Strayed's writing is, without a doubt, gorgeous and almost like therapy. Although, I wish I had read these from week to week on the Rumpus, as each column began to seem repetitive. I found myself skimming what I knew her response would be as far as the advice and voraciously reading her own personal anecdotes/stories, which she writes so compellingly

Whoa. This was a crazy suspenseful, mind blowing read. I also thoroughly enjoyed the fact that it's centered around Chicago and the historical fiction aspect of the book. It reminded me of another beautiful ode to Chicago novel: The Time Travelers Wife, but with a serial killer instead of a man in love. A bit on the gory side, so I've gotta go and read something really fluffy now...

This was a fun, quick, YA novel that had a cool premise: what if you stumbled upon Facebook in '96, more than a decade before it's inception, and could see your future. Or more importantly, change your future. There were definitely some 'Back to the Future' elements at play. I thoroughly enjoyed the humor of the main characters experiencing Facebook for the first time. 'Why would anyone say these things to everyone they know?' 'Who cares?' - that type of stuff. Being of a similar age in '96, I could also easily identify with them and the world they lived in. But the main female character is kind of clueless and infuriating, which seems to be an unfortunate trend in many YA romance novels.

This book was reminiscent of the last book I read, The Future of Us, in how the smallest changes can have such a large impact. It's also very similar to Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, with the exception that the main character is aware that she is re-living her life and tries to make different choices. Major kudos to Lauren Oliver for writing a character that I initially disliked on many levels (I was NOT a 'mean girl' in school, and our protagonist Sam most certainly is) and opened my eyes to her journey of self-discovery. It starts out at face value as YA chick lit, but as the story unfolds, it gains real emotional heft. I find myself still thinking about it, after finishing it well over a week ago - highly recommend.

I dropped the book I was currently reading when my hold on Fangirl finally came up at the library - this is something I never do, but I love Rainbow Rowell something FIERCE. She's 3 for 3 in creating story that I can devour in about a day. She writes the most amazing love stories, not to mention the most wonderfully loveable and complex characters. I defy you to NOT identify with some aspect of their personalities. I didn't give it the full 5 stars because I hated how she delayed some of the more emotional scenes by interspersing snippets of the story our heroine (Cath) is writing. I felt like I was skimming all of the 'Simon Snow' dialogue to get to the 'real' story. A SMALL complaint, as I'm sure it was masterfully planned as a tool for suspense.

I really enjoy when a novel explores two different narratives that eventually weave together. The House Girl bounces back and forth between the story of Josephine, a Virginia house slave in 1852, and Lina, a lawyer working on a slavery reparations case in 2004. It was a very compelling story, and I love historical fiction. I did find myself turning the pages of the present day narrative faster, so that I could know what happened to Josephine - she is by far the main protagonist of this story.

Sooooo, yeah, ending trilogies in a way that makes everyone happy must be a really hard endeavor for authors. I've yet to read one that I thought was great; although, the Across The Universe trilogy came really close to great. This book felt like a lot of filler, so many characters to keep track of, and so much talk of the different serums I became confused. If you're a Divergent fan, you gotta finish it out - no question. It was super cool to be visiting home at the time I was reading it and riding the El, going to Millennium Park, and certainly O'Hare, where much of the book takes place. But overall, I was sad and disappointed by this book.

I wanted to have an intro to Gaiman while I waited for my hold on a The Ocean at the End of the Lane to come in. I enjoyed this book but wasn't enthralled/took forever to read/didn't have the urge to pick it up every chance I got. It blended together many different aspects of classic fantasy stories, set in modern day London. So, there was some good humor and originality, but on the whole I felt like I knew what was coming and had heard it all before. Blasphemy, I know, about one of the most revered fantasy writers of our time. I'm still going to read his latest, and if it changes my mind, read lots more. (Side note: our favorite kids book right now is Gaiman: Chu's Day is awesome.)

I was a bit hesitant to read a YA vampire book, but it kept popping up on all sorts of 'best of the year' lists, including Amazon's top 10 YA for 2013. Plus, the Amazon editors promised that it was not the beginning of a new series, just one and done: SCORE. It was refreshing and original. What would really happen if we discovered vampires? How would it change our world? It was a cool mashup of Twilight (but, written with much more finesse) and good dystopian fiction. However, the ending doesn't leave you hanging, but it isn't what I'd call neatly wrapped up. I smell a trap... A trilogy trap... Which I would TOTALLY read!

I devoured this book. It's an absolutely perfect 'curl up on the couch on a rainy day with a blanket, next to a roaring fire' kind of story. It's also very, very, creepy and fraught with tension. If I were Joey, I would have put this book in the freezer a few times, if you know what I mean. It's just fantastic storytelling and perfect imagery. It's on Amazon's top 20 books of the year and it just took top honors on Goodreads for best Fantasy novel of 2013, with good reason.