Legend

My bookcase is always suffering under weight of books I have yet to read.  I don't think this is something that will ever change.  Especially since I have several I need to read and I plan on buying a couple more before the week is out thanks to Barnes & Noble coupons.  (Yes, they love me after all.)  I don't know how any of you do it, but when I'm deciding what book to read next I feel it imperative that I read the one I'm most in the mood for.  That way I get the most pleasure out of the book possible.  How do I decide which I'm most in the mood for, you ask?  I read the first page of each of them.  There is always one that I keep reading without realizing it.  When I come to my senses on page three, I know I've found the right one.

Last week when I was going through this process I came across two that I kept reading.  Legend by Marie Lu was the one I decided on.  At first I felt I had made a terrible mistake.  I think I was actually more in the mood for an adult book.  However, I prevailed and was delighted with this book.  In the beginning I was thinking it was a little forced and juvenile.  I liked it still, but there was something missing.  (I think I was just in the mood for some adult time with a book.)  There was something missing until the plot twist came.  Then, I couldn't put it down.  The love story did seem to come on rather quickly and without any build-up, and you all know how I love the anticipation, but it still worked out okay.  The writing got better, the action intensified, and it was an enjoyable read.

Legend is the story of Day and June.  Both have a very different history and come from very different backgrounds.  The world is in chaos with the wars between the colonies and the Republic, not only that but a new virus has sprung up and the poor can't afford the cure.  Day is only trying to protect his family and June is trying to do what she knows is right.  When the worlds of these two characters collide their lives will be forever changed.

Enjoy!

Crossed

Many of you read Matched and loved it right?  Crossed is the second installment of that great series by Utah's own Ally Condie.

Cassia is determined to find Ky.  She's allowed herself to be banished to the outer provinces in hope of finding him.  An unexpected visit from Xander turns everything around and now she thinks she might have found a way to get to Ky.  Xander still loves her and she realizes she could be perfectly happy if she chose him, but her heart still tells her to find Ky.  Cassia is sent on an unexpected, difficult journey.  Is she strong enough to go without the pills as her grandfather suggested?  Does she ever make it to Ky?  Jealousies arise, hope dwindles and ignites, and Xander has a secret that even Cassia doesn't know.

While the pace seems a bit slow through some of this book, the story is good.  I have to admit that I'm still in love with Xander.  Many of you may disagree, but I think he's brilliant and courageous especially after reading this book.  I hope you all enjoy it.  I'm sure you will because you loved the first book.  This is a great story that deserves to be read.

Happy Reading!

The Death Cure

While I love to finish a trilogy it's still always bittersweet.  You (or at least I) wait a year for each book to hit the shelves, hoping it will be better than the last and, you read the books so fast because you're already attached to the characters and you devour it and forget to savor.  I ate this book up just like I did the previous two.

As it says on the back of this last book, "The time for lies is over."  After Thomas has endured the maze and the scorch he didn't know how much worse it could get.  Now he's out in the real world and he's not the only one who wants to bring WICKED down.  He and his fellow Gladers are through with the torture and the death these people have put them through and there has to be a way to stop them.  Will he find it?  Or will he have to endure yet another game?  I'll leave that up to you to find out.

This trilogy keeps you reading and not want to put the books down.  Filled with adventure and mystery and real-life emotion.  Let me know what you think of it.  Personally, I really liked this trilogy.  It didn't end quite how I hoped it would, but I'm not saying it was bad.  Just different than I expected.  This last book was also a bit sad.  With a story like this one there is bound to be a bit of sadness, but overall, it was really good.  I recommend The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Happy Reading!

Infect Me

Amidst homework and many other tedious tasks, I was finally able to finish this book.  It was really good and one of those that inspires us all to think for ourselves.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver is the story of Lena.  She lives in Portland, but not the Portland we all know.  This is a time when the cure for hate, revenge, pain, and all the evils in the world you can think of has been discovered.  What is this cure?  It's a cure for love.  They've discovered that love causes pain and no one wants to suffer anymore, so, there is a procedure that cures it.  Love is considered a disease.  Precautions are taken for young people because they cannot get the cure before they are 18.  There are too many risks.  Lena is 17 and cannot wait for her procedure.  She's even counting the days.  What will she do when she finds out everyone has been lying to her?  But, what have they been lying to her about?

I really enjoyed this book.  The characters feel real and it's easy to experience what they are.  Hope you enjoy it too!  Happy reading!

Scorching!

Whew!  I really liked this book.  It was so exciting, entertaining, and I hardly had a moment to take a breath.  This book was hard to put down.  I love those books where you literally can feel yourself holding your breath right along with the characters. 
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner is the second book in the Maze Runner series.  (If you haven't read the Maze Runner you can refer to one of my very first book posts.)  Thomas finds himself in another trial, only this time it's not a maze and the task at hand seems easier than the first.  But, when WICKED is involved, nothing is ever easy.  He finds himself in worse situations than he could have imagined for himself, all the while still trying to remember why all of this is happening and what he had to do with it.  His memories are starting to come back, but what do they mean?  Like it says on the back cover, "the maze was only the beginning."
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the first and I really can't wait until the last one comes out in November.   This is one of the most unique stories I've ever read and one of those that keeps you reading to find out how it can possibly all play out.  I guess that's the curse of the main character whose memory has been erased.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Happy reading!

