Summer TBR Challenge

I am a teacher and  this time of year means summer break! Over the pat few months I have been slacking on reading, which means my TBR shelf has grown immensely from where it was in September. This summer I want to challenge myself to read at least 10 books from my TBR shelf. I have challenged myself to read 50 books this summer, so I think 10 from my shelf is a good start. I am going to post my list of books below and add a tab above and cross them off as I go. After reading my list please let me know if you have an suggestions I should add to the top of my list to read first. Without further ado... my TBR shelf:

• Sacrifice- S.J. Bolton
• The Pact-Jodi Pictoult
• Distant Waves- Suzanne Weyn
• Girl, Missing- Sophie McKenzie
• Secrets of my Hollywood Life on Location- Jen Calonita
• The Shack- Wm. Paul Young
• Everfree- Nick Sagan
• H.I.V.E.- Mark Walden
• Secrets of my Hollywood Life- Jen Calonita
• Night Runner-Max Turner
• The Secret to Lying- Todd Mitchell
• What are you Afraid of? 
• The Not-so-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen- Mitali Perkins
• Fire from the Rock- Sharon M. Draper
• And then there were None- Agatha Christie
• Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes- Chris Crutcher
• Three Cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• Wicked- Gregory MaGuire
• The Notebook- Nicholas Sparks
• Love Sick- Jake Coburn
• The DUFF- Kody Keplinger
• My Worst Best Friend- Dyan Sheldon
• Shimmer- Dallas Reed
• Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
• Nobody Don't Love Nobody- Stacey Bess
• Pure- Julianna Baggott
• The Devil Wears Prada- Lauren Weisberger
• Wrapped in Rain- Charles Martin
• Son of a Witch- Gregory Maguire
• Annexed- Sharon Dogar
• The Kids from Nowhere- George Guthridge
• L.A. Candy- Lauren Conrad
• Uncle Otto- Winifred Cook
• Chosen- Paula Bradley
• Candor- Pam Bachorz
• Breath my Name-  R. A. Nelson
• Pledged- Alexandra Robbins
• Carpe Diem- Autumn Cornwell
• Sweet Little Lies- Lauren Conrad
• What was Lost- Catherine O'Flynn
• Castaway Kid- r.b. Mitchell
• Extra Credit- Andrew Clements
• New Kids- Brooke Hauser
• The Princess Plot - Kirsten Boie
• Every Crooked Nanny-  Mary Kay Andrews
• Into the Wild Nerd Yonder- Julie Halpern
• Snatched- Pete Hautman and Mary Logue
• Awkward- Marni Bates
• I am Number Four- Pittacus Lore
• A Dance of Sisters- Tracey Porter
• The Smugglers Treasure- Sarah Masters Buckey
• Under the Sun- Arthur Dorros
• Broadway Lights- Jen Calonita

Review: Tortured Memory

Title: Tortured Memory
Author: Dr. Lawrence W. Gold
Grade: A-

Review: Tortured Memory is the newest installment in the Brier Hospital Series. (You can find the review for 2 of the other books on my blog.) Dr. Gold takes on the world of psychiatry is this book. Dr. Abbie Adler is a psychiatrist who specializes in child and adolescent sexual abuse. The book starts out by profiling several of Dr. Adler's patients. Two of Dr. Adler's young patients are found murdered and one is missing. A few months later Dr. Adler is found catatonic in a parking lot. She is taken to the local psych hospital where she is awakened. She has no memory of what has happened before she was found. As she recovers, she starts to have flash backs of what happened to her and it leads her to believe that there is a possibility that one of her patients may have been the murderer. It is a race against time, and her lost memories,  for Dr. Adler to find the killer and save her kidnapped patient.

I have loved the other two books in this series so I was very excited to read this one. I was warned ahead of time that this book is a bit more complicated than the other ones and that was correct. The chapter's in the book are divided into months. Sometimes the chapters would be flash backs, which you wouldn't know if you skipped over the chapter heading. Sometimes I would be confused when the events took place until I went back and read the month the chapter took place. Something that I find very distinctive in Dr. Gold's books is introducing several different story lines in the beginning of the book, that don't seem related at all, but come together in the end. Tortured Memory has this and some of the story lines don't come together until the very end.

This was a quick, edge or your seat read that would be perfect for any thriller-loving reader. It will keep you awake until the very end and will definitely keep you awake. I hope Dr. Gold continues his series, because I for one absolutely love them!

Happy Reading!

Bookaholic

Review: Alphabet Anatomy

Title: Alphabet Anatomy
Author: Linda Ann and Branson Jones
Grade: A +

Review
As a preschool teacher I am always looking for ways for my students to develop pre-writing and writing skills. Because of the newer demands of kindergarten, children are pretty much required to know how to already write by the time they step foot into their kindergarten classroom. Alphabet Anatomy shows children how to write each letter. On each letter page, the authors give a fun rhyme that describes how to write each letter. For example the page for D says, "D climbs a ladder circles right in a dive, swims back to the ladder and comes out alive. D-Dive." These instructions give children a way to visually remember how to write each letter and states what sound each letter states.

I am very much looking forward to using this book in my classroom. The pictures and the fun descriptions of each letter will even cause the not so eager writer to want to try to make each letter.  I think that this is a necessary addition to all preschool books shelves! Even lower elementary classrooms will benefit from this book!

Happy Reading!

Bookaholc