Weekly Book Roundup

It has been an excellent week for me! This past week was Zombie Appreciation Week, and I had a blast reading all the zombie fanatics posts and posting some things of my own. I also got a some new books! I love getting new material1!

Library Finds:

In this prequel to the acclaimed The City of Ember and The People of Sparks, Jeanne DuPrau investigates how, in a world that seems out of control, hope and comfort can be found in the strangest of places.

It’s 50 years before the settlement of the city of Ember, and the world is in crisis. War looms on the horizon as 11-year-old Nickie and her aunt travel to the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina. There, one of the town’s respected citizens has had a terrible vision of fire and destruction. Her garbled words are taken as prophetic instruction on how to avoid the coming disaster. If only they can be interpreted correctly.

As the people of Yonwood scramble to make sense of the woman’s mysterious utterances, Nickie explores the oddities she finds around town—her great-grandfather’s peculiar journals and papers, a reclusive neighbor who studies the heavens, a strange boy who is fascinated with snakes—all while keeping an eye out for ways to help the...

I've read and enjoyed the first two Books of Ember, so I was really excited to see that my library had the third installment. I'm really forward to starting this because it gives the history of the event that to the City of Ember.

Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.
Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.
The tattoo does bring changes—not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . . .

I've been told that I could skip this book because it's only a companion, but then I remembered how much I usually enjoy companion books, so said, "Oh, what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks!" and got it anyway. I just hope it's a little faster than Wicked Lovely.

"At school I'm Aussie-blonde Jamie -- one of the crowd. At home I'm Muslim Jamilah -- driven mad by my Stone Age dad. I should win an Oscar for my acting skills. But I can't keep it up for much longer..."
Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself. Even if it means pushing her friends away because she's afraid to let them know her dad forbids her from hanging out with boys or that she secretly loves to play the darabuka (Arabic drums).
But when the cutest boy in school asks her out and her friends start to wonder about Jamie's life outside of school, her secrets threaten to explode. Can Jamie figure out how to be both Jamie and Jamilah before she loses everything?

My last choice came down to this and Randa Abdel-Fattah's other book, Does This Make My Head Look Fat?, but I liked the story for TTIHAM better, though I will admit there was some serious eeny-meeny-miney-mo-ing going on. I'm happy with my choice.
 
 
In My Mailbox:
 

After years of frequent moves following her mother’s death, Chloe Saunders’s life is finally settling down. She is attending art school, pursuing her dreams of becoming a director, making friends, meeting boys. Her biggest concern is that she’s not developing as fast as her friends are. But when puberty does hit, it brings more than hormone surges. Chloe starts seeing ghosts–everywhere, demanding her attention. After she suffers a breakdown, her devoted aunt Lauren gets her into a highly recommended group home.
At first, Lyle House seems a pretty okay place, except for Chloe’s small problem of fearing she might be facing a lifetime of mental illness. But as she gradually gets to know the other kids at the home–charming Simon and his ominous, unsmiling brother Derek, obnoxious Tori, and Rae, who has a “thing” for fire–Chloe begins to realize that there is something that binds them all together, and it isn’t your usual “problem kid” behaviour. And together they discover that Lyle House is not your usual group home either…
 
 

If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl — someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment — not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.
Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends — a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch — and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

 I won these in a contest held by Sarah at Sarah's {random} Musings. Firstly, they are truly beautiful books, and they arrived in perfect condition. They are of the paperback-hardback-hybrid variety. I don't know if that makes any sense to y'all, but that's what they are, and I love them! The spines don't crease! It's a miracle of science! Secondly, they were signed! I was so excited, I had no idea they'd be signed. It was like Christmas morning! There was much happy dancing. I finished these within two days of recieving them, they were so good! Look for my review sometime this week. It usually takes me a few days post-read to write my review because I like to marinate on what I've read, disect what it was that I liked or didn't like about it, and hunt down a few choice adjectives.
 
Happy reading! And have a safe Labor Day weekend!
ZG

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1  Kudos to The Story Siren for starting and promoting the In My Mailbox meme.