Happy birthday to me! ~ New Books for March (part 5)

Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff

Contemporary Fiction 

After his best friend, Hayden, commits, suicide, fifteen-year-old Sam is determined to find out why--using the clues in the playlist Hayden left for him.

Polly and the One and Only World by Don Bredes

Science Fiction 

Set in a much-diminished future America called the Christian Protectorates, a poor country ravaged by coastal flooding, drought, and cataclysmic social upheaval, the story features 15-year-old Polly Lightfoot, a maiden witch of rich heritage and tender ability in the craft.  When the story opens, Polly is forced to flee New Florida, where she has taken temporary refuge to escape a military purge of the country’s infidels, pagans, and followers of false creeds.  With the help of her steadfast familiar, Balthazar, a raven, and her brave teenage companion, Leon, whom she meets on the way, Polly undertakes an epic journey from the deep south to the wild north to be reunited in Vermont with her family and to save her ancient craft from obliteration.

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen

Nonfiction

Stuck at the bottom of the social ladder at 'pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren't paid to be here,' Maya Van Wagenen decided to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help Maya on her quest to be popular? The real-life results are painful, funny, and include a wonderful and unexpected surprise-meeting and befriending Betty Cornell herself. 

The Prey by Tom Isbell

Science Fiction 

After the apocalyptic Omega, a group of orphaned teen boys learn of their dark fate and escape, joining forces with twin girls who have been imprisoned for the 'good of the republic.' In their plight for freedom, these young heroes must find the best in themselves to fight against the worst in their enemies.

The Prince of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson

Contemporary Fiction 

Robert "Cali" Callahan, seventeen, gets swept up into the private-investigator business and must deal with the ramifications of looking for fellow runaways who may not want to be found--and with falling in love with one of them.

New Books ~ August 2014 ~ Part 4

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

Sinner follows Cole St. Clair, a pivotal character from the #1 New York Times bestselling Shiver Trilogy. Everybody thinks they know Cole's story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few people know Cole's darkest secret -- his ability to shift into a wolf. One of these people is Isabel. At one point, they may have even loved each other. But that feels like a lifetime ago. Now Cole is back. Back in the spotlight. Back in the danger zone. Back in Isabel's life. Can this sinner be saved?

Kewl Bites: 100 Nutritious, Delicious, and Family-Friendly Dishes by Reed Alexander

As a busy teen star, Reed Alexander's life is a balancing act. Several years ago, as he juggled career commitments and school, he lost sight of how to eat right, became overweight, and as a result, was exhausted and lethargic. Too tired to keep up with his hectic schedule, he decided to reclaim his health by changing his diet. A can-do guy, his first step was to learn how to cook for himself. Unable to find any recipes suited to a teenager's tastes, he rolled up his sleeves and set to work in his kitchen, developing healthy versions of the foods he loves. Along the way, he became a dedicated cook, sharing his culinary discoveries with his fans and friends on his Web site, KewlBites.com.

Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass

After a childhood cut short by war and the harsh strictures of Nazi Germany, sixteen-year-old Wilm is finally tasting freedom. In spite of the scars World War II has left on his hometown, Leipzig, and in spite of the oppressive new Soviet regime, Wilm is finding his own voice. It's dangerous, of course, to be sneaking out at night to leave messages on police buildings. But it's exciting, too, and Wilm feels justified, considering his family's suffering. Until one mission goes too far, and Wilm finds he's endangered the very people he most wants to protect.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

In 1844 Edinburgh eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron is neither an ordinary debutante, nor a murderess--she is a Falconer, a female warrior born with the gift for hunting and killing the faeries who prey on mankind and who killed her mother.

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos

When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europe's Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways.

Summer Reads! - July New Books (part1)

Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike

Jeff is the new guy in school and the only one who can see Kimberlee, a ghost with a lot of (stolen) baggage. To help her move on, Jeff must return everything she stole when she was alive. But being Kimberlee's accomplice turns into more than he bargained for when his crush and the cops get involved.

