Friday Finds: 11th January

FRIDAY FINDS is hosted over at Should Be Reading and showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

Night School by C. J. Daugherty
Mila 2.0 Origins: The Fire by Debra Driza
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Luminaire by Ciye Cho

I've been reading a lot about Night School as the sequel just came out so I decided to add the first book to my TBR this week. I'm hoping to read Mila 2.0 as part of the Debut Author Challenge so I downloaded the free prequel Origins: The Fire this week. Looking forward to reading it! I finished Florence this week and Luminaire is the sequel to that. And The Demon's Lexicon was added because I haven't read anything by that author before. 

What have you been adding to your to-read lists this week?

News: Divergent casting, Catching Fire images

I love keeping up with the news from the upcoming film adaptations of some of my favourite books, and this week there have a been a few stories to get excited about!

Firstly, this article on Variety states Shailene Woodley has been cast as Tris Prior in the film adaptation of Veronica Roth's Divergent. What do you think of the news? Do you think she'll make a good Tris? Find out more about Shailene Woodley's previous roles here on IMDB. The article also goes on to say that Lucas Till, Jeremy Irvine and Alex Pettyfer are rumoured to be testing for the role of Four.

Meanwhile, the first images are emerging from Catching Fire! This article on Hypable features pictures of Finnick, Katniss, President Snow, Prim and Katniss' mother, Haymitch, Plutarch, and of course Gale and Peeta (phew - that's a lot!). I had some reservations about the picture of Katniss and Finnick and what it implies, but as it's taken out of context it's impossible to tell what's happening. I just hope people don't misread that photo!

With a lot of film adaptations scheduled to be released this year (City of Bones, Beautiful Creatures) and more like Divergent which are just starting out, there should be a lot of news this year. I can't wait!

Related posts:
Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth
Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

WWW Wednesdays: 9th January

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB over at Should be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading: Reached by Ally Condie - eeeeek! I'm so excited to be reading this. Checked it out of the library yesterday. I'm also sort of nervous as it's the final in the trilogy and I loved the first two. I'm listening to Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins on audiobook as well.

Recently finished: Florence by Ciye Cho and The Last Falcon by Colleen Ruttan. I made an effort to read some review books that I received a while ago because I got really behind... I enjoyed both books so at least they were worth the wait! I'll be posting reviews of both soon.

What I'm reading next: Either Seizure by Kathy Reichs which I also took out the library yesterday (I've only recently finished Virals so I was so excited when I saw it on the shelf!) or Defiance by C. J. Redwine which I got for Christmas. The next book for my Children's Classics Challenge will be Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Goals for 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's top ten is reading goals for the upcoming year. Here are mine!

1. Read 100 books. I love the Goodreads reading challenge and I haven't failed yet! I've usually had to up my target halfway through the year after setting it too low, but this year I've started out high. Fingers crossed!

2. Read some well-known children's classics. This is for my own Children's Classics Challenge and one book in I'm so glad I chose this as a challenge! I can't wait to keep going.

3. Read more classics. I think there's this perception that if you love books, you love the classics. I've never really got on with this theory and classics have always been a chore, but maybe this year it'll change! High up on the list to read this year are Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice.

4. Read those books I own that have been gathering dust on my shelves for years. I have so many books I've bought (mainly cheap from charity shops!) on the spur of the moment and just haven't got round to reading. I really must get round to reading them before I end up getting rid of them because they take up space :(

5. Read review books quicker. I'm really bad at reading review books. I think there's something about a book you didn't choose to read that makes it harder to get motivated to read it, but the last 2 books I got for review have been fantastic and I regretted putting them off!

6. Stop buying books when I have books to read. This is hard but I really, really need to cut back on my book buying! I just don't have room for a start which leads me to...

7. Get my own e-reader. I currently borrow one for all my e-book needs or use my iPod (which isn't ideal) so this year I'm going to invest in my own e-reader, and I think I may have been converted to the Kindle! It'll mean I spend less hopefully and don't have to worry about where I store books.

8. Read Twilight. This has been on my mind for a while and I even wrote a post about it for the blog. I've never read Twilight, which means I can't really comment too much on the books and the phenomenon because I haven't read the source material (I haven't watched the films either!). I think this year will be the year that changes.

9. Read more blogs! I love reading other book blogs but if I get behind on my own blogging then I end up running out of time to read and comment on other blogs.

10. Read books by debut authors. I signed up for the 2013 Debut Author Challenge this year and I'm really hoping to contribute. It'll probably be money dependant as I don't get arcs and I don't know whether I'll be able to afford to read as many as the challenge says, but fingers crossed I get to read a few!

Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

[Goodreads page]

Author: Lewis Carroll. Website 
Published: 26 November 1865 (Originally published)
Format: Hardback Illustrated Edition (Macmillan)
Pages: 192
Project Gutenberg: E-book 
Amazon: Paperback|Kindle
Waterstone's: Paperback|e-book
Book Depository: Paperback
Challenge: 2013 Children's Classics Challenge

Source: Own

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Journey with Alice down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder where oddities, logic and wordplay rule supreme. Encounter characters like the grinning Cheshire Cat who can vanish into thin air, the cryptic Mad Hatter who speaks in riddles and the harrowing Queen of Hearts obsessed with the phrase "Off with their heads!" This is a land where rules have no boundaries, eating mushrooms will make you grow or shrink, croquet is played with flamingos and hedgehogs, and exorbitant trials are held for the theft of tarts. Amidst these absurdities, Alice will have to find her own way home. 

