Probably one of the most cliché adages I could mention on this site, being a book blog, is:

Don't judge a book by its cover.

While this phrase is generally used in application to interpersonal relationships, I'd like to take a moment to examine its barebones meaning, as well: don't judge a book by its cover. I will admit that I am guilty of wandering idly through a bookshop, finger and eyes both trailing across a sea of spines and titles, and I tend to gravitate toward the aesthetically well done. Meaning, they have a nice design, well-chosen and placed typography. Sometimes a title can affect things, but personally the title is the last variable in the haphazard equation whose result ends in my either buying the book or leaving it on the shelf.

Occasionally I can bypass this by being intrigued enough to flip through and read the first chapter - it's my rule of thumb that if I go into a bookstore and leave with a book I didn't intend to buy, I read the first chapter there to see if I'm hooked - and if I like it, I pick it up. Otherwise if a friend has discussed the title on their blog, Twitter, or at work, I can circumvent ignoring a book that I might have never read of my own accord.

Why does this even matter? As many of you probably know by now, the new covers for Stephanie Perkins' books have been revealed and I find myself not-so-secretly pleased by the new look. For the longest time I held off on reading ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS on the basis of two factors: the pastel, curlicue font, and, in ANNA's case, its title. The ANNA I created in my head every time I looked at the book was far different than the reality that I know and adore. I couldn't get past it. And then I finally read the book, holed up under the covers during Hurricane Irene, and I got it. I loved this book, I love its characters. I understood its title and I was incredibly grateful for finally giving it the chance it deserved. 

Still, when it was announced not long ago that the series would be receiving a makeover I was part-thankful, part-hesitant. I believed that a cover change could be beneficial in helping draw in a crowd of readers that, unlike me, may not have a group of people surrounding them telling them to give it a chance. While I won't post the new covers for ANNA and LOLA, as EW has that exclusive, here is the similarly themed cover for LOLA from Goodreads:

It is everything I love. Simple, bold font choices. Even-spaced typography and a beautiful sky-colored ombre. The rose? Almost a harken back to the old design, most likely intrinsic (like the heart and star) to the main characters involved. The most important thing ANNA (and, perhaps more aptly, LOLA) taught me, though, was to look beyond the design. It is the words, the emotion bottled between sentences that make the story come to life. The cover is just the doorway to Narnia.

Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publication Date: 02/05/2013
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 461
Source: Purchased

tick
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it's almost
time for war.
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.
She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.
Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.
In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

The review for UNRAVEL ME me is going to be different than usual, mainly because as I was trying its threads together throughout the day I kept on coming back to a theme and it was something I wanted to structure my discussion of its story around. There will be mentions of things that happened in both SHATTER ME and DESTROY ME (mainly because I think they're quite relevant to what goes on in this book), so please consider yourself warned.

The theme of this review is independence and will be discussed in terms of characters.

Juliette: When we first meet Juliette Ferrars in SHATTER ME (r) we meet a shell of a girl, a gleaning of possibility inside a female frame. We find her not quite broken, but not quite whole. As someone who's spent her life being shunned, being told that she was different to the point of being a monster, Juliette has been denied human interaction for most of her life. The social experience that is necessary for the human psyche has been withheld from her and when she finds Adam it's almost as if she were a moth and he a flame. He can touch her, he can interact with her, and Juliette was able to feel as if she could be a person. It's almost as if Juliette thought that he was her independence, that his touch would set her free. And, to be frank, that worried me with SHATTER ME. In this installment Juliette has a fantastic moment with Kenji who sets her straight and begins to poke holes in the mental picture she's constructed of herself; she's painting herself in watercolors without knowing there is the possibility of oils and acrylics. Over the course of UNRAVEL ME Juliette finds the means to paint her future in a way that she never could have expected. She defines her own independence. Which leads to