 Five Summers by Una LaMarche

Emma, Skylar, Jo and Maddie have all come back to camp for a weekend of tipsy canoe trips to the island, midnight skinny dipping in the lake, and an epic game of capture the flag--boys versus girls. But the weekend isnt quite as sunwashed as theyd imagined as the memories come flooding back... "The summer we were nine" Emma was branded "Skylars friend Emma" by the infamous Adam Loring . . . "The summer we were ten: " Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth . . . "The summer we were eleven" Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle . . . "The summer we were twelve" Skylars love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us--except Skylar . . . "Our last summer together: " Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddies secret. Skylar did something unthinkable...

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

In an alternative version of Victorian London, a seventeen-year-old Dodger, a cunning and cheeky street urchin, unexpectedly rises in life when he saves a mysterious girl, meets Charles Dickens, and unintentionally puts a stop to the murders of Sweeny Todd.

50 Machines that Changed the Course of History by Eric Chaline

The book celebrates more than 200 years of technological development at the height of the Industrial Revolution. These are not generic inventions but rather specific, branded machines whose names in many cases have become synonymous with the machine or its purpose.
These are a few of the 50 machines described:

• Stephenson's Rocket (1829), the first locomotive designed for passenger transport
• Harrison power loom (1851) produced the bulk of the world's cotton cloth during the First Industrial Revolution
• Westinghouse alternating current system (1887) brought electrical power and lighting to homes and workplaces
• Hoover suction sweeper (1908) revolutionized domestic cleaning
• Lumière cine projector (1896) and Marconi radio (1897) together heralded the dawn of the media age
• Baird "Televiso" (1930), the first television set
• More recently, the Motorola DynaTAC cellphone (1983) ensured that we would always be able to "phone home." 

The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar

When eighteen-year-old Margo learns she lost the lead in her high school musical to a sophomore because of a modern-day genie, she falls in love with Oliver, the genie, while deciding what her own wishes should be and trying to rescue him from an old foe.

New Books for September (part 2)

Secret Letters by Leah Scheier

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Sixteen-year-old Dora travels to London to meet Sherlock Holmes, who might be her biological father, and ask his help for her cousin who is being blackmailed over some stolen letters, but although Holmes dies before she arrives, a handsome young detective comes to Dora's aid.

 The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

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Until the day I met John Smith, Number Four, I'd been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive. Together, we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate to find the others. . . . I went to Spain to find Seven, and I found even more, including a tenth member of the Garde who escaped from Lorien alive. Ella is younger than the rest of us, but just as brave. Now we're looking for the others--including John. But so are they. They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They caught me in New York--but I escaped. I am Number Six. They want to finish what they started. But they'll have to fight us first.

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody

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On her eighteenth birthday, spoiled party girl Lexington Larrabee learns that her days of making tabloid headlines may be at an end when her ever-absent father decides she must learn some values by working a different, low-wage job every week for a year or forfeit her multimillion-dollar trust fund.

Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal

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In 2074, while attending the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers aboard an earth-orbiting spaceship, sixteen-year-old Elvie finds herself in the middle of an alien race war and makes a startling discovery about her pregnancy.

 The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross

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Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade ; the dangerous device Jasper stole from him for the life of the girl Jasper loves. One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens. From the rough streets of lower Manhattan to elegant Fifth Avenue, the motley crew of teens with supernatural abilities is on Jasper's elusive trail. And they're about to discover how far they'll go for friendship.

Your newest summer reads...July books! Part 4

Dark Eyes by William Richter

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Adopted from a Russian orphanage by a wealthy New York family then growing into a rebellious street youth, fifteen year-old Wally resolves to find the birth mother who stole a fortune from her murderous, dark-eyed father.

