Waiting for Wednesday #15

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we are highly anticipating.

The Impossible Knife of Memory
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Release Date: January 7th 2014

For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.

Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down. - Goodreads

Why am I Waiting?

I read Speak and Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson. She has a way of taking real issues that are rarely talked about and sometimes even taboo to discuss and making them into beautiful books. I haven't read any books that have characters dealing with PTSD from the Iraq War. I can't wait to see Anderson take on this topic.

What are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Top Ten Book Covers We Would Like to Redesign

This is this week's Top Ten Tuesday, which is hosted by The Broke & the Bookish.

 I don't know any of you knew this about me, but when I was 16 I decided I wanted to work in the movie studios in the special effects departments.  Any movie with some really kick a*# special effects goes straight to my heart.  This is another reason I prefer a good action movie to a romantic comedy any day.  I decided to go to my local community college and low and behold, not one single computer graphics class.  What can you expect, this was 15 years ago.  So I settled on the typical, not sure what I want to do major, Liberal Arts.  Then, life happens.  You get married, have kids, sometimes things don't happen like you planned.

About 3 1/2 years ago, I discovered photography.  I received a really great camera for my birthday, and it's now one of my hobbies.  I mostly take pictures of my kids, I really love the action shots from all of their sports.  Every once in a while I will do a friends son/daughter's senior picture, or a wedding.  Nothing major and nothing that I would do professionally.  I'm not a professional, just having some fun.  I recently received my green screen background and software.  Now I feel like I get to do something that I've always wanted to do, only with still pictures.  Anyways, I appreciate a really good book design since I admire those who went into the graphic design profession. If I was a professional, these would be the books covers that Rachel and I would like to redesign.

~Zombie Island (Zombie Apocalypse #1) Hoffman, Samantha

~All-American Girl (All-American Girl, #1) by Meg Cabot

~The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky

~The Hunt (The Hunt, #1) by Andrew Fukuda

~Jade Green by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
~All of the Incarnations of Immortality series by Pierce Anthony need a good update
~All of the MYTH Adventure series by Robert Asprin also need to be modernized.
~As much as I enjoy the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich the book covers could be spiced up a little

Which books would you like to see with a new cover?

Sunday Showcase #15

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea where you sow what books you've purchased, borrowed, checked out from the library, received from giveaway, etc.

This week has been pretty slow for both reading and picking up new books. Late fall should be a prime time to catch up on my reading, but instead I have been watching a lot of television. I am hooked on the TV show, Scandal.

I know the next couple of months are going to be kind of crazy with the holidays and everything else that is going on but I am going to try my best to continue to read, review and blog when I have free time. Melissa, awesome as always, has finally got out of the reading funk that Allegiant put her in, thanks to Obsession by Jennifer Armentrout. So I might need to listen to Melissa's recommendations and read the Lux Series by Armentrout to get me out of my reading dry spell, but I need to finish House of Hades by Rick Riordan first.

This week, Melissa purchased Cursed to add to her Jennifer L. Armentrout collection and I pick up Unknown by Melissa Pearl free on Amazon.

What did you pick up this week?