March/April books!

For the (like, 2) of you who are interested in seeing where we're going from here, I'll continue to post these little updates every now and then of what our next four books will be. We're kind of off-track of the monthly posts, simply because we've taken time from our list to read sequels of novels. Technically this should be the March post, but we're simultaneously ahead and behind because of our detours.

(Ahead of our total book count, but behind when it comes to our original list. )

So without further ado, the next books are:

14. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Mikie added this to the list - I've never read it, so I'm excited to see where it goes! - Cat
I haven't read this in a long time. Totes excited! -Mikie

15. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Another one of Mikie's choices, but one of my favourite books. I'm excited to read it again! -Cat
I haven't ever read this :( -Mikie

16. I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali, Delphine Minoui, Linda Coverdale
One of my choices, this book looks like it'll be a tough read, but I'm also super excited about it. -Cat
Yeah, definitely looks emotional. Should be interesting. -Mikie

17. Redwall by Brian Jacques
Who of our generation didn't read these books as a kid? I used to devour them! Mikie brought this one to the list, and I'm so excited for the nostalgia. -Cat
I loved this book in middle school. Never read the whole series. Excited to revisit this. -Mikie

The Name of the Star

The Name of the Star

by Maureen Johnson

I bought this book back in 2011 when it first came out, cause I was SO EXCITED about it. I read a chapter, then got distracted by school reading and never went back to it (despite having had a chance to actually 'meet' Maureen Johnson that same year...). So this year, I decided it needed to be on our list.

The Name of the Star is about a girl who moves from New Orleans to London, and right as she arrives, a Jack the Ripper-style murder occurs, right in the area of town she'll be living in. She, of course, gets swept up in the Ripper-mania that spreads through London, as well as her own new-school, new-life drama.

On top of that, she suddenly has a lot more to worry about when one of the Ripper murders happens on her campus, and she becomes a witness, of sorts.

 I don't want to say too much, so that I don't spoil the novel, but it was a fun read, and it created a whole new world within our own world that we got to explore with Rory!
-Cat

I must say that I'm glad I'm reading this one AFTER completing NaNoWriMo 2K16, because around about that time I also started working on Danielle Was Dead, my ongoing novel about a ghost. It was interesting to me to draw some parallels between the two stories as I read The Name of the Star.

This was one of the books Cat put on the list, and I knew hardly anything about it when I sat down to read it. I wasn't expecting what happened to Rory at all, so that was a pleasant surprise. The book wraps everything up nicely at the end, and though I know there are more in the series, they aren't absolutely necessary in the way that other series are written. Anyway, go read this book, then come back here and leave us a few comments.
--Mikie

Two Boys Kissing

Two Boys Kissing

by David Levithan

I'm just gonna dive right into this book. The title comes from two friends (and former boyfriends) who decide to break the world record for the longest kiss. There are other characters, other plots, but the two boys kissing forms the framework for the rest of the story. Oh, and there are no chapter breaks--if Harry and Craig don't get a break, neither do you!

I found the narrator to be the most striking aspect of this story. The narrator is the collective souls (?) of LGBTQ people who came before the characters in this book. The last generation watches on as the new generation tries to maneuver through life. They watch Harry and Craig's kiss and understand its greater significance. They watch Ryan and Avery, a relationship just forming. They watch the troubled Cooper reach the end of his rope. And though the narrator(s) see so much ugliness, pain, and hatred, their message is a positive one. They don't lose hope, they don't give up, even though they can't affect the living world any longer.
--Mikie


You. Guys. This book has been an emotional rollercoaster. Seriously rough, in the BEST way possible. Like Mikie said, the narration is done by those who have come before, and who have passed on - mostly the AIDS generation from the 80s/90s. They follow this new generation of boys living in the internet age, rooting for them and quietly providing their support, watching over them as best they can. They marvel at the openness that exists around these boys now, even with the prejudices that still exist, and reminisce about their own stories. They cheer the boys on, and the stories told are incredibly well juxtaposed, and they show that there isn't a collective "narrative", even as it's being told BY a collective.

This book brought me to tears several times, and it's well, WELL worth the read. I super super strongly recommend Two Boys Kissing. It's really hard to do it justice without giving away the whole story - just do yourself a favour and READ THIS BOOK.
-Cat

Song of the Lioness

Song of the Lioness Quartet: 

Alanna: The First Adventure

In the Hand of the Goddess

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

Lioness Rampant

It's been a while since we last posted an update to our reading challenge - and that's because we've been reading a series of four books. The Alanna books are a series that I read as a child, that I absolutely adored. Alanna was my hero, and I wanted to be her. We only had the first book on our list, but Mikie enjoyed them (and I will NEVER say no to reading these books), so we ended up reading all of them. 

At the start of this quartet, Alanna is a young girl who is being sent to a convent to learn to be a lady. She - surprise, surprise - doesn't want to go. Instead, she wants to learn how to be a knight. The books follow Alanna's adventures as she trains (disguised as a boy, of course), and works to get her shield and become a knight. On this read through, I found that I still enjoy it just as much as I always have, and I'm super glad to have been back in Tortall (Alanna's city), and reliving all the adventures once again. 

Well, we certainly got sidetracked...but in a good way. Cat introduced me to The Song of the Lioness Quartet, and I'm sad I never read this series when I was a little girl (spoiler alert: I was never a little girl). Anyway, these were fantastic books!

Tamora Pierce created an interesting world that feels very real, even though magic is a thing in her books. I grew up reading various fantasy novels (mostly Dungeons & Dragons novels), and it's always interesting to me to see how each world works. Magic in this world is a Gift, and while training isn't necessary to use it, you need to be gifted in the first place. Alanna is a noble, so we get to experience her life at the palace--BUT she's a knight-in-training, so we see the world of the nobles through that lens.

I enjoyed the four-novel story thoroughly. I have a few quibbles with decisions Pierce made in the telling, but overall, I would recommend The Song of the Lioness Quartet. I'm already planning to give the set as a gift.

--Mikie


PS. Next up: Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan! I'm SUPER excited for this one - fingers crossed it's as good as I hope it is!