Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Eat Brains Love

Eat Brains Love
Jeff Hart
Fiction H251e

Of all the recommendations on that stupid career aptitude test, not one of them was "undead fugitive."

Jake is a slacker burnout whose idea of the perfect last night on Earth is playing video games in his basement.

Amanda is the most popular girl in school, who doesn't even know Jake's name.

Cass is the teen psychic sent by the government to hunt them down.

Until last week, Jake, Amanda, and Cass had no reason to think their lives would ever intersect. But that was before Jake and Amanda contracted a mysterious zombie virus, devoured half their senior class, and took off for Iowa in search of a cure. As the two of them grapple with the existential guilt of eating their best friends (and their growing attraction to each other), Cass struggles with a psychic dilemma of her own—one that will lead the three of them on an epic journey across the country and make them question what it means to truly be alive. Or undead.

(From publisher.)

The Impossible Knife of Memory

The Impossible Knife of Memory
Laurie Halse Anderson
Fiction An239i

For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, trying to outrun the memories that haunt them both. They moved back to Andy's hometown to try a "normal" life, but the horrors he saw in the war threaten to destroy their lives. Hayley watches, helpless, as her father turns to drugs and alcohol to silence his demons.  And then her own past creeps up, and everything falls apart.

How do you keep your father alive when death is stalking him? What are you supposed to do when your parent stops acting like an adult? And what happens if a sweet guy who can make you laugh barges his way into your world and for the first time, you find yourself thinking about the future?

Timely, compelling, surprising--this is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest.

(From publisher.)

Skink No Surrender

Skink No Surrender
Carl Hiassen
Fiction H52s

Classic Malley: her parents are about to ship her off to boarding school, so she takes off with some guy she met online . . . 

Poor Richard: he's less of a rebel than Malley, and a lot less trusting. He knows his cousin is in trouble before she does. 

Wild Skink: he's a ragged, one-eyed, wandering vigilante, with perfect teeth. Also, a former governor of Florida. Also, supposedly dead. But he's a man who relishes a lost cause, and he's willling to do whatever it takes to find Malley. 

With Richard riding shotgun, this unlikely pair sets off on a breakneck chase, undaunted by blinding storms, crazed pigs, giant gators, and flying bullets.

In Carl Hiaasen's outrageous, hilarious, and wildly dangerous state of Florida, there are a million places an outlaw might stash a teenage girl. A million unpleasant ways to die. And two who'll risk everything to rescue a friend . . . and to, hopefully, exact a bit of swamp justice.

(From publisher.)

Mortal Heart

Mortal Heart
Robin LaFevers
Fiction L131m

Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

But across Brittany, the tides of war are drawing ever nearer, with France pressuring the beleaguered duchess from all sides.  Annith's search for answers threatens to rip open an intricate web of lies and deceit that sits at the center of the convent she serves.  Yet to expose them threatens the very fabric of her existence and an unforeseen chance at love that she can no longer deny.  Annith must carefully pick a path and, gods willing, effect a miracle that will see her country--and her heart--to safety.

(From publisher.)

Buck: A Memoir

Buck: A Memoir
M.K. Asante
818 As13Ya 2014

A coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family, Buck shares the story of a generation through one original and riveting voice. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: his mother a dancer, his father a revered professor. But as a teenager, MK was alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, swept up in a world of drugs, sex, and violence. MK’s memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books. It is an inspiring tribute to the power of literature to heal and redeem us.

(From publisher.)

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
Sara Farizan
Fiction F228t

Leila has made it most of the way through Armstead Academy without having a crush on anyone, which is something of a relief. As an Iranian American, she’s different enough; if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when beautiful new girl Saskia shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual.

Struggling to sort out her growing feelings and Saskia’s confusing signals, Leila confides in her old friend, Lisa, and grows closer to her fellow drama tech-crew members, especially Tomas, whose comments about his own sexuality are frank, funny, wise, and sometimes painful. Gradually, Leila begins to see that almost all her classmates are more complicated than they first appear to be, and many are keeping fascinating secrets of their own.

(From publisher.)

Monday, January 12, 2015

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex
Eoin Colfer
Fiction C68ArF7

Artemis Fowl has lost his mind...just when the world  needs him most.

Artemis has committed his entire fortune to a project he believes will save the planet and its inhabitants, both human and fairy. Can it be true? Has goodness taken hold of the world’s greatest teenage criminal mastermind?

Captain Holly Short is unconvinced, and discovers that Artemis is suffering from Atlantis Complex, a psychosis common in guilt-ridden fairies. Symptoms include obsessive-compulsive behavior, paranoia, multiple personality disorder and, in extreme cases, embarrassing professions of love to a certain feisty LEPrecon fairy.

Unfortunately, Atlantis Complex has struck at the worst possible time. A deadly foe from Holly’s past is intent on destroying the actual city of Atlantis. Can Artemis escape the confines of his mind—and the grips of a giant squid—in time to save the underwater metropolis and its fairy inhabitants?

(From publisher.)