Tuesday, March 31, 2009

End of Women's History Month: Almost Astronauts


Women were considered to be "cheaper" to send to space - but they couldn't pass the requirements to allow them into the program. There were several women who desperately wanted to be allowed into space. NASA refused. Men underwent strenuous testing that women couldn't possibly endure. Except that they did. With one man behind the idea - he tested Jerrie Cobb in secret. She knew that she had to be tough; she never complained and furthermore she excelled at the tests. Twenty-four other women were tested - half of them passed. But they were told by NASA and the government that women would not be accepted into the space program. For one reason: they did not perform the requirements. The requirement (waived for John Glenn) consisted of flying for the army - an option only available to men. NASA did not change the rule until 20 years later. By that time, it was too late for the Mercury 13 to pursue their dreams. But they watched other women lead men into space; it was both bittersweet and a long time coming. 

My Thoughts:  I had never heard of this story before; it was a real eye opener. I devoured this book. It was amazing. I've never been so interested in space before. I loved hearing about the secret cover-ups and shocking tales from NASA. The history combined with personal tales and dreams from the Mercury 13 made for a very powerful and emotional read.

While we take March to celebrate Women, it's something that we should celebrate daily. Here's to all the women who have gone before us making it possible for us to be who we are today. We could have never been here without you!

Lisa McMann

Cabel dreams horrifying dreams from his past, but he also cares about Janie. She knows this - not because she talks with him as Cabel is a loner - but because she falls into his dreams. Janie's not normal. Somehow, she stumbles into other people's dreams. At first it scares her. She doesn't sleep much a her first slumber party and she tries to get her mother not to fall asleep on the couch. But lately, it's been worse. People are around her are falling asleep and dreaming at school and at her work. She's trying to figure how what's going on, but she doesn't have anyone she can trust. One night at work, a patient dies, but not before Janie discovers her true powers - she's a dream catcher. She has the ability to help people in their dreams - find calmness and uncover hidden truths. Using her dreams, Janie teams up with Cabel and the police dept. to help solve crimes.

It's a romantic thrilled chocked full of danger and tension. A teen at the library recommended this book to me. I took it home and once I opened it, I was hooked. It's so good if should come with a warning: Don't open it if you don't have time to finish it.


Janie and Cabel are trying to find a way for their relationship to work. It's hard keeping it a secret at school, especially when the dreams are getting worse. By now, Janie's learning to control them. She can pull herself out of most dreams, unless their too intense. She can pause and rewind them. All of the dreaming is leaving her exhausted. But there's work to do. An anonymous call to the police dept. leaves them curious about a potential student/teacher relationship. Once again, Janie goes uncover flirting with teachers trying to get a better read on what's lurking beneath the surface. While she knows she's doing something right, hanging out with these teachers makes her skin crawl. Is there something sinister happened here and if so, can Janie find it before she gets in too deep?

The sequel left me breathless. All I can think about it the next book and what it will bring. And mostly how far away Spring 2010 seems (which is when Gone appears). You know it's an addicting series when readers clamor for the next book immediately following the latest. Still...waiting is hard. I finished this book in day, almost late to work because I didn't want to put it down. It's very similar in style to the first book - but the danger is greater and the secrets revealed are much bigger.

Check out her blog.
and spread the love:

Monday, March 30, 2009

Sarah-Land


In celebration of Along for the Ride Sarah Dessen's latest novel, there's a new community for her readers. She's posting videos and holding contests and all sorts of stuff. Check it out and don't forget to add me as a friend!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Flair Friday

People have been chatting about the poster photos on the Leaky Cauldron and looking forward to the movie so I decided to make some flair from some of the promotional picture. There's a little hard to see because of the background, but still fun.






Shrieking Violets: 25 Butt-kicking Babes


Here's a listing of women EW claims as Women who Rock and kick butt. There are women I'm not familiar with on the list. And there are places I disagree. I love that Buffy ranks as the top choice, but I think that Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow ranks way higher than 11.

Take a look at the list and see what you think

Meg Cabot and Michele Jaffe

Read our LIPS
These two fun YA authors answer advice from their readers


Moonlight

Kayla thinks she's stumbled onto a great summer job - with people she connected with last summer. Right now, she's the newbie and can't wait to start pulling her weight. She's hoping to figure out some deep dark issues hidden under the surface about her past - the murder of her parents in the very woods she'll be working in this summer.
She can't help but feel Lucas's eyes on her. She knows that he's older, but she can't help crushing over him anyways. What she doesn't realize, but soon begins to unravel, is that Lucas isn't like other boys. In fact, the townspeople are exactly normal. They mate for life at the age of seventeen - Kayla's birthday marks the beginning of a trip. She has no idea what's going on around her, but with a group of scientists heading into the woods in hopes of catching a legendary werewolf, she's about to find out. What she discovers leaves her as breathless as when she discovers she's head over heels for Lucas.

