Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013!!

 Well first of all...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

I hope 2013 brings everyone a happy and successful year, both in the blogsphere and in the...'normal-sphere'...!!

 
Can you believe 2013 has arrived already??! Time has simply flown by so fast I can hardly keep up! I can't believe The Book Parade has been up and running for almost a whole year now (I started in February 2012)! It seems like such a long time since then, yet also like no time at all! (If that even makes sense...)

Anyway, as we're waving goodbye to 2012...the year when the world was supposed to end...but didn't...at least it doesn't appear to have done...?? I would like to share the books I loved the most this year! So, here goes...

My Favourite Reads Of 2012!!!

I've read so many amazing books this year, so it was really hard to pick just a small selection, but I've finally managed to come up with a list of my top ten.There will be loads more that deserve to be on the list too but unfortunately I couldn't include them all! :(

1.     The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

 
BEST. BOOK. EVER. 

I could spend all day talking about this book.

But don't worry.

I won't.

BEAUTIFUL PERFECT AMAZING DEVASTATING BRILLIANT GENIUS BEAUTIFUL AMAZING PERFECT

ASDFGHJKL

My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.

2.     Doomed by Tracy Deebs     

                                             

   I have to say, this one really surprised me. I didn't  expect it to be so amazing...but it really was! A tense,  thrilling adventure that had me so drawn in that I honestly could feel me pulse racing as I read it!

  3. Divergent by Veronica Roth

 After The Hunger Games and this, I was starting to fall in love with the dystopian genre. When I read this, at the beginning of 2012, I hadn't read many dystopians...but throughout the rest of 2012, I have read LOADS! This remains one of my favourites though! Read my review of it here :)

4. Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

 My mum picked this out at the library for me and I'm so glad she did because I ended up loving it! I read it in one day, and immediately requested  demanded the sequel! ;) Which she very kindly went to the library and brought home the next day! <3

This book was also the very first one I EVER reviewed on The Book Parade!! Check out the review here :) 

5. Shelter by Harlan Coben

  When I found this in the library I was really excited because I had been intrigued by the premise for a long time...and I was not disappointed. Shelter was a thrilling, gripping, shocking read. I can't wait to read more about Mickey!

6. The Maze Runner

I liked this one so much I bought it for two of my friends as birthday presents! There's a really great mystery underlying this - What is the purpose of the maze? Why is it there? Who built it? And just when you think the mystery is almost resolved at the end, a whole new can of worms is opened...

7. Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

 Do I really need to say more? Yes, this book was as awesome as pretty much EVERYONE says it is! :D

8. A Long, Long Sleep

 This was another of those ones that took me by surprise. I thought it would just be another fairytale retelling - sweet and likable at best - but it was so much more. Even had tears pouring down my cheeks at one point! Read my review of it here :)

9. Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

This was one of the very first books I read this year. It was gripping and nail-bitingly tense - literally - I found my fingertips hovering near my mouth at points! I must read the sequel soon!

10. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

  I was in holiday in Canada when I read this and although on holiday you're meant to go out and do exciting things...all I wanted to do was stay in and read! Skin-tingling romance between Adam and Juliette <3

Well, that was a harder task than I would have thought!! There are SO many more books I feel I could mention but we'd be here all day if I did!

Feel free to leave any comments with your thoughts about my best reads of 2012, or yours! And once again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :D  

 

BOOK REVIEW: 1984 by George Orwell

Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell
This edition: Anniversary Edition, Paperback, Penguin Books (2009)
Pages: 355
Tagline: 'War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength'

 

 Summary...

"Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time."  (Goodreads)

My thoughts...
 
I read The Hunger Games about three years ago and fell in love with the dystopian genre; since then I have read many of the countless other dystopians that seem to have recently flooded the YA genre. Seriously. I have read A LOT of dystopians, and A LOT of them have been amazing, and I have loved A LOT of them. So, it was probably about time that I read a classic dystopian, I thought. 1984 was the obvious choice (and I intend to read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley sometime soon too.) 

I know that a lot of teenagers will be deterred by the idea of ‘classics’ – for some, they conjure up the image of musty, old-fashioned books – but I loved 1984. It was completely on a whole different level to all the ‘modern dystopians’ I have been reading recently. Not to discredit any of those at all, but 1984 honestly is in a league of its own.

