8) Paper Covers Rock and 9) Cold Tangerines

Wow, well now i feel like such a slacker (which i am) since K posted and i haven't posted in a while. To be honest, i'm kind of tired of apologizing for my long and unexcused absences, so i'm just going to say now that i don't know when i will next post, but it probably won't be soon. i know me and my laziness--just putting that out there. so, to start this post, i'll give you some background just for the heck of it...

wearing: plaid pj pants and a sweatshirt
location: bed

listening to: "O Children" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (this song was in the movie HP Deathly Hallows Part1 when Harry and Hermoine start dancing in the tent...i looked up the name of the song and put it on my Grooveshark). This will change throughout the post and i'll probably make references to what song i'm listening to, but thats simply because i really like music.

Ok, so onto important business. I have a book to add to the "55 Books in a Year List"!! Finally.

8) Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
It's her first novel and i think she did an impeccable job. I originally grabbed it off the shelf for three reasons:
1) i needed a fun, short read to get my mind off of finals
2) it was on the New Books shelf in the Young Adult section, which i was casually looking at.

3) the cover really caught my attention (yes, i know, how shallow)

Let me just say that it exceeded my expectations, yet was very surprising. It's more complex than one review can include, but here's a link to a review i wrote over this book (yes, i'm being lazy and don't want to type it again...). It's going on the list because it has made it into my Top 10 Books of All Time, and that's pretty hard to do, so congrats Jenny Hubbard. Oh and i would like to apologize for the typo in the review in the link (it should be "running" not "rinning"). i didn't type it; i hand wrote it and then someone typed it and put it up on the website. so, not my fault. i'm just so OCD about things like this that i just had to point it out.

I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice con mi madre and we are talking through it as sort of a book club and watching clips of the movie (Keira Knightley version). Also, as a free reading book i'm re-reading Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (for like the 2nd or 3rd time). Also, for Biblical Literature (Bib Lit) class, i'm reading parts of the Bible. For example, for last class, i had to read Exodus 13-19. Also, for English class, we were reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, but we finished and turned in our papers (thank goodness!) and are now starting a new book, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. If you ask me, it's a very weird book to read for an English class. i feel especially bad for all the guys in my class seing as how it's kind of chick lit. Anyway, my point is, i'm juggling a lot of literature right now and my backpack is guaranteed to have at least two books in it at any given time :) Also, i'm trying to figure out whether to take AP Lit or regular English next year.
Oh! So K and i have come up with an ingenious idea to execute. Every month we will meet at the public library and have a book swap. She will bring a book and i will bring a book and we'll talk about the book we just got finished reading and why we think the other person should read the book we brought. We will meet on the 13th of every month. So, next Monday we will have our first swap, and who knows, we might blog about it and let ya'll know how it goes. This is going to be very experimental at the start, but i'm sure we'll figure it out eventually.
Also, i got to go to a book store today and got two new additions to my collection of books: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen and Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson. Both of these books i've read twice already, but they are just so good that i needed to own them for future readings.

9) Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist

While i was there, i looked for Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist. I read her other book, Cold Tangerines, and i loved it. It was a book of short stories about her life and it was very entertaining and enlightening. I highly recommend it. When i heard she had a new book, it immediately went onto my list, but i still haven't gotten to it yet and i'm not sure if my public library would have it or not.

Oh, and i do own Sarah Dessen's newish book, What Happened to Goodbye, but i'm saving it for Spring Break so i can read it on the beach :)

Oh and i forgot to mention it, but i would also recommend the book Dreams of Significant Girls by Cristina Garcia. It was another New Books Shelf acquisition and it was decent, but not as wonderful as Paper Covers Rock. I think it's worth you reading, but i warn you, because there's some slightly innapropriate content that you should be aware of, so if you're not 14 or older, i wouldnt want you reading this and neither would your parents. On that note, i bid you all adieu.
Happy Reading,
M

P.S. I was the one that added the countdown to the release  of the next Gallagher Girls book. K and I are very excited about this, if you hadn't noticed!!!!!!