Touch Jus Accardo	Warm Bodies Isaac Marion	Dawn Of Darkness Daniel A. Kaine
If I Die Rachel Vincent	Stick Andrew Smith	Burn Bright Marianne de Pierres
Forever Maggie Stiefvater	Black Swan Rising Lee Carroll	All These Things I’ve Done Gabrielle Zevin
Raised By Wolves Jennifer Lynn Barnes	The Demon’s Surrender Sarah Rees Brennan	White Cat Holly Black
Alpha Rachel Vincent	City Of Fallen Angels* Cassandra Clare	Unraveled* Gena Showalter

* Review not available

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren, which allows bloggers to share what books they’ve received in the past week. They can be from stores, contests, tours or publishers!

• Stick by Andrew Smith (purchased) – My Review
• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (purchased)
• The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa (purchased)
• Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (purchased)

I reached my goal of reading 100 books in 2011 a couple days ago with Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready. The goal seemed a little crazy to me at the start of the year as I think I read all of five books in 2010. Anyway, onto my mailbox. I read the galley of Stick a couple weeks ago and thought it was a real heart-wrencher. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for hours after I finished it. I ended up ordering myself this hardcopy mid-way through typing up my review. The Scorpio Races was an auto-buy for me. I’ve loved Maggie’s other work so I had to get my hands on this. Unfortunately, I’ve heard some not-so-great things about it, but I’ll give it a try. I still haven’t even started The Iron Fey series, but I had to get myself a copy. I love the cover too much. Rot & Ruin is a lot thicker than I thought it would be. But that’s a good thing. I’ve been wanting to dive into the zombie genre for a while. That’s probably why I’m currently reading Warm Bodies.

Here are my latest reviews if you want to check them out:
Moone, April, Strawberries and the Beast
Oliver, Jana The Demon Trappers #2, Forbidden
Smith-Ready, Jeri Shade #1, Shade

Link up to your mailbox and I’ll be sure to check it out!

Title: Stick
Author: Andrew Smith
Published: October, 2011 by Feiwel & Friends
Thanks: Macmillan via NetGalley
Pages: 292
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Fourteen-year-old Stark McClellan (nicknamed Stick because he’s tall and thin) is bullied for being “deformed” – he was born with only one ear. His older brother Bosten is always there to defend Stick. But the boys can’t defend one another from their abusive parents.

When Stick realizes Bosten is gay, he knows that to survive his father’s anger, Bosten must leave home. Stick has to find his brother, or he will never feel whole again. In his search, he will encounter good people, bad people, and people who are simply indifferent to kids from the wrong side of the tracks. But he never loses hope of finding love – and his brother.

Final Thoughts:
Stick shattered my expectations. I’m left in awe over it. It was a book I simply had to read in one session, there was no way to put it down. While the main character was thirteen and a boy, something different from my usual literary outings, I found Stark McClellan’s story incredibly heart wrenching. In a book reaching less than 300 pages, I still managed to care about these characters in a way a book hasn’t been able to make me feel in a while. There were actual tears in my eyes. If a book can make me cry – 5 stars.