A Month In Preview: September 2011

Today marks the beginning of a whole new month. Leaves are changing color, the weather is getting cooler (at least it is here), and kids are headed back to school. I love spring and I love fall. They're neither too hot nor too cold. One represents the beginning of the holiday season -- Halloween, Christmas, birthdays. The other represents the beginning of beautiful weather, the return of hamburgers, hotdogs, going on swings and taking a dip in the pool.

But what does it mean for this blog? Plenty! The book clubs I belong to will be reading new selections. Each week, more new titles will be available to buy and read -- which means there will be more reviews for everyone to read. Below you will find some of the fun that September has in store for us. If you know of any other exciting things that belong here, please let me know!

Starting off on a high note for me, personally... I got interviewed about I Write, I Read, I Review. Yes, I did quietly name this thing, for anyone who didn't notice. *laughs* For anyone who is curious to know a little bit more about the blog, my writing, or me, visit Patti Roberts' Book Blog. Once again, thank you for the wonderful opportunity!

Are you interested in joining a book club? Tracey Neithercott is organizing a Fall Book Club on her blog that looks like it should be a lot of fun to participate in. If you haven't been over there and read her post about it, now is a great time. Everyone is discussing potential books and there is going to be a vote soon to decide what we'll be reading. The more the merrier and I hope to see you all there! :D

Books I'm Eager To Read:

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Summary: (from GoodReads)

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.

Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: she and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

Inspired by Aristophanes' play Lysistrata, critically acclaimed author of The Duff (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) Kody Keplinger adds her own trademark humor in this fresh take on modern teenage romance, rivalry and sexuality.

Why I Want To Read It: I just finished Kody Keplinger's debut, The DUFF, last week. I really enjoyed the book. I felt she did a very good job at telling Bianca and Wesley's story and I enjoyed finding out what happened to them. I had no idea that her next book was about to be released, so finding out about Shut Out in an article from The Underground made my day. (So much that I had to edit my September Preview to add it!) This is now my most anticipated book of the month and I only have a few days to wait before I can read it!



Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Summary: (from GoodReads)

Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

Why I Want To Read It: I'm a Greek Mythology nut. I also love paranormal books. On one hand, it will guarantee that I'll read Sweet Venom. On the other, it means that I'll be paying close attention to how Childs sets everything up. It looks promising, though.

You Against Me by Jenny Downham

Summary: (from GoodReads)

If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? If your brother's been accused of a terrible crime and you're the main witness, then you banish all doubt and defend him. Isn't that what families do? When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her at a party, his world of work and girls begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the crime, but says he didn't do it, her world of revision, exams and fitting in at a new school begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. Brave and unflinching, this is a novel of extraordinary skillfulness and almost unbearable tension. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love - for one's family and for another.

Why I Want To Read It: Could two people possibly find themselves in a more awkward situation then this? I am very curious to find out what will happen here. As someone who has two brothers that I would do anything to watch out for and protect, the situation these characters are in seems chilling to me. Someone has to be lying, which means that there is no way that both of these two can be right. That's going to make any kind of relationship between the two of them very difficult.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Summary: (from GoodReads)

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Why I Want To Read It: First up: the entire concept sounds totally fascinating. I've been waiting to read this book for a while. I am pretty excited for it. On a personal note, one of my favorite Tarot Card makers is from Prague, so the setting is of some personal interest to me as well.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Summary: (from GoodReads)

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting – he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd – whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself – Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

Why I Want To Read It: The concept is interesting and caught my interest right away. Is it a real monster, or is the monster going to be some form of metaphor for the subconscious? What's really going on here? On a more personal level I have watched several people I love battle Cancer. Some won... And some didn't. I am often very leery about reading books with this type of subject matter, but in this case I am going to make an exception. 

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Summary: (from GoodReads)

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Why I Want To Read It: An interesting premise and hints that this is going to be a love story. Despite being extremely brief and to the point, the summary for this book did its job well: it convinced me I am interested in reading the book. Considering that these last three books all release on September 27th, it's going to be tough deciding which to read first when I get them all. 

My boyfriend Jay, brave soul that he is, has agreed to be a guest for a monthly piece that we're calling He Said, She Said. In it, we will be discussing a book that we have picked to read that month. It should be interesting to see what we like, what we don't, how we match up, and how we differ. 

For September, Jay has requested that we discuss The Hunger Games. I've read it already -- it was my Best Book: July selection -- but he is going to be reading it soon. Hopefully our varying opinions will make for some interesting reading. :)

If anyone else is interested in doing an article like this with me, please let me know. I think stuff like this is fun. 

Last, I would like to remind everyone that my giveaway for The Sky Is Everywhere is now underway. You have until September 15th to enter. I wish you the best of luck! 

Anyway, that's all of the stuff that I know for now. September is looking pretty exciting. :) As always, thanks for dropping by!