The Overflowing Library

Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn Published by Oxford University Press Challenge: BBC Source Own copy (UK paperback) Set at the start of the Second World War, Rowan the Strange shows what life is like in a mental asylum for a young boy who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. The treatments he receives are still experimental - and nobody predicts the effect they will have on him ... *** This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. The book follows the story of Rowan a young boy who is sent away by his family to a mental hospital because he is strange. During the course of the book you see how he is treated by the staff at the hospital, other patients and his family. It also has the nice touch of being set during the early part of World War Two. The main reason I would recommend someone should read this is because it gives you real insight into how people with mental illness were treated and viewed during the 1940s. The treatments used are quite horrific and th

 IMM in hosted by the lovely Kristi at www.thestorysiren.com Please forgive me if I'm MIA this weekend I am marking GCSE scripts for exam board and am on stupidly tight deadlines (made worse by the fact I am off to Scotland to see my younger brother next weekend). I will make up for it in half term and become a commenting machine! While you're visiting enter my Long Reach Giveaway ! UK only 5 copies up for grabs!! Delirium by Lauren Oliver (UK Proof) The Gorgeous Jesse for books4teens.co.uk sent me this. He is now officially my favourite person (shh don't tell Hadley) When the following two books arrived I did a happy dance - you probably know why! Across the universe by Beth Revis (UK proof) Words cannot describe how much I am looking forward to this!! Between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys (UK proof) This is completely different to the book above which I received in the same package but I am so excited to read it (with my history head on). If you've

Dear all as you read this I am off in a secret online room doing standardisation for marking History GCSE papers. I will then be set loose on marking millions of them over the next few weeks (millions is a bit of an exaggeration but it feels likes it sometimes when you are in the middle of doing them) and will be on very tight deadlines. You might find therefore that I'm not about it in blogoworld for the next few weeks as much while I'm getting it done so please keep leaving me comments anyway and I'll catch up back when half term hits. I thought today I'd leave you with this link - it is a site I hope to be using very soon when all the lovely money rolls in for marking all the papers!! http://www.firsts-in-print.co.uk/ I have used them before and they have loads of signed and first edition books you can buy. For a signed copy addict like myself it is heaven!!

Entangled by Cat Clarke Published by Quercus Challenge: DAC, BBC Source: Own copy (UK paperback) The same questions whirl round and round in my head: What does he want from me? How could I have let this happen? AM I GOING TO DIE? 17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here. As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see? Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here? A story of dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction. *** The thing I liked best about this book is that it was original in its ideas, concepts and execution along with being an engaging and pac

I don't read a lot of adult books but if I had to pick out my top five books ever most of them would be adult books. These are the ones I would recommend without question to other people as they are fab. I haven't reviewed them in full but I might do someday as it will give me an excuse to reread them. Maybe in the summer holidays.. Gone to soldiers by Marge Piercy If you love your World Wat Two fiction you will love this - it is an epic at a staggering 800 pages but it is totally worth the time and effort (I have read it twice and would certainly read it again. In a stunning tour-de-force, Marge Piercy has woven a tapestry of World War II, of six women and four men, who fought and died, worked and worried, and moved through the dizzying days of the war. A compelling chronicle of humans in conflict with inhuman events, GONE TO SOLIDERS is an unforgettable reading experience and a stirring tribute to the remarkable survival of the human spirit. The Time Traveller

Wither by Lauren DeStefano Published March 2011 This book sounds amazing - I love a bit of dystopian fiction and this one sounds particularly good. What if you knew exactly when you would die? Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home. But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collect

Burned by PC and Kristin Cast Published by Atom Challenge: None Source: purchased from Amazon (UK hardback) Zoey Redbird is the youngest High Priestess in House of Night history and is the only person – vamp or fledgling – that can stop the evil Neferet from raising all kinds of immortal trouble. And she might just have a chance if she wasn’t so busy being dead. Well, dead is too strong a word. Stevie Rae knows she can bring her BFF back from her unscheduled va-cay in the Otherworld. But it’s going to take a lot more than hoping to bring Zoey back. Stevie Rae will have to give up a few secrets of her own . .  *** I started this series late last year and completely gave up before this book. Now some time has passed I've picked it up again and I have to say that this book was a definate improvement on the previous instalment in the series. House of Night is a bit of a guilty pleasure. There is so much of it that is a little bit cringy but you are drawn in all the same.

Tyme's End by BR. Collins Published by Bloomsbury PLC Challenge: BBC Source: Review Copy (UK paperback) Bibi feels out of place everywhere - everywhere that is, except for Tyme's End, the deserted house that she breaks into when she thinks nobody is nearby. There she unexpectedly meets Oliver Gardner, the owner of the house, who's just returned after ten years away. Their story and the story of Oliver's grandfather becomes inextricably entwined, linked as they are by Tyme's End itself. For Tyme's End is more than just a deserted house. It is a house that by turns can be romantic, beguiling, sinister and malevolent. It is a house that had a cruel and manipulative owner. And anybody who enters Tyme's End must prepare themselves for terror ...Part mystery, part psychological thriller, set in the present yet with forays into the past, this is a cleverly ambitious novel that makes for a compulsive and gripping read. *** I wasn't sure

