What's new...

Just finished Ripper, the Lone Star title about the infamous serial killer's fictitous son. It's a bit of a lengthy read. I did find it a little slow in the beginning. Well, maybe not slow so much as hard to get into. Towards the end, the pacing picked up and it began to seem much more like a murder mystery than the spy novel it started out to be. The author threw in a little steampunk, which was cool. And i'll admit the ending caught me by surprise, so i won't give that away. Not bad, but truth be told, i enjoyed Patricia Cornwall's non-fiction book on the possibilities of the killer's true identity more. 

What I'm looking forward to...

Summer of course! No, really, what I mean is all the sequels and series and movies coming out! Here's what I have on my to read list:
Feedback, the sequel to Variant (already out, just haven't read it yet)
Scarlet, the Lunar Chronicles (already out as well)
Seige and Storm, the sequel to Shadow and Bone 6/4
The Dream Thieves, book 2 of The Raven Boys 9/17
UnSouled, Unwind Dystology 10/15
Allegiant 10/22
Champion, a Legend novel 11/5
Next Dustlands book, I think, I hope...

And on film:
Beautiful Creatures
City of Bones (August)
Delirium (2014)
Divergent (2014)

Where have i been?

I don't even know. But i read a lot while i was there. Maybe we should call it lala land. Most recently i finished The One and Only Ivan, this year's winner of the Newbery Medal and a nominee on the Bluebonnet list. Usually animal stories are pretty juvenile. I think in this one, the author imbued the story with enough witty humor and deep themes that it became a sort of ageless story. I was thrilled to learn it was based on a true story. But i must admit surprise to it winning the Newbery; I was so sure Wonder would get it. Hmmmmm.

New books galore

It's so exhilarating when everywhere you look there are books you see that you want to read! Example 1- I go to the movies and see 2 previews based on ya books that I haven't read. Man, I've got to take care of that.
Example 2- after several awards lists come out, I identify about 5 books that I want to read from them.
Example 3- I go to pick up some review books from my boss and come back with about 20 books.
Example 4- a student says to me, "Did you get the sequel to that book?" I answer, "He wrote a sequel?!?"
Example 5-About 10 boxes of new books finally arrive. I took home at least 4 books to get read.
Example 6- I get on the Barnes and Noble website and find out it's only 3 weeks until the final Delirium book and 8 months for the final Divergent book! Whoopee!

Speaking of sequels, I've been trying to get everyone I know to read Legend cause I love it. Right now, both the READ and faculty book clubs are working on it. I planned this to coincide with the second book coming out. So I bought it for my Nook and just finished it a couple nights ago. Seems like everything i read nowadays is science fiction with a little romance thrown in. This is skewing my view of the future. Now, I have heard it said that Legend is predictable. Maybe that is true, but I think that with Prodigy, surprises are around every corner. Of course, I don't want to give too much away. But I will be anxiously awaiting the third book after that ending! Argh! Weigh in and tell me what you think!

It's so Raven!

Anything Maggie Stiefvater writes is immediately picked up in my library. So when her newest, The Raven Boys, arrived, my clerk and I snatched it up to take home, as is our inalienable right being purveyors of reading material. I read excitedly, turning page after page wondering if the next chapter would be a good stopping point. I met Blue, a strangely named girl with a stranger all-female psychic family. I liked that she was determined never to fall in love because of the prediction that she'd kill her true love with a kiss, or somesuch nonsense. The setting was beautiful. I've been to Virginia and agree that it is a breathtaking place. (Although I always feel that Stiefvater has set her book somewhere in Europe until I discover otherwise.) I loved the sections from the boys' perspectives. Each boy was a gift to the story, a character to be unwrapped just a little at a time. Earnest Gansey. Careful Adam. Angry Ronan, with his baby raven Chainsaw. Quiet Noah. And Blue became one of them, ignoring her mother's demand to stay away from those boys like a good little teenage protagonist. She became one of the boys in their wild search for a dead king. It was all building up to a pretty exciting climax. And it kept building. And then it ended. Pretty abruptly, like that. And the loose ends - the unanswered questions, the visions that had not yet come to pass- what of them? Lord and Maggie only know. Leaving the poor reader hanging, for untold months, until the second book comes out. It's criminal.