Weekly Rewind 1.16.16

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: I'm typing this up on Thursday because I'll be hitting the road after school tomorrow to drive home to PA. I get a 3 day weekend for MLKJ Day and cannot wait to see my husband. It has only been a couple of weeks, but after spending two weeks at home for Christmas break, these two weeks without him seemed longer than normal. One of my best friend's birthdays is on Saturday, so we are going out to dinner with her and her husband and then on Sunday we are watching the Steelers play the Broncos at one of our friend's houses. We are Steelers fans, and he is a Broncos fan. Hopefully a fight won't break out. Lol.

This week was pretty easy. The students finished up their research and creating their presentations on Monday and then presented Tuesday and Wednesday. Next week we are starting our next round of book clubs. That is when they read books silently in groups with occasional conversations and then a group collaborative project after they have finished. So for the next couple of weeks, they will mostly just be reading in my class. They love it (well, most of them love it, like, the vast majority of them love it).

Blog and reading: Just a WoW this week. I don't know if it is this colder weather or what, but I've been bone tired after school every single day this week. I've literally fallen asleep in my chair every day this week...and then have been a sloth once I wake up until I go to bed. I was going to do a TTT, but just couldn't get my shit together. I want to write a review for Eligible still, too. Maybe I'll get that done this weekend....we'll see. I'm currently rereading the book Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski. I just couldn't get into anything earlier this week after finishing The Girl on the Train on Saturday (that's pretty much how I spent the entire day--it was really good. I sometimes just crave a good adult mystery--and was enthralled with Rachel's story. It kept me guessing, too, which is always a plus for me). After finishing it, though, I just couldn't get into anything else--and I have some amazing titles at my fingertips. I've found that when that happens sometimes a good old reread will keep me reading instead of slumping. I started reading Zero Day yesterday, too, but haven't gotten very far. It's really interesting so far, though, so I'm sure it will be one I finish. I also started reading Civil War which is the graphic novel the new Captain America movie is based on. I'm currently listening to So You've Been Publicly Shamed. The subject matter is really interesting, but the narrator/author's voice is driving me a bit batty and I was so put off by him when he said three time (three times!) that a joke he made that was similar to one a woman made that got her shamed worked because his was funnier. I mean...alright, dude, it was basically the same joke, yours wasn't that much funnier...

New Books: I've got some lovely titles to share with you today. So without further ado, I hope you are all having fabulous (hopefully long) weekends!

For Review

   

 

Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Regency England and demon hunters. This doesn't sound like quite my cup of tea, but it's getting love from pretty much everyone who has read it, so I'm hoping I love it, too.

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

I know that this is one of those books people have been dying to get their hands on...but I started this a few weeks back and didn't fall in love like I was hoping. I just read a DNF review where another reader urged that she continued because it starts getting good around pg 100, so I might go back to this.

Front Lines by Michael Grant

This book is a reimagining of WWII where women are on the "front lines" with the men. It sounds awesome, and I really do want to read this one. The 600 pages are a bit daunting, though.

Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos

A girl's father, who was once a forensic pathologist and who now writes medical mysteries, disappears. She is convinced he has gone to find the mother that left her years earlier. You know I love a good mystery, so this sounds right up my alley.

It's All Your Fault by Paul Rudnick

A "good girl" winds up in jail after a crazy weekend with her famous cousin. This is supposed to be hilarious, and I love a good comedy.

What I snagged from the library

  
 

Books:
Zero Day  by Jan Gangsei

I featured this on a WoW well over a year ago, and was so happy when I found it on hoopla through my library system since neither of the libraries I go to ordered the physical book. It is interesting so far. Hopefully I'll get some reading time in this weekend.
3:59 by Gretchen McNeil
This is one of those older YA books that I couldn't wait to get my hands on...and then never got to. I'm trying to make a point of going back to read some of those instead of just focusing on brand new books or ARCs. Has anybody read this one? Should I bother?
Graphic Novel:
Civil War by Mark Miller among others
I love graphic novels, but don't read nearly enough of them.
Audio:
So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
It's interesting, but not as engaging as I would like. More specific issues were talked about above.
Movie:
The Martian
Soooooo excited!! It's been so hard to wait to watch this, but I want to take it home with me to watch with my honey.