IMM is hosted by Kristi at www.thestorysiren.com I have had an awesome week bookwise this week!! Arrived in the post The Other Countess and The Queen's Lady by Eve Edwards (UK finished copies)  I haven't heard a lot about these books but I can tell you they are set in the Tudor period and they look fab. They are a series - the first was out in July and the second out in early February (and a third later in the year). I am looking forward to reading them soon. The Luxe by Anna Godbersen (UK paperback) I have read Anna's Bright Young Things and have heard people rave about this series - this came up on Read it Swap it this week and I managed to swap it. Looking forward to it. Life as we knew it by Susan Pfeffer (UK paperback) My lovely blogging friend Clover offered me her copy of this - I put it back on my wishlist a while back when I was on Dystopian Kick. I did notice after a flick through it is written in a diary format which I usually love. Matched by

When life seems so mundane When I resent my name, can't cope with blame And need someone to help me through the shame Someone who feels the same A faceless friend who will not judge To clean the mud, who holds no grudge I need a place to hide away A shield to keep the world at bay These pages are my portal And This story is my saving grace This made up unreality Is made for me A private place Books by John  O'Halloran This person that I read about Is less than me And more than me But more than that Is nothing like me I am made irrelevant Along with all that bothers me I swear these books were heaven sent For more go to http://johallo1.blogspot.com/

NOW CLOSED!!! WINNERS WILL BE ANOUNCED SOON Today I am pleased to announce my first giveaway on The Overflowing Library of a book which I think is awesome. I have available for a UK Giveaway  five copies of Long Reach by Peter Cocks provided by the lovely Walker Books. You can check out my review of it here You can also check out the trailer below and read an extract here to help you decide if you want to enter To enter please fill out the form below before the 31st January. Good Luck!!

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto Published by ATOM Challenge: DAC Source: Review Copy (UK paperback) Three angels- Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, the youngest and most human- are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness. They must work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and, most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments. Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.  *** I'm not sure what I was expecting for this book but it certainly wasn't like other angel YA titles I have read recently. This book follows the story of three angels who have been sent to Earth on a mission to help people. Of the three Angels Bethany, the youngest is the Angel whose story we follow the most c

Delirium by Lauren Oliver Published February 2011  I feel like this book has been out for ages because all I've seen recently are reviews for it. I actually think this will be more my thing than Lauren's first book which I did enjoy. Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that one love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

The betrayal of Natalie Hargrove Published by Random House Children's Books Challenge: None Source: Gifted by the lovely Emma / Asamum Natalie Hargrove would kill to be her high school’s Palmetto Princess. But her boyfriend Mike King doesn’t share her dream and risks losing the honor of Palmetto Prince to Natalie’s nemesis, Justin Balmer. So she convinces Mike to help play a prank on Justin. . . one that goes terribly wrong. They tie him to the front of the church after a party—when they arrive the next morning, Justin is dead. From blackmail to buried desire, dark secrets to darker deeds, Natalie unravels. She never should’ve messed with fate. Fate is the one thing more twisted than Natalie Hargrove Cruel Intentions meets Macbeth in this seductive, riveting tale of conscience and consequence. *** the person who said this book was Macbeth meets cruel intentions wasn't lying. I loved it and read it in one sitting

Today at The Overflowing Library I have something a little different for you. The review you will read below is done by my lovely husband Hadley. I am hoping it is something I can persuade him to do on a semi regular basis as it will mean I won't have so much pressure on when work is busy. For those of you who haven't heard me chatter on about him Hadley is at least if not more responsible for the fact that we are rapidly running out of shelf space in our library (although he doesn't always read the quantity I do). While he will read the odd young adult novel (usually at my insistence) he usually reads adult Sci-Fi, fantasy, Gothic horror or thriller novels and a variety of graphic novels (he is currently in the middle of a Judge Dredd Marathon). He is patiently tolerant of my book obssession and generally a bit of wonderful chappy I was offered this book by the author late last year. While I was interested it wasn't the type of book I usually read and I wasn't

In my Mailbox is hosted by the awesome Kristi at www.thestorysiren.com This week has been an insanely mental week for books - they all seem to have dropped through my door at once!! I literally don't know where to start with them all!! Presents I was given a waterstones giftcard by a friend who know I love to read but knows I have loads and loads of books. It is reallt rare that I go to a waterstones (nearest one is over 20 miles away). I spent ages looking and finally decided to take advantage of their 3 for 2 offer and bought The Demon Trappers: Forsaken by Jana Oliver (UK paperback) I am looking forward to this loads and I believe it is a debut novel so I will be reading it for my DAC attempt this year. Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles (UK paperback) I recently read the first perfect chemistry book and really enjoyed it - looking forward to getting to this soon!! Lament by Maggie Stiefvater (UK paperback) I have been waiting ages for this - been tol

Last week I posted about not writing negative reviews. I loved that I got loads of comments but I just wanted to clarify a few things about my position as I think a few people misunderstood what I was saying. (Thank you to those who did comment you really made me think) I see a negative review as one that has nothing, however small, to say about the book which is positive. I often find what I’ve seen of those types of review that they are often quite nasty or personal or just unreasonable as well. If I have nothing good to say about a book and I’m half way through I simply don’t finish it. I don’t see that it is worth my time finishing something I am not enjoying and then wasting even more time reviewing it. That said out of the 168 books I read last year there were only 7 I did this with. In which case I put a note on goodreads explaining why I didn’t finish it and include them in a round up post of books I didn’t finish periodically. What I think some people thought I meant by