G for Girl’s Guide to Fitting In Fitness, by Erin Whitehead and Jennipher Walters (book review) – exercise and relaxation for busy lives

Apr8

book cover of Girls Guide to Fitting in Fitness by Erin Whitehead and Jennipher Walters published by Zest BooksClasses and homework.
Club meetings and time with friends.
Who has time for exercise?
You do!

Without fancy equipment, expensive gym memberships, or high-tech shoes, you can improve your overall health as you fit fitness into your daily routine without sacrificing everything else.

The authors of this March 2013 release are long-time fitness experts and started their Fit-Bottomed Girls website to share what they’ve learned. Grab this paperback and start some easy healthy fitness habits today.
**kmm

Book info: A Girl’s Guide to Fitting In Fitness / Erin Whitehead and Jennipher Walters. Zest Books, 2013. [authors’ website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: Busy teens can’t spare time to spend hours in the gym, but anyone can find small chunks of time – at home, at school, on weekends, or during the summer – to improve their fitness and overall health.

After briefly assessing your energy level, sleep quality, stress level, and confidence as a starting point, you can choose exercise types and times that motivate you – from a solo dance party to your own rotation of warmup, cardio, strength, flexibility, and cooldown moves.

The authors offer several sample routines, plus good advice on avoiding injuries, easing your way into a wakeup workout, and different ways to make breakfast in a hurry. Proper hydration, the benefits of just plain walking, and how to fit your fitness plan into summer work or vacation are also covered.

If you want to pick up the pace with a 5K run or other competitive event, check out all the tips on training, goal-setting, and keeping yourself motivated as you prepare.

Round out your fitness with relaxation, from yoga to massage to restful sleep, so that your body has time to recover from exercise and your mind can let go of stress.

Young women will welcome the variety of exercise and relaxation routines collected here by Whitehead and Walters, along with reputable apps and websites relating to fitness and nutrition. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

F for Freaks Like Us, by Susan Vaught (book review) – voices in his head, missing person mystery

Apr6

book cover of Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught published by BloomsburyThe police say…
The FBI special agent says…
The voices in his head say…
What if Jason did something to make Sunshine disappear?

Jason answers to the nickname Freak, counts himself lucky enough to be with his best friends Sunshine and Drip in the special class full of “alphabets” like ADHD, and knows that he can’t trust his own memories because of his schizophrenia – yet is determined to find out what happened to selectively mute Sunshine when she just vanished.

Discover Jason’s unusual story of friendship, love, and loss at your local library or independent bookstore and consider how you treat the “alphabet” people in your life.
**kmm

Book info:  Freaks Like Us / Susan Vaught. Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers, 2012. [author site]  [book trailer] – ebook may still be available

My recommendation: When their best friend goes missing, Jason and Derrick know they have to find Sunshine, because she had let them know that someone was hurting her. These self-contained class teens are best friends forever, and if they have to go off their meds to get the answers, they will.

Jason knows he’s schizophrenic, hears voices even when he takes his medication, calls himself Freak like everyone else at the high school, and worries that Sunshine’s delinquent brother will drag her along into his troublemaking. Derrick’s big brothers nicknamed him Drip when he was little, and the name stuck when he didn’t outgrow his allergies and ADHD. And sweet Sunshine is selectively mute: she can talk, but she just doesn’t want to.

The three friends got off the short bus together in their neighborhood at 4:30, and by 5 o’clock Sunshine had vanished. Their routines never vary; they must keep things the same to cope in the big world; there’s no way that Sunshine left of her own choice!

Jason’s mom, the Army colonel, pulls some strings to get the FBI on the case before too much time has passed. The voices in Jason’s head tell him that he should remember something that would help the searchers find Sunshine…so he decides to stop taking his medication so the voices will tell him the answer.

The FBI agents say the best chance of finding Sunshine is in the first 24 hours, so Jason counts the hours remaining, tries to hear which voice in his head is reminding him of clues he heard earlier, and agonizes that he might have something to do with her disappearance.

Should Jason and Drip try to find Sunshine on their own?
Why won’t her stepdad cooperate more with the agents?
What about those boys who always tease her at school?
Why can’t Freak remember that important clue?

