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And bears, oh my! Cyrus is the first book in Kenzie's newest series Black Bear Outlaws, which is part of the multi-author Mating Fever Collection. These short stories are great for a quick read, full of action, romance, and spunk! Good girl, Claire Erikson always seems to find herself with the bad boy. Her ex is back claiming to be reformed and wants her for his mate. Claire is determined to keep that chapter of her life closed, date only nice men is her motto. With a pending mating between Claire and her ex...the Council is determined to see the mating through for the benefit of the pack. That is until former bad boy, Cyrus Doucet, comes to her aide. Cyrus is a great lead into what we can expect to see from the Doucet brothers. I received an ARC of Cyrus for an honest review.

Source: eARC for Honest Review from Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGalley There is something about Military Romances that make my heart swell and Jessica Scott knows how to get to the heart of things in her Coming Home series. I have loved Carponti throughout the series and we finally get to see what makes him tick. For Carponti, he gets through war and life with humor. But what keeps him going his love for his wife Nicole and hearing her laugh. After getting deployed again both Carponti and Nicole fear the worse and when tragedy happens Carponti fears that love is not enough. But what Carponti forgets that his humor and love of life is what his wife loves about him. She loves ALL of him no matter what. In the end Carponti keeps his promise and makes it home for Christmas. This is a sweet story about getting through dark times with hope, humor and love. It is also a great refresher of Trent and Laura and I can't wait to find out what happens in Back to You which comes out in January 2014. For more reviews, visit Live Read and Breathe Like us on Facebook Live Read and Breathe Facebook Follow along with Twitter Live Read and Breathe Twitter

Maybe I am just too distracted for longer books. Or maybe this book just came at the right time, but for whatever reason, I enjoyed this little novel. Mr. Fooster is someone I would like to spend more time with. Tom Corwin came up with a clever, interesting idea. A man goes for a walk and is open to a world of possibilities. Because he is open, things happen to him that would not happen to most of us. Corwin's story seems possible because of Craig Frazier's illustrations. By the end of the story, Mr. Fooster has learned a few things and maybe the reader has too. I recommend this book to those with imagination; readers who are looking for a short, fun read and to those who see life as full of possibility.

I won this through goodreads first reads. This reads more like an advertising pamphlet than a book. It's sponsored by a for-profit company in conjunction with state agencies, so I'm a little skeptical about its motives. It's also not any good as a book. No child would sit through this, no parent is going to be particularly interested in the "narrative," and the rhyme and meter are off. The illustrations are pretty nice, but they seem wasted here.

My immediate thoughts after reading Lili Anolik's Dark Rooms: 1. Wait, that's it? 2. Seriously, that's freaking IT?!! 3. That's bullshit. 4. Well, I guess that's one weekend I can never get back. I should have known. I was on a roll; I was reading some good, some not so good but entertaining books and then I read Dark Rooms and my streak came to a screeching halt. I knew within reading the first paragraph I wasn't going to like it but I kept trudging away. My instincts were right. Dark Rooms is a murder mystery set in a prep school. At least, that's what the book jacket tells me. In actuality, it's a meandering, lukewarm, and ridiculous melodrama that happens to have a murder in it. The victim? Nica, a popular but emotionally withholding girl who is found shot in a graveyard one night. The suspect is her ex boyfriend, Jamie, but he has an alibi. Nica's parents and older sister but immature sister, Grace, are devastated. The case is seemingly closed when another classmate commits suicide and leaves in his note that he killed Nica. Case closed, right? Not quite. Grace becomes obsessed with finding Nica's killer while dealing with her own emotional spiral into oblivion. During the process, she discovers hidden aspects of Nica's past as well as her parents' that connect with her present. I didn't enjoy Anolik's writing. There was something about that annoyed me. It felt a bit like reading bad fan fiction. I think a lot of it was due her writing from Grace's POV. Grace was a horrible character. She was annoying, immature, ridiculously naive and stupid. She was the "Too Stupid to Live" heroine. Many of the plot points just fell on her lap conveniently. SPOILER ALERT: Grace is raped at a party where she was high and as a result is pregnant. For some reason, the idea of being raped never occurs to her until her rapist confronts her. Mind you, this guy is also her love interest AND Nica's ex-boyfriend. Yup. Then, he leaves her voice mail asking Grace to marry him and have his baby. Well, isn't that special? No. It's not. What it is is very stupid, unfathomable, and offensive. Ugh. I get it. The guy was consumed by grief; at the time, Grace, all strung out, was dressed like Nica. So when she was passed out but mumbling sweet nothings, dude pounced. Get the F out of here, Anolik, with your bullshit excuse. Also, all that crap to find the killer and Grace does and nothing is done about it. According to her, nothing could be done about it. Really? You sure? I bet it can if you tried, idiot. There were only 2 aspects about Dark Rooms I liked: First, I liked what Anolik said ultimately about Grace solving the crime: it solved nothing. It made Grace stagnant when she should have been moving on with her life. If I had liked any of the characters, I would have appreciated this more. The second was that, despite being horrible, Dark Rooms is an insanely fast read. That was its saving Grace. Ha! Made a pun.

Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa by Niki Daly (2007)-Folklore This version of the Little Red Riding Hood tale is set in Africa. Pretty Salma gets dressed up to go to the market for her grandmother. She "puts on her blue scarf, her stripy ntama, her pretty white beads, and her yellow sandals (Parents Choice)." When leaving the market she crosses into the wild side of town and meets Mr. Dog. He follows her and tricks her into giving him her articles of clothing and attempting to teach him her favorite song. He rushes to Pretty Salma's house and tries to trick her Grandmother into thinking he is Salma. He is given away when he barks instead of sings. He is then scared off by Salma, her grandfather, and friend dressed in various costumes (Ananasi and Ka Ka Motobi: The bogyman). Themes:Overcoming obstacles, learning from mistakes, trickery Teaching options: Teachers or Librarians this book and other versions of Little Red Riding Hood to compare art from other countries, talk about morals, show cause and effect, and discuss other cultures.

This book has nice colorful illustrations and is good for teaching colors. But, it certainly does not teach the colors of the rainbow. The colors of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. According to this book the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. I gave this book two stars because it's good for teaching colors, but it does not teach kids what the colors of the rainbow are like it claims.

I've been a big fan of this series, but it seems to be becoming very formulaic which is a personal pet peeve. YMMV. Bones are discovered! Are they old or are they recent? A potential love interest materializes for Ruth! But it doesn't work out and something happens that reinforces that Nelson is only the man for her! But then something happens in Nelson's life that keeps him and Ruth from getting together! Phil, Shona, and Cathbad make brief cameos so we know they still exist! The prose is still well written, and I do like the characters, but the story lines? Not so much.

I loved this book so much. Drama, drama, drama. The cast of characters were rich. The story lines (yes, there were two) were interesting. One is the tale of a family with too many dark secrets, a family that needed to heal. Slowly, the author revealed the horrific family past, which kept me turning the pages. The Gladys Kravitz in me couldn't wait to learn about all their dirt. The optimist in me wanted to see they would all be all right in the end. It's heart-wrenching. It's hopeful. Bravo!

