Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 324
Reaction: Yes, the whole time I was reading this book I was jamming out to Daft Punk in my head. This book is about a very talented child, Ender, who is responsible for saving the earth from an invading alien species. From six year old genius to the youngest war leader ever, you follow Ender's transformation through the entire process. This is a coming of age story that centers around war games, self discovery and political strife. I enjoyed the majority of this book, but it lost me a little at the end when the war had been fought and the dust was settling. Also, there was a lot of political and theoretical rhetoric that was kind of a turn off. These are young kids speaking like philosophers and politicians which goes a little too far into the realm of unrealistic for my liking. As a youth, I could never buy into Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies, and this book seems like it's trying to be like those. Overall though, the main heart of the story was endearing and likable, I definitely can't wait until the movie comes out this fall!!
Rating: B-
Author: Joseph Wallace
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 480
Reaction: It happened to be right around the 4th of July that I picked this book up. I wanted to read something that optimized the American traditions, something that was truly patriotic, and I found that in Diamond Ruby. Ruby is a girl who has been thrown into the role of sole provider for her family after a tragic set of events. This 17 year old girl is now responsible for her alcoholic brother and his two young daughters in the tumultuous 1920's. This is a story of the strength of a woman who defied the times and the opinions of others to succeed in a man's sport- baseball. Ruby takes us from a small booth on Coney Island, to the house that Ruth built in her rise to fame. At first I thought that, though the story is enjoyable, the premise was a little far fetched, but I started googling around and found out that in fact, there was a 17 year old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in 1931. Ruby's story is loosely based around that historical incident. Pretty cool.
Rating: B+
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: High Fantasy
Pages: 274
Reaction: It has been a little while since I read a middle grade book. I think the last one was Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I should have known from that experience that I have developed a little bit further than that in my reading abilities to enjoy a book of that caliber. I trudged through this book though and tried to appreciate it for what it was, unfortunately I found myself skimming large sections and not being able to enjoy what I was reading.
Rating: C
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 356
...Currently reading...
Books Added to the Library Since Last Time
Title: Along for the Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Genre: Contemporary
History Behind My Choice: All of the Booktubers I watch are in love with this author. After having read so many YA Paranormal/ Dystopian books, I'm looking to get into something different for a while. I think after reading my first Nicholas Sparks books, I've warmed up to this genre a little bit. I've been wanting to try a Sarah Dessen book for a while, so when this came available on Bookmooch, I swooped it up!
Title: Blood Red Road
Author: Moira Young
Genre: YA Dystopian
History Behind My Choice: From the readers I respect on Goodreads, this book has gotten some amazing reviews. It has a strong female lead who supposedly kicks some ass. I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I'm always down for some girl vs. evil action.
Title: The Diviners
Author: Libba Bray
Genre: YA Paranormal
History Behind My Choice: I have read a Libba Bray book before and honestly, I wasn't all that impressed. Something about fairies and their "realm" that I just can't get behind. This book though, incorporates fortune tellers and the 1920's. What could go wrong with that combination? I've heard this is a great read and I'm willing to give Libba a chance!
Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: YA Paranormal
History Behind My Choice: I think if you look at my genre choices for this haul, you'd see a pattern. The bad thing is that I think I'm a little sick of YA books at the moment, I haven't read anything great lately, but I'm just going to keep trying. This is a vampire dystopian book where vampires have taken over the human world. Ever since Twilight I've been a sucker (pun intended) for vampire books, so I'll be excited to give this one a go.
Title: Silver Linings Playbook
Author: Matthew Quick
Genre: Contemporary
History Behind My Choice: Ever since the movie came out and I discovered that it was a book first, I needed to get my hands on it. I hear this is a very delightful tale written by a talented writer. I'm excited to read some more contemporary literature!
Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Author: Sherman Alexie
Genre: YA
History Behind My Choice: From anything I've heard about this book, it's humorous and heartbreaking. A coworker saw me unwrap this book and got so excited that I was going to absolutely love it. He owns a copy himself.
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