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I was already familiar with the story of A Christmas Carol, which is good because I was able to recognize that the first Kindle version that I bought was really bad and left out entire portions of the novel, including the chapter with the third spirit. I read most of the book but then bought a better copy and read the entirety of that one, so it ended up taking me about twice as long. Bah humbug! Anyway, I did finally finish it, and that means that I was able to complete my reading challenge! I’m glad to end on an old classic that I somehow never read when I was younger, and though I knew the story, I enjoyed it and it was actually really touching. A Christmas Carol is definitely a great book to read during the holidays and it’s a nice reminder of that classic Christmas spirit. Okay, confession time: so I’m a goody-goody nerd who read all of my books in school and didn’t really have anything for this category. I chose 1984 because I had an opportunity to read it for extra credit my freshman year, but I gave up on it for a multitude of reasons, some of them being that it frustrated me and I just didn’t like it. And while this book is certainly bleak (and by bleak I mean really sad), I actually enjoyed it. I kept putting it off throughout my challenge because I didn’t want to read it, but surprisingly it only took me a few days and it wasn’t nearly as boring as I expected it to be (for the most part) and the things I hated about it in freshman year really didn’t bother me this time. On top of that, 1984 is one of the quintessential classic dystopian novels that is fascinating to read because it’s so relevant even decades after it was written. I had previously understood the basic idea of 1984, but finally reading it gives me the chance to compare it to Brave New World, which I read in school last year. While I think I still prefer Brave New World, I feel accomplished having finally read 1984 and I would say that it’s definitely worth a look, at the very least if only for its well-deserved status as a classic. Pride and Prejudice is pretty much the definition of a classic romance, and I’m really glad that I read it for this challenge because otherwise there’s no telling how long it would take me to get to it. It was somewhat slow going and I’m running out of time to finish this challenge (but I believe I can do it!), though I really enjoyed it! I actually had a much better understanding of it than I expected to, and I think the excellent film adaptation that I watched with my friend over the summer really helped in that regard. Now, from my book reviews it’s pretty clear that I tend to be very picky of romance in novels, and I’ve always thought that my biggest issues were when the romance receives too much attention or is rushed or unnecessary. However, after reading Pride and Prejudice, which of course is primarily about romance, I think my problem may be more about the speed of the romance in YA. Relationships seem more believable to me when they develop over time, and it’s far more realistic to me that a couple would go through highs and lows and misunderstandings before finally getting together (cough cough Lizzie and Mr. Darcy). Either way, I enjoyed seeing the difference between YA romance and more classic examples of romance, though I do generally like to read a little bit of both. Pride and Prejudice is a great novel, and if you’re put off by its age or subject matter, I would say definitely give it a chance, it’s totally worth it! The six in the title refers to the team of six morally ambiguous and totally awesome teens who work together to break into a heavily guarded compound. Each of their specific skill sets are necessary to pull off the nearly-impossible task, but past grudges and different interests result in a less-than-harmonious dynamic. This book is one of the most exciting that I’ve read so far, and despite my enormous pre-holiday school workload, I flew through this novel. Six of Crows takes place in a fantasy world that has intricate world-building, politics, and mythology, and the writing is just beautiful. However, the best aspect of Six of Crows is undoubtedly the characters. Each of the six is uniquely compelling, endearing, and heartbreaking. I absolutely loved reading this amazing and creative book, and I can’t wait for the sequel, Crooked Kingdom. This is another book (I guess play, technically) that I read for school, specifically for French class, and I actually read it entirely in French. I’m not fluent and this play is an old classic so a significant portion of it probably went over my head, but with the help of SparkNotes (gasp, the scandal!) I think I definitely got the gist of the plot. Cyrano de Bergerac is about a witty man who is noble, courageous, and equally excellent with words and with a sword. He is secretly in love with the beautiful and kind Roxane (who also happens to be his cousin, but the incest thing doesn’t seem to be a factor here), but fears she will never love him as his enormous nose makes him too ugly. In addition, Roxane is in love with the gentle Christian, whom she asks Cyrano to look out for. Add in a war and some secrets and you’ve got the recipe for a tragic love triangle. I’m not usually a fan of love triangles, but there’s definitely a difference between YA and the classics, and I think a lot of that has to do with the pacing. Besides, it’s really hard not to root for Cyrano, even though all the characters are quite compelling. I highly recommend Cyrano de Bergerac, and it’s a