Just purely fiction imaginatorium

    At moments, it's the work of real life we are drawn to. It's real emotion, real situations, and real people who stun us to the core. The stories make us think, they make us consider human nature, and the words put us in a posture to really consider our own lives. Authors who take the real, fictionalize it, and then launch us into a very real world are oftentimes the ones we come back to again and again, knowing that each time we will receive truth we hadn't before. This month's imaginatorium authors did just that. Each was a work of fiction, but each was also a look into the very real and raw emotions of people in somewhat awful situations.  Although, I only read through novels this month, each of them had a depth to them which left me rather breathless at the end.
     The first one was The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman. Originally, I had been draw to this novel merely because it was set in Australia and after spending time in Oz, I do have a soft spot in my heart for the country. The book tells the tale of a husband and wife who live on Janus Rock and are lighthouse keepers in the 1920's. They are secluded and on their own, suffering through life and miscarriages as they learn how to endure on their own.  But when a boat washes up on the shore with a dead man and an alive little baby, they decide to claim the baby as their own. Upon leave to the mainland, they learn the back story to the man and the baby which sends them in to a moral dilemma as they learn the truth and wrestle with what to do with it.
     The book propels the reader into the midst of the action before backing up and giving what came before to then further the story. The characters are well written, the island and the lighthouse come alive, and the prose is easy to follow. There isn't too much Aussie slang either to follow. The plight of the lighthouse keeper, Tom and his wife resonates in the heart of the reader. It's a story of loss, of profound happiness and just how far people will go to protect those they love and hold on to what they think life has given them. Definitely a good read and worth it.
     Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher was a book I had held onto for a while, waiting for the right time to read it and this month seemed to be it. The book follows Clay, a high school guy, who receives a set of 13 tapes from a classmate who committed suicide. Each of the tapes, he learns, is his classmate Hannah telling a story about a different person who led her to this decision and Clay is one of them although he has no idea what he had ever done to give reason for him to be on the tapes. It's an intense, heart-wrenching, and challenging story that for me left me changed at the end. It reminded me of how little things we do and how we interact with people really can effect someone in ways we don't always realize. The story ebbs and flows between Clay's thoughts and actions and Hannah telling the stories and it is an amazing book. It's a profoundly simple thriller but one that is definitely worth the read. It gives amazing truth and a reminder that how we treat people has consequences both good and bad. It's challenged me to make the most of my interactions with people just as it challenges Clay to make sure he's reaching out to those who may seem unreachable.
      The last novel I undertook was The House at Tyneford  by Natasha Solomons. The book takes place slightly before the onset of the WWII. Young Elise comes from a privileged Jewish family in Vienna, Austria but is shipped off to England to become a housemaid when things begin to get dangerous for her and her family in Vienna. Soon she finds herself falling for the young master of the house, Kit, which profoundly changes her and the ways she views the world. Soon, they do find themselves at the start of the war and the romance with Kit has to change as he is sent off to war.
     The best way to describe this book was if Jane Austen and Ian McEwan sat down in the same room and decided to write a book, I am fairly certain this is what they would have come up with. In the same vain of Atonement, the readers crave a happy ending and find it to be a bittersweet happy. The book is well written, the main character is enjoyable and the reader really does root for her and her happiness, although the ending was a bit interesting with where Elise ends up. But it does tell of the tragedy of war and how people in the midst of despair are called upon to rise above and attempt to move on even when moving on seems to be impossible. I enjoyed the historical context as well. It was a good read and I was hooked. I do hope she continues to write and publish other stories.
     Sometimes it's just the purely fictional books that draw us in, the books that glean from real life and plunge us into a real but fictional world in which we learn and grow ourselves.  They challenge us as we learn from the characters, the new situations and the trials they go through without ever having to step into those things ourselves. Each of the books this month were excellent and I would definitely recommend all three.

Next month; Inspired by The House at Tyneford, this next month is going to be books set between 1938 and 1949 or books written between those years. Quite excited to see what comes of it.

