We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

Date Started: 12/14/14
Date Finished: 12/16/14

Around this time of year I start looking at the "Best of" lists for the year. What did Amazon think were the Best Books of 2014? What about Goodreads? What about the local bookstore? Or People magazine? There's typically a lot on the list that I haven't read - mostly because I read based on what looks good in the moment without doing a lot of research. So these lists give me a chance to look at a more curated selection and see what might be fun to add to my reading list. This book, "We Were Liars" was on a lot of lists. The premise looked intriguing and so I decided to squeeze it in before year-end.

Spoilers ahead. Seriously. The big ones.

Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell

Date Started: 12/10/14
Date Finished: 12/11/14

Never have I read a book with so much dread. I mean, the book was awesome, don't get me wrong. I was just so ill at ease the entire time I was reading it that it was almost uncomfortable. Why? Well...

Gretel and the Dark - Eliza Granville

Date Started: 12/1/2014
Date Finished: 12/8/2014

Here's the book jacket non-spoiler info on this one:

Vienna, 1899. Josef Breuer - celebrated psychoanalyst - is about to encounter his strangest case yet. Found by the lunatic asylum, thin, head shaved, she claims to have no name, no feelings - to be, in fact, not even human. Intrigued, Breuer determines to fathom the roots of her disturbance.

Years later, in Germany, we meet Krysta. Krysta's Papa is busy working in the infirmary with the 'animal people', so little Krysta plays alone, lost in the stories of Hansel and Gretel, the Pied Piper, and more. And when everything changes and the real world around her becomes as frightening as any fairy tale, Krysta finds that her imagination holds powers beyond what she could have ever guessed . . .

Now here's what I thought...

Dark Eden - Chris Beckett

Date Started: 11/28/14

Date Finished: 12/1/14

Ok, I had no idea what I was getting into with this book. I was intrigued by the premise and that was about all I knew. Apparently this has been big in the UK? So here is what the back of the book says (in part): 

On the alien, sunless planet they call Eden, the 532 members of the Family take shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees. Beyond the Forest lie the mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. 

The Oldest among the Family recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross the stars. These ships brought us here, the Oldest say—and the Family must only wait for the travelers to return. 

But young John Redlantern will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. He will abandon the old ways, venture into the Dark...and discover the truth about their world.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman

Date Started: 11/18/14
Date Finished: 11/28/14

I swore I was not going to read this book. Even though I'd read the previous two in the trilogy, I was NOT going to read this one. But here's the thing...when you realize you can check out books on your kindle from your local library, you start trying to figure out books you wanted to read. And once you get past those, you move on to the ones that you figure, well, it's free, why not. This is one of those. But here's the good news: I'm glad I read it!