shame that translations rarely do justice to the original work. Seraphina and the Black Cloak is a middle grade fantasy-mystery novel with a side of spooky. I definitely don’t read as many middle grade books as I did when I was in middle school, so it was an interesting change of pace. 12-year-old Seraphina is younger than most YA protagonists, but that doesn’t mean that she’s any less capable of heroics. She has grown up on the Biltmore Estate where her father works as a mechanic, but she must stay in hiding. Seraphina knows that she is different, though part of her wants to be like other girls her age. However, things are complicated when children on the estate begin to vanish, and Seraphina believes the mysterious Man in the Black Cloak is behind the disappearances. Seraphina and the Black Cloak is refreshingly bizarre with unique fantasy elements, making it unpredictable and unlike most stories I’ve read before. It’s surprisingly dark and strange for a middle grade novel, but even the weirdest aspects of it just feel right. Seraphina is a fantastic protagonist with wonderfully entertaining adventures, and I feel that Seraphina and the Black Cloak was definitely a nice addition to my reading challenge. Well, I’ve finally finished Pierce Brown’s Red Rising trilogy that I started months ago, and it has been quite an adventure! I’ll preface this by saying that I wasn’t initially sure how I felt about this trilogy due to the large amount of violence and mature content (I don’t even know if I can really call this YA, it might be technically new adult, but Pierce Brown seems to consider it a bit of both) and after reading the first novel, Red Rising, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish it. However, I read the subsequent books, Golden Son and Morning Star, and I can definitely say that I don’t regret it. In the simplest terms, this trilogy is about a boy in the lowest caste of an interplanetary sci-fi society who joins a rebellion after his wife is murdered. It’s dynamic, powerful, and incredibly well-developed. Full of action and heart, the Red Rising trilogy has some of the most life-like and engaging characters that I’ve seen in a long time in YA. The themes, like much of the content, are quite weighty, and they focus heavily on leadership, loyalty, revenge, and morality. Pierce Brown also manages to perfectly construct a trilogy as three separate installments – each with their own separate plot – that fit into one larger story arc. As much as I enjoyed reading the Red Rising trilogy, it isn’t perfect, and I had a few issues with some of the more stylistic writing elements and the sometimes-confusing intricacy of the plot and character motivations. However, Red Rising is definitely worth looking into for older readers, and I’ve even heard that Pierce Brown is releasing another trilogy sometime next year called Iron Gold, which is set in the same universe as Red Rising, and I can’t wait! In the meantime though, I have written (or will soon write) extensive reviews for each novel in this trilogy if you’d like to check it out (but again, be aware that it is quite mature!) Even before I was doing research for my challenge, I had heard about All the Light We Cannot See from my friend who had read and enjoyed it. My father read it this summer as well, though I think he enjoyed it a bit more than I did. Until the last 100 pages or so, I had quite a bit of trouble getting through this book (I had been reading it for several months), largely because of the changes in time period. It took me a while to get used to the switching between years and the very prevalent changes in character points of view. That being said, I can definitely understand why this book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. It chronicles WWII from the perspectives of Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind girl attempting to find safety in France with her father, and Werner Pfennig, an orphaned boy who gets drafted into the German military due to his incredible skill with radios. I figured the novel would be sad, but it was still much more tragic than I expected. I think YA has spoiled me in that I have come to expect a constantly exciting story and a somewhat-happy ending. All the Light We Cannot See definitely does not hold back with the realistic horrors of war, but it is well worth the read if you’re willing to put in the commitment. Ready Player One is set in the year 2044 where most people prefer to abandon a desolate society for the incredible virtual reality offered by the OASIS, a 4D immersive videogame. When the creator of the OASIS dies, his estate is promised to the one who can solve his virtual treasure hunt, and Wade Watts dedicates the next several years to the quest. Although Ready Player One is incredibly futuristic, it's also full of references to '80s pop culture, including videogames, TV and film, and music. Since I'm neither a videogame fan nor a person who was alive during the '80s, most of the allusions went over my head. Despite my inability to relate to many of the references and characters, Ready Player One was still quite compelling. I enjoyed reading it for the most part, and it was fascinating to picture this future given that this type of virtual reality is all too real of a possibility in the present. I think the use of the word "great" in this context might mean "powerful" or "strong" as opposed to "wonderful," but whatever, I'll take it! What I'm not so on board with is the mythology in this book/series: I was a little underwhelmed by it, but I certainly