Top 10 YA SequeIs I can’t wait to read in 2012

I read SO much YA in 2011, (mostly dystopian) that there are many sequels to YA books I am clamouring to read in 2012!

1. Beautiful Creatures Book #4 by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

2. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

3. the to-be-titled third instalment in the MATCHED Trilogy by Ally Condie

4. Fever, sequel to Wither by Lauren DeStefano

5.Insurgent, sequel to Divergent by Veronica Roth

6. Pandemonium, sequel to Delirium by Lauren Oliver

7. Legend # 2 by Marie Lu

8. Once, book two in the Eve Trilogy by Anna Carey

9. A Million Suns by Beth Revis

10. Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2 by Laini Taylor ( I need to read the first one but I can still look forward to this!)

what YA sequels are you looking forward to reading in 2012?

Reading Challenge: A Year full of Dickens!

2012 is finally here and February 7 marks the two hundredth anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth. In honor of Dickens, I am proposing a reading challenge to read one Dickens work per month. A few of my close friends will be joining me (at their own pace, and not for the entire year) and I welcome you, reader, to do so as well. You can follow my challenge all year or just the months/works that interest you. The problem now lies in which of Dickens works to choose! I took a seminar in Dickens work in graduate school and it was one of my top three favorite seminars. We read: Bleak House, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and The Old Curiosity Shop. Bleak House is my absolute favorite and I’ve decided to start my Dickens challenge with it for the January Selection. Not surprisingly, A Christmas Carol will be December’s selection. I may have a poll to see what work we should read each month before the end of each month. I cannot wait to return to Victorian London!

Will you be reading Dickens this year? Which works? Happy Reading!

2012 Reading and Writing Resolutions

Happy New Year! I hope that all of you had a safe and Happy New Year and are enjoying the first day of 2012! Let’s hope the Mayans were wrong, shall we! My to-read list is too long to be interrupted by the end of the world! haha.

All joking aside, I’d like to share with you my reading and writing resolutions for 2012

Reading Resolutions:

I am not one to say I must read x number of books in a year. Job happens, extra job happens, life happens. Instead I will say I’d like to aim for 2-3 books finished per month.

I’d like to read more classics, and medieval literature. (more on these in a separate post).

I want to start a bookish club/discussion group with my friends.

I want to read  one classic work per month, hopefully not one I have already read.

I think those are enough resolutions for reading, let’s move on to those resolutions for writing.

Writing Resolutions:

I want to finish a first draft of at least one novel that I have been working on.

I want to plot out my book of poetry.

I need to plot out my memoir.

The novella I wrote when I was 12 needs to be typed up into my laptop (it only exists in hard copy form)

I want to research and write a draft of one article of literary criticism (instead of putting it off for another year!)

Now that I’ve shared with you my resolutions, what are some of yours?

Book Review: Crossed by Ally Condie

Of all the books I read in 2010, Matched was probably my favorite. I raced through the book mesmerized by the poetic language of Ally Condie. When I heard Matched was the first in a trilogy, I quickly became obsessed with the second installment. I had the pleasure of meeting Ally at a signing at the LA Times Festival of Books this past April. I did ask Ally if the second book would feature more with Xander. She said that the second installment would not have a lot of Xander but the THIRD would make up for that. EEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I later talked to my friend who works for Penguin as she had already read Crossed. She said of Crossed “I was Team Ky but then something happened that I went to Team Xander”, that statement haunted and delighted me and I made it my goal to get an ARC of Crossed. This long diatribe does have a point as my friend and I waited and started a line 40 minutes before the ARCS of Crossed were to be handed out. I had never seen an ARC more beautiful than Crossed, which featured the actual cover that would be used in the final printing.

I tore into Crossed shortly after I got it. If you read my post on Eve, you would know I don’t usually cry when I read. Crossed had me crying on page 36 or so. It was a lot slower than Matched, almost painfully slower in parts but the beautiful language made up for it. I never thought that Cassia would meet up with Ky and I was not happy when they did-sorry I’m Team Xander all the way! Once they met up, wow. I can’t even go into the emotions that happened after several revelations. I now LOATHE Ky, absolutely loathe him. I understand why he did what he did (keeping it non-spoilery here) but as I type this, I am still incensed by his actions.

