I’ve been meaning to do a reviewy sort of post forever, but as ever, I have this talent for loading myself up with too many projects all due at once and the post… yeah. O:)
So today, sort of a substitute: Covers of books I think you should read/will enjoy, with a one-sentence reason why. These are all books I’ve read this year. I’m planning to do this every fifth Monday of the month (yes, that makes sense) and showcase my favs from the books I’ve read since the last post, so. Order. Logic. Hurrah.
And now! BOOKS!
Look, I’m not promising it’s going to guarantee that you write 10k in a day, but I found the idea of figuring out your most productive times and methods and working with those really helpful.Most of which boil down to, Sit your damn arse in the chair and write. Except with more profanity. 😛 Still, it gave me the kick in the pants I needed to restart writing after a long break. Yay.Glorious Stiefvaterness. I liked this a lot better than Lament, which is her first pubbed novel, and although this doesn’t have the glorious complexity of language and imagery of her later work, this is already classic, quinessential Stiefvater in terms of characters so real you expect them to step off the page 🙂 #fanA religious one. A new (for me) way of looking at the Old Testament and reconciling some of the inconsistencies therein. Very satisfying and logical. I highly approved.A gorgeous little MG full of spunk and personality, this is a verse novel that will take experienced readers maybe 10-15 minutes to read. It’s a collection of poems by the MC, starting essentially with ‘I hate poetry, poetry is stupid’ and charting his journey all the way through to ‘Okay so maybe it’s not so bad’. Extremely kid friendly, great for non-readers and readers alike 🙂Another religious one, this time about how to celebrate and worship in the daily drudgery of life, and looking at the way ‘women’s work’ has traditionally been undervalued. Very inspirational. I finished this and wanted to go out and buy a copy for all the busy mothers in my life. <3 (I did, in fact, buy my own mother a copy for Mothers’ Day.)I reread this not once, but twice this year. I reread books 1, 2 and 3, and then flipped over to the beginning and reread book 1 again O:) It’s possible that I adore the pants off this series. Classic Stiefvater: characters so real you start thinking of them as friends, setting so vivid it breaths, language so lush it’s like thick-pile velvet, with a rawness and realness that only comes from someone who’s deal with mental crap in their life, stared it in the face, and came away unafraid of their own darkness in the end. Gah. ALL THE INCOHERENT LOVAGE.Another super-cute MG read. This one’s a graphic novel and my sciencey side stamps this HIGHLY APPROVED. Follow Squish the Amoeba as he attends school and deals with bullies and tries to save his friends, all with Real!Science and Genuine!Facts. At some point I plan to buy the rest of the series for my classroom 🙂I read this in preparation for teaching it – and then ended up on maternity leave for that unit 😛 But I really enjoyed this two-person drama about nurses in POW camps in WWII. Masterfully executed (er, no pun intended o.O). It’s hard to do minimalist drama well, but although there are only two roles in this play, nothing is missing in the slightest. Absolutely masterful.
Okay, so I know I said one sentence each, but never mind O:) Hopefully this spurs you to go out and pick up some new reads! Let me know in the comments/reblogs/etc – what have been your favourite reads so far this year? What do I absolutely NEED to read?
