Magic Phone!

Title: Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Romance
Length: 308 pages

Synopsis:

It’s December. Georgie is supposed to be finishing up scripting the last few episodes of the sitcom she writes for before getting ready to fly to Nebraska with her husband Neal and her two daughters to spend Christmas with the in-laws. Then lightening strikes: a producer is interested in the show she and her longtime friend, Seth, have always wanted to write. But the scripts are due a few days after Christmas.

Georgie chooses to skip the family trip, and her frustrated husband and daughters leave for Nebraska. But this is just a fight, right? She hasn’t destroyed their marriage through her dedication to her career, has she?

When Neal doesn’t answer her phone calls, she digs out an old, yellow landline phone at her mother’s house and tries to call Neal at his family home. But the Neal who answers isn’t really her Neal, but a still-in-college Neal in 1998. This Neal is home for Christmas break, and has recently got in a major fight with still-in-college Georgie.

Georgie has found a magic, time-traveling phone.

Georgie continue calling this younger version on Neal, and Rowell pieces together the history of their relationship. Georgie knows that after this holiday, 1998-Neal will drive back to Georgie and propose. She begins to wonder–should she be convincing Neal to stick with the relationship, or would he have been happier without her?

Review:

When I opened up my computer to start Landline, I only intended to read a few chapters. Instead, I read the entire book in one sitting.

Over and over, Rainbow Rowell gets me to read one of the few genres I rarely enjoy–romance. I don’t mind romance in my reading, but I usually want it to be a side story not the focus. Not so with Rainbow’s books. She’s officially been added to my “Will Read Anything By This Author” list.

The dialogue and characterization are where Rowell continues shines–witty, snappy, and funny. I laughed aloud several times. And just like Attachments and Fangirl, the non-romantic relationships are just as developed and interesting as the actual couple. In Landline, the “side” relationships that really stood out to me were those with her friend/co-writer Seth, her younger sister Heather (who has an interesting side-story of her own with the pizza delivery person), and her mother.

A few other things I enjoyed: a romance novel set after the characters get together. The focus is more on making the relationship/marriage work not just falling in love. I think that’s rare for this type of book.

I also love that Rowell doesn’t take the time-traveling phone too seriously. She’s realizes it’s an unusual plot device and isn’t afraid to poke fun at it throughout the book.

“Someone had given Georgie a magic phone and all she’d wanted to do with it is stay up late talking to her old boyfriend. If they’d given her a proper time machine, she probably would have used it to cuddle with him. Let someone else kill Hitler.”

I’ve been a fan of Rowell since I saw her charm the audience to death in October. She’s seems really funny, kind, generous and authentic. Finishing her books always reminds me of that impression, because the books feel the same way.

My ARC expired before I could look for this Easter Egg. I think I figured it out, but bonus points to whomever lets me look at a physical copy so I can confirm it:

https://twitter.com/rainbowrowell/statuses/486172424569114624

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of Landline from Above the Treeline (Edelweiss) in exchange for an honest review.

Murder in Libraries, sans Agatha Christie

Chapter One

With his back pressed close again the door of the police station, Carty Rand stood gloomily staring across the street. Should he go up to the Press Club and play poker with the gang, or spend the next hour improving his mind at the public library?

-Murder in a Library

Title: Murder in a Library
Author: Charles J. Dutton
Rating: 3 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Length: 302 pages

Synopsis:

Carty Rand is a young newspaper reporter. He’s assigned to cover stories surrounding police work and the public library. So when he finds the reference librarian, Ruby Merton, murdered in her office next to a reading room full of people, he can’t help but investigate. Rand is joined by a police inspector (Kent), the chief of police (Rogan), and a popular professor of abnormal psychology (Manners), in an investigation that takes them from the library to the local speakeasy, but they are all puzzled. As they repeat ad nauseum, who would ever kill a librarian, and why?

http://instagram.com/p/oY03SBtxql/embed/

Review:

I came across Murder in a Library by chance, while I was searching for a different missing book at the library. Flipping open an original copy from 1931 the overwhelming hardboiled detective vibe was strong from page one (spoiler alert: Carty Rand chooses to go to the library). I was instantly charmed and checked it out. Here’s another snippet from the first chapter:

Crossing the floor he paused at the delivery desk and for a few moments joked with the efficient looking girl who was in charge. Because of the storm the room was almost deserted and the assistant had plenty of time at her disposal. There were at least twenty girls on the staff and Rand knew them all…

And now every one of you who has ever worked in a library is thinking, “Oh, he’s one of those types.”