 

The Light Between Oceans- ML Stedman

Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher
The  House at Tyneford- Natasha Solomons

Life of Pi Imaginatorium

   I admit as I sat down to write this post, I thought I'd just list out the books I read and go. After all, it's nearly November. I'm very nearly through another month of wonderful adventures. But September's month begs me to pause ever so briefly and tell a tale or two of what I read. And what were those works I dove into, you may be asking yourself? Well, with the inspiration of Life of Pi, I decided to read two other books that explored human nature.
    The first was indeed Life of Pi and I did thoroughly enjoy it. Parts were a bit gruesome but the look at human nature, the spirit, and what we search for in life was very interesting. I may have cheated a bit and seen the movie before I read the book, but the way the story is woven with the animals and then explained at the end is quite brilliant. It's definitely worth a read. I found the way Pi navigated his world as a young boy very interesting as he did search out God through being Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. His faith was certainly tested by being in a lifeboat for so long with just himself and "a tiger".
     From there, passing through the library, My Spiritual Journey by the Dali Lama was sitting on the counter and I thought, why not? It looked at human nature and the spiritual disciplines the Dali Lama has given his life to. It was also a fairly interesting read, not knowing much about Buddhism. The most interesting thing to me was how he was chosen at such an early age to be the leader and what that meant for his childhood and how he was raised. It was also eye opening to hear about his political involvement and where he stood on many world issues as well.
      Lastly, The Fifth Mountain by one of my now favorite authors, Paolo Coehlo. This novel follows the prophet Elijah shortly after he has been exiled and Jezebel has ordered all the prophets of God to be killed. I appreciated how the book was written and that there were not too many liberties taken with the character of Elijah. My vision of him had always been as an old man but he was young when he was first called to be a prophet. It was also quite a good read and I do recommend it. I was a little bummed that he didn't take more time on the battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal but other than that, it was worth it.
    Yes, a quick post but more to come when October finishes and that post is revealed with works of fiction!

Life of Pi- Yann Martel

My Spiritual Journey- Dali Lama
The Fifth Mountain- Paulo Coehlo

Just a bit of quirky imaginatorium

      The indubitably creative, the slightly offbeat, the unbearably quirky, the altruistically strange, and the slightly endearing. Although many may prefer the tales where everything makes sense, the stories off the beaten path are sometimes the best. This month, the quirky tales took center stage. It began with Looking for Alaska by John Green and ended with some Neil Gaiman. Alas, I googled "quirky novels" and found some wonderful stories to read in between which filled out the month perfectly.
          Whilst reading a novel, one of the things I most appreciate is an author's ability to take the ordinary, mundane, or regular and turn it into a story worth reading.  I love vocabulary and an author's effective use of it within the tale. John Green is one of those authors. I love fell in with his writing style with The Fault in Our Stars and was quite excited to read his other works. Looking for Alaska had gotten such high praise, I was looking forward to reading it. However, I found it sub par to The Fault in Our Stars for a few reasons. It was more teen angst ridden and the characters were not all that likable. The main characters, in particular Alaska, was actually quite annoying. And SPOILER ALERT, I was quite glad when she died. However, I still enjoyed his writing style but the story he told just wasn't as enjoyable as his other book. I guess I would say read the book but for me, it just was not quite as good as I had hoped.
     However, Warm Bodies by Issac Marion, most recently turned into a movie, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender were certainly worth a read. Warm Bodies was clever, creative, and quite amusing. I loved being inside R's zombie mind and hearing what he was thinking and what he actually was able to express. It's a brilliant novel and a brilliant take on the recent influx of zombie tales. It still has zombie killings and fights but the fact that the lead character is a zombie who slowly moves toward being human again is a fantastic story and definitely worth the read. I'm excited to see the movie now.
     The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake was certainly a quirky novel but also very clever. The main character, Rose, when she is 9 years old discovers she can taste people's emotions in the food she eats, beginning with her mother's lemon cake. As she gets older, she learns what food she can eat without tasting too much emotion. As she grows up, she watches as her parents grow apart and her brother descends into a rather solitary place.  The novel was really good. I appreciated the creativity to the story but also how rooted in reality the story stayed except for what happened to her brother. Even though I read through that part several times, I was just confused. So if you read the book, I'd be curious to know what your conclusion is. SPOILER . . . .(I think he turns into a chair . . )
     Lastly, American Gods by Neil Gaiman was also quite interesting. I thought the idea of ancient gods walking amongst us is a premise to be explored. It was a good read and I enjoy Neil Gaiman's writing. A bit of language and sexual content so be prepared. But I like the idea of taking a regular human, throwing in some ancient gods who haven't gotten a lot of worship in recent years, setting the story in America and letting Neil Gaiman write the rest. In some ways, although it's probably an awful comparison and Neil Gaiman probably wouldn't appreciate it but it's sort of like Percy Jackson for adults . . sort of . . .But give it a read. It is good.
      As one might expect, I like authors who do not follow the normal pattern of reality and allow the impossible to happen within a possible world. Creative words, interesting syntax, and quirky spins on age old stories are truly some of my favorite types of imaginatorium. The books of this month all had a sense of quirkiness to them which I thoroughly enjoyed. There are a lot more books as well that fall into this category. Do a Google search and see what you find. There's a lot of authors that may not have made the best seller lists but are excellent reads.

