Don't Forget These Books!

Awhile back I reviewed The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch and I wanted to remind you that it's released tomorrow on September 1st!  Please check it out, it was a fantastic YA novel about the end of civilization and I have a feeling it's going to be huge.  Goodreads.  My Review.  I'm hoping to get my ARC signed at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend!

Also, if you're into Amish fiction like I am, The Healing, the second book in the Kentucky Brothers series by Wanda E. Brunstetter comes out the 1st, too.  It's a great series so far.  Goodreads.  My Review.

Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink

Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink
Stephanie Kate Strohm
212 pages
Publisher: Graphia
Source: Netgalley.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Libby's best friend Dev may not understand why Libby wants to spend her summer interning at a living history museum, but Libby does: she loves history and she wants to immerse herself in it.  But she'll soon learn that immersing herself in history and teaching a summer camp for girls at the same time, isn't exactly what she expected.  Especially when Cam walks into town and starts to sweep her off her feet...

I loved this book from the get-go!  I love history and living history museums, so that aspect of the plot was a huge draw for me.  The plot got interesting fast when Libby learns cooking in 1791 is kind of, well, gross.  Then when Cam enters the scene, the book becomes a great YA romance, with a great ending and lessons learned!  A very cute story overall.

Of course, the little girls in the summer camp were just so cute, too.  I think they were my favorite part of the book.  Very eager to learn the domestic arts, but also very interested in their teacher's personal life, just as all little girls are.  I found them, and all the characters really, to be pretty realistic.

If you like history, even a little bit, I highly recommend this book.  It had it all for me - a great YA storyline, history, fashion, and a great soundtrack.  The book won't be released until mid-May, but I think you should definitely check it out.

You can pre-order at: Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink

PS:  Sorry the cover image is so small, that's the only size image I could find!

Cosmopolis

Cosmopolis
Don DeLillo
209 pages
Publisher: Scribner
Source: paperbackswap.com
★☆☆☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

This isn't the kind of book I would normally read and there is only one reason I decided to read it: it's being made into a movie starring Robert Pattinson.  Yum.

Image from the Cosmopolis website: cosmopolisthefilm.com

Thank goodness it was short, only about four chapters/just over two hundred pages.  Here's what happens: this insanely rich dude gets in his limo one day and drives around the city.  People visit him in his limo and sometimes he gets out of the limo to visit people and get shit done (ie: get a haircut).  In the meantime, his investment against the Yen is failing.

The storyline was written poetically, but at times was confusing to me.  Thankfully, according to other Goodreads users, I wasn't the only one left confused.  I wasn't always sure what was going on, but by the end had had the gist.  It was meh.

If this isn't the kind of book you'd normally pick up for yourself but you're considering it just because of RPatz, I'd say skip it.  Just wait for the movie to come out on DVD because after reading it I'm wondering how they could turn it into a good movie.

PS: This was not a YA friendly book; there were some adult situations.

21 Proms

21 Proms
Various authors
289 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: Paperbackswap.com
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

21 Proms consists of twenty-one short stories by popular YA authors about prom. 

In a collection like this, you can only expect that you'll like some of the stories while there will be others you either don't like, or don't "get."  This was the case with 21 Proms.  I did not understand the story about the gorilla prom.  I understood that the main character was gay, but what was with the monkey fetishes? 

My favorite story was actually the last one, "The Great American Morp" by John Green.  In this story, Maggie's parents are hired to photograph her prom, which to her is mortifying.  So she and her best friend plan a Morp (prom spelled backwards) as an alternative to Prom.  I loved the outcome of their Morp, which made it my favorite story of the twenty-one.

There is a reason the back of the book states the book is for those 15 an over.  There was lots of sex, drugs and alcohol in these stories, but I didn't find any of it offensive.  I think this would be a great collection to read if you were actually going to prom soon, maybe not so much if the last prom you attended was in 2005.
Naturally this book got me thinking about my own high school proms and dances, so now I'm going to leave you with my own prom-related anecdote.

I had a boyfriend in high school who went to private Catholic school, so I actually went to four proms and countless other dances.  I used to love dances; in my youth I had the energy to dance four hours straight, never leaving the dance floor.  Now I'm lucky if I have any breath left after two fast songs, but I digress.

I used to think it must be stressful to be a chaperone at a Catholic high school dance.  We used to joke back then about nuns telling us to leave a foot between us "for the Holy Spirit."  Jokes about our dates' Holy Spirit in their pants ensued.  Anyway, I thought it would be stressful to be a school official, having to walk around a gym, looking at each couple to make sure they weren't touching to much and that they certainly weren't grinding to this awful music the DJ picked. 

My date and I attended a dance at his school one evening and I don't think I was feeling too well that night.  It might have been anxiety, I can't remember, but we ended up sitting at a table chatting and watching everyone else dance.  He sat down, I sat down, and I put my feet in his lap.  Soon one of his teachers was rapidly approaching.  "Oh no!" I thought.  "Here it comes."  I thought for sure he would tell us we were breaking the rules and kick us out, but instead he introduced himself and chatted about school for a bit, and then moved on.  Whew.