Honestly, I enjoyed this book simply for the era and attitude it captures, but it was not a good book. Rather, reading Murder in a Library was a so-bad-it’s-good situation. The writing is sloppy, and Dutton oddly repeats himself all the time. The mystery wasn’t particularly engaging. Oh, and the old librarian stereotypes (and sexism) are very strong in this one. Poor Ruby Merton, the reference librarian, comes off as a pretty unpleasant character. Here’s a taste of how she’s described:

• “…A funny, repressed neurotic, whom life had soured, who, to say the least, was not well liked.”
• “No one had ever called the reference librarian good-looking; there were many who said she was just the opposite. Eccentric in everything she did, like many of her type, her clothes ran to vivid, extreme colors.”
• “Why should anyone kill that harmless, neurotic old maid? True she had a sharp tongue, caused no doubt by the fact that most of the prizes of life had passed her by, but to murder her—the thought was absurd. Yet she had been murdered. That reality could not be escaped.”

Ouch. It reminds me of It’s a Wonderful Life when the fact that Mary is an unmarried librarian is just about the worst thing George can imagine:

George: Please, Clarence, where’s my wife? Tell me where my wife is.
Clarence: You’re not going to like it, George.
George: Where is she? What happened to her?
Clarence: She became an old maid. She never married.
George: Where is she? Where is she?
Clarence: She’s…she’s just about to close up the library!

The book is pretty short, and if you want to read it, a scanned version of Murder in a Library is available for free on HathiTrust!

 

The Burning

Title: The Burning
Author: Jane Casey
Series: Maeve Kerrigan #1
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 368 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:

A serial killer, named the Burning Man, is murdering and then burning the bodies of young women in London, leaving very little evidence behind for police to follow. DC Maeve Kerrigan becomes deeply involved in the case when the fifth victim is found, Rebecca Haworth. Initially assumed to be the work of the Burning Man, there are a few details that are different in Rebecca’s case, leading Maeve to dig deeper into Rebecca’s lives and the lives of those around her, including an old college friend and an ex-boyfriend.

Review:

I’ll admit, it’s been awhile since I actually read this book, so details are a bit fuzzy. What I do remember is that I really enjoyed it. While the book blurb makes it sound like the story will be about the serial killer, in reality the focus is on Maeve’s investigation of Rebecca’s death. The story actually alternates between Maeve’s point-of-view and that of Rebecca’s old college friend, Louise.

The mystery and the story were interesting, but pretty straightforward. What I liked the most about the book was Maeve’s character. Maeve’s a very driven, insightful female detective whose trying to make it in a field dominated by men. I appreciated that Maeve could hold her own on the force and stand up for herself when needed without becoming an overly one-dimensional “strong” female character. I don’t usually enjoy hardboiled, jaded detectives. Maeve’s voice was refreshing.

I definitely want to continue with this series someday.

I received an free ebook copy of The Burning through NetGalley, as part of the promotion for the newest book in the series, The Stranger You Know.

#TheArchivedNeedsaThirdBook

    

Titles: The Archived (#1), The Unbound (#2)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Pages: 328 pages, 368 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

Mackenzie Bishop is a Keeper. She helps maintain the separation between our world and the Archive–where lives are stored as Histories after death, only able to be read by Librarians. But sometimes, the Histories wake up and try to escape. Since a young age, Mackenzie was trained by her grandfather to track these Histories down and return them to the Archive. When her family moves to an old hotel-turned-apartments following the death of her younger brother, Mackenzie must try to deal with her grief, the quirky boy-next-door, a mysterious old murder, an unusual number of escaping Histories, and a mysterious boy in the shadows between worlds.

Review:

So, Zelda has already posted reviews of The Archived and The Unbound, so I’ll keep my thoughts short.

I loved these two books. Obviously, I love the library elements of the world. The afterlife as an archive. Returns. Librarians (especially David Tennant Roland). But, I also loved the creepy hotel and secret passages unlocked by special keys. Being able to “read” histories. An old, unsolved murder.

