Monday, March 1, 2010

It's Monday Here's What I Am Reading

Monday, March 1, 2010
It's Monday, What are You Reading? is a weekly meme that highlights books you have read and are reading. Shelia over at One Persons Journey Through a World of Books is the host of this event.

This week I managed to decrease my TBR pile by two:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
and

Iron King by  Julie Kagawa

I also started and abandoned Sea Clearwater by Selene Gardenas. I really wanted to like this book, which was written by a 13 year-old. Unfortunately, I am afraid that there was just too many things that distracted me about the plot and the writing. Transistions were too abrupt and immature, characters were not well-developed, and too much telling and not enough showing in her descriptions. I do however, applaud Gardenas for her effort and believe that as she matures so will her writing.

I also posted my review for Eleventh Grade Burns by Heather Brewer as part of the Literary Road Trip, and my review of Impossible by Nancy Werlin.

I went to the library to return some books and was not going to go in, but in a moment of weakness and curiosity I found myself browsing the  YA New Book section and picked up several more books:

Secret Society by Tom Dolby
Dream Life Lauren Mechling
According to Kit by Eugene Doyle
Past World by Ian Beck

I will probably reading from this list this week but not sure which ones to choose. Any suggestions?

This week I also went to hear Ridley Pearson speak. Mr Pearson is a St Louis resident and I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago. This was my first author appearance and I was very impressed. There were a lot of kids there all anxious to ask questions and Pearson was a fantastic and funny speaker. Of course I had to buy some books while I was there, and I picked up two of his Kingdom Keepers series:

Kingdom Keeper: Disney After Dark  by Ridley Pearson
Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn by Ridley Pearson

Kingdom Keeper III: Disney in the Shadows is due out this month.

If all goes well I hope to have reviews posted sometime this week for Iron King and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

So what are you reading?



19 comments:

Teddyree said...

What did you think of The Iron King? I wanted to love it but sadly I was a little disappointed. Might have just been me, not the story??

I'm not familiar with your library YA books. Happy reading whatever you decide to go with :-)

Jan von Harz said...

Actually I did really enjoy Iron King. Lots of suspense, beautiful descriptions and I thought the addition of the technology fey was quite an inventive twist. I also loved the characters. I am looking forward to Iron Daughter.

Thanks for stopping by love getting comments.

Jen at Introverted Reader said...

I got sucked into my library's new YA section this week too. I have probably 80 or 90 unread books at home, but I walked out with 5 new library books. They just looked too good to resist!

The Iron King sounds so good! I can't wait to read that one. Enjoy your books this week!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I need to start perusing the YA books on the shelves...they've changed a lot since I was a kid. Now I have teenage grandkids, so I should get with the program! LOL

Shy said...

Would be interesting to hear what you think about The Iron King. I won this book recently and certainly cannot wait to indulge it myself. Hope that you have a great, reading week. Have a good day =)

Eugenie Doyle said...

So happy to hear you checked out According to Kit, my new novel. I hope you enjoy it and would be very interested in your comments. Thanks for bringing attention to good YA books.

Care said...

I enjoyed TATDofPTI very much. It's got heavy issues but never felt heavy - Alexie is very talented.
SO many great YA bloggers - of all ages! Welcome to blogging.

Chrissie said...

I can't wait to read The Iron King. I'll be looking out for your review of that one :)

Lydia said...

I've never heard of those Kingdom Keepers books! I'll have to check them out.

Here is my Monday: http://thelostentwife.net/2010/03/01/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-10/

Jo said...

Oh, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was really good.

Glad to see you enjoyed Iron King. I've been seeing it all over teh blogosphere, but haven't tried it yet myself.

Sharon said...

Looks like you had a great reading week. That was cool to be able to hear Ridley Pearson speak.
I sure miss my library.
Happy reading!

susan said...

Absolute Diary was laugh out loud funny. Really enjoyed it.

Hannah said...

So, I've totally read the first Kingdom Keepers book, but after much thought decided that I didn't like it enough to continue purchasing the rest of the series (I had gotten the first book for like $1 at the end of last year on clearance.) However, I am interested in reading the others so I suppose I'll have to find them through my library.

As for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian...I'm definitely want to hear what you thought of it. I've read a really great review of in just this past week and I actually wrote the book down on my "borrow from the library some day" list.

Happy reading this week!

Darlyn said...

I absolutely cant wait for the Iron king. so much good reviews i've read about the book. hoping that you'll enjoy it =p

Michelle Santiago said...

hi jan! you read the iron king! can't wait to hear your thoughts about it. enjoy your books for this week and have a great reading week!! :)

Gwen said...

While they aren't my usual genre, I need to go read those Pearson books. I used to work at Disneyland and they sound like fun. You just might convert me to Y.A.!

Shweta said...

Would love to read your review of Iron King. It's on my wishlist..

The1stdaughter said...

I'm a little late on the draw, but I wanted to make sure I came by to say I can't wait to hear your review of Iron King. Dream Life has also been on my wishlist for some time now.

I hope you have a fabulous reading week!

Martha Eskuchen said...

The books sound interesting - but I don't read much YA.
Hope you have a great reading week.

 
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