Ironically, the chaperones to my public school senior prom were more offending by youthful touching than the Catholics were.  There were chairs outside set up for a wedding that had either happened that day or was going to happen the next day.  It was a lovely evening where we all pretended we would be with our dates forever.  I got many a compliment on my "classy" attire and I was feeling good, despite the dry chicken.  So my date and I went out side, he sat in a chair and I sat on his lap.  Very chastely, I might add, as the only things touching were our thighs.  We weren't even kissing, my head was at least twelve inches from his!  And then, the chaperone yelled at us.  Startling for me, considering I was a good kid and at that point had not been yelled at in a school setting.

She was a cat lady, so I think maybe she was jealous.  Middle aged with no prospects and dressed in a floral patterned Coldwater Creek dress from four years previous, she must have been jealous that we were such a good looking young couple with endless prospects.  She told me to get off his lap, not once but I think twice if I remember correctly. 

It just goes to show you never know who is going to be offended by what.  And there's my anecdote.

Did you go to prom?  Did anything unexpected happen?  Were you yelled at by a crazy cat lady, too?  Leave me your prom stories below!

Dark Lover

Dark Lover
J.R. Ward
393 pages
Publisher: Signet Eclipse
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

When the father she never knew she had is killed in an attack, Beth finds a mysterious man sent to "protect" her.  Wrath.  She's wary at first and then extremely drawn to him.  She soon learns her father was a vampire and she's half vampire... and her change is rapidly approaching.  Meanwhile, the Brotherhood is trying to defend their race from the lessers.

I really enjoyed this novel!  Despite the fact that it wasn't heavy reading, it was still a nice break from the YA kick I've been on recently.  It was fast paced and definitely a page turner.  There weren't too many boring moments and lots of good steamy scenes, if you know what I mean.  The plot was pretty straight forward and there was just the right amount of angry vampire action scenes.

Four stars!  The only thing I didn't like was how Beth and Wrath's romance was immediate; they took no time to fall in love and there wasn't much development there, no explanation of why they are in love.

I have to thank my fellow NBC Nesties for recommending this series.  I really enjoyed the first book and I can't wait to get the second one in the mail to start that.  You can add my name to the list of people who recommend the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Radiance

Radiance (Riley Bloom #1)
Alyson Noel
183 pages
Publisher: Square Fish
Source: Borders sale :(
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Riley died along with her parents in a car accident that her sister, Ever, survived.  After spending some time in Summerland and following Ever around, she finally crossed over to Here, which is where Radiance starts.  The Council soon assigns her a job - she must help ghosts who have not yet crossed over, cross over to the Here.

So... kind of like a young Ghost Whisperer, but with a spunky little twelve year old instead of Jennifer Love Hewitt.  Score!

Despite the fact that this book seems to have been written for a younger audience than the Immortals series, which it was spun off from, I thoroughly enjoyed this books for several reasons.  It was a really interesting, short read that I was able to finish in an evening (I love books like that!).  The plot was interesting though brief and the characters were diverse, from Riley's classmates in Here, to The Council, to her guide Bodhi, who was described very well.

What I absolutely loved the most was the traditional paranormal aspect of the book, which deals a lot with ghosts.  I loved the way Noel treated them in a traditional way, rather than changing the characteristics of the paranormal groups like so many other authors have changed the aspects of vampirism, for example.  I'm a huge fan of ghosts/ghost hunting, etc., so I was glad to see them presented accurately in this novel.

I'm giving Radiance four stars instead of five because I felt like it was very short and was more of an introduction to the rest of the Riley Bloom series.  It didn't have a very in-depth plot.  Still, if you've read and enjoyed the Immortals series, I highly recommend this book.

Rae

Rae: My True Story of Fear, Anxiety, and Social Anxiety
Chelsea Rae Swiggett
156 pages
Publisher: HCI Teens
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I first heard about this book through the Goodreads giveaway program and when I didn't win it immediately went on my PBS wishlist.  I had to read this book, which follows Chelsea Rae as she starts attending a new high school and learns that her anxiety is so bad, she needs professional help.

Although Rae and I have different triggers for our anxiety, I could totally relate with her story.  Rae fears death and thoughts of dying trigger panic attacks for her.  I fear anxiety in general and that triggers panic attacks for me in a terrible feedback loop.  While she thinks people are mocking her every move during a school day, I sometimes think that people are just mad at me all the time.  Despite our slight differences I saw a lot of myself in Rae.  I hope that writing her memoir was therapeutic for her and helped her realize that she's not alone.

One of the most interesting parts for me was when Rae talks about her "old house" being haunted.  I've learned in my research of both anxiety and the paranormal that those with anxiety issues are more prone to seeing ghosts and experiencing the supernatural in general.  Rae's experiences with the old man are spot on with an experience I had myself when I was young and three ghosts showed up in a hotel room I was staying in on vacation.

If you have anxiety or social phobias, or know someone who has it, I definitely recommend this book.