It is no secret that I love Lauren Oliver’s writing.  Her first book, Before I Fall, was amazing.  I loved the concept of a teen girl looking back at her life and changing herself to become a better person.  The characterization and the plotting were so well done. Her newest book, Delirium, is an epic love story set amongst a time where love is forbidden and outlawed.  I received a copy from the publisher via Net Galley.  My review is forthcoming.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when I found that Lauren Oliver would be visiting the central Ohio independent bookstore, Cover to Cover.  This awesome children and teen’s bookstore (which receives a lot of my money!) is located in Clintonville.  I love their great selection and their attention to helping customers find the right book. (plus the 10 percent educator discount)   Lauren Oliver is visiting this bookstore on February 7th at 7 pm!  Yay!  Jenny of Supernatural Snark and I are planning on attending. 

Do you live in central Ohio (or want to make the drive?)  We would love to meet up with you and meet Lauren Oliver all together!  E-mail me or Jenny if you are interested in meeting up!  We hope to see you on February 7th and meet some fellow bloggers. (or fellow book lovers)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event held by Breaking the Spine.  This event features books that we can’t wait to be released.

This week I am waiting on…

Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

From Goodreads: It’s hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it’s not her mother’s pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin.

When they’re united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town’s animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their badlands town.

Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin’s unique beauty hides a girl who’s troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

My thoughts:  A book about friendship and self-discovery?  Set in the badlands of Wyoming?  This book sounds pretty much perfect.  The cover is gorgeous as well – I love the simplicity of the pink and green type and the half face of the girl.  So intriguing.  Finally, if all of this was not enough to convince you…this book was blurbed by Melina Marchetta.  THE Melina Marchetta.  If it’s good enough for Melina, then it’s good enough for me.

What are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Last summer, our English bulldog, Oliver, participated in a photo shoot for a new easy-reader called Rupert Likes to Play.  Essentially, the book is about a dog named Rupert who likes to play with different things like shoes, a rope and a red ring.  Most of all, though, he likes to play with his friend Oliver!

Oliver is featured in several of the photographs which is very exciting!  He is such a dog model.    Rupert is actually our friends Bill and Cate’s dog; the author is Cate’s mom!

I just thought that it would be fun to share this book on a snowy and cold Sunday.  If you are a parent or teacher of preschool/kindergarten students and want to order this book, check out the Hameray Publishing Group website.

Alternative title: Why I am Furious with (some) Book Publishers

For my birthday back in November, I received a Barnes and Noble nook from my husband.  I had always been a lover of books – the smell of them, the feel of the pages in my hands, the weight of them, the covers.  Simply put, I love books, and I love to read.  However, after one too many vacations in which half of the weight of my suitcase was due to books, I knew something had to give.  Enter technology.  I went over to the dark side and got an e-reader.  There is lots that I love about my nook – the immediacy of downloading novels, the compactness of it, the fun covers, the ability to take an entire library of books with me wherever I go.  However, one feature that I especially loved was the lending feature.  I realized that not all books were lend-able.  One look, though, at the books that were like Anna and the French Kiss and Matched, I was sold.

Here’s the thing.  One of the things that I love, LOVE about reading is talking about books with other people.  I have a book blog for goodness sake.  I am a READING TEACHER.  I talk about books ALL DAY!  And when I talk about books, I like to get people excited about them, so much so that they want to read the books we are talking about.  Then, I loan them my copy, and I am happy.

Well, before Christmas I talked up Matched by Ally Condie the other day with my junior high writing group.  Some of the students had just read The Giver, and I suggested it as an awesome companion novel.  After Christmas, I had a student excitedly return from break telling me about her new nook.  She asked if I could loan her Matched.  I was happy to do so!

However, when I attempted to loan it to her, I got an error message.  Odd.  On my nook it said it was lend-able.  Then, I tried again.  Still, I got an error message so I did some digging; to say that I was not happy with what I found out would be a gross understatement.  I discovered that many major publishers are no longer allowing their books to be loaned – even when at one time they were loan-able. Let’s take a quick look at the list of books I have purchased thinking that they were able to be loaned that are no longer loan-able:  Matched, Anna and the French Kiss and The Jumbee.

This may not seem like a big deal to you – however, when I purchased these books, I was under the impression that I was going to be able to share them with my friends.  To take this away, without even so much as an announcement from any party, is wrong.

I understand that people need to make money, believe me.  And I help those publishers make that money – I have over 1,250 books in my classroom library, all purchased by me.   I have my own personal library as well. I support reading; I support books.  I just can’t fathom why certain major publishers would take away the lend-me feature on their books, the ability to share a book with others.  Sharing an e-book is so similar to sharing an actual hardcover or paperback, except that I can loan the same hardcover or paperback out to a lot more people in the time that I can loan one e-book out.  This move just doesn’t make sense to me.

What are your thoughts on this?  Nook users, were you aware of this? I am just really sad that certain publishers have taken away my ability to share books with others.  I won’t stop buying books or loving books; however, it is sure going to make me look at certain companies in a different way.

**Soon, I will be posting my review of the fabulous Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan!  And I promise I will be back to my happy self.**

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Scarlett took a step forward, then another, until she was so close to the monster that the rotting stench emanating from his throat choked her.  The wolf opened his wide, long jaws, rows of teeth and bloodstained tongue stretching for her.  A thought locked itself in Scarlet’s mind, and she repeated it over and over until it became a chant, a prayer:  I am the only one left to fight, so now I must kill you.

