Giveaways
Erin L. Schneider
Goodreads Giveaway: SUMMER OF SLOANE
Goodreads Giveaway: SUMMER OF SLOANE

USA Today's Top 150 Bestselling Books as of 02.27.2011

Thursday, March 3, 2011: According to USA TODAY, the following list contains the top 25 best selling books (out of 150) - based on sales through Sunday, 02/27/2011.  For the complete list of 150 books for the week or just to check out more information - plus reviews, book news and a searchable archive of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list - visit their website. 

Note of the week:  YA books have dropped off slightly from the top 25, but plenty of books-turned-into-movies have made their way back onto the list, evident by the #5 spot holder, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS - the movie, staring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, comes out next month. BEASTLY sits in the #26 position, which starts in theaters today - and stars Alex Pettyfer - who also plays the lead role in the recently released, I AM NUMBER FOUR. 

Legend:

Position This Week, Last Week, Title, Author (Publisher), Price

1 0 Treachery in Death, J.D. Robb (Putnam Adult), $26.95

2 0 A Creed in Stone Creek, Linda Lael Miller (HQN), $7.99

3 6 Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Colton Burpo, Lynn Vincent (Thomas Nelson), $16.99

My Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium (Delirium, #1)Delirium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

My Review:

I was pleasantly surprised by Lauren Oliver's second novel, Delirium. A current spin on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the story expertly intertwines a dystopian United States, where falling in love is against the law - with a girl on the verge of having the procedure done, that will cure her forever. Or so they tell her.

USA Today's Top 150 Bestselling Books as of 02.20.2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011: According to USA TODAY, the following list contains the top 25 best selling books (out of 150) - based on sales through Sunday, 02/20/2011.  For the complete list of 150 books for the week or just to check out more information - plus reviews, book news and a searchable archive of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list - visit their website. 


Note of the week:  Rising slightly over last week, YA takes over 32% of the top 25 books, with a fresh appearance in the #3 position by James Patterson's Maximum Ride series, ANGEL - which was just released last week. No surprise Suzanne Collin's HUNGER GAMES trilogy continues to dominate the top 25 - with all 3 books in the series falling in line just behind Stieg Larsson's GIRL series. And it's still a pleasant surprise to see Amanda Hocking on the list, taking over position #22 with her self published title, SWITCHED.

Legend:

Position This Week, Last Week, Title, Author (Publisher), Price

1 2 Alone, Lisa Gardner (Bantam), $7.99
2 1 Tick Tock, James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown), $27.99
3 0 Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel, James Patterson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), $17.99

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Teenreads: Ultimate Teen Reading List

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Teenreads has a pretty great (and extensive!) list of recommended reads for teens - however, many of these books are equally just as good for adults as well. After looking through the entire list, I've sadly, only read 48 of the titles - how many have you read?

For the complete list, please check out the Teenreads website.

Teenreads: One of our goals each month is to inspire you to read --- and to keep reading. We have found that required reading lists for school --- especially summer reading lists --- are not exactly inspiring. Thus we have created what we think is the Ultimate Teen Reading List --- close to 400 titles that we believe are perfect choices for reading and discussing. Our dream is that schools will use this list to help them make their own for summer reading or, even better, suggest that students just read what they want from this list.

Here are some of the books that made the list:

How did we create our list? We compiled entries from Teenreads.com readers who weighed in with their selections, and we also asked our staffers for suggestions. Titles range from young adult books to adult books that we think would be enjoyed by teens. As part of our commitment to staying current and keeping on top of the latest trends, we’ve recently overhauled the entire list. Books that we’ve added since our last update include a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, plus graphic novels and manga titles, and a few never-before-featured classics.

Thanks to all who helped launch this project in 2006, and have continued to participate in it, for spurring a lot of important conversation about books. We encourage you to share this list with your friends, teachers and fellow classmates, as well as your local librarians.

1776
David McCullough
History
ISBN-10: 0743226720
ISBN-13: 9780743226721 

• Buy from Amazon.com
• Read a Review

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough unfolds the dramatic story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence --- when the entire American cause was riding on their success.

 

1984
George Orwell
Science Fiction
ISBN-10: 0452262933
ISBN-13: 9780452262935 

• Buy from Amazon.com
• Reading Group Guides

In 1949, on the heels of another literary classic, Animal Farm, George Orwell wrote 1984, his now legendary and terrifying glimpse into the future. His vision of an omni-present and ultra-repressive State is rooted in the alarming world events of Orwell's own time and is given shape and substance by his astute play on our own fears.

21 PROMS
edited by David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft
Fiction/Short Stories
ISBN-10: 0439890292
ISBN-13: 9780439890298 

• Buy from Amazon.com

In these 21 stories from today's top YA authors, you’ll find a full prom spectrum - -- with outsiders, insiders, good dates, bad dates, unexpected dates, and a whole lot more. Authors include Libba Bray, Jacqueline Woodson, Ned Vizzini, John Green, Sarah Mylnowski, Melissa de la Cruz, Holly Black, Brent Hartinger, Lisa Sandell, Will Leitch, Leslie Margolis, Cecily von Ziegessar, E. Lockhart, David Levithan and Dan Ehrenhaft.

USA Today's Top 150 Bestselling Books as of 02.13.2011

Thursday, February 17, 2011: According to USA TODAY, the following list contains the top 25 best selling books (out of 150) - based on sales through Sunday, 02/13/2011.  For the complete list of 150 books for the week or just to check out more information - plus reviews, book news and a searchable archive of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list - visit their website. 

Note of the week:  Same as last week, YA covets 28% of the top 25 books. And it's not a surprise to see I AM NUMBER FOUR, by Pitticus Lore swoop in and take the #20 spot - what with the release of the movie nationwide, tomorrow. If you haven't read my review of I AM NUMBER FOUR (it can be found in last month's blog entries), I will say this book was an a-mazing read for me. Putting aside the political drama behind James Frey (one of the two authors behind pen name Pitticus Lore), this was one of my most favorite reads since THE HUNGER GAMES - and I can't wait to see the movie and see how it translates.

My Review: Awakened - House of Night #8 by P.C. & Kristen Cast

AWAKENED - House of Night #8, by P.C. & Kristen Cast

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

At the start of Awakened, the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey—or her relationship with her super- hot Warrior, Stark—ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet—who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality—and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?

Review:

Book #8 in the House of Night series was a big disappointment for me. The first few books in the series were entertaining - what with the House of Night being a finishing school of sorts, for vampires. But I now find that I'm growing tired of the plot and the series has started to drag - book 8 (keep in mind, all books are around 275 pages in length), and the MC Zoey, is still somewhere around her junior year of high school (I think? it's hard to keep track, since the concept of the school has fallen off from the plot)...the books started with her in her sophomore year, so you can see, she's not progressed far in time. With that being said - SO much has happened to her in this fictional "year" - enough that it could've spanned her entire time in high school.