Book Review: Families and Other Nonreturnable Items by Claire LaZebnik

Summary: Despite her name, Keats Sedlak is the sanest person in her large, nutty family of brilliant eccentrics. Her parents, both brainy academics, are barely capable of looking after themselves, let alone anyone else, and her two uber-intelligent siblings live on their own planets. At least she can count on one person in her life, her devoted boyfriend Tom. Down-to-earth and loving, he's the one thing that's kept Keats grounded for the last decade. But when Keats's mother makes a surprise announcement, the entire family is sent into a tailspin. For the first time, Keats can't pick up the pieces by herself. Now she must re-evaluate everything she's ever assumed about herself and her family - and make the biggest decision of her life.


Review: This was the first book I've ever read by Claire LaZebnik and I really enjoyed it! Keats was a really likable person and you really felt for her when she had to deal with her crazy, dysfunctional family. When I first realized that Tom and Keats had a huge age difference and they had started dating when she was 15, I was a little creeped out, but it really worked with the story. I really hated Hopkins but I loved Milton, so LaZebnik did a great job developing her characters and defining who they are. I enjoyed following Keats and watching her discover how she really wants to live her life. Her family sounds so crazy that I understood completely how Keats felt towards them. Keats really learns to understand the value of family and how you're stuck with what you have, so you should make the most of it. There were some slow parts to the book, but in the end it was a nice story.

Shelf Candy (6)

Shelf Candy is a meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews and every Saturday, bloggers choose a book whose cover really catches their eye. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I always do, so I'm choosing books whose cover alone made me pick it up. So I hope you enjoy my shelf candy!

So many things go through my mind when I see this cover. The first thing, obviously, is how pretty it is. I love the golden butterflies fluttering around the entire page. Then I love the girl crouched down in the middle of the floor. She looks sad, but she looks so bright and lively in her white dress that I really want to know more about her. The last thing I love is how the moon is peaking through the trees in the background. It gives the title a literal meaning, but you still want to know what "chasing the moon" really means. So not only is this cover gorgeous, it really makes you curious about the book itself. That, I'd say, definitely qualifies as some shelf candy :) 

Follow My Book Blog Friday (10)

This is a meme hosted every Friday by Parajunkee, where book bloggers answer a question each week and check out how others answered it. It's a cool way for bloggers and viewers to connect and learn more about each other!

Question: It's that pesky magic book fairy again! She has another wish: What imaginary book world would you like to make a reality? 

Answer:

I'm pretty sure my answer needs no explanation. I just recently joined the quidditch team here at college and it's just not the same on the ground (but it's still pretty epic). Being able to do magic, fly on a broom, and apparate would be so awesome. Just talking about it makes me sigh in longing....

Waiting on Wednesday (7)

This is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where every Wednesday bloggers highlight a book that they are eagerly anticipating the release of! 

Catching Jordan
By Miranda Kenneally
Release Date: December 1st

Summary: What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starting position... suddenly she's hoping he'll see her as more than just a teammate.








When I first heard of this book, it reminded me of Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock (which I loved), so I knew I had to read this. I love books where rivals end up falling for each other, especially YA ones! Some people have said that this sounds really unrealistic, but I don't care! Not many books are about girls playing football, and I think it'll be so cute when Jordan tries to get the guy she likes to notice her as a girl. The cover also looks so good! It is so colorful and cute with the girl holding the guy's hand and the helmet...it's so cute! I know I'm going to fall in love with this book from the first page and I absolutely cannot wait until it comes out! 

Top 100 Young Adult Books

So I've seen this list on a couple of other blogs and I was really excited to see what books were considered to be in the top 100 YA books.  I don't know exactly who made it, but from the looks of it they're pretty darn good! I was really interested in seeing what books made the list, but I was more interested to see which ones I've actually read. After going through it though, I was so surprised to see I have barely read any of the books! Maybe I'll make it a goal to read all of them because as an avid YA reader, I completely failed on this list. But here it is! Let me know what you all think of it! 

