End of Year List #4- Favourite Books Read in 2011 published before

I read a lot of great books in 2011. Many of which weren’t brand new, but still. In no particular order, here are the best books that I read this year that weren’t fresh off the press.  Links go to the review on Death Books and Tea.  

• Chain Mail Addicted to You by Hiroshi Ishizaki
• Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• Christine by Stephen King
• The Declaration  by Gemma Malley
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (did not review)
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
• Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
• Hetalia Axis Powers #2 by Hidekaz Himaruya

What did you think of all these books? Did you read them when they were out, or only recently, or not at all? Do you agree with me on these?

Independence Day and My Favourite Authors.

***DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE 100 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!***

So to all Americans, Happy Independence Day. Have fun partying or whatever it is you do. The reason I'm here today, on this day which is actually very ordinary for people like me, ie those in the UK, to talk about the people for whom it is not an ordinary day, ie those in the USA. And seeing as this is a blog about books, I'm going to talk about the authors who live in the USA. And before we go any further, that failed picture at the top is America from Hetalia Axis Powers. Reading books by American authors. I thought a flag would be boring, I currently have an  obsession with Hetalia, and I was bored, and I couldn’t be bothered to find a picture for it and…anyway, various things lead to that picture. And on to the main bit.


There have been some  good authors from USA (thinks of ravens).There have been some very good authors from USA (thinks of barbecue sauce loving demons). And there have been some very bad authors from the USA(thinks of sparkly vampires). For the purposes of today's blog though, I'm going to focus on the good ones, because heres a list of my personal favourites.

Book Review- Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Title: Unwind

Author: Neal Shusterman

Series: Unwind #1

Published:   November 6 2007  by Simon & Schuster

Length:  335 pages

Warnings: guns, fairly graphic detail of surgery, boy attacking girl

Other info: Neal Shusterman has also written things like the Everlost series. The sequel is expected in 2012, and a film is in early production stages.

Summary (blurb): The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called “unwinding”. Unwinding is now a common, and accepted, practise in society.
In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would unwind them. Brought together by choice, and kept together by desperation, these unlikely companions make a harrowing cross country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can’t be harmed-but when ever piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, is wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

Waiting on Wednesday 11: Unwholly by Neal Shusterman

 Waiting on Wednesday is  a weekly bookish meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where we show off books that we want to read but have not been published yet.

Title: Unwholly (Unwnid #2)
Author: Neal Shusterman
Release Date: Some time 2012
Goodreads:  Sequel to Unwind.
Blurb to book 1, Unwind: Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Why I want it: I just finished Unwind, and thought it was absolutely amazing. And while some parts of it were tied up nicely, ******’s speech (censored for spoiler alert) promised something more to come.  Which I assume will be seen in Unwholly.

What’s everyone else waiting on this week?