Holiday Reading

Posted by Jen on Monday, December 29th, 2008 @ 11:46 pm

In my travel to and from my parents’ house, plus the days while I was there, I spent quite a bit of time reading. And I enjoyed each of the three I read.

1. Graceling by Kristin Cashore, a YA fantasy. I’d heard a lot of good things about this book before I read it. Plus, I love that cover. This is a “traditional” fantasy where individuals in the world are gifted with graces, which are basically a form of superhero powers. Katsa, a 16 year old girl, believes she’s gifted with the grace to kill, and she has been employed by the king of her kingdom to go about doing his bidding to get people in line. But, on her own time, she’s trying to use her grace to help people. To save them instead of harm them.

The first 1/3 of the book was just okay for me, but then it really kicked in and sucked me into the world. I loved the second half, and I pretty much couldn’t put the book down.

2. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, a YA. Another one I’d heard a lot about. And wow, talk about creeptastic and unnerving. Some of these books I read about future events feel plausible for somewhere far down the road, but this reads like something that could happen in a mere 6 months. We’re so close to that point, it’s scary.

I did love the book. Another page-turner, and I really enjoyed reading Doctorow for the first time. He explains a lot of the technology, which wasn’t that bad. You know, what Flickr is and how crypto works. So, for those who don’t know this stuff already, you won’t get lost. And while I did know most of it, I wasn’t bored by the explanations. He has a pretty relaxed, interesting way of describing technology.

3. Extras by Scott Westerfeld, a YA futuristic science fiction novel. A Scott Westerfeld book so I doubt I need to say how much I loved it.

This book takes place after the Uglies trilogy ends, and it follows the story of a girl named Aya Fuse who lives in a city where the entire society revolves around fame and face-rank. And Aya has a plan to turn her measly 451,000 face rank into the top thousand. By kicking an incredible story. Except she runs into something pretty scary, and it could put her in serious danger if she lets the world know about it.

I loved it. It wasn’t as good as the trilogy, but mainly because I have a soft spot for Tally Youngblood, and even though she does make an appearance, I missed her being the main character. But mainly, I was just happy to be reading Scott Westerfeld, and he didn’t disappoint.

Next up: I have GONE and ZOE’S TALE sitting on my immediate TBR pile. I love having all these great YA’s to read!

Comments

By Dan on December 30th, 2008 at 8:55 am

I’m going to have to check out Graceling, sounds like it might be the one that’s most up my alley of the three (although I do have some Westerfeld on my TBR pile).

Hope you had a fun and relaxing Christmas.