The Giver by Lois Lowry

★★★★★

"The worst part of holding of holding the memories is not the pain.  It's the loneliness of it.  Memories need to be shared."

Updated: 5/20/2014

Since Lois Lowry's fourth and final book of the Giver Quartet, "Son" came out a few years ago, I figured I should re-read the whole series again.  Luckily, they are quite short and I listened to this one in less than two days.  

I can't say enough good things about this book!  It's one of those books that can be re-read again and again and you still find something new and interesting about it.  I loved Lowry's ability to create a dystopian world in less than 200 pages.  She had me hooked from the very beginning.

The reality is that there are both good and bad parts of life.  In Jonas's society, all of the "bad things" have been taken away to create a "perfect" world.  Everything is the same.  Everything is provided for.  There is no pain.  No suffering.  Everything is decided in the best interest of the people.  When Jonas is choose to receive special training from the Giver, he begins to realize that the world that was created, is also missing the love, pleasure, and pain of life before.  As he is slowly introduced to the memories of the past, he also sees the true horrors of his society.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the simple layout of a world where everything bad is taken away.  Every negative thing about life could have a solution, but at what cost?  

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

★★★★★

"I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality.  But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know?  I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimated the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.  I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

Updated: 5/7/2014

The movie is coming out, so I listed to his as an audio book this past week.  I loved it just as much as I did a few years ago and it remains one of my favorite books.  The story is subtle, yet extremely powerful.  I have always loved the character of Liesel and the connection between books and words throughout the novel.  I enjoyed listening the the audio version, but I missed a lot of the formatting and drawings that were in the print version - especially Max's stories that he wrote for Liesel. 

The Smart One by Jennifer Close

★★★★★

"I just think you can't be so quick to be so sure of other people's situations.  Examine you own situations.  You also have a lot of choices.  It's not always easier for other people.  It doesn't work like that."

In Jennifer Close's second novel, she looks looks at family, growing up, and getting through life when it didn't go exactly as planned.  This is the story of the three Coffey children: Martha - nearly thirty and still living at home after she's couldn't handle the the pressure of a high-stress nursing career, Clarie - recently broken up with her fiance and having to move back home after running out of money to pay for her New York apartment, and Max - who has his life together, except for knocking up his college girlfriend.  Too old to live at home, the novel follows the Coffeys (and Max's girlfriend) through the struggles of transitioning into adulthood. 

I normally don't read a lot of "chick-lit," but this book had me hooked.  I loved the writing style and rare sense of humor.  The writing was good and the story was engaging, but the real reason I had to give it five stars was because of the realistic portrayal of life, love, and finding your way in a crazy, mixed up world.

Jennifer Close has this amazing way of writing the perfect book exactly when I need it.  I read her first novel, Girls in White Dresses over two years ago - right after I finished college, was some-what single, and had no idea what I was doing with my life.  When I was younger, I always assumed I would finish college and magically everything else would fall into place.  I quickly learned that wasn't the case!  The book was all about being surrounded by everyone you know getting married and and having a perfect career while you're just trying to figure out what you're doing next week.  

Two years later, I now find myself engaged and living with my boyfriend's parents.  I love them, but there is still the day-to-day struggle of dealing with crazy family drama and  trying to be on your own while still feeling like you're in high school.  Not to mention waking up one day and realizing that you're almost 26, getting married in 3 months, and still not an "adult."  This book captured this perfectly.  Jennifer Close a knack for writing the perfect book for getting you through those not-so-perfect situations.

This book was #7 on my top ten list of 2014.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (audio)

★★★★★

"But it's so easy, when you never meet people, when you never know the Earth itself, it's easy to forget why Earth is worth saving.  Why the world of people might be worth the price you pay."

First read: 5/14/2009

Update: I read this book about five years ago and finished listening to the "Ender's Game Alive" audio version.  I enjoyed it just as must as I did the first time I read it!!  I don't remember everything, so I'm not sure how different it was from the original (I've heard mixed reviews), but I really liked all of the different fast members and added sound effects into the reading.  The first time I read it, I remember being really surprised at the ending.  With all of the young adult science fiction/dystopia coming out in the recent years, it was nice to go back to the of the early one.  Now, on to see the movie!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (audio)

★★★★★

"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.  A writer we use to like taught us that.  There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set.  I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got.  But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."

"Cancer is also a side effect of dying.  Almost everything is, really."

Goodreads Summary: "Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten."

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I am a big fan of John Green, and this one was absolutely amazing - as I knew that it would be.  This isn't just a cancer story.  It's a story about love and loss and adolescents.  Hazel and Gus are determined to live their lives to the fullest, even though everything is against them.  There love story is one of courage, strength, and inspiration.  And do top it all off, they are also incredibly funny and delightful characters to read about.  This story was beautifully written and gave a touching and realistic (at least I'm assuming) view of what experiences young adults go through when dealing with cancer.  I loved not only that the author did a wonderful job describing the emotions that Hazel and Gus went though, but also their reactions to how they were treated because of their disease.  A extremely heart-felt novel that puts young love and dying into perspective.  

I was thrilled to see that it had been chosen as the Time Magazine YA pick for 2012 and that the movie will be out this June - be prepared for a tear jerker!

 

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (audio)

★★★★★

"...the fields might fall to fallow and the birds might stop their song awhile; the growing things might die and lie in silence under snow, while through it all the cold sea wore its face of storms and death and sunken hopes...and yet unseen beneath the waves a warmer current ran that, in its time, would bring the spring."

Goodreads Summary: In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her..  

The above photograph is a picture of Slains.  I found it through Google images when searching for the book's cover and it describes the book perfectly.  I can't say enough good things about this book...I absolutely loved it and the narration on the audio book was amazing.

I've read a lot of past/present historical fiction novels, and this is by far one of my favorites.  I loved the description and instantly was intrigued by the characters.  I usually have a tendency to like the parts in the past better, but this one was a dead tie.  This novel was extremely well-written and unique.  I knew it was going to be a 5-star from the very beginning and I loved the idea of using the writing of a historical-fiction novel as the contemporary story!  The research process was really interesting and I loved being able to learn more about it as the author did.

All-in-all and excellent book and a great new author to read!  I came across this when a patron returned it at the library and am so glad I picked it up.  I loved listening to the narration, but there was a lot to take in and I often found myself having to look back at the book and look up the historical characters and dates to make sure I was getting everything.  I am very much looking forward to reading the second Slains novel, The Firebird, but I may read the novel this time around!

This book was #1 on my top ten list of 2014.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

★★★ 1/2
"We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another."

This book wasn't the next Harry Potter.  Or Twilight.  Or even the next Hunger Games.  Not for me anyways.  The story was engaging, and I did enjoy reading it, but I don't have a huge desire to read the next two books right away.  The world that Veronica Roth created was interesting enough and I really liked the idea of grouping everyone into a world by a single character trait (which we know from the beginning is going to fail).  I tried placing myself in a facet, and it was impossible to pick just one.  True to real-life, there are so many positives and negatives of a single characteristic! After reading the book, I felt that there was a little too much focus on the action of the training and not enough on exploring the world and the character.  

Looking forward to seeing how the movie is when it comes out :)