Delirium: A Book Review

There are NO SPOILERS in this book review. Enjoy! (:

Book review #2 of 2013!

Those of you who continue to read my book reviews know that I always begin with lengthy intros that often deal with how I discovered/decided to read said book more than about the actual content. Though I understand that that may be boring for some of you, I actually find it rather fascinating how people come across the material they read- whether it's through word of mouth, or because you saw the movie trailer and you want to read the book before seeing the film, or if it's through browsing a bookstore completely at random. Those little tidbits fascinate a book lover like me, so I will continue to share them. If they bore you, I won't even notice if you skip it and go straight to the review.

With that said, Delirium is a book I discovered through simply reading many books of the same genre. When you've read Matched (Ally Condie), the Uglies Series (Scott Westerfeld) and similar YA dystopian novels, you get accustomed to seeing them surrounded by familiar books. So though I never really got a personal recommendation for this book, I suppose I heard it through book association. If you read my 2013 Reading List then you probably saw it listed there. I came into reading this book with relatively no expectations whatsoever. I had no glowing (or any actually) recommendations from anyone, but also no one discouraging it either. So, without further ado, let's start on some actual content!

Title: Delirium
Series: Book #1 in Delirium series
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: YA/teen dystopian fiction
Pages: 480
Release date: February 1, 2011
Links: Amazon  | B&N | Goodreads










As usual, let's start with the back-cover description:

"They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now.

Now everything has changed. Now I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie."

Uglies: A Book Review

There are NO SPOILERS in this review. Enjoy! (:

Book review #1 of 2013!

Scott Westerfeld's Uglies is a book I have seen for a long time. My sister must have read it 6+ years ago and I have seen it on her shelf often. I read the back cover when I first saw it and immediately thought it sounded super cheesy. My sister made a discouraging face and told me it wasn't that good so I put it down without a second thought. Fast forward 6 years and I became curious again. This time, I had friends who once again discouraged me from reading it hinting of its shallowness and similarities to America's Next Top Model. That was enough to sizzle out the desire for a bit longer. When the curiosity came back, I decided just to forgo all the negative feedback and just read it to end the curiosity once and for all. And let me tell you, I am very happy I did.

Here's the back cover description for those unfamiliar with the Uglies Series:

"Tally is about to turn sixteen and she can't wait. Not for her license- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellant ugly to a stunningly attractive and pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really good time. In just a few weeks, Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world- and it is very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worse offer she can imagine, find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever."

Favorite Reads of 2012

My ideal morning is waking up when the sky is gently lit by the sun and going for a morning run. And after jumping in the shower and making breakfast, I enjoy getting back in bed and reading a good book. The feeling is even more amazing when there's heavy rain that can accompany my books. So since 2012 is coming to a close, I thought there would be nothing better than to summarize my 2012 by telling you my favorites reads. 

Back in March, I decided that I wanted to read 50 new books by the end of 2012. Since then, I've changed the contingencies a bit. I decided to allow rereading books since discouraging the act of rereading was a bit ridiculous. With that strict rule, what motivation would I have had to reread The Hobbit, the book I read over a decade ago? Or, Fahrenheit 451 which I probably read about 8 years ago and barely remembered. I realized the rule was slightly too limiting so I changed it to this: books can count towards the 50, as long as they have been unread for at least 1 year. (So despite the numerous times I have read The Fault In Our Stars in the past 12 months, I counted it only once.)

I won't be listing all 50 books since 1.) a list isn't incredibly interesting unless I am able to comment on all the books in some way and 2.) that would take far too much time, and 3.) there were some books I read that I really don't care for and therefore don't want to waste time talking about them.

So the main thing I wanted to accomplish in this post was giving you 10 of my favorite NEW books that I read this year. Keep in mind, this was a difficult list to assemble and there were many books that I wrestled with adding/deleting from this list so if you know I read a book this year and didn't include in on this list (ie: The Casual Vacancy, The Handmaid's Tale) don't assume I didn't enjoy it as well.

But without further ado, here are my favorite books of 2012!