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!

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Waiting on Wednesday (133) Been Here All Along

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.

Been Here All Along

Author: Sandy Hall
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Release Date: August 30, 2016

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Gideon always has a plan. His plans include running for class president, becoming head of the yearbook committee, and having his choice of colleges. They do NOT include falling head over heels for his best friend and next door neighbor, Kyle. It’s a distraction. It’s pointless, as Kyle is already dating the gorgeous and popular head cheerleader, Ruby. And Gideon doesn’t know what to do.

Kyle finally feels like he has a handle on life. He has a wonderful girlfriend, a best friend willing to debate the finer points of Lord of the Rings, and social acceptance as captain of the basketball team. Then, both Ruby and Gideon start acting really weird, just as his spot on the team is threatened, and Kyle can’t quite figure out what he did wrong…

Why I'm excited:

This is the "You Belong With Me" video but with dudes! This sounds so freaking cute. I love the titles Swoon Reads are putting out. I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for 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!!!

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Weekly Rewind 1.9.16

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: So here's a thing about me--if I'm off for any real length of time (and even a weekend can be enough), I will automatically revert to my natural nocturnal state. So with two weeks off, I started going to bed later and later, and sleeping in later and later...which made it SO very hard to get up on Monday morning. So hard. Like there may have been a few tears when my alarm went off (ok, not really, but man did I feel like breaking down). This whole week has been tough sleep wise. No matter how tired I was, each night I was wide awake at 11 which is my weeknight bedtime. I have to say though, even though I was in zombie teacher mode all week, it still flew by. I can't believe it is Friday. My students are working independently on researching/presenting, so besides a couple of mini-lessons here and there, I barely had to lecture at all this week. 

I'm staying in VA this weekend. I was just home for break and have a three-day weekend next weekend, so it seemed silly to make that drive this weekend. Honestly, I'm so tired anyway, that I'm relishing the idea of just sleeping and reading all weekend.  

Blog and reading: I actually posted a review this week...on my book blog. It's for the book This is Where it Ends which is a book about a school shooting. As a teacher, this is obviously a hard subject for me to read about (not to be a douchebag, I doubt this is an easy subject for anybody to read about), but this book just wasn't nearly as insightful as I was hoping it would be. I also posted a WoW. I'm currently reading Passenger, Dumplin', and Troublemaker. I'm currently listening to The Girl on the Train.

New books: I've got some pretties to share with you this week. So without further ado, I hope you are all having fabulous weekends!

For Review

  

Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo

I love books about ballerinas. I just do. This one also has a trip to Antarctica in it. How could I say no to that?

Shade Me by Jennifer Brown

This is about a girl who sees everything as colors (things like numbers). This also has some kind of crime solving. It sounds interesting...but it also sounds like it could veer into unbelievable territory easily.

Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

Yet another series about some kingdom where a girl does something. Has anybody read this one yet?

What I bought

Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein

This is about revenge set at a private school. How have I not read this already?

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

I remember reading positive reviews for this book about a girl having visions about missing girls, but just never got around to it.

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

I've read this book about classmates who all develop the ability to hear people's thoughts after they get a flu shot. I love this author's work, and this was no exception.

What I snagged from the library

   

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

This came in for me the day it was released--which is awesome. I have to admit that it is starting pretty slow, and I haven't gotten too far into it yet, but I definitely plan on spending some time with it this weekend.

Troublemaker by Leah Remini

I find Scientology so weird. I'm sorry. To each their own, for real, but I just find the whole thing so bizarre. I like Leah Remini and am excited to learn more about her experience breaking away from the church.
Audio:
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
I had snagged this book from the library the week it came out last year, but this last time last year I was drowning in life as a first-year teacher and just couldn't do it. I started the audio for this a couple of days ago and ended up going to the library after school today so I could continue reading it over the weekend. Lol. I just don't think I can make it to Monday to continue listening to this (I don't plan on being in my car much this weekend).
Movie:
Pan
I know this got dismal reviews...although I haven't read any of them, but I'm excited to watch this anyway and will definitely be doing that this weekend.

