In My Mailbox (1)

Hello everybody, this is Aneeqah here! I'm going to be doing a few memes, and hopefully be keeping up with them throughout the year.

Anyways, In My Mailbox [IMM, for short!] is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, where you basically talk about books you've received. So let's get on with it!

For Review [e-copy]:

GoodReads Synopsis:
Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

GoodReads Synopsis:
For seventeen years, Eloise Hart had no idea the world of Faery even existed. Now she has been abducted and trapped in the Rath of Lord Strahan, King of Faery. Strahan was only meant to rule for seven years, as Faery tradition dictates, and then give up his crown to another. But he won't comply, and now chaos threatens both worlds.


The only one who can break his stranglehold on the Faery court is his wife. . . Eloise's aunt Antonia. Using Eloise to lure Antonia, Strahan captures his wife, desperate to end the only threat to his reign. Now Eloise must become the rescuer. Together with her best friends Jo and Devin, she must forge alliances with other Fae, including a gorgeous protector named Lucas, and Strahan's mysterious son, Eldric-who may or may not betray them.

From Library:

GoodReads Synopsis:
To 17-year-old Leslie, the tattoo is a thing of indescribable beauty, a captivating mark that she must make her own. But this subtle web of eyes and wings brings with it a transformation that no sweet young girl would ever imagine or welcome. Like its predecessor, this stand-alone sequel to Wicked Lovely plunges its youthful heroine into a faery world of almost constant peril. A tantalizing urban fantasy that won't let go.

GoodReads Synopsis:
Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.

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Saving June by Hannah Harrington - Review

Synopsis:
Harper's sister, June took her life one week before High School Graduation. No one can understand why, and it leaves Harper in complete distraught. Her divorced parents decide to split the ashes, and at her mothers house the ashes are in an urn in the house. Harper then steals the urn and makes a cross- country road trip with her best friend Laney, to California.


Then add in the mixture a boy named Jake Tolan. A bad boy, who has a passion for music... and someone who had a connection with June. Jake is keeping a secret, from Harper... One that could turn her life upside down in a heart beat.

My Review--

I have to say I did like this book, however the first part of the book was not nearly exciting for me. I was bored out of my mind, and was dying to stop reading it. But people kept telling me they really liked it, so I persevered and kept reading it and I really liked it.

There are three main characters, but I want you to read for yourself to see who the third is. I mentioned him up there... but I won't say anything.

The main character is Harper. She is a sassy girl who has a mind of her own. She likes to get things her way, and quite frankly she's pretty good at it.

Laney is Harper's best friend who sticks by her when June dies. Laney doesn't have any rules, and doesn't want to listen to any rules. She likes to go out there and have fun!

Things are really well described in this book which I love. I loved the music take. I hadn't realized that Eric Clapton's song, Tears In Heaven was written after his son's death. The amount of knowledge I gained after reading this book is amazing.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Harlequin for letting me read this book.

Loving to Read one Step at a Time







KRWLucy

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The Sunday Salon - Printz of the Past Challenge

A few days ago I came up with my own personal challenge: I was going to read all the American Library Association Michael J. Printz Award and Honor books. That I haven't already read.  @LeaKelley mentioned that she wanted to do an #nerdprintz challenge and I told her what I committed to, bada bing bada bam - this post was born!

We were inspired by @MrSchuReads and @Colbysharp who have committed to read all the Newbery Award Winners from 1922 - present!

Since this is personal - I get to make up the rules! And so do you! Just wanna read the award winners? Do it! Just wanna read the honor books? Do it! Want to read from present to past? Do it! Take two years, 3 years, 4 YEARS??? DO IT!

Make this challenge one you can live with! We'll be tweeting about the challenge using the hashtag #nerdprintz and I'll be posting my thoughts as I read each book - wondering why THIS book won and award or honor and can I predict the next winner????

If you are interested in joining - please sign up below!!

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Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi- Review

Reviewed by: Aneeqah's Not So Real Life
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Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genres: Dystopia/Post Apocalyptic
Release Date: January 3rd, 2012
My Review:

In this book, we have two main characters: Aria and Perry. Aria has never been outside the place she lives in, called the Pods. She basically lives in the Realms, virtual places where you can do anything, be anything, and imagine anything. You don't feel pain or anxiety or anything like that. It's an easy, comfortable life. Perry, however, is an Outsider. He lives out in the open, in a tribe. He doesn't know a comfortable life. He must hunt for food, take care of his little nephew, and try to deal with his brother.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for giving me an ARC of this book!

First off, lets talk about the cover, since I love judging books by their covers. I love this cover! It really does the book justice, plus, it actually makes sense. It's not some random cover, like a random girl in a random dress [there seem to be a lot of those types of covers out there!]. It hints a little bit at what the story will be about. Overall, the cover is gorgeous!

