New on my bookshelf {YA}

From the title of this post, I suppose you can safely assume these are a few books I've received/bought recently and are, as I say, new on my bookshelf. 

Voila! Bon voyage! Bon appetit! On y va.

new on my bookshelf

For this post I was simply too lazy to take photos and do the whole shebang with the writing up and everything, and I thought a video would let you see the books better than in pictures so here we go! 

Sorry for my talking and just terrible explaining skills, I think I might have made it seem like I don't know how to count. 

I suppose some writing will be necessary in this post anyway, so you don't get confused. 

The first three I showed you were given to me by the amazing Jess from The Tales Compendium.

1) Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

2) Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

3) The Tale of Despereaux by Kate diCamillo

And the last one I bought online. I failed to tell you that.

4) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I'm most excited about Uglies! I've heard countless people rave on and on about it.

my thoughts on: never let me go by kazuo ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

published 2005. read synopsis.

First I watched the film and ever since, this story had been deeply embedded inside my mind. 

And then I read the novel. 

Before I begin talking about the book, I just want to quickly say that I think the movie was excellent and did a fantastic job capturing the world inside Never Let Me Go. Yes, some things weren't exactly represented accurately from book to film, and I might think differently about this when I watch the movie over again. But for right now, I love the film. I truly, truly believe that Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield were brilliantly cast in their roles. 

Ok, now the book. 

THE WRITING

I am dumbfounded by Kazuo Ishiguro's writing. Never Let Me Go is one of the best written pieces of literature I have ever read in my lifetime. The way the story was written, the way the author wielded his words, and the way the language spoke in a voice so distinct that I couldn't hear the author at all, but only and solely Kathy's voice - these are all reasons why this book is one of the best written books I've read. The story is told in way that greatly warrants the book to be read aloud. I was trying to hear the words as spoken by Carey Mulligan (her voiceovers in the movie were so excellent and I love her voice in general) and I was tempted to buy an audio book version of the novel online. Kathy H, the narrator, told the story as if she and I were having tea together one afternoon. I can't even articulate properly how much I love the way this story is written. I would buy the book for this factor alone. 

what I got from the library..

It's the mid-semester break right now, so I still have a few more weeks until uni restarts and while I was running a few errands yesterday at uni I had some time to spare so I popped into the library for a look-see.

These are what I borrowed! 

Cassandra by Kerry Greenwood

published 1995. goodreads synopsis

Cassandra caught my eye not only because it looked Greek myth-y but also because of the title. After reading On the Seas to Troy by Caroline B Cooney, Cassandra became one of my favourite characters of Ancient Greek mythology, so I'm excited to see how this book tells her story. The author is from Melbourne I think!

my thoughts on: INSURGENT by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

published 2012, Harper Collins

click here for the synopsis

This sequel to Divergent did not disappoint... but I can't say it was equal to or better than its predecessor, either.

To its credit, the ending of this Roth novel once again had me gripping my seat with nervous, inexplicable anticipation. It was action-packed, intense, and OH-MY-GOSH the very last page literally made me gasp, my mouth went into a O-shape and my hand slammed over it.

Anyway, let's talk about the other parts of the book.

The Divergent Tag! {video!}

On the weekend I filmed the Divergent Tag with my sister!!! 

Questions: 

1)Which faction would you most likely choose to be in?

2)Which faction would you least likely choose to be in?

3)Which character did you most like/identify with the most?

4)Which character did you like the least?

5)What was your favourite moment?

6)What was your least favourite moment?

7)If you had the power to cast one character, which character would you cast and who would you choose to play that role?

8)Do you think Summit can pull it off?

9)What are your top predictions for the next book Insurgent?

my thoughts on: "free four" (divergent novella) by veronica roth

Free Four: Tobias tells the story

by Veronica Roth (2012)

{free to read online here}

What a yummy bite of literature! To feast on that just brought back all the intense and amazing feelings and memories of reading Divergent for the first time last year. 

This is a very short piece - only 15 pages long, and at first I was going to rate it only 4.5 stars because I kinda wished it was longer but then I realised that it didn't leave anything to be desired - it achieved the objective as perfectly as Four throwing knives at a target board. The scene that was written was chosen perfectly - it was like Roth knew her readers needed to know what was going through Four's head in this scene. 

