Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Cinder

A couple of weeks ago, Kevin and I were gearing up for two subsequent weekend road trips to see the future-in-laws.  Over the course of eleven days, we spent over twenty hours in the car...yuck.  To ease some of the pain, I jumped onto our library's digital database and began the search for some audiobooks.  I selected a wide variety of options, not knowing what we would be in the mood for.  Together, we ended up listening to John Grisham's 2011 legal thriller The Litigators.  We're not quite finished with it, but you can look forward to a post on that soon.  Meanwhile, this book caught my eye.  I had seen it on several "if-you-love-The-Hunger-Games-read-this" type lists, but hadn't really been interested.  Yet, when it showed up yet again and was available for immediate download, I decided to give it a shot.  (Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

Insurgent - Veronica Roth

Insurgent

I have been raving about Divergent to everyone I meet for months now.  Mid-Hunger Games pandemonium, I kept recommending Veronica Roth's dystopian novel to those who enjoyed Suzanne Collins' series.  The first book captured my captured my attention and, honestly, is what ignited this whole dystopian kick I have been on lately.  I do not think I had even finished Divergent before I was questioning Google about the existence of a sequel.  Luckily for me, book two was released at the start of May.  Despite a valiant, though futile, effort to wait for my fiancé to catch up, I succumbed to my need to read this weekend and tore through Insurgent in a matter of a few (very busy) days.  I read at Kevin's softball game; I carried the book around with me during my sister-in-law's college graduation festivities (Congrats, Kristen!) and read at every moment it wasn't rude; I even read 200 pages in the car, a reading location I tend to avoid for fear of nausea.  (Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin

A Feast for Crows

And here we are with Book Four of A Song of Ice and Fire.  It's taken me long enough to get through this monster.  Over three months have past since I completed A Storm of Swords, but it feels like it could have been three years. I feel like I've been reading this book forever.  Granted, I was warned.  At long last I have made it through and am eagerly looking forward to Book Five, which has been touted by my cousins as the best one of the series.  First, though, a review of Crows. I promise to make my thoughts on the book shorter and less painful than the book itself. (Warning: Spoilers ahead)

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale

Oftentimes, when I sit down to start one of these posts, I struggle finding a place to start.  I struggle to find the words to express the journey I have just traveled at the hands of an author.  It is, in a fractional way, what the author themselves must have faced in writing the work.  Another personal benefit of this blog to be noted: if I ever do get around to writing/finishing that novel I have tucked away, I will have this experience on the battlefield of writer's block to assist me at least a little.  

All of that to say, when I come across a novel such as this one, I cannot help but to be astounded by the skill the author sets forth.  It is difficult enough for me on some days to attempt a blog post; I cannot imagine how long it will take to write a novel.  And even then, it will be nowhere close to the writing level of Margaret Atwood.  In The Handmaid's Tale, she has crafted a terrifying story of a country ruled by a legalistic theocracy.  As with many of these types of books (which, I realize, I have been reading a lot of lately.  I swear, I am going to move past this phase eventually), it takes the reader a while to truly understand what is going on.  When you do, you are struck with the horror of it. (SPOILERS AHEAD)

The Queen Jade - Yxta Maya Murray

The Queen Jade: A New World Novel of Adventure

The Queen Jade is properly billed as a New World adventure novel.  The story is an Indiana Jones-type, following the cast through the Guatemalan jungles to rescue the heroine's mother and find The Queen Jade, an ancient Mayan treasure.  The book is exactly what you would expect, but not in a bad way.

Erasing Hell - Francis Chan & Preston Sprinkle

Erasing Hell

I have been waiting to form an opinion about Rob Bell's controversial Love Wins, which I read last year, until I read this response.  Neither book has gone without buzz in the Christian community.  Erasing Hell has garnered particular attention in my circle of friends because Preston Sprinkle taught at the university I attended and now work at.  In fact, a lot of my friends had class with him.  His bike kept getting stolen, leading to a campus wide joke.  In this book, it is Sprinkle's research combined with Francis Chan's story-telling that argues for the existence of hell.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the controversy surrounding this and Bell's work, let me give you an abbreviated version before I share my thoughts.  Last year, Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Baptist Church in Michigan, wrote a book entitled Love Wins.  The general concept of the book is that God will, in the end, love people enough that He will offer those who have rejected Him in this life a second (or endless) chance to accept His gift of love.  In simpler terms, Bell suggests that there is no place of eternal suffering which we call hell.  Chan and Sprinkle, in response to Bell's book, wrote Erasing Hell, an exploratory study into what Scripture has to say about hell.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It should be no surprise that I choose this book because of the recent Oscar-nominated film of the same title.  I am both a Sandra Bullock fan and a Tom Hanks fan and knew that any project they both chose to work on would be a good one.  As a book lover, though, I was strongly encouraged by a friend to read the story before watching it - always a good suggestion.