Reading List (3/22/2011)

Currently Reading:
The Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Dreamless by A. H.

To Read:
Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study by Maria Snyder
Chasing the Nightbird by Krista Russell
The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell
No Place Like Holmes by Jason Lethcoe

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

When his small mountains country goes to war with the powerful nation of Attolia, Eugenides the thief is faced with his greatest challenge. He must steal a man, he must steal a queen, and he must steal peace.

But his greatest triumph-as well as his greatest loss-can only come if he succeeds in capturing something the Queen of Attolia may have sacrificed long ago.

This is the sequel to The Thief and it surpassed the first both in plot and the way the conclusion came about. In The Thief, Turner spins an entire tale about a thief that's been caught and forced on a mission for a sacred relic, the entire plot is so tightly wound in this mission, that the very few clues to how the story ends got fully buried and the ending came as a total surprise to me and many other readers as well. For many this was a complete turn-off, but it kept me interested in how the next few novels would play out. The Queen of Attolia does not disappoint.

Not only is Attolia and Eddis given more face time, the plot is more involved and also easier to follow. I was far more pleased by this second novel than the first and gladly sunk myself into Turner's fictional world in a way I hadn't been allowed to in the first novel. Even though the next two books have already been published, there were moments where I could delude myself well enough that Eugenides would not live out the story. The most fascinating aspect was how everyone was, in some way, a pawn and a player in their own endings to this novel and overall I was very satisfied.

Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. When his mom tells him the truth about where he came from, she takes him to the one place he’ll be safe—Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island). There, Percy learns that the father he never knew is actually Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon Percy finds himself caught up in a mystery that could lead to disastrous consequences. Together with his friends—a satyr and other the demigod daughter of Athena—Percy sets out on a quest to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

The Sea of Monsters
After a summer spent trying to prevent a catastrophic war among the Greek gods, Percy Jackson finds his seventh-grade school year unnervingly calm. But things don’t stay quiet for long. Percy soon discovers there is trouble at Camp Half-Blood: the magical borders which protect Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and the only safe haven for demigods is on the verge of being overrun by mythological monsters. To save the camp, Percy needs the help of his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner by the Cyclops Polyphemus on an island somewhere in the Sea of Monsters—the dangerous waters Greek heroes have sailed for millennia—only today, the Sea of Monsters goes by a new nameL: the Bermuda Triangle. Now Percy and his friends must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclopes by the end of the summer or Camp Half-Blood will be destroyed. But first, Percy will learn a stunning new secret about his family—one that makes him question whether being claimed as Poseidon’s son is an honor or simply a cruel joke...

The Titan’s Curse
When Percy Jackson receives a distress call from his friend Grover, he immediately prepares for battle. He knows he'll need his powerful demigod allies, Annabeth and Thalia, at his side; his trusty broze sword Riptide; and... a ride from his mom. The demigods race to the rescue, to find that Grover has made an important discovery: two new powerful half-bloods whose parentage is unknown. But that's not all that awaits them. The Titan lord, Kronos, has set up his most devious trap yet, and the young heroes have unwittingly fallen prey. Hilarious and action-packed, this third adventure in the series finds Percy faced with his most dangerous challenge so far: the chilling prophecy of the Titan's curse.

Battle of the Labyrinth
As an incoming freshman, Percy isn’t expecting his high school orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse.

In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends will set out on a quest through the Labyrinth—a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

The Last Olympian
All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows. While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

I raced through all five of these books in under one week. Having them all in my hands at the same time hastened the compulsion to speed through them. I'd rate them on the same level of enjoyability as the Harry Potter series, but unlike the Harry Potter series, which started as a series for children but ended far past that mark, this series felt and read like a juvenile fiction series and I lost none of my love for it because of that.

These books were feel good in a familiar, exciting way that made it hard to step back and do something else once you got started. The plot's zipped past before you even realized they were starting and once you've read two you'll be hooked.

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot.

Heather Wells Rocks!

Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two -- and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen -- not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives -- even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

I love Meg Cabot and all that she writes. This was definitely no exception. I read it all in about three hours, most of which were interrupted because I was at work, but I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. She was definitely aiming at people, like me, who feel uncomfortable in their skin at a size 12 and trying to talk them into feeling better about themselves, but she did it in a very clever, mildly cute way.

The fact that I got to snitch it from the library because it was being discarded didn't hurt any either. I'm not fully sure where they send their discarded books, but I doubt they end up in the hands of a new reader, which is a little disappointing. I plan on either handing it to my little sister to read when I get home, or donating it. The cover is ratty and the pages are yellowed, but the binding isn't about to fall apart and someone else can definitely read it with no problems. (I suppose the BBQ smothered book might be a different problem.)

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Ninth Legion marched into the mists of Northern Britain—and they were never seen again. Four thousand men disappeared and their eagle standard was lost. It’s a mystery that’s never been solved, until now . . .

Marcus has to find out what happened to his father, who led the legion. So he sets out into the unknown, on a quest so dangerous that nobody expects him to return.

Is it wrong to find that summary horribly lacking for what actually occurs in the book? At heart, this book is a bromance against odds, and a story of devoted friendship and reads a lot like a coming of age novel set in Roman held Britannia. The main plot point may be Marcus and Esca on a mission to reclaim the lost eagle standard, it's really a story about discovering what's important to a person and how to overcome past losses and moving forward from them.

Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War by Helen Zenna Smith

Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War by Helen Zenna Smith

This story offers a rare, funny, bitter, feminist look at war from women actively engaged in it. Published in London in 1930, Not So Quiet...(on the Western Front) is a novel in autobiographical guise that describes a group of British women ambulance drivers on the French front lines during World War 1. As Voluntary Aid Detachment workers, the women pay for the privilege of driving the wounded through shell fire in the freezing cold, on no sleep and an inedible diet, under the watchful eye of their punishing commandant, nicknamed Mrs. Bitch.

This book was assigned to me for the women and gender studies course I had to drop from last semester due to work overload, but I had been really eager to read it when I first got it. Fortunately, I got the pleasure to finally sit down with it while flying home, and coincidentally back to school.

It's one of those grittier war books where you just know the main character shall either be dead, or all her friends will be and the journey that it takes to get there will be godawful. This summary was entirely accurate for what the book tells the story of, so I'd suggest finding something lighter to read on the side, or you'll be in a dark mood for the better part of a day.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner & Ruined by Paula Morris

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

"I can steal anything."

After Gen's bragging lands him in the king's prison, the chances of escape look slim. Then the king's scholar, the magus, needs the thief's skill for a seemingly impossible task -- to steal a hidden treasure from another land.

To the magus, Gen is just a tool. But Gen is a trickster and a survivor with a plan of his own.

Ruined by Paula Morris

Rebecca couldn't feel more out of place in New Orleans. She's staying in a creepy house with her aunt, who reads tarot cards. And at the snooty prep school, a pack of filthy-rich girls treat Rebecca like she's invisible. Only gorgeous, unavailable Anton Grey gives Rebecca the time of day, but she wonders if he's got a hidden agenda.

Then one night, among the oak trees in Lafayette Cemetery, Rebecca makes a friend. Sweet, mysterious Lisette is eager to show Rebecca the nooks and crannies of New Orleans. There's just one catch.

Lisette is a ghost.

A ghost with a deep, dark secret, and a serious score to settle.

As Rebecca is drawn deeper into a web of old curses and cryptic customs, she also uncovers startling truths about her own history. Will Rebecca be able to right the wrongs of the past, or has everything been ruined beyond repair?

I highly recommend both. They're fast, enticing reads and you end up racing through simply to see how they're going to end and both have whalloping plot twists, though I found I was guessing at Ruined's twist about halfway through and was eager for it to be revealed.

The Thief is the first novel in a series, but it can very easily stand alone and I find that to be a good thing in it's favor. There's plenty of room for it to continue, but there aren't any glaring cliff hangers left that might irritate a casual reader. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the next three in the series as soon as I can.

Is there a fandom for these books yet? I feel like there must be somewhere, hidden. Tell me I'm not wrong.