With that said, I cannot wait to dive more into the Rebels and the uprising and if my suspicions about Xander’s role in all of it ring true. When I reached halfway through the novel I really got into Crossed and could not put it down. Ally Condie is a master of description and her picturesque fine comb detail of the Outer Realms and the Cavern was amazing. I am now giddy with anticipation and excitement about the third and final novel in the trilogy. I assume the cover will be red (to symbolize the last pill and color that hasn’t been featured on the cover thus far). I cannot even wait to find out the name of the title! I try to daydream possible titles but they all don’t seem to work. I’m actually embarrassed to admit that so I won’t be putting my title thoughts here.

Here’s to hoping we get news on part 3 soon and that November 2012 comes quickly!

Happy reading!

Book Review- Legend by Marie Lu

Legend was another book I was desperately after during my time at Comic Con 2011, but sadly the Penguin booth was out of copies by the time I got there. Luckily, my friend who works for Penguin sent me an ARC. I started Legend in August and barely 30 pages in, I had a scare. My teething kitten got to the cover and teethed all over the corner. I’m completely anal about my books so I was NOT happy about that. I ended up tweeting a picture of the damage to Marie Lu and she thought it was funny. Now on to the review.

I had heard a lot of buzz that Legend was THE dystopian to read this year and there was nothing else like it. I knew from page one, that this was not your cookie cutter dystopian, if there is such a type of dystopian that is cookie cutter. I love that the point of view shifted back and forth between Day and June. I really liked both characters and that neither were flat or uninteresting. June is a great strong feminist heroine and I cannot wait to see her develop in the next two books. Day had so many amazing layers to him that I found myself more drawn to him then June in some parts. The twists and turns in the plot that I will keep from divulging left me breathless. There were many facets of betrayal and secrets that were mind-boggling and really added and pushed the story along.

I think the buzz and hype of Legend was worth it. It has a fresh setting and concept. The characters are fleshed out really well and I liked the dynamic between Tess and Day the most. I did feel that June and Day’s attraction was too instantaneous and rushed but the jail scene at the end validated it more for me.

Overall this was an enjoyable read and it has its own place in the white-hot dystopian YA genre. It was a slow start for  me but 100 pages in I could not put the book down or turn the pages fast enough. Thank you so much to my friend for providing this. I cannot wait to see how this trilogy progresses and will be awaiting Legend #2.

If you liked Hunger Games, Divergent, and love dystopian, read Legend!

Book Review: Eve By Anna Carey

Eve was one of 6 or 7 books I picked up on the last day of Comic Con 2011. I had the opportunity to meet Anna Carey at a signing after the High School Bites panel. I was unfamiliar with Carey until Eve was pressed in my hand but Carey was very pleasant to talk to as she signed my copy. 

I read Eve a few months ago and have heard it compared to Hunger Game and The Handmaid’s Tale. While it is obviously dystopian, both books are in very separate castes. 

I really enjoyed the California, New America setting where Eve takes place. The pacing is a bit slow in parts, which made it hard to become completely engrossed in but it was a great payoff a the end. I had a love/hate relationship with Eve herself, she annoyed me a lot and I felt that Carey had not rounded her out as a character as much as she did for Caleb and Arden. However, the further on in the book I got, I came to the hypothesis that Carey purposely leaves Eve the character to be flat because of her sheltered nature and upbringing.

I fell in love with Caleb before Eve did, the swoon-worthy blonde who rescues and shelters her. while he is not Peeta (who is, really?) he was a refreshing take on the cute hero type popping up in dystopians lately. I am interested to see what their relationship evolves into in subsequent books.

I very rarely cry when I read books ( can count the amount of books i have shed tears while reading on one hand) but I did tear up at the end of Eve. I’ll be spoiler-less and not elaborate.

I cannot wait until the next installment and hope for an even stronger second book in this fresh trilogy!

