Me on This Week's Book Week (58)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

Happy early Canada Day. :) Not sure how around I'll be this weekend with the holiday coming up.

Summer is coming... next week, apparently. All the forecasts I've seen predict a heatwave to show up middle of next week. It'll be nice, because the rain is getting annoying, but it'll also be really really hot. I imagine we'll be hanging out in our cool basement during that time.

Google Reader ends on Monday, but you're welcome to keep following Me on Books in whichever new way you've discovered. I'll be over on Bloglovin, but there's other places like Feedly and the new (and possibly still testing, I think they're rushing to have everything working by Monday) Digg Reader. It's up to you. There's also the 'Subscribe by E-mail' option in the left-hand sidebar. :)

I posted pics of all the books I've got free to give away on Twitter and a bunch of people said they were interested. I so love how some people were local bloggers, saves me so much on shipping. The pics are still up on my Twitter page if anyone's interested, about 20 books have been claimed already. Keep in mind that depending on how many books you're interested in and where you live, you might have to chip in for shipping. No media mail in Canada so sending parcels is a bit pricey.

All other books that aren't sent off to new homes will be either given to charity, given to the nearby high school in the fall when school starts up, or dropped randomly by me around the Lower Mainland with big 'FREE BOOK' stickers on them. :)

Reviews going up this week will feature Way to Go by Tom Ryan (Tuesday) and Half Lives by Sara Grant (Friday). :)

Bought:
Ink by Amanda Sun (My finished copy arrived, the outside cover is all textured and fancy.)
Saga Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples (I really like this series, as brutal as it is. It's about family, and love, and living, and fighting for what you believe in, and surviving. I'm just concerned that it'll go on for years and the ending will be a long time in coming. Volume 2 comes out soon, the cover looks rather badass with Marko's face all covered in blood. I might be searching for the monthly comics when chapter 13 comes out in August.)

Me on When You Were Here

Title: When You Were Here
Author: Daisy Whitney
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

Danny's mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see. Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn't know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore. When he gets a letter from his mom's property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother's memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

When You Were Here is an emotional and moving tale of a young man's search into his mother's life. There is grief and loss and family, but also death and love, and how utterly confusing the two are.

Danny is a mix of messed up emotions. He's broken, depressed, listless, and with no sense of direction, no idea of what to do next. There is no emotion in him, apart from anger at the world, affection towards his dog, and confusion towards his sort of ex-girlfriend. It's like his mother was an anchor in his life, and his memories of her aren't enough to hold him down to continue on with his life.

Love and death have a way of going hand in hand in life. They are both completely confusing, hard to understand, and unmistakably irresistible. We can't escape either of them. We love, we die, the ones we love die, our love for others die. But why are love and death so important to the human condition? Why do we base our lives on them, why do we both run from them and run towards them? Is the challenge of trying to understand them that pulls us in? Or is it that, without them, life would be meaningless?

After his mother's death, Danny's at a loss and is unsure of where to go next. Losing someone takes a lot out of you, it leaves the world feeling incomplete, like you're not sure how to navigate the place you've always lived in, a place you know like the back of your hand.

Danny is searching for reasons why his mother died, but he never expects to learn lessons in love, life, and letting go. The world is far from perfect, there will be pain and loss, but you have to think of the good times, you have to do what makes you happy. You have to love life and love those in your life like nothing else matters.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Hachette Book Group Canada.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (134)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Sweet Legacy
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins imprint)

From Goodreads:

Greer has always known she was privileged, though she had no idea how special her second sight made her, even among her triplet monster-fighting sisters. But when a god starts playing with her mind, can Greer step up in her pretty high heels to prevent anything from stopping her sisters’ mission?

Grace loves her adopted brother, Thane, but now that he’s back and has joined her sisters’ team, it’s clear his past is full of dark mysteries. She wants to trust him, but will Thane’s secret put the girls in even more danger?

Gretchen knows she can rely on her sisters to help her stop the monsters. But after getting to know some of the beasties in the abyss, she finds her role as a huntress comes with more responsibility than she ever imagined. How can she know what her birthright demands of her now?

The girls cannot hesitate as they seek the location of the lost door between the realms, even as monsters and gods descend on San Francisco in battle-ready droves. In this exciting conclusion to the Sweet Venom trilogy, these teenage heirs of Medusa must seek the truth, answer the ancient riddles, and claim their immortal legacy.

