Do you see what day it is today?! How impressive is it that I am actually doing this on time? Pretty darn impressive, I’d say. You know, I was just skimming through past months to get the stat thing to copy and paste and realize I should totally do a Year End one next month. How many books have I read/bought/borrowed THIS YEAR? And how much money did I spend on them? This is a curious thing to me. I’ll do it. Next month. For now! November!
Book Stats
Books Read: 10 (+13 unfinished. THE SHAME.)
Books Bought: 1
Books Borrowed (from Library): 20
Books Borrowed (from friends): 1
Books Given: 2
Money Spent: $10
Gah. This is so embarrassing. I started so many books this month (well, 13 anyway) that I just couldn’t finish. Couldn’t do it. Some of them were honestly bad. Some I just wasn’t in the mood for. Some were just way too predictable and I couldn’t stand the boredom of being unenthralled. Hoo. Look though at how my total read/unfinished is the same amount as the total bought/borrowed/and given. That’s cool. Not accurate though since several from the library this month I haven’t read yet.
You would think that the ten I did manage to finish would all be my favorite books from this month, right? But sadly, no. Even though I managed to finish them, I didn’t necessarily really like all of them.
Favorite Books: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg.
Others worth mentioning: Angel by L.A. Weatherly, The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, Behemoth by Scott Westerfield, and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher.
(The three that I’m not bothering to mention I probably only finished because they were really short.)
Least Liked Books: Pegasus by Robin McKinley, Me, Myself, and Why? by Mary Janice Davidson, The Oracle Betrayed by Catherine Fisher, and Jane by April Lindner.
So, Incarceron and Sapphique are a series by Fisher. Incarceron was way better than Sapphique although I think my anger at the ending of the second book has dissipated enough that I could technically move Sapphique up to a favorite. The story is about a world which had a huge war and created a Prison to hold society’s dregs so the rest of the world could support itself on limited resources. There are two POVs: one is a high-up society girl in the “real” world and the other is a male prisoner who may or may not be the lost heir to the throne. There’s a lot of mythology about escaping the prison and the one man who has been said to do it (Sapphique). The back story there included in snippets from songs, myths, stories, writings, etc at the beginning of each chapter was fascinating. The writing was really good and the story was well set-up and convincing in the world-building. I liked the idea and the characters a lot. So I recommend these highly.
The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg was just delightful fluffy fun. It’s about a girl who starts a club based on Beatles songs to get over a bad break-up and the way in which girl power club can transform their lives and the school. It had some annoying parts (taking girl power to the stupid place) but also several laugh out loud moments and I really enjoyed it. She just came out with a book titled Prom and Prejudice that I am super eager to get. Sadly the library doesn’t have it yet.
Angel and The Last Dragonslayer were purchased for me by Eydie in London when she was there recently as they aren’t available in the states yet. I can tell you that they are going to be super popular. I enjoyed both of them and will fully read the sequel to Angel when it comes out. The Last Dragonslayer was great but it was also a little lacking in plot development at times. It proceeded a little too quickly in places–particularly the end and I was confused by the action that happened.
Behemoth is a solid sequel to Leviathan (which I read last November!). It’s an alternate reality story of World War…I? that’s steam-punk/alterna-Darwinist. They’re kind of awesome. I recommend reading both. Hrm. The main characters are both teenagers–one is the son of…basically Franz Ferdinand, I think. Heir to Austrian throne on the run from the Germans. And the other is a British girl-disguised-as-boy serving on an air-ship. The war is between the Clankers (mechanical stuff) and the Darwinists (engineered living organisms) but basically is World War I twisted.
Ice was good but not great which disappointed me. It’s a retold fairy tale of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Which kind of at the most basic level is also the story of Beauty and the Beast and that of Eros and Psyche (which I assume are more familiar to most people). Anyway, it’s mostly good…just the writing wasn’t always great. Sometimes the main characters were less believable than at other times. I did enjoy the updates to the story with the whole soul delivery job. Anyway, I would recommend it. And I would also try reading something else by Sarah Beth Durst (currently waiting on one at the library)
Annnd least liked. So there were obviously more than those 4 (since I didn’t finish 13 books) but I’m not even going to bother listing all the ones I didn’t like and why. But these four were disappointments to me on a level which I feel like sharing. First: Robin McKinley. Seriously, woman. She is soooo hit or miss. Let’s be honest: The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown? Amazing, wonderful books! Chalice? Bad. Dragonhaven? Actually I enjoyed it. Spindle’s End? Kind of lame. You see what I’m saying. Pegasus–the newest book–I was hopeful for. But then it was boring and poorly written and I’m pretty sure was going to have a romance between a flying horse and a human girl. Who knows since I didn’t finish it. So sad. I did skim through the end and was horrified by what I found there though. Just so we’re clear. Stupid ending. I don’t see how reading the whole thing could have made that better.
Me, Myself and Why? honest to God was about a schizophrenic with three personalities who works for the FBI in some paranormal division. I was snoozing after like five pages and also kind of terrified. I’ll continue to read the Queen Betsy ones (library only) but MJ Davidson needs to work harder to get my business otherwise.
The Oracle Betrayed I got because I’d enjoyed Incarceron so much and it was an ancient Egyptian-esque type tale (actually I think kind of Greek, but whatever). However, I didn’t find it nearly as riveting and gave up half-way through.
Last one. Jane by April Lindner is a modern day retelling of Jane Eyre. Yeah. Gag me. I don’t know why I even tried. I think I was all: Oooh, Rochester as a rock star? This could be exciting. Turns out I was oh so wrong. Modern day’ing that horrible story doesn’t make it any better. Actually kind of worse when you’re confronted by the fact that she is 19 and he is 30 something (tactfully Lindner never mentions how old he is exactly. At least not in the part I read. Wise.) So it’s conceivable that other people who hated Jane Eyre might like this more that aren’t me. Maybe if all they hated was the language but not the basic story? But I doubt people who love Jane Eyre will like it.
Actually, wait. One last mention. One of the ones I didn’t finish was Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (sp?). I started reading it and decided I couldn’t actually read anything zombie related yet until I finish my novel. But what I did read (one zombie and one unicorn story) were really good. So I’ll get that again some day.