Monday, July 22, 2013

My Picks of the Week! (23rd July 2013)

Hello, Muses!

I'll keep this short and sweet since I am late in posting the new releases for this week. I didn't list any tv series since there really isn't much coming out on the 23rd. There are quite a few awesome releases at the very end of July, so this is a perfect week to play catch up. Nonetheless, enjoy these new releases!

Best Wishes,





BOOKS (22nd-24th JULY)

ADULT

Gamel, The
by: Ciaran Collins

Meet Charlie. People think he's crazy. But he's not. People think he's stupid. But he's not. People think he's innocent...

He's the Gamal.

Charlie has a story to tell, about his best friends Sinead and James and the bad things that happened. But he can't tell it yet, at least not 'til he's worked out where the beginning is.

Is the beginning long ago when Sinead first spoke up for him after Charlie got in trouble at school for the millionth time? Or was it later, when Sinead and James followed the music and found each other? Or was it later still on that terrible night when something unspeakable happened after closing time and someone chose to turn a blind eye?

Charlie has promised Dr Quinn he'll write 1,000 words a day, but it's hard to know which words to write. And which secrets to tell.

This is the story of the dark heart of an Irish village, of how daring to be different can be dangerous, and how there is nothing a person will not do for love.

Exhilarating, bitingly funny and unforgettably poignant, this is a story like no other. This is the story of the Gamal.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013


Lacey and Lethal
by: Laurann Dohner

Set in the same world as Scarred and Kilt and Mine to Chase.

Lacey hunts vampires—vile monsters who leave death and shattered lives in their wake. They murdered her sister and she wants revenge. Until she captures a big, sexy, blue-eyed vamp, and the strong attraction she feels contradicts everything she’s become. But she can’t resist getting closer. Just looking at him makes her mouth water and her thighs clench.

Lethal can’t believe the little lass got the better of him. He’s been drugged and chained, but he’s more insulted than concerned. She’s bold, fearless, as she straddles his hips and threatens to use his body, teach him how it feels to be taken without consent. Now he’s intrigued and eager to get her out of her clothes. She swears he’s the enemy, but he’s determined to be her lover.


Release Date: 24th July 2013

Never Deal With Dragons
by: Lorenda Christensen

Consoling a sobbing dragon and serving pig buffets are just part of the job for Myrna Banks. Working for a mediation firm, it’s her job to get humans compensated for damages caused by the dragons who now rule. But her “typical” day is interrupted by Trian Chobardan, an old flame who sneaked out of her bed two years ago, taking her heart and a handful of classified documents with him.

Myrna would love to show Trian the door, but he’s been sent by North America’s reigning dragon lord for help negotiating a truce with a powerful rival to avert war. Myrna agrees to help, even though she’ll be stuck with Trian as a partner.

As the two work together, Myrna finds Trian to be surprisingly supportive—and still irresistibly attractive. Though her brain tells her not to forget his betrayal, her body feels differently. When they learn the enemy dragon lord is planning something no one could have imagined, Myrna has to learn who she can trust before she loses not only her heart, but her life.


Release Date: 22nd July 2013

Three Parts Dead (Three Parts Dead, #1)
by: Max Gladstone

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart.

Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot.

Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith.

When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival.

Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.


Release Date: 23rd July 2013


Tiger Tiger (Chicagoland Shifters, #2)
by: A. Catherine Noon, Rachel Wilder

When you grab a tiger by the tail, sometimes he bites back.

Chicagoland Shifters, Book 2

Veterinary trauma surgeon and animal empath Sasha Soskoff has found everything he ever wanted with his new partners Neal, Steve and Carlos. Life feels as safe and secure as it can be among a group of ex-Marine tiger shifters. Until a homeless man is found, gruesomely mauled and murdered, near Neal’s BDSM club.

When it’s determined a rogue tiger did the deed, the jaguars’ accusing eyes turn toward Sasha’s lovers. The precarious balance of peace tips dangerously toward war.

Neal knows damned well none of his tigers committed the crime. Someone must be in Chicago without his knowledge or permission, and they’d better find him fast before uncertainty and conflict rip the tight-knit band apart from the inside.

As Sasha struggles to heal the stress fractures forming among his tiger family, he begins to wonder if his dreams of a home, and love, were too good to be true. And it’s precisely that moment the killer strikes at the heart of the tiger clan—Sasha himself. 


Release Date: 23rd July 2013


To Sin with a Viking (Forbidden Vikings, #1)
by: Michelle Willingham

Playing With Fire!

Caragh Ó Brannon defended herself bravely when the enemy landed—only, now she finds herself alone with one very angry Viking…

Styr Hardrata sailed to Ireland intending to trade, never expecting to find himself held captive in chains by a beautiful Irish maiden.

