—a doomed island—while the rich light out for safe towns inland and south. (from amazon.com)

Review: When I first started reading this book I though it was a sequel to Life As We Knew It, but it wasn't. I have to honestly say I was a bit disappointed. I loved Pfeffer's characters in her first book. The Dead & The Gone is actually about a Puerto Rican boy named Alex Morales and his family in New York and how the asteroid hitting the moon effected them. In the beginning the events were similar to that in the first book, so I had a hard time really getting into it because I couldn't love this new character as much as Miranda and her family. Finally, only a couple chapters in, I started to love Alex and his sisters Bri and Julie and I felt so much for them. I don't know how Pfeffer does it but she pulls me in and I feel like I need to take care of this family and want nothing more than them to survive. The Morales are a very faithful family, devote Catholice, they always went to mass, and even attend Catholic schools, I like the way it was in the book, not too prominent. You could tell their family really depended on their prayers and faith. It made me sad sometime how Alex got so mad at his littlest sister Julie. She wasn't ever a pain or a brat to me, but I guess to Alex she was. He obviously loved his sister Bri a bit more and you could tell through what he thought and how he handled things differently with his different sisters. It was interesting seeing them survive in New York City compared to just observing Miranda (from the first book) mainly just in her house. Alex and his friend Kevin ended up having to go all over the city to 'body shopping', taking things from dead bodies such as shoes, watches, wallets, anything they could trade and barter for food. They went to school almost everyday, stood in food lines for their weekly food, traveled to downtown NYC and even to Yankee Stadium. It was interesting to see another family endure and survive in Pfeffer's world where the moon has ruined almost everything. I read about the third book in the series This World We Live In where Miranda and Ales actually end up meeting. I'm very excited to read this next book as soon as possible.

New! Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

About: Sixteen-year-old Evie's job is bagging and tagging paranormals. Possessing the strange ability to see through their glamours, she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. But when someone--or something--starts taking out the vamps, werewolves, and other odd beasties she's worked hard to help become productive members of society, she's got to figure it out before they all disappear and the world becomes utterly normal. (from goodreads.com)

The cover was the first thing that caught my attention. True, I'm not usually a vampire/werewolf book person (I think Twilight ruined all the new teen books), but this one actually sounds pretty interesting. The reviews on amazon.com are all positive. I hope I'll get to read it soon, once the library's copy is in. Release date is August 31, 2010.

Review: Neil Gaiman

I know Neil Gaiman has been around for awhile, but I've recently read a few of his more famous books. Here are a few that I especially liked. Also I've read InterWorld & Neverwhere, but it was a while ago and would hate to review them when they aren't fresh on my mind.

The Graveyard Book

About: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead.
There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath a hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.
But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod's family...

Review: I enjoy Neil Gaiman's books so much. He really pulls you into the story and his descriptions are just amazing. When I first began reading this book I immediately couldn't put it down. I love that he mad so much happen in just the graveyard. There were secrets, each ghost has its own personality and stories to tell. All the characters are so unique as well. I especially liked Elizabeth 'Liza' Hepstock, the local witch ghost who helps Bod out of trouble and becomes his friend. Of course I loved the characters Bod and his guardian Silas. They had a very unique relationship. Silas obviously cared about Bod but never truly showed any emotion towards him. I also like how Bod is so independent, making his own decisions to go to school, and he's very brave for being (I believe) only 14. The whole book is just one fun adventure, intense, lovable book. (front flap)

Coraline
About: The day after they moved in Coraline went exploring...In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own. Only it's different...At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only rescue. She will have to fight with all her whits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself. (front flap)

Review: I actually saw this movie before I read the book. I really enjoyed being able to imagine all the characters from the movie as I read, it made it fun. The book and film are very similar in their plots and time line events. Although the movie added a few characters such as Wybee and the whole thing about his grandmother's doll, it didn't ruin the book for me. Some of the things that happen in the book they did leave out in the movie, but again that's understandable for books into movies. I really enjoyed this book, it was fun, interesting and oh my, Neil Gaiman's writing is just amazing. He really keeps his narrative leaving you a bit terrified...for example when he writes "Her other mother's hand scuttled off Coraline's shoulder like a frightened spider". I am swept away by the way he describes things. I have to admit, I did get a little confused at times by the way he wrote things, so it was easy to have seen the movie to help imagine. I like the character Coraline, she's a little bratty and liked getting her own way, but yet she is brave and very smart. She stands up to the other mother, who even scared me at times. I highly recommend reading the book before seeing the movie, because they just add to one another, each one is well written and well thought out.

Stardust

About: Tristan Thorn promised to bring back a fallen star. So he sets out on a journey to fulfill the request of his beloved, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Foster-and stumbles unto the enchanted realm that lies beyond the wall of his English country town. Rich with adventure and magic, Stardust is one of the master storyteller Neil Gaiman's most beloved tales. (front flap)

Review: I wish I would have read this book before I saw the movie. I liked the movie a lot and was expecting characters and events that were in the movie, but were not in the book. While i read this book I kept waiting and anticipating moments to happen like they did in the film but I was just left feeling like it would happen later on but never did. Such as Robert De Niro's character in the film, Captain Shakespeare, I kept expecting him to act like he did in the movie bu he wasn't anything like how they portrayed him. It didn't feel like a let down in the book, it just felt like if I had read the book first, the movie would have been even better. Surprisingly the movie is just base on the book, there are so many differences between the two. The book follows a different story line completely, while the movie just picked up bits and pieces from the book that were good. I did have a hard time reading it because of this. Although I do enjoy both the book and the movie, separately. I still think this isn't one of my favourite books by Neil Gaiman. I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters as much, I wanted more of a love story between Tristan and Yvain, but Yvaine was always very rude. It wasn't until the very end that they fell in love. But I do recommend reading this if you have yet to see the movie.

Need To Read

I feel like I've been reading a lot lately, and I love that. Here are the books I am currently reading and need to read...

-Bonechiller by Graham McNamee (from the library)
-Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (I'm about half way through this one, and its so good)
-Peter and the Secret of Rundoon by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson (A $3 find)
-The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda (This one seems interesting, bought by my boyfriend for me from amazon)
-American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Borrowed from the boyfriend)
-The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (The second book after Life As We Knew It)

New! The Replacement

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

About: Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.
Edward Scissorhands meets The Catcher in the Rye in this wildly imaginative and frighteningly beautiful horror novel about an unusual boy and his search for a place to belong.


After looking at Amazon.com's New Releases, and passing the enormous amount of vampire/werewolf books, I stumbled upon this one. Its been a while since I've read more of a fantasy book but it sounded very interesting. Definitely one I would just borrow from the Library, nothing I would buy.