The Reestablishment & The People: One of my favorite things about the previous installment was the way Tahereh was able to paint such a beautifully destructive picture of what was going on. Birds cannot fly, the Earth was giving up on itself, and humans were doing what they could - had put their faith in the last effort - to put things right. Without having all of the information, the reader was able to put together a puzzle in order to create a vivid image of the world. UNRAVEL ME, however, touches upon the lives of the people in a peripheral way that sets the stage for what may be an uprising. As this is a dystopian story, the government is supposed to be protecting the people (and perhaps they believe they are, in a way) but we begin to see what their lives look like and what little options they have. The luxury of choice is affordable only to those in the Reestablishment; citizens are scant less than pawns to be moved around. And these pawns are sick of it - they want to reach the other end of the board and have the chance to become what they want. The move toward freedom.

Warner: Warner is not a nice person. He's just not - he's killed people, he's ordered people to death, he's had people tortured. And so when there were mentions that from this book sprang some form of "Team Warner" I was incredibly concerned. To be fair, I'm not in love with Adam the way Juliette is (mainly because I haven't been missing that same need for connection that she has), but I appreciate his presence in the book. (I also liked him more in SHATTER ME than I did in this book, but that's neither here nor there.)  While I wouldn't call Warner a megalomaniac, he definitely has very specific personality traits, and if you've read DESTROY ME you get a glimpse of them: extremely orderly, well-groomed, habitual. Warner, it seems, doesn't care too much for change merely because change has never offered him anything. The one exception to this rule has always been Juliette, which brings me to this: Warner is not a "bad boy", he's not the brooding type that leans in doorways and will smother you with mystery. He's the type that will shoot you if he has to and then not think about it, because that's how he was raised. There is a very clear difference between the two, and I don't think that those facets alone make him interesting or attractive. For me, Warner's arc started in DESTROY ME and reading that is key to understanding why and how Warner also finds his own independence.

The thing about Warner, for me, is that he is the one that has supported Juliette's independence the most. Though he had his moments of professing his love throughout the series, he's never made any pretense about it. So while people's favorite chapter may be the infamous sixty-two, mine is the very last chapter of the book because it's the one point where we've seen Juliette in a situation that seems completely normal, a scene that would not be out of place today.

Juliette has always wanted to see a bird fly. In UNRAVEL ME she found her wings. Tahereh Mafi has built upon a ravaged world where her characters shine the brightest, and there just might be a possibility for flight.

I started paper reader two years ago come 1 February. My first post consists of a simple greeting, a statement (of my love for books) and a list of some books that I had currently checked out from the library. My lifelong passion for words had come to a head and it was no longer something that I wanted to keep to myself, and with the advent of blogs everywhere I no longer had to. I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought that my blog would take me to where I am today. I never thought it would be an affirmation of everything I hold dear. 

I started my blog the winter before I started university in autumn 2011. Though I was working part-time, I was not yet in school, and so I was afforded the liberty of being able to devote large amounts of time and effort into reading. And the more I read, the more I wanted to talk about it, share it with people who felt the same. The more I researched, the more I understood how things generally worked, and began to formulate how I wanted to structure my blog. I wanted to read books, I wanted to share what I found in them in an impactful way with the internet and thought that a review would be the best way to do it.

A review, for me, generally takes me about an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, mainly because I like to write in-depth, spoiler-free reviews. I want the words that I'm sharing with the world to be helpful, but also able to express how I feel about what I read. And the more I read, the more I wrote. The more I wrote, the more books I bought. (...and I bought a lot of books.) I grew the number of blogs I read, the comments I wrote. I created a Twitter account and spent hours replying and perusing to see what was new in the literary and publishing world. I met incredible people. With Tawni's help, I redesigned my blog. (And I'm in the process of doing it again.)

And then school began. I became nervous, stressed. I very much wanted to continue the amazing thing that I had started, but I needed to be able to balance it in a way where my education remained (and still remains) my first priority. It was - and is - incredibly difficult. I barely had any time and felt at times that I was falling behind in reviews. Books I wanted to read, thoughts I wanted to share, but couldn't. Sometimes there just isn't enough time and energy in the day.

