Bad Feminist 
Release Date: August 2014
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pages: 320
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.

In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better. 

Review: I enjoyed reading this book alot. I had difficulty getting back into reading and this book was one of those works that made it easy to fall back into the rhythm of reading. It was honest, open, and referenced a lot of things I could relate to. This is the first book of Roxane Gay that I've read and I am excited to delve into her other works.

Thinking Fast and Slow 
Release Date: October 2011
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 499
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behaviour. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking. 

Review: This was such an interesting book and one of the most difficult to read. I cannot say that I remember too much from it considering it was chalk full of insights, too many to count but  I love to learn about the human brain, behaviour and why we do what we do. If you like that sort of thing as well then this is the book for you. Give it a go, but just make sure to have the patience for a long and complex read because this one is all of that and a bag of chips.

The Name of the Wind 
Release Date: April 2007
Publisher: Penguin Group DAW
Pages: 662
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. 

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard. 

Review: I now know what all the fuss was about. Patrick RothFuss (insert laughter...lol). What a delightful writer and what a delightful book. Incredible use of words, a mastery of imagined worlds and a flair for imagery that i have rarely encountered. He is one of my favourite new authors. If you've never read this book, go out and get it. If you love fantasy and have yet to hear of this book, go out and get it. If you've, like me, heard whispers through the grapevine about it, then please don't waste any more time and go out and get yourself a copy. This book will... not change your life, but it will make you remember what epic fantasy at its best can be.

Superman: Birthright 
Release Date: October 2005
Publisher: DC Comics
Pages: 287
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): The entire modern day retelling of Superman — from his early days in Smallville with Lana Lang and Lex Luthor, to his first meeting with Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White in Metropolis — is recounted in this lavish hardcover collection by writer Mark Waid and artists Leinil Francis Yu and Gerry Alanguilan! SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT collects the best-selling, critically acclaimed 12-issue maxiseries of the same name and features an introduction by Smallville television producers Al Gough and Miles Millar, plus a sketchbook section showcasing Yu's development work in addition to notes by Waid. Witness the making of a legend, as Clark Kent learns the tough lessons needed to become the World's Greatest Hero! Also watch as Lex Luthor comes to Smallville, befriending Clark. But it's a relationship that may ultimately spell disaster for Metropolis and the Man of Steel.

Now I feel like I should preface this review by saying that I am not a huge comic book fan. That is not to say that I don't enjoy them because I do. But I didn't grow up on them. That being said I think that this was one of the ones I really loved. I thought the way the story was told and the sequential art was beautiful. There were twists and turns in the story, which I appreciated. Overall it was really a great read.

Ready Player One By Ernest Cline
Release Date: August 17, 2011
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Pages: 374
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the  OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Ernest Cline's Ready Player One was an awesome surprise. It came into my life at a time when I hadn't been reading much of anything. As evident from my last post, I haven't been blogging much either. So I was trapped in this cycle of not reading and as a result not blogging. 

Thankfully this novel broke that curse.

Let me start by saying that Ready Player One is incredibly well written. There is such attention to detail and an authenticity and respect for character and setting that it amazed me at how Cline managed it all. This story is also relatable and approachable. Cline keeps his language simple as he weaves story with music, art and culture. 

Moreover, Ready Player One is, at its heart, homage to all we loved about the 80's such as the movies, music and videogames of that seminal era. Even though I was not familiar with a lot of the references in the novel Cline still managed to make me nostalgic for that era the same way his characters did. This is another testament to Cline's talent as a writer. 

Also, the future that Cline paints is built upon an inter-connected alternative cyber reality that is not that far removed from the one we live in now. Cline successfully writes a story that is simultaneously looking backwards and forwards. 

This story was a fun ride and the writing was great. Go and get it as soon as you can (before the movie, that Spielberg is slated to direct, comes out).

Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrown Trilogy #1)
Release Date: January 1, 1991
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
Pages: 404
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): It's five years after Return of the Jedi: the Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven out the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting Jedi Twins. And Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of Jedi Knights. But thousand of light-years away, the last of the emperor's warlords has taken command of the shattered Imperial Fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the new Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to build. The explosive confrontation that results is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale--in short, a story worthy of the name Star Wars.