Next month: Life of Pi is the inspiration . . . stay tuned for what books follow.



Looking for Alaska- John Green
Warm Bodies- Issac Marion
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake- Aimee Bender
Still Life of a Woodpecker- Tom Robbins
American Gods- Neil Gaiman

And the Moutains Echoed Imaginatorium

     Small town girl, fairly affluent, educated, not much trauma has ever existed within the confines of my world. But I am very aware the lives of some spin constantly in turmoil and destruction and oftentimes, we are unaware of their plights. I know very little beyond the stories the news reports of the lives of people in war torn countries. So this month, with the book And the Mountains Echoed by Khlaed Hossani, being the inspiration, I sought out other books set in the Middle East or in a war torn country in Africa.
     As And Mountains Echoed was a work of fiction, the other two works were biographies. My favorite, was And Mountains Echoed. Although I enjoyed Kite Runner, his debut novel, I think I enjoyed this one even better. And Mountains Echoed was a sweeping novel over the course of three generations and several different countries. It begins in Afghanistan with a father, his daughter and son as the father brings his young daughter to another couple. As that family is torn apart, the novel continues following the different family members, their extended family, and those who have an influence in their lives. The ending is rather bittersweet ever though I was hoping for the happy ending. The prose is wonderful and engaging. At times, following the characters was a bit tough but it is still such a wonderful book. I was engaged to the end and really enjoyed the book. Definitely worth a read. It begins in a world of fairy tales but situates itself in our world and is simply captivating. I loved it!
    What is the What by Dave Eggers was my second choice of a novel. It is a fictional biography based on the life of a Lost Boy in Sudan who was rescued and brought to the United States. It is only called fiction because his memories cannot be absolute at such a young age. I had heard of the plight of those in Sudan but had not known much about it. I enjoyed the book to a point. I thought it was an interesting way of how he began the book with telling of the night he was robbed while living in the United States and then he began to tell his story to the boy who was posted by his robbers as his guard. However, I felt like there was too much jumping around and it didn't go in a logical order which normally I don't mind but for some reason, I just wasn't a fan of how it was written despite it being an interesting tale.
    The last book I read was My Prison, My Home by Haleh Esfandiari. It tells her story of going back to Iran on holiday to visit her mother and finding herself taken by the Iranian Secret Police, interrogated and eventually put into prison under the suspicion of plotting something against Iran. I found her story vastly fascinating and captivating. It was amazing to read of how the Secret Police operated, how they tried to find some act of treason where there was no treason to be found. It was well written and very interesting. I appreciated how much background she put into the book as I did not know much about Iran. Oftentimes, I think I had just considered Iran and Iraq to be very similar in their political outlook as well as relationship with the United States but that had not always been the case. It's a hard read to get through when learning about her struggle and the emotions she dealt with but it is so worth a read.
      Hearing other people's stories has always intrigued me and reading stories of people in other countries whose lives and experiences are very different than my own is wonderful in expanded my own world view. These three works I read this month, allowed me to experience life in the Middle East and Africa in a way I hadn't previous.  Two of them were excellent and definitely recommended.

So novels of hardship and war, time for something a bit lighter hopefully. I'm thinking quirky novels. Perhaps some John Green . . .