Be Ugly, Not a Bubble Head

The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld

Yesterday, my friend, Selina, asked if I had read the Uglies series.  Because I have and really enjoyed them, I thought I would do a post about them.  I read this series (all three books) in five days.  (Notice there are four.)  They were an entirely new twist on the dystopian world.

In this series everyone starts out "Ugly."  This is when everyone goes to school and learns about life and about the society they need to know... or, of course, what governmental powers want everyone to know about life and society.  I believe it's the age of 16 that each person becomes "Pretty" and they get to move to the house where everyone has a good time and everyone is "Pretty."  Never again do they have to associate with the little "Uglies."

Tally can't wait to become pretty and has watched many of her friends and people older than her turn pretty.  Though it's a series of plastic surgeries, she can't wait.  As an "Ugly" (meaning she's simply natural and real) she's treated as more of an outcast than the "pretties" seem to be treated.  One day she meets a girl named Shay.  She has an entirely new outlook on life and may be the only person Tally knows who doesn't want to be pretty.  Is "pretty" all it's supposed to be?  or are there secrets and mysteries she must solve before she can decide what she really wants?

You might notice that there are four books rather than the three I talked about above.  Extras is also good but it's about a different character.  It's the same type of society but it takes place on the other side of the globe.  I read it about a year later and understood everything just fine.  And check out the beautiful new cover art for Specials and Extras!


This is a fun series and one that I tend to think about quite often.  It made me think about what real beauty really is and the pressures of "doing what's right."  Hope you enjoy!  Happy reading!

Matched

In the midst of all the writing I've been doing I've also been reading quite a bit.  I just finished Matched by Ally Condie.  I was first drawn to this book by a reader on Shelfari.  She said she simply couldn't wait for this book because she loves Ally Condie.  I couldn't remember having heard about her.  The cover is beautiful and intriguing and the synopsis were enough to make me buy the book. 
This book is about a dystopian society (yeah, I know, Mal read another dystopian book) that is unlike any other I've read.  The people in this society are matched with their significant other when they are 16 and court each other until they are able to marry at the age of 21.  Everything goes perfectly until the main character, Cassia, finds out that maybe her match was not the only person that she could be matched with.  She begins to discover how to think for herself and realizes that "they" might not always know what's best for everyone.
It was a good book, and of course the first in a series that I will be anxiously awaiting to read the next.  More than anything I'm so excited that Ally Condie is another LDS writer who has written a great book.  Another woman who is making it with a great book that is worth reading without all the junk that's in today's world.

I always knew dystopia was scary but...

This book was crazy!  I really don't know how Margaret Atwood imagined this one up, but it's certainly original.  Even though it was written about 20 years ago it still makes perfect sense today and actually still felt very modern.  The Handmaid's Tale is the story of a woman living in a world where everything has been changed.  She's one of the first generation in this society and therefore still knows how to read and write even though these things are forbidden for women.  In this world women are used specifically to replenish the earth.  Men are either in charge of a household of women dedicated to giving he and his wife a child or they are sent to the armed forces never to love a woman.  It's a society of duty.  Pleasure is essentially forbidden, but what happens when the people are smarter than government gives them credit for?

The story was not only original, but the writing was spectacular.  If the story doesn't draw you in the writing will.  Atwood writes the way the main character is really thinking and you, as the reader, can't help but picture everything she sees with brilliant clarity.  Disclaimer: Because this story is largely based on the fact that the main character is used only for her fertile organs, there are scenes that can be potentially disturbing to some readers.  They are not long, it's the exactness of the language that may be disturbing.

My advisor had a list of books to read for my writer's workshop class.  I had to choose one that was most like the style I read and write.  Because I work a lot with dystopia (the opposite of utopia, for those of you who don't know) this book was the one I wanted to read.  It really made me think a lot about the factors in an unstable society and it really made me think about my own writing.  I've found another author whose writing I can aspire to.

Another One Over

This weekend was dedicated to my reading of Mockingjay.  It really was fantastic and a great end to a great series.  I'm still a little (nay, quite) sad about a couple of characters.  I would love, love, love to talk about specifics, but I know there are those of you out there who wouldn't care to read any spoilers about it. So, I will talk about my love for  the series in general.  I don't know what else I can say other than, holy crap I LOVE the Hunger Games series!  Truly a very unique idea and one that has stuck with me over the course of two years.  I read the first book a few months after it came out two years ago.  Suzanne is a master of cliffhangers and I simply couldn't get enough.  My love for dystopian novels grew even more after reading this series.  I highly recommend it and hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.  Now I have to go read something else to get over my slump after finishing something that has been a part of my life for so long.  If any of you have the urge to discuss this series I would be more than happy to chat!  Happy reading!

For the Love of Books

    I am in love with my new little bookshelf! It was actually quite convenient as I am creating my literature collection and now all of you can actually see the books I've read. My literature collection will have a rating system all its own. This little shelf will be rated simply by how much I personally liked the book. My collection will have some deeper influences involved and actually rate the book according to stuff that counts (or at least what I think counts).
    I've recently had a lot of people ask me for book recommendations and now you can see what I like, dislike and read because it meant something.
    For anyone who wants to know what I'm reading right now…

  
    So far, I love this book. It's another one that keeps me up at night because I can't stop reading.