I realised that I had to cut back on what I was doing. Less review books, posts in general, but the ones that I wrote, I promised myself, would be the best they could be. I never once thought that I would stop, but instead make it function in a way that suited both university and the amount I was able to read. This semester is my thesis semester, and I'm planning on having one review per week and one discussion post per week, if not every other week.

The summation of what I'm saying, or trying to say, is that though I love what I do - and I would not trade it for anything - it takes effort, money, persistence, and time time time. 

I write this because Wendy has created a poll that ends tomorrow on the cost and value of book blogging. The results will be both surprising and anticipated. My stress, my nerves are not everyone's, and there will be different ways in which people maneuver their time and energy and this will affect their overall response in ways I could not have thought of. I just want to say, however, that every one of you is important. You devote your time and love and it shows. Your input is also necessary, and if you have fifteen minutes to spare, your thoughts would be appreciated and helpful to show how blogging affects us.

Survey: The Cost Of Book Blogging

A book blog, just like the person behind it, doesn't look like any one thing. There are types and varieties and personality that make them unique. Thanks for doing what you do.

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publication Date: 06/05/2012
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 358
Source: Purchased

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Note: As much as I wanted to keep this review completely spoiler-free, it is impossible for me to gloss over the discussion of an important turning point in the book. In order to avoid spoilers if you have not read this book yet, please skip the fourth paragraph.

Alina Starkov grew up as one orphan in a household of many at Keramzin, her parents having died in the wars that have ravaged Ravka for well over a century. The orphans of Keramzin are educated and then conscripted into the King's First Army, leaving their childhood years a period of waiting and loneliness. Alina didn't think she'd be any different until Mal came; the two became fast friends, traversing the depths of boredom and existing as a pair amidst the sea of many. Alina and Mal's regiment are scheduled to cross the Unsea, a dangerous journey when even the most talented individuals are involved. Alina always thought that she would never be special, that she would be alone; she never could have known that confronting her fear of the darkened Fold would challenge both of those things and turn her world inside out.

Within twenty pages of reading SHADOW AND BONE I knew that I was in for one of those rare all-nighters. I started this book and read and read and read and when I stopped it was 4.30 and, exhausted and full of fantastical places, I fell asleep to dream of Grisha wearing colorful kefta. I was pulled in immediately with the story of Alina as an orphan, hints at adventures with Mal, and the introduction of the mysterious Grisha and their leader, the Darkling. Though I was slightly taken aback when the time period shifted forward to her as a young adult, now conscripted in the First Army of Ravka, it only took a page or so for me to fall right into the older version of Alina and Mal. One of my favorite things about this story is how incredibly well developed the descriptions are; there was not a moment that didn't have some small element seamlessly weaving together a portrayal of a scene, whether it be for world building information or for what a character is wearing. As Grisha are one of the main themes in the book, the usage of color is inseparable from the narrative in order to separate the different specialties: Red, blue, purple, yellow, black, among others.

SHADOW AND BONE would just be a story without the magical way Leigh was able to dip into the depths of Russian history to create a narrative that is nuanced, gripping, and incredibly compelling. Not a page went by where I couldn't perfectly envision the world that was playing out in word form before my eyes. The embroidered keftas, the sense of urgency in running, awe and excitement at new circumstances - they were all detailed in such a way as to put the reader directly into a cast of wonderfully developed characters. Alina was, without a doubt, my favorite of lot. Much of the story is about Alina's sense of self-discovery, but told in a way that seamlessly created a narrative around her journey. She's strong, thoughtful, and knows when to say no. Thought there are moments when she wavers, I believe they're done in a way that are completely relatable to human experience.

