In My Mailbox- Week of Nov. 23

Yes, I am now over here on Blogger because Myspace sucks with pictures. Woo! So now when I talk about how beautiful a cover is, you can actually see it. :)

So here is my last week in books:

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

It's Amanda's 11th birthday and she is super excited -- after all, 11 is so different from 10. But from the start, everything goes wrong. The worst part of it all is that she and her best friend, Leo, with whom she's shared every birthday, are on the outs and this will be the first birthday they haven't shared together. When Amanda turns in for the night, glad to have her birthday behind her, she wakes up happy for a new day. Or is it? Her birthday seems to be repeating iself. What is going on?! And how can she fix it? Only time, friendship, and a little luck will tell. . .

My Thoughts: If you read my blog, you'll know that I recently reviewed Wendy's recent book Every Soul A Star and was able to score a copy of her upcoming book after sending her a link to my review. I'm excited to read this because I love Wendy's work from what I've read so far, and because the summary sounds great. This will be out in January 2009, so not too much longer to wait for it.


Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee

Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, named for two Miss Americas and her mother Chessy's favorite brand of mascara. Chessy teaches the students in her charm school her Seven Select Rules for Young Ladies, but she won't tell Maybe who her real father is -- or protect her from her latest scuzzball boyfriend. So Maybe hitches a ride to California with her friends Hollywood and Thammasat Tantipinichwong Schneider (aka Ted) -- and what she finds there is funny, sad, true, and inspiring . . . vintage Lisa Yee.

My Thoughts: I've only read one Lisa Yee book before (Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time) and I loved it, and now I'm excited to have gotten an advance copy of her first YA book. The cover is simply stunning, especially when seen in person. It looks like a great book and I can't wait to read it. This book will be released in February 2009.

Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith


Told in the alternating points of view of vampire Miranda and angel Zachary, this novel follows them as they navigate a cutthroat vampire aristocracy and play out a dangerous--and often darkly hilarious--love story for the ages.

My Thoughts: I loved Cynthia's first YA book Tantalize, and she was also my first ever Fresh New Voice of YA (along with Tanya Lee Stone, author of A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl) so of course I've been wanting the companion novel for a while now. Cynthia was so kind as to have her publisher send one my way. I'm also enamored with this cover too- Cynthia told me it'll look even better on the final version.


Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean




Coraline went exploring one day . . . Her family has just moved to a completely new town, and so Coraline already feels a bit strange. In her new house there is one door that opens onto a brick wall. At least, it does until one day the bricks are gone and Coraline finds herself stepping over the threshold into another house . . . a house that's just like hers. At first things appear marvelous in this other house. The food is better. The toy box is filled with windup angels that flutter about, books whose pictures crawl and shimmer, and little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother and another father—and they want Coraline to be their little girl and stay with them forever. They want to change her and never let her go. Other children are also trapped, as lost souls behind a mirror, and Coraline is their only hope. She will have to find a way to meet the other mother's challenge in order to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

My Thoughts: I got both of these randomly in the mail, so now I own three different versions of Coraline, haha. I'm excited to actually have the novel now because before I just had the graphic novel, which was good but it'll be nice to read Gaiman's actual prose rather than just the dialogue and bits of random prose included. I'm also excited to see this movie, mainly just because two of my favorite comediennes, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, are voicing two of the characters in the movie- Miss Morrible and Miss Spink.


Project Sweet Life by Brent Hartinger


Dave and his two best friends are looking forward to a sweet summer of freedom, but their fathers have another idea. Instead of spending the summer swimming, biking, and kicking back, the three fifteen-year-olds are supposed to get jobs. Dave, Victor, and Curtis have a plan, though: They’re going to tell their fathers they have jobs but not actually get them. The trouble is, their dads are going to want to see that they’re actually bringing in money. And that means finding a way to get rich quick…without breaking the law, and without doing any work. But as the summer passes and the three friends try everything from attempting to catch bank robbers, to scientifically calculating the "correct" number of jelly beans in a contest jar, to diving for sunken treasure, they soon discover that things may not be quite as simple as they thought!

My Thoughts: I love Brent Hartinger and his books, and he hasn't had a book out since Dreamquest in May 2007 (unless I missed one) so I'm excited to finally get another book of his in my hands. This sounds like such a good book and I'm so glad that Brent sent a copy my way. This book will be released in February.

After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr


Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She's smart. She's brave. She's also a self-proclaimed train wreck.
Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He's also completely and forever in love with Maia Morland.
Their young love starts off like a romance novel—full of hope, strength, and passion. But life is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love.
Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that, quite often, we fail love.

My Thoughts: I got this book randomly in the mail earlier this week. I hadn't asked for it, nor had I heard about this author before. But reading the summary, it looks like a great book. I'm looking forward to reading it as it seems like a really realistic romance story, and it's very different from most other romances, which should make this a unique, original read. This book will be released in May 2009.

Michelle Obama: Meet The First Lady by David Bergen Brophy


My Thoughts: This book came in via UPS and they didn't put my full address on it, so I had to go pick it up at the main UPS headquarters in my area. Since I wasn't expecting anything from HarperCollins, I figured it was most likely a book that I didn't ask for and one I didn't want. And I was right, lol. I'll probably be donating this to my local library.


And that was my week in books! :)