In My Mailbox 12

I was so excited to get this box of books from Hachette this week! Wow! I'm really looking forward to reading these. I've already dipped in and read the first few pages of Bunheads... it's fantastic, so far.

Tintin trailer

Here's a new trailer for the upcoming Tintin movie. Interestingly, I'm not seeing a huge surge in requests for the Tintin books at the library. With the latest Harry Potter movie, we couldn't keep things on the shelf. I thought that Mr. Popper's Penguins would get a huge shot in the arm when the movie came out recently, but that didn't happen either. Still, I'm rooting for Tintin, I liked those books when I was younger.

Book Blogger Hop 10

The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books.

This week's question is:

What's the one ARC you'd love to get your hands on right now?


I was hoping to snag a copy of Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick at the American Library Association Annual meeting... but by the time I heard where they were, they were gone!  I did another post recently about books that I was intrigued by, but didn't get ARCs for... not that I'm lacking for books to read! My To Be Read list is ridiculously long, and I've already got a healthy stack of ARCs by my nightstand.

Sinister Scenes review

Sinister Scenes
by P.J. Bracegirdle
Margaret K. McElderry Books
August 2011

Joy Wells, a resident of the historic town of Spooking, is delighted to finally be graduating from Winsome Elementary in the boring neighboring suburb of Darlington. She loves reading stories by famous horror writer E. A. Peugeot and studying the exploits of early aviatrix Melody Huxley. Preteen readers will certainly relate to Joy’s nervousness about an upcoming school dance, her budding crush on Louden Primrose, her annoyance with her younger brother, and her embarrassment over anything her parents say or do. Sour villain Mr. Phipps has been reduced to working in a music store, but soon concocts a plan to get the film industry to come to Spooking. Once again, Joy finds herself amid a swirl of intrigue when young actress Penny Farthing goes missing; Joy auditions and wins the part. Between early-morning call times, long hours, and dealing with her crazed costar Teddy Danger, she soon finds that working for Hollywood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Joy finally comes to peace with the competing suburb of Darlington and works up the courage to talk to Louden. Lemony Snicket’s fans will find a lot to like in this concluding volume of the trilogy. It has sophisticated vocabulary, a dry sense of humor, and an amusingly deliberate gothic tone. Heavy exposition is helpful in reminding readers of the complicated backstory. Melodramatic and unlikely coincidences, including ghosts and gypsy curses, bring the novel to a satisfying conclusion.


I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
This review originally appeared in School Library Journal.

Ruby Red review

Ruby Red
by Kertin Gier
Henry Holt
May 2011


16 year-old Gwyneth Shepard lives with her mother, her cousin Charlotte and her family of eccentric older aunts in a large rambling house in London.  Gwyneth is grateful that she doesn't have to sacrifice her every waking hour preparing for a life of time-traveling, the way her cousin Charlotte does. Her family carries a rare genetic code that enables certain family members to gain paranormal abilities, including time travel.

Isn't the cover beautiful? It's so steampunk. The book wasn't overtly steampunk, although the device the characters use to control their time travel did seem like a very clockwork-driven machine, powered by tiny samples of each time-traveler's blood. It's hard to believe that this book was originally written in German. Lots of books seem to lose something in the translation, or come across as somewhat alien, but this felt as if it could have been written in English.

The mechanics of time travel are fairly well thought out. It's a genetic ability which only a few people have. Travelers can only go back as far as the 1700's, when time travel was first discovered, they can't travel within their natural lifespan, and they can't go to the future. Without their time travel device, travelers will take uncontrolled journeys through time. With it, they can choose relatively safe times to take excursions to. They are helped by a secret society, devoted to protecting them, and Madame Rossini, an expert costumer, who outfits them for each trip. I loved Madame Rossini. She's quite a character, bossy, funny and picky about historical details, but pragmatic about using modern shortcuts to make the clothes as practical as possible. Interestingly, men seem to need to travel more than women do. When Gwyneth finds that she has the ability, she finds that she must work closely with Gideon, a brusque but handsome time traveler just a little older than she is. Naturally, Charlotte is very upset at being supplanted this way. Readers will feel a little bit sorry for Charlotte, since she can't help being such a prig.

There's a wonderful sense of suspense throughout the whole book. Who is the mysterious man who's been spying on the family? Why on earth did Gwyneth's mother think that lying about her daughter's birthdate would keep her safe? Gwyneth has shared forbidden information with her best friend Leslie from school - how will that play out? What happened with the exiled couple, Lucy and Paul? Why did they betray their family, and how did they come to be hiding out in the past? The only thing that truly bothered me about the book was that it ended on such a cliffhanger! Unbelievable! A few mysteries seem to be (somewhat) solved, but on the whole, this was very unsatisfying ending. It couldn't have been more abrupt if the ending had been been cut-off in mid-sentence. This is the first in a trilogy, and I'm curious to see how things will resolve.


I borrowed this book from the library.

Out of Print covers for your e-reader

This is so neat. Right now I have a plain blue cover on my e-reader. But these covers really have some pizzaz. I like the series of "out of print" book covers for e-readers on M-Edge. They feature classic old covers for books like Walden, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Moby Dick, Atlas Shrugged, Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, and more as well as a lot of old covers from The New Yorker. They create covers for Kindles, Nooks, and iPads. You can also design your own cover, which they'll custom print for you.

Read in July

This month I read the following books:

1 Wisdom's Kiss - Catherine Gilbert Murdock
2 Pink - Lili Wilkinson
3 The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson
4 When Men Become Gods - Stephen Singular
5 Zita the Spacegirl - Ben Hatke
6 Ruby Red - Kerstin Gier
7 Pretty Bad Things - C.J. Skuse
8 A Treehouse of Your Own - John Harris
9 Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris

Picture credit: Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honore Fragonard