Two sisters, forever connected by a horrible incident that has come to define their existence, are at the heart of this fairy-tale inspired novel by Jackson Pearce.  Rosie and Scarlett March both bear the emotional scars gouged in them by the brutal murder of their beloved grandmother, Oma March, by a wild wolf called a Fenris when they were younger.  For Scarlett, the older sister, the scars are physical as well, a searing visual reminder of the wolves that shattered their existence and of the battle in which she saved her sister’s life.

When we meet again with Scarlet and Rosie, they have evolved into fierce hunters, hell-bent on eradicating the world of the Fenris who prey on unsuspecting girls and who killed their grandmother.   They are young women now, a far cry from the naïve little girls of yesterday; however, their bond so firmly formed in childhood is still intact – they feel as if they are each one half of the same heart.  Their days are spent intensely training – target practice, physical exercise, honing knife and hatchet throwing skills – for their nighttime fights.  And as if attempting to eradicate the evil wolf population wasn’t enough, life becomes even more complicated with the return of Silas, the handsome young woodcutter who often acts as Scarlet’s hunting partner.  The stakes climb even higher as Rosie, Scarlett and Silas move to Atlanta from their small town of Ellison to hunt the increasingly active pack.  The pack is searching for a Potential – a young man who can become a wolf with just one bite.  Silas, Rosie and Scarlett must band together to fight the growing evil that not only threatens their small group but the world around them.

Review:  Sisters Red is a beautifully rendered retelling of the classic story Little Red Riding Hood.  When we first meet the March sisters, we are thrust into their world rather suddenly as we experience the murder of Oma and the subsequent attack on young Scarlett.  An overwhelming sense of empathy is formed for these characters as we have undergone such a traumatic event with them first-hand; we are deeply invested with these two girls from the start – the sign of a truly skilled writer.  As Pearce begins to adeptly weave a tale of revenge, redemption and love, we are further drawn in – trapped in a delicious web of story.  Slowly, we learn about the characters.  Sweet, emotional Rosie, so tied to the past and her grandmother’s memory, but longing for a future that is not defined solely by the hunt.  Focused Scarlett who is single-minded in her need to avenge the death of her grandmother, the loss of part of her self, and her innocence.  Scarlett feels that with knowledge comes responsibility, that she and Rosie must protect those who are unknowing simply because they are all too aware of the evil that lurks in the shadows. And then there is the ruggedly handsome Silas who has long been a hunting partner to Scarlett, but who now begins to see grown-up Rosie in a different way.  Silas also longs for a life outside of hunting, a life full of love and adventure.  The characters, especially Silas and Rosie, are dimensional and relate-able.  We feel the inner conflict that they have with the knowledge of the Fenris and a sense of duty battling against a want for companionship, for wholeness.  At times, Scarlett appears to lack that same dimension; however, as an outsider we understand her unyielding and focused drive for revenge.  The wolves took her grandmother, cost her an eye and a normal existence.  It is only natural that Scarlett would want to take something back at any cost.

The plot builds slowly allowing the reader to fully recognize the danger that faces Silas, Rosie and Scarlett.  Packed with action, the fights between the hunters and the oily, foul-smelling Fenris are tightly written – the reader can easily imagine the fights as if they are part of a blockbuster film.  It is clear that Pearce has a firm grasp on descriptive writing.  As much as I enjoyed the fights, I do feel that there were times when they bogged the plot down slightly and marred the overall flow of the novel.  In the midst of the fighting and revenge-seeking, a romantic relationship is blooming in bright contrast to the bleak underbelly of society that we are shown.  As the reader, we are privy to the very beginnings of this relationship: the smiles, hidden glances, the excitement.  We are also privy to the secretive nature of it – how does one begin a relationship with another when you have been so connected to a singular person your whole life?  Even more enjoyable than the relationship is the growth that Rosie experiences throughout the course of the story, and the knowledge and strength that both Rosie and Scarlett exhibit at the end of the novel.

Sisters Red is a strongly written novel that  not only does justice to the original fairy tale but elevates it into something new and edgy.  With strong characters and plot, only marred occasionally by heavy-handed emotions and a few too many fight scenes, this book is an extremely enjoyable read!  If you like your fairy tales darkly told and served up with a side of good, old-fashioned vigilante justice, then pick up Sisters Red today.

Genre:  Fairy Tale/Fantasy

Age Recommendation: 14 and up

Rating:  4/5

Thank you to everyone who entered my Melina Marchetta giveaway.   I was so excited to see that so many people entered.  To choose a winner, I put all entrants with their extra entries into a spread sheet in the order that the entry was received.  Then I used a random number generator to pick the lucky book lover!

Congratulations goes out to, Christina @ Confessions of a Book Addict, who is our winner.  I wish that I had enough Melina Marchetta books to send you each one, and I do hope that you will give her books a try.  Thank you to everyone who entered.

And a la the Price is Right, show her what’s she won….

Well, Christina, you are the new lucky owner of FOUR books by Melina Marchetta, Australian author extraordinaire.  Finnikin of the Rock, Saving Francesca, Looking for Alibrandi, and Jellicoe Road are now yours to read!

And don’t forget to spay or neuter your pets.  Control the pet population!  Congratulations again, Christina!  I hope you enjoy these reads as much as I did.

In other news, Christmas break was a very productive reading time for me!  I finished a total of eight books:  Leaving Paradise, Return to Paradise, Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction, all by Simone Elkeles; The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance, a memoir by Elna Baker; Delirium by Lauren Oliver; The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting and The Cardturner by Louis Sachar.  What books did you read over the holidays?