You

You walk into a library and there are hundreds of shelves with hundreds of books, all filled with hundreds of words. You stumble over piles of books in your house; words crawling up your walls and grasping at your ankles. You scan through articles and tweets and websites and everywhere you look there are more of them.

The world contains so many words. You think, does it really need any more?

You, standing there at the edge of the step, your toes curled over the curb. Holding your words to your chest because are they really that different than all the others? Surely, someone else has seen these words before. You may as well just hold onto them.

But that's not true. There are many words, yes, but can't you sense them? Let each word and delicately constructed sentence rest on your tongue, soak into your stomach, make their way to your heart. Each one a unique flavour, a delicate mix of sense and taste that plucks at each emotion in a strange and new way.  

These words, they are delicious, round and plump, like an overripe fruit, dripping with juice. These words are sharp, and quick, like a needle pricking and pinching your skin in horrible, wonderful surprise. These words are warm and flow softly, a river of molasses, the current calming you to sleep. These words have too many tastes to distinguish - all blended together that in the end sparkles and pops in your mouth and all the way down.

Your words may just be words, but they also have taste, they also have flavour. There are hundreds, billions of words spilled out into the universe by the hour, but none of them taste quite like yours.

*** 

Do you ever get that feeling that there are so many books and writing out there in the world, it seems a bit useless for you to also be a writer who wants people to read your work? Well, something I've come to realize over the past couple of years is just how unique each person's writing style is. It's amazing, really, how different people can think so differently and create such different stuff and pull on such different emotions. It seems like it should be obvious, but it's not always. 

Anyway, this post was largely inspired by my friend Amelia, who has a very different writing style than me, but I still find it delightful and beautiful! She has a blog called Bandaids and Butterflies where she does gorgeous little writing pieces about mental health and daily life, which I highly recommend you check out here.

I love how many different writing styles exist in the world. How would you describe your writing style? What are some of your favourite unique writing styles?

Some of my favourite delicious writing:

The Gods of Tango by Carolina de Robertis

Banana Heart Summer by Merlinda Bobis

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill

Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Review: Sputnik's Children by Terri Favro

This is one of those books that was so good that I don't really want to do a review of it because I want to keep it all to myself. But, at the same time I also want to talk about how great it is and make everyone read it??

I won Sputnik's Children from ECW Press through 49thshelf. (49thshelf always has awesome giveaways and book lists, so if you aren't following that site yet you should.)

Sputnik's Children is about Debbie, who is a comics writer who takes inspiration from her own wacky life as she hops back and forth in time between the present (2011 in the book) and around the 60s. But it also has two parallel universes of the 60s - one that happened as it did in our world, and the other which Favro calls "Atomic Mean Time" where all the rights movements never happened and everything was a lot closer to nuclear war. And it's up to Debbie to save the entire world from nuclear destruction.

It's SO FUN. I don't think I've ever read an adult fiction book that is as fun as Sputnik's Children. I just whizzed through it. Debbie is great, the time travel is great, the sci fi elements and parallel universes are great.

Before I got the book, I read a blurb somewhere that said it is "genre-bending" and I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. But after reading the book I get it - it's kind of sci-fi with all the time travel and parallel universe stuff, but there are also longer sections in between the time travel that are just about Debbie living her life in whatever time period she happens to be in. So there's a lot of stuff about growing up and family and friend dynamics too. I LOVE it, because Terri Favro writes all genres amazingly well and the transition between them is so smooth, and helps to keep the story going forward at a really entertaining pace. Like I already said, this was one book that I did not want to stop reading! It's great if you like contemp, but it's also great if you really need a swift moving plot to keep you engaged.

Even the ending was great, which is hard to pull of with books like this that tackle big things like saving the entire world from nuclear destruction.

I think that pretty much anyone would like this book, so go pick it up now!!

Find it on:
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com
Goodreads
ECW Press

5 Graphic Novel Recommendations

I love graphic novels (although after reading this article, not quite sure what to call them... comics novels? [also, there's a lot in that article that could just as easily be directed to those writing YA criticism. Fav line: "The most 'rampant bibliophiles' I know don’t dismiss a potentially great book just because of its format or genre."]) There's something about graphic novels that is really enjoyable, but at the same time they can delve into certain issues in a way that novels without illustrations can't.

