Top Ten Tuesday- What am I waiting for?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's edition is as follows:
Top Ten Books That Have Been On My Shelf For The Longest But I've Never Read.

Well I have over 400 books on the shelf.  I know it is a ridiculously big TBR pile and I plan on going on a book buying ban ASAP.  Anyhow many of the books that are there have been sitting on my shelf for years.  RIDICULOUS!

I have to admit that most of my books will be adult books as I have only started reading YA in the past year.  Well, here's my list:

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller- This is a classic and I know I have to be in the right frame of mind to read it... hence my procrastination

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt- I really want to read this so I'm not sure why I keep putting it off

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth- Well it's not surprise why I'm putting this off.. this book is a behemoth- a ridiculous amount of pages.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo- I think this needs to go on my tbr list for December. It's supposed to be amazing

The World According to Garp by John Irving- I think everyone and their mother has read this. It looks great.

The Godfather by Mario Puzo- Another classic

Good Grief by Lolly Winston- This book looked so good when I got it and then school happened and I never got to it.  I've been out of school for 3 years now. I think I should pick it up.

Half Magic by Edward Eager- This book was given to me by my practicum teacher- over 3 years ago! Yikes!

I am Legend by Richard Matheson- I got this book after the movie came out and then never got around to reading it.

Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells- I enjoyed the movie and wanted to read the book.  

Well there it is... I can't wait to see what you have been hoarding on your bookshelves :)

Review: Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Publishing Date: September 12th, 2011
Genre: YA, mystery
Pages: 256 pgs
ISBN: 9780547496382

Rating: 4 stars

Summary from GoodReads:
Willa is lucky: She has a loving blended family that gets along. Not all families are so fortunate. But when a bloody crime takes place hundreds of miles away, it has an explosive effect on Willa’s peaceful life. The estranged father she hardly remembers has murdered his new wife and children, and is headed east toward Willa and her mother.
Under police protection, Willa discovers that her mother has harbored secrets that are threatening to boil over. Has everything Willa believed about herself been a lie? As Willa sets out to untangle the mysteries of her past, she keeps her own secret—one that has the potential to tear her family apart.

My Review:
I received this book in a package of books from Thomas Allen & Son about a month ago.  I had a backlog of books to read so this one got put on the back burner.  Well, I feel like I should have read this book sooner.  I really enjoyed this book.  I actually read it all in one night and I couldn't put it down.  The book is about Willa who lives with her mother, her step-father and her step-sisters.  One night, her biological father goes on a rampage and kills his wife and his children and is on his way to see Willa.  After all is said and done this is much more than just a thriller.  It delves into the complexity of blended families and of how important biological parents are to our  identity.  Willa begins questioning her identity after this incident and embarks on a journey to "find herself".  I really like how the author is able to write about teens.  As I've said before in other reviews, I often find that some authors gloss over some of the difficult things of being a teen.  In this novel, the main character Willa allows herself to be selfish for once and she does so in an over-the-top kind of way.  This novel deals with many issues that teens face including blended families and cutting.  It is raw and real and well written.  I would definitely recommend this novel.  Overall I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.