Why January rocked my world

My reading depends on my writing. If I'm deep in a first draft I don't read much, soooo since I'm not in deep first draft mode I've had the great pleasure of reading my little heart out this month. They're three very different books but share one common trait.

They rocked my world.

First up, PANDEMONIUM by Lauren Oliver. I was thrilled to discover this book was every bit as amazing as DELIRIUM. Lauren Oliver continually blows me away with her ability to combine beautiful and magical writing with heart-stopping action.

Where do I even begin? Maybe with the fact that I read this nearly 400 page book in less than 24 hours? While my 4-year-old was home from school? (Yeah, I have no idea  how I managed that either)

I was exactly like an "uncured" in the book, crazed and infected with desire. Nothing could stop me from reading! PANDEMONIUM is the kind of story I pray every book I open will be. If you haven't read DELIRIUM then you must must must do it now so you can read this amazing follow up when it releases next month!

Stephen King's ON WRITING is for my fellow writers. I know I'm waaay behind on this one but in case you haven't read it--DO IT. Amazing. Raw and realistic advice and insight. I confess to never reading a single one of Mr. King's books (crazy, right?) so if it weren't for an awesome writing buddy of mine (yay Nisha!) reading excerpts to me at one of our tea/writing/chatting meetups I never would've picked this book up. And I am so very glad I did. I have the dried up highlighter and dozens of yellow flags sticking out of the pages to prove it.

Even though I absolutely loved reading about King's life and method of writing I can't say I'll plan on reading any of his novels (I just don't do horror). Still, I highly reccomend this book to anyone who writes or who is thinking about writing.

I can already tell this is one of those books I'll keep off the bookshelf so I can refresh my writer's brain as needed.

I've been slacking on my Twitter time lately but I was lucky enough to pop on one night and catch a tweet about ANGELFALL by Susan Ee. It caught my attention because this person said they were surprised at how many five star reviews this self-published book was getting and wanted to read it. I did a little googling. Gorgeous cover and 99 cents sale price?

Sold.

I wasn't looking to start a new book. I thought I'd snag it at the sale price and get to it when I had time. Then I read the first page. And the second...and the the third. I couldn't stop.

ANGELFALL takes everything you thought you knew about angels and rips it to shreds. With my massive TBR pile I don't have time to reread books but this is one book I have to reread. It's that good.