Got Milk?

Book number forty is done. LJ Smith is still one of my favorite authors. Her writing isn't spectacular or extremely unusual but her story lines are very interesting and I enjoy reading her books. She's good at appealing to the teenager that is still inside me. The friendships and other relationships (whether good or bad) are all well developed and easily relate-able, doesn't matter that they are witches, vampires, other paranormals or just human. I'm excited to finish up the third book in the series and of course I cannot wait to see what they have done with the TV series (I may have said that in my last post). I really hope the rumor of her writing more sequels is true.

Duodecillion

Another book down. The Secret Circle series wasn't on my "to be read list" for this year, though I have had the books for a while now, they weren't top priority. Then the CW decided to turn them into a tv series so they had to move up on my list. I just completed the first book in the series, The Initiation. I enjoy LJ Smith's writing very much. Her books are interesting but are also kind of laid back, they are rather quick reads and are very difficult to put down. She always manages to create a great relationship behind all of the supernatural goings on. Can't wait to finish up the books and then see what the TV producers do with the series.

Magic Hexagon

I finished two books recently, both of which i forgot to blog about. I just finished the blog for one and now I am on to the next. The Maze Runner by James Dashner was a wonderfully original and disturbing dystopian. I enjoy young adult books, especially these days... authors of ya fiction are not afraid to be more out there. They don't pussyfoot around the weird and scary things, they boldly go places that YA authors have always been too afraid to go to. The world is realizing that kids are no longer as naive as they used to be. Though I enjoy their creativity and their ability to throw away the "rules" and take literature to new extremes, sometimes I am taken aback by where they are willing to take their fabricated worlds. James Dashner's writing reminds me very much of The Hunger Games. Both stories have extra shock factor by making a large amount of the characters so young. These two authors have thrown children into situations you could never imagine going through as an adult, things that are cruel and very unusual. Luckily... I enjoy disturbing books. I read so much that I often am unable to be shocked by anything, I love when an author is able to surprise me and throw me off course. I am very excited to continue the James Dashner series.

Four Corners of the World

There is only one author who can take a zombie apocalypse and turn it into a beautiful expression of what humans fear and desire most in the world. Carrie Ryan is exquisite, she has created a trilogy of some of the most unbelievable literature. The characters are all full of life and are so real even though they are living in a very unreal world. Each of the three books had it's own lesson or meaning...the first, The Forest of Hands and Teeth,  symbolized wanting more, not being happy with what we have and always thinking there is something better out there. Every person goes through this at some point in their life. The second book, The Dead Tossed Waves,  was the realization that the choices we made were not the right ones, regretting what we gave up because what we thought we wanted, did not turn out to be all that we dreamed it would. And finally the last book, The Dark and Hollow Places, is the proof that once we figure out what we want, we should go for it and fight for it until the end. It is the realization that survival is no longer enough, we need love and family in order to make our existence worth anything.

The Devil's Roulette

I have been reading dystopian after dystopian lately. They all have slight similarities and many, many disturbing ideas in them. Though none of them have enough similarities to be able to actually compare to each other, apples and oranges. Delirium by Lauren Oliver is my most recent read and dystopian. Of all the books I have been reading this one seems closest to our world today and yet is the most unsettling. Try imagining a world where love, happiness, feeling emotions of any kind is considered to be a disease, a deformity, something needing medical attention. And it has even been given a name... Amor Deliria Nervosa. These faults have become so feared by this society that when you turn 18 you actually have to go through the procedure, which is basically a lobotomy... they remove the ability for you to ever feel any great emotion... no chance of falling in love, of enjoying hobbies, of feeling depressed or sad, life becomes an emotionless zombie-walk. And of course the people have become so brain-washed that they believe in the procedure and feel that life is better afterward. Until you have been "Cured" you live separately from the opposite sex, except for family and the occasional cured adult you happen to pass during daily life. Before you are "Cured" you will go through an evaluation that will determine your possible future, whether you are destined for college or to be married right away, what jobs you could potentially have, four matches of the opposite sex that you have to rate in order from 1 to 4 according to who you wish to end up with and finally you will be told the amount of kids you are allowed to have, if any. Life is determined for you in a way that makes you think you get at least small amount of a say. Of course, all the history, rules and safety for the city is all in a handbook and is fondly known as the Book of Shh. And of course there is a world outside of civilization known as the Wilds... this is where the invalids live... an invalid is anyone who managed to get away without being cured.
I love that the author has added quotes and paragraphs from the Book of Shh. It makes it come to life more and is quite sickening at times...
This is a Nursery Rhyme that is in the Book of Shh: 

Mama mama help me get home
I'm out in the woods, I am out on my own
I found me a werewolf, a nasty old mutt
It showed me it's teeth and went straight for my guy

Mama, mama help me get home
I'm out in the woods, I am out on my own
I was stopped by a vampire, a rotting old wreck
It showed me it's teeth, and went straight for my neck

Mama, mama, put me to bed
I won't make it home, I'm already half dead
I met an ivalid, and fell for his art
He showed me his smile, and went straight for my heart.

Here are a few quotes from the Book of Shh that really got to me:

"Human being, in their natural state, are unpredictable, erratic, and unhappy. It is only once their animal instincts are controlled that they can be responsible, dependable, and content"

"There has been significant debate in the scientific community about whether desire is a symptom of a system infected with amor deliria nervosa, or a precondition of the disease itself. It is unanimously agreed however, that love and desire enjoy a symbiotic relationship, meaning that one cannot exist without the other. Desire is enemy to contentment; desire is illness, a feverish brain. Who can be considered healthy who wants? The very word want suggests a lack, an impoverishment, and that is what desire is: an impoverishment of the brain, a flaw, a mistake. Fortunately, that can now be corrected."

"Humans, unregulated, are cruel and capricious; violent and selfish; miserable and quarrelsome. It is only after their instincts and basic emotions have been controlled that they can be happy, generous and good."

"Of all the systems of the body- neurological, cognitive, special, sensory- the cardiological system is the most sensitive and easily disturbed. The role of society must be to shelter these systems from infection and decay, or else the future of the human race is at stake. Like a summer fruit that is protected from insect invasion, bruising, and rot by the whole mechanism of modern farming; so must we protect the heart."

Samuel Beckett's Breath

I finished my 35th book yesterday, it was my debut author for July, Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz. I wish I had it in me to write something today but I'm beyond depressed over something I have to do later so it's just not happening. But I will say that I did enjoy this book very much. I wish it was the type of thing that could turn into a series but the author tied everything in so well, I just can't see how she could create something else with it. Slightly reminiscent of the story line in Blue Bloods (minus the vamps).

Don't Drag Your Butt Over This Document

My debut author for June was a little late, but worth the wait. Hereafter was a beautiful love story between a dead girl and a live boy. Of course there were a lot of paranormal factors involved  and was not completely about their relationship. I can't wait for the next book in this series to come out. Hopefully I will have more energy and time after reading the second one so I will be able to give it a review that it deserves.