Stitches by David Small

This was the book that started my fascination with graphic novels, and in particular memoirs. It's a memoir, about David Small's life and all the weird and terrible things that happen to him, including getting cancer and his messed up family. It's done so well, and perfectly depicts the intense emotions of the story. Since it's been a few years since I've read it, I don't really remember it well but I do remember how I felt reading it: completely caught up in a sort of disturbed fascination, and identifying completely with the utter bleakness the protagonist was feeling, conveyed largely through the art.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson 

My book log review for this book has lots of exclamation points in it, so apparently I liked it!!! It was great - the characters were extremely well developed, it turned various tropes on their head multiple times, was humorous and tragic, and was also just a super fun fantasy story. All of my favourite things!

Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown

I don't know why but for some reason it is way more appealing to me to read biographies or memoirs in graphic novel form. Maybe it's because it's easier to read? Or maybe the pictures can get across events or emotions in a more direct way than through words? Anyway, this was a great introduction to the strange character and personality that was Louis Riel. It also did really well at portraying the ambiguity and messiness of history, rather than presenting it as a straightforward narrative. This book also led me to Maggie Siggins' wonderful book Riel: A Life of Revolution, which is absolutely fascinating.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi 

Another memoir! This is about the author growing up in Iran in the late 1970s and 80s. It was interesting because it was told through the perspective of a young girl trying to figure what was right when everyone around her had so many different views. It was interesting to see how her opinions changed throughout the book as she was exposed to different views through her parents’ friends and family, as well as her school. It was absolutely fascinating, and I definitely need to read the rest of the series (also I think there is a movie of it as well?) 

Lumberjanes by  Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters and Brooke A Allen

I think Lumberjanes would technically be categorized as comics, but I don't care what matters is that they are GREAT. I'm so jealous of all the little girls and teens that get to grow up with the Lumberjanes in their lives. The series is about a group of friends who spend a summer at camp (the Lumberjanes), and do normal camp things like collecting badges, but also run into a whole bunch of strange creatures like yetis, three-eyed wolves, and other insane creatures. The characters all great, and there is such a wide range of different kinds of girls in this series, and their friendship is at the centre of the series which of course I love. And the adventures they get into every volume are so entertaining. Everyone need these comics in their life.

What are your favourite graphic novels? What are your favourite comic memoirs or biographies? Recommend me some in the comments!

3 Reasons to Read Boring Girls by Sara Taylor

METAL. MAYHEM. MURDER.
A visceral story of friendship, music, and bloody revenge 

Rachel feels like she doesn’t fit in - until she finds heavy metal and meets Fern, a kindred spirit. The two form their own band, but the metal scene turns out to be no different than the misogynist world they want to change. Violent encounters escalate, and the friends decide there’s only one way forward . . .

A bloodstained journey into the dark heart of the music industry, Boring Girls traces Rachel’s deadly coming of age, Fern at her side. As the madness deepens, their band’s success heightens, and their taste for revenge grows ravenous. (From ECW Press website) 

For anyone who knows me, you might be thinking, after reading that description of Boring Girls, "wait, she picked up that book and she liked it?" (You might also be thinking, wait, she picked up this book and wasn't scared by it? The answer to which is yes, of course I was.) But yes, I did like it, and here are some reasons why I think you should read it too!

1. THE PACKAGING To start with, the tagline, the cover, and the summary are great, and are all things that made me want to pick up the book in the first place. It just sounded really intense and interesting, never mind that I don't think I could ever bring myself to listen to heavy metal, and I'm not a huge fan of violence in the media I consume. But trust me, Boring Girls lives up to its packaging.

2. GIRLS! I know it's in the title, but this book is about girls - girls friendships, problems, issues, and challenges they face in a predominantly male industry. There wasn't a weird forced romance in it or anything. Actually, one of the reasons I liked this book was how authentic it felt to the real teenage girl experience - or at least my experience as a teenager. I mean, minus the metal and murder. Rachel was more concerned in high school with being taken seriously and finding a bond with other girls than dating, and I feel like that experience is often missing from the books I read, especially YA (although I wouldn't characterize Boring Girls as YA, even if the characters are teenagers). I honestly don't think it's realistic or constructive to have every female protagonist's story centered on getting a guy over everything else, especially female friendships. Anyway.

