In My Mailbox (8)

IMM is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren.
* Warning- There is a ton of books *

This is a collection over about three weeks. I got a lot of gifted books and the books I bought were before Jan 1st so that it did not interfere my New Year's resolution. The strange looking blanket my books are sitting on is the quilt that is sitting on my spare bed right now since I am indecisive about what color I want.

Bought New

Frozen- Robin Wasserman

Variant- Robinson Wells

Dark Inside- Jeyn Roberts

The Probability of Miracles- Wendy Wunder











Gifted

Wise Children- Angela Carter

Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert

Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte  

Icy Sparks- Gwyn Hyman Rubio  (I love this book!!!)

Say You're One of Them- Uwem Akpan

White Oleander- Janet Fitch 




Bought Used

The Luxe- Anna Godbersen

The Witch of Portobello- Paulo Coelho

Charmed Thirds- Megan McCafferty (I still don't have #2 :(  )













Borrowed from the Library

A Monster Calls- Patrick Ness (1st audio book of 2012!!)

Explosive Eighteen- Janet Evanovich

Title: Explosive Eighteen

Author: Janet Evanovich

Source: Gifted

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Summary:

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.
 
Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 from Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, she’s flying back to New Jersey solo, and someone who sounds like Sasquatch is snoring in row 22. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. The FBI, the fake FBI, and guns-for-hire are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photograph—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Over at the Bail Bonds Agency it’s business as usual—until the bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke, Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their “largest” FTA yet, lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment, and everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?!
 
Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii.  And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.

The latest instalment of the Stephanie Plum series was hilarious as always. Lula and Stephanie are running on luck more than skill to catch bail skippers. The characters are always hilarious; this is a light book which I was able to finish within a day. I hope there are many more books to come with this series.  The cover is one of my favourite for this series.

 I was a little disappointed that Evanvich did not indulge into the Hawaii fiasco as much as I thought she would. I still feel like there are unanswered questions about the entire trip that she either decided to leave from this book or will not be answered.  I still want to know what exactly happened with Stephanie and who she will ultimately choose.  This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the series. .

Why can't she pick? I ask this question at the end of every book. I want her to choose Ranger, I like Morelli but he's just not Ranger. Unfortunately I don't think she will ever fully pick. Sadness. 

I absolutely loved this book as I have loved all the books in the series; however my only disappointment with this one is I found it was not as action-packed as the books normally are. It seemed almost toned down.  I cannot wait for the next instalment but I am not left on a cliff-hanger.

Guantanamo Boy- Anna Perera

Title: Guantanamo Boy

Author: Anna Perera

Format: E-Book

Source: NetGalley

Rating: 3 out of 5

Goodreads Summary:

Khalid, a 15-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what's happening to him and cannot fail to be a changed young man.

This book was hard to read.  It is the story of 15 year-old Khalid who is abducted while visiting his family in Pakistan.  The hardest part of this book is that the suffering he goes through is felt by prisoners of Guantanamo Bay and other POW camps daily.  The evidence they say they have against him is not enough to keep him in prison but he is held there anyways.  This novel is an emotional one.  I enjoyed reading it for the history of it and the insight. 

Khalid was frustrating at times, however as the book progressed he matured and I started to feel like I could enjoy the book. It was a little hard to get into at first. I was interested in the topic of Guantanamo Bay because I have watched documentaries on it but I have never read a book about it or a story that uses it. It was unique and sad. I look forward to reading more books by Perera. She is a powerful writer.

Top Ten Tuesday

TTT is hosted by Jamie over at The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is my favourite books I read in 2011. I read a lot of great books in 2011 so it was hard to narrow down. It’s a little over the place, but that’s how I like to read. There is so many more books I loved but I was diligent about keeping it down to ten.

1) The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer- Michelle Hopkin

2) Shade- Jeri Smith-Ready

3) The Probability of Miracles- Wendy Wunder

4) Sloppy Firsts- Megan McCafferty

5) The Future of Us- Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

6) Spellbound- Kelley Armstrong

7) Hard Eight- Janet Evanovich

8) Where She Went- Gayle Forman

9) Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

 10) Wither- Lauren DeStefano

The Probability of Miracles - Wendy Wunder

Name: The Probability of Miracles

Author: Wendy Wunder

Format: Hardcover

Source: Bought new

Rating: 5/5

Goodreads Summary:

Dry, sarcastic, sixteen-year-old Cam Cooper has spent the last seven years in and out hospitals. The last thing she wants to do in the short life she has left is move 1,500 miles away to Promise, Maine - a place known for the miraculous events that occur there. But it's undeniable that strange things happen in Promise: everlasting sunsets; purple dandelions; flamingoes in the frigid Atlantic; an elusive boy named Asher; and finally, a mysterious envelope containing a list of things for Cam to do before she dies. As Cam checks each item off the list, she finally learns to believe - in love, in herself, and even in miracles.

A debut novel from an immensely talented new writer, The Probability of Miracles crackles with wit, romance and humour and will leave readers laughing and crying with each turn of the page

I feel emotionally drained after reading this book.  I am still process this book. It was so amazingly good.  Wunder’s writing was heartbreaking and gut renching.  This is an amazing debut novel.  I can’t put into words how much I loved this book. This book takes your emotions in different directions, one minute you wanted to laugh at Cam and Perry and in the next instance you want wanted to cry.

The Main character is Cam Cooper who is a dry, sarcastic sixteen year old girl with a wide movie collection.  Her sister Perry and her mom are her support as she is in and out of hospitals and it is her family who decides to take Cam to Promise, Maine in the hope of a miracle.

The sacrifices Cam’s family makes for her are astounding.  It tore my heart to read their struggles. Perry and Alicia were hilarious and supportive of Cam. They did everything they could for her and more.  I really loved all the characters, even sarcastic Cam.  She turned out to be an amazing character, she was a little selfish at first but I never got frustrated with her.  She was a character that I knew would only impress me more as the book went on.

This book does deal with a serious and unfortunate disease that affects millions, and having lost friends to cancer this made this book hard to read at points.  I hope everyone reads this book, it is so so good. I want Wunder to write a million more books for me to read.