Drowning in new books!

For some reason, a full five of our new books this time around are water-related in some way or other. I don't know why this is, unless it means that, subconsciously, I really want to go swimming.

Sea Change by Aimee Friedman...


Miranda Merchant leaves New York behind for the summer, taking a ferry to Selkie Island, a place of legend. She feels a connection to the island, its history, and to a local boy named Leo. Things head toward romance, and then it all gets paranormal. As per usual.

The Shape of Water by Anne Spollen...


Magda's mother is gone, and now she's consumed by anxiety and loneliness. Her mother always told her the world was filled with secrets the two of them shared, but instead of the strange and the beautiful, now Magda fears, madness. A school of fish begins to haunt her and her only escape is through fires she sets in the marshes near her home. Magda must unravel family secrets to find a stable place in the world.

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler...


For this one, I'm just giving you the publisher's back cover rant, because it's better than what I could write--it's really good:

Mom knew that the mermaids--hand-carved from driftwood by the owner of a souvenir shop--were all I wanted to take home from Florida. As she bought them, she looked down at me, her eyes not just glittering but snapping with fire like two Forth of July sparklers. She ran her finger down the length of my nose, almost like you'd stroke a favorite pet, and said to the salesman, "We're just alike, me and Aura." And you know, back then, the idea of that didn't scare the absolute hell out of me.

I'll clarify: Aura's schizophrenic mother causes her to shun her creative talent, but as her mother's condition worsens, she embraces her artistic ability, her family, and finally escapes her fears.

The Keening by A. LaFaye...


In 1918, Lyza's greatest regret is that her only artistic talent is carving letters into wood, until her mother's death in the influenza epidemic. Her heartbroken father begins to prepare for the return of Liza's mother, and Liza concentrates on keeping him from being committed to a work farm even as daily funeral marches pass their Maine home. She must rely on her own talents and courage to survive.

See, the water? It's on the cover. I'm sure it's in the book too, but it wasn't on the back cover or in the little part I read...but water! On the cover! It's there.

Looking toward the future, The Carbon Diaries: 2015 by Saci Lloyd, shows us the world five years from now (eep!) when global warming will be/is tearing the world apart.



Laura (not me) turns 16 and is awarded her carbon debit card, but she's busy juggling exams, her band, and trying to catch Ravi's eye. But as natural disasters hit and her parents grow closer to divorce, life just keeps getting worse. Laura must brace for impact as the worst hurricane in history heads straight for her London home, holding on to whatever normalcy she can.

How water? Global warming means flooding, silly. And it's a wonder London is above water for poor Laura. England being an island and all.

You know, now that I'm looking back over these, I'm thinking that some of them also have something else in common...mental illness. Hmm...

New Hardcovers

Finally, I am at the end of all the new books, and I must say, it's taken a great deal of time and effort to--

I'm not fooling anyone, am I?

Without further ado, the hardcovers that didn't fit in any other category and therefore have there own post! Incidentally, these are also the books that I'm most eager to read myself, in addition to The Cardturner, For the Win and As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth. You can read more about those titles here.

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson...


Lennie is quiet, a voracious reader, happily in the shadow of her older sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies, Lennie is suddenly the center of attention. Suddenly, she has not one boy in her life, but two. Toby, Bailey's boyfriend, who shares Lennie's grief, and Joe, the new boy in town, whose musical talent attracts Lennie. One boy helps her leave her sorrow behind, the other comforts her during it.

Needless to say, there will be some choosing involved...


Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver...



Samantha Kingston's charmed life has come to an untimely end. She leaves behind her boyfriend, her terrific best friends, her popularity, and on February 12, a Friday, she dies.

But that isn't how the story ends.

Samantha gets a second chance--actually, she gets seven. She relives her final day through one week, a week to solve the mystery of her own death and to rediscover the value of everything she's about to leave behind.

Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve...



This description is a bit complicated, all good fantasy is. But you'll have to bear with me through my convoluted summary.

Fever, adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, is the only girl ever to have served as apprentice in the Order of Engineers. Women, in their society, are considered incapable of doing the work, believed to be unreasonable creatures. Now Fever must leave Dr. Crumb behind and work alongside Kit Solent, an archaeologist, who is attempting to gain entrance to a locked room.

See, the room used to belong to a man named Auric Godshawk, the last of the Scriven overlords. The Scriven weren't human, they used to rule the city, but were killed off in a coup. Think Revolutionary War.

