January reading round up

Okay, back at these again in 2014!

The Divergence series is, dare I say, better than the Hunger Games. Yes. I said it. This series was recommended to me by a friend. I devoured the 3 books in a 2 week span and am dying for the first movie to come out in March. The premise of the 3 books is that in a dystopian Chicago everyone lives in 5 factions that represents a virtue. We meet the main character, Tris, who on choosing day switches factions.  As her initiation goes on their world is thrown into chaos as the factions begin to rise up against each other. The 3 books tell the story of what happens, essentially, when one group of people views themselves as better than another for a small insubstantial reason. The characters are so richly written I felt like I knew them and could relate to them. Beyond impressed with this series and I never saw the ending coming, which in my world of reading is the sign of an excellent series/book.

This started off slowly, but I was drawn in more and more as the story unfolded. Julia's father up and leaves his family one day, and is said to have returned to his native Burma. The family finds old love letters of his, written to a Burmese women, and Julia decides to drop everything and travel around the world to find out more about her father's mysterious past. The book is written in two voices. One is Julia's and the other is the mysterious U Ba, a man she meets in her father's home town. He unveils more and more about her father's life. At first, the 2 voices confused me, but then I was enveloped more and more in U Ba's tale. It's a remarkable story of passion and resilience that I am happy to report I enjoyed more than I thought I would.

 

This book was really sweet and special. I picked it up at Powell's while in Oregon in the "must reads for teens" section, but the summary peaked my interest. The book follows 12 year old Willow, a genius who is obsessed with nature and has her share of other quirks, one being counting by 7s when she's anxious or upset. She's never had many people to whom she is close, and suddenly, after her parents suddenly die, her life is forced to change. The book takes an uplifting turn as Willow's new journey through life begins, changing not only hers, but the new surrogate family she suddenly finds herself in the midst of. I really, loved this book. It may be written for teens, but it tugged at my heart strings and really could be a favorite read for anyone.

Now...onto the next book in my stack of reads!