The Book Shire

A Year in Books

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

“We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.” If you think [...]

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

You might remember the last time I wrote about a Khaled Hosseini novel. The Kite Runner was one of the first books I read this year, and it [...]

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Back in my Super Nerd days of Academic Decathlon tournaments, I read a tiny book called Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a novel that is considered by many to [...]

The One by Kiera Cass

Who doesn't love a happy ending? Look, I'm not saying that I can't appreciate a sad one, or a bittersweet one, but I'm a sucker for a well-written "happily [...]

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer

  Even its name betrayed the problem. Reality TV: two antonyms right next to each other. It was as bad as "jumbo shrimp" or "fun run."    There are few [...]

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

"I hadn't thought of evil as being without color but it is. Once you get past plain everyday wickedness, the color is squeezed right out of it. Evil [...]

Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff

From the second you look at its pixelated cover, it becomes clear that Steve Brezenoff's novel, Guy in Real Life, is for gamers. With alternating POVs that [...]

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

What do Kurt Cobain, Amelia Earhart and Heath Ledger all have in common? They're dead, for starters, and therefore they're perfect for spilling your secrets [...]

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

A good mystery can keep anyone up late into the night. In fact, some of my earliest reading memories are of reading Mary Higgins Clark's Daddy's Little Girl, [...]