As Fever tries to get the door unlocked, memories that aren't her own begin to haunt her. Kit seems very interested to learn all about them. Fever remembers nothing of her life before Dr. Crumb but what he told her: she was orphaned. But now she's beginning to question all of what she thought was true, where the memories are coming from, why strangers want her dead, and what her role is in unlocking the secrets of the past.

Original fantasy novels are few and far between, and this is one of them. I wait for these kinds of books; I love them. I'm very excited! But...I have to finish reading the two other books I've started this week before I let myself start another. One of the many trials of library life.

Free Audiobooks! FREE!

I just discovered something fantastic. I'm very excited about this, and I don't even listen to audiobooks all that much.

SYNC, an online community (it's a Ning, like the Nerdfighters community) that wants to build up a bigger audience for audiobooks, is giving us all FREE audiobooks for the rest of the summer.

On top of all that, they are books you will actually WANT to read--or listen to in this case--because they are good!

They give you two titles each week--they started on July 1, so you have only the remainder of today to get this week's selection--one YA novel and one "classic" that goes along with it. The books might have similar themes, one might be a retelling on the other, both might have horrifying monsters--you get the idea.

Without further ado, the schedule:

July 1 - July 7


The Angel Experiment by James Patterson


Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

July 8 - July 14


Over the End Line by Alfred C. Martino


The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

July 15 - July 21


Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer


Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

July 22 - July 28


The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

July 29 - August 4


The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

August 5 - August 11


Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah


A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

August 12 - August 18


Beastly by Alex Flinn
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

August 19 - August 25


Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston


A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

August 26 - September 1


Handbook for Boys by Walter Dean Myers


Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

This is what you need to do!

1. You go to the SYNC website.

2. You click on the "YA Literature Listeners: Watch video and enter here" link. Or you can just click the word "here" right here.

3. Click the "Download audiobooks" link, or this one [Note: That particular link might expire when the two titles this week change, be warned. Just use the link to SYNC in that case.] It tells you some stuff about the books, like that they're in MP3 format and so forth, and that you must first download OverDrive, which takes less than five minutes and is also FREE. You'll need that program later.

4. Once you've downloaded OverDrive, on the audiobook download page (link up in #3), you will see the two book titles on your right, under the green SYNC logo. Click "Get your SYNC Link" for the book you want (you can go back and get the other later).

5. It will ask for your name and e-mail, type them in and hit "Submit"--you'll be redirected to the actual download page.

6. Click "Get your SYNC Link" again

7. Click "Download (Whatever book you choose) Now!"

8. Overdrive, the program you downloaded earlier, will pop open, ask you where you want your book stored, click "Okay" and then ask what parts of the book you want, just tell it to download them all--the default option.

9. When your book has fully downloaded, it's in OverDrive whenever you want it. You can burn it to a CD (or several) or easily transfer it to your iPod or other MP3-capable device. Like your phone. Or your Kindle. *Pulls Kindle out of bag, downloads books onto Kindle*

This whole process takes less than five minutes. Trust me.

What's awesome is that even though each title is only free for a week, the download never expires--those books are yours FOREVER. Meaning the next time your parents decide to drag you halfway across the country by car, you have something to entertain yourself with that doesn't involve hitting your siblings, fighting with your siblings, throwing things at your siblings until they finally notice, shoving things up the nose or in the ears of your sleeping sibling...you get the idea. And don't pretend you are "too old" to do any of those things. I'm in my 20's and I STILL do all of those things to my younger brother and would do far worse to him if I didn't know he could now hit harder than I can, and run faster.

If you want to, you can even use the Ning community to talk about the books you're listening to, or you can talk to us on Facebook or here on the blog. Or in person, because I'm around the library every day (mostly).

So go download free books now!

And here's the link to SYNC again...just in case scrolling up to look for it sounds too much like work.

Some Short Stories, and Some Long Ones

Can I just tell you that I have a LOT of new books right now, and keeping up is hard!

Okay. I'm done.

First come the short story collections. We have two.

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci.


Featuring stories from (drumroll please): M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, John Green, Hope Harson, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Tracy Lynn, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Cynthia & Greg Leitich Smith, Scott Westerfeld, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr! Simply put, this book is Made of Awesome.

I, of course, flipped right to the story by John Green. DFTBA.

