2012: #3 City of Bones

Title: City of Bones

Author: Cassandra Clare

Pages: 512

Release Date: February 19, 2008

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Source: Personal Copy

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars 

My Thoughts:

I am not exactly sure where to even start with City of Bones. I consider myself a pretty avid reader (thus, I began a blog about my reading ventures); however, it took me forever it seems to get through City of Bones. I initially began my journey with Clary, Jace, and the others back in October. I know... seriously? Seriously. 

Clare fabricates a beautiful, deadly, and romantically dangerous world in this first book of The Mortal Instruments series. Readers follow Clary, our main protagonist, through a wild ride as she discovers secrets about her family and about herself. Set in a world where vampires, werewolves, and demons coexist, Clary finds herself intertwined with the darkest creatures of this world. Coincidentally, or not, Clary first discovers the Shadow World in a nightclub as she witnesses a "murder". Through an engaging opening scene, Clare introduces readers to Jace, Alec, and Isabelle - Shadowhunters, killers of demons, protectors of humans mundanes, upholders of The Accords (an outdated treaty amongst monsters that forbids the killing of and unveiling to humans). Throughout the book, we tag along with Clary and the Shadowhunters as they search frantically for Clary's mother who has been kidnapped by the dangerous and resurrected Valentine, a Shadowhunter feared by all.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.

For more information on TTT or on how to participate, click here.

I have to admit that majority of my wish lists this year consists about 60-75% of books! I would be embarrassed, but honestly, I cannot help myself. Here are my most wished for books this year:

Waiting on Wednesday #2

Finally back in Texas, I am still working to sift through my Thanksgiving Day break memories in Nebraska. I had a WONDERFUL time with my boyfriend's family, and I definitely loved Omaha. It was so strange being surrounded by such die-hard Nebraska fans; literally everyone is obsessed with Nebraska. It is a bit overwhelming at first, then it becomes really endearing. Even the little old women that sit in sewing shops all day know just about anything and everything there is to know about their Huskers. 

With only a few more weeks left in the world year, I am anxiously awaiting some great releases that 2013 is sure to bring.  Without further ado, Waiting on Wednesday....

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases. 

For more information on WoW or on how to participate, click here.

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan (May 7, 2013)

Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth. - from Goodreads

Happy Turkey Day!

First and foremost, HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

After a 10-hour car drive yesterday, I am finally in Nebraska! I have to say that I was half expecting open fields and half expecting snow and miserable temperatures. On both counts, I am experiencing the complete opposite. In this unusually warm fall season, we arrived to 70-degree weather and Omaha is actually quite large and "happenin'"!

"Waiting On" Wednesday #1

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases. 

For more information on WoW or on how to participate, click here.

To be quite honest, there are so many currently published YA books that I am so eager to get to, it was very difficult to even begin thinking about pre-releases that I can't wait for.. So I did what any normal, albeit slightly bibliophilic, girl would do - I visited my trusty Amazon Wish List to see what titles I was favoring and anticipating.

What I found is slightly embarrassing...

Top Ten Tuesday: If I Were Trapped on an Island...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. 

For more information on TTT or on how to participate, click here. 

If I were trapped on a deserted island, I would most DEFINITELY be happy with a stack of books (and coconuts, of course!). Narrowing down my favorite and necessary titles to ten, however, is just as torturous as being confined to a classroom on state standardized testing day with thirty teenagers... (STAAR is on my brain right now, I guess..) but here I go...

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Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a YA workshop offered by BER (the Bureau of Education and Research). At this workshop, a woman named Patti put my independent reading to shame. Seriously.. She reads something like 300 books a year. That is almost a book a day! Incredible! I just wanted to sit there and ask her about title after title. She knew authors, characters, and basic plot lines of a myriad of books. It was astonishing and made me quite envious.

While listening to her speak on some of her most memorable reads of the year, I took 24 pages of notes on the books and strategies on how to incorporate them into my classroom (Posting proof of this later...). Needless to say, after the workshop, I went straight to Barnes and Noble with the intention of spending $$$ on many of these new titles.

2012: #2 Empty

Title: Empty

Author: Suzanne Weyn

Format: Hardback

Pages: 182

Release Date: October 1, 2010

Publisher:  Scholastic Press

Source: Personal Copy

My Rating: 2 of 5 stars 

My Thoughts:

Taking place in futuristic America, Empty follows a group of teens as they struggle with a depletion of our most relied-upon resource: oil.

The Middle East no longer controls the oil industry, OPEC is a thing of the past, and Argentina is on the brink of inducing WWIII as a result of hiking the price of their own oil. However, many believe that Argentina is just bluffing, causing people to begin panicking and speculating what they would do if the world truly was out of oil. Then, when all seems as if it were to fall apart at any moment, a superhurricane forms and takes out much of the eastern American coastline (eery to read in the midst of Sandy...). The teens (separate at times) maneuver their way through a devastated society and try to make sense of this "new world" they must not take care of.

2012: #1 Divergent

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Format: Paperback

Pages: 496

Release Date: May 3, 2011

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Source: Personal Copy

My Thoughts:
I could not put this book down. I read about 3 chapters during IDR (Independent Daily Reading) with my 9th graders on a Friday, and to be honest, I kind of forgot about the book. Then, on the following on Monday I had jury duty. I brought this book along and finished the entire thing within 4 hours.

It is fast-paced and very easy to understand. Despite the fact that Roth is constructing an entirely new society, the breakdown of characters and her "faction" was easy to grasp.

Along the similar lines of The Hunger Games trilogy, Divergent is set in futuristic North America (Chicago). Rather than states, the country is broken into 5 factions that each believe a particular human trait is to blame for the failure of society. Our main character, Beatrice, was born into the Abnegation faction that sees selflessness as the cure for human kind. Abnegations saw people from before as being selfish; therefore, society could not function properly.