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#19 Towelhead by Alicia Erin synopsis from amazon.com Thirteen-year-old Jasira wants what every girl wants: love and acceptance and the undivided attention of whoever she's with. And if she can¹t get that from her parents, then why not from her mother's boyfriend, or her father's muscle-bound neighbor, Mr. Vuoso? Alicia Erian¹s incandescent debut novel, Towelhead, will ring true for readers who remember the rarely poetic transition from childhood to young adulthood. Jasira is a creature of contradiction: both innocent (reading romantic intentions into the grossest displays of lust) and oddly clear-sighted, especially when it comes to the imbalance of power, and the things we do for love. When her mother exiles her to Houston to live with Jasira's strict, quick-to-anger Lebanese father, she quickly learns what aspects of herself to suppress in front of him. In private, however, she conducts her sexual awakening with all the false confidence that pop culture and her neighbor's Playboy magazines have provided. Jasira tells her story with candor and glimmers of dark, unexpected humor--as when she describes her mother's boyfriend Barry's assistance in her personal grooming: "A week later, Barry broke down and told her the truth. That he had shaved me himself. That he had been shaving me for weeks. That he couldn't seem to stop shaving me." The freshness of her narrative voice sets Towelhead apart from the sentimental or purely harsh treatment of similar subject matter elsewhere, and makes the novel a promising follow-up to Erian¹s well-regarded short story collection, The Brutal Language of Love. --Regina Marler I found Towelhead, the coming-of-age story about thirteen year old Jasira, to be entertaining and upsetting. This debut novel explores adolesence honestly and spares no detail from Jasira's first period to her many sexual ecounters. Quick read that is hard to put down despite being disturbing at times. Though it is described as coming-of-age, I wouldn't recommend it to young readers due to very graphic sexual content, including rape. Great novel overall. (4/5)

I'm so glad. I can't wait for more people to read this.

I usually do read reviews before I purchase a book, usually on amazon or goodreads. I look to see what the majority is. I always check the bad reviews to see why the book was rated poorly buy those customers, and if I think it will be an issue for me as well. Here lately I will even take a peek at the first few pages if it has the 'Look Inside' option on amazon, along with reading the reviews.

#18 Jane by April Linder If you love Jane Eyre then your have to read Jane, the debut young adult novel by author April Linder. Jane Moore, penniless and estranged from her siblings, has to drop out of Sarah Lawrence a few months after her parents die in a car accident. She joins a nanny agency and accepts a position as nanny to rockstar, Nico Rathburn's daughter. Jane remembers the stories she's read in the tabloids about the wild womanizer, and wonders what living with him will be like. Soon, she discovers that the man in the magazines is nothing like the man she comes to love... Linder modernizes the classic, but stays so true to the story. I could hardly put this one down. Great debut! I'm looking forward to see what's next from this author. (5/5)

I agree with Chrissy about Amanda Hocking's books being good kindle buys. They aren't masterpieces, but fun reads, plus cheap. Also, many classics are free. I reread Jane Eyre on my kindle for free and Little Dorrit. I recommend The Girl In The Lighthouse by Roxane Tepfer Sanford. It is only $6.95 (not sure if it would be same price in the UK). Seems like I paid a little less for it at the time. Amazon is always raising prices.

Finished yesterday #17 Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde synopsis from barnesandnoble.com Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan. But whose? and why? After reading The Eyre Affair I couldn't wait to find out what happened next to Thursday Next. I was a disappointed in this one, especially the ending. Lost in a Good Book was every bit as creative and confusing as the first novel, but less happens, which might be a good thing. I loved the Cheshire Cat and Miss Havisham the most. Dispite being less than thrilled, I will continue to read the rest of the series. (3.5/5)

I watched The King's Speech yesterday and I loved it! Colin Firth definitely deserved that Oscar. Oh, and the movie did as well.

#16 Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (YA) From the Publisher Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever. Who wouldn't want to be perfectly pretty? Tally Youngblood can't wait until her sixteenth birthday- the day all uglies are made pretty. Her best friend, Peris, has already turned pretty, but he doesn't seem like the same friend who used to laugh at the vapid pretties. Soon she'll be able to join him in New Pretty Town and they'll be best friends again and life will be one big party. But things change when Tally meets Shay, a girl that prefers another way of life... I really enjoyed Uglies, the first of a futuristic young adult series by Scott Westerfeld. I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this novel and I can't wait to get the second novel, Pretties because Uglies ended on a cliff hanger. (4/5)

#15 Little Children by Tom Perrotta Synopsis from barnesandnoble.com "TOM PERROTTA's thirtyish parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. There's Todd, the handsome stay-at-home dad, dubbed "The Prom King" by the moms at the playground, and his wife, Kathy, a documentary filmmaker envious of the connection Todd has forged with their toddler son. And there's Sarah, a lapsed feminist surprised to find she's become a typical wife in a traditional marriage, and her husband, Richard, who is becoming more and more involved with an internet fantasy life than with his own wife and child." I found Little Children to be a highly entertaning read. The characters are so real that I can picture each one so clearly and was easily pulled in to the novel. I watched the film last year, so I already knew the story, but the endings are so different (I perfer the movie ending). The ending, in my opinion, fell a little flat, but I thought the setting (a playground) was perfect. Overall, I enjoyed the novel and do recommend it. (4/5) Now reading: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

This is right up my alley! I have "wishlisted" it on amazon. It says it will be released in hardback, audio, and kindle edition here in the US. I'm so glad to know about these, Julia.

