Sunday, June 6, 2010

New Crayons, Awards, Summer Reading Lists

I received the Sunshine Award from Donna at Bites, Helen at Helen's Book Blog and Katy at A Few More Pages. Thank you so much! This award is given to bloggers who inspire others and show creativity. You must pass it on to 12 bloggers.

I pass this award to... (random order)

1. Christina at Reading Extensively
2. Pam at Bookalicio.us
3. Steph at Steph Su Reads
4. Steph at Hey! Teenager of the Year
5. Kristi at the Story Siren
6. Terri at Brown Girl Book Speak
7. Akilah at The Englishist
8. Monica at the Bibliophilic Book Blog
9. Laura at Bib-Laura-Graphy
10. Maggie at Bilbiophilia-Maggie's Bookshelf
11. April at Good Books and Good Wine
12. Heather at the Secret Adventures of WriterGirl

Thank you bloggers for continuing to inspire and amaze us!

New Crayons was created and is hosted by Color Online. In this meme I share what new books I got this week.
I also want to share my summer reading lists. I'm not including any YA/MG POC because you can just find those titles in my TBR list on Goodreads. I want to share my reading lists of the classics I want to read, some off color books (to catch up on titles that I won't review on my blog but that I want to read) and the adult fiction POC titles that I may or may not do mini reviews of. These are not complete lists, I just picked my top 10 in a random order. I'm also going to be reading books about current events and politics but I don't feel like listing those.

Classics Reading List
1. Middlemarch by George Eliot
2. Kindred by Octavia Butler
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
5. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen
7. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
8. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
9. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
10. The Living is Easy by Dorthoy West

Adult Fiction
1. Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
2. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
3. Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice
4. Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
5. Sleeping in the Bed You Made by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
6. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (Book 1 in Easy Rawllins series)
7. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
8. Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
9. Feminista by Erica Kennedy
10. Bloody Waters by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera (Book 1 in Lupe Solano Mystery series)

Off Color (To reiterate: These books will not be reviwed here. I may review them on Goodreads)
1. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
2. Graceling by Kirsten Cashore
3. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
4. Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
5. The Deathday Letter by Shaun Hutchinson
6. The Daykeeper's Grimoire (Prophecy of Days #1) by Christy Raedeke
7. Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker
8. The Eternal Kiss: Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire (anthology), edited by Trisha Telep
9. White Cat by Holly Black
10. Levithian by Scott Westerfield
Received for Review
Middleworld: The Jaguar Stones Book 1 by J&P Voelkel
Fourteen-year-old Max Murphy is looking forward to a family vacation. But his parents, both archaeologists and Maya experts, announce a change in plan. They must leave immediately for a dig in the tiny Central American country of San Xavier. Max will go to summer camp. Max is furious. When he's mysteriously summoned to San Xavier, he thinks they've had a change of heart.

Upon his arrival, Max's wild adventure in the tropical rainforests of San Xavier begins. During his journey, he will unlock ancient secrets and meet strangers who are connected to him in ways he could never have imagined. For fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to this pampered teenager. Can Max rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save the world from the Lords of Death, who now control the power of the Jaguar Stones in their villainous hands? The scene is set for a roller-coaster ride of suspense and terror, as the good guys and the bad guys face off against a background of haunted temples, zombie armies, and even human sacrifice!
-This sounds like an adventurous and fun read. I'm curious to learn more about Mayan culture. Received from the publicist. Thank you! Summary from Amazon.com

Nice and Mean by Jessica Leader
Marina is mean. Sachi is nice. Marina is Barney's. Sachi is Burlington Coat Factory. It's bad enough that they have to coexist in video class—but now they're being forced to work together on the big semester project. Marina's goal? Expose her wanna-be BFF as a fashion wanna-be to the entire middle school. Sachi's goal? Prove that she's not just another honor-roll Indian student and get people talking. Work together in harmony? Yeah, that would be no. How can Sachi film something meaningful, and Marina, something fabulous, if they're yoked to each other?

Summary from the author's website I WoWd this. I'm also participating in a blog tour celebrating the release of the book =) Thank you Jessica!

From Doret (we traded)
Efrain's Secret by Sofia Quintero
Ambitious high school senior Efrain Rodriguez dreams of escaping the South Bronx for an Ivy League college like Harvard or Yale. But how is his family going to afford to pay for a prestigious university when Moms has to work insane hours to put food on the table as it is? And Efrain wouldn’t dare ask that good-for-nothing father of his who has traded his family in for younger models. Left with few options, Efrain chooses to do something he never thought he would. He embarks on a double life—honor student by day, drug peddler at night—convinced that by temporarily capitulating to society’s negative expectations of a boy like him, he can eventually defy them.
-I finished this book last night. I'm exhausted not only from a long day but from this book. It was awesome, it had a little bit of everything. Review tomorrow :) Summary from Amazon.com
So what POC books did you get this week?

8 comments:

  1. Middleworld sounds really good. So does Efrain's Secret. I look forward to your review!

    You have quite and ambitious reading list for this summer. I'm impressed! I am hoping to read some more classics too. I liked Don Quixote and Persuasion is one of my favorite Jane Austen novels.

    This week I got a couple of POC novels: Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey (this is about Maori culture and one character is part Maori), Fat Vampire (the overweight vampire teen falls in love with an Indian girl) and For the Win by Cory Doctorow.

    Congratulations on receiving the Sunshine Award and thanks for passing it on to me!

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  2. WOW! If you update your progress, you will motivate (and embarrass!) me!
    Love your ambition!!!

    I did check into Spanish and French on Twitter. There may be some that do mini lessons, but I didn't see them. Some people chat back and forth to practice. I suppose we could try that if you'd like to practice French. I don't think I can write a sentence in Spanish.

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  3. Thanks so much for including Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made on your summer reading list!

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  4. Congrats on the award...you are so deserving! And damn, you read a lot of books!!

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  5. Hey, thanks! And glad you got a hold of Efrain's Secret - isn't it a killer read?

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  6. Congratulations on the award, Ari, and happy reading! :)

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  7. Middleworld looks really fun, it's great when you get a good book from the publisher. I know you're going to enjoy 'Leviathan', it is entirely impossible not to like it I think.

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  8. @Christina-I just got Middlemarch and it's a big read. I may only get through it and Persuasion which I'm really looking forward to. Fat Vampire sounds hilarious and I did a Wow on For the Win (although it seems to only have meh reviews). I need to read Guardian of the Dead soon!

    @campbele-That's a good idea, at the end of each month in summer I will share my progress. I think I will probably finish all the adult fiction titles on my list but some of the classics are longer than I thought! It's hard to juggle summer reads with books that need to be reviewed.

    You're doing well on sending me Tweets in Spanish! we can start doing French too.

    @Deberry and Grant-Just finished and it kept me up late into the night! It was very good, thank you for stopping by :)

    @LauraM-Aw thank you! Haa, hopefully I will get through all these, but I'm not so sure...

    @Laura-It was a very good read, so glad I finally got it! You are so welcome and deserving =D

    @Nathalie-Thank you, same to you =)

    @Jodie-I've heard nothing but good about Leviathan. I'm starting with Rampant and then I think I'll read Leviathan next. I need to start Middleworld soon, it looks like a lot of fun!

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I love to hear from you!! Thank you for sharing :) And don't be Anon, I try to always reply back and I like to know who I'm replying to ;)