Top 10 Tuesdays

This weekly feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's theme is: Top Ten Favorite Minor Characters

1. Alcide from The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. Yes, he was kind of a jack ass for a couple books, but he was just to dreamy there for a while.
2. Pam also from The Sookie Stackhouse series. She is so witty, and more and more I am wanting to know more about her past.
3. Mia's friend Kim in If I Stay. She was a very loyal and wonderful friend... I wish I knew more about her.
4. Any professor from Harry Potter. I feel like they need their own adult series. 
5. Rue from The Hunger Games Trilogy.
6. Hana from Delirium. I wish we knew more about her.
7. Grandma Roncalli from Brava Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. Love her. Trigiani always has great grandma characters.
8. Rose from Wither, I wish there was a prequel.
9. Bella's dad from Twilight. He was always consistent.
10. Cinna from Hunger Games. Fabulous!

What Are You Reading?

This week I read:
Where She Went by Gayle Forman

I have started:
Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer

Hopefully this week I will finish that and read...

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

PS I saw Rachel Hawkins speak this weekend, she is soooo super fun! 

And I snagged a free tote bag, 

Top 10 Tuesdays

Courtesy of the Broke and the Bookish

The other week we did top ten mean girls in lit..so now we're on to the biggest jerks..all those jerky guys in books..those who truly WERE asshats and those who just acted like one but could be quite loveable! Check HERE for future topics.

1. This might just be me, but, Gale from The Hunger Games series. I think he has a good heart, but has a hard time being honest and then gets all mad and stupid. 
2. Archer, for obvious reasons, from Hex Hall
3. Anna's bf from Some Girls Are... Stupid boy.
4. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Snob!
5. Douglas from Hold Me Closer Necromancer
6. Tucker Max from either of his books.
7. My Secret Agent Lover Man, only from Weetzie Bat though, not the rest of the series
8. Malfoy from any Harry Potter
9. Edward and Jacob from Twilight. Sorry, they're both tools.
10. Lord something special from Wither, I don't really know his fully story yet, but he'll get what's coming to him.

An Ongoing Post of Random Coincidences in Books

(I know there are more, these are books I've read or come across since December)
*On the list more than once

Private/Reform/Special School
Fallen by Lauren Kate*
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

Human in love with an Supernatural being (Vampire, Angel, Werewolf, etc)
Fallen by Lauren Kate*

Main Character is Dead or Can Talk to the Dead
Hold Me Closer Necromancer by Lish McBride


Greek God/Goddess Mythology
Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
Abandon by Meg Cabot
Sirenz

Celebrated Pregnancy
Bumped by Megan McCafferty
Wither by Lauren DeStefano*


Dystopian
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
XVI by Julia Karr
Wither by Lauren Destefano*
Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Read this past week:

Currently Reading:

For this week (probably):

I usually top out at 2 books a week...

Link Day

This article was absolutely baffling and frustrating to me: Do we really need our libraries? 

"I approach the book aisles in much the same way I would the alleys behind Uptown bars after midnight. I'm no longer convinced it's safe for a lone female to browse them alone since they are practically deserted and present a great opportunity for ambush."

And in defense of that, an article from our system's fabulous director: The Future According to MCLS


Interesting timeline of Web Sites from Stephen's Lighthouse.  


Great post from the YA 5 about "sexy" YA writing. She speaks the truth...

"Nearly everything I write has sex in it. Why? Because teenagers have sex! They think about it, too!"

'Checking out porn' protected by First Amendment. This happened in Rochester a few years back, I feel bad for any library system that has to deal with it. 

"Library patron Daisy Nazario, 60, said she was grossed out when she discovered she was sitting next to an elderly porn watcher in the Brooklyn Central Library recently. The looker was using library-provided extensions on the sides of his computer to block the view of his screen -- which was featuring a threesome at the time -- "but I could still hear the voices," a disgusted Nazario said."

Waiting on Wednesday...

Courtesy of Breaking the Spine

Sirenz, by Charlotte Bennardo, Natalie Zaman comes out on June 8th. Love the cover!

