Way of the Shadows

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51tpzpp5dsl-_sx290_bo1204203200_by Brent Weeks
Review by KM & DM

For about four years, my husband has been trying to get me to read Way of the Shadows. It’s his favorite book *of all time* and I’ve seriously feared reading it because I don’t want to disappoint him with my reaction. Now, he’s recently hacked my library card and requested the book through my account. I have a copy of it (and of other versions, such as the graphic novel).

Today’s going to be a bit different. Instead of me writing this review, he’s going to be convincing me (and you) to read it in the musings.  This may be our first guest post (SA, can you confirm?) Let’s go!

Summary

For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city’s most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he’s grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly – and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins’ world of dangerous politics and strange magics – and cultivate a flair for death.*

Musings

KM: Husbeast, what makes these characters stand out from other books? What makes you love them?

DM: They’re terrible people. They have no moral compass or value of innocence. They’ll murder without cause. They are generally the scum of society.

KM: What about that one character that I think I’ll love? 

DM: She’s a prostitute who helps murder the elderly.

KM: Oh.

DM: These people could be in any setting and I’d want us both to read that book.

KM: Is there any character development that makes them better?

DM: Nah, if anything, they get worse. They lose what little respect for human life they had and some of them turn to black magic. The MC is a good person for a very brief time.

KM: What is your favorite scene in the book? Something that I’d latch onto and want to read?

DM: That’s a really hard choice. (To avoid the spoiler he just told me, we’ll rephrase and say the depth of religion and the magical torture within the book.)

KM: Are there any morals or lessons taught by this book?

DM: (answers in a way that makes me redact the question)

KM: Are there any other books or movies you’d find similar to this, so I know what I’m getting into?

DM: Nope, this is totally unique.

 

Welp. Not sure if I’m convinced. Maybe  I’m convinced that my husband is a terrible person, but not about reading this. How about you? Do you think I should give it a chance?

*thank you Amazon

*After this, we’ll see if guest reviews are a good choice after all.

 

 

Of Better Blood

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by Susan Moger
Reviewed by SA

The book is unique in so many ways, and I have read nothing like it. It’s one of those books we’re so excited to have discovered, so that we can share it with you. Set in 1920s America, but not following gangsters or Gatsbies, we’re taken somewhere I never expected to go in a YA novel: a eugenics driven america. Rowan’s world is so unlike what we are used to, it makes for a wonderful read.

Summary26722951

Teenage polio survivor Rowan Collier is caught in the crossfire of a secret war against “the unfit.” It’s 1922, and eugenics–the movement dedicated to racial purity and good breeding–has taken hold in America. State laws allow institutions to sterilize minorities, the “feeble-minded,” and the poor, while local eugenics councils set up exhibits at county fairs with “fitter family” contests and propaganda. After years of being confined to hospitals, Rowan is recruited at sixteen to play a born cripple in a county fair eugenics exhibit. But gutsy, outspoken Dorchy befriends Rowan and helps her realize her own inner strength and bravery. The two escape the fair and end up at a summer camp on a desolate island run by the New England Eugenics Council. There they discover something is happening to the children. Rowan must find a way to stop the horrors on the island if she can escape them herself.

I’m a little torn on this novel. On the one hand, it had a fantastic premise, great characters, and I had a great time reading it. On there other, there were a few odd things that made me wonder what kind of book it really was. In the end, enjoyment overruled my opinion, and so I have to say I really did like it all in all.

Focusing on such a Eugenics driven america was both a) disturbing and b) utterly fascinating. Having our young protagonist, Rowan, drive the story and tell all from her point of view, gave us a limited scope of this world. It made me wonder at times the scale of the Fitter Families movement: has it taken over the world, almost like a dystopian/alternate history, or do we just have that opinion because it IS Rowan’s world?

On that same line of thought, you have a few things that make you wonder if you’re in the same 1920’s that you’ve heard so much about, or an alternate era. At many times I wondered if there was more to that era than I thought, and it aded some really cool details to the book. The author’s note at the end about what aspects of real history inspired her to write this novel really spoke to me, and really made me enjoy the book even more.

However, I somewhat felt as if I was reading two different books here, split neatly down the middle. The same characters, the same premise, but with different pacing and plot. I couldn’t tell if the author left the beginning long in order to get us to the main story, or if it was just deliberate pacing that way. However, the second half felt like a clean cut and a very separate story. The cast of characters is different, and there are no longer any flashbacks (or, at least, there are very few of them). They feel very distinct.

The character development is fantastic: the people you meet have depth and dimension. That’s probably what made this book so enjoying to real: Rowan could come off a little annoying at times, but it was obviously deliberate, and she was still relatable. It was Dorchy’s character that blew me away, I loved her.

