Wednesday Wishlist

What?

When Ava gets dumped by her boyfriend, she's pretty upset. He wasn't the love of her life or anything, but with her sister's wedding - a.k.a. the social event of the season - just two weeks away, Ava's got to save face by finding someone cute and fun to bring as her date.

With the clock ticking and no dates in sight, Ava asks her best friend if she can "borrow" her boyfriend, Jason, for the night. Ava's never been a big Jason fan, but he'll look great in a tux, and at least she'll have someone to dance with. But it doesn't take long for Ava to realize she's got him all wrong...

What do you do when Mr. Right is wrapped up in a package that belongs to your best friend?

Why?
Wanting someones boyfriend is not original, but it still makes for a fantastic read!

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit

Summary:

The story of Clark Rockefeller is a stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story of the self-made man-because Clark Rockefeller was totally made up. The career con man who convincingly passed himself off as Rockefeller was born in a small village in Germany. At seventeen, obsessed with getting to America, he flew into the country on dubious student visa documents and his journey of deception began.

Over the next thirty years, boldly assuming a series of false identities, he moved up the social ladder through exclusive enclaves on both coasts-culminating in a stunning twelve-year marriage to a rising star businesswoman with a Harvard MBA who believed she'd wed a Rockefeller.

The imposter charmed his way into exclusive clubs and financial institutions-working on Wall Street, showing off an extraordinary art collection-until his marriage ended and he was arrested for kidnapping his daughter, which exposed his past of astounding deceptions as well as a connection to the bizarre disappearance of a California couple in the mid-1980s.

The story of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is a probing and cinematic exploration of an audacious imposer-and a man determined to live the American dream by any means necessary.

Review:

This book was incredible, a story too good to be true, too fantastic to be real, and too twisted to put down. I’m not one for real stories, but this book certainly changed my mind on that point. I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good puzzle and I would certainly say “go get it right now”. Heck I’d lend them my own copy because it’s too good to wait for. An absolute A+ if I ever saw one, but that A+ comes with a 12 attached so don’t be expecting any openly raunchy behavior ;)

Must Monday

What?
Jamie Edwards has loved everything about growing up on a pumpkin patch, but ever since her cousin Milan Woods arrived, things have really stunk. Jamie can’t imagine it was easy for Milan to leave her life back in Los Angeles and move to Average, Illinois, population one thousand. But it’s kind of hard to feel sorry for her since (a) Milan’s drop-dead gorgeous; (b) she’s the daughter of two of Hollywood’s hottest film stars; (c) she’s captured the attention of everyone in town, including Danny, Jamie’s crush since forever; and (d) she’s about to steal the title of Pumpkin Princess right out from underneath Jamie!

Why?
The pumpkin princess plot sounds too adorable to miss!

When?
October 11th, 2011

Twisted

Summary:

It’s been a year since the torturous notes from A stopped and the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis’s disappearance was finally put to rest. Now seniors in high school, Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily are older, but they’re not any wiser. The pretty little liars have more secrets than ever—twisted secrets that could destroy the perfect lives they’ve worked so hard to rebuild.

Aria’s jealous of her boyfriend’s new exchange student. Spencer’s getting a little too cozy with her soon-to-be-stepbrother. Hanna’s one scandalous photo away from ruining her dad’s Senate campaign. And Emily will do anything to get a swim scholarship.

Worst of all: Last spring break in Jamaica, they did something unforgivable. The girls are desperate to forget that fateful night, but they should know better than anyone that all secrets wash ashore . . . eventually.

My Thoughts:
I use to love this series. Friends and I would anxiously await the arrival of the next book. I remember finding the 4th book a week before it was supposed to come out and I was super excited. Now I find the series to be blah. It should of ended after four books, I was satisfied, as were all my friends. It became eight books. It really should have ended there. it all want downhill after book 5. Now There are to be 12 books and I am not excited! The series has become ruined for me. Yes, I will read them all but I won't be pounding down the bookstore for them. I don't like how repetitive and strange they have become. I also don't like all the game playing about the series being over.

That being said, this was an okay book. I still recommend the series to people. Many of my reading hating friends love this series. As long as people read, then wonderful. I would give this book a B, which might be too generous. I also rate it 15+, for extreme violence, and some implied sexual content.

Alice Bliss

Summary:

"Outside the back window Alice can see the outlines of the garden, some of the furrows visible under the snow, stretching away in long thin rows. She can't imagine doing the garden without her dad. It's his thing; she's always thought of herself as his assistant at best. She can't imagine doing anything without her dad and she starts to feel like she can't breathe. And then she looks at him. Just looks at him as he watches the fire with muffin crumbs on his lap.
'I'll write to you.'
'I know, sweetheart.'
'Every day.'"
--From Alice Bliss

When Alice Bliss learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind.

Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full-blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie. But the smell of Matt is starting to fade from his blue shirt that Alice wears everyday, and the phone calls are never long enough.

Alice Bliss is a profoundly moving coming-of-age novel about love and its many variations--the support of a small town looking after its own; love between an absent father and his daughter; the complicated love between an adolescent girl and her mother; and an exploration of new love with the boy-next-door. These characters' struggles amidst uncertain times echo our own, lending the novel an immediacy and poignancy that is both relevant and real. At once universal and very personal, Alice Bliss is a transforming story about those who are left at home during wartime, and a teenage girl bravely facing the future.

Review:

To be honest, there is not much I can say about this novel other than it was profoundly painful for me to read this because it bears too close a resemblance of my own trials. My advice for the readers, if you’ve lost someone to the war in Iraq and you are finally able to sleep at night please don’t read this. If you’ve lost someone and you are still searching for understanding or to know that you aren’t the only one or even if you are trying to understand how or why you feel then you might find comfort in these pages. I personally have not slept for the past week since reading this story. So my advice for my readers is to read with caution at your own risk, and to never pick it up again if you need to put it down.

Wednesday Wishlist

What?

Sometimes I still wake up shivering in the early hours of the morning, drowning in dreams of being out there in the ocean that summer, of looking up at the moon and feeling as invisible and free as a fish. But I'm jumping ahead, and to tell the story right I have to go back to the very beginning. To a place called Indigo Beach. To a boy with pale skin that glowed against the dark waves. To the start of something neither of us could have predicted, and which would mark us forever, making everything that came after and before seem like it belonged to another life.

My name is Mia Gordon: I was sixteen years old, and I remember everything.

Why?
The summary gives me chills, in a very good way!

Must Monday

What?
Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.

Why?
A) ELIZABETH SCOTT!!!! B) Did you even read the summary? This sounds fabulous!

When?
September 15th, 2011

Should I Share My Ice Cream?

Summary:

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

In Should I Share My Ice Cream? Gerald has a big decision to make. But will he make it in time?

My Thoughts:
My goodness, this was THE CUTEST children's book of all times. I read it over and over because I fell in love with it. I now plan to purchase all of these pig and elephant books. I believe they are a wonderful addition to any mothers library.

Passive Agressive Notes

Summary:

Part voyeuristic entertainment, part group therapy, Passive Aggressive Notes offers a fascinating look at the all-too-familiar frustrations of embattled office drones, apartment dwellers, parents, and pet owners everywhere.

This curated collection combines dozens of outrageous, never-before-seen notes as well as favorites from Passiveaggressivenotes.coma 2008 Webby Award Winner and the official "Best Blog" of the South by Southwest Interactive festival.

My Thoughts:
This isn't a book you can review. I can't rate the plot or judge the writing. It was however a book I wanted to bring everyone's attention to. It was hilarious, I laughed out loud multiple times. I found myself reading parts to my mom and fiance over and over again.

I recommend everyone 14+ pick up a copy of this book. It's a keeper for sure.

Losing Faith

Summary:

A terrible secret. A terrible fate.

When Brie's sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie's world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.

As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.

My thoughts:
This book was good but not great. I went into it super excited and left feeling a bit disappointed. It felt slow. The flow just didn't move quick enough for me. It took me way longer to read than it should, I read two books while slowly reading this during the same time.

I felt it was a good book for younger teens. It had a feeling like it was aimed more at that audience. I would give it a 12+ rating.

Since it was so slow moving I will have to knock my grade down to a B. This is a book I look forward to giving to my little sister.

Eleventh Plague

Summary:

The wars that followed The Collapse nearly destroyed civilization. Now, twenty years later, the world is faced with a choice—rebuild what was or make something new.

Stephen Quinn, a quiet and dutiful fifteen-year-old scavenger, travels Post-Collapse America with his Dad and stern ex-Marine Grandfather. They travel light. They keep to themselves. Nothing ever changes. But when his Grandfather passes suddenly and Stephen and his Dad decide to risk it all to save the lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down. With his father terribly injured, Stephen is left alone to make his own choices for the first time.

Stephen’s choices lead him to Settler's Landing, a lost slice of the Pre-Collapse world where he encounters a seemingly benign world of barbecues, baseball games and days spent in a one-room schoolhouse. Distrustful of such tranquility, Stephen quickly falls in with Jenny Tan, the beautiful town outcast. As his relationship with Jenny grows it brings him into violent conflict with the leaders of Settler's Landing who are determined to remake the world they grew up in, no matter what the cost.