Mackenzie is a great lead character. Strong, relatable, independent, yet flawed and uncertain at times. I appreciate that she is physically and mentally strong character (she would totally win in a fist-fight), but she wasn’t solely defined by her strength. She deals with grief, makes mistakes and tries to fix them, worries about if she’s doing the right thing, and struggles to balance the different parts of her life.

I’ll admit, Wesley (aka “Guyliner”) was a bit much for me at times, but I got used to it. Now, I can usually forgive Wesley his quirkiness.

Apparently, it is uncertain whether the series will be continued, which is why I thought I’d get my vote for the series out there (and the source of the hashtag post title). The books are really fun, interesting reads, and Victoria Schwab should get a chance to finish them!

The Real Boy

Title: The Real Boy
Author: Anne Ursu
Rating: 4 Stars
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Length: 352 pages

Synopsis

Oscar is a magician’s hand. He happiest gathering herbs from the ancient Barrow, reading books snuck from Caleb’s library during the night, or working in the cellar, surrounded by cats while preparing various magical herbs for Caleb. He doesn’t remember life before becoming a hand, and he doesn’t quite get his fellow human beings. When an accident forces Oscar to work in the shop, two things happen. One, he realizes he doesn’t work and think like everyone else. Two, he makes a friend in the healer’s apprentice, Callie.

The “perfect” children from the nearby city begin falling ill, while something dangerous lurks in the forest, attacking things with magic. With the magician and healer disappearing for large amounts of time, Oscar and Callie have to find a way to help the ill children and figure out what exactly is going wrong. 

Review

I really enjoyed The Real Boy. For a one-off, middle grade novel, Ursu’s Alethia is richly developed, with magic oozing from its pores (or in this case, the soil). It has a full history and developed society. Oscar and Callie were delightful main characters. And perhaps this is just because I was reading the book while traveling, but I found it hard to predict where the story was going, which I loved.

One of the major themes running through the book is Oscar trying to figure out why he is different from anyone else. He struggles to read people, is anxious in their company, and would rather read about the different properties and uses for herbs. After finding an unusual doll halfway through the book, Oscar starts to worry whether he is even human. Thankfully, he has Callie to help him puzzle it out. In return for teaching her how to use herbal remedies, Callie teaches him how to read and understand people.

During the book, I noticed Oscar had several characteristics that can be found on the autism spectrum, and I wondered if this was intentional on Ursu’s part. I looked into it, and it was very much intensional. Ursu’s son has Asperger’s, and she wanted to write a hero that her son would see is like him.

What I really appreciated about Ursu’s story is the nuance she uses with the subject. Yes, autism is a part of it, but Oscar is so well-developed that he is much more than that autism box some might want to put him into. I can’t really explain how well Ursu deals with this, so I’d encourage you to read her touching thoughts about her son, Oscar, and writing the book on Read, Write, Reflect. Here’s a taste:

I didn’t want Oscar to triumph in the end despite his autism or because of his autism; I wanted him to triumph because of who he is– an exceptionally brave, loving boy. I wanted him to know that he had the power to survive and triumph no matter what the world throws at him. I want every kid to know that. -Anne Ursu

While I caught the allusions to autism, I’m ashamed that I completely missed the numerous allusions to fairy tales throughout the book–specifically The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Pinocchio. I didn’t realize how much Ursu was weaving in older, familiar stories until I read another review that pointed this out. The allusions are everywhere, so now I really want to reread with this in mind!

The book is also really well-written and beautifully illustrated. Also of note is that the main characters are all people of color, but like the autism element, it’s quietly part of their characters without being a defining characteristic or an afterthought.

Ursu is also the author of Breadcrumbs, which has been on my to-read list for awhile now, and The Real Boy was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award this year. If you enjoy middle grade fiction or classic fantasy, I’d definitely recommend this book. And if you know a kid who enjoys fantasy, definitely hand this one to them.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Author: Katherine Boo
Genre: Narrative Non-fiction
Length: 262 pages
Rating: 4.5 Stars

Synopsis:

Katherine Boo chronicles the lives of an undercity (or slum) in Mumbai, India and the complexities and effects of inequality in her first book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.

