What are you reading in 2016?

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What are you reading in 2016?

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1Sakerfalcon
feb 25, 2016, 8:04 am

I just noticed that we haven't got a 2016 reading thread yet! It really has grown quiet around here.

I wanted to report that I recently read The accident season and really enjoyed it. In tone it reminded me of We were liars, as it blends reality with supernatural/magical overtones very effectively. The characters are a lot more sympathetic though, ordinary teens rather than the privileged elites of WWL, and more down-to-earth than angsty. I especially liked that although we are offered some explanations for the mysterious events, in the end it is left to the reader and the characters to decide what happened. It's set in Ireland and the atmosphere of the damp small town is brilliantly conveyed. Recommended to readers who like a touch of magical realism in their YA.

2konallis
feb 25, 2016, 9:31 am

Thirty years late, but I just finished Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. One of her most complex books, fascinatingly interweaving time periods and realities, though I felt the ending didn't quite come together in a logically satisfying way. (Hexwood was better at that.)

I really want to get some recent YA from the library, but keep thinking I should make a dent in Mount TBR first...

3Jenson_AKA_DL
feb 25, 2016, 10:06 am

Just finished re-reading Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. I saw this at the local indie book store and remembered how much it made me laugh, so I had to pick it up. It made me laugh all over again :-)

4jnwelch
feb 29, 2016, 4:32 pm

Just read Heap House, a promising start to a gothic fantasy trilogy.

5Karin7
mrt 1, 2016, 7:10 pm

For y/a I've read Winter, Fairest, and Agenda 21: Into the Shadows so far this year.

6AndromedaStrain
mrt 2, 2016, 7:47 am

I just finished Unteachable by Leah Raeder. It was well written and didn't go too far.

7BookNerd26
mrt 3, 2016, 1:55 pm

Yesterday I finished 'The Sea of Monsters', the second book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It left me at such a cliffhanger, and my library doesn't have the third from Library Loan yet! Eek! I am now reading Witch and Wizard. It is really good. It goes past the traditional 'witch-wizard' thing.

8rockinrhombus
mrt 5, 2016, 10:49 am

I am reading Earth Girl, and am really charmed by it. Book one of three, it is a utopian YA novel, which is different, but so well thought out and interesting that I am surprised it didn't get more attention. I hate the title and the cover, but the story is amazing.

9loubrarian
mrt 5, 2016, 10:52 am

Has anyone read Rebel of the Sandys by Alwyn Hamilton? A lot of people have given it great reviews and there was a bidding war over the manuscript. The thing is, I'm about 50 pages in and I find it lacking character depth. I also find her family situation (Uncle wanting to force a marriage upon her and the beatings) a bit grim. On the plus side I do like the setting / location of the novel. I will keep on trying with it.
I'm also trying to read the CILIP Carnegie longlist!!
I love 'One' by Sarah Crossan so far, also Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine and The Earth is Singing by Vanessa Curtis - such a powerful novel.

10Peace2
mrt 5, 2016, 11:52 am

>8 rockinrhombus: That one sounds interesting - a utopia... curious. I'd like to hear what you think when you finish.

11jnwelch
mrt 5, 2016, 3:08 pm

I just started Pax (more middle grade, maybe), and I'm liking it very much.

12AndromedaStrain
mrt 15, 2016, 4:41 pm

I finished this book called Here with Me Now in three days. It was so good I couldn't put it down. What's weird was that I found myself rooting for these two to get together but knowing they totally shouldn't get together. Loved it tho.

13Cailiosa
Bewerkt: mrt 15, 2016, 4:54 pm

loubrarian: I read a preview ARC of Rebel of the Sands and liked what I read. Obviously, it wasn't the whole book, but I do look forward to getting it in my hands, whenever that is. The new library I am working at has a bit of a weird ordering schedule, so I'm not sure how quickly they get books on the shelf (my old library ordered twice per week and this one is about once per month).

14rockinrhombus
mrt 15, 2016, 7:38 pm

>10 Peace2: I loved Earth Girl and will booktalk it to high schoolers. The world building (Earth in 700 years) and the technology is intriguing enough to keep you reading. The utopia part of the book is that there are Normals, who can survive off-world in colonies, and Handicapped, who cannot. The Handicapped are confined to Earth, and are sometimes orphaned when Normal parents abandon them for whatever reason. The heroine, Jarra, is Handicapped, and she decides to assume a false identity to confront the Normal students. Then, of course, as happens, when she becomes familiar with some of her classmates, they aren't "just normal". They're human beings. And the conflict heats up.

