Too? Many Books: June Book Haul (and I suppose July too)

In the end of school, I read more words than I said in actual human non-paper conversation. I'm pretty sure. But now it's summer and time for freedom and working towards more human interaction. I'm pretty sure, anyway.

In an attempt not to make this a dump of books titles, I'm going to try to include a bit of a blurb about each (read) book in addition to the usual information. So now, it's just a completely overdone, crazily long post! *canned applause*

(I've been delving into more... teen... literature recently. These are marked with T's [in the case of them having been read].)

Nota bene: I took too long on this post... so it's been shunted sideways into July. With more books, so hopefully that's okay?

Read

• Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Incarceron Duology #1). Incarceron's inhabitants know it's a prison. The Realm, its queen, and the warden who looks over Incarceron think it's a paradise. The Realm is consigned to follow Protocol, a series of rules forcing the Realm to adhere to the practices and appearances of an era their technology has long outpaced. The book follows the warden's daughter, trapped in a marriage arrangement when her teachers know she could do so much more, as well as Finn, a prisoner at the bottom of the dangerous social hierarchy of the prison. Their worlds collide when both find mysterious devices, keys to the prison.

• Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (Incarceron Duology #2). Sequel to Incarceron, Sapphique is named after the "one who got away", the legendary man who escaped the prison. In the midst of near war, characters both inside and outside the prison struggle to find a solution to the problems that've been developing both in Incarceron and the Realm. (terseness due to attempt to avoid spoilers)

• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #2). (T) This sequel to The Raven Boys features everyone's favorite character in the Raven squad, Ronan. If he's not your favorite from the first book (and I don't blame you), you'll love him after this one. (again, terse)

• (I was going to blurb these, but I realized I read/reread THE ENTIRE SERIES SO HERE'S THE BLURB FOR THAT.) (T) Maggie Stiefvater's epic of the Raven squad (seriously squad goals), featuring demons, psychic's daughters, prophecies, the best and most complex/potentially problematic/still endearing characters you will ever find, thus putting all writers to shame, Welsh mythology, private school boys, trashy chic, double romances, mild and thus forgivable love triangles, ravens, sleep patterns, and names like Blue and Gansey. I switch my favorite book series a lot (The Lunar Chronicles, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl) but this is definitely up there with them. Read. Please.

• City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster. This. Book. Has. Some. Of. The. Best. Worldbuilding. I've. Seen. *fangirls* In an empire devastated by loss of its magic, families are limited to only two children. And no family wants girls. So the City of a Thousand Dolls is created, a home away from castes for abandoned and orphan girls of the empire. They're trained as accomplished wives, musicians, bodyguards, dancers, courtesans, and scholars, and fetch prices from those wishing to hire, apprentice, or wed them. But for a girl whose position in the city is dubious, the intrigue and murder in the air are dangerously close.

• Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter. (T) The full libretto (written lyrics) of the musical Hamilton: An American Musical. Photographs and footnotes that will make any musical fangirl, history fangirl, or book fangirl love it. 

• The Glass Swallow by Julia Golding (Dragonfly and The Glass Swallow #2). In the realm set up in the prequel of this duology, a girl glassmaker, secretly the genius behind the most prestigious designs, must fight for her life and her way home as she travels to a kingdom rife with chaos and class systems to fulfill her talents as a glassmaker. You'll love the worldbuilding, the realistic diplomacy and politics, and the characters' dramatic irony.

• Inheritance by Lisa Forrest. An interestingly set Australian novel featuring a girl who joins the circus... only to be thrown headfirst into a world of danger, escape, and magical powers stemming from ancient origins from a group called the Cirkulatti, reaching back to ancient Egypt, Macedonia, and Rome.

• The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd. (T) A dark and legitimately scary classics retelling of H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. I actually wouldn't recommend this. Dark, scary, thought-provoking, terrifying. Good if you're into that; I'm not. However, it is cool that it's classic sci-fi but with noticeably more girls!

• The Siren by Kiera Cass. Chicklit, but great! From the author of the Selection series (one of my guilty pleasures? Maybe? Depends on definition of guilty pleasure) comes the story that she says spurred her on to be a writer, which you should read just for that. Need more? Multicultural mermaids, destruction of stereotypes, quirky romance, interesting mythology twist.

• Thor: The Goddess of Thunder by Jason Aaron. This comic book is an amazing and interestingly new twist on Thor... she's a girl! Enough said, isn't it? Get over your culture shock, it's a great book in itself (even if you, like me, aren't quite into the medium.)

• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (The Illuminae Files #1). (T) I can't summarize this well enough, so I'll just quote and link to the coauthor's Goodreads comment here, which is beautiful and should win some kind of Pulitzer: "ILLUMINAE is the classic tale of Girl Meets Boy. Girl Loses Boy. And Parents. And Planet. And Ends Up on a Crippled Spaceship. With a Mad Computer. And a Deadly Virus Outbreak. In the Middle of an Interstellar War. It's without a doubt the coolest book I've ever written. I'm pretty sure you've never read a book like it." (Click the link for gifs that make the comment so much better, too). And read this book! It's all he said and more.

To be read

• Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• Soundless by Richelle Mead
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers (His Fair Assassin #2)
• Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers (His Fair Assassin #3)
• Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #4.5 [indicating a series add-on after book 4])
• For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Thanks for enduring through this streamy-of-consciousness post. Read some of these, though!
Happy reading!
~Citali