Waiting On Wednesday

Hi Everyone! I hope you all have had a great week. Mine has been pretty hectic and I've been in a bit of a reading slump, sadly. To lift my spirits, I've looked to the future at what great books await me. Here's my pick for this week:

Pure by Terra Elan McVoy

Tabitha and her four best friends all wear Purity Rings, symbols of the virginity-until-marriage pledge they made as tweens. Now the girls are fifteen, and their rings have come to symbolize not only their purity, but also the friendships and identities they've built based on their shared faith. Simmering tensions rise to the surface and the group is split apart when one of Tab's friends admits that she and her long-term boyfriend have broken the pledge. In the midst of the confrontations, betrayals, confessions, and revenge that follow, each girl is forced to reexamine her friendships, her faith, and what exactly it means to be pure.

Saving yourself for marriage is something I feel very strongly about, so I am excited to read this book and see how the girls work through it, seeing as it is an issue lots of girls find hard to deal with. Pure is to be released on April 7th 2009.

School For Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer

Angela's parents think she's on the road to ruin because she's dating a "bad boy." After her behavior gets too much for them, they ship her off to Hidden Oak. Isolated and isolating, Hidden Oak promises to rehabilitate "dangerous girls." But as Angela gets drawn in further and further, she discovers that recovery is only on the agenda for the "better" girls. The other girls -- designated as "the purple thread" -- will instead be manipulated to become more and more dangerous . . . and more and more reliant on Hidden Oak's care.
Since I am of few words right now and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my friends for our Heath Ledger Movie Marathon, I’m gonna make this short and sweet. Eliot Shrefer creates a dark, disturbing, and guiltily fascinating atmosphere in School For Dangerous Girls. This is not a wimpy, reform school--this is hardcore torturous rehab. Well-written and intriguing, this book is a must-read for lovers of a dark and Gothic read and an action-packed plot.

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Nothing has been the same since Caleb Becker left a party drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit Maggie Armstrong. Even after months of painful physical therapy, Maggie walks with a limp. Her social life is nil and a scholarship to study abroad—her chance to escape everyone and their pitying stares—has been canceled. After a year in juvenile jail, Caleb’s free . . . if freedom means endless nagging from a transition coach and the prying eyes of the entire town. Coming home should feel good, but his family and ex-girlfriend seem like strangers. Caleb and Maggie are outsiders, pigeon-holed as "criminal" and "freak." Then the truth emerges about what really happened the night of the accident and, once again, everything changes. It’s a bleak and tortuous journey for Caleb and Maggie, yet they end up finding comfort and strength from a surprising source: each other.
Leaving Paradise is a book filled with raw emotion, great dialogue, and a high-school atmosphere that hits the spot. Told in alternating chapters, the author reveals how the characters of Caleb and Maggie struggle through the aftermath of the accident, and the consequences for each. Unfortunately, a wonderful book is cut short by a disappointing ending that leaves readers yearning for more. But I guess that’s reality—not all love stories have a happy ending.

Waiting On Wednesday

I've seen this feature on some of my favorite blogs, so I've decided to add it to mine. So here we go: My pick this week is

Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

With a past too terrible to speak of, and a bleak, lonely future ahead of her, Aerin Renning is shocked to find she has earned a place at the most exclusive school in the universe. Aerin excels at Academy 7 in all but debate, where Dane Madousin—son of one of the most powerful men in the Alliance— consistently outtalks her. Fortunately Aerin consistently outwits him at sparring. They are at the top of their class until Dane jeopardizes everything and Aerin is unintentionally dragged down with him. When the pair is given a joint punishment, an unexpected friendship—and romance—begins to form. But Dane and Aerin both harbor dangerous secrets, and the two are linked in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. . . .

