Monday 2 February 2009

In My Mailbox (3)

Idea taken from The Story Siren

I got books this week, again! Two are presents from my cousin from Australia and one I won over FBF.


Lock And Key  by Sarah Dessen.

After her mom vanished in a stench of drugs and alcohol, Ruby continued to live in the family house alone. Finally found out, the introspective teenager is sent to the luxurious home of her older sister, Cora, whom she hadn't seen in ten years. Everything there seems unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and supremely weird: her fancy new room; her lavish new wardrobe; the exclusive private school where she never quite fits in. Most mysterious of all is Nate, the friendly boy next door who seems to have a deep secret of his own. Another subtle character-driven teen novel by Sarah Dessen, the author of Just Listen and That Summer.

I love Sarah Dessen so you can imagine how happy I was to receive this book. It's an Australia one, too bad I couldn't find the exact cover. It looks kind of like USA version because everything is in pink, except there's a hand carrying a key and no white stripes. I'll take a picture of it someday : )


The Man Of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld

After the breakup of her parents' marriage, teenage Hannah Gavener is shipped off to live with a Philadelphia aunt. Feeling like the divorce refugee that she is, Hannah struggles through her insecurities, seemingly content to live in the shadow of her hip, gorgeous cousin Fig. Later, in sessions with her college psychiatrist, she begins to cope more directly with her problems, but her intense ambivalence about deep relationships persists. Curtis Sittenfeld's The Man of My Dreams presents a central character whose crises and decisions unfold with the hard logic of life. A fine stand-alone follow-up to the author's debut novel, Prep.

I saw this book last summer but it didn't have much an impression on me. My cousin said she read it and it was cute so she got me another copy. Lately I've heard good things about the author, so I'm expecting this book to be a good read.


Love, Meg by C.Leigh Purtill

Meg Shanley always believed that her parents died when she was a baby. Since then, she and her older sister Lucie have lived a nomadic life, never settling down long enough for Meg to feel like anything but the new girl. Alone in her uncertainty and confusion, Meg writes letters to Jennifer Aniston for advice. Unlike Lucie, Jen is stable. She's on Meg's TV-no matter where Meg happens to be living-every night at eleven. For a few years, Jennifer even writes back.

But now Jen's letters have stopped. Meg and Lucie are in LA, in a tiny apartment, when a stranger shows up and reveals a seemingly impossible secret. She discovers she has relatives in New York she never knew existed. Meg travels across the country to find her family-and uncover the truth about her life. But instead, what she finds is the source of her own inner strength.

C. Leigh Purtill's surprising and suspenseful first novel captures the exquisite joy and deep sorrow of a teenager who will stop at nothing to discover who she really is.

Love, Meg came a long way from wherever Jessica Brody lives to Maryland and then  to Vietnam. I won this book over Teen Free Book Friday site and because the founder didn't send overseas, I had to use my friend's USA address. It took super long to reach me, like an entire month or more. Anyway it came at last, safe and sound. Some say it's like Sarah Just Listen and that gets me a bit curious.


What've you got this week? I hope there were a lot of cool books : D

7 comments:

Steph Su said...

Hey Thao, nice books you got there! It must be really inconvenient living so far away from where these books come from. :/ really wish overseas shipping were cheaper. Sarah Dessen is always great. I'm not quite a fan of Curtis Sittenfeld's stuff, but you'll have to let me know how you like it. And I've wanted to read Love, Meg for a long time, but haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet.

Books I got this week were all from PaperbackSwap:
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Happy reading!

Bookworm said...

Oh I really want to read Sarah's books...starting with Lock & Key!

Kd said...

Sarah Dessen is amazing! My favorite of hers is lock and key! I can't wait to see what you think of it.

Barrie said...

I loved Lock and Key. I haven't read The Man of My Dreams or Love, Meg. So, I'll be curious to read your reviews of those.

deltay said...

I read lock and key awhile back, and I found it pretty amazing. Hmm, the Austrailian cover sounds pretty cool -definitely take a pic sometime!

Lenore Appelhans said...

That's wonderful! FBF sends abroad?

Thao said...

No Lenore, Jessica sent the book to my friend who lives in US and she sent it to me later.