Maintenance: An Update Schedule

Just a Maintenance Note

As my reading time is severely cut back by school and other projects I find myself worrying about maintaining this blog.  I originally intended to post a blog every time I finished a book.  With a relatively short amount of time and quite a few books to read I assumed I would be finishing books fairly regularly.  Unfortunately I seem to be indulging binge reading.

I have decided to update my bog every Tuesday and sometimes Thursday whether or not I have a new book finished.  If I finish more than two books in a week I'll post more than two blogs, but I will always post at least one blog every week.  Hopefully this will get me reading more regularly so that I have something to post about, but it will definitely keep me active online.

Here's hoping you're finding more time to read than I am!

Book Seven

Reached

By Ally Condie

I finally got my hands on a copy of Reached.  With the semester taking off in earnest I've been struggling to find time for reading, but when this book came in at the library I found time for it.

Reached was the perfect ending for this series.  The story is amazing and the twist that provides the main plot thread for this last book was clever.  I found myself wishing for more when I finished reading.  There are many unexplored aspects of this universe that I would have liked to learn more about.  The surrounding enemy and mysterious Otherlands left me imagining the setting to be North Korean despite name like Cassie.  

I do have my complaints out about this book and the series in general.  I loved the story.  It was unique and interesting, but the books themselves are wordier than necessary.  The writing is circular and dull in places.  As a reader I recognized the poetic wordiness is meant to mirror the poetic nature of Cassie, the first person narrator, but it makes the book more difficult to read, not a good feature for a young adult novel.  Each of the books requires trimming.  If they were half their size they would be much better.

Recommendations:

At the end of the day I did enjoy this book and series so I definitely would recommend this book to YA readers.  I would describe this series as a cross between Hunger Games and Twilight set in the Ugly's universe.  Fans of those series will love this one.  I would not recommend this for low readers.  The wordiness makes the book difficult to read despite the good story and would be frustrating for low readers.

Stars:

7 out of 10

Break Time

My semester has taken off and my reading time has gone down to nothing.  Between grading papers, teaching, and keeping up on the classes I'm taking I've had little time for reading (the life of a grad student is difficult).  I happened to find a few minutes for myself today and thought I'd recommend the best book I've read so far this year and the book I've already read and suggest for other's reading list this year.

Best book this year:

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I cannot wait for Insurgent, I had to order it since none of my local bookstores had it in stock.

Similar books:

Hunger Games, Uglies, Leviathan, and Host

Book I've already read but recommend:

The Host by Stephanie Meyers

With the movie coming out there is precious little time to read this book before the internet is full of spoilers.  I know the Twilight series have a bad reputation, but Host is a different book and I enjoyed it.

Book Six

Crossed

by Ally Condie

An excellent sequel to matched!  I enjoyed matched and the world Ally Condie created for the story, and Crossed take reader to a completely new place in her universe.  I was so transported to the carving that I was disoriented after closing the book.  I looked around expecting to see a canyon and was confused when all I saw was my room.  That being said the book was a little bit slow.  Too much time is taken inside Cassia and Ky's heads and with all the thinking the action stalls in places.  I was a big fan of some of the romantic twists and Ky's character growth is wonderful, although too symbol heavy for me.

Recommendations:

Obviously this book is absolutely required for anyone who read Matched, a reader who hasn't read Matched must read that book first.  The series is definitely sequential.  After reading this book I would still recommend fans of Hunger Games and Uglies read the series, but also Host fans would like this book especially and should read the entire series.  Once again the slow parts are difficult to read through so I would recommend strong Young Adult readers only, not for low readers.

Stars:

7 out of 10

Book Five

Matched by Ally Condie

I have two local bookstores.  Neither of them had Insurgent in stock.  I was told the local library has three copies but all are checked out.  While I wait for Insurgent I picked up Matched instead, which turned out to be an excellent choice.  

Matched didn't quite live up to my expectations which were, admittedly, through the roof.  It was still an extremely good book.  My two main complaints were that the plot seems over done (this is usually a sign that I should change up what I'm reading), and that the voice of Cassia, the main character and narrator, is overly melodramatic.  The writing is wordy, but after reading a few chapters the reader gets used to Ally Condie's voice.  I loved how well the diverse cast of characters were developed, which I find is rare with fist persons books that are limited by how the main character sees people.  I also enjoyed the world Condie built.  The Society, a place where everyone is bred to be the same, is an excellent stage to explore struggling with conformity.

Recommendations:
This is not for a low reader.  A strong reader is required to power through the first few chapters and get used to the writing style.  I recommend this for anyone who enjoys a dystopian novel where the characters are struggling to break free of their over powering governments.  This is similar to Hunger Games or Uglies.

Stars:
8 out of 10

Book Four

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I absolutely loved this book!  I've been looking forward to this one since I took on the 50 book challenge and I was not disappointed.  I'm a huge fan of the more subtle sci fi novels and this book fits that description perfectly.  Veronica Roth portrays a creative futuristic society without slamming the fact that the setting is futuristic in the readers face every page.  The author explained that the technology is different without forcing the reader to endure pages and pages of technical description.  

The strong focus on characters and Beatrice's struggle to find where she belongs in a strongly delineated world makes the book extremely relatable especially to teens who often live in a confusing world delineated by cliques and schools that want them to choose a course of study that will dictate their foreseeable future.  Roth captures the struggle with belonging when everyone else seems to fit in without any trouble at all perfectly through Beatrice's eyes.  

Recommendations: 

I strongly recommend this book to anyone!  Especially anyone who enjoys YA sci fi.  This well written and perfectly paced book keeps the reader engaged every second until the reader is surprised to find they've read the entire book in one day.  The fast pace and easy to understand characters lead me to recommend the book to even week young adult readers.

Readers who enjoyed Hunger Games and/or Harry Potter will love this book.

Stars: 

11 out of 10!!

Book Three

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer:

I'd been meaning to read this book for a while and never got around to it.  When I saw it cheap in a used bookstore I had to get it.  Unfortunately I'm in the process of moving from Texas to Kansas so I haven't had a lot of time for reading, none the less I found myself up at all hours reading this in every spare second I could find.
This young adult sci fi novel comes with plenty of awards that had my expectations high.  I was surprised when the novel fell slightly short of my expectations.  It was still an excellent read, but it did have it's slow places and a scattered plot that left me wondering what the point of the story was in places.  The character more than made up for any plot flaws.  Each major character was unique and realistic.
When it comes to characters I like my heroes with some flaws and my villains with their good qualities.  Nancy Farmer does an excellent job balancing her characters so that the reader is hoping the good guys will succeed, but the reader also understands why the villains do the things they do.  When it comes to a book I find a well balanced cast of characters is the most important thing to me.

Recommendation:
I recommend this to a strong young adult sci fi reader.  The slow parts require a reader who is willing to plow through the dull drums.  Readers who enjoyed Hunger Games or The Giver will also enjoy this novel.

Stars:
8 out of 10