August summary

This was such a sad month regarding the DNFs! I can't believe I dumped three sooo promising books *sigh* I don't know what was wrong with me this month. I read some awesome books, but these three books sounded right up my alley and then the main characters all just got on my nerves big time! At least, I know I finished some quality literature both with Shakespeare's play and the German book On Borders and a whole bunch of other great books. That is somewhat of a consolation!

added
161) William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
162) William Shakespeare: King Lear
163) William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
164) Samantha Mackintosh: Kisses For Lula
165) Ally Carter: Only The Good Spy Young
166) Sarah Mlynowski: Gimme A Call
167) Katherine Chloé Cahoon: The Single Girl's Guide To Meeting European Men

read
60) Jennifer Echols: Major Crush
61) Florentine Dame & Elizabeth Weydt: An Grenzen (On Borders)
62) Teri Hall: The Line
63) William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
64) Nora Roberts: Vision in White
65) Louise Rennison: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
66) Lisa McMann: Wake
67) Lindsey Kelk: I Heart New York
68) Kristan Higgins: Too Good To Be True
69) Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

DNF
4) Sydney Salter: Swoon At Your Own Risk
5) Lionel Shriver: Double Fault
6) Sydney Salter: My Big Nose And Other Natural Disasters

PFL: Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



Rosebush by Michele Jaffe
December 14, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

See Jane run. See Jane die.

Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit and run.

Everyone thinks it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane's boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface--not just from the party, but from deeper in her past...including the night her best friend Bonnie died.

With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. Along the way, she is forced to examine the consequences of her life choices in this compulsively readable thriller.

With Rosebush I think I will get everything - a YA, a mystery and a thriller - so yes, I'm already certain it will be a future love!

PFL: When The Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



When The Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer
pub date: November 23, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Based on the famed Carmen story, it's a love triangle taking place over a summer against the backdrop of competitive drum & bugle corps.

I absolutely love the Carmen story ever since one of my music teachers introduced us to it in class about 15 years ago - I just need to read this!

PFL: The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
pub date: November 2, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Some schools have honor codes.
Others have handbooks.
Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.

Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way--the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds--a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone--especially yourself--you fight for it.

I am always curious how dynamics in boarding schools are - and a secret society that makes sure bad behavior and crimes are being punished, well, what's not to love about that!? And the fact that they named themselves after one of my all-time favorite books only adds to that feeling!

Book Review: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

For rather obvious reasons, this will not be a review as you usually find them on my blog. What negative aspects could I possibly find in a work of one of the great ones anyway?

Author	William Shakespeare
Title	Twelfth Night (Wordsworth Classics)
Publisher	Wordsworth
Date of Publication	1601/1602 ???
Page Count	128 pages
ISBN	978-1-853-26010-0

Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are shipwrecked and both believe the other to be dead. Viola is saved by an unnamed captain, who helps her masquerade as a man, and subsequently ends up as a page under Orsino, Duke of Illyria. Orsino asks Viola, known to him as Cesario, to help him woo Olivia, a beautiful if cold-hearted countess. Olivia, though, falls in love with the sensitive Cesario (Viola in disguise). The entire play is spread out through five acts and has a comic subplot which takes up a significant part. In this subplot, quite a number of secondary characters conspire to make Malvolio, Olivia's head steward, believe his mistress returns his feelings.

This is one of the few cases in which it is not a book that catched my eye, but a movie adaptation. I have always had and will always have a soft spot for anything Shakespeare, so when I watched She's the Man (Full Screen Edition), I was surprised to find out it was based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I first picked up the movie because I wanted some fun teen flick to relax and just sit back and enjoy it. But oh what little did I realize about it! Now granted, I do not often watch a movie before I read the book because I'm a firm believer in "The book is always better!" (but the movie might still be worth watching). All in all, this was maybe the 5th case of movie before book in my entire life?