I enjoyed this season one a little less than Ant-Man, but thought it was good in that it was a kinda fresh take on the original 5 X-men.

4 Tooth Pulling Stars!! Source: eARC for Honest Review Courtesy from Authors Oh, Boy! K.A. Merikan have done it again with another great dark story. This is technically part 2 in a series but can be read as a standalone as they're all new characters. Tooth who happens to be the VP of the Coffin Nails MC is on a mission to avenge a long lost lover, which is why he ended up with the MC to start with. However, the last thing he wants is to babysit the president's kid. Lucifer has lost everything and does what he needs to do to survive, which is hook. Minding his own business he ends up smack in the world of the Coffin Nail MC with his long lost dad who happens to be president and has a thing for satan as well as under the supervision of the VP of the club, Tooth. To protect himself, Lucifer takes risk and shoots off his mouth more often than not, but he can't to far with the short leash of Tooth. As Tooth invades his world with a tight hold, he starts to get unrequited feelings for this straight man but he also gets other mixed signals. Tooth has been down this road before and he doesn't want to give into his desires and screw over his president by being with Lucifer but he couldn't hold out forever. As Tooth and Lucifer give in to their carnal desires they both land into the middle of a shit storm with the MC, organ snatchers and Tooth's past. With the first book in this series it took quite awhile to get momentum and for me to like the book, but with this one I was hooked from the beginning. However, it took for-frigging-ever for the naughty business to come to fruition, but once it did, Yowza. As usual with K.A. Merikan, this book was edgy, raw, dark and unique. I enjoyed it from start to finish, I will admit to date, my favorite K.A. Merikan series so far is still the Guns n' Boys series but this one is another goody. For more reviews, visit Live Read and Breathe Like us on Facebook Live Read and Breathe Facebook Follow along with Twitter Live Read and Breathe Twitter

I underestimated how much I would love this book. The Railway Children is a story about three siblings and their adventures in the countryside. Full of bravery, innocence and good fun, it is the kind of story that I want my own children to read one day.

Check out my other book reviews at my blog; The Title Page Before the opening page, there is a quote from a zombie novel I read a while back. I instantly knew I had read it before even before I arrived at the credit. "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." -- T.S. Eliot, Hollowmen Do you know how many post-apocalyptic books have copied this exact quote? Either stolen it and put it in the novel as works of their own, or quoting it at the beginning of the novel or a chapter. Can we be a bit more original please? Way overdone. Right off I get the feeling that this author is attempting to write way above her skill level. The sentences are overly cryptic and forced. "They keep us in the dark for so long that we lose sense of our eyelids" Umm... what? I don't even... First grammar mistake? *ding, ding, ding!* Second page; author uses 'its' as possessive. Even Microsoft Word will tell you that's wrong. Looking past the author's blatant disregard for common grammar laws, we move on the the main character being 'noticed'. Oh how swell, this would be a boring story otherwise. "His eyes, green, like two exclamation marks, meet mine." Umm... what? "The strange color of my eyes is the first thing anyone ever notices" Screaming; "LOOK, I'M SPECIAL!" Apart from the grammar mistakes in this quote, it's obvious the author wants us to know just how Mary Sue her character is. HER EYES, HER EYES, OMG HER EYES! I get to the part where Rhine is 'chosen' with two other girls. The guards then shoot all of the girls who were not chose. Tell me this... in a post-apocolyptic world where women don't live past age 20 (don't even get me started on this idea) what good could it possibly do to kill a dozen or so sixteen year olds? The only thing I see them doing is killing off potential breeders. I just died. Might stop reading this sad excuse for a novel, all it is doing is pissing me off and boring me. We move on and Rhine (along with the other pretty-but-not-as-gorgeous-as-Rhine) brides get married to their mysterious gold-teethed fiance (and that is supposed to sound attractive? Eew) This whole (what, 10%?) of the book is useless and boring. I had to stop myself from putting it down. It's filled with "I went upstairs"'s "she led me down the hall"'s and "yet another"'s. I'm bored. "The other brides are dressed in black and yellow versions of my outfit, respectively." Ok... does the author not know how to use the term 'respectively'? You can't put it at the end of a description without previously determining who was listed first. And of course, little miss "I have pretty eyes" get's the only good color dress... red. I find the author goes off on these tangents. A secondary character will say one sentence and Rhine will bloom into thought about how she used to eat bananas before taking her evening dump. Very obtrusive. Every time I happen upon one of these, all I can think is "Here we go again" She is also contradictory to the point of confusion, for example; Rhine mentions she didn't know much geography at all when asked if she knew what Japan was. Then, not even 3 paragraphs later, she is explaining about how her father was a "world enthusiast." and had an atlas, where Japan was a favorite of hers. (Why Japan? Just cause? Oissh, of course, the Geisha's, the only thing anyone in the US seems to know about Japan.) Another time, she says Linden did not come into her bedroom. Next sentence; "But in the early hours of the morning, I'm awakened by the turn of the doorknob." Umm.. ok, who could it be? Linden... Get your story straight. How about this... these girls are stuck up in this mansion for a year with all the food they can imagine, sucking on candies all day long... wouldn't they get fat? I know I would. And Rhine whines and whines about wanting to leave, but she never actually makes an attempt at it. What does she have to go back to? I'm sure her brother would be fine without her, and it's not like she had a job or friends. And I'm sure, with Linden head over heels for her, he would be fine with her sending a letter to her brother telling him where she is and that she is fine. Maybe he could even live with them and work in the house, I don't know, cause she never tries it! As much as other reviews say that Gabriel is practically nonexistent, he does seem to be around a lot in the first half of the book. And he does seem to have an awful lot of 'rare' smiles... The author goes on and on throughout the novel about how Vaughn is dissecting the bodies in the basement. She assumes this because she saw them wheeling Rose's body down the hall on a gurney... Her body was being taken down the hall... God forbid... And she is always saying how one day they will all be corpses lined up for his experiments. Excuse me, but how long do you think a body will last? Bodies need to be dissected within weeks of death. By her math, it will be at least 6 years before all four of the sister-wives are dead, I don't think anyone would want to keep a rotting corpse in their basement for 6 years for study, even someone mad as Vaughn. I feel I have overdone the face-palm GIFs on this one... Overall though, the book tied together really well. The polygamy was so farfetched with where we are in today's society, I wanted to punch the author for even having such a ridiculous plot idea. And I'm sorry, but girls getting some sort of 'virus' right after their 20th birthdays, and men doing the same at 25? That's just fucking stupid. You can't be healthy your whole life and then BOOM, as soon as you turn 20 you get TB. Dumb, dumb, dumb. If this took place in a parallel universe, or in the past, where polygamy was common, I would have enjoyed it much more. And it wouldn't have taken away from the novel much at all because they don't seem to have computers in this story at all... or phones... or surveillance cameras (don't you think someone like Vaughn would put up cameras in his basement/laboratory?) After I got past the boring parts, I enjoyed the book, albeit the massive amount of "OMG, WTF?!"'s. However, if you care about believability, I wouldn't bother with it. If you are one who can just brush off a pile of super-important-plot-related-crap that makes absolutely no sense, enjoy yourself. :)

Text: 5 stars Illustrations: 5 stars Children's biography of Coretta Scott King. Good coverage of her early life, before marrying Martin Luther King Jr., and strong focus on her own contributions, but skims a little too quickly through her participation in the civil rights movement. Wonderful illustrations. Part of the Women Who Broke the Rules series.

