TTT: 2016 Debuts I Can't Wait to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme/original feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Click the link to go to their site to see the original list for today plus links to a whole slew of other blogs. After you read mine, of course.

TTT: 2016 debuts I can't wait to get my hands on

2016 is shaping up to be a great year for debus. There are a lot of books I'm looking forward to. I have some of these already, but haven't read any of them yet (and some are books I'm hoping to snag).

    
    
   

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

I love pirates. This book, about a young Blackbeard and the girl he falls for, sounds amazing.

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

A new take on Sherlock Holmes. It looks very charming.

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

I have no idea what this is about, but it sure sounds interesting.
The Crown's Game by Evelyn Strike
I'm always such a sucker for covers like this with wonderful sounding worlds, but I rarely actually read or enjoy them. This one sounds pretty awesome, though.
This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
As a teacher, I cannot help but be terrified by books like this. It isn't a fear I deal with on a day-to-day basis, to be honest, but every once in awhile I'll hear about a shooting and will be struck dumb with fear.
Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw
This book that follows a fanfic writer who turns her writer's gaze onto the people in her high school sounds right up my alley.
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
Best friends lives become complicated when a third girl comes into the mix. I love complicated friendship stories.
The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood
This is about a 17 year-old physics prodigy. Physics was never my strong suit, but I love books that follow brilliant people...because if I could wish for any improvement I would like to be smarter. Screw thinner or taller or prettier. I would love to be intimidatingly   smart.
The Darkest Corner by Kara Thomas
I love a good murder mystery, and this one sounds intriguing.
Love, Lies & Spies by Cindy Anstey
I'm so in love with this cover. I don't even really care what it's about (although it does sound really fun).
Doreen by Ilana Manaster
An update on "The Picture of Dorian Gray." To this I say: Gimme. Gimme, now.
The Way to Game the Walk of Shame by Jenn P. Nguyen
Again. This cover is amazing. But more than that, the synopsis kind of reminds me of Ten Things I Hate About You, one of my all-time favorite films.


That's it for me. What debuts are you looking forward to? Link me up!

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Weekly Rewind 11.28.15

Weekly Rewind
The new books on my shelves 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 Tynga's 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.

Life and Blog

Life: This is going to be short and sweet today. I've been home for the past couple of days and have plans with friends tonight that I need to start getting ready for (thankfully they are good friends and we are just going over to their house). Thanksgiving was awesome and being home has been exactly what I needed. I can't believe in just three weeks it will be time for Christmas break! (And then a loooong 3 months before Spring Break...but I won't think about that quite yet.) 

Blog and reading: Just a WoW this week. I love this cover, and the story sounds really fun. I'm currently reading Shallow Graves and Gena/Finn, and am switched to the audio of Career of Evil.

New books: Just a handful today, but I'm excited about all of them. So without further ado, I hope you are all having fabulous (hopefully long) weekends!

For Review

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

I'm about 70% through this, and it is bizarre. I'm definitely curious to see how it ends, but I'm not loving it (I am enjoying it, though). It's certainly interesting and original.  

The Trouble With Destiny by Lauren Morrill

How charming is that cover? I haven't read Meant to Be, but I really liked Being Sloane Jacobs, so I have high hopes for this one. 

Instructions for the End of the World by Jamie Kain

A girl tries to survive in the wilderness about her survivalist father leaves her and her sister. I've been wanting to read this one, and was lucky to win a copy. This one is probably next. 

 What I snagged from the library

Books:

Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

This is truly one of my favorite covers ever. So charming.

Movies:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

I was hoping to reread this before this came in for me, but just didn't get to it. I started to reread it and then got distracted, and frankly I just have so many books waiting for me that I'll probably end up watching this on Sunday night when I get back into town because this is due on Monday, and I don't want to put my name back on the reserve list and wait for it to come back in. So. 

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!

Waiting on Wednesdays (126) Little Black Dresses Little White Lies

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. Click the link to see the original post plus a whole slew of links to other blogs. After you read this one, of course.

