Showcase Sunday #8

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea! 

This is where each Sunday, we can "showcase" what we've gotten in the way of books; 

in the mail, at the bookstore, the library, or as a gift!

Ok, this should be my last Showcase Sunday featuring "books bought" because I need to enforce a severely strict BOOK BUYING BAN for the next few months. I have bought TOO many books in the past few months and I haven't gotten through ANY of them. I definitely don't have book buyers remorse (LOL, like that exists!), but I guess what I'm feeling is pressure to read the books I already have. It sounds weird, but I love the thrill of a the chase... in the book buying world. When a book has a release date, I count down the days and hours until I can buy it and then once I have it, I move on to the next soon-to-be released book. There really should be medical coverage for book therapy. I'll bet even authors would back this up. 

Without further ado... 

Review: Pure - Julianna Baggott

Pure by Julianna Baggott (Link to Goodreads)
Released: February 8th, 2012
Bought the hardcover after keeping library copy overdue for weeks!

Description on Goodreads:


We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.


Originally, I had borrowed this book from the library, but it sat on my bed side table for 2 months. Overdue fees got higher and higher, and I finally had to relinquish the book back. I then decided to just buy the darn thing, but it then too sat on my bookshelf for months. I finally picked it back up yesterday and FINISHED IT. One of the things I don't want anyone to think is that since it took me so long to finish is that it was hard to get through. Yes, it was hard to get through, but because it has so much going for it.


Onto the review!

Finally!

I FINISHED PURE!

It only took me about a million years, but I finally finished it last night and now I'm bummed because Fuse (book 2) by Julianna Baggott doesn't come out until the middle of February 2013! The book has definitely given me plenty to think about for the next book in the series. I've got lots of questions and I can't wait to see how they will be answered in Fuse.

My review for Pure by Julianna Baggott will be up soon, as well as my review for The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, which I also finished yesterday.

I was in such a slump that getting more than a few pages through any book was just too much for me. I wish I could say  it was because I was distracted with work or hobbies, but I think it was just a long span of time when I needed visual stimulation from movies/television versus the more intellectual stimulation you get from reading. It's not to say I haven't kept up with buying a few new releases that I HAD TO HAVE, but they were gathering dust on my bookshelf. I'm happy to say, I'm back in the game!

Next on my reading list is Eve by Anna Carey, which I had previously started, as well as my ARC of Splintered by A.G. Howard, which was given to me by my fabulous local indie bookseller Cindy, owner of Island Bound bookstore.

Now all I have to work on is my Showcase Sunday... for the past 2 months!

Happy Reading!

(All links for book titles to Goodreads)

You have the right to remain awesome!

How do you do it? You blog a few times a week, you read a few books a week, and you do it without fail. Blogging is a lot of work! It's practically a part time job. For some, it's a full time job. To which I applaud you. I have not acquired that type of multitasking that you have achieved so elegantly. I am still learning how much work goes into blogging, and the first thing that I need to get back into is reading regularly. At the end of the day, I have to choose between reading a few chapters or falling asleep. The sandman usually wins. But I think a schedule needs to be brought fourth for my reading. Although it's also hard when I'm not in the mood. I can read for hours on end, and some weeks, I can't sit still!

I have about 6 books I've started to read and have yet to finish. I honestly think there's a screw loose in my head that make it impossible lately to finish what I've started. Even typing this blog post up at work is difficult, the phone keeps ringing!

The books I am currently reading are as follows:

Pure by Julianna Baggott
Eve by Anna Carey
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (I caved...)
The Breakaway by Michelle Davidson Argyle (Thanks YA-Aholic!)
Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby

Essentially, I'd like to finish even one of these books by the end of August to have a review up. I still visit blogger to see what everyone else is up to, at least every other day. It's actually comical to me how I've been taking so long to read the books I've gotten that the sequels are either out in stores or are about to be published within the next few months. That's one of the upsides to taking so long to finish a book, once I eventually do, the sequel is already out! (Case in point: Eve/Once).

Happy Reading wherever you are!

Oh, the days.

I feel terrible. I have not posted anything in at least a month. I have been so busy with work - working full time and part time and sleeping has really come in the way of my blogging. I've still allowed myself to check out what other's have been posting, but my creative juices have been lacking lately.

