Currently Reading

Currently reading: Vulture by Bex Hogan.

Sunday 16 January 2011

In My Postbox #28

In My Mailbox idea from Kristi @ The Story Siren, and all links take you to Amazon UK.



Hey everyone! Hope you've all had a great week! I had a day off on Thursday and spent the day making notes for reviews, and reading... ha. I spent yesterday (Saturday) writing up a few of those said reviews. One of which will be going live tomorrow! And I'm off again on Tuesday (work are having a new transformer put in, so half of the company are off!) so will be writing up more hopefully to go live through the week. I really wanna get caught up again and work seems to be doing its very best to stop that happening! Anyway, these are the awesome books I got this week thanks to the amazing generosity of some totally cool publicists/publishers and Amazon!

FOR REVIEW:


You Against Me by Jenny Downham
If someone hurts your sister and you’re any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? If your brother’s accused of a terrible crime but says he didn’t do it, you defend him, don’t you? When Mikey’s sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart. When Ellie’s brother is charged with the offence, her world begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. This is a brave and unflinching novel from the bestselling author of Before I Die. It’s a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it’s a book about love.
This book sounds good and I love the cover, the whole feel of it. And the subtle writing. Vaery cool. There's been a lot of hype around this book so I am excited to have a read! Thanks Random House for sending out this second copy! (The first got lost in the post! :()

In The Bag by Jim Carrington
Joe and Ash are best friends. Ash is the leader, Joe the one who follows. Then one night after a party, Joe and Ash come across a holdall, seemingly abandoned by the side of the road. They open it up ...and find GBP20,000 in cash. Of course they're going to hand it straight to the police. Aren't they? Or is all that money just too tempting? Whoever has lost it won't notice if a bit goes missing, will they? And that is precisely when the trouble starts ...Jim Carrington has already established himself as a fine writer for teens with his debut novel, Inside My Head. With In the Bag, he shows how horribly easy it is for two teenage boys to make a car crash of their lives, through an unlucky combination of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and making a handful of wrong decisions.
I am really looking forward to reading this one. It sounds brilliant and I loved Jim's last book, Inside My Head. Thanks Bloomsbury! :D

Mortlock by Jon Mayhew
The sister is a knife-thrower in a magician's stage act, the brother an undertaker's assistant. Neither orphan knows of the other's existence. Until, that is, three terrible Aunts descend on the girl's house and imprison her guardian, the Great Cardamom. His dying act is to pass the girl a note with clues to the secret he carries to his grave. Cardamom was one of three explorers on an expedition to locate the legendary Amarant, a plant with power over life and death. Now, pursued by flesh-eating crow-like ghuls, brother and sister must decode the message and save themselves from its sinister legacy.
I can't believe I haven't picked this up sooner. It sounds brilliant and I love the cover! And it has black edged paper. HOW COOL! Thanks Bloomsbury!

A Beautiful Lie by Irfan Master
An extraordinarily rich debut novel, set in India in 1947 at the time of Partition. Although the backdrop is this key event in Indian history, the novel is even more far-reaching, touching on the importance of tolerance, love and family. The main character is Bilal, a boy determined to protect his dying father from the news of Partition - news that he knows will break his father's heart. With great spirit and determination, and with the help of his good friends, Bilal persuades others to collude with him in this deception, even printing false pages of the local newspaper to hide the ravages of unrest from his father. All that Bilal wants is for his father to die in peace. But that means Bilal has a very complicated relationship with the truth...
This sounds like an incredible read and I cannot wait to get started. Thanks Bloomsbury!

When young Code falls down a hole while following a mysterious robotic insect, he lands in a world that defies imagination. Everything in Mekhos is made from metal and circuitry, including the inhabitants. Code immediately sets out to find his way home, but first he'll have to cross Mekhos's bizarre and dangerous landscape to reach the Beam Stalk. There, the legendary Robonomicon - a guide to all robot wisdom - is being by the evil Immortalis, who has plans to destroy Mekhos and invade the human world above. Can Code free the Robonomicon, save the robots of Mekhos from impending doom ...and still get home in time to catch the bus from school? With its dazzling array of robots and futuristic gadgets, this rollicking story will hold special appeal for budding techno-lovers everywhere.
This sounds like a fun little book that I'm looking forward to reading, again, thanks Bloomsbury! :D

BOUGHT

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow
Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world . . .
I've wanted to read this for absolutely ages and I am FINALLY getting around to it. Actually reading this now and loving it!

Being Billy by Phil Earle
Faces flashed before my eyes. And for every face there was a time that they had let me down. Each punch that landed was revenge, my chance to tell them I hadn’t forgotten what they did. Eight years in a care home makes Billy Finn a professional lifer. And Billy’s angry – with the system, the social workers, and the mother that gave him away. As far as Billy’s concerned, he’s on his own. His little brother and sister keep him going, though they can’t keep him out of trouble. But he isn’t being difficult on purpose. Billy’s just being Billy. He can’t be anything else. Can he?
This book sounds, quite simply, incredible and I really actually cannot wait to read this one! I love the cover, how it has this scratched feel to it. Very cool!

So there you go guys. That's what I got this week! What did you get?

8 comments:

  1. Yay, you got Being Billy! And You Against Me! And lots of Bloomsbury goodness :D

    Enjoy them all matey. You have a lot of good reading ahead of you.

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  2. Mortlock is brilliant! You'll never look at crows the same way again!

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  3. Terrific book week. I am being asked for TimeRiders loads in school at the mo. Happy reading :D

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  4. Ryan, many thanks for giving TimeRiders a go! I'd be fascinated to see what you make of it. Also...thoroughly recommend 'Being Billy', really quite moving stuff.

    Great blog, btw....really good to see a chap your age enjoying books (as opposed to all the usual tedious pursuits- football, pub, Playstation, zzzz). I'd be happy to give you an exclusive Q&A, if that'll help promote the blog. Let me now.

    Best

    Alex Scarrow

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  5. I read the prologue to Mortlock last night and it sounds like it is going to be good!

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  6. You Against Me has an absolutely gorgeous cover..I need a copy!! Being Billy is a fab read, hope you enjoy!

    Mortlock and A Beautiful Lie sound interesting..I look forward to your thoughts on them! Enjoy!

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  7. They all sound great, can't wait to read them. This week i could finally get Dark Matter. It's not easy to find UK books in México.

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  8. What a lot of great books this week :) I particularly LOVED Being Billy, A Beautiful Lie and You Against Me! I also recieved Mortlock and In The Bag this week, both look like a lot of fun :) Happy reading!

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