August 2011

13.  Scorpia Rising (Alex Rider – The final mission) by Anthony Horowitz
14.  Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
15.  The cardturner: a novel about a king, a queen, and a joker by Louis Sachar
16.  The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
17.  Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
18.  Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
19.  Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

July 2011

1. Plague by Michael Grant
2. Bumped by Megan McCafferty (June)
3. Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter (June)
4. Passion by Lauren Kate
5. Jane by April Lindner
6. Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani
7. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
8. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
9. Spells by Aprilynne Pike
10. Miss Peregrine’s home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
11. Where she Went by Gayle Forman
12. Ten Things we did (and probably shouldn’t have) by Sarah Mlynowski

#106 – The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd

This is the second Carbon Diaries book. I don’t really know what to say about the book. It is a continuation of energy rationing around Europe. It might serve as a wake up call to what might be in our future if we don’t use our resources wisely. It was kind of entertaining, but I don’t think I will be recommending it to many people.

#105 – Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

This 5th book in the ‘Sisterhood of the traveling pants’ series finds the girls in their late 20’s. They have drifted apart somewhat, but still try to keep in touch regularly. Two years previous, Tibby moves to Australia with her boyfriend Brian. The other girls find that she is not responding to their calls and emails and fear that they are growing apart. But one day they all receive a letter from Tibby containing an airline ticket and asking them to meet her in Greece for a reunion. But the trip doesn’t turn out as planned and instead of bringing the sisterhood closer, it is pushing them apart as they try to make sense of what happened there. This is a very emotional story, but important to read if you are a ‘Sisterhood’ fan.

#104 – The Revenant by Sonia Gensler

This historical fiction novel is set in Tahlequah, Indian Territory in the late 1800’s. The setting is the Cherokee Female Seminary, a boarding school for Cherokee girls. Willie is escaping from her family when she takes a job teaching at the Cherokee boarding school. She has stolen the identity and credentials of a classmate, hoping to pass as a teacher at the school. How hard can it be since it’s just and indian school. But the Cherokee are highly invested in educating their children and the school rivals the best schools on the East coast. Willie is housed in a room that was formerly used for students, but after the unexplained death of one of the girls the previous years, none of the girls want to stay in the room. They believe it is haunted. Willie doesn’t believe in ghosts, but a strange tapping begins outside her window soon after she moves in. As the haunting escalates, Willie begins to fear that the school really is haunted…and the ghost wants her attention.

#103 – The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Imagine being an elite runner. Setting records, loving the competition and enjoying the wind in your face. Now image being faced with never running again. That’s what happens to Jessica after a truck smashes into the school bus returning from a track meet. When Jessica wakes up in the hospital, the first thing she notices is that her leg is missing. How we she survive if she can’t run?

#102 – Hare Moon by Carrie Ryan

Another story in the ‘Forest of Hands and Teeth’ series. Tabitha lives in a village surrounded by tall fences. Outside the fences the unconsecrated moan and reach through the wires. There is a gate in the fence that leads to a pathway through the forest. The path is also fenced on either side. Tabitha knows there is more out there, even though she has been told all of her live that everyone else is gone. Should she explore, or stay safely in her village and live a life of never knowing.

#101 – If I grow up by Todd Strasser

“When you grew up in the projects, there were no choices. No good ones, at least” DeShawn lives in the Frederick Douglass Project with his grandmother and sister. His mother was killed when he was young in a drive by shooting. DeShawn is smart. He knows that nothing good can come from joining a gang. He goes to school where his teacher recognizes his drive and tries to convince him to apply to a charter school. But as DeShawn grows up, it’s hard to make ends meet. His grandmother is getting older. His sister and her boyfriend have twins and they all live together in a one bedroom apartment. One by one DeShawn’s friends drop out of school and are ‘jumped’ into the gang. DeShawn wants more, but how does he get it when there are no opportunities for him outside of the gangs.

#100 – Pod by Stephen Wallenfels

At 5:00 in the morning, a few days before Josh’s 16th birthday, a loud screeching noise wakes him and his father. Soon the sky grows dark as massive dark spheres descend to hover over the neighborhood. Beams of white light destroy cars and picks off any person outside of a building. This is just the beginning of an alien invasion. Down the coast in LA, 12 year old Megs is waiting in a parking garage for her mother to return from a job interview when the pods descend over her. People go crazy trying to get their cars and leave the garage, but as they leave the pods zap them and they are instantly gone. Megs is all alone in the parking garage. This is a story of survival as Josh, his father and Megs all try to find a way to survive while the pods hold them hostage.

#99 – Matched by Ally Condie

Soon after her 17th birthday, Cassie is invited to attend her Matching Banquet. At the Matching Banquet she is shown the boy she will some day marry. It is usually a boy from another city in another province, but in Cassia’s case it turns out to be her best friend, Xander. When they turn 21 they will enter their marriage contract. Cassia is excited as she takes home the microcard with all of Xander’s information and history. Even though she has known him her whole life, she is eager to find out if there is something she doesn’t know. But when she plugs in the microcard, the face of another boy, not Xander, shows on her screen. It is only there for a second, but it is also someone that Cassia recognizes. It is Ky, another boy from her neighborhood. The Society tries to explain it all as a mistake, but Cassia can no longer look at Ky the same way. As she tries to make sense of the things that are happening around her, Cassia starts to understand that the Society is starting to crack. Their lives used to be planned out and run smoothly, but there seems to be too many secrets. Does the Society know what’s best for them, or is there more to the world that Cassia, Xander & Ky don’t know about.