Mid-Year FreakOUT

Hi Book-Sniffers and Librocubicularists,

The middle of year was actually the first week of July... who cares?! *dances around room* Let's do this.

Total Books Read: 58
Total Pages Read: 21,014
Go here to see my 'Ultimate Reading Challenge' status

Rereads: 5
YA: 35
Adult:23

Best Book so far...
YA - either The Summer Prince (Alaya Dawn Johnson) or The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender (Lelye Walton)
Adult - The Red Knight (Miles Cameron)

Best Sequel
Of Triton (Anna Banks)

New Release Haven't Read
End of Days (Susan Ee)

Most Anticipated Book in the 2nd half of 2015
Queen of Shadows (Sarah J. Maas)

Biggest Disappointment
YA - Summer & Bird (Katherine Catmull)
Adult - The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch)

Biggest Surprise
172 Hours on the Moon (Johan Harstad)

New Favourite Author
YA - Leslye Walton
Adult - Miles Cameron

Newest Fictional Crush
Enki from The Summer Prince (Alaya Dawn Johnson) or Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J Maas)

Newest Favourite Character
YA - Enki from The Summer Prince (Alaya Dawn Johnson)
Adult - Laren from Song in the Silence (Elizabeth Kerner)

What book made you cry?
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender - both happy and melancholy tears

What book made you happy?
YA - A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J Maas)
Adult - Song in the Silence (Elizabeth Kerner)

Best Book to Film Adaptation
Admitting, I have yet to see any this year - I do plan on watching Far from the Madding Crowd and The Martian.

Favourite Review
Here, There Be Dragons (James A. Owen)

Most Beautiful Book Acquired
Either The Assassin's Blade (Sarah J Maas) or End of Days (Susan Ee)

What books need to be read by the end of this year?
For a full answer see my Books To Read tab. But the Top 5 I need to read are:
1. The Wise Man's Fear (Patrick Rothfuss)
2. Sheepfarmer's Daughter (Elizabeth Moon)
3. Bitter Greens (Kate Forsyth)
4. Drams of Gods and Monsters (Laini Taylor)
5. Hild (Nicola Griffith)

We Are Not Alone

Earth & Sky
By Megan Crewe

Skylar, 17, is bothered by passing feelings that parts of the world around her are wrong. When it happens, she has panic attacks. Then she meets Win. Suddenly her whole life is explained to her and the answer is both cool and terrifying at the same time.

ALIENS!

No seriously. Aliens. And time travel. This book was such a happy surprise!


Ok, clarification - generic without spoilers, I promise. Our planet is the subject of alien experimentation. Whenever Skylar feels something wrong, that's because they have been interfering. They mess with time.

Win is a part of the rebels who want to end this interference. So yes, he is alien. Having fun yet?

Crewe took this really cool idea and turned it into this crazy, time hopping chase between the rebels, the human Skylar, and the alien scientists. So neat!

How did she manage to create this story and keep it from being off-the wall cheesy? Her characters are believable and very flawed, details of the world are explained slowly (apart from one possible info-dumping section that I'm going to ignore because I loved this book so much), and her world is created with real science. In order to get the reader's mind around the complexities of time travel, Crewe was able to explain it in such a way that felt neither dumbed down nor overly unnecessary.

For the most part, the book focuses on the interactions between Win and Skylar. There's conflict - believeable conflict - between them, but also a mutual push to save the world.

My ooooone complaint. At the beginning of the book, I was pleased to be reading about a girl with anxiety issues. I was loving the way it was explained. Her coping mechanism was real and carried throughout the book. My complaint is that part of her anxiety is explained away by the alien interference. On one hand, wouldn't it be cool if all those with anxiety be given a logical (loosely logical... because aliens) reason as to their paralyzing panic attacks. On the other, it's a real issue that cannot be fixed that easily. The redeeming factor of this thread is that she continues to feel panic, even though now she knows what causes it and she retains her coping mechanism. In the grand scheme of things though, it's a minor complaint.

I'm a sucker for anything time travel related... so this book was right up my ally. AND, Megan Crewe is Canadian. Whoo Canadian writers!!!

Highly recommend for the young adult, sci-fi enthusiast.