Great read - page turner.

I picked this up due to the queer content, but ultimately ended up disappointed. The premise was set up like a run of the mill horror movie (remote cabin in the woods, mysterious things start happening, doom!) and the characters were not very fleshed out in much the same manner. there was a twist at the end, but I really wasn't much of a fan of how things turned out. It didn't all quite add up and I feel like I've read other books recently with a similar final twist.

See full review for Reunion at: https://toomanybooksnotenoughshelves.... Suze Simon has adjusted to life in sunny Carmel, California. She's sent a few ghosts packing, she's still dealing with the ghost - Jesse - who lives in her bedroom, and she is even somewhat popular. Her adjustment is just in time too, because her best friend from New York - Gina - is visiting for the week and she is so excited. Hanging out with her best friend by lying on the beach and soaking up some rays, while occasionally going to school? Sounds like a good time to Suze. But, of course, Suze isn't that lucky. While picking up some drinks at the local mart at one of the beaches, she sees something completely odd. Four teenagers dressed in formal wear trying to pinch a case of beer. Suze knows that there's no way the store owner is going to let them get away with that, so why are they even bothering? That's when she notices the truth. They're not alive. They're ghosts. They're the spirits of the four teens who died in a horrific car accident the other night. Should be a breeze, because she has handled worse cases, right? Wrong. It starts when Jesse mentions that the four spirits are angry and he's concerned for Suze's wellfare. Then when she actually sees the ghosts again their sending down a plaster Mardi Gras head onto a fellow classmate of hers. The classmate who was in the other car and walked away unscathed. Now, she knows that it's a matter of revenge...but who's? I've said it in my other reviews for this series, and I don't mind saying it again. I love these books a lot. And even though it's been over a decade since I first read them, they are still great.

Worum geht's? Ein Forum, in dem man Menschen, die man tot sehen will, fur eine Todesliste nominieren kann. Mitglieder, die unglaubig bis begeistert uber eben diese Todesliste abstimmen. Und ein Killer, fur den deren Willen sein Befehl ist und das Leben in Hamburg lahmlegt. Daniel Buchholz und Nina Salomon, Ermittler des LKA Hamburg, ermitteln mit ihrem Team auf Hochtouren und vor allem gegen die Zeit. Denn die nachste Abstimmung lauft bereits und der Killer hat seine Opfer schon langst im Visier. Wie war's? Anonym ist spannend geschrieben und man kann es kaum aus der Hand legen. Die Idee, das Internet, speziell das Dark Web, als einen der hauptsachlichen Dreh- und Angelpunkte der Story und der Ermittlungen zu machen erinnert zwar ein wenig an Der Totschlager von Chris Carter, wurde aber dennoch gut umgesetzt. Ausserdem fuhrt nicht jede Spur zum nachsten Ermittlungserfolg, man spurt die Frustration der Ermittler also am eigenen Leib. Die Handlung wird wechselnd aus den Sichtweisen der beiden Ermittler geschildert. Die Kapitel sind allerdings weder gekennzeichnet noch sind die Sichtweisen und damit die Charaktere signifikant anders, als dass man den Wechsel sofort registrieren wurde. Alle sind mude, gereizt, frustriert. Warum es uberhaupt zwei Sichtweisen gibt ist mir schleierhaft. Auch die Ermittlerfiguren Buchholz und Salomon an sich sind schwer verdaulich. Vor allem Nina Salomon, die anfangs frischen Wind zu versprechen schien, wurde durch ihre Unprofessionalitat zusehends unertraglicher. Auch die Reaktion ihrer Vorgesetzten auf ihre letzte Aktion ist nicht nachvollziehbar bzw. klingt unrealistisch. Unrealistisch ist ubrigens auch die Hilfe der CIA. Dass man beim BKA Amtshilfe leistet ist vielleicht noch im Rahmen des Denkbaren, aber einem LKA? Zudem ist deren Anteil an der Story derart irrelevant, dass man die beiden Agents auch hatte weglassen konnen. Im Nachhinein wirkt es wie eine Idee der Autoren, die nicht weiter verfolgt oder gar vergessen wurde. Die Auflosung schliesslich und der Killer sind schlichtweg unbefriedigend. Ein Thriller ist dann toll, wenn man nicht schon nach einem Drittel weiss, wer der Killer ist. Nachvollziehbar sollte es aber schon sein. Das ist nicht der Fall, und die Auflosung wirft mehr Fragen auf als sie beantwortet. Ausserdem spricht es vollig gegen gewonnene Erkenntnisse wahrend der Ermittlungen. Insgesamt ist der Thriller packend geschrieben und ein guter Zeitvertreib. Auch die Story ist mal etwas anderes und wirft die Fragen auf, wer eigentlich Schuld an den Morden tragt und, im weiteren Sinne, wer fur Aktionen die Verantwortung tragt, die im Netz ihren Ursprung haben. Ist es immer der Handelnde? Oder sind es auch Umstehende, die anfeuern, anstacheln, nichts tun? Eine interessante Frage in unserer heutigen Zeit, und die auch nach Ende des Thrillers noch nachhangt. Wie schon erwahnt, erinnert die Story ein wenig an Der Totschlager von Chris Carter. In diesem Thriller wird zu der Frage noch eine andere Ebene eingeworfen, und wer sich fur Cybercrime in Thrillern interessiert, sollte sich diesen Teil der Rob Hunter Serie auf jeden Fall zulegen.

one of the best stories of all of time and space

I got an ARC in return for an honest review on NetGalley. I am going to admit something that should make me ashamed: I picked this book solely off the cover. I do it so often that my friends are just used to me picking up books as we walk by displays in the library and leaving before we even make it back to the stacks. How could I pass up on this cover? I love it and it looks exactly like something that would drag me in. Why would a jellyfish have pillow thoughts? I was immediately drawn in. Goodreads and Amazon have different covers for the book, but I refuse to acknowledge them or use them. To follow the jellyfish motif, there are little drawings of a jellyfish between the sections that match the sections. I have no idea why I love it, but I do. I didn't know that jellyfish would be a good way to sell me on something until this book. It might not hurt that I then imagined every poem was written by a jellyfish, which in the end just made me worried about jellyfish culture and very impressed with their emotional depth. The poems were very striking. They ranged from one line to paragraphs. I was finding myself relating to most of the poems almost immediately. This book became a very personal and visceral experience for me. It was shocking that a jellyfish could understand me so well. I found so many of the poems allowed for multiple expressions of love. There was an openness that allowed them to apply to my long distance best friend that I love, as well as to partners I have lost. I love how it fit into a more modern view of love. I also requested another book by this author. I am excited. NetGalley might be morphing me into someone who looks forward to poetry.

