Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week I'm waiting on Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer!
Spontaneous Aaron Starmer Release Date: August 23, 2016 Publisher: Dutton Books Waited on by: Amrutha Goodreads
“Katelyn Ogden was a lot of things, but she wasn’t particularly
explosive, in any sense of the word.”
Mara Carlyle’s senior year at Covington High
in suburban New Jersey is going on as normally as could be expected, until the
day—wa-bam!—fellow senior Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period pre-calc.
Katelyn is the first, but she won’t be the last senior to spontaneously combust
without warning or explanation. The body count grows and the search is on for a
reason—Terrorism! Drugs! Homosexuality! Government conspiracy!—while the
seniors continue to pop like balloons.
Mara narrates the end
of their world as she knows it with tell-it-like-it-is insight as she tries to
make it to graduation in one piece through an explosive year punctuated by
romance, quarantine, lifelong friendship, hallucinogenic mushrooms, bloggers,
ice cream trucks, “Snooze Button™,” Bon Jovi, and the filthiest language you’ve
ever heard the President of the United States use over Skype.
I'm so hyped about this? This book won the Most Unique
Premise of August 2016 award -- I'm sure because the plot sounds absolutely
wild. This book hasn't even been released yet and there are already rumors that
this will get made into a movie. I'm always ready to read about girls from
suburban New Jersey because I am one, but I'm even more ready to read about
people who blow up unexpectedly. Can't wait for this one!
Whatever.: or how junior year became totally f$@ked S.J. Goslee Series: N/A Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary Publisher: Roaring Brook Press Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars Goodreads
Thanks to Roaring Brook Press for the ARC won through a Goodreads giveaway!
I must admit that Whatever is the first book focused on coming out that I've read - it's not because I'm opposed to reading this kind of book, I just seem to gravitate more towards dystopian and fantasy, which usually doesn't focus on this topic. Though I can't compare it to other books on the topic, I thought Whatever was awesome!
Mike Tate is such a teenage boy. I'm serious. I swear I was friends with Mike Tate in high school. He doesn't (externally, at least) care about much - he just wants to be cool, hang out with his friends, live his life, and all that. Unfortunately, one of his best friends has other plans for him: student council! On top of this, apparently he drunkenly made out with a boy at a party. Basically, things are getting Confusing for Mike.
I absolutely loved Mike and the other characters in Whatever. Mike kind of reminded me of Scott Pilgrim in the way he was super casual and low key, but also internally freaking out. He kind of just went with the flow, figuring things out when he needed to. And his inner monologue was so fun to read.
All the guys in Mike's friend group had distinctly different personalities, but they were still teenage boys through and through. Cam was my favorite of these friends - he wore Hawaiian shirts, wanted to bring back the fanny pack, and frequently injured himself while attempting death-defying stunts. Basically, he was hilarious.
Lisa was such a great female character to compliment Mike - she was definitely a spitfire, and wouldn't take no for an answer. It was also nice to see college as something Lisa was thinking about as a junior. The reason Mike gets involved in student council is because Lisa wants to be president for her college applications. I recently read a thread on Twitter about how college is a Big Deal for high school students (which it is), so seeing it in this book made me like !!!!this!!!!
As for the plot of the book itself, I really enjoyed how it had a sort of meandering quality. It wasn't fast paced, at a full spring towards a specific journey - it helped support how Mike didn't really have a destination in mind, because life doesn't really work like that. In terms of the coming out aspect, I liked how S.J. Goslee mixed the reactions of the people in Mike's life. Sometimes people have trouble adjusting to changes, but the main point that Mike made was that him being gay or bisexual (not entirely sure what he landed on in the end) didn't change his friendships, it just changed him.
All in all, Whatever is definitely a must read! It reads so natural, and it's honestly so funny. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mike's journey, especially since he's so different from any character I've ever read before. I can't wait to read more from S.J. Goslee in the future!
