My Vacation Reading List

As most of you are going to be starting your spring break the minute the bell rings today, I am going on vacation this upcoming week as well! I thought I would share with you all some of the titles I plan on reading while I am away (not sure how much time I will actually have, but I can at least read on the plane...).

1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
In full disclosure, I have already started reading this and will probably finish it this evening, before I even leave this town. However, I wanted to include it because the story (so far anyway) is crazy good and I would like to spark your interest!

Here's what School Library Journal had to say about it:
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up—Mary knows little about the past and why the world now contains two types of people: those in her village and the undead outside the fence, who prey upon the flesh of the living. The Sisters protect their village and provide for the continuance of the human race. After her mother is bitten and joins the Unconsecrated, Mary is sent to the Sisters to be prepared for marriage to her friend Harry. But then the fences are breached and the life she has known is gone forever. Mary; Harry; Travis, whom Mary loves but who is betrothed to her best friend; her brother and his wife; and an orphaned boy set out into the unknown to search for safety, answers to their questions, and a reason to go on living. In this sci-fi/horror novel, the suspense that Ryan has created from the very first page on entices and tempts readers so that putting the book down is not an option. The author skillfully conceals and reveals just enough information to pique curiosity while also maintaining an atmosphere of creepiness that is expected in a zombie story. Some of the descriptions of death and mutilation of both the Unconsecrated and the living are graphic. The story is riveting, even though it leaves a lot of questions to be explained in the sequel.—Debra Banna, Sharon Public Library, MA

2. The Season by Sarah MacLean
Once again, full disclosure, I'm a sucker for a romance story. This one sounds like it has promise. It got good reviews from some reputable review magazines and, more importantly, many positive reviews from Amazon readers. This is not exactly a challenging read here, but who cares, it's my vacation!

Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about it:
In Regency London, Alexandra is about to embark on her first season of balls and dinners, and while nothing would steer her mother from the course of marrying off her only daughter, 17-year-old Alex is put off by men's seeming lack of interest in women with any amount of intelligence (Evidently, it scares eligible gentlemen off). Her opinions about romance change when she develops feelings for her brothers' friend Gavin, who is mourning the sudden death of his father (making Gavin the new earl of Blackmoor). MacLean's debut is well paced, and as readers fill up on descriptions of dresses and society's rules, another plot line develops: Alex overhears a conversation proving that Gavin's father was murdered, and she puts her relationship, reputation and life in danger to help him. Readers will appreciate the clique lit/historical romance hybrid: headstrong Alex rolls her eyes and gossips with friends, but still knows the steps to the quadrille. Clever conversation in the spirit of Jane Austen makes this quite a page turner. Ages 12–up. (Mar.)

3. Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
I have been meaning to read this for ages now and hopefully I will be able to cross this one off my list by the end of the week. This collection of short stories came out in late 2008 to excellent reviews. Also, I really dig the cover. Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about it: Starred Review. Readers as yet unfamiliar with Link (Magic for Beginners) will be excited to discover her singular voice in this collection of nine short stories, her first book for young adults. The first entry, The Wrong Grave, immediately demonstrates her rare talents: a deadpan narration that conceals the author's metafictional sleight-of-hand (Miles had always been impulsive. I think you should know that right up front); subjects that range from absurd to mundane, all observed with equidistant irony. Miles, hoping to recover the poems he's buried with his dead girlfriend, digs up what appears to be the wrong corpse (It's a mistake anyone could make, interjects the narrator), who regains life and visits her mother, a lapsed Buddhist (Mrs. Baldwin had taken her Buddhism very seriously, once, before substitute teaching had knocked it out of her'). Other stories have more overtly magical or intertextual themes; in each, Link's peppering of her prose with random associations dislocates readers from the ordinary. With a quirky, fairytale style evocative of Neil Gaiman, the author mingles the grotesque and the ethereal to make magic on the page. Ages 12–up.

4. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
Lastly, my audio book selection. My vacation (with my sister) will involve quite a bit of driving. My sister, Molly, says that audio books put her to sleep but I figure an entire week spent together might be saved by my driving/listening to an audio book and her sleeping soundly in the passenger seat - we'll see. Anyway, my audio book selection is the companion novel to the Forest of Hands and Teeth. I am excited to read/listen to this story because I am currently enjoying the first book so much! Also, what an excellent cover. I won't put a review on this one, because I hope you will read The Forest of Hands and Teeth and move on over to this one. Also, this post is getting way too long!

I hope you all have a fantastic spring break! I'll see you in a week or so!