Reading Rampage!

So I've had a bit more free time the past few days (4 maybe?) and I have read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares. I am just going to combine them into one blog post. :)

A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray:
This is not a classic but was highly recommended to me by a very good friend so when I received it as a birthday present I decided to read it. It is set in the late 1800s and tells the story of Gemma Doyle who discovers on her 16th birthday (Hey! That's when I got this book!) that she has the power of the Order which allows her to travel in and out of the "realms." Her mother is killed and she is sent to boarding school where she finds out more about the visions she has been experiencing. She and her 3 friends travel in and out of the realms and begin to be addicted to the power stored there. Read the book! I very much enjoyed the setting of the novel (late 1800s, English boarding school) and once I got into the story it only got better and better. (Now I'm reading the sequel!)

FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury:
So I was going to alternate between classic and non-classic so I chose Farenheit 451 as my next classic. I finished it in maybe 4 hours at the most. It was an extremely good story that I very much enjoyed. I didn't know if I would like it since I don't always enjoy scifi but this novel read as short stories usually read for me. Farenheit 451 tells the story of a future world where instead of putting out fires, firefighters start them. Firefighters are responsible for burning books and the houses of those who read books. It's a story of censorship and anti-knowledge. Since I am such an avid reader and I love to learn so the idea of hoarding and destroying knowledge is quite concerning to me. I also read Bradbury's afterward and "coda" and learned that people have tried to censor Farenheit 451, a book about censorship. How ironic and twisted is that? If you haven't read this classic novel, give it a chance, you could learn something.

SISTERHOOD EVERLASTING by Ann Brashares:
I am not going to write much about this novel because it is very recent and I do not want to spoil it for anyone. Basically, it is a continuation of Ann Brashares series, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I read that series through junior high and absolutely adored them (the movies do them no justice). When I found out about this novel, I was thrilled and couldn't wait to read it and I finished it in less than a day. It was a tragically heartwarming story of friendship (as cheesy as that sounds). But a wonderful, wonderful story. If you read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants novels: READ IT. (Or read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and then read it!)

Now as I said earlier, I am reading the sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels by Libba Bray.

Happy reading! :)