Bickering frenemies Meg and Shar are doing some serious damage at a midnight sample sale when they find themselves arguing over a pair of shoes—with fatal consequences. One innocent bystander later, the girls are suddenly at the mercy of Hades—the god of the underworld—himself. To make them atone for what they’ve done, Hades forces the teens to become special-assignment Sirens, luring to the Underworld any individual whose unholy contract is up.

But just because they have an otherworldly part-time job now doesn’t mean Meg and Shar can ignore life’s drudgeries (work) or pleasures (fashion!). Finding that delicate balance between their old and new responsibilities turns out to be harder than they expected, especially when an entire pantheon of Greek deities decides to get involved. Then there’s the matter of the fine print in their contracts . . .

What are you waiting for?

Reviews-Week of 5/2

Wither

What if you knew exactly when you would die? 

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 
When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home. 
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.
So I had a little read-a-thon day and read Wither, and for once I didn't throw it across the room, but I was left with a lot of questions... First and foremost I liked it (I think) and I would recommend it to any teen in my library.  I think I just need to talk it out.


Things I liked about it:

• I liked the story and the separate girl's stories. For the most part, I even liked the girls (There is a 'but' in the bottom section)
• I liked the Jane Eyre feeling of the novel. I had the whole women in the attic feeling throughout the whole novel. It was a haunting story.
• I LOVED the way it was written, no matter if it's within the series, I will read Lauren Destafano's next novel.
• I liked the way the dystopian world was built int he novel. I felt like I know a lot about the world in which they live. 
• I am not trying to be saucy, but I liked that teen sex and pregnancy were apart of the story. It was refreshing that there were no apologies, it was just apart of the characters life.
• Gabriel was dreamy

Things I didn't like:

• Seriously, in Florida it doesn't snow! No matter what the time frame. I wish this was justified.
• Instead of it "just ending" like I usually complain, it ends suddenly. Like after this whole drawn out beautiful 330 pages, she announces it's her last day in the mansion... and then they just leave without anyone finding out, no fight, no confrontation, just happily ever after for Gabriel and Rhine. 
• I am questioning my last remark already but I'll still put it out there. By the middle of this novel I was questioning how it was a series. And by the end I was really wondering... Rhine's story seems complete, but as I look back on my remarks I realize that the other character's story isn't finished. And maybe that's the direction the series will go...
• Cecily... That's all. 
• Linden and Vaughn kind of bored me. Linden revealed little about himself, his father Vaughn is painted as the bad guy and never, truly does anything wrong (at least he isn't confronted, Linden knows nothing of his father's actions). 
• I'll make this point again... There was a general lack of confrontation in the novel. No one was told they did anything wrong, and no one truly changed as a person, they just changed to fit their circumstances.

Catching Fire

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol.

This book is in three different parts and I have to say it I had 3 very different feelings while reading it. 

The beginning I was kind of bored, and then very much on edge and stressed out, even more so when they announced the new rules for the quarter quell. 

When they entered the games, I enjoyed the characters smartassness. Effie and Haymitch left them up to their own devices, so for once you were able to see Katniss and Peeta truly interact without acting a part. I believe they really fell in love in this novel. And they can't even admit it to themselves.

The last part, left me confused, especially the last words of the novel. I didn't know what was going to happen and I still don't fully understand it. But I'm not meant to, that's why Mockingjay exists.

The Month of May

It is Zombie Awareness Month! Read a little about it here: Zombie Research Society. I wandered around work sulking tonight because I have a serious lack in Zombie themed books. Le sigh.

It is also:
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Jewish American Heritage Month
Mental Health Awareness Month

I would not know these things if I were not a librarian... (One who has a serious fetish for displays)

Waiting for Superman

Very good documentary, very scary numbers about the education system as a whole... They blame the teachers, the schools, the budget. As I saw it, the only solution they promote is charter schools... and since they run on a lottery system because so many people apply, it still isn't a solution.

I have gotten into this argument before and I am curious about others opinions as well... Is (a good) education a right or a privilege?

We get the products of the school districts, I see it everyday. Little ones looking for The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Parents checking out books for their children for reports. Teens doing research. Tutors clamoring for the quiet tables in the back. And more than anything else, we get the kids, teens, just hanging out. We pick up where they leave off. Try to teach them something else...