As beautiful as the first part of the book was - and it was stunning - the pacing about one hundred pages from the end was the one thing that was able to remove me from the story and make me aware that I was an active reader and not living events through Alina's eyes. While a setup such as Alina had with the Darkling ("champion", distant trainer, love interest) is almost always too good to be true, the timeframe in which she is able to go from "the Darkling is not looking at me" to "he is a ruthless traitor" was unsettling. I never disagreed with her; I knew that she was right. But for all of the strong feelings that she had developed while at the Little Palace, that slight twist of belief changes the entire direction of the story. In her conversation with Baghra (and afterward), Alina reflects on certain moments and phrases that were breadcrumbs that eventually lead to shining light on what the Darkling was really after - all done in a compressed timeframe. While I fully believe those moments definitely allude to his foul play, her acceptance seems to be too much, too fast. Still, there's something about the play between  darkness and light in this book that leads me to believe that all is not done between these two, and to say that I'm interested in seeing where Leigh takes things would kind of be an understatement.

SHADOW AND BONE is one of the most beautifully constructed and compelling fantasies that I've read in quite some time. Everything about it hits just about every one of my interests: just the right amount of world building, characters that feel complete and nuanced, and a narrative that is able to tie all of these things together. If you have the opportunity, and a few hours block open on your schedule, I definitely suggest that you find a comfy, quiet spot and read it at your leisure. I absolutely cannot wait to read SIEGE AND STORM.

Author: Victoria Schwab
Publication Date: 01/22/2013
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 324
Source: ARC (Thanks to Hyperion and Victoria at NYCC!)

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous-it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Sometimes there are just books that you know are meant for you. Maggie Stiefvater's THE SCORPIO RACES was one of those books, and as soon as I read the tagline for THE ARCHIVED, I knew it would end up on a very small shelf of favorites, too. The narrative beautifully transitions from the present to the past, highlighting the moments that Mackenzie spent with her grandfather that lead her to becoming his successor as Keeper. Though we don't see much of him throughout the course of the book, we don't need to as the moments in which he's present his personality are vivid and commanding. These flashbacks highlight his importance in Mackenzie's life, their bond, and the rules that, as a Keeper, she must live by. Though the Archive and the outside world have a symbiotic relationship, it is precariously balanced, and it's Keepers like Mac that have to play by the rules for order to be sustained. Bruises, omissions, and absences in order to create peace for both.

The incredible thing about this book is the way Victoria effortlessly links the construct of the Archive into present-day reality. We open countless amounts of doors per day, we go to libraries for history and knowledge. Topics and genres mapped out on shelves for our perusal. But with the touch of a key Mackenzie has access to a library that makes her life so completely different than anything we can imagine. The Archive has history and knowledge on shelves, collecting first-hand accounts. Every time Mac stepped into the Archive I could imagine a sweeping great room with stacks higher than I could see, cathedral ceilings and a gilded desk neatly arranged with papers and writing utensils. And, of course, a sign. An information desk like any and none other.

In a book about information and what it means to have it, THE ARCHIVED's characters are equally nuanced. Just when I thought I knew something about someone, a layer quietly peeled back and revealed just enough of something else to be surprising but not too much so that it would be out of place with what I had already learned. Mac is a clever and strong girl with quick responses who struggles with how to relate her position as a Keeper to her life as a daughter and a normal person. She has to deal with extraordinary circumstances, yet her struggles are relatable and convincing. One of my favorite things about this book is that every conversation - every word - has a purpose without feeling overwhelming. My favorite character, Roland, is one you meet fairly soon into the story, though it's almost difficult to pick because the Archive is literally riddled with a small starring cast that shines.

THE ARCHIVED has something in it for everyone: strong characterisation, mystery, beautiful prose, and a narrative that includes a touching and believable romance. This is literally a book that I had to pace myself reading because I didn't want it to end. I will say, however, for those that tend to prefer stand-alone to series, I absolutely believe that it will stand on its own as a singular story without the necessity of reading on. Me, though? I can't wait to pre-order the second installment.

Author: Laini Taylor
Publication Date: 11/06//2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 294
Source: Purchased

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to 

imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world. 

