Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel started out making me think that it would be one of those horribly cliched reformed-vampire-falls-in-love-with-a-mortal type stories. In a way, it was. Lenah and Rhode are both really old and powerful vampires. Lenah really wants to be human again, so Rhode sacrifices himself in order to grant her desperate wish. In order to protect her from her coven of vampires that will want to kill her now that she is human, Rhode sets it up so that Lenah can attend this fancy boarding school in New England. There, she meets the obligitory mortal studmuffin that she can't help but feel drawn to. Things get complicated when her coven tracks her down, and she must find some way to protect her newly-mortal self and her originally mortal boyfriend. Despite the cliches and all that, the plot was well delivered, and the flashbacks to Lenah's life as a cruel, heartless vampire kept things interesting. I also loved Tony, the Asian art nerd that befriends Lenah at school. The new elements added to the old cliches made this a good read for when you're feeling sappy.

The book I just finished yesterday was called Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn (Yes, the Alex Flinn that wrote Beastly). Usually I don't go for stories that have abusive father figures, but it was also about a traveling carnival. "Traveling" and "carnival" are two words that just make anything awesome, so I knew I had to check this out. I gotta say, despite my reservations in reading this, I really enjoyed it. Nothing to Lose is about Micheal Daye, who has spent the last year working as a carnie with a traveling carnival. He joined the carnival's ranks in order to escape from home, where he had a stepfather who beat his weak mother. When the carnival returns to Micheal's home in Miami, Micheal finds out that his mom is on trial for murdering his stepfather. The book is about the question facing Micheal now: does he keep running with the carnival, or does he stay to stand up for his mother? Again, not the kind of thing I usually go for, but once I started reading, this book quickly became more than worth my time.
Recommended.

Okay, so I obviously have failed with my mission of chronicling every book I read. But not anymore. I just finished reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis, and it was so good that I shook off my laziness to blog about it here. Though the cover features two silhouettes about to kiss, I didn't particularly feel that romance was the key theme at work here. The main characters' names are Elder and Amy (which is my name, so of course I had to read this book ;). Amy gets cryogenically frozen along with her family in order to travel to a new planet 300 years away. Once there, they will terraform the new planet in order to live there. Only Amy is unfrozen fifty years before schedule. Now she is stuck on a ship she hates that seems to be powered by dangerous lies. This book is about her and Elder's (a resident of the spaceship) search for truth despite the people that would try to stop them. There is a good mix of action and suspense here, along with just enough romance to keep the hard core romantics (like me) happy. Once I got started, I had trouble putting this book down. The beautiful cover matches the beautiful story inside, and this book is definitely Recommended.

I'll admit that I do occasionally judge books by their covers. For the most part, it works. Matched by Ally Condie is a perfect example of when an awesome cover contains an awesome story. The Society controls all of the descisions made in Cassia's life and the lives of everyone else. For the most part, Cassia is content to abide by their rules. Then she is Matched (pre-engaged) to her best friend Xander. Instead of seeing Xander's face on her screen at home, she sees another boy she knows. This leads her to question the infallability of the Society. Though Cassia's descisions annoyed me at times, I admire her for her determination. This was an awesome futuristic story.

Recommended.

Another book that I've read recently is Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner. I had read a lot of depressing books before this one and found the comedy in this book very welcome. If lewd jokes and anecdotes make you uncomfortable, you should probably reconsider reading this, if not, then I recommend this book wholeheartedly. Shakespeare, an unfortunately-named teenager, is just trying to get through his senior year without screwing everything up like he usually does. He has to deal with his crazy family, his abnormal friends, and his potential love interests. Throughout the book are excerpts from the memoir that Shakespeare is writing for a class. Such excerpts are filled with instances in which poor Shakespeare is a victim of some sort of bizarre circumstance. The characters are hilarious, offset by other, more serious characters. I also found the perspective interesting (Do all boys really think like that?). In short, this book was an awesome dose of comedy that fully earned five stars out of five.

Recommended.

So I just finished reading Trapped by Michael Northrop. If you're into the whole suspense/survival thing, this book is for you. If not, I wouldn't recommend it. There's not much in the way of romance, nor is there really any kind of heroic adventure or sci-fi element, so fans of those genres should stay away. The basic gist of the plot is that seven students get trapped in their school during a northeastern snowstorm. As the days go on, their resources start dwindling, and they must struggle for survival. The characters were believable, and the ending was rather abrupt but satisfying. On the whole I'd give it about 4 stars out of five. And it was just over 200 pages, so it's not like it would take long to read.

Recommended.

My name is Amy, and my one love in this world is books. Today, after finishing yet another book, I had this thought: why not share my love with the world? My challenge to myself is to chronicle every book I read in my blog here, in order to promote the love of reading. I hope that this lowly blog can give you some suggestions on what to read, what to avoid reading, and why you should.

Wish me luck,

-Amy