I liked this book. A lot. I loved the characters and I felt like they sounded exactly as I remembered them from the movies. Their voices were authentic. I also loved the introduction of Mara Jade into the story. If you read more literature on the characters beyond the movies then you know that Mara Jade becomes and important part of the Star Wars canon. I won't leave any spoilers here but I have to say being introduced to her in Heir to the Empire was satisfying. She was as I imagined and I can't wait to read the second book to see how she is developed.

That being said Timothy Zahn clearly knows about the Star Wars Universe based upon the delicate care he takes with weaving a great story. So excited about finally finishing this one and I cannot wait to start on the second.

A Monster Calls By Patrick Ness
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Walker Books
Pages: 215
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

This novel was short and heartbreakingly sweet. I felt like I was a part of Conor's world and I felt his fear, his pain, his confusion and lack of understanding at the crazy and sometimes unfair world around us. There are so many lessons slowly unraveled and learned in this book that even as I write this review I still feel like I'm understanding new things about the book. This was an enjoyable read despite the weighty subject matter. I would highly recommend this novel.

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane By Neil Gaiman
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Books
Pages: 181
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

Having just finished this book, I am at a loss for words to describe all the emotions I'm feeling.Well let me just start off by saying Gaiman is a master writer and I don't know any other author that can take pen to page, or in this case keyboard to screen, and make you feel every emotion under the sun whilst having you begging for more. I was sad to get to the end of this rather short work (it was only 181 pages).

However, let me say that I LOVED The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I was teary at times, smiling at others, terrified and genuinely touched. This book captures the innocence of childhood, of dreams and the imagination. I honestly don't know how Gaiman does it but I'm glad he does what he does like no other writer out there. His voice is so unique and sweet and different that I'm glad he was a destined to be a writer so that those of us who are in awe of his skill at least get to enjoy his beautiful words. Thanks Mr. Gaiman for introducing us to Lettie Hempstock and letting us escape to her ocean.

Here are some bits and pieces that stuck with me:

"All monsters are scared.
That's why they're monsters."

"I found myself thinking of an ocean running beneath the whole universe, like the dark seawater that laps beneath the wooden boards of an old pier: an ocean that stretches from forever to forever and is still small enough to fit inside a bucket, if you have Old Mrs. Hempstock to help you get it in there, and you ask nicely."

"I saw the world I had walked since my birth and I understood how fragile it was, that the reality I knew was a thin layer of icing on a great dark birthday cake writhing with grubs and nightmares and hunger. I saw the world from above and below. I saw that there were patterns and gates and paths beyond the real. I saw all these things and understood them and they filled me, just as the waters of the ocean filled me. Everything whispered inside me. Everything spoke to everything, and I knew it all."

Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. 

“I’m going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

“And did I pass?"
The face of the old woman on my right was unreadable in the gathering dusk. On my left the younger woman said, "You don't pass or fail at a being a person, dear.”

The Graveyard Book By Neil Gaiman
Release Date: September 30, 2007
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 312
Genre: Children's Literature 
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . . 

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

This book was amazing in every way. The characters, the setting, the atmosphere and overall suspense, all of it was on point and executed to perfection.  Mr. Gaiman had gotten the idea almost twenty years before writing it and needless to say the wait was definitely worth it because what we've been given is an instant classic. The Graveyard Book was endearing, poignant and profound in many ways. Well done. I loved it.

Shatter Me By Tahereh Mafi
Release Date: November 15, 2011
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 338
Genre: Young Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I'm more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

First, let me preface this by saying that I tried to read this book twice before succeeding the third time around. The main reason for this was the fact that this novel was riddled with so many smilies and metaphors (some of them not making sense and others ill placed) that it took away from the actual storytelling. I'm not going to go in depth with this review because there really isn't much to go in depth with. The synopsis is essentially dragged out over 300+ pages and the ending leaves a lot to desired (not to mention it was entirely unoriginal). 

I will give the author points for originality and taking risk in narration style but it doesn't work here. I wouldn't recommend this one but I give myself a pat on the back for getting through it though.

The Wolf Gift By Anne Rice
Release Date: February  14, 2012
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 404
Genre: Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): The time is the present.

The place, the rugged coast of northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.

