Big Game

Teddy Fitzroy is investigating another crime at FunJungle Zoo. A shot has been fired through the enclosure of a pregnant rhino, and rhino horns are in high demand in the black market. His nemesis, Large Marge, wants to convict him in a candy store robbery, and he has finally been granted permission to investigate, with a threat to his parents' jobs if he doesn't. And Teddy cannot decide between the head cheerleader at school and his friend Summer, daughter of the billionaire who owns it. Which might not be on the same level of importance as catching the attempted murderer before the rhino dies, but it still feels important to him.

Maximum Ride: Schools out-Forever

Maximum Ride is on a mission- to find the families of herself and her friends. Or at least, she was until her friend Fang was injured, they were taken in by an FBI executive, and things generally began spiraling downhill. Now everything is uneasily peaceful. But the Flock is more tense than usual. They have no leads for their parents. And more Erasers- lupine-human hybrids created to destroy avian-human hybrids like the Flock- keep showing up. A Voice inside her head has told her- time and time again- that she is meant to save the world. But how can she start if she doesn't know what she will save it from?

Daydream- SOL 1

  I'm distracted. I can't do work because I can't concentrate. Inside my head, my mind paints a picture. Dragons fight. Not just a duel- a battle, a war, hundreds in my mind. Silver-white and black scales clash in midair. Fire and ice flash in the sky. Both sides are vicious, fighting for nothing but revenge, the cause actually somewhat like one of my mom's Game Of Thrones theories about how a war started. To prevent any spoilers, both in Wings of Fire if the reader reads it (or has read it but has not read Winter Turning yet), and if my mother's theory actually is correct, I won't say why the war started. White IceWings are afraid of what the black NightWings can do, but they keep fighting. NightWings know that they can go extinct in one battle, but they keep fighting. Fighting for loved ones killed and lost. Fighting with such anger they will hate each other for thousands of years to come. They hate, and teach their children to hate, say it was the other's fault. But who's was it really? After a moment, Max taps me on the shoulder, and tells me to get back to work. The daydream is over-at least for now.              

Credit to Joy Ang for the pictures.                                                                            

Carry On

Warning- contains LGBT topics. If you are a homophobe, please accept my advice and go jump in a lake.

     Simon Snow is starting his final year at the Watford School of Magicks, and is generally unhappy with the way the world is currently going.His magic won't work, his girlfriend has broken up with him and seems interested in his enemy, who hasn't even shown up this year. The veil that keeps the living and dead apart is thinning, his enemy the Insidious Humdrum continues to attack the school, and the Old Families demand more money and power.

Fantasy or dystopian book group. They are awesome genres.

Poem

Strangers I don't know,
Saying hello.
I know we must look weird,
Bags full with trash we have cleared.
Their lives are unknown to me,
Living by a forest or  a city without a tree,
Living in the mountains or a house beside the shore.
Were their lives complete, or did they wish for more?
I will never know these strangers' stories.
This poem is for all of them, in their different categories.

The Martian

When Mark Watney is stranded on Mars, he thinks that he will be the first person to die there. Everyone thinks he's dead, and he needs to show the world otherwise. He needs to get off Mars before they are correct. He also needs to get water, find a reliable food source, establish communication with the earth before he starves or dehydrates anyway. But these are all steps in getting off of Mars. This is an epic, humorous story of one man's attempts to survive on the barrn landscape of Mars.

Read my TBR for genres.

Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath

Ruby Redfort is at camp. All her friends believe that it's a family trip. Her parents think that it is a school trip. She didn't tell anyone that, she just gave away enough details for everyone to get those suspicions. In reality, she is going to a scuba camp for Spectrum, the secret agency she belongs to. Spectrum has picked up a case based entirely on suspicion. Teenagers and children hearing mysterious whispers, very, very strange animal behavior, unusual sounds on the radio instead of music, and some waves that are entirely still, and a strange boat that looks like a stereotypical old-fashioned pirate ship, not much is known to be real.

Why Fish Fart

Have you ever wondered why on earth fish fart? Or what was the worst job in history, or who Mike the Headless Chicken was, or what it meant to be hanged, drawn, and quartered? Has it ever occurred to out to ask how much coffee it would take to kill a person, or who carried Sir Walter Raleigh's head for thirty years, or which fish uses slime to kill its enemies? Probably not. But just in case you have, then there is a place to look for answers. WHY FISH FART & Other USELESS or GROSS Information About The World is a fun book with the answers to the questions you never thought to ask.
     

