In My Mailbox - 12 April

Mwah to the inspiration for this meme - Kristi at Story Siren and Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

It's an Aussie-fest this week - all books marked with a * are from Australian authors. Look out for my Aussie YA competition coming to you very soon.

Guantanamo Boy - Anna Perera
Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what's happening to him and cannot fail to be a changed young man.

World Shaker- Richard Harland *

The Anatomy of Wings - Kerry Foxlee*
The Anatomy of Wings is a touching and funny novel by a fast-emerging Australian author who is catching the eye of literary judges around the country. In a mining town full of secrets, Jennifer Day is coming to terms with the loss of her older sister Beth. Beth committed suicide and Jennifer is trying to make sense of her sisters death by piecing together the final months of her life.All the while Jennifer has to watch her already ‘unusual’ family fall apart. Her nanna, who thinks Beth was touched by God, is banned from visiting. Her parents blame Beth’s friends – and each other – for her death.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group - Catherine Jinks*
Think vampires are romantic, sexy, and powerful? Think again. Vampires are dead. And unless they want to end up staked, they have to give up fanging people, admit their addiction, join a support group, and reform themselves.Nina Harrison, fanged at fifteen and still living with her mother, hates the Reformed Vampire Support Group meetings every Tuesday night. Even if she does appreciate Dave, who was in a punk band when he was alive, nothing exciting ever happens. That is, until one of group members is mysteriously destroyed by a silver bullet.

With Nina (determined to prove that vamps aren't useless or weak) and Dave (secretly in love with Nina) at the helm, the misfit vampires soon band together to track down the hunter, save a werewolf, and keep the world safe from the likes of themselves.

The Locket of Dreams - Belinda Murrell *
Sophie discovers a golden locket in an old treasure box that belonged to her grandmother's grandmother. When she falls asleep wearing the locket, she magically travels back in time to 1858 to learn the truth about the mysterious Charlotte Mackenzie.

Daughter of a wealthy Scottish laird, Charlotte and her sister Nell live a wonderful life with their parents and animals, on a misty island with its own ruined castle. Then disaster strikes and it seems the girls will lose everything they love. Why were Charlotte and Nell sent halfway around the world to live with strangers? Did their wicked uncle steal their inheritance? What happened to the priceless sapphire - the Star of Serendib?

With the magic of the golden locket, Sophie begins to unravel the mysteries as she shares the adventures of Charlotte and Nell - outwitting their greedy relatives, escaping murderous bushrangers, and fighting storm and fire. But how will her travels in time affect Sophie's own life?

Evernight - Claudia Gray REVIEW

I was sent these other titles by Gayle Forman - she's an absolute love. Have been hearing some amazing things about her debut YA novel, Sisters in Sanity, so I am delighted to have my own lovely, Gayle-signed copy. I think I am a Gayle-groupie.

Sisters in Sanity - Gayle Forman
Have you ever had the out-of-control dream? The one where you know you’re not crazy, but no one around you—not your parents, not your teachers, not even the authorities—will listen to you?

For sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill, the out-of-control dream comes true when her dad enrolls her at Red Rock, a bogus treatment center that claims to cure rebellious teen girls. At Red Rock, Brit is forced into therapy and her only hope of getting her life back is in the hands of an underqualified staff of counselors, a hardass Sheriff and a cruel shrink. Brit’s dad thinks Red Rock can save her, but from what? Brit thinks that the place is doing her more harm than good.

No girl could survive at Red Rock alone—but at a treatment center where you get privileges for ratting on your peers, it’s hard to know who to trust. For Brit, everything changes when she meets V, Bebe, Martha, and Cassie, four girls who keep her from going over the edge. Together, they’ll hang on to their sanity and their sisterhood while trying to keep their Red-Rock reality from becoming a full-on nightmare.

You Can't Get There from Here - Gayle Forman (Not a YA book, more a travel diary but excited nevertheless.)
What happens when cable televangelism and gay pride collide on an isolated Polynesian island? When Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy arrives in newly independent Kazakhstan? When DNA tests confirm the existence of a fabled lost tribe of Israel?

In this series of alternately hilarious and poignant tales, journalist Gayle Forman takes readers to the physical and cultural fringes of the earth as she communes with lovelorn transvestites,persecuted punk rockers, unemployed prostitutes, and guerrilla linguists, all of whom show her—and us—the human side of globalization. Traveling with her husband, Forman also takes her own relationship to the edge, offering an extremely personal picture of marriage under the influence of wanderlust.