While the lives and dreams of many Annawadi residents weave in and out of Boo’s narrative, Behind the Beautiful Forevers focuses on three individuals who are all striving to make it New India: Manju, aiming to become the slum’s first female college graduate; her mother, Asha, with the less principled goal of becoming the slumlord; and Abdul, who through focus, hard work, and a keen business sense tries to generate enough money from his family’s garbage business to buy a plot of land.

Review:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is both a very easy and a very challenging book to read. Everything in the book is real (Boo lived in this community for three years), but the book reads like fiction. You get pulled in and engaged in these individual’s stories. This is why Behind the Beautiful Forevers is also hard to read. It hurts. It’s distressing. It pushes you to face the consequences of global inequalities and poverty.

Abdul’s story was the most challenging to read—when a family feud spins out of control, Abdul is (wrongly) accused of murder alongside his father and sister, and their journey through the legal system has serious ramifications for Abdul’s successful garbage business. Asha’s story is perhaps the least sympathetic, but Boo manages not to demonize this character. Asha’s hard work and scheming allow her daughter, Manju, to attend college, which Asha hopes will help raise the entire family out of poverty.

The stories Boo captures give us a humanizing portrait of life in an undercity. “Do you ever think when you look at someone, when you listen to someone, does that person really have a life?” Abdul asks at one point. Behind the Beautiful Forevers gives all the people depicted a life. They may not be glamorous or particularly good lives, but gives Abdul, Manju, Asha, and everyone else an identity separate from their poverty.

I appreciated that Behind the Beautiful Forevers doesn’t offer any easy solutions. If anything, it highlights the complexities of anti-poverty work. Charitable efforts to promote education, microfinance, and health conditions are almost completed stymied by corruption. Government officials, elections, police, and local slumlord all support themselves through bribery.

In short, Behind the Beautiful Forevers is an excellent, engaging piece of narrative non-fiction that thoroughly deserves the National Book Award it earned. 4.5 Stars.

Editorial note: This review was drafted as a sample post in January 2013 when this blog was still an idea. I recently found the review and decided to edit, reformat, and publish it.

1 Year of Blogging

Owl You Need is a Good Read has been up for a year! 

It has been a fun first year of blogging. Thanks for reading along with us. 

Photo by yanyanyanyanyan / CC BY-NC 2.0 

Two Owls Review Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind is held up as one of the greatest American classics. The story of the rising and falling fortunes of the fiery, independent, selfish Scarlett O’Hara and the rascally Rhett Butler is set against the backdrop of the Civil War and Reconstruction in Georgia. Two of our parliament recently read the book for a book club, and gathered here for a discussion.

Sonya: After loving the film version of this historical novel, I never thought that the book could be as good. Having finished Gone with the Wind, I can honestly say that it has become one of my all-time favorite books. Margaret Mitchell’s narrative is so easy to read and yet so beautiful.

Madeleine: I have never seen the film version! I’m actually glad I hadn’t seen the movie before reading the book. Besides knowing a few things (it’s about the Civil War and it’s aftermath, the main couple is Scarlett/Rhett, and there are a lot of fancy dresses), it was all completely new to me.

I also loved the book, but I don’t know if it would make it into my all-time favorites. I need some more time to think about it. There were some bits that I really struggled with in this book (more on this later). What really made the book for me was the characters.

Sonya: I think that is what she does best! We get to see Scarlett journey from naïve, selfish Southern belle to a destitute woman who is willing to do anything to keep food in her stomach and Tara under her feet, and then finally in the end to a person that finally understands herself and what is really important to her.

Madeleine: Margaret Mitchell took a really big risk making her main character a dislikable character. I loved and hated Scarlett. I was cheering for her throughout the whole book, except for the stage of life that you skipped: her selfish, malicious, ignorant behavior after earning back her fortune. She annoyed me enough that I stopped cheering for her for awhile.

I like Scarlett best when she’s at Tara. She needs Tara to keep her grounded.

My other favorite character is Melanie. She’s an easy character to love, but I love the unexpected strength she shows throughout the novel and her unflinching loyalty to Scarlett, who doesn’t deserve it. She’s wonderful.

