Saturday, November 5, 2016

The “It’s Mostly Your Fault” Book Haul


Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off all the books I’ve gotten recently.

I got some used books! The Girls was one of my most-anticipated releases of 2016, but the rest of these I first saw on blogs or at school. I’m blaming you guys for making me read them.





Round Ireland with a Fridge – Tony Hawks

Have you ever made a drunken bet? Worse still, have you ever tried to win one? In attempting to hitchhike round Ireland with a fridge, Tony Hawks did both, and his foolhardiness led him to one of the best experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty traveling companion—a domestic appliance, he made his way from Dublin to Donegal, from Sligo through Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Wexford, Wicklow—and back again to Dublin. In their month of madness, Tony and his fridge met a real prince, a bogus king, and the fridge got christened. They surfed together, entered a bachelor festival, and one of them had sex without the other knowing. And unexpectedly, the fridge itself became a momentary focus for the people of Ireland.





Between Shades of Gray – Ruta Sepetys

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. 
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.





The Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean M. Auel

A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.





The Wave – Morton Rhue

The Wave is based on a true incident that occurred in a high school history class in Palo Alto, California, in 1969. 
The powerful forces of group pressure that pervaded many historic movements such as Nazism are recreated in the classroom when history teacher Burt Ross introduces a "new" system to his students. And before long The Wave, with its rules of "strength through discipline, community, and action," sweeps from the classroom through the entire school. And as most of the students join the movement, Laurie Saunders and David Collins recognize the frightening momentum of The Wave and realize they must stop it before it's too late.





The Girls – Emma Cline

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong.



Have you read any of these? What did you think?






10 comments:

  1. I really want to read Between Shades of Gray and The Girls - Enjoy!!

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  2. All of your books are new to me. I hope you love all of them.

    Grace @ Books of Love

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  3. Between Shades of Gray is SO GOOD! I really hope you love that one! I've always wanted to read Clan of the Cave Bear too but never have, so I'm looking forward to your review on that!

    Tracy @ Cornerfolds

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  4. So is The Girls based on what I think it is? Or is it just similar in certain ways?

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  5. I loved both Clan of the Cave Bear, which I read in middle school, and Between Shades of Grey. The Wave sounds too creepy for me (for much the same reason I avoid true crime), but The Girls, even though it is based on a true crime, sounds fascinating. And right up your alley!

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  6. You got The Girls! Glad you got a used copy to save $$.
    I'm interested in your review because I've read mixed reviews for it. Hope you enjoy it!

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  7. I haven't heard of a lot of books from this haul but I have read and watched The Wave. It is very interesting and even more so because it is based on a true story... to know that it happened and worked like that was astounding. It's a well written recount of the event as well. Happy reading!

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  8. I wasn't a huge fan of The Girls- I wanted to like it but it felt overwritten and the plot just felt wrong on some level. I'm Interested to see what you think of it though!

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  9. Clan of the Cave Bear is one of my favs...has been since it first came out. The whole series is wonderful. There continues to be rumors that at least one more is out there someplace...it took a decade before the last one was published. The movie of "Cave Bear was Darryl Hannah's biggest flop, and it was out in '87, soyou know how old it is, even with a new cover. It's dense, but with it

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  10. I haven't read any of these, and there are a couple that I am seeing for the first time. The Girls is on my TBR too. I look forward to your reviews.

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