A young reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Observer. . . an older woman, welcoming him into her magnificent, historic family home that he has been sent to write about and that she must sell with some urgency . . . A chance encounter between two unlikely people . . . an idyllic night—shattered by horrific unimaginable violence. . .The young man inexplicably attacked—bitten—by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness . . . A violent episode that sets in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation as the young man, caught between ecstasy and horror, between embracing who he is evolving into and fearing who—what—he will become, soon experiences the thrill of the wolf gift.

As he resists the paradoxical pleasure and enthrallment of his wolfen savagery and delights in the power and (surprising) capacity for good, he is caught up in a strange and dangerous rescue and is desperately hunted as “the Man Wolf,” by authorities, the media and scientists (evidence of DNA threaten to reveal his dual existence). . . As a new and profound love enfolds him, questions emerge that propel him deeper into his mysterious new world: questions of why and how he has been given this gift; of its true nature and the curious but satisfying pull towards goodness; of the profound realization that there are others like him who may be watching—guardian creatures who have existed throughout time and may possess ancient secrets and alchemical knowledge and throughout it all, the search for salvation for a soul tormented by a new realm of temptations, and the fraught, exhilarating journey, still to come, of being and becoming, fully, both wolf and man.

Rueben, a young reporter, narrowly escapes a wolf attack and soon finds himself experiencing a change that transforms him into a man wolf. Soon after this he begins to take on the role of a vigilante by taking the law into his own hands. As a result the police scientists being looking for him, as well as others with the same gift...

I really wanted to like this book but I found certain things problematic. For one, the protagonist was very one dimensional and flat. Rueben is a 23 year old with a Porsche who recites poetry and philosophy... how realistic is that. It didn't seem very believable and this took away from the possible deeper layers of the character.

Secondly, Reuben randomly has a love connection with a women who appears in the woods. No reason is given for why she lives so reclusively or why she isn't horrified by the man wolfs appearance. But soon after spending the first night together they fall deeply in love and we don't get to know more about either character other than their love for each other. I am not a big fan instant. I find it dull and in this case thats what we get.

The rest of his family are also underdeveloped. Reuben's mom, a doctor, is defined by her job and it is the only light we see her in. And similarly so is his brother who is a priest.

Despite these criticisms, Anne Rice is great at myth building. The back story to the wolf gift (chrism) is fascinating and the strongest point in the book. Her descriptions of the old house in which Reuben lives as well as the redwood forest is so vivid its breathtaking and there is something to be said for that.

Changing Planes By Ursula K. Le Guin
Release Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Ace
Pages: 239
Genre: Young Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Sita Dulip has missed her flight. But instead of listening to garbled announcements in the airport, she has found a method of bypassing the crowds at the desks, the long lines at the toilets, the nasty lunch, the whimpering children and punitive parents, the bookless bookstores, and the blue plastic chairs bolted to the floor.

This method - changing planes - enables Sita to visit fifteen societies not found on Earth. She will encounter cultures where the babble of children fades over time into the silence of adults; where whole towns exist solely for holiday shopping; where personalities are ruled by rage; where genetic experiments produce less than desirable results. And many other exotic landscapes whose denizens are fundamentally human...

Airports are boring places so when I read the synopsis of this novel I had to read it. And let me say that it did not disappoint. Le Guin is an amazing writer with immense imagination. She goes to areas and spaces where many writers haven't gone before. The stories are interesting and unlike anything I had ever read before.

This collection of stories was an exercise in imagination and it was thought provoking. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be transported.

Red Glove By Holly Black (Curse Workers #2)
Release Date: April 5, 2011

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages: 325
Genre: Young Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): After rescuing his brothers from Zacharov’s retribution, Cassel is trying to reestablish some kind of normalcy in his life.

That was never going to be easy for someone from a worker family that’s tied to one of the big crime families—and whose mother’s cons get more reckless by the day. But Cassel is coming to terms with what it means to be a worker, and he’s figuring out how to have friends.

Except normal doesn’t last very long. Soon Cassel is being courted by both sides of the law and is forced to confront his past—a past he remembers only in scattered fragments, and one that could destroy his family and his future. Cassel will have to decide whose side he wants to be on, because neutrality is not an option. And then he will have to pull off his biggest con ever to survive….

