7.10.2009

Feed Your Ears VIII: The Truth About Forever


To read about the origins of Feed Your Ears, check out my first post.

Anyway, as I continue to work through the suggestions I've gotten from you guys, these week I'm featuring Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever as suggested by Briana from The Book Pixie.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen


1. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from The Phantom of the Opera

2. Whatever it Takes - Lifehouse

3. Let Go - Frou Frou

4. Wishful Thinking - Wilco

5. Let There Be Love - Oasis (I especially like that this is off their album entitled Don't Believe the Truth)

Contest close date changed

Sorry for the late notice, but I've decided to postpone picking the winner for Tom Dolby's Secret Society. Now, the mixed giveaway and the Secret Society will both end July 18th (to make my life a little easier).

7.08.2009

Waiting on Wednesday: July 8

Title:The Unwritten Rule

Author: Elizabeth Scott

US Release date: April 6, 2010

Summary (from Elizabeth Scott's site): I liked him first, but it doesn't matter. I still like him. That doesn't matter either. Or at least, it's not supposed to.

Why I'm interested: So, I know it's not released until 2010, but I couldn't help but choose this book since the cover was just released. I 've read all but one of Elizabeth Scott's books so far and loved them all. I'm glad they released the cover finally - it reminds me of the cover for Perfect You. But anyway, I want to read this not just because I like her books, but because by being about about a girl who falls for her best friend's boyfriend, who can't relate on some level? Considering girl code forbids even looking at a friend's bf or dating him too soon after a break-up, I think this should be a really interesting read.

What are you waiting on?

7.07.2009

Teaser Tuesday: Week 4

Teaser Tuesdays is sponsored by MizB of Should Be Reading. Teaser Tuesdays go like this:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this Tuesday is...

"Little do I know that by the end of that longed-for party, I'll be looking back and yearning for the chance to take back that nod. To rewind this entire encounter, like running a DVD backward on fast speed, as I get up, walk backward down the path, seemingly followed by Nadia, cross the road backward (not too safe, that, but I don't get knocked over), reach my friends, and press Stop and then Play again - and change the outcome."

--page 34, Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson

What's your teaser?

7.05.2009

YA Book Carnival: Hunted Winner

Sorry I'm getting this up so late. After writing out lots of little slips of paper and digging through my closet for a hat, I have a winner. So, the moment you've all been waiting for, the winner of my first contest, part of Shooting Star Mag's YA Book Carnival, is...

Briana, The Book Pixie!
CONGRATS BRIANA! You won a copy of P.C. and Kristin Cast's Hunted. I'll be e-mailing you soon to get your mailing address.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who entered! I'm glad my first contest was such a success (and that I got such a great summer playlist out of it heh). If you didn't win, I still have a pick two of five YA titles contest going on, plus a contest for Tom Dolby's Secret Society. If you're not interested in either of these, don't worry, I have more books to give away later in the summer.

In My Mailbox: Week 4

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi, The Story Siren. :)

After missing last weekend, I've got two weeks' worth of books to post, so this is gonna be a long one (sorry!). Here's what I've found in my mailbox, at the bookstore, and at the library this week. Summaries are taken from Amazon and B&N.


Front and Center by Catherine Murdock (ARC) - After five months of sheer absolute craziness I was going back to being plain old background D.J. In photographs of course I’m always in the background . . . -- But it turns out other folks have big plans for D.J. Like her coach. College scouts. All the town hoops fans. A certain Red Bend High School junior who’s keen for romance and karaoke. Not to mention Brian Nelson, who she should not be thinking about! Who she is done with, thank you very much. But who keeps showing up anyway . . .

Drive Me Crazy by Erin Downing - Kate and her two best friends, Sierra and Alexis, are geared up for a week of fun and freedom on the road to their family lake houses in Love, Wisconsin. Best of all, when Kate reaches Love, she'll be reunited with Lucas, with whom she shared a steamy end-of-summer kiss last year. She can't wait to see Lucas again and pick things up exactly where they left off. Then Kate gets some seriously bad news: Alexis's sarcastic, condescending, hot-but-he-knows-it cousin is crashing the girls' road trip. Adam bugs Kate in every possible way. Now Kate just wants to get the road trip over with so she can spend the summer in Lucas's arms. But the road to Love is full of surprises....

