Current Reads

Current Reads:

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (YA) (library book)
The Name of the Star (YA) (Kindle)
The Carrie Diaries 2 (YA) (Kindle)

Calling for a lot of snow this weekend--good weekend for hibernating and reading.

The Puppy Diaries

The Puppy Diaries

This book details the first year of ownership of Scout, a English Golden Retriever, by Henry and Jill.  Jill was a bit anxious about bonding with Scout, as she was very attached to Buddy, their Westie who died.  Scout won Jill over.  This book tells about training, vet issues, and the anxiety of new puppy parenthood.  Scout had the best of both worlds--country home in CT and city apartment in Manhattan.  This book was a cute read and I would recommend it to dog lovers.  Dog owners can definitely relate to this book.  It is a happy dog book.

Smile (YA)

Smile (YA)


I could relate all too well to this book, given years of dental work and two recently painful oral surgeries.  This book tells the story of Raina, who loses her front teeth.  She gets a retainer with fake teeth, braces, oral surgery, you name it!  Any tween or teen who faces dental work or braces should read this book--this poor girl goes through it all!  I am not usually a big fan of graphic novels but this book works well in this format.  It has a comic strip feel to it, like "For Better or Worse".  I enjoyed this book.  It was a cute, quick read.  Readers will certainly feel for Raina and her painful journey to two good front teeth.

The Firefly Letters (YA)

The Firefly Letters (YA)


This book, told in verse style, tells the story of Fredrika Bremer, a women's right pioneer.  Fredrika travels to Cuba and realizes that slavery and women being controlled run rampant in Cuba.  She begins to write about it and this book is based on her journals and letters.  This book is told through Fredrika, her translator (who happens to be a slave) Cecilia, and a fictionalized rich girl whose family Fredrika is staying with named Elena.  This book was a quick read.  It was interesting to read about an area that I am not familiar with and about a person I did not know anything about.  I enjoyed it.

The Body Finder (YA)

The Body Finder (YA)


This book was a great, creepy read.  Violet can sense an "echo" from a dead body.  She found her first buried  body when she was eight years old.  Now, as a teenager, a serial killer is hunting down girls from her hometown and Violet decides to use her power to find the killer herself.  This book had good twists and turns in it and will keep readers hooked.  Violet and Jay (her best friend/boyfriend) are great characters and readers will care about them.  The kidnappings and killings are creepy and scary without going into too much gory detail.  This seems to be the first book in a series--I will read more in this series.  I enjoyed it.

Shelter (YA)

Shelter (YA)

This seems to be the first in a new series.  Mickey is the nephew of Myron Bolitar, from Coben's adult books.  Mickey is new to Myron's hometown, his father recently died in a car accident and his mother is in rehab for drug addiction.  Mickey becomes friends with Ema, an overweight Goth girl, and Spoon, a geek with decent computer skills.  They begin to search for Ashley, another new student who has mysteriously disappeared.  This book has good action, decent mystery, twists and turns and interesting characters.  Readers will get sucked in to this read.  I enjoyed it and will continue with this series.  This book would be a good read for both HS girls and boys.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (YA) (4/5)

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (YA)

This book was a cute read. It was sort of like a "Wimpy Kid" book but good in its own right. Dwight is a bit of a social misfit. He makes an origami Yoda that he uses as a sage advice giver. Soon everyone in school wants to ask Yoda for advice. This book is funny and cute. There are definitely things readers of all ages can relate to in it. I liked it. This was one of the books for the YA literature class I'm taking.

Girl, Stolen (YA)

Girl, Stolen (YA)

Griffin steals a car.  He does not realize at first that therere is a girl sleeping in the backseat.  Then he meets Cheyenne, a blind teenager who is waiting for her stepmom to come back out from the pharmacy with Cheyenne's antibiotics.  Griffin begins to panic.  His father begins to see dollar signs when they realize that Cheyenne is the daughter of Nike's President.  The car theft officially becomes a kidnapping with ransom included.  This book had a lot of twists and turns would keep readers hooked.  Griffin and Cheyenne are interested characters.  I could see both HS girls andc boys enjoying this book.  At just over 200 pages, it is a quick read but a good one.  I recommend it.

Books for YA Literature class

I've started to read some books for the YA literature class I'll be starting soon.  On my Kindle I'm reading The Body Finder (creepy good) and Shelter by Harlan Coben (good so far). 

What are you all reading?

Mr. Darcy's Bite

Mr. Darcy's Bite

In this continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy has a supernatural side, as he is a werewolf.  He tries to keep himself from falling in love with Elizabeth because of this, but it does not work.  He eventually reveals his secret to Elizabeth and asks her to marry him, if she can handle his wolf side.  She says she can and the two marry.  This book is matter of fact about Darcy being a werewolf and it really does not get in the way of the telling of Darcy and Lizzy's love story.  The writing of this book was very good and kept with Austen's style.  This book fleshed out Austen's characters in a different way and did it well.  I enjoyed the book a lot.  I received a copy to review from the publisher, Sourcebooks.