Mundie Moms

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Book Review: Chopsticks, A Novel by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral

Published by: Razorbill
To Be Released on: February 2rd, 2012
Source: ARC from publisher to review
4 stars: I Really Enjoyed
Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Book Website: Chopsticks Novel

Glory is a young piano prodigy. Frank is the boy who moves in next door. Over the years, their friendship blossoms into an undeniable romance. As Glory descends from stunning piano prodigy into a kind of madness, Frank's love becomes more and more unshakable. They both become hopelessly fixated on the song "Chopsticks".

Part love story, part mystery, part visual collage, this novel is told through images as much as it's told through words. Ultimately the reader must decipher what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along. Richly imagined by author Jessica Anthony and hauntingly designed by Rodrigo Corral, Chopsticks will rivet teens and adults alike on numerous platforms, including a gorgeous book and paid app for the iPhone and iPad, with many additional features - quoted from Goodreads

This is an elegant blend of romance, mystery and madness, that made for a raw, emotional, heartbreaking read that I couldn't put down. Talk about a visually stunning book. I was really blown away with how captivating this story is. It's so unique in the way it's told which is through little words and a lot of pictures, as it follows the story of Glory, a young teenage piano prodigy. Through the course of Glory's story readers are given a glimpse into her life, her heartbreak, her struggles, her breaking point and her romance.

Mixed into Glory's story is her main love interest Francisco, who's love for her only seems to intensify the more Glory's story unravels. Honestly, it's one of those romances that I felt came across a little intense at times, but as the story continues to unfold I began to wonder what parts of it were real, that is until I got to the end. I won't give anything away, but I will say that ending sure leaves me wanting to learn more. I really liked getting to see the interaction between the two of them via texts, letters, and such.

Chopsticks is one of those books that really held my attention from the get go. It became like a puzzle for me as the more I tried to distinguish what was real, what was a figment of Glory's imagination and what, if anything about this story was "normal" from the beginning, the more addicting the story became. At times I felt like I was being let in on a secret and other times I felt helpless in witnessing what Glory was going through based on the pictures, images and articles within the pages of this book. This is definitely a truly unique book, and it's one that still has me thinking about it.

January 2012 YA Releases


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's hard to believe it's already 2012! I hope y'all had a great weekend. 2011 definitely proved to be an AWESOME year and I'm really looking forward to all 2012 brings with it.

I'm kicking off 2012 with a list of YA books that will be released this month. WOW, this year is starting off with a bang. Check out all the YA books that will be out in this month:


January 1st
  1. Never to Sleep by Rachel Vincent (e-book)
  2. Irises by Francisco Stork
  3. What Boys Really Want by Pete Hautman

January 2nd
  1. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
  2. Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan
  3. Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

January 3rd
  1. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
  2. Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer
  3. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
  4. Don't Breath A Word by Holly Cupala
  5. Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook
  6. Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler
  7. The International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams
  8. Switched by Amanda Hocking
  9. Dreaming Awake by Gwen Hayes
  10. The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

January 5th
  1. Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey
  2. Run: A Subject Seven Novel by James Moore
  3. Love Maybe? by Heather Hepler

January 10th
  1. A Million Suns by Beth Revis
  2. The Fault in the Our Stars by John Green
  3. Ditched by Robin Mellom
  4. Destiny's Fire by Trisha Wolfe
  5. The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
  6. Jessica Rules the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

January 17th
  1. Tempest by Julie Cross
  2. Hallowed by Cynthia Hand
  3. Fracture by Megan Miranda
  4. Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey
  5. Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic

January 19th
  1. Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer Hubbard
  2. Truth by Julia Karr
  3. Getting Somewhere by Beth Neff

January 24th
  1. Everneath by Brodi Ashton
  2. Forbidden by Syrie James & Ryan James
  3. Getting Over Garrett Delany by Abby McDonald
  4. The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
  5. There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
  6. Fallen In Love: A Fallen Novel by Lauren Kate
  7. Diabolical by Cynthia Leitich Smith

January 31st
  1. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
  2. Destiny & Deception by Shannon Delany
  3. The Edumacation of Jay Baker by Jay Clark
  4. The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestly
  5. Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

All links go directly to the book's page on Amazon. I don't make anything off these links, nor do I have a store front set up with them. I started listing Amazon links due to a lot of requests to do so from followers. If I'm missing any YA releases for this month, please leave me a comment with the title of the book and the authors name so I can add it. Thank you!

In My Mailbox #104- New Year Edition

Happy New Year! Dang 2011 flew up. What a great year it was. Thank you to everyone who followed along with our 2011 Mundie Moms Favorite feature. It was a lot of fun sharing our favorites with you guys. I'm really looking forward to this year's upcoming releases.

Here's a few things we'll have on the blog this week:

1/2- The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight blog stop
1/3- Switched Giveaway
1/7- Unraveling Isobel review/ blog stop


In My Mailbox is a weekly feature hosted by The Story Siren and is a post for bloggers to feature what goodies they received in their mailbox the previous week for review, what they bought, borrowed, were gifted or traded. Here's a few of the goodies that arrived in my mailbox this week:


*edit* for some reason I can't edit this video, but I have an horrible error in it. I meant to say *love child* and not love story when talking about Unraveling.

For Review:

* Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, published by Harlequin Teen, to be released in 8/12
* Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris, published by Balzer + Bray, to be released on 4/24/12
* Untraceable by S.R. Johannes, published by Coleman & Stott, released on 11/23/11
* Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral, published by Razorbill, to be released on 2/2/12
* Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan, published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers, released on 9/7/10
* Darkness Falls by Cat Tiernan, published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers, to be released on 1/2/12
* Slide by Jill Hathaway, published by Balzer + Bray, to be released on 3/27/12
* Partials by Dan Wells, published by Harper Collins, to be released on 2/28/12
* Death Watch by Ari Berk, published by Simon & Schuster, released on 11/15/11
* Talsman of El by Alecia Stone, published by Centrinian Publishing Ltd., to be released on 5/20/12

Mundie Kids Reviews:

* Popular Clone by M.E. Castle, published by Egmont USA, to be released on 1/24/12
* Promise the Night by Michaela MacColl, published by Chronicle Books, released on 12/28/11m

Traded:

* Dust City by Robert Paul Weston (Thank you to HD)

Bought:

I bought a few books this week, but due to moving my library around I can't find where I placed a few of them. Here's the ones I can find:

* Wither by Lauren DeStefano

For my son:

* Winter Tales from the Tree House (Magic Tree House series) by Mary Pope Osborne

Thank you to: Harper Teen, Deb Shapiro, Little Brown, S.R. Johannes, Razorbill, Simon & Schuster, Centrinian Publishing, EgmontUSA, Chronicle Books & H.D. for this weeks awesome reads.

What did you receive in your mailbox?

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