Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap is easily one of my favorite fantasy series. And now that the seventh and last book is out, you can read all the books one right after another and not have to wait for the next adventure to come out.

I probably can’t do the series justice in a small post like this, but here are the basics: Septimus is the 7th son of a 7th son of a 7th son and, therefore, highly  magical. In Magyk, he discovers who he his and who his family is, including the heir to the kingdom, Princess Jenna. In Flyte, he finds his wonderful dragon, Spit Fyre. In Physik, he travels back in time and learns the secrets of alchemy. In Queste, he undergoes one of the most difficult trials of any young magician. In Syren, he and his companions are stranded on a strange island and must find a way to rescue themselves and a mysterious young woman. In Darke, he must help save the wizard tower from destructive forces. And, finally, in Fyre, all the threads of these marvelous stories come together and Septimus realizes his fate.

I plan to read all seven books again soon. That’s how much I like them.

Darius & Twig by Walter Dean Myers
Two best friends, a writer and a runner, deal with bullies, family issues, social pressures, and their quest for success coming out of Harlem.

Fifteenth Summer by Michelle Dalton
Fifteen-year-old Chelsea and her family are spending the summer at a cottage on the shore of Lake Michigan where Chelsea meets and falls for Josh–the cute and shy employee at the new bookstore in town.

The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey
Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them. (Science Fiction)

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
Sixteen-year-old San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the first place.

The Originals by Cat Patrick
Seventeen-year-olds Lizzie, Ella, and Betsy Best are clones, raised as identical triplets by their surrogate mother but living as her one daughter, Elizabeth, until their separate abilities and a romantic relationship force a change.

The Program by Suzanne Young

Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham

Sketchy (The Bea Catcher Chronicles: Book 1) by Olivia Samms

Winger by Andrew Smith
Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.

Non-Fiction

Practice Exam books for:

Regents- Algebra2/Trionometry, Chemister and Physics

AP- U.S. Government & Politics and World History

Biographies

Rapture Practice: My One-Way Ticket to Salvation by Aaron Hartzler

Graphic/Manga

Flight 1, 5, 6 & 8

Higurashi 3-6 by Ryukishi07

New Moon (The Graphic Novel, Volume 1) by Stephanie Meyer

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis

Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis

Sweet Tooth: Unnatural Habitats (Volume 5) by Jeff Lemire

Blossom Street is back!  This story is about Libby Morgan, an attorney trying to make partner in a high-pressured prestigious law firm.  She thinks she is finally there when she get laid off.  She must begin to rebuild and recreate her life – starting now.  Join Debbie as she brings Libby onto Blossom Street and into “A Good Yarn” where she begins to find friends, family and love.

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg is using her influence to send a wake-up call to American society.  Sandberg’s hopes with this book to get a dialogue started that challenges us all to rethink how obstacles to success can be overcome if we understand it is for the common good.  Chapter by chapter, Sandberg tells us about the real world and also charges women to “lean-in”  and keep working towards the positions that not only males covet.

Taking a leap-of-faith that she will not be misinterpreted, Sandberg gives a huge pep-talk and lets women know they can succeed at leadership but more importantly tells them how to do it!  Written with humor and from her own experiences she lays out a plan for how to juggle job and family.  The conversation is clear and obviously heart felt and to her credit, Sandberg does not play the blame game.

My favorite sentence in the book stems from a two-year drive at Harvard Business School to get students to work together and come up with a “new communal definition of leadership”: ‘Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.’

And in no way is this point of view about limiting personal choices but actually it is about lending the support and encouragement to women so they can aspire to leadership positions and in so doing, pave the way for others to follow.  Just one sentence of encouragement can go a long way to open a new pathway towards an opportunity of a lifetime that otherwise might have been undreamed.  I think we owe a thanks to Sheryl Sandberg for her honesty.

