Young Writers Society

Past three months.


Marie Lu's Warcross is pretty lit.

Britt-Marie Was Here, another fantastic Fredrick Backman book! The last one I read was so good that I bought two more on impulse when I saw them at Barnes & Noble, but at the same time I was a little worried that they just wouldn't be as good, right? BUT NOPE THIS WAS EQUALLY AMAZING. I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob.

Next I have to read A Man Called Ove, and then at the library the other day I saw another Fredrick Backman book called Bear Town, so obviously I need to go buy that one...

@BlueAfrica! I am so glad you read and enjoyed that <3 GAWWWHH Fredrick Backman is amazing! You will absolutely love "A Man Called Ove" - grab the tissues first though.

Oh I should share a book I've read too, except it's only April 7th, and I don't read that quickly. Uh I didn't finish this book, but #amreading "Four Souls" by Louise Erdrich. I love Erdrich because her books are super gritty/crude/real but also has this interspersed poetic moments throughout. Like I think I would read this book just for the writing, even if the plot was dull. This one's not as good as "Round House" one of my favorite books she's written. But it still has the intersections of law, revenge, mystery, history, culture, and strong female characters that I enjoy.

Here's a quote from it that I think is absolutely poetry, "I am the sound that the wind used to make in a thousand needles of pine. I am the quiet at the root. When I walk through your hallway I walk through myself. When I touch the walls of your house I touch my own face. You know me."

An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night for fun, for research for a novel, I read Radical by Maajid Nawaz and Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar (also saw the play a while ago), and I will be reading Being and Belonging by Katherine Pratt Ewing and Progressive Muslim Identities by a collection of writers.

The Silver Gate by Kristin Bailey - Brother in feudal Europe runs away from home with his developmentally delayed "changeling" sister so their dad won't sell her.

The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, Vol. 1 by Eiji Mikage - Students are forced to repeat the same day over and over again in a so-called "rejecting classroom"- but only two of them realize it. Can they solve the mystery before they're trapped forever?

Sword Art Online: Alicization Rising (vol 012) by Reki Kawahara - It's SAO- need I say more?

Violet Evergarden, Vol 1 & 2 by Kana Akatsuki - In case you haven't seen the anime yet (and if you haven't, go watch it RIGHT NOW- the finale just came out last week, and it's finally on Netflix), it's about an emotionless former soldier who works as a ghostwriter in order to learn about human feelings. A translation of the light novel is available @ https://www.novelupdates.com/series/vio ... rden/?pg=1

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.

Guys, if you haven't read this duology, what have you been doing with your lives?

Heist novel. Alternate 18th century Amsterdam. Magic. Multi POV from the best cast. There's Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker, the boss unafraid to use violence to get what he needs. There's Inej, a Suli/(alternate Roma) acrobat who was sold into slavery and now makes her living as a spy and a thief. There's half-African, half-Irish Jesper, a sharpshooter with a gambling issue. There's voluptuous Nina, a "Grisha" or magic user with a big heart who was once upon a time taken captive by Matthias, a witch hunter who is now completely in love with her and very conflicted. And there's newcomer Wylan from a well to do family with a passion for pyrotechnics.

This cast is funny and witty but will make you cry and hold your breath. The heists are so much fun to read! It's like Oceans Eleven but with a better setting and better characters.

It's set in the same universe as the Grisha trilogy which I never read but didn't feel that held me back.

There's some mature stuff in there- violence, brothels - so maybe not suitable for all but it's reasonably gentle. And it's. Amazing.

Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill. On Liberty is perhaps my favorite philosophical treatise and is the basis for my political views. Utilitarianism is equally interesting, but instead focuses on ethical philosophy. It's interesting how Mill reconciles both consequentialism and deontology, as well as both individualism and the necessary existence of a collective that is given its legitimacy by the individual.

I'm considering moving on and reading something by Milton Friedman next. He's kind of the heir to Mill in terms of economic philosophy and political science.

I'll probably go for Beyond the Odyssey by Maz Evans. It's utterly hilarious.

I have a new one.

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Choksi.

I really wanted to like this book. It's a Persephone & Hades retelling but in an Indian setting. Reviews said that the writing was good.

Sounds good, right? Fairytale retelling, rich setting, right up my alley.

Oh, how I could not be more wrong.

This was by far the worst book I read this year. We are meant to like Maya because she hates all the wives and daughters in the harem, never plans on getting married and will just be a "scholarly spinster", whom we're told loves books in the first few chapters, and proceeds to never read again. She's completely insufferable. And then she runs away with a strange man, and instantly falls in love with him. He inexplicably hides his face for several chapters and nothing happens when he reveals it. They don't tell her anything for really stupid convoluted plot reasons.

She sees a girl in visions who's beautiful and claims that they used to be best friends in another life and I think - at last! The woman-hating has ended! Wrong! Of course this beautiful woman is only there to steal her position and her husband.

And the prose wasn't beautiful, it was drastically over-written. Nothing made sense.

Not to mention that there was literally no plot whatsoever. I honestly felt like this book was a fanfic written chapter by chapter with a new random thing happening each time.

Basically. Don't read this book. Maybe you're intrigued by the premise. Maybe you think, at last, a YA book that isn't set in dystopian Northern America, with a PoC cast. You would be gravely mistaken to pick up this book. Try Rebel of the Sands instead (which I think is the reason this book kept popping up in my recommendations. The two could not be further from each other).

Maybe I'm a bit late but I have a book to contribute!

Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale. I read it recently and really enjoyed it. Some parts I liked even more than its predecessor Princess Academy. There were some social issues and ethics woven in its themes, but I thought that this book pulled them off well, without sounding too preachy.

I remember I picked it up a few years ago in the library because I had read Princess Academy and liked it...but then I stopped reading it halfway. I don't know, maybe it didn't attract me so much or I had other books that took up my attention. A few years later, I discovered Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern and liked it so much I decided to give that book another chance.

And, then, I did gobble up Palace of Stone. I imagine that why I liked it more was that I was older and able to understand these social issues much better (though it is MG, I think). So it's really interesting thing to know that there are some books that you can enjoy more when you're older (at least for me) and some that you can enjoy more when you're younger.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to read the third book, The Forgotten Sisters.

Another Fredrick Backman! I've finished A Man Called Ove and started Beartown.

A good book I've read in the past month is Psychology 2nd edition by Saundra Ciccarelli...

LadyBird wrote:A good book I've read in the past month is Psychology 2nd edition by Saundra Ciccarelli...

Assuming this is for school, how depressing xD <3

I've read some good books this month, standouts being The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven (it's YA but definitely for older teens so I won't go into it now, but it's hilarious and heartfelt!), and The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton which is a fantasy novel about a world where everyone is born grey, and The Belles are the only ones with the ability to control beauty. It was a good story that touches on important social issues without being preachy. Overall it's clever and the description is amazing.

I highly recommend The Steep & Thorny Way by Cat Winters. I had picked it up a few years ago, intending to read it, and then managed to get distracted by other life things. Well, today, I downloaded the book from the library and managed to read it all in a day. I was even walking around at the Renaissance Festival, but the book still managed to raptly hold my attention.

Uh, so it's set in the 1920s in Oregon. It's a reimagining of Hamlet. There's the KKK. The main character is a biracial girl named Hanalee. The book is just so... incredibly good. The author paid a lot of attention to detail and setting.

A+ book. Would read again.

Oooh, cool. That sounds really good, @Evander.