In My Mailbox + What I bought at Powell's

I thought I'd try this out. IMM is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren and inspired by Alea. So I got two books in my mailbox this week, which were:

Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott

Waiting For You by Susane Colasanti

Both of these came from a contest I won over on Elizabeth Scott's blog. I knew she was sending me Waiting For You, but Something, Maybe was a pleasent surprise! Thanks Elizabeth

I also bought some books this week. My friend Liz and I went to Barnes and Noble last night. Liz had gotten a gift card for her birthday so she picked up Are U 4 Real by Sara Kadefors and Memoirs of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin She also owed me for a book, so she bought me Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers.

Also, I'm one of those very lucky people that live in Portland, Oregon. Why is it a good thing to live in Portland, you ask? Because that means I am less than ten minutes away from Powell's Books. Seriously guys, if you ever travel to the Pacific Northwest try and stop by Powell's, you won't regret it. The best thing about Powell's is that you always find a book you can't find anywhere else, or even one that you've never heard of.

So while I was there I picked up:

Days Like This: 2004-2005 Student Anthology

In 2004-2005 Writers in the Schools placed 25 writers in 76 classrooms to lead weekly writing workshops with students in every Portland public high school. During this dedicated writing time, students experimented with poems, plays, short fiction and creative nonfiction. Students wrote about themselves, their ideas and what they care about. A sampling of their work---"bold, honest, imaginative"---is captured in this anthology.

I actually had no idea about these Anthologies (There's one for every year, I'm not sure when they started). It's pretty cool from what I've seen so far. I go to Parkrose High School, pretty much the only school in Portland that's not considered in the Portland Public Schools (I'm exagerrating, but it feels like it). I kinda wish I was apart of Portland Public now, though.

Fire-us #2: The Keepers of the Flame by Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher

They have found others.
Five years after a deadly plague killed all the Grown-ups, the world's population has nearly vanished. But a group of children have survived and forged a new family, a new life, and together traveled up the coast of Florida, looking for answers.
To their shock, they've found a group of adults, the only Grown-ups they've seen for years, living in an abandoned shopping mall. It's a world the travelers had almost forgotten -- cupcakes, clean clothes, adults to depend on.
But something is terribly wrong. The family must find the truth before it's too late.

My school library had the first book in this trilogy, but not the other two. And since these books are out of print, they aren't easy to come by. Luckily, Powell's had the second book in stock, so I grabbed it up.

Girl Goddess #9: Nine Stories by Fracesca Lia Block

Movie stars, rock stars, pond nymphs, intergalactic superheroes . . . who are the real goddesses in Francesca Lia Block's world? Real young women--the kind who ache, bleed, dance, and talk to blue ghosts in closets. Famous for her lyric Weetzie Bat books, Block blossoms in this collection of short stories about love: straight, gay, familial, and otherworldly. Very few young adult authors talk as frankly as Block about sex and some of the other yearnings we feel in this world, yet she guides her readers toward the self-respect and courage necessary to make smart choices about those yearnings.

I've had my eye on this one for awhile, so I decided to just buy it when I saw it. I already know I'm going to like it. I dig short stories.

I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy collected by Liz Rosenberg and Deena November

The teenage years are a time filled with sadness, madness, joy, and all the messy stuff in between. Sometimes it feels that every day brings a new struggle, a new concern, a new reason to stay in bed with the shades drawn. But between moments of despair and confusion often come times of great clarity and insight, when you might think, like the poet Rumi, "Whoever's calm and sensible is insane!" It is moments like these that have inspired the touching, honest, and gripping poems found in I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy. After all, what's normal anyway? This collection includes poems by Charles Bukowski, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, T. S. Eliot, Edgar Allen Poe, W. B. Yeats, Dorothy Parker, Jane Kenyon, and many more, including teenage writers and up-and-coming poets.

This one was on sale, and I remembered it from my goodreads to-read list, so I got it. I'll probably keep it on my nightstand for something to read before bed.

So, that's it. A pretty good week, I think. Even if I am broke!