Sonya: I also liked Melanie, and thought that Ashley did not deserve her. Rhett is the other character that I find so enthralling and mysterious. (BTW, Clark Gable could not have portrayed him better in the movie.)

Madeleine: Obviously. 🙂

Sonya: Even after finishing the novel, I still don’t really have a sense of who he really is. Even though he is a scoundrel, I can’t help but cheer for him and hope that Scarlett can realize how wonderful he is.

Madeleine: I was actually more impressed by Rhett’s character development through the novel. He changes and becomes a better person a lot more than Scarlett does. I’m not totally convinced that Scarlett has changed by the end. But I absolutely loved them together. Whenever Rhett walked onto the page, I always got very excited. The dialogue! The wit!

Sonya: Every scene with Scarlett and Rhett was just bursting with well-wrought dialogue, and consequently I could practically feel the sparks between these two coming off the pages. I so hoped that this story would be happy in the end (even though I know from the movie that it’s not), and I always think that somehow Scarlett does get him back. I sure hope that she does.

Madeleine: When I first finished the book, I felt the same. Having had some time to digest the book a bit, I like the open ending. I don’t know if Rhett will ever let Scarlett back into his life. He was burned pretty badly. I hope Scarlett stays at Tara. Tara makes Scarlett a better person; I don’t know if Rhett does.

Sonya: The other aspect of Gone with the Wind is its insight into Southern life before the Civil War, during the war, and the war’s aftermath. Naturally, as a child I learned how the South consisted of inhumane bad guys keeping slaves in bondage, and then the North swept in and saved the slaves from their awful plight.

I absolutely do not condone slavery, but I will say that it was interesting to see this time in American history from the point of view of a Southerner. Even if Mitchell is biased, this fictional account gives us another perspective to ponder, and I found it fascinating. Mitchell really shows that war is war, and there are going to be bad and good people on both sides of the conflict.

Madeleine: Ah, here we are, the parts I really struggled with in the book, and that I have to separate from the book when making my judgements. I agree that the Southern point-of-view is very interesting, and I know that contextually Margaret Mitchell is just reflecting the period she’s writing from, but I really struggled with the racism in the book. In fact, I might’ve given up on it if I weren’t reading for a group.

The book romanticizes slavery, and does so very subtly. If you aren’t paying attention, it is easy to buy into this romanticization. In our book club, we had someone argue that it wasn’t that bad because the slaves were treated well by their masters who saw them as part of the family. This point-of-view takes something horrible and completely unjust, owning people and forcing them to work for you, and turns it into something kind and paternalistic.

Again, I understand that we have to take context into consideration, but I really struggled with how to respond to it. Book Riot ran an interesting series of posts on this exact issue last year. I’ll leave you with those: “I Couldn’t Finish GONE WITH THE WIND Because it Was So Racist” and the response “Let’s Talk About Racism in the Classics.”

Stepping off my soap box, I still enjoyed Gone with the Wind and give it 5 stars. Aside from it’s size, the book is very accessible and wonderfully written. Margaret Mitchell made me love a rather unpleasant character and wrote interesting enough stories that I didn’t complain about the 1000 page love triangle. Read it.

Sonya: Overall, Gone with the Wind fabulous read that I will recommend to pretty much everybody. It’s a commitment to read as it’s so long but it is definitely worth it. I was hooked from the beginning and never wanted it to end. A solid 5 stars.

Attachments

Attachments is Rainbow Rowell’s first book and only adult book until Landline is published this summer. She’s probably better known for her two YA novels for Eleanor & Park (reviewed by Nox last year) and Fangirl. I’ve actually read and enjoyed all three, but this is the first one I’m reviewing here.

The year is 1999. Y2K is approaching. Email is just catching on, and it has some employers running scared. Enter Lincoln–late 20s, serial student and degree earner, D&D player, and living with his mother until he can save up for his own place. Lincoln is hired as the Internet security officer for the local newspaper, which means he is responsible for reading employees’ emails to make sure no one is using it inappropriately.

Jennifer and Beth are both co-workers and best friends at the newspaper. Despite the fact that they know someone is reading their emails, they are definitely not following company policy. At first, Lincoln is highly entertained by their witty conversations, but eventually he finds himself interested in their lives.