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Device Book #3) by Cassandra Clare  
When seventeen-year-old orphaned shapechanger Tessa Gray is kidnapped by the villainous Mortmain in his final bid for power, the London Institute rallies to save her, but are beset by danger and betrayal at every turn.

Delirium Stories: Hana, Annabel & Raven (Delirium Series) by Lauren Oliver
Hana is told through the perspective of Lena’s best friend, Hana Tate. Set during the tumultuous summer before Lena and Hana are supposed to be cured, this story is a poignant and revealing look at a moment when the girls’ paths diverge and their futures are altered forever. Lena’s mother, Annabel, has always been a mystery—a ghost from Lena’s past—until now. Her journey from teenage runaway to prisoner of the state is a taut, gripping narrative that expands the Delirium world and illuminates events—and Lena—through a new point of view. And as the passionate, fierce leader of a rebel group in the Wilds, Raven plays an integral role in the resistance effort and comes into Lena’s life at a crucial time. Crackling with intensity, Raven is a brilliant story told in the voice of one of the strongest and most tenacious characters in the Delirium world. Science Fiction

Fearless (A Mirrorworld Novel) by Cornelia Funke   
Jacob Reckless journeys to the Mirrorworld to tell his shapeshifting friend Fox that a fairy curse–a deadly moth in his chest–means he has only one year to live. The journey in Mirrorworld turns into a search against time and against a Goyl treasure hunter for an enchanted crossbow, which is known to strike down any army it faces, and less well known for its healing power when shot by a loved one. Fantasy

Fox Forever (The Jenna Fox Chronciles  Book 3) by Mary E. Pearson
Locke Jenkins has some catching up to do. After spending 260 years as a disembodied mind in a little black box, he has a perfect new body. But before he can move on with his unexpected new life, he’ll have to return the Favor he accepted from the shadowy resistance group known as the Network. Locke must infiltrate the home of a government official by gaining the trust of his daughter, seventeen-year-old Raine, and he soon finds himself pulled deep into the world of the resistance—and into Raine’s life. Science Fiction

Impostor (Sequel to Slide) by Jill Hathaway  
High school junior Vee Bell realizes that someone knows about and shares her ability to slide into other people’s minds when she suddenly finds herself in strange and very dangerous situations but her sister Mattie, best friend Rollins, and an aunt she never knew provide insights.

Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust by Leanne Lieberman
Lauren Yanofsky doesn’t want to be Jewish anymore. Her father, a noted Holocaust historian, keeps giving her Holocaust memoirs to read, and her mother doesn’t understand why Lauren hates the idea of Jewish youth camps and family vacations to Holocaust memorials. But when Lauren sees some of her friends—including Jesse, a cute boy she likes—playing Nazi war games, she is faced with a terrible choice: betray her friends or betray her heritage.

Light (A Gone Novel #6) by Michael Grant
Answers to every mystery of the FAYZ are revealed, unexpected heroes emerge as sacrifices are made, and the Darkness is finally conquered by a force even more powerful than itself in this conclusion to the Gone series. Fantasy

Oblivion (Book 5 of The Gatekeepers) by Anthony Horowitz   
Matt. Pedro. Scott. Jamie. Scar. Five Gatekeepers have finally found one another. And only the five of them can fight the evil force that is on the rise, threatening the destruction of the world. Fantasy

OCD, The Dude, and Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn
Danielle Levine stands out even at her alternative high school–in appearance and attitude–but when her scathing and sometimes raunchy English essays land her in a social skills class, she meets Daniel, another social misfit who may break her resolve tokeep everyone at arm’s length.

Revenge of a Not-So-Pretty Girl by Carolita Blythe
Faye doesn’t mean to hit the old lady she and her friends are mugging. But she does. The old lady isn’t moving, but Faye has no reason to feel guilty for leaving her there. The old lady might be ancient and wrinkly now. But back in the day, she was as beautiful as they come—a famous movie star. And everyone knows that pretty and mean always go together. But Faye does feel guilty. So she comes back. Slowly, Faye and the old lady form an unlikely friendship, one that pulls Faye out of her life with her abusive mother and destructive “friends” and allows the old lady relief from her loneliness. But in an unfair world in which the pretty girls, no matter how mean, always seem to get everything, while Faye gets nothing, will Faye be able to keep from slipping back to her old ways?

