NEW BOOK: CITY OF LOST SOULS By Cassandra Clare
The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.
No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?
Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.
And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?
Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.
NEW BOOK: DEBT-FREE U By Zac Bissonnette
These days, most people assume you need to pay a boatload of money for a quality college education. As a result, students and their parents are willing to go into years of debt and potentially sabotage their entire financial futures just to get a fancy name on their diploma.
But Zac Bissonnette is walking proof that this assumption is not only false, but dangerous-a class con game designed to rip you off and doom your student to a post-graduation life of near poverty . From his unique double perspective-he’s a personal finance expert (at Daily Finance) AND a current senior at the University of Massachusetts-Zac figured out how to get an outstanding education at a public college, without bankrupting his parents or taking on massive loans.
Armed with his personal knowledge, the latest data, and smart analysis, Zac takes on the sacred cows of the higher education establishment. He reveals why a lot of the conventional wisdom about choosing and financing college is not only wrong but hazardous to you and your child’s financial future. You’ll discover, for instance, that:
* Student loans are NOT a necessary evil. Ordinary middle class families can- and must-find ways to avoid them, even without scholarships.
* College “rankings” are useless-designed to sell magazines and generate hype. If you trust one of the major guides when picking a college, you face a potential financial disaster.
* The elite graduate programs accept lots of people with non-elite bachelors degrees. So do America’s most selective employers. The name on a diploma ultimately won’t help your child have a more successful career or earn more money.
Zac can prove every one of those bold assertions – and more. No matter what your current financial situation, he has a simple message for parents: “RELAX! Your kid will be able to get a champagne education on a beer budget!”
NEW BOOK: HOW TO BE RICHER, SMARTER, AND BETTER-LOOKING THAN YOUR PARENTS By Zac Bissonnette
Striking out on your own for the first time is exhilarating. But in a culture full of bad advice, predatory banks, and splurge-now-pay-later temptations, it can also be dangerous-leading you to make decisions that could hurt you for years to come. Combine this with a weak economy, mounds of student loans, and dubious examples from reality TV starts to politicians to your own parents, and it’s no wonder so many twentysomethings are struggling.
Twenty-three-year-old Zac Bissonnette knows exactly what you’re going through. He demystifies the many traps young people fall into in their postcollege years. He offers fresh insights on everything from job hunting to buying a car to saving for retirement, giving you a foundation for a secure, stable and happy life. In the process, he reveals why FICO scores are over-rated, online job applications are a waste of time, car loans are for suckers, and credit card rewards are a scam.
With detours to dicuss wine connoisseurs, really broke housewives, and Lenny Dykstra, Zac shows you how to make better choices today so you can be richer, smarter (and better-looking!) for years to come.
NEW BOOK: THE DROWNED CITIES By Paolo Bacigalupi
Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.
In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man–a bioengineered war beast named Tool–who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.
This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi’s highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
NEW BOOK: LOOKING FOR ALASKA By John Green
First drink
First prank
First friend
First girl
Last words
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
NEW BOOK: BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY By Ruta Sepetys
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina is preparing for art school, first dates, and all that summer has to offer. But one night, the Soviet secret police barge violently into her home, deporting her along with her mother and younger brother. They are being sent to Siberia. Lina’s father has been separated from the family and sentenced to death in a prison camp. All is lost.
Lina fights for her life, fearless, vowing that if she survives she will honor her family, and the thousands like hers, by documenting their experience in her art and writing. She risks everything to use her art as messages, hoping they 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, and it is only their incredible strength, love, and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day. But will love be enough to keep them alive?
Between Shades of Gray is a riveting novel that steals your breath, captures your heart, and reveals the miraculous nature of the human spirit.
NEW BOOK: THE NAME OF THE STAR By Maureen Johnson
The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.
Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn’t notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.
NEW BOOK: LEVERAGE By Joshua Cohen
The football field is a battlefield
There’s an extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove High. It is paid on-and off-the football field. And it claims its victims without mercy-including the most innocent bystanders.
When a violent, steroid-infused, ever-escalating prank war has devastating consequences, an unlikely friendship between a talented but emotionally damaged fullback and a promising gymnast might hold the key to a school’s salvation.
Told in alternating voices and with unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the fierce loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won optimism of two young athletes.
NEW BOOK: ALONG FOR THE RIDE By Sarah Dessen
“You know, if you don’t know home to ride a bike, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Eli said.“I can ride a bike,” I said. “I just … I haven’t had the opportunity in a while.”
Riding a bike is only one of the many things Auden’s missed out on. Even before her parents’ divorce, she was cast in the role of little adult, never making waves, focusing on academics to please her demanding mother.