The fiercely handsome warrior both terrifies and allures Caragh, but he is forbidden territory. He is the enemy…and he is married. Yet Styr harbors a secret that just might set them both free… 


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

 YOUNG ADULT

A Darkness Strange and Lovely (Strange and Lovely, #2)
by: Susan Dennard

Following an all-out battle with the walking Dead, the Spirit Hunters have fled Philadelphia, leaving Eleanor alone to cope with the devastating aftermath. But there’s more trouble ahead—the evil necromancer Marcus has returned, and his diabolical advances have Eleanor escaping to Paris to seek the help of Joseph, Jie, and the infuriatingly handsome Daniel once again. When she arrives, however, she finds a whole new darkness lurking in this City of Light. As harrowing events unfold, Eleanor is forced to make a deadly decision that will mean life or death for everyone.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013


A Really Awesome Mess
by: Trish Cook, Brendan Haplin

 A hint of Recovery Road, a sample of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and a cut of Juno. A Really Awesome Mess is a laugh-out-loud, gut-wrenching/heart-warming story of two teenagers struggling to find love and themselves.

Two teenagers. Two very bumpy roads taken that lead to Heartland Academy.
Justin was just having fun, but when his dad walked in on him with a girl in a very compromising position, Justin's summer took a quick turn for the worse. His parents' divorce put Justin on rocky mental ground, and after a handful of Tylenol lands him in the hospital, he has really hit rock bottom.

Emmy never felt like part of her family. She was adopted from China. Her parents and sister tower over her and look like they came out of a Ralph Lauren catalog-- and Emmy definitely doesn't. After a scandalous photo of Emmy leads to vicious rumors around school, she threatens the boy who started it all on Facebook.

Justin and Emmy arrive at Heartland Academy, a reform school that will force them to deal with their issues, damaged souls with little patience for authority. But along the way they will find a ragtag group of teens who are just as broken, stubborn, and full of sarcasm as themselves. In the end, they might even call each other friends.
A funny, sad, and remarkable story, A Really Awesome Mess is a journey of friendship and self-discovery that teen readers will surely sign up for.


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Contaminated
by: Em Garner

After the Contamination—an epidemic caused by the super-trendy diet drink ThinPro that turned ordinary citizens into violent, uncontrollable creatures—the government rounded up the "Connies" to protect the remaining population. Now, two years later, the rehabilitated are being allowed home, complete with shock collars that will either control, or kill, them.

Velvet Ellis has struggled to care for her ten-year-old sister since her parents were taken in the round up. When she finds her mother in one of the "Kennels," Velvet resolves to do whatever it takes to put her family back together. But the danger isn’t over. It’s beginning all over again…

Gritty and grabbing, Velvet is a harrowing, emotionally charged novel for fans of Carrie Ryan and The Walking Dead


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong
by: L. Tam Holland

 A hysterically funny debut novel about discovering where you come from—even if you have to lie to get there.

When Vee Crawford-Wong’s history teacher assigns an essay on his family history, Vee knows he’s in trouble. His parents—Chinese-born dad and Texas-bred Mom—are mysteriously and stubbornly close-lipped about his ancestors. So, he makes it all up and turns in the assignment. And then everything falls apart.

After a fistfight, getting cut from the basketball team, offending his best friend, and watching his grades plummet, one thing becomes abundantly clear to Vee: No one understands him! If only he knew where he came from… So Vee does what anyone in his situation would do: He forges a letter from his grandparents in China, asking his father to bring their grandson to visit. Astonishingly, Vee’s father agrees. But in the land of his ancestors, Vee learns that the answers he seeks are closer to home then he could have ever imagined.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Fury, The (The Fury, #1)

by: Alexander Gordon Smith

From the creator of the Escape from Furnace series, a ferocious epic of supernatural terror, perfect for Stephen King fans

Imagine if one day, without warning, the entire human race turns against you, if every person you know, every person you meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage . . . That’s the horrifying reality for Cal, Brick, and Daisy. Friends, family, even moms and dads, are out to get them. Their world has the Fury. It will not rest until they are dead.

In Alexander Gordon Smith’s adrenaline-fueled saga, Cal and the others must uncover the truth about what is happening before it destroys them all. But survival comes at a cost. In their search for answers, what they discover will launch them into battle with an enemy of unimaginable power.


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

OCD Love Story
by: Corey Ann Haydu

In this raw and relatable romance, Bea learns that some things just can’t be controlled.

When Bea meets Beck, she knows instantly that he’s her kind of crazy. Sweet, strong, kinda-messed-up Beck understands her like no one else can. He makes her feel almost normal. He makes her feel like she could fall in love again.