I really enjoyed this read, no matter how nitpicky I am. it was fun, clever, and really unique, with fantastic characters and memorable… everything.

Comes out February 1st 2016 by Aw Teen. Don’t miss it!

Steampunk!

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614hsqws58l-_sy344_bo1204203200_An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant
Review by KM

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed. Sorry about that, guys. Life has a way of spinning out of control and I tend to cower in bed until the ride stops. The best thing to do while waiting is to read, though.

And while life kept sending me interruptions like holidays, two jobs, and an overgrown child — I mean, husband — to entertain, I was finding it really hard to get past page fifty in any book.

There are only two things that I’ve found can combat this:

1.) Killing all distractions in brutally horrifying ways. (Not recommended — the jail time isn’t worth it.)
2.) Anthologies. The short stories are like petit fours, easily consumed in one sitting before someone realize you’re actually sitting for the first time in eight hours and demands you do some new task.

So, yeah, this is an anthology and a pretty frickin’ awesome one at that. It has a bunch of my favorite authors. Like, if someone could arrange a meet up of all these authors at the same convention or panel, I’d love to attend. I’ll bring the alcohol; it’ll be a blast.

Enough with my rambling, let’s move onto the book.

Summary

Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, utopian revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans solve crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships. Here, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the genre’s established themes and refashion them in surprising ways and settings as diverse as Appalachia, ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. Visionaries Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant have invited all-new explorations and expansions, taking a genre already rich, strange, and inventive in the extreme and challenging contributors to remake it from the ground up. The result is an anthology that defies its genre even as it defines it.*

Musings

Oh my gosh, I found this hard to put this down. It starts with an awesome story by Cassandra Clare, which was probably my second favorite story in the entire book. It’s hard to write much about the plot without giving away the story, but automaton dolls and a flowers-in-the-attic-esque idea of romance definitely make this story amazing.

The anthology includes a few graphic-novel type stories, which were awesome breaks between the texts, to be honest. I think they made the book 500x better, since it’s a little bit hard to jump from story to story, without any pause. It was like a fresh taste of wine in between courses, so none of the flavors got muddled together.

My favorite, favorite, favorite story in this that had me talking about it for days was Libba Bray’s. It involved poor, mutilated orphans who used to be skilled workers and their awful caretaker. It was just so well put together; It’s probably my second favorite short story of all time. I feel like I got a book-hangover after reading just this. If I was teaching a short story class, this would be on the curriculum. I know I’m lavishing praise without giving any details, but I’m trying so hard not to ruin it for anyone.

Please, go out and get this book. Even if Steampunk isn’t your cup of tea, you’re bound to find something that excites you in here.

The Art of Being Normal

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by Lisa Williamson
Reviewed by SA

I had very high expectations when I saw this book, and wow, wow wow wow, it did not disappoint. I just have to share it with everyone, it’s fantastic. I picked it up, thinking it was going to be published at the end of may 2016, but it turns out another edition came out a whole year ago, and I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it yet. I think it should be required reading for teenagers everywhere.

Summary25689042

David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth: David wants to be a girl.
On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal: to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in his class is definitely not part of that plan. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long , and soon everyone knows that Leo used to be a girl.
As David prepares to come out to his family and transition into life as a girl and Leo wrestles with figuring out how to deal with people who try to define him through his history, they find in each other the friendship and support they need to navigate life as transgender teens as well as the courage to decide for themselves what normal really means.

Having not read the blurb in its entirety, Leo revealing that he had been born a girl came as a huge shock to me. I feel like the summary is giving away a huge spoiler! You’re over 50% through the novel when he reveals it, and I did not see it coming at all. Maybe I should have!

Not only is this a book about transgender teens, but it tackles questions of race and class as well, and everything that makes you different to ‘normal’. Characters struggle with fitting into a very distinct boxes, and are often bullied for sticking out. Whether it’s your financial status, where you come from, or what you look like, people can be cruel if you’re not like the others. Both David and Leo see that first hand, as well as many students around them… and a lot of us readers, too.

David and Leo’s points of view alternate through the novel, giving you the chance to follow two very distinct lives. David is financially privileged, and is afraid to telling his parents that he’s actually a she (I’m using he pronouns here because David does too, for the large majority of the book). Leo comes from a poorer household, lives in the projects with his single mom, and has been identifying and passing as male for quite a while (and quite successfully at his new school, too). But their friendship will grow into something fantastic. They have a very distinct voice (you don’t need the chapter indications to know who you’re following) and are incredibly relatable, even vividly real.