Here's the thing: this book is gooooood. But the end made me FREAK the F@CK OUT. Dex and Sloane are having a covert relationship. Which makes for lots of fun stealth hook-ups. About the relationships: Sloane and Ash are both Therian shifters who actually grew up together in the pre-THIRDS program. They suffered a lot, as the Powers That Be examined them, learned how the Therians worked, how they shifted, and taught them to control the beast within. It was terrifying, and Sloane is scared that Dex will leave him if he knows the truth about his history. Thing is, Dex couldn't care less. Well, that's not entirely true. He cares about Sloane being happy. If Sloane's past makes Sloane pensive, or angry, closed off, well then Dex cares. But details about Sloane's mistakes as a scared child? Pfft. Nada worries. Can I say I love Dex? I may be a human woman, and therefore thoroughly unattractive to this fictional gay man, but I swoon for him, nonetheless. He is just so fun, and flirty and intriguing. I guess that's why everyone (excepting Ash) adores him. #GuiltyAsCharged In this episode we also have Cael, Dex's foster brother, revealing his deep affection for Ash--and Ash being a bigger total D-bag than usual. Which is saying a lot because Ash is a D-bag all the time. Okay, I do love Ash, too, because I understand that he's been broken, but it takes a good bit of love to consider that his turn-coatery is actually much more than it appears. And, his repulsion of Cael's affection is for Cael's own good. Mostly because loving Ash is more difficult and painful than hugging a Saguaro cactus. The plain truth is, rogue Therians are executing humans who did a whole lot of Therian killing in the big skirmishes years ago, and it's up to Dex, Sloane and Destructive Delta crew to ride point on the capture. This is made more complicated by the revelation that a mole exists within THIRDS and all the opportunities to apprehend the offenders result in chasing smoke on the wind. This thoroughly realized action-adventure-shifter-police procedural-gay-romance is sure to satisfy the most genre-confused among us. And, I'm so eager for the next novel in the series I'm having trouble holding back the begging to Ms. Cochet. Good thing she throws out short THIRDS vignettes every Thursday on her blog. It's like a weekly hit of my fave fictional drug, which softens the withdrawl symptoms just enough to manage. Back to my post-book freak out... here's how I felt when I ended the book: SLOANE!!!!

I feel about this book pretty much the same way I felt about volume two, Dark Triumph. It is a great character study. Annith, like Ismae and Sybella before her, was an interesting protagonist with a fascinating backstory. I also enjoyed the theological orientation of this installment. However, also like book two, I found the plot sluggish. It takes a long time to get going and the final resolution to Duchess's plot relies heavily on a deus ex machina I found totally underwhelming. I feel like the first book had such a rich, complex plot where these last two volumes had enough plot for one book stretched out over two. All three of these books offer beautiful writing, well developed characters and interesting mythology. The quality of plotting definitely declines after the first book. Still a series worth reading though for sure.

Some of Tamblyn's pieces in Dark Sparkler are mor powerful than others, but it is the whole that truly cuts deep. Taken as a whole, as a searing examination of the state of women in Hollywood since the dawn of motion pictures, Dark Sparkler draws attention to the darkness, damage, and emotional destruction that Hollywood can do. Tamblyn does what only the great poets can- she makes you want to study her subjects, to memorize their lines and lives.

For some reason, I never tried this series before. Honestly, I gave up in the Sookie Stackhoue series after book #2 so I was a bit wary about trying this one out. Grave Sight is the first in the Harper Connelly series. Harper was struck by lightening when she was a little girl. She was left with the ability to find the dead. Now as an adult, she travels the country with her step-brother finding dead bodies for a fee. This first book sets up the scene for the reader. We get to know Harper and Toliver and how they ended up doing this for a living. We also get to know a lot about their childhoods. I thought this was a pretty unique take on psychic ability. Harper can find dead bodies and can see how they died, but she can't see who did it if it was murder. I found the mystery to be fairly engaging, but a little convoluted and long. It probably could have been shorted a little bit. If you haven't picked up this series yet, I do recommend giving this one a try. I'll be looking for the next book, Grave Surprise.

I just didn't understand the hype for this one. I have a feeling that this is one of those books that if I had read before reading any reviews, I would have given it a better rating. I'd been seeing this book get nothing but glowing reviews from people on Goodreads, so my expectations were pretty high and I had been looking forward to it for a while. Unfortunately though, my wait just seemed to end with nothing but disappointment. I'll start with the positives, since this book really isn't completely terrible. I really enjoyed the overall concept, kids with powers, hitler style concentration camps, camp breakouts, different classes of powers. The whole thing felt very dystopian meets X-Men, and in the beginning I was kind of enjoying it...but then the middle came. Now the middle of this book is basically our cast of characters searching for somewhere, which leads to lots of meandering exposition. I stuck with it because reviews had mentioned that the last 100 pages were brilliant, but while I thought they were better than what came before, they weren't good or interesting enough (for me) to save the book from a two 'it was okay' star rating. I was torn enough to ALMOST give it a three, but then I realised I have very little intention of picking up the sequel, so I can't really say I liked it. It was the characters that were the biggest letdown here. I've read enough YA now that a book really can just die without an interesting main or side character to draw me in, and this book just didn't deliver on that. I'd even go as far as to say that I found the main character, Ruby, kind of annoying. I found her to be weak, and without a backbone, always doubting herself when she was one of the more powerful (let's call them) mutants about. The side characters then, while less annoying, were just a little bland, and I didn't get attached to them. It also took me about two weeks to finish this book, which is unusual for me as I tend to fly through things pretty fast, but this just proves that it was lacking that 'hook'. Now it's easy to focus on the bad points when writing a review, so I'd like to point out that this book really isn't that terrible. The writing is generally really good, and I can even see why people enjoy it. I also seem to be one of the few people who didn't love this, so I'm just going to go ahead and call this a 'it's me, not you' book. I was disappointed, but you might not be, we will just leave it at that.

This is the sequel to VIRGIN and is best enjoyed if read in sequence, though it CAN be read as a standalone. Ellie is a 22 y/o new uni grad living in a flatshare with her good friend Emma, and two men, Ollie (on whom Ellie has a total crush) and Will. The thing is Ellie's the only single one, and she's not happy to be stuck in the only single room of the flat. She wants to find men to have sex with, many men, preferably. She recently lost her virginity to a douche, and she is dying to get more experience. She feels as if she's crap at sex, and doesn't get that everyone is, at first. As she's hardly had a chance to experiment, Ellie agrees to sign up for online dating. This is intriguing and disastrous. Her first date is a bit of a train wreck, with Ellie bolting via a fire escape just to get away from this guy. The second guy was really a good guy, I thought, but Ellie has weird idiosyncrasies that drive her to push him away. Their sex scene did give me a laughter cramp. Ye gads, Ellie's so very uptight. This is a problem every time she meets a man, actually. She desperately wants to have an orgasm with a guy, yet when she's in the act she's so trapped in her head that she can't enjoy the experience at all. It was honestly painful being in her brain--and the lack of arousal she experiences *almost* put me off sex for more than 24 hours... (It was a near thing!) She does meet a great guy, Nick, who's been quite hung up on his ex for too long. Ellie sees the opportunity to get her first One Night Stand out of the way, and does so--only to be stymied the following morning when he wants her number. And further confused when he calls her! And takes her on nice dates! Ellie is really a neurotic mess. She has roughly 3 ounces of self-esteem and cannot fathom how to behave as Nick's "rebound" girl--but her boss sees Ellie's dating nightmares to be fodder for a tell-all column in the online mag that she interns for--on an unpaid basis. The horrors that are Ellie's bad dates and bad pubic hair and further are now out on the 'net for all to read. It's mortifying, and she isn't even getting paid! While Ellie is a mess, she does get things together by the end. She makes bad, bad, bad decisions that upset her friends, family and flatmates, but she perseveres. She atones the best she can, and she takes control of her future in a way she had not considered before. Some of this is funny--uproariously so--but other points are raw. Ellie doesn't feel good about herself and this makes it easy for people to take advantage of her. She's trying to claim her life, but she really has no sense of being an adult, only a few vague ideas which make her feeble attempts at "adulting" poor. Her naivete is simultaneously humorous and sad, because it continually leads Ellie into poor choices. I liked how she worked through her issues in the end, becoming a far stronger character. I liked how she asserted her sexual independence throughout the book. She and her feminist friends attempt to redefine "slut" into a positive, which was an interesting concept, even if it didn't quite turn out.

