Hey everyone! Today's post serves two purposes.  Since we had a chance to talk about Shatter Me on Twitter last night, I wanted to share my official review of it.  The February poll will be at the bottom of this post.

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

(Summary from GoodReads)

 

Every town in England has a story.  One day I am going to find out Sorry-in-the-Vale's.

It looked set to become even hotter by the afternoon, just when the job was becoming more fiddly and needed extra concentration.  But the fair weather brought at least one advantage: dry air makes magic work better and fly farther.

Strangers never walk down this road, the sisters thought in unison as the man trudged toward them.  Certainly not strangers in business suits--there was just no reason for them to be out here in the middle of nowhere.

 Life. Death. And...Love?

Emma would give anything to talk to her mother one last time. Tell her about her slipping grades, her anger with her stepfather, and the boy with the bad reputation who might be the only one Emma can be herself with.

But Emma can't tell her mother anything. Because her mother is brain-dead and being kept alive by machines for the baby growing inside her.

Meeting bad-boy Caleb Harrison wouldn't have interested Old Emma. But New Emma-the one who exists in a fog of grief, who no longer cares about school, whose only social outlet is her best friend Olivia-New Emma is startled by the connection she and Caleb forge.

Feeling her own heart beat again wakes Emma from the grief that has grayed her existence. Is there hope for life after death-and maybe, for love?

(Summary from GoodReads)

Disclosure: I received a digital galley of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Other reviews:

 
 

by Neil Gaiman
by A.D. Robertson
Handmade Jane Austen notecards!
by Tahereh Mafi
by Jim Butcher
Doctor Who swag!

Read:
by Jeff Kinney
by E. Lockhart
by Merrie Haskell
by Robin Constantine
by Christopher Moore
by Suzanne Fisher Staples
by Rae Carson
by Allan Richard Shickman
by Tamra Ireland Stone
by Gillian Flynn
by Tahereh Mafi
by Natalie Babbitt
by Elizabeth Scott
Currently reading:
by Julie Murphy
by George R.R. Martin
by Erin Bowman
What I plan to read:
by Allan Woodrow
by Suzanne Young
by Tiffany Schmidt
by Andrew Smith

Natalya knows a secret.
A magical Faberge egg glows within the walls of Russia's Winter Palace.
It holds a power rooted in the land and stolen from the mystics.
A power that promises a life of love for her and Alexei Romanov.
Power, that, in the right hands, can save her way of life.
But it's not in the right hands.

Deathless deals with Russian folklore.  Based on the GoodReads descriptions, this book has fantastical elements as well as politics.  I already loved Valente's middle grade books, so count me in for this one.

So go forth and enjoy these Russian inspired books.  Are there any you'd add to my list?

As many of you guys know, I read and really enjoyed The Archived at the end of 2012.  One thing that was really awesome about The Archived was the Repository of the Dead.  I think one of her strengths is world building. Today she's sharing the Top 7 Bookish Places that inspired the Repository of the Dead in The Archived.  Be wary that the synopsis of below could contain spoilers for The Archived.

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she starts her junior year at Hyde School, she's struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn't easy -- not when her dreams are haunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she's really safe.

Meanwhile, people are vanishing without a trace, and the only thing they seem to have in common is Mackenzie. She's sure the Archive knows more than they are letting on, but before she can prove it, she becomes the prime suspect. And unless Mac can track down the real culprit, she'll lose everything, not only her role as Keeper, but her memories, and even her life. Can Mackenzie untangle the mystery before she herself unravels?

With stunning prose and a captivating mixture of action, romance, and horror, The Unbound delves into a richly imagined world where no choice is easy and love and loss feel like two sides of the same coin.

1.) George Peabody Library at Johns Hopkins
 












2.) Library of Congress
 












3.) British Reading Room












 4.) Selexyz Bookstore, Maastricht, Holland

























5.) Harper Memorial Library at University of Chicago 

 















6.) Library at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona



















7.) Suzzallo Library at University of Washington

As I type this post, I'm on page 128 of Shatter Me.  I've got about 200 pages left of the book, so I'm excited to keep going and see where the story goes.  I thought about posting some quotes, but I am reading an ARC, and I hate to just take the quotes of of GoodReads in case those are wrong.  Instead, I want to touch on aspects of this book.

*Mafi's prose isn't like anything I've read anytime recently in YA lit.  It's so lyrical and lovely that in some places it comes very near to poetry.  There are a few moments where i find myself saying "Really?" but those are rare.  For the most part I find it refreshing to read something so different.

*The world in this book is bleak, and I've only seen a little bit of it so far.  I'm really hoping we get more before the end of the book.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for more updates and thoughts.

It's time to meet your new roomie.

When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman-year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer -- and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room.

As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met.