The clock is ticking, the voices are insistent, and Jason’s not sure whether he can trust Agent Mercer of the FBI or not – Freak’s world turns upside down when Sunshine vanishes, and readers are along for his dangerous and confusing journey toward the truth.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

E for Elle in A Conspiracy of Alchemists, by Liesl Schwarz (fiction) – steampunk, magic, love, danger

Apr5

book cover of A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz published by Del Rey BooksCorrect steam pressure in airship boiler? Check.
Passenger and cargo aboard? Check.
Clearance from Paris station to cast off? No? No?! Go, go, go, go!!

Being raised as a rational woman by her scientist father, airship captain Elle is most skeptical of Warlock Marsh’s claim that she will soon transform into Pythia as she becomes the world’s next Oracle, just as her runaway mother was…before her untimely death.

A wild chase after an artifact which must not fall into the hands of evil Alchemists takes Elle and Marsh from Oxford to Istanbul via Venice in this first book of The Chronicles of Light and Dark.

Can anyone outrun their destiny?
**kmm

Book info: A Conspiracy of Alchemists (Book One of The Chronicles of Light and Dark) / Liesel Schwarz. Del Rey, 2013. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation:  A routine airship charter flight from Paris to London turns into a quest to close the gateway between evil Dark and the rational scientific world of Light for a young lady pilot in 1903, who little realizes that she is the gate-key that both sides will do anything to possess.

When a Warlock steals the sealed wooden box just given to her, Eleanor thinks she should have questioned her docking agent Patrice more closely before taking this charter. As gunfire starts at the Paris airfield, the young pilot knows that this is not a routine flight for her steam air-freighter at all, and when she arrives home in Oxford to find that her inventor father has kidnapped, she realizes that all these events are connected somehow.

Her charter passenger Mr. Marsh is really Viscount Greychester, an eminent Warlock on the Council which harnesses the Dark for productive purposes in this world. All signs point to Dr. Chance being abducted by the Alchemists, whose service to the undead Nightwalkers over centuries has made them hungry to unleash the Dark into this world for their own nefarious purposes.

Off go Elle and Marsh in the professor’s experimental gyrocopter, racing to reach the Council in Venice before the Alchemists can get there by train. No, Elle will not discuss her mother, who abandoned the family and was killed. No, Elle couldn’t have inherited her spiritual gifts, can’t possibly be an oracle, the Oracle, the key that would allow access to the full powers of Dark…

Unsatisfactory answers in Venice, reports that the Alchemists’ train is en route to Istanbul, visions appearing in Elle’s dreams… time is growing short, and the box stolen from Elle in Paris holds a magical substance that could allow the Alchemists to start pulling Dark power without the Nightwalkers’ assistance – if Dr. Chance is forced to create the triggering device!

Can they trust former allies in a strange land?
Is Elle truly on the verge of becoming the Oracle foretold?
Is Marsh really walking into her dreams of love?

There’s danger at every turn as Elle and Marsh must battle air pirates, rescue Dr. Chance, and race against time to save the world from Darkness eternal in this steampunk-paranormal start to The Chronicles of Light and Dark. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

D for Doty’s Surviving High School (book review) – school, swim, sleep, repeat?

Apr4

book cover of Surviving High School by M Doty published by Poppy Books Ultra-competitive swim team,
Every life-minute scripted by Dad-the-coach,
Why isn’t big sister Sara here to help Emily cope with her freshman year of high school?

No wonder Emily wants to sidestep the schedule and have some time with Ben. After all, Sara didn’t get to have her first love before dying in that car crash…

Whether you know the mobile game of the same name or not, you’ll agonize with Emily over the choices she has to make and cheer when at least some things go her way. Max Doty’s second book in the series, How to Be a Star, features Emily’s best (and only) friend Kimi and will be published in May 2013.

How far should you push yourself to get to the victor’s stand?
**kmm

Book info: Surviving High School / M. Doty. Poppy, 2012.  [author website]  [publisher website]

My recommendation: Competitive swimming is Emily’s whole life as she enters high school. Gotta keep up her grades to stay eligible, gotta keep her race times fast to stay on top. But what if there’s more to life than this?

Her dad is the high school swim coach, just as he was when her older sister was at Twin Branches, before she died in the car crash. There’s Sara’s name on the state records plaque with her national record time for the backstroke – a lot to live up to, a goal for Emily to beat.