OK, with that out of the way, lets talk about all the reasons I loved this book...:

-The setting. I really loved the world Rossi has created. Everything was generally easy to understand for me, but it wasn't plain and simple either. It was really great, and well-done.

-The writing. I loved, loved, loved the wording Rossi used, especially the ending. That ending was just amazing. Just the last paragraph. I don't even know why I loved it so much, but I just did. I loved how everything was so vague, but you knew what was happening anyways. It's kind of hard to explain, but nonetheless, I loved it. I also liked Rossi's wording throughout the story. She doesn't come out and say everything directly, but almost dances around it. It's something I liked.

-The characters. The characters were simply amazing. The main characters weren't perfect, they had their flaws, but that made them even better. I also loved how they learned for their mistakes. Learned from each other. Characterization happened! We watched the character grow, and frankly, I don't see that in very many books these days. Plus, they weren't brain-dead or stupid. They used their wits, and weren't frustrating at all. And I love how the side-characters also had great personalities. I personally loved Roar. He was a funny type guy that I immediately liked. And even Cinder had his good qualities. Overall, we have a great crew of characters in this book!

-The romance. This was probably the main winner in the story for me. Usually, I'm not a fan of romance in books. Actually, almost 99% of the time, I'm not a big fan of romance in stories. And I especially despise insta-love. Especially insta-love. *shudder* We can talk about my hate for insta-love later, but let it be known that I really, really, don't like insta-love. But this story, for once, didn't have insta-love! A big shock, yes, I know. The romance in this book was slow, sweet, and it developed over the course of the story. It wasn't like:
Girl: "Hi there!"
Boy: "Hey!"
*20 seconds later*
Girl: "I love you!"
Boy: "I love you sooo much!* and all that other mushy stuff I hate. We could see the slight changes of feelings throughout the book. Definitely one of my favorite things about the book!

So why didn't I give this book a full 5 stars? There's two reasons...:

-The Aether. I really don't understand what the Aether actually is. Rossi really didn't give us explanation about it. Is it like a layer of the sky? Or is it the actual sky? It's something that really confuses me, and I think it will play a very big role in the next book, so I think we need to know more about the Aether.

-The last few pages. I know I said I loved the ending above, but that's basically the last paragraph. The last few pages of the book, lots of time flies by. Thing is, we don't know how much time went by, or what happened to the characters during this time. I know at least a few months have gone by, and during this book, that's a fairly long time, since some major events happen before this all this time flies by. So I would really like some extra details on what exactly happened. Hopefully, what happened during this mysterious amount of time will be explained in the next book [which, by the way, I'm absolutely dying to read].

Wow, have you ever heard people say how hard it is to talk about a book you love? I never believed them, but let me tell you, after writing this review, it's really hard to describe exactly why I loved this book so much. My advice though? Go read this book. You won't regret it.





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Cinder by Marissa Meyer - Book Trailer

Happy book birthday to Cinder by Marissa Meyer! Cinder was released Tuesday, January 3, 2012!

You're Invited!

Twitter Party

January 9, 2012

7pm EST

Trailer

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, 1)

Even in the future, the story begins with Once Upon a Time…. Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future.

Marissa Meyer Tour Schedule - get your book signed!

Cinder Blog Tour Schedule - sign up for all kinds of goodies!

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The Sunday Salon - Happy New Year - 2012

I hope 2011 was good to you. Maybe not every aspect but overall good!

Have you read Neil Gaiman's wish for 2012? If you haven't, please do.  His past wishes for us to find someone to love and to receive love from and to spread more kindness and wisdom is only slightly eclipsed for his wish that we make mistakes. Showing that we are taking risks, and living and growing.  I second his wish.

In preparing for this awesome year ahead, I want to take a look back at some of my favorite reads of the past year.
January - Split by Swati Avasthi











February - Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt












March - Paranormalcy by Kierstin White












April - Bruiser by Neal Shusterman












May - Dark Water by Laura McNeil











June - Sidekicks by Jack Ferraiolo and Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

July - This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

August - The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall











September - Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor











October - The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson











November - Bigger Than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder












December - Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby











Best Book of 2011 - Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby - I cannot begin to explain the tension that Kirby builds up as we try to figure out who the traitor is in this secluded stronghold. Then, when you know, you wonder how they will get away alive! Icefall will move you to tears! The landscape is vivid and Solveig's emotions and thoughts are yours. A Must Read!


