Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Armchair BEA 2012: Best of 2012--So Far

The second day of Armchair BEA is about the best books we've read so far in 2012 and doing giveaways if we have any to give. (Or was it just awesome 2012 books we've read? I've seen about three or four different ideas of what Day 2 is supposed to be about. Fuck, I don't even know anymore, so I'm doing this.) Unfortunately, I do not have a giveaway, but I do have plenty of fantastic books I've read in 2012 that I can babble about.


Stolen by Lucy Christopher: Beautiful, engrossing, absorbing--I am at a lack of adjectives for this book. You should have seen me go on the warpath when I found someone was plagiarizing this book with a story they were posting online! But that story is gone now and my rage is soothed.









Angelfall by Susan Ee: So all my friends jumped on this bandwagon and I grabbed onto someone's leg, crawling my way into the wagon three months after everyone else had gotten on. Like ninety percent of the people who have read this novel, I'm impatiently awaiting the sequel's release.









Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: Word for this = I can't even. Unreliable narrator, epistolary novel, fantastic characters, tear-jerker moments--this has it all. Out of all of these books I'm listing, this is my #1 favorite.










Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers: Friends have been praising her for years, but I only just got around to reading Summers's novels after I loved This Is Not a Test. I was so happy to see this come up as a deal on Amazon that you can't even know. Though it was definitely weaker than the novel that made me buy Cracked Up to Be in the first place, I still loved it very much.






All the books below this point haven't had their reviews posted yet, but leaving them out of this list when they were some of the best I've read this year would be a crime.


 
This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers: I'm really not into zombie novels or zombie anything (that is my older brother's department), but I went for it anyway and WOW. Wow. Summers tapped into the darker sides of her characters the way I wish I could with my writing. My experience with this novel made me put everything else she's written on my to-read list. I read Cracked Up to Be up there because of this.






Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan: I didn't care much for the first book in the series, but I kept on with it because after all, I read Glow in the first place because I knew I had an ARC of Spark coming. I impressed with where the story went. It was even better than Glow! Spark made me a fan of the series, and that is why I sometimes persist with series I dislike or feel ambivalent about.







Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan: There really aren't any words for this one but EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I'd previously been disinterested in her Demon's Lexicon series after a so-so experience with the first book, but Unspoken was so good I bought the other two books of the Demon's Lexicon trilogy. The power of good books is strong like that.







What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang: Took me completely by surprise. I was on vacation the weekend I read it and when I should have been out getting a tan and entertaining some children, I curled up inside with my computer instead in order to finish reading this book. Look for it when it comes out--the relationship between Eva and Addie is fantastic and the way the romance was but an undercurrent to the main issues of the novel was perfect.

27 comments:

  1. Oooo! I love your picks, even though I have read none of them. Haha. I've had my eye on Stolen, and I can't wait for What's Left of Me. Good picks!

    - Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl

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    1. Thank you! Oh, you need to read some of them. They really are fantastic, and though Stolen can be really unsettling, I'm glad I read it. If you're a member of Edelweiss, you can request a copy of What's Left of Me.

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  2. What's Left of Me looks great. You said you read it on your computer. Do you have a special connection or did you read it on Netgalley?

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    1. It was great. One of my friends encouraged me to sign up for Edelweiss (in case you haven't heard of it before, it's a site similar to NetGalley but the focus is more on the catalogs the publishers put out than the review copies) a few months ago and What's Left of Me is one of the books HarperCollins has up for review. I was surprised they gave me access to it at all. This was the first title HarperCollins has ever given me for review.

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  3. I haven't read any of these yet, but definitely have Code Name Verity on my list to read.

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    1. I hope you get to read some of them soon, especially Code Name Verity. That book just tore me to pieces.

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  4. I haven't read any of these. I've been adding to my TBR pile today.

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    1. That's the awesome thing about today: everyone's seeing books others loved and adding more books to their to-read lists because of it. More good books are good for everyone!

