Enclave by Ann Aguirre, Feiwel and Friends, 2011, 272 pp, ISBN: 0312650086
Recap:
Deuce is the newest Huntress in the Enclave. Having just received her name, and the prestigious marks of a Huntress, she knows that her fifteenth year will be her best yet.
Yet when Deuce and her mysterious partner, Fade, return from a hunting trip in the tunnels with a blind brat that they found hiding in a subway car, life in the Enclave suddenly veers wildly off of the course that Deuce has learned to count on.
After an unexpected betrayal and a murder painted as a suicide, Deuce knows that the only thing she can count on is herself. And once she is exiled from the Enclave, even that might not be enough...
Review:
Where is the hype for this book?? Enclave is an absolutely FANTASTIC read!
In my best impersonation of a book on tape, I started reading Enclave aloud to my family on a long-ish car trip. Everyone was immediately hooked and each time that we got back in the car someone would request, "More Enclave, please!" Deuce and Fade's battle to survive, first in the Enclave and later in the world Topside, was completely engrossing from start to finish. Their enemies were easy to hate, their allies were unexpected, and the relationships that they formed seemed wholly realistic.
3 Comments on Enclave, last added: 4/20/2011
Matched by Ally Condie, Dutton Juvenile, 2010, 384 pp, ISBN: 0525423648
Recap:
Cassia is a member of the Society - a community where there is no need for stress or anxiety; all of your decisions, from your spouse to your career, are carefully planned and decided for you. Cassie just celebrated her 16th birthday, and as a key part of the celebration, she attended her Match Banquet and learned the identity of the boy whom she would eventually marry.
The only catch is, once Cassie got home got home and checked her Match's microchip (the Society's facebook?!), a different boy's face appeared on her screen.
Now Cassia is questioning everything about the world that once made her feel so safe. The only tricky thing about questions is... you may not always like the answers you find.
Review:
I have been dying to read Matched for months. I swear, a week does not go by where I don't see another Matched review pop up on my blog roll. This book is everywhere! I started Cassia's story in a book store over Christmas break and got hooked, but was determined to wait for a copy to come in at the library. In the luckiest twist of fate ever, I met with my favorite YA lit professor a week ago and she so very graciously gave me her ARC copy!!!! It was like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one :)
...
Jennifer Lawrence! Yup, I hadn't heard of her either.
But
evidently she's amazing, and surely she must be in order to have won this oh-so-coveted role. I'm just excited that someone has finally been cast so that we can start shooting this darn movie!
Mockingjay feels like years ago, and I need some fresh
Hunger Games goodness in my life.
Now if you'll excuse me, Book Lovers... I'm off to
imdb Ms.
Everdeen Lawrence.
One year ago on New Year's Eve, I drew a giant poster with all of the things I wanted to accomplish in the coming year - things like get a new job (check!) and travel some place I've never been (check!). Creating a book blog wasn't even on my radar at that point. Thankfully, I took a YA lit class as part of my quest to become a librarian and we were assigned the task of creating a blog to document our reads. Once Book Love was born, I got a little obsessed...
Without further ado, here is Book Love's year in review: Top 10, By the Numbers, and Goals for the New Year
Top 10 YA Books Read in 2010 (with a three-way tie for 1st place and a two-way tie for the runner up!): All titles are linked to reviews
10.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman - Because I still get a cryball in my throat and an urge to find the cello station on Pandora whenever I think of Mia's story
9.
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner - Because this story was a breathless race to the finish, one of the few I read this year that I just could not put down
8.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - Because I love a story that makes you think and question and wonder if the world really is the way that you always thought it was. Miranda's incredible story was my most frequent book gift this year!
7.
Deadline by Chris Crutcher - I am ashamed to say that I never wrote a review for Deadline! Deadline is the story of a boy who knows that he only has one year left to live. How he chooses to spend his year will make you question your own day-to-day life. When I reached this end, I was a sobbing mess... but since then I have reminded myself every day to not take this life for granted.
City of Ashes: The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, Margaret K. McElderry, 2008, 464 pp, ISBN: 1416914293
For your reading pleasure
(and because I am still pretty sure that I am the last person on the planet to be reading TMI series) here is a
mini-review of
City of Ashes.
- Jace is still angry at the world, but now he has an even bigger piece of my heart because he was basically thrown out on the streets by the only mother he's ever known. It's not his fault that his father is the most evil shadow hunter in the history of the world!
- Clary is still fierce and fearless, but is unfortunately still trapped in a pretty weird love triangle between her brother and her best friend.
- Luke is still my favorite parent figure
(he actually reminds me a lot of Charlie), but
(after the whole throwing-Jace-out-of-the-house thing) Maryse is quickly climbing the charts. With a mama like her, it's no wonder Isabelle is such a tough cookie!
-
Cassandra Clare is still doing a freaking phenomenal job of making me believe that vampires, demons, werewolfs, and shadow hunters are real. You would think that a book filled with such fantastical characters would have to be at least a little bit fluffy and silly, but she has me 100% convinced that the entire world she has created is possible.
- I still want a stele of my very own.
Looking ahead to
City of Glass, I'm curious to figure out what is going on with Clary's mom. I honestly forgot that she even existed until the last page or so of
City of Ashes. And I KNEW what Valentine had said about Clary and Jace could NOT BE TRUE!!! So,
City of Glass had better give me some closure on that particular uncertainty.
There are so many books to read and so little time, but TMI series is really at the top of my list. PS: Did you know that Cassandra Clare offers
deleted scenes from all of the books in this series? She is amazing.
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2006, 144 pp, ISBN: 1416901949
Oh la-la, la-La, la-LA, la-LA! In all of our talks about our future-unborn babies, I always try to convince my husband that we really need to name the first girl Scout, Katniss, Hermoine, or Viola. I think I might have just added Lucky to the list.
The Higher Power of Lucky is about a ten-year-old girl named Lucky. Lucky's mother has died, she only knows her father as "the crematory man," and her guardian Bridgette may or may not be on her way back to France. Before she is left all alone in the world, Lucky needs to find her Higher Power. Unfortunately, while eavesdropping on all of the "Anonymous" meetings outside Hard Pan's Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Center has taught Lucky a lot about hitting rock bottom, it still hasn't told her how to find, or where to look for, her Higher Power. But that doesn't mean she's going to give up...
I don't typically read or review a lot of middle grade fiction. MG books just often don't have enough of a hook to keep me reading, but I picked up The Higher Power of Lucky for two reasons. First, I just made a hugely exciting job change (moving from a 6-12 library to a PreK-8 library), so I really need to brush up on my books for little kids. Second, I vividly remember all of the drama surrounding this book a few years ago, and I was interested to discover how scandalous a children's book could really be.
I ended up falling in love with a little girl named Lucky. Lucky is a scientist, a question-asker, a loyal friend, a ward, and a creative spirit. Author Susan Patron brought out all of Lucky's heartache over the loss of her mother in the most creative of ways: through the survival backpack that she carries at all times "because of the strange and terrible and good and bad things that happen when you least expect them to," and through the urn that she keeps on a shelf, "with her mother's remains and her own dried-up tears inside." Through Patron's deceptively innocent phrasing, I could actually feel all of Lucky's emotions, as vividly as if she were sitting right next to me.
Lucky, along with her friends Lincoln and Miles, experiences a
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, Simon Pulse, 2009, 448 pp, ISBN: 1416971734
"Barking spiders!" If I had to sum this book up in two words, those two might be pretty fitting. Set during the dawning of World War I, Aleksander Ferdinand (Alek), prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is on the run toward neutral Switzerland. At the same time, Deryn (a truly fearless female!), is disguised as a boy and serving as a middie on the
Leviathan in the British Air Service. These two young people seem to have absolutely zero in common, but each may end up being just what the other needs.
Of the two protagonists, Deryn was easily my favorite. She was clever and daring and a little bit prone to exaggeration. As a boy, she knew she needed to have a little swagger, and she ended up with enough swagger to make even T.I. envious. One of my favorite things about Deryn was her vocabulary. She makes me want to use phrases like "barking spiders" and "clever-boots" in every day conversation.
