The Giver

So, initially, I should point out that Sarah shamed me into reading this.  Yes, I know.  It is apparently required reading during school.  I somehow missed that when I moved from the Houston area to Deep-East-Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas.
I liked it enough that I felt it warranted purchasing the whole trilogy.  I'm working on the second book right now, while Mark watches Game of Thrones.  Speaking of which, I need to catch up on.  Not sure I'll ever finish the books.  They're so tedious.  How am I supposed to root for a character when they're going to die in the next few chapters?  All that leaves are bad guys.  And nobody cheers for those.  Well, unless they're hunchbacked, wily and clever.
Anyway, The Giver.  I must be on a streak with the dystopian novels.  I admittedly like them--apocalyptic ones as well.  Sometimes I think I must be a bit morbid, but really I like seeing someone unmask our lovely society, and I often wonder just what would happen.  I mean, we've seen inklings--beatings over one sports team or another, riots during and after a natural disaster.

I like to think that my family would be okay.  Well, if we survived whatever the initial disaster was.  We're a pretty self-sufficient bunch.  I'm one of the only people in my very, very small group of friends who could actually start a fire and feed myself.  Granted, I'd need a few key items, but that is besides the point. 

On a different note, J.K. Rowling's first adult novel will be out September 27th of this year.  [happy dance]  I've been looking forward to getting my hands on this for the longest time!

Happy Hunger Games!

I love Katniss!!  I do, I really do!  She's a typical confused teen, without the angst.  Thank God, because I would have hated having to finish the book.

I'll do a more thorough review once I finish all three.  Hopefully I can restrain myself so I have something good to read on the plane Wednesday!

Oh!  And pictures of the 3rd grade jungle coming soon!

The Awakened, Books 2 & 3

I decided to finish this series, just for the fact that the plot was intriguing.  That is truly the only redeeming quality for me with this series.  Character development was truly shaky.  The descriptions were overdone and so precise that they had no room to flow.  Tessar writes very clearly, which is great for his chosen profession (technical writing), but precision in creative writing, for me personally, just seems to make a story stutter and stumble around.  My other problem with the descriptions are intervals of heavy descriptions of feelings, actions--things that really move the story along, especially if you're describing a battle or how something occurs to a set of characters.  However, right in the middle of this (i.e. a scene where one of the protagonists is agonizing how to move freed slaves without being caught), he suddenly jumps to a rescue.  I honestly thought I had double clicked the page turn button and had to go back and check.

I'm not saying he's a bad writer.  I just think there's room for improvement.

Two for One!

Finally, after many, many days left unfinished, I have finally moved past book 8 in the Wheel of Time Series.  I don't have much of an opinion on it, as I started it months ago and just finished today (with about a dozen other books in between).  I started Winter's Heart today... we'll see if I finish it.

Another book I finished yesterday--yes, I finished two books yesterday.  Path of Daggers was nearly done anyway, so I finished it after I read The Awakened.  I didn't hate it.  Nor did I exactly love it, either.  The story was interesting, but not overly engrossing.  I found the writing to be very stilted and awkward.  There was a distracting amount of description, which was completely unnecessary to the progression of the story.  Tesar writes clearly, don't get me wrong.  And I fully believe you can't be too clear.  But, there is such a thing being overly wordy (which is my biggest fear).  For a free e-book, I can't really complain, but I can't say I like reading something that makes me constantly itch for a red pen.

Thinner

I'm on a mission to be at a healthy weight, one that is comfortable and leaves me feeling attractive, while still being, well... healthy.  I'd never dream of being the weight I was in high school.  I was a waif and was, in fact, asked on more than one occasion if I had an eating disorder.  Teenagers are so lovely...

Anyway, how does this relate to books?  And to Stephen King?  Well, now he's given me yet another thing to be paranoid about.  So, thank you Stephen King for second thoughts and slight paranoia about weight loss, twins, hotels, large dogs, Buicks, fog, doors, bears, aliens, clowns, cell phones, trains, robots, mysterious shop owners, school dances, game shows, the sniffles, lack of sleep...

Dresden Files

I'd seen the first few Harry Dresden books during my regular bookstore visits and just never picked them up to see what they were about.  I also missed when the Dresden Files came on SciFy several years ago, but finally watched the full season.  So, I picked up the first book, Storm Front sometime last year, or maybe before then to see if I liked it.

I love the character, first and foremost.  Harry is just this really, really comfortable character.  It's written in first person (between these books and the Rachel Morgan series, I imagine this is where I'm getting the whole writing in first person thing), and Harry's inner dialogue is brutally honest.  Jim Butcher writes the way I want to--casual, yet proper grammar, etc.  But, at the same time, he's funny and I just get pulled in to the story.  Hence the blowing through 5 books in under two weeks.  I'm finishing up books six sometime this week.

I do need to get out of my book comfort zone, however.  I've met with some success when I do (Atonement, The Sparrow, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan).  I've not returned to the authors I read that weren't in my usual genre picks, but I know I ought to.  So, I'm thinking that after I finish this book, it's time to read something other than my usual fantasy/science fiction picks.

Hunger Games?

Hmmm...  Hyped up books have let me down in the past.  And I am just very afraid these will be the same.  The premise sounds lovely.  In fact, it sounds just like something I'd like to read.  But, so did Twilight.  And for me, Twilight turned out to be like one of those awful accidents you can't look away from.