This is a weekly theme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my first time participating. Though my reading list seems to only grow longer the more I read, here are the ten books I most look forward to reading next.
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley This has been on my list for awhile. A blogger I enjoy and an author I admire both recommended it. I can’t wait to see for myself.
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare I can’t tell if I’ll be embarrassed for my infatuation with this series in ten years. At present I am hooked on the romance and snappy dialog Clare consistently delivers.
Shadows by Robin McKinley As a long-time fan of McKinley’s books, I was delighted to see this one hit shelves. Her stories always suck me in and let me forget things like responsible bed time.
Unthinkable by Nancy Werlin When I saw that there was a story about the beginning of the curse featured in Werlin’s amazing novel Impossible, I had to have it. I’m so excited to delve back into that story world.
It’s Addicting by Laura L. Smith I’ve fallen in love with the four girls this series follows after reading the first two books. I’m looking forward to finding out how things turn out for each of them.
Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly I’ve read A Northern Light (and highly recommend it) as well as Revolution (which I didn’t care for as much.) When I heard the buzz about this novel, I couldn’t wait to see what Donnelly, who has written such strong and serious prose, would bring to the underwater world of mermaids.
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine I’ve seen this book on several big you-must-read-these-books lists. Reading the description (a young girl with aspbergers loses her brother and mentor to a school shooting which leaves her family devastated) it’s easy to see that this one has potential to pack a big punch. I love angsty YA but it’s impossible to beat a story that adds to that mix the need to re-examine how I see the world. I think this novel has the potential to do just that.
Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart I can’t remember where I heard about this book. There’s little review information on amazon.com at present, which either means it’s an undiscovered gem or a brilliant idea that isn’t executed well. The story follows three girls involved with a cell phone. One from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the mineral to make the cell phone was mined, one from China, where the chips in the phones are manufactured and one from North America who owns a cell phone. I’m curious. I’ll bite.
The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith This one is next on my reading list. Even a lover of angsty novels needs a little romance now and then to break things up. I’m eager to visit the places the story travels – San Fransisco, Prague – and to relive those early moments of falling in love through each character.
On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers From the author who wrote the award-winning Monster comes a story about a group of futuristic teens who commit to sabotage the stranglehold eight companies have on the world government. I’ve read this style of story before and been left disappointed, but I’m totally intrigued. If anyone can make this a powerful, memorable story, it’s gotta be Myers, right?
Beloved Aunt Polly’s death leaves Alice miserable and the small town of Ipswitch floundering. Her world-famous restaurant serving free pies must close, but as the will is settled, everyone wonders who will get Polly’s award-winning pie crust recipe? No one is more surprised than Alice when Aunt Polly’s attorney presents her with Lardo, her aunt’s grumpy cat and sole inheritor of the coveted recipe. News ricochets through town. In its wake a mysterious villain vandalizes Polly’s shop and catnaps Lardo (in case the rumors that the recipe is tattooed on the feline’s enormous belly are true.)
Alice’s mother refuses to listen to Alice’s claims that the cat has been abducted and instead rages against her sister’s leaving her out of her will. It’s up to Alice and the local grocery delivery boy to solve the mystery and rescue Lardo amid the whole town’s frantic attempts to recreate Polly’s famous pies.
An unexpected guest reveals the final pieces of Aunt Polly’s will, leaving Alice and her mother dumbfounded. While Alice knows the knot of grief inside her will never fully disappear, she finds a way to cope with the loss and keep her aunt close in her memory and in her sweet baked treats.
Though it grapples with a young girl’s first experience with grief, PIE is an overwhelmingly sweet story, packed not only with tender moments and humor but over a dozen pie recipes, ranging from the all-American classic Apple Pie to the unexpected Green Tomato Pie. This is a great story to read aloud – with frequent breaks to do a little baking! What a great opportunity to bond with middle readers both in literature and in the kitchen.
Rooglewood Press is delighted to introduce their second fairy tale novella contest—
Five Enchanted Roses
a collection of “Beauty and the Beast” stories
The challenge is to write a retelling of the beloved fairy tale in any genre or setting you like. Make certain your story is recognizably “Beauty and the Beast,” but have fun with it as well. Make it yours!
