STACKED

books

I’m up to the challenge

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I tried to do a book blogger challenge before and I failed hard. But this one sounds so good, and I’ve been debating joining for a while now. I’m game this time.

Kristi at The Story Siren is hosting the Debut Author Challenge. The goal, of course, is to choose to read a certain number of debut authors. Since I’ve already read a fair number since the year began, I think I can up the goal and really stick to it.

This is where I’ll post my progress and what my potential reads are. I’ll also link to my reviews, if posted. I’m going to aim for reading 20 debut authors over the year. Yes, there are more than 20 on this list, but that’s for my sake. If you want to join in the challenge, you can read the rules and sign up here.

January
1. The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
2. Leaving Gee’s Bend by Irene Latham
3. The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard
4. Wish by Alexandra Bullen

February
5. HappyFace by Stephen Emond
6. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

March
7. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
8. The Beautiful Between by Alyssa Sheinmel
9. Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus
10. Split by Swati Avasthi
11. Every Little Thing in the World by Nina de Gramont

April
12. Dirty Little Secrets by C J Omololu
13. Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
14. The Daughters by Joanna Philbin
15. The Line by Teri Hall
16. The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxler

May
17. Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
18. Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
19. Dark Life by Kat Falls
20. Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

June
21. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
22. The Iron King by Julia Kagawa
23. The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

July
24. Sea by Heidi Kling
25. YOU by Charles Benoit
26. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
27. Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick

August
28. Elixir by Hilary Duff
29. Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala
30. The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
31. Manifest by Artist Arthur

September
32. Adios, Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft
33. The Absolute Value of -1 by Steven Brezenoff
34. The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
35. John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles
36. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
37. Paranormalcy by Kierstan White

October
38. Jane by April Lindner
39. Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales
40. Love Drugged by James Klise
41. Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

November
42. The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston
43. A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler
44. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
45. When I Was Joe by Keren Davis
46. I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan
47. The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston

December
48. Crossing the Tracks by Barbara Stuber
49. Scrawl by Mark Shulman
50. Freefall by Mindi Scott

AudioSynced: Listen Up!

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Listen up!

Abby and I are excited to announce a new meme highlighting audiobooks throughout the book blogging world. We hope you’ll join us.

Do you listen to audiobooks? Do you review them? Here’s an opportunity to share those insights if you do and a chance to get involved if you haven’t dived into this arena yet.

I’m hosting the meme this month, and it will post March 1. Between now and February 28, please post a link to anything you’ve posted about audiobooks in the month of February (yep, if it takes you until February 28 to post, that is totally fine). I’ll round up the links and share them all on the 1st.

We hope to make this a monthly event to put more emphasis on the value of and passion for audiobooks throughout the book blog world, as many readers get their reading done through audio, and the quality and enjoyment of audiobooks differs from reading the printed world.

So, hope in, share your links here, and spread the word. We’ll see you again for the first official AudioSynced post March 1, right here at STACKED.

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

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I’ll go out on a limb here, but come with me: I believe Susan Beth Pfeffer’s series (now dubbed “The Last Survivors”) is probably one of the most inventive, creative, and utterly terrifying sets of books available right now across all age groups.

This World We Live In picks up where Life as We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone left off. But as readers, we don’t know that entirely from the start of the book. We enter into Miranda’s life in rural Pennsylvania, with her living at home with her mother and two brothers one year after the moon has caused mass destruction. Miranda and her brothers have been spending free time (which there is a lot of) house hunting, which involves breaking into the homes of those no longer there and taking the items which their family so desperately needs. Finding scraps of toilet paper becomes a “good day.” But when Miranda’s brothers decide to go fishing at a river miles away, one returns back a completely changed person. When they leave to fish, Miranda becomes a changed person when she stumbles upon a pile of bodies on her way home from house hunting.

Because the book hasn’t been published quite yet, I’m dancing around one of the biggest events that happens in the book. But as readers have come to anticipate, Miranda and Alex Morales — who left New York City with his sister to escape imminent death in the big city by the water — finally meet face to face. And the way they meet is completely unexpected but fits so well into the story. Likewise, the development of their relationship is an important one, as it is a nice parallel to the greater story overall.

