The Overflowing Library

What a month ... I started this month not reading anything because work was so busy but I soon caught up Books read in February Poison Heart by SB Hayes Heart Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne Slated by Teri Terry Heaven by Christoph Marzi Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton Beat the Band by Don Calame The Replacement by Breanna Yovanoff (did not finish) Anna dressed by Blood by Kendra Blake The Duff by Kody Keplinger Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer Ticket to Love by Marilyn Kaye The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor Becoming Nancy by Terry Ronald Bunheads by Sophie Flack Angel by LA Weatherly (did not finish) I'll be there by Holly Sloan Goldberg Finding Sky by Joss Stirling Where is Fred by Edward Hardy The Big Adventure of the Smalls by Helen Stephens Shooting Stars by Allison Rushby Au Revior Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber Forgiven by Jana Oliver Favourite Book read in February Slated by Teri Terry Yyou are going to love it...

BZRK by Michael Grant Published by Egmont Set in the near future, a conspiracy is afoot to create a perfect and perfectly controlled world. The Armstrong Fancy Gift Corporation is a front for the conjoined Armstrong twins, Charles and Benjamin, and the plot to create their own version of utopia. A shadowy guerilla group known as BZRK form a nascent resistance movement. Both sides develop sophisticated nanotechnology to achieve their goals: -The Armstrong twins develop the nanobot, a stealth device that latches onto the brains of unsuspecting citizens  -BZRK's DNA-derived biots are deployed to search out and destroy the insidious bots.  If biots are destroyed, the brain cells of their DNA-donor also die.  Hence the name BZRK.  *** This review is going to be short. This isn't because I didn't like BZRK but more because I can't quite find the words to do it justice yet. Firstly can I say that Michael Grant is probably one of the most creepy...

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld Published by Simon and Schuster Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren’t technically enemies. The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is at it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld’s brilliant trilogy  This review is going to be short and sweet as I don't want to spoil the series for anyone. Goliath is the last in a series of books set in a steampunk world and follows t...

Jessie Hearts New York by Keris Stainton Published by Orchard Jessie's just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex. New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend's girlfriend. They might be perfect together, but in a city of eight million people, will they ever find each other?  I have no idea why I left it so long before reading this book. It was a huge mistake because I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to Emma Hearts LA even more now. Jessie is one of those fuzzy lovely books which you can devour in a matter of hours and be left with a lovely heart-warming feeling in the pit of your stomach. Jessie is one of those characters you can't help but love. She in vulnerable and wears her heart of her sleeve. Her recent relationship with her mother hasn't been great and she's now in New York to spend time with her whilst getting over her recent split with her boyfriend. I loved the relationship Jessie has with her best fr...

Finding somewhere to write in our house was always going to be a problem; there were just so many of us in the family taking up the available space, but when my eldest went to university, the opportunity presented itself, in the form of her little room under the eaves at the very top of the many stairs. Here I have my desk and my very own bookshelf. Many of the books are for reference and research (like The Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches ) an infamous treaty on witches written in the 1480s – gripping stuff) but others are very special books that I’ve carried around with me from bedsit to flat to house to (borrowed) room since I was a child. They are very precious and I like to have them near me when I’m working. You can tell I have read them over and over again because the bindings are falling apart. On the bookshelf I keep my favourite Enid Blyton, Five Go Adventuring Again, my tatty, ancient Complete Works of Shakespeare and Jane Eyre (my old copy was in such ...

Legend by Marie Lu Published by Razorbill The United States is gone, along with its flooded coasts. North America's two warring nations, the western Republic and the eastern Colonies, have reached a breaking point. In the midst of this broken continent and dark new world are two teenagers who will go down in history.... Born into the slums of Los Angeles, fifteen-year old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. A mysterious boy with no recorded image or fingerprints. A boy who should no longer exist. A boy who watches over his family until one evening, when the plague patrols mark his family's door with an X--the sign of plague infection. A death sentence for any family too poor to afford the antidote. Desperate, Day has no choice; he must steal it. Born to an elite family in Los Angeles' wealthy Ruby sector, fifteen-year old June is the Republic's most promising prodigy. A superintelligent girl destined for great things in the country's ...

