Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Title: Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
Publication Date: October 28, 2010
Length: 239 pages

R is a zombie, but he's not quite like the other zombies. He sometimes finds that the zombie life is not enough for him. He appreciates beauty, and collects knickknacks and music for his home in an airplane. One day, while out hunting, he eats the brains of a guy named Perry, experiencing his memories. When he meets Perry's girlfriend, Julie, he finds himself fascinated by her, and suddenly protective of her. He brings her home and keeps her safe from the other zombies, and a very strange relationship begins.

This is one of those books I read after seeing the movie, which I hate doing because often I end up not liking the book because the movie has already established itself as "right" in my brain. That did not happen with this book. I loved the movie (like, fangirling all over the place, with a bigger crush on a zombie than I thought was possible), and then I loved the book even more.

R is just SO ADORABLE. As he and Julie spend more time together, it's so sweet to see him become more and more human. And at the same time, Julie is learning to see zombies as more than just monsters, as people with a disease that could potentially be cured, which is something the survivors of the zombie apocalypse had never considered or thought possible.

5 stars.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Glitches by Marissa Meyer

Title: Glitches (Lunar Chronicles #0.5)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: December 5, 2011
Length: about 32 pages (ebook)

Glitches is a prequel to Cinder. It shows us the part of Cinder's story before she was an accomplished mechanic. In Glitches, she's just a scared girl with no memory of most of her past. Garan brings her home to live with his family, and her new stepmother is horrible to her. But one of her stepsisters, Peony, is kind and sweet.

At this point, Iko is just a pile of android bits, who was taken apart because she had a "glitch" (aka a personality). I enjoyed seeing how Cinder put her back together and they became friends. Iko is one of my favourite characters in this series.

Although Goodreads, FictFact, and the rest of the internet seem intent on numbering series in in-universe order (ie. putting this before Cinder), this really should be read after Cinder (in proper publishing order). (But that's a rant for another day.) Already knowing Cinder's character and being attached to her, Peony, and Iko, this story is great for filling in the blanks about them.

5 stars.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Wanted! by Caroline B. Cooney

Title: Wanted!
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Publication Date: 1997
Length: about 230 pages (ebook)

Alice gets a phone call from her dad, who instructs her to find two computer discs on his desk, take his Corvette, and meet him at their regular ice cream place as soon as possible. Baffled by his strange instructions, she obeys, but as she's leaving the house she hears someone breaking in, and her dad never shows up at the meeting spot. Waiting in the car and listening to the radio, Alice hears on the news that her dad has been murdered, and that she had supposedly confessed to the crime via email! Terrified, Alice goes on the run, hoping all the while that someone will believe that she's innocent.

This was an enjoyable, fast-paced mystery. The whole time, I was like "This is a bad idea! You are making yourself look guilty by running and should really just go to your mom, even though she thinks you're guilty!" But of course, she didn't listen. She admits she has no plan as to where she's going to go (during the story she pretty much just circles her own town), but doesn't know what else to do but keep running until they figure out who actually killed her father.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

January Random Reads selection

It's time to select my Random Read for January! I haven't done a Random Read since June, because I've been too busy with review copies and challenges. I'd like to get back into it for 2014, now that I'm trying to free up more of my reading time for fun.

So it's off to the random number generator. I have 764 books on my TBR shelf at the moment, so I enter 1 as the min and 764 as the max, and hit Generate.

Drum roll, please!




For January’s Random Read I'll be reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown. It's been on my TBR shelf since July 11, 2009.This is a great Random Read, because it's one of those ones that I always see on my shelf and think, I should read that book. But I never do. So, now I will!