September 20

Find a new favourite author … use a literarture map

Do you have a favourite author? 

Have your read your way through their latest series?

Need ideas for something else to read?

Try typing your favourite author’s name into a literature map…

literature map

The closer the author’s name is to your author, the more likely you are to like their kind of books.

Challenge yourself and give it a go!

 

September 7

The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

the fault in our stars

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

John Green is the best-selling author of Looking for Alaska; An Abundance of Katherines; Paper Towns; Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

The reviewers say:

‘A novel of life and death and the people caught in between, The Fault in Our Stars is John Green at his best. You laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more.’ Markus Zusak, bestselling and Printz Honor-winning author of The Book Thief

September 7

If I Stay – Gayle Foreman

if i stay

On a day that started like any other, Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she’ll ever make.

The book is thrilling, heartbreaking, and truly captivating. 

September 7

Zac & Mia – A. J. Betts

The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.

zac and mia

 

     A.J. Betts  has written a spectacular novel with very strong teenage voices. Teenagers who have more than their fair share to deal with. Teenagers who are both very different but who find out that they need each other. Both are fighting a very difficult battle and sometimes when you don’t think you can keep going, the ones you least expect get you through.

    There is a bit of language, but it is not used gratuitously. It allows you to see inside each of the characters as the story is written in from each character’s point of view. A very emotional and confronting read. Definitely for older readers. 

Check out another great review:

5/5 stars

September 7

The Eye of Minds – James Dashner

Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?

But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.

the eye of minds

If you love playing online games, then this is definitely the book for you. You will get caught up in the Virtnet and find yourself willing Michael and his friends to find Caine and stop him. Enjoy the thrills and action packed gaming choices.

September 7

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

 

Unwind     The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is untouchable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child unwound, whereby all of the child’s organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn’t technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not talented enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

 

What an awesome story! It really shows how the advancement of technology is not always such a good thing, especially when power is given to one group of individuals over another. Being a teenager has always been hard, but know it is just downright dangerous.

A must read for all teens.

November 26

Awesome new series – The Killables by Gemma Malley

 

The killables - Gemma Malley        The disappearances - Gemma Malley

What an awesome new series by Gemma Malley (@gemmamalley)

I can’t wait to start reading and it was a toss up about shouting out about it or just hiding away and starting at page one…but I just had to share!

Everyone accepted that people were different physically. But inside? Inside, they were different too. You just had to know how to tell, what to look for.

Evil has been eradicated. The City has been established. And citizens may only enter after having the ‘evil’ part of their brain removed. They are labelled on The System according to how ‘good’ they are. If they show signs of the evil emerging, they are labelled a K, but no one knows quite what that means. Only that they disappear, never to be seen again…

 

July 17

Every Day by David Levithan

This is an awesome read. It makes you wonder what would I do if this was my life; how would I cope.

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guideleines by which to live: Never get attached, Avoid being noticed and Do not interfere.

The people’s lives he takes over have no memory that A was in their body, until one day something goes wrong. A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules no longer apply, because A has found someone he wants to be with every day.

 

September 5

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

A great read and very addictive…once I started I couldn’t put it down. I had to download the audio version off of Overdirve so that Icould continue the story at all times.

The Hunger Games is a young-adult science fiction series that introduces sixteen-year-old Katnis Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once existed. This is where a government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power.

In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each of 12 districts to fight to the death. The Hunger Games exist to demonstrate that not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol’s jurisdiction.

The series continues with the uprising of the other districts against the Capitol’s diabolical rule. Follow Katnis’s story as she tries to find her way in this world and keep her family and friends safe.

 

5/5 stars