Rooglewood Press will be selecting five winners to be published in the Five Enchanted Roses collection, which will be packaged up with the gorgeous cover you see displayed here. Perhaps your name will be one of the five displayed on this cover?
The contest has ended, but you can buy a copy of Five Enchanted Roses here.
Rooglewood Press’s first collection, Five Glass Slippers, is available for pre-order now and will be released on June 14. Do grab yourself a copy and see what these talented writers have done with the timeless “Cinderella” tale!
Cover Illustration Credit:
This cover illustration was rendered by Julia Popova, “ForestGirl.” You can find out more about this gifted artist on her website: www.forestgirl.ru
An Anniversary Celebration and a Chance to Support a Valuable Mission
In March, to celebrate the anniversary of The Story Sanctuary, I held an auction to raise money for Christian World Mission in Chile to provide funds for school children. Four book boxes went up for auction on ebay. Through a combination of that ebay auction and word-of-mouth, all four boxes were sold, raising a total of $150 for Christian World Mission. Yay!
The Giving Continues…
Two of the boxes were donated back to The Story Sanctuary for use as giveaway prizes.
These boxes are packed with tasty snacks and other fun goodies as well as at least three clean YA novels. Sign up quick because this giveaway ends Sunday!
A few months ago, Clinton Festa contacted me with an opportunity to help promote an unusual ministry he’s begun. Sentences is a ministry through which books are donated to prisons and detention centers around the United States. Clinton joins me today to give us more information about what he’s doing and why it’s important. Thanks, Clinton!
What led you to form this sort of ministry/charity? How long has Sentences been in operation?
In October 2013 I started learning more about prison life from some documentaries. I was surprised to learn that some inmates in Indiana are given the privilege of having pet cats and video games. Most of the times though, in most prisons, reading is the main form of recreation on a short list of options. I started looking into donating books to prison libraries, and was surprised how difficult it was to find that information. Some third party sites have the info online, but too often it’s just a prison address. You can’t donate that way; your donation may be rejected if not submitted properly. Often it needs a donation form, so you have to do your research. After a lot of effort, I finally found the info to donate to one prison. I asked what they needed, went to Goodwill, then the post office. If you ask for the media rate from the USPS, the whole thing can cost around $20. And it was fun. Picking up books from a thrift store, packaging them, and sending them off. But it still costs $20, and I can’t do that for every prison in the country. I thought I could start a more efficient way of getting it done. So, in January I started a Facebook site and a Goodreads group with the concept that I would research, then post the specific needs and donation instructions for various prisons. I’ve got a handful posted right now, but really I need to start getting more followers for the site to work. The idea is that if someone ‘likes’ the Facebook page or joins the Goodreads group, they’ll be notified when I make a new posting. Or they can always browse recent postings. Then, with enough followers, someone’s bound to recognize that they have some used books in a category that a prison really needs. They would then mail them off directly to the prison with the instructions I provide. If I get enough followers for the concept to work, it could really be an effective and efficient way of getting books off your shelf into the hands of people who would greatly appreciate it. You can even donate old comic books to a juvenile detention center I’ve got posted. The prison librarians have all been extremely appreciative as well. It’s difficult to hear year after year, in some cases, that they don’t have any money in the budget for new books… again.
How many books have been donated to prison libraries due to the efforts of this group?
I think of that in terms of pounds, not number of books, just because I’m more likely to feel it when I pick up a box than I am to count the books inside. So far, several hundred pounds. I’ve got one picture on the Facebook page of about six big boxes all from one donor. That was great. If you count the local book drive I’m doing through my church for the local JD Center, it’s been a lot. However, I wouldn’t know exactly how many books have been donated by followers of the site unless they report back to me, which isn’t necessary. But through the site, other than the one person with six boxes, the answer is ‘not many.’ I’ll stick with my local book drive through the church, which has been hugely successful, but gaining some ‘likes’ on FB and members on GR is really the key.
Why is there such a great need to send books to prison inmates?
