It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
I had great plans for the past week. I was all set to go to the Spotlight on Books Conference near Grand Rapids, MN for Friday and Saturday. A friend and I were planning to leave after school on Thursday, spent the night with my brother in Duluth to celebrate his birthday, and travel on to Grand Rapids Friday morning. The weather forecast all week was threatening but should have been over by our travel time. Unfortunately the storm moved more slowly than expected. School was cancelled here on Thursday because of icy roads but my friend and I checked the road conditions map and decided that we could try to go.
We left about 10:30 Thursday morning on roads that were mainly wet or slushy. However, the further north we got, the worse the roads became. For the last 50 miles to Duluth we couldn't even see the road and wind gusts meant we couldn't see anything at else either. The usual four hour trip to Duluth took well over six hours and, once we managed to wedge my car into my brother's driveway, we were stuck. We watched it snow all the rest of Thursday and until mid-afternoon on Friday. We got over a foot of snow that was blown around by strong winds leaving more than two feet of snow in the driveway. It took my brother with his snowblower and my friend and I with shovels about two hours to clear the driveway Friday evening.
Theoretically, we could have gotten to Grand Rapids on Saturday but the roads were not good and Saturday was supposed to be the only good travel day of the weekend though more snow was expected Saturday evening. We decided to leave for home Saturday mid-morning and got back around 4 PM. We are getting a snow/sleet mixture here even as I am writing this post on Sunday afternoon.
I keep asking myself why I live in Minnesota and really haven't been able to come up with a good answer.
I did get some reading done between watching the snow fall, chatting with my friend, and playing hours and hours of Facebook games.
Sharp by Alex Hughes is a great urban fantasy novel which has a unique main character and wonderful world building. My review will be posted on April 18.
The Mystery Woman by Amanda Quick is the latest in her Ladies of Lantern Street historical paranormal romance series. It had a good mystery and a really nice romance too. My review will be posted April 24.
The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd was the only YA book I finished this week. This story uses H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau as its inspiration and is the story of his daughter. I thought the Gothic atmosphere was well done and the characters interesting. I thought the science fiction was way beyond believable. I was a little disappointed at the ending of the story too and do wonder what the rest of the trilogy will be like. My review will be posted on April 18.
Next on my stack is The Rules by Stacey Kade. This is also a science fiction story but a contemporary one. I got this eARC from NetGalley. The book will be released on April 23
Next week's list has one more April 23 release and three April 30 releases.
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| Adult Review Books |
Battleship: A Daring Heiress, a Teenage Jockey, and America's Horse by Dorothy Ours came to me as part of St. Martin's Press @ NetGalley. I don't usually read nonfiction but this one sounded really good.
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| YA Review Books |
One + One = Blue by M. J. Auch is the last of the bunch of books I got from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group's Winter 2013 titles.
Sketchy by Olivia Samms is an eARC from Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley. This paranormal mystery sounded very interesting.
Hopefully, this week will be much less unsettled (and unsettling) and I will be able to meet my reading goals. What do you have planned for the week?
I'm sorry the weather thwarted your plans! Glad you got home safe safely though. Sketchy looks intriguing. I'm going to go look it up.
ReplyDeleteThe Madman's daughter sounds like one I should look up.
ReplyDeleteHere is mine
Sorry you weren't able to make it to your conference! The weather has just been crazy this year! I hope your week is much better.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you got through the snow safely even if it messed up your plans. Good reading though. :-)
ReplyDeleteSharp looks really good and I'll have to check your review. Also I need to check out Battleship as well as several of your other titles.
Happy Reading!
Sorry about your plans but at least you made the journey safely.
ReplyDeleteLike your mix of genres. Enjoy the reads.
Oh I hate when plans have to be canceled last minute.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of your reads. Hope you enjoy them all!
Here's my Monday Wrapup
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower :)
Wow...what an ordeal! Glad you made it safely to your brothers and then back home.
ReplyDeleteHope this week is much calmer!
~Kristin @ Always With a Book
There's lots of room here in Texas for a wonderful librarian! No snow here, but summers can be pretty darn hot!
ReplyDeleteHere's my It's Monday.
Wow, what an ordeal, and you didn't even get to attend the event! I guess I shouldn't complain about our weather in California...except for the fog in the winter and the very hot summers (oh, and the occasional earthquakes), we have it easy.
ReplyDeleteYou had some great looking books along, though. I'm wanting to read The Madman's Daughter.
Here's MY MONDAY MEMES POST
Once in a while I ask myself why I live in Wisconsin ;) It feels more like February than April right now. (I'm about an hour south of Duluth!)
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your reads and have a great week!
Sorry to hear about the awful weather! Lots of good books there, I really want to read The Madman's Daughter soon. Enjoy your week and happy reading :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I've Been Reading!