Little Black Dresses
Little White Lies

Author: Laura Stampler
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: July 19, 2016

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Harper Anderson always believed she belonged somewhere more glamorous than her sleepy Northern California suburb. After all, how many water polo matches and lame parties in Bobby McKittrick's backyard can one girl take? That's why Harper is beyond ecstatic when she lands her dream internship as a dating blogger at the elite teen magazine Shift. Getting to spend the summer in New York City to live her dream of becoming a writer? Harper's totally in.

There's just one teeny, tiny, infinitesimal problem: Apart from some dance floor make-outs, Harper doesn't have a lot of - or, really, any - dating expertise. In fact, she might have sort of stolen her best friend's experiences as her own on her Shift application. But she can learn on the job...right?

From awkward run-ins with the cute neighborhood dog-walker to terrifying encounters with her crazed editor, from Brooklyn gallery openings to weekends in the Hamptons, Harper finds out what it takes to make it in the Big City--and as the writer of her own destiny.

Why I'm excited:

Graphic black and white covers are one of my favorites. Beyond that, this kind of reminds me of one of my favorite chick-lit novels from the early 2000s when I was huge into that genre called Fashionistas. I hope I love this one as much. I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open for this one.

What are you waiting for on this Wednesday? Link me up!

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Weekly Rewind (11.21.15)

Weekly Rewind
The new books on my shelves 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 Tynga's 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.

Life and Blog

Life: My honey is coming here this weekend. Our hockey team, the Avs, are playing the Capitals on Saturday. I LOVE seeing new stadiums, and am so excited! He'll be here on Friday thru Sunday, and then I'll be home on Tuesday for Thanksgiving break. So we'll have almost a full week together. Then just three weeks until we'll have a full TWO weeks together. This year is SO much better than last year, but it still sucks to not see each other every day. This weekend is going to be so fun, and next week I have plans to see a lot of my friends I haven't been able to see since the summer, so good stuff coming up.

This week has gone pretty quickly. Tomorrow is "STEM" day, so I don't have to teach any classes. Some teachers are presenting lessons, while others are going with a homeroom from room to room to help out. I'm a floater--which is awesome because I didn't have to prepare anything, and I get to see different lessons. Plus, the lovely people that be gave me last block planning, so I get to just chill for the last hour of the day. They took a quiz today, so I'll have some time to sit down and do some grading. Next week is going to be pretty lax. It's a two day week, and on Tuesday especially, I know I'll be missing students, so I'm not planning a huge lesson. I'll have some fun activities, and then will just let them read. For the most part, my students love to just read silently. People assume that they wouldn't, but besides a couple of outliers, they really do.

Blog and reading: This week I posted a WoW set during WWII with a group of girl spies. I also posted a somewhat rambling post about reading schedules and how it relates to Modern Romance. It does, I promise. This week I read Wink, Poppy, Midnight. It reads like a modern fairy-tale and I loved it. Review next week. I'm on the last CD of Drew Barrymore's Wildflower. I'm currently reading Gena/Finn, but just started it so I don't have much of an opinion so far. I'm trying this new thing where I just read one book at a time...so we'll see how that goes.

New books: Just a couple of books to share this week. Hopefully I'll get some reading done next week during break, but I really have planned something for almost every night I'm home, so we'll see. Regardless, I hope you are all having fabulous weekends!

For Review

 

Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson

Two women bond over fanfic of their favorite show. Told in emails and blog comments. I've just started this, but it's cool so far.

Forbidden by Eve Bunting

I adore this cover. The story, about an orphan who moves to a New England town with her aunt and uncle who is drawn to a boy she is "forbidden" from seeing has me a bit skeptical. Has anyone read this one?

What I snagged from the library

   

 

Books:

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

I used to dye my hair that color. Every time I see this book, it makes me want to do it again...but the upkeep was such a pain in the ass--and I worked at a salon at the time. Also, I may have requested to sequel to this (I did), so now I need to get on it. I've heard good things.

Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick

I've never read anything by this author. I've heard some good things about this one, and I almost always connect with thrillers, so I hope I love it.

Audio:
The Martian by Andy Weir

Despite owning this, I just can't seem to get to it, so I decided to go the audio route.

Movies:
The Gift

I cannot WAIT to watch this. I actually debated seeing this in the theater alone when this came out, and then just got to it. It looks so intriguing.

The Man from UNCLE

I've heard this movie is all style and no substance, but the style is so amazing (60s mod is my all-time favorite), so I'm honestly ok if that's true.