There is a lot of action and excitement, and it is volume I of a trilogy.

15MysAnita
Bewerkt: mrt 17, 2016, 11:19 pm

Loved everything about Jennifer Donnelly's These Shallow Graves! 5***** read. My comments are on Goodreads.

16konallis
mrt 18, 2016, 6:41 am

>15 MysAnita: Sounds intriguing. I loved A Gathering Light - richly textured and beautifully written - but haven't yet read Donnelly's other books.

17JRlibrary
mrt 20, 2016, 1:11 am

I really enjoyed the first couple chapters of Rebel of the Sands when she was in the Pistol Pit, and trying to earn enough to get out of Deadshot, but after they escape from there, the book went downhill for me and dragged quite a bit. I liked the idea of cowboy meets Aladdin, as someone explained it, but it just didn't maintain the pace for me at all. You never do get to know much about Jin even when you know all there is to know. :-(

18konallis
apr 17, 2016, 12:10 pm

Just finished You Against Me by Jenny Downham. Well-observed story about the impact of a rape on two families with different social backgrounds.

19jnwelch
apr 19, 2016, 12:00 pm

The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan (author of Esperanza Rising) was very good. Set in Chile, it features Neftali, who's got a poetic temperament and a father who demands that he be more practical.

20Barbaralois
apr 22, 2016, 11:43 am

Just finished
The 5th Wave
Great Y/A Wi-Fi story

21konallis
apr 27, 2016, 7:37 am

Reading If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Still in the early stages, but it's sucked me in. Forman does a great job in creating a character voice that can handle both humour and tragedy while remaining consistent and believable.

22jnwelch
apr 27, 2016, 10:17 am

>21 konallis: Loved If I Stay, and agree with you.

23jnwelch
mei 11, 2016, 12:28 pm

The War That Saved My Life was excellent, and about halfway through I'm liking Salt to the Sea very much.

24konallis
mei 31, 2016, 5:59 am

I'm working through the Branford Boase Award shortlist. Currently reading The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson, and also greatly enjoyed My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons (though that's technically MG).

25jnwelch
Bewerkt: mei 31, 2016, 11:53 am

I've started the Newbery winner from back in the day, Miracles on Maple Hill. So far it's very good.

26sdbookhound
jun 11, 2016, 12:19 am

I recommend The Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt. Best books for young people I have read in a long time.

27Sakerfalcon
jun 12, 2016, 3:04 am

I read The raven king, bringing Maggie Stiefvater's quartet to a satisfying end. I very much enjoyed this usual YA series.

28konallis
jun 21, 2016, 5:42 am

I'm on the fabulously-titled Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford.

29Sakerfalcon
jun 21, 2016, 8:13 am

I read Maresi which was a lovely thoughtful fantasy with no romance, about a community of women and girls who live apart from men for various reasons.

30konallis
jul 5, 2016, 6:10 am

Gathering some great recommendations from this thread. If only there were more hours in the day!

I'm reading Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill. Post-apocalyptic dystopia in which all girls are genetically engineered and trained to be the perfect companions to men.

31TiffW
jul 5, 2016, 7:59 am

Has anyone read Dark Confessions of an Extraordinary, Ordinary Woman or Cottage Cheese Thighs? I think all young women should read this stories.

32konallis
aug 10, 2016, 6:03 am

Reading Riverkeep by Martin Stewart, one of the books longlisted for this year's Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. It's a steampunk fantasy that's rich and pungent, although the writing is a bit self-conscious in parts.

33konallis
aug 17, 2016, 5:47 am

Now on another from the Guardian Prize longlist, Crongton Knights by Alex Wheatle. On a gang-ridden housing estate, a quest to retrieve a girl's stolen phone takes on Arthurian dimensions for its 14-year-old hero, McKay.

34jnwelch
aug 17, 2016, 12:28 pm

Call it Courage, set in the South Pacific, was another excellent Newbery winner from the past. Made me think of The Island of Blue Dolphins and Swiss Family Robinson.

35eak88
Bewerkt: aug 21, 2016, 2:55 am

Deze gebruiker is verwijderd als spam.

36AnnaRichy
aug 21, 2016, 12:05 pm

Dit bericht wordt niet meer getoond omdat het door verschillende gebruikers is aangemerkt als misbruik. (Tonen)
I've just finished reading Atomic Number Sixty and would recommend it! Female James Bond for Young Adults

Premise: 60 Chapters, each one taking one minute to read.

TBH, I didn't think it would work, but I was sucked in by the Author's writing. My train journey to work whizzed by.

