Book Journey

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on January 8, 2012January 8, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)68 Comments

Coming in a little late today – I got caught up in the previous post tonight and well…. yeah. 😀

Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited. **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

This past weeks winner:

Lydia from The Lost Entwife

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

I did not accomplish all I had hoped I would this past week. Even with the week off I spent a lot of time writing, not so much reading – and I was gone with friends over the weekend crafting at our cabin. That said – here is what did happen…

Divergent by Veronica Roth (First book of the year!!! And it is a good one!)

Introducing …. a new blog with a different focus: Team Kickin It! (Stop by and say hello!)

Folly Beach by Dorthea Benton Frank ( good beach read!)

Boo by Rene Gutteridge (fun audio that oddly gave me Twilight flashbacks of Bella’s dad….)

Cook Yourself Thin Faster by Lauren Deen (good recipes – easy and fast to make and low cal too!)

My How Book Blogging Has Changed... (my thoughts on some not so positive changes to the book blogging community over the past year)

This week I have some catching up to do… and a busy week ahead – work, evening commitments and Navy Son is home for a couple weeks! SSQQUUEEE!!!!

I do have a few things planned though…

Whether as New Year’s resolutions, birthday wishes, or daily promises, most everyone vows at some point to make a major life change. But change is easier said than done, especially when it comes to better managing our wellness amidst the chaos of everyday living. Fortunately, wellness coach and award-winning writer Brett Blumenthal has devised a way to inspire and motivate her readers to live healthier and make positive changes in their lives. Although Blumenthal’s method is not a quick fix, it is a surprisingly simple one: make one small change per week, for fifty-two weeks, and at the end of a year, you’ll be happier and healthier. After all, it is the small changes that are the most realistic, instead of trying to overhaul your lifestyle all at once. 52 Small Changes addresses all areas of wellbeing, including nutrition, exercise, stress management, mental wellness, and even the health of one’s home environment. By guiding readers through these changes at an easy, manageable pace, Blumenthal provides an engaging roadmap to lasting results and “a happier, healthier you.”

I haven’t looked at this one yet but I am excited to check it out!

After her boss is caught in a political scandal, fledgling Washington lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left broke, unemployed, and homeless. out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father’s offer to help turn birdsong—the fading Victorian mansion he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia—into a real estate cash cow. but birdsong turns out to be a moldering Pepto-bismol-pink dump with duct-taped windows, a driveway full of junk, and a grumpy distant relation who’s claiming squatter’s rights. Stuck in a tiny town where everyone seems to know her business, Dempsey grits her teeth and rolls up her sleeves, and begins her journey back to the last place she ever expected: home.

Mary Kay Andrews is a hoot – I look forward to listening to this one!

In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.”

Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been awriter. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times — the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

I loved Steve Martin as a kid! Had to give this one a try 🙂

I’ve experienced a lot the last few years and I have a lot to share. So I hope that you’ll take a moment to sit back, relax and enjoy the words I’ve put together for you in this book. I think you’ll find I’ve left no stone unturned, no door unopened, no window unbroken, no rug unvacuumed, no ivories untickled. What I’m saying is, let us begin, shall we?

A Christmas gift! Cant wait to read!

Thats the week! What does your week look like? I would love to see what you are reading! Add your link below to where it says click here!

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For those who enjoy reading Childrens, Middle Grade and YA – check in at this link as well:

My how book blogging has changed… and I am sad

Published on January 8, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)182 Comments

This past year – especially the latter part, I have felt a difference in the book blogosphere…. blow ups on twitter, and sadly some of the bloggers that I swear are the ones that helped me in the early days, that made me ♥LOVE♥ book blogging have drifted away – posting rarely or not at all… and that… makes me sad. I know lives change, priorities change, but there was a time I could list the blogging gurus of the community – and now… I just don’t know.

At BEA (Book Expo of America) this past year I seen some book bloggers throw fits about not getting a book they wanted, running and grabbing every book they could, and loudly speaking their displeasure if they waited in a line for a book that ran out of stock before they got one. I was ashamed at the fact that they did not realize that they were a part of something bigger… they represented a great whole… and were giving us as Book Bloggers a bad name. Honestly… it reminded me a bit of the snotty selfish girl in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory….

"I got a golden ticket to BEA and now I want ALL THE BOOKS NOW!!!!! GIMMY!"

(It made me think that maybe BEA going forward should have a criteria for book bloggers that attend…

You must be an established book blogger (4+ months) – showing consistency in posts and book reviews…

(just thinking out loud…)

And ok… I kid a bit above so this does not seem like a downer post because really – it’s not a downer post. It’s more about changes and accepting them and knowing that we still are a community of women and men who enjoy reading and talking about books.

So what does this have to do with me and my role as a Book Blogger? I still love book blogging. There are so many wonderful things about this community that I love. I did not know three years ago when I started that I would someday meet many of you. (*waves!*) That is still like a dream to me… and that just made me love it more.

