What are YOU reading?

I've been reading some good sequels recently, so I'll give each of them a quick shout-out.

If you haven't read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, you're missing out.  The second installment of this series, Hollow City, was released recently and I just had a chance to check it out.  Hollow City starts out right where Miss Peregrine left off with Jacob and the Peculiar Children running from the Hollowgasts and Wights after rescuing and injured Miss Peregrine.  Now they need to find a way to save her.  I'm sure there will be a third book to come in this series.  I'm already looking forward to it!

Recently, I recommended Pivot Point, by Kasie West about Addison, who can search her future.  I picked up Split Second, the 2nd and final book in this series, and couldn't put it down.  I think I read this one in one day over spring break - it was so good!  It picks up right where Pivot Point left off and takes on the additional point of view of Addison's best friend Laila, who wants to help Addison, but doesn't know how.  Split Second was every bit as good as Pivot Point.

Last year I recommended Slated, by Teri Terry about Kyla, whose memory was erased.  She was "slated", because of some offense that she committed, but she doesn't know what.  Despite her memory being wiped, she somehow keeps having what she believes are memories.  In book #2, Fractured, Kyla is reunited with someone from her former life and she works to try to put the pieces together to figure out the truth about her life.  The 3rd book in the series, Shattered, was released on March 6th, but I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet.  You can bet it is on my to-read list!

If you're interested in a new series, you might like Landry Park, by Bethany Hagen.  Hagen is actually a local author and librarian in Johnson County, Kansas and her story takes place in Kansas City.  If you read much, you know we don't get too many stories that are set here in good old KC, so that made this story extra interesting to me.  I saw this book described as "Downton Abbey meets The Selection" and I definitely see those connections.  Landry Park takes place in a future that doesn't seem like a future at all.  Things have changed so much, in some ways, society is like the early 1900's.  After China invades, the US is split with the Western half being taken over by Chinese and the Eastern half restarting society basically by caste system.  There are the very rich and the very poor and very little in between.  The homes of the very rich are run by nuclear power and the very poor are responsible for taking care of the nuclear tools that run their homes, causing many of them to die young because of radiation sickness.  Madeline Landry is the heir to her family's fortune and is feeling forced into a life she doesn't want.  Her father expects her to marry when she wants to continue her education.  Madeline also begins to see the plight of the very poor and starts to realize that she can't just stand by and let things continue in the ways they always have.  This book has a very interesting plot - it's a little different from other things that are out there.  If you like your futuristic fiction to also be historical, this one might be for you!  I am looking forward to the next installment due out sometime in 2015.

Finally, I'll leave you with (another) favorite I read recently.  This book is actually not due to be published until May 7, but if it sounds interesting, you might make a note of it for summer reading.  A Bird on Water Street, by Elizabeth O. Dulemba, is about a boy named Jack, who is growing up in a mining town in the Appalachian Mountains.  Jack is frustrated by the state of the environment where he lives, which has been devastated by the local mine.  There aren't any trees around, the water is too poisoned for fishing in some areas, and he wants to experience nature that is just not there in his town.  But, when there is trouble at the mine, Jack begins to have hope that maybe things can change and maybe he can be a part of it.  This story is based on a real area in the Appalachians that has been affected by mining.  It is a heartwarming and inspiring story that left me feeling good after I read it.