National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr and acclaimed author Tara Altebrando join forces for a novel about growing up, leaving home, and getting that one fateful e-mail that assigns your college roommate.

(Summary from GoodReads)

It wasn't until I read over at that I decided I needed this book.   Given my roommate experience in college, I knew I needed this book after reading her review.

Like most teenagers, I had some definite angst and heartache over the years, but I had a pretty good youth.  In sixth grade my family moved to an adorable suburb of Columbus, Ohio with a great school system.  We always had money for the things I needed, I knew I would eventually go to a great college, and I had friends who indulged my nerdy tendencies.  We did things like go to midnight showings of the Harry Potter movies and watched in our spare time.

Between my junior and senior year of high school, I attended a young writers workshop at in Gambier, Ohio. It was two glorious weeks of hanging out people who loved books and writing as much as I did.  I also made friends who wanted to chat about clothes and music and just be teenagers.  Over those two weeks, I became determined to go to Kenyon.  So when fall rolled around, I applied early decision, and got in.

Fast forward to July before I left for college.  By this point I knew I was going to Kenyon, and that within the next two weeks, my family would be leaving our house in Ohio so my dad could start a job in Minnesota. As I was about to head out for a get together with high school friends to bake bread for my Ultimate Croquet going away party, our house phone rang.  It was my future roommate on the phone  I had gotten her information and tried calling her, but the number I had was wrong.  I hurriedly told her my cell phone number and, because AIM was still at thing people used at the time, gave her my 
screenname: Hobbitfanatic712.
My beautiful alma mater.  
 Once I moved to Minnesota, I got to talk to Anna a little more.  She described herself as someone who got cold easily (not compared to me, we soon learned) and loved plants.  I was pretty excited because she sounded awesome.  She was dreading living with someone who had the screenname Hobbitfanatic712.

I would tell you about how we met on move-in day, but I came to college a few days early to start running cross-country.  On the day when all the other freshmen moved in, I came in exhausted from a practice and found Anna talking to someone on her phone.  At first, we were friendly and chatty, but that was about it.  We were both messy but were also both the type of person who would eventually clean, so we got along pretty well.

For me, there will always be one day that stuck out as the day we stopped being roommates and started being really good friends.  It was Friday right after lunch, and we were hanging out in room. I had been super stressed about an econ test that morning, and as I was telling Anna how it went, I started crying.  Her maternal instincts immediately kicked in, and she had me sit on her lap and cry there, which was a big improvement.  Maybe it doesn't sound a little odd, but how else are you supposed to get through life if you don't have moral support?
                                                                              Moving  in freshman year!

We got along great for the rest of the year.  We'd get ready for formals together, sometimes eat together, and just hang out. It was good.

Our sophomore year, we started off with different roommates, but it didn't work out. We wound up back together, and both went through our share of tough times that year.  That was when we really bonded.   We had singles across campus our senior year, which wasn't the best because I spent all of junior year abroad.  Every time we needed each other, we wound up in one or the other's room. 

Anna is my best friend on the planet now.  We both love , and over the years pieces of ourselves have rubbed off on the other.  Anna is my fantastic archivist friend who talks to her plants and is sometimes in a little loud, but always in a way that makes you feel welcome.  I am her geeky friend who she sat down with one day and said, "You should be a teen librarian."  I'm lucky to have found my best friend in my roommate.  We've been apart since college, and don't get to hang out much, but we still stay caught up. I think we always will.


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Look at my sidebar, now look back at me! Ridiculous, right? I know.  I plan on cleaning it up soon, but I wanted to let you guys know why it looks so absurd.

As we all know, Google Reader died last spring. I'm still ticked off about it.  WHY DID GOOGLE GIVE ME SOMETHING THAT WORKED FOR ME AND TAKE IT AWAY?!

Clearly, the way people follow blogs has changed.  No one has joined Google Friend Connect in a while, but I know I'm still attracting new readers.  So I've decided to change how you guys can follow.

If you use Feedly or Bloglovin, you can follow my blog there! Wahoo!  I believe very little effort is required outside of hitting the button.

I'll take some of the other widgets that allow you to follow my blog in a week or so. If you totally miss the boat, I tend to advertise my posts on Twitter and Facebook, so don't worry! I know I could lose some followers, which is never fun, but I also know followers come and go throughout the course of blogging.  It'll all be great.

So follow the blog through Feedly or Bloglovin if you'd like, and I'll be back with a more exciting post soon!

As many of you guys know, Misty of is one of my good blogger friends.  We share many loves outside of books, but one day last year as I was looking at her TBR, I realized that we had a lot of unread books in common.  So we decided to do something about it.

We have decided to read one book together every month.  We are going to discuss the books on...wait for it...WEDNESDAYS!  That said, let me point out the less obvious facets of this event.

*The first Wednesday of every month, Misty and I are going to announce the book we plan to read together! How we choose will vary each month.  Since this is our first month, we decided to choose amongst ourselves.

