Fun News!

I am so very excited! I have joined a couple of websites that give me the opportunity to preview books prior to their publication. I received my very first galley today and I can't wait to get started! I am hoping to review a large variety of books, both YA and adult books, from multiple genres!

So, if you would be so kind, I would love it if you follow me and pass the word to your friends or other avid readers! I would love to hear feedback about the books I review!

Happy reading!

Reading....

I am reading A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin. It is not a YA book, but it is a very good series. It started with Game of Thrones (perhaps you have heard of the HBO program), the first in the Song of Fire and Ice series. It is very good. I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is also very long, over 1000 pages. So, I am plugging away.

My next YA book will probably be Passion by Lauren Kate. Third book in the Fallen series.

Happy reading all!

Part 2: Matched by Ally Condy

I am finished with Matched.  It was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. At the same time, it was a bit scary, because I can honestly see a future with this reality. A future where people with "authority" make all decisions for you, where you do not have a choice or a say in how your life proceeds. Scary.

I highly recommend this book to everyone!

My next book is A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin.

Matched by Ally Condie

On to my next book!

I am reading Matched by Ally Condie.  It is a very compelling story. Cassia has lived her life in a utopia, where all decisions are made by the Society and Officials rule.  Their choice is your choice. Supposed perfection--a long life, the perfect job and an ideal mate--is seemingly the only price one has to pay.  Cassia has been Matched with her best friend. It's obvious he is the one. Or is he? When Cassia sees another face flash briefly on the screen, everything changes. Will she follow Society's idea of perfection or allow herself to believe in passion?

If anyone has ever read The Giver by Lois Lowry, Matched will seem a bit familiar. I am enjoying Matched quite a bit more than The Giver, though. 

I am about halfway done, but the rate I am going, I will probably finish by tomorrow. I will update when I finish!     

Part 2: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

I finished this today! It was enjoyable to read. Inventive, interesting story. Now I have to decide what to read next. Off to look at the giant stack of books by my bed!  I did get an email today that my Amazon order finally shipped, though I am not expecting it until the end of the week. It includes 2 books I have been waiting to read--Passion by Lauren Kate and A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin.  I will definitely have to find something to read until it arrives.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Right now, I'm reading Wither by Lauren DeStefano. It is set in the far future, generations away. In an attempt to eradicate various diseases and even things such as allergies, scientists develop an immune system boost for children. Naturally born "flawed" children soon cease to exist, giving way to these genetically enhanced children born from perfectly enhanced embryos. The "first generation" of children does well, living well into old age, but their children and following generations do not. Males live only until age 25 and females only until age 20. This gives rise to the rich and wealthy wedding their sons to multiple girls in order to attempt to repopulate before the human race becomes extinct.  Which is where we find Rhine, about to be wed to a man she doesn't know or want.

Interesting concept. I am hopeful that the story will continue to hold my interest as it progresses.

I am on page 112, there are 358 pages total. This is the first book in what is called the Chemical Garden Trilogy. 

My girls haven't read this yet, though I know A is planning to. Her stack of books to read is bigger than mine is though, so she may not get to it for awhile.  

Whose fault is it?

Me in a nutshell:  I'm a mom of three, two girls and a boy. T is almost 15 and A is 16. My son is 11.  I've been married for 17 years to a great guy, though at times he doesn't get me and the books I read. That's ok, I deal with it. I work at a junior high as an aide, but I am working on my teaching degree. I will of course, teach English.  Better late than never I figure.

I have always been an avid reader, since I was a kid. Reading has always been my escape from the harshness of life, the only way I knew to live in a world better than the one I grew up in.  I always have a book on the bedside table, sometimes two or three.  Rarely does a day pass that I don't read.  For years I stuck with books that would be considered adult fare. Then, my oldest daughter--A--discovered Twilight.  And the rest is history.

So, I guess you could say it's my daughter's fault, right?  When she was in the 8th grade, she read a little book called Twilight. Again and again and again. I couldn't understand this obsessive need to read the same book over and over. I mean, I've re-read books, but usually I go years before I re-read something, not mere weeks like she was doing with Twilight.  Finally, in spring of 2008, I went to her English teacher (a friend I worked with) and asked to borrow one of her class library copies of Twilight. I slowly plowed through the first few chapters, still not getting A's obsession. I had the book for weeks, barely making a dent in it. Then my friend asked me if I was done with it, she needed it back. I promised to finish it by Monday. I forced myself to read it. Forced that was until I hit chapter 6, Scary Stories. I finished it less than 12 hours later, stopping only to sleep (barely).  I then read New Moon and Eclipse (thank goodness A had gotten them for Christmas) over the next 48 hours. I was fascinated! How could a book supposedly written for young adults (really meaning tweens and teenagers) be so good? I didn't want it to end. I scoured Stephenie Meyer's website for outtakes, extras or anything else I could find. I was hooked. Permanently it turns out.

That was the start of my "obsession." Not just my obsession with Twilight, but really with the wonderful genre that is young adult. I now read more young adult books than any other genre. I have a stack of them sitting on my bedside table.  My girls read a book and bring it to me, their eyes glowing, "Mommy, you have to read this!" And I do. Not only have I discovered some wonderful books, but it has opened up a world of conversations with my girls. It is something I can share with them. They get me and my love of these books and I get them.  We talk, laugh and cry over them. We share something, the three of us. And what could be better than that?

So really, I don't care whose fault it was. I'm just glad it happened!