Book Talk: January Wrap Up

Ever since the school year started, finding time to read has been a challenge, especially when you have college classes that are heavy on assigned reading. Luckily, my core class this quarter is about graphic novels which is new and exciting for me. On my own, I would never have picked up a graphic novel to read for pleasure, not because I think graphic novels are less than but because they're just so much harder to read. I have to read the words AND look at the pictures?! A girl can only handle so much! Despite my lack of multitasking skills, I actually have quite enjoyed the graphic novels I've been reading.

Comparing January 2015 to January 2014, this year seems a bit underwhelming. I managed to read 13 books in one month. Incredible. Oh, how I long for the free time that came with high school (that's really the only thing I miss about high school though please don't take me back). That being said, I'm pretty proud of the progress I've made so far this year. I'm more or less on track for my yearly reading challenge. Enough of this mumbo jumbo. On to the wrap up!

Stats:

• Books Read: 6
• Class: 3
• Pleasure: 3
• Genre:
• Fantasy: 3
• Dystopian: 2
• Non-Fiction: 1
• Page Count: 1,671

Books:

Infinite by Jodi Meadows

This is the last book in the Newsoul trilogy and I had been putting off reading it for about four months because... Well, I couldn't tell you why. The Newsoul trilogy is set in a world where the same million souls have been reincarnated for the last three thousand years and during a blackout, one of the souls died and never returned. The soul that took her place was Ana and she is believed to be a No Soul. Trouble seems to follow Ana, which pushes her even further from acceptance. This trilogy follows her story as she fights for a place in society along with the help of her friends. I've always been interested in reincarnation and this was a new twist on it. I enjoyed this series, it had dragons, need I say more? (I actually might...) Meadows builds a fantastical world with a range of mystical creatures and tells a story of new life. She also throws some romance into the mix which is always fun. (Plus, the covers are beyond gorgeous.)

Legend by Marie Lu

I finally got to read Legend! This has been a long time coming and I'm glad the entire trilogy is out now so I can whiz through them this year. Legend is a dystopia set in a future Los Angeles where a new plague has devastated the poor population. The male protagonist, Day, is the Republic's most wanted (and misunderstood, in my opinion) criminal. Our female protagonist, June, is a military prodigy who slays the scene. The two would have led completely separate lives if not for June's brother's death. This book was so captivating. I was hanging on to every word and all the feels that this book gave me. Marie Lu is a spectacular writer and I am so pumped to read the next book in the series, Prodigy, with Allison. It'll be like our own little book club. I can't wait to find out what happens next!

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd

V for Vendetta. A classic. This was my first ever graphic novel and I am happy to report that my first experience was a good one. I have yet to see the movie and looking back, I am so glad I went into this story blind. It was so layered and it really made me think. I'm not usually one to enjoy assigned readings but I dissecting V for Vendetta was a lot of fun. I found myself getting a little too invested in the story and feeling angry with the world, which was probably the purpose of the book. As much as I loved V for Vendetta, I don't think I would have had as great a time with it if I had read it on my own. There were so many allusions that would have completely flown over my head if my professor hadn't been there to point them out to me. Being a visual text, I had to work to find hidden meanings in the details of the illustrations and that made the whole book feel like an experience. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of dystopia. Maybe I'll reread it and see if I can catch anything new the second time around.

Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

My first non-fiction book of 2015! Obviously, this was an assigned reading as well. McCloud defined "comics," as one would expect, and discussed the techniques used in the medium of comics. He also went into the history of graphic texts and how the use of a graphic text can enhance certain parts of a narrative. Pretty cool stuff. Normally, this would bore me out of my mind but McCloud explained his smarts in the style of a comic book. Even though I was learning the technical stuff like gutters and different types of sequences, it was still engaging because of the way he presented the information. This class has definitely exposed me to some new reading experiences and so far, I'm having a great time with it.

Life Sucks by Jessica Abel, Gabriel Soria, & Warren Pleece

Another graphic novel, not surprising. This one's about vampires, specifically, a wimpy loser of a vampire whose life, you guessed it, sucks. Just as his life was going somewhere - college and all that - he gets turned into a vampire and is now a slave to his master, stuck working at a convenience store for the rest of his considerably extended life. He meets a goth girl and falls for her (who'da guessed?!) but things get a little complicated. Life Sucks is a coming-of-age story that really did not impress me. Maybe my graphic narrative standards were too high after having just read V for Vendetta but it all seemed very predictable and cliché, despite everybody raving that this book "breaks all the vampire norms." It does, but in all the same ways as other texts try to break the mold. Nothing new, artwork made me feel uncomfortable, poor binding (which is a whole 'nother bone I have to pick). Overall not terrible, but unimpressive.

Cress by Marissa Meyer

Last but not least, a pleasure book. What a nice way to end the month. Cress is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles. The Lunar Chronicles can be best described as a sci-fi fairytale retelling. Each novel stars a new female lead that carries over and becomes a secondary character in the following books. So far, we have Cinder (Cinderella), Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood), and Cress (Rapunzel). The stories stray from the original fairytales but keep the key components to make it recognizable and that's what makes the world so fantastic. There are cyborgs and Lunars (a human-like species on the moon but they have powers) and the Lunar queen, Levana, is so evil, I love to hate her. There is really never a dull moment in the series and the author has the power to make you ship things so hard. So hard. You actually fall in love with every single pairing. I don't know how Meyer does it, but it's been done. If this series didn't catch your attention by the time we got to "sci-fi fairytale retelling," I don't know what to tell you. These books have you on the edge of your seat and seriously toy with your emotions, good and bad. (I actually went from giddy to nearly weeping of grief and back to squeals in the span of maybe fifteen pages. Marissa Meyer is not messing around.) 

There you have it! I'm a little disappointed that assigned readings took up so much of my time but hey, that's college. I'll just have to up my reading ante in the summer to make up for it! Did you read anything good last month? I'm always open for book recommendations!


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette

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