*On the last Wednesday of each month, we'll wrap up conversations about the book, and figure out what the next month's book is.

*We're going to have Twitter chats every month, and are still working out the times.  Obviously, you can follow along with the hashtag #WednesdayYA!

*Wednesdays in between, we'll be posting other fun things related to the book of choice.  Misty is devoted to doing stuff every Wednesday.  I'm not sure if I can keep up with that pace, but THERE WILL BE POSTS OF SOME KIND!

*#WednesdayYA is meant to be laid back!  Anyone who wants can join.  Feel free to read with us or chat with us, even if you've already read the book.

With housekeeping out of the way, let's discuss what we'll be reading this month!
So join us!  Grab a copy of Shatter Me to read and discuss with us.  We're looking forward to seeing how everyone likes this book.

Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.

Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.

When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.

(Summary from GoodReads)

 Before: Reena Montero has loved Sawyer LeGrande for as long as she can remember: as natural as breathing, as endless as time. But he’s never seemed to notice that Reena even exists…until one day, impossibly, he does. Reena and Sawyer fall in messy, complicated love. But then Sawyer disappears from their humid Florida town without a word, leaving a devastated—and pregnant—Reena behind.

After: Almost three years have passed, and there’s a new love in Reena’s life: her daughter, Hannah. Reena’s gotten used to being without Sawyer, and she’s finally getting the hang of this strange, unexpected life. But just as swiftly and suddenly as he disappeared, Sawyer turns up again. Reena doesn’t want anything to do with him, though she’d be lying if she said Sawyer’s being back wasn’t stirring something in her. After everything that’s happened, can Reena really let herself love Sawyer LeGrande again?

In this breathtaking debut, Katie Cotugno weaves together the story of one couple falling in love—twice.

(Summary from GoodReads)

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Hello! This is just a post so I can claim my blog on BlogLovin.  Please feel free to ignore this post.  Thanks!

I'm a couple days late on this, but I thought I'd share a couple of my goals for 2014 with you.  I know some people make New Year's Resolutions, which is a phrase I'm not in love with.  I think if you want to change something in your life, you should make it when change needs to be made.  However, a new year can remind you of things you want to get done, so here are some of my aspirations.

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*Read 100 books.  I read about this number last year and it was a good fit for my social number and work schedule.

*Catch up on reviews.  My need-to-review shelf has been stuck in the twenty-ish range for quite a while.  This is because I read faster than I write reviews.  Perhaps if I participated in a Bloggiesta this year I'd finally catch up.  Somewhere between five and 10 would be a more comfortable area to reside in.

*Write more discussion posts. I have some great ideas, but because I'm so behind on reviews, I tend to prioritize writing them, unless something is really inspiring/bothering me/time sensitive.

*Work on my fiction writing.  On my computer, you'll find a word document with a story I sometimes work on.  I'd like to continue making progress on that.

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Ashleigh's boyfriend, Kaleb, is about to leave for college, and Ashleigh is worried that he'll forget about her while he's away. So at a legendary end-of-summer pool party, Ashleigh's friends suggest she text him a picture of herself -- sans swimsuit -- to take with him. Before she can talk herself out of it, Ashleigh strides off to the bathroom, snaps a photo in the full-length mirror, and hits "send."

But when Kaleb and Ashleigh go through a bad breakup, Kaleb takes revenge by forwarding the text to his baseball team. Soon the photo has gone viral, attracting the attention of the school board, the local police, and the media. As her friends and family try to distance themselves from the scandal, Ashleigh feels completely alone -- until she meets Mack while serving her court-ordered community service. Not only does Mack offer a fresh chance at friendship, but he's the one person in town who received the text of Ashleigh's photo -- and didn't look.

Acclaimed author Jennifer Brown brings readers a gripping novel about honesty and betrayal, redemption and friendship, attraction and integrity, as Ashleigh finds that while a picture may be worth a thousand words . . . it doesn't always tell the whole story.

(Summary from GoodReads)

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In my my End of Year Book Survey and sharing my favorite books, I've told you guys a lot about my reading life this year.  Since I'm a person and not a robot, I sometimes like to share a bit about my life outside the world of blogging, and I know you guys like reading it.

As a lot of you guys know, 2013 got off to a busy start filled with transitions.  I kicked off the year by moving to start a job as Youth Librarian at a small public library in a rural area.  I was lucky to make some good friends as soon as I moved to Iowa who've become really dear to me, so I got to hang out with them in January and February.  I also spent a lot of time acquiring little things for my apartment to help me settle in better.  I joined my local Y at the beginning of January because I realized I was going crazy not exercising.