ChosenBetrayedBurned These books are, honestly, my guilty pleasure. The writing style is simple and flows well, and the series is fraught with angst, mayhem, and raging teenage hormones; what's not to love?! I reread these books all the time.

i knew read sonia sanchez. nikki giovanni. audre lorde. before i ever even heard the name charles bukowski. finally, a proper education. -- the order affects us, nayyirah waheed

not the best,but good

In many ways the previous volumes feels like it was just setup, when compared to the new adventures here. The result is a lot of fun, especially as it offers a couple of contrasts to Brubaker's superb _Sleeper_ series. I want to read the next installment!

This book brought me to tears. It's poetic, insightful, and perfectly paced. The Creme Brulee of YA lit. I'm in awe of this author.

This was very much a love/hate book for me in terms of the poems contained within. See my review here: http://trebro.livejournal.com/264477....

Awesome per usual.

I found this second book to be a little slower than the first one. It picks up at the end again and really got me wanting to continue in the series but I had a big lull in the middle where I just wanted it to just go somewhere already. I think I'll be putting the series down for a bit to read some other things that have been burning a hole in my bookshelf but I anticipate that I will come back to it and read the rest, just because the characters really do stick with you!

I'm a huge Tolkien fan, so last year I got his translation of Beowulf, but I'm not in a good position to rate this book. For whatever reason, while I consider myself a reasonably avid reader, I hadn't previously read Beowulf. As a result of not having read it before I really can't say if it is a good translation or not. There is the translation, then Notes on the text of the Translation, Commentary, Sellic Spell, and the Lay of Beowulf. Beowulf as a story is enjoyable, reads well, and provides some potential insights into the impact on Tolkien's own works (dragons, evil, treasure stealing people, kings, honor, warriors), but I can't say if it is better than other translations or not. For academics, I would imagine the notes on the text of the Translation would be interesting, but for me, not so much so. I couldn't read through them. The same was true for me relating to the commentary on the translation. The Sellic Spell is a work of Tolkien's based on Beowulf and a final and original version are included. The Lay of Beowulf is also a work by Tolkien and similar in what he did with the Lays of Beleriand retelling his own stories of Beren and Luthien and the Children of Hurin in the Lay style.

Enjoyed this book a lot, where Stephanie tries to find her neighbor's granddaughter and great-granddaughter.

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I've read horrible endings, good endings, boring endings, cliff hangers, deaths, etc. But I've never read a more heart wrenching ending thus far. I thought Day was dead. I didn't think he would wake. But 5 months later he does. But of course its not all good. He doesn't remember June. She lets him go. Lives her life. And then years later, there lives cross again and he knows he knows her from somewhere and they start over and it ends... I cant stop crying right now. A really good ending but leaves me wanting more. I can't handle that much emotion. A really good job. The last book I read that was a finale was Allegiant and that was horrible and I didn't want a repeat with a death like Tris. I'm just happy they all lived.

Interesting! I plan on reading the next couple prequels and then the actual story.

4 Not Your typical Beautiful Stars!! Source: eARC for honest review from author This book had me go through a plethora of emotions reading Elise's journey. It's amazing the damage words can do. The choices Elise makes because of self hate and lack of self worth are astonishing. Elise 's character will not be for all. Some will hate her, some will relate to her, some will feel sorry for her and some will be neutral. Words have broken Elise. She believes she doesn't deserve happiness and all she has to own his her beauty so she uses it as a weapon. "You just want to hurt people, because you've been hurt." Elise is hurt so she hurts people back and doesn't let anyone in until Ryder and then eventually Natalie. With Ryder she loses her heart but doesn't know how to accept her happiness so she self sabatoges it. When she finally realizes she wants friends she reaches out to Natalie and for a brief moment she is happy with this friendship and Ryder. Then the consequences to her actions rear their ugly heads and she does the ultimate action that finally destroys everything. "For the record, I knew you were broken. Not like it was a secret. I wanted to know you anyways." Watching her destroy her happiness was hard to read. You want to shake her and you scream for her not to make her bad choices because you know the consequences are going to be big. "It's more than typical daddy issues," For Ryder he likes to fix pretty broken things. You realize that he has the patience of a saint and a heart of gold to be able to forgive and wait out Elise's journey not knowing that she will pick him in the end. "We all have a past, Elise. Sometimes we don't like where the road takes us; sometimes it leads us exactly where we need to be. I don't regret my past, and I don't give a damn about yours. All I care about is this." "Go ahead. Give me all you've got. Rip my fucking heart out if that's what you need to do. But it won't change this. I love you and I know you love me." This is not your typical love story but it does of a happy ending. It's a journey and evolution of a severely broken girl trying to heal and find her worth and her happiness Life's too short, and love's too good to pass up for some sham deal. You don' think there's something better out there? You're wrong. I know because I found it-the real stuff-and I'm the last person on the damn planet who deserves it. If the universe can hand me some, it sure as hell can hand some to you. Besides it's not a matter of deserving. It's a matter of respect. Unconditional grace. For more reviews, visit Live Read and Breathe Like us on Facebook Live Read and Breathe Facebook Follow along with Twitter Live Read and Breathe Twitter

Another amazing book in the Protectors Series --- Adam is everything you could want in a book by Teresa Gabelman Adam loses his girl, he loses his temper, but like everything he grows up and starts to wonder about his future and whether he will ever get his Girl back and if he will finally become a warrior? No spoilers but Teresa Gabelman has done it again with another great book. This is definitely a must read and would recommend highly to everyone. Congrats Teresa on another great book

Funny as always.

Rhyming animal book with a bit of mystery thrown in. Good for toddlers and preschoolers.

Vraiment tres bien meme si ca reste encore tres classique et que ca me rappelle pas mal Naruto a plusieurs moments... c'est un shonen efficace, qui fonctionne bien et j'ai hate de lire la suite, en esperant qu'elle prendra vite un tour un peu plus original. Une serie prometteuse, a suivre !

