The Reading Room (10)

The Reading Room is a weekly update on books I'm reading and planning to read. It was inspired by the feature On Myshelf at the blog All By Myshelf.

First off, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I hope you had as wonderful of a day as I did. (It included Star Wars Valentines and way too much chocolate, Audrey Assad's new album "Heart" coming out on iTunes and some lovely flowers from my boyfriend.) And I'd like to send a <3 to all my followers. You guys are awesome for finding my blog interesting enough to read.

Anyway. Back to books. I finished most of the books I mentioned in my last post; Ballad was as spectacular as Lament, Firebirds Rising as amazing as Firebirds, and Tiger's Curse wasn't quite as stunning but definitely left me eager to read Tiger's Quest. I also finished Incarceron, which kept me up WAY too late Saturday night because it was impossible to put down. If you'd like to take a look at some of my full reviews, you can see them on Shelfari.

I'm also still reading The Gift, the second book in James Patterson's Witch and Wizard series, and all I have to say is that if all his books are this good, I'm definitely going to have get my friend to let me borrow her copies of the Maximum Ride series. The Gift is even better than Witch and Wizard - there's more characterization, which I love. Unfortunately, neither the school library nor the public library have The Fire...which, I suppose, just means I'll have to download it on my Nook.

The school library does have Cleopatra's Moon, the first book on my reading list for the YA Historical Fiction challenge I'm participating in. (Check out my Reading Challenges page for more information.) I'm really looking forward to reading it - I love historical fiction and have been meaning to read it for awhile, and it sounds really interesting. Cleopatra VII is one of my favorite historical figures, but I've never read much about her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, who is the book's main character.


The other book I picked up while I was in the library was The Iron King by Julie Kawaga. This would almost be one of those moments where I could joyously proclaim, "I was a fan before they were cool!" as I do in almost every conversation I have about Owl City, because I first saw this book a year and a half ago in a bookstore while I was homecoming dress shopping. Unfortunately, I don't get my triumphant I-beat-the-trend moment, because I didn't buy it. (I bought Clockwork Angel instead, incase you were wondering.) Oh, well. That doesn't mean I'm not extremely excited to start reading it now. Four of my bookworm friends have highly recommended it, and we have very similar tastes, so I have a feeling I'll like it. I'll be sure to post a review somewhere once I've read it.

In other reading news, I joined the Reading Competition at my school last week. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, several members of the team read books from a list, splitting it up so that someone on the team has read each book. Then, we go to the school where the competition is being held, and the team answers questions about the books. It's a pretty awesome setup for several reasons: The other people in it are all extremely cool, we get out of homeroom every Thursday and get to hang out in the library listening to music, and we miss school for the competition. It's hard not to gloat. I get to miss school to talk about books.

~blackandwhitedreamer