Author Leah Clifford's Contest

YA book A Touch Mortal was recently released and author Leah Clifford is hosting A Touch Mortal's Assortment of Awesome Contest!
But hurry, contest ends today 3/31/11!

And make sure you check out her clever vlog
Shortened link to the vlog: http://dft.ba/:ATMVlog

Come on Mother Nature!

I hate to complain with all that's going on in the world today. This is really just venting a bit of frustration rather than complaining. I do know how lucky I am and count my blessings every day but come on Mother Nature!

We are used to the snow and cold here in western NY state but this has been a tough winter. We have had lots of storms. We do recover quickly though. My house is in the valley out in the boonies and we are one of the last places to have all the snow melt away. Last week that finally happened here with the warmer temperatures. We could finally see our yard with all the mud, sticks and dog poop that are usually our first signs of spring around here. Over the weekend we did a little clean up, played in the sand box and saw our first robins and blue jays. I told my boys that we still had some crappy weather coming since it's only March. Spring is tricky around here and we have quite a variety of weather conditions. Little did I know that we would get hit so hard so soon!

The snow started falling again last night and we have a storm warning until midnight tonight. We've had 10-12" of snow so far and now it's sleeting. We are fortunate enough to have wonderful neighbors who plow our driveway (often!) and earlier I went out to shovel the walkways and toss bread crumbs to the hungry birds. It's great exercise and the blanket of snow is beautiful but I've had enough. Really. I miss my hammock, the flowers and the grass. Gentler weather would be welcomed and appreciated. And I promise, Mother Nature, I won't complain about the hot days of summer or mowing the lawn. Bring it on!

My Grandma

Until last week I was blessed to still have two grandmothers, both 92 years-old. My Grandma B collapsed and died at home on the farm where she spent so many years. My grandparents worked hard and raised 5 children there, who all went on to have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I will always treasure the memories of playing and working in the barn, sledding on the hill, helping in the garden, learning embroidery and eating grandma's wonderful meals. When you visited you knew she would have food on the stove and goodies in the cookie jar, ready to whip up a homemade dinner in minutes. Some of my first memories are of family gatherings in that kitchen.

Last week we gathered at the funeral home instead of the farm. We honored her memory and laid her to rest next to my grandfather. I cried for our loss but I also laughed with my brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles as we shared silly stories. It was wonderful to spend that time together and we've made promises to do it more often. I'm sure it won't happen enough but I hope we'll try.

I am so grateful for all she gave me and I will miss her. Good-bye Grandma, I love you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday (started at The Printed Page) is at I'm Booking It this month and is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.



My Zombie Valentine
by MacAlister, Fox, Mancusi & Cach

Bought from The Dollar Store for $1.25!

Four women who are about to dig up the truth!

Tired of boyfriends who drain you dry? Sick of guys who stay out all night howling at the moon? You can do better. Some men want you not only for your body, but your brains. Especially your brains.
It's true! There are men out there who care--early-rising, down-to-earth, indefatigable men who'll follow you for miles. They'll take the time to surprise you, over and over. One sniff of that perfume, and you'll have to use a shotgun to fight them off. And then, once you get together, all they want is to share a nice meal. And another. And another.

Romeo and Juliet, eat your hearts out.

"Bring Out Your Dead" by Katie MacAlister
"Gentlemen Prefer Voodoo" by Angie Fox
"Zombiewood Confidential" by Marianne Mancusi
"Every Part of You" by Lisa Cach

Ripley's Believe It Or Not: Encyclopedia Of The Bizarre
by Julie Mooney

From Paperback Swap for my nephews

Black Dog & Leventhal’s bestselling Encyclopedia of the Bizarre is now available in a handier, more reasonably priced edition that retains every word and image of the original. From stupefying stunts to wacky world’s records, all of Ripley’s riveting findings are here, in an easy-to-browse, impossible-to-put-down color volume.

Where else could you learn that:

• It’s estimated that 10,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000 snowflakes have fallen to the Earth since the Earth was formed!

• Queen Isabeau of Bavaria used a mixture of boar’s brains, crocodile glands, and wolf blood as skin lotion!

• Anna Bread married John Butter in Leeds, England, April 22, 1926!

• Phil Turco of Madison, Wisconsin, swallowed 339 goldfish in two hours!

Bizarre and amazing categories include Accidents and Disasters, Animals and Insects, Archaeology, Feats and Stunts, Prophecies, Records, the Unexplained, and more. It’s fascinating fun for the whole family.

Wanna trade?

I'm trying to get more reading done and clear some shelf space and I'm looking into possible trades. These are only a few of the ones I have, but they are laying around, in the way. Let me know if you're interested because I'm going to set up some contests soon too. I have some wishlist items on my left sidebar (Wrighty's bookshelf: wishlist) with a link to Goodreads but I'm also open to suggestions.
Contact me at: wrights5[at]hughes[dot]net

YA arcs -
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Matched by Ally Condie
Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
White Cat by Holly Black
Radiance by Alyson Noel
Passing Strange by Daniel Waters
Monster High by Lisi Harrison
You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay

Hardcover -
Delcroix Academy: The Candidates by Inara Scott
Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson
Green by Ted Dekker

Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

In the not-too-distant future,
because of genetic engineering,
every human being is
a genetic time bomb.

What if you knew exactly when you would die? Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home. But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was attracted to the cover of this book immediately and then was drawn in from the first page. I seem to read a lot of dystopian stories lately and this one was chilling yet interesting. The future world is a disturbing scene with early death sentences, kidnapping and polygamy being the norm. While some issues were especially unsettling (why would people be accepting of kidnapping and polygamy?) it was easy to assign blame to the "bad guys". Housemaster Vaughn was definitely a bad guy. As an extremely wealthy doctor with a twenty-one year-old son he will do whatever it takes to find a cure for the virus. Rhine and her sister brides were forced to marry Linden and expected to accept their fate. But each has a past and little nuggets of their former lives are doled out throughout the chapters. They aren't quite who they appear to be but which life is worse? Spending their final years in opulence or desperate but free?

I enjoyed the writing and the story flowed with little effort. As it progressed I realized how much symbolism was on the cover. The caged bird, wilting flowers and beautiful young lady are key elements. The author created a world combining historical elements of the past with possibilities of the future. Mystery and suspense build slowly and conflicts for the characters are revealed. While the theme of early death and scientific experiments was frightening, Rhine's determination brings hope. She has learned to be fierce and will fight for her life, her freedom and her twin wherever that may take her.

I look forward to the next book in this trilogy.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Author
Publisher

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Release date: 3/22/11
Pages: 356
Price/format: $17.99/hardcover
Type: Teen fiction (ages 14 and up)