The Reading Hideaway

I am honored to have been nominated for the Liebster Award for a second time (first in 2013 and now in 2016).  This award is given to bloggers by bloggers to recognize awesome blogs, get to know others in the blogger community, and follow new blogs!  A huge thank you to  Bookish Beauty  for the nomination. The rules are super easy and fun!  Check them out: - Thank the blog who nominated you and link back to them. - Nominate up to 11 other bloggers to receive the award.  To be eligible, they need to have 200 followers or less. - Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you. - Tell your readers 11 random facts about yourself. - Give your nominees 11 questions to answer on their blog when they post their nomination. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {In no particular order} the Liebster Award goes to...  1.  Booknerd Babes 2.  Swissbookworm 3.  Tabitha Reads Boo...

Title: Out of the Easy Author: Ruth Sepetys  Publisher: Philomel Books  Rating: 4 Synopsis (via Goodreads):  It’s 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer.     She devises a plan to get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street. Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.   With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray , Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a ...

Waiting on Wednesday is a daily meme hosted by Jill at  Breaking the Spine .  It highlights what newly released books us bloggers are most excited to read.  Title: There Once Were Stars Author: Melanie McFarlane Synopsis (via Goodreads): P eace. Love. Order. Dome. That’s the motto that the Order has given the residents of Dome 1618 to live by. Natalia Greyes is a resident of Dome 1618, a covered city protected from the deadly radiation that has poisoned the world outside for four generations. Nat never questioned the Order, until one day she sees a stranger on the outside of the dome. Now Nat wants answers. Is there life outside the dome and if so, what has the Order been hiding from everyone? My Thoughts: I need a cover ASAP.  The first thing that gets my attention when it comes to books is the cover, then I have to read the little blurb.  Obviously this time was a little different... This synopsis gives sets the expectation bar pretty high, so I hop...

Title: How It Went Down Author: Kekla Magoon Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. Rating: 3 Synopsis (via Goodreads): W hen sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white.   In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth.   Tariq's friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down. Review: All I could think about while reading How It Went Down  was the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case.  Now, I don't know if this book was inspired by that event, or just crimes similar to Trayvon's case, but that's all I could think about.  After leaving the gas station to pick up a c...

Title: We Were Liars Author: E. Lockhart Publisher: Delacorte Press Rating: 3 Synopsis (via Goodreads): A  beautiful and distinguished family.   A private island.   A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.   A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.   A revolution.  An accident.  A secret.   Lies upon lies.   True love.   The truth.   We Were Liars  is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.   Read it.   And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.   Review:  HOLY.  BALLS.  There are literally no words to describe how I felt after finishing this book.  It made me sick to my stomach; it made me want to chuck the book across the room, and I remembered that I screamed.  The reviews that claim this story is "haunting" are 100% correct.   We Were Liars  is a h...

Title: All The Light We Cannot See Author: Anthony Doerr Publisher: Scribner Rating:  5 Synopsis (via Goodreads):   From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.  Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.  In a mining tow...

Waiting on Wednesday is a daily meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine .  It highlights what newly released books us bloggers are most excited to read.  Title: The Siren   Author: Kiera Cass Synopsis (via Goodreads):   A girl with a secret. The boy of her dreams.  An Ocean between them.  Years ago, Kahlen was rescued from drowning by the Ocean. To repay her debt, she has served as a Siren ever since, using her voice to lure countless strangers to their deaths. Though a single word from Kahlen can kill, she can’t resist spending her days on land, watching ordinary people and longing for the day when she will be able to speak and laugh and live freely among them again.  Kahlen is resigned to finishing her sentence in solitude...until she meets Akinli. Handsome, caring, and kind, Akinli is everything Kahlen ever dreamed of.  Falling in love with a human breaks the Ocean’s rules. But for the first time in a lifetime of following the ru...

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm. "In the town house, Frederick pulls on pajamas made of jelly-green silk and folds his glasses on the nightstand and climbs barefoot into his brass childhood bed.  Werner gets into a trundle bed that Frederick's mother has apologized for three separate times, although its mattress is more comfortable than any he has slept on in his life." (pg. 223)