She’ll have to beat Dominique, too, who’s just a trace faster on freestyle and backstroke, just a bit slower than Em in breaststroke and butterfly, way beyond anyone else at school in mean-girl remarks, nicknaming her “Swimbot” on their first day of varsity practice. That article in Swimmers’ World magazine comparing the girls as future Olympians just adds fuel to the fire.

Emily’s entire life is optimized for swim racing – nutrition intake, sleep hours, strength training – and there’s no room for anything else. With the national qualifying meets coming up, she’s got to concentrate. Handsome Ben starts paying attention to her, but can’t understand why she doesn’t have time to see him outside school…sigh.

Could Emily possibly squeeze in a little time with Ben between her honors classes and the ever-increasing demands for perfection from Coach/Dad?

Does senior Nick flinch when he sees Emily because she looks so much like her late sister, who never had time for a boyfriend?

Will she swim through her freshman year or sink from the weight of everything?

This first YA novel from screenwriter/author Max Doty reflects his experience as game writer for the related mobile game, but stands alone as a story of big demands on young athletes – are all the choices theirs to make? (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

C for The Candymakers, by Wendy Mass (book review) – sweet competition, dark secrets

Apr3

book cover of The Candymakers by Wendy Mass published by Little BrownA scrumptious contest to win!
An entire candy factory to use!
Secrets to keep…

Logan, Miles, Daisy, and Philip each have worrisome problems in their lives which they must overcome or work around so that they can succeed in this sweet opportunity that most twelve-year-olds can only dream about.

Despite having four youngsters entering a candy factory, this is not at all a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,  but a unique story with its own variations and flavors of friendship.

Pick up this yummy tale today at your local library or independent bookstore; it’s a great all-ages read-aloud with mysterious twists.

What candy would you invent to satisfy discriminating sweet tooths?
**kmm

Book info: The Candymakers / Wendy Mass. Little Brown, 2010 hardback, 2011 paperback.  [author’s website]  [book website]   [publisher site] [fan-created book trailer]

My Book Talk:  Inventing a new candy! What could be a sweeter contest for kids, especially the four regional finalists who live near the famous Life Is Sweet candy factory? Except that only one can win, even if the twelve-year-olds can overcome their differences and become friends…

Logan lives in Life Is Sweet with his Candymaker parents, who stopped giving factory tours a few years ago. Miles is allergic to rowboats and wonders constantly about the afterlife, sometimes speaking in code. Daisy carries a big book in her bag everywhere, is amazingly strong and often looks distracted. Philip in his business suit chooses regular pizza over chocolate pizza for lunch and doesn’t want to have any fun.

From calming the bees whose honey makes the best nougat to squooshing through the mud to harvest roots to make marshmallows, the four young people learn about all the ingredients that go into candy on their first day at the factory. Camping out under the sapodilla trees and vanilla vines in the Tropical Room, they dream about making the best, most unique candies in the world.

So whose idea will work – and win? Logan’s chocolate that turns into gum then back into chocolate? Daisy’s ummm-something flower or Philip’s playable candy harmonica? And they have just one full day to create the actual product!

The winning candy will be produced by the factory sponsoring its creator, so if Life Is Sweet brings a winner to the Confectionary Association’s contest, they’ll be able to keep making high-quality candies. It’s an open secret that Life Is Sweet puts their secret ingredient into every candy they make…and that other candymakers really want to have it.

Is someone trying to steal the secret ingredient?
Why does Logan live at the factory instead of going to school?
Can the four competitors be friends and still make amazing candy in just one day?

Friendship, complications, misunderstandings, and trust fill the many compartments of this story told from four viewpoints with a surprise ending and a yummy twist. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

B for Bluebeard in Strands of Bronze and Gold, by Jane Nickerson (fiction) – luxurious halls, ghostly companions

Apr2

book cover of Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson published by KnopfRescued from a life of drudge work,
Cocooned in luxury,
No visitors welcomed or allowed, at all.

An old English abbey transplanted with all its contents into the sweltering Mississippi woods, secrets behind every locked door, mysterious names etched into hidden corners of Sophie’s bedroom furniture… four wives tragically lost, M. Bernard’s only child dead, ghosts murmuring in her room.