And, if you enjoy the story by Kelly Link in Geektastic, be sure to check out this collection of short stories, which is all Kelly Link all the time: Pretty Monsters


The book contains, but is not limited to: A phone booth in Las Vegas (those are around), Aliens (who knows), Unhelpful Wizards (would you be helpful if you were a wizard?), Possibly carnivorous sofas (mine eats coins and darning needles), A handbag with a village inside it (seems that way sometimes), Tennessee Fainting Goats (exist), Dueling librarians (true story), A statue of George Washington (they make those, you know), A boy named Onion (it could happen--my grandpa's nickname was "Onions"), Pirates, An undead babysitter, A nationally ranked soccer player, Evil Cinderella, Shapeshifters, and An unexpected campfire guest.

On to the long-ish stories. Novels.

Tim Wynne-Jones' spooky and suspenseful The Uninvited ...


Mimi Shapiro flees NYU and an ill-advised relationship with one of her professors. She heads to her father's cottage in Canada only to discover that someone else is already living there, a little tidbit her father didn't mention when he told her where to find the hide-a-key. Jay, the other resident, instantly accuses Mimi of leaving strange tokens for him, snake skins, a dead bird, and so forth. Mimi, fresh off a road-trip, definitely isn't involved, so who's doing this? And what does he--or she--want?

Choppy Socky Blues by Ed Briant...



Jason Smallfield desires only one thing, to be as different from his father as he can. The complete opposite, if possible. His movie-stuntman dad lied and dumped his family like yesterday's trash. Jason even stops taking karate, his favorite thing in the world, just to avoid comparison to his father. But then he meets Tinga, a gorgeous girl about to test for her blue belt. Jason blurts out that he's about to take the same test...then has to turn to his father for help getting ready in time.

Asta in the Wings by Jan Elizabeth Watson...


Asta Hewitt and her brother Orion have been isolated from the world by their delusional mother. The two are happy, creating their own peaceful, imaginary world. When their family is suddenly drug into the strange "real" world, Asta must find a way to fit in, while still staying true to herself and her family. Asta is a lovely narrator, funny and hopeful. This is a wonderful novel.

And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman...



Delia is certain her mother isn't dead. But she's the only one who thinks so. So she's shipped off to New York City to live with her aunts, "one a downtown bohemian, the other an uptown ice queen." She's also stuck coping with her new school (snooty) and trying to avoid falling for the wrong guy. All the while, she's looking for her mother, finding lies and conspiracies, discovering that the wrong guy might not be so wrong after all and that some secrets might need to stay secret.

For GUYS (and Girls, I Suppose)

Over the last month of the summer reading program, I have tried to find some of you books to read, and you do a lot of shrugging when I ask you if you like something...so I have decided to compile A Reading Guy-de. Get it? It's "guy" and "guide" put together!

No one else is laughing.

In fact, there were some face-palms. That means you think I'm a moron.

You're right.

Here, though, are some NEW books that don't involve the beheaded torso of some girl, or pink on the cover.

The newest book from Cory Doctorow (who is made of awesome, so if you don't know him, read his stuff) For the Win.


I'm going to let the publisher describe it for you:

At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual "gold," jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world's poorest countries, where countless "gold farmers," bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.

Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of "General Robotwalla." In Shenzen, heart of China's industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.

That would be the blurb from the dust jacket of the first edition, brought to us all by Tor (and now I won't get sued).

And although I love the U.S. cover, I have to say, the U.K. one is legendary, as it reminds me of an old Soviet-era propaganda poster.


From the author of Holes (Remember Holes? If you don't, go read that too), Louis Sachar, we have The Cardturner.


Alton's summer is looking bleak. Here is why: 1. His girlfriend dumped him 2. She did so in order to date his bast friend 3. He is penniless 4. He is jobless 5. His parents have forced him to drive his great-uncle Lester to bridge club four times a week and 6. He must be Lester's cardturner because 7. Lester is blind 8. Lester is old 9. Lester is sick and 10. Lester is RICH.

As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins has eye catching illustrations to go along with poor Ry's many near-death experiences. They look like something out of The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook, which is a much-referenced part of my home library (I love the travel one too--it teaches you how to ask for towels to stop the bleeding in, like, five languages. You can't beat that.).


See, Ry was headed to archaeology camp, but before he could get there, it was cancelled, but when he tried to call home, his train left while he stood dumbstruck on the platform and now he has no food and no anything else and his parents are off in the Caribbean and his grandfather is concussed not to mention missing and Ry has to get home using only his wits and the lint from his pockets.

A personal favorite of mine is the utterly original Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin.

Part thriller, part dark comedy, part philosophical debate, Fade to Blue follows Sophie Blue, Goth-Girl Supreme, who is currently being stalked by a Popsicle-Truck-Driving Robot/Man who may or may not be her father, who vanished/spontaneously combusted/got abducted by aliens a year ago and Kenny Fade, the Basketball God with the gorgeous cheerleader girlfriend and the perfect life. What do they have in common? They're both pretty certain they're losing their minds.


