Book Trailer Thursday! Love, Meg by C. Leigh Purtill

Book Trailer Thursday is a weekly feature started by Once Upon A Twilight, and features a book trailer for a new or upcoming release! My Trailer: Love, Meg by C. Leigh Purtill.

What's your book trailer:

In My Mailbox #4

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme brought about by The Story Siren. It's a fun way to share what you're reading, reviewing, about to read, etc. All images below are from Goodreads.

I didn't have that much time this past week to go into finding new books, so I'm including a few that are around the house that I've been meaning to read for ages but I haven't been able to.

For Review:

Everything! I've been very behind this week on my reading and reviewing. So, what I had listed for review last week is the same for this week.

To Read:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Vladimir Nabokov

Heat Wave by Richard Castle

What's in your mailbox?

Waiting on Wednesday #4

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles. Publication Date: May 8th 2012 by Candlewick Press

Goodreads Review: Starting middle school brings all the usual challenges - until the unthinkable happens, and Fern and her family must find a way to heal.

Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible. It seems as though everyone in her family has better things to do than pay attention to her: Mom (when she's not meditating) helps Dad run the family restaurant; Sarah is taking a gap year after high school; and Holden pretends that Mom and Dad and everyone else doesn't know he's gay, even as he fends off bullies at school. Then there's Charlie: three years old, a "surprise" baby, the center of everyone's world. He's devoted to Fern, but he's annoying, too, always getting his way, always dirty, always commanding attention. If it wasn't for Ran, Fern's calm and positive best friend, there'd be nowhere to turn. Ran's mantra, "All will be well," is soothing in a way that nothing else seems to be. And when Ran says it, Fern can almost believe it's true. But then tragedy strikes- and Fern feels not only more alone than ever, but also responsible for the accident that has wrenched her family apart. All will not be well. Or at least all will never be the same.

What's your Waiting on Wednesday pick?

The perfect date

Wax dripped from lit candles, smelling of autumn leaves

and apple cider, into a small clear glass jar on a table

set for two, pearl-white china plates and wine glasses

atop a warm mahogany wooden table with a dark red

tablecloth adorning the intimate setting. Oil paintings

from local artists lined the walls in gold frames and

crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, accentuating

the antique setting as if taken straight from an old

Victorian house. The waiter, in a crisp tucked-in white

shirt with ironed black slacks, would present the courses,

first of which a spinach salad with fresh strawberries,

walnuts and her favorite dressing, second, a medium-rare

steak with buttery mashed potatoes, lightly salted, third,

a slice of warm molten chocolate cake, drizzled with

caramel and as the live string violinist played, they’d

share dreams of traveling to Europe in their youth and

become owners of a little bakery in the city. She sips

her iced water glass, smudging her lipstick, before

closing her netbook and putting it into her purse and

placing a few wrinkled dollars for the bill and tip.

Another restaurant, another false hope.

-Madeline Wahl

Teaser Tuesday #3 - Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser Tuesday pick is: Hope was Here by Joan Bauer

Back of book summary: One new life . . . coming right up! When Hope and her aunt move from New York City to small town Wisconsin to run th elocal diner, Hope's not sure what to expect. Luckily, she's used to thinking on her feet 0 she hasn't become a terrific waitress by accident. And when G.T., the diner's owner, decides to run for office against th ecorrupt mayor, Hope's drawn into G.T.'s vision of th efuture. Because, after all, everyone could use a little hope to get through the tough times . . . even Hope herself.

"There's something about diner setup that soothes the soul. Something about making good coffee in a huge urn glistening in fluorescent light, something sweet about filling syrup pitchers and lining them on the back counter like soldiers ready to advance. It gives you courage to face another day." - pg. 61

What's your Teaser Tuesday pick?

Book Review: Pieces of Me by Charlotte Gingras

Goodreads Review: Mirabelle's art teacher tells her she has talent, but what good is it doing her? Almost fifteen and friendless, Mira is plagued by dark thoughts. Her body seems to be changing daily. Her mother is domineering and half-crazy and her father — well, he's her ex-father, mostly out of Mira's life and awkward when he's around. Then she meets free-spirited, confident Catherine, a knockout who makes the boys' jaws drop. Not only is Catherine good at art like Mira, she also knows about kissing boys. Mira has never kissed anyone and doesn't understand the hungry way boys are beginning to look at her. Now that Mira's finally found someone she can talk to, her dark thoughts are vanishing. But as her friend encourages her to come out of her shell, Mira finds that her new-found confidence can still be shattered in an instant. Only after Mira faces a betrayal and a tragedy can she begin to put the fragmented pieces of herself together.