By the way, the novella takes place in the scene where the initiates are doing knife training, and Tris takes Al's punishment which means she gets knives thrown at her head by Four/Tobias. It was altogether just awesome. If you haven't read it yet, and you're a Divergent fan, then what are you waiting for??!

Being inside Four's head throughout this scene just rendered me even more enamoured of him, if that is possible. Getting to read his thought process made me even surer than I was before that I would be in the Dauntless faction too (which is what all the quizzes have told me), although to be precise Four isn't only Dauntless. 

As soon as I'm finished with the books I'm currently reading, I need to re-read Divergent ASAP and then get into Insurgent already! 

Have you read the e-novella yet? What did you think? 

Also, what faction would you be in? You can do the aptitude test on Divergent's fb page here.

new on my bookshelf: all american edition

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Another AMAZING dystopian YA that has been on my wishlist for SO LONG! Despite the extensive height of my TBR pile sitting on various shelves in my bedroom, I decided I had waited too long to get this. 

Go check out the synopsis on Goodreads!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I'm not sure what exactly made me order this one. It's not like a need a bigger reading pile. But there's a movie coming out for this and I think it's got a good rep around town. Hmmm. It's a bit of an oldie, but if you haven't heard of it, click here for the blurbity blurb!

Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac

I thought I'd expand the scope of my reading a little bit and order a couple Kerouacs online. There are songs about him and he started the Beat Generation, if there is such a thing. Lonesome Traveller is, I think, like Jack Kerouac's own travel journal. I'll get around to reading it some time soon I hope. He is rather relevant to my American Lit unit.

review: divergent by veronica roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth

young adult dystopian // harpercollins // 2011 // paperback // 487 pages

I had this book sitting on my shelf for way, WAY too long. I waited way too long to read it. 

I bought this online back when I was still studying engineering! Which seems like ages ago. It was almost a year ago. 

I remember this because I was at uni really early in the morning in the maths computer labs because I needed to work on my stupid Process assignment. I was on the internet reading book blogs instead and I read like, one measly review (or rather, epic review) of Divergent and ordered it immediately. Right then and there.

One year later, here we are.

I just watched a review of divergent on Youtube by one of my favourite beauty girls Elle Fowler, aka AllThatGlitters21. She really went into depth explaining the dystopian world, each faction of society and their extremist ideals, etc. It really stirred up my love for the book again. I actually read it several weeks ago and was planning to do my review immediately after but I've been procrastinating ever since then. I could write an analytical essay on this novel, it had that much of an impact. Anyway, enough of me explaining why I took so long to write about Divergent.

Divergent is set in a dystopian world - a city (which used to be Chicago) that is now fenced off from the rest of the world. The society is split up into five factions that correspond to personality - Abnegation (The Selfless), Dauntless (The Brave), Candor (The Honest), Amity (The Peaceful) and Erudite (The Intelligent). The main character is Beatrice (or Tris as we know her later), a 16 year old girl who was raised in Abnegation. Abnegations are only allowed to look at mirrors every three months. They eat plain food (never had hamburgers or cake), and they feed the factionless. Beatrice has never felt truly at home in her faction. Complete selflessness isn't exactly second nature to her, even after almost sixteen years of training.

Every year there is a Choosing Ceremony, for the kids who turned 16 that year. At the Choosing Ceremony each person is allowed to choose whether they will stay in their faction of childhood, or transfer to any one of the other factions and leave their families and past lives behind. But before the ceremony, each person must undergo the Aptitude Test. The result of the Aptitude Test determines which faction each teenager is most suited to (according to the decisions the person makes in different scenarios), regardless of the faction of birth.

