It's Monday What Are You Reading?

I haven't done one of these in a while and since I'm reading off of my bookshelf right now I thought it would be a good way to focus in on what I feel like reading. This meme is hosted by Shiela at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. The point is basically to share what you've reading, what you're reading and what you think you're going to read.

Read This Week:

Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Dream Life by Lauren Mechling

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Review Forthcoming)

Currently Reading:

The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey (on audio book)

To Be Read:

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts

As I've mentioned before I am moving in a month and if I want my friends to continue to like me I need to trim my book shelves down a little bit. Which is why everything I'm reading now is coming off of my book shelf from home. So far so good. What have you been reading?

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

I really loved Will Grayson, Will Grayson. It made me laugh and it made me cry (God, I'm such a sap). This book is all about the characters and lately I've finally noticed that I really love character driven novels more then anything. Two young men named Will Grayson meet on a street in Chicago one night. You follow both characters as they try to figure out love and friendship. The Will Grayson's are alike in that they allow life to happen to them rather then being involved; however that changes for each of them over the course of the novel.

I feel like I have to comment on Tiny Cooper because everyone either loves him or hates, and he seems to be a big part of a lot of the reviews I have read. Tiny is an interesting character and a lot of fun, but truthfully the novel isn't about him and what really made this novel great for me was learning about the innerworkings of the two Will Grayson's watching them grow and develop, and start to take part in their own lives. Tiny was a good counterpoint for the two boys and provided a lot of the books humor, but at the end of the book it was the two Will Grayson's growth that really made me enjoy the book.

Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

I really really wanted to like these short stories but I just couldn't get into it. I love Margo Lanagan's writing, I think it's absolutely beautiful, and the language in these stories is absolutely gorgeous. One of my favorite things about Margo Lanagan's writing has always been her ability to really set a mood in a story, and these stories evoke many different moods from the down right disturbing to a sense of satisfaction. Unfortunately all of the stories felt unfinished to me. Each tale felt like an excerpt from a larger tale that I (mostly) wanted to hear the rest of. This left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied as a reader.

I read an arc that I got from work and at the end of the arc there was a two page note from the author dealing with where the inspiration for each story. I hope that made it into the final copy because I thought that was really interesting. The stories I liked the best were Baby Jane; A Feather in the Breast of God; Under Hell, Over Heaven; Forever Upward, and Daughter of the Clay. Unfortunately, these all left me feeling the most frustrated as well. It just felt like I was missing out on getting to know characters, endings and even beginnings.

The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley

Kat has no idea who she is. All she knows is that Grace has raised her along with her own daughter Anna. When Grace dies Kat leaves everything behind and goes to London to try and find out her past.

****Spoiler****
It's an interesting take on what could have happened to Katherine Parr's daughter. However this mystery was really only a small aspect of what made the novel interesting for me.
****Spoiler****

In the beginning I was afraid it would be full of back stabbing and cruelty but while it is a sad story and some of the sadness is brought on by people's cruelty it isn't all because of the things people do to each other, a lot of it is just brought on by situations, particularly people's stations in life.

The author beautifully captures just how both the low born and the high born have very little say in their lives. It's interesting to see how Kat's life, which in many ways changes drastically when she becomes one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting, doesn't really chane at all when it comes to her personal freedoms. She still has no say in who she marries, she still must do as she is told.

I really wish we had found out what Rafael came home for and whether he really just wanted Kat or whether his desires were more sinister then that.

The discriptions of clothing are gorgeous and I can imagine the beautiful embroidery that Kat does. I loved that the dress she embroidered for Queen Elizabeth, it sounded like such a beautiful piece. The description of the piece helped set the tone and mood of the story for me.

Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn

This book brought together several genres that I didn't necessarily think would come together nicely. The world is ending, every country is at war with each other but Evie is more concerned with going home to see her father who is dying. Once she arrives she starts learning about the store room in her father's house. It's filled with magical items from every world mythology and fairy tale. It is now Evie's turn to become the caretaker. Meanwhile Hera is trying to take advantage and get Discord's apple so that she can use the world's strife to make the world the way she wants it. Weaved into this story there are short tales of how Evie's family acquired some of the items in the store room and Alex's story. Alex has been alive since the Trojan war and the reader learns how he became immortal and what his time was like after the war. There is also another story being told. Evie is a graphic novel writer and you also get the story that she is writing about a military team.

All of the stories, including the stories within the stories are beautifully written. Normally I'm not a big fan of the story within a story because it can be difficult to keep them straight but it was always very clear which story was being told. The world building in this book is wonderful and I really loved all of the characters. I felt invested in how things were going to end with them. My favorite character was probably Alex, at first his story annoyed me because I wanted to know what was going on with Evie. However as she got more and more wrapped up in her sadness and panic about dealing with the store room his story became the more interesting one. I was especially intrigued by his meeting with Oddyseus after forty years. I also liked the fact that Alex was tied to the storerooms beginnings, and I liked how parts of the end were tied to Evie's graphic novel and the beginning of the Trojan war (won't explain how cause that would be a big spoiler).

The part where the world actually ends is skipped. I appreciated that because it would have made the book drag on too long, but I kind of wonder if it would be interesting to learn how Hera was able to reshape the world with the apple. I think it might have been a good topic for another book, except then Hera would have to be the heroine and I'm not sure that she is likable enough to be a main character.

Off the Shelf Reading Challenges

So once again I find myself having to move and my fiance and I are realizing that we have a lot of stuff. So I have once again returned all my library books and I am once again trying to read off the shelves. I did a challenge like this one last year and I was only trying to read 30 books which was 10 more then the previous year and I bombed miserably. This year things have got to go, so I went looking for a challenge and found Book Ardour's Reading Challenges where she is hosting the Off the Shelf Challenge. You don't have to do anything with the books after you read them, the point of the challenge is just to read, but since I already have too much whatever I read that I am not head over heels in love with will get donated to my local library.

Since I am really trying to only read off my shelf for at least the next month and a half I am going to go for On a Role which is 50 books. (I know this seems silly what with last years fail, but I have four book cases worth of books and my friends are going to kill me if I don't do something about my problem, most likely sometime around loading it all into the moving truck.) Of course I'm moving in the middle of February and I don't see myself reading 50 books between now and then I figure with the added boost by reading as much off the shelf as possible now I can do 50 books by then but at least this big push in the beginning will be a good start.

1. The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley

2. Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan

3. Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

4. Dream Life by Lauren Mechling

5. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

6. Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

7. The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines
8. Devoured by Amanda Marrone

9. Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts

10. Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell

11. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

12. Secret Society by Tom Dolby

13. The Season by Sarah MacLean

14. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci

What a phenomenal book. I absolutely loved it. Rose goes to the performing arts high school in Manhattan. Making this decision seperated her from her best friend Daisy (who wasn't really a good friend) and made her feel like having friends was too hard. So she has closed herself off, until the day two girls at school reach out to her and her next door neighbor comes in through her window. The book chronicles Yrena and Rose's night in the city.

But it's sooo much more then that. The book takes place during the Cold War and Yrena is from the Soviet Union. It really brings home how people from all over can be the same and yet so different. Both girls are ballerina's, the same age and living in the same city, yet they approach things with completely different attittude and points of view. There is a lot of great symbolism here and it's a book that has a story that will really make you think. The characters are interesting and with the current political state of the world I think teens today could really relate to this book.