I actually had time to read Top Ten Tuesday posts this week, so naturally, my TBR has grown. Here’s what I added to my TBR last week.
Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
What it’s about (from Goodreads):
Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don’t get noticed by the mean kids.
Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them.
On her first day at her new school, Penelope–Peppi–Torres reminds herself of these basics. But when she trips into a quiet boy in the hall, Jaime Thompson, she’s already broken the first rule, and the mean kids start calling her the “nerder girlfriend.” How does she handle this crisis? By shoving poor Jaime and running away!
Falling back on rule two and surrounding herself with new friends in the art club, Peppi still can’t help feeling ashamed about the way she treated Jaime. Things are already awkward enough between the two, but to make matters worse, he’s a member of her own club’s archrivals–the science club! And when the two clubs go to war, Peppi realizes that sometimes you have to break the rules to survive middle school!
Why I added it: I have a number of students (both male and female) who love graphic novels. There are elements of this I’m sure they could identify with.
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
What it’s about (from Goodreads):
In the bestselling tradition of Sloan Crosley’s I Was Told There’d Be Cake and Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, a collection of humorous essays on what it’s like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits, and black as cool….
A reflection on her own unique experiences as a cyber pioneer yet universally appealing, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is a book no one—awkward or cool, black, white, or other—will want to miss.
Why I added it: I just started watching Insecure on HBO. This comes after watching Issa Rae do her thing on the webseries Awkward Black Girl. I love the shows and think she has a hilarious way of commenting on stereotypes and issues in the black community. I’ve read mixed reviews of the book, but I’m willing to give it a shot anyway. It’s currently on hold at the library. (Also, if I’m being honest, I came across this one while I was looking for the previous book.)
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
What it’s about (from Goodreads)
Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father’s killer through multiple dimensions.
Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite’s father is murdered, and the killer—her parent’s handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul’s guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is far more sinister than she expected.
A Thousand Pieces of You explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.
Why I added it: I saw it on the Top Ten Tuesday of The Fangirl Reads last week, and paused for a moment. It’s one of those stunning cover and interesting premise kind of things. I’m interested to see how Gray holds this narrative together with its many moving parts.
Furthermore by Tahreh Mafi
What it’s about (from Goodreads):
Inspired by her childhood love of books like The Secret Garden and The Chronicles of Narnia, bestselling author Tahereh Mafi crafts a spellbinding new world where color is currency, adventure is inevitable, and friendship is found in the most unexpected places.
There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other.
But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she’ll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. It will take all of Alice’s wits (and every limb she’s got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.
Why I added it: I saw this on The Vicarious Bookworm’s Top Ten Reads of 2016. First, I didn’t know that Tahreh Mafi had a new book out. Second, I loved her Shatter Me series. Third, I love retellings. What more is there to want?