Yay for the last wrap-up post of 2015!! I am in some ways sad and in others, really excited that this year is over. It's been a pretty good one, although there were some dips, but who doesn't have that in their lives? The one thing that is for sure is that I read some really amazing novels this year, and I will share them all with you in a 2015 wrap-up post, but for now let's just talk about the ones I read in December.
1. Winter by Marissa Meyer ☆☆☆☆☆
review here!!
Princess Winter is
admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the
scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking
than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.
Winter despises her
stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her
childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as
weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her
stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic,
Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a
revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.
Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?
2. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ☆☆☆
Arcadia takes
us back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
ranging over the nature of truth and time, the difference between the
Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of
sex on our orbits in life. Focusing on the mysteries--romantic,
scientific, literary--that engage the minds and hearts of characters
whose passions and lives intersect across scientific planes and
centuries, it is "Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a
play of wit, intellect, language, brio and... emotion. It's like a dream
of levitation: you're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing
loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to
earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness
and sorrow... Exhilarating" (Vincent Canby, The New York Times).
3. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz ☆☆☆☆☆
review here!
A lyrical novel about family and friendship from critically acclaimed author Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
Aristotle
is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who
has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the
swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners
start spending time together, they discover that they share a special
friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is
through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important
truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.
I think this is the first time
I've ever posted a review of a book that I'm re-reading, but I just felt
that it would be appropriate. I never reviewed this one the first time I
read it, go figure, so I think its alright to write down everything I
love about it this time around.
4. My True Love Gave to Me edited by Stephanie Perkins ☆☆☆☆
If you love holiday
stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes
of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday
anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international
bestselling author Stephanie Perkins. Whether you enjoy celebrating
Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something
here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have
twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.
5. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff ☆☆☆☆
review here!
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.
This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The
year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet
that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the
universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With
enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even
talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating
fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems
are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is
mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be
protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will
say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to
find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to
light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.
Told
through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails,
schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae
is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives
interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
6. A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray ☆☆☆☆☆
review here!
Every Day meets
Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new
trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.
Marguerite
Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific
achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which
allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from
our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her
parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another
dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite can’t let the
man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through
different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar
ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her
own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is
more sinister than she ever could have imagined.
A Thousand
Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other
lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask
whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.
7. Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray ☆☆☆☆☆
Ever since she used the
Firebird, her parents' invention, to cross into alternate dimensions,
Marguerite has caught the attention of enemies who will do anything to
force her into helping them dominate the multiverse—even hurting the
people she loves. She resists until her boyfriend, Paul, is attacked and
his consciousness scattered across multiple dimensions.
Marguerite
has no choice but to search for each splinter of Paul’s soul. The hunt
sends her racing through a war-torn San Francisco, the criminal
underworld of New York City, and a glittering Paris where another
Marguerite hides a shocking secret. Each world brings Marguerite one
step closer to rescuing Paul. But with each trial she faces, she begins
to question the destiny she thought they shared.
The second book in the Firebird trilogy, Ten Thousand Skies Above You features Claudia Gray’s lush, romantic language and smart, exciting action, and will have readers clamoring for the next book.
8. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman ☆☆☆☆
A thrillingly reimagined
fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and
illustrator Chris Riddell – weaving together a sort-of Snow White and
an almost Sleeping Beauty with a thread of dark magic, which will hold
readers spellbound from start to finish.
On the eve of her
wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an
enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain
mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the
tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will
decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not
quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar and the new, this
perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its
creators at the peak of their talents.
Lavishly produced, packed
with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations enhanced with metallic ink,
this is a spectacular and magical gift.
what did y'all love in December?
xx
Sunny
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