Thursday 9 January 2014

Bout of Books 9.0 || Double Date Challenge


I'm relatively impressed with myself because not only has my reading been going well this week, but I've actually been participating in challenges. I've done most of the ones in the comments so far, but this one struck me with unexpected inspiration, so I decided to post it here.

The challenge is "Double Date" hosted by Writing My Own Fairytale. And the premise is to recommend two books that could be read together. They could be similar in some way, but cannot be two books from the same series.

Initially, I was kind of stuck on this one, so I toddled off to Goodreads to look at my four and five star reviews to see if anything jumped out at me.

And lo, not one pair, but three hit me with inspiration. Hence the posting on my own blog thing.

So here we go!

Date #1: YA Alternate History

 Both Leviathan and Airborn take place in an alternate version of history in which we make frequent use of airships. Westerfeld's tale is set just barely pre-World War I and pits the Axis Clankers (machines) versus the Allied Darwinist beasts. Airborn juxtaposes the wonders of airship travel against a dangerous mystery. Both are super fun and the first book in their respective series!


Date #2: Adult Urban Fantasy

Soulless and Written in Red both take place in worlds in which the supernatural is not particularly uncommon. Both worlds are accustomed the nuisances and nuances of werewolves, vampires and the like. Alexia (Soulless) is a hilarious and quirky narrator who is often hilariously put off by the fact that the supernatural won't adhere to polite society manners. Meg (Written in Red) carves out a place for herself amongst her city's most intimidating creatures. Though their tones are very different, they're both great reads and also first books in their series.


Date #3: Superheroes (but not comic books)

While I love me a good comic book, sometimes it's really cool to see something different than your typical Marvel/DC fare. Soon I Will Be Invincible follows both a supervillain and newbie superhero, alternating perspectives and throwing in a few flashbacks to round out the narrative. Ex-Heroes has multiple narrators, past and present, both first and third person, and details the challenges of heroes trying to protect people during the zombie apocalypse. Yes, you read that correctly. Superheroes and zombies. Both are completely unlike anything I've ever read.

So! What do you think? Have you read any of these? Any double date suggestions of your own? Feel free to link me to your challenge posts!