The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

From the hardcover:
The year is 2059. Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people's minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant - and under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing.
   It is raining the day her life changes forever. Attacked, kidnapped, and drugged, Paige is transported to Oxford - a city kept secret for two hundred years, governed by an otherworldly race called the Rephaim who seek to control clairvoyants for their own purposes. Paige is assigned to the care of Warden, a powerful Rephaite. He is her captor. But if she wants to regain her freedom, she will have to get close to him, to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.
   The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine, a young woman discovering her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

"There was no normal. There never had been. 'Normal' and 'natural' were the biggest lies we'd ever created."

The first chapter read like a different language. I thought there was no way I would make it through but I'm not one to give up that easily. You have to make it at least three chapters in before it starts to make sense. Now I can't believe I have to wait for the second book, why do I do this to myself?
   Paige is a likable heroine, she has all the qualities you should look for in any hero; special, persistent, strong moral code. I think I was more captivated by the world created than the character. She lives in a world where clairvoyance is not uncommon, though it is illegal. There are seven different types of clairvoyant, some more common than others, of course she is one of the most uncommon.
   The Rephaim use human clairvoyants as slaves. Those who pass their tests become a type of protector charged with keeping the mysterious creatures that feast on flesh out of Seoul I (Oxford.) Those who do not pass are left to live in squalor only called on to be entertainment for the Rephaim. No one can leave once they are there.
  I'm left with a lot of questions after finishing this book. There could be so much more to this world and I look forward to seeing it develop. If you like to read fantasy or books dealing with the supernatural I recommend this book.

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

From the paperback:
 A gorgeous novel by the celebrated author of When the Emperor Was Divine that tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as "picture brides" nearly a century ago.
   In eight unforgettable sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the extraordinary lives of these women, from their arduous journey by boat, to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives: from their experience raising children who would later reject their culture and language, to the deracinating arrival of war. Once again, Julie Otsuka has written a spellbinding novel about identity and loyalty, and what it means to be an American in uncertain times.

"We forgot about Buddha. We forgot about God. We developed a coldness inside us that still has not thawed. I fear my soul has died. We stopped writing home to our mothers. We lost weight and grew thin. We stopped bleeding. We stopped dreaming. We stopped wanting."

The Buddha in the Attic is different from nearly everything I've read. Almost the entire book is told in first person plural (my first experience with this) really making it feel like an entire people were dealing with the same but different situation (which they were.) Sentences scattered throughout were italicized and in the first person, which felt to me that it was taken directly from a journal entry from one of the many women depicted. Since it was told from this viewpoint I didn't get the strong connection to a character I usually develop, instead I felt for a whole group of women, making it both easier and harder at the same time.
   This book is written so elegantly it almost felt like poetry. Beautiful yet concise, not mincing or wasting words, it tells of a time in America that shouldn't be forgotten.
   You do not have to love beautiful writing to enjoy this book, but if you do, read on. This is a shorter book so I also recommend it if you don't have much time to devote to reading.

Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier

From the Kindle edition:
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old orphan who has been forced into a life of crime. One fateful afternoon, Peter steals a mysterious box that contains three magical pairs of eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel beyond the known world and rescue a lost kingdom from its treacherous ruler. With the help of the Fantastic Eyes and some unlikely friends, Peter embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to save a people in need - and to discover his destiny.

"You may have observed in your own lives that there is a great power in storytelling. A well-spun tale can transport listeners away from their humdrum lives and return them with an enlarged sense of the world."

 Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is just such a tale. I can easily see it becoming a modern day classic for young readers. The writing is clearly geared towards a younger audience but I enjoyed it immensely. I found myself snickering out loud at some of the distinctions Jonathan Auxier makes between children and adults. I have no doubt kids see things through the eyes (so to say) of Peter Nimble.
   Peter was cautioned at the beginning of his adventure to trust his instincts and Sir Tode was told he'd need to be Peter's eyes. Peter and Sir Tode find themselves in some pretty difficult situations, but what is a quest without hard choices and a few mistakes?
  This is a good tale of friendship, loyalty, and trusting yourself. This would be a great book for a young reader, I'm not sure what age exactly, but I think ten (the same age as Peter Nimble) might be appropriate. I also think this is a great book for adults to read because it's fun to follow the steps and thoughts of a blind ten-year-old orphan, who also happens to be the greatest thief ever.

Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

From the Hardcover:
Amy and Matthew didn't know each other, really. They weren't friends. Matthew remembered her, sure, but he remembered a lot of people from elementary school that he wasn't friends with now.
   Matthew never planned to tell Amy what he thought of her cheerful facade, but after he does, Amy realizes she needs someone like him in her life.
   As they begin to spend more time with each other, Amy learns that Matthew has his own secrets and she decides to try to help him in the same way he's helped her. And when what started out as a friendship turns into something neither of them expected, they realize that they tell each other everything-except the one thing that matters most.

"Let's don't wait forever for our lives to start. Let's begin them ourselves. Let's be fearless for once and say, we can do this."

I was browsing at the library when the font on this book spine caught my eye, then the title, not that I was looking for another book to add to my already borrowed collection. What the synopsis on the book doesn't tell you is that Amy has cerebral palsy and Matthew suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. Cue one great love story.
   In their junior year of high school Matthew tells Amy something he doesn't mean to, that she doesn't have any friends because she's constantly in the company of aides. Amy then has this idea to hire students to be her aides during her senior year. She specifically emails Matthew that summer to ask him to apply for one of the positions.
   I was perplexed that Amy only had four aides. She was supposed have one for each day, but there are only four. I kept wondering what happened to the fifth day of the week. Sarah is Monday, Sanjay is Tuesday, Chloe is either Wednesday or Thursday, and Matthew is Friday, after a while I gave up trying to find the lost day. I decided maybe there was something I missed about Amy only going to school four days a week (I really don't think I would have missed that though.)
   Aside from that slightly distracting issue, the book was good, an unconventional love story.  Goodreads.com described it as "The Fault in Our Stars meets...Eleanor & Park." I can see Eleanor & Park with a hint of Wonder by R.J. Palacio and The Fault in Our Stars. That being said, the story is it's own. Say What You Will is definitely worth the read, I worried the whole time that it would break my heart and kept going at a quick pace to find out how it ended.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

From the Hardcover:
DEATH
It surrounds Pancho. His father, in an accident. His sister, murdered. His own plans to trace her killer. And D.Q. - a guy Pancho's age who's dying of cancer.
  That is, if he'll ever shut up.
LOVE
D.Q. is writing the Death Warrior Manifesto, a guide to living out his last days fully. He needs just one more thing: the love of the beautiful Marisol. But as Pancho tracks down his sister's murderer, he finds himself falling for Marisol as well...
FAITH
And choices that seemed right and straightforward become tender, tentative, real. While D.Q. faces his own crisis of doubt, Pancho is inexorably drawn to a decision: to revenge his sister and her death, or to embrace the way of the Death Warrior and choose life.

"What if everyone is given a task we're to work on and if possible complete while we're living on this earth? What if before we are born and assigned bodies, all our souls stand in a line in heaven, and as we get ready to come down, an angel gives us a little slip of paper that says what we have to do? Only the message is written in a language that we forget how to speak as soon as we get down here. But the message on that little piece of paper is still deep inside us, and our job is to remember, to recollect it, and then go about doing what it says."

This was a little slow to start, but once you get going it's magnificent. I didn't feel the characters in my soul, but I did feel the entire story. Who hasn't wondered at their purpose in life?
   Pancho is determined not to let D.Q. get to him, he doesn't want to care and he doesn't want anyone to think that he might. As he tracks his sister's killer he knows that he will end up in prison for it. He feels like he just needs to do this one thing before his life is forfeit.
   D.Q. is determined to live the rest of his life on his terms in spite of his mother's forceful will to cure his cancer. D.Q. has chosen Pancho to be with him while he goes through the treatments his mother has insisted he try. All the time D.Q. tries to show Pancho the ways of a Death Warrior, to make Pancho appreciate the life he has left.
   This book should be read by everyone. It's a story about learning how to really live and enjoy life regardless of your circumstances. I would particularly recommend it if you loved The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. I know that book is widely loved, but this book has some similar themes and it doesn't crush your soul. This is not a love story, it is a tale of a friendship.

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

From the Paperback:
At the turn of the nineteenth century on a tobacco plantation in Virginia, young, white Lavinia, who was orphaned  on her passage from Ireland, arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate, black daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, serve food, and cherish the quiet strength and love of her new family.
   In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master's opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves.
   Through the unique eyes of Lavinia and Belle, Kathleen Grissom's debut novel unfolds in a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of class, race, dignity, deep-buried secrets, and familial bonds.

"What the color is, who the daddy be, who the mama is don't mean nothin'. We a family, carin' for each other. Family make us strong in times of trouble. We all stick together, help each other out. That the real meanin' of family."