Wicked: Resurrection by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie - What the Cahors witches thought was the end of their troubles was only the beginning. A threat more powerful and more frightening than anything they have faced has been watching and waiting. The Cahors witches must come together and find Jer and Eli as both the Deveraux and the Cahors family lines face eradication. All the secrets of the Cahors will be revealed, forcing them to overcome their greatest weaknesses in order to achieve their most powerful strengths. And only united do they have any chance at victory. Before the end, sacrifices will be made, alliances forged, and old friends lost forever.

The Diamond Secret by Suzanne Weyn - A Retelling of "Anastasia." Nadya is a mischievous kitchen girl in a Russian tavern. Having nearly drowned in the Iset River during the turmoil of the Revolution, she has no memory of her past and longs for the life she cannot remember. Then two young men arrive at the tavern and announce that Nadya's long-lost grandmother has sent them to find her. Yearning for family and friendship, she agrees to accompany them to Paris for the joyful reunion. Nadya eagerly embarks on her journey, never dreaming it will be one of laughter, love -- and betrayal.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman - In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn… Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all—true love—to conquer their foes in the dark halls below. But malevolent forces are working against them above ground as well, and as cruel as the King Under Stone has seemed, his wrath is mere irritation compared to the evil that awaits Galen and Rose in the brighter world above.


Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (ARC) - In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself. Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her. But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering. Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King - In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping the pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with "the dust of one hundred dogs," dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body-with her memories intact. Now she's a contemporary American teenager and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica.

Red Glass by Laura Resau - One night Sophie and her parents are called to a hospital where Pedro, a six-year-old Mexican boy, is recovering from dehydration. Crossing the border into Arizona with a group of Mexicans and a coyote, or guide, Pedro and his parents faced such harsh conditions that the boy is the only survivor. Pedro comes to live with Sophie, her parents, and Sophie's Aunt Dika, a refugee of the war in Bosnia. Sophie loves Pedro—her Principito, or Little Prince. But after a year, Pedro’s surviving family in Mexico makes contact, and Sophie, Dika, Dika’s new boyfriend, and his son must travel with Pedro to his hometown so that he can make a heartwrenching decision.


Sophomore Switch by Abby McDonald - Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup, and what shall heretofore be known as "The Hot-Tub Incident," and you’ve got two unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara. Soon desperation has the girls texting each other tips — on fitting in, finding love, and figuring out who they really are.

Braless in Wonderland by Debbie Reed Fischer - Allee Rosen is a lot of things: high school senior, overachiever, brain. The one thing Allee is not is supermodel material-at least that's what she thinks until modeling scouts spot her and she moves to Miami to work with an elite modeling agency. Suddenly Allee is swept up?p in a whirlwind of designer labels, photo shoots, go-sees and some seriously backstabbing models. Will this fabulous new life go to her head?

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot - Things aren't pretty for Emerson Watts. Em was sure there couldn't be anything worse than being a brainiac the body of a teenaged supermodel. But it turned out she was wrong. Because that supermodel could turn out to have a mother who's gone mysteriously missing, a brother who's shown up on her doorstep demanding answers, a former best friend who's intent on destroying Stark Enterprises to avenge the death of his lost love, and a British heartthrob who's written a song about her that's topping the charts. How can Em balance all that with school, runway shows, and weekend jaunts to St. Johns - especially when she's got ex-boyfriends crawling out of the woodwork who want more than just a photo op; a sister who is headed to the high school cheerleading championships; a company she represents that seems to be turning to the dark side... Not to mention trying to convince the love of her life that models aren't really airheads after all...especially one model in particular. But then, nobody said it was going to be easy being Nikki.

That's all for me. What's in your mailbox?