Now she’s spending the summer before college in the tiny beach town of Colby with her father and his new wife and baby. A job in a trendy boutique introduces her to the world of girls, their friendships, conversations, romances. And then there’s Eli, an intriguing loner. A fellow insomniac, Eli introduces Auden to the nocturnal world of Colby. Together they emabrk on a quest: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to put a tragic episode behind him. combine two lonely people with a charming beach town and an endless supply of long summer nights, and just about anything can happen.
NEW BOOK: LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM By Mal Peet
He would remeber all these things long after they’d been blown away. Scraps of talk, sound, woud drift back like flakes of burned paper on a spiraling wind.
Clem, a working-class boy living in government-assisted housing, and Frankie, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, must keep their relationship secret. If it’s discovered, their world will be blown apart.
But unknown to them, President John F. Kennedy and the Russian leader, Nikita Khruschev, are shaping up to do just that – blow the world apart – as the two leaders fight over a small island in the caribbean sea, leading up the the events that will later be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
For Frankie and Clem, “time, like everything else, is against them.”
NEW BOOK: WHEN SHE WOKE By Hillary Jordan
I AM A RED NOW. It was her first thought of the day, every day, surfacing after a few seconds of fogged, blessed ignorance and sweeping though her like a wave, breaking in her breast with a soundless roar. Hard on its heels came the second wave, crashing into the wreckage left by the first: HE IS GONE.
Hannah Payne’s life had been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens in a new body to a nightmarish new life. she finds herself lying on a tadle in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcsting her every move to millions as home, for whom observing new chromes – criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime – is a sinister for of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the state of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.
NEW BOOK: ASH By malinda Lo
In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumedwith grief, she finds her only joy by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. when she meets the dark and dangerous fairy sidhean, she begins to believe that her wish may be granted.
But the day that ash meets Kaisa, the King’s royal huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with kaisa. Though their freindship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love — and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.
NEW BOOK: BRONXWOOD By Coe Booth
I ain’t looking for no more stress in my life. I already got Enough to deal with.
Tyrell’s got a lot going on. His father just got out of jail. His little brother is stuck in foster care. The dealers he’s living with are taking bigger and bigger risks. And girls – they only seem to be adding to his problems.
Everybody wants something from Tyrell. His father wants him to go bakc to being a child. His little brother wants his help. The guys he’s staying with are pushing him to start dealing. And the girls he’s talking to want his time, his money, his attention, and his love.
Tyrell’s got too much pressure, too many choices. he’s got to figure out fast what he’s going to do next – before he gets in so deep he can’t get back out again.
NEW BOOK: EMPTY By Suzanne Weyn
Civilization has just run out. It’s the future – the very near future – and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.
Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Sage Vally, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope – there has to be hope – but there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a society that needs to be rethought. Niki, Tom, and Gwen may find what they need to survive. But there lives will never be the same again.
NEW BOOK: UNDER THE MESQUITE
By Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Lupita, a budding actor and poet in a close-knit Mexican American immigrant family, comes of age as she struggles with adult responsibilities during her mother’s battle with cancer in this young adult novel in verse.
When Lupita learns Mami has cancer, she is terrified by the possibility of losing her mother, the anchor of her close-knit family. Suddenly, being a high school student, starring in a play, and dealing with friends who don’t always understand, become less important than doing whatever she can to save Mami’s life.
While her father cares for Mami at an out-of-town clinic, Lupita takes charge of her seven younger siblings. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she takes refuge in the shade of a mesquite tree, where she escapes the chaos at home to write. Forced to face her limitations in the midst of overwhelming changes and losses, Lupita rediscovers her voice and finds healing in the power of words.
Told with honest emotion in evocative free verse, Lupita’s journey toward hope is captured in moments that are alternately warm and poignant. Under the Mesquite is an empowering story about testing family bonds and the strength of a young woman navigating pain and hardship with surprising resilience.
NEW BOOK: THE EDUMACATION OF JAY BAKER
By Jay Clark
Meet Jay Baker…or, so he is not-so-affectionately called by his opponent in theA few random bullet points about Jay:
- He is stupidly in love with his best friend, cheerleading dynamo cameo “appearance” Parnell.
- He is also trying to score (points) with earthbound tennis-playing goddess Caroline Richardson.
- He is fighting a losing battle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
- He rocks a touche array of pop-culture references, jokes, and puns.
- His family life cookie is about to crumble.
Root for jay as he exchanges ego-blows with his mortal enemy, gets awkward around his dream girl(s), loses his marbles in a Bermudian love triangle, watches his parents’ relationship implode, and, finally, learns to keep it real and be himself(ish).
NEW BOOK: DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE By laini taylor
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 teath grows 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 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 about to find out.
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
