Sleepy Saturday (AKA Finally, A Blog Post!): A to Z Summer Reading Challenge

As I have been in college for the past year, I have had little to no time to read, especially when I took my philosophy class with the reading load of a graduate class. With the coming summer and a two-week vacation on the horizon, I thought I'd join in on the A to Z Reading Challenge.

Started by Jill Williamson (original post here), basically the challenge is to read 26 books over the course of summer. I decided to accept the challenge and start my list. I'll also include my recommendations for those who want to join the challenge. Q, X, Y, and Z took me a while to find (sigh), but eventually I did. Now let's see if I can accomplish the task of reading 26 books in a few months.

Sleepy Saturday: Unbroken

I'm not typically one to read nonfiction books. I usually like to stick to fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, and the like. So, in short, this book was a little out of my usual genres.

My mom came to me after she'd read Unbroken and told me I needed to read it. I'd done a research project on internment camps in America during World War II and presented on the cruelties on American citizens of different nationalities. Unbroken is a story of the other side, about the bombardier on the plane The Green Hornet--Louis Zamperini--and how he is captured by Japanese forces, imprisoned, and later freed.

The Rundown:
Violence: This is a war story, so expect some deaths, injuries, etc. Fellow pilots and flight crew die. While imprisoned, Zamperini is beaten, starved, and tortured. After freedom, he has murderous thoughts over his captors.
Swearing: I don't remember much anything other than damn, hell, and a few other milder words that some people may find offensive. It isn't overwhelming.
Sexual Content: Not a worry, though men in barracks together during flight training post pictures of women on their bathroom walls.

Sleepy Saturday a Day Late: Insurgent

So, I kinda thought I put book reviews on Sunday, not Saturday. Oh well, better late than never! 

This particular post is a follow-up of last week's book review on Divergent. This week, I bring you Insurgent. This book was gut-wrenching, dramatic, psychotic, and wonderful. 

The Rundown:

Violence: A lot of bodies and deaths of major/side characters. Life-and-death situations.

Swearing: Similar to Divergent: idiot, Stiff, jerk, etc

Romance: Stronger than Divergent: Tris and Tobias passionately kiss, sometimes in front of others.

Sleepy Saturday: Divergent

As with most bloggers, I'm trying to come up with a regular schedule for blogging. So, here's to starting out a routine.

In order to make a blog dedicated to college and high school age girls, I thought I'd also look into popular novels, how they rank with appropriateness, and just how good of reads they are. Today, I'm looking at the first installment in an up-and-coming series, Divergent. Warning, some spoilers after the basic rundown.