***I have read everything in bold***

1. Alex Finn – Beastly
2. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
3. Ally Carter – Callagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4)
4. Ally Condie – Matched
5. Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
6. Anastasia Hopcus – Shadow Hills
7. Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
8. Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4)
9. Anna Godbersen – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)
10. Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
11. Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)
12. Becca Fitzpatrick – Hush, Hush (1, 2)
13. Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
14. Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret
15. Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)
16. Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)
17. Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3)
18. Christopher Paolini - Inheritance (1, 2, 3, 4)
19. Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)
20. Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2)
21. Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)
22. Ellen Hopkins – Impulse
23. Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
24. Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply
25. Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1, 2, 3)
26. Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere
27. Gail Carson Levine – Fairest
28. Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)
29. J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
30. James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2)
31. James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
32. Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
33. Jeanne DuPrau – Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)
34. Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
35. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
36. John Green – An Abundance of Katherines
37. John Green – Looking for Alaska
38. John Green – Paper Towns
39. Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)
40. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1, 2)
41. Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)
42. Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1, 2)
43. Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)
44. Lemony Snicket - Series of Unfortunate Events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
45. Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3)
46. Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1, 2, 3)
47. Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
48. M.T. Anderson – Feed
49. Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)
50. Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
51. Maria V. Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)
52. Markus Zusak - The Book Thief
53. Markus Zusak – I am the Messenger
54. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
55. Mary Ting – Crossroads
56. Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelope (1, 2)
57. Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)
58. Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
59. Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
60. Meg Rosoff – How I live now
61. Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
62. Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1, 2, 3, 4)
63. Melina Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road
64. Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
65. Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
66. Michael Grant – Gone (1, 2, 3, 4)
67. Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion
68. Neal Shusterman – Unwind
69. Neil Gaiman – Coraline
70. Neil Gaiman – Stardust
71. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
72. P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 )
73. Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)
74. Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
75. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
76. Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
77. Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
78. Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere carnal over 40 winks
79. S.L. Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)
80. Sabrina Bryan & Julia DeVillers – Princess of Gossip
81. Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride
82. Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key
83. Sarah Dessen – The Truth about Forever
84. Sara Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
85. Scott Westerfeld - Leviathan (1, 2)
86. Scott Westerfeld - Uglies (1, 2, 3)
87. Shannon Hale – Books of a Thousand Days
88. Shannon Hale – Princess Academy
89. Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)
90. Sherman Alexie & Ellen Forney – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
91. Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1, 2, 3)
92. Stephanie Meyer – The Host
93. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga (1, 2, 3, 4)
94. Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees
95. Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)
96. Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games (1, 2, 3)
97. Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
98. Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)
99. Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)
100. Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped

Author Interview: Claire LaZebnik

I am excited to announce that today I have an interview with author Claire LeZebnik! She is here to share some about her new novel Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts!

What three words would you use to describe "Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts"?  

Romantic, realistic and relatable.  (I went for the alliteration.)

How did you get the idea for this book? 

My books never come from one single idea or story or thought--a lot of different strands come together from a variety of different sources.  But the piece of the puzzle that came to me first was the idea that a girl in her twenties could already be deep into a longterm relationship.  I actually did know someone who started dating a guy when she was fourteen and was sure she'd marry him.  She didn't, but it was so interesting to watch her as she tried to stay loyal to a relationship she was clearly growing out of.  

If you could be one character from your book, who would you be and why? 

My protagonist/narrator.  I like Keats.  She's smart but insecure, competent but self-doubting.  I find that in life I'm drawn to people like her, people who are funny, introspective and uncertain--they're the ones I want to be seated next to at a dinner party.  And she's young, with a lot of choices in front of her, waiting to be made . . .   That sounds nice.

Why writing? Have you always loved it or is it something new? 

Simple answer: I'm not good at anything else.  I've wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid (a little kid who read all the time).  I have no other abilities or talents so . . . it was an easy decision.  Not so easy to actually get published, but even that happened eventually.  As someone I know likes to say, "Where there's no choice, there's no problem."

What are your inspirations when you write? When you get stuck, what do you do? 

Nothing's more inspiring to me than a deadline.  I like writing under contract for that reason. 

You know, it's funny: we writers like to talk about muses and inspiration and writer's block and all these sorts of things, but most jobs require you just to show up and do your work ,whether or not you feel "inspired," and I've come around to feeling that way about my writing--I just need to put the time in at my computer, whether I feel like it or not.  With a busy household, I need to work whenever I have the time--I can't sit around when the kids are all at school waiting for inspiration to strike, I just have to dive in.  