Since I had a steady income, a made a fairly large purchase at the beginning of March: a road bike!  When I was growing up, I lived really close to an amazing bike trail, and I always loved going on long rides down it.  Through high school, I rode a bike that my mom and I picked out for me in 5th grade.  We actually picked up that bike for me during the two years of my childhood we spent in Iowa.  It served me well, but it was a cheap bike from a hardware store, and I'd been wanting to buy myself a nice bike for a long time.  A friend who's more knowledge about bikes than I am went shopping with me and road along aside me for some test rides.  I walked away with a gorgeous road bike that I love.  Because of the weather, I had to wait a few weeks until I could ride it, but after that I had lots of chances to ride it, especially since I decided to start training for a sprint triathlon.

April and May brought a lot of time with family and friends: lots of bike rides and delicious meals, and I got to see my brother when he came to visit my parents.  Memorial Day weekend brought a cold and rainy Ren Faire.


In June and July, each weekend was filled either with a family commitment or plans to go bike riding.  Of the bike rides, two are especially notable. One involved 90 degree weather, lots of humidity, and tons of hills, all over the course of 67 miles.  Another weekend I rode 100 miles with a group of friend.  Saturday we rode about 50 miles from the beginning of a trail to the end, where we rode off to a town right off the trail and stayed in a hotel.  I got my first flat tire that day in the middle of an open field where it was pouring rain. Sunday brought much clearer weather, thankfully.


I also completed my first sprint triathlon! The swim was 300 meters, the bike 15 miles, and the run 4.  The run was supposed to be a 5K, but the course had been incorrectly measured.  The swim was really tough because I could barely see in the water and thus got a little off course, but I finished in one piece.  Also, we ran through some woods, which was exciting because not only had it been raining for a month, but it thundered and lightened during the race.

My extended family celebrated the marriage of my cousin and her fiancee, in Wisconsin.  My cousin lives in California, but she and her now husband are both from the midwest, so there was a reception at my uncle's house the month before the wedding.  I actually drove to another part of Iowa where my met another uncle, and rode up with him, which totaled for an 8 hour trip one way.  It was definitely worth it to see so many aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandparents.  On the way home we had to take a detour, and nearly ran out of gas as we got lost taking the detour.  I had to eat my uncle's emergency salted nut roll because we drove through a lot of communities that were too small to have a gas station.  If you think it's weird he keeps a salted nut roll in his car, it's because they don't melt or freeze.

I wrapped up July by doing a few days of an event called , short for Register's Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa.  While it's a week long, I did three days of it, for lack of vacation time.  I did this with a friend, and quickly learned you have to really enjoy the person you'll be riding and camping with so much.  I fell out with that person at the end of the event, but I'm so glad I had to chance to try such an awesome ride. I can't wait to do the whole thing at some point in the future.

 The end of August brought one last long bike ride, that was filled with gorgeous scenery.  I found that September and October included lots of family time.  A close friend of mine from grad school moved a town that's an hour away from where my parents live.  One weekend when life got stressful, I brought her to my parents' house where we ate cupcakes and deep fried cheese curds, snuggled with my dog, perused a used bookstore, and watched some ZeFrank videos on YouTube.

Going back to one bookish thing, during the fall, fellow Youth Librarian and I started a library blog, called .  I wanted to start a separate blog about library services, but didn't want to do it alone.  We've had lots of fun so far, so come check it out!


Late September and early October brought some tough times.  A family friend who had struggled with brain cancer for a year and a half passed away.  Her funeral was more like a traditional church service than a funeral, which was appropriate because she was a pastor.  It was beautiful, heartbreaking, and healing all at once.  While I was with family that weekend, we also learned that my Uncle John passed away.  It was unnerving two experiences so close together: one that we knew was coming but was still too soon and another that was a bit more out of the blue.  I made a point of spending extra time with my mom in October, because I knew it was hard for her.  Luckily my brother came to visit in October, and while we didn't get to all four hang out as a family, I got some time to hang out with him, and so did our parents.

 November brought a nice 3 day weekend with my father and my puppy, as well as Thanksgiving!  We held it at our house, and I got to celebrate with my friend from grad school, lots of immediate and extended family, and a friend of my brother's who's joined us for several years. While there was a lot of lying around (my turkey hangover felt more extreme than usual this year), we ventured out to see Catching Fire, which was enjoyable.

I spent December happily preparing for Christmas. I baked 200 cookies for my women's group and indulged in watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music.  I was lucky enough to travel to my parents' house and then my grandparents' house. It involved 16 hours of driving not only in one week, but in freezing cold temperatures.  I had The Wise Man's Fear audiobook to keep me company, and all of that driving was so, so worth it to get to see my family.

2013 was definitely a year of ups and downs.  I found myself reminded of how important is both to spend time with loved ones and welcome new people into your life.  I was reminded that to be happy in life, you have to be proactive, put yourself out there, and take chances. It was a crazy ride, and I'm curious as to what 2014 will hold.