First off, it has my all-time favorite guy in there - Channing Tatum! And no, I'm not above and beyond squealing and swooning, when it comes to this guy.

(For more pics of Channing Tatum, click on the pic above - that's the blog from which I got this one.)

While the movie is far from an exact adaptation of the original play by William Shakespeare, it is well worth watching and I managed to watch it 4 times withing 26 hours. There are quite a few not so obvious hints at Twelfth Night and other tuned down, yet hilarious scenes one does not necessarily see the first time around. If you're up for a little funny, yummie movie, you might want to go out and watch this. And no, I'm on purpose not saying anything about Shakespeare's play. I love his works and there's nothing better!

Oh, and for the record, if you're all up for a little eye candy in form of Channing Tatum: he rocks sports outfits, regular clothes, towels & a tux in this one (and I'm somewhat certain I forgot another style)...

PFL: Matched by Ally Condie

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



Matched by Ally Condie
November 30, 2010

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.

Apart from the pretty, pretty cover, the biggest turn on for me was the fact that the main character, Cassia, has to decide whether to stick to society's urge for perfection or to go for her own passion. For those who don't know it (yet), one of my minors at university is comparative religion and I have a soft spot for everything and anything about Judaism. There, especially among the orthodox branches, matchmaking (shidduch) is a very important part of finding The One - and it is all based on family, upbringing, health and religious life (among other things). So I am always curious how matchmaking works in other, even fictional, societies. And then, there's the aspect of a dystopia! Oh my, three big reasons for reading this book!

PFL: Stork by Wendy Delsol

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



Stork by Wendy Delsol
pub date: October 12, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

After her parents' divorce, Katla and her mother move from Los Angeles to Norse Falls, Minnesota, where Kat immediately alienates two boys at her high school and, improbably, discovers a kinship with a mysterious group of elderly women--the Icelandic Stork Society - who "deliver souls."

I don't have an explanation for that one other than the truly stunning cover (I can look at it for hours!) and the fact that something in the summary just speaks to me...

PFL: Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
pub date: October 12, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

What can I say, I need to know how the story continues!

PFL: The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block
pub date: September 28, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

When she was thirteen, something terrifying and mysterious happened to Liv that she still does not understand, and now, four years later, her dark secret threatens to tear her apart from her family and her true love.

From this very short summary, I'm already intrigued and very curious. What is Liv's secret? What happened when she was thirteen? And how will it all pan out for her? I can't wait to find out!

Book Review: Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Author	Dia Reeves
Title	Bleeding Violet
Publisher	Simon Pulse
Date of Publication	January 5, 2010
Page Count	454 pages
ISBN	978-1-4169-8618-8

Hannah is not your regular teenager. She is plagued by hallucinations, has a whole medicine cabinet full of pills and fills her closet with frilly, self-sewn dresses in violet - all of them! In search of love, Hannah runs away to Portero, Texas, to find a new home there - with her mother. Portero, however, turns out to be about as regular a town as Hannah is a regular girl. Soon, she discovers dark secrets and meets very mysterious people. As the cover flap text says - Anything can happen and no one is safe.

I have to admit, I saw the cover and just had to get it. The various darker shades of violet are absolutely georgous, and the girl on the cover seems to be mysterious, not stick figure thin, but beautiful. And then, there's the added effect of a POC actually displayed on the cover. And yes, even I, a white girl (think Snow White with reddish-brown-dark blonde hair) takes issue with incorrect portrayal of main characters on the cover!

But in the end, my absolute love for this book does not only have to do with the cover. Dia Reeves created characters that are absolutely amazing! They're not perfect the way some authors in the past have portrayed their characters, because I strongly believe that no one ever is perfect and that it is actually our quirks that make us likeable. With Hannah, her mother Rosalee, her friend Wyatt and all the others have flaws that are addressed head on.

