In My Mailbox: "and she could kill me just like she did before"

That's part of Kings of Leon's "True Love Way." One of my all time favorite KOL songs. Guess why I chose part of those lyrics for today? BECAUSE KINGS OF LEON IS HERE IN HOUSTON, TX TODAY!! As this post is going up, I should be waiting for another hour for them to perform. So. Stoked.

'cause we'd be so free
happy alone
sharing a smile
so far from home
and we would laugh
laugh 'till we cried


Okay sidetracked! Here's what I've received this past week (click on covers to read reviews on Amazon):

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. RD: 5.4.10. Excited!! I've been wanting to read this one forever! I read her debut, Sharp Objects, and loved it! I can't help but love books dealing with the human mind. Well, I love psychology period. 



Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

Ignatius MacFarland Frequenaut! by Paul Feig. RD: 2008. How can I not buy something the creator of Freaks and Geeks wrote?

After being teased one too many times at school, Ignatius MacFarland decides to build a rocket. Maybe extraterrestrials are nicer than his classmates! But when his rocket takes an explosive wrong turn, Ignatius ends up in another frequency run by former English-teacher-turned-dictator, Chester Arthur. Mr. Arthur has taken the art, culture, and advancements of our world, shared them with this new frequency, and convinced the creatures around him that he's a genius. It's up to Iggy and Karen, another trapped earthling, to expose Mr. Arthur for the fraud that he is-and to hopefully make it home alive.

Part comedy, part science fiction, and part fantasy, this debut novel, with line art by talented newcomer Peter Chan, makes being a geek, well, kind of cool.

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer. RD: 2006. 1st of a series. So happy to get this! She wrote one of my all time favorite books, The House of the Scorpion, which I think the whole world should read at age 14 because that's when I first read it and fell in love with it. 



After Jack becomes apprenticed to a Druid bard, he and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a vital quest to Jotunheim, home of the trolls.






Still Alice by Lisa Genova. RD: 1.6.09. So happy to get this! I love reading about all kinds of disorders. This one deals with Alzheimer's. Sounds terribly sad, but I must read it! I've heard great things.



This may be one of the most frightening novels you'll ever read. It's certainly one of the most unforgettable. Genova's debut revolves around Alice Howland - Harvard professor, gifted researcher and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children. One day, Alice sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home. It's a route she has taken for years, but nothing looks familiar. She is utterly lost. Is her forgetfulness the result of menopausal symptoms? A ministroke? A neurological cancer? After a few doctors' appointments and medical tests, Alice has her diagnosis, and it's a shocker -- she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

What follows is the story of Alice's slow but inevitable loss of memory and connection with reality, told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book,
or to recall information she heard just moments before. To Genova's great credit, readers learn of the progression of Alice's disease through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so they feel what she feels -- a slowly building terror.

In Still Alice, Genova, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard, uniquely reveals the experience of living with Alzheimer's. Hers is an unusual book -- both a moving novel and an important read. 

Push by Sapphire. RD: 2009. I saw the movie and it depressed the frack out of me which I was not expecting. All I kept hearing was "this movie is amazing yata yata" did not expect depressing. Should've watched the trailer first so that was my fault entirely. Got this one for someone, but may read it myself hehe



An electrifying first novel that shocks by its language, its circumstances, and its brutal honesty, Push recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, miraculous hope appears and the world begins to open up for her when a courageous, determined teacher bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary.





The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous by Suzanne Crowley (The Stolen One). The excerpt drew me in!



Thirteen-year-old Merilee Monroe maintains a Very Ordered Existence, VOE for short. As long as she keeps up with her minute-by-minute daily schedule, she can avoid the internal trauma caused by change and spontaneity. So when two very distracting newcomers arrive in town, Merilee does her best to ignore them and stick to her plans. But can even a VOE have some room for friendship






My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath. RD: 1.26.10. This book sounds just lovely and wow what an amazing cover!

THE WINNER OF a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and countless other awards has written her richest, most spirited book yet, filled with characters that readers will love, and never forget.

Jane is 12 years old, and she is ready for adventures, to move beyond the world of her siblings and single mother and their house by the sea, and step into the “know-not what.” And, over the summer, adventures do seem to find Jane, whether it’s a thrilling ride in a hot-air balloon, the appearances of a slew of possible fathers, or a weird new friendship with a preacher and psychic wannabe. Most important, there’s Jane’s discovery of what lies at the heart of all great adventures: that it’s not what happensto you that matters, but what you learn about yourself.

Snap by Alison McGhee. RD: 2004. The excerpt made me quite curious. 

A sensitive girl comes to terms with loss-and learns something about lasting ties — in this genuine, gracefully told story.

Name: Edwina Stiles Beckey.
Nickname: Eddie.
Age: Eleven.
Hometown: North Sterns, New York, in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.
Best Friend: Sally Hobart.
Favorite Activity: Making lists.

Eddie Beckey makes lists for just about everything and everyone in her life. And for matters of real importance, she wears (and snaps) an array of colored rubber bands on her wrist. Unfortunately, the world is not always so orderly and knowable. No list can help her cope with what’s happening to her best friend, Sally — or change the course of things for Sally’s grandmother, whom Eddie has grown to love and depend on as well. With subtlety and insight, novelist Alison McGhee tells the story of a young girl’s first encounter with grief, and of the enduring power of friendship.

Alpha Dog movie. I HAD to get it. It was a buck and gosh I LOVE this movie. It's so sad though. Anton Yelchin is one of my favorite actors. Love him in everything! Also love the adorable Emile Hirsch.

The film is based on the true story of the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz and related events in 2000. It portrays the involvement of Jesse James Hollywood, a young middle-class drug dealer in California.The film stars Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Foster, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, Anton Yelchin with Harry Dean Stanton, Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis.

As always, let me know what you've thought of the above books/movie you've read/seen or if you want to read/watch them. Feel free to also link to your IMM. 

Thank you to The Story Siren and Pop Culture Junkie for IMM!
~~Lisette~~