The Catastrophic History of You and Me Published by Razorbill Dying of a broken heart is just the beginning.... Welcome to forever. BRIE'S LIFE ENDS AT SIXTEEN: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart—literally. But now that she's D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost—and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul . . . who just might hold the key to her forever after. With Patrick's help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces  The Catastrophic History of You and me was a fun and easy read which was both hear...

Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan Published by Walker This is a brilliant thriller ghost story by a new name in teenage fiction. When Daniel Lever is dragged to Leisure World Holiday Complex for some "time away" with his depressed dad, his expectations are low. Daniel is overweight, he hates sport, and his father has brought along his beloved tomato plant. But soon Daniel spots a girl swimming in the fake lake. Lexi is elegant and smart, but very mysterious. Why are her bruises getting worse each time she and Daniel meet? And is her watch really ticking backwards? A dark figure stalks the pair, and as British summer time approaches, Daniel has to act quickly. Their souls depend on it.   I enjoyed Daylight Saving and found it to be a satifying little read. Daylight saving is a thriller which follows the story of main character Daniel. Daniel is a likable protagonist. He has been dragged to Leisure World, a centre parcsesque holiday park where families are supp...

Shatter me by Tahereh Mafi   Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. ***   ...

Heaven by Christoph Marzi Published by Orchard The night that Heaven lost her heart was cold and moonless. But the blade that sliced it out was warm with her dark blood... David Pettyfer is taking a shortcut over the dark rooftops of London's brooding houses, when he literally stumbles across Heaven: a strange, beautiful, distraught girl who says that bad men have stolen her heart. Yet she's still alive... And so begins David and Heaven's wild, exciting and mysterious adventure - to find Heaven's heart, and to discover the incredible truth about her origins.   Heaven is a uniquely different read. It's difficult to sum up exactly what sort of book it is as it seems to me to be a little bit of everything, a love story, a thriller and a fairy-tale all wrapped up into one. The story itself is set in London and has this magical feel to it in an almost Neil Gaiman-esque way (to be fair I haven't read an awful lot of his stuff so forgive me if I'm...

Beat the Band by Don Calame Published by Templar In this sequel to SWIM THE FLY, told from Coop’s point of view, it’s the beginning of the school year, and the tenth-grade health class must work in pairs on semester-long projects. Matt and Sean get partnered up (the jerks), but Coop is matched with the infamous "Hot Dog" Helen for a presentation on safe sex. Everybody’s laughing, except for Coop, who’s convinced that the only way to escape this social death sentence is to win "The Battle of the Bands" with their group, Arnold Murphy’s Bologna Dare. There’s just one problem: none of the guys actually plays an instrument. Will Coop regain his "cool" before it’s too late? Or will the forced one-on-one time with Helen teach him a lesson about social status he never saw coming?  Beat the Band was exactly what I was expecting after reading Swim the Fly last year. It's crude, funny and a better insight into the brain of a teenage boy that I p...

The pictures of my bookcases below are a bit of a cheat. Most of my bookshelves are truly overflowing. Books stacked upon books stacked upon books. My favorite books, however, are neatly displayed, so it was pretty easy for me to figure out what to snap photos of. I just went around the house and looked for the tidiest shelves and clicked away. Not shown here are my hundreds of writing reference books, my photography books, my young adult shelves, my old comic books, or my piles of other literary fiction including Hemingway, Richard Ford, Richard Yates, and Ian McEwan. I have been a huge Richard Russo fan ever since I read The Risk Pool as part of a book club I belonged to when I lived in Los Angeles. It’s funny, because when the book was chosen by one of the group members and I read the back cover I thought that I wasn’t going to like it very much. Boy, was I wrong. I absolutely loved it and have read everything Richard Russo has ever written, from his novels, to his short s...