Saturday, April 12, 2014

Weekly Rewind 4.12.14

Saturday, April 12, 2014 1:08 AM with 31 comments




Weekly Rewind

The new books on my shelves, the links I loved, and my week in a nutshell.




Since I started this blog I've participated in Stacking the Shelves, which is a weekly feature hosted by Tyngas Reviews, and I'm going to continue linking to that meme. Throughout my student teaching semester I was using my weekend post as a way to let people know what's going on in my life, so I've decided to rename my weekend post because this feature is more personal than just what books I've received. The Weekly Rewind will be about what's going on with me and my blog, as well as about the books I've added to my shelves, and the links I've enjoyed over the past week from other blogs and the interwebs in general.  

My Life and Blog

Life: I'm still trying to shake this cold. I thought I was recovering, but early this week it suddenly reared its head again. I spent all of Wednesday in bed which seemed to help. I'm just running myself too thin, I think, and the combination of not-so-great food and little to no exercise isn't helping. It's just so hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle when so much is going on, but I definitely need to try harder. I'm trying to get to everybody's blog, so I apologize if you left a comment this week and haven't heard back from me. I'll do my best to catch up over the next few days.

I've been debating on whether or not to do a post about this, but haven't decided. As most of you know, I recently got my Master's in Education and have been working as a substitute teacher (among two other jobs) for the past couple of months...in Western PA. So this last school incident hit pretty close to home, literally. It has me pretty shaken. I love teaching (even if I'm not necessarily loving subbing), but the constant threat of violence is nerve-wracking. I don't feel scared when I'm in the schools and, frankly, have chosen some of the nicer districts to work in, but that doesn't really even matter as the school that got hit is considered one of the nicer schools. I haven't changed my mind about teaching or anything, but it sucks that we all have to be afraid. That students have to be scared to go to school, or that teachers have to be afraid to go to work. One of my fellow subs stated she thought of it like a plane crash, but I feel like schools are getting hit with more and more frequency. I know that bullying exists and it sucks, but that doesn't give you the right to take people's lives. I just. That's all I'm going to say about this for now. 

My Blog: Due to not feeling very well, I didn't post as much as I would have liked this week, but I did finally post a movie review like I've been promising. 
  • Monday: I reviewed The Museum of Intangible Things which had me torn. On the one hand, I loved the way the book focused on female friendship, but on the other, the book veered into some pretty unbelievable territory and I couldn't connect with either character.
  • Wednesday: I'm waiting on Famous in Love which is a fictional behind-the-scenes look at a beloved book that is being turned into a blockbuster film. It sounds really fun.
  • Friday: A movie review of the film The Wolf of Wall Street. I love me some Leonardo DiCaprio, but there isn't a single redeeming character in this one. 
New Books: I have some pretty titles to share with you this week, so without further adieu. I hope you all are having splendid weekends!

Review Books

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A girl growing up in the shadow of her "uncle" Adolf Hitler, finds herself falling for a Jewish reporter. Seriously, how good does that sound?
The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik
I have to admit that I found Ms. LaZebnik's retelling of Pride and Prejudice to be a total snoozefest, but I'm going to give her another shot as she tackles Persuasion
Don't Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley
This one follows a girl whose mom has been documenting her entire childhood through a "mommy blog". 
Inventor's Secret by Andrea Cramer
I don't read a whole lot of steampunk, but this reimagining of 19th Century North America where the Revolutionary War never happened sounds pretty interesting.
On the Rocks by Erin Duffy
A look at dating in the age of social media. I love a good chick-lit book every once in awhile.
Love, Nina  by Nina Stibbe
This memoir is told in the letters a nanny wrote home to her family while working in North London in the 1980s.
The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel
I really enjoyed Mr. Oppel's This Dark Endeavor and jumped at the chance to read his new MG novel set on a train. Isn't that cover charming?
Very Bad Things by Susan McBride
I felt so honored when Susan McBride contacted me to see if I wanted a galley of Very Bad Things after seeing that I featured it on a WoW post. A murder mystery set at a prep school? Sold, sold, sold! I can't wait to dive into this one. Thanks, Susan!!

