March Books List

(1)  Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
A highly emotional YA story, Tell The Wolves I'm Home tells the coming of age tale of teenager June, whose beloved Uncle Finn dies of AIDS.  It deals with the subject of both death and AIDS in a moving and truly heartfelt way which will have you reaching for the tissues as you turn the pages.  It's beautifully written too which just adds to the amount of tears you'll be shedding when you read it.  [4/5]

(2)  War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy
It's taken me just over two months to read this and I was so happy when I came to the end, believe me!  War and Peace seems to be the most truly epic book ever written, so it was a difficult and at many times, frustrating read.  Tolstoy's prose is incredibly clever and I loved the actual story parts of the different classes and the development of the characters, but the history parts that he weaves in and out throughout are really tough going, so I'd recommend using a study guide book in conjunction with it if your knowledge of Russian history is somewhat lacking like mine is.  I think it was worth it in the end, if only to be able to say that I've actually read it and to cross it off my classics list.  [3/5]  

(3)  Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
Harrison's now cult classic dystopian tale of an overpopulated New York City often gets forgotten about in comparison to the very loosely based film version, Soylent Green.  Whilst the book doesn't have the whole sensationalized hook of cannibalism (none of this is in the story) which so dominates the film, it stills provides an eery read which has all the hallmarks of a great dystopian novel.  We have mass overpopulation and its myriad related problems, corruption at the top, a main character who is easy to identify with and through whose eyes we can see this crazy world for what it is, and of course some political undertones about how much religion sucks and why birth control is desperately needed.  The latter politics, whilst being thinly apparent throughout, are brought to light much more towards the end in Sol's dramatic speech which is worth reading the book for alone if you like that kinda thing like I do. Otherwise, I'd still recommend it because it sort of reminds me of a Dirty Harry film and that can never be a bad thing.  [5/5] 

(4)  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
I was a little apprehensive about picking this book up mainly because of two reasons.  One, I've never been much of a gamer and two, I was only born in the late 80s.  Ready Player One is essentially set up for those who grew up in the 80s and is full of geek gamer trivia that went over my head a bit. That said, I found Cline's futuristic story of a young man's obsession to find the winning lottery ticket in the OASIS virtual world to be a lot of fun and very entertaining.  You'd obviously enjoy it a lot more if you love all things 80s and are hankering for some clever nostalgia, but the storyline is still intriguing nonetheless.  [3/5] 

What have you been reading this month?

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