So as I start this post, it is December 9th and I have only finished three books for the month so far. That puts me at 11 books behind schedule, with 18 still to read to meet my goal of 100. Yeah, that doesn't look very likely to happen. We'll see how close I actually get in the end:
It took me nearly two whole weeks to finish
The Hollow Ground by Natalie S. Harnett. Not because there was anything wrong with it; I just didn't have time to read. As Professor Hinkle in the classic
Frosty the Snowman says, I've been "busy, busy, busy!" The book was actually pretty good. It is intended for adults, as it is mostly about adults dealing with their demons, but it is told by an eighteen year old girl remembering the years when she was eleven and twelve, remembering her mother and father and grandmother and the 'family curse' and secrets that seemed to tear everything and everybody apart. Although the story brings up issues not appropriate for younger readers, there is nothing graphic and I don't see why there would be any problem with older teens reading it. (Reading Level ? / Upper Grades)
I loved
The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr! It is about a girl with no short term memory. In fact, it is narrated by said girl. Who has no short term memory. So you can imagine what the story sounds like. A whole lot of repetition. But it wasn't boring in the least. In fact, it was awesome! The author did such a fantastic job creating a unique voice for the heroine, that you could really get into her head and her thoughts and her emotions. This was a book that was really hard to put down. I think I finished it in like four days, even though I was still really busy. Oh, and the story has a bit of a mystery and a surprise twist, and a really nice ending. So I'm not really sure what genre exactly this would fall under, but I think maybe that's why I liked it so much - you know how much I love finding something different! You should definitely put this book on your list of books to read. (Reading Level 4.2 / Upper Grades)
The Fox Inheritance, by Mary Pearson, had been sitting on my bookshelf since the beginning of October. Yes, that is a long time. I actually checked it out to read after my surgery, because not only is it pretty short, but it is a follow-up to
The Adoration of Jenna Fox (see mini-review
here) which I enjoyed. For some reason I just didn't feel like reading it. So the second week of December rolls around and I am super far behind on my reading progress, and I say to myself,
I'll read that short book and knock one off the list in short order. Which I did. I think it took me less than two days to read it. And it was really good. Part dystopian, part science fiction, one hundred percent thought provoking, with some action and a secret thrown in for good measure. And this one is told from a guy's perspective, so that's a bonus if you're tired of always hearing about books with a female lead (on the list of books I've read they actually outnumber the ones with a male lead by about 4 to 1), but read the first book first or you won't really understand what is going on in this one. (Reading Level 4.2 / Middle Grade+)
I saw
A Line In the Dark, by Malinda Lo, on display in the library and I was like,
Ooooh, look at that cover! I should have known that after three good books in a row I was due for a let down. After the third page this book already had three strikes against it. First, the writing made absolutely no sense. ( I don't know if the author was trying to be all suspenseful or what, but after reading certain passages multiple times and still not understanding what it was talking about I was like,
no.) Second, it was all about girls and their relationship drama. (Again,
no.) And third, I don't even remember what the third one was, but it was enough to make me decide not to go even one step further. Another book abandoned. I'll never come close to meeting my goal at this rate.
Another book chosen merely because of the cover, another lost cause.
The Lost Causes, by Alyssa Embree Schwartz and Jessica Koosed Etting was lame, cheesy, full of cliches, and unbelievably unrealistic. It is about a group of high school losers who get called to a fake counseling session where they are slipped a drug in their water that gives them special abilities because the FBI needs help solving a murder and they figured nobody would care if they monkeyed with these kids brains and then they spilled all of this classified information to them to convince them to help them instead of taking the antidote and going back to their regular messed-up selves. I was already worried after the first chapter that it was going to be another abandoned book, but then I thought,
maybe it just needs to get going and then it will get better. Well, it got going all right, right into my
return to the library bag.
A Short History of the Girl Next Door, by Jared Reck, is about a teenage boy and the girl who lives next door to him. The two have been best friends for their whole lives. And then he realizes that he has fallen in love with her. The first half of the book is pretty lighthearted with a whole lot of basketball references and a little bit of crude language. The second half of the book is very, very sad. I was not expecting that at all. It didn't ruin the book, but did make it very, very sad, so it is a good story for anyone who likes basketball and relationship angst, but not so good for those who aren't into reading sad stories. (Reading Level ? / Upper Grades)
Tool of War is the third book in Paolo Bacigalupi's
Shipbreaker series. It is a post-apocalyptic science fiction action-adventure thriller, with the main character being a genetically engineered man-beast who is introduced in the first book and plays a substantial role in the second. Each book
could be read as a stand alone, but they would be
much more enjoyable if they were read in order. Although I liked the concept behind this one as well as the internal struggles faced by the lead, I wasn't as into the writing itself. It is written in third person omniscient, and really feels less like a YA novel and more like adult fiction, which I tend to find on the boring side. Not a bad read, though, so a good pick if you are into this genre. (Reading Level 5.2 / Middle Grade+)
So,
Dividing Eden, by Joelle Charboneau, is a fantasy novel about a princess and her brother who live in a kingdom that uses windmills on top of the castle walls to create electricity to light the city to keep away some evil something or others who attack in the cold months. Oh, and the brother has some sort of secret his sister is trying to help him protect. That's about as far as I got. I was really struggling with whether or not to keep reading it or not (leaning heavily toward the not), but the decision was made for me when someone put a hold on it in the library and I couldn't renew it. It might have gotten better, but I wasn't enjoying it so far so . . . . maybe try something different.
The Book of Lies, by Teri Terry, is quite similar to some other books, and yet different enough to still be interesting. It has twins, and magic, and separation at birth, and one being good and the other evil, and an ancient curse, and an old house on the moors, and a family mystery, and visions of the past. Sound familiar? I thought so. Although the majority of the book was a bit of a let down after the amazing first chapter, it was still more interesting and enjoyable to read than most of the books I've come across with some combination of these same elements. So not a bad pick if you like this sort of thing, even if you've read all those other ones already. (Reading Level ? / Middle Grade+)
Thankfully, I ended the year with a good book. I really, really liked
Thin Space by Jody Casella. It is about a guy whose twin brother recently died in a car accident, and he is trying to find a 'thin space' that he can use to cross over to the other side and see him. Just like the last book I read, it was really original and interesting, even though it covers ideas that have been written before. And it has a bit of a mystery element with a surprise at the end that was really well done. There were a few things that I found a bit confusing as I read, but once I got to the end and understood the twist, it all made sense. (Reading Level 4.0/ Upper Grades)
Well, I guess seven books finished this month isn't too bad, it just wasn't enough to get me to my goal. But 85 books for the year is a pretty good accomplishment anyway, so I don't feel too badly about falling short. If you're interested in seeing all the book I read, check it out on the Goodreads
My Year in Books page
here.