Some of the missing from the first two books will also reappear in this title. I don’t want to give anything away, of course, but I was pleasantly surprised to see who arrived and whose dreams (and nightmares) were met because of those encounters.

But don’t get me wrong: this is NOT a happy book. In fact, there is a major event that happens with the earth in this book that changes the entire course of what I was hoping for. And while it made me sad, I was impressed with Pfeffer’s relentless energy in writing such a story. In This World We Live In, the themes of environmentalism, religion, love, and relationships are explored and tested, and things don’t end up pretty or perfect. This is reality, and this is exactly why there is no comparison of this series to so many others being published now.

One of the biggest negative issues I had with this book were some of the new plot lines that never became fully fleshed. I felt that the new character we met following the brothers’ fishing trip never had a good fit into the story, and I never felt this character was necessary. A number of discussions of the safety camps were brought up, as well, and I was never once convinced about their whereabouts, their existence, or their promise, and this character was one of those reasons precisely. I felt like the character could have been better woven into the fabric of the story and made to become stronger and more believable.

That said, I hope this is the last installment in the series. There is resolution in the story, as uncomfortable as it is.

If you haven’t read the first two books, do NOT read this one. You need to read the others before diving into this one, and I would recommend picking up Life as We Knew It first, though the order of the first two aren’t set in stone.

Look for this one to published April 1, 2010 by Harcourt Children’s Books. If you can’t wait to get your hands on it, there is a free galley available through NetGalley, as well.

Have you read this one yet? I’m dying to discuss it. This is one series that begs to be discussed, as individual novels and as a collective. If you have read it, leave your comments and thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear your impressions.

Double Take, Part XXI

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I made a very similar double take post before, but this one is an exact match.

Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty will be published April 2010 by MacMillan UK.

Now for the doppelganger:


The Mermaid’s Mirror by L.K. Madigan will be published in October 2010 by Houghton Mifflin (I’m not 100% sure on the publisher on this one, but I’m going to guess it’s the same publisher as her first book Flash Burnout).

I hope someone catches this one. If you remember the double take of The Mark and The Girl with the Mermaid Hair, the publisher changed the cover of The Mark in order to avoid this double take. I ended up liking the new one better, actually.

Which one of these two do you prefer? I like The Mermaid’s Mirror just a little more — it is more realistic and the colors are very cool, where the other one looks a bit cartoonish.

Non-Fiction: Written in Bone – The Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland

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Once in a while you open a book that really surprises you. For me, this was Sally Walker’s absolutely absorbing non-fiction Written in Bone – Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.

Written in Bone follows a team of archaeologists conducting a couple of digs. First, they dig into an area of Fort James, Virginia, followed by digs in Maryland. The team discusses in detail how the process of choosing sites to dig at works, followed by the methods they employ while preparing for and actually conducting a dig. In addition to the text explaining it, there are multiple pictures on each page to illustrate the processed exactly. At one point, the team unearths a few iron caskets that were sealed shut and it was their goal to try to extract some of the air sealed inside. This air, they believed, would give them an idea of what the air quality was in the 17th century. Besides being really interesting historically, Walker has included a number of photos of the process of identifying where the remains were within the casket, the drilling of the casket, and the extraction of air.

In addition to explaining the processes of a dig, Walker goes into great detail about identifying remains. We learn how scientists can take bones, as well as how they figure out what sort of work they may have done in their lives, whether or not they were wealthy, what their gender was, and even what ethnicity they may have been. Again, the use of illustrations and images illuminate the text. Walker makes a large point in emphasizing that all of these details are put together not only through science, but also through the historical record (which makes the geek in me so excited). I spent more time looking at the photos than reading, making this book one that may be short on words but long on memory and on reading experience.

When I first had heard about this book, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I am pleased with this and found myself really fascinated with what archaeologists do with human remains. I think that this book has a huge appeal, both to those interested in history and science, as well as those interested in the all-too-common “something different.” Oh, and boys will eat this one up! This is a book about people doing something and it gives boys tools to learn with (I mean, there’s also really cool images of skulls and bones, too).

The text is highly readable and the use of images enhanced it. An index, a historical time line of events, and a sizable list of further resources that include both print and web sources also make this a book that can be read and referred to again and again for reports. But what makes this one special is that it’s not just a report book — this is a strong, stand alone non-fiction for teens and adults.