Thanks! A long wait ahead for both of us, unfortunately.

I'm thinking of adding Gormenghast to my wishlist after reading your review. I watched a Gormenghast miniseries several years ago with Jonathon Rhys Meyers and I loved it!

#14 The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares synopsis from barnesandnoble.com With a bit of last summer's sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer. Bridget: Impulsively sets off for Alabama, wanting to both confront her demons about her family and avoid them all at once. Lena: Spends a blissful week with Kostos, making the unexplainable silence that follows his visit even more painful. Carmen: Is concerned that her mother is making a fool of herself over a man. When she discovers that her mother borrowed the Pants to wear on a date, she's certain of it. Tibby: Not about to spend another summer working at Wallman's, she takes a film course only to find it's what happens off-camera that teaches her the most. This is the second summer of the pants and as engaging as the first novel. I love Lena, Carmen, Bridget, and Tibby because they are so different, but work beautifully together as friends. Each girl experiences romance and heartbreak in some form in this second novel, and it changes them in the end. I can't wait to see what is in store for these four friends. (4/5)

Woohoo! Lost In A Good Book is in the mail and on its way to me!

I really enjoyed Clockwork Angel and can't wait to find out what happens. Does anyone know when Clockwork Prince is due to be released?

Thanks to some recent thrift store purchases and Goodreads bookswaps, I have added to my TBR pile. I've bought these used but very good condition books: No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen Little Children by Tom Perrotta Darkwood by M.E Breen Requested on Goodreads but still pending The Earth Hums In B Flat by Mari Strachan The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly Uglies by Scott Westerfeld I hate it when my request is denied and it was something I really wanted.

#13 The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde Synopsis from barnesandnoble.com In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy-enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix. The Eyre Affair is a fun novel that is clever and original. I love the fact that the fictional characters we love live and breath in an alternate reality that Fforde creates. At times it was easy to get confused and to kept characters straight. But, despite my confusion, I found it to be a great read. I really need to find out what happens next to Thursday Next. (4/5)

#12 Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (via Kindle) synopsis from amazon.com One of Charles Dickens’ most personally resonant novels, Little Dorrit speaks across the centuries to the modern reader. Its depiction of shady financiers and banking collapses seems uncannily topical, as does Dickens’ compassionate admiration for Amy Dorrit, the “child of the Marshalsea,” as she struggles to hold her family together in the face of neglect, irresponsibility, and ruin. Intricate in its plotting, the novel also satirizes the cumbersome machinery of government. For Dickens, Little Dorrit marked a return to some of the most harrowing scenes of his childhood, with its graphic depiction of the trauma of the debtors’ prison and its portrait of a world ignored by society. The novel not only explores the literal prison, but also the figurative jails that characters build for themselves. I love the story of Little Dorrit. Not one of Dickens most well known novels, but it should be. It took me quite a while to get through this novel (my first doorstep size book of the year) and often found it difficult to keep the characters straight. The dull parts are detailed and long, but the intresting and romanctic parts are wonderful. Little Dorrit is my second Dickens, Great Expectations was my first, and I think it is far superior. Dickens fans need to read Little Dorrit. (4/5)

I believe the unread book I've had the longest is The Secret Garden by Fances Hodgson Burnett. I've owned it for at least 17 or 18 years, and just never got 'round to it.

I can't believe that I've been reading Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens for two weeks on my kindle and I'm only 54% into it!! I do enjoy the story, but Dickens goes on and on and on. I really want to finish soon because I'm expecting, through the mail, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and Little Children by Tom Perrotta via Goodreads swaps.

I've only read these 20 (not very impressive) from the list: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger Great Expectations, Charles Dickens Little Women, Louisa May Alcott Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith I have these few on my bookshelf: Emma, Jane Austen Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy This list is best loved novels from 2003. I wonder if it has changed since. Were all of the Harry Potter books even out then? I'm a bit surprised that Nighteen Eighty-four beat out the Brontes' in the top ten.

I had honestly never heard of Jasper Fforde until I kept seeing his name all over the forum. I am proud to say, thanks to a Goodreads swap, I will soon be the owner of a 'very good condition' edition of The Eyre Affair. I will no longer be a Fforde virgin, which, hopefully will lead me to be a Fforde tart.

I really wish I could check out library books with my Kindle. I'm a bit jealous! I haven't spent very much on my kindle yet either. I've downloaded a few free classics. I also downloaded two books for $0.99 each. Most new releases for the kindle are around $10.99 or $12.99, and as high as $15. They keep raising prices. There was a book on my wishlist that was around $5, and before I could buy it it was raised to $7.79. I've compared the Nook and Kindle books, and they are around the same prices.

Thanks for the comments. I can't wait for someone else to read Delirium!

What a haul! I love the pics as well. They make me want to curl up in a soft blanket, drink hot chocolate, and read the day away!