I'm an Amazon Associate and all book links will go directly to their site.
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KRWLucy's Challenges of 2012

Hi Everyone!
Happy New Years Eve! I would like to wish you the best for the 2012 year!
With the New Year, comes a new book list, and some challenges. This is my first year I'm doing challenges. I'm not making any promises though. School can always be a challenge, along with my sports, and personal life! But hey!, I'll give it a shot.

2012 Standalone Reading Challenge
The Standalone Challenge is to read 15 standalone YA books in 2012!
1. 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody
2. In Honor by Jessie Kirby
3. Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler
4. The Story of Us by Deb Caletti
5. The Whole Story of a Half Girl by Veera Hiranandani
6. Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant 
7. Crazy by Amy Reed
8. The Boy Recession by Flynn Meaney  
9. My Sister Lives on the Mantle Piece by Annabel Pitcher
10. Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani
11. The Story Teller by Antonia Michaelis
12. Rock On: A story of guitars, gigs, girls and a brother (not necessarily in that order) by Denise Vega
13. The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen
14. Wander Love by Kristen Hubbard
15. The List by Siobhan Vivian

2012 YA Contemporary Challenge


The idea of this is to challenge yourself. I choose level one.. I know a little easy which is to read 5+ books.

1. Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous by Kathryn William

2. Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler 3. The One That I Want by Jennifer Echols 4. The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George 5. 37 Things I Love (in no particular order) by Kekla Magoon

I felt it was also necessary for me to come up with a list of books that I would like to read...
1. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
2. We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han
3. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
4. The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
5. Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti
6. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
7. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
9. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
10. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
11. Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally
12. Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott
13. Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley
14. So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti
15. Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass
16. Lost It by Kristen Tracy
17. The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart
18. Death Cure by James Dashner
19. Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow
20. Loving Emily by Anne Pfeffer
**Threes also Left to Love by Jolene Perry but the release date won't be known to April :(

Loving to Read One Step at a Time

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Challenge List for 2012!

Aneeqah's Not So Real Life

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Hey guys! I'm really excited to be joining some challenges in 2012. There's SO many that I want to do, but here are the ones I've chosen:





2012 YA Contemporary Challenge
My goal for this challenge is to read 10 young-adult contemporary books. I usually read a lot of fantasy and dystopia, so I think this challenge will help me to branch out a little with my reading. Here is [so far] the list of books I plan on reading:

1. The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenburg
2. Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay
3. The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
4. The Fine Art of Truth and Dare by Melissa Jensen
5. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
6. Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti
7. Pizza, Love, And Other Stuff That Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams
8. Flirting In Italian by Lauren Henderson
9. Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig
10. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson





2012 Stand-Alone Challenge
The goal for this challenge is to read 15 young-adult stand-alone books. I've only read a few stand-alone books in the past, because I like series better. But with all these cliffhanger endings in books lately, I think reading stand-alone books could really save me some anticipation! =) Here's my tenative list as of right now:

1. Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
2. The Raft by S.A. Bodeen
3. 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody
4. Fracture by Megan Miranda
5. Slide by Jill Hathaway
6. The Catasrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
7. Above by Leah Bobet
8. Gilt by Katherine Longshore
9. This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
10. When the Sea Is Rising Red by
11. Something Strange and Deadly
12. The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
13. ??
14. ??
15. ??



Debut Author Challenge
The goal for this challenge is to read 12 books by a first-time author. I've never kept track of authors before, really, so I'm interested to see how many debuts I can read this year! My list:
1. Fracture by Megan Miranda
2. Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
3. Harbigner by Sara Wilson Etienne
4. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
5. Slide by Jill Hathaway
6. Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
7. The Selection by Kiera Cass
8. Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
9. Gilt by Katherine Longshore
10. Everneath by Brodi Ashton
11. The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
12. Above by Leah Bobet

Of course, I'm sure these lists will change dramatically over the course of 2012! These are just the ones I think I might read during the year. 2012 should be a great year for reading! [And, hopefully, the world won't end. Because there are just too many books I'm waiting for that come out in 2013!!]




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Holiday Bookaday Update - Fall 2011

I'd listed several books I wanted to read over my 16 days off, 18 to be exact. I'm six days into the challenge and I've only finished 4 books! What's slowing me down? Two re-discovered loves; Twitter and Puzzles.

I picked up a puzzle of my favorite picture - Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte - and have been spending hours on it. I haven't done this in a very long time and it has been so relaxing!! I hope to find slightly smaller puzzles though, this one is 1000 pieces.

I've always been a fan of Twitter but I'd pulled back to read more - putting in a word here, a retweet there, but not really interacting. Since most of my tweeps are educators, we are all on break right now and the conversations have been awesome. So, less reading time but a touch more connection with self and others.

