A Reader's Addiction

Read: November 25-29, 2013 read in 4 days pages: 285 Book blurb: It's been several months since Lina and Doon escaped the dying city of Ember and, along with the rest of their people, joined the town of Sparks. Lina knows they are lucky to be there, but life aboveground is hard. Instead of opening a can for dinner, they must plant and harvest their food. And while there was no sun or moon in Ember's sky, neither was there rain, sleet, or wind. Now, in the middle of their first winter, Lin finds herself feeling homesick for her old city. It's during this dark time that Doon finds an unusual book. Torn up and missing most of its pages, it alludes to a mysterious device, a piece of technology from before the Disaster. Doon becomes convinced that the Builders of Ember meant for them to find the device when they left the city, to help them in their new lives. Together, Lina and Doon must go back underground to retrieve what was lost and bring light to a dark wor...

Read: November 23-24, 2013 read in two days pages: 289 Book blurb: It’s 50 years before the settlement of the city of Ember, and the world is in crisis. War looms on the horizon as 11-year-old Nickie and her aunt travel to the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina. There, one of the town’s respected citizens has had a terrible vision of fire and destruction. Her garbled words are taken as prophetic instruction on how to avoid the coming disaster. If only they can be interpreted correctly. . . . As the people of Yonwood scramble to make sense of the woman’s mysterious utterances, Nickie explores the oddities she finds around town—her great-grandfather’s peculiar journals and papers, a reclusive neighbor who studies the heavens, a strange boy who is fascinated with snakes—all while keeping an eye out for ways to help the world. Is this vision her chance? Or is it already too late to avoid a devastating war? In this prequel to the acclaimed  The City of Ember  an...

Read: November 17-23, 2013 read: in a week pages: 338 Book blurb: When Lina and Doon lead their people up from the underground city of Ember, they discover a surface world of color and life. The people of a small village called Sparks agree to help the Emberites, but the villagers have never had to share their world before. Soon differences between the two groups escalate, and it's up to Lina and Doon to find a way to avoid war! In the riveting sequel to the highly acclaimed  The City of Ember , Jeanne DuPrau explores the nature of conflict and the strength and courage necessary to overcome it. While the second book did not pull me in quite the same way the first book had, this book was really good as well. It was a nice continuation of the story and really explores the trouble the people of Ember face when they become part of the city of Sparks. With this book there are more characters introduced than just the Doon and Lina. With this installment more people o...

Read: November 2-17, 2013 read in 15 days pages: 313 Book blurb: Stephanie Plum, Trenton, New Jersey's favorite pistol-packing, condom-carrying bounty hunter, is back - and on the trail of a revenge-seeking waitress who's skipped bail. With the help of 73-year-old Grandma Mazur, ex-hooker Lula, a transvestite musician named Sally Sweet, and the all-too-hospitable, all-too-sexy Joe Morelli, Stephanie might just catch her woman. Then again, with more mishaps than there are exits on the Jersey Turnpike - including murders, firebombs, and Stephanie's arch-rival bounty hunter chasing after the same fugitive - Stephanie better watch her back big-time if she wants to live to crack this case. These are just humorous little fluffy books that are fun to read when you want something light that requires no brain power whatsoever to really enjoy. I am getting into the series, but admit so far this was not my favorite of the ones I've read. I did like to see Stepha...

Read: November 2, 2013 read in a day pages: 270 Book blurb: The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever! This stunning debut novel offers refreshingly clear writing and fascinating, original characters. Wow. I can't believe I was so into this book. I really had no idea what to expect, but I was completely blown away and sucked in. The dystopian aspect was a large part of what sucked me in. I love the idea of someone imagining a world different from ours and creating a whole new place. The characters are great. I loved following Lina around and seeing things through her eyes. This is the classic young children/teens taking on the world around them with little help from ad...