Rotten by Michael Northrop  
When troubled sixteen-year-old Jimmer “JD” Dobbs returns from a mysterious summer “upstate” he finds that his mother has adopted an abused Rottweiler that JD names Johnny Rotten, but soon his tenuous relationship with the dog is threatened.

Zom-B City (Zom-B 3) by Darren Shan
As zombies overrun London, B battles moral dilemmas and a growing sense of hopelessness at every turn.

Non-Fiction

Campus Visits & College Interviews by Zola Dincin Schneider & Norman G. Schneider
Explains what to look for when visiting a college campus, tells how to prepare for interviews and shows how to interpret a college catalog.

The College Application Essay by Sarah Myers McGinty  
The 25th- anniversary edition of this best-selling guide gives students simple strategies to maximize the opportunity to “tell us about yourself.” Updated to reflect the experience college applicants face today, this book provides a clear path to an essay that says, “Pick me!”

Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden
A commemorative introduction to the Emancipation Proclamation provides excerpts from historical sources, reproductions of archival images, and lesser-known facts that challenge popular beliefs.

Get It Together for College by College Board

How Does Video Game Violence Affect Society? By Patricia D. Netzley

The How-To Handbook: Shortcut and Solutions for the Problems of Everyday Life by Martin Oliver and Alexandra Johnson

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia 
A historical overview of the land where the popular Legend of Zelda video game series is set includes concept art, a chronology of the games, an exclusive manga comic, and an introduction by the man who created the game that started it all.

Your Food Is Fooling You: How Your Brain Is Hijacked by Sugar, Fat and Salt by David A. Kessler, MD

Biographies

Jay-Z

Nicki Minaj  

Rihanna

Graphic/Manga

Library Wars #9 by Kiiro Yumi

One Piece 61 & 62 by Eiichiro Oda

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy’s original inventions.

Superman: Last Son of Krypton by Geoff Johns
Superman must protect a young boy who crash lands on Earth and seems to be from Krypton, eventually leading to a confrontation with Brainiac.

Who is AC? by Hope Larson
Meet Lin, an average teenage girl who is zapped with magical powers through her cell phone. But just as superpowers can travel through the ether, so can evil. And as Lin starts to get a handle on her powers (while still observing her curfew!) she realizes she has to go head to head with a nefarious villain who spreads his influence through binary code.

The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway  
A bored, self-absorbed teenager commits suicide and later wakes up alive, physically unharmed–thirty-nine times.

Behemoth (Leviathan Triology #2) by Scott Westerfeld
Continues the story of Austrian Prince Alek who, in an alternate 1914 Europe, eludes the Germans by traveling in the Leviathan to Constantinople, where he faces a whole new kind of genetically-engineered warships. (Steampunk)

Code (Virals #3) by Kathy Reichs  
The Virals must find a geocache concealing a bomb–and the clock is ticking.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits–smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo  
Her sister was captured in Iraq, she’s the resident laughingstock at school, and her therapist tells her to count instead of eat. Can a daring new girl in her life really change anything?

The Kiss (Witch & Wizard Series) by James Patterson and Jill Dembowski
For the first time in their lives, Wisty and Whit Allgood find themselves at odds as Wisty is drawn to a mysterious and magical stranger named Heath.

The Madness Underneath (Shades of London Book 2) by Maureen Johnson 
After her near-fatal run-in with the Jack the Ripper copycat, Rory Devereaux is back in London to help solve a new string of inexplicable deaths plaguing the city.