That said, there are days when I feel too tired or too disappointed with what I have so far to want to keep going.  For the exhaustion problem, I'll focus on rewriting instead of creating new pages: I can edit and tinker even when I don't have a ton of energy.  As for the "I hate what I'm writing" problem, I know I'm always going to have that little voice in my head that says, "This sucks.  Give up."  When that happens, I've learned to just say politely to that little voice, "Fine, I hear you and I promise to come back and fix it later, but I'm just going to keep getting words down on the page, even if they're not good."  Because if I start giving in to those doubts, it's over--I'll never get anything done.  

What do you do when you're not writing? 

I have four kids so most of my non-writing time is spent doing mom stuff--driving them places, stocking up on groceries, cooking and baking, doing laundry, consulting on homework, etc.  I also have three pets (two dogs and a cat), so I spend a LOT of time cleaning up their messes and taking them on walks.  For pure relaxation, nothing beats crawling into bed with a book or something good on the TV, and that's where you'll find me as early as possible on pretty much any evening.  I wish I were more exciting, so I'd have something better to write about, but I lead a pretty pedestrian life.  It's a good one, though.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

What is your favorite book/author and why? 

It's pretty hard to beat Jane Austen's EMMA--it's a near perfect book and I've reread it a hundred times without getting bored.  If I need to pick something more contemporary, Suzanne Collins's YA novel THE HUNGER GAMES is magnficent--it just soars from the beginning to the end and if you read the entire trilogy, you'll absorb a powerful anti-war message.  

What's next?

I'm finishing up my second YA novel (the first one, EPIC FAIL, was released this summer), and also working on a proposal for another "adult" novel.  I'm hoping I'll be allowed to keep writing in both genres.  Oh, and I have a piece in an anthology play that's opening in New York this fall at the Primary Stages Theater called MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD, and I"m very excited to be a part of it--it's my first experience in playwriting!

Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts

Summary: Despite her name, Keats Sedlak is the sanest person in her large, nutty family of brilliant eccentrics. Her parents, both brainy academics, are barely capable of looking after themselves, let alone anyone else, and her two uber-intelligent siblings live on their own planets. At least she can count on one person in her life, her devoted boyfriend Tom. Down-to-earth and loving, he's the one thing that's kept Keats grounded for the last decade. But when Keats's mother makes a surprise announcement, the entire family is sent into a tailspin. For the first time, Keats can't pick up the pieces by herself. Now she must re-evaluate everything she's ever assumed about herself and her family - and make the biggest decision of her life.

I want to thank Claire so much for being here today! You can find more information on Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts here:

Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Review: My Dearest Rose by Jessie McClain

Summary: My Dearest Rose is a fictional drama based off the life of a 24 year old girl named Iris. Iris lives in the small town of Falls City Oregon where she works at a small shop and plays music on the side at a local coffeeshop. She raises her 3 year old brother and is on bad terms with her mom, whom she has never been able to get along with. Her boyfriend (who was also her best friend) had died 4 years earlier and she is still haunted by the memory. She then meets a guy named Jason (who is a roamer from Georgia) as she is performing one day at the coffeeshop and the story evolves. There are many twists and turns in the book. It's based on someones life that could be mine, your own, or a strangers. It shows that when you think there is nothing or no one left to save you, that your true salvation can come fromt he most unexpected place and that sometimes all is takes is a stranger. When all hope is lost who is it that you cling to?

Review: I really really wanted to like this book more but I just didn't. I felt like there were too many unnecessary scenes and events that happened so the reader had a hard time connecting with the story. The first 100 pages of the book flew by so fast that I think if the author had just focused on that part of the story, it could have made up the entire novel. But instead she chose to focus on 2 years of Iris and Jason's relationship, which just made the story seem to drag on. I liked Jason and Iris's characters and how in love they were with each other, but some things that happened to them weren't all that believable. The letter Iris's mom wrote to her didn't really make sense and I feel like it was just there to wrap up Iris's relationship with her mother in a nice, neat package that fit with the perfect ending. The reasoning behind the title is really cute along with how Iris and Jason fell in love, but other than that everything was just kind of shoved into a love story. My Dearest Rose is enjoyable enough to read, but it's not the first book I would pick off of the shelf.