My Review:
This is one of the books that really prompted me to start this challenge. I've had it on my shelves since I was a child! Everyone knows the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but how many people have read it instead of just hearing about it? It's one of those stories that everyone knows but that I've never read, so I'm very glad I've changed that!

What I really liked about this book was that the action starts straight away. I knew Alice was going to end up down a rabbit hole and I had to wait less than two pages until that happened - fantastic! I absolutely fell in love with Alice as a character because she takes all the bizarre things that are happening to her completely in her stride. Even as she's falling down the rabbit hole the most important thing to her is her cat Dinah. I thought her habit of talking to herself made for a really great narration of the story. Alice strikes me as someone who doesn't really think much before she speaks!

I think the title is very apt, in that the story definitely feels like a connection of adventures. Suddenly we move from one weird situation to another, with very little happening between each event except Alice very slowly moving through Wonderland. I was expecting the book to be bonkers but it was actually a lot more coherent than I thought it would be and very readable! Most importantly it was fun. I think my favourite part was the croquet match where you use flamingos as clubs and hedgehogs as balls. That's exactly the kind of imaginative, fun, lighthearted things I love in a story! Having the Queen around generally added to the entertainment as well. I thought she was hilarious!

The copy I have is illustrated and I would definitely recommend grabbing an illustrated copy of this book if you decide to read it. The description is magical enough to hold its own but I thought the pictures really brought it to life and just added something a bit extra!

Sure it goes off on a few tangents and that was my only real flaw I think - just some bits that I didn't quite likes as much didn't feel necessary. But overall this book has so many quirky things that make it so likeable. I loved the talking animals, Alice's frustration at never being the same size and the little rhymes, songs and poems that are scattered throughout the story, as well as the focus on word play. The writing was just so brilliant. If you've seen any of the film adaptations but never read the book then definitely go ahead and read it - I devoured it in a few hours!

Rating: 4*
What to read next: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Books like this: Splintered by A. G. Howard, Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Weekly Book Round Up! 6th January

It's time for the first proper one of 2013 and this week I've got some books I'm very excited about! So here's all my bookish happenings from over the past week.
 
Bought: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins - I actually bought this last week but it arrived in the post this week *squee* :D It looks really good. I can't wait to read it! And Crewel by Gennifer Albin which I have been wanting to read for ages which I bought for 99p from the Kindle store - absolute bargain! I got A Dark Grave by J. A. Souders as free download as well. 
 
Currently reading: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - I've been listening to the trilogy on audiobook from the library as a way to re-read them and I've finally reached the final book! And The Last Falcon by Colleen Ruttan which I won from Goodreads forever ago and I've finally got round to reading. It's really good so far!

Books finished: Skylark by Meagan Spooner and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (the first book in my 2013 Children's Classics Challenge!).
   
Books reviewed: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter, Virals by Kathy Reichs and What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang.

Waiting for: Reached by Ally Condie which will hopefully turn up once the libraries are open again and Entangled by Cat Clarke which is in the post!

What have you been reading/buying/borrowing this week?

Review: What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

[Goodreads page]

Author: Kat Zhang. Website|Twitter
Published: 27 September 2012 (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 343
Amazon: Paperback|Kindle
Waterstone's: Paperback|e-book
Book Depository: Paperback

Source: Own (received as present)

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Imagine that you have two minds, sharing one body. You and your other self are closer than twins, better than friends. You have known each other forever.

Then imagine that people like you are hated and feared. That the government want to hunt you down and tear out your second soul, separating you from the person you love most in the world.

Now meet Eva and Addie.

They don’t have to imagine.

My Review:
When I first heard about this book last year I knew it was one I needed to read! The concept sounded so interesting to me. What's Left of Me tells the story of Eva and Addie, two souls who share the same body. Only one of them shouldn't be there.

The whole idea of two souls sharing one body is something that really grabbed me, and when I started reading the book I was completely blown away by how the author has made it work. Addie is the dominant soul, in that she has control of everything the body does. Eva is the recessive soul, the soul that should have died away in a world where one soul is expected to outlive the other leaving only one behind. What's even more brilliant is that the book is narrated from Eva's point of view. Eva can talk to Addie (their conversations are put in brackets and italics so as to stand out which I thought was really clever) and suggest what they do but has no control over their body. It's fascinating seeing the world from her perspective. 

The book is set in a distorted version of America. The country has isolated itself from other nations and set about to rid itself of "Hybrids" i.e people with more that one soul. That makes Eva and Addie's situation one they have to hide. I really loved the dystopian feel of the book and the themes and issues it tackles. It feels like there's a lot of ethical dilemmas in the book, from medical ethics to immigration. You really end up rooting for Eva and Addie as the world they live in is so controlled. You get that brilliant sense of unease as well.

It becomes clear that there's a lot more to Eva and Addie's situation and that there's a bigger story going on here, and as the plot unravelled I found myself unable to put the book down! I loved how Eva's narration really proves powerful and you see her character in particular go through so much and develop along the way. The other characters throughout the story are just as fascinating. I thought it would be confusing having characters with two souls and two personalities but not once did that fact get in the way of my reading of the story. It was so carefully crafted.

Reading this book just gave me that sensation that this was something special. I was blown away by everything, from the writing style to the plot itself. It's just such a wonderful book with so much action and suspense thrown in to keep you hooked! This is the first book in the Hybrid Chronicles series and I can't wait to read more. The climax of this book left me desperate to read the next installment as there's so much potential for this world. An absolute must read!

Rating: 5*
What to read next: Once We Were by Kat Zhang, the unreleased 2nd book in the Hybrid Chronicles
Books like this: Delirium by Lauren Oliver