Tackling this kind of story would be incredibly difficult for any author, but Williamson does it masterfully. The writing is beautiful and gripping, and the characters have such depth. She doesn’t fall into the tropes of the YA genre, which makes the novel unpredictable, and gives it a realistic feel. The ending was a little magical, but in a way that felt unique and not forced. As I said before, this book should be required reading, not just because it tells an important story, but because it tells it well.

This book is brilliant, fun, and poignant: read it at your own emotional risk.

One thing that bugged me about the edition I read was that I felt like it had been americanified. Is that a thing? When I read it, there were words and odd things that seemed off, and added just for  an american audience. A small example would be the use of the word ‘soccer’ over ‘football’. I believe the edition I read is the American edition, which will come out on May 31st: and I suspect the original book doesn’t have this sort of problem. In any case, it broke me out of the novel a little. 

Readcommendations’ Top of 2015

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I can’t believe the year is coming to an end… Wow! 2015 has gone by so quickly. And we have reviewed so many books… and read a whole lot more as well. It’s so exciting to have such great books in out lives. As this year ends, let’s share the books we liked the most in this great year. Some of the books have not been reviewed on the blog (for reasons) but still mean a lot to us.

Best YA
Sarah: Dumplin’, Julie Murphy
Kenzie: The Walls Around Us, Nova Ren Suma

Best Fantasy
Sarah: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab
Kenzie: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab

Best Science Fiction
Sarah: The Martian, Andy Weir
Kenzie: Illuminae,  Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Best Romance
Sarah: Every Day, David Levithan
Kenzie: Hold Me Like a Breath, Tiffany Schmidt (It’s not just a romance, there’s so much more, but it’s the best romantic outcome outta the books I read this year)

Best Non Fiction
Sarah: Come As You Are, Emily Nagoski
Kenzie: Welcome to Night Vale, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Kramer (I refuse to believe that Night Vale isn’t real).

Best Mystery
Sarah: Grave Beginnings, R.R. Virdi

Best Graphic Novel
Sarah: Django/Zorro, Quentin Tarantino
Kenzie: Bodies, Si Spencer

Top 2015
Sarah: A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab
I simply loved this book way too much. I ran the books I loved over in my head, and I kept falling back on this one. And I’m way too excited for the sequel!
Kenzie: I love every book I’ve listed above, but I think Illuminae takes the cake for me. It’s everything I adore in one book.

 

The Stargazer’s Sister

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By Carrie Brown
Reviewed by SA

It’s no secret to readers of Readcommendations: I’m an astrophysics student. I love everything there is to do with science, with space and with fantastic women who paved the way for me to be where I am now. So of course I jumped at the opportunity to read a novel about Lina Herschel: sister of the great William Herschel, she herself was not only an assistant to the astronomer, but a powerful mind. This novel did not disappoint.

Summary

25430659This exquisitely imagined novel opens as the great astronomer and composer William Herschel rescues his sister Caroline from a life of drudgery in Germany and brings her to England and a world of music-making and stargazing. Lina, as Caroline is known, serves as William’s assistant and the captain of his exhilaratingly busy household. William is generous, wise, and charismatic, an obsessive genius whom Lina adores and serves with the fervency of a beloved wife. When William suddenly announces that he will be married, Lina watches as her world collapses.

I was sad to read that this was only based on Lina’s life, rather than be a biography, though I can easily imagine this as being the true story of her life: it is so believable. Brown manages to create a story that feels authentic, while at the same time weaving beautiful prose. The novel fits to its period, almost as if it was written by one of Lina’s contemporaries.

The novel is slow going, following Lina’s life from her childhood on. About a third of the story or so takes place at her childhood home, following the difficult life that the young woman leads. She struggles through life with an unloving mother, difficult siblings, and an illness that will leave her permanently disfigured.

It is once she and William are finally reunited that the story picks up. I loved reading about how she saw the world, and how Herschel explains it. Science in the Georgian era was fascinating: so much was being discovered, and the characters are excited and enthuastic about new learning. It gave the novel a sense of wonder which drew me right in. I was excited to read about what happened next, and was engrossed by the plot.

Lina is a fantastic character, whom you can’t help but love. You relate to her instantly: her hunger for knowledge, her endless ideas. Seeing her trapped by her gender is painful; seeing her take control of her life is invigorating. She works far too hard though, and at moments she is much less likable, but I still loved learning more about this young woman.

Even if she wasn’t a real person, I would have read this story anyways. Knowing she’s the first woman to have been paid for scientific work, and to have eventually even have received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society made me love her even more. Oh, and she discovered quite a few comets. Impressive woman!