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    1. I KNOW! GO SRB! -starts jumping around and squeeing like a fangirl again-

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  6. I really want to read Code Name Verity (once I get through some others). I've seen Sarah Rees Brennan at a few different author events and she is so delightful! I've yet to read anything of hers.

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    1. Pfft, skip the others and dive right into it. Dooooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiit. Peer pressure... I've never gotten to see her any events (YA author events very rarely, if ever, come to my area), but she does seem pretty awesome.

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  7. Code Name Verity broke my heart and I loved it SO MUCH. I really want to read What's Left of Me so I'm jealous you've already read it. I'm glad you loved it. :D

    Novel Sounds

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    1. I know! Code Name Verity is more of a heartbreaker than any of these playboys in YA books are (though this book's a different kind of heartbreaker). :P If you're a member of Edelweiss, you can request a copy of What's Left of Me and experience the magic of it yourself.

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  8. Great picks! I own or have read almost all of them!

    Here's my Armchair BEA Best of 2012 post and my giveaway post for today!

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    1. Awesome! For the ones you own and haven't read, I hope you get to read them soon. Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. Oh cant wait for Spark!!! Also heard great things bout This is Not a Test!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

    Here are some of my favs: http://wordsareinnermusic.blogspot.com/2012/06/armchair-bea-best-of-2012.html

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    1. Both of those books are worth the wait. Thanks for stopping by!

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  10. The ones I've read on your list, I totally loved!

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    1. Fantastic! Picking out these eight from the eighty-five or so books I've read so far was hard, but I'm happy with my choices. Thanks for stopping by!

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  11. I loved Code Name Verity. Yea, I was confused on topics today. It said Giveaways today (still does) in their sidebar. But didn't say a Best of 2012 post, and I sorta answered that with Day 1 anyway. So blah here's a giveaway, in case you're interested. A smorgasbord to choose from. There may be something you like.

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    1. Yeah, what today was supposed to be about wasn't exactly clear. When I published my post, the only post Armchair BEA Central had up was the one for giveaways, so I assumed that would be the only post for the day and I put my link in there. Then I started looking around at other people's blogs and got confused, and then the post for all the "best of 2012 so far" links showed up. My aching head! Thank you for stopping by and dropping the link to your giveaway!

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  12. I have a couple of these waiting for me--I'll have to bump them up the list!

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  13. What, someone was plagiarizing STOLEN!? I didn't hear that! Were they posting it as fanfiction?? I've never even heard of ANGELFALL...am I the only one? I've heard a lot of talk lately about CODE NAME VERITY, but I'm still on the fence about it. Ack, I still need to read GLOW...and then I can read my ARC of SPARK, lol! I have to read my ARC of WHAT'S LEFT OF ME, too! I've wanted this book since Kat announced her publishing deal! Oh, and per your comment...I'm not sure that every one of the books I listed is at BEA. I have no clue how to see a list of every ARC being offered, tbh. But I figure that most are, so I just made a list of the titles I wanted the most! I like that we've enjoyed so many of the same books!! I'm glad you found me so I could find you!

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    1. Yes they were, and I was like "OH NO YOU DIDN'T." (Stolen makes me go CAPSLOCK FANGIRL.) I reported the fanfic and when I checked a few weeks ago, it was deleted. Angelfall is something all my blogging/Goodreads friends read before me, so it seemed like everyone knew about it. I guess not.

      Go go go! Read those books and ARCs! Read them! Most of the big releases between now and probably December are likely to be at BEA, so your list didn't seem like it would be too off-center.

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  14. LOVED Code Name Verity beyond all reason! That is the book that I'm telling EVERYONE about!
    Really want to read the new Courtney Summers! Looks awesome!

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  15. Yes yes yes to Angelfall! Loved it with all my heart, and even mentioned it in my best of 2012 post!

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I love hearing what others have to say about books and it makes me feel less like I'm talking to an empty auditorium, so comment away. Thank you for reading my blog post!