Stacking The Shelves #3

I bought two YA books from Fully Booked this week. First, I bought Will Grayson, Will Grayson last Thursday and swore that was all I was getting this week. Then I was out yesterday and passed by Fully Booked and... bought Paper Towns. Because it was on sale. So much for that idea.

What's Next? #2

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it. 

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it.

Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.

Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.

So these are just some more books which are on the back burner. They're all young adult books. I'm leaning towards The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, but that might also be because it just seems too endearing -- and I love those types of novels.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros #1

On the Count of Three by Maureen Johnson

The host stood at his podium under the pink-and-yellow neon arch and surveyed the three girls who had just come through the door. Avery Dekker stepped forward and gave him a huge smile. 

"Bermudez," she said. "Two o'clock birthday party."

He looked Avery over, taking in her fishing hat and her For Good Luck, Rub My Belly T-shirt. His eyes passed to the two girls standing behind her. First they settled on the petite, pale redhead in a denim skirt and a pink tank top. Then the fell on the tall, cocoa-colored girl in a red summer dress and matching flip-flops. This girl looked around in bafflement.

I actually finished this book the other day but I'm currently 'in-between books' and decided to use On The Count Of Three for this meme. :) Nice book, I enjoyed it a lot.

Review: Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski

Review: Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski

Genres: Young adult, romance, contemporary, chick lit, realistic fiction

Summary: 2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house - parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn't have. If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn't jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe "opportunity" isn't the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: "Lied to Our Parents"). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up "Skipping School" (#3), "Throwing a Crazy Party" (#8), "Buying a Hot Tub" (#4), and, um, "Harboring a Fugitive" (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.

This is your average chic lit, young adult (more specifically, teen) book. I found it funny though the plot was not anything extraordinary. What stood out best in the book were the characters... they all seemed very real. Each of them had their own issues and personalities (yay!).

At first, I found it confusing that the author kept going from the present and then showing snippets of the past. It was a lot of back and forth, and it was also quite difficult to remember who's who, because suddenly there's just this myriad of characters in your face. But once that passes, you get into it, and you actually start rooting for someone. What I found nice about it is that I could actually empathize with the characters, though there came a time when it got tiring that all the protagonist did was be depressed and selfish and punishing. And also, oblivious. I do feel for her because it's true that she was going through some tough stuff, but for a reader, it became redundant to read the same musings again and again.

Anyway, I recommend this to people who like slice-of-life books with impressive characters who don't mind a plot that doesn't go that deep.

Rating: 3/5

DIY: Corner Bookmarks... An Attempt

I attempted to make a corner bookmark. It's not perfect but it will do for now. I got the template from here... and then covered the edges with washi tape because it is so hard to cut straight! Planning to make some more for practice and hopefully get better at it.

Stacking The Shelves #2

I only got one new book this week... and like the books from last week, it's brand new. I promise to only get secondhand books following this week. I promise... or I'll try my best. Or I'll start using my kindle again. Because, well, I really have to start saving up.

On the Count of Three by Maureen Johnson - I have been wanting to buy a Maureen Johnson book ever since I was introduced to her writing in Let It Snow. I went on a whim and bought this one (also known as the Bermudez triangle). It's about three very good friends. One of them, Nina, leaves town for the summer and comes back to the fact that her two friends have hooked up.

What's Next? #1

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.

Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan

A poignant and unforgettable tale of love, loss, and moving on . . . with the help of one not-so-little dog

Rocky's husband Bob was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job, chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts—reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow.

But then she meets Lloyd.

A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy does exist in unexpected places.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart - and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed - a dark subculture flourishing in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city - a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known...

Not really sure what I want to read next, though I was kind of hoping for a light read this time around. Unfortunately all the books I have here are thick, with Lost & Found being the shortest (but it's the first in a series, and I don't have the other books!)