Tuesday Book Club–Wake
It’s funny, but ever since I declared that for the rest of the year I only have to read the six books I’ve been wanting to read for months, I keep getting seduced by these other fabulous books. I pick them up, read a page, then have to read straight through in a day.
So this week’s seduction was Wake by Lisa McMann. Man, oh, man. If I understand anything at all about the movies, this book is bound to become one. GREAT premise–teenage girl who gets sucked against her will into other people’s dreams, including their nightmares–and excellent execution. Plus a really hot guy, a heroine we’re totally pulling for, and nonstop action and intrigue (plus the really hot guy).
I know this is going to annoy you, because it always does me when other people say this, but I read an advance copy of the book, which won’t be out for another four months. Sorry! But you can pre-order it, or just keep your eyes open for it in March. You’re really, really going to enjoy this one–a fast read, nothing but cool.
I also read my friend James Owen’s second book in his Imaginarium Geographica series, this one called The Search for the Red Dragon. (The first was Here There Be Dragons, soon to be a major motion picture!) I don’t mind admitting here in print that James Owen’s brain is all kinds of huge compared to mine. He can hold an infinite number of myths, classic fiction, and fantasies, and then spin them into his own swashbuckling tale of adventurers traveling through lands we’ve only read about. Atlantis? Yeah, that’s real. Avalon? Yep. And in the second book it’s a certain place you might remember from Peter Pan. But that’s not all–you’ve got your Greek mythology in there, and some Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and Tolkien and C.S. Lewis–really, you’re going to feel like you gorged yourself on Story by the time you’re done. Yeah, if you’re like me your brain might hurt a little at times, but it’s good for us. How else can we hope to develop those big brains?
So that’s my week of reading. VERY satisfying. How about you guys?
Technorati Tags: Tuesday Book Club, Reading Clubs, Book Clubs, Reading, Books, Book Recommendations, Book Reviews, Young Adult Novels, Young Adult Fiction, Wake, Lisa McMann, Imaginarium Geographica, Search for the Red Dragon, James Owen
October 30th, 2007 at 5:37 am
So you are saying I should play the guy in the movie?
October 30th, 2007 at 5:38 am
This week I re-strung my guitar. Ooooh - new guitar strings.
wait, this isn’t Friday!!!! CARP!@#@$@!
October 30th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Okay, I’m still reading the same book from the last two weeks, but in my defense, it’s really thick. On the bright side, I did order two of the books from my By-the-End-of-the-Year list, and I own the other two. So that’s something, right?
October 30th, 2007 at 5:57 am
I’m reading Judy Blume’s new middle-grade reader and trying to read the chapter on the Bell Witch in The Scary States of America for a Halloween post I plan tomorrow, but, dude, I’m too scared. That woman’s story haunted my childhood (and Eisha’s), as two people who grew up in middle TN.
Was gonna read it last night in the dark with a flashlight (since my daughter was sleeping next to me), but WHO AM I KIDDING? I didn’t have the guts. I’ll try to read it in broad daylight today. Try.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:22 am
I’m still in the midst of several books at the moment but one of my Year End titles finally showed up in my mailbox(Savages by Shirley Conran),so I have yet another one to read.
Also,the church across the street from my building is holding their fall rummage sale this Saturday(they have another one in the spring)which means I’ll be getting even more things to read! It never ends:)!
October 30th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Lady T and Sara, I’m where you are: I have my end-of-year books either on hand or on order. A great first step! Lady T, what will you do with all those extra books? Your TBR pile will never shrink!
Jules, you crack me up! I have stories just like that from my childhood, but I don’t have the huevos to go back and re-scare myself. You are a brave woman.
Patrick, of course you’re perfect to play the hot guy–maybe a little too old, but that’s what makeup and special effects are for. The rest is all charisma, and of course you’ve got that nailed.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:56 am
This week I read The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would), Playing for Pizza by John Grisham (I had never read a Grisham before. Nothing . . . happened . . . in this book), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (good, but different than I expected). And now I am reading The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman, and it’s wonderful.
I didn’t get over here on Friday to post my big news, but I am starting a new job next week, moving from a public library to one at a middle school! So I imagine I’ll be reading a little bit more stuff aimed at that age group. I tend to read books that are older teen, so this should be fun.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Robin — thanks for the review!! I’m thrilled you liked WAKE.
If There Be Dragons is on my to-read list. I have GOT to get to that one!
