Its kind of a funny story

By Ned Vizzini, Tk

(This book looks really interesting)

Synopsis
Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life-which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job-Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy.

At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away. The stress becomes unbearable and Craig stops eating and sleeping-until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, isolated from the crushing pressures of school and friends, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness. For a novel about depression, it's definitely a funny story.

The Sugar Queen

By Sarah Addison Allen

(I think this looks like a good book to read, we should add it to the list)

Synopsis
In this irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever.

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.

Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

They Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

by Katherine Howe
Synopsis
A spellbinding, beautifully written novel that moves between contemporary times and one of the most fascinating and disturbing periods in American history -- the Salem witch trials.

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key secreted within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest to find out who this woman was, and to unearth a rare colonial artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge of herbs and other, stranger things.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Written with astonishing conviction and grace, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the trials in the 1690s, and a modern woman's story of mystery, intrigue, and revelation.

Review #1

Here is my review #1... technically of book #2.
We read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.
I thought this book was intersting and good overall. It was really funny and I'm glad the author didnt take life-literally too seriously. She kept the dialogue going as if she was having a conversation with the reader directly and she told an excellent story of her findings. Some of the chapters were a bit unusual and I was caught off guard when I found myself suddenly reading about animal transplant and connecting different organs- for a split second I thought somehow the Island of Dr Moreau had found itself in my book.. and I didnt want to read any further. I did though and Im glad I finished it. It is not for those with weak stomachs because there is a lot of specific detail as to what happens to our bodies but I am glad I know and I will forever have a little special place in my heart for all those cadavers that do the dirty work nobody else can do.

Series.

Books in series are kind of hard to read. Well not hard as in they require a high IQ just hard because they always leave things ending on a cliffhanger and then you have sit and wait for more things to happen. I am very impatient so I dont like to wait... but the good thing about series is that they generally have a lot more detail and can have more in depth stories (emphasis on generally) Among the huge list of books I need to read and with in that list a separate list of series, I think I am going to have to add these two:

Savage Membrane: A Cal McDonald Myster by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith

Synopsis
Cal McDonald has a special talent for spotting and seeking out the strange beings walk among us. They live as postal workers and taxi drivers, lurking in the sewers and roaming the streets ever awake and always on the hunt. Cal has made a career helping and hunting the dark creatures. Among the docile ghouls of the city he is a friend. But to most, those who prey on innocent human lives, Cal is a sworn enemy. Now Cal finds himself in the middle of the strangest adventure of his life. People are dropping dead all over Washington DC and the cause is a mystery. The bodies are unmarked, yet their brains are simply gone. Cal will have to use all of his resources and dig deep into his past to unravel the truth, which is more terrible and absurd than he could have ever expected.


Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead
(she also wrote the Vampire Academy novels- my friend Liz highly recommended both)

Synopsis
Being a succubus sounds pretty glamorous. Shape-shifting, killer wardrobe, what's not to like? But Georgina Kincaid's life is far from exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies, and she can't have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy's life, which means her crush on sexy writer Seth Mortensen is going nowhere fast. But all of that pales in significance when an unknown entity "helpfully" begins killing her immortal adversaries. For once, all her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help, because there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny...

Little Bee

Little Bee By Chris Cleave


From the Publisher

WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.

It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.

Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:

It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.

The story starts there, but the book doesn't.

And it's what happens afterward that is most important.

Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
I think this would be an excellent selection to add to the list of books we have for the club. Our list is going to take us awhile to get through, which is quite fine with me.



Synopsis
Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. THE LOVELY BONES is such a book -- a #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and for its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Now in an audiobook edition read by the author, with movie tie-in art.
"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, THE LOVELY BONES succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.
The major motion picture version of THE LOVELY BONES, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, and Saoirse Ronan is scheduled for release on December 11, 2009.

Oh and P.S. Its gonna be a movie soon...