Bout of Book #12: Top Ten Recommendations

Bout of Book Day 2 has commenced. I have read 2 books so far but written no reviews. I will be writing some reviews today and reading some great books.

Currently Reading:

Got ten more chapters in with The Shadow Society yesterday. Did not expect certain reveals to happen to the main character. I'm so glad that this is a standalone because I think I would get super anxious to complete the series. Olive's Ocean should be really good. I've been wanting to read it forever. EDIT: I finished The Shadow Society.

Books Read Today: 

I just couldn't wait and finished my buddy read. I really enjoyed where this book took me. The plot was amazing and unlike anything I've read before.

Pages: 408 (I read 60 pages before Bout of Books so really 348 pages)

Total Books Read: 3

Total Reviews Completed: 2 (counting any review I do even if it's not for a book I read this week.)

Top Ten Recommendations

Hosted over @ Trees of Reverie

Most booklovers dream of working in a bookstore or a library, so let’s make that dream come true for a day!

The Challenge: You've just started to work at a bookstore (or library) - what are your top ten go-to book recommendations?

Prompts:

• You may select any TEN BOOKS of your choice. These books can be from a specific genre, or you may like to choose a few books from various genres.
• Make a list of the TEN BOOKS that you've selected. Make sure to include the title and author of each book.

I always recommend the same books when asked because they are just so good. I've added a couple of different ones that I think you all will enjoy as well.

Savvy by Ingrid Law

For generations, the Beaumont family has harbored a magical secret. They each possess a "savvy" -a special supernatural power that strikes when they turn thirteen. Grandpa Bomba moves mountains, her older brothers create hurricanes and spark electricity . . . and now it's the eve of Mibs's big day.As if waiting weren't hard enough, the family gets scary news two days before Mibs's birthday: Poppa has been in a terrible accident. Mibs develops the singular mission to get to the hospital and prove that her new power can save her dad. So she sneaks onto a salesman's bus . . . only to find the bus heading in the opposite direction. Suddenly Mibs finds herself on an unforgettable odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up-and of other people, who might also have a few secrets hidden just beneath the skin. 

The Pitch: Perhaps the best book you will ever read as a preteen or human being. If you have always wished that you had a power unique to you then I would recommend reading Savvy. The powers can be destructive and incredible as well as very helpful. The characters are all wonderfully crafted. Savvy will have you wanting reading more of the Beaumont family.

Past Perfect by Leila Sales

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new. 
Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….

The Pitch: If you are into quirky reads or consider yourself a person who enjoys things or subjects that maybe not everybody would enjoy I would like to present to Past Perfect. If you also like silly and fun rivalries between two groups where love starts to bloom between two of them then this book has your back too.

Erasing Time by C.J. Hill

When twins Sheridan and Taylor wake up 400 years in the future, they find a changed world: domed cities, no animals, and a language that's so different, it barely sounds like English. And the worst news: They can't go back home.

The twenty-fifth-century government transported the girls to their city hoping to find a famous scientist to help perfect a devastating new weapon. The same government has implanted tracking devices in the citizens, limiting and examining everything they do. Taylor and Sheridan have to find a way out of the city before the government discovers their secrets. To complicate matters, the moblike Dakine has interest in getting hold of them too. The only way for the girls to elude their pursuers is to put their trust in Echo, a guy with secrets of his own. The trio must put their faith in the unknown to make a harrowing escape into the wilds beyond the city.

The Pitch: Hesitant to read a time travel books? Look no further than Erasing Time where you are unlikely to feel anxious about time being changes especially with two twins that courageously decide to fight against the villains who are trying to use their power to change what shouldn't be changed.

By the Time you Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters

Daelyn Rice is broken beyond repair, and after a string of botched suicide attempts, she’s determined to get her death right. She starts visiting a website for “completers”— www. through-the-light.com.While she’s on the site, Daelyn blogs about her life, uncovering a history of bullying that goes back to kindergarten. When she’s not on the Web, Daelyn’s at her private school, where she’s known as the freak who doesn’t talk.Then, a boy named Santana begins to sit with her after school while she’s waiting to for her parents to pick her up. Even though she’s made it clear that she wants to be left alone, Santana won’t give up. And it’s too late for Daelyn to be letting people into her life... isn't it?

The Pitch: A less emotionally charged yet still engaging and thought provoking read, By the Time you Read This I'll Be Dead, is a story of how the connections in our life can change our fate forever... if we choose it.

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

After years of homeschooling, Maggie is starting high school. It's pretty terrifying.
Maggie's big brothers are there to watch her back, but ever since Mom left it just hasn't been the same. 
Besides her brothers, Maggie's never had any real friends before. Lucy and Alistair don't have lots of friends either. But they eat lunch with her at school and bring her along on their small-town adventures.
Missing mothers...distant brothers...high school...new friends... It's a lot to deal with. But there's just one more thing.
MAGGIE IS HAUNTED. 

The Pitch: If you love graphic novels or haven't given them  try yet, Friends with Boys will appeal to all readers. Wonderful art fills the pages and illustrates Maggie's world perfectly. Also perfect for anyone beginning high school and is feeling a little nervous about what is to come.

Amandine by Adele Griffin

Delia’s new friend is not what she seems
Each day of Delia’s first week of high school, her parents ask her the same question: Did you make any friends today? Finally, the answer is yes. Her name is Amandine, and she is the most exciting person in town. An artist, a dancer, and a teller of tall tales, she has enough charm to make Delia forget her loneliness. Like Delia, Amandine is an outsider—a city girl with too much personality for a small town.. Delia notices something strange about her friend from the start. Everything she says is a little bit too wild to be true. When the exaggerations get more serious, Delia finds it’s too late to escape. Amandine has chosen Delia—and if Delia isn’t careful, the vengeful, dangerous Amandine will set her life on fire. This ebook features a personal history by Adele Griffin including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s own collection.

The Pitch: There are people in your life that will just rip right through and change everything. Amandine is someone who fits that description - mysterious, full of herself, and manipulative - this story might help you make sense of those people in your life who are far to distant to know and too fascinating to look away from.

My Little Monster by Robico

Mizutani is a self-absorbed overachiever, concerned only with maintaining the highest grades in school. Haru is an impulsive short tempered brute, who scares everyone with his explosive bursts of violence. Haru gets suspended on the first day of school when he encounters some bullies harassing a student and dispatches the bullies with great bloody violence. Mizutani is tasked with delivering school materials to Haru who interprets this as an act of friendship and latches on to Mizutani, much to her dismay. And so begins a strange and potentially combustible relationship!

The Pitch: For all those who enjoy manga romances this one has a tough, icey girl realizing there is more to life then friendship with the help of Haru, a socially awkward boy who fights anyone who hurts others. 

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang

Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role-playing game where she spends most of her free time. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. 
But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer--a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake. 

The Pitch: Graphic novel meets economics and doing the right thing. You learn about the struggles of others while enjoying an illustrated game setting.

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

The Pitch: Mob family who sells chocolate that is demmed illegal by society. A girl who does anything to keep her family safe. 

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.
However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

The Pitch: A popular girl relives the last day of her life for a week. Each time she changes the outcome and learns more about herself and the people around her. Will have you crying.