New PLR

The Kindle has changed my relationship with the Personal Library Renaissance.  Which is hard, because it's not like I don't have a huge shelf of books upstairs that I haven't read yet and want to read.  Plus all those library books I still have out.

But right now, the backlog of books in my Kindle that I've acquired and want to read is the one that's teasing me most.  People are always asking why I get books before I'm ready to read them, and I don't really know how to answer that, except to ask how you manage to know you want to read something but not acquire it right away.  Don't you worry that it will vanish from the library/bookstores/internet and you'll never get a chance to read it?  Or (less insanely) that you'll forget how interested you were and miss an opportunity that, right now, you're SO EXCITED about?

Anyway, the hurdle is always jumping in, starting a book and getting swept away.  Let's see what's in the line up for now.

I've started The Girl of Fire and Thorns, by Rea Carson.  I bought this months ago after loving the sample, and I don't have any special explanation about why I hadn't gotten around to it yet, but now I have and I'm really, really loving it.  Actually, about 1/3 of the way in it's just taken a turn for the slightly less interesting--it was all court intrigue and mysterious omens before, and now it's--well, I'm not going to give it away, but it's just a different direction, and I'm not far enough into the new section to be excited about this twist.

But I LOVE the story.  I like that the main character has some real, significant weaknesses--she's childish and selfish and overeats--but you're still really rooting for her--she's smart and wants to be better.  I love the Hispanic feel to the worldbuilding--all the names and words from the "old language" are Spanish-sounding, and the landscape, between deserts and jungles, has a Central American feel.  It's that perfect thing to find in a new author--a familiar structure--girl needs to grow up and save the world--with a new flavor.

The next few I have lined up are also all YA fantasy adventures that I'm excited to read.  Can you believe I haven't read Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races yet?  I bought it months ago!  I don't even know much about it, but I've heard it's amazing.  I've also got the last of Sharon Shinn's Samaria books, Angel-Seeker, and Mercedes Lackey's The Gates of Sleep, which is one of the only books from her Elemental Masters series that struck my fancy.  Oh, plus Black Powder War, by Naomi Novik, because how is it that I'm so many books behind in Temeraire?

These are all just on deck, though.  I'm still reading (and loving) Bab: A Sub Deb, which you kind of have to read in chunks or you just want to smack her, or her mother, or her maid.  And I'm trying to pick my way through some of the library books I have out.  I'm thinking I'll take on a Heavy, Important, Grown-Up book, just to counterbalance all the fun I'm having right now.  Does that seem self-punishing?  I can't decide how much non-YA, non-fantasy I need in my reading diet to cleanse the palate and keep my brain limber.  But I've got about two novels written from the point of view of Mary Magdalene out of the library right now, so maybe I'll start there.