When Lincoln falls for Beth, it gets very tricky, very quickly. He’s never met Beth. He doesn’t even know what she looks like. Despite this, he knows very personal details about her life, because he’s been reading her emails.

Attachments is unique for several reasons. First, it’s a romance told from the point-of-view of the guy. Second, guy and girl don’t even meet until very late in the book.

I really enjoyed Attachments. Lincoln is a great character. Yes, he’s a little nerdy and geeky, but he’s much more adorable than my description above makes him sound. He’s conscientious, smart, sweet, and funny. He reminds me of Clay from Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. I definitely had a bit of a crush on him.

While the main part of the book is told from Lincoln’s point-of-view, the chapters are interspersed with emails between Jennifer and Beth. These emails were wonderful! I wanted to be friends with Jennifer and Beth. Rainbow really captured the camaraderie and spirit of female friendship. She has posted a deleted scene from her book with Star Trek themed emails and another section that made the cut where Beth waxes poetic about the month of October (which also happens to perfectly capture my feelings about the most glorious month of the year).

I only had two minor complaints about the book. There was ongoing tension between Lincoln’s sister and mother that was weird. I never quite figured out what was going on. Also, the book wrapped up really quickly, at a pace that didn’t quite match the book. It was a bit jarring.

I got to briefly meet Rainbow Rowell when she came to speak about her books and censorship last year, after a school in Minnesota challenged Eleanor & Park. (I have LOTS of passionate, library school student thoughts about that situation, so let’s not go into that). You guys, she’s such a genuinely wonderful person. My younger sister once woke me up in the middle of the night with ecstatic texts when Rainbow Rowell responded to her tweets. And now I’ve read her backlist. Do yourself a favor and follow her on Twitter/Tumblr, or even better, read one of her books.

4.5 Stars.

The Parliament Convenes: 2013 in Review

So, we know it’s 2014. And we know everyone else has already published their year-in-review posts. But we’re still writing 2013 on things by mistake, which means it’s not too late to share our favorites from last year. Right?

Before we begun, if you’re looking for something really good to read, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein all made it onto multiple owls’ top five lists for 2013.

Zelda

Five Favorite Books Read in 2013

1. The Archived by Victoria Schwab 
2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane  by Neil Gaiman
3. The Theory of Everything  by J. J. Johnson
4. Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley – This was definitely my favorite Flavia book! I adore this world and I especially adore Flavia! I love listening to the audiobooks for these, Jane Entwistle does a great job! I constantly get little sayings from these stuck in my head. I have yet to find someone that doesn’t like Flavia (and we are talking a wide range of ages, genders, and reading interests)! 
5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I was nervous to read this one, but I actually don’t remember crying when I read the book. I plan on going to the movie and ugly crying with my friends, but I don’t think the book made me cry. However, I loved it. John Green is a wonderful author and really knows how to connect the reader and the character so you feel their emotions for fully and are immersed in their world. 

I noticed something odd about my top 5 books. They are ALL blue. Apparently I’m pretty into that color.

I read less in 2013. School, oddly enough, is a time suck. My goal in 2012 was 100 and I just made the cut! 2013 was lowered to 75 and I managed to squeeze out 84. 2014? Yeah….about that….my goal is 50. So far we have a whopping 3 books under our wing. School is trying to ruin my life! Ok, that may be a bit dramatic. But seriously…

Reading Goal for 2014: 50 

Like Sonya, I would also like to read more non-fiction. I noticed a trend in my non-fiction: animals and eating disorders. I don’t entirely know what that says about me, but you can’t say I don’t know what I like. I just get bored very quickly with real people and their lives and I tend to give up. I read 5 non-fiction books in 2013. That is kind of embarrassing….I can’t help that I love my murder books and my teen angst!

