Daily Dose (12)

This new meme is hosted by Holly from Good Golly Miss Holly, where inspirational pictures are posted to enlighten your day. Please note that these pictures do not belong to me. The photographers, whoever they are, fully deserve this credit.

In My Mailbox (12)

In My Mailbox is held weekly by Kristi at The Story Siren. Click here for details on how to participate.

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Justine:

Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë

"Wuthering Heights", Emily Bronte's only novel, is one of the pinnacles of 19th-century English literature. It's the story of Heathcliff, an orphan who falls in love with a girl above his class, loses her, and devotes the rest of his life to wreaking revenge on her family.

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(I never realized before how many book covers there are for Wuthering Heights!)
I'm buying this for school, actually. I'd rather have a copy of my own than borrow the school's copy. I'm so excited to read it!


The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold

When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant novelist, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching story about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

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Steff read the book already and she's lending me her copy. We watched the movie this weekend, but Steff doesn't remember the book very well so...I guess it's up to my opinion! Although she did say that the movie was depressing. I thought it was beautifully depressing. There's a difference.

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Steff:

Leftovers
by Laura Weiss

Blair and Ardith are best friends who have committed an unforgivable act in the name of love and justice. But in order to understand what could drive two young women to such extreme measures, first you'll have to understand why. You'll have to listen as they describe parents who are alternately absent and smothering, classmates who mock and shun anyone different, and young men who are allowed to hurt and dominate without consequence. You will have to learn what it's like to be a teenage girl who locks her bedroom door at night, who has been written off by the adults around her as damaged goods. A girl who has no one to trust except the one person she's forbidden to see. You'll have to understand what it's really like to be forgotten and abandoned in America today.

Are you ready?

Contesto-cadavro ['Round the Blogosphere]

Our weekly thing ;)

• Win THE DEMON'S LEXICON, LIAR and PAPER TOWNS at Steph Bowe's Hey! Teenager of the Year. Open internationally. Ends Feb 14. Enter here.
• Valentine's Day Book Massacre Giveaway at Dark Faerie Tales. Open to everyone. Ends Feb 21. Details, and to enter, click here.
• Win a signed copy of SING ME TO SLEEP at Friends and Family. Open internationally. Ends Feb 23. Enter here.
• Win THE DARK DIVINE at I Heart Monster. Open internationally. Ends Feb 28. Click here.
• February Lovin' It Giveaway at The Eclectic Reader. Open to followers only, interntionally. Ends Feb 27. Details, and to enter, click here.

That's it for this week. As always, good luck to those who enter!

AND SPEAKING OF CONTESTS........

We have JUST reached 150 followers!!! A shout out to Dana, our 150th follower!

So, because of this, there will be ANOTHER WINNER to our Raptorrific Giveaway. As well as two books added to the pot, which are...

Light Beneath Ferns by Anne Spollen
(I mentioned on Twitter how I adore the smoothness of the cover...)
&
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

:)

Friday's Finest (04)

Friday's Finest is a new meme hosted by Steff & Justine from A Bookful of Thoughts.

Rules:
~Post a quote that really stuck to you after reading it in a book.
~Make sure it isn't a spoiler!
~If you'd like, expand on what you think it means and why you chose it.

I have a sudden glimpse of all the Christmases of my life lined up one after another, waiting to be gotten through, and despair floods me. No. I wish for a moment that Time would lift me out of this day, and into some more benign one. But then I feel guilty for wanting to avoid the sadness; dead people need us to remember them, even if it eats us, even if all we can do is say I'm sorry until it is as meaningless as air.

The Time Traveler's Wife

This is a good book for quotes like these. It's wonderfully heartbreaking.

Justine's Thoughts: Evermore by Alyson Noel

Evermore
By Alyson Noel

Pages:

301

Book Description:

After a horrible accident claims the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever Bloom can see people’s auras, hear their thoughts, and know someone’s entire life story by touching them. Going out of her way to avoid human contact and suppress her abilities, she has been branded a freak at her new high school -- but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste.

Damen is gorgeous, exotic, and wealthy. He’s the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head -- wielding a magic so intense, it’s as though he can peer straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she’s left with more questions than answers. And she has no idea just who he really is -- or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is that she’s falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.

A quote:

“Because, Ever, life is not meant to be an open book test.”

Any thoughts:

I didn't know what to expect for this one but in the end I ended up really liking it. It's also one of the first books I've read by Alyson Noel and I think I'm going to try more of her works.

There are some things I thought were really great and maybe a couple of things that were a bit iffy, like for example, the writing for Evermore was a little off. It somehow didn't match with the entire concept. Yes, it is easy to follow and well written but it didn't seem to suit the whole paranormal feeling.

The beginning didn't capture my attention immediately. We start off with our heroine, Ever, which I think is a really cool name, and how she really liked how her life was before, where she was popular and happy, then it all came crashing down after the accident. There were also a few things I didn’t understand but I continued reading because of my curiosity after Damen, our main guy, is introduced. I kept thinking, "What is he?" Still, I felt like I wasn’t very interested in him. He may be a bit of a romantic, with all the tulips and other flowers, though I didn't like him very much. No sparks flew out of me. But! I love Ever and Damen together, and that's what's keeping me anxious for the next book in this series. The end of Evermore is where everything unravels. You finally get to know the truth about Damen and Ever and what they really are. It's so unique! I've never come across this kind of plot before and I like it a lot. Fans of Twilight will definitely like this one too.

Waiting on Wednesday (16)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine.

Princess for Hire
by Lindsey Leavitt

Release Date:
March 16th, 2010

Description:

When a well-dressed woman steps out of a bubble and wants to know if you'd like to become a substitute princess, do you
A) run
B) faint
C) say yes?
For Desi Bascomb, who's been longing for some glamour in her Idaho life, the choice is a definite C). Desi has a rare ability: with the help of "Royal Rouge," she can temporarily transform into the exact look-alike of any princess who needs her subbing services. Dream come true, right?
Well, Desi soon discovers that subbing involves a lot more than wearing a tiara and waving at cameras.... In this winning debut, one girl's dream of glamour transforms into the desire to make a positive impact. And an impact Desi makes, one royal fiasco at a time.

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Sorta Like a Rockstar
by Matthew Quick

Release Date:
May 1st, 2010

Description:

Amber Appleton lives in a bus. Ever since her mom’s boyfriend kicked them out, Amber, her mom, and her totally loyal dog, Bobby Big Boy (aka Thrice B) have been camped out in the back of Hello Yellow (the school bus her mom drives). But Amber, the self-proclaimed princess of hope and girl of unyielding optimism, refuses to sweat the bad stuff. Instead, she focuses on bettering the lives of her alcoholic mother and her quirky circle of friends: a glass-ceiling-breaking single mother raising a son diagnosed with autism; Father Chee and The Korean Divas for Christ (soul-singing ESL students); a nihilist octogenarian; a video-game-playing gang of outcasts; and a haiku-writing war vet. But then a fatal tragedy threatens Amber’s optimism—and her way of life. Can Amber continue to be the princess of hope?

With his zany cast of characters and a heartwarming, inspiring story, debut YA author Matthew Quick builds a beautifully beaten-up world of laughs, loyalty, and hard-earned hope. This world is Amber’s stage, and Amber is, well…she’s sorta like a rock star.