Books On My Growing List To Read: Nomansland

  This novel is pretty much brand new, as it came out in June, and it sounds unique, that’s for sure.

  No Man’s Land is by Lesley Hauge, and certainly looks interesting. I would love to get my hands on this novel.

  It is supposed to be yet another dystopian novel, but hey, this is the new thing, and I have no issues with this genre because they bring the imagination and the ‘what-if’s’ to the table, which can be as unique as authors can imagine them.

  And this one, while not necessarily a new idea, sounds great.

  It is about a small island in the north that is completely run by women. Exclusively. Totally. Utterly, run by women.

  It’s been heard of before, but this is the first book I have found that I have been interested in that holds this subject.

  What I like about it is that it sounds so different. Usually with dystopian novels, you get government/society takeover, (Birthmarked, The Hunger Games, The Forest of Hands and Teeth), or a version of crazy ‘on their own to forge through the unknown wilds’, type thing.

  On Wikipedia, this technically could be filed under the name of ‘Feminist Utopias’, which, apparently, borders on ‘feminist science fiction’. Um. Okay then.

  Found it on good ol’ Teenreads, which is great for finding new teen novels, just so you all know. The description sounded lovely, so that is why I picked this one.

  Anyways, it looks good, sounds good, has been reviewed decently. On Goodreads, we have a 3.33avg rating with 123 ratings and 47 review. So a bit on the lower side, but the majority is not always right. So we will try it soon, I hope.

Sometime in the future, a lonely, windswept island in the north is populated solely by women.  Among these women is a group of teenaged Trackers – expert equestrians and archers – whose job is to protect their shores from the enemy.  The enemy, they’ve been told is men.  When these girls come upon a partially buried home from the distant past, they are fascinated by the strange objects – high-heeled shoes, teen magazines, makeup – found there.    What are they to make of these mysterious things, which introduce a world they have never known? And what does it mean for their strict society where friendship is forbidden and rules must be obeyed – at all costs?

From http://www.lesleyhauge.com/

Author: Lesley Hauge

Published: June 22, 2010

Page Count: 256

ISBN: 0805090649   (isbn13: 978-0805090642)

Books on my Growing List to Read: Academy 7

I want to read this book, even though I was really turned off by the cover; it screams ‘young adult’ just a little too much for my liking. But, I will roll with it, and hopefully it comes with a coverslip that I can take off.

This is a novel that is just over a year old, as it was published in May 2009. Written by the author of Aurelia, (which is supposed to be pretty good) Anne Osterlund, this looks like a novel that has a twist of everything in it.

It is supposed to be a sci-fi, young-adult, fictional, fantasy novel, and it’s supposed to be a mix of The Host, Alanna, and The Hunger Games. So. It should be  decent.

I found this while I was looking at her former novel, Aurelia, which, truth be told, I was going to do as my next Books to Read article, but this is just too close to my latest favorite type of novel, mixed in with what I have loved the most in the past.

I find the whole space thing also a little iffy, but that it most definitely becuase I really have a thing where I just don’t like the whold space thing. It’s dark, seems dirty, and I just don’t like it. It’s strange, I know, and there is more to it than that, but this is about the book, and not my strange thing against space.

Reading the reviews on Goodreads, I think that perhaps there may or may not be a sequel, but to those who really enjoyed it, it sounds like there should or will be one.

And speaking of Goodreads, there are 877 ratings, with an 3.93 average rating, and 213 reviews. So, sounds like it is definitely worth a try. yet another novel for this summer…which is just around the corner!

With a past too terrible to speak of, and a bleak, lonely future ahead of her, Aerin Renning is shocked to find she has earned a place at the most exclusive school in the universe. Aerin excels at Academy 7 in all but debate, where Dane Madousin—son of one of the most powerful men in the Alliance— consistently outtalks her. Fortunately Aerin consistently outwits him at sparring. They are at the top of their class until Dane jeopardizes everything and Aerin is unintentionally dragged down with him. When the pair is given a joint punishment, an unexpected friendship—and romance—begins to form. But Dane and Aerin both harbor dangerous secrets, and the two are linked in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. . . .

-From http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5711714-academy-7 (No synopsis on the author’s site)

Author: Anne Osterlund

Published: May 14th 2009 by Puffin

Page Count: 259

ISBN: 0142414379    (isbn13: 9780142414378)

Books On My Growing List To Read: Matched

The list is still growing! And here is yet another novel that looks promising.

It is Matched, by Ally Condie, (http://www.allysoncondie.com/), which sounds like a promising work of fiction similar to The Hunger Games trilogy.  It will not be out for a while, as it’s publish date is set for November 30^th, 2010, but I figure I can wait if it looks good. It’s like any other novel that you have to wait for; you get to speculate and wonder and sigh and wish that it would come out already. Let’s hope that this is a possibility for this novel.