Sonya

Five Favorite Books Read in 2013

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein – I could not put this one down, and was an absolute wreck at the end of it. My husband saw me crying over this book and thought I was being a bit melodramatic. Later, I tried to explain to him what had me so upset and as a result, ended up crying in the middle of the coffee shop where we were playing Scrabble. If that isn’t a good book, I don’t know what is.
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – This book was so inventive with the world the author created. It had great tension and the story and suspense just kept building. The writing was wonderful and I always wanted to know what would happen to Karou and her mysterious Akiva.
3. Graceling by Kristin Cashore – Another amazing YA book where the author creates a captivating world with compelling characters with quite interesting abilities. I devoured this first book in the trilogy as well as the following two books. All three were top notch but the first was my favorite.
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel – I read this book in one day. I couldn’t put it down because I had to know what was going to happen to Pi and the animals with him. Reading this was like being unable to turn away from a train wreck. So many awful things happen in the duration of this story but I just couldn’t stop. Then, the twist at the end where Martel leaves the reader wondering if it was all real just blew my mind.
5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – This may have taken me 6 months to finish but nonetheless it was well worth the read. The story is beautiful and tragic, and we can’t help but sympathize with the toils women had to deal with in that time. I already knew how this one ended but it did not diminish the poignancy with which Tolstoy shows Anna’s spiral into madness.

Library School definitely put a damper on my reading for the past year and a half. In 2012 I read 66 books, and in 2013 only 30. Granted, some of the books have been outrageously long books like Anna Karenina and Vanity Fair, but still. It looks like my favorite books from 2013 were dominated by young adult novels. It really is my favorite genre.

Reading Goal for 2014: Nonfiction!! I want to find a nonfiction book that I can like as much as I like a great novel. I’ve read a handful of nonfiction books but none have really kept my attention or made me want to read them. I basically end up browsing through the book. In addition, I definitely want to read more than I did in 2013. Only 30 books. Pitiful. I think a nice healthy reading goal is 50. (Zelda, we can try to recommend nonfiction to each other! And compete to see who makes it to 50 fastest!)

Nox

Five Favorite Books Read in 2013

1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruth Sepetys – This story of a teenage girl who is shipped to a Siberian work camp with her family and thousands of other Lithuanians moved me to tears multiple times. There was so much about the history behind this story that I wasn’t aware of and the story of these survivors was incredibly inspiring.
2. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
3. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
4. Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton – A very big concept SF book complete with alien swarms, sentient worlds, medical-enabled long life, inter-world portals that could easily have become unwieldy, but Hamilton keeps it grounded by focusing on the human condition. Normally I’m not a huge fan of something that is so purely science fiction, but the world building in this book blew me away.
5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I’ll admit, I was afraid to read this book for the longest time because of the hype – usually when everyone loves a book, I’m disappointed, but I’m happy to say this wasn’t the case in this situation. Rarely does a book come along that deals with such a hard topic with the humor that John Green does with this book. Although I had been warned that this was a “crying book,” I still wasn’t able to adequately prepare myself for how moving the story was.

Wow, so I definitely read fewer books in 2013 than 2012. Who knew that grad school would take up so much of my free reading time. When I did find time, I wanted to numb it with terrible television rather than invest in a book. I also read some pretty terrible books this year that had come highly recommended. My two biggest disappointments were Wicked, which I started after seeing the musical last fall and couldn’t even finish and Forever, the classic book that I found waaaay too focused on sex.

Reading Goal for 2014: I’ve decided not to focus as heavily on numbers this year, but instead focus on reading widely. While taking a course on Young Adult literature last semester I realized just how few books I had read written by minorities or who had main characters of another race. Living in North Dakota means that my daily life is pretty homogenous, so my goal this year is to expand my horizons.

Madeleine

Five Favorite Books Read in 2013

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (the link will take you to a post my human alter-ego wrote for a public library blog, or you can read my review of the follow-up book on Owl You Need is a Good Read)
2. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
3. Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
4. Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dinah Nayeri
5. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Struggling for some originality here, but grad school really cuts into the free reading time! I read 107 books in 2012 and only 70 books in 2013. I’ve already dissected my 2013 reading with charts and graphs. Honestly, it wasn’t my best year for reading in more than just numbers. I liked all the books above, but I liked my top five books of 2012 a lot more. My worst book of the year was Vanity Fair, which I couldn’t even finish. On a more positive note, I did reread several of my favorite books of all time: Jane Eyre, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and The Book Thief.

Reading Goal for 2014: 50. And I want to make it to at least 1945 in my Newbery Medal Reading Challenge. With the Newbery Challenge and potentially a Reader’s Advisory class this summer, I think I should be able to make it over 50 books.