Monday Reads: My TBR pile on my bookshelf

Here are the top 10 books on my bookshelf that I'm itching to read. Because I collect books faster than I read them, I have a big pile of books that I have yet to read.

 Dearly Beloved by Lia Habel

 Wither by Lauren DeStefano

 Sever by Lauren DeStefano

 Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

 Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

 The Evolution of Mara Dyer

 Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

 Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Monday Reads: Book purchase from eBay

This is a book I have been looking forward to reading for quite some time now. A couple of years ago I picked up the first volume of short stories in this series The Book Lovers’ Appreciation Society for $2 on the bargain table at Chapters. I didn’t think too much of it and it sat on my shelf for quite a while. The reason I bought it was because I noticed some famous chick-lit authors on the list of short story contributors. I threw this book into my bag on my trip to NYC that fall and completely fell in love with the stories. I am more used to reading novels, but there’s something so great about picking up a book of short stories. It’s so easy to read a whole story on a lunch break or before bed. I recently found out that there is another book of short stories by many of the same authors called The Sunday Night Book Club. It seems to be out of print everywhere, but I managed to snag a copy off of eBay for $2 a few days ago. I cannot wait for it to come in the mail. Some of the authors included in this collection of short stories are: Wendy Holden, Maggie O’Farrell, Cathy Kelly, Adriana Trigiani, Patricia Scanlon, Andrea Levy, Joanne Harris, Alexander McCall Smith, Claire Bolan, Katie Fforde.

Monday Reads: The Siren

After reading Jackson Pearce's fairytale retellings, I have been searching for other fairytale retellings to quench my thirst until Jackson releases her next installment. This week I picked up The Siren by Kiera Cass. Having loved her book The Selection, I have high hopes for this one. The Siren is a retelling of The Little Mermaid and so far has been quite an intriguing read. I can already see how she has left elements of the old fairytale in tact as well as adding her own twists and turns. I am not very far into the book but so far am enjoying it very much.

The Siren by Kiera Cass

Synopsis: "You must never do anything that might expose our secret. This means that, in general, you cannot form close bonds with humans. You can speak to us, and you can always commune with the Ocean, but you are deadly to humans. You are, essentially, a weapon. A very beautiful weapon. I won't lie to you, it can be a lonely existence, but once you are done, you get to live. All you have to give, for now, is obedience and time. . ."The same speech has been given hundreds of times to hundreds of beautiful girls who enter the sisterhood of sirens. Kahlen has lived by these rules for years now, patiently waiting for the life she can call her own. But when Akinli, a human, enters her world, she can't bring herself to live by the rules anymore. Suddenly the life she's been waiting for doesn't seem nearly as important as the one she's living now.

Monday Reads: Blackberry Winter

I know I have been horrible with posting in the last few weeks. I thought I was out of my reading slump but after my last post, I got into another one. It seems that September and October were big reading slump months. In the last week, I have finally started to read at a more regular pace and I am starting to get more excited about finishing books and starting new ones.

I started this book a couple of days ago and I am LOVING it. I have had a hard time putting it down. I was even reading it as I was waiting for the elevator at my apartment and in the elevator and as I walk places. It is that good. This is the third book by Sarah Jio and her first two books The Violets of March and The Bungalow have become favourites of mine. Even though I am not yet finished her latest, I am sure it will also become one of my top books.

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

Synopsis: In 2011, Sarah Jio burst onto the fiction scene with two sensational novels--The Violets of March and The Bungalow. With Blackberry Winter--taking its title from a late-season, cold-weather phenomenon--Jio continues her rich exploration of the ways personal connections can transcend the boundaries of time. 

Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator's.

Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 "blackberry winter" storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways...

Monday Reads: A new series I am excited to start

After a really really long reading slump, I am finally getting back into the swing of things. I am almost done City of Glass, which I feel I started ages ago. But I am finally picking up the pace and have a ton of books waiting for me that I can't wait to read.

I discovered this series while looking through some of my recommendations on goodreads. I must admit that the title wasn't something I was drawn to at first. But after reading the synopsis, this series was placed on my "to be read" pile.

 The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Synopsis: Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

 The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Synopsis: Reaching the end of their flight in THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd to prison, and Viola to a house of healing where her wounds are treated. Soon Viola is swept into the ruthless activities of the Answer, while Todd faces impossible choices when forced to join the mayor’s oppressive new regime. In alternating narratives the two struggle to reconcile their own dubious actions with their deepest beliefs. Torn by confusion and compromise, suspicion and betrayal, can their trust in each other possibly survive?

