BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!

Last month, I was in a reading challenge, and it was a-maz-ing. We had a facebook group and everything. *nodnod* There were certain challenges, like...

Read a book with blue on the cover!

Read a book that starts with the first letter of your first name!

Read a book a friend recommends!

Read a book in the genre you've read least! 

*happy sigh*

Gaahhh. I miss my August Reading Challenggeeeeeeee. Seriously, besides Summer Workshop, that was easily one of the best things I've participated in this year. <3  But anyways, I was looking at my shelf from the challenge on GoodReads, and there were just so many good books. 

Soooo, guess what I decided to do?

 Book recommendations. 

Prepare to be dazzled. :D

The Grisha Trilogy, by Leigh Bardugo

Ohmygosh, these were good. Like, really, really good. I just. DARKLING. NIKOLAI. GAAAH. 

The first book is Shadow and Bone. 

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Two words: Fantasy. Russia.
That should completely convince you to read them. But if it doesn't...um...yeah, fantasy Russia had me sold. Besides that, though, there's the characters (NIKOLAIIIII (although he's not there till the second book)). And the magic system. So cool.

The Leviathan Trilogy, by Scott Westerfield

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[deep breath]

Sorry. I just.

These books.

THESE BOOKS.

[clears throat] Um, basically, Leviathan is a steampunk World War 1. It's Clankers (traditional mechanics and machines) versus Darwinists (Fabricrated creatures). Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I love these. <3

  It is the cusp of World War I. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ genetically fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet. 

Aleksandar Ferdinand, a Clanker, and Deryn Sharp, a Darwinist, are on opposite sides of the war. But their paths cross in the most unexpected way, taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure….One that will change both their lives forever.

 I absolutely loved the steampunk-ness of it. But besides that (which is why I initially wanted to read them) Deryn and Alek were really fun to read about. OH, and I almost forgot the coolest part of them.
[drumroll]


They have pictures.
Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath are all full of illustrations showing scenes from the books and they are insanely cool.
So yeah. Read it if only for the illustrations. <3

Beastly, by Alex Flynn

Beauty and the Beast, in modern day New York City. The 'beast' (aka Kyle/Adrian) is a rich jerk who goes to a fancy private school. 'Beauty' is a poor girl who loves to read and goes to Kyle's school, too, but only because she got it on scholarship and has to work hard to keep herself enrolled. 

Eeeee, I loved this. I'm a sucker for retellings, and Beauty and the Beast is one of the coolest stories to retell. 

This wasn't a serious book. It was funny and light-hearted and cute.

I am a beast.
A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright--a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever--ruined--unless I can break the spell.
Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly.

 Kyle, you snarky little cutie.

If you want to see more of my books from last month, check out my GoodReads shelf for the challenge above. :)
Bonus: currently reading...

Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Wow.

I mean, wow.

I…hang on, give me a moment. I need to try and get some coherent thoughts together.

Okay, I think I’m ready.

via

Code Name Verity, where do I start?
Do I tell you all about the characters and how insanely real they felt? Do I talk about how heartbreakingly realistic Julie is? Do I mention the tears that now stain my library’s copy of this book?

Eventually.

Code Name Verity is the story of friendship. The Book Thief may have been about a girl who loved words but this book is about people who love each other deeply and like family. It’s the story of two girls who somehow ended up being best friends and even though they were separated by miles and miles and the Chateau de Bourreaux remains so.

I don’t know what else to say about this book, honestly. I’m not going to in-depth because that will require spoilers and I want people who haven’t read this to see it and hopefully be convinced to read it because it is so worth it. 

I wouldn’t even think about giving this less than five stars. I’m a mess of emotions right now and I don’t really want to start another book, I’d rather sit here and mope for a few days. I loved the friendship between Queenie and Maddie and really everyone in this book.

I love this book.

I love it.

And I think you will too.

OLD BOOKS!

My kindle has been dead for weeks now, because I lost my charger and have been too lazy to go and look for it. A few days ago, however, I needed to upload Jill Williamson’s Storyworld First (which you should most definitely buy when it comes out). So, I spent about an hour hunting around my room for the charger, which was NOT in my room, but in my parents' room instead. .-.

But I did find something in my room that made me maybe a little too happy.

My copy of Anne of the Island my LM Montgomery. Seriously, look at this book. I read it so much, although it’s not the worst-looking book in my AoGG collection. :3 That title belongs to Anne of Ingleside.

So I flipped through it for a while, and came across this quote.
“Averil is such an unmanageable heroine. She will do and say things I never meant her to. Then that spoils everything that went before and I have to write it all over again.”

Hey, wait a second…that sounds really familiar...

OH. That’s what I go through all the time with my characters! No wonder I loved these so much. :3

After that I started looking through all my old books that I’ve shelved on the teeny-tiny shelf up top that only they will fit on.

So. OLD BOOKS. YAY.  

Unfortunately, NOT the old books I get at used bookstores, but...

  Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.

I guess you were expecting that one. I mean, I did just spend all that time up there talking about the third book in the series. ;) But out of all my books that are worn down from years of rereading, Anne of Green Gables definitely gets first place.

      Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan.

…I did say they were all in pretty bad condition, you know.

I think I read these sometime in 4^th grade.  And right now, I’m waiting on the Blood of Olympus to release this October (please hurry up, Uncle Rick. I need the last book.)

Percy was a sarcastic little dork, and I loved that. I loved Annabeth Chase and I loved the whole atmosphere of Camp Half-Blood. I think I subconsciously decided to use ballpoint pens more after reading those.  I honestly could go on forever about Percy Jackson, because I still love these books as much as I did 5 years ago.
And besides PJO, Rick Riordan wrote everything I read in 5^th and 6^th grade. The Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, the Demigod Files…<3 

American Girl Mysteries

These are all the AG books I ever owned.

…

Hahaha.

Haha.

That’s funny.

A few months ago I went through and cleaned out my shelves, and a lot of my AG mysteries went bye-bye. These are just my favorites: Samantha, Kit, and Molly.

American Girl mysteries are pretty much just the doll-characters solving mysteries and such with their best friends in their respective time period. One of the Molly books I remembered involved a German family that had been good friends with Molly’s family for years, and were taken to the internment camps.

Dear America…/My Name is America

Ohmygosh. These books. <3 Fictional diaries of people in different time periods? Along with a tiny history lesson in the back? Oh yes. These were a favorite.

Oh, look,  PAIN.

I’ve never actually owned any of these (*cries*)  mostly because the library had most of them and it’s maybe (maybe) 10 minutes away from our house.  Dear America were usually about girls and My Name is America were typically guys, I think.

One of my favorites (and one that I’m still really sad about) is a Dear America on the Titanic. Owwwww. 
(spoiler alert: the love interest dies)

(but at least he didn’t die Jack-style.)

(sorrynotsorry)

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

I wanted to be in the Mysterious Benedict Society so much when I read these. I still do, actually. xD

[picture of mbs books]

Oh gosh. How do I even describe these.

They’re kids books, but honestly, anyone can (and should) read them. If only for Constance Contraire, read them.

Mr. Benedict is a fabulous old man with narcolepsy and he’s basically my favorite character in the entire series.  <3

And the plot?

The plot revolves around 4 clever children who passed several tests in the first book and now get to live with Mr. Benedict and Rhonda and solve mysteries and yeah. These books are special. <3

Honorable Mentions:

The 39 Clues Series

Harry Potter (because I read these still today and refuse to admit they ended)

Jane Eyre (Illustrated Classics Edition)

Where the Red Fern Grows

Artemis Fowl 

That’s it for now. J I hope to be back sometime next week with a review of Storyworld First! 

~Emma