3. THE INTENSITY I was definitely never bored while reading it. While you know that Rachel and her friend are murderers from the beginning, that doesn't spoil the intensity or the anticipation leading up to the actual event. It was written well, and while there were a lot of descriptions of Rachel's band getting big rather than an actual build-up to the end, it was still interesting and a fascinating look at the life of musicians, female musicians in particular. And Sara Taylor definitely accomplishes the feat of making you sympathize with a murderer. By the end, you kind of feel like Rachel did the right thing.

Boring Girls is anything but boring, and I highly recommend you check it out! 

Boring Girls on ECW Press
Boring Girls on Amazon.ca
Boring Girls on Amazon.com
Boring Girls on Goodreads

Review: The Gods of Tango by Carolina de Robertis

I'm not the kind of reader that sees movies in my head when I read. Sure, I have a pretty good imagination, but books come alive for me in different ways than concrete visual images in my head. However, the way some books are written they just can't help but come to life for me, and The Gods of Tango was definitely one of those books. 

The Gods of Tango is a book set in the early 1900s, about a young girl, Leda, who immigrates from Italy to Argentina in order to join her husband (who is also her cousin) Dante. When she gets to Argentina and discovers Dante was killed, she decides to leave the dark secrets of her hometown and stay in Argentina. She has to survive on her own in Argentina somehow, so she disguises herself as a man so she can do the one thing she's fallen in love with the most in this new country: play the tango. 

The tango becomes the thread that weaves itself throughout the entire book and Leda's love for it drives her as she tries to make a life and name for herself in Argentina. Carolina de Robertis' descriptions of the tango and the atmosphere that surrounds it are absolutely gorgeous. She makes the tango, and with it the setting of 1900s Argentina, come alive. Reading this book was a deliciously sensory experience. You can really hear the dance of the tango, feel the rhythm of the music, and smell, taste, and hear what it is like to be a musician on the Argentinian tango scene. I felt like I was there with Leda, feeling, hearing and tasting everything she was, and able to bask in the richness of it. Reading Carolina de Robertis' writing is basically like eating dessert.

The Gods of Tango is a beautifully written book with an absolutely captivating story about love, identity, and, of course, tango. If you want to be entirely immersed in this beautiful setting and the rich love story at the centre of it, then I highly suggest you pick it up! 

Author website - Carolina de Robertis' Twitter

The Book Faeries

 I believe it started when my 19-year-old brother said that he could finish absolutely any book. Offhandedly I said, "What about one of my YA romances?" And he shrugged in his typical style and said sure. So half as a joke, half knowing he would actually read it, I put my copy of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins on his pillow. And he read it. Despite being infuriatingly lazy and interested in math instead of writing, my brother has a few redeeming qualities. Such as, he reads quite widely and doesn't feel any shame about toting my bright blue, cutesy copy of Anna and the French Kiss around. Of course this did attract attention, so my brother explained to people inquiring how I'd challenged him that he wouldn't be able to finish the book. While he was reading it, my parents scoffed and said, "I bet I could give him a book he couldn't finish."



He did finish Anna and the French Kiss, and while he said that it was "not as bad as I thought it would be", he didn't really enjoy it, which is understandable given his interests. I like to think that the fact that it wasn't as annoying as he'd thought is a testament to Stephanie Perkin's writing skill, rather than my inability to give my brother a book he couldn't finish.

My little brother. Photo Credit: Alan Sherlock

Anyway, somehow it got to the point that we now have a cycle where each member of my family (except my sister) takes turns giving my brother a book to read. It went from giving my brother books he might not be able to finish, to just giving him books we liked and wanted him to read. It's quite enjoyable on both sides. My brother likes it because he gets a stream of books literally handed to him that have gone through an excellent filtering process. He never really has to read a horrible book, because they've already been screened by us. And my parents and I get to make my brother read books that we like and want other people to read. (Note: we did ask my sister if she wanted to be included in the cycle, but the only recommendation she ever had was Lemonade Mouth).