Books + Boys + Summer

So... this is my first vlog ever. As clue 20 of Sarah Ockler's 20 Things in 20 Days scavenger hunt, I put together this video about great beach reads that feature dreamy guys (and then thought of drool-worthy celebs to match). It was scary, but I'm glad I did it. I think I'll try vlogging every once in a while. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it :)



Books mentioned in this post:
Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker
Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Thrill Ride by Rachel Hawthorne

7.04.2009

Feed Your Ears VII: Harry Potter and Wicked

Ahhh... sorry again! I was so caught up in baking/meal-planning for today that I forgot yesterday was Friday! Speaking of which, happy July 4th everyone! Hope the fireworks and BBQs and such are/were spectacular.


So now for two weeks worth of Feed Your Ears posts (coincidently, both are series, which made choosing songs really tough). Thanks to Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Sarah at The Blog That Must Not Be Named for this week's book suggestions!

To read about the origins of Feed Your Ears, check out my first post.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

  1. Harry’s Wondrous World (theme) – John Williams (OK, it’s not my fault that since the movies came out, this song plays in my head whenever I crack open the cover to one of the HP books)
  2. Don’t Panic – Coldplay
  3. Strange Magic – Electric Light Orchestra
  4. The Real Mad-Eye Moody – Philosopherock (I promise that I really did mean to stay away from Wizard Rock when choosing these songs. It’s just that this is so funny, I couldn’t resist)
  5. With a Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles

Wicked series by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié

  1. Soulmate – Natasha Bedingfeld
  2. Dare You To Move - Switchfoot
  3. True Love Waits – Radiohead
  4. Strange – Jason Mraz
  5. Romeo Had Juliette – Lou Reed

P.S. Don't forget, today's the last day to enter my contest for Hunted.

7.02.2009

Front and Center

DJ Schwenk returns in Catherine Murdock’s conclusion to the Dairy Queen trilogy, Front and Center. After receiving more attention than she ever desired during football season, DJ looks forward to returning to basketball and her life in the background. It turns out, though, that fading into the background isn’t going to be possible for her. From college basketball scouts to her paralyzed brother to her best guy friend, DJ is getting just as much attention as before, and she certainly doesn’t want it all. And of course, DJ can’t seem to get her ex, Brian Nelson, out of her mind. In this final novel, DJ faces challenges on the basketball court and at home, learning how to build self-confidence, front and center.

Though not as exciting as Dairy Queen or The Off Season, Catherine Murdock brings DJ’s story to a close in this strong, well-written conclusion to the trilogy. Like the other DJ novels, Front and Center captures the reader’s attention through DJ’s down-to-earth voice. Though told from the perspective of a female, teens of both genders will appreciate DJ’s honesty and wit. At the same time, Front and Center will gain the approval of any parent with its mild language and DJ’s moral dilemmas.

Catherine Murdock addresses the fears and concerns of any high school student through DJ and her struggles. While DJ’s personal situation is unique, her feelings and emotions are not, and these will resonate with young adult readers. Murdock develops a cast of characters, each with their own flaws, to surround DJ, and while some of these players lack depth, they are all realistic and needed to complete DJ’s world. All in all, Front and Center by Catherine Murdock is a satisfying conclusion to the Dairy Queen trilogy with a message that lasts long after you’ve read the last page. By emphasizing the importance of family, friendship, and support, all of which are sometimes overlooked in young adult literature, this book will motivate its reader to reach out and take risks. 8 out of 10.

7.01.2009

Waiting on Wednesday: July 1

Title: Metamorphosis: Junior Year

Author: Betsy Franco

US Release date: October 13, 2009

Summary (from Amazon.com): Life. Love. Death. Identity. Ovid’s got a lot on his mind, and he pours it all — as confessions, observations, narrative poems, and drawings — into the pages of a notebook. Inspired by his namesake, he wryly records his classmates’ dramas as modern-day Roman mythology. There’s Sophie and Caleb, the Psyche and Cupid of cyber-couples; poetic Paula, who pursues filmmaker Franny like Apollo chasing Daphne; and graphic novelist Duwayne, a Proserpina shuttling between divorced parents. Meanwhile, Ovid hides his own Olympian struggles: his meth addict sister Thena has run off, leaving him with a suffocating home life and a disturbing secret.

Why I'm interested: First, I'm excited about a YA book nowadays referencing Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (again, I'm an English dork), plus I love notebook-style books. Beyond that, it looks like the graphics (done by Betsy Franco's son) will add a lot to the novel.