What intrigued me even more was the fact that Hannah's mental illness, shown from her own point of view. Mental illnesses are often subdued or toned down in books unless they're specifially intended to teach about one such illness. Reeves instead showed how Hannah suffered from it and how she tried to cope with both her mental illness as well as the ways adults around her tried to deal with it.

I absolutely loved Dia Reeves' debut novel with its paranormal aspects and everything. I hope for a seque as I would love to revisit Hannah's world and I would like to find out more about the mysterious world of Portero. And of course, I also would love to find out how the relationship between Hannah and Wyatt develops in the future.

Addendum:
So far I know there will be another book by Dia Reeves which will be published in January 2011. Its title is Slice of Cherry, and I'm so excited, I already pre-ordered it!

PFL: Crave by Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



Crave by Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz
pub date: September 21, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Shay has had a rare blood disorder since she was born. In fact, her mother married one of Shay’s doctors, Martin, who left his world-renowned leukemia research to try and figure out exactly what the disorder is and how to cure it. When she turns seventeen, Martin begins to give her new blood transfusions that make her feel the strongest she has ever felt. But she also has odd visions where she sees through the eyes of a vampire. At first, she thinks she must be imagining the visions, but when she begins to see Martin’s office in them, she knows she has to check it out. That’s when she finds Gabriel, a sexy, teenaged vampire, imprisoned in Martin’s office. The connection she has built with Gabriel compels her to set him free. But when he kidnaps her in an attempt at revenge on Martin, their lives become deeply intertwined. She doesn’t know the half of it.

With this one, I'm mostly curious, because it's another take on the vampire story line - and I want to know what Martin is up to and what will bevome of Shay & Gabriel. I'm so curious!!!

PFL: When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden
pub date: September 28, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

An enchanting tale by Christoper Golden about a teenager who wakes from a coma and slowly comes to realize that she is Sleeping Beauty of fairy tales.

I absolutely loved the story of Sleeping Beauty! It was one of my two favorite fairy tales as a kid (the other one was the Princess on the Pea) and I want to read everything about Sleeping Beauty. I definitely want to have this book in my mailbox the day it is released, so I can read it right away and dive right in. The summary doesn't give much away, but dang, it's Sleeping Beauty - I'm soooo excited!

PFL: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
pub date: September 7, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn't think she's the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "Duffy," she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren't so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she's falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

OMG! What can I say about this book? Ever since I first heard the title, I was absolutely excited about The DUFF and it never got less. In fact, when I read the summary, I was even more persuaded that this was one of those books that will just make my day and will end up on my list of best books ever! In a way, I'm a lot like Bianca, even now that I'm 9 years older than her.

I. Want. This. Book!!!

PFL: The Absolute Value Of -1 by Steve Brezenoff

There are many different memes out there for bloggers to feature the books they're really, really looking forward to. Unfortunately, none of them really meet my needs as I tend to find books I consider my possible future loves in droves rather than one at a time. And I don't feel like featuring those books in droves either. When I fall for a book before its pub date, that usually means something! That means, from now on, you will occasionally (or for the next few weeks: quite some days) find this new feature here.



The Absolute Value Of -1 by Steve Brezenoff
pub date: September 1, 2010

Summary from Goodreads:

The absolute value of any number, positive or negative, is its distance from zero: |-1| = 1

Noah, Lily, and Simon have been a trio forever. But as they enter high school, their relationships shift and their world starts to fall apart. Privately, each is dealing with a family crisis—divorce, abuse, and a parent's illness. Yet as they try to escape the pain and reach out for the connections they once counted on, they slip—like soap in a shower. Noah’s got it bad for Lily, but he knows too well Lily sees only Simon. Simon is indifferent, suddenly inscrutable to his friends. All stand alone in their heartache and grief.

What absolutely intrigues me about this novel is that I just feel a deep need to know how each of the characters deals with his or her problems, how their friendship turns out considering all the difficulties and the love "triangle". And then, there's the fact that the title has a reference to math. Ever since I read The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa I have a thing for math again.