Beatrice ends up with an inconclusive result. This is rare and dangerous for her, because that means that she is Divergent. Being Divergent means that you are suited to more than one faction - Beatrice's Aptitude Test outcome concluded that she could be in either Abnegation, Dauntless or Erudite. I won't tell you why exactly it is so dangerous, but it certainly fuels the direction of the Government. Erudite has been ferociously feuding with Abnegation, so for the Choosing, Beatrice rules out Erudite because she hates them. At the Choosing Ceremony, she decides to transfer to Dauntless. By the way, the Choosing Ceremony itself is quite the spectacle. I won't spoil it for you, but I think it's pretty cool.

review: delirium by lauren oliver

title: "Delirium"
author: Lauren Oliver
genre: YA dystopian/romance
release date: February 1, 2011
format: paperback, 441 pages
publisher: Harperteen
source: bought from Dymocks
other details: on my Aussie Swap list
my rating: 3.5 stars

goodreads synopsis: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. 

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

my thoughts

It took me a while to get into the swing of things with Delirium. I felt really uneasy about this dystopian world where love is really a disease. The second half of the book is where things really started to happen. I don't think it was that I was starting to understand their society better, I just think the second half of the novel was better because more exciting things were happening. The introduction of Alex and Lena's relationship was just the beginning. 

Now here is something you should know about me, if you don't know already: I am a christian. So everything that I've been taught throughout my whole life, all the values that have been raised on - all of that is the complete opposite of Lena's situation. I was raised on love. Lena was raised on stability. I believe with my whole heart that love is the foundation of life itself. That God is love. That love is the root of all joy and peace, and trust, and every other thing that is good in the world. So you might be able to imagine how difficult it was for me to appreciate the premise of  the novel. (I know it's fiction, so it didn't offend me or anything, it was just hard to wrap my head around to begin with). Even hugging your family is taboo, I mean, COME ON. And of course those corrupted bible scriptures before some of the chapters didn't help.

While I was reading the first half of the book, I was thinking "I highly doubt I will pick up the sequel to this", but now that I've read what happens towards the end I reckon I might actually read Pandemonium because all I'm thinking is "I wanna know what happens next! I want to be there if/when Lena and her mum find each other, I want to know what happens to Hana, and most importantly... I need to know that Alex is okay!!!!"

Yes, Lena caught the lovebug bad, and she did go a little crazy in that department (it wasn't the most believable relationship), but the government is even crazier! Ward 6 in the crypts? *shudder* So awful. But it's pretty amazing that the word 'LOVE' became Lena's mother's ultimate escape route out of that horrible place. 

I think I had slightly higher expectations for this book. Probably vicarious expectations, though, based off of all the hype that the blogosphere was buzzing about last year. But Delirium wasn't a total let down. I still really like Lauren Oliver's writing style. 

chosen quotes

love as a disease:

"... we will never be totally protected. It still moves around us with invisible, sweeping tentacles, choking us."

symptoms of the procedure/the cure:

"..cases of full-blown detachment - where a mother or father is unable to bond normally, dutifully, and responsibly, with his or her children, winds up drowning them or sitting on their windpipes or beating them to death when they cry.."

Lena in love:

"He is my world and my world is him and without him there is no world." 

Lena's revelation:

"They say the cure is about happiness, but I understand now that it isn't, and it never was. It's about fear: fear of pain, fear of hurt, fear, fear, fear - a blind animal existence, bumping between walls, shuffling between ever-narrowing hallways, terrified and dull and stupid."

What's HOT on my *Wishlist*! [ top 7 ]

I finished my last exam a couple of hours ago... YAY! 
No more stress for me! Apart from the stress I'll get from my mum nagging me about getting a job. 


I thought it apt timing to show you the books I'm craving for this Christmas - these are the Top 7 (I tried making it a Top 5 but failed) books I should have read already but somehow still haven't! 
These seven books soar high above my wishlist in terms of the crave scale.


Ready?
HERE WE GO! 

Day 16: Favourite Female Character

Day 01 – The best book you read last year
Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 – Your favourite series
Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book An unexpected good read
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
*Day 16 – Favourite female character*

Alrighty, this one's a piece of cake. Unlike for favourite male characters where I couldn't choose just one, I don't have to think twice about which female literary character is my favourite of all time.

There are plenty of amazing female characters I can think of just off the top of my head - Becky Bloomwood, Georgia Nicolson, Hermione Granger, Cameron Morgan, Jane Eyre, and Elizabeth Bennet, just to name a few, but no one can top KATNISS EVERDEEN.