Follow Friday

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read, which are both awesome blogs!  This week's question is:

Summer Reading: What was your favourite book that you were REQUIRED to read when you were in school?

There are a few books that stand out in my mind for the question.  I love, love, loved To Kill a Mockingbird.  I read this in high school and in university and I think I liked it more in university.
I also really enjoyed reading Les Miserables for my French class.  It really has a great story and I can't wait for the movie to come out soon.

Those are my picks for high school reads but if I had to choose some books from University I think I would have to pick: Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai.  It is a lesser known book but it is just excellent.  It is about a boy struggling to come to terms with his sexuality in the midst of a civil war.
I also really liked The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman.  This book is about a girl, during the time of the plague, who must become a prostitute.  It is such a great read and I would suggest it to anyone.  I think it may even be one of my favourites of all time.

Well I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Friday!  Happy Reading!

And the winner is.....

Well the giveaway for a copy of Bitterblue has been over for a couple of days now and I figured I should probably announce a winner. 

So without further ado here is the winner.....

Rabiah!

 I have sent an e-mail to Rabiah and I am waiting to hear back.  Congrats! 

WoW: Shades of Earth

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it is a weekly feature where bloggers share what they are excited to read next.

Here is my pick this week:

Here is a summary from Goodreads:


The final book in the trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis!

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience. But this new Earth isn't the paradise that Amy had been hoping for. Amy and Elder must race to uncover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. But as each new discovery brings more danger, Amy and Elder will have to look inward to the very fabric of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been meaningless.

It comes out January 15th, 2013.  It is the final book in Beth Revis' Across the Universe trilogy.  I can't wait to see what happens on this new planet.  Happy Reading!

WoW: The Farm

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it is a weekly feature where bloggers share what they are excited to read next.

Here is a summary from Goodreads:

Life was different in the Before: before the Ticks began devouring humans in a deadly swarm across America; before the surviving young people were rounded up and quarantined “for their own protection.” These days, we know what those quarantines are—holding pens where human blood is turned into more food for the Ticks. Surrounded by electrical fences, most kids try to survive the Farms by turning on each other…

And when trust is a thing of the past, escape is nearly impossible.

Lily and her twin sister Mel have a plan. Though Mel can barely communicate, her autism helps her notice things no one else notices—like the portion of electrical fence that gets turned off every night. Getting across won’t be easy, but as Lily gathers what they need to escape, a familiar face appears out of nowhere, offering to help…

Carter was a schoolmate of Lily’s in the Before. Managing to evade capture until now, he has valuable knowledge of the outside world. But like everyone on the Farm, Carter has his own agenda, and he knows that behind the Ticks is an even more dangerous threat to the human race...

It comes out December 5th, 2012.  It looks like a great dystopian type of book. Happy Reading! 

Review: Never Enough by Denise Jaden

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publishing Date: July 10th, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 400 pgs
ISBN: 9781442429079
Source: Given to me by publisher for an honest review

Rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads: 

From the author of Losing Faith, a novel about two sisters and the eating disorder that threatens to destroy their family.

Loann’s always wanted to be popular and pretty like her sister, Claire. So when Claire’s ex-boyfriend starts flirting with her, Loann is willing to do whatever it takes to feel special… even if that means betraying her sister.

But as Loann slips inside Claire’s world, she discovers that everything is not as it seems. Claire’s quest for perfection is all-consuming, and comes at a dangerous price. As Claire increasingly withdraws from friends and family, Loann struggles to understand her and make amends. Can she heal their relationship —and her sister—before it’s too late?

My Review: 

This book is such a touching story and I don't even know where to begin with my review.  I sat on this one for a few days because I really don't know how to do this book justice.  This book is about two sisters trying to navigate through their teenage years.  We all know that being a teen is never easy and that there are many issues of self esteem that come into play.  The title Never Enough sums it up pretty well I think.  We are always thinking that something is never good enough in comparison to someone or something else.  

In this novel, Loann feels like she will never measure up to the ideal that has been set by her sister.  She is trying to deal with some pretty outspoken and, quite frankly, mean friends while trying to make new friends that she can talk to.  She is also struggling with boys.  She wants to fit in and part of that is trying to fit in with the popular boys and this can be to the detriment of her relationship with someone else. It was so difficult reading about Loann at times because I can remember being this awkward and always wanting to fit in.  My adult self, at times just wanted to yell at her and tell her that she doesn't need those people in her life.  They will only drag her down and while it may feel like the worst thing in the world at the time, in the long run it would be much better to try to ignore some of the things going on around her.  I did like how, while Loann struggles to fit in, she does retain a good sense of self.  She stumbles along the way but she still remains her quirky self. 


The other sister in this book, Claire, struggles with issues of never being skinny enough and this translates into an eating disorder.  The parts with Claire in it were so difficult to read.  It was heart wrenching to see how someone can waste away to nothing when you know that the issue is all in their head.  Growing up I had a friend who was anorexic/bullemic and it was difficult to watch her shrink every day and having her think that she still wasn't skinny enough.  This was when the internet wasn't as available as it is today and when I read about the different websites geared towards people who have an eating disorder I couldn't believe how easy it would be to be sucked right back into it by reading some of the posts.  I also can't imagine how someone's parents could deal with this.  Do you push your child to eat or do you try to be comforting about it.  You don't want to go too far one way because it could exacerbate the problem.  I just found the writing of these situations in the book were raw and it didn't gloss over a very serious issue.  I commend Jaden for writing about eating disorders in such a way because it really makes you think about the seriousness of the situation.  


Overall, I loved the writing style of this book and I loved the subject matter.  I liked how the focus wasn't entirely on the eating disorder but also on the fact that Loann had some self-esteem issues to work out too.  It was an exceptional read and I give the book 5 out of 5 stars.  It definitely had me crying in a few parts and I think that we can all see a little bit of our teenage selves in this book.  I would recommend picking it up right away and giving it a read. 

In My Mailbox (35): The Ridiculous Edition

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren and it gives bloggers a chance to show off what they got in terms of books for the week. 

This week is actually about a month's worth of books and I will not lie, it is ridiculous.  I mean I went through my shelf and started listing them and thought to myself that I think I have a bit of a problem.  To my credit, I got a lot of these books on discount and with gift cards.  I am a teacher so I got quite a bit of Chapters giftcards for the end of the year and my birthday was 2 days ago so I got some book money.  I also frequented 3 different used book stores/thrift stores and found some excellent deals.  (We're talking 99 cents!).  Without further ado here is my list.  Please don't judge :)

So there they all are!  That is one insane book haul!  I hope everyone had a great week and happy reading!