Waiting on Wednesday: Across the Universe

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My choice for the week:



Across the Universe
by
Beth Revis

Miss Revis is a local (NC) author. Which I discovered AFTER I missed the opportunity to meet her. Le sigh. On to her book:

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awake on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into a brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

(Blurb from author website, where you can see a trailer!)

I haven't read much science fiction in recent years, but this may be just the ticket to get me back into the genre. ^_^

Love the cover!

Release Date: January 11, 2011

In My Mailbox VII

In My Mailbox is a weekly book-sharing meme hosted at The Story Siren. Each week, you talk about books received the previous week, not necessarily in the mail. Posts can include library books, borrowed books, as well as purchased books. (Book titles link to Goodreads.)

It's been quite a while since I've done one of these. I'm not going to attempt to list everything I've checked out from the library in the meantime (though you can find the full list here). I'll just list library books and such for this week (and last week EDIT: and the week before that - see below).

Due to technical difficulties (read: computer acted up and I decided to just shut it down and let it rest instead of dealing with whatever had gone wrong), I am posting this nearly a week after I started work on it. (Dang stupid computers!) Additions/changes for this week are marked by "EDIT". ^_^

Received Books:

I Quit! by Geri and Peter Scazzero - Review copy from Zondervan.

Ghost of a Chance (ARC) by Simon R. Green - Won this in a contest over at Fiction State of Mind.

Library Books:

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - Wanted to read this for Banned Books Week last week, but the copy at my local library is checked out and the one at the other nearby library is missing. So I had to request it. I got the notice on Monday, and went to the library on Tuesday.

The Dead-Tossed Waves (Forest of Hands and Teeth, #2) by Carrie Ryan - Just finished The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and was returning it to the library when I went to pick up Slaughterhouse Five. Saw this on the shelf and grabbed it. ^_^

The King's Rose by Alisa M. Libby - A YA novel about one of the wives of Henry VIII? Awesome. ^_^

City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2) by Cassandra Clare - I had City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) checked out already - it's due back this coming Monday - so I grabbed this one to read after I finish the first one. EDIT: Finished City of Bones and returned it to the library. While I was there, I checked out three more books:

City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3) by Cassandra Clare - Since I read City of Bones in 2 days, I thought I should probably go ahead and check out the third book in the series. ^_^

Inkspell (Inkheart, #2) by Cornelia Funke - I've been wanting to read this since I finished Inkheart over the summer. Finally checked it out. My husband just read it, and is considering reviewing it, so I may have my first ever guest review coming soon!

Inkdeath (Inkheart, #3) by Cornelia Funke - Technically my husband checked this one out, but I'll be reading it too.

Purchased Books:

Saturday, I went to the mall where I used to work. There was a small discount book store open at center court. It was their last day, so they were running a special: $10 for a paper grocery bag full of books. I only wish I'd had more time to look at all the books. All are trade paperback unless specified otherwise. ^_^

Peanuts Guide to Life by Charles M. Schulz - small gift book, dust jacket missing - My husband picked out this one. Not that I mind; I love Peanuts!

Fractured by Karin Slaughter - hardback, dust jacket missing

College Girl by Patricia Weitz

Lovers and Ladies by Jo Beverley

The Dragon's Village by Yuan-Tsung Chen

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton - hardback, dust jacket missing

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin - Did not realize this was #3 in a series...

Thief of Light by Denise Rossetti

The Lurker at the Threshold by H.P. Lovecraft - this is a birthday present for a friend who sometimes reads this blog. Title will be posted *after* I give him the book. EDIT: Added title. I gave him the book Saturday.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler

Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper

The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire edited by Trisha Talep - I was super excited to find this one! I nearly shrieked... ^_^

PS, I Love You by Cecelia Ahern - massmarket paperback

Soft Focus by Jayne Ann Krentz

The Eleventh Victim by Nancy Grace - We couldn't keep this in stock at Waldenbooks when it first came out.

Mean Streets by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, and Thomas E. Sniegoski - Another one that almost made me squeal.

Montana Sky by Nora Roberts - Um, it's Nora Roberts. Of course I grabbed it!

True Betrayals by Nora Roberts - see above

Acupuncture Without Needles by J. V. Cerney - My husband picked out this one too. Interesting concept. Poorly written, though, according to the hubs.

Darkborn by Alison Sinclair - I kept seeing this one at Waldenbooks. I would pick it up, read the back, and replace it on the shelf. I nearly bought it multiple times, but never did. So I HAD to grab it! ^_^

In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D'Amato - This is another one I looked at over and over while I was at Waldenbooks. 2012 and Mayan prophecy? Yes, please!

