Enchantment

As one of the most consistently exciting writers to emerge in the last twenty-five years, Orson Scott Card has been honored with numerous awards, immersing readers in dazzling worlds only he could create. Now, in Enchantment, Card works his magic as never before, transforming the timeless story of Sleeping Beauty into an original fantasy brimming with romance and adventure.

The moment Ivan stumbled upon a clearing in the dense Carpathian forest, his life was forever changed. Atop a pedestal encircled by fallen leaves, the beautiful princess Katerina lay still as death. But beneath the foliage a malevolent presence stirred and sent the ten-year-old Ivan scrambling for the safety of Cousin Marek's farm.

Now, years later, Ivan is an American graduate student, engaged to be married. Yet he cannot forget that long-ago day in the forest--or convince himself it was merely a frightened boy's fantasy. Compelled to return to his native land, Ivan finds the clearing just as he left it.

This time he does not run. This time he awakens the beauty with a kiss . . . and steps into a world that vanished a thousand years ago.

A rich tapestry of clashing worlds and cultures, Enchantment is a powerfully original novel of a love and destiny that transcend centuries . . . and the dark force that stalks them across the ages.

The Night Circus

By: Erin Morgenstern

Published: 2011

# of pages: 387

Quote: "The stone feels heavier in your hand.
When you drop it in the pool to join the rest of the stones, you feel lighter. As though you have released something more than a smooth polishes piece of rock." -p. 283

Official description:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

My opinion: I'm not gonna lie, I was disappointed in this book. I read another review that summed up how I feel by saying that the elaborate descriptions make up 80% of the book and the remaining 20% make up the "plot."

I'm confused by the official description's claim that the two main characters, Celia and Marco, are engaged in a "fierce competition." I kept waiting for the game the two played to really start. And it never did. That's not a spoiler, I'm just warning y'all! The romance was also a disappointment. I felt that with the in depth descriptions, Morgenstern could have written so much more about the game and the characters, but instead she concentrated on the setting. And the setting is amazing! I wish I could go to the Circus of Dreams!

It was pretty confusing at first with the different viewpoints and time lines. But after the first 80 pages or so it started to make more sense. Everything comes together in the end, you just may have to flip back and forth a bit to keep track of the different time stamps at the beginning of each chapter.

Why I gave this book 3/5 stars: Underdeveloped plot and characters, confusing time lines, but neat imagery and setting.

Other reviews:
S. Krishna's Books
Book Nut
Literary Musings
It's All About Books
Chrisbookarama
life by candlelight

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

By: Max Brooks

Challenge: The Dystopia Challenge 2012

Published: 2006

# of pages: 342

Official description:

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time.World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

My opinion: My husband and I recently came up with our zombie plan (we also have an EMP plan and a general apocalypse plan). I had already had one for awhile and I don't know what possessed me to share my plan with my husband. But thankfully he didn't think I was crazy, he went along with it! So now we're always adding to our plans and I decided to read this book to come up with ideas.

After I started I found out that Brooks has another book, The Zombie Survival Guide. But World War Z was an interesting read and I loved how it was structured to be so real. It's written in a series of interviews that take place all over the world. Brooks has constructed an entire history that the reader slowly learns about through the interviews.

It isn't perfect, but I was impressed with the depth of the plot and the different voices that are presented. I recommend this to adults who enjoy post-apocalyptic/dystopian/zombie books.

Why I gave this book 4/5 stars: Unique story (both plot and writing style), may be hard for some people to "get into" since there is no central character, a few typos (including one that made things confusing)

Other reviews:

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Sarah's Key

By: Tatiana de Rosnay

Published: 2008

# of pages: 293

Official description:

A New York Times bestseller. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

My opinion: I found this book to be horrifyingly haunting. I had never heard of the events of Vel d'Hiv' and what happened to the children afterwards. It's a shame that people have never heard of those particular events that took place during the Holocaust. It's so important to remember the victims of the Holocaust for multiple reasons. They deserve to be remembered and their deaths should serve as a warning for the future so that hopefully such things will never be repeated.

Why I gave this book 5/5 stars: Great historical fiction setting, unique storytelling, well-written

Other reviews:
S. Krishna's Books
Bookfoolery and Babble
Royal Reviews
Letters from a Hill Farm

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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

By: Ransom Riggs

Published: 2011

# of pages: 352

Official description:

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography,Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My opinion: Don't be fooled! The description and the cover make this book seem like a suspense/Gothic/ghost/horror story. This is a fantasy book, pure and simple. The first third isn't strictly fantasy. I was even really creeped out in the first few chapters. However, it turns into a sci-fi/fantasy novel complete with time travel and fantastical creatures. I was disappointed, but you don't have to be if you know what you're getting into.

The inclusion of the pictures makes this book fascinating! I loved it and thought it was so unique. However, I was a little annoyed that a few of the pictures could have been left out altogether and then in some parts the narrative offers fake sounding explanations for the pictures. Not all of the pictures needed to be specifically mentioned, the explanations (justifications?) broke up the narrative.

Why I gave this book 4/5 stars: Unique story, cool pictures, misleading description, not the most well-written.

Other reviews:

life by candlelight
S. Krishna's Books
Chrisbookarama

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Still Alice

By: Lisa Genova

Published: 2007

# of pages: 292

Official description:

Genova's debut revolves around Alice Howland - Harvard professor, gifted researcher and lecturer, wife, and mother of three grown children. One day, Alice sets out for a run and soon realizes she has no idea how to find her way home. It's a route she has taken for years, but nothing looks familiar. She is utterly lost. Is her forgetfulness the result of menopausal symptoms? A ministroke? A neurological cancer? After a few doctors' appointments and medical tests, Alice has her diagnosis, and it's a shocker -- she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

What follows is the story of Alice's slow but inevitable loss of memory and connection with reality, told from her perspective. She gradually loses the ability to follow a conversational thread, the story line of a book, or to recall information she heard just moments before. To Genova's great credit, readers learn of the progression of Alice's disease through the reactions of others, as Alice does, so they feel what she feels -- a slowly building terror.

