Bruiser by Neal Shusterman (library ebook) - I felt like the author took the easy way out at the ending of this one. I liked this book, rather a lot, and I thought it dealt with an unusual issue in a good way, and then I was disappointed with the conclusion.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (library ebook) - Yeah, I don't know. We've got an anorexic teenager, a relatively near future dystopia, telepathic children, teenage sex between cousins, absentee parents, and an evil stepmother. It was a weird book that felt like it just took too much on. I wish I had read something else instead.
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (library audiobook read by David Birney and Stefan Rudnicki) - This is the second book in the Ender Wiggins series after Ender's Game and I think it's superior to the first book. I think you really need to read the first book to understand this novel, but Ender's Game is really just a prelude to the story that you finally get to in this book. The Speaker for the Dead is much deeper (less battle, battle, kill the "bad guys") and more philosophical (what do we do with "Others" and how do we handle difference in culture?). I found Ender's Game in the young adult section and Speaker for the Dead in the "adult" fiction section and I felt the difference in audience acutely as I listened to Speaker for the Dead. Eek. These books are over a decade old so I guess I'm not reviewing anything new in this, but I just feel like I've truly discovered something super new with Card. NGS = Lame.
Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson (library ebook) - zzzzzzz
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (library book) - I didn't even finish this one. I realized about halfway through that I just didn't care and I stopped. It was liberating. (Seriously, I would like to have naturally lovely blue hair, speak a dozen languages, have incredible artistic skill, and be able to wish my ex-boyfriend's balls to itch whenever I want, too, but I just can't buy it. Suspending your disbelief is one thing, but making our main character completely unbelievable, simpering, and incurious is quite another.)
The Perfect Hope: Book Three of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy by Nora Roberts (Kindle download) -Yes, I read trashy romance novels and I love them. I love them all.
Starters by Lissa Price (library ebook) - The whole time I was reading this book I was thinking about Joss Whedon's Dollhouse series and getting pissed off because I love Joss, but hated Dollhouse and Eliza Dushku. This book seemed to have the exact same premise and I didn't like it when Joss tried it, so why does Lissa Price think I'll like it now?
Monster by Walter Dean Myers (library ebook) - This book was really well done. It was also depressing. It's the kind of book I'm glad I read, but I'm really glad I never have to read again.
A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan (library ebook) - This was fun. I was only a little bit squicked out by the romantic storyline between the adult and the underage teenage girl. I like math, smart girls, and fun romps through NYC. It wasn't a runaway hit for me, but I think it would definitely have been a runaway hit for me when I was 15.
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (library audiobook read by Dennis Boutsikaris) - I do not understand amazon rankings. This book only has 3 out of 5 stars, but Starters has 4.5? There is no justice in this world. I appreciated the thought provoking nature of this book. If you thought there was no future, what would you do? Would you ignore it the possibility and continue living your day to day life? Would you start smoking and become a murderer because it just doesn't matter anymore? Would you do lots of drugs and sex and just have the time of your soon to be over life? This book is not plot driven and it's not exactly a textbook character sketch either, but it's more about the prospect of life without a future. There's just enough humor to keep it from being distractingly miserable and just enough misery to let you know something is wrong. I say thumbs up to this book and thumbs down to amazon book reviews.
Other books I only finished some of:
The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman - A good start, but by the time we got to Prague, I had no idea what was going on anymore and I didn't care.
The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud - A really good start and maybe if the Lions weren't losing every game I watched this year (damn you Packers!! *shakes fists*), I would like this one a lot. I'm going to try to find it on audiobook because I think I will like it eventually.
Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon - I admit to you that I only read 11% of this book, but seriously, isn't it the job of the author to grab my attention long before that point?
I'm so with you. I really enjoyed The Leftovers. I really got into just following along in this little snippet of life after everyone disappears. I was fascinated by the Guilty Remnant.
ReplyDeleteI thought you would enjoy Speaker for the Dead. I really like Orson Scott Card's writing in general.
ReplyDeleteNora Roberts is definitely one of my guilty pleasures! I also enjoy Jo Beverly, Mary Jo Putney and Georgette Heyer, but those are all Regency authors, so you have to like historical romance...
I LOVED The Leftovers. It has stuck with me more than any other book I've read this year. I just loved the writing and the ideas and the character-sketchiness of the whole thing... loved loved loved. It was one of those books that I would want to keep reading forever and ever.
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