Moonlight is slightly different than Rachel Hawthorne's other novels. While both have romance, this darker series plays with the supernatural. Werewolves seems to be on the verge of becoming the new vampires in YA Lit. This is not a series to miss. Hawthorne expertly weaves romance with supernatural and cloaks them with danger.

This book is the first of three, but each book centrals on a different girl in the pack. The next book, out in June, will star Lindsey:


And the last, out in August, will star Brittany:

Thursday, March 26, 2009

39 Clues: Maze of Bones




Elise Broach





Elise Broach headed to Otis Library!!!!

WEDNESDAY April 29th @ 6:30 in the Community Room

We're excited to announce that Elise Broach will be our keynote speaker for Shakespeare month. All month long we'll be watching movies, hunting for Shakespeare clues, and finally meeting this great author and chatting about the mystery behind Shakespeare!

Loving this story.

How about a date....@ the library? Check out this story here!

More Percy Jackson movie news:


The Gods have been located!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Reviews from www.teensreadtoo.com

Miss Match: 5 Stars

When Sasha hits her neighbor’s car, she begs her elderly neighbor to keep it a secret from her parents. She works out a payment plan and then must find a job. Her BFF suggests that she become a matchmaker. Now she undertakes the hardest job of all, when her sister catches a new student’s eye. Can she fix him up with her sister? As she tries to work her magic and spends more time with Derek, she finds out that he’s the perfect match – for her. Can she overcome her feelings and watch her sister and Derek date?

A wicked cute romance with an average girl looking for love mainly for others, but also finding it for herself.


Princess of the Midnight Ball: Based on the fairy tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Jessica Day George pens her version of Rose and her eleven sisters. Due to a bargain their mother made, they must go down to Court of King Under Stone and dance the night away. What first begins as a mystery to the numerous ruined pairs of dancing slippers soon becomes the most gossiped rumor in the land. The girls are forbidden to talk about their curse; thus their father has no idea what’s happening. Only death can cure the curse their mother left upon them when she died. Soon, however, the sisters become gravely ill. Even in sickness they must dance, causing their health to linger in and out of danger. Princes come from all over the land to unravel the mystery – only to die a mysterious death some days after leaving the castle. The deaths of so many princes cause alarm throughout the land. A lowly gardener, who has fallen in love with Rose, is determined to uncover the secret. When he does find out, is there anything that he can do to save the girls?

The cover alone attracted me to this book. It’s gorgeous, but the delightful tale sucked me in. The dark undertones combined with the forbidden love story made the book extremely hard to put down.


Blue Bloods News





The fourth book in the series The Van Alen Legacy (de la Cruz's favorite book so far) will be due out in October. There will be roughly 10 books total in the series, but this book will start a spin-off series WOLF PACK (which will be out Spring 2010).
Looking forward to more of these!


New Moon Movie news:

The Wolf Pack has been announced. Two of the actors are on imbd: here and here. Head to S. Meyer's site for more details.



Monday, March 23, 2009

Chatting with the Birthday Girl: Stephanie Hale



1. What made you choose to write?
I've always loved to read but I never really thought I had any good ideas
to write my own book. But when I got laid off about five years ago and
wanted to stay home with my sons, I figured this was a good time to figure
out if maybe writing was something I would be good at. I'm happy to say that
it is working out well so far!

No complaints here. I <3 your books.

2. Where do you write best?
It doesn't really matter as long as there is complete silence.

That sounds...hard, and very limited in places.


3. Is there a topic you've always wanted to write about?
My parent's divorce drastically shaped my personality and I would like to
somehow incorporate some of those feelings into a book someday.

4. Is there one book you wish you'd written?
I think all writers have that tiny flicker of jealousy when they read a
certain book and wish they would have been the one to think of it. But to
list one specific book seems like it would somehow take away from the author
who did write it.


5. What was the last book you've read that you've been recommending to everyone?
The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

Another one to add to ever growing pile of books to read!


6. How do you get your ideas? Do you use real events in your novels and if so, can you describe one?
This is always the hardest question for me. I get a lot of my ideas in the
shower. I know that's really weird but maybe there really is something in
the water. The only real event I've used so far was when the boys in my
freshman class voted a less-popular kid to our homecoming court, which turned into Rand being named Homecoming King.


7. How many Aspen Brook novels will there be?
I think that Spring Breakup will be the last one.

I was afraid you'd say that. It's a great series!