The Death Catchers by Jennifer Anne Kogler

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Through a letter to her English teacher, fourteen-year-old Lizzy Mortimer of Crabapple, California, relates her discovery that she and her eccentric grandmother are kin to Morgan le Faye, charged with saving the last descendant of King Arthur from an untimely death that would endanger the world.

Going Organic: A Heathly Guide to Making the Switch by Dana Meachen Rau

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Describes the benefits, challenges, and steps to switching to an organic diet.

Red Glove by Holly Black

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When federal agents learn that seventeen-year-old Cassel Sharpe, a powerful transformation worker, may be of use to them, they offer him a deal to join them rather than the mobsters for whom his brothers work.

Fullmetal Alchemist vol. 3 by Hiromu Arakawa

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NO BOOKS FOR APRIL (part 2)

Goddess Interrupted by Aimee Carter

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About to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, the immortal Kate Winters must save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future: Henry's first wife, Persephone.

 Double by Jenny Valentine

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When sixteen-year-old Chap is mistaken for a missing boy, he leaves the home where he has been living temporarily and takes on this new identity, not knowing that it is as dangerous and uncertain as the life he has left behind.

 Allegiance by Cayla Kluver

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An eighteen-year-old queen in love with the enemy as their countries pass the point of no return... Bound to a man she cannot love, Queen Alera of Hytanica must forget Narian, the young man who holds her heart. For Narian is destined to conquer Hytanica at the behest of his master, the powerful magic-user known as the Overlord. Alera doesn't truly believe Narian will fight against Hytanica-until Cokyrian troops attack with Narian commanding the charge. Faced with the greatest betrayal a heart can know, Alera must set aside personal feelings and lead her kingdom through its darkest time. And when all hope, will and courage seem lost, she must find strength and remember that even the blackest night must have a dawn....

 Amplified by Tara Kelly

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When privileged seventeen-year-old Jasmine Kiss gets kicked out of her house by her father, she takes what is left of her meager savings and flees to Santa Cruz, California, to pursue her dream of becoming a rock musician.

 The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer Smith

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Hadley and Oliver fall in love on the flight from New York to London, but after a cinematic kiss they lose track of each other at the airport until fate brings them back together on a very momentous day.

New books for September! part 4

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

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For seven hundred years, the souls of Romeo and Juliet have repeatedly inhabited the bodies of newly deceased people to battle to the death as sworn enemies, until they meet for the last time as two Southern California high school students.

 Naruto Issue 52

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What's new with Naruto?  Find out in issue 52 of the popular manga.

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

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Sixteen-year-old Carlos Duarte is on the verge of realizing his dream of becoming a famous make-up artist, but first he must face his jealous boss at a Macy's cosmetics counter, his sister's abusive boyfriend, and his crush on a punk-rocker classmate.

New books for September! part 2

The Robot by Paul E. Watson

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When unpopular freshman Gabe Messner and his best friend Dover crack the code to the forbidden laboratory of Gabe's father, they unwittingly unleash T.R.I.N.A., a beautiful blonde robot programmed with a mission that the two boys must put to a stop.

 Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

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Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night and at first she thinks that she's still being punished for complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway.  But what unfolds is far worse...the sister of the Moroi Queen is in danger and Sydney is called upon to be her guardian...in a human boarding school in California.

My Big Mouth: 10 Songs I Wrote that Almost Got Me Killed by Peter Hannan

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When Davis Delaware moves to a new school after the death of his mother, he immediately gets on the wrong side of Gerald, the school bully, when he creates a band called The Amazing Dweebs along with Molly, the girl he has a crush on--who also happens to be Gerald's girlfriend.

 Edda by Conor Kostick

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In the virtual world of Edda, ruler Scanthax decides he wants to invade another virtual world, embroiling the universes of Edda, Saga, and Epic in war, with only three teenagers to try to restore peace.

The Hidden Coronet by Catherine Fisher

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Sixteen-year-old Raffi and Master Galen continue to evade the Watch as they seek the Coronet, a potent ancient relic that could be their only hope for defeating the power that is destroying Anara.