Sunday, July 22, 2012

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


It's Monday, What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey.

Last week was a very productive reading week! 

Finished Reading:  

Skeleton Women by Mingmei Yip 

                                                                Once upon a time in China, the most beautiful and gifted women were known as "skeleton women" - the ultimate femme fatales who could bring a man to his knees, or to his doom...When Camilla, a young orphan girl in Shanghai, is adopted and brought to live in luxury, it seems like a stroke of luck. But as Camilla grows to womanhood, she realizes that her "rescue" was part of gang leader Big Brother Wang's scheme. Camilla is trained in singing, dancing, knife-throwing and contortion - all to attract the attention of Wang's enemy, the ruthless Master Lung. Forced to become Master Lung's mistress, Camilla meets two other intriguing women. Shadow is a magician and rival for Master Lung's affections, while Rainbow Chang dresses like a man and wields power through her incendiary gossip column. Both pose risks to Camilla's safety and status. But an even greater danger comes in the form of Master Lung's eldest son, Jinying, who despises his father's violent lifestyle - but loves Camilla. Only by plotting to eliminate Lung can she make her escape, but at what cost?
Slave  (Finding Anna #1)  by Sherri Hayes
         Stephan has lived the lifestyle of a Dominant for five years. After several rebellious teenage years, it gave him the stability and control he had been seeking after his parent's death. As president of a not-for-profit foundation, he knows what his future holds and what he wants out of life. All that changes when a simple lunch with his college friend and Mentor, Daren, leads him to buying a slave. Thrust into a situation he never thought he'd be in, Stephan can't walk away. He is compelled to help this girl in the only way he knows how. Brianna knows only one thing, she is a slave. She has nothing. She is nothing. Can Stephan help Brianna realize that she is much more than just a Slave?
Barely Breathing: The Breathing Series (Volume 2)  (The Breathing Series #2) by Rebecca  Donovan
                Emma’s struggle with an abusive home life came to a heart pounding conclusion in the final chapters of "Reason to Breathe". Now everyone in Weslyn knows Emma’s secret, but Carol can’t hurt Emma anymore. Some are still haunted by the horror of that night, and some must face the repercussions of their choices. Fans of Rebecca Donovan’s debut novel will discover there’s still much to learn about Emma’s life.
Currently Reading:

On the Island: A Novel by Tracey Garvis Graves


When thirty-year-old English teacher Anna Emerson is offered a job tutoring T.J. Callahan at his family's summer rental in the Maldives, she accepts without hesitation; a working vacation on a tropical island trumps the library any day.
T.J. Callahan has no desire to leave town, not that anyone asked him. He's almost seventeen and if having cancer wasn't bad enough, now he has to spend his first summer in remission with his family - and a stack of overdue assignments - instead of his friends. 
Anna and T.J. are en route to join T.J.'s family in the Maldives when the pilot of their seaplane suffers a fatal heart attack and crash-lands in the Indian Ocean. Adrift in shark-infested waters, their life jackets keep them afloat until they make it to the shore of an uninhabited island. Now Anna and T.J. just want to survive and they must work together to obtain water, food, fire, and shelter. Their basic needs might be met but as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.'s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

Diaries Of A Teenage Bride by Jillian Amodio


"Dear Diary,
What have I done?At the wise old age of eighteen, my high school boyfriend andI decided to get married. Marriage seemed like the solutionto all of our problems. We soon learned that marriage was fardifferent than we had imagined it to be.Diaries of a Teenage Bride is a hilarious and honest coming ofage story. It follows us through the ups and downs of marriedlife and chronicles all of the lessons that we have learned aboutliving life as husband and wife."


 Up Next:

ON THE JELLICOE ROAD  by Melina Marchetta


I'm dreaming of the boy in the tree. I tell him stories. About the Jellicoe School and the Townies and the Cadets from a school in Sydney. I tell him about the war between us for territory. And I tell him about Hannah, who lives in the unfinished house by the river. Hannah, who is too young to be hiding away from the world. Hannah, who found me on the Jellicoe Road six years ago.

Taylor is the leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs - the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.
And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.





Skeleton Women  Slave (Finding Anna #1)  Barely Breathing (The Breathing Series, #2)  On the Island  Diaries of a Teenage Bride  On the Jellicoe Road



 


                       

3 comments:

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Love the sound of The Island...hope you have a great week, and thanks for visiting my blog.

Jillian said...

:) you rock!

Suko said...

It sounds like you've been enjoying your reading this summer. Terrific excerpts!