The December /January book list

I don't know about you, but I love reading over the holiday season. It's probably one of the only times I get a chance to really dedicate some time to just reading. Here are some cool books you may want to check out this holiday season (click titles to read more):

1. The Hunger Games Triology - by Suzanne Collins
Highly recommend this if you looking for an exciting read. It falls into "Young Adult", but I think its great read for adults too. I'm almost on the third book and I am absolutely loving it. The movie has been made and is set to be released in March 2012 (note: this is not a love story, more of a dark adventure)

2. Summer Sisters - by Judy Blume
This is a great holiday read. It's Judy Blume for adults (aka great chick-lit) . I read it years ago and liked it so much I got a few of my friends to read it too.

3. The Tiger's Wife - by Tea Obreht
I just read about this book recently and it sounds very interesting.  

Dark Poppy’s Demise by S.A Partridge

Reviewed by Bobby

What the books about:
Jenna often feels like those around her don’t “get her”. She is a perfect product of a broken home, with a father who would rather be at work than with his children and a younger brother who she can only just bear to be around. Besides that, she has a best friend who is her polar opposite and is hopelessly in love with a boy who just started dating the school’s It girl. The only place Jenna really feels like she belongs is online, where she goes by the name of Dark_Poppy. Jenna receives a Facebook invitation by a rather gorgeous stranger called Robert Rose who seems to be completely into her. Jenna quickly falls head over heels for this mysterious boy but things go horribly wrong and she learns the hard way that people are not always what they seem, especially not people you met on the internet.

What I thought:
I was transported back to teenagerdom from page one of this book. Jenna is like so many young girls who spend time obsessing over things that seem to matter so much during adolescence and who just want to belong and be loved, I definitely recognised my teenage self in some of her behaviours. She is also the perfect example of what might happen when a child is allowed unsupervised internet access, something which I’m vehemently against. I think this is a must-read for any young adult girl as the lesson that can be learnt from this book is definitely an invaluable one.

The October/November book list

Here are the 4 books that  Ive chosen for my Oct/Nov book list (aka my reading suggestions and books I hope to read) -You can click on the title to read more about book:

1. The Night Circus - by Erin Morgenstern
2. I Don't Know How She Does It - by Allison Pearson
3. The Dovekeepers - by Alice Hoffman
4. One Day - by David Nicholls

Reading is...

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Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Reviewed by Bobby

Helen Hamilton has always known that she was different to the rest of the small town, Nantucket teens that surround her but has done her best to hide her strangeness for all her life. But when the Delos family move to town, things begin to change for her. The first time Helen lays eyes on the gorgeous Lucas Delos, she is overcome with the desire to kill him. The three weeping figures Helen sees when any of the Delos family are around do nothing to help her predicament. Once Helen shakes the wrath of the Three Furies she begins to learn about where she comes from and learns that what she always thought was myth and fantasy, is actually very much her reality. Helen also finds herself irrevocably in love with Lucas but quickly discovers why they can never be together…

This book should come with a disclaimer stating that you will be addicted. More often than I’d like, I find myself reading books just for the sake of finishing them and when a book comes along and casts a “can’t-put-it-down” spell, it’s just so wonderful. I adore Josephine Angelini’s beautiful, descriptive writing style and enjoyed the way she’s weaved a modern day story so rich in mythology. The love story (or none love story, whichever way you want to look at it) between Helen and Lucas was butterfly inducing and totally epic. The last page of the book left me utterly disappointed though, when the conflict in the story wasn’t revolved, so I quickly whipped out my laptop to discover that Starcrossed is the first part of a trilogy, which allowed me a sigh of relief (note: unfortunately, it seems like we have to wait until May next year for part two) 

Starcrossed fills the hole that Twilight left after Breaking Dawn, the novel, was released and I’m sensing we’ll see a movie coming along soon with a heck of a lot of hype (i.e. screaming teenage girls).

To read is to fly...

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries." - A C Grayling

Books I love... by Kelly

Written by Kelly, from It's a book Thing blog

Follow her on twitter: @QueenKelso

 1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I would hold my breath each time I read this book.  The pages would crunch in that overheated classroom as the revolution took over!  It wasn’t the love story between Lucie Manette, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay or the menacing knitting of Madame Defarge.  This story had everything from the brilliance of writing from Dickens to characters that I hold dear to my heart.  A mighty feat is this read, but one that should and will stay with you forever.

  

2. Atonement by Ian McEwan

This book will always be the first of many books I read as a bookseller and the one book that ended a bookclub between Tarryn and I in varsity.  Ian McEwan has a way of describing scenes so delicately that you the reader see the thin line in which Briony Tallis is about to cross.  A story of misunderstanding and blame that sets a ripple effect in motion, impacting and ruining lives, leaving Briony Tallis atoning for one event in her life…

3. Matilda by Roald Dahl

I am Matilda!  Matilda is my past and my future as I stalk bookshops and hang around libraries.  Dahl’s intricate manner of describing things so disgustingly and Eek-worthy leaves me cringing, even today.  Matilda, a book lover, tells us all that no matter the hardships you face books will always be your savior.

  

4. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Set in the revolution is the greatest adventure novel I have ever read.  This novel is peppered with mystery, love, beauty, grand masque parties, painted faces and a race against time to save lives.  What more could you want when lying in the bath with a bottle of wine…

Please note: "Books I love..." is a new series, where an awesome, book-loving ladies share a few of their favourite books with us.