Also, I posted a pretty ~rad~ (in my obviously objective opinion) photo of this book on Instagram (@wlabb), so you should check it out :)
Previously on We Live and Breathe Books is an end of the month wrap up post. Previously allows us to recap all our posts from the past month and discuss what's going on in our lives, including what books we're reading, any fun things we've been doing, and a TBR for the next month. Our inspiration for this meme comes from Midnight Madness Newsletters created by Melanie at YA Midnight Reads.
This past month, Noor and Kiersten decided to start a We Live and Breathe Books bookstagram account! We don't have many photos yet, but we'd love it if you checked us out. You can find us @wlabb. Here's what our feed looks like so far:
We like to keep to a pretty loose theme when it comes to photos. It's fun to be able to take pictures that look really different, so that's what we decided to stick with. We also decided to participate in three bookstagram challenges for August. We're going to be doing #BackToBooksAugust, #SerialTalesInAugust, and #EOSChallenge! It's going to be fun to have prompts to go off of and get creative to combine prompts.
If you bookstagram, let us know so we can check it out!
Kiersten
Hello, friends! I don't know why but July felt like a really long month to me. I mean, I'm not complaining - it just felt longer than June did.
I started out this month by taking the GRE, which went well! I ended up getting good scores, so I'm right on track for graduate school applications in the fall.
July was a great reading month! I really enjoyed everything I read this month except for Ghost Talkers, which was kind of "meh" for me. It was nice to finally finish off The Lunar Chronicles by reading Fairest and Winter, and I finally got to read Lady Midnight! It took me a while to really get invested in the story (I think because I got distracted by Jem and Tessa's mention in the prologue); I'm really looking forward to the next book! How to Hang a Witch came out last week, so you should definitely check that out, and Whatever. and Nevernight both come out soon, so look out for reviews in the next two weeks!
I decided that I'm going to participate in ARC August and #ReadThemAllThon this month, so my TBR is really ambitious. You can check out my full (overambitious) TBR on my ARC August and #ReadThemAllThon TBR post. For the sake of the photo collage, I decided to just show off my highest priority books for next month. I'm moving back to school on the 20th, starting rehearsal for a show on the 22nd, and starting classes on the 29th, so I probably won't even read all of these. BUT I WILL TRY!!! I'm going to have to obsess over my bullet journal and micromanage my time so I can be productive.
Sup home skillets. I'm with Kiersten, I feel like the beginning of July was years ago. I can hardly remember it. It was a more youthful, joyous time and now I am a frail, old woman made decrepit by time.
The month started off with some fun stuff: TWO of my friends from New Jersey were in North Carolina (not together, two separate occasions) so we did fun stuff like brunch and boating. When we went boating, our group of six split up into three boats, and my friend and I were unarguably the most uncoordinated. We kept failing to turn around and heading the wrong direction and were met with our friends yelling stupid jokes at us but in my defense, I was not the weak link. Anyway, we didn't flip over like that time in Oklahoma (still bitter) so it was still a Positive Experience.
There was also some not-so-fun stuff like my transfer orientation for NC State. I got to see the area where most of my classes were, which was cool, but other than that it was a rehashing of all the stuff you already know that they just tell you when your parents are there so they feel in-control. My biggest personal accomplishment of the month also falls in with the not-so-fun stuff. I finally went to the dentist for the first time since maybe age 12. I know you're all probably raising your eyebrows and silently judging, but I swear I'm not a decaying crone with two teeth left because I leave them in a state of negligence. I brush every day, they're perfectly straight, my friend even commented over FaceTime less than an hour ago that they were white. I've just had really awful terrible experiences with dentists in my youth and eventually I just refused to go out of sheer terror. I figured I'd ever go if I was dying or something but not unless I really needed to. Well, the other week I had some gum irritation and it seemed like an infection so my mom made me hit up our local dentist and it was actually a Pleasant Experience. I feel like this was a great stride toward personal growth and self-actualization.
As you can see, there's no coherency with my July reads, I just read whatever tickled my fancy at the moment, but here are some brief comments on my reads:
How to Hang a Witch: Kiersten and I reviewed this last week and both gave it 5 stars. This was so unexpectedly good and I definitely recommend it if you want something paranormal.
The Geography of You and Me: I usually love Jen E. Smith but I wasn't totally feeling this one. However, it was still a cutesy story and a nice concept.