Great question, thank you! Prisoners on death row in Texas, according to one documentary I’ve read, are in their cell, alone, for 22 hours a day. They need mental relief and escape. For those who are eventually getting out of prison, it goes beyond recreation. They typically ask for books on starting your own business, which makes sense, because it can be difficult to get through a job interview if you’ve been incarcerated. They also often ask for study books to help in getting your GED, and similar study books. When they ask for books like those, they’re trying to make the most of their time in prison. What if they don’t have those books? And, from a religious perspective… well, I think it’s obvious, the benefits to the donor and the receiver. I once sent a book with calculus study problems in a box to a prison in Arizona, not thinking anything of it. The prison librarian, an employee, responded to say thank you. He told me that a clerk, an inmate, had been praying a lot recently for a calculus book. When the box came in the mail, to him, that one book was an answer to his prayers.
What types of books do you recommend donating?
It varies from prison to prison, based on funding, size of the facility, and location. My FB and GR links have the specifics. But common needs are: any popular stuff that we’d read out of prison, books on starting your own business, study guide books that help toward GED, Westerns (which aren’t that popular outside prison anymore, so they can often be found in the discount bin), and, near the US/Mexico border, Spanish language reading and Spanish language Bibles. Those can be surprisingly hard to find.
What sorts of books should we avoid donating?
That varies a lot from prison to prison. Specifics are with each posting I do. Some prisons won’t take hardbacks. Some won’t take any books with images, because they get ripped out and used as cell-art. But, some are more lenient about that stuff. There are definitely some books that no prison will accept, though you probably don’t have many books in this category. That includes racially charged material, violent or sexually graphic literature, books on how to escape from prison (obvious), books on how to make poison and weapons out of common items (darn it), and, somewhat surprisingly, books on travel that include road maps and Atlases. Though that last one makes sense when you think about it. I have yet to come across a prison that would contact you and ask any questions if you accidentally donated a book in those categories, though. Every one I’ve posted and every one I anticipate would just reject the book, meaning it gets recycled or trashed (don’t expect to get it back). Also, it doesn’t do much good to send them a book on gardening, or making pottery, when they don’t have any way of fulfilling that.
What are your goals for this group? Where would you like to see this organization go in the next five years?
I’d love to have enough people following the group, whether that’s 100 dedicated donors, 1,000 occasional donors, or however the numbers have to work out, to be able to make a call to a prison librarian, get all the donation instructions, then make a posting, and have that result in a few batches of books from around the country be sent to that prison. I’d make 1-3 postings a month, giving each prison some time at the top. And people could always review past postings. But again, the key is getting people to ‘like’ the Facebook page or join the ‘Goodreads’ group, so please do! If all else fails, the local book drive has been great. But it’s finite, and only goes to one facility. The online concept could get books moving across the country.
Fifteen year-old Nell has always been comfortable in her older sister’s shadow. She and Layla are intertwined. Nell begins her first year of high school, delighted to share her school days with her sister again and thrilled by the interest of a handsome boy. Then she begins to sense something strange in Layla. Her sister is pulling away. Keeping secrets. And try as she might, Nell can’t understand why.
Desperate not to lose their closeness, Nell pursues Layla, being supportive and loyal. Earning her way back into Layla’s secrets. But learning Layla’s secrets comes with a price Nell isn’t sure she can pay: should she keep Layla’s confidence even if she believes Layla is doing something wrong and deeply destructive? As she watches her usually sensible sister slide further into her secret life, Nell realizes that the only way to save her sister may be to betray her.
Reading this novel is like taking that first ride on a roller coaster and feeling the adrenaline and rush building over each tick-tick-tick as the coaster inches up to the top of its track until its riders can look out over the imminent fearsome drops and wild loops ahead. Reinhardt nails the emotional turmoil of teen relationships and the anxiety of difficult choices, creating a powerful story about both the healing and destructive powers of love.
Language Content
Moderate word choice, infrequent usage.
Sexual Content Nell and Layla go to a very liberal-minded school whose students, according to Nell, are more interested in briefly hooking up than actually dating or having relationships. Nell very briefly relates her own experience with boys. Details are scarce and the experiences are few. Nell sleeps over at her best friend Felix’s house while his parents are out of town, but the two are not intimate with each other.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence None.
Drug Content
References to a family friend who was rumored to have a drug problem. Nell and Layla attend a couple of parties at which teens guzzle alcoholic drinks. Nell indicates that a few people retreat to the porch to smoke a joint, but she doesn’t describe further nor does she participate.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
