Monday, November 23, 2015

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci

On my ever growing list of to- read books...


Acclaimed authors Holly Black (Ironside) and Cecil Castellucci (Boy Proof) have united in geekdom to edit short stories from some of the best selling and most promising geeks in young adult literature: M.T. Anderson, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, John Green, Tracy Lynn, Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Barry Lyga, Wendy Mass, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfield, Lisa Yee, and Sara Zarr.

With illustrated interstitials from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley, Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you're a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic will help you get your geek on!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Heroes by Scott Westerfeld


I'm enjoying reading Westerfeld's newest novel, co-written with Australian authors Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti, especially since they visited us at Indian Hill High School last month!

Told from separate viewpoints, teens Scam, Crash, Flicker, Anonymous, Bellwether, and Kelsie, all born in the year 2000 and living in Cambria, California, have superhuman abilities that give them interesting but not heroic lives until they must work as a community to respond to a high stakes crisis.


Monday, October 12, 2015

Great Visit by authors Westerfeld, Lanagan, and Biancotti

Co-Authors Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan,
and Deborah Biancotti visited Indian Hill High School
October 12,2015

Great discussion of their collaborative new novel Zeros! 
Can't wait to start reading co-authors Westerfeld, Lanagan, and Biancotti's new book Zeros.  They visited Indian Hill High School to discuss their new novel and autographed copies

X-Men meets Heroes when New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti to create a sizzling new series filled with action and adventure.

Don’t call them heroes.

But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart.

Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He’s got a voice inside him that’ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t—like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days.

Enter Nate, a.k.a. Bellwether, the group’s “glorious leader.” After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the rescue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. At the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.

Filled with high-stakes action and drama, Zeroes unites three powerhouse authors for the opening installment of a thrilling new series.

                                     


Friday, September 18, 2015

Scott Westerfeld to visit Indian Hill!


Author Scott Westerfeld is visiting 
Indian Hill High School Learning Commons
Monday, October 12!

I'm in the middle of reading Westerfeld's first book in his steam punk series, and really enjoying it.  Can't wait to have him speak to our students!




Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.


Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

New Books for a New Year!

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

I read this suspenseful surprising fantasy over the summer. It kept me turning pages...

In four hours, Shelby Jane Cooper will be struck by a car.

Shortly after, she and her mother will leave the hospital and set out on a winding journey toward the Grand Canyon.

All Shelby knows is that they’re running from dangers only her mother understands. And the further they travel, the more Shelby questions everything about her past—and her current reality. Forced to take advantage of the kindness of unsuspecting travelers, Shelby grapples with what’s real, what isn’t, and who she can trust . . . if anybody.

Award-winning author Nick Lake proves his skills as a master storyteller in this heart-pounding new novel. This emotionally charged thrill ride leads to a shocking ending that will have readers flipping back to the beginning.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

I'm up at the lake cottage in northern Michigan and getting in a lot of reading, especially on the hammock.  One of the many reasons that I love summer!

Here's the latest young adult novel I just finished.  I always enjoy books that deal with a quest.

"I am a collection of oddities, a circus of neurons and electrons: my heart is the ringmaster, my soul is the trapeze artist, and the world is my audience. It sounds strange because it is, and it is, because I am strange." 
After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the "wastelands" of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland. 
So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane. 
Told in an unforgettable, kaleidoscopic voice, "Mosquitoland" is a modern American odyssey, as hilarious as it is heartbreaking."

Monday, May 4, 2015

How Soccer Explains the World: the Unlikely Theory of Globalization

How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization

by 
3.73 of 5 stars
Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross-currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. How Soccer Explains the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Chocolate -- Sweet Science and Dark secrets of the World's Most Favorite Treat by Kay Frydenborg

-Just looking at this book makes me gain weight-YUM!

From the Publisher:
Chocolate hits all the right sweet--and bitter--notes: cutting-edge genetic science whisked in with a strong social conscience, history, and culture yield one thought-provoking look into one of the world's most popular foods. Readers who savored Chew on This and Food, Inc. and lovers of chocolate will relish this fascinating read.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Spring Break Reads: Check out My GoodReads Shelf- Click on a Book Cover to Find Out More...



Click On a Book Cover to Find Out More...

Vicky's bookshelf: read

The Bookseller of Kabul
Thirteen Moons
Pearl of China
The False Friend
Remarkable Creatures
North of Beautiful
The Paris Wife
The Help
I Am Number Four
Snow Falling on Cedars
The Tiger's Wife
Half Broke Horses
The Glass Castle
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Grilling Season
Dark Tort
Sweet Revenge
The Sense of an Ending
Claude & Camille
The Night Circus


Vicky's favorite books »

Tuesday, March 17, 2015


Looking forward to reading Sedgwick's Ghosts, especially since I enjoyed his award winning Midwinter Blood and Revolver. Yet another one of my to- read books...

Four linked stories boldly chronicle madness, obsession, and creation through the ages. Beginning with the cave-drawings of a young girl on the brink of creating the earliest form of writing, Sedgwick traverses history, plunging into the seventeenth century witch hunts and a 1920s insane asylum where a mad poet's obsession with spirals seems to be about to unhinge the world of the doctor trying to save him. Sedgwick moves beyond the boundaries of historical fiction and into the future in the book's final section, set upon a spaceship voyaging to settle another world for the first time. Merging Sedgwick's gift for suspense with science- and historical-fiction, Ghosts of Heaven is a tale is worthy of intense obsession.


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Vivan Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle

Vivian Apple at the End of the World (Vivian Apple, #1)  I'm about 2/3rds into this novel and find it a really compelling account about the Rapture.

Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed "Rapture," all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country roadtrip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. Because at the end of the world, Vivan Apple isn't looking for a savior. She's looking for the truth.

Friday, February 27, 2015

The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks

The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks

The Room meets Lord of the Flies 

What happens when your worst nightmare comes true-and how will you survive?



Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The Teenage Brain



Just read a great article about the teenage brain. Your pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain that affects judgment and impulse control, is usually not fully developed until you're 25. That explains it...

Click here to read the article.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly a True Story by Josh Sundquist


Haven't cracked open this book yet, but the title alone makes it inviting...

A bright, poignant, and deeply funny autobiographical account of coming of age as an amputee cancer survivor, from Josh Sundquist: Paralympic ski racer, YouTube star, and motivational speaker.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015


A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury



As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose affection for him might help with his dream of studying at Oxford.


If you like this era of Indian history, you should watch the Earth by Deepa Mehta. The story is set in Lahore in the time period directly before and during the partition of Indian in 1947.