My opinion: I wish that I was in a book club and could discuss this book with other people! It was a great read, I couldn't put it down. At first I wasn't impressed with the writing, but soon I didn't notice any awkwardness, but that could have been because of an improvement on the author's part or because I was so wrapped up in the story I didn't notice.

I do have to say - if you are struggling with mental problems this may not be a book you want to read. On the other hand, maybe that will help you relate to the character of Alice more. All I know is that because I am struggling in the mental department these days, it scared me when I saw how similar many of my symptoms are to Alice's early Alzheimer's symptoms. But reading the book also made me so thankful that my issues are temporary (hopefully).

It was fascinating to read about Alzheimer's from the patient's point of view. And there were parts of the story that I continued to think about after I finished the book. I feel like one major part I didn't quite get while I was in the midst of the story, it wasn't until after that the full impact dawned on me. I'm actually about to go back and read that part again.

I highly recommend this book to all adults, unless you think it would be too depressing/intimidating to read while struggling with a mental illness. It has some bad language, but it's not tasteless. This book would be especially great for book clubs to read together.

Why I gave this book 5/5 stars: Although not especially well written, the characters and story were unique and really drew me in. I can't stop thinking about this novel!

Other reviews:

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Divergent

By: Veronica Roth

Series: Divergent, Book 1

Challenge: Dystopia Challenge

Published: 2011

# of pages: 487

Official description:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

My opinion: I started this book a little skeptical about how good it would actually be. I knew it was being compared to The Hunger Games, but seriously, how can anything be better than The Hunger Games!? So the beginning of the book seemed very juvenile and took me awhile to enjoy. But I eventually ended up really enjoying this book and can't wait for the next in the trilogy to be released this year!

I enjoyed imagining what faction I would be in if I lived in the world presented in Divergent. There are 5 factions. I'd be in Erudite, along with everyone in my family. Except my sister, she would definitely be "factionless." For awhile I couldn't think of what faction she fit into, but realized she already is basically factionless in this world, so there you have it. My husband read Divergent as well and said he'd want to be in Dauntless, but we figure he'd probably be assigned to Amity. :-)

So, if you've read this and know what I'm talking about, what faction would you be in?

Why I gave this book 4/5 stars: Easy & entertaining to read, good pace, interesting characters, original plot and setting. A little bit too "young adult" for me to fully appreciate, but that just makes it better for people who really are young adults!

Other reviews:
Book Nut
S. Krishna's Books
Bookfoolery and Babble
It's All About Books
Royal Reviews

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The Sandalwood Tree

By: Elle Newmark

Published: 2011

# of pages: 357

Quote: "A few months later, we bathed our new son together. We inhaled his innocence, lathered the peach fuzz on his head, marveled at the perfect whorls of his tiny ears, his starfish hands, the tender flush on his round, wet, baby belly. Martin cupped one wee foot and growled, 'Arrgh-arrgh-arrgh. Oooh, I'm gonna eat him.' He kissed each pink toe. 'Oooh, he's delicious.' Afterward, we lay in bed chuckling at our newborn, who lay snoring like an old man. . . . I watched him sleep and wondered how anything could be so sweet. I thought I might die from insulin shock." -Evie, pg. 40

Official description:

A sweeping novel that brings to life two love stories, ninety years apart, set against the rich backdrop of war-torn India.

In 1947, American historian and veteran of WWII, Martin Mitchell, wins a Fulbright Fellowship to document the end of British rule in India. His wife, Evie, convinces him to take her and their young son along, hoping a shared adventure will mend their marriage, which has been strained by war.

But other places, other wars. Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857.

Drawn to their story, Evie embarks on a mission to piece together her Victorian mystery. Her search leads her through the bazaars and temples of India as well as the dying society of the British Raj. Along the way, Martin’s dark secret is exposed, unleashing a new wedge between Evie and him. As India struggles toward Independence, Evie struggles to save her marriage, pursuing her Victorian ghosts for answers.

Bursting with lavish detail and vivid imagery of Calcutta and beyond, The Sandalwood Tree is a powerful story about betrayal, forgiveness, fate, and love.

My opinion: I loved this book! I think Newmark did a great job with her descriptions of both the characters and the setting. I was especially impressed with her descriptions of motherhood from the viewpoint of a biological mother and a mother through adoption. Absolutely beautiful!

I was also intrigued with the story and the setting. It was interesting from an historic standpoint (British/Indian conflicts in both 1856 and 1947) and how the two story lines tie together. I definitely recommend to lovers of historical fiction and anyone looking for a well-written novel.

I can't help but post more of my favorite quotes from the book at the bottom of this post...

Why I gave this book 5/5 stars: Well-written, unique story, good pace, interesting setting.

Other reviews:
S. Krishna's Books
life by candlelight

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More quotes: "I spent most of the hour cajoling the children into letting me hug them. In the end, shy smiles turned into giggling fits, and eight pairs of enormous black eyes crinkled with mirth. They didn't learn Bs that day; it was much better than that." -pg. 189

"I held him under the kissing ball & when I pecked his tender cheek, he grabbed my hair to pull my face to his. It was the finest Christmas gift I have ever received." -pg. 308

How times flies! The past few years have been crazy but I'm hoping that I'll be able to read more this year AND blog more. Stick with me because there will be many more years of book blogging to come!