This novel starts out, well...novel, then breaks into a graphic novel portion, then snaps back to prose without skipping a beat. And the ending--I'll just let you figure that out for yourself.

Wereling by Steve Feasey, for those of you who aren't sick of the whole werewolf thing (I am).


Trey wakes up one morning in "retina-splitting, vomit-inducing agony" with his clothes shredded and his room trashed. Now he's being hunted by every demon out there and by the "most psychopathic bloodsucker to rock the Netherworld." All because he can take on a vampire and win. Maybe.

And remember this one from earlier today?



And there's always this one, a generation ship "waking up" and destroying the people on board...


Living Hell by Catherine Jinks.

And the prison Incarceron (by Catherine Fisher), filled with prisoners who've lived inside its ever-changing walls there whole lives, until Finn decides to escape, that is.


And Maze Runner, a giant experiment filled with boys with no memories, except Thomas, who knows more about the Glade than he wants to remember.


For those of you who enjoy literary fiction (books that make you think, the ones that have Symbols and Whatnot), take a look at these:


Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan


And Going Bovine by Libba Bray.

That's enough to get you started, right?

Author Spotlight: Laura Wiess

I discovered one of Laura Wiess' books and wanted to read them all, and I think you'll feel the same way.

Leftovers follows best friends Blair and Ardith, who band together to do "something unforgivable" which might involve murder, but I didn't read long enough to find out. Why? Because this book made me cry in the third chapter. Heart-wrenching. But then, I cry a lot when I read. Not normally, but when I read...a lot. I would have kept going, but I was sitting at the circulation desk just then, and crying here is not such a great idea.


Poor Ardith is abused and neglected through her childhood and into adolescence. She is so damaged that the portions of the narrative she tells are in second person--in other words, she has no concrete identity and the trauma is enough that she deflects it to someone else--she says "you" instead of "I."

Blair, on the other hand, is in a nice house in a well-off neighborhood--with a mother who cares more about her career than Blair and a father who is more focused on his affair than his family. Blair's only real family, her dog, is stolen from her by her parents when the family moves to an even nicer house, breaking Blair's heart. And mine. That was when I stopped.

From the opening, the novel seems to be told in a manner similar to a confession, perhaps to the police or even to the girls' victim.

Such a Pretty Girl


Meredith's father was locked away in jail, sentenced to nine years in prison for raping her. However, instead of serving all nine years, he served three. Now he's coming home. Meredith's mother remains in staunch denial of her husband's crimes and Meredith, at fifteen, has nowhere else to go. Meredith has no choice but to save herself, and all the other children her father has hurt.

Believe me when I tell you that you will adore Meredith. She is such a strong, quirky, real narrator. I've seen her compared to Scout from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. I would consider that an accurate parallel. Meredith will be your hero.

In How it Ends, all Hanna's wanted was to date Scott. When they finally start dating, what she imagined to be a fairy tale romance is in reality dark, cruel, and harsh. Hanna has no idea why Scott could treat her this way, and, bewildered, she remains in the relationship.


Hanna decides to spend time with her dying neighbor Helen, whose home was once Hanna's refuge. Now, though, her illness has made Helen a stranger. The two begin to listen to an audiobook, and Hanna is drawn to the story, changed by it, until suddenly it becomes frighteningly real.

You should note that a lot of the subject matter Wiess explores will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins--except these aren't written in verse. And--to my knowledge--no meth. Thank goodness for that. Fans of Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas or Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott will also be drawn to Wiess' books.

If you want to read more about Laura Wiess or her books, you can visit her website and send her an e-mail, read excerpts, and so forth.

New Series Fiction!

A whole host of our favorite series(es) have new installments just in time for our summer vacations!

Garth Nix's final book in The Keys to the Kingdom: Lord Sunday!


This is book seven, the last day of the week--and I've been waiting a Very Long Time to see what happens.

The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan, book one of The Homelanders has arrived in paperback!


Charlie West wakes up with no memory, bruised and bloodied, and the first thing he hears is a stranger ordering someone to kill him.

The tenth (and last--according to the cover) book in the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison: Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? has arrived!


I would answer that question, but I need a British slang dictionary first...

Books 3, 4, and 5 of The Warriors: Power of Three series by Erin Hunter.




And for those of you (like me) who adore Tamora Pierce, Beka Cooper Book Two: Bloodhound.


This is the follow-up to Terrier.

Enjoy!