And Mountains Echoed- Khlaed Hossani
What is the What- Dave Eggers
My Prison, My Home - Haleh Esfandiari

It's been a while imaginatorium

    I shall admit it's been quite a while since the last bout of imaginatorium. With an onslaught of busyness, my time for reading and posting seemed to slip away. But the month of July has allowed for a renewed fervor for books. But while I was missing from posting and from my normal amount of novel consumption, I did happen to read a few noteworthy works.
     Although I attempted to read some of the books that had been on the New York Times Bestseller's List within the last year or so, I only ended up reading two of them. One was excellent and I very much so recommend it. The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern was one of the most tantalizing books I've read in a while. There was just magic and mystery that surrounded the book. It was wonderfully creative and her characters were fabulous. The story follows two dueling magicians who do not know that they are in a duel with one another. Their competition takes place in and around a Night Circus, a circus, that as the name suggests, only opens at night and sweeps into the town without much warning. Brilliantly written, the imagery of the night circus itself is just magical. It definitely became one of my favorite books and I can't wait to read it again.
    I also read the Curious Case of the Dog in Nighttime by Mark Haddon. It follows an autistic boy who comes across his neighbor's dead dog and decides he is going to discover who killed the dog. Because he's autistic and doesn't know how to tell lies everything is written very factually from his point of view. At first, the book was quite interesting in the style of writing and how true to form the character was written. However, about half way through, I just kind of felt like I was done reading it. It got to a point where the pedanticness of the novel got a bit tedious. But I appreciated the book all the same.
    Within the time of not much reading, I did read a few inspirational books which were excellent and challenging. The first was The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, Crazy Love by Francis Chan and The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken. It was nice to take a break from straight fiction and read more autobiographical and academic works. All three, I definitely recommend as well.

    As the month of July has already allowed for more of a break and for the opportunity to dive into some books, I promise the posts will become more regular. The theme of this month is books set either during war or at least in foreign countries who have in recent years been war torn.

The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern
The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime- Mark Haddon
The Circle Maker- Mark Batterson
Crazy Love- Francis Chan
The Insanity of God- Nik Ripken

Winter imaginatorium

    To quote Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd; "Times is hard, Times is hard". Granted she had the worst pie shop in London so I can understand her sentiments. Yet often times, making it through the winter months can be excruciatingly painful. There's cold, there's wet, and there's darkness. I love my boots and my coats but oftentimes, curling up with a book and doing nothing is precisely what cures the winter blues. Getting enough motivation to blog about them is an entirely different story. So since we're quickly approaching May and the onset of Spring, it is thus time to close out those winter months, not dragging it out any longer but quickly saying the best and the worst of my choices.
     February was Young Adult fiction which I believe is pertinent and should be read no matter what age you are. All were decent choices, the best were Dodger by Terry Pratchett and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I love all things British and I love Charles Dickens' character of Dodger. What was brilliant about the book was Charles Dickens was a character and someone who took Dodger under his wings. It's a good read and an interesting one as Pratchett revisits and reconfigures the character of Dodger quite artfully.
    Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children was unique and combined story and still photographs, photographs which, at the outset, look a little to good to be true but within the realm of the story, they worked perfectly. Super creative and the photographs added an eerie yet interesting twist to the story.
      Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick is the finale to the Hush, Hush series that I ranted over the atrociousness of about a year ago. It was still bad, still really bad but the redeeming factor was that she killed characters and she made her battle scenes legit so for that, I give her props. If you're looking for a companion to Twilight that's not Twilight, give it a read but if you're not, just stay far away.
     For March, I decided to size up my stack of books and see what I found. What I found was a lot of Orson Scott Card material I had yet to read. All were very interesting and it was interesting to see how Card's view of the world, religion, and politics are put into all of them, although Treasure Box was the least political of the four I read. Xenocide is the third book in the Ender series and I enjoyed it heaps better than Speaker for the Dead. It was interesting and it kept my attention the whole time.
   Treasure Box I also enjoyed because it wasn't just straight up sci-fi but grounded in our world with the characters fighting the spiritual forces of evil. It was intriguing his take on the spiritual battle and the way the spiritual realm worked.
    Memory of Earth and Pastwatch were both good but towards the end of both of them, my attention was waning a bit. The conclusion drawn about Christopher Columbus in Pastwatch is a bit of a leap and I don't think I really agree but I can see how he drew his thesis to come up with the idea. I won't spoil his hypothesis just in case you do read it. But on a whole, I do like Orson Scott Card's novels and writing style. I have a few more on my shelf still but they will have to wait.