What I snagged from the library

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Solving for Ex by Leigh Ann Kopans
Another Austen retelling, this one of Mansfield Park which I haven't read. It follows a girl who moves in with her aunt and uncle after being forced to leave her old school due to bullying. She falls for a mathelete. It sounds pretty cute and I've been wanting this one for awhile. 
The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger
This epistolary novel follows a woman as she goes through a divorce. Told entirely through letters, memos, emails, etc. I've made my love of the epistolary novel pretty clear--even creating an entire post about it--so I'm excited to read this. I hope I never, ever have to go through a divorce, though (and hopefully my husband feels the same). 

Link Love

  • The awesome Sabrina from I Heart YA Fiction which is one of my favorite blogs is Looking for a Co-Blogger.
  • Pam from YA Escape From Reality talks about how she Misses Print Books and shares some lovely photos of her bookshelves.
  • Mands from The Bookish Manicurist reviewed Grave Mercy with some pretty freaking cool matching nails.
Upcoming Reviews

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Well that's it for me this week. Feel free to leave a link to whatever weekend post you do (Stacking the Shelves, In My Mailbox, etc). I love to see what books people have recently snagged and especially enjoy hearing about my fellow bloggers' weeks. I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

31 comments:

  1. Prisoner of Night and Fog looks amazing! Very Bad Things also looks really interesting. Enjoy your books. :)

    Elen @ A World of Reviews

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  2. Hope you are feeling a bit better now. I seem to keep coming down with minor colds that are just enough to annoy me-it's been happening since about October when I got the flu jag!

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  3. Yay for Prisoner of Night and Fog - it is super good! I can't get over of how well it blends facts and fiction together. I just reviewed The Geography of You and Me yesterday and I'm really looking forward to reading Huntley Fitzpatrick's book soon because I've heard so many good things about it!

    Have a good weekend and happy reading :)

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  4. What a great line up! I still haven't read a Jennifer Smith book. I have to get working on that. Happy Reading!

    Mary
    My STS

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  5. Escalating school violence is so tragic. Even though my kids go to a school where it's pretty small, and somewhat guarded, I still worry. My heart goes out to everyone.

    Anyway, Prisoner of Night and Fog sounds awesome. I hope I'll find a copy of it somewhere.

    Have a great week!

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    1. It's hard not to worry. I don't have kids, but I can only imagine how you feel when you hear of the latest attack. My heart goes out to all those affected by these senseless act, too.
      Thanks, Joy. You, too.

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  6. I found Solving for Ex really cute! I'm so jealous that you've already read What I Thought Was True! It's high on my TBR list. Also, I didn't really like The Geography of You and Me, but I hope you did! Have a great weekend! :D

    New GFC follower :)
    Stacking the Shelves
    Dress Up That Cover #3 - Every Day

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  7. I kind of went through the same thing when Katie started Kindergarten, wondering how safe it really was, etc., but we live in a rural area and there's not much else I can do about it otherwise. Things are going to happen that are out of my control. Like the school losing my child on the second day of school...they put her on the wrong bus, the one with the longest route of them all so it was two hours before she got back to the school. But she went back the next day with no problems. I guess what I'm saying is that we can't live our lives in fear of what might happen because that's not really living at all. But it would be nice if we didn't have to worry about these kinds of things, right?

    Anyway, great book haul. I read Solving for Ex, and it was cute. And Very Bad Things sounds awesome! Hope you enjoy all your new reads!

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    1. That sounds awful and must have been so scary. I'm trying to not let it affect me. Of course you are right that we cannot live in fear. Plus after putting all that work--not to mention money--into getting this degree I'm not going to let it scare me away from the profession, but it's hard not to let that wiggle of doubt in. I know that teaching is the right profession for me and frankly, I'm good at it. But it does just suck. It sucks. I'm so glad that all of those kids are going to pull through, but you think about all the children who have died because of these other children's senseless acts and it just makes me so sad.

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  8. I'm so excited about reading Prisoner of Night and Fog! I hope I can get to it soon. Sorry you're still trying to shake off that cold. :(

    Under The Mountain's STS

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  9. Great books this week. I hope you shake that cold soon! I just want to tell you how amazing teachers are, we need strong teachers to fend off the evil of the world. It just seems to be getting worse!
    Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings

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    1. Thank you, Missie. It definitely doesn't seem to be getting any better, does it?

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  10. Nice haul! I love the look of Very Bad Things, I haven't heard of that before but it sounds really intriguing. Plus, that cover is really nice. I hope you feel better soon, teachers are amazing and important and I wish we lived in a world where our schools were safe. I hope you enjoy your books :) My STS.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. It's so nice that people do value the profession still.

