This is my first Mailbox. I realized the last 354th time that I had been following Kristy for a while but I had never even actually followed her. That's the second time this has happened. My scatterbrained-ness amazes even me sometimes.
FOR REVIEW
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed
to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.
To be honest, I'm not looking forward to reading this. I've been working my way towards it for so long that my expectations are sky high. Especially with bloggers raving about it and then
others defaming it. Reasons not to read other people's reviews on hyped books. I hate it thinking about how on Earth the author of my favorite blog liked a certain book that I hated while I'm being disappointed by said book. It makes the reading experience torturous and unpleasant. All I'm saying is that I pray it doesn't disappoint.
BOUGHT
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing, victims of so-called "Gobblers", and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.
This is a re-read so anything I say now will probably decrease the amount of things I have to say in my review because I seem to say less about the better books I gather. But I can say: wow.
Divergent by Veronica Roth
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Like Liar I have heard some very good things about this. However I read an excerpt from Enclave (which I am dying to read) and there are some details that are similar between the two. In fact I got their synopsises mixed up more than once when I was describing it to a friend of mine.
WON
Eromenos by Melanie McDonald
Eros and Thanatos converge in this story of a glorious youth, an untimely death, and an imperial love affair that gives rise to the last pagan god of antiquity, Antinous.
In this coming-of-age novel set in second century Rome, the Greek youth Antinous of Bithynia recounts his seven-year affair with Hadrian, the fourteenth Roman emperor. In a partnership more intimate than Hadrian's political marriage, Antinous captivates the most powerful ruler on the earth.
This version of the story of the emperor and his beloved ephebe envisions the life of the youth who after death achieved apotheosis as a pagan god whose cult of worship lasted for hundreds of years, and gives voice to Antinous, whose image still appears in museums around the world.
This one I signed up for because of 1. The gorgeous cover and 2. because I love Ancient anything and this has a few reviews saying its worth the read but mind that only a few. I'm going on this as naked as a skinny-dipping preteen. Fingers Crossed!
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