What I Read Wednesday

So, the library hold list hasn't been my friend lately. I didn't get any new books in for ages, then they all came in at once. Of course! In the interim, I finished reading The Last Apprentice series. It was good, and I am super excited for the movie to come out in February.

A New Darkness
This is book one of a spinoff of the Last Apprentice series. It continues on with the darkness that was begun in the Last Apprentice series, but with a few new twists.

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"
I was pretty excited for this book, but I won't lie. I found it kind of boring. Kind of tawdry. And kind of made me feel like it was written by THAT GIRL who pretends to be really drunk when she's not and who exaggerates stories for attention. I finished it because it was a simplistic read, but it didn't engage me at all.

50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days -- and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance!
Ultra runners like Scott Jurek and Dean Karnazes amaze me. I feel like some people are just made to run and run and that's incredible. I cannot imagine running all night and then continuing into the next day, but when the zombie apocalypse happens, I imagine the post-apocalyptic world to be largely populated by ultra marathoners. This is Dean Karnazes' account of running 50 marathons in 50 days--one in each state. I cannot fathom running one marathon, let alone running 50 of them all in a row. While traveling and sleeping in hotels and tour buses. No thanks! Still, I loved his stories of the different marathons and the camaraderie found on each course.

The Children Act
Fiona is a judge who precedes over cases in the family court division. In the midst of her marriage falling apart, she's presented with a case of a 17 year old Jehovah's Witness boy who needs a blood transfusion to live, though both he and his parents are against this on the grounds of religion. Fiona visits the boy, Adam, in the hospital to speak to him and gain a sense of what he is facing prior to making her decision. In this one simple act, followed by her decision, their lives are irrevocably intertwined. This is not a long book, but it was a heavy book and I was completely enthralled.

Thirteen Reasons Why
Sometimes the librarian will pass along books for me to read, to see if I think we can get away with putting them on the shelves. In the wake of a classmate's suicide, Clay comes home to find a package of audio tapes on his porch. After opening them and listening to one, he discovers they're from Hannah, the classmate who recently committed suicide. The tapes purport to outline the 13 reasons why she killed herself and must be passed along to all 13 people who are connected to her suicide. From here, the story splits into two narratives: Hannah's words on the tapes, along with Clay's memory and Clay's present self wandering the streets of his town, alone and scared with the tapes.
Although some of this book is trite, I think what engaged me the most is that Clay comes across as the protagonist while in part, Hannah comes across as the antagonist, leaving behind this horrible aftermath with her tapes. Yes, you feel sorry for Hannah and all she's been through, but you also wonder why she left behind words to make others suffer (though some of them deserved her words).

The Slow Regard of Silent Things
I was super excited when I first saw this book because I thought it was the final book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. Alas, it is not. Instead, it was more of a novella about a character in the Kingkiller Chronicle. It is not a book that you could read alone, unless you want to be very confused. The first book in the Kingkiller Chronicle is The Name of the Wind. Although I'm not a huge fantasy person, I devoured this book and the second in the chronicles, the story of a boy named Kvothe (pronounced quoth) who begins the chronicle a boy who looks like he will amount to nothing, yet becomes a very powerful wizard.

What are you reading?