One of my favorite things about DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT is its pacing; if you've read DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE then you know what happens to Karou at the end. In many books the division between characters* would have been navigated inexpertly and some sort of unsatisfying reunion would take place. Laini Taylor deftly avoids that in her writing by her incredibly talented narrative pacing throughout the arc of the series, leaving this installment to explore Karou and what needs to happen in order for her to grow and accept the possibility the future brings. While I would classify this book ultimately as one that focuses on Karou, the Akiva (and other) moments were perfectly tuned to the overall octave of the story. It is a beautiful and compelling read.

If you have not begun this series I highly, highly recommend it for its beautiful creativity and writing. If you read book one at some crazy point in 2011, don't worry, this installment will catch up up with all of the pertinent points and then some to fill in all of the gaps.

Also, as I'm sure you've by now noticed, the titles of both books contain the same amounts of the same letters. The acronym for book one is DOBAS and book two's is DOSAB. I'm rather curious to see if book three will follow in the same footsteps.

*I'm being deliberately vague here to avoid large spoilers for both books.

Almost two years ago I started this blog with absolutely no expectation of where it would bring me.

I thought that it would be just another dusty corner of the internet where I could ramble about books and talk about words, my love for them, and their construction. Almost two years later I've met some of the most fabulous people who understand me in such an intrinsic way because at our cores we love the same thing.

Having this blog would not have been the same without you in it. Attending BEA with you made the experience worth it more than I could have ever dreamed. Attending ComicCon and being able to meet authors of all sorts and mediums and being surrounded by people who made my mouth hurt with smiling due to their enthusiasm and creativity.

Your love of reading and words and characters has inspired me to complete my own manuscript and, when done, edit it to the best of my perfection. You inspire me to never give up. Ten minutes here, a scribble of a character note there - they all add up to a story brimming with potential. And it doesn't matter when I finish, but the fact that I actually will. (And that you will, too.)

I can say for the first time that I know what I want to do; that perhaps I've always known somewhere but you all were the impetus for me bringing it to the light. I am forever grateful.

And so, a happy happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans, but also a heartfelt thank you to everyone reading this. You are why I do this.

Also, as an example of an author I adore for both her incredible talent with words and also because she's just a truly kind human being, please check out Victoria Schwab's post on giving back. (And if you haven't read THE NEAR WITCH or THE ARCHIVED, please do. The former is out, the latter is out in January and, trust me, you do not want to miss it.)

"Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced." Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

The title is a true statement: my favorite book of all time, Aldous Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD, is a banned book. It has consistently stayed in the ALA's top ten of books that people across America have tried to keep out of libraries, schools, and the hands of people nationwide.

The ALA cites the complaints as being: insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit. (For the record, I'm not sure as how a story can be accused of nudity.) BRAVE NEW WORLD, for those who haven't read it, is a story centered around a character named Bernard Marx who lives in perfect society constructed by World Controllers. Separated into genetically created societal levels, people are raised and trained to love their level's role in society. Bernard questions this dystopic utopia, and Huxley lets the reader see the world through Bernard's eyes.

There is an irony in banning a book about controlling society.

And though my favorite book just happens to be a book that people try again and again to keep out of people's hands and heads, my favorite book would preferably be one that was never banned.

As someone who writes (I'd hesitate to call myself a writer just yet), I know how much heart and blood and soul is poured into every choice of word, punctuation, and sentence structure that a book comprises. Of the elation that is the feeling of sharing it with others and maybe, just maybe, it will make someone smile. It will make them think and hold a meaning to them and a different meaning for someone else. The beauty of words is that they are fluid: a book doesn't contain a message, but how people read between the lines can leave the option of there being something for everyone.

I was a reader long before I read this book. Aldous Huxley didn't give me books. But he just may have given me something greater. BRAVE NEW WORLD helped me to question and think and wonder why. To the courses I study at university, to my preferred genre of fiction (dystopian), to my love of words and wanting - and hoping - to share them with you all. The belief that I can and the knowledge that it is okay to.

I thank Aldous Huxley.

And I am deeply saddened by the idea that there are other people out there that might be able to connect so well with a book but who no longer have the chance. These individuals might never meet their Aldous Huxley. They might never experience the wonder of their BRAVE NEW WORLD.