What it’s about (from Goodreads):

It is 1845, and Frances Osgood is desperately trying to make a living as a writer in New York; not an easy task for a woman—especially one with two children and a philandering portrait painter as her husband. As Frances tries to sell her work, she finds that editors are only interested in writing similar to that of the new renegade literary sensation Edgar Allan Poe, whose poem, “The Raven” has struck a public nerve.

She meets the handsome and mysterious Poe at a literary party, and the two have an immediate connection. Poe wants Frances to meet with his wife since she claims to be an admirer of her poems, and Frances is curious to see the woman whom Edgar married.

As Frances spends more and more time with the intriguing couple, her intense attraction for Edgar brings her into dangerous territory. And Mrs. Poe, who acts like an innocent child, is actually more manipulative and threatening than she appears. As Frances and Edgar’s passionate affair escalates, Frances must decide whether she can walk away before it’s too late.

Our thoughts:


We would recommend this to:

Fans of historical fiction, Edgar Allen Poe and romance

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. 

While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other

Our thoughts:

Levithan is a brilliant writer. It's a little hard to write about how awesome this book was without sounding a bit like a fangirl. Forgive me. I loved everything about this book.

The narration is beautiful - it's told through the eyes of gay men of the previous generation, a collective "we", talking to today's young gay men. You can feel their compassion and frustration as experienced onlookers and it makes the story feel intensely personal.

The story is largely inspired by (but not based on), two events: Matty Daley and Bobby Cancielo, students from my alma mater, who broke the Guinness World Record for longest kiss in 2010 and the suicide of another local college student, Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death after being filmed by his roommate kissing another man. Both happened within two weeks of each other and both were big local stories, so seeing them melded together in novel form was really interesting.

It's a story of a generation's struggles and a reflection of our world today - and it's done beautifully.

We would recommend this to:

Everyone! But particularly fans of young adult, coming of age stories, personal struggles and inspirational stories.

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

It's the dead of winter and struggling actress and wedding cake decorator Piper Donovan is thrilled to be in warm and romantic Sarasota, Florida, enjoying the powdery white beaches, soothing seas, and golden sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. She and her family are there to celebrate her beloved cousin's wedding. Not only is Piper creating the sugar sand dollar-festooned wedding cake, she's also the maid of honor.

But a cloud seems to hover over the whole affair. Shortly after a bridesmaid mysteriously disappears, a kindly neighbor's car is run off the road and a prospective witness, an innocent Amish teenager, is threatened to keep silent. Then a body is found on the wedding beach. With the nuptials threatened, it falls to Piper to unmask a killer. Could it be the wedding planner with something to hide? A doctor and his wife who collect unusual Japanese figurines? The best man, an ex-drug dealer with lecherous eyes and roving hands? What about her cousin's future stepfather-or even the bridegroom himself?

As Piper gets close to figuring out who's been covering his guilty footprints in the sand, the cunning killer has already set his sights on Piper as his next victim!

Our thoughts:

This was a really cute story of Piper Donovan, a cake decorator attending a wedding in beautiful Sarasota, Florida. And the setting is about all that I liked.

 I couldn't understand why Piper would even be involved in looking for a murderer, being that her background is in cake decorating. Maybe if she was a private investigator it would have been more believable.

I also thought the book was very predictable. There was only part that was the least bit surprising.

With its simple sentences and single page chapters, I felt this book could have been more suitable for younger readers.  Not a total flop but I think I would pass on reading anymore Piper Donovan Mysteries.

We would recommend this to:

People who like fluffy mysteries and quick reads

This week is Banned Books Week - an annual event celebrating our freedom to read and the importance of open access to information. Books are challenged (an attempt to remove or restrict the material) or banned (an actual removal) for a variety of reasons - but they're all forms of censorship. We don't approve.

We were fortunate that when we were growing up, we could read whatever we wanted. Mom never discouraged us from reading and bought us or recommended to us many of the books below.

In honor of Banned Books Week, we put together a list of some of our favorite challenged or banned books - and the reasons why they made the list.





Why it's challenged: Challenged this year as optional summer reading in the Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 in Minnesota by a local group called the Parents Action League who complained it included, "extreme profanity and age-inappropriate subject matter that should never be put into the hands and minds of minor children".Why we love it: Eleanor & Park is a beautiful story about two kids who feel lost in high school. The deck is stacked against them. And yet, they find each other and that relationship makes both of them stronger. Rowell pointed out in a recent interview that the ugly things the book is being challenged for aren't what the main characters are doing, it's what they're facing and trying to overcome. I thought she said it best, explaining, "When these people call Eleanor & Park an obscene story, I feel like they’re saying that rising above your situation isn’t possible. That if you grow up in an ugly situation, your story isn't even fit for good people’s ears. That ugly things cancel out everything beautiful."



Why it's challenged: It was the most challenged book of the decade running 2000-2009. The most frequent reason was that it portrayed satanism or occultism.
Why we love it:  First of all, we don't get satanism out of it - to us, it's a story of love and friendship. Aside from that, though, this is our favorite get-lost-in-a-book series. It's magical.