Rescue Ink by Rescue Ink with Denise Flaim - Most. Awesome. Biker. Gang. EVER. ^_^

Went to Books-A-Million last night (only because it's next door to CiCi's Pizza where we had supper with friends) and they were having a sidewalk sale. So I had to look at the $1 books. When I found 2 on that rack, I decided NOT to look at the $2 or the two $3 racks...

Stealing Athena by Karen Essex

The Spy Who Came for Christmas by David Morrell

Review: SPEAK

Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson

Release Date:
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Rating: 10/10
Source: Own
Buy the Book: Borders ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books-A-Million
Content Warning: Foul Language (very little)

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

Blurb from author website.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is nothing less than an emotional punch to the gut.

My only complaint is the length: less than two hundred pages. Then again, any longer would be more of an emotional gut punch than I can handle.

Okay, in order to properly discuss this book, I'm going to break my own rule of no spoilers. I WILL NOT spoil the ending, however.

The story begins as Melinda starts her freshman year of high school. Now outcast for calling the cops about a party, she floats silent and almost friendless. Only the new girl will speak to her.

Hints are given as to some terrible occurrence at the party - the reason she called the cops. Not until over half-way through the book do we find out what happened.

She was raped.

Hurt and confused, she stayed silent afterwards. Not until a (former) friend of hers started dating the rapist did she tell anyone. And then the girl didn't believe her, accusing her of jealousy.

I don't want to spoil any more of the book, so I'll just say this: Melinda's story ends in a much better place than where it began.

One of the scenes near the end made me want to get up and do a victory dance. (For the sake of my husband sleeping next to me, and the dog[s] sleeping at the foot of my bed, I stayed put.) It did put a huge smile on my face, where I had been crying mere minutes earlier.

This book should be required reading for everyone, most especially teens.

Its message needs to be heard.

Do not stay silent when something bad happens. Speak.

SPLASH TEAM Powers Activate!

First off, my apologies for spacing out and not posting this yesterday like I was supposed to. *headdesk*

Presenting:

Fins Are Forever
Tera Lynn Childs
June 28, 2011


Gorgeous cover. Don't you just love it?

Guess what? There's also a countdown widget! (It should display below.)

SPEAKing Out Against Censorship

(I'm a bit late on the uptake with this, but better late than never. ^_^

Besides, this is a good way to kick off Banned Books Week.)

September means the end of summer, with all the kiddies back in school.

Apparently, it's also the time for parents and concerned community members to take a hard look at what the kids are reading. Books not just on the lesson plans, but also in the school libraries.

See example 1 (and example 2 from last month, roughly an hour and a half away in the same state).

If you haven't read the articles linked above, do so now. At least read the first one as it inspired this post. I'll wait.



Now that you're back, let's take a closer look at two terms Mr. Scroggins seems a bit confused by: rape and pornography.

From dictionary.com:

rape:

1. the unlawful compelling of a woman through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.

2. any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.

pornography:

1. writings, pictures, films, etc, designed to stimulate sexual excitement

2. the production of such material

If rape is pornographic does that mean all violence is? The thought makes me shudder.

Worse than that, though, is this: the guy's a college professor. With a doctorate. Um, wow. Yeah. He sure doesn't sound educated or terribly informed, does he? Not what I expect from a professor. How about you?

Then there's his claim of it being his 'Christian duty' to protect young people from such filth.

Yeah.

There's protecting young people, then there's what he's trying to do. Just because someone wants to pretend all the bad stuff doesn't exist, doesn't mean it really doesn't exist.

Bad things happen. To everyone. It's a fact of life.

I understand not everything is appropriate for all age groups, but by the time kids reach high school, they already know bad stuff happens. They've heard cursing (Mr. Scroggins's complaint with Vonnegut's Slaughter-house Five), probably quite a lot. They know not everyone is an angel; good people do bad things. (Both of the aforementioned books and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, the third book Mr. Scroggins mentions.)

What I don't understand is why people think banning books is acceptable. If you don't like a book, fine. Don't read it. If you think a book is inappropriate for your child or teen, don't let them read it.

But DO NOT make that call for other people and their children. You do not have the right. No one does.

Not in the United States at least. The First Amendment of our Constitution protects our rights to both freedom of speech and freedom of the press:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

(From the National Archives website.)

Sounds like banning books is unconstitutional.

Maybe that has something to do with the impressive list of posts made about this topic this week.

Of course, it could just be that all these posts come from authors, readers, and my fellow book bloggers. Why wouldn't we be up in arms about this?