I wish I would have found book blogging years ago so I could have been more a part of the evolution of it all. As it is, I am still glad we had such good years together and hope that the community will build strong once again.

I do try to do my part by helping bloggers who email me with questions, connecting bloggers to one another through the Monday meme, and making it a point to comment when I can…

I don’t think what we have is over. I think it is changing yes, and change can hurt a bit. I want to hang with people who want to talk books… who get excited about new authors, new releases, and the next great read coming around the corner. I will continue to do that as long as I have a passion to do so and for me… that passion still burns strong.

Note: I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago when I noticed another book blogger friend went off the grid. I wasn’t sure I would publish it, it was more just to words to my thoughts. Then I seen a post at My Friend Amy’s that said a bit of what I had been thinking too. She encouraged me to post my thoughts and here they are.

If you are a book blogger – or if you are a person who just likes to talk about books as well as other things… what do you think of all of this? Have you noticed any changes since you started blogging? If you are a reader – have you noticed changes in the blogs you like to read – for better? For worse?

Cook Yourself Thin Faster by Lauren Deen (and giveaway!)

Published on January 8, 2012January 8, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

I love food. It’s true. I absolutely admit to loving a good buffet, I hardly have anything I will not eat or try. There was a time in my youth… that did not matter. No matter what I ate, I did not gain. I was not a work out queen either… in fact I can not recall any exercise in those years beyond the required gym class.

Well times… they do change…

As I became older, married, with children… the pounds did not just melt away any more. I came to a point where if I wanted to look the way I well…. wanted to look, then I needed to work for it. In those years, I worked hard at the gym, tried hard to watch what I ate and did maintain the look I wanted for myself.

Now…. (*fast forward to present time), I have actually found things that I enjoy doing that also qualify as “working out and exercise”. Who knew… it could also be fun? 😀

I still fall off track. I get good at it, and then lose my mojo…. and then, like now, work on putting myself back on the track again. Of course…. I still have that “love of food” that has never left me.

When I found this book recently at one of my local book stores I was excited about it. Flipping through it I seen the pictures of the food were mouth-watering and something I would definitely be all for giving a try. I mean, look at some of these:

Dessert Pizza
Mini Blueberry Muffins
Seven-Layer Dip
Pineapple Mojitos
Shrimp and Grits
Cheese “Fries”
Carrot Soup with a Kick
Flank Steak with Indian Salsa
White Pizza with Roasted Mushrooms

And it also is broke into wonderful categories:

Breakfast
Starters
Mains
Sides/Soups/Salads
Dessert

AND – if you know me, you know that I do not like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen doing prep work and searching for a long list of ingredients. I was thrilled to see that the recipes were fairly simple to make, took few ingredients, and not a ton of “kitchen duty”. YAY to all of that! 😀

I also like recipes that I can serve to guests or take to potlucks that do not look like they are “healthy foods” (enter the vegie tray….)

I plan to spend some more time in this book yet this afternoon. Many (but not all) recipes have a mouth-watering picture. They all have nutrition information, and a list of ingredients that are pretty easy to find. (I may make the spaghetti squash for dinner) These are recipes my hubby would even enjoy and not feel deprived of flavors (just calories 😉 )

On page 29 I found this little gem which looks tasty and something I could easily prep ahead of time for work:

Asparagus and Goat Cheese Quiche

Recipe:
Cooking spray
4 asparagus stalks, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
3/4 cup low-fat milk- (I use 1%)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 oz. goat cheese- (I would use a low fat cheese)

1.) Preheat the oven to 425F. Spray four 5 oz. ramekins (I would use my muffin tin) with cooking spray. Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water and set aside.
2.) Place the asparagus in a shallow dish with 2 Tbsp water. Cover with vented plastic wrap, and microwave on high until bright green and just tender…about 3 1/2 minutes. Carefully uncover and place in ice bath to cool, and drain.
3.) Whisk together the eggs, egg white, milk, salt, and pepper until well blended. Divide the cheese and asparagus among the 4 dishes, and pour the egg mixture on top.
4.) Bake until just set, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or cool.

I hope to make that this week… maybe even later today as this ends my official week off of work and I am back to it tomorrow morning 😀

I posted this review today as part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking. Stop over and see what else is cooking this weekend! 😀

In a typical me fashion, after bringing this book home… I seen I already had it on my “To Be Read” Shelves…. so….. my “Doh!” is your “Woo Hoo!” as I am giving my second copy away to one commenter – who shares with me…. what they are having for dinner tonight…. (I will announce the winner of the book Tuesday morning)

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Morning Meanderings… Home! and Winners! Oh and more Giveaways!

Published on January 8, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Good morning!!! 😀

I am home from a crafting weekend with girlfriends up North… yes, farther North than I live. It was a wonderful time! We left Thursday afternoon, ate out Thursday night, then planted ourselves at the cabin and had wonderful food, watched movies, and worked with the Cricut.