Read: October 18- November 1, 2013 read in what felt forever pages: 535 Book blurb: In a plush Virginia office, a rich, angry old man is furiously rewriting his will. With his death just hours away, Troy Phelan wants to send a message to his children, his ex-wives, and his minions, a message that will touch off a vicious legal battle and transform dozens of lives. Because Troy Phelan's new will names a sole surprise heir to his elevan-billion-dollar fortune: a mysterious woman named Rachel Lane, a missionary living deep in the jungles of Brazil. Enter the lawyers. Nate O'Riley is fresh out of rehab, a disgraces corporate attorney handpicked for his last job: to Rachel Lane at any cost. As Phelan's family circles like vultures in D.C., Nate is crashing through Brazilian jungle, entering a world where money means nothing, where death is just one misstep away, and where a woman-- pursued by enemies and friends alike-- holds a stunning surprise of her own.... ...

Read: October 6-7, 2013 read in an couple hours pages: 74 Book blurb: Seventeen-year-old Rowan Harper knows her life is forever changed the moment her schizophrenic mother commits suicide.  What Rowan doesn't realize is how much her mother’s choice altered her own fate. It’s not until after meeting Jet, a sapphire-eyed dead boy, Rowan begins to learn of her new destiny as becoming her mother’s replacement for something she never knew existed.  I don't really remember too much of this since it has been a while since I read it. I know it was very short and was frustrated that I got tired and stopped at like 85%, stopped and went to bed then when I started reading again I only had a few more pages. Guess I didn't realize there was a bonus story. Either way I didn't read the bonus story because the story I read felt too much like everything else I've been reading lately in the young adult books. Strange boy and slightly out of touch girl fall in lov...

Read September 19-22, 2013 read in 4 days pages: 310 Book blurb: Will Henry has been through more that seems possible for a boy of fourteen. He’s been on the brink of death on more than one occasion, he has gazed into hell—and hell has stared back at him, and known his face. But through it all, Dr. Warthrop has been at his side. When Dr. Warthrop fears that Will’s loyalties may be shifting, he turns on Will with a fury, determined to reclaim his young apprentice’s devotion. And so Will must face one of the most horrific creatures of his monstrumology career—and he must face it alone. Over the course of one day, Will’s life—and Pellinor Warthrop’s destiny—will lie in balance. In the terrifying depths of the Monstrumarium, they will face a monster more terrible than any they could have imagined—and their fates will be decided. And so the story ends. I won't begin to really give a thorough review because I've never been able to do so and give this series any...

Read: September 14-19, 2013 read in 5 days pages: 410 Book blurb: True love and destiny collide in the conclusion to the Haven trilogy, which Booklist called “a blend of the Gemma Doyle trilogy, the Twilight saga, and Lois Duncan’s thrillers.” Forced to endure the violent punishment of the Tribunal for murders he has no recollection of committing, Aidan is slowly rotting away in a Paris dungeon. Violet is all but an unreachable dream to him now. But unlike Aidan, Violet has not given up hope as she works tirelessly with Matthew, her guardian and protector, to prove Aidan’s innocence and unravel the haunting vision that plagues her thoughts—the death of someone closest to her. Determined to set Aidan free, Violet discovers that a dangerous vampire war is brewing—and that Aidan may be at the center of it all. It’s only when the war reaches the doors of Winterhaven and tragedy strikes the school that Violet has to finally accept her fate. But that could mean losing Aidan—fore...

Just a few updates to the To-Read list: Love Minus Eighty Years in the future, dead women in cryogenic dating farms await rich, lonely suitors to resurrect them and take them home. LOVE MINUS EIGHTY follows interconnected lives touched by these dating farms. There's Rob, who accidentally kills a jogger, then sells everything to visit her, seeking her forgiveness but instead falling in love. Veronika, a socially-awkward dating coach, finds herself responsible for the happiness of a man whose life she saved against his will. And Mira, a gay woman accidentally placed in the heterosexual dating center near its inception, desperately seeks a way to reunite with her frozen partner as the centuries pass. In this daring and big-hearted novel based on the Hugo-winning short story, the lovelorn navigate a world in which technology has  reached the outer limits of morality and romance. Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire #3) Xandra Vardan thought life would be simpler when she...