Review:

An excellent representation of a world we will no doubt know intimately one day in the future of our society. Honestly an excellent read smattered with life, death, and moving on to build a better tomorrow. I’d rate this as an A+12 and put it on my “best of summer” reading list.

Wiener Wolf

Summary:
Weiner Dog's life of leisure has lost its bite. So when he hears the call of the wild one day, he answers! Thus Weiner Dog becomes...Weiner Wolf.

My Thoughts:
I recently decided I would accept picture books for review and have so far loved it. This was a very cute book. I nanny for two little boys so it is important to keep their attention during story time. They both adored this! It is one they want read over and over.

I recommend all the mom's of little boys go purchase this wonderfully written children's book.

Wednesday Wishlist

What?
Gen's family is more comfortable spending time apart than together. Then Gen's mom signs them up for Camp Frontier—a vacation that promises the "thrill" of living like 1890s pioneers. Forced to give up all of her modern possessions, Gen nevertheless manages to email her friends back home about life at "Little Hell on the Prairie," as she's renamed the camp. It turns out frontier life isn't without its good points—like the cute boy who lives in the next clearing. And when her friends turn her emails into a blog, Gen is happily surprised by the fanbase that springs up. But just when it seems Gen and family might pull through the summer, disaster strikes as a TV crew descends on the camp, intent on discovering the girl behind the nationwide blogging sensation—and perhaps ruining the best vacation Gen has ever had.


Why?
I'm interested in how this family survives with this vacation! Sounds like a quirky book.

Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods?

Summary:
Serious answers to rhetorical questions--what's not to like?

For those of us who have long wondered where bears go to take care of their business, if the Pope is actually Catholic, or whether anyone is really made of money, Caroline Taggart provides the answers to these and a host of previously unanswerable questions.

From the most profound questions of philosophy to queries of geography and science, this deadpan book is full of hilarious information you never knew you needed including:

What's love got to do with it?
How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
Where does the time go?
Can a leopard change his spots?

My Thoughts:
This was a fantastic book! I read it all in one sitting because I really got into it. The answers were very educational. I have found that since reading this book I laugh when I hear any of these common sayings.

I can say this book wasn't for everyone though. It was pretty dry at some points. The answers were the kind you look for when you are super bored and can't stop thinking.

I would recommend this book for drives and other time fillers. It was an easy read.

Out of commision

I disappeared off the face of the earth. Sorry guys! I was busy moving and cramming for my finals. I'm back though and I didn't stop reading so I have lots of reviews headed your way! Stay tuned.

Run For Cover- Eva Gray

Summary:
In a terrifying future world, four girls must depend on each other if they want to survive.
Now that best friends Louisa, Rosie, Evelyn, and Maddie know the truth -- or at least the danger they're in -- the girls have run away from their "safe" country retreat. But life is riskier than ever, and Rosie still doesn't know who she can trust.

Rosie's survival skills are top-notch. But how well can she keep her own secrets?

Review:
The second in the series and the fire is just heating up. I would definitely advise clearing 3 or 4 hours to take this beauty down because the fantastic writing really knocks this one out of the park. Both books in the series so far have put me in a trance where I honestly wish I had just the entire series on hand so I could read them one right after the other. I kid you not, these books are as easy to read as popcorn is easy to eat. They have the perfect blend of salty, savory, sassy crunch that I would implore my followers to sink their ocular teeth into. I ate them up and I loved them; I honestly can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Again an easy 12+ A

Coffeehouse Angel- Suzanne Selfors

Summary:
When a random act of kindness involves Katrina with Malcolm, a handsome teenage guardian angel intent on fulfilling her greatest wish, fame and fortune seem like the most obvious requests. But after two botched wishes, Malcolm knows Katrina is hiding something from him. How can she tell him the truth, when her heart's desire has become Malcolm himself?

Review:
Sweeter than the perfect rhubarb pie (my personal favorite) this book literally brought me to tears. This book hits home in a lot of ways and I’m sure that others who have read this would agree. I am astounded by how many emotions and opportunities to gain wisdom are presented in this book. I’ve been left honestly speechless, all I can muster at this moment in regards to this book is that I am completely blown away and this has taken this number one spot on my list of “Best Reads”.

I would absolutely say 12+A. This is definitely a book I would recommend a copy to sit on every shelf of every home, and with that being said this book has taken my heart with its characters and its lovely story. My compliments to the author Suzanne Selfors, I can’t wait to read what you bring us next.