didn't think it was awful. A Great and Terrible Beauty is about Gemma, a girl who gets caught up in an otherworldly mystery after her mother is murdered, and she ends up in an all-girls boarding school where mysterious things start to happen. I should probably also mention that it's primarily set in the Victorian era in England. I like the concept of this story, but I almost think it might have been better without the supernatural elements. Regardless, the idea of antonyms comes into play in regards to the mysterious and metaphysical world that Gemma encounters, and the danger that may be lying beneath its enticing visage. I don't watch a lot of TV shows, but I absolutely love the BBC series Sherlock, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Sherlock, it's a fast-paced, intelligent, and suspenseful adaptation of the famous stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that takes place in modern London as opposed to the late 1800s. To be honest, it's sometimes a bit difficult to follow all of the details in the original stories (and occasionally in the show as well), partially because I'm missing a lot of the cultural context of Victorian England. However, I really loved reading more of the show's source material, and it's fascinating to see how little details and plot points sneak their way into the episodes, which are usually a mix of stories or a loose adaptation. In other words, I most likely won't see any spoilers by reading Sir ACD's works. This specific anthology has twelve short stories, and I think my favorites are probably "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," "The Man with the Twisted Lip," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb," "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor," and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches." I don't know when season 4 of Sherlock will come out (the episodes take a long time to make, and the actors are always so busy with other projects), but I'm very excited to see it and I will definitely be on the lookout for traces of the original literary canon! Over the past several years, my faith has been becoming a much more important part of my life. Sometime around 7th grade, I started to get more involved in my church and more committed to truly living my faith. I went to the Diocesan Youth Conference held in Richmond for the first time this February (it's basically a bunch of Catholic teenagers having fun and learning about their faith), and it was a really amazing experience! I actually got to hear a talk by the author of this memoir, Sister Miriam James Heidland, and she's a wonderful person who is incredibly passionate and vibrant in her love for life and for Jesus. In her book, which I read for my religious education class at my church this year, Sister Miriam talks about the struggles she has endured throughout her life and how she eventually found healing and true happiness. I'm going through a pretty difficult and stressful time in my own life right now, and Loved as I Am is a wonderful reminder that hope is not dead and peace can always be found. A Book That Came Out The Year You Were Born: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky*10/1/2016 Stephen Chbosky's classic teenage coming-of-age novel came out on February 1, 1999, and I came into the world as a reportedly-pouty infant six months later (yes, I'm 17 now! Whooo!) The Perks of Being a Wallflower is hailed as a staple of YA, but to be honest, I couldn't really get into it. I read the novel over the course of a few hours and I was kind of skimming it by the end, so I skipped over one very important detail (more in my full review) because when I turned to the internet to figure out exactly what makes The Perks of Being a Wallflower so popular, I realized that I'd pretty much missed the entire point of the novel. After that, things made a lot more sense, and I'm definitely willing to admit that the story is much deeper than I initially gave it credit for. I doubt I'll ever read it again (but who knows, I might give it a try), though I do own the movie so I might watch that in the near future! I had originally been planning to read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for this category (I'm still going to get to it eventually, I promise), but as she technically wrote two children's books before Speak I decided to choose a different novel, and what first young adult book (that I haven't read) could be more notable than The Outsiders? I had the chance to choose a parallel reading novel for school back in 8th grade and I chose The Diary of a Young Girl, which I also revisited during this challenge, but The Outsiders was one of the options and everyone who read it seemed to love it. After reading it, I can definitely understand why. It's a very realistic and moving story full of endearing characters, and I very much enjoyed it! I love that S. E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was so young, and the themes of her novel are incredibly insightful. I was really invested in the story, and I'm so glad I made the time to read this book! I've actually never technically read The BFG, but I remember listening to it at least a few times on audiobook during road trips when I was younger. I always thought the story was cute and quirky, and in hindsight a lot of the jokes probably went over my head (like the people from Wellington tasting like boots? Yeah, I never would have understood that as a kid). The BFG is really the only one of Roald Dahl's books that I've read, but I'm familiar