I am a big fan of Holly Black and her Faerie series but unfortunately this series was off the mark for me. It wasn't the writing, because we all know Holly can write, it was the premise I found less than titillating or engaging. 

The plot set up of forbidden love set behind the backdrop of a world where con-artistry magic and the mafia mix should work but ultimately doesn't. i didn't feel the characters were real enough or that I cared too much about them. 

Overall I would say that the strength of the writing saves the story but it was the story itself that I found to be flat.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns  By Rae Carson (Fire and Thorns #1)
Release Date: September 1, 2011
Publisher: Greenwillow
Pages: 423
Genre: Young Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

i was pleasantly surprised by The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. I first heard about it online through several blogs and most of the reviews were very good. When I finally did get my hands on it I have to say that it was a slow read at the beginning. It took me a while to finish but when I did the overall story arc was very satisfying. The characters are very endearing and the protagonist Elisa is a character who I really felt I could get behind. She wasn't whiney as some characters tend to be. She was relatable and surprisingly real leaping off the page instantly. Being in her head wasn't a bad place to be and seeing her world through her eyes was different and great.

The grand love affair (a spice in any great novel) is also a bit of a surprise. I really enjoyed the twists and turns especially the way it was all resolved in the end. 

I do recommend this book and I have to say... Rae Carson tells an intriguing story and I followed her till the end.

The Blessed By Tonya Hurley
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 405
Genre: Young Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): From the author of the New York Times bestselling ghostgirl series, the start to a captivating and haunting teen trilogy about three girls who become entangled with an enigmatic boy—a boy who believes he is a saint.What if martyrs and saints lived among us? And what if you were told you were one of them?

     Meet Agnes, Cecilia, and Lucy. Three lost girls, each searching for something. But what they find is Beyond Belief.

I am going to have a hard time trying to write this review. This isn't to say that I didn't like the book, because I enjoyed it to a certain degree. Well let me start off first by saying that Tonya Hurley is a good writer, I don't think there is a lot of doubt about that. I enjoyed the grittiness to her narrative because it made the setting and the characters that much more believable. That said, I have to say that I was trudging through this book rather than really sinking my teeth into it which I was disappointed by.

The concept of girl saints/martyrs told in a modern way, in a modern world was entirely new and very interesting. I was intrigued but spent much of the story going through the motions with the characters. There was a lack of tension and therefore most of the book fell flat. I was very interested in Sebastian's character but his story was a background piece at best and at the end of it all I closed the book not feeling like I knew any of the characters, their desires or their fears and wants.

Although The Blessed was quite original and well written, the characters and plot fell a little flat for me. I didn't really understand where the author was going with the story and at the end of it all I still didn't get the full picture really. It just left me confused rather than excited and for that I'd say it turned out to be a disappointment.

The Dispossessed By Ursula K. LeGuin
Release Date: October 20, 1994
Publisher: UK General Books
Pages: 387
Genre: Science Fiction
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. he will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.

This is the second book I am about to review of Ursula Leguin. I must say that there was a major difference between The Tombs of Atuan  and The Dispossessed. In this novel, Ms. Leguin's main protagonist, Shevek, is a scientist and there was a lot of science involved in the telling of this story. What did you expect you ask? I know, I know I should have known. But I have come to realize that this is a genre I must dabble in slowly rather than dive in head first (which I think I did with this one).

The story was simple enough and it's not to say that the plot wasn't interesting, it's just that Shevek is a scientist, going to his new planet for research (more science), and a he spends much time talking with other professors about... science. I felt a little out of my element as I tried to keep up with devices and theories. However, despite this setback the story was well written and the main character was muti-layered and commanding enough to grab my attention and push me from page to page. 

I love to challenge myself and I must say this story definitely did that. It was thought provoking and eye opening. The writing was strong, the character development deep and impressive. At the beginning of the story Shevek is a man in search of something he doesn't quite know yet but he is also arrogant in the way we all are when we haven't lived life. We think we have all the answers but we soon find out that life is a lot more complicated then what we perceive or believe. At it's heart the Dispossessed is a story of inner and outer struggle. It is masterfully told and Shevek is a character you won't soon forget whether you agree with his views or not. If you aren't a fan of science fiction, I recommend that at some point when you are ready to give it a chance pick this one up. Put your thinking cap on and enjoy!!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Release Date: March 2, 2010
Publisher: Harper Collins
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 470
Source: Bought
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Before I begin I have to confess that this book took me quite a long time to finish. Having said that there were several factors that contributed to this. For one, I found the dialogue stretched too long throughout most of the book. I found that there was a lot of plot dragging in terms of dialogue especially in the middle of the book. 

