Radio Silence

I would like to apologize for the unexplained, unexpected, and entirely unintentional several-day lack-of-posting. I've been busy. VBS has started at my church (and it's a lot of fun - I love working with kids - but keeping up with ten hyper second- and third-graders can be rather exhausting), so Sunday and today were both spent working VBS and catching up on sleep.

And then there's thesis. Which I'm so behind on it's not funny. I've been a lot busier than I expected and stuff has just come up - and, okay, I've been reading. Which makes it my own fault that I'm not where I'd like to be on thesis.

Oh, and there's college. Still researching all sorts of different schools. Still haven't found anywhere that really screams "come here!" But I'm looking. So we'll see.

And I know this has been a very brief post after several days of posts-so-brief-they're-really-not-there-at-all, but I do not have the energy (or the concentration) to write more right now. So, more later.

Also, I just finished watching the last episode of Firefly. It's an amazing show, you guys, everyone should watch it. Not kidding. It's spectacular. You'll love it.

Love,
Bex

Technology. Sigh.

You guys all know I'm a total bookworm. Well, that extends to the internet. I blog about books all the time, probably more often than I blog about something other than books. I follow lots of authors' blogs. I have Barnes & Noble's website bookmarked, I have Amazon bookmarked, I have my library website bookmarked...

I also have Shelfari bookmarked. Shelfari is a wonderful website that lets you create a log of what books you own, what books you've read and enjoyed, your favorite books, and a book wishlist; it lets you discuss your favorite books, share book reviews, and just in general form a community of bookworms. I love Shelfari. I spend probably way too much time on the website. It's fantastic. If you enjoy reading at all, I suggest setting up an account. It's great.

Today, I discovered LibraryThing. It's a similar sort of setup: you can catalog your books, share reviews, discuss books, and it has the added bonus of having an Early Reviewers program, which means that you can get free books as long as you write reviews about them. It seemed like a very cool thing. I signed up, started cataloging my books, and signed up for the Early Reviewers program.

I was adding books alphabetically, not by title or preference (so I hadn't gotten anywhere close to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings; I hadn't even made it to the Chronicles of Narnia) and all of a sudden a little message pops up that says "Free accounts have a maximum of 200 books. To add more, you must upgrade to a paid account."

I don't want to pay to tell the internet what books I have and what books I like. I already have a Shelfari account that lets me list all of my books, free of charge. I deleted enough books to make room for some of my favorites, left a few spaces to spare in case I get any through the ER program that I have to add and review, and quickly switched back to Shelfari. But you know, I could have saved a lot of time if LT had told me that they capped at 200 books before I started adding stuff. It would have helped.

I have heard people rant and rave about how wonderful LibraryThing is, and I do not doubt that had I not spent a lot of time adding books only to be required go back and remove them, I would enjoy it too. But really, why do I need to pay money to keep a list of books? I've been keeping lists of books for years at no cost. It just seems a little bit pointless to pay LT to do it for me, when I'd still have to go through and manually add each and every book.

So, meaning no disrespect to LibraryThing (if you like it/have a paid account/are willing to pay for an account/don't mind the 200-book limit, I really am very happy for you), here's to Shelfari.

G'night, everybody. Love,
Bex

Only the Good Spy Young

No, it's not a catchy little saying that I came up with myself. It is a catchy little saying, but I only wish I could say I came up with something that clever. No, ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG is the title of the fourth and latest Gallagher Girls book. The official release date is actually next Tuesday, but as author Ally Carter explains here, some stores have copies available before that date. And I was lucky enough to get one of those early copies.

The Gallagher Girls series is a fabulous set of books about Cammie Morgan and her best friends. They go to an exclusive private school for "exceptional young women." And in their case, "exceptional young women" really means "spies." The first book, I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU, details Cammie's experiences with the first normal person and only boy she's ever really experienced. It also introduces the mystery of Cammie's father's death.

The story in ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG is more action-packed than ever. Cammie's in the real world now. Things with Zach have gotten even weirder, and now Cammie is facing more danger than she knew she could be in. And since she's a spy, that's saying something. There's betrayal. There are near-death-experiences. There are mysteries. There is laugh-out-loud comedy and there are moments that brutally real. Oh, and there are terrorists. Don't want to say too much more that's plot-specific because if you haven't read the first three I don't wanna throw out any spoilers, but it was excellent. Probably my favorite so far in the series, actually. Readthemreadthemreadthem!

