For All the Book Lovers Out There

I have clearly been quite lax when it comes to blogging lately.  Which is ironic since I am always disappointed when some of my favorite blogs go through a phase where they are not updated frequently.  You'd think I'd try to do better with my own, just for the principle of it.  Such is not the case, though.  Quick updates about us...school is good for all.  I can't believe we're nearing the end of September.  Time seems to be flying, as usual.  Luke is loving 2nd grade and I am having lots of fun with our new crop of 7th graders.  These kids I have seem to really enjoy reading and are constantly seeking me out for book recommendations, which is keeping me on my toes, reading-wise, because I barely have enough time to keep up with all the books on my shelf/Kindle!  I know I shared at the end of summer that I had read 50+ books over summer break and I've read close to 20 more since then, so I'm going to limit this post to some of my very favorite books that I've read over the last few months.  Thank goodness for Goodreads...otherwise I'd forget half of what I've read!

I'm going to start with my absolute favorite books that I've read.  In my last book post back in June, I wrote about Divergent, by Veronica Roth.  I mentioned in that post that I was going to the library that evening to pick up a copy of the 2nd book in the series, Insurgent.  Wow...it so did not disappoint.  In this book, the factions are going to war and Tris must decide where she stands in the face of all this.  She has decisions to make and has to learn how to deal with her divergence.  It was once again action-packed and I could barely put it down from start to finish.  The third and final installment of this series will not be out until sometime NEXT YEAR!  The author wants to make sure she doesn't disappoint the reader because she rushes it, which I do appreciate.  However, I'm thinking I'll be going back and reading book 1 & 2, so it doesn't feel like it's been so long since I've spent time with these characters!  I highly recommend this series if you loved The Hunger Games series.  It will not disappoint!

My second favorite thing I read this summer was a series called Chaos Walking, by Patrick Ness.  It starts with The Knife of Never Letting Go where we meet the main character Todd.  Todd is a nearly 13-year old boy who lives on New World, a planet colonized by people from Earth when the resources began to run out on the home planet.  Todd lives in a town of only men, because all the women died after a war with the natives of the planet, called the Spackle.  The Spackle release a germ on the colonists which causes everyone to be able to hear all the thoughts of every man, boy, and even animals.  As you can imagine, this creates a lot of "noise"...and some people can cover their thoughts with dishonest ones, so you never really know where people stand.  Todd was led to believe that the noise germ was what lead to all the women, including his mother, dying off.  One day, Todd discovers a secret, though, and must escape his town for a safe haven that he never knew existed...and he learns that everything he's ever believed, just might be a lie.  Todd's journey and further adventures continue in the 2nd & 3rd installments...The Ask & the Answer and Monsters of Men.  When I first started reading The Knife... I didn't think I'd be able to finish it.  The author wrote Todd's "voice" as Todd spoke - completely ungrammatical with spelling errors all over the place.  It was hard to follow, but I kept plodding along and when the action started, I couldn't put it down.  Amazing, incredibly awesome series.

Some other favorites - I read a couple books by Sarah Dessen.  She also writes young adult novels.  These are sweet coming of age/love stories.  I can't wait to read more by her.  I loved Along for the Ride and The Truth About Forever.

I also loved the Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  The first book was definitely my favorite and the third my least favorite, but overall, I loved the concept of the books.  Everything is going along normally for Miranda and the rest of the world, as they all anticipate an asteroid hitting the moon.  What was not anticipated was the size of the asteroid and the fact that it would knock the moon far closer to earth than it was supposed to be.  Since the moon controls the tides, there was immediate flooding on all the coasts and millions of people died.  This leads to food shortages and just general chaos in the world.  And when volcanoes all over the world start erupting and the sun is now covered by smoke and ash - even in areas that aren't near to volcanoes - things really start to get desperate.  This is Miranda's story and in the second book, Alex's story.  The third book combines their stories.  It's a tense story of the struggle for human survival in an apocalyptic situation.

Finally, for YA books, I'm currently in the middle of the 3rd book of The Iron King series, by Julie Kagawa.  I started this series late this summer, because I had several girls last year who loved it and kept telling me to read it.  I picked up the first one, The Iron King, and discovered it's about faeries - not Tinkerbell, mind you, either.  And, I thought - I don't know if this will be for me.  As usual, I was wrong.  I am loving this series.  It follows Meghan Chase, a normal, very uncool 16-year old girl, who gets pulled into faery land - otherwise known as the NeverNever, when her little brother is kidnapped by the king of the Iron Kingdom.  Meghan goes on to learn that she is the daughter of the summer court's king and is half-faerie herself.  It is an adventure and quite a learning experience in all things fantastic.  Of course, there is an fabulous love story throughout.  Love, love, love this series!

Okay, my favorite adult books I've read have really been few and far between lately, so I'll pick the 3 best ones.  I just finished One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus.  Goodreads recommended it to me and Katie also wrote about it back in May and I was intrigued by the subject matter.  In 1875, the Cheyenne Indians requested that the US government provide them with 1000 white women as wives in order to better assimilate their culture into ours.  (true story)  In real life, the government said no.  In the book, the government agreed and we learn the fate of this "Brides for Indians" program through the eyes of one of the women who volunteered for the program, May Dodd.  It was fascinating and hard to put down.  I highly recommend it.

I also recently finished Gone Girl, by Jillian Flynn.  This one is about a wife who disappears on her 5th anniversary.  The scene is suspicious, and of course, the husband is always the first suspect.  The story is told through the wife, Amy's, journal entries prior to her disappearance and through the husband, Nick's, eyes as the mystery unfolds.  You don't know what to believe the whole time...one minute you sympathize with Amy, the next with Nick.  It is truly diabolical and you come to the end pretty well shocked at how things turn out.




And, I'll end with Moloka' i, by Allan Brennert.  This story follows Rachel, a young girl growing up in Hawaii in the late 1800's.  At this time, leprosy ran rampant through the Hawaiin islands and the native Hawaiins were very susceptible to it.  Rachel contracts this disease and is banished to the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i where she lives out most of the rest of her life.  It is the story of her tragedies and triumphs...and excellent, emotional read!





That's it for now.  More later!