New Books for April 2016 (part 9)

Tommy: The Gun That Changed America by Karen Blumenthal

Nonfiction 

John Taliaferro Thompson had a mission: to develop a lightweight, fast-firing weapon that would help Americans win on the battlefield. His Thompson submachine gun could deliver a hundred bullets in a matter of seconds but didn't find a market in the U.S. military. Instead, the Tommy gun became the weapon of choice for a generation of bootleggers and bank-robbing outlaws, and became a deadly American icon. Following a bloody decade and eighty years before the mass shootings of our own time Congress moved to take this weapon off the streets, igniting a national debate about gun control. 

The Truth by Jeffry W. Johnston

Action/Adventure 

When Chris wakes up tied to a chair in a dark basement, he knows that he's trapped—and why. He shot and killed Derek's little brother. He had his reasons, but no matter how far Derek goes to uncover the truth about that night, Chris's story won't change. It can't. There is far too much at stake…

Derek is desperate to prove his brother didn't deserve to die. And if kidnapping his brother's killer is the only way to the truth, than he'll go to extremes. But Chris's truth is far more dangerous than Derek could have imagined, and knowing could cost both their lives…

A Tyranny of Petticoats by various

Historical Fiction 

From an impressive sisterhood of YA writers comes an edge-of-your-seat anthology of historical fiction and fantasy featuring a diverse array of daring heroines. Crisscross America -- on dogsleds and ships, stagecoaches and trains -- from pirate ships off the coast of the Carolinas to the peace, love, and protests of 1960s Chicago. Join fifteen of today's most talented writers of young adult literature on a thrill ride through history with American girls charting their own course. They are monsters and mediums, bodyguards and barkeeps, screenwriters and schoolteachers, heiresses and hobos. They're making their own way in often-hostile lands, using every weapon in their arsenals, facing down murderers and marriage proposals. And they all have a story to tell. 

Unbecoming by Jenny Downham

Contemporary Fiction 

Life has just become very complicated for seventeen-year-old Katie; her father walked out a year ago, her mother is stressed out, her brother is a "special needs" teenager, and she is caring for the maternal grandmother she has never met, who is suffering from Alzheimer's--and Katie has a secret of her own that she cannot reveal.

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

Fantasy 

For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home. Her mother believes they are being hunted by brutal monsters, and those delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. Gwen's only saving grace is that her best friend, Olivia, is with her for the summer. But shortly after their arrival, the girls are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and dragged to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey. And Gwen begins to realize that maybe her mother isn't so crazy after all... Gwen discovers that this new world she inhabits is called Neverland, but it's nothing like the Neverland you've heard about in stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through your fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and tries to find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the captivating pirate who promises to keep her safe. Caught in the ultimate battle between good and evil, with time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to finally face the truths she's been hiding from all along. But can she save Neverland without losing herself?

New School Year, New Books! September New Books (part 9)

Shutter by Courtney Alameda

Paranormal 

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat -- a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever. When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying. Lock, stock, and lens, she's in for one hell of a week.

Siren's Fury by Mary Weber

Fantasy 

Nym has saved Faelen only to discover that Draewulf stole everything she valued. Now he’s destroyed her Elemental storm-summoning ability as well.

When Nym sneaks off with a host of delegates to Bron, Lord Myles offers her the chance for a new kind of power and the whispered hope that it may do more than simply defeat the monster she loathes. But the secrets the Bron people have kept concealed, along with the horrors Draewulf has developed, may require more than simply harnessing a darker ability.

They may require who she is.

Set against the stark metallic backdrop of the Bron kingdom, Nym is faced with the chance to change the future.

Or was that Draewulf’s plan for her all along?

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by various

Paranormal 

For fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, American Horror Story and The Walking Dead comes a powerhouse anthology featuring some of the best thriller and horror writers in YA A host of the sharpest young adult authors come together in this collection of terrifying tales and psychological thrillers. Each author draws from a mix of literature, film, television, and music to create something new and fresh and unsettling. Clever readers will love teasing out the references and can satisfy their curiosity at the end of each tale, where the inspiration is revealed. There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat. From blood horror, to the supernatural, to unsettling, all-too-possible realism, this collection has something for anyone looking for an absolute thrill. 

Stick by Michael Harmon

Contemporary Fiction 

"Stick" is the best wide receiver in the history of his high school--the football seems magnetically drawn to his hands, hence his nickname. Preston is an outcast, and his pipsqueak stature and nerdy social status couldn't be further from a star athlete's. Stick puts on his football costume every week to make others--his teammates, his dad, everyone but himself--happy, but he's fallen out of love with the sport and feels that he's lost control of his future. Preston puts on his homemade superhero costume every night to help others, too: to avenge his father's murder, he's determined to right the wrongs he sees in his neighborhood and regain control of the flawed world he sees around him. A twist of fate brings this unlikely pair together in a friendship that is as odd as it is true.

Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Nonfiction 

What happens when a person's reputation has been forever damaged? With archival photographs and text among other primary sources, this riveting biography of Mary Mallon by the Sibert medalist and Newbery Honor winner Susan Bartoletti looks beyond the tabloid scandal of Mary's controversial life. How she was treated by medical and legal officials reveals a lesser-known story of human and constitutional rights, entangled with the science of pathology and enduring questions about who Mary Mallon really was. How did her name become synonymous with deadly disease? And who is really responsible for the lasting legacy of Typhoid Mary? This thorough exploration includes an author's note, timeline, annotated source notes, and bibliography.