If you liked Hunger Games, and you ate up Wither, try Eve! 

Winter Break Reading and Writing Goals

Hello there!

November and early December escaped me and so here I am, on Winter Break, finally able to blog! I have finished a bunch of books I need to post reviews on, and will work on getting those posted this week. I am on day 3 of my winter vacation and am looking forward to a lot of reading and writing.

Here’s what my reading schedule looks like:

Week 1:

Finish The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

Read Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Read Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

 

Week 2:

Read Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

*Another book TBD out of my ALA Mid-Winter 2011 & Comic Con 2011 book pile

I’ve also been writing again and it feels so good to start fleshing out all the characters screaming in my head and the scenes that have been dancing around in it for so long.

I am hoping to complete a few chapters for the two books I am starting to write. One is a fresh idea but the other is based on a novella I wrote when I was twelve that I only have in hard copy. I need to type it into my laptop and get copies of chapters from the novel I started in college on to my laptop as well. My goals are to have those completed by the time I return to work.

Do you have any reading or writing goals over Winter Break?

ONYX Cover Reveal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I was thrilled when I was picked to be a part of the cover reveal for Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout, this is my first cover reveal, ever! Onyx is the second book in the Lux series, the first is Obsidian, which releases tomorrow, December 6th!

Here are the cover and description for Obsidian, courtesy of Good Reads:

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don’t kill him first, that is…

You can purchase Obsidian via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Book Depository at the links below:

Amazon

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/obsidian-jennifer-l-armentrout/1105621066?ean=9781937044237&itm=6&usri=jennifer%2bl%2barmentrout&workid=1033604979

http://www.bookdepository.com/Obsidian-Jennifer-Armentrout/9781937044237

And without further adieu, here is the highly anticipated cover for Onyx!

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

Wow, what a cover! I really like how both titles are a type of gemstone, I wonder what the significance of both stones will be to the plot and series overall. Happy reading everyone!

The books that have impacted me so much, they are a must to re-read!

For the past few years I have been not re-read anything. I have been focused on reading books for the first time. If you have read my post entitled October Reading Goals (which I should have titled Fall Reading Goals), you know there are some re-reads on the list (mostly Austen). In order for me to re-read a book I need  a specific reason, eg. the next in the series or last in such is coming out, a film adaptation is coming out, or I want to do a project/research on it. A book I read in the Fall of 2009 has impacted me so much it will always be high on the top of my re-read list.

That book is The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. I read it during a bout with Swine flu. All 600 pages flew by in a week. I have never craved a book so much as I craved this book while reading it and still crave it today. If Charles Dickens and A Bronte Sister had a love child who wrote, that child would be Michael Cox. Let me continue by saying it is NOT a pastiche, but a brilliant masterpiece set in Victorian London that is so masterful it could have been written during the time of Dickens and other Victorian writers.

The plot alone has so many twists and turns. I still giggle at the awesomeness of the first line which tells of a murderer’s actions after he murders a man for the first time. I giggle because the line is so sadistically preposterous and such a gripping way to being a novel. I daydream about reading this novel again, though I got a second copy since i did have swine flu all over the first one and I am planing an article of literary criticism based on this book and need one to read and one to mark up.

Sigh…I need to get back to Edward Glover, stat!

Superb TV Writing and Why I miss Friends (the tv show)

While channel surfing this weekend I stumbled upon some old episodes of Friends. I won’t begin to date myself with how young I was/wasn’t when the episodes I watched aired but it was the birthday episode where Rachel’s parents were newly separated and when Ross’ ex-wife married her partner. I had forgotten how powerful this show was to my generation and how good it was!

An hour in, I was blown away by a new-found respect for the writers of Friends. They really were ahead of their time in situation and comedic writing, especially in the wedding episode. The lines were well planned and timed out, especially for comedic response. The dialogue was fresh and witty, and still relevant! Folks, they just don’t make tv shows like that anymore!

When I think of superb examples of Television writing I think of Friends and Gilmore Girls. Those are the two paragons I have in my head. Sure Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family are very well done, but sometimes the best writing has already been produced and gone off into the syndication sunset.