IMM: I Never *Actually* Made Any Resolutions To Reduce My Book Intake…

Which is a good thing, because since my last IMM post…

For Review:

Invisible Fiends: The Crowmaster by Barry Hutchinson

After Kyle’s ordeal at school, his mother packs him off to the safety of the countryside, where there will be no temptation to use his powers, and he can forget the bad things – like the fact that his dad is a monster determined to destroy the world. But here’s the thing about the countryside: it’s full of nature, and nature sometimes has claws. Followed by a spindly figure in the woods and attacked by crows, Kyle is about to discover that NOWHERE is safe from the invisible fiends!

Thanks to HarperCollins for the review copy! I’m reading one for the Blog Tour for the book and I’m also hoping to have an Interview with Barry Hutchinson, when my post goes up later in the month!

Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell

Janie Gorman wants to be normal. The problem with that: she’s not. She’s smart and creative and a little bit funky. She’s also an unwilling player in her parents’ modern-hippy, let’s-live-on-a-goat-farm experiment (regretfully, instigated by a younger, much more enthusiastic Janie). This, to put it simply, is not helping Janie reach that “normal target.” She has to milk goats every day…and endure her mother’s pseudo celebrity in the homemade-life, crunchy mom blogosphere. Goodbye the days of frozen lasagna and suburban living, hello crazy long bus ride to high school and total isolation–and hovering embarrassments of all kinds. The fresh baked bread is good…the threat of homemade jeans, not so much.

It would be nice to go back to that old suburban life…or some grown up, high school version of it, complete with nice, normal boyfriends who wear crew neck sweaters and like social studies. So, what’s wrong with normal? Well, kind of everything. She knows that, of course, why else would she learn bass and join Jam Band, how else would she know to idolize infamous wild-child and high school senior Emma (her best friend Sarah’s older sister), why else would she get arrested while doing a school project on a local freedom school (jail was not part of the assignment). And, why else would she kind of be falling in “like” with a boy named Monster—yes, that is his real name. Janie was going for normal, but she missed her mark by about ten miles…and we mean that as a compliment.

I just loved the cover of this one when I first saw it, and Janie sounds like a fantastically quirky narrator. E-Galley from Simon & Schuster’s GalleyGrab.

Angry Young Man by Chris Lynch

In Angry Young Man, award-winning author Chris Lynch takes us into the mind of a boy whose journey of self-discovery leads to the unthinkable.

Intrieging huh?

That’s what I thought!

E-Galley from Simon & Schuster’s GalleyGrab.

The Adults by Alison Espach

In her ruefully funny and wickedly perceptive debut novel, Alison Espach deftly dissects matters of the heart and captures the lives of children and adults as they come to terms with life, death, and love.

At the center of this affluent suburban universe is Emily Vidal, a smart and snarky teenager, who gets involved in a suspect relationship with one of the adults after witnessing a suicide in her neighborhood. Among the cast of unforgettable characters is Emily’s father, whose fiftieth birthday party has the adults descending upon the Vidal’s patio; her mother, who has orchestrated the elaborate party even though she and her husband are getting a divorce; and an assortment of eccentric neighbors, high school teachers, and teenagers who teem with anxiety and sexuality and an unbridled desire to be noticed, and ultimately loved.

An irresistible chronicle of a modern young woman’s struggle to grow up, The Adults lays bare—in perfect pitch—a world where an adult and a child can so dangerously be mistaken for the same exact thing.

E-Galley from Simon & Schuster’s GalleyGrab.

Queens of all the Earth by Hannah Sternberg

As her freshman classmates move into dorms at Cornell University, Olivia Somerset suffers a nervous breakdown. When months of coaxing and analyzing fail to rouse Olivia from her stupor, big sister Miranda decides the sisters should fly off to Barcelona for some “vacation therapy.”

When a mistake at their Barcelona hostel leaves the Somersets in a large co-ed dorm room, Olivia and Miranda are saved by kindly Mr. Brown and his son Greg, who happily volunteer to surrender their private room. But while Olivia feels an instant connection with brooding Greg Brown, Miranda sides with fellow guest and cocky American travel writer Lenny:

The Browns are just plain weird, and must be avoided at all costs.

In the midst of urbane Peruvian priests-in-training and Scottish soccer fans, from the shops of La Rambla to the waters of the Mediterranean to the soaring heights of Montjuic, Miranda works to protect her still-fragile sister while Olivia struggles to understand her burgeoning adulthood, her feelings for Greg, and the fear that makes the next step in her life so impossible to take.

Inspired by E. M. Forster’s classic novel A Room with a View, debut author Hannah Sternberg’s Queens of All the Earth is a poetic journey of young love and self-awakening set against the beauty of Catalonia. Teenagers and adults alike will be riveted and moved by this coming-of-age novel about the conflicting hearts and minds of two very different sisters.

E-Galley from Bancroft Books via @netgalley

From Bookmooch:

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

Set in a beleaguered land caught in a web of tyranny, Tigana is the deeply moving story of a people struggling to be free.

A people so cursed by the dark sorceries of the tyrant King Brandin that even the very name of their once beautiful land cannot be spoken or remembered. But not everyone has forgotten. A handful of men and women, driven by love, hope and pride, set in motion the dangerous quest for freedom and bring back to the world the lost brightness of an obliterated name: Tigana.

I really liked Ysabel when I read it, a while back and have heard nothing but great things about this one.

Indigo by Alice Hoffman

When her mother dies, Martha is so unhappy living in the dried-up town of Oak Grove, that she convinces two unusual brothers who long to return to the ocean to run away with her.

I absolutely loved Green Angel and Green Witch, this one is another in my attempt to mooch as many of her books as I can! (And actually read some this year) This one is very short so could be the one that at least starts that process.

Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman

Ethan and Jorie, the perfect couple, have been married for 13 years, and are still very much in love.

But 13 years ago, Ethan committed a brutal rape and murder.

A young girl’s phone call exposes him, and nothing will ever be the same for them again.

Another one to add to my Hoffman pile.

Bought:

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton.

Twenty-three illustrated gothic tales from the dark corridors of the imagination of the creative genius behind Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Big Fish.

Burton’s lovingly lurid illustrations evoke both the sweetness and tragedy of a cast of gruesomely sympathetic children – hopeful, yet hapless beings.

Picked this one up for a bargain £3 in HMV of all places, be interesting to see how Burton’s imagination translates to the page.

Electricity by Ray Robinson

Lily’s epilepsy means she’s used to seeing the world in terms of angles – you look at every surface, you weigh up every corner, and you think of your head slimming into it – but what would she be like without her sharp edges?

Prickly, spiky, up-front honest and down-to-earth practical, Lily is thirty, and life’s not easy but she gets by. Needing no-one and asking for nothing, it’s just her and her epilepsy: her constant companion. But then her mother – who Lily’s not seen for years – dies, and Lily is drawn back into a world she thought she’d long since left behind.

Forced to renegotiate the boundaries of her life, she realises she has a lot to learn – about relationships, about the past, and about herself – and some difficult decisions ahead of her.

Browsing book stores is a dangerous pursuit! Spotted this one just as I was about to leave and fell in love with the cover and the description. Sounds really good.

Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block

These five postmodern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all – love.

I’d head good things about this one before, but then Chris went and posted his review which I read this morning and made the mistake of seeing if an ebook was available for it…

Bad Bloggers point for Chris!

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren, which highlights books that have been received  during the previous week.

Bad Bloggers: Is hosted by Chris of Stuff as Dreams are Made on. Click here to find out more!