The winter was long. There was lots of reading but not a lot of motivation to do other things. But alas, the sun is beginning to shine and there is hope for warmth and more imaginatorium of the creative side. With the month of April, I've chosen to read some best sellers but stay tuned for my choices! I promise it won't be another two months!
Happy Reading Imaginatorium!

Finale- Becca Fitzpatrick

The Orphan King- Sigmund Brouwer

Dodger- Terry Pratchett

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs

Daughters- Joanne Philbin

 

Xenocide – Orson Scott Card

The Memory of Earth – Orson Scott Card

Pastwatch- The Redemption of Christopher Columbus – Orson Scott Card

Treasure Box – Orson Scott Card

While I've been waiting Imaginatorium

    It could be argued we wait a lot in life. The waiting comes in a variety of forms from silly things like waiting for a red light to change, waiting for the sun to rise, or waiting for a TV show to start. Other times, the waiting has much weightier consequences like waiting for a job, a school, or maybe a future with someone. Regardless, I argue we wait around a lot. Sometimes, as inconsequential as it may seem, we make seemingly inanimate objects wait for our attention as well.
     Whilst reading various novels from various different authors, I also fell in love with used bookstores and frequented bookstores in general. What I found growing was a stack of over thirty books haunting my nightstand.  With a new year, I decided many of those books had waited long enough. Inside each of the six books I swept the dust off of were unique stories, perspectives, and a fair amount of waiting the people who lived inside the world of the book endured as well. But instead of going into grave detail about each one, a snapshot view and a small blurb are what is called upon this time.

My favorite by far was The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho. Brilliantly written, it contained a wealth of truth about humanity, how we operate in society and whether we are inherently good or evil. "The Devil" goes into a small town and offers a simple conundrum. He has gold and if the townspeople decide by the end of the week to offer a victim to be murdered, they will have that gold. Based on the outcome, the man will know whether people are good or evil. I dare not ruin the conclusion. All I will say is it really is an exquisite book.

The Illusion by Frank Peretti was also at the top of my list this month. Growing up, I loved his novels and this one continues that love. The difference between the back flap of the book and what's actually contained within the story is what made the story so good. I love the fact Peretti works more sci-fi/fantasy elements into the story but still keeps it grounded in our world and with our elements. It's a really good read.

Another treasure I found almost a year and a half ago was A Good Indian Wife by Anne Cherian. Think Bride and Prejudice, East meets Western ideals. I feel it's a rare gift for an author to make me strongly dislike every single one of her main characters at some point. I was never quite sure who I was to be rooting for at various times. But she's a good writer and it's an interesting look into the culture of India, the United States and arranged marriages.

Four people come up to a rooftop to commit suicide on New Years Eve. Somehow the solidarity of a common purpose draws the four of them into an unbreakable bond to which none of them actually go through with the intended suicide that night. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby truly was an imaginatorium I wasn't expecting. With a premise like that, it's hard not to assume the depressing but instead it becomes a novel filled with humor, with real human emotion, and also a look as to how important community is and how it's the simple things which keep each of us wanting to live. A bit of language but it's an interestingly quirky and good book.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt and Pompeii by Robert Harris were the last two books I read to finish out the month. Angela's Ashes takes a look at the early childhood of Frank McCourt beginning in the United States and then as his family moves to Ireland. He has a great writing style, no punctuation for quotes which is interesting. Not my favorite book ever but definitely worth a read.
Pompeii, on the other hand, not so much. Having been there, I was hoping for so much more. It was definitely event driven with not enough character development for me. Much too scientific. I also felt like he didn't know the society well enough in writing the book. We know what happened to Pompeii as far as the science and history are concerned, now let's imagine the people who lived there and their stories but I did not feel he did a good job with that and was a bit disappointed.



    To keep some books waiting is a crime, some other books deserve a world of waiting. So my encouragement this month is to pick up that book you've been meaning to read forever. Give it a go and see what you've been missing. If nothing else, read one of the books I read this month, at least the good ones and see what sort of treasure you can find hidden.

Next month: Young adult fiction. There are some really good authors who are writing young adult fiction and I'm not talking about Stephenie Meyer either. So I'm excited to see what I'm going to discover and read for this month.

