Waiting on Wednesday(81): Poet X & The Truth Beneath the Lies

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine and specifically spotlights upcoming novels we can't wait to read. As always, there are some amazing upcoming books, but this week we're particularly excited for.. 

Title:  Poet X

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo 
Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: March 6th 2018 

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

Look at that cover it is absolutely gorgeous!! March of 2018 is so far away I can't wait to read Poet X. Untill it comes out check out some of Elizabeth Acevedo's slam poetry.

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Title: The Truth Beneath the Lies

Author: Amanda Searcy
Publisher: Delacorte Press

Release Date:  December 12th, 2017

Fight or Flight. 

All Kayla Asher wants to do is run. Run from the government housing complex she calls home. Run from her unstable mother. Run from a desperate job at No Limit Foods. Run to a better, cleaner, safer life. Every day is one day closer to leaving. 

All Betsy Hopewell wants to do is survive. Survive the burner phone hidden under her bed. Survive her new rules. Survive a new school with new classmates. Survive being watched. Every minute grants her another moment of life.  

But when fate brings Kayla and Betsy together, only one girl will live.

Definitely have to read, loving the plot, can't wait to read!! The cover screams girl fight/sisterly bonding/fight to the death!!! This is Amanda's debut novel, be sure to check out her website.

So that's what we're waiting on this Wednesday. 

          How about you? Leave a link and let us know :)

teaser Tuesday(13) In a Dark, Dark Wood

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Ambrosia @ The Purple Booker.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR 
• Lists if they like your teasers

"Me?" Flo's eyes flew open. She looked startled to the point of alarm. In fact, she looked like she was regretting this idea already. "Do you have a message for me?"  pg 150

In a Dark, Dark Wood By: Ruth Ware

Comics & Graphic novels!!!

Lately for my own personal enjoyment and for school I have been reading a lot of comics and graphic novels.So I decide to create a list of a few of my favorite comic book series I really enjoy and a few graphic novels i dig.Before I do that you should know that yes Comics and graphic novels are to separate things!!! It's confusing but true.

Title: Ms Marvel

Marvel Comics presents the new Ms. Marvel, the groundbreaking heroine that has become an international sensation!

Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City — until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel Universe by storm! 

When Kamala discovers the dangers of her newfound powers, she unlocks a secret behind them, as well. Is Kamala ready to wield these immense new gifts? Or will the weight of the legacy before her be too much to bear? Kamala has no idea, either. But she's comin' for you, Jersey! 

I love the Ms. Mavel comics and recommend people of all ages to check them out.

Title: Marvel 1602

Marvel 1602, award-winning writer Neil Gaiman presents a unique vision of the Marvel Universe set four hundred years in the past. Classic Marvel icons such as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and Daredevil appear in this intriguing world of 17th-century science and sorcery, instantly familiar to readers, yet subtly different in this new time. Marvel 1602 combines classic Marvel action and adventure with the historically accurate setting of Queen Elizabeth I's reign to create a unique series unlike any other published by Marvel Comics.Collecting Marvel 1602 #1-8 - penciled by andy Kubert and digitally painted by Richard Isanove, with covers by Scott McKowen.


The heroes/villains we all love but their adventures taking place in the 17th century...it sounds weird but i'm intrigued and can't wait to check these comics out.

Title: Embroideries
From the best–selling author of Persepolis comes this gloriously entertaining and enlightening look into the sex lives of Iranian women. Embroideries gathers together Marjane’s tough–talking grandmother, stoic mother, glamorous and eccentric aunt and their friends and neighbors for an afternoon of tea drinking and talking. Naturally, the subject turns to love, sex and the vagaries of men.

As the afternoon progresses, these vibrant women share their secrets, their regrets and their often outrageous stories about, among other things, how to fake one’s virginity, how to escape an arranged marriage, how to enjoy the miracles of plastic surgery and how to delight in being a mistress. By turns revealing and hilarious, these are stories about the lengths to which some women will go to find a man, keep a man or, most important, keep up appearances. 

Full of surprises, this introduction to the private lives of some fascinating women, whose life stories and lovers will strike us as at once deeply familiar and profoundly different from our own, is sure to bring smiles of recognition to the faces of women everywhere—and to teach us all a thing or two.

This graphic novel sound uh-mazing!!!I loved both Persepolis novels so I hope I'll love Embroideries just as much

Title:Friends with Boys

After years of homeschooling, Maggie is starting high school. It's pretty terrifying.

Maggie's big brothers are there to watch her back, but ever since Mom left it just hasn't been the same. Besides her brothers, Maggie's never had any real friends before. Lucy and Alistair don't have lots of friends either. But they eat lunch with her at school and bring her along on their small-town adventures.

Missing mothers...distant brothers...high school...new friends... It's a lot to deal with. But there's just one more thing.

MAGGIE IS HAUNTED.

Ahh that synopsis sounds great!!

So there you go a short but sweet list of  graphic novels/comics that I want to check out.