But despite her feelings for Beck, Bea can’t stop thinking about someone else: a guy who is gorgeous and magnetic... and has no idea Bea even exists. But Bea knows a lot about him. She spends a lot of time watching him. She has a journal full of notes. Some might even say she’s obsessed.

Bea tells herself she’s got it all under control. But this isn’t a choice, it’s a compulsion. The truth is, she’s breaking down...and she might end up breaking her own heart.


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Of Beast and Beauty
by: Stacey Jay

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Shadows of Glass (Ashes, #2)
by: Kassy Tayler

Wren's world has changed. The thing that she fought for, escaping the dome has come to fruition, but it's not the paradise she thought it would be. Most of the shiners have died, and according to James, she is to blame for many of the deaths, a burden which sits heavy on her shoulders.  Still some have survived and Wren is determined to keep them safe as they fight to establish a home outside while hiding from the rovers who have weapons that can kill  from far away. But as long as she has Pace she knows everything will be fine. Still Wren wonders, as she sees the smoke that continually pours forth from the dome, how did her friends inside fare? Will they ever find out if Lucy, David, Jill and Harry, along with Pace's mother survive the explosions?

Meanwhile, someone else has also seen the smoke. A band of explorers from across the sea arrive in an airship, curious about the dome, and offering help to those who survive. When Wren meets the handsome Levi Addison, she suddenly questions her love for Pace as Levi offers to show her the world from his airship. Does she really love Pace? Or was it just the circumstances that made her think she did? Meanwhile, word arrives from inside via Pip, and Wren is forced to go back inside the dome, a thing that terrifies her more than anything else, to save her friends. Once she's back inside will she be able to escape again? 

A whirlwind of adventure, romance, conspiracy and the struggle to stay alive in a dystopian world where nothing is as it seems.


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Starglass (Starglass, #1) 
by: Phoebe North

Terra has never known anything but life aboard the Asherah, a city-within-a-spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago in search of refuge. At sixteen, working a job that doesn't interest her, and living with a grieving father who only notices her when he's yelling, Terra is sure that there has to be more to life than what she's got.

But when she inadvertently witnesses the captain's guard murdering an innocent man, Terra is suddenly thrust into the dark world beneath her ship's idyllic surface. As she's drawn into a secret rebellion determined to restore power to the people, Terra discovers that her choices may determine life or death for the people she cares most about. With mere months to go before landing on the long-promised planet, Terra has to make the decision of a lifetime--one that will determine the fate of her people


Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Undercurrent
by: Paul E. Blackwell

In this suspenseful teen thriller with a touch of the otherworldly, perfect for fans of Neal Shusterman, a boy goes over a waterfall and wakes up to find himself in a twisted version of the life he knew.

A shadowy figure. An intense roar. The sensation of falling—fast.

That’s all Callum Harris remembers from his tumble over the waterfall. But when he wakes up in a hospital bed and finds his best friend trying to kill him, Callum knows something is seriously wrong. Unfortunately for him, the mysteries are just getting started.

Why are his parents acting like he’s some big sports star all of a sudden? And why are all the buildings in town more run-down than Callum remembers? Worst of all...what happened to Callum’s brother? Either Callum has gone seriously crazy or something happened when he went over the falls. Something impossible. Callum needs answers, and now. Because in this twisted new version of the life Callum knew, his former best friend isn’t the only one who wants to see him dead.

Filled with mind-bending suspense and unsettling thrills, Undercurrent is a grippingly paced teen debut that will pull you under and never let go



Release Date: 23rd July 2013




MOVIES (23rd July)
(No TV Series This Week)

Arcadia
Directed by: Olivia Silver

Starring: John Hawkes, Ryan Simpkins

A coming-of-age story set in a vast, cross-country landscape, Arcadia begins when twelve-year-old Greta's dad Tom (Academy Awardr nominated actor John Hawkes) wakes her up before dawn and crams her and her two siblings into a dented station wagon. They set off on a 3,000 mile journey from the New England woods to the California desert. On the way, Tom tells enchanting stories, paints pictures of a California paradise, and assures the kids that Mom will soon join them. Greta believes him at first, mesmerized by the strange new scenery and clinging to her stuffed bunny Harrison. Older sister Caroline nonchalantly accepts his stories, more focused on the boyfriend she's leaving behind. And nine-year-old Nat, too young to suspect a thing, is eager to see the epic Grand Canyon. But Tom's mood shifts as often as the landscape outside their window, and the kids soon find themselves in increasingly unpleasant and even dangerous situations. Mom's presence seems to recede further with every mile they travel.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013