And secondly, there were too many characters crowded together on the page. A lot of the side characters I encountered I didn't really invest in or care for necessarily. Every couple of pages there would be another character (insert awkward situation pertaining to said side character here) and then that would be it. No mention of them again. It was a little confusing and felt a little like a carousel of characters coming in and out of the plot.

However, despite these two aspects I continued to read and I was glad that I did. Samantha Kingston is a protagonist whose journey was agonizing and heartbreaking too. She and her circle of friends, who share and keep secrets, push the story forward to an unexpected end. Lauren Oliver doesn't disappoint in her beautiful writing as she pulls at your heartstrings one by one.

As I neared the end, however long the journey might have been, I began to feel that feeling of not wanting to let go of the ride, my fingers tightening onto the pages. Also the ending was crushing and unexpected. I know I should have seen it coming but I really didn't, which is to the credit of the author. 

Overall Before I Fall, despite being slightly too long in text in some areas, was beautifully written and had ambition and a lot of heart. Samantha's journey is profound and the overall lesson is a great one we all can learn from.

Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke and bone #2)
Release Date: November 6, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 517
Source: Bought
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

The bar was set very high for the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone because of how incredible that book was. It was imaginative in a way I had never read before and in short it blew my socks off. I was hopeful that the second would rise to the challenge and at the least meet expectations and at the best exceed them.

And the wait was definitely worth it because this sequel met the challenge and surpassed all my hopes and expectations. There is such richness and depth to Laini's writing it is absolutely a feast for the mind to read one of her work.

Karou is back and trying to navigate this deadly new world that she has inherited. Without giving any spoilers away I will say that the action, suspense and world building just gets better in the second book. There are surprise twists and turns that will have you fearful to turn the next page. But as always the author handles her characters with such care and delicacy that they feel like real people immediately. Suzanna and Mik go on a dangerous journey that is as interesting as the daily trials of our main character. Overall this book was incredible in it's world building, plotting and character development. 

The smallest details were not too small and that's the real gift of an author like Laini. She can make even the mundane everyday things sound so magical and interesting with her words. I enjoyed this book immensely and if you haven't read this series get going on it right away. You won't be disappointed!!

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Release Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 318
Source: Gift
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

The story of Hazel and Augustus is so special it had me devouring this book in a day. Their story is more than the cancer that they suffer from, it is more than their battered and ravaged bodies. Their story really is the story of hope and optimism.

In the saddest moments John Green had us laughing, and in the darkest moment he had us hoping which is what is so special about this book. It was surprising in a good way and I would read it again in a heartbeat.

Life is precious and no one is guaranteed forever and the ones that truly live life are those that can make the moments last for eternity. I loved this book, plain and simple.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 417
Source: Bought
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

This book was huge breath of fresh air. It came with a lot of recommendations and I am not surprised now that I've become one of the lucky of have read it. Laini Taylor is a master storyteller wielding the pen so artfully that it is heartbreaking. There are many scenes of such beauty, layered upon one another it had my head spinning in a good way. To say that i enjoyed this book would be the understatement of the century, I LOVED it!!

Blue haired protagonist Karou is a multifaceted character with an air of mystery around her that she herself does not understand. You embark on her personal journey with her and at once you are invested and sucked into her world. There is something special about her. She knows it and so does the reader and so begins the excitement to figure out the answers to the questions that surround her. Why does she collect teeth? What are they for? All the answers come to a shocking end that had me running to the store for the second book.

Location, location, location! Exotic locals such as Prague, Marrakech and many others are a huge part of the delight of the book. As an avid traveler this was a fun part of the book for me. You travel without having traveled. So vividly were these places described that I felt as though I had walked the streets myself.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was such a beautiful book I could not get enough of it. Those who have not read it should really give it a try. You will not disappointed.