enough with his stories to know that he does not insult his readers' intelligence. Even though this book was written for children, I'm still able to enjoy its wit and surprisingly deep themes as a 17-year-old. I know the movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg was released this summer and received some slightly-mixed-to-positive reviews. I didn't take the chance to see it when it came out, and I'd like to watch and review it myself if I get the opportunity. Either way, it was very refreshing to revisit this part of my childhood, and I think The BFG will be one of those books that sticks with me for a big part of my life. When I asked my mom for a recommendation to fulfill this category, she told me that she read Summer of My German Soldier many times as a child and it was one of her favorites. The protagonist is Patty Bergen, a young Jewish girl living with her neglectful parents in Arkansas. No matter how much she lies and exaggerates her stories, she receives nothing but negative attention from all but her wise and loving housekeeper, Ruth. That is, until she meets Frederick Anton Reiker, a German prisoner of war staying with the other captured soldiers in the nearby prison camp. Patty befriends Anton and offers him help, but it seems history will never allow them a happy ending. Summer of My German Soldier is particularly interesting because it's semi-autobiographical; minus the whole sheltering-an-escaped-German-soldier-in-her-garage thing, Bette Greene draws on her own experiences as a Jewish girl growing up in the Deep South during the 1940s to parents who can never seem to appreciate her for who she is. This is definitely an interesting book, and I feel as if I've learned something about my mother as well as Bette Greene. I downloaded Daughter of Smoke and Bone to my Kindle a few years ago and read a couple pages, but it hadn't really gripped my attention. A friend of mine had read it and said it was alright, but I really didn't have any desire to read it. For some reason it was the book that popped into my head when I thought of this category, so I finally decided to read it. I thought Daughter of Smoke and Bone was pretty good as a whole, but I don't think I'm going to be pursuing the rest of the trilogy, at least not any time soon. I didn't really connect to the protagonist very well and I felt parts of the plot really dragged, but the premise of the trilogy is really interesting and legitimately suspenseful in certain parts. I also really enjoyed the symbolism of the title and the imaginative twist on the mythology. Daughter of Smoke and Bone wasn't my favorite, but I'm definitely glad that I finally read it. I kind of cheated a bit for this category because I read The Diary of a Young Girl back in middle school, but even at the time I knew I didn't appreciate it enough and I wanted to re-read it when I was older. This is quite honestly a difficult book to read, particularly because you know how it ends and Anne doesn't. It's really hard to see her growing up and hoping for the future when you know that she's going to die. The end is particularly jarring because one minute you're reading Anne's insightful remarks about the duality of her own character, and then just below her signature are simply the words "Anne's diary ends here." Then you flip the page and begin reading about how each of the characters died. Anne's father, Otto Frank, was the only person hiding in the Secret Annex who survived the war, and he ensured that his daughter's story would be published. It was really interesting to read more about The Diary of a Young Girl as a book; in 1944, Anne heard a member of the Dutch government speaking over the radio about collecting first-hand accounts of those living in Holland during the war. At this point, Anne began to revise her diary with the idea that it would someday be published. She changed names to protect people's identities, reflected on past entries with a different perspective, and explained things that wouldn't make sense to people who didn't know her life. She intended for her diary to be read, and it's incredibly important that people all over the world hear her voice. Passenger was published on January 5th of 2016, but it takes readers on a journey through time and space to a multitude of interesting locations. The story follows Etta, a violinist preparing to make her professional debut, and the wild journey she embarks on when she gets involved with an ancient and powerful family of time travelers. She and her companion Nicholas, a sailor from the 1700s who was once a slave, travel through time on a historical treasure hunt. I had high hopes for Passenger because it sounded incredibly exciting, but unfortunately I was really disappointed with it. I was expecting a thrilling adventure, but ended up with an awkwardly-paced boring story centered primarily on a forced romance. But despite the fact that I didn't like Passenger, I still have hope for the sequel(s) because Alexandra Bracken was able to make the final few chapters really intriguing. The sequel Wayfarer will be released in early January of next year, and hopefully it will succeed in the areas where Passenger fell flat. I've been hearing amazing things about Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles, which are comprised of the four novels Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter, and I'm so glad to have finally started the series. Each of the titles of the novels correspond to the name of the novel's protagonist and each book is based on a specific