Defiant Requiem
Directed by: Doug Shultz

Starring: n/a

DEFIANT REQUIEM tells the remarkable story of Rafael Sch„chter, a brilliant young and passionate Czech opera-choral conductor who was arrested and sent to the concentration camp of Theresienstadt (Terez¡n) in 1941. Under the most brutal of circumstances, and determined to sustain dignity, humanity, and hope within his fellow prisoners, he recruited 150 prisoners and taught them Verdi's Requiem by rote in a dank cellar using a smuggled score, after grueling days of forced labor. They performed on 16 occasions for fellow prisoners, with the last, most infamous performance on June 23, 1944, in front of high-ranking SS officers from Berlin and the International Red Cross to support the charade that the prisoners were well treated and flourishing. The Nazi legacy of brutality is well established, but the Terez¡n legacy is virtually unknown. This documentary highlights how a rare form of courage, hope, and survival sparked an entirely unique method of fighting Nazi oppression, battling the worst of mankind with the best of mankind. 

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Ginger + Rosa
Directed by: Sally potter

Starring: Elle Fanning, Alice Englert

London. 1962. Two teenage girls - Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert) - are inseparable: they play truant together, discuss religion, politics and hairstyles, and dream of lives bigger than their mothers' frustrated domesticity. But, as the Cold War meets the sexual revolution, and the threat of nuclear holocaust escalates, the lifelong friendship of the two girls is shattered by the clash of desire and the determination to grow up. 

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Graceland
Directed by: Ron Morales

Starring: Arnold Reyes, Menggie Cobarrubias

Intense and unpredictable, GRACELAND is the story of family man Marlon Villar, the longtime chauffeur of Manuel Chango a corrupt Filipino politician. One afternoon, while he and his daughter accompany the politician’s daughter home, their car is ambushed in a kidnapping attempt. During the confusion of the ambush, the kidnapping goes horribly wrong and the wrong girl is taken and held for ransom. Marlon is determined to save his daughter, but between the conflicting motives of the kidnappers and Chango, Marlon is forced into a terrible downward spiral. As events unfold, Marlon, Chango, and their families are forced into a game of deceit and betrayal that will leave no one innocent.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013


Kiss of the Damned
Directed by: Xan Cassavetes

Starring: Josephine de La Baume, Milo Ventimiglia

Beautiful vampire Djuna (Josephine de La Baume) tries to resist the advances of the handsome, human screenwriter Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia), but eventually gives in to their passion. When her troublemaker sister Mimi (Roxane Mesquida) unexpectedly comes to visit, Djuna's love story is threatened, and the whole vampire community becomes endangered...

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Love and Honor
Directed by: Danny Mooney

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Austin Stowell

When young soldier Dalton Joiner (Austin Stowell, The Secret Life of the American Teenager) finds out that his girlfriend Jane (Aimee Teegarden, Friday Night Lights) back home has dumped him, he vows to sneak out of Vietnam during his one-week leave to win her back. His best friend Mickey Wright (Liam Hemsworth, The Hunger Games) will do anything to help his buddy out as long as there might be a few girls along the way. In just seven days they must get to the States, change Jane s mind and make it back to the war without getting caught. But when they arrive stateside they find Jane and her beautiful, committed activist friend Candace (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies) at the heart of the anti-war movement. Now the young soldiers must make some life changing decisions as they spend a week learning the truth about love, honor and commitment. Set against the backdrop of the landmark summer of 1969, LOVE AND HONOR is a heartwarming romantic drama featuring a passionate young cast.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Vehicle 19
Directed by: Mukunda Michael Dewil

Starring: Paul Walker

A recently paroled man unwittingly picks up the wrong rental vehicle, having just got off a long haul flight. He soon realizes that he is the target of an entire police force that will use any means necessary to stop him and the tied up female "passenger" he discovers in the trunk, from getting to the courthouse to testify against top-to-bottom local corruption.

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

Welcome to the Punch
Directed by: Eran Creevy

Starring: Mark Strong, James McAvoy

Three years ago, master criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong, Sherlock Holmes, Zero Dark Thirty) escaped London during a daring robbery that left detective Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class, Wanted) physically and emotionally scarred. When a failed heist puts Sternwood s son in a hospital, the fugitive is forced to come out of hiding giving Max his second chance to get the one criminal who got away. But as Max returns to the pursuit of his arch-nemesis, he begins to uncover evidence of a vast conspiracy that may put him in even greater danger than his personal vendetta.  From executive producer Ridley Scott, WELCOME TO THE PUNCH is a sleek, modern thriller co-starring Andrea Riseborough (W.E., Shadow Dancer) and Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur, War Horse).

Release Date: 23rd July 2013

1 comment:

  1. Hi Mia! :) you've commented on my blog and so I stopped by your blog :) I like your post, well I like almost every book and movie you picked lol :D My TBR is getting longer once again haha :D
    I followed you back :)
    If you wanna chat, hit me on email or goodreads :)
    Have a nice day!

    ReplyDelete