I feel like I’ve had a run of particularly good luck this year in terms of reading! I’ve been trying to pay attention to my own reading “mode” better, and it seems to be working (though I do end up returning heaps of books to the library!)
Here’s a few of my recent favorites:
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
I picked this up as an audiobook from the library after reading numerous rave reviews. And they were right. Heart-wrenching and beautiful, full of so many exquisite details and characterizations. A book that truly made me feel for the character, and her loss. When I first read the premise, particularly the choice the main character must make (I am being vague to avoid spoilers), I wondered to myself how I could really feel any tension over it. The choice, to me, seemed clear. But as the story drew me in, I understood why it was such a difficult choice for the character. And although I didn’t really doubt the ultimate resolution, I felt scads of tension over the character’s journey to reach that resolution. I am very excited about the sequel, coming next year!
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
I read the author’s earlier YA A Northern Light a few years ago and thought it was readable but not quite for me. But some combination of the compelling cover, the Parisian setting, and the intriguing plot summary (two parallel stories, one in contemporary Paris, one during the Revolution) kept drawing my attention back to it. But I think the thing that really made me half to read it was this quote, referenced in one of the reviews I read: “The world goes on stupid and brutal, but I do not. Can’t you see? I do not.”
I didn’t know the context, but those words kept ringing in my brain, until I finally sought out the book and read it, almost all in one sitting. And I still love that quote, and how the book leads to that recognition, how the characters deal with the stupidity and brutality of the world, and their own terrible losses. But it wasn’t just the themes that made me love this one: it was the characters, the humor, the weaving together of different lives and goals.
StarCrossed by Elizabeth C Bunce
This is one of those books I feel might have been written specifically for me, as a reader! It was such a fun book to read, too. It’s got a well-detailed nifty fantasy setting, interesting characters, nice twisty plot, mystery, adventure, magic! Oh, and several different strong female characters! I ate it up. And I want more! This one has really crawled into my heart and stuck with me, too. It’s a world and characters I want to go back to. Fortunately there’s a sequel on the way, so I can do just that.
Chalice by Robin McKinley
I really enjoyed this. It was perfect reading for being curled up sick, swaddled in blankets and drinking tea (as I was when I read it). The words were so pretty that if I lost my place due to my muzzy head it didn’t matter as I could re-read them happily. Also, I think perhaps I appreciated it more because of my muzzy-headedness, which meant I didn’t mind the skipping backwards and forwards in time so much (there was a lot of the character in present time storyline remembering things that had happened the day before, or months before, in the middle of other events).
I appreciated that this was a sort of gentle, earthy story: not about the the fate of the world in general, but about the fate of the characters’ personal world, the things they most valued. And I enjoyed seeing the subtle but powerful relationships develop between the characters. It felt like the book equivalent of a cup of hot tea with honey!
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
I’m very glad that I bought a copy of this at the same time I bought the first three books in the series. Because after I finished the third (Black Powder War) I really wasn’t sure I wanted to keep going. I still loved the characters, but the third book was difficult for me to get through. But, since I had this on my to-read shelf, I eventually did pick it up again, just to see what I thought, and… I couldn’t put it down! There’s a compelling backdrop (a terrible disease, a race for a cure) as well as old favorite characters I’d missed in the last two books, and a fascinating new dragon-human society in Africa. Plus, lots of chewy ethical issues and some interesting divergences from real world history. Be warned, though, there is a serious cliff-hanger! But one that is, I think, necessary to lend strength and weight to the development of the overarching plot, and the changes in the perspective of the characters. I was, however, very very glad I had waited so long to read this, because it meant I could run out and buy the paperback of book 5 right away!
