Monday Memes - It's Monday! What are YOU Reading?, In My Mailbox, Mailbox Monday - August 27, 2012

"Mailbox Monday" is the brainchild of Marcia at The Printed Page.  Martha has closed The Printed Page effective December 18th and set up Mailbox Monday on it's own blog here:  http://mailboxmonday.wordpress.com/

August's hosts are the wonderful women at one of my favorite sites: Five Minutes for Books!   Hop on over, link up, and join the fun!

"In My Mailbox" is hosted by The Story Siren

Every week we'll post about what books we have that week (via your mailbox/library/store bought)! Everyone that agrees to participate will try to visit each other's list and leave comments!  Everyone is welcome to join! You can join at anytime and you DO NOT have to participate every week.

I guarantee that you will add to your reading list by visiting the participating blogs in both of these memes!

I did not receive any hard copies this week, but I did download some NetGalley titles.  Now that I have a Nook Color, it's so much more convenient to read eGalleys!

The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice by Nathan Leslie -  For review - Releases October 30, 2012 - (Amazon)

Goodreads description:

When Tommy’s parents abandon him as baby, his grandmother Gaga takes him to her reclusive house near the top of Pike’s Peak. When Gaga casts him out, Tommy’s journey takes him to the countryside homestead of Aunt Tess—who hides surprising objects in her fizzy, voluminous hair—to Aunt Penny’s four enormous city houses and her preferred communication by ESP. In the cave-like desert home of Aunt Chelsea, Tommy learns how to hunt coyotes and the proper method of delivering newspapers. Shocked by a secret hidden beneath Aunt Chelsea’s house, Tommy runs off with a mysterious woman he meets on a bus, all while searching for a place to call home.

THE TALE TALL OF TOMMY TWICE captures the innocence of youth and the complexities of contemporary life. It’s a fanciful debut about the wonderment of adventure and the profound effect of family in the increasingly rootless American experience.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa - For review -  (The Book Depository / Amazon) 

Goodreads description:

"In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity." Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of "them." The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend--a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what--and who--is worth dying for.

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg -  For review - Releases October 23, 2012 -  (The Book Depository / Amazon) 


Goodreads description:

For more than thirty years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, for one reason, it seems: Edie's enormous girth. She's obsessed with food--thinking about it, eating it--and if she doesn't stop, she won't have much longer to live.

When Richard abandons his wife, it is up to the next generation to take control. Robin, their schoolteacher daughter, is determined that her father pay for leaving Edie. Benny, an easy-going, pot-smoking family man, just wants to smooth things over. And Rachelle-- a whippet thin perfectionist-- is intent on saving her mother-in-law's life, but this task proves even bigger than planning her twin children's spectacular b'nai mitzvah party. Through it all, they wonder: do Edie's devastating choices rest on her shoulders alone, or are others at fault, too?

With pitch-perfect prose, huge compassion, and sly humor, Jami Attenberg has given us an epic story of marriage, family, and obsession. The Middlesteins explores the hopes and heartbreaks of new and old love, the yearnings of Midwestern America, and our devastating, fascinating preoccupation with food.

Summer of the Wolves by Lisa Williams Kline - For review  - (The Book Depository / Amazon) 

Goodreads description:

This is the story of Diana and Stephanie, new stepsisters on a vacation at a ranch with Diana's mom and Stephanie's dad, who are newlyweds. Diana has a 'mood disorder' for which she takes medication. In her estimation, Stephanie is just too perfect. But Stephanie has some secrets of her own. The girls band together to free two captive wolves, an action that has unexpected and unintended consequences. Told in the alternating voices of Diana and Stephanie, the book explores themes of family, friendship, mental health, and nature.

Swipe by Evan Angler -  For review -  (The Book Depository / Amazon) 
Goodreads description:

Everyone gets the Mark. It gives all the benefits of citizenship. Yet if getting the Mark is such a good thing, then why does it feel so wrong?

Set in a future North America that is struggling to recover after famine and global war, Swipe follows the lives of three kids caught in the middle of a conflict they didn’t even know existed. United under a charismatic leader, every citizen of the American Union is required to get the Mark on their 13th birthday in order to gain the benefits of citizenship.

The Mark is a tattoo that must be swiped by special scanners for everything from employment to transportation to shopping. It’s almost Logan Langly’s 13th birthday and he knows he should be excited about getting the Mark, but he hasn’t been able to shake the feeling he’s being watched. Not since his sister went to get her Mark five years ago . . . and never came back.

When Logan and his friends discover the truth behind the Mark, will they ever be able to go back to being normal teenagers? Find out in the first book of this exciting series that is Left Behind meets Matched for middle-grade readers.

The Enchanted Attic (Facing the Hunchback of Notre Dame) by L. L. Samson - For review  - (The Book Depository / Amazon) 

Goodreads description:

A hidden attic. A classic story. A very unexpected twist. Twin twelve-year-old bookworms Ophelia and Linus Easterday discover a hidden attic that once belonged to a mad scientist. While relaxing in the attic and enjoying her latest book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ophelia dozes off, and within moments finds herself facing a fully alive and completely bewildered Quasimodo. Ophelia and Linus team up with a clever neighbor, a hippy priest, and a college custodian, learning Quasimodo's story while searching for some way to get him back home---if he can survive long enough in the modern world

---

"What Are You Reading?" is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  Click over to see what other readers are into this week and add to your TBR pile!

---

READ: 

Hard Copy	NetGalley/Nook	NetGalley/Nook
NetGalley/Nook	Hard Copy

---

REVIEWED:  (click the cover to go to the review):

4 of 5 stars

5 of 5 stars

4.6 of 5 stars

---

CURRENTLY READING:

(Click on the cover for the Goodreads page)

Hard copy

Nook

I just realized that I've had the wrong title up for my verrrrry long (over 15,000 pages) Nook book - I'm still stuck at "Gulliver's Travels".  Here's what I've read so far (strikethroughs mean I skipped on past):

The Three Musketeers (re-read)
Little Women (re-read)
Great Expectations (just read this one at the beginning of the year/end of last year)
Oliver Twist
The Jungle
A Tale of Two Cities
Leaves of Grass (not in the mood for poetry when I hit this one)
The Odyssey (and DEFINITELY not in the mood for long epic poetry right after)
Madame Bovary (just read this one this year - not a huge fan)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
The Divine Comedy
Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Kim

---

Next to be read on the personal pile (click cover for Goodreads page):

---

Next to be read on the hard copy review pile (click cover for Goodreads page):

---

Did not finish:

I "may" go back to this one some time, but 60 pages in and it wasn't doing anything at all for me.  

---

GEM OF THE WEEK:

The Book Depository

Amazon

Goodreads

This was such a hard decision, because "The Snow Child" was fan-friggin'-tabulous (kind of sad, too .. a lovely, emotional read).  In the end, though, I went with the one that had me feeling the most thoughtful and grateful at the end.

How was YOUR reading week?  Please leave a link to YOUR "What Are You Reading/In My Mailbox/Mailbox Monday" post(s) in the comments (I'd love to come visit) or simply comment with what your reading week was like!