WWW Wednesdays

What are you currently reading?
Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Lee Alexander
Charlie is a self-professed nerd. He's been dreaming of attending MIT since the fifth grade. He treats love as a math problem to be solved, his attraction to girls as a series of experiments. Then he meets Charlotte. Charlotte who has a tattoo on the back of her neck and who believes in hope and art and beauty. Charlotte who may be the only one capable of making him see life beyond science and math. Through his relationship with Charlotte, Charlie may finally stand a chance at understanding love.
I enjoy books that have nerds for main characters (maybe because they seem more real to me than popular people) and this is certainly no exception. Charlie is this loveable awkward dork. A little self-righteous and close-minded at times, but in a way that makes him more human rather than insufferable. The breakdown into short chapters/sub-chapters makes it feel like a quicker read than it actually is. So far, this gets a big thumbs up from me.
 
What did you recently finish reading?
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
Claire and Ella have been best friends since they met as small children. They shared everything. Things are beginning to change. Their final year of school has begun and they expect to be headed in different directions before too long. Then they meet Orpheus, a wandering musician who enchants both girls (as well as most of their friends) with his good looks and haunting music. Ella, in particular, is entranced by Orpheus and he returns her feelings. Claire tries to be happy for her friend, not knowing that worse things than losing Ella to love are coming.
Almond approaches this retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice with his typical, mystical style. He finds both the eerie and the lovely in this tragedy. In typical Almond style, there is a level of emotional distance that lends the book more of a mythological sense than your typical modern novel.
 
What do you think you will read next?
H2O by Virginia Bergin
Dystopias/post-apocalyptic societies definitely make for interesting reading. Given the focus of this one on the lack of drinkable water, it could be pretty exciting.