The Gallagher Girls series is written by Ally Carter, who also wrote HEIST SOCIETY (which you can read my review of here). It's probably aimed at a slightly younger audience than HS, but hey - I've just turned 17, starting my senior year of high school, and I still love them. Cammie's voice is funny, sweet, and at times painfully honest. And the stories are fun and action-packed, and they keep you wanting more. I absolutely recommend these books. Absolutely. You can find out more at Ally Carter's website and the Gallagher Girls series website.

That's all I've got for today, folks! And now I need to go work on my thesis. *sigh* Laters!

Love,
Bex

A (Late) Two-Book Post

I know I know I know, I'm terrible at remembering to blog after taking a week off. It's after 12:30 in the morning and I'm just now getting to my blog for Tuesday. It's just taking some time to get back into things. Things meaning blogging and thesis. Oh, thesis. *melodramatic sigh* I love screenwriting. I love IF I STAY, which is the novel I'm adapting for my thesis screenplay. But I have so many ideas for other things right now...i.e. totally revamped vampire stories (yes, that bad pun was mostly intentional) and screenplays that I haven't figured out that involve nightmares and nerdy best friends and death threats and scary knives.

But anyway. I have two books to tell you about.

First of all, I finished SKINNED by Robin Wasserman. It was excellent. Very science-fiction; almost a cross between Aldous Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD and Mary Pearson's THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX (both of which are excellent books, by the way, though very different from each other). It's set at some unspecified time in the future when technology basically rules everything.

The fact that technology rules everything means that Lia's car should never have crashed. It should have taken her safely to her destination without Lia having to do anything but curl up in the backseat and take a nap. But something goes wrong, and the car does crash, and suddenly, Lia's life as the beautiful, popular girl that everyone loves is over. Actually, her life is over, period.

Except for the advanced technology that allows the doctors to download her brain into an artificial body. Now she supposedly has the best thing anyone could ask for: she cannot age, she cannot die, she will never get sick, she's basically indestructible. The one thing she isn't is human. And the friends (and boyfriend) she had before cannot accept that the personality inside is still her. Lia is lost, looking for someone to show her how to live again. And she just might find it - but first, she's going to have to come to terms with who she is.

I realize the ending of that summary sounds incredibly corny and lame, but I promise, the book is anything but. You should definitely read it. It's the first in a trilogy, and I'm definitely going to have to get the second one soon. (I believe it's called CRASHED. Fortunately, my library has it. Yay library!) You can find out more about these at Robin Wasserman's website.

The other book that I absolutely have to tell you about because it was ohmygoodness-wonderful-and-fantastic is GLIMPSE by Carol Lynch Williams. I'm assuming it just came out, because I found it on the New Teen Books shelf at Barnes & Noble today. It's 484 pages long, but it's written in verse so in terms of word count it's probably pretty short. I read it over about an hour and a half while I was in B&N with CJ and AF. It's a quick read and an amazing book so please don't let the length scare you off.

Hope is 13. Her older sister Lizzie is 14. They have other friends, but ever since they were 3 and 4, they've been best friends and they've protected each other. So when Hope walks into their shared bedroom to find Lizzie pointing a gun at her own head and Lizzie gets shipped off to a mental hospital, Hope's world turns upside down. She doesn't understand why her sister would want to die. She doesn't understand what she's supposed to do now that she can't protect Lizzie anymore.

Hope's mother is not exactly a source of comfort; it seems like Lizzie has always been her favorite, but neither one of them was planned, and Momma hasn't really been there for the girls since their father died eight years ago. What Momma does have is a secret, and that secret may explain why Lizzie wanted so desperately "to leave/for good."

GLIMPSE was beautifully written and once you start reading it you just can't stop. Absolutely a must-read. So, so good. It was excellent.

And on that note, I really need to go to bed, 'cause it's now after 1am. Oops. Goodnight!

~Bex

Playing Catch-Up

There are lots of good things about Salkehatchie, and even about having a week unplugged in general, but one downside is that I've fallen out of the habit of blogging, and I'm behind on some things I ought to tell you about.

First off, GRACELING. I read this back before I left for Salkehatchie and I meant to tell you about it then, but I didn't get there. GRACELING is a novel by Kristin Cashore, and while it took me a little while to get into it and I solved the "mystery" way before Katsa and Po did, I still really really enjoyed it.

