In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. 

It's been a fun couple of weeks, though after the Teen Book Con yesterday, I'm exhausted.  So most of my books are just ones I picked up from work.  Some are from the festival, and so forth.  Here we go!!!

Books I Got:

Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Bought at work, then I got it signed at TBC)

My picture with Maggie

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Cut by Patricia McCormick
Me and Earl and The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
(I bought it at TBC because I wanted to read it, and I wanted that picture down there)

Jesse Andrews, Lindsi, and Me.. notice his sexy socks

The Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

(Bought it at TBC and she signed it.  She's SO sweet)

Ebook Freebies:

Night Swim by Jessica Keener

Beautiful Demons by Sarra Cannon

NetGalley:

Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson (SOOO EXCITED)

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

This last Saturday, I had the pleasure of going to Teen Book Con 2012 in Houston, Tx with Lindsi, that crazy best friend of mine.  I had SOO much fun with all those Texas bloggers that came.  I also got the opportunity to meet some pretty awesome authors.  

Elizabeth Eulberg

Siobhan Vivian 

Lindsi and Me!

It was a fun and tiring day.  If you didn't go, you seriously missed out!  

As always, leave me a link and let me check out what you got.

Lots of love,

Review: Cut

Author: Patricia McCormick

Release Date: February 1, 2002 

Publisher: Push

Pages: 151

Source: Bought

[add to Goodreads]

Summary:  "A tingle arced across my scalp. The floor tipped up at me and my body spiraled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next." 

Callie cuts herself. Never too deep, never enough to die. But enough to feel the pain. Enough to feel the scream inside. Now she's at Sea Pines, a "residential treatment facility" filled with girls struggling with problems of their own. Callie doesn't want to have anything to do with them. She doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone. She won't even speak. But Callie can only stay silent for so long...

My Favorite Lines:  

"Then I place the blade next to the skine on my palm.
A tingle arced across my scalp. The flood tipped up at me and my body spiraled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next. What happened next was thet a perfect, straight line of blood bloomed from under the blade.The line grow into a long, Fat bubbel, A lush crimson bubbel that got bigger and bigger. I watch from above, waiting to see how big it would get before it burst. when it did, I felt awesome. Satisfied, finally. Then exhausted."

Honestly, I'm not sure why I've felt the need lately to read such intense books. From Patterson murder mysteries to Ellen Hopkins to this fabulous book I'm about to tell you about, it's a wonder my brain isn't in intensity overload.

Callie made me fall in love with her in spite of her sick needs. Despite the horror of her self-inflicted mutilation, I could relate to her character and the many other girls that surrounded her. I saw myself in those young women. I saw my failures and insecurities and my need to escape blame.

I chose to reread this book mostly because I wanted to find out if it blowed my mind as much as it did in middle school.  It didn't.  In the defense of the book though, when I first read the book I had only been exposed to the tamer side of books that middle school typically offers.  Cut opened me up to find books about other things I didn't understand.  The book made me realize that there is so much more out there to read with whole new genres to discover.

McCormick is real. She never avoids tough subjects, and honestly she addresses issues that tend to be swept under the rug (especially in this East Texan environment) as if they don't exist.