What caught my eye was the cover, on a listopia list on Goodreads. It looked like a green blob of something-or-other on a plain cover. I clicked on the novel, and voila, I find another novel that looks enticing. (And, by the way, the green blob is a girl in a green dress in a bubble! Different. I like it.)

It sounds like this is supposed to be a stand-alone novel. That would be nice, as it seems lately the trend is series, and that can make it pretty hard to find a solitary novel to have for the beach. Not that I don’t have anything against series; I just would like a light read without having to worry about the next book coming out.

It looks promising from the praising reviews and the high ratings, even if they are few, because only a few ARC (advanced reader’s copy) ‘s have made it out to people. There is not one rating under three stars, and the majority of are five. So. Things look good.

Too bad I will have to wait until November before this comes out – I kind of want to read this now.

In the novel, a 17-year-old girl, who has waited her entire life to be told by a group known as “the Society” who her soul mate is, has her world upended when she discovers she’s in love with someone other than the group’s pick.

- From http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7735333-matched (No synopsis on the author’s site)

Author: Ally Condie

Published: November 30^{th 2010}

Page Count: 369

ISBN: 0525423648    (isbn13: 9780525423645)

Books on My Growing List To Read: Birthmarked

I have found another novel that I would love to get my hands on.

It’s only been out for a couple of months, as it was published on March 30th. The topic sounds different, if not similar to the other fad (which has been around for years) about what will happen to the world in a few hundred years if we don’t smarten up.

Birthmarked, by Caragh M. O’Brien (http://www.caraghobrien.com/), looks like it could be a good read due to it’s story; it has a Hunger Games element to it about the force of government and what our world will look like in a few hundred years.

I cannot remember how I came about this novel; the cover caught my eye, at first, then the thrilling synopsis. The idea that you, as a sixteen year old midwife, must take away the babies for a certain quota for the government is a twisted thing. And I love twisted novels, for the most part.

Apparently, this may or may not be a stand alone novel. The rumors are swirling. I personally have a feeling from some of the other reviews that this needs a second book, and the author sounds like she is ready to add on to the story; but I will have to read it to determine this for myself.

As for Goodreads stats…146 ratings, a 4.18 average rating, as well as 73 reviews, there is only about a 1% vote that the novel is worth only one star. Okay. So it has a chance in the young adult world, for teens and adults alike, as it sounds.

Hopefully I will be able to pick this up at the library, along with three other novels that sound like a good read.

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents disappear.

As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she faces the brutal injustice of the Enclave and discovers she alone holds the key to a secret code, a code of “birthmarked” babies and genetic merit.

Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where a criminal is defined by her genes, and one girl can make all the difference.

-From http://www.caraghobrien.com/book/birthmarked/

Author: Caragh M. O’Brien

Published: March 30th 2010 by Roaring Brook Press

Page Count:320

ISBN: 1596435690    (isbn13: 9781596435698)

Quick Review: The Host

4 1/2 Stars

Ah yes. A Stephenie Meyer book. One was wound up to show on this site at one point, and voilà , here one is. I know that they may be some of you out there groaning and clutching the mouse to change pages, but there had to be at least one here, as I do like Stephenie, as I was an original fan…from 2005, yes. But we won’t get into that.

This book is all about aliens, yes aliens. I know more of you are cringing already. But they are different than the little green guys that want to destroy the world; in this case, they only want to take over the word, thus effectively removing all of the violent humans. Again, it sounds cliche, but it’s better than it sounds.

This book is about a struggle for life, a struggle  to find what is right, and what is true. It is about finding yourself…and another person inside you. (Heh heh heh.)

What I did not like was the similarities to Twilight. I also was not a fan of the ‘older man, but OMG, I love you with your chiseled features and the way you move!’ Edward Cullen anybody? I also was not happy with the beginning – it took me three times to get through the first few chapters. Confusing and slow, but once you finish and read the beginning again, it all makes sense.

What I did like was the writing, and the idea, along with the approach that Stephenie took to it.

Other than that

Melanie was a normal human, with a normal human life, a little brother, and somebody she loved. That was until Wanda came in…and took over.

Wanda is part of the group of aliens that have come to take over the earth and get rid of the violence. They take the humans as hosts, taking over the body, becoming the mind, until the humans disappear.

When a rebel human is caught, she is immediately taken so that she can become a host for one of the most traveled souls, nick-named ‘Wanderer’. But the human does not fade out like she’s supposed to. She is still there, in the back of Wanderer’s  head, fighting for her body.

Soon Wanderer takes a trip that she would never dream of, and finds things she thought she would never see.

When you are the one intruding, what do you take when you have all you could want? What are the boundaries of life and friendship?

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Published: May 6th 2008

Page Count: 618

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/thehost.html

ISBN: 0316068047    (isbn13: 9780316068048)