Set in a future where the world has flooded and the only dry land available is what used to be hills. Two young boys are chosen to join a salvage crew on their island base. They are chosen by what they could offer the Salvagers in exchange for work and food. Sending their sons to work with the salvage crew is really the only option for many people as they can’t find/afford enough food to feed themselves, let alone their children. On the island the boys find that that being part of the island crew in not what they were all lead to believe. The boys live off one can of food a day (and you have to fight for the best food) and work everyday doing jobs that teams of adults used to do. Then on Sundays they have to listen to the leader of the crew (a man who calls himself the preacher) as he talks of the way to salvation being sacrifice. When the boys start to realize that things could be better is when things start going all wrong.

This is a book for boys who like drama and lighting their own natural gas on fire. It really isn’t my cup of tea and the ending was something I had expected. I think it was a good story idea, but that it was written as a way to try to entice young teen boys to read it but didn’t quite get there.

A plane lands and there is no pilot. There are 36 babies on board. When all the babies are taken off the plane, it disappears. Now 15 years later Jonah, his sister Catherine, and Jonah’s friend Chip are involved in the mystery. Mysterious letters arrive at their homes and people appear and disappear out of thin air. Can they solve the mystery of where they come from and what they were doing on the plane? Or will they too disappear? Find out in “Found” by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

I listened to the audio version of this book and really enjoyed it. The mystery wasn’t too hard to figure out in certain things, but I really hadn’t expected what happens at the end. Bring on Book 2!

From the authors of Thirteen Reasons Why & The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things comes a new novel set in 1996.

Josh & Emma have been life long best friends, but when Josh shows more then friendship their relationship changes. Emma doesn’t like him like that. “He’s Josh” and can never be boyfriend material to her. When her dad sends her a computer Josh’s mom sends him over with an AOL disc they got in the mail for her to use.  When Emma logs on for the first time ever she is logged into FACEBOOK. Not understanding what Facebook is she looks around at it and thinks Josh is playing a practical joke on her. According to Facebook she is married to a jerk and has a horrible life. When Josh comes to see they soon discover that they are looking 15 years into their futures.

This book was set in a time when I was a Freshmen in High School, but looking 15 years into the future at 2011. I wish I had this opportunity to change my future. It shows that our choices today may affect our future in ways that we ourselves don’t understand.  If you are looking for a good book then try The Future of Us. I predicted the ending at the very beginning of the book, but the getting there was fun to read.

This is book 2! It is also in a prequel series to the City of Bones Trilogy. Several things that happen in the City of Bones series that you have questions about may be answered in this series.

The Basic gist of the story is about the Shadowhunters trying to find Mortmain, the Magister, and attempting to save Charlotte’s job as head of the institute. Tessa is in a strange love triangle with Will & Jem and Will finds out something really important that changes everything in his life, while Tessa makes a major life decision even after finding out something about her parents. There are suspenseful moments, romantic moments, and comedic moments in this book. But it is a sequel… and sequels as we all know very seldom compare to their first book. Don’t get me wrong I still liked the book and the series, but when compared to book one this one took me much longer to read.

D.J Schwenk’s life has always been cows, farming, sports & no money to help improve the farm. When she took up football over the summer things finally started going right for her. D.J. is good at football, just like her two older brothers. Over the summer she secretly trained the rival teams QB Brian Nelson and now things are finally stating to go right between them. She even thinks there may be something more then friendship between them. When People Magazine comes to do an article on her about her playing on the boys football team as linebacker she thought they were turkey farmers and told them a bit too much about her life over the summer. The season starts to go all wrong shortly after she defended a gay kid at school and had to sit out the big game on the bench. But sitting on the bench is the least of her problems.

This sequel is actually really powerful. I listened to the audio of this book and didn’t have high expectations for it but was happily surprised. This is one sequel that compares to the first book. I actually think this one had more depth and meaning behind it then the first. It’s not only a story about a girl playing a boys game, or even a romance between rivals, but a much deeper story about family and everything that we do for them.

D.J. is a cow. Or at least that what she thinks after Brian Nelson, the QB of Holly’s football team, teases her that she will probably even go off to die like a cow following every order without complaint. D.J. has been taking care of all the farm work since her two older brothers went off to college and her dad skipped getting the surgery done to fix his hip. If she hadn’t stepped in to do the hard work then they surly would have lost the farm. But her stepping in has had some pretty big consequences. She failed Sophomore English because she couldn’t get the papers written and take care of the farm. She had to quit track and basketball, thus she lost any chance of being able to afford college by way of a scholarship. With the whole family not talking about what needs to be talked about D.J. has done the hard work because it had to be done and she was the likely choice over her younger brother and her mom, then Brian Nelson came into their lives. Holly’s football coach is like an Uncle to D.J. so when he asks her to train his QB, who only seems to blame everyone else for his mistakes, she really dosen’t want to because Brian is a jerk. After spending most of the summer with Brian and football D.J. decides to get back to high school life and her new passion for football by signing up to be on the boys team at her school in Red Bend (Holly’s Rival). But will she make the team? How will Brian react? Will her parents stop talking to her like they did to her brothers?

