Sunday, September 21, 2014

Melanie's Week in Review - September 21, 2014



Before I launch into what I read this week I thought I would say Happy Birthday to my Mom. She is 84 today. While she is now visually impaired so can't read this post (or know that I am writing it) I thought that she would still appreciate knowing that whoever reads this could be thinking happy thoughts for her. So everyone......1.........2.........3......think happy birthday thoughts for Christine!

So enough of my maternal self promotion. What did I read?

This week wasn't as productive as the two previous but boy, did I read a couple of great books. I started the week with The Martian by Andy Weir. Is there something better than waxing lyrical? If there is then that is what I am going to do. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Love with a capital 'L'. Andy Weir managed to couple botany with science fiction and crazy funny dialogue with excellent results. Remember, I like watching science fiction better than reading it but The Martian broke that mold for me.

Imagine if you will....Mark Watney - engineer/botanist has been stranded on Mars with only 30 days worth of supplies and no way to communicate with Earth. His crew mates think he is dead and no one is coming back for 4 years. Mark has to use every bit of his enormous brain, ingenuity and a healthy dose of luck in order to survive and try to find a way home. Can he do it? You will have to read it to find out.

I couldn't have been more surprised by The Martian. I saw that it got quite a few stars on Goodreads and Amazon but I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. I was LOL'ing on public transport, I was biting my nails at what would happen next and staying up WAY past my bedtime to read just one more chapter. Drop whatever you are doing (well after you read the rest of this post) and go buy this book and read it. You may also read a DAC interview with Andy about The Martian and writing here.

Next on my TBR was Into Darkness by J.T Geissinger. This is the final book of the Night Prowler series and will be released in mid October by Montlake Romance. I will be writing a full review of this book so I don't want to say too much other than its a cracker of a final book. There is still time for you to catch up by reading the other 5 books before this released so get going. I have reviewed three of the other books at The Qwillery so if you want to find out what I have thought of the series so far check them out here, here, and here.

The final book I have been able to read this week was Shadowlark (Skylark Trilogy 2) by Meagan Spooner. I really enjoyed Skylark (book 1) of this dystopian young adult trilogy. I have been waiting for the price of the second book to drop since it was released and have to admit I had forgotten about it. I was checking my Amazon recommendations and up it popped. In book 2, Lark continues her journey to find her brother after leaving the Iron Wood. After a near death experience or two she finds herself in the city of Lethe where Renewables are hunted and enslaved just as she had been. Lark inadvertently joins a group of rebels who are fighting against the evil ruler, Prometheus. Lark learns more about herself, more than she ever wanted to, throughout this novel and it's only a matter of time before she comes face to face with her greatest fear - herself.

I don't know what it is about subsequent books in young adult or youth fiction series but I find I don't like them as much as the first . For example, I didn't enjoy World After (book 2 of the Penryn and the End of Days series) by Susan Ee (or book 3) or Taste of Darkness (book 2 of the Healer series) by Maria V. Snyder. The characters I loved from the first books turned either all whiny or all soppy over some guy/angel. This is exactly what happened in Shadowlark. I actually got quite sniffy at the end of book 1 but I could hardly wait to get to the end of this one. Book 3 - Lark Ascending is out soon but I am not convinced I want to continue. I think I will wait and see what the price is before I make that decision.

That is it for me for this week. I hope you have a good week ahead and until next week Happy Reading.


0 comments:

Post a Comment