Lots to Catch up On

I promised myself today while we were in the library that I would a) update this blog & b) get some book trailers ready for sometime next week.  I haven't been very good about either lately, have I?  I also wanted to post a link to the blog that Mrs. Gehrt shared today while we were in the library.  It's called Sparkles and Lightning and I just spent a little bit of time exploring this incredibly extensive Young Adult book blog.  It's awesome!  I encourage you to check it out.

I've really been catching up on #2's & #3's in series, so I haven't had  a lot to share, but over the last couple of weeks, I've ready some new books that I can recommend.

Let's start with 13 Little Blue Envelopes, by Maureen Johnson.  This was a fun story about Ginny, who receives a box from her favorite aunt one year after her aunt's death from brain cancer.  In the box are 13 blue envelopes that take Ginny on a road trip across Europe over the summer.  Each envelope gives Ginny a destination and an assignment, and once she completes each assignment, she can open the next envelope. Ginny hopes to connect with the aunt she lost, but ends up learning a lot about herself along the way.  Maureen Johnson is also the author of the Shades of London series, which includes The Name of the Star, one of our Truman nominees for this year.  This book is very different, but still very good!

Last spring I read a book called The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater and I recently read the 2nd book in The Raven Cycle series, called The Dream Thieves and realized I hadn't ever blogged about the series.  In The Raven Boys, we meet Blue Sargent, who lives in a house with her psychic mother and aunts and various other relatives.  On St. Mark's Eve, Blue is at a graveyard with her mother waiting for the spirits of the soon-to-be-dead to walk by.  Blue encounters a spirit named Gansey, and her because she herself has no psychic powers is told that she saw this spirit because she is either his true love...or she killed him.  Blue later on
actually meets Gansey and his friends from the exclusive Aglionby School in her town.  She befriends the group and helps them in Gansey's quest to find a mythical king named Glendower.  This is a real paranormal/fantastical type of story and I really enjoyed it.  In the 2nd book, The Dream Thieves, Ronan (one of Gansey's friends) has revealed that he can bring items out of his dreams...and the quest for Glendower continues.  It's a very interesting & different series, but I enjoyed both books.

Over the weekend, I read Shipbreaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi, which I have been meaning to read for forever.  I'm glad I finally got to it, because it was really good.  It was an action-packed adventure that takes place in the future along the coast of what once was Louisiana.  We meet Nailer, who works "light crew" for companies that tear apart old oil tankers and cargo ships.  Part of Nailer's work is to crawl through dark ducts in search of copper wire to retrieve, so it can be recycled.  It's horrible and extremely demanding and on top of that, his dad is a drug addict who is both verbally and physically abusive.  All shipbreakers hope that one day they'll have a "Lucky Strike" and discover a pocket of oil or some good scavenge that will allow them to be on their own.  After a destructive hurricane, Nailer and his crew boss/friend, Pima, discover a wrecked clipper full of riches that they hope to scavenge, until they discover that one passenger, the owner of the clipper and also the heir to a huge company, Nita survived.  When Nailer's dad finds the wreckage, he lays claim to the scavenge and is determined to "sell" Nita back to her family.  Nailer has to decide whether to work with his father or with Nita.  This was a terrifically exciting story and I loved every minute of it!

And finally, a mushy girly novel for you.  Yesterday, I read Belles, by Jen Calonita.  Last year I praised Ms. Calonita's Secrets of My Hollywood Life series & her new Belles series did not disappoint.  In Belles, we meet Isabelle  ("Izzy") - and Mirabelle ("Mira"), who are from 2 totally different worlds, but get thrown together unexpectedly.  Izzy's mom died 5 years ago in a car accident and her grandma is now in bad shape due to Alzheimer's, so it's no surprise when Izzy's social worker tells her that her grandma can no longer be her caretaker.  However, it is a surprise when her social worker reveals that Izzy won't be going into a foster system, but that her grandma located a long-lost uncle, who has agreed to take Izzy into his family.  Izzy's uncle is a former major-league baseball player, who is now a North Carolina state senator and who is looking to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.  And, he is LOADED.  Mira is his daughter, along with his other 2 children, Hayden and Connor.  Mira and Izzy are the same age, but struggle to see eye-to-eye since they come from two very different lives.  I absolutely loved this book, but I'm a sucker for some good chick lit!

So, there you have it.  Now, I'll get to work on some book trailers for next week!