The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Jason wakes up in the back of a school bus with no memory. Everyone around him knows who he is, including his closest friend Leo, and and his girlfriend Piper. When they are attacked by storm spirits, he, Leo, and Piper are launched into the world of gods and demigods, finding a place for themselves at Camp Half-blood. But for a reason Jason can't explain, he feels like he doesn't quite belong. Nevertheless, they all discover the secret of their parentage and a dire threat to the gods, demigods, and humanity alike.  Together they set off on a quest to restore Jason's memories and stop the destruction they believe is about to unfold.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Everyone knows that the eldest of three daughters will never amount to much. Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters in the town of Market Chipping, and being eldest finally takes its toll when she's cursed by the Witch of the Waste. Trapped in a ninety-year-old body and unable to tell anyone what's happened, Sophie leaves her life as a hatmaker behind as she sets out to break the curse.

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

This is a guest post
by Kristy Bruce

Six-year-old Matt Alacran is a clone. He doesn’t know what that means, but he does know that he’s different from the people around him. The people who care for him can be counted on one hand: Celia, the closest thing Matt’s ever had to a mother; Tam Lin, his bodyguard; and his powerful and volatile “father,” a man they all call El Patron. 

El Patron is the undisputed leader of the country they call Opium, a narrow strip of land between the southern border of the United States and Azatlan. His mansion is surrounded by the vast opium fields that are the source of his wealth, and are tended by eejits, human beings who have been altered to be little better than mindless slaves.

Sandwriter by Monica Hughes

What is there left to want when you're raised with every luxury? For Antia, princess and heir to the throne of two continents, it's freedom; although, she doesn't know it, yet. Sent to the remote desert continent of Roshan obstensibly to be wooed by the prince, Antia has secretly agreed to spy for her tutor, Eskoril, whom she loves. Expecting a backwards land full of flea-bitten camel riders, Antia is surprised to find a land of freedom and pride, where every gift of nature is appreciated by the people. Torn between her love for Eskoril and her growing esteem for the desert land, will she betray the secret of Roshad and its generous people?

Earth Bound by J.A. Taylor

Most people despise tabloids; they see the ridiculous headlines and scoff. Even the journalists who provide those headlines, apparently. Matt Granger is one of them, a journalist working for a tabloid to pay the bills, all the while reminiscing about better days and reliving his fall from grace. Then, on an ordinary assignment with the rest of his team, he becomes a believer: He gets abducted.

Zinovy's Journey by Ginny Jaques

Imagine a world where religion has been eliminated and the disparate cultures of the world have been assimilated into a single, secular state. Now insert a Russian soldier-hitman who's fled to the International Space Station after refusing to assassinate the mother of his yet-unborn child. Then destroy Earth. You now have the setting for Zinovy's Journey, by Ginny Jaques. It's the spiritual and physical journey of a man who has learned to trust only himself, and to love no one. But will Zinovy be able to find a place for himself in this new world?

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

This is a guest post
by Jessica Kirby

Snowman—lover to Oryx, friend to Crake, monster-god to a manufactured tribe—sleeps covered in a mangled bedsheet at the top of a tree. In his waking hours he reveals his unremarkable self by fantasizing about long-lost women, devising ways to trick fish from the natives, and pissing on the crickets. His narration of Margaret Atwood's 2003 tale, Oryx and Crake, is a twisted version of his otherwise mundane reality in a futuristic world of people with citrus-flavoured pheromones living in aristocratic, bubbled communities.

Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen

This is a guest post
by Cheryl Hannah

Twelve-year-old Ambrose is a misfit. He has a life-threatening peanut allergy, a knack for Scrabble, and an overprotective mum. She “was this close to being a normal mom,” but then his dad died. While Ambrose understands why she worries he might lift up the toilet seat, “fall in, and drown,” and understands why she makes him watch the Stranger Danger video “twenty thousand times,” and understands why she pulled him from public school to enrol him in correspondence school, he’s desperate to find a friend.

Ambrose and his mom live in Kitsilano, in the basement apartment of a nice old Greek couple, the Economopouloses. It’s right on the bus route to UBC, where Ambrose’s mum works as a sessional lecturer. Then, one day, the Economopouloses’ son Cosmo shows up on the doorstep, fresh out of jail …

Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson

This is a guest post
by Fraser Hannah

Why do so many people love science fiction so passionately? I read it more than every other kind of book combined, and this may be the first time I've wondered why. I think it's because I like looking at different worlds and societies, and seeing how we still bring out our eternal themes and stories. Even in the dark empty reaches of hyperspace, I like to think, there will still be evil to fight, people to fall in love with, and personal quests to follow. And Pacific Edge is a science fiction novel, in just this sense.

It's a novel about an admirable future Earth (well, California, anyway) where huge global corporations have been painfully eliminated, and humanity has once again realised the importance of building ecological, healthy homes in towns that respect and support the environment. A new social structure has emerged (well, obviously) and technology has been repurposed to reclaim the environment, a little at a time.

Swirls book trailer

I have another book trailer for you, to get you all excited for my upcoming review. By "upcoming" I mean sometime within the next two months. Not soon enough for you? Well, that's just the way it goes; we can't all get through three books in a week. Unless you want to take some of the work off my plate? Didn't think so.

Oh, and you can find the author, F. A. Hershey's, blog here.

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

This is a guest post
by Eva van Emden

Fans who found the Baroque Cycle and Anathem heavy going will be happy to hear that with Reamde, Neal Stephenson returns to the action-packed techno-thriller style of Cryptonomicon and Zodiac.

The biggest problem that Richard Forthrast, mega-rich owner of the only multiplayer game T'Rain, has to deal with is coddling the egos of his content writers. But the game is turned upside down when a virus called Reamde starts to encrypt the files of thousands of T'Rain users, demanding a ransom paid within the game; a full-scale war breaks out as bandits flock to rob the victims of their game gold. When a T'Rain player accidentally encrypts some files belonging to the Russian mafia, the consequences spread across the ocean to China and involve MI5, the CIA, a group of Islamic terrorists, and Richard Forthrast's own family.

Suggested book for November, 2011

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman 

Genre: young adult fantasy

Philip Pullman's theological subtext is subtle and compelling in this all-ages adventure. The Golden Compass is the story of Lyra Belacqua, a spirited child of eleven, who is drawn into a dangerous contest of wills when her best friend is kidnapped by Gobblers. Experience the world of Jordan College, Bolvangar, and Svalbard as Lyra travels with Gyptians, an armored bear, and an aeronaut on a journey to save her friend and discover the nature of Dust.

View my suggested books by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass