Book Six

Crossed

by Ally Condie

An excellent sequel to matched!  I enjoyed matched and the world Ally Condie created for the story, and Crossed take reader to a completely new place in her universe.  I was so transported to the carving that I was disoriented after closing the book.  I looked around expecting to see a canyon and was confused when all I saw was my room.  That being said the book was a little bit slow.  Too much time is taken inside Cassia and Ky's heads and with all the thinking the action stalls in places.  I was a big fan of some of the romantic twists and Ky's character growth is wonderful, although too symbol heavy for me.

Recommendations:

Obviously this book is absolutely required for anyone who read Matched, a reader who hasn't read Matched must read that book first.  The series is definitely sequential.  After reading this book I would still recommend fans of Hunger Games and Uglies read the series, but also Host fans would like this book especially and should read the entire series.  Once again the slow parts are difficult to read through so I would recommend strong Young Adult readers only, not for low readers.

Stars:

7 out of 10

Book Five

Matched by Ally Condie

I have two local bookstores.  Neither of them had Insurgent in stock.  I was told the local library has three copies but all are checked out.  While I wait for Insurgent I picked up Matched instead, which turned out to be an excellent choice.  

Matched didn't quite live up to my expectations which were, admittedly, through the roof.  It was still an extremely good book.  My two main complaints were that the plot seems over done (this is usually a sign that I should change up what I'm reading), and that the voice of Cassia, the main character and narrator, is overly melodramatic.  The writing is wordy, but after reading a few chapters the reader gets used to Ally Condie's voice.  I loved how well the diverse cast of characters were developed, which I find is rare with fist persons books that are limited by how the main character sees people.  I also enjoyed the world Condie built.  The Society, a place where everyone is bred to be the same, is an excellent stage to explore struggling with conformity.

Recommendations:
This is not for a low reader.  A strong reader is required to power through the first few chapters and get used to the writing style.  I recommend this for anyone who enjoys a dystopian novel where the characters are struggling to break free of their over powering governments.  This is similar to Hunger Games or Uglies.

Stars:
8 out of 10

Book Four

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I absolutely loved this book!  I've been looking forward to this one since I took on the 50 book challenge and I was not disappointed.  I'm a huge fan of the more subtle sci fi novels and this book fits that description perfectly.  Veronica Roth portrays a creative futuristic society without slamming the fact that the setting is futuristic in the readers face every page.  The author explained that the technology is different without forcing the reader to endure pages and pages of technical description.  

The strong focus on characters and Beatrice's struggle to find where she belongs in a strongly delineated world makes the book extremely relatable especially to teens who often live in a confusing world delineated by cliques and schools that want them to choose a course of study that will dictate their foreseeable future.  Roth captures the struggle with belonging when everyone else seems to fit in without any trouble at all perfectly through Beatrice's eyes.  

Recommendations: 

I strongly recommend this book to anyone!  Especially anyone who enjoys YA sci fi.  This well written and perfectly paced book keeps the reader engaged every second until the reader is surprised to find they've read the entire book in one day.  The fast pace and easy to understand characters lead me to recommend the book to even week young adult readers.

Readers who enjoyed Hunger Games and/or Harry Potter will love this book.

Stars: 

11 out of 10!!

Book Three

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer:

I'd been meaning to read this book for a while and never got around to it.  When I saw it cheap in a used bookstore I had to get it.  Unfortunately I'm in the process of moving from Texas to Kansas so I haven't had a lot of time for reading, none the less I found myself up at all hours reading this in every spare second I could find.
This young adult sci fi novel comes with plenty of awards that had my expectations high.  I was surprised when the novel fell slightly short of my expectations.  It was still an excellent read, but it did have it's slow places and a scattered plot that left me wondering what the point of the story was in places.  The character more than made up for any plot flaws.  Each major character was unique and realistic.
When it comes to characters I like my heroes with some flaws and my villains with their good qualities.  Nancy Farmer does an excellent job balancing her characters so that the reader is hoping the good guys will succeed, but the reader also understands why the villains do the things they do.  When it comes to a book I find a well balanced cast of characters is the most important thing to me.

Recommendation:
I recommend this to a strong young adult sci fi reader.  The slow parts require a reader who is willing to plow through the dull drums.  Readers who enjoyed Hunger Games or The Giver will also enjoy this novel.

Stars:
8 out of 10

Book Two

Mad Madame Lalaurie by Victoria Cosner Love and Lorelei Shannon:
This is a nonfiction book about Delphine Lalaurie, the creole belle and murderess responsible for tormenting the souls that linger in the Lalaurie mansion (a notorious haunted house in the New Orleans French Quarter) to this day!  I chose to read this book because I was on vacation in New Orleans and wanted to read something local.  The book told the ghost story, but it's focus was a historical debunking of the myths, telling the true story of the Lalaurie family and what actually happened in the mansion.

As a firm skeptic of all things paranormal I enjoyed this book and enjoyed it's search for historical accuracy.  It captured my imagination and inspired the above illustration of Madame Lalaurie's ghost.  The book is written more like a textbook than a novel, but a good textbook, with credible references.  I particularly enjoyed the occasional aside where the author addresses the reader directly.  I found this added personality to a book that was in danger of being too stiff.  The attention to not only Delphine, but the family around her gave a well rounded portrayal of the woman and allowed the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about her guilt in the tragedies that took places at 1140 Rue d'Royal, New Orleans LA.  

