Author: Morgan Matson
Goodreads Rating: 4.17
Pages: 468
Format: ARC from ARCycle
Taylor Edwards’ family might not be the closest-knit—everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled—but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains.
Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get to know each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend…and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve.
As the summer progresses and the Edwards become more of a family, they’re more aware than ever that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance—with family, with friends, and with love.
Author: Randy Pausch
Goodreads Rating: 4.19
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 5 Disks
Reviewed By: Nicole
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."— Randy PauschA lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was aboutliving.In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come!!
Author: Andrea Cremer
Goodreads Rating: 4.33
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pages: 431
Reviewed By: Nicole
Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!
Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.
With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.
Author: Jeannine Garsee
Goodreads Rating: 3.99 Stars
My Rating: 4.75 Stars
Pages: 406
Reviewed by: Nicole
I got this book from Netgalley, and I have to say, I'm going to buy it once it hits stores on July 17, 2012. I am beyond excited to share this review with you.
Goodreads Synopses:
Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother.
After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists.
With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?
Annaliese? Or herself?
The Time Will Come is a meme hosted by Jodie over at Books for Company. I keep wanting to call this This Too Shall Pass, but alas, that is not the name, but the concept is the same. These are books that I really want to read but just haven't gotten around to.
I got this book in March from my mother, and had decided I wanted to read it for the release. Apparently this was not to be and so it has been waiting on my shelf for me to have time to pick it up. I've never read anything by Picoult (shame on me I know) but I do have feelers out for a few of her books. I was hoping to get to meet her since she frequents a bookstore by where my boy goes to school, but I never luck out. Turns out that she's going to be doing a signing there this summer, but he won't be there and its right around my cousins wedding, bummer but also cool. This book sounds really cute, but you can judge it for yourself below. I also think it was sweet since it was written by Picoult and her daughter. Can I get an "awwwwwwww"?
Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.
And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.
Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.
Author: Daniel Wilson
Goodreads Rating: 3.56
My Rating: 4/5
Pages: 347
I saw this book over the summer in a paper talking about summer reads and I knew that I had to read it. Ask anyone that knows me and they will tell you that I love all of those disaster, end of the world type of books and movies; I even liked 2012 the movie. So when I saw a book about a robot apocalypse, I was all over that. Sadly, I hate hardcover, so I was bound to wait to get to read this book anyway. I got it from my library for my Nook only three days ago. That quick of a read.
Synopses from Goodreads:
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.
When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.
My review after the jump!
Author: Suzanne Collins
Average Rating: 4.54/5
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
I decided to do a review of a book that I read over the summer. This past summer I did my bed to read as much as I could. I read about 35 books this summer and The Hunger Games was one of them. I chose to write about this particular book because of all of the hype surrounding the moving coming out in three short months. I am going to warn you now that this review will contain spoilers after the jump and if You haven't read this book yet, I would do so.
Synopses from Goodreads.com:
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.
My review after the jump.