Atomic Number Sixty

37konallis
sep 18, 2016, 4:30 pm

Continuing my attack on the Guardian Prize longlist, Malorie Blackman's sci-fi novel Chasing the Stars.

38konallis
okt 17, 2016, 4:25 am

Just finished The Smell of Other People's Houses, which tells the stories of four Alaskan teenagers whose lives intersect during a pivotal year. Starkly told, ultimately hopeful, with nice use of repeating motifs to tie the stories together.

39rockinrhombus
nov 8, 2016, 1:36 pm

I recently finished the Primrose Leary series by Deirdre Sullivan which is charming. Prim is an interesting character and the setting in Dublin is unique in YA from what I have seen. Also unique is the lack of incredibly mindless decisions that permeate much of the YA I read in my job as Youth Librarian. Prim thinks through her problems, of which there is a HUGE one, and many of the other kind that go along with being a teen. I can't wait to booktalk this one.

Like Prim, Isabel Quintero's Gabi: A Girl in Pieces is written as a diary, and Gabi too faces her problems with humor and dignity for most involved. She too has problems, but she continues living and growing, like we do.

Two winners.

40konallis
nov 18, 2016, 9:50 am

Crongton Knights, about which I posted up-thread, has won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Definitely recommended.

41eo206
Bewerkt: nov 20, 2016, 2:20 am

Finished Allegiant by Veronica Roth on audiobook. I didn't listen to all of it skipped part of the middle. Interesting enough although I liked Divergent better than the other two in the trilogy. Very predictable YA diaspora fiction, but entertaining and a quick read. If you read and enjoyed Mockingjay then you might like this, but again its in the same vein as Suzanne Collins trilogy books.

42Cmatha
nov 21, 2016, 9:38 am

Hi I am new to Library thing and I am a middle school librarian so I read a lot of YA so I can pass on ideas to my kids. Currently I am reading The Girl From the Well I'm not really sure how I feel about it and I'm almost done, and I have the second novel to read. So I will be on the look out for new material and lurking :)

43konallis
nov 21, 2016, 11:41 am

>41 eo206: I found Divergent fairly absorbing but was less impressed by Insurgent, which was blander and over-extended. Because of that I haven't got around to Allegiant yet. I feel I should read it sometime just for the sake of completion. I found the series as a whole less compelling and less meaningful than The Hunger Games.

>42 Cmatha: Welcome, Cmatha! Thanks for the recommendation. I hadn't heard of The Girl from the Well.

44Cmatha
nov 21, 2016, 9:28 pm

Thank you for the welcome :) I haven't really decided how I feel about the book. The sequel is suppose to be better. It's kinda nice reading Japanese lore over watching it but it is not as spooky as I would have thought. It also is written in a first person perspective of the "girl"...and there's this odd counting thing she does at first that fortunately tapers off. Almost done so after it digests I can draw a better opinion.

45konallis
nov 30, 2016, 10:23 am

Just finished The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett. Like many of her books, it's a magic-realist fable, this time about surviving lost love and what it means to have a fulfilled life. Hartnett writes in a beautiful style: clear, lyrical and stringent. Though this was packaged as YA, it seemed less youth-oriented than some of her books and could be read as a short adult novel.

46konallis
dec 6, 2016, 10:57 am

Blade and Bone by Catherine Johnson, the sequel to Sawbones, in which a young surgeon has dangerous and unnerving adventures in revolutionary Paris.

47konallis
dec 12, 2016, 5:04 am

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon, deeply moving story of a boy born in a refugee internment camp.

48Caramellunacy
dec 14, 2016, 7:07 am

I have just started Gemina - the sequel to Illuminae. I really enjoy the formatting of these books - they're epistolary / found files full of emails, chats, video transcripts, schematics, and the way some of these things are presented is really creative and interesting. Plus, yay for YA scifi!

49Sakerfalcon
dec 14, 2016, 7:12 am

>48 Caramellunacy: That is on my Tbr pile. I'm really looking forward to it.

50Anna_Claire99
dec 29, 2016, 12:32 am

Hi, Im new to all of this and this is the first YA thing i could find. I read a lot of young adult, and would love to talk about it.

51konallis
dec 30, 2016, 5:48 am

Hi and welcome, Anna! What are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?

52rebekahdinm
dec 31, 2016, 1:26 pm

Hey guys! Teen/Tween Librarian here. I just joined and I know it's the last day of 2016, but i'm reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman right now and I love the concept. Really looking forward to a lot of reads in 2017, starting with King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard!

53rebekahdinm
Bewerkt: dec 31, 2016, 1:28 pm

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