52 Books in 52 weeks – August

This month I read quite a bit actually, three books over my quota. Certainly not complaining though as it has been nice to immerse myself in reading 🙂

Here is the list 🙂

Number	Title	Author
32 – Aug 4-10	Good Omens	Pratchett, Terry & Gaiman, Neil
33 – Aug 11-17	The Last Book in the Universe	Philbrick, Rodman
34 – Aug 18-24	“Fallen”, “Torment” & “Passion”	Kate, Lauren
35 – Aug 25-31	Splintered The Giver	Howard, A.G. Lowry, Lois

I had the BEST month of reading!!!

Good Omens – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

I actually started this book last month, I struggled to really get into the text and I am not sure why. It was more towards Pratchett’s way of writing which is right up my alley, but then you could see Gaiman’s style coming through too. To be honest I think the two together for me personally did not work. I did love the characters of Crowley and Aziraphale; their interactions were (for me) the best parts of the book. Really I should have loved this book and I can’t understand why I found myself disinterested, skimming and reading another book then coming back to it.

I feel that this book would be loved by someone who clicked with the writing, unfortunately it didn’t work for me which was quite sad because I do love Terry Pratchett’s other works.

The last book in the Universe – Rodman Philbrick

This book, wow. I found this book at a book sale, it was the end of the day and they were selling you a box for 50cents – you got to fill it with as many books as you could manage (I know, heaven right?!). This was one of the books I grabbed, it looked like the cover had never been cracked and read as though it would be a good book for young male adults. I am always on the lookout for books like this because some of the stuff out there for guys is garbage and I like to have a few ideas on what to suggest for clients.

I was so surprised by this book, the setting is in a post-disaster (of some kind of earthquake I think – let’s blame climate change) city, the protagonist is a teenage boy they call Spaz. One of the interesting things about this book is that this society basically does not read, quite a few of them do not even talk, this whole society basically learns and is educated by either observing or (if they talk) being told. The language that they do have is incredible literal, for example; Spaz is named thus because he has epilepsy, but all the others know is that he ‘spazzes out’. The city is called the “Urb” as in suburb. It is quite fascinating to see how this society functions, also interesting is the idea of “Eden” being a paradise where the “Proovs” (improved or genetically altered humans) live.

I quite enjoyed it, if you have a young man that you are trying to get to read maybe try him on this. It is not magic and broomsticks like Harry Potter, but it has great grit and I think young males will enjoy the language.

“Fallen”, “Torment” & “Passion” – Lauren Kate

Yeah I got a bit carried away here and read three of them haha. I did not really enjoy the first book until the last couple of chapters; there were quite a few times where I felt the characters were acting about 14 years old instead of the age they were supposed to be acting. Oh god dammit I have just read they are making a movie of this for 2015 release, sigh, I have never heard of the actors they have cast (even though I have seen some of the movies/shows they are apparently in) though one is an Aussie who looks like a member of One Direction so it will probably be a huge hit 🙂

The epilogue of the first book intrigued me so much that I went to get no. 2 (Torment) from the Library. This novel was much better than the first, I would still like to slap the female protagonist around because she is completely stupid at some points and is obviously nowhere near finishing puberty. I really liked the school Shoreline and the new characters that were introduced, I thought her roommate and new male friend were great characters. Ending was a solid-ish lead into no. 3.

Book 3: I really, really, really liked this book. I loved that there were these pinpoint references in time that the geek in me easily recognised like the fire at the Globe theatre and the Aztecs etc. It was pretty cool, teenage history buffs are going to be all over this one. It was the best of the series so far, so good that I am scared to read any more of them hahaha.

Splintered – A. G. Howard

Hilariously, I picked this book up because it had a pretty cover. Little did I know that I was about to discover this crazy amazing, slightly nightmarish hat-tip to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa’s family can trace their lineage all the way back to Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the tale. I read this story in a day you guys! I was that swept away by it. I loved the characters, I adored the spin on the classic characters from Carroll’s book. Morpheus was an amazing character (my favourite), whilst reading I often pictured him somewhat similar to Adam Lambert dressed in costume as Starchild, kinda sexy, kinda scary, very trendy and kinda steampunk.

The Giver – Lois Lowry

I have had this on my “to read” list for a while now. I thought it was good, but to be honest I kind of felt like the story didn’t start until Jonas left the village and then the book ended just as I felt something was about to happen. This book really didn’t fit the norm when it comes to overcoming trials and adventures, very interesting. I liked the idea about a supposedly Utopian society and how the “sameness” slowly loses its appeal and the society is suddenly viewed as a Dystopia, to me it says a lot in relation to points of view. A lot is left up to your own interpretation of how something is possible which I suppose makes sense when you are reading it, but is still an odd thing for a young adult novel.

Oh my gosh I just read the cast list for the movie! This is going to be a money-maker guys! Seriously! We have Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes and Aussie Brenton Thwaites as Jonas, I haven’t seen much of him, but I hear good things. I have seen Odeya Rush in films before and quite enjoyed her so that’s a good pick too. My only casting question is, what the hell were they thinking casting Taylor Swift?

And so we go into September… so many books… so little time.

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