Carrie's In My Mailbox #22

Hey ya'll! It's Carrie and I'm back with another IMM post. This one is short and sweet yet again. All books shown are ones I bought or received between Mar 18th - Mar 31st. In My Mailbox is a meme created by Kristi@TheStorySiren, its purpose is to encourage blogger interaction, as well as highlight books for our readers. IMM is not only for books you have received through the mail, but also library,borrowed, and bought books.

Bought from my local used Bookstore (The REaD Cat Bookstore):

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Bought from The Book Depository:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Borrowed (from the library):

Slide by Jill Hathaway

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Bought for my Nook:
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Well that's it for me. What did you get in your mailbox?

WHAT'S GOING ON: APRIL EVENTS

We at Stalking the Bookshelves, thought it would be nice to keep our readers in the know by listing some fun book events happening each month in our local areas (Tennessee/Kentucky & Utah). If you live anywhere near by, be sure to go out and support these great authors & events!

KENTUCKY EVENTS

Southern Kentucky Book Fest
Featuring: Kelly Creagh, Rachel Hawkins, Jackson Pearce & others
April 21, 2012 in Bowling Green
More details

Bethany Griffin - Masque of the Red Death

April 27th - Carmichael's Bookstore, Louisville @ 7:00 pm

TENNESSEE EVENTS 

Barry Wolverton - Neversink
 April 3rd - Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis @ 6:00 pm


Brandon Mull - Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion
 April 16th - Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis @ 6:00 pm

Bree Despain - The Savage Grace

April 18th - Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis @ 6:00 pm

Maile Meloy - The Apothecary

April 19th - Buttrick Hall 101 Vanderbilt University, Nashville @ 7:00 pm

 UTAH EVENTS (Salt Lake City & Surrounding Areas)

Jennifer Nielsen - The False Prince

April 4th - Provo Library, Provo @ 7:00 pm

Ruta Sepetys - Between Shades of Gray 

April 12th - King's English, SLC @ 7:00 pm

Matthew Kirby - Icefall

April 14th - Sugarhouse Barnes & Noble, SLC @ 1:00 pm

Dan Wells - Partials

April 17th - Jordan Landing Barnes & Noble, West Jordan @ 6:30 pm

 
 If you live in either Tennessee, Kentucky or Utah and are heading to any of these events, please leave a comment and let us know. Maybe one of us will even see you there!

Review: Blue Monday

Need to Know Info:

Title: Blue Monday
Author: Nicci French

Format: Hardcover, 322 pages
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Release Date: March 1st, 2012

Synopsis from Goodreads

Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is one of personal integrity and order.
 
The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. Soon after Frieda finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.

Carrie's Review:
Blue Monday is the first book in a series about psychotherapist Frieda Klein. The story is set in London where Frieda finds herself in the middle of a manhunt for a child abductor. Since this book is a mystery/thriller I don’t want to give away too much in my review but I thought I would share my feelings on a few things.

First off, the story grabbed me right away with the abduction of a 5 year old. My son is the same age so my stomach was instantly in knots. I found myself going through a range of emotions as we got different character’s perspectives. I felt the story developed at a reasonable pace and all the supporting characters got ample time in the spotlight for character development.

Frieda herself was developed well. We get just enough of her past that once combined with the present we have a pretty good idea of who she is and what motivates her. With that said however she wasn’t all that likeable for me. She definitely reminds me of those really smart people that tend to be closed off.

Lastly, I want to talk about the plot/ending. There were some twists I didn’t see coming which always makes me happy in mystery books. However, I did feel that the protagonist made some pretty big leaps to get to some of her conclusions. Also my biggest complaint with the book was the ending. All I will say is that something happens that I saw coming and it drove me crazy that all these educated people in the book didn’t figure it out in the end.

All in all though, it was an interesting and exciting read. This is my first book by Nicci French and she has left me intrigued. I may have to pick up another book by her in the future.

Rating~

Top Ten Tuesday (3): Books You'd Play Hooky With

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish

Its been a while since we did a Top Ten Tuesday list and we both really loved this week's topic the Top Ten Books (On Your Shelf) That You'd Play Hooky With.... Neither of us are lucky enough to have a Spring Break like our kids, but if we did these would totally be the books we'd curl up with during our time off.

Carrie's 5:

1). A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont - I have been anxiously awaiting this book and now that I have it I don’t have time to read it.

2). Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl - I really need to catch up on this series!

3). Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley - I won this book and I have heard such great things about it.

4). The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - After watching the movie I really want to re-read the book.

5). Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - I have had this book forever and still haven’t read it. It seems like the perfect Spring Break book!

Shannon's 5:

1). The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - Everyone raves about this book and I've gotten so many of my friends to read it...so why haven't I? I blame my stack of review books.

2). Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins - I loved Anna and the French Kiss and I need to read this one NOW! Somehow I WILL make the time.

3). Gilt by Katherine Longshore - I couldn't wait to get an ARC of this one and now that I have it, I haven't had the time to read it. Oh but I will!

4). Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles - I loved this book so much and I have been wanting to reread it ever since I finished it. Somehow I will work this one back into my reading pile...it will likely be followed by the sequels.