8. Alpha Bet, your next book, sounds great. What can you tell us about it? Will it be a stand alone title or a series?
The Alpha Bet was a huge change from the Aspen books. Grace Kelly (the
heroine from TAB) and Aspen couldn't be more different. The Alpha Bet is
about a sixteen-year-old girl who graduates high school early to try and
escape her helicopter mother by leaving for college two years early. She
swears she is going to reinvent herself when she gets to college. With her
roommate's help she pledges the most elite sorority on campus, The Alphas,
and has to complete twenty-six alphabetical tasks to become a sister.
Between the tasks, trying to keep her mother off campus, the boy she's
falling for, and keeping the lie she told to the Alphas hidden, Grace Kelly
has a busy first semester!
I'm hoping that my Aspen fans will love Grace Kelly just as much.

Right now I think that this will just be a stand alone title.

So exciting. I like how the girls in your books are older. Look for this book in April of next year.

9. Name a celebrity, you'd love to have as a BFF
Meg Cabot!!! She just cracks me up.

She is a favorite.

10. Listing if your favorites:
Type of shoe- I love Born's.
Candy-Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate and Caramel squares, yummy!
Pizza topping- I'm a pepperoni only kind of girl.
Genre of books-I'm all over the place on this one.
Singer and/or Song-I like Hinder, Nickelback, Coldplay and I'm loving Poker Face by Lady GaGa
Restaurant-Monicals, it's a pizza place in my parts
TV show /Movie-These days I'm loving Castle, Ghost Whisperer, Medium,
High School Reunion, Brothers & Sisters
The best movie I saw recently was Paul Blart. A lot of people thought
it was stupid but I thought it was completely hilarious.
Color- I think my favorite color today is aqua. I change this a
lot!

I'm loving Castle too!

11. How do you come up with your titles?
They just pop into my head. I wish I could give you a really fancy
answer but one day they are just there.


12. I hear your birthday is coming up, what will you do to celebrate?
Aw, yes. The dreaded birthday. Well, it's on a Monday
this year, which is super lame, so I don't know that I'll do much of
anything. I'd like to go see I LOVE YOU, MAN because I'm a huge Judd Apatow
fan and Jason Segal and Paul Rudd are fairly easy on the eyes as well.
Hopefully there will be pasta involved and I know there will be a pink
Barbie Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake involved because I ordered it myself
the other day. Is it completely lame to order your own birthday cake? ;)


I hope you have a magically funny day and enjoy your cake!

I just finished reading Spring Breakup:
Aspen and Rand are head to Vegas for spring break along with Luke and Angel. No they're not 21 and can't gamble, but that's not going to stop them. The first night there; they eat a buffet. Here they meet Luke's ex-girlfriend Emerson (who brings out Angel's claws); she's in town to compete in Miss Teen USA. Her family desperately needs the money to save their home. Dinner ends up a disaster in more ways than one. Luke and Angel start fight and Aspen gets food poisoning. It's not a good start to the vacation. Aspen stays home from the tour the next day to recover. While watching tv, she notices her hotel is on the news. Emerson has gone missing - no note, one dress missing, and no sign of struggle. Aspen can't just stand by and watch especially when Luke asks her for help. Soon Aspen's knee deep in the pageant world becoming the next Illinois contestant so the show can go on and so she can uncover clues. Is she in way over her head, or can Aspen uncover the mystery before she loses her mind?

An excellent chapter (now wrap-up) in the Aspen Brook series. I loved how this book took the pageant world and made readers think twice about it (similar to Jennifer Lynn Barnes in The Squad). It not only opened my eyes to the many reasons behind girls in beauty pageants, but it also mentioned the hard work required before the show. Plus, Aspen's smart, funny, stubborn, and fashion-wise. What's not to love?


Stephanie blogs with other fabulous leading ladies of YA. Check out her website for a quiz between Aspen or Angel.

The first two books in the Aspen series are: Read about the cover stories



Meg Cabot

Best Friends and Drama Queens:
The third series in Meg Cabot's tale for younger girl is completely wonderful. Here, another girl moves to town, taking Allie's place as the new girl. Allie's so excited to have someone new in her class...until she's asked to give up her seat and move to the back of the class with the boys. She's so sad to leave her friends, but she's determined to make the best of it. After all, it's a special favor to her favorite teacher. However, Cheyenne isn't nice. At All. Instead, she thinks that the girls in grade four are babies. She's rather chase boys and kiss them than play make-believe games. Cheyenne soon has a following, but Allie stubbornly refuses to give in to Cheyenne's ways. Does Allie stand a chance against sophisticated Cheyenne?

I adore this series. Allie's so feisty and fun. There's so much drama going on at that age and Cabot nails it perfectly.




Meg Cabot: Here's a very interesting biography of Meg Cabot which included how her novels tie in with her life, her childhood tales (and pictures!), how she met HWSNBNITB, and much more. Since it was published in 2008, it's pretty up to date.







A READ poster I created with a picture Meg sent me.
What do you think?


She's holding up Bad Kitty; an excellent mystery.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Twilight Release and Friday Flair

With the movie Twilight coming out tomorrow (or tonight, depending on how you look at it), here's a few things to read/enjoy after you've watched the movie (again). I know I'm going out to buy it....