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!

Discussion Post: Reading Schedules and Modern Romance

Discussion Post: Reading schedules and how they connect to Modern Romance



I got curious the other day, and decided to count how many 2016 books I currently have, and was both elated and dismayed that the number is already in the 90s. My reading goal for this year is 35, and while I’m on track, I will not end up reading even a fraction of the 2015 review books at my disposal. Part of that has to do with being a busy teacher, but a lot of it has to do with the simple fact that I just don’t read as much as I used to. I’m tired way earlier at night than I used to be before entering the profession, and before bed used to be my go-to reading time. But more than that, more than anything, I “suffer” from having way too many choices which makes me shut down and not read anything.

I literally have thousands of books to choose from every. single. day. Between my Kindle, my over-stuffed bookcases, and my extreme library habit, I will never lack something to read. This is an awesome thing...until it isn’t.

While I found Aziz Ansari’s recent book Modern Romance fascinating (and I really did. If you are single, read it immediately. If you are not, read it anyway), but I didn’t really connect with it in a way other (younger) people probably will. I started dating my husband in the late 90s when we were both in college. There was no such thing as internet dating, and there certainly weren’t apps like Tinder. So, again, while I loved the book, I didn’t get that: Oh yeah, I’ve certainly had my fair share of creeps sending me unwanted dick pics or douche-bags calling me fat because I didn't respond right away (do you follow that ByeFelipe IG account? It is atrocious the way men behave on Tinder!!). The connection I did make with the: ‘there are so many choices, but sometimes you just have to stop looking’ message wasn’t about dating, it was with my TBR. Sometimes you just have to say: this is the next book I’m going to read, and I’m not going to look for another one until this relationship is done.

I’ve long said that I wasn’t going to be a slave to my “reading schedule”. I have a running calendar of the books that I have and their release dates, but I’ve scoffed at the idea of letting a schedule run my life. But the truth is, it does. I’ll be so, so, so excited for a book, but won’t want to read it too early...and then by the time I should be reading it for review, I feel stressed out and won’t do it. It is so silly. A few days ago, I thought, I’m so excited for Wink Poppy Midnight, and even though it doesn’t get released for four months, I’m just going to read it now. And I did. I read it in two days. I read it without getting a wandering eye and in between a handful of other books. I just read it, and it was awesome. A huge part of that was the fact that it was an interesting read (review up next week), but part of it was that I felt free reading something months before I was “supposed to”.

I know this post isn’t new. I know so many of you have talked about reading schedules and reading slumps and just feeling overwhelmed with your own blog, but this is something that has been plaguing me for awhile. Reading has always been my thing. I didn’t discover it late in life or when a certain book came out and it changed everything for me (not, of course, that there's anything wrong with that). My punishment for not cleaning my room when I was little (and, ahem, not so little) was not being able to go to the library to pick out new books. I’ve always gobbled up any book that is placed in front of me. My childhood (and young adult) bedrooms where full of books. The release of a new Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley High book made my week. I majored in English because I love literature and now I teach English to middle schoolers. So the longer and longer book slump stretches are depressing to me. Lately, I will think to myself, “You should be reading,” but will watch another episode of whatever show is on the ID channel instead.

So for once, I’m going to try to just read one book at a time, and not worry about all the other pretty titles that are out there. I'm going to take Aziz's advice (even if it wasn't his intention), and just focus on what is in front of me. I honestly read faster and more when I’m concentrating on a single story anyway. And if the story I really want to read doesn’t come out for 6 months then so be it. That’s the one I’m going to read. But if the book I want to read is the one that has been sitting on my bookshelf for the last two years or the one I just snagged from the library, then so be that. My new(ish) career may be stopping me from reading quite as much as I used to, but it's really my psyche that is hindering me. I need to try to get back to my happy place.

Like always, I'd love to hear from you! Do you try to stick to a schedule, or do you read what you want when you want? Have you read Modern Romance? Sound off below!

Waiting on Wednesday (125) The Darkest Hour

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. Click the link to see the original post plus a whole slew of links to other blogs. After you read this one, of course.

The Darkest Hour

Author: Caroline Tung Richmond
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: July 26, 2016

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Never underestimate a pretty face.