5). The Lost Code by Kevin Emerson - I have been obsessed with the show Ancient Aliens and have always been curious about the myth of Atlantis so the fact that author Kevin Emerson sent this one to me just rules! I will be reading this one very soon!

Shannon's In My Mailbox #43

Hi everyone and welcome to my newest IMM post. I got a really nice mix of books the last 2 weeks. All books shown are ones I bought or received between March 11th-24th.

In My Mailbox is a meme created by Kristi@ The Story Siren, its purpose is to encourage blogger interaction, as well as highlight books for our readers. IMM is not only for books you have received through the mail, but also library, borrowed, and bought books.

For Review:

~Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

~Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham

~The Lost Code by Kevin Emerson

~Burning Emerald by Jaime Reed

~Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep

*Thanks to Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, author Kevin Emerson and Kensington Publishing for the Review Books!

Traded For:

~The List (ARC) by Siobhan Vivan

*Thanks to Scoot for trading with me.

Physical Book I Bought:

~Spin by Catherine McKenzie

~Inside by Maria V. Snyder

~Fracture by Megan Miranda

~Starters by Lissa Price

Bought for my Nook:

~The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

~Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

*Both were only $2.99

  So that's it for me this time around. I'd love to know what you all got in your mailboxes!

Nifty Nook Book Deals #5

Every time I've done one of these posts it has been a huge success, so I'm back to do it again. Thanks to everyone who's shown their support since I wasn't sure how many people would find these posts helpful. Although its a smaller selection then normal I still hope you all find some books to fill your reading appetite. :D

All title links go to Barnes & Noble so you can easily buy the books. BTW, I have no affiliation with B&N.com so I don't make any money off the sale of these books. Instead this post was inspired by the lack of attention Nook Books get in comparison to Kindle Books, which always seem to be on sale.

  Novels On Sale For $0.99

~Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
~Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

~The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness 
~Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill

Novels On Sale For $2.99

 ~The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
~Gone by Michael Grant
~Suger & Spice by Lauren Conrad

 ~Poison by Sara Poole
~Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Novels On Sale For $3.19-$3.99

~Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz
~The Goblin King by Shona Husk

Please leave a comment if you'd like me to do more of these Nook Deal posts. They take quite a bit of time but if you all like them then I will keep posting them and make it a bi-monthly thing.

Happy Reading Everyone!!!

Review: Life Is But a Dream

Need to Know Info:

Title: Life Is But A Dream 
Author: Brian James 
Format: Hardcover, 234 pages 
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: March 27th, 2012

E-ARC received for Review from Publisher through NetGalley

Carrie's Review:
The premise of Life is but a Dream is what drew me in. I haven’t read many books where the main character is suffering from a mental illness. I was interested to see how the author was going to go about telling her story.

From the very beginning you are thrown into Sabrina’s world. Seeing through her eyes is both exciting and scary. Brian’s writing style is very unique and right away you can tell that Sabrina sees the world very differently from everyone else. I have to be honest and say that as someone who reads lots of paranormal books I wasn’t sure if the book was going to take a paranormal twist or if Sabrina just created this unique world as part of her illness. So that was a bit confusing for me at first but as the book progressed the storyline became clear.

The author takes us on an interesting ride through Sabrina’s brain. The story of how she ended up at the Wellness Center unravels slowly as we get glimpses and flashbacks through Sabrina’s eyes. Sometimes the writing gets a little confusing as we jump in and out of the present but Sabrina herself has a hard time with the idea of time. I thought the pacing of the book was done well. There is a slow build-up as we learn about Sabrina’s past and then it steadily picks up for the climax of the story.

Let me discuss the characters briefly, Sabrina was both heartbreaking and frustrating for me. I really wanted to feel more sympathetic to her because of all the unfortunate things that happen to her but something kept holding me back. I’m honestly not sure what it was. Her story was definitely sad and I was frustrated by all the people that took advantage of her and those that stood by and did nothing. Then there is Alec, someone who finally understands Sabrina and accepts her for who she is. However, Alec ended up being a bit frustrating as well. At first I felt happy for Sabrina that Alec came into her life and then my opinion of him slowly changed. His heart was in the right place but ultimately he was in over his head. With all that said though I feel the book ended on a positive note. I was left feeling optimistic for the future of these two characters and that is always a good thing.

Life is but a Dream is a unique and interesting look at someone dealing with schizophrenia. Brian James definitely has something to say. I found the subject matter of the book the most interesting part and it made me want to read more books dealing with mental illness. So bravo for that! I would recommend this book to readers that are interested in the subject matter as well as fans of YA contemporary books.

Oh and a quick side note. I just love the cover of this book!

Rating~

 

Carrie's In My Mailbox #21

Morning! It's Carrie and I'm back with another IMM post. This one is short and sweet. All books shown are ones I bought or received between Mar 4th - Mar 17th.

In My Mailbox is a meme created by Kristi@TheStorySiren, its purpose is to encourage blogger interaction, as well as highlight books for our readers. IMM is not only for books you have received through the mail, but also library,borrowed, and bought books.

Review:

A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont (provided by Kensington Teen)

Gifted (from the best sister ever):

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (signed)

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Austentatious by Alyssa Goodnight

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Well that's it for me. What did you get in your mailbox?