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza
Sixteen-year-old Mila discovers she is not who–or what–she thought she was, which causes her to run from both the CIA and a rogue intelligence group. (Science Fiction)

Pieces by Chris Lynch  
Eighteen-year-old Eric deals with the loss of his older brother Duane by meeting three of the seven recipients of Duane’s organs a year after his death, and pondering who they are to him, and he to them.

Prisoner B-3087 by Ruth and Jack Gruener
Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was eleven, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau. (Historical Fiction)

Requiem (Delirium Trilogy book #3) by Lauren Oliver 
While Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland. (Science Fiction)

The Sin Eater’s Confession by Ilsa J. Bick
People in Merit, Wisconsin, always said Jimmy was . . . you know. But people said all sorts of stupid stuff. Nobody really knew anything. Nobody really knew Jimmy. I guess you could say I knew Jimmy as well as anyone (which was not very well). I knew what scared him. And I knew he had dreams even if I didn’t understand them. Even if he nearly ruined my life to pursue them.Jimmy’s dead now, and I definitely know that better than anyone. I know about blood and bone and how bodies decompose. I know about shadows and stones and hatchets. I know what a last cry for help sounds like. I know what blood looks like on my own hands. What I don’t know is if I can trust my own eyes. I don’t know who threw the stone. Who swung the hatchet? Who are the shadows? What do the living owe the dead?

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson  
In a Brazil of the distant future, June Costa falls in love with Enki, a fellow artist and rebel against the strict limits of the legendary pyramid city of Palmares Três’ matriarchal government, knowing that, like all Summer Kings before him, Enki is destined to die.

Trinkets by Kirsten Smith
When three Lake Oswego High School girls from different social groups, good-girl Elodie, popular Tabitha, and tough Moe, meet in a rehabilitation group, they discover they have much more in common than shoplifting. (Verse)

The Twelve-Fingered Boy by John Horner Jacobs  
Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon doesn’t mind juvie. He’s got a good business dealing contraband candy, and three meals a day are more than his drunk mother managed to provide. In juvie, the rules never change and everyone is the same. In juvie, Shreve has life figured out. Then the new fish shows up. Jack’s a quiet kid. Small. Cries himself to sleep too. He’s no standard-issue titty-baby, though. There’s his hands–more specifically his fingers, all twelve of ‘em. And when he gets angry, something weird happens. The air wavers. You feel a slight pressure in your chest. And then…well, best take cover. Jack isn’t the only new face in juvie. There’s Mr. Quincrux. Quincrux has an unusual interest in Jack and Shreve, and it quickly becomes clear that innocent bystanders aren’t going to get in his way. So Jack and Shreve bust out. On the lam, they quickly discover that Jack has abilities–hell, superpowers–that might just give them a fighting chance against Quincrux, if they can stay alive long enough to figure them out.

When We Wake by Karen Healey
In 2027, sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl–playing the guitar, falling in love, and protesting the wrongs of the world with her friends. But then Tegan dies, waking up 100 years in the future as the unknowing first government guinea pig to be cryogenically frozen and successfully revived. Appalling secrets about her new world come to light, and Tegan must choose to either keep her head down or fight for a better future. (Science Fiction)

Zom-B Underground (Zom-B #2) by Darren Shan
Waking up in a military complex, months after zombies attacked school, B has no memory of the last few months. Life in the UK has turned tough since the outbreak, and B is woven into life- and battle- in the new military regime quickly. But as B learns more about the zombies held in the complex and the scientists keeping them captive, unease settles in. Why exactly was B saved? And is there anyone left in the world to trust?

