November TBR

This month I am trying a mix of what Katie at Katie's Book Blog and Priscilla at The Readables again in the hope that I will read a lot more than I did in October. 

Classic

The Old Man and The  Sea- Ernest Hemingway

Adult

Ain't No Bum- Dennis McCreight

YA

Scarlet- Marissa Meyer

E-Reader

Hearts At Stake- Alyxandra Harvey

Re-Read

Vampire Academy- Richelle Mead

The remainder of the list

Karma- Cathy Ostlere
The Bridge- Jane Higgins

Ballads of Suburbia- Stephanie Kuehnert 

The Dead Girls Detective Agency- Suzy Cox

Body of Evidence- Patricia Cornwell

Bitter End-Jennifer Brown

The Scorpio Races- Maggie Stiefvater

You Better Not Cry- Augusten Burroughs

Eyes Like Stars- Lisa Mantchev
Love Anthony- Lisa Genova
The Secret Keeper- Kate Morton
Rampant- Diana Peterfreund
Rage Within- Jeyn Roberts

I start a new job on the 5th so I hope to get into a good reading routine along with my new job so I can get through this list. What do you plan on reading this month?

October Wrap-Up

My reading this month was completely awful, I feel like I did not even make a dent in my TBR pile. I felt like I was not able to sit down and read for most of the month. It was not good so I hope my reading in November goes better.

I read
Hidden- Sophie Jordan
Dark Lover- J.R. Ward
Yesterday- C.K. Kelly Martin
Coraline- Neil Gaiman
Social Suicide- Gemma Halliday
Monster High Lisi Harrison

Enclave- Ann Aguirre

Dead is a Battlefield- Marlene Perez

Jenny Pox- JL Bryan
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson

Cold Kiss- Amy Garvey
Tilt- Ellen Hopkins
Bargains and Betrayals- Shannon Delaney
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You- Ally Carter
The Demon Trapper’s Daughter- Jana Oliver
I Can't Keep My Own Secrets- Edited by Smith Magazine
Ten- Gretchen McNeil

What did you read this month? Did you finish your TBR?

Social Suicide- Gemma Halliday

Title: Social Suicide
Author: Gemma Halliday
Source: Bought new
Series: Yes
Rating: 4/5














Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the "Herbert Hoover High Homepage" would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went . . . a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the homecoming queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.

I'm starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos. . . .

The story continues with Hartley being thrown into the middle of another murder investigation. Hartley is now working on the school newspaper with Chase and when a student is caught cheating Hartley hopes she can be the one to find out why, but when she shows up at Sydney's house and finds her dead in her pool the story turns out to be a lot bigger than a student cheating on a test.

Hartley wants to convince the police that Syndey was killed and it was not a suicide like everyone thinks, and Chase is backing her up. I liked that she did not change much from Deadly Cool. Her character was very similar and her relationship with her best friend is still intact. Things with Chase are still a little awkward since they have not talked about what happened and with Sam now part of a couple it occasionally makes things a little awkward at times.

The plot is nothing too deep, but this is why I keep coming back to this series. I choose this book because of it's creep factor for Halloween. A killer running around going after high school kids is pretty scary.I found the first book creeped me out a lot more than this one did but it was good never the less.

I do suggest reading them in order, there is some information that the first books provides to clarify things in this book. I hope this series gets more buzz because I feel like not enough people have heard of it and it is really good. Plus I would love if Chapters would have this book in stock because I have had to buy both books in the states so far so please make it more popular to convince Chapters to have copies of it.

Stacking the Shelves (44)

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

I got some pretty awesome book marks while I was on vacation that I forgot to show last week so here they are. I still cannot find a bookmark that says Las Vegas on it. I have been twice with no luck. I even tried the Barnes and Noble in Vegas with no luck.

I only technically bought one book this week, the rest were on credit and I made a trip to the library to pick some awesome books that I had on hold.

Bought Used

From Potters Field- Patricia Cornwell

Four to Score- Janet Evanovich

Rampant- Diana Peterfreund

Bruiser- Neal Shusterman

Above- Leah Bobet









From the Library

Love Anthony- Lisa Genova

The Secret Keeper- Kate Morton

















What did you get in your mailbox this week? 

Coraline- Neil Gaiman

Title: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Source: Bought used
Series: No
Rating: 3/5














Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

Gaiman has delivered a wonderfully chilling novel, subtle yet intense on many levels. The line between pleasant and horrible is often blurred until what's what becomes suddenly clear, and like Coraline, we resist leaving this strange world until we're hooked. Unnerving drawings also cast a dark shadow over the book's eerie atmosphere, which is only heightened by simple, hair-raising text. Coraline is otherworldly storytelling at its best.

I am glad that I decided to give this author another chance. I read one of his adult books and I was not a fan at all. I seen this at a yard sale for 50 cents and it looked brand new so I decided to give him another chance. This book is intended for a younger audience and I think if I was younger when I read this book I would feel like I could have connected more with it.However, even though I felt like I could not connect the characters on a personal level I still really enjoyed this book. It was a good Halloween read. 

Coraline is an adventurous girl who lives with her family in a large house divided into different flats. She discovers a door that appears to lead to nowhere in there flat one day while exploring. When she goes back to it the brick wall has disappeared  and mirror image of her flat appears. She discovers a other mother and father with black buttons for eyes who want to keep her here with them.

The main character is Coraline and she is an only child. She has made friends with some of the other residence of the house but she does not appear to have any friends her own age. She likes to go on adventures and explore as a past time. Her parents are very busy and do not seem to always have time to entertain her. Her other parents claim they would love to have her forever but Coraline does not want to stay with them, she wants to go back to her ordinary life at the flat with her real parents.

The story starts with the reader getting to know Coraline and her surroundings. The story was detailed in a way that I felt I was with Coraline but not giving too much detail to wear the reader down. I liked the spooky factor added into this story, Gaiman could have made a adventure story about Coraline but he added in the other parents and the spooky pictures for extra effect.

I enjoyed this novel and I am willing to give Gaiman another chance with his other novels. I would recommend this book for middle graders looking for a spooky Halloween read without being completely terrifying.