So after my brother finished Anna and the French Kiss, my dad gave him Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell. I tried to interview my brother about what he thought of each of the books he's been given so far, but something to know about my brother is that he doesn't really talk a lot (whether it's because he actually has nothing to say or is just trying to annoy me is undetermined). So he said Men of Mathematics was "good" and when I asked him if he learned anything he said he "learned math".

After the math book, my brother was given The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot by my mom. This he also said was "good", and that the one thing he'll remember forever from this book is that it is weird that people ship cells in the mail. 

Then it was my turn again, so I gave him Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. He said it was good. When I tried to get him to elaborate on why it was good, he just said it was good because of "everything".

Dad's turn next, which meant back to non-fiction. He gave my brother Bully for Brontosaurus by Stephen Jay Gould. My brother said it was good, and one thing he learned was that there is a type of frog that is birthed by projectile vomiting. The egg grows in it's stomach and then it vomits it out, and it happened so fast that it took awhile for scientists to figure out what was actually going on. 

Mom's turn again, and she gave him The Power of the Powerless by Christopher de Vinck. Our sister has Down syndrome, so disability rights is something I think everyone in my family feels strongly about. My brother made a connection between some of the talk in this book about kids being put into institutions, and the images of insane asylums that are presented at the beginning and end of the movie Amadeus.

Then it was back to me again, so I gave him The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which he actually just finished. I found this book really fascinating and it made me think about so many different things, which is why I gave it to my brother to read. One of his comments was that he thought it was weird and unrealistic that the speech of various characters was very similar most of the time. He also commented that the book shows how easy it is to get away with murder, although it's easy in one way and hard in another. I was also talking about how the horror of the whole thing had caught me off guard when I read it, and he said that the way it's told, it seems very nonchalant about the horror. 

Then when he finishes The Secret History, it's my dad's turn, and we continue! My brother is pretty lucky that he has his own personal book faeries to pick out and give him books to read without him having to lift a finger. Perhaps we are only enabling his laziness, but it sure is fun. I love recommending books to people, and my brother is the perfect person to recommend books to because you know he'll read it, as long as you give it to him. It's also fun for us because then he gets to share in a little part of our interests and our worlds. We are connecting ourselves to each other, through our favourite books. Maybe soon we'll even have a family book club. Who knows? 

My brother isn't engaged in the online writing community, because his interests are more on the side of science and mathematics, so I can't plug him in that way. But he's actually in university for computer science, and has even made a couple of apps for android, which you can find and download here. 

Have a great day!

Review: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

Gary D. Schmidt sure can write a beautiful book, and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is no exception.

I think my favourite thing about Gary D. Schmidt's writing is how he weaves natural imagery into his stories, and he does it so, so brilliantly. In Lizzie Bright he uses the island and the whales that swim around the island to add to the depth and emotion of the story. The way he uses these natural elements in his books provides another deep layer of meaning to the story.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster boy is set in Maine in 1912, and it is about the eviction of a black community from the island of Malaga off the coast of Maine. It's based on a true story, and Gary D. Schmidt writes it as terribly heart wrenching as a young white boy from Phippsburg, Maine makes friends with a young black girl, Lizzie Bright, who lives on the island with her grandpa. The writing is simple, clear, and smooth and so is the storyline. Gary D. Schmidt gets emotions across so well, both from his characters and from his reader (yeah, maybe I cried).

This is a beautiful and important book that made me think, and you should definitely check it out, especially if you want your heart broken, but in a good way.

Find it on Goodreads here and Gary D. Schmidt's website here.

Review: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I picked DAIRY QUEEN up from the library because it was recommended to me on Twitter after I asked for contemporary recommendations. I ended up reading it because I knew it would be an easier read and I needed something fluffier after reading a bunch of intensely emotional books.

When I started this book, I didn't really expect much. I expected it to be fun, and since it was first person, maybe kind of annoying, but ultimately bearable and in the end, forgettable. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when it turned out to be much better than I expected and I didn't have trouble slogging through it at all.

DAIRY QUEEN is about the main character, D.J., and her ups and downs with her family, an annoying football jock from a rival high school who has been sent to her family's farm by his football coach to do hard work, and her relationship with football, a sport she loves.

