Discussion: Old versus New

This Week’s Topic: Old vs. New

Last week, we were talking about review books, and I found out that many of you review books from your shelf or the library. Now I'm curious - do you review newer titles, backlist, or a mix?

Blog Tour: Hope and Other Punch Lines

Hope and Other Punch Lines
Julie Buxbaum
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

The New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Three Things and What to Say Next delivers a poignant and hopeful novel about resilience and reinvention, first love and lifelong friendship, the legacies of loss, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

Sometimes looking to the past helps you find your future.

Abbi Hope Goldstein is like every other teenager, with a few smallish exceptions: her famous alter ego, Baby Hope, is the subject of internet memes, she has asthma, and sometimes people spontaneously burst into tears when they recognize her. Abbi has lived almost her entire life in the shadow of the terrorist attacks of September 11. On that fateful day, she was captured in what became an iconic photograph: in the picture, Abbi (aka "Baby Hope") wears a birthday crown and grasps a red balloon; just behind her, the South Tower of the World Trade Center is collapsing.

Now, fifteen years later, Abbi is desperate for anonymity and decides to spend the summer before her seventeenth birthday incognito as a counselor at Knights Day Camp two towns away. She's psyched for eight weeks in the company of four-year-olds, none of whom have ever heard of Baby Hope.

Too bad Noah Stern, whose own world was irrevocably shattered on that terrible day, has a similar summer plan. Noah believes his meeting Baby Hope is fate. Abbi is sure it's a disaster. Soon, though, the two team up to ask difficult questions about the history behind the Baby Hope photo. But is either of them ready to hear the answers?

Can't Wait Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week I can't wait for....

Top Ten Tuesday: A Decade of My Best Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is...

A Decade of My Best Books!

Wow! This was quite a topic! It was a little tough for me, because I did not start pleasure reading again until 2013, so I will be cheating on the years prior, and picking from books published in those years. I am declaring this one of the most difficult TTT topics to date. I struggled, when looking back at each of my "year in books" with which book to pick. I will confess, that when it came between a blockbuster and a less hyped book, which gave me equal enjoyment, I selected the less hyped book, because I am always rooting for the little guy. However, I really enjoyed looking back at all the books I have read, and though I could never choose a "favorite", I chose books that I remember quite fondly or left a big impression on me.

Blog Tour: The Boy Next Story

The Boy Next Story
Tiffany Schmidt
Series: Bookish Boyfriends, #2
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Amulet Books
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

The second book in a series where your favorite literary characters come to life, inspired by the timeless classic, Little Women!

There’s no one better than the boy next door. At least not according to Aurora Campbell, fourteen, who has been in love with Tobias May since their very first sandbox kiss. The problem is, he’s in love with her older sister, Merrilee. And Merri is already dating one of his best friends.

Rory is learning all about pining as her class reads The Great Gatsby, a book she doesn’t find “great” at all. Also not great—her GPA, something she needs to fix, quickly, if she’d like to apply for the chance to spend a week studying art with her hero in New York City over winter break. But when Ms. Gregoire assigns her to read Little Women for extra credit, Rory discovers more than she expected—both about herself and Toby. Maybe she wasn’t in love with the boy next door. . . but the boy next story.

Love is complicated, and it’s all about to get even trickier for Rory at Reginald R. Hero Prep . . . where with the help of one quirky English teacher, students’ fantasies come true, often with surprising consequences.