In the fictional realm where GRACELING is set, some children are born with eyes that are two different colors. These children are "Graced" with some sort of gift, from painting to fighting, even to killing. This is the Grace with which Katsa has been gifted, and she hates it. Her uncle, a king, uses her as his personal thug. Katsa hates the crimes she is forced to commit. To make matters worse, Gracelings are considered unnatural, and as such, Katsa has never really had any friends.

In a sort of retaliation effort, she has formed the Council, a group that has spread through all seven kingdoms in an effort to protect the people from the acts of the kings. One of Katsa's missions with the Council is to rescue the grandfather of the Lienid princes. Along the way, she meets Prince Po, who has set out to find his grandfather and determine why he has been captured. Po is also Graced - with fighting. He and Katsa, two outcasts, two incredible fighters, set out to determine who captured Po's grandfather and for what reason. And the stakes may be a lot higher than either of them realized.

Reminiscent of Tamora Pierce's Lioness quartet, GRACELING was an excellent story with a well-thought out plot (even though I predicted some of it, there were definitely twists that I didn't see coming) and characters that you can't help but love. Definitely read it if you get the chance.

Also, during the week while I was at Salkehatchie, I read GLASS HOUSES by Rachel Caine, the first book in the Morganville Vampires series. The premise of the story was interesting - college town secretly ruled by vampires; actually, it was way more complicated than that, but I'm being pressured by my little brother to leave my computer and go watch Firefly - but I felt like the execution wasn't spectacular. Don't get me wrong, it was an amusing (although possibly unintentionally so) and quick read and I will probably end up reading the second one, but it felt like the drama was way over the top. Yes, it helped that Shane understood being on Monica's bad side, but the fact that she burned down his house and killed his sister was pushing it a little. Or a lot.

Finally, I've just started SKINNED by Robin Wasserman, which I will tell you all about when I finish it.

And now I need to go watch Firefly, because 1) it's awesome and 2) I think Little Brother 2 might kill me if I'm not out there in the next thirty seconds or so. Catch you later,
Bex

Salkehatchie

Helloooo everybody! I'm home! Salkehatchie was a wonderful experience, as usual. I gotta say, things at the JET (Johnston-Edgefield-Trenton) camp were very different from the Columbia camp. I also gotta say, I don't think I could survive living in the middle of nowhere for very long. I need civilization.

But that's not to say that this week was bad. It definitely wasn't. I made friends with several people who I probably would not have talked to much, if at all, had I met them somewhere other than Salkehatchie, which is always nice. And I think I learned a lot about appreciating people who are not the same as you.

There were some truly hilarious moments. Somnambulatory cows, flaming o's, unicorns in space, Monty Python and string theory, vampire babies, coming up with nicknames such as "Cat-Woman" and "the Rev Lupster" (I guess that's how we'd spell it), teaching HB and EN to play hearts, defining "lightsaber," unintentional dirty jokes, very intentional fake-secret jokes, and Spiderman Jason, just to name a few. (For the sake of saving time and not boring you, I'm not gonna explain all those stories here, but I definitely can if you want to know.)

There were some "wow" moments too. Looking at the finished kitchen, marveling over the air conditioner that EN and I had so painstakingly straightened out, being able to pick up one of the kittens, seeing how happy Mrs. Ora May and Mr. Bean (because calling him Mr. Joe is just odd) were when they saw the work we had done and the smiles on their faces when they greeted all of us from their new porch. God really can do amazing things.

What did I do this week, you ask? Well, I helped tear down a porch, and I fixed an air conditioner, and I cleaned everything out of a bunch of kitchen cabinets, and I painted, and painted, and painted, and painted, and painted, and washed dishes, and painted, and washed some more dishes, and painted, and washed more dishes, and painted, and put knobs on cabinets and cleaned out a bedroom and tore out a carpet and put down Peel-and-Press linoleum, and I even got to be a kitchen wizard and put the kitchen back together. It was a busy week, and I got really sick of painting, but in the words of my dear friend HB, "None of us are too good for painting." My frustration with the work was so worth it to make Mr. and Mrs. Bean so happy.

I feel like there should be some moral here about what God can do through all kinds of different people, but I'm too tired and too desperately in need of a real shower and a good night's sleep in a real bed to phrase it coherently right now, so for now just know that God is great and people are crazy and everyone should have a Salkehatchie experience at some point.

Love,
Bex

P.S. Yes, "God is great and people are crazy" does sort of reference a country song. Yes, I left out the line about "beer is good" on purpose. No, I have never tried beer. Yes, I do think it's disgusting. No, I am not a fan of country music. Yes, I do like Taylor Swift anyway.

