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Paula's 2013 reading log


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Hello and welcome to my reading log :)

January ~

1.  Annabel (A Delirium short story) by Lauren Oliver ~ Started: 13.01.13 ~ Finished: 13.01.13
2.  Birthmarked (Birthmarked Trilogy ~ Book 1) by Caragh O’Brien ~ Started: 14.01.13 ~ Finished: 18.01.13
3.  Prized (Birthmarked Trilogy ~ Book 2) by Caragh O’Brien ~ Started: 18.01.13 ~ Finished: 23.01.13
4.  The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace ~ Started: 23.01.13 ~ Finished: 28.01.13

 

February ~

 

1.  Warm Bodies by Issac Marion ~ Started:  28.01.13 ~ Finished:  07.02.13

2.  Promised (Birthmarked Trilogy ~ Book 3) by Caragh O’Brien ~ Started:  07.02.13 ~ Finished:  10.02.13

3.  The Adventures of Maximillian Bacchus & His Travelling Circus by Clive Barker & Richard A. Kirk ~ Started:  10.02.13 ~ Finished:  13.02.13

4.  The Butcher Boy by Patrick Mccabe ~ Started:  13.02.13 ~ Finished:  17.02.13

5.  My Mad, fat teenage diary by Rae Earl ~ Started:  17.02.13 ~ Finished:  21.02.13

6.  The New Hunger by Issac Marion ~ Started:  22.02.13 ~ Finished:  23.02.13

 

March ~

 
1.  Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut ~ Started:  23.02.13 ~ Finished:  02.03.13
2.  All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman ~ Started:  02.03.13 ~ Finished:  04.03.13
3.  The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman ~ Started:  04.03.13 ~ Finished:  04.03.13

 

******


Annabel (A Delirium Short Story) by Lauren Oliver ~ Started: 13.01.13 ~ Finished: 13.01.13

Title of Book: Annabel (A Delirium Short Story)
Name of Author: Lauren Oliver
Kindle Edition
ASIN: B00APW0D0K

Synopsis ~

Lena's mother, Annabel, has always been a mystery - a ghost in Lena's past. Until now. Discover her secrets in Lauren Oliver's brilliant original digital story set in the world of international bestsellers Delirium and Pandemonium. Through chapters that alternate between her past and present, Annabel reveals the true story behind her failed cures, her marriage, the births of her children, her imprisonment, and, ultimately, her daring escape.

What I thought of ‘Annabel’ ~

Having read the first two books in the 'Delirium' series and the other short story 'Hana', it was great to read another addition to the series. ‘Annabel’ is the story of Lena’s mother; you learn about her past, her disappearance from Lena's life and her hopes of being reunited with her loved ones.

There are a few pages from the third and final book 'Requiem' to wet your appetite.

Rating: 3/5

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Happy reading, Paula! I look forward to reading your reviews this year. :)

 

Thanks Kylie :) I am looking forward to your reviews too :)

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Birthmarked (Birthmarked ~ Book 1) by Caragh O’Brien ~ Started: 14.01.13 ~ Finished: 18.01.13

Title of Book: Birthmarked (Birthmarked Trilogy ~ Book 1)
Name of Author: Caragh O’Brien
Kindle Edition
ASIN: B005A3WF2I

Synopsis ~

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents disappear.

As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she faces the brutal injustice of the Enclave and discovers she alone holds the key to a secret code, a code of “birthmarked” babies and genetic merit.

Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, Birthmarked explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where a criminal is defined by her genes, and one girl can make all the difference.


What I thought of 'Birthmarked' ~

‘Birthmarked’ is the story of 16 year old Gaia Stone, a young midwife who lives on the other side of wall from Enclave. Gaia’s job is to deliver babies and ‘advancing’ them to the Enclave where they are told the babies will have a better life with the option to return to their biological parents but no one ever returns, what is left are families mourning of their children and living by the laws of the Enclave.

I am a big fan of dystopian fiction and I was not disappointed by ‘Birthmarked’, Gaia is a brilliant character to read, a girl who fights for what she believes in. There is romance in the story but it is not the fore front of the story. Plenty of excitement to keep you entertained and I am looking forward to the next book in the trilogy ~ ‘Prized’

Rating: 4/5

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This sounds like an interesting book, not in the least because it features a character whose first name I share :D.

