Its time for my April Wrap-up!

Its been a slow month — both on the blog and in terms of read­ing. How­ever, as you can see, I’ve upgraded to a self-hosted Word­Press site and you’ll be see­ing a few more changes in the com­ing weeks as well.

Also — May hap­pens to be my one year blo­gov­er­sary! I can­not believe I started this blog a year ago — it seems like yes­ter­day — so I think I’ll prob­a­bly cel­e­brate with a good old-fashioned giveaway.

Best of the Bunch in April

 

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

[box] In the tra­di­tion of SHABANU, DAUGHTER OF THE WIND and THE BREADWINNER, a beau­ti­ful debut about a daugh­ter of Afghanistan dis­cov­er­ing new friends and oppor­tu­ni­ties after the defeat of the Taliban.

Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Tal­iban have been dri­ven from Afghanistan; a good rela­tion­ship with her hard step­mother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be pro­vided for her–“Inshallah,” God willing.

Then she meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan poetry she taught her late mother. And the Amer­i­cans come to her vil­lage, promis­ing not just new oppor­tu­ni­ties and dan­gers, but surgery to fix her face. These changes could mean a whole new life for Zulaikha–but can she dare to hope they’ll come true?[/box]

While I per­son­ally think the cover design could use some work to make it more appeal­ing, this is a touch­ing story that gives an hon­est insight into a dif­fer­ent cul­ture and grow­ing up in a war-torn coun­try. A very strong debut and one I highly rec­om­mend. Look out for my full review later this week.

 

 

Run­ner Up

 

Par­tials by Dan Wells

[box] Human­ity is all but extin­guished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings iden­ti­cal to humans—has dec­i­mated the world’s pop­u­la­tion. Reduced to only tens of thou­sands by a weaponized virus to which only a frac­tion of human­ity is immune, the sur­vivors in North Amer­ica have hud­dled together on Long Island. The threat of the par­tials is still immi­nent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the dis­ease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is run­ning out.

When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s preg­nancy, she’s deter­mined to find a solu­tion. Then one rash deci­sion forces Kira to flee her com­mu­nity with the unlike­li­est of allies. As she tries des­per­ately to save what is left of her race, she dis­cov­ers that the sur­vival of both humans and par­tials rests in her attempts to answer ques­tions of the war’s ori­gin that she never knew to ask. [/box]

Fans of Bat­tlestar Galac­tica or those who have loved the recent influx of pop­u­lar YA sci-fi/dystopian will prob­a­bly very much enjoy Partials.

Best of the Bunch is a great end of the month orig­i­nally cre­ated by Lyri­cal Reviews and now hosted by Sally at Always Lost in Stories

 

Books Read in April

 

1. Love Story by Jen­nifer Echols

2. The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhard

3. Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin

5. Par­tials by Dan Wells

6. Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde

7. Gracel­ing by Kristin Cashore

8. Struck by Jen­nifer Bosworth

9. Slated by Teri Terry

10. Bread­crumbs by Anne Ursu

11. The Future of Us by Jay Asher

*Click on the links to read my reviews*

Other Reviews

The Sum­mer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Fire­spell by Chloe Neill

Book Breakups 3

Author Inter­views

J. Ander­son Coats

Cover Cor­ner

Ana Juan

Happy Read­ing!