You Know Me Well: I'm always here for a David Levithan book and while it wasn't my favorite of his works, it was a fun story and I'm definitely going to look out for Nina LaCour's work.
The Sun is Also a Star: I loved Nicola Yoon's debut -- Everything, Everything -- and couldn't wait to read her next book so I read the ARC Kiersten got me from BEA as soon as I received it and I was totally in love with every piece of this story. I can't wait to review it when the release date is close!
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: Okay, so I cheated a little and I put this on my read list even though I'm not finished. I will be done by the time this posts but I got distracted reading Cursed Child today and didn't finish Mara Dyer. I have mixed feeling about what I've read but we'll see.
The Wrath and the Dawn: Another book I can't wait to review; this was so spectacular and riveting, the sequel is one of my top priority books right now.
So, I cheated again, just like in the last section. I actually have already finished Cursed Child but the graphics were already made when I did so now it's staying in my TBR. I guess I shouldn't have assumed it would take me past the release day to read it, but also in my head I was expecting to be like 700 pages and it was only 300 so. Anyway. as I mentioned, I seriously need to read The Rose and the Dagger because its predecessor had a very vague ending and I need to soak in every bit of information about these characters. I also have heard great things about The Last Boy and Girl in the World and I read a few pages when I was in Barnes & Noble waiting for my mom, so I'm intrigued. Lastly, I have an ARC of Holding up the Universe and it keeps staring at me.
Remember to follow our bookstagram and see the cool challenges we're doing!
Amrutha
So another month of summer, another month in which Noor & Kiersten lead far more exciting lives than lil ol' me. But worry not, anyone who actually reads these personal bits of my life! Next month I'll be back at school and while I'll still be boring, I'll be boring with slightly more interesting stories to tell you guys.
So for those of you who don't know (all of you) I danced Indian Classical dance for like 13 years of my life, so that was a thing. Anyway, because of ankle issues and the like I haven't been involved the last couple years. Anyway, a friend of mine who is a little younger was doing a big performance last week and so I spent my month being involved with that! I wound up making this my project of the month just because 1) her event was in July it wasn't something that could be pushed and 2) turns out wood work is an expensive hobby...lots of tools and things are involved. Not sure what I'm doing yet for August but I'll let ya'll know in next month's post!
So, July had its ups and downs in terms of reading. The Memory Book was STUNNING. I loved it so much, both the premise and the writing. I also, to an extent, enjoyed You Know Me Well & I'll Give You the Sun. I, like Noor, am also kind of fake because I put The Problem With Forever on here but I started it and have not finished it yet -- it does seem to have some promise though. I didn't really enjoy either Katie Cotugno book -- I reviewed 99 Days and said I'd like to read more from her to see if it was just a plot problem, but to be honest I think I just didn't jive too well with the writing style.
Like always, half the books here are from last month's TBR because I am #theworst. Harry Potter is on here because Harry Potter. Girl in Pieces is on here because Kiersten declared that I would read it, and Kiersten's wish is my command.
This summer, We Live and Breathe Books (Kiersten in particular) is participating in the Summer Blog Promo Tour hosted by The Book Bratz! That means, every Sunday in July and August, we'll be hosting a different blogger to spread the love.
Today, Eli from The Silver Words and Kiersten are going to share some of their favorite dances, which is especially appropriate since National Dance Day was yesterday!
Eli's Picks
Hi everyone, and thanks to Kiersten for hosting me today! One of my non-reading/writing interests, dance has been something I’ve been interested in since I was little. I can’t dance myself, but I love watching it, especially hip hop and lyrical hip hop. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order. If you love any of these dances, or if you have your own to recommend me, don’t be shy and talk to me on Twitter at @thesilverwords :)
iKON - 6 Foot 7 Foot
iKON is one of my favorite kpop groups, and their performances have amazed me since they were trainees. This dance is from when they were competing in the show WIN: Who is Next as Team B, and I love the way that they perfectly synchronized with the music. They work together as a team brilliantly, and they always look like they’re having fun.