This looks like just my type of book: an exclusive boarding school, dangerous secrets, and a sizzling romance! Can't wait for its release on May 14th 2009

Waiting On Wednesday was created by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

Getting in Tune by Roger Trott

It’s the fall of 1976, and 20-year-old guitarist Daniel Travers’s life is a mess. His band, the Killjoys, is essentially going nowhere; the pills he’s popping are making him crazy; and the voices banging around his head have him convinced that he’s a bleedin’ quadropheniac. On top of everything, what he calls the Real Me, his true self, has disappeared—and he’s lost without it. Then the phone rings, a new agent offering a weeklong gig at the exotic Mai Tai Hotel, in Puente Harbor, Washington. Told by the agent that Jimi Hendrix and Heart started out at the Mai Tai, Daniel sees the gig as his best chance to get the Killjoys on the road to success—and also to ditch his own troubles. Getting in Tune is a novel that captures the fire of the rock ‘n’ roll dream as well as the dream that music can transcend chaos, that it can bring perfection to our daily mess. And for Daniel, it’s about finding—as his unlikely guru, the Who’s Pete Townshend, whispers to him—the Universal Chord, the perfect set of notes that blesses life with essential harmony. A book full of the low grit of small-club rock ‘n’ roll and the high spirit that the music soars upon, Getting in Tune captures the fire of the rock ’n’ roll dream as well as the tantalizing notion that music can transcend chaos, that it can bring perfection to our messy lives.
Meghan Harvey says that Getting in Tune “is one of those music books that are about as necessary to any book collection as Houses of The Holy is to any album collection”. This book definitely is a music lover’s must read. Although I must admit I’m definitely not a guru when it comes to rock and roll, Roger Trott’s insight into the subject was fascinating to read. I, along with the main character, Daniel, have a great love of music and use it to get us through hard times. Trott’s writing was simple and concise, showing what it’s really like to be in a band, clearly written from personal experience. If you love rock and roll and a great read, then Getting in Tune is the book for you.

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Shelter Me by Alex McAulay

Maggie Leigh just wants to be a normal teenager, but when German bombs tear apart London during World War II, her ultra-religious mother sees the destruction as divine punishment. She sends Maggie to a remote boarding school in coastal Wales, supposedly to keep her safe, but also to keep her in line. The school is creepy, the headmistress is a lunatic, and the students range from spoiled rich girls to speechless trauma victims. But when a tragic accident happens on the beach, Maggie and three friends are forced to flee the school, plunging into the nightmarish world of Europe during wartime. Now every decision Maggie makes is fraught with danger, and living to see another day depends on how quickly she can think and act...and how far she's willing to go.
So far, Shelter Me is the best of Alex McAulay’s work. This dark, thrilling story is set in one of the most nightmarish times in history: World War II. The character of Maggie is a fierce, complex heroine-who happens to have the best name in the world ;). The novels breakneck-paced propelled me through the pages and the twist at the end nearly knocked me off my chair. I’m out of words at the moment, but believe me when I say that it’s awesome and that you should go and read it…that means now!

The Dead Walk Diaries: Night by Joe Young

The world changed forever in the course of one night, the first night of the zombie epidemic. A countless number of people were killed only to rise again as the walking dead. This collection of diaries are the first-hand accounts from people that witnessed what happened and describe in their own words what they experienced. Gathered from handwritten journals, reports, notes, audio and video recordings, the Dead Walk Diaries paints a vivid picture of the horror, atrocities, and chaos that occurred the first night the dead walked and attacked the living.
This is the first zombie book I’ve ever read—and it was definitely interesting. I loved Joe Young’s concept of using different methods of writing to portray a variety of very realistic characters’ events over the course of the night. Although each diary offers a unique perspective, describing each characters specific ordeal, the stories overlap and interlace to bring forth a cohesive reading experience. As a warning to readers, The Dead Night Diaries is full of blood and gore, as is expected in a zombie epic. It is not for the weak-stomached or faint-hearted. My only complaint is that the novel is very short, really just a tasting of the zombie genre. I would have enjoyed learning even more about the epidemic. I am not sure if this is to be a series, but I will be on the lookout for more by Joe Young.