Farrow's new books for a new year!

Oh how I love to read a debut book by a new author competent author. Tahereh Mafi does not disappoint in her first novel. I was blown away by her characters and the interesting mix of environmental damage and the supernatural that comes into play. I would highly recommend this book to ANYONE! Warner The villan reminds me of Draco Malfoy, if he was totally evil and was more like Volde. I'm a little in love with wary of Adam, but we'll see what happens. Anyway, enjoy Juliette and her tale and be ready to be Shattered!





Bob Curran really gave me the willies with his new book "The World's Creepiest Places." It is a collection of ghost stories from around the world, including my favorite haunt, Waverly Hills Sanitorium.  Their were also stories from Ireland, Scotland, and more from the U.S. Most of these stories I had read before, but I did get more history from this book than I have in previous. If you love getting the heebee jeebees just by reading a book, then this one's for you.The illustrations are a little hokie, especially the one for the crazy old lady at Waverly Hills and there are a number of typos, but you can't pass up a good ghost story. Well, maybe you can if you don't like them, but I do. Onto the next....

I wasn't sure what to make of "Sign Language" until I read the cover flap and I knew it was going to make me weep. Any story that deals with kids, cancer, and death can't be good right? Well, this one was, even though it was extremely sad. I wrapped up in my snuggie and read the story of Abby losing her dad to cancer and watched as a family denied his disease to the end and by the time I finished, my snuggie was soaked with tears.The eight ball will make since when you read the book, so will the blue nail polish. I'd love to know what you think! Last one coming up!




"American Apocalypse" wow, is almost all I have to say. Endicote said, 'I put you on hold for this book.' and my first thought was 'ok?' But I have to admit, I have a love/hate relationship with apocalyptic literature. I love the stories, but hate the fact that we might come to that one day. My co-workers have voted that I will not survive any apocalypse because I wouldn't eat things like squirrel and raccoon. Bleak! Anyway, Nova's story is quite fascinating in that the "Crash" has occurred, but there are still people doing really well, they have houses, cars, money, and jobs, while most of the population has become homeless and desperate. I love that the hero is a man who does good by doing bad things for the betterment of the people he doesn't know around him. He goes by The Gardener and if you want to know more, than you'll have to read it for yourself. I picked it right up and ran with it. Hope you enjoy the end of the Gardener's world!

First week of the year, and eclectic mix

Bluefish was a heartwarming (non-paranormal or dystopian) story about a 13 year old boy, Travis, who has just moved to a new school. He's made it through his whole life by 'passing' but he can't pretend anymore. You see, Travis has a secret. He can't read. It takes an astute reading teacher and a strange girl named Velveeta to convince him that he can learn. Velveeta has secrets of her own though, and though they don't realize it, Travis is helping Velveeta by letting her help him. This was a sweet story and a very quick read. I finished it in one night. Throughout the book Velveeta is reading The Book Thief which made me want to pick that one up. But I guess I'll wait until we read it for FYA.


Turns out Michael Crichton is still writing from the grave. First, Pirate Latitudes and now, Micro. From what I read, this manuscript was nearly finished at the time of his death. The book begins with a group of grad students traveling to Hawaii to visit a company that has been working with micro-biotics. The students are experts in fields such as spiders, plant pheromones, insect toxins, beetles, etc. Turns out that this company has developed technology capable of shrinking not only robots but humans as well. The students find out things they're not supposed to and end up being shrunk to a height of 1/2 inch and released in the Hawaiian wilderness. The students' trek through the jungle reminded me of Jurassic Park. From the view of the students, ants are as big as their forearms, centipedes are larger than horses, and some spiders are as big as a house! I wouldn't recommend reading this while eating though. I'm not a fan of bugs anyway and some of the descriptions in this book were pretty gross.


I'm not going to say much about this book because I don't want to give anything away. It's set in the possible near future where food is scarce, the weather has gone crazy because of the deteriorating atmosphere, animals are few, and traditional government has collapsed and been replaced by the Reestablishment. Juliette is an outcast, and for good reason. One touch from her skin can kill. This is Tahereh Mafi's first book and both Farrow and I were impressed by her ability and style. I loved, loved, LOVED the ending and I'm excited that this one is going to be a trilogy.



I just happened to catch this one as it came out a few days ago and was intrigued by the concept. The 'book' is set up as a scrapbook and every page consists of only a few sentences of text surrounded by vintage 1920s memorabilia. The picture on the right is an example of what the pages look like. I finished this in an hour or two and the story was obviously not very complex, but I enjoyed every page.

First book of the new year!

The first book of 2012. I am about 100 pages in and we are still in the build up the story stage. The story is good so far and I am hoping that it gets better. Only problem I have with it is the jumping from one character's POV to another, it wouldn't be too bad except it looks like there is a full cast. It makes keeping track of the action fun...^___^