Stacking My Shelves! (#3.5)

Happy Halloween and welcome to this special mid-week edition of Stacking the Shelves!! Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme where we share what we're adding to our shelves, co-hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality.

This week I had the pleasure of going to the WV Book Festival, and got 33 books for $10. Check out the books down below or watch the video version!

The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer

Hourglass by Claudia Gray

I Am Number Four the Lost Files by Pittacus Lore

Claire by Lisi Harrison

The Prisioner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

Ramona's World by Beverly Cleary

The Giant Garden of Oz by Eric Shanower

The Illyrian Adventure by Lloyd Alexander

The El Dorado Adventure by Lloyd Alexander

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Gold Coins by David A. Adler

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper by David A. Adler

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones by David A. Adler

A Dragon in Class 4 by June Counsel

Footprints Up My Back by Kristi D. Holi

The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville

Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

Miles to Go by Miley Cyrus

Growing Up Again by Mary Tyler Moore

Road-show! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s by Matthew Kennedy

Edward Lear King of Nonsense by Gloria Kamen

What Shakespeare Read and Thought by A. L. Rowse

Coffee Break Pilates by Alan Gerdman

A Morning Cup of Pilates by Marsha K. Dorman

Head First Design Patterns by Eric & Elizabeth Freeman

The Soy Zone by Barry Sears

Photo School by Michael Freeman

Introduction to Photography by Robert B. Rhode & Floyd H. McCall

Prefixes and other Word-Initial Elements of English by Laurence Urdang

The Wise Handbook of Home Plumbing

Ballet 101 by Robert Greskovic

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray

Stacking My Shelves! (#3)

Welcome to Stacking the Shelves—a post sharing the books I accrued over the last week, co-hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality. This week I got 65 books! Since there's no way I could cover all of those books in a reasonably short video, today I'm sharing the 32 books I got leading up to Saturday. Wednesday I'll be sharing the remaining 33 I got at the WV Book Festival, so stay tuned!

The first four books I received are from Book Mooch, a book exchange website.

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz

Revelations by Melissa De La Cruz

The Book Of Three by Lloyd Alexander

The rest of these books are from the thrift store and my local bargain outlets. I'm really excited about some of these!

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The Host by Stephanie Meyers

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyers

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

The Pictish Child by Jane Yolen

Heart of Dread Stolen by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston

The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes

Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

 

The It Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

Infamous by Cecily von Ziegesar

Heartless by Sara Shepard

Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita

The Switch by Anthony Horowitz

Exit, Pursued by Bear by E. K. Johnson

Nightlight: A Parody by the Harvard Lampoon

Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by David Lubar

How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson

Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull

The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright

Freshman Year and Other Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin

The Maloneys' Magical Weatherbox by Nigel Quinlan

Cover Reveal: Analiese Rising by Brenda Drake

Review: This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

     This graphic novel perfectly encapsulates the idyllic feeling of summer. The book follows Rose, a young girl, and her family over one summer in their cottage near the beach. Throughout the story, Rose deals with family drama and its effects on her other emotions, depression, friendships, summer days, and local teenage crises. 
     This story captures the in between moments of summer-- the lazy days, the swimming, the deep thoughts, the casual friends, among other things. While there is not much of a plot, it reflects the slow, lethargic nature of summers as a school child. The nature of the content does lend better to a young adult audience, even though the story feels decidedly early teens/middle grade.
     Many reviews of this story express concern about the more adult content in this book. While I understand the concerns of fellow reviewers, the story appears to follow one early teen's process in learning and dealing with these concepts in the scope of her experiences. With that being said, Rose's thought processes and coping mechanisms are the main story line in the novel and were a little overpowering and off putting.
     The illustrations in this graphic novel are stunning, visceral, and evoke strong memories from one's owe childhood. I highly recommend this book, as a novice in graphic novels, to those just starting to explore the genre and those who may already enjoy it. While some of the content may be a little PG 13, it is nothing out of place in an early teens story. This novel highlights the strengths in the genre and reminds one of the early days in a way that would be difficult with only words.

