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Your Pick for Nik! – June’s Nominations!

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To cast your vote, just leave a comment indicating your chosen titles (up to 3) – and may the best book win!

It’s that time again for us to pick our next book! I want to give a special thanks to all of you who nominated titles for June’s Selection – I’m astounded at how many titles I really want to read – phenomenal picks!

Voting starts today (June 13, 2013) and will remain open until Sunday the 19th (Remember: YOU CAN VOTE FOR MORE THAN 1).

For those of you new to the book club, Your Pick for Nik! is a monthly feature where I turn over control of my reading list to you!

Here’s how it works: I will nominate titles from my TBR list (or, at least for this month, YOU nominated the titles) and you will choose which one gets featured. It can be one you’ve already read and want to discuss, one you want to read but wish to see my feedback on first, or – and this is my favorite part – you can read it along with me!

Depicted below are the top 10 nominations I received. Simply vote for your favorites, and let the best book win! At 10:00 am (MST) on Monday the 2oth I will announce the winner. Come the end of June, I will post a thorough review of the chosen title – and hopefully find out what you thought of it as well!

So without further ado…

June’s Nominations: 

a1Title: The 5th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Overview: After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up

#1 Pure by Julianna Baggott

#1 Pure by Julianna Baggott

Title: Pure

Author: Julianna Baggott

Genre: Fiction

Overview:We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

abTitle: Legend

Author: Marie Lu

Genre: Team Fantasy

Overview: What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

q2Title: Throne of Glass

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Overview: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

q3Title: Clockwork Angel

Author: Cassandra Clare

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Overview: When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

q4Title: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Genre: Science Fiction

Overview: Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

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q5Title: Imminent Danger: and How to Fly Straight into It

Author: Michelle Proulx

Genre: Teen Science Fiction

Overview: High school junior Eris Miller thinks she’s having a bad day when her roommate’s boyfriend catches her stepping out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. Then she gets abducted by scaly six-armed aliens with a strange fondness for the color blue, and her day suddenly gets a whole lot worse. Trapped on a spaceship bound for the slave markets of Sirius B, Eris fears she’ll never see her home again. But then fate whisks her away from her reptilian captors and into the arms of Varrin, a fast-talking space pirate who promises to deliver her safely back to Earth. He claims to have her best interests at heart, but Eris soon discovers that her charming rescuer has a hidden agenda. As they race across the galaxy, outrunning a villainous figure from Varrin’s past, Eris begins to realize that their relationship is putting her planet, her life and her heart in imminent danger. She knows that trusting Varrin could prove deadly … but what other choice does she have?

q6Title: Paranormalcy

Author: Kiersten White

Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance

Overview:Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours. But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures. So much for normal.

q7Title: Invisibility

Author: Andrea Cremer

Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance

Overview: Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth.

q7Title: Sabriel

Author: Garth Nix

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Overview: Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. As the three travel deep into the Old Kingdom, threats mount on all sides. And every step brings them closer to a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death — and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own hidden destiny. With “Sabriel,” the first installment in the Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn’t always clear — and sometimes disappears altogether.

11 comments on “Your Pick for Nik! – June’s Nominations!

  1. OMG…everyone picked some good books. Made it hard to chose. There are three I would really like to read. Here are my choices in reading preference order:
    1. The 5th Wave
    2. Pure
    3. Throne of Glass
    Thank you all and thank you Niki!

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  2. You got good picks!
    1. Pure
    2.Clockwork Angel
    3. Legend
    (I would have said the 5th Wave, but I know there is no way I will be able to get that from the library by the end of June…)

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  3. 5th Wave, since its the new big title.
    Paranormalcy, since Janae says it is the best book ever, and has been telling me to read it for forever. And..
    Hitchhiker’s Guide since Kory says it is the best book ever and I promised to read it a long time ago… :)

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  4. Sabriel was okay… Have read a lot like it, so it didn’t really stand out to me like I had expected based on many people’s comments to me about it. I hear Pure is fantastic – the next Hunger Games? I think your voting is closed though? You wrote June 13, think you meant May.

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    • Why yes, I did mean May, lol. Thanks for catching that! I’m probably going to give Sabriel a try within the next couple of weeks… It’s been collecting dust on my shelf for like ten years now. As for Pure, it has come in second for like five months in a row now so I might just forego the voting next month and just declare it the next pick.
      Glad to see you’re still around – for what it’s worth, I miss reading your reviews. :)

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      • Thank you! Life is tough and reviews have taken a back burner for now. I will get back to them with a fury though. Just need time :)

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      • Not sure if you follow my writing. I posted a couple short stories/chapters recently and would love criticism. The harsher the better… thick skin. zarathuz.com

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      • Cool, I didn’t know you wrote – I would be happy to provide some feedback! I’ll come check it out sometime soon. I have fairly thick skin too – I find it’s essential to have if you really want your writing to develop into something fantastic.

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