Hello everyone! Hope you've enjoyed your weekend and that the idea of going back to school or work tomorrow doesn't make you want to bang your head against a wall. Like the majority of people these days, I feel like my priorities have been thrown majorly off balance by the internet. More often than now, I can be located in my bedroom, sitting on my bed with my laptop, tweeting, blogging, tumblr-ing, listening to music, watching TV, or whatever else. This has meant that I spend less time reading, which has led to the creation of my 'to read' pile. Basically, this is a list I have (both in my planner and in my phone) of books that I HAVE to read. So I thought today, as a short post as it's getting late and I'm lazy, I will list a few of the books I have on my list just now. Obviously I can't do much more than give the name and author, but I'll include the blurb or plot synopsis to give you guys an idea!
1. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
"Todd Hewitt is the youngest in the all male town Prentisstown and only one month away from the birthday that will make him a man. In Prentisstown everyone – men, animals and even the Spackle (the planet’s indigenous creatures) hear each other Noise (thoughts) all the time and no one has any secrets.
However Todd and his dog, Manchee discover someone who should not exist – a girl called Viola – except that the planet’s women were all supposedly killed by the Spackle. And Viola has no Noise. As the certainties in Todd’s life are challenged, he finds that some in Prentisstown would do anything to prevent Viola’s existence from becoming known. Viola, Todd and Manchee are forced to flee for their lives and their journey in search of sanctuary will force them to learn to trust each other, even as it will force Todd to face truths that he’d rather not know."
2. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Read 'Divergent' first!)
"One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so."
3. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald
"The parties at Gatsby's Long Island mansion were legendarily, glamorous affairs.
Yet amid the throng of guests, starlets and champagne waiters, their host would appear oddly aloof. For there was only one person Jay Gatsby sought to impress. She was Daisy Buchanan: married, elegant, seducing men with a silken charisma and 'a voice... full of money.'
As Gatsby pursues shady deals and his doomed obsession with Daisy, F. Scott Fitzgerald distills the essence of the Jazz age, and probes to the empty heart of the American Dream."
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
''Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition."
5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
"When Harold Fry leaves home one morning to post a letter, with his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.
He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone.
All he knows is that he must keep walking.
To save someone else's life."
6. A Voice in the Distance by Tabitha Suzuma
"In his final year at the Royal College of Music, star pianist Flynn Laukonen has the world at his feet. He has moved in with his girlfriend Jennah and is already getting concert bookings for what promises to be a glittering career. Yet he knows he is skating on thin ice - only two small pills a day keep him from plunging back into the whirlpool of manic depression that once threatened to destroy him. Unexpectedly his friends seem to be getting annoyed with him for no apparent reason, he needs less and less sleep, he is filled with unbridled energy. Events begin to spiral out of control and Flynn suddenly finds himself in hospital, heavily sedated, carnage left behind him. The medication isn't working any more, the dose needs to be increased, and depression strikes again, this time with horrific consequences. His freedom is snatched away and the medicine's side-effects threaten to jeopardize his chances in one of the biggest piano competitions of his life. It seems like he has to make a choice between the medication and his career. But in all this he has forgotten the one person he would give his life for, and Flynn suddenly finds himself facing the biggest sacrifice of all."
Well that was a little longer than I thought but I hope you guys were able to draw some inspiration from the books I want to read! Perhaps I'll get round to reading them all soon, I do own three of them so it really is pure laziness.. oops!
Rachel. X