The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho

Illusion- Frank Peretti 

A Good Indian Wife – Anne Cherian

A Long Way Down- Nick Hornby

Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

Pompeii – Robert Harris

The road goes ever on imaginatorium

It may be 2013 already but not all of 2012's reads have been shared. Below are my December reads.

 

      It would appear like our society really enjoys sequels. If we love the characters, the story, and the writing enough, we don't want the final page of the novel or the final credits of the movie to be the end. We want to join our new found friends on new adventures with new problems. We want them to overcome new obstacles and find success in new opportunities. Of course, all of these are only productive if the story truly doesn't end. Hamlet 2 or even a sequel to Phantom of the Opera doesn't really make sense in my mind. The story is over, people are dead, or at the very least an unbreakable resolution has been reached.
     But there are those stories that most certainly need to continue. There are imaginatoriums which encompass so much and call out for a greater deal of storytelling. There are also those tales which could have a perfectly fine ending with one telling but the imaginatorium is such that the author cannot stop because the characters and the world itself has more stories to be unearthed.
          After all the books I read over the course of the year, there were a few series I began which had sequels. I'm not one who must read the sequel right after. My patience in waiting to find out the next part of the story has been perfected over the years. However, after awhile, whether it be just the need to power through the rest of the series or because I do actually want to know what happens next, I do get a little antsy to read on. I went through my lists of everything read and found some of the sequels I was anxious to read which is what December was. I finally finished the Hunger Games series and the Percy Jackson series. Wither, which I had read in January, had a sequel which I read. There was another Inspector Lynley mystery as well. Then continuing from last month, I picked up the fourth book in the Dark Tower series.
     After reading the first Hunger Games in January, followed by the second one in July, I figured one book every six months would be sufficient so I finally picked up the third one. Again, it was one of those books that kept building and building, and then suddenly we were at a resolution. The ending may have made sense within the world of the book but, without giving away any spoilers, I felt like she tried to take on too much story, got tired of what she was writing, and quickly found her resolution so she could be done. It's certainly the most violent of the three books. I also felt like it was still too much of a cop out ending of the Jane Austen variety. Yet, I'm thankful I finished the series and I did enjoy it. The last one was different enough and made for a good read.      In regards to violent all out wars, the final Percy Jackson book is one giant battle of awesomeness! That series came to an awesome conclusion but also left room for the other series that Rick Riordan wrote. What I appreciated about the end of the Percy Jackson series was that he tied up all the loose ends, brought together his overarching themes but took his time to do it within the realm of a young adult novel. It was satisfying and a fun read.

     The other series I continued with was the Inspector Lynley series. Thank goodness that the second installment, Payment in Blood, was not as dark and twisty as the first one. I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted to continue reading any of Elizabeth George's novels if they were all as dark as the first but the second one still has it's dark bits because she deals with people and real people it seems like. The mystery is a central part of the story but her stories are much more character driven which I really like.

      Also, I powered on with more Stephen King with the Wizard and the Glass which was good but basically the whole book was the back story of Roland. I understand the purpose of the back story but there wasn't a lot of moving the plot forward in the fourth book. Hopefully the fifth one will move along and get the current characters further along in their journey.

     Lastly, Fever, which was the sequel to Wither, was good until the end where I just got frustrated as to what she did with her characters. I'm all for trying to overcome obstacles and creating new conflicts but I had really hoped for a better ending. Granted, there will be a third one so I suppose she had to bring Rhine back into a place of vulnerability to keep the story going but I still do not like where she placed the characters again.

      It's been a year of books. There have been some really good one and some ones where I've questioned the sanity of the publishers and the authors for that matter. But sometimes, imaginatorium and good imaginatorium is all subjective. If you've walked through these blogs, I hope something has peaked your interest and intrigued you in such a way to discover the magic that lies within the pages of books. . .

 

So my New Year's Resolution: To be better at posting sooner and to make exciting posts as well. The reading will continue and perhaps there will be a bit of a different format as the new year comes about. Stay tuned!

      

    

 

Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins

The Last Olympian- Rick Riordan

Fever- Lauren Destefano

Payment in Blood- Elizabeth George

The Wizard and the Glass