Harry is such a perfect teenager in this book! He's whiny and self-important, snapping at everyone else, and thinking that 'no one understands meeeeeeeee!" Jeesh. So at times it was difficult to read because of the wanting to smack him upside the head, but that's really quite a testament to Rowling's knowledge of her own characters and her understanding of how people (especially adolescents) can change. Another reason this was a difficult read was that I don't like change. And there's change all over this book. Yes, it starts on Pivet Drive and all that, but Hagrid is missing from a huge portion of the book, and then he's secretive with Harry, Ron and 'Hermy' for the rest. Dumbledore is ousted as headmaster for a while, Harry gets kissed by Cho, and Cho is all crying all over the place. It's awkward and difficult and horrifying. Just like a teenager's life should be.

A somewhat scattered story with a great ending (ultimately let down by the Secret Invasion mini-series).

I couldn't associate the name Moriarty to something so pleasantly written. But I'm not disappointed with the writing. it barely took me 3 days to finish it. Right from the beginning it was an absolute delight and a page turner. I loved how the author interspersed Chick lit humor into the complicated murder and domestic violence. One can definitely relate to more than one character in the book and it's regular people like us and most of the reactions are what we would had we been in similar situations. PS: I saw the casting for Big Little lies show and I could totally imagine Reese Witherspoon as Madeline

3.5 stars

all the feels!!!!!

An excellent description of all the ships and battles of the war of 1812, from the battles of the great lakes to the single-ship frigate actions on the high seas. B y congressional statute, this book is required to be part of each and every ship-board library of vessels belonging to the United States Navy.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

The seductive allure of freedom and its perils are described vividly in fifteen powerful free verse poems that mark various paths away from slavery through the Underground Railroad. Not only does the author describe the brutality of being whipped in "Never Again": "he got us hanging like hogs or fresh beef beating us" (unpaged), but she also points out the uncertainty about who to trust faced by those trying to find their way to freedom in "Look for the Broken Branch," and the mingled joy and relief upon reaching a safe place in "Welcome to Michigan." Painful though they are, these poems are meant to be read aloud and seem suitable for middle grades and high school. The illustrations are filled with emotion, sometimes pure terror, as in the case of the painting accompanying "The Hole," showing a man hiding beneath the floor boards while others dance right above him. I'm not sure about the reference to Sojourner Truth threatening to kill a reluctant passenger on the journey north; nor am I sure about the authenticity of the scene depicted in "Nearly There" as slave trackers fire at slaves aboard a wagon heading north. I'm certainly not denying the courage of those who managed to escape, but the scene seems overdramatic and makes me wonder how often that sort of thing actually happened.

The Goodreads algorithm strikes again! Linked as a book similar to some other now unidentifiable book on politics that I liked (Hunter S. Thompson? Joan Didion?), this bland personality reporting is nothing like Hunter S. Thompson or Joan Didion, or anything remotely resembling a thoughtful, heartfelt, principled investigation of an apparent political reality. It was instead a series of observations of known facts strung together with inside stories that held the interest and impact about as long as the average blog post. Of course, I have only read three of the essays in here at this point, but the sample does not encourage me to spend more time.

It's an interesting read. And it is always nice to see the three ladies of Gotham together. The interaction between Harley and Ivy is always pretty comical. While their interactions with Selina are always a bit dicey. They do not trust her, she straddles the line of good guy a little too often for their comfort. Now to find the next part...

Toujours aussi fun et le suspens sur le traitre du groupe me passionne, je ne sais absolument qui ca peut etre et j'ai haate de le decouvrir !!

This was a very interesting book that revolves around a silent film actor, Hector Mann, who disappeared in the 20's. A college professor, David Zimmer, is suffering after the death of his wife and children when he laughs for the first time at Hector Mann's actions in one of his silent movies. Zimmer undertakes a thorough study of Mann's volume of work, but little does he know, Mann continued to make movies after his disappearance.

Creative idea but the book lacked depth. The characters were stuff and felt like they didn't have personalities

** spoiler alert ** *I received an advance copy of this book courtesy the publisher via NetGalley* If you know me at all, you know I drool over a Paul Cleave book. I stalk Amazon right after his LAST book publishes to see when his NEXT book is coming out. I'm a die hard, devoted STAN, so this review/rating should come as NO SURPRISE to people who follow me, but just in case you're new to Cleave or to me, let me make an effort at articulating my thoughts about this book. Here goes: WHAT? Wait.... I think.... Did that just... Okay hold on, I think I know....NOPE... OOOOOOOOH NO WAY! It went something like that, over the course of a few hours. I read it mostly in one sitting, which I don't do much of any more, given my short span of attention. However, like I LOVE my thriller writers, Paul moves you through the story from past to present, from journal to this-is-happening-now with lightning quickness and precision. I felt like I couldn't afford to blink because things were happening fast, information was coming at me and every word was important. The protagonist in this novel is an award winning, best selling crime writer Henry Cutter, who's just been diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's, a disease. It is a disease that is a thief and an artist. It takes away the most important details and adds details that never existed. It produces paranoia, confusion, anger and turns life upside down... not particularly for the patient, who is mostly oblivious, but for the caretakers and those around them. It is the Alzheimer's Diagnosis that is the enemy in this novel. Captain A, as Jerry calls it. Captain A is lurking and soon Captain A will cause him to become a drooling fool who doesn't know where he is or where he is going. Captain A has ended his career for him. As the dementia begins to twist Jerry's writer's brain, he finds it hard to determine what's real and what's fiction. Who is Suzan (with a Z?) He's been assured she never existed-- Henry Cuttter made her up. But.. he remembers her murder. Because he committed it. Right? And where is Sandra, his wife? They say she is dead. And that Jerry killed her. But he doesn't remember killing her. So that means he didn't do it........right? This novel moves from entries in what Jerry calls his 'Madness Journal' and letters to Future Jerry to tell him what happened in the past, in case he can't remember who he is; and actual Future Jerry, living life in the present, confined to a retirement home that he keeps curiously escaping but doesn't remember HOW he escapes (and travels 20 miles to town), waking up in odd places, having strange memories of committing murder and evidence of such all around him. As is his style, Cleave does SUCH A GOOD JOB with making you think you know the answer, then snatching away all confidence. Up until the last chapter, I had an inkling....... and then I was wrong again. I kind of love it when that happens. This book will release August 4th from Atria Books. If you LOVE thrillers, put Paul Cleave on your To Read list. I don't think you'll regret it!

Too short!

This book has been on my kindle for months, but I never got around to it. Part of it was not really being in the mood for a fantasy novel (I was going through a very strong NA phase), and part of it was that I was worried about rumours of a love triangle, as they are my least favourite of all the plot devices. If this also worries you, then I can assure you it's not really a triangle - there is very little drama, no posturing or massive fights about it. The main character, Meira, is never really in a relationship with either of these people, and in my mind (though people may disagree with my interpretation) she has made up her mind by the end of the novel. The romance sits on the back burner in this novel, though, which focuses on a group of rebels who are trying to regain magic for the Kingdom of Winter so that they can take back the kingdom from Spring, who conquered and enslaved them sixteen years previously. The novel starts off with this fairly simple premise - the rebels go out on missions to try and find the magic conduit for Winter. However, soon the pace picks up and the plot becomes deeper and more complicated, with a lot of twists (some of which I did expect, but others I did not). The world building is solid, and by the end of the novel I felt like I understood the world. I also enjoyed the characters; I liked Meria's fierceness and how strongly she felt the need to prove herself. I didn't really care for Mather - I thought he was a bit limp - but Theron was intriguing. I particularly liked the relationship between Sir and Meira, and I thought the main antagonist was an interesting character. I'd definitely like to find out more about him and his motives in the next instalments of the series. This book was fast-paced, the characters were well-developed, and I was engaged all the way through. I'm really looking forward to reading the next one in the series!

