Sunday 21 July 2013

Summer Reading List

So I am taking some time out from polishing off my entry for the Young Writers Prize 2013 to post my summer reading list. Usually, I only talk about my writing on this site, but over the summer holidays I am going to try and write some review as well. This list is of the first novels I am planning to read this summer: 


Days of Blood and Starlight
by Laini Taylor

I received this book for my birthday, but haven't had time to read it yet. I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, so I really can't wait to start. 

Goodreads synopsis:
 Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.


And its snap split the world in two.


Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living – one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.


Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel – a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.


This was not that world.


Requiem
by Lauren Oliver

Another title which has been sitting on my bookshelf since my birthday in June. I've heard mixed reviews about this one, but I have high hopes (so long as Lena ends up with Alex!)

Goodreads synopsis: 
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancĂ©e of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.


Goddess
By Josephine Angelini

I still need to buy Goddess, but I loved the first two novels in this series so I'm really excited to finish it. (Again, I will only be happy if Helen ends up with Lucas)

Goodreads synopsis: 
After accidentally unleashing the gods from their captivity on Olympus, Helen must find a way to re-imprison them without starting a devastating war. But the gods are angry, and their thirst for blood already has a body count.

To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a diabolical Tyrant is lurking among them, which drives a wedge between the once-solid group of friends. As the gods use the Scions against one another, Lucas’s life hangs in the balance. Still unsure whether she loves him or Orion, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, for war is coming to her shores.

In Josephine Angelini’s compelling conclusion to the masterfully woven Starcrossed trilogy, a goddess must rise above it all to change a destiny that’s been written in the stars. With worlds built just as fast as they crumble, love and war collide in an all-out battle that will leave no question unanswered and no heart untouched.


Angelfall
by Susan Ee

I downloaded this when it was on a Kindle Daily Deal, although I have wanted to read it for a while. The cover is pretty and I love angel books.

Goodreads synopsis:
It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.



Life Of Pi
by Yann Martel

I started life of Pi a few weeks ago, but haven't had a lot of time to get very far. It's definitely one I'm looking forward to finishing. Then I can watch the film!

Goodreads synopsis:
Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?
Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

So that's my reading list so far. Two hardbacks, two ebooks and one still to be purchased. What's on your reading list this summer (other than Fire, of course)?

4 comments:

  1. The Life of Pi is AWESOME! I've not read the others yet...but I need to read them.

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    1. I'm enjoying it so far - Martel's writing is great. It's nice to make sure that I'm reading something other than YA occasionally too!

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  2. Goddess and Days of Blood and Starlight are brilliant! Angelfall is on my to read list too so it'll be interesting to know what you think of it :-)

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    1. I'm really excited about reading both - and Days of Blood and Starlight looks lovely on my bookshelf too, it's such a great cover.

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