books I've read recently

So despite having to study for the biology Praxis exam and the general Praxis exam, I've still been able to read a few books lately.

The first was Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.  NOT to be confused with 50 Shades of Gray.  nothankyou.  This is set in a world where status is based on the color a person can see.  Everyone can see black and white and grey-scale, and then (maybe) one other color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, with violet being the highest status, the lowest being just grey-scale (with red coming up next).  So all the "violets" are the most upperclass.   It's a very cool and unique world, which I was specifically interested because of Novel 2's theme of synesthesia and colors playing a big role.  And I love Jasper Fforde as an author.  He's hilarious and witty and British, so there are some things that get confusing because of the Britishisms or just the different words they use.  If you've read his Thursday Next series or his Nurser Crime series, I would def recommend Shades of Grey.

I also read City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare.  Ohemgee I love this series and Clare always lives up to the hype for me.  It's the 5th of 6 books (last one hasn't come out yet) and I can't wait!  Jace is always lovely to read about (*swoon*) and I really do care about most of the secondary characters and their backstories.  But there are a lot of them, so sometimes they do kind of get mushed together.  This was a really good continuation of the 4th book (1st in the second trilogy), while also being able to kind of stand alone in the story line; I might have even liked it better then City of Fallen Angels.  There were even some references to her Steam-punk series set in the same Shadowhunter world, The Infernal Devices, and characters in that series.  So I'm interested to see if there will be any more overlap between the two as we get to the last two books in each series.

I've been on a John Green kick since I read TFiOS, so I read both Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines.  (Okay, I actually read them awhile ago).  LfA was better, though both were good because John Green is awesome at writing characters.  He gives his characters such unique and quirky character traits that you can't help but fall in love with all of them (in an entirely different way than you fall in love with Jace).  In LfA, the main character Miles loves reading biographies about authors, but not the actual work they are known for.  I just though it was a super cool detail and tidbit for a character to have and definitely makes him feel more real.  I still have to read Paper Towns and Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but I'm totes looking forward to it!