 

Good times Athena, happy reading :)

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Prized (Birthmarked Trilogy ~ Book 2) by Caragh O’Brien ~ Started: 18.01.13 ~ Finished: 23.01.13

 

Title of Book: Prized (Birthmarked Trilogy ~ Book 2)

Name of Author: Caragh O’Brien

Kindle Edition

ASIN: B005XZ8Y5U

 

Synopsis ~

 

Having escaped from the corrupt Enclave, Gaia ventures into the wasteland with her baby sister, Maya, hoping to find a settlement that's rumoured to lie in the Dead Forest. After days of travelling, Gaia is close to death when Peter, a ranger from the mysterious village of Sylum, finds her and takes her back with him. Gaia soon realises that Sylum has as many strict laws as the Enclave she fled from, but when Maya is taken from her by the ruthless village leader, the Matrarc, Gaia is forced to stay and submit to their strict social code, or risk losing her sister forever.

 

But Sylum is in trouble. The population is falling and the amount of women dwindling dramatically, and with a deadly fever affecting striking down anyone who tries to leave, the future is bleak for the village. Desperate to escape with her sister, Gaia is determined to uncover the secrets of the village, whatever it takes.

 

And when Leon is captured too, Gaia is faced with another tough choice between the boy who captured her heart in the Enclave, and Peter, for whom she can't deny her growing feelings. But when the decisions you make affect the lives of everyone around you, how can you be sure you're making the right choices?

 

What I thought of ‘Prized’ ~

 

Following on from ‘Birthmarked’, Gaia finds herself alone in the wastelands looking for a place that may or may not be exist. Gaia thinks she has been saved when she ends up in the community of Sylum, a place ruled by the Matarac, a formidable woman who believes everything she does is for the good for everyone, it’s clear to Gaia that something is wrong with Sylum and she could be the person to change Sylum.

 

‘Prized’ is exciting from start to finish, Gaia faces more trials throughout the story. Gaia is a strong character and interesting to read, she is an ordinary girl who is very skilled in midwifery and still learning about her own life and the world around her. The community of Sylum is a strange place and as you read, everything pieces together as to why it’s so strange, I enjoyed learning more about Sylum. I enjoyed the ending too and cannot wait for ‘Promised’ the final book in the trilogy.

 

Rating: 5/5

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I've just added birthmarked to my wish list sounds good :)

 

I think you will enjoy it Laura, its a great story and the idea is (I think) very original. :)

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The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace ~ Started: 23.01.13 ~ Finished: 28.01.12

 

Title of Book: The Painted Bridge

Name of Author: Wendy Wallace

Kindle Edition

ASIN: B007IL5AJK

 

Synopsis ~

 

JUST OUTSIDE LONDON, behind a high stone wall, lies Lake House, a private asylum for genteel women of a delicate nature. In the winter of 1859, Anna Palmer becomes its newest patient. To Anna’s dismay, her new husband has declared her in need of treatment and brought her to this shabby asylum. Confused and angry, Anna is determined to prove her sanity, but with her husband and doctors unwilling to listen, her freedom will not be easily won. As the weeks pass, she finds other allies: a visiting physician who believes the new medium of photography may reveal the state of a patient’s mind; a long time patient named Talitha Batt, who seems, to Anna’s surprise, to be as sane as she is; and the proprietor’s bookish daughter, who also yearns to escape.

 

Yet the longer Anna remains at Lake House, the more she realizes that—like the ethereal bridge over the asylum’s lake—nothing and no one is quite as it appears. Not her fellow patients, her husband, her family—not even herself. Locked alone in her room, driven by the treatments of the time into the recesses of her own mind, she may discover the answers and the freedom she seeks . . . or how thin the line between madness and sanity truly is.

 

‘The Painted Bridge’ is the story of Anna Palmer, newly married and after a recent lapse in judgement finds herself being lied to by her husband, the Reverend Vincent Palmer, who leaves Anna in Lake House, a private asylum for women of a ‘delicate nature’. Anna disputes her incarceration from the start but is ignored at every turn, the only allies she finds are other patients who all have their own stories. The owner of the asylum, Querios Abse is adamant that Anna is in the right place purely for monetary reasons, whilst Dr Lucas St Clair is completing his study of diagnoses being made through photographs of inpatients, who may also be a friend to Anna. Anna strives to find her way back to the life she knew and confront her past

 

What I thought of ‘The Painted Bridge’ ~

 

‘The Painted Bridge’ is a very impressive first novel, set in the 1800’s it highlights the plight of women who found themselves in asylums for various reasons at the hands of their husbands and families, nothing is ever questioned, it is the word of the husband and another doctor on the basis of what the husband has told them. Anna, the quiet heroine of the story is a character you will care about as she faces more and more hurdles to leave Lake House, her husband, a man so unloving, uncaring and a hypocrite is a character you want to see get his comeuppance.

 

The book is researched thoroughly and you get a view of asylum life, which made the story more engrossing.

 

I enjoyed ‘The Painted Bridge’ the story is engrossing from the start to finish, you feel for Anna and want to see her free.

 

I look forward to reading more books by Wendy Wallace.

 

Rating: 5/5

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