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?