Her borderline obsession with her brother was something I would like to discuss with other readers sometime. After he decides to marry, the novel revolves around if she can build her own life for herself. Can she be happy on her own?

A fantastic woman in science, in history: a must read. Pick it up on January 19th, 2016, by Pantheon. Thank you Penguin first to read for the chance to read this novel.

Bonus: One of my favorite paintings, representing a Georgian experiment in science. 

air_pump

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
1768, Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’

Dig Too Deep

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by Amy Allgeyer
Reviewed by SA

I didn’t know what to expect from this book when I picked it up, but i was quickly thrown into a world of corruption and lies that was impossible to put down. I was thrilled to find a fantastic YA with compelling characters and an engrossing plot. Just how much corruption can a community take?

Summary23502052

With her mother facing prison time for a violent political protest, seventeen-year-old Liberty Briscoe has no choice but to leave her Washington, DC, apartment and take a bus to Ebbottsville, Kentucky, to live with her granny. There she can finish high school and put some distance between herself and her mother– her ‘former’ mother, as she calls her. But Ebbottsville isn’t the same as Liberty remembers, and it’s not just because the top of Tanner’s Peak has been blown away to mine for coal. Half the county is out of work, an awful lot of people in town seem to be sick, and the tap water is bright orange–the same water that officials claim is safe to drink. When Granny’s lingering cold turns out to be something much worse, Liberty is convinced the mine is to blame, and starts an investigation that quickly plunges her into a world of secrets, lies, threats, and danger. Liberty isn’t deterred by any of it, but as all her searches turn into dead ends, she comes to a difficult decision: turn to violence like her former mother or give up her quest for good.

Liberty returns to rural Kentucky to live with her grandmother, pushing thoughts of her absent mother out of her mind. But it’s not too long until she realizes that something is amiss with the town of her childhood: her grandmother is sick, though she won’t admit it, and half of the mountain is just missing, replaced by trucks and drills and a large pool of weird looking water. That same water which seems to be running through the pipes in her home: is is possible that the water has something to do with her grandmother’s illness?

Our protagonist is smart, and she’s determined: her grandmother’s life is on the line, for goodness sake! Interestingly enough, it’s Granny who quickly became my favorite character: plucky and vivacious, she won’t let anything get her down. She’s a force of nature: albeit a small, frail one. I loved granny so much, with her wit, with her determination, she reminded me so much of some of my own relatives.

The characters had depth and a real personality. Admittedly, I didn’t like Cole from the start, but I quickly came around to Dobber, a young man you wouldn’t expect to be so smart and compelling. It was interesting how Liberty’s first impressions were both spot on and completely off, though I won’t spoil any of that for you.

While some events a found a little unrealistic, I was deeply engrossed with the main plot. It reminded me at times of a teenage Erin Brockovich, though admittedly Liberty has much less power and credibility. That’s why I wasn’t so taken in by the ending: It didn’t seem all that plausible to me, even if it was a great fit.  In any case, i enjoyed the book from start to finish.

If you want a book with spunk, and a determined teenager trying to fight for justice in a place where her voice is ignored, then this is just the book for you. It will be published onApril 1st 2016 by Albert Whitman.

Sleeping Giants

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by Sylvain Neuvel
Reviewed by SA

Those who know me know that I NEED good science fiction in my life. I need a story that pushes the limits of modern day thinking and make us dream about the possibilities the universe has to offer. When I saw that this novel was compared to The Martian, one of my all time favorite books, I jumped at it, and was no disappointed: Sleeping Giants is a fun, intriguing, fascinating novel that had me hooked from the very first page.

Summarycover72457-medium

17 years ago: A girl in South Dakota falls through the earth, then wakes up dozens of feet below ground on the palm of what seems to be a giant metal hand. Today: She is a top-level physicist leading a team of people to understand exactly what that hand is, where it came from, and what it portends for humanity. A swift and spellbinding tale told almost exclusively through transcriptions of interviews conducted by a mysterious and unnamed character, this is a unique debut that describes a hunt for truth, power, and giant body parts.

When a second body part is found almost twenty years later, a team is assembled to figure out exactly what these giant pieces are for, and what on earth it all could possibly mean. A team is assembled, comprised of a physicist, a pair of pilots, a linguist, and a biologist; pieced together by a mysterious, nameless figure who seems to have more power than we could ever possibly know…

Rather than using the usual novel format, the story is told through a collection of oral journal entires, and interviews with the nameless figure. This makes it somewhat complicated to connect with the characters, as everything we know about them is given through dialogue, so there is no direct connection with any of them.