The imagination that went into creating this story was truly amazing. The Leviathan? Yes it's an air ship, sort of like a zeppelin, but it's also a living, breathing whale, powered by hydrogen which is created by the hundreds of other creatures making up the ship. In the words of Deryn, "Don't be daft. The Levithan isn't one creature. It's a whole tangle of beasties--what they call an eco-system." While the Germans and Austro-Hungarians are known as "Clankers" because of their dependence on machinery, the English "Darwinists" are more dependent upon living things, like the Leviathan. While this seems to make brilliant sense most of the time (the Darwinist ships and weapons can typically fix/heal themselves), getting stranded on a sheet of ice in Switzerland means zero sources of vegetation for the beasties to feed on, and zero chances of creating more hydrogen to get the ship back up in the air...
Leviathan was really my first introduction to the genre of steampunk. Steampunk is generally defined as a "sub-genre of science fiction, where the story takes places during an era that was still largely powered by steam, but also includes elements of science fiction and fantasy." So clearly, steampunk is a literary genre, but people have also adapted the definition to fit fashion, design, and a general way of life. This blog highlights a "steampunk house!" The video below was taken at the 2010 BEA and shows author Scott Westerfeld talking about steampunk in general, and Leviathan in particular:
1 Comments on Leviathan, last added: 11/10/2010
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness, Candlewick, 2010, 608 pp, ISBN: 0763647519
So the other night I was huddled up in my bathroom, crying my eyes out, a la Liz Gilbert in the opening chapter of
Eat, Pray, Love. What major life crisis was I facing?
OMG.
That book is amazing. At this point in the trilogy (book 3!), full on war had come to New Prentisstown. It was the Spackle vs. The Ask/the Mayor vs. The Answer/Mistress Coyle with Todd and Viola caught right in the middle. When Simone and Bradley arrived on a shuttle from Viola's ship, things only became more complicated.
Patrick Ness is an absolute genius of a writer. I had thought that I hated the Mayor more than any other character of all time, but as the book progressed, I actually found myself feeling
sympathetic toward him... and so did Todd! Who the Mayor had tried to kill about 37 times!
Ness also added 1017 as a third narrator in the story. Hearing that third perspective made me look at the planet in a completely new way, and learning about "the voice" of the Land raised a number of questions: What is noise really? How can it be used? Can women get noise? What are the effects of taking it away? And beyond just the scope of this book, 1017 also made me re-examine the way that I look at language, war vs. peace, and assimilation in the real world. Patrick Ness is seriously brilliant.
Monsters of Men is completely unpredictable, but each new twist in the plot is written so skillfully that it is still completely believable. Todd and Viola are two of my all time favorite characters. They are flawed, idealisti
So, who knew that there was a Hunger Games board game?
Two of our favorite friends just bought the game and I got to go play a little while ago!
In case you were wondering, the game does not involve any actual combat or tracker-jackers or flaming costumes. Unfortunately.
It's kind of a betting game. You choose to be a tribute from a specific district and then you get specific abilities based on that persona. My only complaint in that area is that the tributes are all generic. I want to be Katniss! Not female tribute #12. I'm thinking that before I play again I need to take the
Forever Young Adult "Find Your District" quiz so that I can be a little more purposeful in my choosing. Have you taken that quiz? If not, go do it! It's awesome. But I digress...
So in each round of the game, you use a combo of your tribute abilities and a roll of the dice to win different events and to make alliances. The more alliances you have, the more powerful you become - the more events you win, the higher your approval rating raises.
Eventually someone draws the "End of Day" card and you either win or you die. Or in my case, you tie. Either way... it's pretty exciting!
I miss Katniss. And Cinna. And Peeta and Gale. Can we get a book 4 or what?!
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I know what you're missing. The audio. It's de-lightful. The narrator brings Mo to life and gives it the sleuth vibe I loved. (My review: http://www.talesofwhimsy.com/2012/08/audiobook-review-three-times-lucky.html)
Great honest review doll! :)
I love that the main character was absolutely hilarious! I have a habit of marking pages with my favorite quotes, except I use those little post it strips. I love a story with awesome supporting characters, but what a bummer that you didn't get that 'murder mystery' feel! Thanks for the awesome review Katie! :)