Book Review: A Bride's Story

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori

*A YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens 2012*

I was first drawn to this book by the absolutely stunning artwork.  Mori is such a talented artist.  I was amazed by the detials she was able to put into the clothing and landscapes.

A Bride's Story is a historical fiction manga, set in the early 1800s on the central Asian silk road.  Amira is a 20 year old girl who has recently been given in marriage to a boy 8 years her junior.  While this may sound awkward to our modern ears, his maturity and leadership  make it believable.  Amira is a super cool chick who is an expert horsewoman, can shoot a hawk out of the sky with her bow and arrow, and is generally just the nicest person around.  When her old family decides they need her back so she can be married off to a more politically affluent family, her new family and town rally for a big throwdown.  Dotted with little day to day experiences of life during this time period, I found myself entranced by the characters and the lifestyle.  The character of Mr. Smith, an Englishman living in the area in order to conduct research, helps give clarity on certain cultural habits and beliefs. 

Romance, cool horsebackriding, great fights, and some awesome shots with a bow make this a great read.  It's worth it just for the illustrations! 

New Graphic Novels!

We have recently received a bunch of new graphic novel titles, including:


Blue Exorcist # 8
Vampire Knight # 2,3,4,5,6
Black Cat # 7, 9, 10
Full Metal Alchemist # 21, 22, 23, 24, 25




 




Bride's Story



















The Plague Ships


Batman: Earth One




Dear Creature


The Girl Who Owned a City


Rust: Visitor in the Field



Justice League: Origin (Volume 1)


The Red Ruby


Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices #1)


The Kite Runner


Come check them out!

New Books for April!

A new shipment of books is here! 

Come check them out!

It's here!  Clockwork Princess is the third installment of the wildly popular Infernal Devices series. 

Mortmain needs only one last piece to use the infernal devices to take over London, and that is Tessa Gray. Tessa realizes that the only person who can saver her from his evil grip is herself, but is she strong enough?  Find this book in the SHOWCASE area.

In this collection of short stories, you will find everything from the mythical to modern science fiction.  Along the way you may meet some trolls, an undead dog, and a very alien cat.

Fia and Annie are sisters with extraordinary powers, trapped by an organization that wants to use them for corporate espionage. Dark intrigue, sharp witty dialogue, and a kick-tail main character make this book worth every page.

It’s 1950 in the New Orleans French Quarter.  The daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie longs for a way out.  She dreams of entrance into an elite college, one that will allow her to make her own way in the world.  But when a mysterious murder takes place, she is torn between leaving behind all she has known and staying to seek out the truth.

When JD returns from a stint “upstate”, he find that his mom has a adopted an abused Rottweiler named Rotten.  Both damaged and hurting, JD and Rotten slowly begin to trust one another. When Rotten is threatened, JD will risk everything to save him

Celia starts high school with a  thirst for revenge against Sandy Firestone, the girl who did the unspeakable last year.  Then she meets Drake, who trusts her with his deepest secret.  Now she must choose which is sweeter, revenge or friendship.

This collection of sketches and personal reflections show the inner workings of award-winning author and illustrator Shaun Tan.  Both strange and familiar, Tan’s work is captivating and otherworldly. 

Francisco, straight-A student and star basketball player from the barrio, earns a full scholarship to an elite boarding school.  At the dorms, everyone assumes that he was in a gang, dealt drugs, and worse.  He doesn’t fit in at home anymore either, now that he’s become a big shot private school boy.  Stuck between two worlds, not belonging to either, Francisco must learn to figure out who he really is.

Your brain has been taken hostage by the very food you eat.  This book takes a look at how the fat, sugar, and salt in our food is taking control of the decisions you make.

 

It’s 1996 and Emma has just gotten her first computer.  But when Josh loads AOL for her, a website called Facebook comes up. Emma and Josh can suddenly see their lives, 15 years in the future, and its not what they expected. 

And check out our newest additions to our Stephen King collection!

Book Review: The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stievfater

Blue has always been told one thing, that if she kisses her true love, he'll die.  Raised in a family of psychics, Blue herself doesn't seem to have any powers herself. That is, until she sees the spirit of a boy named Gansey on the corpse road.  There are only two reasons why Blue would see a spirit on the corpse road, either he's her true love, or he's going to die within the year. 

On the other side of town live four boys who attend the local rich boy school of Aglionby, but really spend their time pursuing a lost and buried king, as ancient as Arthur. 

I wasn't sure if this book was going to be realistic fiction, fantasy, romance or supernatural.  It ended up being a little bit of everything.  One word to describe this book?  Eerie.  And super cool.  Okay, that's four words, but it was. Full of spinetingling secrets and slowly unfolding mysteries, Raven Boys was hard to put down.    Maggie Stievfater is an expert at casting a mood, sinking you deep into the emotion of the characters and the giving the reader a sense of place.  Like Mark Zusak's The Book Thief, Steivfater offers tiny pieces of the story at a time, waiting until the very end to tie it all together in a black lace ribbon.

This is the first book in a trilogy, but unlike some other books in a series, Raven Boys doesn't leave you hanging at the end.  Well, there's definitely some unresolved questions, but no worries. There is enough sense of closure to give you patience for the next book.

Book Review: What's Left of Me

What's Left of Me
by Katy Zhang

Like everyone else begins life, Addie and Eva are two souls, born into the same body.  They take turns controlling their movements, learning how to speak, dance, live.  But soon the whispers start.  Why are they settling?  Most people lose one of their souls at a young age, the dominant soul taking complete control as the recessive soul quietly slips away.  So why is Eva still around?  And how can they keep it a secret?  Because if anyone finds out that Eva is still a part of Addie, they'll be taken away.  From her family, her friends, to a place of uncertain location and even more uncertain consequences.

This book was amazing!  It reads like other popular dystopian fiction (Delirium, Legend, etc), but the world is clearly present day and looks almost exactly like our own.  Life exists for the characters much as it does for the reader.  The story is told in first person, from Eva's viewpoint.  But while she is the center of her own story, she is not the person making the decisions for her life. What impressed me most about this book is the pacing.  Kat Zhang manages to mix just the right amount of action, heartbreak, and suspense with just a splash or romance.  The book raises some great questions.  What makes a person a person?  What does it mean to sacrifice for the common good?  What is the "common good"? How do you fall in love with a boy if there are two completely different people living inside one body?

What's even more incredible about this book is that it was written by a high schooler!  That's right.  A high schooler who was finishing this book while she was supposed to be studying for her IB exams.  This girl must never have slept, but it paid off.  This book is refreshing, fast paced, exciting, and just stinkin' cool.  I can't wait for the next one.

Check out the author's page for the book trailer and more here.

And the winner is....

Hanna H.!  Congrats Hanna for winning the Famous First Lines contest!

The answer to Thursday's question was Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Thanks to everyone who played!  Don't forget to come back to the blog to read about the latest books, fun events, and more!

Famous First Lines: Thursday

Yesterday's title was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Today's first line is...

"I'd never given much thought to how I would die - though I'd had reason enough in the last few months - but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."

Hint: This line comes from the preface of the book, and also happens to be a very popular movie.