 I think at some point Ill do I  list strictly dedicated to comics but I'm not sure when...

 Leave a comment with any graphic novel or comic suggestions.

Waiting on Wednesday (80): The Speaker & Ink, Iron, and Glass

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine and specifically spotlights upcoming novels we can't wait to read. As always, there are some amazing upcoming books, but this week I'm particularly excited for.. 

Title:  The Speaker (book 2 of Sea of Ink and Gold) 

Author: Traci Chee

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books

Release Date: November 7th, 2017

Having barely escaped the clutches of the Guard, Sefia and Archer are back on the run, slipping into the safety of the forest to tend to their wounds and plan their next move. Haunted by painful memories, Archer struggles to overcome the trauma of his past with the impressors, whose cruelty plagues him whenever he closes his eyes. But when Sefia and Archer happen upon a crew of impressors in the wilderness, Archer finally finds a way to combat his nightmares: by hunting impressors and freeing the boys they hold captive.

With Sefia’s help, Archer travels across the kingdom of Deliene rescuing boys while she continues to investigate the mysterious Book and secrets it contains. But the more battles they fight, the more fights Archer craves, until his thirst for violence threatens to transform him from the gentle boy Sefia knows to a grim warrior with a cruel destiny. As Sefia begins to unravel the threads that connect Archer’s fate to her parents’ betrayal of the Guard so long ago, she and Archer must figure out a way to subvert the Guard’s plans before they are ensnared in a war that will pit kingdom against kingdom, leaving their future and the safety of the entire world hanging in the balance.

I love the cover, I've been waiting for the second book for months!

If you haven't read The Reader (Sea of Ink and Gold #1) definitely should check it out!

Title: Ink, Iron, and Glass

Author: Gwendolyn Clare

Publisher: Macmillan/Imprint

Release Date: February 20,2018

A certain pen, a certain book, and a certain person can craft entirely new worlds through a branch of science called scriptology. Elsa comes from one such world that was written into creation by her mother—a noted scriptologist.

But when her home is attacked and her mother abducted, Elsa must cross into the real world and use her own scriptology gifts to find her. In an alternative 19th-century Italy, Elsa finds a secret society of pazzerellones—young people with a gift for mechanics, alchemy or scriptology—and meets Leo, a gorgeous mechanist with a smart mouth and a tragic past. She recruits the help of these fellow geniuses just as an assassin arrives on their doorstep.

In this thrilling debut, worlds collide as Elsa unveils a deep political conspiracy seeking to unlock the most dangerous weapon ever created—and only she can stop it.

                                    So that's what we're waiting on this Wednesday. 
                                    How about you? Leave a link and let us know :)

Teaser Tuesday(12):Dumplin & Piecing Me Together

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Ambrosia @ The Purple Booker.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR 
• Lists if they like your teasers

"Maxine shakes her head at me. "Always the pessimist," she says, laughing.

 Always the realist, I think. Always the poorest."

 pg 113 Piecing Me Together By Renée Watson 

"That chili was really bad. I tried to eat it,but Lydia kept gagging every time she walked by my office. I think she was kidding, but still." Pg 221 Dumplin' (Dumplin' #1) By Julie Murphy

Review: Long Way Down

Title: Long Way Down
Author: Jason Reynolds
Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy 
Release Date: October 17 ,2017

A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.

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Please stop and READ this book!!! OMG! I read this book in an hour, I am still mad, I didn't take my time. I don't even know where to begin, I put this book on my waiting for Wednesday because I loved the concept. Then I volunteered for a book fest, where Mr. Reynolds was present,  there I bought the book, he signed it. I read the book the next day.... I loved everything about this book, the cover, characters, setting, and imagery. It's hard to find books/authors that you relate to but Jason Reynolds does it every time! I am sadden to say this is the first book I have ever read by Jason Reynolds but it will not be my last. After I finished this book, I contacted my younger cousin, and told him he needs to read this book. I'll stop there but this book is everything. 

Will has three rules to follow taught to him by his older brother; No crying. No snitching. Get revenge. Will does what every member in has family has done before him follow the rules. As Will goes to follow the rules, he encounters his fears on the way to the lobby, those from his past who have died because of gun violence. Most of the books I read, after I'm done with them I can walk away knowing damn that's a great story. But not with this book, I found myself asking what happens to Will? Speaking of Will his innocence can be felt throughout the book on every page. He only has one goal in mind, “revenge” but the question becomes is it worth it? Can you do what needs to be done? Are you sure he is the suspect? What would YOU do? Did I mention that the book is written in verse? For those of you who think that this is just a story it's not this is someones, tomorrow, yesterday, and today. Gun violence is a real problem, it destroys everyone's life not just the person with the gun. Long Way Down shows you that one decision can change your whole life but it's a never ending cycle. Loved, the book from beginning to end, I'm hoping there is a sequel (hint, hint)! Do yourself a favor, and read this book! Word to the wise don't sleep on Jason Reynolds.