Currently Reading & Book Haul:

Happy Saturday!

I wanted to update you guys on what I'm currently reading. I'm reading three books right now. It's crazy I know. I have never read more than one book at a time before. I'm still trying to finish Panic before the month is over. I only have about 100 pages left in Cinder, and I'm almost 200 pages into The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Hugo is a very interesting book. It is made up of hand drawn pictures and prose. I will post some pictures of the artwork, but first let's admire the cover.

I love the cover. Not only is it beautiful, but it relates to the story. Hugo is a young boy who works on the clocks in a busy Paris train station. His father and him worked on all types of little trinkets. Until one day, his father discovered an extremely unique treasure that will consume his life. His father died unexpectedly, so now Hugo must continue on in his father's footsteps to figure out the mystery behind the treasure and his father's death.

Now time for the mini book haul. I recently placed an order from bookoutlet.com and Amazon. I was so surprised that I found all of these books for such a great deal. Without further a do, here are my new books : )

Click on any of the titles, and it will take you to the book's summary.

Born Of Illusion by Terri Brown

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Poison Princess by Kresley Cole
Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

I have two more orders coming from book outlet. I will post them as soon as I get them. So be on the lookout for that.

Until next time,
Bre

#Friday Reads + Library Haul

#Friday Reads is a book hashtag that was created on Twitter. The hashtag will bring up what people are reading for the weekend all over the world. I decided it would be cool to feature it on my blog.

So this weekend I am reading Panic by Lauren Oliver. I'm currently 130 pages in, but I'm just not super into it. I might start a book I got from the library.

The books from the library and their summaries from Goodreads:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life.No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes? Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything is a lyrical, witty, and heart-wrenching novel about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented.  Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave.  She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation. Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last—glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream, Mathis’s first novel heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

 

She calls herself Calexa Rose Dunhill—names taken from the grim surroundings where she awoke, bruised and bloody, with no memory of who she is, how she got there, or who left her for dead.She has made the cemetery her home, living in a crypt and avoiding human contact. But Calexa can’t hide from the dead—and because she can see spirits, they can’t hide from her.Then one night, Calexa spies a group of teenagers vandalizing a grave—and watches in horror as they commit murder. As the victim’s spirit rises from her body, it flows into Calexa, overwhelming her mind with visions and memories not her own.Now Calexa must make a decision: continue to hide to protect herself—or come forward to bring justice to the sad spirit who has reached out to her for help...

Happy Monday! I wanted to do a post about the read-alongs that are going on this month. They are being hosted by booktubers on YouTube, but they have also created goodreads pages.
The Panic read-along is hosted by Jesse, Kat, Christine,  Liz and Ariel. Each of their names is a link to their YouTube channel. Click HERE to go to the Goodreads page they created. They will do a live review on YouTube.

Panic by Lauren Oliver:
Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.
Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.
For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.-Goodreads

The Archived Read-along is also hosted by Jesse. The Goodreads page he created for the event isThe Archived. I'm really excited about this book because I have heard nothing but good things. I believe he will be hosting a live chat at the end of the month on his channel.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab:
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.- Goodreads

For each read-along the hosts have broken down the books into chapter sections. There are discussion boards on the Goodreads pages for each section. You can chat and discuss your feelings about the book before the live chat. These are my first read-alongs, so I'm super excited.
Until next time,
Bre

February Wrap-Up & March TBR

Today I decided that I would share my February Wrap Up and my March TBR, but before that I want to let you know my reading goals for 2014. So let's jump right in : )

Reading Goals for 2014:
- I have a Goodreads Challenge to read at least 40 books this year.
- Read at least 2 classics.
- Read at least 6 books over 400 pages
- Read at least 5 diverse authors
- Finish at least 3 series I have already started
-Read The Hobbit & The Harry Potter Series

February Wrap Up:
Read 3 books in February
Challenges:
Total Read in 2014: 6
Classics: 0
Books over 400 pages: 2
Diverse Authors: 1
Completed Series: 0

The first book I finished in February was:

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Published by Margaret K. McElderry

Released September 10th, 2013

Pages: 543

Goodreads Rating: 4.30 stars

My Rating: 3 stars 

Fulfilled one of my challenges: book over 400 pages

I read the first book, Burned, in January and really enjoyed it. It was my first Ellen Hopkins book. My hopes were just as high for this book, but it just went flat for me. I enjoyed Pattyn's perspective, but Jackie worked my nerves. 

The second book I finished in February was:

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Published by Feral Dream

Released May 21st, 2011

Pages: 283

Goodreads Rating: 4.25

My Rating: 5 stars

Fulfilled one of my reading challenges: Diverse Author

I loved this book. It was my first book about angels. I have read a few others that mention them, but this book was 100 percent angels. I fell in love with the characters. Raffe and Penryn were amazing. The playful banter between them and the non-stop action easily made this book the month favourite. 

The last book I read in February was:

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Published by HarperCollins Teen

Released April 24th, 2012

Pages: 327

Goodreads Rating: 4.13

My Rating: 4 stars

I already posted my review on this book ,so CLICK HERE to check it out : )

Now to my March TBR:

I have already completed one book this month. 

I will tell you my thoughts on it in my March Wrap-Up, but my rating is 3 stars.

I'm currently reading:

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong. -Goodreads

What else I'm planning on reading this month:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.
Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.
In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.- Goodreads

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.
For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most. -Goordreads

I don't want to plan out my reading too much, but I know there are read-alongs happening this month for both of these books. I will post a blog all about them this weekend. 

Until next time,

Bre