ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

Title:  LIE by Caroline Bock Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin 224 pages Genre: YA I received this book as an advanced electronic galley through netgalley.com  it was released 8/30/11 Synopsis:  Everybody knows, nobody’s talking. . . . Seventeen-year-old Skylar Thompson is being questioned by the police. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, stands accused of brutally assaulting two young El Salvadoran immigrants from a neighboring town, and she’s the prime witness. Skylar is keeping quiet about what she’s seen, but how long can she keep it up? But Jimmy was her savior . . . . When her mother died, he was the only person who made her feel safe, protected from the world. But when she begins to appreciate the enormity of what has happened, especially when Carlos Cortez, one of the victims, steps up to demand justice, she starts to have second thoughts about protecting Jimmy. Jimmy’s accomplice, Sean, is facing his own moral quandary. He’s out on bail and has been offered a plea in exc

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.   This event helps draw attention to censorship by spotlighting books that were actually or  were attempted to be banned across the USA. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them. Thanks to librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community most of the books targeted were not banned.   I want to send a big thank you to all who help fight these bannings, uphold our First Amendment rights and draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints placed on the availability of information.   Below are books that were attempted to be banned for the past 3 years.   Pick one up and read it this week!     2010:  1) And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson - So Cute! Loved it . 2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Ind

Title:   Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand  by William Aruda & Kristen Dixon Publisher: Wiley 224 pages Genre: Business Synopsis: As a professional, your reputation is your most valuable career asset. Whether you're climbing the ladder at your current company or seeking a new job, in today's fast-paced work environment, you must proactively and continuously position yourself for success. Your credibility, visibility, personality, and personal style all make up your brand. Build and nurture your personal brand and you'll make yourself a must-have, can't-fail professional—and you'll do it without having to be someone you're not. Career Distinction outlines the proven personal branding process and provides case studies of successful professionals that will help you not only survive, but thrive, in today's dynamic and ultracompetitive workplace. You'll learn to manage your brand with innovative tools that enable you to diffe

Title: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell  Publisher: Vintage Crime 280 page Genre: Mystery Synopsis: It was a senselessly violent crime; on a cold night in a remote Swedish farm house an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this didn't present enough problems for the Ystad police Inspector Kurt Wallander, the dying woman's last word is foreign, leaving the police the one tangible clue they have - and in the process, the match that could inflame Sweden's already smoldering anti-immigrant sentiments. Unlike the situation with his ex-wife, his estranged daughter, or the beautiful but married young prosecutor who has piqued his interest, in this case Wallander finds a problem he can handle. He quickly becomes obsessed with solving the crime before the already tense situation explodes, but soon comes to realize that it will require all his reserves of energy and dedication to solve. Review: I

Title:  Beautiful Disaster  by Laura Spinelli Publisher: Penguin Publishing 384 pages Genre: Mystery, Romance Synopsis:   A story of love lost...and found. Mia Wells's eco-friendly career goals are about to become a reality-but her life-altering moment is interrupted when an unexpected call ushers in her tremulous past. A man who's never left Mia's memory: Flynn, the enigmatic, passionate man whose disappearance broke her heart, has mysteriously resurfaced.  Now back in her life and in the hospital, Flynn is gravely injured. Mia keeps a bedside vigil-terrified that he will die, awestruck at the prospect of his survival. In a story filled with sweetness and suspense, Mia's what-ifs are endless. And Flynn's return ignites an achingly powerful tale about the most enduring love, one that is greater than honor, or friendship, or the passing of time. Review: I was grabbed by this book from the beginning and while it is a bit of a sappy story you have to reme

I have read several tweets about this article " Authors Say Agents Try to “Straighten” Gay Characters in YA " and it makes me crazy! Why do gay characters need to be straightened or eliminated? Isn't it bad enough that the suicide rate for LGBT teens is higher than other groups? Now not only are people going to shun them in real life but we are going to make it harder for them to identify with characters in fiction? Wake up people! This might actually help some of those kids.  I'm almost sad that they didn't post the name of the publishing company in their article maybe it would have shamed them into doing something different like take a look at their policies or the way in which publishing agents are doing their jobs. Maybe these archaic policies or choices being made by agents are the reason I can't find any books with AA teen characters that aren't set in the hood or about basketball or some other sport.  Do they think all AA boys read is sports r

Title:   Bleeding Out  by Baxter Clare Publisher: Bella Books 306 pages Genre: Lesbian Mystery Synopsis: Lieutenant  Meet LA Franco - Better known as Frank who commands Homicide Squad #93 in the gang ravaged central Los Angeles area. Described by one of her detectives as "Dirty Harry's personality stuffed into Martina Navratilova's body", Frank allows nothing into her bruised personal life except music, football, booze and exercise - all her drugs of choice. And just when she needs them most, they are all about to fail her.... Review: Frank is called into investigate the homicide of a young girl dumped at a school.  The girl had been brutally beaten and sodomized. During her investigation she finds more bodies and evidence that ties them all together.  Now she knows she is looking for a serial killer who is escalating in his violence. While trying to find the killer she finds that pushing the pain away from the death of her long term partner isn't wo

Title:   Hit List (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 20)  by Laurell K. Hamilton Publisher: Berkley Hardcover 336 pages Genre: Horror Synopsis: A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer. Review: Old school Anita is back.  After the last book in this series I wasn't sure if I was going to read this one but I did and I was glad.  Anita has been away from her men and Jean Claude as she helps other Marshals in a serial killer case.  Of course being away has its down side, the metaphysics that allow Anita to heal and do some of the amazing things she does are going a little wacky because of the amount of times he has spent away.  But have no fear Edward has her back.  The bond between Edward and Anita has never been more apparent than it is in this b

Title: This is Us: the new all American Family by David Marin Publisher: Exterminating Angel Press 288 pages Genre: Memoir - Adoption Synopsis: When David Marin fell in love with three abandoned children desperately in need of a home, there was only one thing he could do. Give up his relatively carefree life and learn how to become a parent. In the process, he found the future he had always wanted, but he also learned some hard lessons about single-parent adoption, the Kafkaesque side of Social Services, and America's anti-immigrant sentiment: Heartbreaking, funny, and inspiring,  This Is US  chronicles Marin’s quest to create a better life for these children—and for himself. Review: David Marin's account of adopting three children from Foster care is a delight.  Witty, and laugh out loud funny in some places yet aggravating and sad in others.  David Marin had to jump through more hoops than the average adoptive parent because he was a single man.  Many social worker

Title: Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin 336 pages Genre: Fiction - Historical ficition Synopsis:  A fictionalized account of the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-ol