The Bluebeard legend is lushly retold by Jane Nickerson, who lived in Mississippi several years before moving to Canada. She shared her writing inspiration in a Nerdy Bookclub blog post on her novel’s publication birthday, and I saw a tweet that it’s the first in a trilogy!

How do you know when something is too good to be true?
**kmm

Book info: Strands of Bronze and Gold / Jane Nickerson. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation:  Whisked away to her godfather’s mansion after her father’s death in 1855, auburn-haired Sophia envisions plenty in place of her family’s genteel poverty. She is startled by the luxury she finds there, unsettled by slavery supporting the rich, sensitive to the ghost women wandering the halls, yet slow to heed the dire messages they try to convey.

The seventeen-year-old couldn’t have prepared herself for the magnificence of Monsieur de Cressac’s estate, a real English abbey shipped to America stone by stone and reassembled at his rural Mississippi plantation 25 years ago. Nor could she have imagined that her bearded godfather was so handsome, so much younger looking than always-ailing Father, nor that Madame de Cressac was deceased and that Mrs. Duckworth the housekeeper would be her chaperone in this vast mansion.

Monsieur insists that Sophia call him by his first name, that she cast off her mourning for the finest clothes, that she try every dish the chef prepares. Mrs. Duckworth cautions her against defying him, as his temper can get the better of him, so she allows the new lady’s maid to help her dress for dinner and plays the piano pieces he prefers.

But amid all this opulence, strange details emerge: M. Bernard has lost not one wife, but four. Their spirits appear to Sophia when she visits the long-closed nursery, as she pretends to sleep when Bernard taps on her door in the middle of the night, as her nightmares begin to outnumber her dreams.

By chance, she meets a young minister and an old former slave woman in the Abbey’s extensive woodlands; both warn her of Bernard’s very dark reputation. She writes many letters to her sister and brothers in New England, yet receives none in reply. Bernard decides that they must be married, despite their age difference and her misgivings – and will not accept no for an answer.

What truly happened to M. de Cressac’s wives?
Did he choose to court each one because of her red hair?
Can Sophia escape this house of darkness before it is too late?

This lush retelling of the Bluebeard story is garlanded with details about all that Sophia experiences as she moves from a loving home with few comforts to Bernard’s extravagant estate, supported on the backs of countless slaves and circumscribed by his moods.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

A for Artist – Paper Artist, by Green, Laughlin and Phillips (book review) – cute, clever crafting

Apr1

book cover of Paper Artist by Green, Laughlin & Phillips published by Capstone Young ReadersA is for artsy-crafty-creative.
(and for Arlee at TossingItOut on the first day of 2013 Blogging from A to Z Challenge that he started)
No April Fooling!

Your own creative spark sets apart these stylish paper items from the print-out-cut-and-glue variety. Who could have imagined a paper skirt or decoupaging a pair of shoes with your favorite design?

Ask for this one at your local library or independent bookstore – it’s a great addition to any crafting collection.

Which pictures would you choose to become a stackable photo blocks display?
**kmm

Book info: Paper Artist: Creations You Can Fold, Tear, Wear, or Share / Gail D. Green, Kara L. Laughlin, and Jennifer Phillips. Capstone Young Readers, 2013.  [publisher site]

My Recommendation:It’s easy to make charming gifts, decorations, and keepsakes as you become a Paper Artist, using ordinary materials in unusual ways like turning paper into wearable shareables with new techniques.

Dangling earrings are lightweight and lovely when crafted from paper. A ‘quilling pen’ allows you to twirl paper strips into cleverly curled decorations used on the Heads Up headband and Quilled Nameplate.

Plan a perfect Purse with patterned cardstock or turn plain shoes into Fancy Footwear, perhaps with old book pages. The tissue paper Hat is surprisingly sophisticated, while the matching possibilities of the button-clasp Belt and Beaded Bracelet are endless.

Transform flower petals and paper into a Captivating Container to hold trinkets, repurpose a cereal box into the Fluttering Butterfly Gift Bag, and make your own Stationery Paper with the recycling instructions included.