The world created by Orwell is fascinating and so plausibly and realistically portrayed that I felt, not like I was reading a fictional novel, but a real, non-fiction account of what actually happened in 1984. That’s how believable Orwell’s writing was. I think what may have added to the depth of the dystopian world created in 1984, as opposed to other dystopians I have read, was that there was a political background and reasoning given for how things were the way they were.

I found it absolutely fascinating to contemplate some of the concepts of the 1984 world. Could it really be possible to keep a whole population docile by limiting their vocabulary, thus not giving them a means to express any disagreement or dissent? Could it really be possible to effectively wipe out everyone’s memory of the past by continually changing it to fit whatever version of events the government wished to tell? Would people actually accept this? Would they, or the majority at least, remain oblivious to what the government was doing?

This dystopian world that Orwell created is one of the most shocking I have read about, and it is made all the more terrifying by how realistically it is portrayed. I strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the dystopian genre, and, in fact, to anyone who wishes simply to read a truly praiseworthy novel.

Best Of The Bunch - November 2012

"Best of the Bunch is a monthly wrap-up and award ceremony hosted [at Always Lost in Stories] on the last day of each month, where we can look back over the books we have read and give a Best of the Bunch award to our favourite book of that month"

I just stumbled across this meme and thought it sounded fun so I'm going to give it a go! :)

This month I read...

1. Pandemonium (Delirium #2) by Lauren Oliver
2. Die For Me by Amy Plum
3. 1984 by George Orwell
4. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
5. Rebel Heart (Blood Red Road #2) by Moira Young
6. Losing Lila (Lila #2)  by Sarah Alderson

And the book I'm going to award the Best Of The Bunch Award for November is...

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green!!!!

"Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind."


This book has not just become my favourite book for November, but my favourite book of ALL TIME. It pains me somewhat to admit that, yes, it has in fact just pipped The Hunger Games as my favourite book...(although I do still love the Hunger Games!!!!) But The Fault In Our Stars seriously is a FANTABUMAZING book!!!! I don't know why I didn't pick it up sooner and I politely request demand that everyone who hasn't read it yet does so as soon as possible immediately.
 

 
 

The Dirt BLOG TOUR: Spotlight+Giveaway!

Hi there! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Dirt by Lori Culwell, which is being hosted by AToMR Tours! For the full tour schedule, go here :)

Now, in case you're not really sure what The Dirt is about, here's a little bit of info...

Title: The Dirt
Author: Lori Culwell
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
Released: November 2011 

Book description:

Lucy Whitley cannot wait to get out of Palm Desert. It’s not a place for a frizzy-haired science nerd, particularly when her fashion-obsessed older sister Sloane is the head of a clique of pretty girls who rule the school—and practically the whole town.Fortunately, life is about to change forever. Lucy’s dad is getting re-married, and then she can transfer to a boarding school in Connecticut, escaping all the mean girls and the endless whispers about the Whitley family scandal. Everything is going to be perfect—as long as the wedding goes smoothly.

Links:

Amazon UK       Paperback         Kindle Edition
Amazon US       Paperback         Kindle Edition 
Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Find the author on...

Facebook            Twitter                Her website

And now, for the bit you've all been waiting for...
The GIVEAWAYS!!!

There are two giveaway - one is open to US residents only and one is international. Here's what's up for grabs...

1. 5 Paperback Copies of The Dirt (US only)
2. 12 E-book Copies of The Dirt (Int.) 

Enter in the Rafflecopters below! :)

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BOOK REVIEW: The Yellow World by Albert Espinosa

Title: The Yellow World
Author: Albert Espinosa
Pages:  224
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: 1st November 2012
Tagline: 'Trust Your Dreams and They'll Come True'

***Thank you to Penguin and the Spinebreakers scheme for providing me with a copy of this for review!***


Summary
"Albert Espinosa never wanted to write a book about surviving cancer, so he didn’t. He wrote a book instead about the Yellow World. What is the yellow world? The yellow world is a world that’s within everyone’s reach, a world the colour of the sun. It is the name of a way of living, of seeing life, of nourishing yourself with the lessons that you learn from good moments as well as bad ones. It is the world that makes you happy, the world you like living in.The yellow world has no rules; it is made of discoveries.
In these 23 Discoveries Albert shows us how to connect daily reality with our most distant dreams. He tells us that ‘losses are positive’, ‘the word “pain” doesn’t exist’, and ‘what you hide the most reveals the most about you’."