Dumbo & Lawrence from Poreotics - Silhouettes
Even though their concepts aren’t the most original or awe-inspiring, Poreotics still manages to wow me with their dances. This has been one of my favorite dances for a long time. It’s elegantly simple, and even though it’s pretty short, it captures the talent of both Lawrence and Dumbo.
Melanie & Marko - I Got You
This dance is from So You Think You Can Dance Season 8, and with it, Melanie and Marko were cemented as my two favorites from that season. They’re both incredibly talented, and I loved the stories that they were able to tell through their dances. This one especially meant a lot to me, and I was glad that they were able to perform it.
Cyrus - Holy Ghost
Admittedly, part of why I love Cyrus so much, as opposed to other amazing poppers, is because of his personality. I admired the way that he persevered and made it so far in So You Think You Can Dance Season 9, and his amazing attitude throughout it all. His Dance for Your Life performance was what brought it all together for me, and I was rooting for him throughout the entire competition. If you’re just as impressed as I am, allow me to recommend this one :)
I Am Me - S&M
Before I Am Me, I was completely partial to Quest Crew. Quest is flashy and fun, but I Am Me won me over with their heart and their incredible ability to work as a team. The illusions that they create are stunning, and their performances are always powerful. This one is one of the many great ones that they did while competing in America’s Best Dance Crew, and I was so proud of them when they won.
Kiersten's Picks
I'm not sure if I've talked about it on here before, but I started dancing when I was 6-years-old, started competing at 9, and even after graduating from high school and retiring from competitive dance, I still dance and choreograph for a dance organization at school. I've done many different styles including contemporary, ballet, pointe, modern, hip hop, jazz, tap, musical theater, and I even took a beginner ballroom class at school. Basically, I've always loved to dance and watch dance. I was supposed to pick five dances to round out this top ten, but I'm going to cheat because I DO WHAT I WANT.
Wade Robson - Ramalama (Bang Bang)
This dance happened in the first season of So You Think You Can Dance, and I'm still not over it. I'll never be over it. This is just one of those dances for me that I'll forever think is absolutely brilliant. It was so different from anything I'd seen before when I first saw it, and I still love it all these years later.
Kyle Hanagami - Iron
I'm working on a dance project in the fall for my friend's honors capstone project, and he's been sending us some of his research so we can start seeing the style for the piece. This is probably my favorite of the dances he's sent so far. The thing I love about this one is that it's so compelling - even when I don't plan on watching it all the way through, I just can't pull my eyes away until the end.
Tricia Miranda - Bitch Better Have My Money
This is one of my favorite hip hop combinations of all time. The great thing about this is how different each group looks doing the same choreography. While I love really precise dances (I'll have one lower that's really tight), there's something so great about looser dancing like this. Also, these people hit this choreography SO HARD. Goals.
Royal Family - FRONTROW
Ok, so I know this is a ten minute dance, but I promise that it's totally worth it. This one was choreographed by Parris Goebel, who you might recognize from Justin Bieber's Sorry music video (Aka the music video that actually made me like that song. Like, I'm so obsessed with the dance that it makes me like the song more. I learned a lot of the choreography from the video, so now I ALWAYS want the song to come on so I can wow all my friends by doing the dance). Anyway, this dance has so many different flavors of hip hop in it, and they're all executed so well. I can't imagine how it must have felt to be in the audience for this.
Since I mentioned watching dance in the audience, I just wanted to add a little bit of my two cents in on that because it is partially related to my next dance pick. I personally feel like there's something that's so much more magical about watching a dance live. When the recital at my dance school was coming up, all the dance classes that happened at the same time would usually come together and show their dances as practice for the performance. There was this one dance from another class that I really loved watching - the choreography was so great, and there was this feeling in the room when they did the dance. Of course, I've since then watched the dance on the recital DVD, but it's not the same. There was something about seeing that dance in person, in the rehearsal space, that added to it - something about watching it up close. From a distance, some of the magic was lost.
