In My Mailbox (16)

Idea taken from The Story Siren

I got a bunch of new books, all from Houghton Mifflin ^^


Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

In the course of her dark and eventful tale, Cashore plays with the idea of awkwardness, how at a certain age gifts and talents are burdens, how they make it impossible to feel comfortable in the world. And in this she writes a fairly realistic portrait of teenage life into the baroque courts of her outlandish kingdoms…In many respects Graceling is a study of mysterious angers: it offers a perfect parable of adolescence, as its characters struggle with turbulent emotions they must learn to control. The consequences are more tangible than they usually are in more mundane settings—if Katsa loses control, she breaks someone's jaw by accident—but the principle is the same. The teenage characters in this novel, like some we may know in life, grow into their graces. They realize that their monstrous individuality is not so monstrous after all.

What more can I say? This book rocks. Everything about it makes me want to squeal like a fangirl - the cover, the synopsis, everything. I'm so glad I finally had a chance to read and review it because rumor has it that it's brilliant. I'm not in the position to say anything about the story but hopefully I'll enjoy it to the max!

Stay With Me Garret Freymann Weyr.

Leila Abranel, an Egyptian-American young adult, tries to understand her half-sister's suicide by learning the story of her family. She forms a strong attachment to her father's former wife so that she can learn more. In the end, she realizes that everyone has a different version of the story and that stories change over time depending on the teller's current perspective. Leila realizes the importance of family lore in continuing traditions and keeping loved ones alive in some small way.

There's no synopsis on the front flap of this book. It just said - Stay With Me is about how impossible and how important love is -but that what makes me hooked. Isn't it good to read something different? It doesn't say in the summary up there but I found out that it had a relationship between a teen and an adult. I so wanna see how it turned out to be.


After The Moment by Garret Freymann Weyr.

Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She’s smart. She’s brave. She’s also a self-proclaimed train wreck.Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He’s also completely and forever in love with Maia Morland.

Their young love starts off like a romance novel—full of hope, strength, and passion. But life is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love.

Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that, quite often, we fail love.

After The Moment is going to be so sad : ( but I love sad stuff so I had to ask for a review copy. I just hope that I won't be heartbroken like any of the poor characters in from the story. Time to see how true romance is different from novelish romance.

My Big Nose And Other Natural Disasters by Sydney Salter.

It’s the end of junior year, and summer is about to begin. The Summer of Passion, to be exact, when Jory Michaels plans to explore all the possibilities of the future--and, with any luck, score a boyfriend in the process. But Jory has a problem. A big problem. A curvy, honking, bumpy, problem in the form of her Super Schnozz, the one thing standing between Jory and happiness. And now, with the Summer of Passion stretched before her like an open road, she's determined for Super Schnozz to disappear. Jory takes a job delivering wedding cakes to save up for a nose job at the end of the summer; she even keeps a book filled with magazine cutouts of perfect noses to show the doctor. But nothing is ever easy for accident-prone Jory--and before she knows it, her Summer of Passion falls apart faster than the delivery van she crashes. In her hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel, Sydney Salter delivers a story about broadening your horizons, accepting yourself, and finding love right under your nose.

This is the book I want to read most of the batch. Why? Because it's so cute and so close to heart. I used to dislike my nose too - not as much as Jory but to some decent extent. I don't know if I should start reading now or save this one for summer. What do you think? Oh and my Mum thinks the cover looks creepy. How come? It's so cuteee!

A slant Of Light by Laura Whitcomb.

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen—terrified, but intrigued—is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.


I'm at page 100 of this book. So far so good is all I can say. The ghosts here are nothing like the normal ghosts, which is just...good. Nice romance too. I'll put up the review as soon as I finish it. Come back soon if you wanna know how I think, okay : )


So what books have you got? Which one will you read first?

Thanks to Kristin Cashore and Nayda from Houghton for these copies. I'm really appreciated.