My Review: Did you know that Pieces of Me was initially published in Canada in French under the title La Liberte? Connais pas ... and it won the Governor General's Literary Award?

Me neither. Did you know that Pieces of Me was initially published in Canada in French under the title La Liberte? Connais pas ... and it won the Governor General's Literary Award?

Me neither. I don't normally come across books written in another language first, but I definitely will be looking for foreign books in the future. Mirabelle has such a unique outlook on life and her words are poetic. Hailing from a small town with a half-crazy mom (portrayed perfectly) and a father who left when she was young, Mira is figuring out who she is and gathering the pieces of herself.

Through heartwarming experiences, like having Cath as a friend and expressing herself through her art, we see Mira's world through her intelligent, yet lonely eyes. I loved reading this book. It was as if I could feel Mira's loneliness and desperation for a friend filling me up like a balloon.

She eventually overcomes her loneliness and comes to grip with her life after she goes to therapy and tells her secrets to a blind woman whom she helped on her first day. Each action by Mira is clear, and yet there's subtle undertones that create depth to her life and meaning.

Her relationship with the 'birdman' is interesting. He's her art teacher, and she views him as more than a teacher, but as a potential serious love interest, which I thought was a bit bizarre. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of stories out there that have the teacher/student relationship so that aspect is believable, but I guess it was a bit weird for me to read through it.

There were a small few loose ends that I would've liked to have been tied up, but in reality it's all good. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. The imagery was beautiful and the characters were unique.

Rating: 4/5

Want Books: Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including

Want Books? is a weekly meme hosted at Chachic’s Book Nook and features released books that you want but you can’t have for some reason. It can be because it’s not available in your country, in your library or you don’t have the money for it right now.

So, I'm still a newbie book blogger and as I was looking through other various book blogs to see their designs, their reviews, etc. and I came across Sophisticated Dorkiness with a review on this book. The book title, in case you can't see it above, is Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at SEa and the Beachcombers, Oceonographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them.

I'm hooked. I want this book RIGHT NOW. As in, if this book miraculously apparated comfortably into my lap I'd rejoice and ignore my other books and start reading it immediately. Then, I'd wonder where my letter to Hogwarts is. Once a Harry Potter nerd, always a Harry Potter nerd.

Alas, I have dozens of other books, if not hundreds, on my to-read list. I guess I should be glad, in a way, that I have no idea where to even look for this book. Ebay? Amazon? Barnes & Noble? Who knows. Maybe someone out there just donated it to a used bookstore and this little book is waiting for me to come pick it up and bring it home. And I'd pray that no one dog-eared its pages.

One day, Moby Duck, I will find you. And maybe read you while I take a bubble bath. With an actual rubber duck. And a glass of wine because that's apparently how girls read books in chick flicks.

What books do you want?

Goodreads review: A revelatory tale of science, adventure, and modern myth. A New York Times Notable Book of 2011. One of NPR's Best Books of 2011. One of Janet Maslin's Ten Picks for 2011.

When the writer Donovan Hohn heard of the mysterious loss of thousands of bath toys at sea, he figured he would interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, and read up on Arctic science and geography. But questions can be like ocean currents: wade in too far, and they carry you away. Hohn's accidental odyssey pulls him into the secretive world of shipping conglomerates, the daring work of Arctic researchers, the lunatic risks of maverick sailors, and the shadowy world of Chinese toy factories.

Moby-Duck is a journey into the heart of the sea and an adventure through science, myth, the global economy, and some of the worst weather imaginable. With each new discovery, Hohn learns of another loose thread, and with each successive chase, he comes closer to understanding where his castaway quarry comes from and where it goes. In the grand tradition of Tony Horwitz and David Quammen, Moby-Duckis a compulsively readable narrative of whimsy and curiosity.