This series is one of my favourites, it's very rich in both Greek mythology, teenage angst, and girl power. As much as I don't want the series to end, I'm very curious as to how everything will come together, how the three girls will do battle and save everyone who needs saving.

Me on Ashes on the Waves

Title: Ashes on the Waves
Author: Mary Lindsey
Release Date: June 27, 2013
Publisher: Philomel (Penguin imprint)

Liam MacGregor is cursed. Haunted by the wails of fantastical Bean Sidhes and labeled a demon by the villagers of Dòchas, Liam has accepted that things will never get better for him, until a wealthy heiress named Annabel Leighton arrives on the island and Liam’s fate is changed forever. With Anna, Liam finally finds the happiness he has always been denied, but the violent, mythical Otherworlders who inhabit the island and the sea around it have other plans. They make a wager on their love, testing its strength through a series of cruel obstacles. But the tragedies draw Liam and Anna even closer. Frustrated, the creatures put the couple through one last trial, and this time it’s not only their love that’s in danger of being destroyed.

Ashes on the Waves is haunting and mysterious gothic novel filled with darkness and dangerous beings, filled with sadness and mournful wailing, filled with dark secrets and a love hopefully unbreakable.

Something unexpected in this book but welcome was Liam's voice. An old-fashioned way of speaking brought on by classic literature, intelligence that belies his age, but also a sadness that cuts deep. He's a melancholic young man hated by most of the villagers, shunned because of his origins, cast aside like a monster. When Anna comes along she doesn't see what they see, but she doesn't know what they know, what Liam himself knows. Anna returning to the island creates hope in Liam, awakening a dream of not being looked at in fear or revulsion.

Being in Liam's head shows readers the dangers of the island but keeps the secrets he also keeps from Anna, and so in that way readers learn as Anna learns. Readers are left in the dark, curious about why he is called a demon by the villagers, until Liam tells Anna what he knows. But even then it's not everything because Liam himself doesn't know the whole truth.

On the island is Celtic and old world mythology come to life. The Otherworlders are creatures of myth and legend, living on land and in the sea. They are very dangerous, and not so mythical, if they're present, if their presence is known. And they have their own agenda, wrapping up Liam and Anna in something sinister.

The author has brought new life to Poe's poem, to the sea and the castle rising over it, to the cliffs and the dark waters holding dangerous secrets, to the overwhelming love the narrator has for a certain girl. But how strong is Liam and Anna's love? Is it truly unbreakable? This is a modern day gothic novel with a compelling love story, it's utterly enthralling and utterly heart-breaking.

(I acquired an advance copy of this title at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on Top Ten Tuesday (3)

Top Ten Tuesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. :)

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far in 2013

I've read 102 books so far this year. Some were great, some weren't. Some had amazing worlds, some had wonderfully-flawed characters. :)

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. Putting this book first (on an unnumbered list) when the release date is mid-September is rather telling. If The Raven Boys was curiosity and magic, this is more. This is the aftermath, this is what they didn't expect would come.

Coda by Emma Trevayne. This book was so creative, so imaginative, so intuitive, so musical. Anthem is, so far, the year's best unlikely hero.

Ink by Amanda Sun. Dark magic, ink drawings that come alive, the allure of Japan and its rich culture.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Sort of kicking myself for not reading this sooner. An intriguing tale of two teenage boys as they navigate a summer together and attempt to discover what the universe is made of.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Such a sweet, funny, sad, intelligent, geeky little thing of a book. This was so much fun to read, and I was surprised at how much of myself I could see in Cath.

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider. I imagine tortured, snarky boys like Ezra Faulkner are why some go nuts over contemporary YA. He has his moments, that's for sure.

The Archived by Victoria Schwab. I adore the way Victoria has with words. Mac is all kinds of sad and tortured, and things don't get any easier for her.

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer & David Levithan. At times sweet and sad but always magical. A curious look at wanting to be seen and wanting to be invisible.

Reboot by Amy Tintera. When I picked this up at ALA Midwinter earlier this year, I started reading it that evening. A fast-paced high-tension story of a girl who's torn between following orders and possibly proving she's more that just a soldier with no emotions who never says no.

Absent by Katie Williams. A look at life, high school, friendship, rumours, and what you do with the time you're given if you're still around after you die.

I wonder how different this list will look at the end of the year. ;)