Catching Up 2012 (what I meant to do early 2013)

OK, so as you can tell, 2013 didn't go so well for the book review thing.  Grrr.  It turned out that I didn't have access to a laptop for most of the year, so in the limited times when I did, I had too many other things to catch up on even though I read many books.

I will try to get back into things now with Cannonball 6 .  I've signed up for a half-cannonball (26 reviews).

But first, so my mind, and some rough notes are cleared, I will give a short rating to some of the books I can still remember from 2012 and 2013 that I didn't get to.  Some of the best ones, I will leave and hope to do a quick re-read this year to do a proper review.

From my 2012 list:

1.  Matched and Crossed (Matched Trilogy books 1 and 2) by Ally Condie (audiobooks)

I listened to these after The Book Hoarding Dragon's review of Matched piqued my interest.  I was not disappointed.  I liked how Matched started out looking like a utopia vs. something like The Hunger Games.  It made the conflict between safety and freedom more thought-provoking and relevant for today's world.  So, mixed with the universal themes of young unrequited and forbidden love, there were more compelling ideas about rebellion and the importance of language and creativity needed to even form and communicate those ideas.

By the time we get to Crossed, we see the situation for the full dystopia, it really is.  I didn't like it quite as much as Matched, but still enjoyed it and want to read the conclusion.  (still waiting to see if my library will get the audiobook in)

5 stars to Matched; 4 stars to Crossed 

- x -

2.  The Scarecrow and His Servant and The Firework-Maker's Daughter by Philip Pullman (audiobooks)

I'm only putting these together because they are shorter (juvenile) books by Philip Pullman.  Very enjoyable with some good humour and, like his famous His Dark Materials Trilogy some good role-reversals and twists.  I especially liked the scarecrow character.

4 stars to both

- x -

3.  Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (audiobook)

I hadn't read this before and only saw the 2002 movie trailers which looked like a paranormal teen romance.  This wasn't like that