Top Ten most anticipated 2013s

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. Every week there's a category and everyone participating lists their "Top Ten" in that category.

This week's topic is: Top Ten Most Anticipated Books For 2013 (singles/debuts/beginnings)

I only included singles/debuts/beginnings in my list because it'd be unfair if I included all the awesome sequels and finales coming out. And yet...I still couldn't stop at 10 :P

1. Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

The Day and Night populations sound like such a cool concept. I don't even really know that much about it, but the concept sounds neat.

2. In the After by Demitria Lunetta

1) It sounds like aliens. 2) I like the idea of a baby being involved without someone being pregnant  It's something I've never seen before.

3. Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown

I don't really get uber excited about contemps, but I feel like sexting is something that's rarely touched on despite the fact that it's become a pretty big thing these days.

4. Prophesy of Oz by Megan Shan

The Wizard of Oz was never my favorite story or anything, but I'm really intrigued by the idea of a sort of sequel.

5. Rush by Eve Silver

Aliens? A game that determines life or death for the whole planet? Outer. Space? Um, yes, I think so.

6. The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

What are these mysterious waves? And are they zombies or aliens? Or alien-zombies?! It's safe to say I'm intrigued.

7. The Program by Suzanne Young

To be quite honest, it's basically a combination of Suzanne Young, the cover, and the title. I love anything that has something to do with a "Program" of any kind.

8. Taken by Erin Bowman

We've got a mysteriously wall that nobody can cross and disappearing boys. How could I not want to read it? I NEED to know what's on the other side of the wall!

9. Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff

It's a Rumpelstiltskin retelling! Like, for reals, guys.

10. After Eden by Helen Douglas

I'm really intrigued by this one because it's a little similar to a dream I had not that long ago and wanted to write about. Plus, I just love other planets.

11. Monsters by Tom Leveen

I don't need to know anymore than this: "A YA horror/thriller about a group of teens stranded inside 

their high school during a mysterious, deadly epidemic."

12. Splintered by A.G. Howard

Alice. In. Wonderland.

13. The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Guys, guys, guys! It's like a ghost library thing! Liiibrary, I say. Library.

Envy by Gregg Olsen {Review}

Publisher: Splinter

Publish Date: August 23, 2011

Source: Publisher for honest review
Goodreads

Crime lives -- and dies -- in the deceptively picture-perfect town of Port Gamble (a.k.a "Empty Coffin"), Washington. Evil lurks and strange things happen -- and 15-year-olds Hayley and Taylor Ryan secretly use their wits and their telepathic "twin sense" to uncover the truth about the town's victims and culprits.

Envy, sadly, didn’t captivate me.

Envy takes third-person omniscient to the extreme. The book followed so many characters that I had trouble remembering them all and keeping their names straight. I understand what Olsen was trying to do in getting all the side-stories to come together in the end to provide a clear picture, but it just didn’t do that for me. I got bored and distracted by all the side-stories constantly wondering when I was actually going to find out anything about Katelyn’s death.

The mystery wasn’t all that captivating in and of itself either. First of all, I found almost everything unconvincing since they ruled the girl’s death an accident due to espresso machine. Maybe I know nothing and some people really do make coffee in their bedrooms or bathrooms, but it just seemed completely absurd to me. Another thing that didn’t really work for me was The Accident. It was constantly being built up and built up and then it just seemed to amount to very little.

Another thing that bothered me was the fact that it’s classified as YA but despite the fact that it has quite a few teenaged characters it often felt more Adult. Characters were often talking about the sex lives of the adults in town and their secret behind-closed-doors lives. It didn’t really work for me.

The Nutshell: My opinions are my own, so someone else might not have the same issues as I did, but I still have to say that I won’t be recommending Envy.

Pages: 285

Series: Empty Coffin #1

Rating: Miss

Have Your Cake and Read it Too {2}

Have Your Cake and Read it Too will take a book and pair it with a food whether it be savory or sweet. For now, it'll be sporadic, but depending on how much you guys like it, it may become a usual thing :]

Book

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know it's an obvious choice, but how could I resist?

Dessert

Baked Alaska

recipe from Saveur

INGREDIENTS

For the filling and cake:
2 pints strawberry ice cream, slightly softened
Unsalted butter, for pan
½ cup cake flour, plus more for pan
¼ tsp. kosher salt
½ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. grated lemon zest

For the meringue:
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
4 egg whites
½ cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. For the filling: Line a 7″-diameter bowl with a 15″ piece of plastic wrap, allowing excess to hang over rim of bowl. Pack ice cream into bowl, smoothing top, and freeze until solid, at least 4 hours.

2. For the cake: Heat oven to 325°. Grease and flour an 8″ round cake pan; set aside. Whisk together flour and salt in a bowl; set aside. Beat sugar and eggs in a bowl on medium-high speed of a hand mixer until tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. Stir in juice and zest; fold in flour mixture. Pour into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool completely, invert onto a rack, and set aside.

3. For the meringue: Heat oven to 450°. Place cream of tartar and egg whites in a large bowl; beat on medium speed of a hand mixer until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Add sugar, and beat until stiff but not dry peaks form, about 2 minutes.

4. To serve, place cake on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Invert ice cream onto cake and peel off plastic. Cover ice cream and cake with meringue. Bake until meringue begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Using 2 metal spatulas, transfer to a cake plate and serve immediately. 

Liked and Shared {2}

Liked and Shared is a new feature I'll be trying out. Basically, I find something I like and share it with you guys!

Source, Chibird

I may not go to school anymore, but this was definitely me. Sure, I've still got bits and pieces up there, but nowhere near as much as I "learned." 

It reminds me of a Pepper Ann episode (did anyone else watch that) in which she visualizes a vast room full of filing in her head that's completely full of everything she's ever learned, but she can't really find anything because it's such a mess :P

And now I have the intro song stuck in my head, so I thought I'd share :P

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour {Review}

Publisher: Dutton Children's Books

Publish Date: February 16, 2012

Source: Library

Goodreads

Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans -- and Colby -- to start college n the fall.
But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing n small towns and dingy venues, while roadie-Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?

Maybe there’s something wrong with me, because while reading The Disenchantments I never wanted Colby to forgive Bev. This might come from the fact that I’m a terrible grudge holder, but part of it’s also due to the fact that Bev treated him horribly.

I’ve been through my fair share of best friend fights and at least one or two was due to the fact that they were starting to keep things from me and grow apart so I can definitely feel for Colby in that aspect. I felt so sorry for him when Bev started pulling away. She did thing after thing that hurt him and I just wanted to tell her off.

Which brings me to Bev. Quite honestly, I didn’t like her and I never ended up liking her despite the ending. Maybe I’m alone in this or maybe that’s the way LaCour wanted it, but it’s definitely how I felt.

I loved the how the road trip was not only a literal journey, but an emotional journey for all the characters too. It wasn’t just our main character, Colby, who went through changes, but all of them which I thought was really neat. Side characters can usually be done with or without. Sometimes they’re just there for advice, sometimes for comic relief, and sometimes for no other reason than the main character needs friends, but that’s not the case with The Disenchantments. Meg, Alexa, and Bev all make their own personal journeys.

The Nutshell: If you love road trips, great side characters, literal and emotional journeys, small towns, and watching one boy go through a multitude of emotions for one girl then The Disenchantments is definitely a book for you.

Pages: 307

Series: No

Rating: Hit