 My Thoughts
I really had no idea what to expect with The Yellow World. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction (okay, make that hardly any non-fiction) but for some reason I was intrigued by the idea of The Yellow World, and something compelled me to give it a go. And I’m glad I did.

Within the first few pages of the book’s introduction, I knew that I was going to like it. There was something in the friendly, conversational tone of Espinosa that was inviting, and made the book light-hearted and easy to read. The discoveries followed in a list (being an engineer, Albert likes numbers, and therefore, in his own logic, also lists) with each discovery being given its own short chapter.

The 23 discoveries were very…interesting. Some of them seemed a little strange, for example Discovery 9 – ‘Put your lips together and blow’ – and Discovery 20 – ‘Do you want to share an REM with me? – and quite a lot of them made me think, ‘How could I possibly relate that to my own life?’ However, some of the discoveries seemed quite logical and useful, such as trying to cultivate the mentality that ‘the word “pain” doesn’t exist’, and the aim to ‘ask five good questions every day’.

I feel like The Yellow World is a timeless book; one of those that you will pick up time and time again at various stages in your life and be able to glean new and different things from each time. I may not be able to make sense of all of Albert Espinosa’s discoveries right now, but I’m sure as I revisit the book in the future, I will find more will have become relevant, and useful, to my life.

As for now, I have been inspired to train my brain to ‘start counting from six’, and I will be keeping a close lookout for any ‘yellows’ that cross my path!

LUMINOSITY Blog Tour: Review, Excerpt + Giveaway!

Hi there! Welcome to my stop on the Luminosity blog tour, which is running from 29th October to 13th November and is hosted by Shane at Itching For Books! Click here to see the full tour schedule!

First, a little bit about the book...

Title: Luminosity
Author: Stephanie Thomas
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: November 2012 
Tagline: 'Seeing the future isn't enough to save it...'
Links: Goodreads
Amazon 
Author's Website

Summary

My name is Beatrice. When I was born, I was blessed with the Sight. I was immediately removed from my parents and enrolled in the Institution. At the age of twelve, I had my first true vision, earning my raven’s wings. And when I turned seventeen, one of my visions came true. Things haven’t been the same since.

The Institution depends on me to keep the City safe from our enemy, the Dreamcatchers, but I’m finding it harder to do while keeping a secret from everyone, including my best friend Gabe. It is a secret that could put us all in danger. A secret that could kill me and everyone close to me.

The enemy has been coming to me in my dreams, and I think I'm falling in love with him. He says they're coming. He says they're angry. And I think I've already helped them win.

Excerpt
As part of the blog tour today, I get to share a short excerpt from the book with you...so here is the first chapter of Luminosity! Enjoy this little taste of what the book is like, and I hope it leaves you wanting more! :)

 CHAPTER ONE

At night, my room illuminates with an indescribable brilliance. The glow of a million City lights pours into the small space officially referred to as Bunk 34A. It’s not a large bunk by any means—just enough space to harbor a twin bed tucked under an overhead compartment of drawers where I keep my jumpsuits and robes.

Stacked in squares of black, it is hard to tell which article of clothing is which without touching them. Sometimes, it feels the same way in the Institution—you don’t know one thing from the other, no matter how long you try to figure it out. The Institution is all about uniformity. Nothing has changed here in years. 

I have a small desk where I finish my class work. Stacked books form little towers on the surface, mimicking the tall buildings just outside my window. Some books are about learning to survive in conditions that aren’t ideal. Some are about our enemy, and others are about the history of the Seers and our gift. There’s always something to be learned here.

My reflection stares back at me, and I try to peer through it and the tinted glass panel. I trace the image of the black raven’s wings, one tattooed over each of my eyes. The wings are spread and ready for flight. These mark the maturation of my Visions. They are a rite of passage, a signal to everyone that I am truly gifted with the Sight.

Most of us earn our raven’s wings by the time we are teenagers, but there are still those who take a little longer to understand the images that come to us. It’s not easy to decipher or pick out what is truth inside our minds.

Just outside my window, patrol helicopters hover high above the ground, their searchlights bright and unforgiving. If you are caught in one of those beams, there is no escaping. The Watch are beyond vigilant since the first sighting. They take no chances in the City, or in the Institution. Especially not since the Dreamcatchers came.

