Reading List: January 2011

A new year, a new reading list.  In less than 4 days I finished my first book, and I wanted to finish it sooner; I really, really enjoyed it.  Shortly before we began circling Heathrow on our flight back from visiting my folks, Adam and I started watching an Aussie movie called Tomorrow, When the War Began.  Had we known that we were going to be in the air for an hour or so longer than planned, we would have plugged our headphones in, but we understood enough of the movie to enjoy it even without audio.  Sadly, it doesn't seem to be released anywhere outside of OZ/NZ, so we can't rent it, or buy it without having it shipped from OZ (we have a region free DVD player, so no worries on that front at least).  But the good news is that the movie is based on a series of young adult novels (The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden) and Adam was kind enough to pick up the first one for me as a Christmas present.  After I got over the self-referencing first person style and the narrator gets into telling the story, it's really good.  It's a teen adventure/suspense/drama/romance thing, and it works fairly well.  Compelling storyline, and the balance of teen love and angst is just that: balanced.  It appears, and just as it starts to bug you, it goes away.

Sadly, however, I'm done with it already.  I have a nice Amazon gift certificate to spend, and while I have a lot more stuff I want to buy than the certificate is worth (which is saying something--thanks to my overly generous parents!), it looks as though I'll be picking up at least some of the rest of the series.  Probably all of it, because I am a completionist.  And the first one was quite good.

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If you read on, you'll see I've acquired the rest of the Tomorrow series.  None of them are exactly long, and they get shorter as they go on (except for the last one), so I'm reading basically one a day.  On one hand, I'm not sure they're quite as good, but on the other hand, I really want to find out how it all ends (which isn't really the case, since after the 7 Tomorrow books Marsden wrote 3 more about Ellie, the narrator of the Tomorrow series).  But I'm enjoying them still, despite all the frustration in trying to get ahold of them.  In fact, I'll be asking Levi if he can help me out with that shortly . . .

So without further ado, January's reading list:

10. * Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle, by Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax Series #8)
 9.  The Other Side of Dawn, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #7)
 8.  The Night is for Hunting, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #6)
 7.  Burning for Revenge, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #5)
 6.  Darkness, be My Friend, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #4)
 5.  The Third Day, The Frost (aka The Killing Frost), by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #3)
 4.  The Dead of Night, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #2)

 3.  Skin Trade, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #17)
 2.  *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #7)

 1.  Tomorrow, When the War Began, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #1)