Snow White is getting more dangerous, and I love it. Was ready for the next installment when I finished this one!

A modern day Thumbelina.

I love this book! It cracked me up. I am buying it for my kids.

This story involves a fun adventure at a museum. The Little Critter class cannot go to the dinosaur exhibit because of a missing Triceratops bone. The Little Critter then wanders around the museum exploring the different sections of the building. It's a great book to allow introduce new words and theories and build vocabulary.

I'm not going to write a full review, but I will say I recommend this book to everyone. It's book one in Maya Angelou's set of seven (I think?) autobiographies. She writes beautifully, and you can tell that she actually experienced these things because everything is so real, bursting through the page, and tinged with the emotions she felt then, as she was experiencing it, and now, looking back on the events. Some chapters of this book were particularly moving - the high school graduation scene especially. I don't want to say more because I don't think it's really my place to do so - Maya Angelou speaks for herself. Pick it up when you get a chance because she's got a lot of really interesting things to say.

i love this book and the movie!!!!!!

I enjoyed this book. Took a while to get there but with so many characters to develop I wasn't surprised.

My kids love this book! We read it to them almost every night. :)

I bought this graphic novel for my daughter for Christmas. I read it with my coffee this morning. It's Gaiman, Moon and Ba, what else is there to say? Perfection.

My students enjoyed this, but I found it fairly forgettable.

"The Last Victim" was a book that I had won through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I have to say that when Garland first showed up as a ghost, I thought "Oh boy this book is going to be weird." In spite of my first reaction, I kept reading and was drawn into the story. I tore through the book, finishing it in about a day. I have to say the ending caught me by surprise. I kept trying to guess who the killer was and was totally wrong. It looks like this is going to be a series, so I am looking forward to the next book. I don't think that we've learned everything about these characters yet.

Touching Darkness (10-12). Liu practically makes this a team book, bringing together Laura with Gambit, Wolverine, and Jubilee. It's a pretty wonderful crew, all well-characterized, and bouncing off of each other in interesting ways. The Jubilee-Laura comparison is particularly interesting. Oh, and there's some story here too, about more testing and trigger scent and blah, blah, blah [7/10]. Chaos Theory (13-16). This is more of that Captain Universe foolishness, but done much better than the one-off from years before. Yeah, the Universe power is still a talking entity, but now it's King Arthur or something, fighting demons. Weird. The team-up with the FF results in a kind of off-kilter story for Laura, but it's great to see her interacting with a family that treats her as someone to be treasured [6/10].

Seth and Carter have been friends since forever. They haven't kept in touch over the last couple years because Seth's controlling and abusive boyfriend, Tony, has isolated him from his few friends and family. Seth felt this was acceptable, to some degree, because he harbored a long-time crush on his straight best friend. A good boyfriend wouldn't talk to guys he finds attractive, right? And, especially not when his boyfriend doesn't want him to do so, right? Besides, Carter's at college, and he has a girlfriend. He doesn't want to hear Seth's troubles... The book opens with Seth on a strange train platform, uncertain how he arrived there, and wondering how to get home so he can make Tony's dinner. Immediately the reader knows that something awful has happened to Seth, and that Tony has likely had some role in it. A ghostly train arrives and Seth steps aboard. The conductor gives him the low down--it's a train of souls on the way to their final destination. Thing is, Seth's not dead...yet. He has the power to step off the train at any station, as long as the doors remain clear to his vision. If he lingers, however, that option will disappear, and Seth will be dead. While Seth sorts out if he should disembark, he's shown to his cabin, and his roommate is Carter. Carter has only 6 stops remaining until he's a lost soul. He knows this, knows he must make peace with himself and his choices, but he's struggling. He hid his disease from the two people he loved most in the world--Seth is one of them--and he's saddled with regret for never telling Seth that he loved him. Even now, as they share space and final moments on this train, both Seth and Carter are shielding their deepest secrets from the other. Carter wants Seth off the train, right now, but Seth won't leave. He can't remember how he came to be on the platform, and he needs to solve this mystery before he decides if he wants to return. Did Tony beat him into a coma? Was is some other trauma? This makes a difference to Seth; he doesn't want to return to the living if he's only going to make the same mistakes. Carter watches the stops tick off, and is unable to let go of his past--mostly because his love for Seth is so strong. When he finally confesses, it's not to the reaction he expected. Seth is angry that they never had their chance, and frustrated that Carter hid his bisexuality. They do work it out, over the course of the train ride, and they get their collective houses in order, too. I'm not going to say more about the plot. It's fantastic, and heart-rending, and tumultuous. I feel better having read this book, not for any sense of spirituality, but for thinking about my own regrets and soul burdens, and considering how best to let them go. This is a love story, at it's core. Seth and Carter have an epic love for each other that was never acknowledged in life, but this ride of reckoning allows it time to bloom. Small flashbacks allow the backstory to be inserted at poignant moments. The clock is always ticking, however, and Seth wishes to linger with Carter forever. Will he? Carter died young, and his regrets are many. Can he clear his soul and enter the afterlife? Or will he be one of the tormented lost souls that claw at the doors of the train whenever it stops? I will say that the book has a happy ending, even if it's not a convenient as it could have been. I liked that. Hard choices make for good conflict and interesting stories. At each turn we could have had the "easy" answer, and we really never get that, here, which is a credit to the story. I loved the idea of soul mates meeting as souls, and it's very well handled here. It's even a bit steamy, which was awesome. Highly recommend!

"The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice. 'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I -- I hardly know, sir, just at present -- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.' 'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain yourself!' 'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.' 'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar. 'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'" Every so often I listen to a book that I had read as a kid. Sometimes, they are very familiar and other books have been lost in my memory. For me, these stories about Alice were both recognizable and new. I was amazed that I had remembered the croquet game, but so little about the trial for stealing tarts. I have a feeling that many of my memories are based on the Walt Disney movie rather than the actual books. So it was good to revisit Lewis' actual stories. So much of what Lewis wrote has worked itself into the fabric of our lives. I wonder how many people know of the Cheshire cat, the walrus and the carpenter without having the faintest idea where those characters came from. Alan Bennett is a wonderful reader and his narration made Alice's adventures come alive. If you have not encountered Alice in awhile, I highly recommend this version. You will easily understand why these tales are classics. Other children's classics that I have enjoyed listening to: The Wind in the Willows A Wrinkle in Time