Read: September 8-13, 2013 read in 6 days pages: 242 Book blurb: From the author of THIN IS THE NEW HAPPY comes a hilarious new memoir about embracing your Inner Hater. In the midst of a health and career crisis, Valerie uncorks years of pent up rage, and discovers you don't have to be happy to be happy. You don’t have to love everyone else to like yourself. And that your Bitchy Twin might just be your funniest, most valuable and honest ally. “The hate in you has got to come out .”  After being advised to reduce stress by her doctor, humorist Valerie Frankel realized the biggest source of pressure in her life was maintaining an unflappable easing-going persona. After years of glossing over the negative, Frankel goes on a mission of emotional honesty, vowing to let herself feel and express all the toxic emotions she’d long suppressed or denied: jealousy, rage, greed, envy, impatience, regret.   Frankel reveals her personal History of Hate, from mean girls in ju...

Read: August 31-September 8, 2013 read in 9 days pages: 326 Book blurb: Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of huma...

Read: August 27-31, 2013 read in 5 days pages: 256 Book blurb: A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman's first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys. This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real... This book was not what I was expecting at all, but I can't honestly say what I was expecting from it. I don't tend to read reviews because I end up letting them sway me away from reading when one person posts a bad review of a novel I'm interested in. I also did not read too deeply into the book blurb to figure out what to expect, so I'd say my expectations were unbiased aside from the fact that I generally enjoy Neil Gaiman's novels on the whole. I'd say this was no different a situation in that I enjoyed the novel and it reads very quickly. ...

Read: August 22-27, 2013 read in 6 days pages: 288 Book blurb: The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design drone—and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra,...

Read: August 14-17, 2013 read over three days pages: 162 Book blurb: Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored--so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking fondly of  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe  or  Alice's Adventures in Wonderla...

Read: August 17, 2013 read in an hour pages: 80 Book Blurb: Eleanor Estes’s  The Hundred Dresses  won a Newbery Honor in 1945 and has never been out of print since. At the heart of the story is Wanda Petronski, a Polish girl in a Connecticut school who is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. Wanda claims she has one hundred dresses at home, but everyone knows she doesn’t and bullies her mercilessly. The class feels terrible when Wanda is pulled out of the school, but by that time it’s too late for apologies. Maddie, one of Wanda’s classmates, ultimately decides that she is “never going to stand by and say nothing again.” This powerful, timeless story has been reissued in paperback with a new letter from the author’s daughter Helena Estes, and with the Caldecott artist Louis Slobodkin’s original artwork in beautifully restored color. Great little book with a very important lesson on standing up to bullying as well as ...

Read: August 10, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 96 Book blurb: Nancy Drew is in a tight spot! It all starts when Nancy trails a masked jewel thief in the woodlands around River Heights. After running into a group of hikers, Nancy asks if they’ve seen anyone, only to find that one of the hikers is also the thief! When Nancy breaks off from the group to make a phone call, she is pushed from behind and ends up dangling from a tree root, afraid to call for help lest the crook find her. This time, its up to Bess and George to help their dear friend Nancy Drew.

Read: August 10, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 96 Book blurb: After Stealing a million in investment cash, a desperate robber commandeers a hot air balloon at the local exposition, only to be lost in a raging storm.  The balloon was tracked to a high mountain area before going down.  When Police Chief McGinnis refuses to take Nancy on the recovery effort, she and the girls stowaway with the investment bankers, also climbing the mountain, in an effort to recover their funds.  Unfortunately, once the balloon is found, they learn that they’ve hung out with the wrong group – the bankers were in on it with the robbers!

Read: August 10, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 96 Book blurb: Nancy and her father Carson find themselves in an ancient city long buried below a luxurious estate, the sale of which has brought them to Turkey. Thieves led by a mysterious rich man named Harold Severino search frantically for a priceless artifact somewhere in the city as Nancy and her father are taken prisoner. Severino, who previously attempted to purchase the estate with suspicious motives, has been led to the archeological treasure by none other than Professor David Sever, the crooked archeologist from Nancy Drew #2: Writ in Stone!  It’s up to Nancy to halt the plundering of this living museum and somehow make it out in one piece!