I am about 75 pages from finishing Pure by Julianna Baggott (which I am LOVING), and I am going to start Eve by Anna Carey next. I was in a huge non-reading slump this past month, and a random event got me back into reading, which I was very happy about. It's really hard not to buy all these fabulous new books coming out lately, but I'm doing okay. I've only recently bought This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers, and a couple of romance novels (le sigh), so I shall be working on getting the huge stacks of books I have on my bookshelf very soon! (I hope!)

Review for Pure to come very soon, or as soon as my job allows me some free time. :)

Happy Reading!

Showcase Sunday #3

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea!

Books, Biscuits, and Tea just started this meme a few weeks ago, and I'm very excited to be participating!

I didn't have anything to showcase last week because I was super busy with work and by the time I got home, I usually fell right asleep! But over the past two weeks, I have gotten books... even though I'm technically on a book buying ban. :(

I bought Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I was trying to find a signed copy, but none of the places she was touring was very helpful in finding out how to get one. Then, a week after I got Insurgent from my local bookstore, Barnes and Noble in NY called saying they saved me a signed copy. I was like, really? You told me you didn't have one. It wasn't inscribed, but it was going to cost $3+ to ship, and I didn't think it was worth it to have two copies, even if one was signed. It's not that I wouldn't love a signed copy, but it's not the end of the world. I'm sure they'll have them eventually at V. Roth's local bookstore. My copy of Divergent isn't signed, so it would throw off the collection, anyways! haha

I also bought Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi from Bookperks.com. They were selling signed copies with 20% off, and shipping was only $.91, so the book came out to $13.91, which I consider a bargain, so I bought it! It shipped really quickly, and I got it about 4 days after I ordered it. I love how she signs every book with "Be extraordinary" with her name. It's a good book catchphrase for the story!

I hate saying I've been too busy to read, but it's true! That's why I haven't posted any reviews or been on here lately. Memorial Day Weekend was our big first weekend out here where I live, and we had a lot of preparation and anticipation. For the past 3 days, I've worked 8:30am - 10pm, so the end of the day usually means bed time. I'm hoping to get back into Pure by Julianna Baggott soon enough. I literally bring it everywhere with me so that if I get a spare minute, I can read it, but that hasn't happened!

Happy Reading!

Review: The Stalker Chronicles - Carley Moore

The Stalker Chronicles by Carley Moore (Link to Goodreads)
Released: March 27, 2012
Won on Goodreads First Reads

Description from Goodreads:

Sophomore Cammie Bliss has long been labeled a stalker by her peers, but when a cute new boy named Toby arrives at her small town high school, Cammie has a chance to be "normal." Trouble is, she can't really help herself and she's up to her old tricks of "intense observation and following" pretty quick. Making things worse, her younger brother is dating one of the most popular girls in the school, her parents have separated, and her dad has begun to watch their house most nights. Cammie has simply got to figure out why she behaves the way she does, and end it once and for all.

Find out if Cammie is successful in Carley Moore's hilrious and poignant The Stalker Chronicles.

HOKAY - I won this book on Goodreads First Reads, and I thought the premise of a girl dealing with being a stalker in high school was fabulous. She not only puts herself into dangerous and embarrassing situations, she is also dealing with family issues at the same time.

Onto the review!

Review: Glimmer - Phoebe Kitanidis

Glimmer by Phoebe Kitanidis (Link to Goodreads)

Released: April 17th, 2012

Bought from Island Bound bookstore on Block Island, RI

Description from Goodreads:

What if you forgot your identity and had to rely on other people to tell you who you were?

And what if to discover your true self, you first had to unravel a mystery so big and terrifying you were not sure you’d survive solving it?

When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship...but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

HOKAY – I had been pinning over this book because the title really drew me in. I admit, it was because of the character from District 1, Glimmer, in The Hunger Games that initially drew me to look into this book. I figured this book would be about two kids losing their memory and maybe some weird scientist was behind it all. BOY, WAS I WRONG. It was completely different than I expected! I was reading this before bed last night, and I decided to put it down for a little break, and I was torn between continuing and putting it off until the next day. But one of the things I notice is that when I get into a reading mood, if I take a break and wait until the next day, I may not have as much enthusiasm to finish the story, especially if it was dragging a little.

Onto the review!