I think this would be a good read for Thea, Lena, or Sloan. Warning: mature topics.

Touching Spirit Bear

Cole Matthews is 15 years old, and is a juvenile delinquent. His most recent crime is smashing Peter Driscal's head into the pavement, for telling the police about a robbery Cole committed. He is given a choice between going to jail or Native American Circle Justice, which will result in banishment for one year.He chooses Native American Circle Justice. On one of the first days, he is attacked by a pure white Spirit Bear. After the attack, he changes. Although he cannot take back what he did, he can prevent anything like that from happening again.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Ari lives with his mother,who he can understand,with his father, who he can't, with his younger sisters, and without his brother, who is in jail. Then one day he meets Dante, a boy at the pool who is a friend to him-the first real one he's ever had. As the two boys get to know each other and become better friends, Ari goes as far as to save Dante's life. But there is one major difference between them-Ari wants there friendship to stay a friendship, while Dante wants it to be something more.

The War That Saved My Life

It is World War II, and Ada has sneaked away from her mother in London to the countryside.  Because of her clubfoot, she had been locked away all her life so she wouldn't bring shame to her family.  When her brother Jamie is sent away for his safety due to the bombings, she runs away with him.  In the country, they meet Susan Smith, a woman who is forced to take them in.  As the war goes on, Ada makes new friends, gets her first pair of shoes,and learns to value herself, she keeps fearing her past,and trying to let go of the memory of her mother.

   

The Witch Hunter

By Virginia Boecker

Elizabeth Grey is a witch hunter. She and her friend Caleb have always obeyed the laws of the kingdom, and brought in witches and wizards to be burned at the stake. And she has good reason to. Her parents were killed in a wizard-made plague, the reason magic was outlawed in the first place. But then Elizabeth is accused of being a witch. She is sentenced to be burned at the stake, but is saved by Nicholas Perevil, the most wanted criminal in the land, the wizard who is convicted of starting the plague but escaped before he could be captured and tried. As Elizabeth is exposed to a new side of the magical world, she finds people whose families and lives were torn apart by witch hunters. She begins to wonder if magic is as bad-and witch hunting as good-as she originally thought.

This was a good book, with a creative plot, magic, and creative uses of magic, but has some mature topics.

No-Impact Man

When Colin Beavan decides to go completely "green", giving up washing machines, refrigerators, takeout, and anything that produces trash, he can't imagine the things he will learn in the year, about himself the human race, and our culture.

     I liked this book because it showed that it is possible to live in the huge city of New York without any trash, or rather, any impact whatsoever on the environment. It shows there is hope for the world, and that any average person can accomplish something as huge as this.

Extras

      After the demise of the bubblehead operation, Aya's face rank is stuck at 451,369 out of a  million and she is desperate for a boost. Then she finds a secret cliche doing tricks such as riding mag-lev trains- and telling no one about it. Desperate, she follows them to stumble apon another mystery- onethat might spell the end if she doesn't investigate.

     Aya was a memoroble character because she had clear opinions, an unforgettable personality, and humanlike loves and desires. She is the kind of character that could easily exist in real life.
"I'm not trying to be mysterious. It's just working out that way."

The Riverman

The land of Aquavania has a portal that appears as any household object in your house filled with water, like a boiler or a goldfish bowl. But it calls to you, and once you see it, everything melts away until only the water is left. If you touch the water, it transports you to Aquavania. Aquavania is a realm filled with excitement, pleasure, joy, love, and anything else that you can think of. Dragons or dragoons, levitating lemurs to paisley giraffes, ice caves with penguins to planets of polar bear fur, the world is yours. Until it comes to the thing you can't think of. The Riverman comes and tells you he has an answer, and if you invite him in, he steals your soul. In the Solid World, your body disappears and is never found. Alistair hears Fiona tell him all these things, and he believes that she's crazy. But she insists, telling him a complex story of her life in Aquavania. To figure out the mystery of the Riverman, Alistair will have to separate fact from fiction in an attempt to learn who he is on the Solid World.

Specials

Tally Youngblood is now a "Special"- a cruel-faced "Pretty" designed to intervene in Special Circumstances, such as the New Smoke, a refuge for "Uglies" who never want to become Pretties. But when a small band of Smokies turns out to include her ex-boyfriend David, she knows that she has a problem on her hands. Especially when the Smokies kidnap her friend Fausto and her incapacitated boyfriend Zane decides to join them. While tracking Zane, she has no idea of the dangers she'll face later.