In My Mailbox (4/6 - 4/11)

This week was much more successful than last week :) I'm still waiting on a few books, so hopefully they'll show up next week. Along with my iPod touch... *grumble*
Anyways, here's what I received this week:

The Rule of Won
Stefan Petrucha

Meet Caleb Dunne, slacker extraordinaire. Caleb prefers to glide through life with the minimal amount of effort, so he isn’t too jazzed when his overachieving girlfriend, Vicky, convinces him to join a new school club based on a controversial book, The Rule of Won. Slackers don’t join school clubs, do they? As The Rule gains popularity, though, the club members start to gain power within the school. From dark posts on the club’s online message board to all-out threats in the hallways, it becomes apparent that the group is getting out of control. For slacker Caleb, though, the only thing worse than doing something is not doing something.

Darkly funny and exceptionally thought-provoking, The Rule of Won, inspired by the ideas behind books like the runaway hit The Secret, shines a light on the dangers of group thinking and the inner desires that can sometimes get the best of us all.

Thanks to Sophie at Mrs. Magoo Reads for holding the contest to win this book! It sounds interesting. I'm a tiny bit confused about the plot and the idea of the club, but I think that once I read it I'll understand better :) I'm hoping that this will be good; it sounds a bit different than anything I've read before!

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Learning To Swim
Ann Turner

Unfolding in a series of exquisite narrative poems, this is the haunting true story of a tragic summer in a young girl's life. Annie is supposed to be having a carefree summer -- but instead she must face the unwanted advances of an older boy in the neighborhood, who threatens her if she tells. It isn't until Annie's mother pries out the secret that Annie is released from her horror and isolation and can slowly begin to heal.

This is a really short book, and it's in poetry on one side of every page. I'll probably have a review of it up later today. I'm excited to read it.

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Such A Pretty Girl
Laura Wiess

They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three.

Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a new life. But Meredith is only fifteen, and today her father is coming home from prison.

Today her time has run out.

Yay! I've been wanting to read this since I read and reviewed Leftovers a few weeks ago. I hope it's just as good - it sounds really interesting. I'm really starting to like Laura Wiess.

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Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Holly Black

When seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. Impulsive Lolli talks of monsters in the subway tunnels they call home and shoots up a shimmery amber-colored powder that makes the shadows around her dance. Severe Luis claims he can make deals with creatures that no one else can see. And then there's Luis's brother, timid and sensitive Dave, who makes the mistake of letting Val tag along as he makes a delivery to a woman who turns out to have goat hooves instead of feet.

When a bewildered Val allows Lolli to talk her into tracking down the hidden lair of the creature for whom Luis and Dave have been dealing, Val finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus. He is as hideous as he is honorable. And as Val grows to know him, she finds herself torn between her affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

I believe this is the second in the series (I'm pretty sure it goes Tithe, Valiant, Ironside. Anyone care to confirm that for me?) I've read Tithe before, so I'm excited to read this. I had checked it out from the library at some point, but only got halfway through it before I had to return it. Now I have my own copy! It may be a while before I review it, as I'll be more inclined to read newer books before I go back to something that I've finished most of. Still excited about having it, though.



Also, don't forget to enter my contest for Doing It by Melvin Burgess if you haven't already! It ends on the 28th, which is quickly approaching. :)