Oh Look a Post!

I am terribly sorry that I keep forgetting to post things. I finished Kristin Cashore's GRACELING around 3 this afternoon and I would love to tell you all about it but I really need to be packing, so when I get back I shall be sure to post about it. Don't let me forget. Please. (SH, here's looking at you, I know you loved the book too so remind me to post!)

This evening has been rather hectic, what with packing and making CDs for the road and finishing GRACELING and going on a Mad Search For Sunglasses So I Do Not Kill My Eyes On A Tin Roof and trying to find my camera and so on and so forth. So even though I've been meaning to post all day, it didn't happen. Until right now.

What am I packing for, you might ask?

Salkehatchie.

Salkehatchie is basically a mission trip/summer camp combination run through the Methodist church. Four of us from my church (three members of my youth group plus one of our adult leaders (who reads this sometimes, hello! *waves*)) are heading off to the Edgefield, SC area tomorrow morning. For the next week, we'll be doing home repair work for people in that area who need it, and worshiping God, and having fun, and doing all sorts of exciting things. I'll make sure to tell you all about it when I get back.

In the meantime, you get a week's break from reading about my life. (I know, you're hugely disappointed.) I'll see (er, write to) you all next Saturday! Have a lovely week!

Love,
Bex

Two to None...

So of course I now have the Jack's Mannequin song "Rescued" stuck in my head (very good song, by the way, if  you need something to listen to). "Two to none, roads that lead away from this, I'm following myself just this once..."

Anyway. I have not read any books today. I read the first thirty pages of GRACELING, which I'll tell you about when I finish it, and I skimmed through the sixth and seventh Harry Potter books. To be fair, I've done a reasonable amount of reading beyond just skimming, but mostly I'm skimming, so I'm not sure how to count that. But anyway.

Haven't done much today, folks. Harry Potter is awesome. Jack's Mannequin's pretty fantastic as well. Beyond that...I hope you're all having wonderful relaxing summer vacations (and CH, if you're reading this, I hope you're having a wonderful time in Germany, say hey to LD for me).

Gonna go read/skim some more and then get back to GRACELING. Catch you later, guys.

Love,
Bex

I Love These Two-Book Days

Yes, dearest readers, another one. I am sorry that I am so easily distracted and forget all about blogging and suchlike until it is 11:40 at night, but I am reading good books and I am sharing them with you, so you can't be too upset. Right?

The first book, which I read over twoish hours this morning, was HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. It was an absolutely wonderful book. I will confess that I figured out the plot twists about halfway through the book, but that's something I do a lot, and the great thing about this book: it doesn't matter, because it's still fun to read.

Sophie Mercer is a witch. She's always tried to use her powers to help people, but after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she gets sentenced to Hecate Hall, nicknamed "Hex Hall." It's basically a reform school for witches, shapeshifters, and faeries. Sophie has a hard time fitting in. The most popular, most beautiful, and most powerful witches on campus become her enemies almost immediately; the guy she likes is dating one of those witches; the only person who will be friends with her is Jenna Talbot. Jenna's also the only vampire on campus. And to top it off, Sophie knows next to nothing about being a witch. So, she doesn't really fit in.

When students start turning up drained of blood, Sophie's one friend is the only suspect. But Sophie doesn't think the attacks are Jenna's doing. She's convinced that there's a far more powerful enemy out there. And whoever the enemy is, Sophie is one of their biggest targets.

I was expecting something fun but girly, full of giggling and girliness and love spells and so on. What HEX HALL delivered was much more than that. The dangers Sophie faces and the situations presented are much deeper and darker than shallow, surface-level popularity crises. There are demons, there is torture, there are all manner of dark, lurking secrets. It's a fantastically woven plot. But the narrative style is light, fresh, sarcastic, witty - Sophie sounds just like a regular teenager. A very fun book. Definitely go read it. Also check out Rachel Hawkins' website. 

The other novel I read today was Holly Black's absolutely positively fantastic novel WHITE CAT. The first book in a proposed trilogy, WHITE CAT was full of amazing characters and intricate plots, and oh my goodness it was wonderful. Everyone should go read it, right now.

The novel is set in the United States, basically as we know it but with one major difference: everyone wears gloves. Always. That's because of the curse workers. About one in a thousand people can work magic with just a single touch. Each one has a different gift: changing emotions, messing with memories, changing dreams, giving luck, causing death, even transforming things (although that one's really rare).