This book deals with far too much to put into a review without giving everything away. There is a jealous best friend, a very silent little brother, the dad is ashamed that he cooks instead of his wife, the mom is dealing with two jobs and hiding a pretty big secret, plus this is a bit of a romance as well as a coming of age.  I really enjoyed this even though the last time I was on a cow farm I was five.  I think even if you don’t know about farming you might like this book. it proves that girls can do anything that boys can do and sometimes they can do it better.

BOOK 2 !  Read  the first book called I AM NUMBER FOUR first.

Number four (or John as he is sometimes called)  is on the run with number Six, his friend Sam, and his chimera Bernie Kosar. They are wanted not only by the Mogadorians, but also by the FBI. Four is now considered a terrorist and must be found. Meanwhile in Spain number Seven, who goes by Marina, is living in a convent with her Cepan. Her legacies have started to develop, but her Cepan, Adelina, has acclimated to being a woman of God and wont begin her training. When Marina believes that the Mog’s have found them Adelina wont believe it. How can these numbers find one another when they are on different sides of the world? And more important will Sam, a human, be able to keep up with the numbers of the Garde?

Loved Book two. I have to say what I remember of book one comes mostly from the movie. I know I read the first book and I liked it. I know that I wrote a review for it and put it on this blog! And I know it was different in many ways from the movie, but after having seen the movie… that is what I remember from the first book. When I picked up this one I had forgotten that Four was fireproof not Six (unlike in the movie). That was the only thing that bugged me…those little differences between a book and movie that stand out when you continue reading a series.  Overall this was great! It didn’t go where I expected it to and that made it even more fun to read.

This is book 1 in the Trilogy!

It’s 1914 in an Alternative History! A global war is about to break out and there are two type of people in the world…Those that favor Darwin and his experiments that have let to fabricated beasts that can carry men into the sky and be used as  weapons of war, ships, balloons, voice activated messengers, and much much more. Then there are those that favor Machines. Huge 6-8 legged machines that are maneuvered by pilots and run off engines.

When the prince of Austria is murdered along with his wife, their son must go into hiding. Running for his life with two of his teachers and two men loyal to his father in a four legged walker the boy realizes just how much he can give away about himself without meaning to .Meanwhile in England a young girl has disguised herself as a boy so she can be an airman in the army. When on her first day as a cadet she is set loose attached to a beast that is meant to be tied down. On her runaway beast she is picked up by the Leviathan, an airship like no other. She soon take on a role for the Leviathan and becomes one of the best midshipman they have. When the two find each other all kinds of craziness breaks loose.

This was the great start to a story! I love how Scott Westerfeld can craft a story so that by the time you finish book one you have to read book two right away to know what happens next. This alternative history is really fantastic. Very Steam-punk with the machines vs. beasts and the Boffins! He uses a lot of British language in the book, but after a while it becomes second nature to understand what the characters are saying. I can’t wait for book 2!

Possessions, Volume 3

Ghost, spirits and possessed objects have been collected for many years by an old woman and her butler. Gurgazon is the newest addition to the collection and this pit demon is fed up with being trapped and has devised a plan of escape, but first Gurgazon must call in a favor. There is just one person who can stand in the ghosts way. But can the butler be outwitted and can the ghosts defeat his traps to make it out of their prison of mockery?

I love this series! I met the author at C2E2 (a convention in Chicago) and honestly didn’t know about his books, but when I read the first two books after buying them for myself, I had to buy them for the Main Library as well. I was lucky enough to get a digital copy of book 3 from NetGalley so I can review it for you before it comes out. This Graphic Novel is short always fun. This third volume is just as good as the first two and should defiantly be picked up by anyone who likes graphic novels and a good ghost story.

For those who don’t know the series, this is book 4.

Low down on book 1 (sorry if I spell some names wrong): Eragon grows up on a farm with his cousin and uncle and finds an egg in the woods which hatches into a dragon. Eragon becomes a dragon rider with the help of Brom who was a dragon rider, but his dragon was killed. Galbatrox the evil king of the land is a dragon rider, but he has a twisted mind and wants to find & kill both Eragon and his dragon. Eragon makes a deal with elves and dwarfs to work with both as well as a group of people known as the Varden to kill Galbatrox.

When I read Eragon I loved the book. When I read Eldest I couldn’t remember what had happened in Eragon until I was about half way into Eldest. When I read Brisingr I had no clue what had happened in Eldest, but I had watched the Eragon movie and remembered bits of it where different in the book, but didn’t think the differences mattered much. Now with Inheritance I’ve forgotten Brisingr, but remember Eldest. What is it with this series that its so hard to recall those that came before? I will admit that my interest in these books has waned as time has gone on waiting for it to end. I actually only read the first few pages of Inheritance and then skipped to page 700. Paolini has always written in far too much detail for me. I don’t know if its because I grew up reading books that were no more then 200 pages but these are just too long. Then the end of the story had to drag on forever. I know its supposed to be an epic tale like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, but this just made me upset. Maybe I’m not meant for epics, but that can’t be true because I haven’t given up on Game of Thrones yet. Did anyone love this book/series? I know I started off loving it but I kinda feel the opposite now.