On Books

Sometime last year I decided that in 2013 I wanted to primarily read young adult fiction.  I was looking at this list, and while I've read a lot of the classics on it, there are a lot of newer titles I haven't.  Also YA books are generally super fast, easy reads for me, and with the Speck's arrival, my time and concentration will probably be limited.  Win win. 

(I do intend to break them up with my more standard, literary books.  Just as one should not survive on delicious Velveeta all the time, one must not read only YA.)

I have a few books in mind (mostly ones I've heard a lot about), and I'm also taking ideas from that same list.  But I'm also looking for recommendations!  I'm not set on any one genre so if there are any YA books you've read and loved (or read and hated...), let me know.  I do want to make a point of reading at least a few award winners and a few geared more to boys.  Of course I won't get to all of them, but I hope to look back on this year and tip my hat to my "books read" list.

Here are the books I've got in mind already: The Fault in Our Stars, Divergent, Matched, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Old Soul, Stargirl, A Separate Peace, The Dollhouse Asylum, Anna and the French Kiss, A Company of Swans, The Goose Girl, Icefall, The Lightning Thief, I Capture the Castle (FINALLY).

Maybe the Mortal Instruments series, 13 Reasons Why, Hush, Hush, and Before I Fall.  

I'd like to read something (finally) by Sarah Dessen, but I'm not sure which.  

The second part of this idea was to post reviews for each of them here on the blog.  I do Goodreads of course, but...I just want to post them here too.  I'm planning follow the same structure as I did on my book blog for class, and I think it will be fun!  Plus writing summaries for books is a good exercise.  Anyway, it's mid-January and I'm already on my third YA book.  Here's to 2013!   

In the interest of housekeeping, here are my "books read" up through the end of 2012:

• Wide Sargasso Sea, D
• Edenbrooke, B
• Birds of a Feather, B-
• Where She Went, A-
• If I Stay, B+
• The Host, D
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, B-
• The Worry Week, A
• Mara, Daughter of the Nile, A-
• The Help, A
• Fire Study, B-
• Magic Study, B+
• Tales from the Perilous Realm, A-
• Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, B+
• Poison Study, B+
• Lord of the Flies, A-
• The Historian, A-
• The Mysterious Benedict Society, C+
• Maisie Dobbs, A
• Wintergirls, B+
• The Tiger Rising, B+
• Mockingjay, A-
• Catching Fire, B
• Hunger Games, A-
• Midnight in Austenland, B
• Wuthering Heights, A
• The Giver, A-
• Keturah and Lord Death, B
• My Cousin Rachel, A+
• The Lottery, A-
• Princess of the Midnight Ball, B+
• Austenland, B+
• Beauty, A-
• Rebecca, A
• The Night Circus, C
• The Woman in Black, A
• The Three Musketeers, A-