I've read a lot of first person POV books of young teenage girls that are just irritating. Authors somehow seem to think that as long as the MC is snappy and sarcastic, they'll be interesting, but it's so overdone and frankly boring. D.J. was not like that at all. She was unabashedly herself, and while she was sarcastic, it was just a pure, innocent humor that just made me like her that much more. D.J. was like that person that you meet at school who you can immediately tell they are the sweetest person ever and after five minutes of talking with them you feel like you could be best friends. 

Another thing I appreciated about D.J.'s POV was that she didn't ignore the obvious, like when some first person POV narrators constantly deny that they like their love interest, or other obvious things. D.J. was open and honest about everything with herself, which was quite refreshing.

The best thing, though, was how D.J. came to conclusions about her life and who she is on her own. She wasn't validated of her beauty or whatever by her love interest or anyone else. She was the one who changed her mind, and she was the one that took the initiative to get places and change her own thoughts about herself.

If you want a fun, relaxing read with a happy and silly young narrator like D.J., I'd encourage you to check this book out! 

Check it out on Goodreads here. 
Check it out on Book Depository here, as well as Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.
Check out the author on her website here.

Alyssa Recommends Fantasy

Fantasy is probably one of my favourite genres (and my second most read genre in 2014), although that's mostly because I'm just interested in reading good books, and for some reason a lot of fantasy books end up falling into the category of good books. Maybe it has something to do with how in order to write a good fantasy, writers really have to go all out to create in-depth worlds and characters, I don't know. Anyway! Here are some of my favourite fantasies. 

1. The Queen's Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner

I can't really say anything about this series because any spoilers would just tarnish the entire brilliance of the books. I can say however that MWT is a genius, and she creates awesome characters and awesome story. You never know what's going to happen, and she is the queen of twists. I also really appreciate how clean and to the point her writing is. Everything she includes is there for a reason. I've read the four books about three times now, and King of Attolia (third book) about five or six times, and I discover new things each time I read them. And if you really need more convincing, R.J. Anderson wrote a lovely non-spoiler-y review of the series here.  
  2. The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta

Come on, all my lists of my favourite books have to include my favourite author. I have to admit I put off reading the first book in this series, Finnikin of the Rock, for a long time considering MM wrote my favourite book of all time, Jellicoe Road. I just had trouble getting through the first few pages, but once I did get through that confusion, I read and fell in love with the heartbreaking story and characters that Melina Marchetta had once again created. MM is amazing at characters, and that is what I read for - characters. Froi of the Exiles was just as heartbreaking (although sometimes confusing), but Quintana of Charyn, the final book in the series, wrapped it up perfectly staying true to the characters, story, world while at the same time providing a message of hope. Belle at Belle's Bookshelf wrote a wonderful post that explains ten reasons why you should read this series.

3. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

This was one of the best fantasies I've read in a long time! The concept of dragons in human form cavorting around with humans and the political and racial (species?) tensions between them was so interesting and different. The writing was clean and crisp, just like Megan Whalen Turner's, and the characters were perfectly well rounded and I loved the development of the relationships between them. I'm super excited for the second book, Shadowscale, which comes out in March 2015! (Also my copy of Seraphina has a shiny cover which is super fun).

4. Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

The thing I liked about this fantasy was that it was not in a European setting, which was refreshing for a fantasy. Eliza's character was also really well-written and interesting. There was also an aspect on religion, which is not always present in YA. 

5. The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

I saw the first book in this series, Shadow and Bone, EVERYWHERE before I started reading it - and thankfully this was one of the few times where the book actually lived up to the hype! It was a very different fantasy, very dark and the setting was Russian-inspired. My mom and brother also read the series. I think the third book is the best, which is good because that is how it is supposed to be in a trilogy (*cough*allegiant*cough*).

6. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Another book that lived up to the hype! I was excited to finally get my hands on it, and I was even more excited that I liked it. An interesting story and good characters, what more could you ask for?

7. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Genius, a classic, and hilarious. 

There you go! Some great fantasies. Read them and get lost in their awesome worlds and characters. :)  
  
What are your recommendations for good fantasy books? 

Review of All the Books I Read in 2014

It's my annual tradition to stuff all of the book reviews I could have done throughout the year into one post (although I did do more individual reviews this year thanks to the A to Z challenge I did), so here you go! This year I read 109 books, compared to last year when I read 57 (although this year I wasn't taking any English courses where I had to read books, so).