Why it's challenged: Challenged as optional reading in the tenth-grade honors class at Troy, Pa. area schools in 2012 because the novel depicts a rape in graphic detail and uses vulgar language.
Why we love it: Yes, that scene is horrifying - but that's the point. You should be horrified by it. It help paints a broader picture of the setting in which the book is taking place.




Why it's challenged: Frequently challenged for it's "extreme violence" and "occult or satanic themes".
Why we love it: We grew up on these books. Did they sometimes freak us out? Sure. Have they turned us into violent adults? No way. For us, these were the gateway to Stephen King!

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

Citing examples from folklore, as well as horror films, TV shows, and works of fiction, this book details all known ways to prevent vampirism, including how to protect oneself against attacks and how to destroy vampires. While offering explanations on the origins and uses of most commonly known tactics in fending off vampirism, the book also delves much deeper by collecting historical accounts of unusual burial rites and shocking superstitions from European history, from the “real” Serbian vampire Arnold Paole to the unique Bulgarian Djadadjii, a professional vampire “bottler.”

 It traces the evolution of how to kill the fictional vampire—from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Hammer horror films beginning in the 1950s to Anne Rice’s Lestat and the dreamy vamps of Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries—and also celebrates the most important slayers, including Van Helsing, Buffy, and Blade. In exploring how and why these monsters have been created and the increasingly complex ways in which they are destroyed, the book not only serves as a handy guide to the history and modern role of the vampire, it reveals much about the changing nature of human fears.

Our thoughts:



We would recommend this to:

Fans of vampire movies and books (but only AFTER you've watched/read a vast majority!)

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. 
 
Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Our thoughts:

While I would find hiking The Pacific Crest Trail to be a wonderful adventure, one that I would take in a heart beat, I do think it was crazy that she made this trip alone. Even the most experienced of hikers doesn't travel such a distance on their own.

I found it quite sad that through this months long trip, her greatest threat was not from any wild animal, but rather from another human being. I also found it a little sad that she burned books along the way. I understand the concept of not wanting to have any extra weight but I think I would have tried to trade more of them with other hikers or simply left them behind in the camp boxes.

When the author divorced her husband she chose a new last name. Rather than return to her maiden name, which is the most common thing to do, she chose to have the name Strayed. To me, that is like advertising that she cheated on her husband. It's like wearing the scarlet letter. I think if she truly wanted to help with her healing process and forgive herself for simply being human, she should get rid of the title that brands her.

Ultimately, I ended up not really enjoying this because I couldn't identify with or appreciate Strayed's choices.

We would recommend this to:


People who big fans of midlife rediscovery stories like Eat, Pray, Love

This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is books on our fall to-be-read list. Lots of these are new releases - others are just books we're hoping to get around to!




Starting off with the most obvious: I can't wait for Allegiant! I gobbled up Insurgent the day it came out so it feels like I've been waiting for this one for-ev-er. 




The Bone Season has been getting so much great buzz that I decided I had to check it out. It should come up on the library hold list for me in the next few weeks!




The last book I read that John Green recommended was pretty disappointing, so I'm a little on the fence about this one. I love the premise, though, so I'm thinking it'll be a great Halloween-time read.




The Lion Seeker comes out next month and is being touted by a great book club pick - so I'm hoping to plow through my ARC and see if it's worth recommending to my book club!



This is another we feel we've been waiting forever for. Unlike some books, this one is on all of our to-read lists. And we have it preordered, which rarely happens. Just about two weeks to go!




I've been kicking myself since BEA for not staying and getting a copy of this. I need to get my hands on a copy to check out, because it sounds fantastic.




This novel is based on the idea of waste - and opens with Thanksgiving day. It seems like the perfect read going into the holiday season.



This is the only book on the list that's not a recent release, but I swear I'm going to read it this fall. I love social histories of food and snapped this one up as quickly as I could, but it's sat on my shelf for more than a year. It needs to get read, because I'm sure I'll love it.


We picked up this one at BEA. I'm not sure if I would have picked it out otherwise, but now that I have it I'm excited to dig in. It sounds great.

This is a memoir of poverty and the issues that come with it. I feel like a lot of memoirs about poverty that receive a lot of attention are set outside the US - and this one is set in Mississippi, so I'm interested to see how it compares.

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

The world is living in the shadow of oncoming disaster. An asteroid is set to strike the earth in just one week’s time; catastrophe is unavoidable. The question isn't how to save the world—the question is, what to do with the time that's left? Against this stark backdrop, three island teens wrestle with intertwining stories of love, friendship and family—all with the ultimate stakes at hand.

Our thoughts:

I was so excited to start this book. Gorgeous cover and an asteroid hurdling towards earth? That is so my speed. The whole idea never quite panned out as well as I hoped, though.

The book features three separate narratives - I really wouldn't call them intertwining, as the publisher's blurb does; they barely overlap. Of the three, one felt really developed and interesting, one was a little on the boring side and the third seemed so far out there I had a hard time swallowing it.

