And so, in lieu of a boring update, I give you a handful of book recommendations:
The Best Books I've Read In the Last Three Months
(Disclaimer: they are listed in the order I have read them in, not by how much I loved them.)
1. The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens (The Books of Beginnings #1) - I'll be honest. I know exactly what it was that drew me to this book: the pretty endpapers (ie. the paper that connects the binding to the regular pages). They're so...green. They cost extra at the printers, so in these hard economic times, colored endpapers have all but disappeared.
But when I actually got around to reading it, I discovered one of the best, most interesting middle grade fantasy-adventures I've read in a long time. (I read a ton of them, but very few inspire me to make room on my favorite book shelf.) It reminded me alternately of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkein's the Lord of the Rings, a little of both Harry Potter and Rich Riordan's the Kane Chronicles, and a lot of all my favorite fairy tales. What I love the very most about it is that the main characters - three siblings who have lived in orphanages for most of their lives - are all fully developed, and their relationship with each other is complicated, just like real siblings' relationships are. (It's one of my pet peeves when authors simplify or dumb down younger characters.)
Sadly, Book #2 doesn't come out until April 2012. :-( :-( :-(
2. A Tale of Two Castles, by Gail Carson Levine - I love Levine's work. I can honestly say that Ella
Enchanted has changed my life at least twice, and I can't begin to count how many times I've read and re-read it.But this one was superb too!!! I think Elodie is my favorite Levine heroine (after Ella, of course). She wants to be a mansioner (ie. an actress), and the novel shows us how much work it is to follow her dream, right down to absorbing all the details of a market scene so that she can recreate it onstage later. It's exactly how I feel about writing. And I also want to applaud Levine for creating the most lovable dragon and ogre characters I've ever had the pleasure of meeting within a book.
3. & 4. Hex Hall & Demonglass, by Rachel Hawkins -
(Is it cheating to lump these two together? They're from the same series, and they have the same main character.)
I just loved it. I don't know what else to tell you, except that it was a pure delight.
YA paranormal fantasy is kind of hit or miss for me. But I was in the library, and I saw Hex Hall just sitting there. And I thought, well, "Why not? You haven't read about witches in a while. You like them."
I was really in the mood for something light, perfectly fast-paced, and funny - with a heroine I might actually want to be friends with, and this series is all of the above. I was cackling all the way through. I think Hawkins and I have the exact same sense of humor (I swear, I think I've made some of the same jokes).
5. The Sky Is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson - It's been out for a while, I know. I've heard wonderful,
epicly complimentary things about it. But since people kept telling me about how much they cried while reading it, I put it off. But I shouldn't have. It's one of those beautiful, in-a-class-all-of-its-own kind of books - like Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, and Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road. Just haunting and gorgeous. It gets under your skin not because of the sadness, but because of the hope that the characters find even in the most heartbreaking situations.
