This Calls for a GRAB BAG!

So many books, not enough time to blog about all them! Here's a handful of mini-reviews of book's I've read recently!

How To Be A Woman

by Caitlin Moran

Such an amazing book! I was laughing so hard I was doing my 'witch cackle' (as my husband calls it).  You will want to become best friends with Moran.  I don't think I've ever read a book with such insight into what it is like to be a woman.  If you enjoy comedic memoirs then this is the book for you!

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

by Maria Semple

This is the BEST book I have read so far this year! I read it over a weekend and am already wanting to pick it up again for a second read.  Funny, charming, and relatable, Maria Semple knocks it out of the park with this novel! It's nominated for the Woman's Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize) and very deserving!  But don't just take my word for it; take Jonathan Franzen's:

"I tore through this book with heedless pleasure."—Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom

Hex Hall / Demonglass / Spell Bound

by Rachel Hawkins

Love, Love, Love this series! Another one I plowed through over a weekend since I couldn't put it down!  Sophie Mercer is a great heroine and you are continually rooting for her.  Chock full of great characters (such a pink loving vampire / best friend and a very cute love interest), sassy dialogue, and magic!  A great teen series!

This is What Happy Looks Like

by Jennifer E. Smith

Every wonder what it is like to fall in love with a movie star?  Read this contemporary teen romance and find out!

Splintered

by A.G. Howard

Lots of fun for fans of Alice in Wonderland!

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own

Thousand Words 

by Jennifer Brown

For fans of Ellen Hopkins, this novel on teen sexting is very well done and definitely very relevant.

The Truth About Forever

by Sarah Dessen

My first and definitely not my last Sarah Dessen novel! She really is as good as people say; if you love contemporary teen fiction then you MUST read Dessen.  The Truth About Forever was wonderful and left me wanting more.

“Keep calm and carry on. Also, stay in and hide because the Ripper is coming.”

Do you like mysteries?  Do you like ghost stories? Do you like teen fiction?  If you answered yes to any and all of these questions then you need to read the wonderful Maureen Johnson's Shades of London series.  I picked up the first book in the series, The Name of the Star as a bargain ebook.  By the time I had finished it I picked up the sequel, The Madness Underneath, at full price and gladly paid every penny for it.  The first book introduces us to Louisiana teenager, Rory, who has just started school in London.  Now at first this book feels very much like your seemingly typical teen boarding school story.  However, there is a pretty major twist.

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago. 
Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities

 It took me a little while to really get into the story but once I did I couldn't put it down.  And the

ending? Holy Moly! If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about.  If you haven't, what are you waiting for?  Be warned, I found the same slow beginning with the sequel but again it packs a punch by the end.  Maureen Johnson may be the queen of can't-put-down endings.

Books About Falling in Love to Fall in Love With

Stephenie Perkins
Anna and the French Kiss
Lola and the Boy Next Door

I have to say that when I first picked up Anna and the French Kiss, I was a little put off.  First of all, the title was a little cheesy...and the cover was definitely cheesy...But, I had heard so many wonderful things about Perkins as a writer and about this book being a fun and lovely love story that I though, oh what's the worse that can happen?  Apparently nothing because I LOVED IT!  This book reminds you of what it is like to fall in love for the first time, what being a teenager is like, and how exciting it can be to discover a new city.  Lola and the Boy Next Door was a similar reading experience in that it was charming, relatable, and just plain fun to read.  I found myself laughing and crying through both of these amazing stories and I am really excited to read the final installment in Perkin's teen trilogy (btw, both stories do connect together by character cameos and that makes it even more enjoyable since who doesn't like revisiting beloved characters?), Isla and the Happily Ever After, which come out this fall.

Gayle Forman

Just One Day

What a wonderful story of self discovery and finding true love.  I can't believe that I have to wait for the sequel!  Allyson is such a relatable character with her vulnerability and courage; I know that I was able to see myself in her and I'm sure many readers feel the same way.  I just loved this book.

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.