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Synopsis: As a world-ending war surges around them, Todd and Viola face monstrous decisions. The indigenous Spackle, thinking and acting as one, have mobilized to avenge their murdered people. Ruthless human leaders prepare to defend their factions at all costs, even as a convoy of new settlers approaches. And as the ceaseless Noise lays all thoughts bare, the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many. The consequences of each action, each word, are unspeakably vast: To follow a tyrant or a terrorist? To save the life of the one you love most, or thousands of strangers? To believe in redemption, or assume it is lost? Becoming adults amid the turmoil, Todd and Viola question all they have known, racing through horror and outrage toward a shocking finale.

Monday Reads (Part Two): eReaders vs Books

After posting about my new ereader purchase yesterday, I thought I would write my thoughts about ereaders vs books. I am not new to ereaders. I have had a few ereaders since they came out a few years ago. When they first came out, I promised myself that I would never buy one. I loved my books too much. But then when I actually held one and got to use it, I was intrigued. I eventually caved and bought my first ereader. This did not mean that I stopped buying books. I am, to this day, still buying many hard copies of books and filling up my bookshelves. So why do I have an ereader? And why, if I enjoy reading on an ereader, do I keep buying hard copies of books?

If you were born in the 70s or 80s, you remember cassettes. I remember buying my first music tapes and playing them on the big tape player at home. Now, those tapes are pretty much obsolete. You cannot buy them from a store and playing cassette tapes you already have is difficult if you don't have a working tape player. Technology is advancing at such a quick pace that it's hard to know when one thing will be traded for another. Tapes became CDs and then CDs became mp3 files. This is why I still buy real books. Books that I read and I love and want to read over and over again, I buy hard copies of. I am terrified of where all the ebooks will end up years from now. Maybe they will be lost in cyberspace somewhere. So I make sure to try my best to collect all my favourite books in hard cover so I can take them with me, grow with them and eventually pass them on to my kids.

So then why would I even bother buying an ereader? There are a few advantages. The new ereaders, the ones with wifi, allow you to preview samples of books that you are interested in. I keep a list of books that I am interested in buying. With an ereader, I can download a free sample of the book and read a few chapters before I decide to buy it. Also, ereaders are now allowing you to borrow books from the library. Since I like to read in bed, I don't often like bringing books home from the library, especially when you do not know where they have been. There are thousands and thousands of free books that you can download. And the books that are not free are usually much cheaper than the physical book. I recently read a book on my ereader that was 34.99 in hard copy but only 12.99 as an ebook. Carrying an ereader is a lot easier than carrying a book when you're on the go. And if you're going on vacation, your ereader can hold up to a 1000 books so you don't have to be picky about which books you are going to bring with you.

That being said, I will always love my books. I will always love the smell of them, turning the pages, making my own mark on my books. So I always collect hard copies of books by my favourite authors as well as series I love. My ereader allows me to discover new books, to download books I know I won't read again and the ability to carry around my own personal library.

So if you own an ereader, that does not mean you're giving up on real books. It just means that you are taking reading to a new level.

Monday Reads: a review, kobo and a new book

11th Hour by James Patterson

Review: This weekend I finished James Patterson's 11th installment in the Women's Murder Club mystery books. I have read each and every one of this series and have been enjoying them. I can't say that after 11 books that they still have that "wow" factor. The formula is getting to be repetitive. I can usually guess within the first half of the book who the bad guy is. With mystery novels I like there to be some kind of twist that I was not expecting. The last few books in the series have been lacking that. Why do I keep reading them? I love the four main characters who make up the Women's Murder Club. I feel like they are close friends of mine and that I have grown with them. I have stopped reading the books for the mystery aspect and I now read them to get to spend more time with some of my favourite characters. If you have been following this series, I would pick this book up. If you have never read any of these books, start with the first and read a few. The first five books in the series were fantastic!

This weekend I also bought a kobo! I have had a Sony ereader for quite a while now but it's been dying on me. After sending it for repair, the battery still drains super fast. I have been searching for a new ereader for a while but wasn't desperate to get one since I often read on my iPad. The kobo was on sale this weekend for $89 so I HAD to pick one up. I read one book and started another on my new ereader and am loving it. A bonus? It has wifi so I can download books on the go. And also, my eyes are not straining after a few hours of reading. Loving it!

The book pictured on my kobo is the one I just started yesterday. So far I am really enjoying it and ended up staying up til 1am reading it. Of course anything set in NYC will attract my attention. The fact that it's short love stories about people who met and fell in love in NYC is what sold me on this book!

