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?

Friday's Late Featured Freebie: Unknown by Melissa Pearl

Unknown (The Elements Trilogy #1)

by Melissa Pearl
Free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Darkness is covering the land. As the city of Mezrah grows with power and greed, the rest of the world can only stand by and wait for their inevitable destruction. The only hope against this growing power is an ancient prophecy that people have stopped believing in.

Then a star begins to fall.

Princess Kyla of Taramon stopped believing in the power of light the day her father died. Trapped in a city she does not care for, under the watchful glare of her mother, the queen, she struggles to accept her fate.

Then a star begins to fall.

Jethro has loved Kyla for as long as he can remember. Learning that she was to marry his cousin drove a wedge between him and the feisty princess. Watching her from a distance is a torture he is unable to free himself from.

Then a star begins to fall, sparking an ember of hope and sending two seekers on a treacherous journey into the unknown. - Goodreads

Waiting on Wednesday #14 on Thursday

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

 What the heck happened to Wednesday? Aw man, I know sometimes time flies, but I think I just totally skipped it.  Oh great, if this is going to keep happening I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  It wouldn't be so bad if everything that I needed to get done on Wednesday was magically done.  Then I would make sure that everything needed to be done on Wednesday, and 'poof' on Thursday I could just sit back and relax.  Well, a girl can dream can't she?  So, because Wednesday was left off of the calender this week (for me, anyways) you get to enjoy Waiting on Wednesday on Thursday!  Yay for you!

The Wicked Game by Michelle Zink

Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years.

The voodoo business.

Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaid’s run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.

She doesn’t believe.

Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.

But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.

Including her own.

As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her. ~Goodreads

Top Ten Sequels We Can't Wait To Get Our Hands On

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

This week's topic: Top Ten Sequels We Can't Wait To Get Our Hands On

1. The One (The Selection #3) by Kiera Cass

2. Mistaken (Ancients of Light #4) by Heather Fleener

3. The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5) by Rick Riordan

4. Opposition (Lux #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

5. Free Souls (Mindjack Trilogy #3) by Susan Kaye Quinn
6. Untitled (Lorien Legacies #5) by Pittacus Lore

7. Illusion (The Grimoire Saga #4) by S.M. Boyce
8. Skin Game  (The Dresden Files #15) by Jim Butcher

9. Untitled (The Mediator #7) by Meg Cabot

10. Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Showcase Sunday #14

I have a been a big slacker this week.  I'm really sorry, I've had a terrible book hangover.  Not the good kind either.  I read Allegiant and it put me in kind of a funk.  I didn't even really read anything all week.  Never fear, Jennifer L. Armentrout was to my rescue.  Sentinel was released yesterday and of course I've finished it and I feel great once again!  I can move on from Allegiant.  I just need to vent for a teeny tiny little bit, if you don't want to hear about it, skip down to the showcase Sunday.  Alright, last chance.  If you have any desire to read either of these books, seriously skip down.  My rant, here it goes; Veronica Roth, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?????  Were you so pressured with this book that you really didn't know what to do?  This book was my biggest disappointment of the year.  In Allegiant, nothing made any sense.  Your characters were not themselves, the story line fell short (really short), and your ending really pissed me off.  I applaud you for trying, next time if you are planning on killing one of the main characters you should finish the story like Jennifer L. Armentrout did with Sentinel.  AMAZING!  There.  I'm done.


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.

I picked up Sentinel and Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  I've finished Sentinel and I'm hoping to start Obsession in the near future.

Rachel has also been in a reading funk, she has been extremely busy.  Halloween is one of her favorite times of the year and I believe she spent most of her time on Pinterest.  Can't really blame her, I've seen her pins and they are pretty cool.  Most of her lended books from the library were due back so she had to return them without reading any.  Being the kind and generous friend I am, concerned for her well being, lent her my old Nook.  So now she has my entire library in her possession.  Don't worry I'm not going to list out all 157 books.

What books did you pick up this week?