It's Monday, what are you reading? (25)

Hosted by The Book Journey

I've decided that since I'm going to be posting these on Sunday nights from now on, I'm only going to be including books finished by Sunday, not by Monday. Otherwise I have to wait for Monday night to post... and I post a review on Monday too, and it just ends up with cluttered and I prefer it this way, so that's it.

Last week I finished reading: 
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Technically finished this last Monday, but I posted before I had so it makes it into this week's post instead (And from now on my posts will be books read Monday-Sunday anyway). Absolutely loved it though, and can't wait for book 3.

The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell

This was a strange book in which the chapters alternate between text and graphic novel, but when everything finally comes together I found it to be a really powerful and wonderfully told story.

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

For a book reflecting on a woman's aging and her daughter's death, this was surprisingly less depressing than Didion's last book, her memoir on her husband's death The Year of Magical Thinking, but it's not less beautifully written.

Free Four: Tobias Tells the Story by Veronica Roth

A quick story that retells a Divergent scene from Four's perspective. An intense and easy read, I really enjoyed it. It'll be neat if Roth ever writes another one, it's so interesting to see the other side of the story.

The New Guy and The Invitation by Kelley Armstrong

Two bonus short stories from The Gathering that are a nice compliment to the novel and also available online for free. The New Guy shares the scene where Maya first meets Rafe and is a great look into her first impression, and The Invitation is told from Rafe's perspective when he goes to Maya's birthday party and it was interesting to see what was going through his mind and the complex dilemma he faced when it came to her. They both have spoilers for The Gathering but if you've already read the novel I definitely recommend reading these two (you can find them on Armstrong's website).

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

Even though this book has zombies in it, it's really a human story, and it's one the Summers' imbues with her own brand of sharp and powerful emotion. I really enjoyed it.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

One of those books I started reading and then abandoned when the thesis stress got really bad, I finally had a chance to finish the audiobook this weekend. While I enjoyed it, it was really different than the two other series (Midnighters and Uglies) that I've read by Westerfeld and I felt it went a little too heavy on the non-fiction alternating chapters about parasites; they dragged down the story pace. Still, really creative and I definitely liked this unique spin on vampires. 

The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa

I haven't read a single collection of poetry so far this year. Clearly I needed to fix that, and I'm glad I picked this beautiful National Book Award finalist collection to jump start myself back into poetry. I'm about to move and don't have any other collections with me, but I'll definitely need to read some more poetry this summer.

I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits

Beautifully written but I wasn't really in the mood for most of last week. Then today (Sunday) I sat down and devoured the last 2/3rds in almost one sitting. Emotional, powerful, original. There were a few things I disliked about it, sometimes it moved so quickly I could barely get a sense of the characters, but overall I was very impressed by Markovits words.

What I plan to read this week:
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

Time to think about checking some of the 2012 reading challenges off my list, and one of those is to read a Westerfeld series (I read 2 last year!). Obviously Peeps is kinda cheating because it's only two books, but I already owned the first one and was curious about them. This one has different characters though and is more of a companion (though it does take place afterwards), it'll be interesting to see how it compares. 

The Guardians by Sarah Manguso

A tiny non-fiction book about Manguso's friend that died. I loved her writing in The Two Kinds of Decay even if the book itself spent too much time on the science, and I'm excited for this one and hoping for pure feeling.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

I'm on a book tour for this (my first in a long time) so it'll be nice if I get to read and schedule that early. The book itself, I'm not sure if it's YA or not– I see conflicting info, but all of the info indicates that it will be awesome regardless.

What are you reading this Monday?