Stacking the Shelves (#2)

Welcome to Stacking the Shelves—a post sharing the books I accrued over the last week. This week I got 21 books!

The first two books I received are from Book Mooch, a book exchange website.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan

The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm #1) by Michael Buckley

Then I have 19 books I got from Goodwill!

The Last Star by Rick Yancy

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes

Past Perfect by Leila Sales

Luxe by Anna Godberson

The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar

Juniors by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Delicious by Ruth Reichl

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Anthony John

Tales of Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green

Many Ways to Say I Love You by Fred Rogers

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares

Forever in Blue by Ann Brashares

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Flawless by Sara Shepard

Killer by Sara Shepard

Nobody Does It Better by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Be sure to add me on Goodreads to be the first to see my reviews of all of these books!

Review: Unbelievably Boring Bart by James Patterson

Unbelievably Boring Bart is a middle grade story about Bartholomew Bean. Bart may seem like the world's most boring person, but he's actually the creator and only player of Hecklr, his own augmented reality app where he has to fight aliens to save the world. When his game catches on, how will he handle its newfound popularity and protect his secret identity?

UBB was very middle of the road as a middle grade novel. While it featured fun illustrations and the fun, wonderful absurdity revered in the MG genre, the story felt poorly organized. While it didn't diminish the fun of reading the novel, the story easily could have been 1/3 of the length and a little more action packed. With that being said, the layout of the book made each new chapter/section feel exciting and new.

The story is marketed as a transition from screen to page for young readers. While the story is not a realistic representation of game design and its extreme difficulties, it is a fun, imaginative idea that is sure to engage children who may have more experience with games than books. While it may not be the next Golden Compass or Secret Garden, UBB is a fun middle grade read that has the potential to resonate with young, tech-savy readers.

Review: My Father's Words by Patricia MacLachlan

Click to view on Goodreads

My Father's Words is a heartwarming and truly superb children's story. Based loosely on the author's real experiences, My Father's Words is a story chronicling the grief of a young girl after loosing her father. Fiona's journey leads her to Thomas, a ex-patient of her father, who was a therapist, and the local animal shelter/kennel, where she and her brother (and neighbor Luke) can care for and be a companion to the dogs. Through the story, Fiona and her brother, Finn, discover that dogs may help us just as much as we help them and that even a two minute phone call each week can make a big difference.

My Father's Words was an emotional story introducing a healthy approach to grief and loss. I was deeply moved, not only by the story, but also by the author's foreword and intent. The personal nature of the story is reflected in the emotion and quality of the writing. The book not only approaches the difficult topics of grief and the emotional importance of our animals, but introduces many more important topics without losing the readibility for younger readers. Anger, blame, selflessness, the power of kindness, and even the stigma around mental health feature in Fiona's experiences and memories of her father.

I highly recommend this story to anyone with a younger reader in their house or someone dealing with loss and needing a calm, comforting read. I, personally, fully intend on making this story a permanent addition to my collection and plan to make it available for my future children to read.

*Note: this book was provided from a Goodreads giveaway, with hope of a review, but all opinions are my own

Stacking the Shelves (#1)

Welcome to Stacking the Shelves—a post sharing the books I accrued over the last week. This week I had an awesome, bookish week gaining a total of -drumroll- 18 books!

The first three books I received are from Book Mooch, a book exchange website.

Ellie and the Bunheads by Sally Warner

Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

I also had the pleasure of getting three books from Goodreads giveaways!

My Father’s Words by Patricia MacLachlan [ARC] [review]

Unbelievably Boring Bart by James Patterson [review]

The Clues to Kusachuma by Adam B. Ford [signed]

Last but certainly not least, my local goodwill had a half off sale on books, and I may have gone a little wild! :P

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin [ARC]

Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophoe Kinsella

Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Clique by Lisi Harrison

Invasion of the Boy Snatchers by Lisi Harrison

Sealed with a Diss by Lisi Harrison

Alicia by Lisi Harrison

Be sure to add me on Goodreads to be the first to see my reviews of all of these books!