Bloggin 'Bout Books Blog

I didn't read this classic in high school, but I tackled it in college, and I'm so glad I did. 1984 (or Nineteen Eighty-Four) by George Orwell is a futuristic dystopian. It's a difficult little book. It presents many concepts that are hard to understand and wrap your head around because it features a lot of contradictory ideas and phrases. I didn't enjoy it at first, but I kept pushing through. Sometimes classics aren't very enjoyable until the end. And about two-thirds of the way through this one, I finally liked it. And I liked it a lot.  It's been a few years, and I'd sort of like to re-read it. It's difficult to decide to reread classics though because they typically are more difficult and time-consuming to read.  I would recommend this to people who enjoy dystopians and don't mind slow building books that are a little difficult to follow.

One of my very favorite series (outside of HP of course) was one I read in fifth or sixth grade. It's popular to the point that I'm always amazed when someone else hasn't read it, but when I read it, I was a one-man fandom. I honestly read The Golden Compass like four times in one year. I still love the book with the fire of a thousand suns. I have never been so disappointed in a movie adaptation as in the one for the Golden Compass. I more-or-less refuse to acknowledge its existence. Except for when I need to point out that people should totally read the books if they've only seen the movie.  The Golden Compass follows Lyra on her quest to save her best friend, Roger.  The Subtle Knife finds Lyra in a new world with Will. The Amber Spyglass  leads Lyra and Will into a world of terrible danger where everything depends on their choices. I am obsessed with The Golden Compass. The Subtle Knife was good but not as good. And I've only read The ...

I started this series in early college, and I loved it.  Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series are fun, quick, sexy paranormal romances. I think I've read every single one of them in one sitting.  Each book follows a different Lord of the Underworld. These men are each cursed with one of the escaped demons from Pandora's Box. They're living with the demons while attempting to find Pandora's Box and return the demons to it.  The series is still ongoing, and I'm a few books behind. But my favorite so far is third: The Darkest Pleasure . It's not necessary to read these books in order for each main plot, however there is an overarching plot that will be hard to follow if you read them out of order. I would recommend these books to people looking for a little bit of racy romance. The relationships so far are entirely heterosexual, just as a heads up.  My ratings vary by book, but for the series as a whole, I'd give it.....

This Throw-Back Thursday goes out to the series that satisfied me between Harry Potter releases.  Graphic found through Google and attributed to abottomlessbookbag The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane was what kept me from pulling myself apart during the spaces between Harry Potter booms (or at least from rereading HP more than I already did). It's not really a fair comparison. The books are nothing alike. Their common similarities is simply that they both deal with magic, and that's about it. So You Want to be a Wizard is the first in the series. It finds young Nita -- hounded by bullies from school--discovering a book in the library. Set up like the typical series book "so you want to be a", this one, Nita is astonished to discover, finishes the sentence with wizard. And Nita is willing to try anything at this point. After taking the Wizard's Oath, she meets up with fellow young wizard Kit and together they must make it through their Ordeal...

Hello Lovelies! For this tbt, I'm looking at a book I read a couple years ago at the suggestion of Rosianna . I don't often read adult books, but I'd never read anything like Ghana Must Go . It's a book I think about fairly consistently.  Here's what I wrote about it on Goodreads: Ghana Must Go is the fascinating story of one family's beginning and ending. When the father of the Sai family dies, the family is brought back together for the funeral. Through their interactions, we learn about the destruction they have survived thus far and how it has affected the family members. By the end, we hope to see them healing.  This isn't typically a novel I would have picked up, but I saw Rosianna's (missxrojas on youtube's) review of it. I'm so glad I decided to grab it.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys people. If you find people and their problems interesting, you'd probably enjoy Ghana Must Go. While I was...

In middle school, I was a member of this reading club where we had a set of books to read as a team, and then we did like little quizzes on them against other teams. (SUPER NERD!). And now, I'm not entirely certain, but I feel pretty sure that club was where I read this book for the first time. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare is a Newbery award winning historical fiction novel. Orphan Kit Tyler has been moved from her home in the Caribbean to her puritan relative's home in Connecticut.  She feels like she has nothing in common with these relatives, but she does form an attachment with an old Quaker woman and a young sailor, Nat. Of course breaking out of the mold is not without its price, and Kit learns this for herself when she is accused of witchcraft. This is one of those books that I think about constantly. I haven't reread it in several years, but I always want to. I recommend it frequently to other. This is a book for readers...

This is another one where I read it relatively recently, but just long enough ago that I didn't have my blog yet.  Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld is a steampunk novel set during WWII. I loved it. Here's my review from Goodreads. Scott Westerfeld manages to create an alternate history which makes sense. He fabricates a reality where gene splicing has become very common by the beginning of the 20th Century. Because of this, half of the world calls themselves Darwinists, people who live their lives surrounded by creatures made by combining gene traits. On the other half of the world are those who prefer machinery. Complex machinery has also become common place (although not to the extent of computers, more along the lines of giant, oil-based monsters in a steam punk way.) Leviathan follows two young adults who have managed to find themselves at the center of what will become the War to End all Wars. World War 1 wasn't averted by the changes in history, but it ...

This tbt perfectly matches this week's wcw! I actually only read this one a few years ago, so I do have a review written! I just only ever posted it on my Goodreads because it was pre-this blog. So here's what I posted on Goodreads: I have the tendency to judge books by their covers. It's a bad habit, I know. But when I'm perusing the shelves at my local library, looking for the next book to occupy a slot in my heart, I look with my eyes. Thirteenth Child caught my eye on the shelf, and I picked it up. I'd read several of Wrede's books before, and I remember enjoying them a lot. Thirteenth Child didn't disappoint me. However, it did take a while to interest me.  Thirteenth Child is the story of Eff, a thirteenth child and thus considered unlucky in her world. Even more unfortunate is the fact that her twin brother Lan is a seventh son of a seventh son blessed with innate magic. To get away from the stereotypes surrounding both children, thei...