So here we go! Oh and don't forget to add me on Goodreads so I can see what you're reading!
When She Woke, Hillary Jordan
Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.
A powerful reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith and love.
Why I Want to Read:
Someone recommended this book to me when they saw The Handmaid's Tale on my Best Books of 2014 List. So of course I looked it up right away. I really loved Atwood's novel, and this one sounds very interesting, thought provoking, and scary- just like The Handmaid's Tale. The ratings on this one aren't as good, but I still really want to check it out for myself.
Jane, the Fox, and Me, by Fanny Britt
Hélène has been inexplicably ostracized by the girls who were once her friends. Her school life is full of whispers and lies — Hélène weighs 216; she smells like BO. Her loving mother is too tired to be any help. Fortunately, Hélène has one consolation, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Hélène identifies strongly with Jane’s tribulations, and when she is lost in the pages of this wonderful book, she is able to ignore her tormentors. But when Hélène is humiliated on a class trip in front of her entire grade, she needs more than a fictional character to allow her to see herself as a person deserving of laughter and friendship.
Leaving the outcasts’ tent one night, Hélène encounters a fox, a beautiful creature with whom she shares a moment of connection. But when Suzanne Lipsky frightens the fox away, insisting that it must be rabid, Hélène’s despair becomes even more pronounced: now she believes that only a diseased and dangerous creature would ever voluntarily approach her. But then a new girl joins the outcasts’ circle, Géraldine, who does not even appear to notice that she is in danger of becoming an outcast herself. And before long Hélène realizes that the less time she spends worrying about what the other girls say is wrong with her, the more able she is to believe that there is nothing wrong at all.
Why I Want to Read It:
I just finished Jane Eyre and loved it! (It made my Top of 2014 list too) So now I have quite a few Eyre related books on my TBR (more on that later?). This is a graphic novel aimed at middle grade readers, but the illustrations look stunning and I love the colors on the cover. I'm eager to flip through this, and I'm thinking I will have to check it out from the library soon.
The Big Sleep and Other Novels, Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler created the fast talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe for his first great novel 'The Big Sleep' in 1939.
Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream.
The detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in 'Farewell My Lovely', on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner. And the inimitable Marlowe is able to prove that trouble really is his business in Raymond Chandler's brilliant epitaph, 'The Long Goodbye'.
Why I Want to Read It:
I watched the film version of The Big Sleep from 1946 with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall recently, and I loved it! I loved the crime noir feel of the movie and how young and handsome Bogart was. I really want to read some classic crime, and I'm thinking this would be a great place to start.
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