The Reading Hideaway

Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Author: Ken Kesey Publisher: Signet Rating: 4 Synopsis (via Goodreads): In this classic of the 1960s, Ken Kesey's hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, back by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story's shocking climax. Review: *backstory time* My awesomesauce AP Literature teacher, Ms. R, challenged my class at the b...

Title: Delirium Author: Lauren Oliver Publisher: HarperCollins Rating: 4 Synopsis (via Goodreads):  Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.   Review: "Hearts are fragile things.  That's why you have to be so careful." I think that my love for the dystopian genre has been apparent in some previous blog posts of mine, so you may assume that I enjoyed Delirium right up to the last page.  If you made this assumption, then you are correct... to a certain extent.  Lauren Oliver's concept of love being a disease that everyone had to be cured from was genius.  I mean, we'...

Title: Soul Inferno   Author: Aprille Legacy  Publisher: Smashwords Edition  Rating: 4  Synopsis (via Goodreads): War threatens the country. With King Phoenix taking control of the North, Sky heads to the Tsalskinese Empire to treat with the Emperor, hoping to gain his support in the coming conflict. Can Sky negotiate her way through the long standing prejudice against her country and prove herself worthy of the Emperor’s assistance? New aspects of her power and a mysterious Pirate Queen are just a few of the obstacles standing in the way of an alliance.  But little does she know, betrayal is only a whisper away...  As both the North and the South clash in fiery warfare, Sky has to make the ultimate choice to ensure the reincarnation cycle is broken for good...  Even if it means saying goodbye.  Soul Inferno is the final instalment in the Soul Trilogy. Review: " Soul Inferno is the final instalment in the Soul Trilogy."...

Waiting on Wednesday is a daily meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine . It highlights what newly released books us bloggers are most excited to read.  Title: Breakaway Author: Kat Spears  Synopsis (via Goodreads): From Kat Spears, author of Sway , comes a new novel that asks the question: when a group of four best friends begin to drift apart, what will it take to bring them back together? When Jason Marshall's younger sister dies, he knows he can count on his three best friends and soccer teammates — Mario, Jordie, and Chick — to be there for him. With a grief-crippled mother and a father who's not in the picture, he needs them more than ever. But when Mario starts hanging out with a rough group of friends and Jordie finally lands the girl of his dreams, Jason is left to fend for himself while maintaining a strained relationship with troubled and quiet Chick. Then Jason meets Raine, a girl he thinks is out of his league but who sees him for everything he wants t...

Title: The Breeding Tree Author: J. Andersen Synopsis (via Goodreads): Is the opportunity to create the next generation of life a dream come true or a deadly nightmare? When seventeen year old Katherine Dennard is selected to become a "Creation Specialist" in Sector 4, the opportunity sounds like a dream come true. But Kate soon discovers the darker side of her profession - the disposal of fetal organs and destruction of human life. It makes sense, really. In a society where disease and malformations don t exist, human perfection demands that no genetic "mutants" be allowed to live. For Sector 4, "survival of the fittest" is not just a theory - it's The Institute's main mission. When Kate discovers that The Institute is using her DNA to create new life, her work gets personal. In order to save her unviable son, she'll have to trust Micah and his band of underground Natural Born Rebels. The problem is, if The Institute discovers her bet...

Title: 1984 Author: George Orwell Publisher: Signet Rating: 5 Synopsis (via Goodreads): Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell's chilling prophecy about the future. While 1984 has come and gone, Orwell's narrative is more timely than ever. 1984 presents a "negative utopia", that is at once a startling and haunting vision of the world — so powerful that it's completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of entire generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions — a legacy that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time. Review: "Two and two make five."  "Freedom is slavery."  "War is peace." Can you see how this book screwed with my mind?!  Not only is this a more advanced piece of literature that is often used for a lesson of AP English classes, but it was way out of my league... and I liked it! Although slow at first, Winst...

Title: Hang a Thousand Trees With Ribbons Author: Ann Rinaldi Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers Rating: 5 Synopsis (via Goodreads):  Kidnapped from her home in Senegal and sold as a slave in 1761, Phillis Wheatley--as she comes to be known--stuns her adopted country by becoming America's first published black poet. Review: I tend to forget how much I love historical fiction, especially the slave era.  Although, my favorite time period happens to be the 1920's.  If time travel was a thing, that's what year I'd be in...  Once I started reading the story of Phillis Wheatley, I couldn't stop.  The first couple of chapters start out with teenage Phillis who has a special meeting with "the most noble men in Boston" to prove her reading and writing skills.  Before the important committee reveals their thoughts, the story flashes back to January of 1761 when Phillis was just a child growing up in a tiny village with her mother and infamous ...