My name is Lucie Blaise.

I am sixteen years old.

I have many aliases, but I am none of the girls you see.

What I am is the newest agent of the CO-7.

And we are here to take down Hitler.

After the Nazis killed my brother on the North African front, I volunteered at the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, DC, to do my part for the war effort. Only instead of a desk job at the OSS, I was tapped to join the Clandestine Operations -- a secret espionage and sabotage organization of girls. Six months ago, I was deployed to German-occupied France to gather intelligence and eliminate Nazi targets.

My current mission: Track down and interrogate a Nazi traitor about a weapon that threatens to wipe out all of Western Europe. Then find and dismantle the weapon before Hitler detonates it. But the deeper I infiltrate, the more danger I'm in. Because the fate of the free world hangs in the balance, and trusting the wrong person could cause millions of lives to be lost. Including my own.

Why I'm excited:

I almost always love books set during WWII. I find the history so interesting. An organization of girls whose focus is espionage and sabotage sounds amazing. Scholastic has been putting out some awesome titles lately, and I can't wait to dive into this one.

What are you waiting for on this Wednesday? Link me up!

Hey lovely GFC and new followers, please follow me by Bloglovin. (I like to follow back, so please let me know if you're a new follower--and leave a link!) Thank you!!!

Weekly Rewind 11.14.15

Weekly Rewind
The new books on my shelves 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 Tynga's 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.

My Life and Blog

Life: Heading home this weekend. My husband is coming here next weekend because we have tickets for the Colorado Avalanche/Washington Capital game. The Avs are our hockey team, and I'm SO excited to see them in a new stadium. I don't want to make him do the drive two weekends in a row, so I'm heading up. I don't really want to be away for more than 2 weeks anyway because of my cats...and because it is my home...so I would probably have chosen to do the trip this weekend anyway since I didn't last weekend. Speaking of last weekend, I had the best, most relaxing weekend of all time. I should have cleaned and gone grocery shopping, but I just laid in bed all day Saturday and watched four movies in a row. It was glorious. I got a little bit of reading done on Sunday, but not nearly as much as I originally planned. I don't feel bad, though, it was exactly what I needed to just recharge and unwind. As much as I love my job, corralling 75 sixth-graders all day, every day is draining. It just is.

Blog and reading: Just a WoW week. The book I chose sounds a bit like Thelma and Louise for the YA set, which is intriguing to me. Pretty much every book I was reading got pushed to the side once I got my hands on the new Robert Golbraith book. I'm about halfway through, and am really enjoying it. It has the occasionally chapter from the killer's view this time, which is a convention I love in mysteries. I'm currently listening to Drew Barrymore's new book, Wildflower, which is more a collection of life stories that jump all over instead of the traditional memoir. I love her, so I'm enjoying the book. I definitely know what I'm reading next, though, as I got a book this week that I've been so excited for.

New books: Just one review book this week, but it is one that I've been dying to get my hands on. I was seriously so happy to snag this one. It is definitely next. Because I'm a library addict, of course I have a small library haul to share, as well. So without further ado, I hope you are all having fabulous weekends!

For Review

 

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Just look at this gorgeousness. This is my favorite 2016 cover (so far). I love it. The owl reminds me of the movie Labyrinth, and the rest of it is just awesomeness. The story, about two girls and a guy sounds full of intrigue and unreliable narrators. It says for fans of The Raven Boys and We Were Liars. Sold. So very much sold. I can't wait to start this. I will have probably started this by the time you read this.

What I snagged from the library

   

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

Like I said above, I dropped everything else I was reading to start this once it came in. I'm loving it so far. At about the halfway point, I can honestly say it is my favorite book in the series so far (and as long as it doesn't fall apart in the second half).

For Real by Alison Cherry

I was so excited for this book a couple of years about sisters participating in an Amazing Race type show...and then never got to it. While perusing the shelves earlier this week, it hopped out at me. 

Movies:
Terminator Genisys

I'm skeptical of this one, but you know I'm going to watch it. Has anyone seen it?
Inside Out
I'm not a huge fan of animated films (with a few exceptions), but I love the idea of this film and you can never go wrong with Amy Poehler, so...

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!