The Overflowing Library

India Dark by Kirsty Murray Published by Templar Melbourne, Australia, 1909: faced with the prospect of employment in either the match factory or the jam factory, 13-year old Poesy Swift auditions for a children’s theatre company that specialises in popular music-hall songs. Before she knows it, she’s on a two-year tour through Asia. At first it’s all an adventure, but by the time they reach south India, many of them have been disciplined by the manager and their performances hide enormous turmoil backstage. At the end of their last show, all but two of the children turn on their minders and go on strike, then walk out into the hot Madras night. *** India dark is a nice little novel set in a historical setting which was an engaging read and would be perfect to give youngsters a real feel for the British Empire around the turn of the century. The story follows Poesy and Tilly two girls who are part of a travelling act who are enroute to America performing alon...

Fracture by Megan Miranda Published by Bloomsbury Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine -despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it? Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more fri...

What’s in a name?     I’ll happily admit that I’m a sucker for an intriguing title. Who wouldn’t want to pick up a book called Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on my Eyeball! (Paul Zindel) , Scott Pilgrim vs The World (Bryan Lee O’Malley) or The Knife of Never Letting Go (Patrick Ness) ? Anybody who follows my regular blog posts will have seen mention of Calvin and Hobbes more than once, but I do so for good reason. Not only are Bill Watterson’s stories and artwork sublime, his titles are tantalisingly good: Revenge of the Baby-sat , Scientific Progress goes ‘Boink’ , Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat , One Day The Wind Will Change … I could go on. However, it is important that a title has some meaning and connection to the story, and not just bizarre for the sake of it; you’d be making a promise to the reader and then failing to deliver. Robert Cormier had a journalist’s eye when it came to naming his books: The Chocolate War, I am the Cheese, The Bumblebee Flies Anyway –...

The Book of Blood and Shadow Published by Atom It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark. But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer. Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For...

My bookcases, of course are filled with YA books. But actually, the shelves are new for me. Up until a few months ago I always gave away the books that I bought just because I didn’t really have enough space to keep all of them. I also have over a 100 books on my Kindle and those include some of my more recent favourites.  As you might be able to tell from the photo, my Harry Potter books are slightly abused. That’s only because this is my all time favourite series ever. I’ve read each book probably ten times. They’ve been everywhere with me—tossed in suitcases, the bath, the pool, beneath piles of laundry on my bedroom floor, under my pillow. Girlie YA romance is very dominant on my shelves. I love Ally Carter’s spy girl books and I’ll read anything Courtney Summers writes. Same goes for Sarah Dessen. Basically, I read just about everything fifteen year old girls are reading right now. 

 I'm pleased to have Robin Wasserman guest posting on Bookcase Showcase as part of her blog tour for the publication of her new book The Book of Blood and Shadow The first thing you need to know about me is that when I was growing up, I was only allowed to buy books on special occasions. My father believed that only suckers bought books when the library was giving (okay, lending) them away for free. So even though I read several books a week when I was a kid, I barely owned any of them. It meant the ones I did own were special—not to mention reread over and over again, because in an emergency situation (ie no new library books on hand) they were the only thing in the house. And for a long time, even after I grew up and no longer had to play by my father’s book-buying rules, I stuck with the habit of only acquiring books that I knew I was truly going to love.   This tiny red bookshelf, which once belong to my father and began its life in his childhood bedroom, came wi...

The Court Painter's Apprentice by Richard Knight Published by Catnip Read it for The British Books Challenge The Court Painter's Apprentice is a wonderful little book which is beautifully told and featuring one of the most amazing twists I think I have come across in a long time. I think Catnip's editor is spot on when she compares the writing style in this book to being like early Pullman titles. It has brilliant characterisation and a fab storyline which immerses you in the historical period in which it is set. The story follows Johann a young boy with a talent for drawing and painting as he goes on a journey of a lifetime. He is the boy of an inn keeper who is spotted for his talent by the King's Court Painter who takes him on as his apprentice. His life an as apprentice is an interesting one to follow. You see him as he learns the business from the bottom up and follow him on journey to the King's ...