April/May Book Post!
Now that school/teaching is over, I finally have more time to read when I'm not being lazy.
I have read 7 new books over these past two months. Some of them were good, and some of them were bad.
The Book Thief - I wish I could travel back in time to when I did not read this book, so that I can experience reading it again for the first time- it is so good. Without giving too much away, it is about a girl living with her foster parents during WWII. I cried through the last quarter of this book. It's tragic but beautiful. There is supposed to be a movie adaptation of this.. I hope it comes out soon!
Prom & Prejudice - A really lazy retelling of the classic story, set in the present-day and the characters are all seniors looking forward to prom. The characters are two dimensional, it is clichéd, and in general lacks anything likeable or memorable from the original work.
The Hobbit - Amazingly enough, I have never read any of the Lord of the Rings books, so I am finally starting. Tolkien is definitely not a lazy story-teller; he paints wonderful pictures with his words and this a story full of adventure and the fantastical. With that said, I thought this book was good, but I don't love it. I'm starting to read the Fellowship of the Ring, so we'll see how the rest of this series plays out.
Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) - Another fluffy YA book, where the main character suffers from white people/girl problems, like lying to her parents and living with a friend so that she doesn't have to move to another state, fretting over her boyfriend and getting into other teenage shenanigans. Nothing special about this book at all.
The Selection - If you have heard about this book, you've probably heard that it is like The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor. That is mostly accurate. The Hunger Games comparison only exists because this book is of the dystopian genre. But compared to THG, the author was really lazy in constructing her post-apocalyptic world. And yes, like the TV show, this story is about girls being Selected to marry the Prince (which is of course aired on TV for the nation to see). This had potential to work, but the author's writing style is very basic, the characters are very flat, and it is predictable and clichéd. There is suppose to be a part two (this book ends with a very poor 'cliffhanger'), which is entirely unnecessary. There does not need to be more of this.
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - This was pretty funny to read. I like that it has more creative writing than your average YA book. I haven't seen the movie so maybe I'll give that a try.
Jane Eyre - I was surprised that I liked this book so much. I was on the fence about Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, so I did not know what to expect of Charlotte Bronte. I liked that her writing was descriptive but still clear (and not overdone). And I have to say that Jane is probably one of the best female characters I've come across. Even though she thinks herself plain, she has inner beauty- she holds fast to her principles, she's smart and she has overcome. Definitely a new favourite.