Twilight: The Director's Notebook
I read this one yesterday (due to the library closing early for plumbing issues). It's filled with director Catherine Hardwicke's ideas for the movie. She dishes on costumes, casting, scenes, filming in the cold rainy weather, and making decisions about scenes. Pictures cover the majority of the book, but she writes notes on all the pages. The pictures include storyboards, sketches, floor plans for a scene, before and after shots of a certain location, and rehearsal stills. All and all, it's a very quick and extremely interesting read. It takes you behind the scenes to show you the decisions made and how a scene became altered. A must read for Twilight fans.




Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side: Jessica finds her world turned upside down when a new boy appears in school telling her that she's a vampire princess and betrothed to him. He's here to take her back to Europe to stop a war. Jessica, although knows she's adopted, doesn't believe in vampires. She can't believe it when her parents tell her that not only is Lucius telling the truth, he's staying at their house so she can get used to the idea. While Jessica may not want to spend the rest of her life with Lucius, she can't help but be intrigued by him. She's more interested in another boy, but that doesn't mean her thoughts don't sometimes stray toward Lucius. Can she learn to love him and give up her life?

A romantic and heart wrenching tale that will leave readers breathless and wanting more.




Hunted: Zoey Redbird is in trouble - guy trouble, school trouble, and family trouble. Although she and Erik broke up, but they're thinking of getting back together. Her episode with the teacher last book severed the imprint between her and Heath, but that's about to change again. While down in the tunnels, Zoey and Erik get into an argument when Heath appears. Zoey heads outside to chat privately with him and gets attacked by a giant bird under Kalona's control. She's gravely injured. So injured that she needs blood - Heath's blood. The two of the imprint once again an Zoey's life is saved. But if they don't return to the school, it's possible that she'll never fully heal. With Kalona ruling the school with Neferet by his side, it's a dangerous place for Zoey and her friends. They're determined to bring Kalona and Neferet down, but at what cost?

An entertaining and engrossing read - for more details and fun, check out the website.

Eternally Yours: is an unauthorized look at Robert Pattinson's life if you're looking for more detail on the actor who portrays Edward.








Here's some Vampire Flair - books to wet your appetite.

Evermore

Ever blocks out the world with her ipod and her oversized sweatshirts. She doesn't want to let the world in - but she can't control it. Since her near death experience that killed both her parents and her sister, she's been able to hear the world. She's so tired of hearing everything that she barely lets herself live. She adores the talks with her sister's ghost. It makes her feel connected to the past. But everything changes when a boy appears. Everyone at school seems drawn to him, including Ever's best friend. In the beginning, Ever doesn't notice him, but when she finally does, it's a whole new world. Being with Damen makes the rest of world fall away. She craves his presence and attention, but is there something dangerous lurking that he's not sharing? Could her life be in danger?


A great start to a new series that has everyone talking - with good reason. It's the number one book on the NYT best selling list for it's 3rd straight week. It contains the paranormal elements and romance that readers eat up. It's no wonder it's an addicting read. The next book BLUE MOON will be out in August.



Thursday, March 19, 2009

Moonstone

Allie's day doesn't start out right. Climbing up on the roof to fix the TV antenna in flip-flops isn't the smartest plan. She falls off the ladder and into the bull pen. Immediately, the bull isn't happy and come charging at her. Frightened almost to death, she realizes that the bull is running backwards on her command! Freaked, she doesn't know what to do. She confides in her best friend, who looks at the star on her palm and understands. Allie is special: she has powers. She gives Allie a moonstone necklace that has been in her family for generations. At first, Allie isn't convinced. But she's visited by a fairy godmother (Sort of) where she passes three tests and gains more power. The necklace helps her to read minds. But someone's after the necklace and they'll stop at nothing to get it. When her best friend is brutally attacked, Allie knows she needs help. She turns to tough Junior, knowing she can trust him. Trust might lead her into falling for him. When her mom goes missing, she fears for the worst. Can she use her powers to save her mom...and more importantly herself?

A great start to a new series filled romance, paranormal, finding yourself, and family drama which just equals fun. I love how Allie discovers something new about herself, that changes her outlook on life. I'm already looking forward to the next book.

Want more info: Check out the book trailer I made ~



Movie News


Maximum Ride: The Movie has a new director: Twilight's Catherine Hardwicke

Already people are buzzing about the movie.
Here they talk about it (call it a fantasy....where I firmly take Max Ride as Science Fiction)
Here is a reaction to calling Maximum Ride "The New Twilight" - a reaction I share....


Lightning Thief News

Alexandra Daddario will be Annabeth


except here they have Annabeth's age at 18, which is wrong.

Looking forward to both these movies, but the Lightning Thief more!