Kate Jablonski - In This Shirt
I could go on forever about this dance. This is honestly one of my favorite dances of all time. I think about it almost everyday (I'm not kidding). This is choreography goals to me. Contemporary has always been my favorite style, and I absolutely love this kind of choreography. The dancers are so committed and precise - they dance with such beautiful abandon. The video above is the one posted on the choreographer's YouTube channel, but I'm also going to link to a video of the dance at a competition because I feel like seeing it straight on like an audience would gives an entirely different perspective to the choreography. I'll never get sick of watching this. If I could go back in time and redo anything in my life, it would be making sure that I was in this dance.
So this was originally supposed to be the end of my picks (aka sticking to just five) but then THIS DANCE HAPPENED ON MONDAY NIGHT ON SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, AND I WOULD BE DOING A DISSERVICE TO YOU ALL IF I DIDN'T INCLUDE IT OK. I'm sorry for yelling.
Travis Wall - Send In The Clowns
I will admit that this one is a bit strange, but it's absolutely beautiful nonetheless. Travis Wall is always brilliant. This is definitely my most artistic pick on this list.
Now Let's Talk More About Me
Like I mentioned above, in the past two years of college I started choreographing for the dance organization that I'm in. I've decided that I'm going to share with you guys some dress rehearsal videos of the dances I choreographed! You can look for me in the videos - I'm the one with the dark hair with blonde underneath, if you can see it.
Atlas
This is the first thing I ever choreographed! It started out as a combination for a workshop, and then I decided to do a full dance with it.
The Fall
After choreographing Atlas my sophomore year, I choreographed two other workshop pieces before I did this one last year. This one was especially fun to work on because I decided to play with a lot of different things happening at the same time. Rehearsals were often confusing, but I think it ended up being pretty cool!
I'm going into my senior year, and I'm hoping to choreograph again this year! I also have this idea for a duet that I want to potentially collaborate on to make a properly filmed version, so hopefully I can make that happen.
If you want to check out some of the workshop combinations I choreographed, you can check out the first one here and the second one here (I sprained my ankle a few days before teaching this workshop, so it was a struggle).
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this dance post! While it is entirely unrelated to books, I know that Eli and I really enjoyed working on it!
Stuffed Animal Saturday is a meme that we post here at We Live and Breathe Books to showcase the book we're currently reading with one of our favorite stuffed animals and discuss our stuffed animal's opinion (well, it's really our opinion, but that's besides the point). We hope you enjoy our quirky feature as much as we enjoy writing it!
This Saturday, my sister's cat Annie and I are reading The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin!
This is Annie lounging around on her bungee chair on a hot summer day with a good book. She doesn't weigh enough to make it bounce but she likes the feel of it anyway.
So far: We just started yesterday and I think Annie might be a little further ahead because of her lazy lounging tendencies but I myself have only just finished chapter seven as I had a few other things to do. However, the beginning is pretty interesting and I really like her portrayal of Mara's PTSD (or is it ~something else~ ?????? 🤔 🤔) and can't wait to read more!
Sneak peek: Annie loves ouija boards so I'll share a scene from one of the first few pages where Mara Dyer and her two friends use one just for one, with her best friend asking "How am I going to die?"
The three of us watched the board. My calves pricked from kneeling on Rachel's carpet for so long, and the backs of my knees felt clammy. Nothing happened. Then something did. We looked at each other as the piece moved under our hands. It semi-circled the board, sailing past A through K, and crept past L. It settled on M. "Murder? Claire's voice was soaked with excitement. She was so sketchy. What did Rachel see in her? The piece glided in the wrong direction. Away from U and R. Landing on A. Rachel looked confused. "Matches?" "Mauling?" Claire asked. "Maybe you set a forest fire and get eaten by Smokey the Bear?" Rachel laughed, briefly dissolving the panic that had slithered into my stomach. When we first sat down to play, I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at Claire's melodramatics. Now, not so much. The piece zigzagged across the board, cutting her laughter short.
R. We were silent. Our eyes didn't leave the board as the piece jerked back to the beginning. To A. Then stopped.
I can't speak for Annie but personally, I love spooky books so I hope this one has some creepy twists!
- Noor
Are you and your stuffed animal reading anything interesting?
