Rewind & Review: August 2012

Rewind & Review is a great monthly feature started by Ginger of GReads! and Lisa of Lisa is Busy Nerding. Each month, participants will set aside some "older" titles to read and review on their blogs. This feature is the perfect opportunity to get around to reading that title you've been eyeing for years or that book that's been in your TBR for what feels like forever. For more information, you can visit this post.

So far this year, I've been keeping up with the books I've been choosing for this feature. It's definitely been helping me get through the books that I've been meaning to read - and I've found some new favorites. Here's what I'm going to be reading for my birthday month!

THE LOST GIRLS by Amanda Pressner, Holly Corbett, Jennifer Baggett
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: May 11, 2010

As made famous in the popular Lost Girls blog, three 20-something friends at a crossroads make a pact to quit their high-pressure New York media jobs; leave their friends, boyfriends, and everything familiar behind; and embark on a yearlong backpacking adventure around the world.

INCARCERON by CATHERINE FISHER
Series: Incarceron #1
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Publication Date: May 3, 2007

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside- she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.

THE BOOK THIEF by MARKUS ZUSAK
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Publication Date: March 14, 2006

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.