Do you judge a book by it’s cover? We all know I do. I wanted to share this site I came across with you. If you’re a cover-lover like me, I think you’ll enjoy it.
The selections it gave me when I picked "randomize"
On The Book Cover Archive you can browse book covers to your heart’s content. You can search by designer, title, publisher, etc, or if you’re feeling lucky, you can pick a random one. Enjoy!
Posted in books
There are so many fabulous books that are scheduled for release in 2011 that it is nearly impossible for me to pick my most anticipated. So, I won’t. (I almost titled this “Most Anticipated of 2011, but realized it would take me the entire year to sort, pick, and rank them. I’m too indecisive.) Instead, I’ll list some of the ones I’m really looking forward to. This will be a post in pictures. For more info on each book, click on it for the Goodreads page.
Oh, and these are in no order, other than the order I found them on Goodreads.
Supernaturally by Kiersten White (no official cover yet)
Okay, that’s enough for now. Which are you looking forward to? What did I forget?
Posted in 2011 Reads, books
I love lists. I love books. Book lists make me swoon.
I came across Time magazine’s top 100 books from 1923-present day. It was interesting to see what they classified as a “good book.” I’d never heard of quite a few and really haven’t read very many. It was a little embarrassing how few I’d read, actually.
The ones that I’ve read, I’d put in bold. How many have you made it through?
(For the complete list with clickable reviews, please go HERE.)
Posted in books
Most of you have probably already heard of Contrariwise. If you haven’t get there, like yesterday! I’m a big fan of tattoos, as evidenced by the fact that I have 3. None of mine are literary, but it isn’t because I don’t love ‘em. I just can’t commit to only ONE book-related tattoo. I thought I’d showcase some of my faves and some that make me gasp (not in that good, swoon-worthy way, either).
(Disclaimer: None of these images are my property. All belong to their respective owners and were found on Contrariwise.org. Please click on the photos for the links to the original sites. Also, the fact that some are labeled “bad” and “ugly” tattoos is only reflective of my own opinion. Please don’t take offense. Thank you, Contrariwise!)
This is from Willy Wonka. I love that flash back to childhood. Plus the homage to Roald Dahl? Yes!
“I shall not live in vain.” Simply beautiful. Check out the texture, too!
“Mischief Managed” Come on, you’re killing me! This is by far, my favorite. Harry Potter, white ink, and a great location? Stunning.
Another nice Harry Potter-related tat. Noticing a trend with my choices?
I didn’t want to make 2 separate categories for this, so deal with it.
In my opinion Alice in Wonderland is so overdone and hyped right now. Plus, the cat is just plain scary. No thanks.
Just not my style. I don’t care for the shading, the quote, or the way the text is arranged. This was actually listed under the highly rated ones. Hmm.
I love WTWTA, but I don’t care for this at all.
The story behind this one is neat, but to me it still just looks like a badly drawn birdcage. Ick.
Here’s one for you grammar nazi-types. Your vs. You’re. Wow. It’s sad, because this really could’ve been a nice tattoo.
Yikes.
I could go on and on, but I don’t want to recreate their site here. You’ll have to go browse for yourself. Warning though: give yourself a few hours. You’ll need it.
Thanks again to the lovely people at Contrariwise. Your site is delicious.
From Goodreads: Grace Divine—daughter of the local pastor—always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.
Now that Daniel’s returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.
As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes most: her soul.
(Scroll to bottom for the book trailer)
My thoughts: As soon as I saw this book in stores, I wanted to read it. I was waiting to get it from the library though, because I’d heard mixed reviews. My library never did get it though, so I waited until I had a gift card. Yay gift cards!
There were so many things about this book I liked, but a couple that troubled me as well. I think I’ll make a list. I like lists.
The good:
1) The cover. Wow! That purple is so eye-catching! I was pulled in by the cover, like I am with so many of the fabulous YA covers out there today. It tells so much, but is really mysterious at the same time. I love that.
2) Grace is a preacher’s daughter, but she’s not preachy. One of my very best friends growing up was a preacher’s kid. I hate how in lots of novels and tv shows, the kids are portrayed as these little angels who do no wrong. Umm…have you ever MET a preacher’s kid? Grace was just an average girl. She wasn’t overly rebellious, but she did struggle with the religion part of her life.
3) Daniel. He was hot. I know that is so expected, but come on. Artistic, leather wearing bad boy? Yes please. (Okay, I’m not sure it said he wore leather, but in my mind he did.)
4) It kept me intrigued and I really want to know more about the future of the characters.
The not-great:
1) Her brother Jude was a tool. I know I should have liked him, but I just didn’t. I won’t go into more, because I don’t want to spoil it. We can put her best friend on this list, too, while we’re at it.
2) The character development was slightly lacking. This may just be a personal thing, but I love character-driven novels. I liked Despain’s characters and think she did a great job of visualizing them. I wanted to know more about some of them though. Kudos for creating believable characters in a fantasy world, though!
3) Some of the fantasy aspects of this novel were too easy to guess. The big “secret” really isn’t much of a secret if you’ve read any other book like this. I guess it wasn’t a big problem for me though, because I keep reading them. I cna see how it would get old for some people, though.
4) When Grace is looking at some of her father’s research, she is reading a text from a monastery. Despain included excerpts of it in the book. I love that, but I have one problem: the font was REALLY hard to read. I know it was supposed to look ancient and whatnot, but if I can’t read it, it’s really useless to me. This is more of a printing preference than a writing one, but still.
Okay, I’m sure there’s more, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I’ve probably lost most of you by now. If you stuck with me through this whole thing, congrats to you!