A friend at work has been telling me about this book for years. When she finally brought her copy I wasn't convinced that it would be as great as she claimed, I was wrong. Once again, I have felt more for a fictional character than is reasonable. I read this book in a day. Lavinia just crawls right into your heart with her naive mind, open heart, and unfailing loyalty. How could you not love this freckled girl with fire-red hair?
  This book is exactly what the back claims, "heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful." I've been reading an abundance of sad books recently, and while this had some sadness in it, the story was ultimately about family and loyalty. The author skirts around most of the more violent scenes (thank goodness) but you still know exactly what happened.
   If you like The Help by Kathryn Stockett you need to read this book. It grabbed my attention faster than The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin, I had no trouble getting into this book.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

From Goodreads.com:
   Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.
   In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure.
   Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work.

"You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are."

  Werner was small for his age and always had a hard time not doing what was expected of him. I can't imagine living during this period in time, being swept up into the atmosphere and feeling, the whole time, that something wasn't right and at the same time, being so afraid of those in charge that you feel as if you have no choice. Werner was such an innocent, he just wanted an education, to be able to make something of himself instead of going to the mines that boys from his home were funneled into to work. I'm not even sure what to say about Marie-Laure, she was so cherished by those who knew her and brave. She was so brave, even if she didn't see it that way.
   I loved Marie-Laure, but I felt more for Werner. The supporting characters are just as beautiful as the main. Marie-Laure's great uncle Etienne, Jutta, the giant Volkheimer, Marie-Laure's papa, I liked them all.
  This book is magnetic. It jumps back and forth in time but always tells you the month and year for each Part. I feel like I've made new friends that I will need to visit from time to time. I went on their journeys and lived their lives and cannot leave them for long. 

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

From Goodreads.com:
The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. Ree's father has disappeared before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them) are part of life in Rathlin Valley. With two young brothers depending on her and a mother who's entered a kind of second childhood, sixteen-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. She has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But along the way to a shocking revelation, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.

"Never. Never ask for what ought to be offered."

I only found this because of the movie starring Jennifer Lawrence. I heard the movie was based on a book so of course I looked it up. I'm so glad I did. The story was so easy to lose myself in and Ree is a character I loved rooting for.
Winter's Bone is full of grit, amazing, unexpected grit. I took a trip into a society in the Ozarks completely different from my everyday. I feel like Daniel Woodrell held nothing back, although perhaps he did (I would never know having never visited or researched the Ozarks.) The words and style hit me though, at first I couldn't believe it, then I started to feel it. Ree, without a father, a sick mom, and two small siblings to care for. The sense of family loyalty was so apparent in this world where everyone is connected by blood, sometimes an infinitesimal amount. Loyalty that is directly related to the amount of blood shared.
Ree is another of the strong female character I love to discover. Some may say stubborn, but I prefer strong.

The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin

From the Paperback:

"In the turbulent southern summer of 1963, Millwood's white population steers clear of "Shake Rag," the black section of town. Young Florence Forrest is one of the few who crossed the line. The daughter of a burial insurance salesman with dark secrets and the town's "cake lady," whose backcountry bootleg runs lead further and further away from a brutal marriage, Florence attaches herself to her grandparents' longtime maid Zenie Johnson. Named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, Zenie treats the unwanted girl as just another chore, while telling her stories of the legendary queen's courage and cunning.
  The more time Florence spends in Shake Rag, the more she recognizes how completely race divides her town, and her story, far from ordinary, bears witness to the truth and brutality of her times-a truth brought to a shattering conclusion when Zenie's vibrant college-student niece, Eva Greene, arrives that fateful Mississippi summer.
   Minrose Gwin's The Queen of Palmyra is an unforgettable evocation of a time and a place in America-a nuanced, gripping story of race and identity."

"The one who tells the story gets to say who's bad and who's good. Then the story rises up and puts on its clothes and goes out into the world."

It took me some time to get into The Queen of Palmyra but once I was about a third of the way in there was no turning back. It saddened me that no one seemed to really care about Florence. She clings to anyone who shows her the slightest attention even when they obviously don't want her around. She helps Zenie with chores, helps her mom make cakes, idolizes Zenie's niece Eva, and tries hardest to make her daddy proud, but no one seems to want her around at all. She's shuffled from house to house every day, all in an agitated south. As time passes she realizes more and more the world she lives in and how it affects her, and she tries to be a better person.
   If you liked The Help by Kathryn Stockett or The Sweetest Hallelujah by Elaine Hussey but want something a little more challenging, read this!