So, what have I finished?
Shelter by Harlan Coben - one of the LA teachers does a mystery unit each year, so I'm always on the lookout for new books for her to add to her repetoire. I haven't read any of Coben's adult books but this young adult one sounded intriguing and maybe it could be a gateway for some students.  Although Shelter started out well, despite having the stereotypical sidekicks - a nerd adn a fat girl - it had promise.  Coben did tend to tell too much, I never had to figure out anything, each question would be answered about 2 sentences later.  And then the ending was so far-fetched as to be impossible. The age of the alleged villian would make the antics impossible. My disbelief came crashing to the forefront and wiped away most of my good feelings about the book.  The good news is there can still be a good discussion about this one. Pair it with Virals by Kathy Reichs and then talk about craft and writing for a variety of audiences.

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins - I had been looking forward to this one, as I enjoy sappy romance. While there were enjoyable moments, they got sidetracked by the author's frequent exclamation of "bieber" or "elvis presley". I mean efron, lautner, gosling - yeah, I can see that working once or twice, jk. Throw in how often she told us Liam was hot (in a stereotypical bad boy in leather jacket with motorcyle way) and I was just happy to finish.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi - I had really been looking forward to this book! I like science fiction and this has girl protag! It started out slow and ended on predictable. But, the middle was fantastic. I just don't understand why she didn't use her undisclosed till later powers more.  Also, she never wore that awesome dress on the cover! Pair this one with Legend by Marie Lu and you are destined for a great conversation.

Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger - This follow-up to Origami Yoda focuses on Dwight and whether Yoda is helpful or hurtful. Dwight's nemesis, Harvey, makes a Darth Paper puppet and uses it to taunt this students, trying to convince them that Yoda is fake. The problems brought to Yoda this year seem much more serious. I like that turn. Obviously, pair this one with Origami Yoda and some actual origami.

Ok, back to reading! How are you doing on your reading goals?

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I Challenge Thee, er, Me 2012

from art.com

It's that time of year. Challenge time.  How will I grow as reader and a reviewer? Each year, I attempt something new and usually abandon it about 1/4 of the way through.  Not.This.Year. I am going to do this. I have two official sign-up challenges and then some personal challenges I will be tackling this year.

The Classic Double Challenge
This challenge intrigues me because you pair contemporary fiction with classic fiction. Something that I think could lead more students into choosing and reading classics outside of the classroom. I'm going for the LARGE level - 3 pairs of books

The 2012 YA/MG Fantasy Challenge
I enjoy reading Fantasy and Science Fiction. I'm not sure what attracts me to these titles and I want to find out. This particular challenge will pair nicely with my own personal Cybils challenge listed below.  For the YA/MG Fantasy challenge, you need to read 10 YA/MG Fantasy books released in 2012.

Cybils 2011 YA/MG Nominated Fantasy/Science Fiction Challenge
This challenge definitely needs a shorter name! There were too many books on the Cybils F/SF nominations list that I had NOT read.  So, I am going to remedy that by trying to read 15 books off the YA list and 15 books off the MG list.  Some of these will be decided when they release the finalist list on January 1!

My Printz of the Past Challenge
I became interested in the ALA Printz award back in 2006 when I became a middle school librarian.  I've been into it pretty much nonstop. In 2010 I formed the Goodreads Mock Printz group. This started as a part of a book group I was hosting at work and has grown from there.  I've been trying to at least read the winners of the award but decided this year to challenge myself to read all the Printz Award/Honor books for the past 11 years.

2012 MG/YA/A Genre Challenge
Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer, has a book requirement in her classes.  She challenges the students to read 40 books in a variety of genres, to stretch themselves, to become better readers.  I take up her challenge with #bookaday and want to participate in this one too. Although her exact numbers to read in each genre may change with her students, I'm going with the original one published in The Book Whisperer.

I also want to read a variety of adult books so, I'm adding a component for genre books written for adults. Hence, the "A" in the challenge title.

2012 Battle of the Kid's Book Reading Challenge
Every year School Library Journal hosts a Battle of the Kids' Books to find the best book of the previous year. They get celebrity judges, authors all, to read two  of 16 books and determine which will move on until only 1 is left. I discovered the challenge in 2010 and read 11 of the 16 books.  Last year I read 15.  My goal for 2012 is to read all 16 and try to pick the winner!

I'm creating a challenge page that will list a combination of books I want to read or have read for challenge.

Are you up to the challenge?  What are your reading goals for 2012?

UPDATE: Adding a Newbery Awards challenge that will cover three to four years! Check out Watch.Connect.Read for details! Totally "stress-free" #nerdbery challenge! Yay, Mr. Schu and Mr. Sharp!
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