The Keeper mandated a curfew, demanding that every Seer be in their bunks by nine in the evening. The Dreamcatchers are double the threat to us. They are able to reach into the minds of normal humans—Citizens—through dreams or touch. From what I’ve been told, a Dreamcatcher can shatter a person’s mind with just one touch. I once saw a picture of one of the unfortunate souls who was Caught. His eyes turned white, mouth open…gone. Like an oyster shell without any meat inside.

The Seers are trained to prevent this, to protect the Citizens at all costs. At seventeen years old, I am arguably the most revered Seer because my Vision is the clearest, next to that of the Keeper. I didn’t understand the importance of that at the time. I had the Vision that would change everything. But we all do now.

A knock jars me out of my thoughts. “Who is it?” 

The door slides open with a hiss and then disappears into the wall. Gabriel stands in the doorway, his uniform a black and grey one-piece jumpsuit with the lavender eye of the Seer sewn above the right breast pocket. It matches our eyes, all of which are the same hue of purple, the mark of a Seer. His combat boots are tied tightly and shined to perfection. Gabriel is always perfect. Always.

“Just me, Bea. It’s my turn to make the rounds tonight. I can’t stay long here, though. Gotta keep moving.”

I smile as I lie down in my bunk. “Okay, okay. I’ll go to bed.” It’s not going to be easy to sleep tonight, though. Not with the thought of the Dreamcatcher girl on my mind. They arrested her yesterday after I saw her in a Vision. She looked so young…so innocent.

Gabe grins and steps back from the door, allowing it to slide into place. With a click, it locks from inside. I flick the lights off, and I’m left in the dark to think about how it will be now that the Dreamcatchers have actually made their appearance in the City. Already, the change in security is overwhelming, and I’m sure it won’t be long until the Keeper is back at my door, ready to record my latest Vision.

In two days, our new training begins, and I am not ready. None of this feels real, and there are so many unknowns that it seems like I’m walking around a corner without any idea what’ll be on the other side. Yesterday as we sat together at dinner, Gabe told me not to be afraid. I poked around at my mystery-sauce pasta, and just as he always does, he picked up on my worry. Gabriel has been by my side since before we could remember. We were in the same batch of infants brought to the Institution, ready to be inducted into a lifetime program that we didn’t choose to be in. It is the law, though, and anyone caught harboring a rogue Seer is put to death.

He’s my best friend, but not my only one. Lately, though, it’s been different. When he comes around I feel like something is curling up in my core, ready to spring out in excitement or giddiness. I wait anxiously to see him every day, just to catch a glimpse of him before we go to class. It makes me feel like a silly little girl, so I try not to think about it. Especially when he is close.

Ready or not, neither I, nor any other Seer, have any choice but to step into this whole new Dreamcatcher conflict which we’d previously only read about in our school books. This is more than just words on a page now. The Dreamcatchers are here, and it’s our job to keep them at bay. But how much will we have to sacrifice to keep the City safe?

 

Giveaway

And now it's giveaway time, guys! Just enter in the rafflecopter below for your chance to win a signed copy of Luminosity and some super cool swag! Unfortunately, this contest is US only. Good luck, everyone! :)

 

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COVER REVEAL: Unresisting by Shane Morgan

Title: Unresisting
Author: Shane Morgan
Release Date: 27th November 2012
Tagline: 'Destiny ignites as the truth unfolds...'
Link: Goodreads
 

Summary

Seventeen year old Natasha Johnson is having a rough year. Her twin brother, Sean, died last summer after a car crash, and her parents decided to pack up and leave the only home she’d known all her life. It's a lot to take in, and Nat has decidedly given up on the world, until moving to Stetson Valley and meeting high school ‘outcast’, Chace Owens.

Chace's dark and mysterious aura is not exactly seen as 'normal', but Nat already knows that not a lot of things are of the norm when it comes to her life. She soon finds herself unable to resist Chace's strange pull on her heart, unleashing a sudden attraction to the unnatural forces that have always been burning within her. But with uncovering her true self brings forth great danger, as Nat learns that her brother's death had a lot more to do with the side she's unable to resist.

Can Natasha calm the blazing flames and withstand the threat of danger, or will this new found power destroy her?

What do you think of that? There's definitely something foreboding about the blood-red colour scheme of the cover... and the summary is very intriguing...