Read: August 9, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 96 Book blurb: Nancy Drew travels to Turkey with her father, attorney Carson Drew, who plans to negotiate the sale of an ancestral estate belonging to one of his clients. When Nancy finds that mysterious artifacts have been disappearing from the estate, she turns her suspicions to Harland Severino, a rich man who desperately wants to purchase it. Nancy does some sleuthing that leads her beneath the property into an environment no one could’ve guessed what lay there: the ancient ruins of a city long forgotten by time, filled with priceless ancient artifacts that grave robbers will do anything to get at!

Read: August 9, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 96 Book blurb: Nancy and her best friends, Bess and George, have volunteered at the River Heights Animal Protection Center, never dreaming that they might soon need protection from the animals But that's exactly what happens when a truck delivering circus tigers breaks down by the woods and the big cats escape. Nancy and her friends are nearby responding to a call from Mrs. Eartha--one of her pet cats was attacked by a coyote--when they're suddenly swept up in the deadly mystery of the missing tigers. 

Read: August 1, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 112 Book blurb: Nancy, Ned, and George attend magician Dan Devil’s show, and witness his assistant’s magical  disappearance—except she doesn’t reappear!  Seems Nancy can’t even go on a date without stumbling upon a mystery.  In searching for the missing assistant, Nancy goes on a magical mystery tour of Dan Evil’s home and runs into a very hungry anaconda!  Rather than become snake food, she agrees to become Dan’s new assistant—but what if she vanishes too?

Read: July 31, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 112 Book blurb: When Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson attempt to return a lost dog named “Togo” to its owner in the small town of Nevershare, they stumble onto a much bigger mystery—where did all the people go?  The entire population of Nevershare is missing, except for one person, and she’s mean and not very helpful. Will Nancy solve this mystery before she and Ned also disappear?

Read: 29-30, 2013 read in under a half hour pages: 112 Book blurb: "The High Miles Mystery," winds up with a race that could spell life or death for the girl detective!  Hinkley is able to build a prototype for a new high-efficiency car based on a recently recovered engine. After seeing Nancy drive a tank and stop a speeding train, he wants her (and mechanic Bess) to drive the prototype in a government-sponsored race. The car with the best fuel efficiency wins a government development contract, money Hinkley and Credo would need to bring the car to production. But someone is determined that Nancy and Bess lose-- at any cost!

Read: July 28, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 112 Book blurb: Nancy Drew battles the Abominable Snowman! It happens at a new Bio-dome facility in River Heights, where Nancy, Bess and George get swept up in a mystery involving five different world environments encased withing giant domes, animals and all. It's funded by famed environmentalist billionaire, Cheri Goale. But before the Bio-Dome officially opens, Sasquatch appears within the Arctic dome creating havoc and endangering the future of the facility. Nancy Drew investigates, but is soon trapped within the dome with the legendary Bigfoot.

Read: July 28, 2013 read in a half hour pages: 112 Book blurb: On its journey to Professor Hinkley's research facility, Nancy Drew must protect an amazing creation that could possibly end the world's energy crisis.  Unstable and dangerous, the super fuel-efficient engine must be transported by a private train.  But dark forces are at work, attempting to shanghai the miracle machine - literally at every turn by using computers to jam the switches!  But while Nancy, and her friend George, attempt to determine which sinister suspect is behind these despicable acts, they soon realize that if their adversaries can't succeed at stealing this miraculous machine, they'll destroy the train, along with everything, and everyone on it!  "The Disoriented Express" is the second in a series of three Nancy Drew adventures entitled "The High Miles Mystery."