I read a fair amount of young adult fiction and it always aggravates me when the teen characters don't feel real - and these didn't. I finished the book feeling like these were just idealized versions of the teenagers parents want to have as their kids.

I was drawn in enough that I really wanted to find out what was going to happen and was fascinated by Coutts's portrayal of the possible last days of life as we know it. This wasn't what I'd hoped it would be, but it was still enjoyable.

We would recommend this to:

People who spend time thinking about what they'd do when the world ends, fans of young adult fiction and anyone who has spent a lot of time at Martha's Vineyard.

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.

Our thoughts:

Charming and funny and brilliant.

Elise is such a great heroine - she's imperfect and struggling with herself and you can't help but get drawn in and cheer for her. She's real and believable and her inability to fit in reminded me of my own high school crowd.

I also adored that Elise's parents played a big roll in the story. I feel like parents are often out of the picture in YA novels and that's just not the case here: she's watched, she's grounded and she's afraid to upset them - and that makes her, and the story, all the more real.

I really can't rave about this book enough. I LOVED it.

We would recommend this to:

Fans of young adult, people who like coming-of-age stories, people who like stories about characters finding themselves, anyone who has ever felt unpopular and music lovers.

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English academy in 1960s Saigon, and he is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of his school. Fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, he is quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country, though he also harbors a weakness for gambling haunts and the women who frequent them. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, but when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. 

In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage whom he is able to confide in. But Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see.

Our thoughts:

The Headmaster's Wager is chock full of Chinese tradition, political corruption and romance during wartime in Saigon. Despite being a painful look back on the Vietnam era, I really enjoyed the story line. 

I thought this book was very powerful, and Lam kept me captivated by the many twists and turns the story takes. I also felt that the ending left it open to the possibility of a sequel in the future. I would definitely be interested in reading more of Lam's work. He is a very talented writer.

We would recommend this to:


Fans of historical fiction, those interested in the Vietnam war.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is books we would love to see made into a movie or TV show (set in a perfect world... in which movies don't butcher the books we love). We had fun with this one.

I have to start off the list with The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I just feel like this would be awesome as a movie. I'm sure it's partly because it's fresh in my head, but I felt like I could see everything the way Gaiman described it, so I think it would translate to film well.

Two other worlds I got totally lost in and think would be great movies are Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and This Song Will Save Your Life by Lelia Sales. These are both contemporary YA in fun settings (Paris and the underground club scene, respectively). Awesome teem movie material, in my opinion!

I'd also love to see When She Woke by Hillary Jordan turned into a movie. This is a sci-fi novel set in the not-so-distant future in which the US government tints skin of criminals as part of their punishment. It's really thought-provoking and would make an excellent film. Similarly, I think The Future of Us by Jay Asher would make a good movie. The book, set in the 80s, finds two teens logging into a computer to see their Facebook profiles of the future. I think it would do awesome in our Facebook-loving society.

To give the TV side of things some love, there are two fantasy series that would make good TV: Melissa de la Cruz's Blue Bloods and Charlaine Harris's Harper Connelly series (starting with Grave Sight). Blue Bloods is sort of Gossip Girl-meets-vampires. Perfect for TV. Harper Connelly is about a girl who, after being struck by lighting, can stand on the spot a person died and relive their final moments - making her a sought-after private investigator. Both would lend themselves well to a weekly series.

On a very different note, I also think Michael Pollan's Food Rules would be a great weekly series. The book outlines in very basic terms different rules to eat by - ie, "Don't eat anything your Grandmother wouldn't recognize as food". A weekly show could focus on one rule per show. I think Pollan's message is fantastic and adapting it for TV would help gt it to a wider audience.

Back to movies, I'm a sucker for historical movies so I'm throwing in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This is another book that's super descriptive and I'd love to see it recreated on screen.

To round out the list, I'm going to pick something different: My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares.  This one I'm not picking because I love it and want to see it come to life. It was the first in a planned trilogy and ended in a huge cliffhanger. Three years later, it doesn't seem that Brashares is working on it so I'd love to see someone else make it into a movie (or movies) and give us an ending!

What movies would you love to see turned into a movie or tv show?

What it’s about (from Goodreads):

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

Our thoughts:

I was never big on fanfiction, so it took me a little while to get into Cath’s world, but once I was there I was totally engrossed. Cath is quirky, slightly-awkward and totally relatable main character. There were so many times my first year of college when I thought and felt the same things she did.

 The story, for me, came in waves. There were lulls between the action that I didn’t always love, but for some reason it made the story more believable. Doesn’t everything always happen at once? And then there’s two weeks of nothing to do?

The book deals with some heavy, unpleasant topics but it never feels heavy or unpleasant. It’s a hopeful, optimistic story.

We would recommend this to:

Fans of Eleanor & Park, fans of young adult, people who like coming-of-age stories, people who love a good love story and anyone who has ever considered themselves a fangirl.