Library Haul

Fall has to be my favourite season.

You start with warm, summery weather in which beaches and ice cream are an everyday occurrence. Next come the chill; the leaves begin to fall, their colours everywhere. Finally, the frost. The first snowflakes fall, and the world becomes white.

It’s a perfect harmony of every season in one, which is probably why indecisive people, like me, love it.

It also happens to be my favourite time to visit the library, as the crunch of leaves remind me of pages turning in a book.

Yeah, I’m poetic like that. 😉

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Dove Arising By Karen Bao

Phaet Theta has lived her whole life in a colony on the Moon. She’s barely spoken since her father died in an accident nine years ago. She cultivates the plants in Greenhouse 22, lets her best friend talk for her, and stays off the government’s radar.

Then her mother is arrested.

The only way to save her younger siblings from the degrading Shelter is by enlisting in the Militia, the faceless army that polices the Lunar bases and protects them from attacks by desperate Earth dwellers. Training is brutal, but it’s where Phaet forms an uneasy but meaningful alliance with the preternaturally accomplished Wes, a fellow outsider.

Rank high, save her siblings, free her mom:  that’s the plan. Until Phaet’s logically ordered world begins to crumble…

This was the first book I picked out at the library. The thing I loved about this was the strong female lead, as well as the astronomy theme thrown into the mix. There is no way it’s going to live up to Across the Universe, a favourite of mine, but who knows, this could very well be a close second.

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Magonia By Maria Dahvana Headley

Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.

Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live.

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia.

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

The cover wasn’t the only reason I chose this book (It was only about 90% of the reason). The real reason I chose this book was because of the way reality and fantasy collided. Alright, that was BS; It was 100% the cover.

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The infinite Sea By Rick Yancey

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

I absolutely loved the 5th wave, and have been meaning to get my hands on this book for the past ever. After recently watching the trailer for the 5th wave movie, I was inspired enough to get my but over to the library, and find this book.

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5 to 1 By Holly Bodger

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa doesn’t want to be a wife, and Contestant Five, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Five’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Five thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

Typically, I wouldn’t even give a book like this a second glance, but since I’m on a roll with enjoying contemporary novels, and because I happen to be learning about Hinduism in school, this book just happened to be added to the pile. We’ll see how it goes, but ancient Hindu beliefs, mixed with a futuristic society seemed to good to pass up 😉 .

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Any of these books catch your interest? I’d love to know why!

See you at the bookstore,