Unstoppable in Stilettos: A Girl’s Guide to Living Tall in a Small World Lauren Ruotolo HCI (2010), Edition: 1, Paperback (ISBN 0757315143 / 9780757315145) Memoir/self-help, 200 pages Source: Publisher. via TLC Book Tours Reason for reading: Review/blog tour Opening Lines (Chapter 1): “Seventy-five steep white concrete steps separate me from my hotel room in Santorini, Greece. I know because I counted them. But the motivation to descend each step down the cliff, where my hotel […]
Looking for Alaska John Green Speak/Penguin (2006), Paperback (ISBN 0142402516 / 9780142402511) Fiction (YA), 256 pages Source: Personal/purchased copy Reason for reading: None in particular; new-to-me author, but a book-blogger favorite Opening lines: “The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party. To say that I had low expectations would be to underestimate […]
Outside the Ordinary World Dori Ostermiller Mira (2010), Edition: Original Paperback (ISBN 0778328899 / 9780778328896) Fiction: 400 pages Source: Publisher, via TLC Book Tours Reason for reading: Blog tour/review Opening Lines: “I’m pacing circles in the family therapist’s waiting room, trying to discern what my daughter is saying on the other side of that door. Hannah hasn’t spoken to me in days, but she seems to have plenty to say to a stranger: I can […]
This review is part of the Green Books Campaign.Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. The campaign is organized for the second time […]
Notes from the Underwire: Adventures from My Awkward and Lovely Life Quinn Cummings (Twitter) Hyperion (2009), Paperback (ISBN 1401322867 / 9781401322861) Memoir/Humor, 272 pages Source: Personal/purchased Reason for reading: Blogging Authors Reading Project Opening Lines: “This wasn’t in my plans for the day. “Alice and I attended a parent-and-child art class. While Alice mused over a composition that would be entitled in future catalogs of her work as Meditations on Pink Tissue, Elmer’s Glue, and […]
When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead Wendy Lamb Books (2009), Hardcover (ISBN 0385737424 / 9780385737425) Fiction (children’s/YA), 208 pages Source: Personal/purchased copy Reason for reading: leftover from 24-Hour Readathon, follow-up to my re-read of A Wrinkle in Time Opening Lines: “So Mom got the postcard today. It says Congratulations in big curly letters, and at the very top is the address of Studio TV-15 on West 58th Street. After three years of trying, she has […]
The Chosen One: A Novel Carol Lynch Williams St. Martin’s Griffin (2010), Paperback (ISBN 0312627750 / 9780312627751) Fiction (YA), 240 pages Source: Personal/purchased copy Reason for Reading: Fall 2010 Readathon Opening Lines: “‘If I was going to kill the Prophet,’ I say, not even keeping my voice low, ‘I’d do it in Africa.’ “I look into Mariah’s light green eyes. “She stares back at me and smiles, like she knows what I mean and agrees. […]
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks E. Lockhart (blog) Hyperion (2009), Paperback (ISBN 0786838191 / 9780786838196) Fiction (YA), 352 pages Source: personal/purchased copy Reason for reading: Fall 2010 Readathon Opening Lines: “I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. I take full responsibility for the disruptions caused by the Order — including the library lady, the doggies in the window, night […]
The Summer We Read Gatsby: A Novel Danielle Ganek Viking Adult (2010), Hardcover (ISBN 0670021784 / 9780670021789) Fiction, 304 pages Source: ARC from independent publicist (Engelman & Co.) – pub date June 2010 Reason for reading: Accepted for review Opening Lines: “Hats, like first husbands in my experience, are usually a mistake. But the invitation was specific. And demanding. A GATSBY party. Wear white. And below that, in imploring cursive: ‘Hats for the Ladies.’” Book […]
A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle Originally published 1962 This edition: Yearling (Bantam Dell) (1973), reprint, Paperback (0440498058 / 9780440498056) Fiction (children/young adult), 211 pages Source: personal copy (borrowed from kids’ bookshelf) Reason for reading: Re-read for Banned Books Week 2010 Opening Lines: “It was a dark and stormy night.” Book Description: Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an […]
Forever… Judy Blume Originally published 1975 This edition: Simon Spotlight Entertainment (2007), Paperback (ISBN 1416953914 / 9781416953913) Fiction (YA), 208 pages Source: personal copy (purchased) Reason for Reading: Re-read for Banned Books Week 2010 Opening Lines: “Sybil Davison has a genius IQ and has been laid by at least six different guys. She told me so herself, the last time she was visiting her cousin, Erica, who is my good friend. Erica says this is […]
Speak Laurie Halse Anderson Original copyright 1999 This edition: Penguin Platinum, 2006, Paperback (ISBN 0142407321 / 9780142407325) Fiction (YA), 197 pages Source: Purchased/personal copy Reason for Reading: Banned Books Week 2010 Opening Lines: “It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.” Book description: Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people […]