Best Books of 2014

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo - An interesting fantasy with a Russian-inspired setting. Lived up to all the hype!

Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta - Perfect, heartwarming ending to series full of sorrow, heartbreak, and good characters. 

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater - An interesting series with good characters! (The Dream Thieves is probably my favourite though). 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - Stephanie Perkins and Rainbow Rowell are on the top of my list of YA romance authors. They write the best romances. 

A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers - A powerful book that is written so well and doesn't shy away from anything. I'm not a huge reader of historical fiction, but this one (and it's sequel) was so worth it. 

Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn - A brilliantly written, painful book. I think everyone should read it. 

Books I Bought in 2014

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo - After I read Shadow and Bone, I knew I'd like the sequels (and that the wait at the library would be FOREVER), so I bought them!

Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta  - I have to own all of the Marchetta. 

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater - I bought The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves after I read The Raven Boys, and then I bought Blue Lily, Lily Blue as soon as it came out in October!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I loved Eleanor and Park, so I knew another romance by Rainbow Rowell I would want to own. I was right!

Reason for God by Timothy Keller - I bought it because I knew I would want to lend it out to people. An interesting read. 

How to Love by Katie Cotugno - I kind of wish I hadn't bought this book, since it didn't live up to the hype. 

Of Two Minds by Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman - This is a super unique MG fantasy that I read when I was younger, and I found it at a charity book sale so I bought it (for like $2!) It's also available on Kobo, I think. 

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger - I liked Kody Keplinger's other books, The DUFF and A Midsummer's Nightmare so I was hoping I would like this one... I didn't.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - Got this one at a charity book sale. It was really good! 

Dead Ends by Jade Erin Lange - I was hoping this would be better than it was. 

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher - I read this once in high school and it made an impression on me, so when I saw it at the book sale for $1, I thought I'd buy it and reread it - just as good and important the second time. 

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins - I will buy all of Stephanie Perkins books until she stops writing. 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz - I bought it because of the hype. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but I liked the family dynamic and the writing was decent. 

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutoski - Bought because of recommendations from Megan Whalen Turner fans - thankfully it lived up to the hype (and I was able to get my brother to read it)!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt - I only bought this book because the line was like 20 people long at the library, but I actually really liked it (even though it's kind of a horrible book as far as content). It's basically a modern Greek tragedy, if that explains anything. 

Water Book One: Ascension by Kara Dalkey - Again, got it at the book sale! I'd read it in middle school and thought it was the best mermaid book ever. It still is. 

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson - I bought it because it was $1.50 at Dollarama, of all places. It was good. 

Home of Our Hearts by Robin Jones Gunn - RJG is one of my favourite authors, so of course I have to have her latest book. 

Ingo by Helen Dunmore - From the book sale for like $1.50 - it was a good mermaid MG. 

And I just bought Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho, Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn yesterday, so I have yet to read them - but I will let you know how they go!

Books I Reread in 2014

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo - so I could remember what happened when I read the rest of the trilogy after I bought them. 

The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater - Because they were good and I wanted to enjoy them again - also I missed so much stuff the first time!!

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta - My tenth reread of this wonderful book, and I STILL find new things.

Codename Verity by Elizabeth Wein - I'd forgotten most of what happened, so it was just as good the second time around. 

The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner -   MWT is a genius, and in my third reread I still find new hidden gems. 

The Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn - read in anticipation of the newest release, Forever With You! 

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Of Two Minds by Perry Nodelman and Carol Matas

Worst Books of 2014

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler - It turns out a book about Facebook is just not that interesting. 

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook - So much problematic stuff in this book. (Actually now that I think about it, I bought this as an ebook. I'm trying to forget that I did).

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson - Poorly written, misrepresentation and other problems. 

Wildefire by Karsten Knight - Nothing happens, nothing gets resolved, the characters were bland, and the writing was horrible and cliche. 

The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha - Way too cheesy and fluffy for me, with surface level description and characterization. 