However, this is definitely not a problem: the plot is so compelling, you’re hooked either way. It was a fascinating story from start to finish, with the characters throwing out hypothesis over what this giant could possibly be about as fast as you could. There were twists and turns, some awful moments that make you cringe, some exciting events that make you grip the novel so tight your hands will hurt.

It’s sciency, but not science heavy: perfect for geeks like me, and lovers of robots of all ages. The interview format gives it all a sense of realism, without going too deep into scientific explanations that would have scientist groaning. Instead, there is a lot of speculation, coupled with recent discoveries based on the scientific method.

And it’s rather beautiful, actually. Myths and legend play an important role towards the end, and it’s rather gorgeous how they intertwine with history. Somehow, a novel about a giant buried in pieces across earth manages to be delicate and profound. It’s possibly one of the best science fiction novels I have read in ages, and I’m adding it to my list of favorite books.

For fans of science fiction and myths, this book is gripping and beautiful. Too bad you have to wait until April 26th to read it! Published by Random House.

Also, isn’t that cover just gorgeous?

Giveaway Winners!

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Thank you to everyone who participated in our giveaway over this past month! We’ve loved getting your book recommendations and just chatting with you all.

The winners have been chosen and emailed, but we’ve gotten their permission to post their names.

Bundle Winners:

Bundle 1: Alice
Bundle 2: Shelley
Bundle 3: Sydney

Reviewed Books Winners:

Hardcover: Kay

Paperback: Lara and Jamie

All winners have already been notified. I’m super excited to say that two of the book winners chose Illuminae and the other chose A Darker Shade of Magic, both being my favorites this year!

Thanks for following us, guys! We love doing giveaways and we love books, so I hope you all don’t jump ship now that this is over.

 

Not If I See You First

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by Eric Lindstrom

Reviewed by SA

There’s something fantastic in reading a book that opens your eyes (no pun intended). It’s something different from your everyday reading, and for me, the reason I read books in the first place. Not If I See You First is a fascinating novel, that relies more on character growth than plot to tell a story. It was a story with true depth and dimension which I was glad to have a chance to read.

Summary22701879

Everyone has secrets. Everyone is a secret.
Parker Grant is a junior in high school who loves to run, has great friends, and isn’t afraid to speak her mind–especially when it comes to how stupid some people can be around a blind person like her. The only topic to avoid is how Parker feels about the boy who broke her heart in eighth grade… who has just transferred to her school. And as long as she can keep giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn’t cried since her dad’s death three months ago, she’ll be just fine. Right?

Parker Grant has a few rules you must never break around her: Don’t help me unless I ask. Otherwise you’re just getting in my way or bothering me; Don’t be weird. Seriously, other than having my eyes closed all the time, I’m just like you only smarter; and the most important one of all, Don’t deceive me. Ever. Especially using my blindness. Especially in public. Break the rules, and you will never regain her trust.

Now Scott, the only boy to ever deceive her, is back in her life after their two high schools have merged. As if Parker’s life isn’t difficult enough to begin with, what with her family moving into her home after her father’s death, and the fact that wants to join the track team, which means she’s going to need to find a running partner. And what if she wants to start dating, too?

The great thing I love about Parker is that she’s flawed. She can be a complete a**hole sometimes, if you pardon my language. The fact she can’t see people flinch means she’s usually more direct with what she says, and never sugarcoats anything, with means she can come off as being incredibly bitchy. But she’s also smart, insightful, and cares deeply about her friends.

The weird thing about this novel was I felt like it had no real plot or direction until I reached the end. Everything revolved around her character growth,  around her realizing that just because she hears everything doesn’t mean she actually listens. And that’s key: because when she learns to actually listen to the people around her, she discovers she can be really blind about somethings, that have nothing to do with the loss of her sight.

It was cool to be int he head of a blind person for a while. To have description of all the senses except sight. To know how things feel and how people sound. What it’s like to run when you can’t see where you’re going. I was wondering why I still made a physical image in my head of how everything looked, when no description was given. Heck, Parker doesn’t know her friends skin color, what they wear, or anything else physical about them:  so why did I fill in the blanks?

What hit me was just how relatable Parker was even under the layers of harsh exterior. She’s the kind of person you don’t see often in modern YA: she’s not afraid to admit she loves her friends, she’s intense and flawed and has difficulty relating to others.She’s too quick to jump to conclusions and that gets her in trouble. She’s no special snowflake, she’s a girl like us going through high school.

This unique and hard hitting novel is something that has me still thinking about it well after the last page was turned. I want to know what happens next, and yet, I’m happy with where the author left us, the small window he’s letting us see into Parker’s life. Well worth the read.

Not If I See You First comes out today, December 1st, from Little Brown Books.