Reading Abounds

Title:  Con Academy Author: Joe Schreiber Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 97512 Description: Con man Will Shea may have met his match in scammer Andrea Dufresne as they make a high-stakes deal that will determine who gets to stay at Connaughton Academy, one of the most elite and privileged preparatory schools in the country, and who must leave. Rubric Rating: Level 2 - Like It. Why I Read It: Great cover image and title. Notes: I was more than a little disappointed by this book.  I gave it a like instead of a leave because there were some interesting aspects to the story.  Will Shea is attending Connaughton Academy, not based on his academic merit, but on his ability to con the administration into believing he is a student they should be sponsoring to attend.  But at his first day in class he meets Andrea Dufresne, a fellow con who stakes a claim to Con Academy.  Together they devise a bet, whoever can get the wealthiest student to fork over $50,00...

Title:  Hollow City Series: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Book #2 Author: Ransom Riggs Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 95713 Description: Jacob and friends have escaped Miss Peregrine's island and flee to London, the peculiar capital of the world, where they are chased by Miss Peregrine's brother. Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Love It! Why I Read It: Continuing with the series and enjoyed the first novel. Notes: Hollow City was a much faster and more engaging read for me than Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  Jacob and the peculiar children are on a quest to find another ymbryne so that they can return Miss Peregrine to her human state.  Using the only items they have available to them - their peculiarities and the book of tales, Jacob, Emma, and the others set out on a quest to find other loops and peculiars.  Their quest leads them not only from place to place but from time to time. In this book we learn more about the differen...

Title:  Reached Series: Matched Trilogy Book #3 Author: Ally Condie Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 79293 Description: In search of a better life, Cassia joins a widespread rebellion against Society, where she is tasked with finding a cure, and must choose between Xander and Ky. Rubric Rating: Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It: Final Book in the Series. Notes: Unlike Matched which is Cassia's story, and Crossed which is Cassia and Ky's story.  Reached Begins with Xander.  We now have three points of view while reading.  Xander is an Official working for the "Society" but he is also working covertly for "The Rising" waiting for the signal of when they will start their overthrow of the current order.  Xander will know it is time when he hears the "pilot's" voice.  Cassia and Ky have also joined the rising and have been separated again - Ky is a pilot (literally) along with Indie, Cassia has been reintegrated into the society as a sorter....

Title:  Sweet Author: Emmy Leybourne Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 118944 Description: On a celebrity cruise launching a new diet sweetener, Laurel is too seasick to even try the new product and beginning to regret taking this vacation, but when her fellow passengers start behaving oddly, her trip becomes truly terrifying. Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Love It! Why I Read It: Interesting cover and title. Notes: Laurel and her friend Vivika have scored big.  Tickets on the Solu Cruise to Lose! Laurel and Viv are healthy 17-year-olds who wear size 14 clothes.  But to today's youth that's just too big.  Everyone on the luxury cruise has been selected as a marketing ploy by Timothy Almstead, the maker of Solu.  The "solu-tion" to America's obesity epidemic.  Tom Fiorelli - or baby Tom-Tom as he's known from his early television days has been hired to do interviews and provide footage for television stations - an exclusive event that is supposed to reinvi...

Title:  The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall Author: Katie Alender Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 128177 Description: Sixteen-year-old Cordelia and her family move into the house they just inherited in Pennsylvania, a former insane asylum the locals call Hysteria Hall, unfortunately, the house does not want defiant girls like Delia, so it kills her, and as she wanders the house, meeting the other ghosts and learning the dark secrets of the Hall, she realizes that she has to find a way to save her sister, parents, and perhaps herself. Rubric Rating: Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It:  The title. Notes:   I chose this book based strictly on the title.   I love ghost and horror stories and this book did not disappoint.   Delia and her family are off to spend the summer in the home she has inherited from her namesake – Cordelia Piven.   What they don’t realize is that the home is actually a former asylum for troubled women known locally as hysteria hall. ...

Title:  Reboot Author: Amy Tintera Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 93743 Description: Twelve-year-old Wren rises from the dead as a Reboot and is trained as an elite crime-fighting soldier, at seventeen she is happily training new Reboots until she is given an order she refuses to follow. Rubric Rating: Level 3 - Laud It Why I Read It: High/Low title with a great tag line.   5 years ago I died, 178 minutes later I woke up. Notes: This was a really good book.  Wren Connolly is a reboot.  At 12 years old she was shot and killed.  178 minutes later she woke up as a reboot.  At some point she was infected by the plague and this caused her body to reboot after death.  Now she is faster, stronger, less emotional, and heals quicker, and can only die if her brain is impaled.  Something of a mercenary zombie the reboots are given better food and housing than the rest of the population but they are also used a force to patrol the cities.  At 1...