Non-Fiction

The Prom Book by Lauren Metz  

Graphic/Manga

Higuashi When They Cry #1 by Ryukishi07

Starting Now: A Blossom Street Novel  by Debbie Macomber  4/02/13
Sleight of Hand: A Novel of Suspense  by Phillip Margolin  4/09/13
Midnight at Marble Arch  by Anne Perry  4/09/13
Don’t Go   by Lisa Scottoline  4/09/13
Unintended Consequences   by Stuart Woods  4/09/13
The Hit  by David Baldacci  4/23/13
Daddy’s Gone a Hunting  by Mary Higgins Clark  4/09/13
12th of Never  by James Patterson  4/29/13
Ready to Die  by Lisa Jackson  4/01/13
The Mystery Woman  by Amanda Quick   4/23/13
Whiskey Beach  by Nora Roberts  4/16/13
Fly Away  by Kristin Hannah   4/23/13
Dangerous Refuge  by Elizabeth Lowell  4/30/13
The Blossom Sisters  by Fern Michaels  4/30/13
The Perfect Ghost   by Linda Barnes  4/09/13
Secrets from the Past  by Barbara Bradford  4/09/13

Inferno   by Dan Brown  5/14/13
Zero Hour   by Clive Cussler  5/28/13
Triumph  by Janet Dailey  5/28/13
Silken Prey  by John Sandford   5/07/13
The King’s Deception  by Steve Berry  5/14/13
A Step of Faith    by Richard Paul Evans  5/07/13
The Ophelia Cut  by John T. Lescroart  5/07/13
Murder As a Fine Art  by David Morrell  5/07/13
Best Kept Secret  by Jeffrey Archer   5/14/14

The 9th Girl  by Tami Hoag   6/18/13
The Heist  by Janet Evanovich  6/18/13
Sweet Salt  Air  by Barbara Delinsky  6/18/13
Second Honeymoon  by James Patterson  6/24/13
Tell Me  by Lisa Jackson   6/18/13
The Litter of the Law  by Rita Mae Brown  6/04/13
Protector  by Diana Palmer  6/25/13
The Kill Room  by Jeffery Deaver  6/04/13
Bad Monkey  by Carl Hiaasen  6/11/13
One Heart to Win   by Johanna Lindsey  6/11/13
Trains and Lovers  by Alexander McCall Smith  6/11/13

Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillians) by Laurie Boyle Crompton  
Treated badly by Mark, on whom she had a crush, seventeen-year-old Blaze posts a comic strip featuring him as a supervillain and Mark retaliates by spreading a “sext” of Blaze, but her little brother and his friends heroically come to her aid.

The Bridge of Death (The Paranormalists #4) by Megan Atwood
Best friends Jinx and Jackson suspect a ghost may be responsible when several popular students decide to harm themselves by jumping off a local bridge.

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, Book the First) by Gail Carriger 
In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is suprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.

Homeland by Cory Doctorow
When Marcus, once called M1k3y, receives a thumbdrive containing evidence of corporate and governmental treachery, his job, fame, family, and well-being, as well as his reform-minded employer’s election campaign, are all endangered.

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner  
What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell — who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright — sees things differently than the rest of the “train-track thinkers.” So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big…One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.

The Mayhem On Mohawk Avenue (The Paranormalists #3) by Megan Atwood
High schoolers Jinx and Jackson investigate a new student’s claim that ghosts are following him.

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys  
Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation (Historical Fiction).

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles 2) by Marissa Meyer
Scarlet Benoit and Wolf, a street fighter who may have information about her missing grandmother, join forces with Cinder as they try to stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana in this story inspired by Little Red Riding Hood.

The Whole Stupid Way We Are by N. Griffin  
During a cold winter in Maine, fifteen-year-old Dinah sets off a heart-wrenching chain of events when she tries to help best friend and fellow misfit Skint deal with problems at home, including a father who is suffering from early onset dementia.

Non-Fiction

How Does Cell Phone Use Impact Teenagers?  by Patricia D. Netzley  

Should Same-Sex Marriage Be Legal? by Bonnie Szumski & Jill Karson

Graphic/Manga

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Higurashi When They Cry 2  by Ryukishi07  

Saturn Apartments  4&5 by Hisae Iwaoka

Sumo by Thien Pham