What I've Read Lately - May

Soooooooo, I've been having trouble keeping up with my posts.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  For one, I started another project, namely scanning in old family letters written during WWII.  That took way longer than I thought it was going to, and I still have a (large) handful of letters to go.  Another reason is that I haven't had a lot of time to actually read, which means I haven't come across very many books that I really loved or hated, which is what I seem most inspired to write posts about.  So I figured it might be easier to get at least one post a month written if I just tell you about what I've been reading, whether good, bad, ugly, or just meh, (which is what I seem to be coming home with the most lately).  So here are a few of my most recent reads, or in one case, attempts to read:

Let's get started with that last one.  I thought the book sounded interesting - it was an idea I hadn't really come across before, and it's always good to find something original.  The book was Hotel Ruby by Suzanne Young.

"Stay tonight. Stay forever."

When Audrey Casella arrives for an unplanned stay at the grand Hotel Ruby, she's grateful for the detour. Just months after their mother's death, Audrey and her brother, Daniel, are on their way to live with their grandmother, dumped on the doorstep of a DNA-matched stranger because their father is drowning in his grief.

 Audrey and her family only plan to stay the night, but life in the Ruby can be intoxicating, extending their stay as it provides endless distractions--including handsome guest Elias Lange, who sends Audrey's pulse racing. However, the hotel proves to be as strange as it is beautiful. Nightly fancy affairs in the ballroom are invitation only, and Audrey seems to be the one guest who doesn't have an invite. Instead, she joins the hotel staff on the rooftop, catching whispers about the hotel's dark past.

Welcome to the Ruby.

The more Audrey learns about the new people she's met, the more her curiosity grows. She's torn in different directions--the pull of her past with its overwhelming loss, the promise of a future that holds little joy, and an in-between in a place that is so much more than it seems... - excerpt from author's website

It turns out I didn't like the book at all.  The first chapter was pretty good, but it all went downhill from there.  I got about a quarter of the way through the novel, and still nothing had really happened except for the main character and her brother flirting with these mysterious other residents of the hotel and talking about it to each other.  Not really the kind of book I was looking for.  So I quit reading it.  Even though I never did get to find out what that 'dark past' of the hotel was all about (I kinda figured, based on how the book was going so far, that the book wasn't going to focus so much on the mystery part, and I didn't want to agonize through the rest of it just to get a little bit about the reason I chose the book in the first place). Maybe if you give it a try, you'll like it better than I did.

I also picked a book called Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas.

When the glass slipper just doesn’t fit…

The tale of Cinderella has been retold countless times. But what you know is not the true story.

Pin has no recollection of who she is or how she got to the Godmother’s fortress. She only knows that she is a Seamstress, working day in and out to make ball gowns fit for fairy tales. But she longs to forsake her backbreaking servitude and dares to escape with the brave young Shoemaker.

Pin isn’t free for long before she’s captured again and forced to live the new life the Godmother chooses for her—a fairy tale story, complete with a charming prince—instead of finding her own happily ever after.

This book, I actually liked.  I wasn't so sure after the first chapter, because it was written in a way that leaves the reader with absolutely no idea what is actually going on.  But it turned out to be interesting, with a take on the whole fairy godmother concept that was so original, I haven't encountered anything even remotely close, ever.

If you like reading new and different versions of fairy tales, then you should definitely give this one a try.


Now for the book that I just finished reading yesterday.  It was The Diary of Pelly D by  L. J. Adlington.

Pelly D thinks her whole glorious life stretches ahead of her; but young building worker Toni V has just found her diary, buried in a water can, in rubble, in a construction site. There's a note: Dig, Dig Everywhere.

It's forbidden, Toni V knows, but curiosity drives him on - he hides the diary, and begins reading. Pelly D seems like any ordinary girl talking about clothes, parties, boys - but below her words, Toni V senses something very different, sinister and scary unfolding. Set far in the future, on a distant planet, Pelly D's diary bears witness, through her unsuspecting young eyes, to the terrifying impact of genetic classification of people.

The funny thing is, I almost didn't finish this.  In fact, I read it out of order.  I got through the first few chapters, and I didn't really like it; I actually found it quite annoying to tell the truth, but I thought, this book is kind of different, so I'll plug away a little longer.  After a few more chapters, I didn't really want to put up with it anymore, but I was curious about what had happened, so I skipped to about the three-quarter point in the book and started reading again.  That was a little confusing, but I started to realize that the book was drawing a parallel to something that had actually happened in history, about 75 years ago or so (trying not to be a total spoiler here).

This would be a good book to read if you like history, or if you hate history, since it gives you a sense of what actually happened in the past without sounding like a history lesson, and without sounding like historical fiction either, for that matter. It's like history repeating itself in the future, only in a slightly more futuristic way, and with a voice that a modern teenager can relate to.

So, that's what I've been up to over the past few weeks.  And as for what I am going to be reading next, well, I'll keep you posted.