I just finished reading Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It was amazing. Heart-breaking and hilarious.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:27 am
I finished A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:36 am
My friend gave me two books. One is the first of a sci-fi/fantasy series a la Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (I can’t remember this series’ name). As if I need a new book series to absorb every moment of my attention (even when I’m not reading). But it promises to be juicy and satisfying in a very nerdy way. She also gave me another book, The Mating Mind, the author of which is slipping my mind right now. It’s all about how the evolution of human intelligence is related to sexual selection and mating stuff. It promises to be pretty cool, and hopefully will be very pertinent to my current mating confusion.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:34 am
You’re right. I am annoyed.
Wake sounds like my kind of book.
I’m reading Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies. I begin Nanowrimo Thursday, and I am armed with new fleece.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:54 am
In the middle of like, five books. The only one I’ve actually finished is The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perotta. It was really good - he is a master of characterization.
I hope I’m not the only one falling WAYYY short of 50!
October 30th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I’m listening to an old Reginald Hill mystery. Best part? The villain is released from the psych unit of the prison and decides he wants to become an academic. Awesome. I’m loving it.
Molly: I really liked the Perotta too.
Heather: Yay for NaNoWriMo. I can’t wait.
Jules! You are so cute
October 30th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
I finished Girl at Sea, and sadly, I didn’t flat-out love it as much as the other two of hers I read (Devilish and The Bermudez Triangle). Probably RL stuff getting in the way of the book.
Also read Conor Kostick’s The Book of Curses which was a lot of fun. Much younger book than I normally read, but Conor was in the middle of a whole train of downright weird ‘coincidences’ that led to a lot of things, and I’ll buy anything he writes now.
And sticking with writers living in Ireland for the moment, I’m in the middle of Skulduggery Pleasant, which is also a lot of fun. One of the jacket blurbs is by Jonathan Stroud and I saw there was another good review by Rick Riordan, which is funny as I was just thinking Percy Jackson crossed with Amulet of Samarkand, lightened maybe a degree or two. Good stuff anyway.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Sounds really good Robin! I don’t think I’ve finished anything new but I started the second Georgia Nicolson book called “On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God” Don’t let the title fool you there very good! Oh wait I did finish the 4 or 5th clique series called revenge of the boy snatures which was ok. That’s all!
Ta-Ta!
October 30th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I just finished At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks, and am now reading SPITFIRE, a historical novel for MG by Kate Messner–it just came out. Good book!
October 30th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Yay Lady-S! I am reading Skulduggery Pleasant too! Actually I am listening to it in the car with my sons. We are really enjoying it! We are on the last cd and it is so good… I wanted to keep driving so we could finish it. I like the voices that the actor uses, and LOVE listening to his Irish accent. I’ve decided I must find more audio books by Irish authors. Any suggestions?
I also read another teen book this week, The Other Half of Me by Emily Franklin. About an artistic teenager whose father is donor #142. Before reading this book I had never thought about the possibility of finding half-siblings from the same donor. Interesting.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:20 am
Yay and oh dear, Michelle! I’m clueless about audiobooks, which is a shame, as I feel I ought to be able to give some good recs of Irish books. But then I thought of Kate Thompson’s The New Policeman, which I really loved - and found there is an audiobook of that, though no idea how good it is. They *should* have done something with the music, which would be brilliant. I wasn’t crazy about The Fourth Horseman, but she has done some other good books - it’s confusing because there’s another author named Kate Thompson living near Galway too, but she writes adult chick-lit.
And there’s Artemis Fowl, of course. I only read the first but a lot of people love them, and I’d imagine they might work really well as audiobooks.
It’s a pain to have such a pile of mush for a brain! Hope you don’t mind my rambling on about this, Robin.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:35 am
Where did Tuesday go? Anyway, I finished Incendiary by Chris Cleve. Story of a woman who loses her husband and son at a soccer match from a suicide bombing by terrorists. Grim stuff but there is dark humor and so much to discuss. I am almost through with Softwire: Virus on Orbus, which a 5th grade, picky reader boy absolutely loved.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:09 am
I’m reading Rebel Angels by Libba Bray. So far it’s very good, just like A Great and Terrible Beauty.
Robin, I’ve read Here There Be Dragons and enjoyed it.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Thank you Lady-S! The New Policeman looks wonderful! I definitely want to read it. And I hope the Artemis Fowl cd is as good as Skulduggery Pleasant. By the way, there is an extra track at the end of the audiobook. When the story finished this morning I didn’t want it to be over so I didn’t turn off the cd right away, and was Pleasantly surprised to hear a bonus interview with Skulduggery! Very clever.