Cassel Sharpe has always been the only member of his family not to be a worker. And since the age of fourteen, he has carried the burden of knowing that he killed the girl he loved. Now, Cassel is trying to blend in and forge a new life for himself at a boarding school. He can't quite stay away from the life of a con artist, but he's more normal than he's ever been before.

When he wakes up on the roof of the dorm building and starts seeing a mysterious white cat everywhere, even in his dreams, everything starts to change. Cassel is wrapped up in a mystery only he can solve, and the stakes are high: the lives of almost everyone he cares about.

Go read this book. Right now. And if you have any questions, visit Holly Black's website. You guys, the Curse Workers series (or at least, the first installment of it) is FANTASTIC. Readreadread.

Love,

Bex

P.S. It has just switched to midnight. I missed officially posting this on June 8 by one stinkin' minute. I'm counting it as the June 8 post. Probably.

Another Two-Book Post

Yes, indeed, dear internetfriends. I have once again read two books in two days. Well, mostly all today. I spent yesterday trying to remember all the chapter titles in the Harry Potter series, because I am a nerd and I found a quiz. (That was why the June 5 post ended up covering for June 6 as well - I was doing quizzes and realized it was after midnight.) But anyway, enough about me being a Potter-nerd, you know about that. I should tell you about these books. Because they're great.

The first, which I started yesterday and finished(/mostly read) today was MISTWOOD by Leah Cypess. It took me longer than I liked to get into it, but that was probably because it was eleven o'clock at night and I was being a Potter-nerd. It was excellent. I absolutely recommend it. Read it.

MISTWOOD is about Isabel. Isabel is the Shifter - the legendary creature formed from mist who can shift into anything and is sworn to protect the royal family. She is anything but human. Loyalty is all she knows. Her life does not matter. Only the safety of the king is important to her.

But all of a sudden, Isabel has emotions. After ten years alone in the Mistwood, not having served the previous king for a reason that Isabel cannot remember, she is called back to her duties by Prince Rokan, and this time, things are different. And when a disputed succession challenges everything she thought she knew about herself and her loyalties, Isabel has to determine what it really means to be the Shifter.

MISTWOOD was very well-crafted, and Isabel's character is so easy to relate to even though she's not human. The perspective was very different from the norm - we get the world through the eyes of someone not human - and it just makes you want to read more. Also, there's a lot of talk about the various relationships between people and what it means to love, but it is in no way a sappy romance novel. Like, at all. This is a great book, you guys. And if you'd like, after (or before) you read it, you can check out the author's website.

The other book I read today, over the course of a couple hours, was SCANDAL, the eleventh (yes, eleventh) book in Kate Brian's fantastic Private series. The covers are a bit of a deterrent, at least to me, because they scream designer labels and snooty upper-class relationship drama. And to be honest, there is a fair bit of that. But there is so much more.

There are mysteries. There are murder mysteries. There are stalkers (real-actual stalkers, not just "ooh I like him, let's watch him!"). There is danger, and drama, and death, and even a secret literary society. Which is the only hint I can give you about the most recent book without ruining a lot from the first several.

Start with the first one, PRIVATE, and just keep going. You'll want to. These books may not be heavy intellectual reading (they're what my dad would call "trash novels," honestly, but he says that about a lot of things), but they are fun quick reads and personally I enjoy them. I think they are spectacular. Even if I don't know all the brand names. You should read them. They're quite good. And you can even check out the awesome website.

That's all for tonight, you guys. I should probably work on my Eliza-story revamp (no pun intended) before KD eats me for leaving her hanging (even though she already knows what happens...). Catch ya later,
Bex

Two Books in One Post

Before I get to the books, I want to do two things. First, I'd like to apologize for not posting for the last couple of days; I've been busy doing birthday-ish things. Which leads me to the second point: Thank you thank you thank you to all of my wonderful friends who made my 17th birthday amazing. <3 Love y'all.

Now. Over the last 3 days, I have been doing some reading. And I have two books to share with you. I'm going to try to be brief about both of them, because I don't want to bore you with a super long post about two awesome books.

The first is THE LIGHT. It was written by D. J. MacHale, who also wrote the wonderful sci-fi/fantasy/adventure Pendragon series. THE LIGHT was a really strange book that took me a little bit to get into, but in the end, I really enjoyed it and I'll definitely read the second one when it comes out.

