Books We Love June 2013
Hey there gang… the Books We Love June 2013 edition features an eclectic list of books all over the map. Can’t wait for next month where we will feature The Shining Girls. Just got our hands on it, and can’t wait to read. This month we are aware there is a dirth of literature… but someone point me to anything a bit headier and we will gladly follow. But the books we do have here are a great swath of goodness and light. Promise.
Books We Love
Red Moon by Benjamin Percy – Red Moon is a fantastic read. We really loved it. We love the writing here – just as much, if not more than we did for Cronin’s The Passage. And the inverted discussion about racism and prejudice in such a unique way. We highlighted this book as one to watch last month, and the fact that we are reposting it should tell you alot about just how much love we have for said book. If you like great writing and you like an upside down concept and an inside out thinker – then Percy’s Red Moon will definitely be for you.
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown – C&G is about as anachronistic a book as we could imagine. Swash buckling pirates and a Chef to sate the pirate’s culinary desires every Sunday? And yet Brown makes it work. The thing we found the most intriguing was Mad Hannah Mabbitt and her questionable past that is chasing her down from the beginning to the end of this book. It is the last third of this book that really bleeds its pirate blood throughout. If you are in the mood for a swashbuckling romance in the form of food and ingenuity… and who isn’t (?!?), then give this book a go, you may be surprised.
The Shift Omnibus by Hugh Howey – A couple months ago Books We Love highlighted Wool by Howey and we couldn’t stop raving about how brilliant the book was. We likened it to the television show Lost and we said that it could possibly be the greatest book of 2013. (Did we say that? I don’t know… but we are saying it now. How’s that?) Regardless, The Shift begins BEFORE the Wool Omnibus began and tells the story of how the heck Wool came to be. If you loved Wool half as much as we did, then The Shift is a must read. It answers a million questions and poses a million more. We don’t think its as good as Wool – but what could possibly be?
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo – we are cheating here by including this. But, the buzz on Siege and Storm was out of control. But seeing as though it is book two of a series, we needed to go back and read Shadow and Bone (book one) before we could get to book two. (Generally that is how these things work… book one, book two, book three… its terribly monotonous that way. So while we don’t know if we exactly LOVE Siege and Storm, we did enjoy Shadow and Bone. And every indication is that Siege is a full factor better. So we are very intrigued as to what will come with book two. So come back next month for our real review of Siege… see, we cheated. We know – we said that already.
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart – Once upon a day, we began reading this dark comic wonder but we were overcome by events. We are actually baffled as to why we never really finished this great book. But thankfully a friend (Thom, thanks!) reminded us of our failures as humans. And we are happy that he did. Super Sad defies classification. It is a dystopian vision set in the very near future – a love story no less – of two individuals that form a codependent bond living under a new police state standing up in New York. While hard to synopsisize (yeah, I just said that) it is a thrilling, funny, dark, novel that is hard to put down.
Books We Loved
Monthly, we will start highlighting With the Shining sequel coming out in September, we thought it would be worth while to re-read The Shining and take a walk down nostalgia lane. We didn’t read the entire book, but enough to give us full blown chills remembering just how fantastic this book is. We definitely recommend that you put Dr. Sleep on your calendar. September 24th is the big date. But you know that already, because we can’t stop talking about it.
Books We Will Love
The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau– Possibly the next Hunger Games? Looks really good though (no offense Hunger Games Lovers! Promise!) Here is the Amazon blurb: “It’s graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. All Cia can think about—hope for—is whether she’ll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization. When Cia is chosen, her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing. Armed with his dire warnings (”Cia, trust no one”), she bravely heads off to Tosu City, far away from friends and family, perhaps forever. Danger, romance—and sheer terror—await.
You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt – We are definitely intrigued with this one. Set in the early 80’s when the cold war was in full swing. Two girls get caught up in the international drama of the relationship between the United States and the U.S.S.R. both actually and figuratively. When both friends write to Yuri Andropov asking for peace and only when receives a response the two girls’ relationship begins to follow in the footsteps of the two countries. Then surprisingly Jess dies in a tragic plane crash that may or may not be real. Seems like a very well written thriller set in a fascinating time period.
And with that, we conclude our Books We Love June 2013 edition. We already are very excited about a few of the books coming for July… so stay tuned.