• Book Reviews

    Book Review: Love, Stargirl

    This book is the much anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling book, Stargirl and centers around “the world’s longest letter” in diary form. It picks up where the previous novel left off after Stargirl left Mica High and describes her bittersweet memories in the town of Mica, Arizona along with the involvements of new people in her life. In Love, Stargirl, we hear the voice of Stargirl as she reflects on time, life, Leo, and – of course – love. –From Goodreads Cover Inspection: Reminiscent of the first one, cute and simple! First Thoughts: Once again, I’m instantly smitten…

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: Wherever Nina Lies

    Have you seen Nina? Nina was beautiful, artistic, wild . . . and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But one day, without any warning, Nina disappeared. Two years later, Ellie can’t stop thinking about her sister. Although everyone else has given up hope that Nina will return, Ellie just knows her sister is out there, somewhere. If only Ellie had a clue where to look. And then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing tucked into the pages of a book. Determined to find her sister, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip…

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    Book Review: Marked

    The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird’s world, vampyres have always existed. In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire–that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do. It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as…

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    Book Review: God-Shaped Hole

    Media Type: Print Book Title: God-Shaped Hole Author: Tiffanie DeBartolo Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Pages: Paperback; 336 Release Date: May 1, 2002 Source: Borrowed from a friend ———————————————- Genre: Contemporary Romance HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart Recommended to: Readers who enjoy stories that will tear their heart out. Add it on: Goodreads / Shelfari / Amazon / B&N When I was twelve, a fortune teller told me that my one true love would die young and leave me all alone. Everyone said she was a fraud, that she was just making it up. I’d really like to know why…

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: The Road

    A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food–and each other. –From Goodreads Cover Inspection: There are a ton of different covers for this book, the most recent being the movie tie-in cover. I like this one. It looks so bleak and desolate. First Thoughts: The book opens on a man and his son, no…

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: Stargirl

    Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional…

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: Speaker for the Dead

    Media Type: Print Book Title: Speaker for the Dead Author: Orson Scott Card Publisher: Tor Books Pages: Mass Market Paperback; 382 Release Date: August 15, 1994 Source: Bookswim ————————————— Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Mild Violence ————————————— HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart Recommended to: Readers who love Sci Fi books, and huge worlds that are built around them. Add it on: Goodreads / Shelfari / Amazon / B&N In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: the Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.…

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    Book Review: V for Vendetta

    REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER Imagine a Britain stripped of democracy: a world of the not-too-distant future, in which freedom was not lost, but surrendered willingly to a totalitarian regime that rose to power by exploiting the people’s worst fears and most damning weaknesses. This is the setting for the parable of Evey, a young woman who is saved from death by a masked man calling himself only V. Beguiling and dangerous, V ignites the fuse of revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to wake up and shed the blanket of tyranny and oppression in which they have…

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    Book Review: Haunted

    Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: twenty-three of them, to be precise. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlined “Writers’ Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months,” and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of “real life” that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But “here” turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world – and where heat and power and, most important, food are in increasingly…

  • Book Reviews

    Book Review: The Hunger Games

    Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don’t live to see the morning? In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her…