Heart of the City by Ariel Sabar

Synopsis: The handsome Texas sailor who offers dinner to a runaway in Central Park. The Midwestern college girl who stops a cop in Times Square for restaurant advice. The Brooklyn man on a midnight subway who helps a weary tourist find her way to Chinatown. The Columbia University graduate student who encounters an unexpected object of beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A public place in the world's greatest city. A chance meeting of strangers. A marriage. Heart of the City tells the remarkable true stories of nine ordinary couples--from the 1940s to the present--whose matchmaker was the City of New York. Intrigued by the romance of his own parents, who met in Washington Square Park, award-winning author Ariel Sabar set off on a far-ranging search for other couples who married after first meeting in one of New York City's iconic public spaces. Sabar conjures their big-city love stories in novel-like detail, drawing us into the hearts of strangers just as their lives are about to change forever. In setting the stage for these surprising, funny and moving tales, Sabar, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, offers a fascinating look at the role of place in how--and whether--people meet and fall in love. Heart of the City is a paean to the physical city as matchmaker, a tribute to the power of chance, and an eloquent reminder of why we must care about the design of urban spaces.

Monday Reads: Awesome

I tend to read fiction rather than non-fiction. There is just something magical about getting lost in a made up world with made up characters. But once in a while I will pick up a non-fiction book. It may be something funny, a self-help book, or an educational book. Often times I will read this non-fiction book at the same time as I am reading my fiction books. Yesterday I needed a bit of a pick me up so I opened up The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, which has been sitting on my shelf for months and months and started reading it. I am really enjoying this book and am finding that I am often saying "I love that too" out loud. Thankfully I am reading it alone in my apartment where no one can laugh at the fact that I am talking to myself.

Monday Reads: A girly read

One of my favourite authors is Jill Mansell. Ever since I picked up one of her books a few years ago, I have been collecting all her books. She writes witty and funny girly reads that are never predictable and can always make me smile. She has 23 books in total and I have been trying very hard to not read them all...trying to save them. I know it's kind of silly but they are so great that I want to savour them for as long as possible! This week I am reading one of her earlier books.

Synopsis: Bestselling novelist Orla Hart owes her life to her friend Millie
Brady, whose rotten boyfriend has just left her. So Orla invites Millie
to Cornwall, where Millie looks forward to a summer without any dating
whatsoever. But Orla envisions Millie as the heroine of her next novel
and decides to find Millie the man of her dreams. Except the two women
have drastically different ideas about what kind of guy that should be.
With
Orla and Millie working at cross-purposes, and a dashing but bewildered
hero stuck in the middle, the summer will turn out to be unforgettable
for all concerned...

Monday Reads: Jessica Rules the Dark Side

This week I am reading the sequel to Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to read in the last week because I've been traveling so it has been taking me a while to get through this book. I am not enjoying it as much as the first book but I am only half way through so that may change.

Synopsis: It’s one thing to find out you’re a vampire princess. It’s a whole other thing to actually rule. Newly married Jessica Packwood is having a hard enough time feeling regal with her husband, Lucius, at her side. But when evidence in the murder of a powerful elder points to Lucius, sending him into solitary confinement, Jessica is suddenly on her own. Determined to clear her husband’s name, Jessica launches into a full-scale investigation, but hallucinations and nightmares of betrayal keep getting in her way. Jessica knows that with no blood to drink, Lucius’s time is running out. Can she figure out who the real killer is—and whom she can trust—before it’s too late?

Monday Reads: A little girliness

This week I'm finishing up Struck by Rhonda Stapleton. This is a 3-in-1 book and I am almost done the last one. Each of the books (Stupid Cupid, Flirting with Disaster and Pucker Up) are fun quick reads. Perfect for a quiet evening in.

Synopsis: Felicity Walker believes in true love. That's why she applies for a gig at the matchmaking company Cupid's Hollow. But when Felicity gets the job, she learns that she isn't just a matchmaker...she's a cupid! (There's more than one of them, you know.)

Armed with a hot pink, tricked-out PDA infused with the latest in cupid magic (love arrows shot through email), Felicity works to meet her quota of successful matches. But the path to love is not always a straight shot...




I also read Jackson Pearce's new short story Turn Here. So much fun! I loved it. It left me smiling. You can download this story from Amazon for $0.99.

Monday Reads: Book Two in the Mortal Instruments Series

This week I am reading City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare. This is the second book in the Mortal Instruments series. I am about half way and am having mixed feelings about this book. Not sure what I think of the whole brother sister revelation and relationship.





Synopsis: Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go—especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil—and also her father.
To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings—and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

Monday Reads: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Here's what I am reading this week.

Synopsis: The undead can really screw up your senior year . . .

Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction

Monday Reads: The Complex

I discovered this author through Twitter (my new obsession) and had to download her book. This is what I am reading this week. Super excited to finish it. Look for a review soon.





The Complex by Cathy E. Zaragoza

Synopsis: Helena Linx is dying. Isolated and quarantined for over a decade, sixteen-year-old Helena lives in a virtual utopia run by a council of doctors bent on saving the world from a fatal and almost incurable disease. The pandemic has been contained, but she and hundreds of others are still waiting to be cured. Helena dreams of returning to the outside world and leaving behind the heavily regulated world of the Eyam Complex, a place where everything runs according to plan…until one fateful morning.