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  11. I'm so jealous of Very Bad Things, Prisoner of Night and Fog, & The Inventor's Secret. Enjoy them all :) My STS

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  12. I hope you start feeling a lot better soon, Nat! Drink lots of hot water with lemon & ginger in it and rest as much as possible :)

    And it's not cool that you have to worry about going to work, I wish these sort of incidents were on the decrease.

    Great haul! I'm looking forward to Prisoner of Night and Fog, too. And thanks so much for the shout out! xox

    Mands @ The Bookish Manicurist

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    1. Thanks. I'm just being a whiner, but I'll give that a try. :)
      I wish they were on the decrease, too. Just a few days later a guy stabbed--and killed--five people at a party in Canada that was full of university students. So, so sad.

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  13. I really liked the last best kiss! Great haul.

    OUT's STS

    Leydy from OUAT & RCE

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  14. Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well.

    And I don't know what to even say about the violence in schools…it's so scary and so sad.

    As far as books, Prisoner of Night and Fog has gotten great reviews so hopefully that will be a good read. And I can't wait to read What I Thought Was True and The Geography of You and Me…both look really cute. Have a great week and thanks for the link love! ~Pam

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    1. What can you say? It is just so sad and scary. Thanks for the well wishes.

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  15. Nice pile! Hope you enjoy your new reads.

    My StS.

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  16. I have review copies of quite a few of these, too, and am excited to get around to them. I finished Don't Call Me Baby last night. It was a little young for me, but a good read nonetheless. I'm on the blog tour for Prisoner of Night and Fog and that's the book I'm going to start reading as soon as I finish making the blog rounds this morning. ;) Solving for Ex was super cute. I enjoyed that one quite a bit. I love adorable geeks.

    I actually grew up in southwestern PA about an hour from where the school stabbing occurred last week. Hearing it on the news definitely shook me. My cousin still lives in that area and is substitute teaching all over the place (or she was before she had a baby two weeks ago, anyhow) and I have a lot of friends who are teachers in that area. It's terrible knowing kids (and staff!) aren't even safe in a school. It breaks my heart.

    I hope you have a good week!

    Check out my StS and my current giveaways.

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    1. Yeah, I'm literally right here. I sub all over, too. You have to sign up for multiple districts if you want to work every day. It is so sad that kids and teachers aren't even safe in their own schools. There are all these precautions in place, but it still keeps happening. Thanks, Kim.

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  17. I hope you are feeling better soon! I hear you about teaching. It can be a scary place at times. I felt the same way as you when I taught…schools should be a safe place…it is sad when these kind of crimes happen in schools. I can't wait to read your review of What I Thought Was True--dying to read that one! Enjoy all of your books!

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    1. Thanks, Christina. When I'm actually in the schools I never really feel scared, but I think it is also that complacency that gets us in trouble.

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  18. The whole school violence thing was another black mark on the decision to teach for me as well. It just happens too much, and there is so little that a teacher can do to help the kids that fall through the cracks. The system is broken, and the people making the decisions could not care less.
    /rant

    I hope you do feel better! It sounds like you have a nasty one indeed.

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    1. Thanks, Lyn. I am starting to feel a bit better. Who knows what is going on with me. I agree that the system is just so completely broken and the ones with the power to actually do something about it just aren't. It is hard when you have SO MANY kids. Especially in jr and sr high where a teacher can see literally over a hundred students a day.

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  19. Part of me feels like your friend, like school violence happens as often as a plane crash, but when it hits so close to home, I understand that it does become a lot more real and scary for sure. It's a tragedy that these things happen.

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    1. It's definitely the close to home aspect, but I do feel like these violent episodes happen more frequently than plane crashes. Not even a week after this happened a college student in Canada killed 5 fellow students by stabbing them at a party. So sad.

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  20. Wow lots of great books! How on earth did I not know about your awesome blog?? I am a new email follower of yours ;)

    Don't call me baby is at the top of my wishlist! I can't wait to read it!

    Happy reading!

    My Weekly Wrap up Post

    Michelle @ Book Briefs

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Hello, there! Thanks for taking the time to comment. I read each and every one and will do my best to respond--usually on your blog instead of on mine. I will, however, always answer direct questions. Due to serious time restraints, this blog is now an award free zone, but I appreciate the thought!