Glass of Wine

Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished. A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon. Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads This one is not for the faint of heart. It's dark and scary, and slightly confusing in a way that ends up being more disorienting and creepy than seeming like a flaw...

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo "One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride..." Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound. Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price. After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim's handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn i...

The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar He can grant her wishes, but only she can save his life. Margo McKenna has a plan for just about everything, from landing the lead in her high school play to getting into a good college. So when she finds herself in possession of a genie's ring and the chance to make three wishes, she doesn't know what to do. Why should she put her life into someone else's hands? But Oliver is more than just a genie -- he's also a sophomore at Margo's high school, and he's on the run from a murderer. As he and Margo grow closer, she discovers that it will take more than three wishes to save him. A whole lot more. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads I was a little hesitant about this book. Maybe because so much of the action happens at the high school, and I don't usually go for realistic fiction. Maybe because I wasn't all that interested in genies, and it seemed like the genie/master relationship could very easily go off...

“I want [female characters] to be allowed to be weak and strong and happy and sad – human, basically. The fallacy in Hollywood is that if you’re making a ‘feminist’ story, the woman kicks ass and wins. That’s not feminist, that’s macho. A movie about a weak, vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with.” — Natalie Portman I hate Strong Female Characters.   Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong. - Sophia McDougall Don't let my title confuse you, I wholeheartedly agree with both statements. If you haven't read McDougall's article, check it out now from the hyperlink. Teen media especially is suffering from an overabundance of "Strong" but simple and dull female protagonists. Even authors I like have put out books where it seem...

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after... -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads I knew I was right to like Ronan. As I've seen other reviewers put it, he's a "tough sell," with his rudeness, tough guy shtick, and general obnoxious behavior. But I knew a guy who could be so smitten with a baby raven couldn't be that bad. Much of this book is focused on Ronan, so we get to see through the chinks in his leather jacket (this is especially metaphorical as I'm not positive he did wear a leather jacket, I just know that he would ). Most revealing are the descriptions of his childhood home, and the p...