New Books for June...Finally! (Part 1)

Hiya, I know this post is a little late!  These books are all ready and on the shelf for you to check out~

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

Paranormal

Athena and Hermes' search for the cause of their life-threatening illnesses leads them to Cassandra, who may be key to a war started by Hera and other Olympians who have become anti-gods determined to destroy their rivals.

 

Ask the Dark by Henry Turner

Action/Adventure

Billy Zeets has a story to tell. About being a vandal and petty thief. About missing boys and an elusive killer. And about what happens if a boy who breaks all the rules is the only person who can piece together the truth.

Batman: vol 6: Graveyard Shift by Scott Snyder

Graphic Novel

Continues the "New 52" Batman storyline.

 Boys Don't Knit (in Public) by T. S. Easton

Contemporary Fiction

After a brush with the law, Ben, a dyed-in-the-wool worrier, must take up a new hobby and chooses knitting, an activity at which he excels but must try to keep secret from his friends, enemies, and sports-obsessed father.

 The Boys of Fire and Ash by Meaghan McIsaac

Fantasy

Urgle and two other Brothers of the Ikkuma Pit, where boys are abandoned at birth and learn to fend for themselves and rear their younger brothers, embark on a quest to rescue Urgle's brother, Cubby, who has been carried off by monsters into the forest from which no one has ever returned.

 

New Books for March ~ Part 1

Bombs Over Bikini: The World's First Nuclear Disaster by Connie Goldsmith

In 1946, as part of the Cold War arms race, the U.S. military launched a program to test nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. From 1946 until 1958, the military detonated sixty-seven nuclear bombs over the region’s Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. The twelfth bomb, called Bravo, became the world’s first nuclear disaster. It sent a toxic cloud of radiation over Rongelap Atoll and other nearby inhabited islands. 

 The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen

It's been a year since his older brother, unable to bear a bully's relentless torment, took a gun to school and killed the boy and then himself.  Based on his therapist's recommendation, 13-year-old Henry begins to keep a journal of his experiences as he transitions to life in a new city, a new school, and in a new apartment with his dad.

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

My name isn't really Nick Pearson. I shouldn't tell you where I'm from. I shouldn't tell you why my family moved to Stepton, Virginia. I shouldn't tell you who I really am, or my hair, eye, and skin color. And I definitely shouldn't tell you about my friend Eli Cruz and the major conspiracy Eli was about to uncover when he died--right after I moved to town. About how I had to choose between solving his murder with his hot sister, Reya, and "staying low-key" like the Program has taught me. About how moving to Stepton changed my life forever. But I'm going to.

Fallout by S. A. Bodeen

Eli and his family lived in an underground shelter they called the Compound for six years. They thought they were the only survivors of a nuclear attack, but when Eli learned that it was all a twisted experiment orchestrated by his tech-visionary father, the broke the family out. His father died trying to keep them imprisoned. Now, the family must readjust to life in the real world. Their ordeal has made them so famous, they must stay in hiding--everyone from fatalists preparing for doomsday to the tabloid media wants a piece of them. Even worse, their father's former adviser continues to control the company Eli and his twin brother are the heirs of. As Eli tries to determine who the family can trust, he learns the nightmare of the Compound--and his father's experiment--might not be over.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Betrothed to the demon who rules her country and trained all her life to kill him, seventeen-year-old Nyx Triskelion must now fulfill her destiny and move to the castle to be his wife.

New Books for May (part 5)

Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting

When Violet, a high school senior, learns that an underground group has been carrying out murders on the order of their Charles Manson-like leader, she is pulled into a deadly hunt, where even her ability may not save her.

 The Believing Game by Eireann Corrigan

After Greer Cannon discovers that shoplifting can be a sport and sex can be a superpower, her parents pack her up and send her off to McCracken Hill-a cloistered academy for troubled teens. At McCracken, Greer chafes under the elaborate systems and self-help lingo of therapeutic education. Then Greer meets Addison Bradley. A handsome, charismatic local, Addison seems almost as devoted to Greer as he is to the 12 steps. When he introduces Greer to his mentor Joshua, she finds herself captivated by the older man's calm wisdom. Finally, Greer feels understood.

But Greer starts to question: Where has Joshua come from? What does he want in return for his guidance? The more she digs, the more his lies are exposed. When Joshua's influence over Addison edges them all closer to danger, Greer decides to confront them both. Suddenly, she finds herself on the outside of Joshua's circle. And swiftly, she discovers it's not safe there.

 Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader by Cassandra Clare

Shadowhunters and Downworlders, edited by Clare (who provides an introduction to the book and to each piece), is a collection of YA authors writing about the series and its world.
Authors Who Contributed:
Holly Black / Kendare Blake / Gwenda Bond / Sarah Rees Brennan / Rachel Caine / Sarah Cross / Kami Garcia / Michelle Hodkin / Kelly Link / Kate Milford / Diana Peterfreund / Sara Ryan / Scott Tracey / Robin Wasserman