4.5/5 STARS

Ugh, Summer

We'll Always Have Summer
By Jenny Han

Belly is now in college! We've grown with her through the high school to college years. She's in the middle of a really great relationship (no spoilers I promise) when he proposes. Then chaos ensues.

Teenagers wanting to marry. Exactly what I wanted to read *rolls eyes*. This is my least favourite of this series. The whole book I wanted to end sooner rather than later.

Good things:
- characters grow up, mature, evolve
- I really love Belly's mother. She and I would be great friends.
- Return to the beach house and heart-warming memories (present and past)
- Han is great at complex characters. She loves to reveal parts of them that change how you view them. Excellent!

Awful things:
- young people wanting to marry when Han clearly writes that they are not ready
- the drama of the love triangle... I still dislike love triangles. I've only ever read one that worked.
- SO MUCH DRAMA, yuk

Overall, read the first one "The Summer I Turned Pretty".

2/5 STARS

Filed Memories

The Archived
By Victoria Schwab

Mackenzie is a Keeper of the dead. When people die, their memories become Histories and are filed away in a library between worlds. Sometimes, the memories wake and it's Mackenzie's job to return them to rest in the library. When she moves to a new place, her family reeling from her little brother's sudden death, and the converted hotel in which they live in is full of mysteries and waking Histories.

A richly imaginative world. The concept is unique and every time there's an answer, five more questions pop up. Memorable characters and a deep world I'd love to visit.

Mackenzie seems super human - if this could be her only flaw. She is dealing with issue after issue and I wonder how she didn't break down a cry. I don't think she slept much. This girl is go go go and business like. I liked that about her.

Her family dynamics are lovely. The main character switches between present and memories from the past of her Da, her grandfather, who trained her to be a Keeper. For the first part of the book, I could not make the distinction between her Da (grandfather) and Dad (father) - quite a bit of confusion between those two.

Her fellow team mate Keeper, Wesley, is equally likeable if not more so. I liked their ambiguous chemistry. Business like, but possible hinted at romance. Not sure if this was a romance or a great friendship. Either way, the chemistry between these two is tentative and delightful.

The unravelling of the world was done in a delicate manner. The reader is confused for the first few pages, then slowly Schwab begins to explain the mechanics. This is one that takes a bit to get into, but once you do, be prepared to fly away to another dimension.

Would I want to visit the Library? Yes. But I would refuse to see any filed relatives. See people I don't know, for sure. And, hello, I'd love to meet Roland (who Schwab says is based on David Tennant's Doctor). Uh, yes please.

Overall, really cool. Really REALLY cool. Recommend for those wanting a sorta creepy, dimension expanding, library kinda story.

4/5 STARS

Book-Tube-A-Thon ~ Wrap Up

Hi Book-Sniffers and Librocubicularists,

A successful reading week! I hope yours was too.

In all I finished 5 novels, 3 graphic novels, and 6 short stories.

Challenges fulfilled:

1. a book with blue on the cover
 'Here, There Be Dragons' and 'The Archived'


2. an author with the same first initial of last name as you. For me 'P'
'Squire' by Tamora Pierce
 
3. someone else's favourite book
Tricky, I'm sure one of the books I read is a favourite of someones. 'Squire' is one my ALL TIME favourite books... Let's count that.
 
4. last book acquired (library, haul, borrowed...)
'We'll Always Have Summer' and 'Earth & Sky'
 
5. a book without letting go until it's finished (hold it until it's done)
'1001 Nights of Snowfall' or 'Wolves' (both graphic novels in the Fables series)

6. a book you REALLY want to read
Always want to reread 'Squire', currently reading (did not finish within week) 'Swordspoint', definitely 'Earth & Sky', and I challenged myself to read 3 short stories - I read 6.

7. 7 books
Are we counting graphic novels?
Books: Here, There Be Dragons (I); The Archived; Squire (III); We'll Always Have Summer (III); Earth & Sky
Graphic Novels: 1001 Nights of Snowfall (Fables); Wolves (Fables); Motherland (Y the Last Man)

Total Pages Read: 2124 

For funsies, I attempted the book tower challenge from Day 3. I even based it off of Orford Castle. Awwwww yeah.

I get my book pics from Pintrest. Check out my board.