The book is about Marshall ("Marsh") Seaver, a quiet boy with one real friend who lives alone with his father because his mom died. He's planning a wonderful summer vacation, but then two strange things happen: Marsh's best friend Cooper disappears, and the scary comic-book super-villain that Marsh has been doodling everywhere starts appearing in real life. When it starts becoming clear that the two occurrences are related, Marsh has to team up with Cooper's sister Sydney to find out what happened to his best friend and put a stop to Gravedigger (the super-villain)'s dangerous behaviors.


I can't count the number of times I said "This book is so weird" while I was reading it, but in the end, I did think it was a good book and it definitely kept me reading. THE LIGHT was full of mystery and creepiness and adventure, and Marsh is a pretty well-developed character. It plays with your mind and makes you want to find out what happens. There are definitely a few plot holes that need to be addressed and hopefully will be later in the series, but it's definitely worth reading. You can find out more about stuff at D. J. MacHale's website. You can check out the Pendragon series too - it's very very very very awesome.

The second book I read over the last couple of days was MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore. It was such a good book. Beautifully written, like Jane Austen infused with sorcery, and it's so poetic and magical and it's a wonderful love story and it's so great.

Nimira is a dancing girl in a poor city, seeking her fortunes after her father's fall from grace. She gets the opportunity to go live with and work for a sorcerer, Mr. Hollin Parry, and sing with his automaton. But the automaton is more alive than anyone realizes, and Nimira may be the only one who can save him. MAGIC UNDER GLASS is a beautiful love story about a girl torn between "a man she does not love and a man she cannot have" (from the jacket cover) and it was so good and so sweet and oh my goodness everyone should read it because it was fantastic.

You can find out more about the author and the book at Jaclyn Dolamore's website. There is a sequel in the works, MAGIC UNDER STONE, but there isn't a release date available yet. Definitely read this book, you guys, it was awesome.

Must go. Lots of love,
Bex

P.S. This is the June 5 post. I started back at like 10 but then SP distracted me with Harry Potter trivia, so it didn't get posted until after midnight. It's the June 5th post anyway.

June Release Dates

Because I'm a total bookworm (which you must have noticed by now, if you've read this blog at all) and I think books are a bit more interesting to talk about than the intense room-cleaning I've done today, I have composed a list of June book releases. IT IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. There may very well be lots of other books coming out in June. I've only uncovered a few interesting ones so far - there are lots of May releases and July releases, but not so many in June. Here are the ones I know, though (the ones that aren't in a series are just ones I read about online and thought looked interesting):

June 5: THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER, Stephenie Meyer - Twilight novella
June 8: SWEET DECEIT, Kate Brian - Privilege series #4
June 8: DECEPTION, Lee Nichols
June 8: STRANDED, J.T. Dutton
June 8: WANTED, Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars series #8
June 22: DARK FLAME, Alyson Noel - Immortals series #4
June 22: SIGNAL FROM AFAR, Stella Lennon - Amanda Project series #2
June 29: ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG, Ally Carter - Gallagher Girls series #4
June 29: KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY, Melissa de la Cruz - Blue Bloods short story collection

Love,
Bex

Another Book!

Today I read WAKE by Lisa McMann. I love summer. I have the time to read a book a day (provided I'm willing to slack off on thesis a little. Oops.) and it's fantastic.

WAKE is the first book in a trilogy, and it's been out for a couple of years. I've been meaning to read it for a while, and today I finally got around to it. It's about Janie Hannagan - a seventeen-year-old girl who gets sucked into people's dreams. Whenever someone has a dream around her, she is pulled into it as well, and there is nothing she can do to stop it. Unfortunately, people fall asleep in class all the time, so she's had more than enough of falling dreams, naked-in-public dreams, and sex dreams. But when someone in one of the scariest dreams she's ever been sucked into sees her there and recognizes in the real world that she was in his dream...that's when things start to change. There may be more to this strange power than Janie realizes.

The narrative style for WAKE was really different from what I'm used to, but it worked really well. It's told in little sections, based on what time it is at any given point in the story, and it's in present tense. In places I felt like that made the story a little distant and I wanted it to get more involved and complex, but I think that's more a personal preference thing than anything else. I did enjoy the novel, and I definitely recommend it. It's a pretty quick read - a couple of hours if you read fast - and it's good. You'll want to read it for the characters' sake, and to find out what's up with this whole dream thing.

The second and third books in the trilogy, FADE and GONE respectively, are already out, so you won't have to wait on anything. I'll definitely be looking for the second book next time I'm at the library. And you can find out more about the series and the author, Lisa McMann, at the website. Enjoy!

Love,
Bex