fairy tale, though they all connect to one larger story arch. Cinder, as the title and cover suggest, is a retelling of the classic fairy tale Cinderella, and Marissa Meyer beautifully incorporates new and imaginative elements with the original story. The result is a creative, compelling, and entertaining story that I was able to finish in one day. Cinder definitely has echoes of the original fairy tale but it incorporates entirely new elements, including people with robotic prosthetics, an advanced colony on the moon, and a post-war world that looks quite different from the one we're used to. I certainly can't wait to read the rest of the series, and from what I've seen so far I think the Lunar Chronicles are definitely a gem in the scope of YA literature. "Magical" is definitely a good word to describe Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. The premise involves two magicians who compete against each other in a secret contest devised by their instructors. Through it all, both magicians are connected to the mysterious Cirque des Rêves, a traveling circus that patrons would swear is almost magical. The eclectic cast of characters, strange magical powers, and beautiful quality of writing serve to make the story feel like a dream. Even though I don't believe in magic or put any stock in the legitimacy of things like fortunetelling, tarot cards, or divination, it's still interesting to see a fantasy story that blends so seamlessly with the real world. Instead of creating an entirely new landscape for her story, Erin Morgenstern uses The Night Circus to highlight the more mysterious and unusual elements of her vision of the contemporary world. When I asked a friend of mine who loves to read, she listed several titles, including Red Queen and The Selection. When I asked her to pick just one, she settled on An Ember in the Ashes, convinced that I would like it. She was right! An Ember in the Ashes is one of those books that's so exciting and compelling that I didn't want to put it down. Both of the main protagonists, Laia and Elias, have such intriguing storylines that I groaned every time I had to shift points of view because I wanted to find out what happened next. The book was surprisingly dark and probably more appropriate for more mature readers, but it's definitely one of the best books I've read in a while, and hopefully the sequel A Torch Against the Night will be just as good! My friend and I don't always have the same taste in books and sometimes I don't like the ones she recommends to me, but I'm so thankful that she convinced me to read An Ember in the Ashes because it's a creative and wonderfully-written story with great characters, world-building, and action! Okay, I'm going to confess that while I'm a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, I haven't actually read the books. I'm definitely going to get to them after I finish my reading challenge this year, but I did find a way to include The Hobbit on my list. I've actually only seen the second two movies in The Hobbit film trilogy – The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies – and I thought they were quite good, despite slightly mixed reviews among Tolkien fans. I had a pretty good idea of the source material before I read the book, but it was still interesting to see the beginning, particularly the "riddles in the dark" scene with Gollum. I did like the book and I absolutely adore the story that Tolkien tells, but he does have a very narrative-heavy writing style and sometimes it kind of puts me to sleep. Tolkien's writing, as brilliant as it is, has a bit of that old-fashioned quality that makes the reader feel removed from the action. In many ways I feel that movie adaptations of stories like this can be really effective because, in the right hands, they not only capture the incredible world-building but also put the viewer in the thick of the action. This makes it easier to actually feel as though you are part of the story instead of just being told the events in a more historical sense. Either way, I'm glad to have finally read The Hobbit and I'm looking forward to continuing my Middle-earth adventures in the future along with Frodo Baggins and the rest of the Fellowship! I interpreted this category to mean a book that you wanted to read just by looking at the cover. The minute I saw the giraffe torso and the title of Two Brothers, One Redhead, and a Stolen Giraffe, I knew I had to read it. I thought it was going to be a sweet, funny story about the crazy adventures that resulted from two teen brothers trying to cart a stolen giraffe across the country. Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as I wanted to, and though the idea for the story is great, I found the actual novel to be somewhat awkward and unrealistic. I love the giraffe, but the human characters weren't really my favorites, and I feel like the book just relied too much on forced drama. Oh well, I guess it just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover! I have more details in my full review, but overall I just wasn't a big fan of Two Brothers, One Redhead, and a Stolen Giraffe. However, just because I was disappointed, it doesn't mean that everyone will be! |
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These are the books that I chose while attempting to complete my 2016 reading challenge! *This indicates that I have done a full review for this novel on my Book Review page.
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Turn The Next Page - a YA book blog | 2016 Reading challenge |