Several variations on handmade boxes, artwork, frames, and flowers round out this selection of over 50 artistic paper crafts, providing lots of options for your own creativity to flourish.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

TBR2012 Challenge Marches On (reflective) – more 2012 titles recommended, more to go!

Mar29

sketch of tired walking stickman from Online ClipArt LibraryAnother swath of my to-be-reviewed-2012 bookshelf cleared in March, bringing my total to 28 this-year recommendations of last year’s books, including my January and February lists.

Just in case you missed a few, try these 2012 titles:

The Dark Unwinding – Sharon Cameron

Exposure  – Kim Askew and Amy Helmes  

Mothership – Martin Leicht and Isla Neal 

The Secret War (Jack Blank #2) – Matt Myklusch

Sisters Red  – Jackson Pearce

Tempestuous  – Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Making pretty good progress on the TBR2012 Challenge at Evie’s Bookish blog, but wait till you see the list after the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April!

(sketch of Stickyman Tired courtesy of OpenClipArtLibrary http://openclipart.org/detail/86137/stickyman-tired-by-cybergedeon)

Secret War (Jack Blank #2), by Matt Myklusch (review) – superhero-in-training with dark secret

Mar27

book cover of The Secret War by Matt Myklusch published by Simon Schuster

Job-shadowing true superheroes!
Saving humanity from brutal invading robots!
Finding the robot virus too close to home…

From a bleak orphanage to the technological marvels of the Imagine Nation, Jack has now found true friends, a productive outlet for his power to communicate with machines, and a growing sense of dread regarding the Rustov virus that has crept into his new home city.

You can get all three books in the Jack Blank series now at your local library or independent bookstore.

Be sure to read book one, The Accidental Hero (my no-spoiler review here) before you meet up with the Secreteers in book two, and yes, I’ll have a recommendation of The End of Infinity (book three) on BooksYALove soon!

How can you tell whether an inner voice is friend or foe?
**kmm

Book info: The Secret War (Jack Blank #2) / Matt Myklusch. Simon & Schuster, 2011 hardcover, 2012 paperback. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation:  Jack has found his place in the world at last, a superhero-in-training in the Imagine Nation. But some still think he has connection to the evil Rustov who won’t stop until they’ve conquered all worlds, and something inside Jack whispers that they might be right!

Called into the real world on an emergency with their superhero mentors, Jack and his classmates have their first brush with the Secreteers who keep humanity in the dark about the Imagine Nation. Selective memory wipes erase the superheroes’ involvement in these outside rescues, although Jack is sure he saw the true form of one Secreteer.

Jack’s gift of communicating with any machinery leads him to investigate the rumored Rustov virus that’s targeting the Mecha citizens of his city – another secret to hide from his School of Thought friends, like his growing concern that he really could turn into the most feared enemy of all.

When a rogue Secreteer announces that he’ll sell any and all secrets of the Imagine Nation to the highest bidder, the young superheroes decide to track him down before he can further endanger everyone. But how can you find the best-hidden place in the universe?

Will Jonas Smart buy the secrets and discover that Jack might truly become Revile?
Can Jack disarm the virus before it infects the city with evil?
Can he dismiss the new voice inside him that swears it is Rustov?

This second book in the Jack Blank trilogy follows the astounding developments in Jack’s life told in book one, The Accidental Hero, and sets the stage for the mighty war at The End of Infinity, book three.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

April’s AtoZ Blog Challenge (reflective) – 26 letters, 26 new book recommendations

Mar25
drawing of mouse walking with umbrella by Dover

April showers bring… books!

Twenty-six letters.

Twenty-six blog posts.

Twenty-six new book recommendations.

April showers – of books!

You’ve heard the expression, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” That must be the reason that I’m taking on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge  (I’m #257 of over 1,100 bloggers!) again this April (especially after my so-so experience with it last year). Mainly, I’m using the A through Z theme to help clear more off my To Be Reviewed shelf of last year’s titles, so that will get me further along on the TBR2012 Challenge, too.

Most are fiction books (over half with pre-2013 copyright dates), with a couple of brand-new nonfiction titles to keep it interesting.

AND my new website is nearly done, so all BooksYALove posts (old and new) will be there very soon. I’ll let y’all know when it goes live and will leave a notice at this site to make sure folks find it if they come to the party later.

**kmm