So there you go! A quick summary of my year in reading, although of course there were other books that I enjoyed but weren't in either extreme of best or worst. As for 2015... I still want to read lots of books (my TBR list is filling up from all these end of year recommendations!) and I also want to try and read more diversely. Ideally I'd love to get my blog up and running regularly, but it's easy to think like that when I don't have school to worry about, so we'll see. 

What about you? What were your best or worst reads of 2014? Have you read some of the books I did this year? Did you like them or not? 

Happy New Year!

Filling Up Your TBR List

The final week before school started, my family went to the lake. It's been an annual thing for years now in our family, but the best thing about this particular week this year was it gave me the chance to read more books than I had almost all summer. Some of the books I read made an impression on me, and I wanted to share about them with you, because books are cool, and you should read them.

1. UNTHINKABLE by Nancy Werlin

I read the companion book to this, IMPOSSIBLE, which is about the song of Scarborough Fair, and some curse or something that goes with it. It was such a weird, unique book that left an impression on me so much so that it's one of the few books that I actually still remember reading. UNTHINKABLE isn't as good, but it's still strange and weirdly intriguing. (Also: Twilight has nothing on the relationship in this book, a 400-year-old getting together with a 23-year-old. Aside from that, it was good.)

2. CHARM AND STRANGE by Stephanie Kuehn

This book was AMAZING. At first, I grumbled about it because I thought it was a werewolf story (I'm not hugely into werewolf stories). But it is SO MUCH MORE than a werewolf story. The writing is brilliantly done, so beautiful and subtle and gaaah just amazing. Stephanie Kuehn is talented. It's a very, very painful book though, just to warn you. But despite the heavy topic, I love books that can rip those kinds of raw emotions right from your core. I also love books that make me think, and this one definitely did - a lot. I had a book hangover for a week and a half from this one. You should definitely check it out. I think it is a very important book, and it is one hundred percent going on my list of Best Books of 2014.

3. WHAT CAME FROM THE STARS by Gary D. Schmidt

Gary D. Schmidt is in my opinion the model of what a middle grade author should be. He writes MG so well. WHAT CAME FROM THE STARS was no OKAY FOR NOW, but it was still good. The characters are so beautifully average kids, the writing is so eloquent and perfect, and there are always little gems of humour in all of his books. Gary D. Schmidt is definitely one of my favourite authors. I would recommend all of his books to middle school kids everywhere, especially this one.

4. THE WINNER'S CURSE by Marie Rutkoski

I already talked about this on my What's Up Wednesday post, but the Megan Whalen Turner fans and the hype are right: you should read it.

What are some books you read recently that you'd recommend?

What's Up Wednesday

Since I haven't really been around much on the blog, I thought I'd give you an update. What better way to do that than in a What's Up Wednesday post?

What I'm Reading

It's better than the girl-in-dress on the cover leads you to believe, don't worry. The Winner's Curse is a fantasy about a people who where conquered by another people. I'm almost halfway through, and it's really interesting. I love the characterizations of the two main characters, Kestrel and Arin. It was actually recommended to me by a bunch of Megan Whalen Turner fans, and I think they were right to recommend it! Since I was at the lake this past week, I had time to finish a bunch more books, but I think I'll make a separate blog post about those.

What I'm Writing

Nothing at the moment, because a week ago I FINISHED MY DRAFT! It's actually the fourth draft of a book I've been working on since I was in grade 11, which is almost four years ago now. Obviously, I haven't given up on it yet. Now I'm trying decide what I want to work on next. I have one book that I could outline, or another that I could rewrite. Not sure. Oh, and if you're looking for a critique partner at the moment, maybe we could swap MSs. You can contact me at kazuntai101[at]gmail[dot]com or contact me on Twitter @asherlockwrites.

What Inspires Me Right Now

This video directed by Yulin Kuang, inspired by Neil Gaiman's Dark Sonnet, is beautiful.

Also, I was at the lake last week with my family, and on our second last night there, my dad and I went canoeing just before sunset. It was the perfect time for canoeing. The lake was calm, there was barely any wind to struggle against, and there was a breathtaking sunset to behold.