Find my original review on my blog It was refreshing to finally read a YA dystopian where men weren't the ones still in charge. Sure, some of them might have a couple of women that are somewhere up the ladder as well, mostly though men are in charge. In this book however, women are in charge, because men were the ones the screw up the world in the first place. It's a nice change therefore, to read something like this. This immediately also makes it quite different from all the other dystopians where everything is usually violent and terrible things are going on, which causes the uprisings. In this case though, everything really does seem perfect, except for that tiny fact that men have no say in anything. The world building in this book is great. Firstly, the book plays on Greenland; I've never read anything about that before. Everything that happened was due to a nuclear war, which seems plausible enough. On top of that, other people also survived and we find out about them. I find this lacking a lot in other books. In those, no one else in the entire world seems to be alive anymore, which is very strange. Here, the people in Thule have contact with people from Canada and Iceland, they know about the barbaric Mericans (yep, those from the USA) and know that elsewhere in the world others most likely survived as well. This is supported when those from Europe come over. I also really enjoyed the fact that the people from Thule decided to really take care of nature this time around and preserve most of the world around them. Sometimes even forgoing technology because it could have a negative impact on nature (e.g paved roads, electricity). Of course, this wouldn't be a dystopian without something being wrong. There is, men in this world don't have a say in anything. They're treated well enough, but always have to do what the women tell them. This doesn't sit well with all of them, though they don't respond with violence. Instead the son of the Konega (a type of Queen) eventually shows the women men are valuable and should have a say in what goes on in the country. There is also a great legal system in place, based on shame and guilt instead of incarceration. It's all explained in the book, and I thought it was amazing! If you speak Dutch, or know how to read it, do pick up this book, it's a refreshing take on dystopians (even though it was written before most of the other ones). Also, for my German readers, this book has been translated to German: Kinder der Mutter Erde.

This was a very easy read, even with five courses I finished it in a couple of days. Daine learns to shape-shift in this one.

So many memories with this book. Def. helped me when i was younger to mark which pokemon cards i had and gave out details of each pokemon too. Still have this! Def. a keeper.

The most disturbing shit that I have ever read or seen in my life, not just because of the actions of the Japanese military but their refusal in the present to acknowledge or apologise for them.

Tipica novela de Stephen King, facil de leer y sin ninguna complicacion. Lo mas interesante es el futuro distopico que plantea gobernado por la programacion de TV y con grandes brechas sociales. Por lo demas, la trama es simple y bastante predecible, aun asi el libro es entretenido de leer y merece la pena el tiempo invertido en el.

Above par for a "cozy mystery". I enjoyed and related to the main character, the clean story, and the easy to read, but not boring writing style. A fun, cozy Halloween read.

This was THE BEST conclusion I could have possibly hoped for. Joe Hill is a GENIUS. I needed to type that in all caps cause that's the kind of review this man deserves. You've got to read Locke & Key. It's a work of art! Also, this book made me cry! 5/5 stars!

If you are looking for a non-stop action packed book full of intrigue and spy chasing, then you should definitely check this one out. The Kill Shot is the second book featuring Jamie Sinclair, private detective-turned-security-agent for hire. Her Senator father hires her for what seems to be a routine job; guarding someone delivering a US diplomatic pouch to London and home again. Once Jamie gets off the plane in London, she quickly realizes that this job is anything but routine. I devoured this book. I literally read it in a couple of hours because I couldn't walk away from it. It was non-stop action from the beginning and didn't let up until the end. You never know who to trust in the book so it definitely will keep you on your toes. Jamie Sinclair is a great character. She is great at what she does, smart and beautiful. She is hesitant to give into her feelings for Adam, I did find that part of the book frustrating. I hope that he shows up in the next book and that they make some more progress. It would hate to have the" should I or shouldn't I?" question go on for too many books. I am looking forward to the next book

I love Marv.

This is definitely my favorite story of the series. I love how Chase makes Roxanna into a hot mess. The hilarity ensues with all the times Roxi accidentally injures Chase. So funny and heart warming in the end as well. Loved this series!

That was a really really good story.

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Another stellar read from the Ali Reynolds series! Can't wait to read the next installment (and maybe you know who and you know who ((spoilers averted!)) will finally get together!!

Millar doesn't do rocket science, but this is probably my favorite effort of his.

Merton is a gifted writer, and his descriptions of growing up in Europe are interesting. Much less interesting are his spiritual/religious judgments of others. These judgments seem to break down along the following lines: If you're a bad person, and are not Catholic, the reason you're bad is because you're not Catholic. If you're a bad person, and are Catholic, the reason you're bad is because you're not Catholic enough. If you're a good person, and are not Catholic, the reason you're good is because you hang around with so many Catholics. If you're a good person, and are Catholic, the reason you're good is obvious. I didn't expect anything but a pro-Catholic stance from Merton--he was a Catholic monk, after all--but some of his takes border on religious bigotry. In one passage he praises the prayer-work of a group of monks, stating outright that the reason the United States is a successful nation is because this small group of cloistered guys in upstate New York prays on a daily basis. And he means this not in some abstract "it takes all kinds to make the world go round" way, he means it literally. The monks pray, God hears their prayers and responds, and that's why our country is blessed. No other reason. Then, not two pages later, he has the gall to criticize someone else's religious practices as "obviously silly." I would have found his tale more enlightening if he had turned his perceptive talents on those aspects of Catholicism that are "obviously silly" and then described how in spite of them he was able to grow in his faith.

see full review @ Katie's Corner

1.5 review to come

I like the idea of this book, but not sure I like the given answers. Some kids might get inspired by the wrong answers and try to aply them. I think it's one of the books that should be read under the supervision of an adult.

Peter and Ernesto are best friends who are usually content to hang around their tree and cloud picture. Ernesto, though, decides he'd like to see a little more of the great big sky, so he sets off on an adventure -- an adventure that leads Peter to worry about him and set off after him! Both sloths have their own sorts of adventure in this delightful graphic novel, which is rife with deadpan, dry humor. Pretty delightful.

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I do not normally like historical fiction, but this beautiful work is artful and insightful. The pace of the writing and the glimpses of life in revolutionary England and Belgium feel very real and alive, like a Merchant and Ivory movie or an old BBC Masterpiece Theater piece. And the portrait of Margaret of Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, her experiences, her thinking and her writing are poignantly expressed in elegant, thoughtful sketches. I am also reading Daniel Boorstin's The Discoverers and the personages in Stuart England and the age of Newton also show up here, coming delightfully alive. This is going on my favorites list.

A truly phenomenal work. D'Stair captures the language of movement. Sexual without being explicit. "ladies, flat tile kitchen, neckties unnoosed; ladies, wet hands, pictures unlooked; ladies, hands on our thighs and our backs turned behind us" And it continues. Never have i felt so much power packed into a folio. I eagerly await the rest of the series.

Text: 5 stars Illustrations: 5 stars Brilliant picture book about a squirrel who feels fearful and anxious towards life, so he copes by trying to control every single possibility. But when an unexpected situation arises, he learns that he has a more adventurous spirit then he realized, and his body is equipped for it as well. The book is full of Scaredy Squirrel's lists, checklists, diagrams, schedules, maps, plans, and instructions. Simple iconic illustrations complement the text perfectly.

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"Then heaven and earth creaked at the joint Which became gangrenous and stank-- A horror beyond redemption." Vicious, ferocious, intense, and yet so beautiful and controlled. The power of nature, jarring approaches to Christian lore, unsettlingly powerful perceptions, and raw humanity, all wrapped up in one character: Crow.

So much fun. Very creative plot and side characters. Beetle is my favorite.