It's been a while and I think I only have one book left on my Anticipating for 2013 list, but I have put a few more on hold at the library that I'm looking forward to reading.... In her  tour-de-force  first novel, Juliann Garey takes us inside the restless mind, ravaged heart, and anguished soul of Greyson Todd, a successful Hollywood studio executive who leaves his wife and young daughter and for a decade travels the world giving free rein to the bipolar disorder he's been forced to keep hidden for almost 20 years. The novel intricately weaves together three timelines: the story of Greyson's travels (Rome, Israel, Santiago, Thailand, Uganda); the progressive unraveling of his own father seen through Greyson's eyes as a child; and the intimacies and estrangements of his marriage. The entire narrative unfolds in the time it takes him to undergo twelve 30-second electroshock treatments in a New York psychiatric ward. This is a literary page-turner of the fir...

Read: July 4-27, 2013 read: took far too long pages: 301 Book blurb: 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 to 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. I'm finding more and more that I really can...

Read: July 22-24, 2013 read in 3 days pages: 180 Book blurb: Nancy Drew's keen mind is tested when she searches for a missing will. This was my first read of the Nancy Drew novels. I've been reading some of the graphic novels that are bit more updated than this series that was originally released in the 1930's and they are decent little reads. The novel format is much the same with a little more detail than the graphic novels which has to do with the different format I believe. Either way this was a nice short read and I may continue with the series, I see there are many more books and many more different series, but I think I'll start with some other reading in between these. This could get a little boring if I were only reading strictly these books. They are junior fiction and sometimes my adult brain likes these little books that don't require much brain power, other times my brain needs something with actual substance!! What I find to mo...

Read: July 16-21, 2013 read in 7 days pages: 475 Book blurb: Sookie Stackhouse finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back at Merlotte's. After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed. But her relationship with Eric Northman is not so clearcut. He and his vampires are keeping their distance...and a cold silence. And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated.  Then a shocking murder rocks Bon Temps, and Sookie is arrested for the crime. But the evidence against Sookie is weak, and she makes bail. Investigating the killing, she'll learn that what passes for truth in Bon Temps is only a convenient lie. What passes for justice is more spilled blood. And what passes for love is never enough... Finally the last novel. I wasn't even aware this was out until I was doing some random book researching and discovered it was to be out a couple months ago. So I log into the library app and request it. Quite s...

Read: July 4, 2013 read in a day pages: 97 Book blurb: It all began with a letter inquiring about second-hand books, written by Helene Hanff in New York, and posted to a bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road in London. As Helene's sarcastic and witty letters are responded to by the stodgy and proper Frank Doel of 84, Charing Cross Road, a relationship blossoms into a warm and charming long-distance friendship lasting many years. I picked this up because after having watched the movie You've Got Mail for I don't know the millionth time (one of my all-time favorites) I saw that there was a reference to this book on IMDB. This was a collection of letters written by Helene Hanff and a group of workers and others who worked for a book store. Helene lived in New York and was writing for particular copies of books at a better price and condition than what she was finding should she traipse all the way down to the local used book store. Being the 50's times we...

Read: June 30-July 3, 2013 read in  4 days pages: 283 Book blurb: "I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts," says Stephen King, who has combined these elements into a wonderful new story. Joyland is a whodunit noir crime novel and a haunting ghost story set in the world of an amusement park. It tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a 'carny' in small-town North Carolina and has to confront the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the way both will change his life forever. It is also a wonderful coming-of-age novel about friendship, loss, and your first heartbreak. Who dares enter the funhouse of fear? This was not the typical Stephen King novel I'm used to, there was  no horror to speak of and very little tension. This was very much a coming of age story with a great backdrop. I loved the 70's feel and the circus. I'm interested in books with a circus. Why? I...

Read: June 23-29, 2013 read in 6 days pages: 465 Book blurb: In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s  Inferno . Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered. I always look forward to this Robert Langdon series and I'll be very interested to see what follows in this series. This just left me wondering what will happen next. I would think there would be another book to follow this plot since sure some things were wrapped up but not entirely. It has been too long for me to write a decent review on this aside from saying I enjoyed it...