Since we’re now into July – halfway through the year! – and I’m 50 books through my 100 book challenge for this year I thought it was time to stop and review my top picks from the first half of 2014. So without further ado, here they are. [book-info title=”The Empire Striketh Back” author=”ian-doescher”] My first pick for my top books of 2014 so far is Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. This includes Star Wars: Verily a New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back. For those of you who have not read my reviews, Doescher has taken George Lucas’s epic space opera and rewritten it in the style of William Shakespeare, compete with iambic pentameter and nods to Shakespeare plays. It’s incredible how well the Lucas’s epic saga works in Shakespearean language. The audiobook by Random House Audio is a full cast radio play complete with John Williams music and sound effects and is a must-listen. It narrowly missed out on the Audie audiobook award. The Jedi Doth Return is released on July 1st and I’m fairly confident it will make my top audiobooks list, too. Check out Doescher’s Educator’s Guide for more background info. I wish these had been…
Cress by Marissa Meyer is the third in the Lunar Chronicles series and is loosely based on the Rapunzel fairytale. It also continues the stories of Cinder and Scarlet, the heroines of the first two novels based on Cinderella and Red Riding Hood respectively. Cress is quite a different kind of protagonist to Cinder and Scarlet who are both rather feisty and capable. This fits very well with the Rapunzel backstory; like her fairytale counterpart, Cress has spent the majority of her life isolated from human contact and the world in general and when the girls and their guys break her out she is naturally very uncertain and rather naive. One of the themes of the fairytale is leaving parental (over)protection and going out into the world despite all its dangers and this is seen in Cress. Once again Meyer has woven in the main storybeats of the original fairytale – maiden, trapped in a tower, wicked witch, prince blinded – but has given them a very original twist in her retelling. What I liked Cress’s characterisation. Despite being less kickass than Cress or Scarlet, Cress still has her strengths more so as she gains in confidence. Certainly, she…