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!

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This is Where it Ends (ARC Book Review)

This is Where it Ends

Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Publisher: Source Books Fire
Release date: January 5, 2015

Synopsis from Goodreads:

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

*****************************************************************

MY THOUGHTS:

As a teacher, the idea of a school shooting is terrifying, but I would be lying if I said that it is something I think about on a daily basis. It is one of those fears that sits in a dark corner of my mind...a fear that doesn’t present itself until I hear of yet another shooting or read a story like this one. This is a book that I picked up not because I thought I would enjoy it, but because I was hoping for some insight into the mind of someone who would do something so horrific. Or to understand what the victims of this kind of tragedy would feel as it was happening. This book does an ok job on the latter, but doesn’t even come close to touching the former. I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy this book as it would be a hard sell to make this subject matter enjoyable...but it also didn’t come close to doing what I wanted it to.

This entire book takes place under an hour on the morning of the event. On the first day back to school after winter break, almost all students of Opportunity High School have gathered in the auditorium to hear the same speech the principal gives every year. When the bell rings for students to go to their first period class, they realize that all exits have been locked and there is no way out of the auditorium...and then the shooting starts. The shooter, a boy named Tyler, is a boy who dropped out at the end of his junior year, but who was scheduled to resume his senior year that day. Through the flashbacks of the characters we hear from, we learn that Tyler is a bit of an outcast who is disliked by most of his classmates. On top of that, his mom died recently in a car crash, and his father is an abusive alcoholic. We never hear from Tyler, himself, however. Who we do hear from are the following characters:

• Autumn who is Tyler’s sister. Her dream is to follow the footsteps of their deceased mother and become a famous dancer. She has an audition scheduled for Julliard and is doing everything she can to get out of their small Southern town. She withstands the brunt of their father’s abuse because he will do anything to stop her from becoming a dancer. She bears her brother’s scorn because she is gay.
• Sylvia is Autumn’s girlfriend. Tyler believes that she is corrupting Autumn. He has taken his anger out on Sylvia in the most extreme way in the past, and she is terrified of him.
• Tomas is Sylvia’s brother. He is a bit of a trouble-maker and had skipped the assembly to break into the principal’s office during her speech with his friend. They hear the shots and are the first to alert the police and start a plan to rescue their trapped classmates.
• Claire is Tyler’s ex-girlfriend. She and the other members of the varsity track team were on the track for an extended morning practice when they, too, hear the first shots and spring into action.

This book could have been an important look at a horrific tragedy, but I ended up some issues with it.

• The first is that Tyler is so one-dimensional. He is one of the flattest villains I have ever read and is just evil--which may work in certain stories, but does not work at all in a story about a school shooting. There is no humanity. I didn’t understand his motives and wished there would have been more insight into WHY he would do something like this. Even if the author continued with the choice to not show his POV, there could have been a way to give him some complexity. Nobody is ALL good or ALL bad.
• In an attempt to give the main characters character development, there are almost constant flashbacks: of Autumn’s and Tyler’s relationship, or Autumn’s and Sylvia’s, of Sylvia’s and Tomas’. Even with these flashbacks, the characters felt flat and I didn’t really connect with any of them (I mean I didn’t want them to die, obviously, but my heart wasn’t, like, bleeding for them either).
• Even though this is a relatively slim book (clocking in at 292 pages), the second half drags considerably. I found myself all but skimming the flashbacks in the last 50 pages or so to get to the action of the present. I felt more of the story--the flashbacks especially--could have been shaven down to keep the action tauter.
• The way it ended made me particularly unhappy (not the epilogue...which I liked).

What I did like about it…

• It was a relatively quick story. I started reading this about a month ago, but then started from the beginning earlier this week and read it in two days.
• The epilogue was touching.

Overall, it was always going to be hard for this book to be an enjoyable one for me, but I was still hoping for something that was insightful in a way that this one just wasn’t. I know that some of my friends found this book touching and important, so take this with a grain of salt, but I was just hoping for something more from this book and found myself disappointed when it didn’t deliver.

Cannot recommend.

*I received an early copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

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Waiting on Wednesday (132) Winning

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.

Winning

Author: Lara Deloza
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: June 28, 2016

Synopsis from Goodreads:

House of Cards meets Election in this wickedly entertaining story about an uber-ambitious high school junior.

Whoever said being nice would get you to the top?

Certainly not Alexandra Miles. She isn’t nice, but she’s more than skilled at playing the part. She floats through the halls of Spencer High, effortlessly orchestrating the actions of everyone around her, making people bend to her whim without even noticing they’re doing it. She is the queen of Spencer High—and it’s time to make it official.

Alexandra has a goal, you see—Homecoming Queen. Her ambitions are far grander than her small town will allow, but homecoming is just the first step to achieving total domination. So when peppy, popular Erin Hewett moves to town and seems to have a real shot at the crown, Alexandra has to take action.

With the help of her trusted friend Sam, she devises her most devious plot yet. She’ll introduce an unexpected third competitor in the mix, one whose meteoric rise—and devastating fall—will destroy Erin’s chances once and for all. Alexandra can run a scheme like this in her sleep. What could possibly go wrong?

Why I'm excited:

Election is one of my all-time favorite books (and movies), so any mention of that will certainly get my attention. This doesn't sound nearly as witty, but it does sound fun, and I love books about the overly ambitious. Will definitely be keeping my eyes open for 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!!!

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Weekly Rewind 1.2.16

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: I truly cannot believe how quickly these two weeks flew by! I drive back down to VA on Sunday with work resuming on Monday. I have never had a lazier vacation. I think I've been in real pants for a total of, like, 16 hours in the past two weeks. Lol. I've seriously barely moved from my bedroom (my husband is doing renovations on our house--STILL--so our bedroom has also become the living room). I'm typing this up early Friday afternoon because we are going to a friend's house for a poker tournament in a couple of hours. I love playing poker. For years we had a standing Thursday night game with some friends, but that eventually broke up. 

Blog and reading: A TTT and a WoW this week. I'm bummed that I didn't get much reading done this week...and that I really don't have an excuse for it. I went into a bit of a slump after finishing Eligible last week, and haven't been able to get into anything. I started Into the Dim a couple of nights ago, and though I'm not very far in, I am enjoying it so far, so hopefully I'll make it through that. 

New books: I was so excited to win the Brightly tote from my friend, Christina, and her awesome blog Confessions of a Book Addict. I'm sure most of you follow her already, but if you don't, she is one of the best bloggers out there and you should remedy that immediately. Besides that, I just have a couple of review books to share with you. So without further ado, I hope you are all having a fabulous New Year's weekend! 

For Review

Into the Dim by Janet B Taylor

When I found out that this was about time travel and secret societies, this book got bumped up my TBR to help me get out of my mini slump. I'm only on the fourth chapter, but it is interesting so far. Can we all agree that this new cover is horrible, though?

And Again by Jessica Chiarella

This adult novel has an intriguing concept: four terminally ill patients are given the opportunity to inhabit genetically perfect clones of themselves. It sounds a bit like the recent movie Self/less except for the bodies are their own...kind of.

Won

 

From www.readbrightly.com and Christina at Confessions of a Book Addict

 

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

I actually own a copy of this one already, but I'm sure my student will love it when I put a copy in their classroom library.

Everything, Everything by Nicole Yoon

I started reading the e-arc of this AGES ago, but then put it aside when I realized it would be better read in real book form...and then never got back around to it, so I was thrilled to see a copy of this. 

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

How cool is this cover? This historical novel follows a girl trying to solve her father's murder. 

What I snagged from the library

Young Widows Club by Alexandra Coutts

A 17 year-old girl tries to move on after the death of her 19 year-old husband. 

Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

I was reading, and enjoying, this book a couple of months ago, but had to take it back to the library before I could finish it...just got it back (but will probably have to start at the beginning). 

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!

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