Melanie’s Winter Reading List

I've been going through a reading slump. For months now, every book I've picked up has lacked that certain something. The best I can say is that I was interested enough to skim to the end, but most often I just forgot about it until I got a notice from the library saying it was due. But, at Sheena’s encouragement, I picked up The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, and I finished it! No skimming involved. It was a lovely, lovely book that reminded me that books don’t always need explosions to be wonderful. (They do, however, need to be in the past tense, but that’s a pet peeve for another blog post.) I hurried to my library’s web site and reserved The Geography of You and Me, which is another book by Jennifer E. Smith.

And that was when I remembered that sometimes authors I like write new books. And that those books might help break me free of my reading slump. A smidgen of research later, and I had a brand new TBR pile. I hope you like it.

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers

Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own. She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind, doesn’t mean she has.

Mortal Heart came out 3 DAYS AGO! I spent my whole fall not eagerly anticipating this book. What a waste. If you haven’t read His Fair Assassins Trilogy, you should. This is the final book in the series.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

A brand new series by Marie Lu.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

Yay! Auri is one of my favorites. I’m so glad he wrote a “short” story about her. (At 176 pages, it’s hardly a novelette, but it is short by Patrick Rothfuss’s standards.)

Deep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug in the heart of this forgotten place.

Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a brief, bittersweet glimpse of Auri’s life, a small adventure all her own. At once joyous and haunting, this story offers a chance to see the world through Auri’s eyes. And it gives the reader a chance to learn things that only Auri knows....

In this book, Patrick Rothfuss brings us into the world of one of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s most enigmatic characters. Full of secrets and mysteries, The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the story of a broken girl trying to live in a broken world.

Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card

This is the third book in the First Formic War series, the prequel to Ender’s Game. It is the story of Mazer Rakham and the rest of Earth as they meet the Buggers for the first time. If you are an Ender's Game fan, you've got to read these. If not, you can probably skip them.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I’m late on this one! Book 3 is already out, and I’ve never read book 2. Ana and the French Kiss is book 1, and Isla and the Happily Ever After is the last book in the series.

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion...she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit—more sparkly, more fun, more wild—the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket—a gifted inventor—steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

The Whispering Skull by Jonathon Stroud

This is the sequel to the Screaming Staircase

In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn't made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood's investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper.

Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George's curiosity attracts a horrible phantom. 

Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood's annoyance. Bickerstaff's coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found. 

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

    Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?
    But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And one gamer has been doing exactly that, with murderous results.
    The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker. And they’ve been watching Michael. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid to the back alleys and corners of the system human eyes have never seen—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.

Catalyst by SJ Kincaid

This is the third book in the Insignia series, a series I found completely by happenstance. But I love it.

S. J. Kincaid has created a fascinating dystopian world for Insignia, her futuristic science-fiction adventure series perfect for fans of Ender's Game. Earth is in the middle of WWIII, battling to determine which governments and corporations will control the resources of the solar system.

Teen Tom Raines grew up with nothing, some days without even a roof over his head. Then his exceptional gaming skills earned him a spot in the Intrasolar Forces, the country's elite military training program, and his life completely changed. Now, in Catalyst, the explosive series conclusion, dangerous changes have come to the Pentagonal Spire, where Tom and his friends train. When a mysterious figure starts fighting against the evil corporations' horrifying plans, but with methods Tom finds shocking, he must decide which side he's on.

With slim odds of success, is it even worth the fight?

Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

I’ve never read anything by Mary Elizabeth Summer, but goodreads said that if I liked the Heist Society series, I might like this one. So I’m excited, because I LOVED the Heist Society series.

What books are you looking forward to reading?