Books I read in 2011

I managed to read 72 books in 2011 which is a big improvement from the 45 I had last year, so yeah!
Here are the books I read:

Susanne's bookshelf: read

Have you read any of the books above? Or do you really want to read one those books?

Review: XVI by Julia Karr

I read this book as part of the Debut Author Challenge 2011.

Publication date: January 6th, 2011

Summary: Every girl gets one. An XVI tattoo on the wrist -- sixteen. They say they're there for protection.

Some girls can't wait to be sixteen, to be legal. Nina is not one of them. Even though, she has no choice in the matter, she knows that so long as her life continues as normal, everything will be okay. Then, with one brutal strike, Nina's normal is shattered; and she discovers that nothing that she believed about her life is true. But there's one boy who can help - and he may just hold the key to her past.

But with the line between attraction and danger as thin as whisper, one thing is for sure...

for Nina, turning sixteen promises to be anything but sweet.

Review:

A glance at the cover already tells you that turning sixteen and the tattoo accompanying that age aren't all sunshine and roses. In Nina's world when you turn sixteen you're allowed to have sex and that makes girls vulnerable to sexual predators who just have take a look at your wrist to determine if they'll have to face repercussions for assaulting you.

XVI is set in a future where Mars and Moon are colonized, people are vegetarians, commercials (verts how it's called in the book) blurt from speakers at every corner and the population is divided into tiers ( a modern caste system).

I love the dystopian world Julia Karr created, though I'd hate to live in it. Girls with the XVI on their wrist are like prey - feminism is dead. As a reader I was constantly worried for Nina. I felt her fear of getting the XVI tattoo and it added to the suspense.

It took me a few pages to get used to the slang Julia Karr created for her dystopian world but then I was so immersed in her world that words like FeLS, trannie, mannebots or NonCon became second nature to me.

XVI is a suspenseful read that makes you turn page after page. If you love dystopians, then this is a must-read. I can't wait for the sequel (I hope there'll be one!!).

Have you read XVI yet?

Shopping Spree

I couldn't resist...once again. I think I might be addicted to books. I can't help it. Here's the result of my two latest shopping sprees:

I bought Timeless, Warped and Across the Universe about two weeks ago. Because of my ridiculous to read pile I haven't even found the time to read them yet!

But that didn't stop me from buying even more books!

The Lightning Thief

A Northern Light

Raised by Wolves

Plain Kate

A Certain Slant of Slight

Shadow Hills

Tell me a secret

The Ghost and the Goth

The Tension of Opposites

Perfect Chemistry

and

Crescendo

arrived today. So many great books. And the cover of A Certain Slant of Light is deliciously creepy.

I started XVI by Julia Karr from my to-read pile yesterday but I've got no clue what to read after that.

Did you read any of the books I bought? Any favorites?

Review: Entangled by Cat Clarke

Read as a part of the Debut Author Challenge 2011

Publication Date: January 6th 2011

Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Summary:

The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

A story of dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction.

Review:

I picked up Entangled because of its gorgeous cover. The red of the girl's hair and her white skin and the way she looks at you...Gorgeous. Needless to say that I would have bought Entangled even if the plot hadn't interested me.

But Entangled is more than a beautiful cover. So much more.

I loved it.

It made me cry and I don't cry often and almost never because of a book. But Entangled made my vision all blurry and the only reason I didn't start bawling was my husband who sat beside me on the sofa and who would have gotten a shock if I'd cried over a book.

But back to why I loved Entangled:

Grace.

I was nothing like her when I was a teen and I don't understand her actions and I don't support them, but nothing of that matters.

What matters is:

Grace is a character that feels real. She's got flaws. She does stupid things – lots of stupid things. And sometimes I wanted to shake or maybe slap her. And sometimes I wanted to hug her. And sometimes I wanted to cry with her because her worries and pain and insecurities felt so real.

She's someone who'll stay with me even after I've put down the book. I certainly won't forget her name any time soon.

Cat Clarke did a fabulous job telling Grace's story and I loved the way she did it. I loved how we found out more about Grace's life through her writing, how she wrote down her emotions and experiences and how she learned about herself through it.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot, so I'll stop here.

Just one more thing: Go, buy the book!

New books!

Nothing is better than new books. If you live in Germany and love to read books in English buying books isn't as easy as it sounds. I can't just walk into a bookstore and buy or order all the lovely new books. I have to wait weeks for debuts like Across the Universe, or Warped or Timeless (*glares at bookdepository*)

But sometimes my local bookstore surprises me with a small but nice selection and then I can't resist and simply have to buy every book I might want to read. I'm still waiting for three debut novels that I ordered a few WEEKS ago but bookdepository is taking their time. *sigh*

Right now I'm reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Of course I'm already wondering what to read next. On the photo are the books that I bought this week. They are all awesome and I love the cover of Entangled, but I don't know which book to read next.

So what do you think? Have you read some or all of the books?