Things begin to change in the complex. And after everything dear to Helena—her father, her brother, and her boyfriend— is taken away, she finally gets what she wants.

But life on the outside isn’t what Helena expected. Never in her wildest dreams did Helena think that she’d leave Eyam only to become so desperate to get back in.

Monday Reads: a review + a new book

Review: Sophie Kinsella's I've Got Your Number

I finished this book a few days ago. So so so good!! I haven't read a good girly book in a while. This one was great because it often made me laugh out loud. I'm not a big fan of sappy romance books and I like my girly books to be funny and quirky (à la Bridget Jones). This definitely makes its way into my top ten funny girly books. Definitely pick this one up of you're looking for a fun and quick read. I am hoping to read Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret soon.




City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

This is the book I am currently reading. It seems as though I am one f the last people to start this series. I found that it started off slowly but I a, about had way through and the story is getting quite interesting. I am looking forward to finishing it up and reading the others in the series.

Synopsis: When 15-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder - much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing, not even a smear of blood, to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within 24 hours, Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears, and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary "mundanes" like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know.

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride they will never want to end.

Monday Reads: A Girly Book

A book that is not YA (shocking, I know). I was in the mood for something fun and girly. I saw this book at Chapters last time I was there and found the storyline to be quite interesting. It sounds like a feel good, laugh out loud chick lit book. I am about a quarter way through and so far I'm really enjoying it!!



I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Synopsis: I’ve lost it. :( The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive :) !!

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

Monday Reads: Sweetly

A few days ago I finished reading Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. I loved everything about that book. It was well written, had great characters and best of all, it was a great retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

This week I'm reading:




Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

Synopsis: As a child, Gretchen's twin sister was taken by a witch in the woods. Ever since, Gretchen and her brother, Ansel, have felt the long branches of the witch's forest threatening to make them disappear, too.

Years later, when their stepmother casts Gretchen and Ansel out, they find themselves in sleepy Live Oak, South Carolina. They're invited to stay with Sophia Kelly, a beautiful candy maker who molds sugary magic: coveted treats that create confidence, bravery, and passion.

Life seems idyllic and Gretchen and Ansel gradually forget their haunted past-- until Gretchen meets handsome local outcast Samuel. He tells her the witch isn't gone-- it's lurking in the forest, preying on girls every year after Live Oak's infamous chocolate festival, and looking to make Gretchen it's next victim. Gretchen is determined to stop running and start fighting back. Yet the further she investigates the mystery of what the witch is and how it chooses its victims, the more she wonders who the real monster is.

Gretchen is certain of only one thing: a monster is coming, and it will never go away hungry.

Monday Reads: Crossed (the review)

I mentioned Crossed by Ally Condie a couple of weeks ago in my Monday Reads post. Now here is the review. This book was just ok for me. I have to say that I enjoyed the first one a little more than this sequel. Something about this book reminds me of The Hunger Games. And because I absolutely adore The Hunger Games, anything that comes close to its story has to be done really well. Although I found the character development to be great in this book, I found the plot to be lacking. Every time I thought something exciting was going to happen or that there was going to be some big twist or reveal, I was let down. It took me a while to get through this book. I am really hoping that the third book delves deeper into the revolution that is mentioned in this book. I am hoping for a faster paced more action packed book to end the series. One thing about this book that I found confusing was the alternating characters telling the story. Although we do find out a lot of me information about our main characters, their voices are not distinct and I always found myself flipping back to the beginning of the chapter to see who is telling the story. I mention this because I am now reading Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce and she has alternating viewpoints in her book as well. The difference is that it is very easy to tell who is narrating just from the style of writing.

Look for a review on Sisters Red soon!

Monday Reads: Next on my list

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

I am super excited for this next read. I have had this on my shelf for a while but am only getting to it now. I love fairy tale retellings!

Synopsis: For Scarlett and Rosie March, the world is not what it seems. Werewolves, called Fenris, live among them in the form of good-looking men who prey on pretty young girls. When a Fenris attacked the March girls, it killed their grandmother and left them emotionally and, for Scarlett, physically scarred. Since then, they have taken action and revenge. With the help of a friend, Silas, the girls are on a mission—to destroy as many Fenris as they can. This goal becomes more complicated when they try to unravel the mystery behind the pack and prevent the next "Potential" from transforming fully into a soulless, evil monster.

Monday Reads: Crossed

In January I managed to read 7 books. It's already February 6th and I have yet to finish a single book. I am slowing down, and it's not good.

This is what I'm reading this week:

Crossed by Ally Condie

This is the sequel to Matched, which I was reading last week.

Synopsis: In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.