 

 

What Else I've Been Up To

I finished my summer job a week ago, spent my last week of summer at the lake, and now tomorrow is my first day of classes. I actually transferred universities this year, so I'm starting a new school again. It's not that bad, and it's actually nice because now I only have a 20 minute bike ride to school instead of an hour bus ride. I'm also excited because my classes seem interesting enough, and different than the general stuff I took last year, which was mostly stuff I'd already taken in high school like English and history. Other than that, I am doing nothing unrelated to reading and writing. :)

If you want to get more regular updates from me, you can follow me on Twitter @asherlockwrites.

What about you? What have you been up to?

S is for Small Damages by Beth Kephart

This was another book about an American in a different country - this time, in Spain. Kenzie got pregnant, and her mother ships her off to a friend's in Spain to avoid further embarrassment and to keep Kenzie's pregnancy and baby a secret.

The writing is beautiful in this book, and that's definitely it's strength. The setting was lovely, and the book made me feel cozy and warm. Sometimes it felt kind of stifling being in Kenzie's head all the time, but it made sense because of her situation and her location - way out in the no man's land of Spain.

I loved the beautiful simplicity of the story and the relationships. I loved Kenzie's relationship with her hostess, Estela, and despite all their bickering how you can read so much love and respect between them behind that. I especially loved how the book was written as Kenzie addressing her baby. It speaks a lot about how she feels about all of this. Plus it's super sweet.

It was definitely a slower book, and not earth shattering anyway, but that was okay. Actually, the cover of the book definitely accurately portrays the contents.

If you love beautiful writing about warm settings, and a small cast of characters, then this is the book for you.

You can check it out here on Goodreads and the author's website here.

Also... this is the end of all of the reviews that I did for the A to Z challenge, and also it's supposed to end in April (oops). For now I am going to stop, but perhaps I will fill in the rest of the letters at a later point in time. In a few days I'll have a wrap up post and then I think I need to chat about some other things that have gone on in the online book world in the past month or so! Later. :)

R is for The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

(I'm finishing up my A to Z Book Reviews - I only have R and S written and then I'm done... and I know it's not April anymore...oops.)

How many times have I seen Maggie Stiefvater books recommended? Well, a lot, to the point where it is not even an option anymore NOT to read a book of hers. However, I could never quite bring myself to read her books on werewolves unfortunately since I'm not huge into paranormal. But a Melina Marchetta fan recommended The Raven Cycle, so of course I had to read it. :)

The Raven Boys is basically about this girl, Blue, who is the daughter of a for-real psychic. She lives in a house with a bunch of relatives, all of whom are also psychic. In fact, she's the only one in her family NOT psychic, however she is an amplifier for her family's psychic abilities.

On the other side of the story is a group of four boys, Gansey, Noah, Adam and Ronan who go to a school for rich boys and thus invoke hatred from everyone in their small community for being rich. They are involved with this crazy scheme that their group ringleader, Gansey, is obsessed with that involves waking up a long dead or sleeping king and getting a favour from him.

Of course, the boys and Blue's lives get intertwined and things get interesting from there.

As I said, I'm not huge into the paranormal and I'm not really one for psychic stuff. It makes it a lot harder for me to get into the story. However, for The Raven Boys I did my best to push that aside and let the story prove itself to me. It did.

The plot didn't really pick up until the last handful of chapters, but that was completely okay because the majority of the book was spent on the characters. If you've followed me anywhere online, you know that if there are good characters in a book, it is very easy for me to fall in love. I loved the characters in this book. Blue, Gansey, Noah, Adam and Ronan were each complex and unique characters. They were almost real people more than characters, actually.

I also loved the development of the relationships between the characters. I love how Blue slowly gets to know "her raven boys", and at the same time I got to know the boys (and Blue) as well. The third person POV switching definitely helped with that. So effective. I love alternative POVs, especially when the POVs are on either side of the story.

So the characters were definitely the best part, and that makes the book pretty good in my eyes. However, I did end up being immersed into the psychic magic stuff by the end. I loved how I kind of got swept up with Gansey's obsession just like the rest of the boys and Blue were. I'm really curious to see where this all goes, and I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time with these awesome characters.

(Also I read the sequel, The Dream Thieves, and it was amazing! I hate that the third book doesn't come out until October.)

Check out The Raven Boys on Goodreads and Amazon.
Check out Maggie Stiefvater at her website and on Twitter.