Disclaimer: I did not create this book trailer. I wish I did though, because it and the actors/actresses are gorgeous. Good job to whoever created it!*You can read the first chapter of this on Despain’s website. Get there by clicking on her name next to the book at the top.
Posted in 2011 Reads, books, Bree Despain, Young Adult
I’ve been on my local Freecycle.org board for a while and I’ve traded quite a few things on there. If you haven’t joined your local chapter, you should look into it. It’s a fabulous way to save money and help the environment by keeping things out of landfills.
The other day, a woman posted that she had a box of (mostly) children’s books to give away. I hopped right on that and sent her a message. I picked them up after work last Friday and was pleasantly surprised to find some great titles in there:
There are several titles I’ll use for my classroom (Like Sarah, Plain and Tall and Goosebumps) and a few that I’ll pass on to the younger kiddos. There were several books in the box that weren’t at all school appropriate, so I have a Walmart sack filled with books that I’ll be donating to my library for the Friends of the Library sale.
For just the cost of gas across town, I got a few great books and am able to donate as well. Good deal, no?
Posted in books, free stuff
From Goodreads: In Caitlin’s world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That’s the stuff Caitlin’s older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon’s dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger’s, she doesn’t know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white—the world is full of colors—messy and beautiful.
Oh goodness. When Jess reviewed this book back in June, I knew I HAD to read it. To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book, and I’m terribly interested in the whole Autism spectrum. As an educator, I deal with special needs children on a regular basis. Students with Autism are so unique, not only to “normal” students, but to one another, too. This book dealt with two very difficult issues (autism and a school shooting), and Erskine did it wonderfully. The writing was beautiful and I found myself flying through this. I highly recommend it.
Posted in 2011 Reads, books, Kathryn Erskine, Middle Grade
From Goodreads.com: Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?
Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.
Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.
Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first audio book in The Heroes of Olympus series.
Ok, first of all… I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to. Rick Riordan is freaking making bank on these novels. Kids eat them up like candy. He completely deserves it though. I love that he is making Greek mythology fun again and popular in mainstream MG culture. I remember learning about Greek mythology in 5th grade. My teacher just happened to be amazing and made it so interesting for us. He’s doing that for students now. My class is actually begging me to bring in non-fiction reference books about the gods. Wow!
The Lost Hero is a companion series to Percy Jackson. It will work on it’s own, but it is much better and easier to understand if you’ve already read the PJ series. It has some of the same characters, though the main focus is on a different group of demigod heroes. The three main characters, Jason, Piper, and Leo were completely lovable, but realistically flawed at the same time. They are three seemingly average kids who get thrown into a pretty unbelievable situation. Another thing I love that Riordan does, is he creates main characters who aren’t perfect, even after their transformations into demigod. He doesn’t take a middle class kid who makes straight As and transforms him. He uses the “troublemakers” of society. I think for that reason, students who wouldn’t normally be interested in reading this gigantic book (the hardcover is over 550 pages) are so captivated by the storyline that they can’t put it down.
Admittedly and embarrassingly, this book took me 2 weeks to read. I picked it up right in a super-hectic time (hello first week of grad school!). It really isn’t a difficult or dragging read, though, so don’t judge it because of me. If you’re a fan of MG fantasy, or just a fun read, this is a great book.
Click HERE for more info about the Heroes of Olympus series.
Posted in 2011 Reads, books, fantasy, Middle Grade, Rick Riordan
In honor of my day off work today, I thought I’d do an MLK-themed post. (No, I am not African American, but I still highly respect Dr. King and I think he was an amazing man with amazing hopes and dreams. Therefore, I will be celebrating along with everyone else.)
First, I want to share this video with you. I’m sure most of you have seen it, but I love to break it out this time of year. It’s so beautifully done. If you haven’t seen it, I’m happy to expose you to it for the first time. Well done, John Legend.
To make this book related, I’m going to feature the 2011 winners of the Coretta Scott King award. You can click on the book’s name and it will take you to it’s Goodreads page.
Author Award Winner
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Illustrator Award Winner
Dave the Potter by Laban Carrick Hill
Author Honor Books
Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhoades
Yummy by G. Neri
Illustrator Honor Book
Jimi by Gary Golio
Have you read any of these books? I haven’t but they look pretty interesting.
As promised, I’m here to reveal my books, shelf by shelf. I apologize in advance for the less than stellar picture quality. By the time I got the shelf put together and the books arranged, I was tired and it was late. Here goes…
The top shelf holds my cookbooks. There aren’t many of those, and I usually don’t buy them new (except for the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook, of course. The 2nd shelf holds my favorite YA/MG series. I sort of hate it that some of them are pb and some are hb, but maybe I can remedy that someday.
The 3rd shelf holds my hardback YA & MG titles.
This shelf holds my adult hardbacks that are not special/unusual.
The bottom shelf of the tall book case holds text books we deemed worthy of keeping, as well as some HB nonfiction and a few bibles from our childhood. The 2 books on the far right are hb children’s picture books that are signed by the author. My mom happens to know her and got me 2 personalized copies. Yay!
On to the small book case…
On top of the book case we have a wedding picture (aww…) and my library books. I like to keep them there so they don’t get lost and/or mixed up with the other books. The first shelf has my Sookie Stackhouse novels and my paperback YA/MG titles.
The middle shelf holds most of my Mass Market adult paperbacks. I got most of these from my mom or from thrift stores.
Last but not least… the bottom shelf (which looks really dusty here, but actually isn’t) holds my adult paperbacks. It also holds my current class books (yay, cataloguing!) and the spirals that contain notes for my WIP.
Well there it is folks. If you stayed with me through the entire shelf tour, congrats. I’d love to see your shelves. Link me to any interesting book shelf posts you may have, please. 
Posted in 2011 Reads, books