Recommendations:

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a short interesting read about a small corner of American history.  Anyone who's interested in the historic facts behind paranormal myths will enjoy this book.  This book is not for the paranormal fanatic.  The authors go to great lengths to provide the facts that debunk many of the myths and legends surrounding the Lalaurie mansion spending little time on the modern ghost stories that have spun out of history.

Stars:

6 out of 7

Book One

City of Thieves by David Benioff:

  This is outside the genre I usually read, an interesting way to kick start my fifty book challenge.  I enjoyed the book, although it should have come with a heavier than it appears warning. 

Characters:

City of Thieves lacks in plot, but makes up for these short comings with two beautifully well written characters, Lev and Kolya.

Lev Beniov:  

The insecure son of a poet Lev is cautious, cynical, and a survivor.  Throughout the novel he is searching for himself among the destruction of his homeland.

Kolya:

The outwardly confident, but secretly insecure soldier who helps guide Lev towards maturity.  He appears perfect in the beginning, the ideal of what Lev wants to be, but as Lev matures he sees Koyla for what he is under his confident facade.

Recommendation:

I had my complaints about the novel, but overall it was a good read.  This book's target audience is boys age 17 to 30 and would be an excellent read for that demographic.  I would not recommend for anyone under the age of 14 due to explicit content.  Anyone interested in a coming of age story or the dramas that surround world war II outside of the Holocaust will enjoy this book.

Stars:

7 out of 10

Plot:

The plot is simple yet boarders on unbelievable.  The two main characters, Kolya and Lev Beniov are arrested early in the novel for looting and army desertion, crimes that carry a death sentence.  Rather than being shot for their petty crimes the pair are introduced to an NKVD general who demands they find a dozen eggs for his daughters wedding cake within the week in exchange for their lives.  What follows is a dramatic quest for eggs across the war torn USSR.

[spoilers begin]

As the unlikely pair searches through the war ravaged Leningrad for the eggs it soon becomes apparent to the characters that there are no eggs to be found in the city and the next best course of action is to continue their search beyond the enemy German lines.  This seems an unnecessary and extremely risky next move to a the reader, especially after the author admits farmers are able to enter the city and sell their wares at a local black market.

A reader who overlooks this unbelievable opener will be further disillusioned when the to protagonists get hopelessly lost and discover a convenient cabin in the woods, filled with scantly clad women.  The heroes soon learn they have discovered an away from home harem used by local German officers.  This convenient shelter comes complete with food and more information than the protagonists can use.  Once Lev and Kolya are adequately fed and rested the Germans make an appearance, only to be killed by the partisans who happen to chose the night Lev and Kolya are in greatest danger to launch an attack that they had been organizing for months.  After Kolya shots a few insults in Russian these severely guarded saboteurs accept the pair as genuine Russians and include them in their plans to assassinate a high ranking German.

Once the group stumbles upon the particular German the saboteurs have been hunting for months Lev manages to deliver the fatal blow and save the lives of Kolya and the female partisan/love interest, Vika, obtaining the dozen eggs in the process.  The three manage to escape and Vika disappears into the night.

Lev and Kolya return home, miraculously within the week, eggs in hand, only for Kolya to be shot and die in a stiff and unemotional scene.  

[spoilers end]

The Beginning

Welcome to my New Year's resolutions, 50 books in a year!  I stumbled upon this challenge the same way I discover most things, the internet.  I was watching one of my favorite vloggers on youtube when he mentioned that the end of the year was drawing close and he hadn't quite finished his 50 book challenge, vowing to read away the last few days of December in a last ditch effort to reach his goal.  Listening to his tails of literary conquest I began to count the books I'd read that year.  The small number surprised me, I used to read non stop.  Where had all the books gone?  School took up a great deal of time, but did I spend those evening hours curled up with a good book as I used to?  No.  Recently those hours have been spent in front of a computer.  I decided to take the challenge.
I think I'm prepared.  I have a suitcase full of unread books ready for the trip to my new home later this month, and lists of books to be bought and shipped to the same address as the year progresses and I begin to earn my keep.  Now I have the last piece, something to keep me motivated, this blog.  In July, when the year's half over and I'm not half done, I won't be able to shrug and give up, meekly shrinking away from the challenge, nothing won nothing lost.  I have said it out loud to the big wide internet.  Someone will have heard me and, in my mind at least, will be there to shake their head in shame if I give up.  So I won't!
For the coming year I plan to post reviews of every book I read, starting with my first book City of Thieves by David Benioff.
I prefer the young adult genre somewhere in the world of sci fi/fantasy/adventure, although I do stray from my home genre from time to time (City of Thieves is an adult novel about Leningrad during world war II, a bit outside of my comfort zone). My favorite author at the moment is Scott Westerfeld (who unfortunately won't be publishing anything this year), although I love Sir Conan Doyle and Eoin Colfer as well (I believe Artemis Fowl, books 1 and 2, will always be my favorite books).
Stay tuned, enjoy and read along!