While I did not make as many things as I did the last time we did this, I did have fun experimenting with etching cream. You use the outline of the vinyl pieces, put it on glass… put the cream over it and it etched the glass… kind of cool. I made these 4 glasses:

We celebrated Thanksgiving together as friends – so the wine was a perfect companion to our dinner.

I also made this:

We really had a great time. 😀

Now that I am home… I have a lot to catch up on! I have reviews to write and hope to get caught up today. I need to finish our year in review for book club on Tuesday. AND last week I promised a week of giveaways and missed several days! SO more giveaways coming up… AND winners to announce!

My winner of this book goes to #53: Cindi! Congrats Cindi – I am sending you an email this morning to get your address to mail this book to you. 😀

My winner of this book goes to #7 Shannon of Extreme Reading And Writing! Shannon, I have emailed you for your address. Congrats!
Thanks everyone for entering and expect more giveaways this week – including one I think that will go up today with my review. 😀

How was everyones weekend?

Morning Meanderings… AND…. I’m Off!!!

Published on January 5, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Good Morning!

I am sitting here this morning surrounded by “to do’s”. I took Bailey in already this morning to get a hair cut. I pick him up about noon.

I have some groceries to get, a stop at the local craft store, phone calls to make, dinner to prep, movies to pick out, packing to do….

Why?

Girl’s weekend at our cabin!

We leave this afternoon… me +4 more. We had such a great time in October with our Cricut weekend that we planned another one and now here it is. Yes, I probably could have got some of this done earlier this week…. no, I did not really prep at all until this moment. 😛

And that’s all ok… it will come together fast… I don’t mess around when I am shopping. It is not something I really enjoy so I am more of this in and out girl.

Asus (laptop) will not be joining me.

We have no internet there, and the girls tend to frown on me when I bring it…. so….. here it will stay. I am however bringing along The Future Of Us by Jay Asher, and possibly Snookie (Nook) and for sure Milton Podricker (IPOD). A girl cant leave everything behind…. 😀

I worked out twice yesterday, once with my friend Wendy for Group Power (weight lifting) and later with my friend Heidi (elliptical). I had double work outs the last two days – but now I will not have any until Sunday.

Boo by Rene Gutteridge

Published on January 4, 2012January 8, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Wolfe Boone, known as “Boo”, is why Skary Indiana is even on the map. A horror novelist who keeps pumping out the best sellers and drawing in the tourists. The town, adores him and does everything they can to draw in the additional revenue of the tourists by playing up to the “scary” theme…. the local restaurant is called the Haunted Mansion Restaurant, famous for it’s bloody fingers (fires splattered with ketchup) and bookstore is Spooky’s Books (where employees dress like the walking dead).

There is one person in Skary however that does not adore the famous Wolfe Boone. Ainsley Parker, daughter of the local Sheriff, is not a fan. Ainsley works at the Haunted Mansion Restaurant and has to put up with the gory menu and the vampire teeth when she works. Ainsley feels her town is ridiculous, all catering to one man’s awful novels.

But, when Wolfe suddenly finds faith and decided to quit writing horror novels, Ainsley finds a side to the man she never knew before. Genuinely funny, and honest, she may even be falling for them.

Yet the residents of Skary can have none of that! If Wolfe stops writing the horror novels, what will happen to the tourism? Their town? Soon, a scheme is plotted to put the fright back into Skary–and get their most famous resident out of love and back into the thrill business.

Ok.. ok… this book (audio) was a bit funny. But last year when Hannah at Wordlily ran a feature on the author, Rene Gutteridge. I proceeded to read Snitch and Listen last March, and really enjoyed it and meant to get back to the author before this – but as you know… life happens… books happen…

Last week in my library as I browsed the audio section, I came across the Boo series. Remembering my experience with Rene Gutteridge in the past, I quickly grabbed this first audio.

Listening to Boo, was a great choice. A funny story, great narration, and all around a great break from heavier, deeper reads.

Ok… and a confession. When I would picture the Ainsley dating discussions with her over protective father the sheriff… I could not help but picture Bella and Charlie from the Twilight series over there discussion about Edward… errr, in this case…. Wolfe.

This could just as easily be a picture of Wolfe, Sheriff Parker, and Ainlsley instead of Edward, Charlie, and Bella.

If you are looking for a light hearted fun audio, I recommend Rene Gutteridge’s Boo series… great characters and a narration that will have you smiling… all through the audio.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Loaned from my local library

Morning Meanderings… Book Cravings

Published on January 4, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Good morning!

*Takes a big drink of COFFEE*

Day three of my vacation is here and it feels like it is going so FAST! I guess it is, considering tomorrow afternoon I leave for the cabin with 4 of my friends for a Cricut weekend and will be back Saturday evening and then Sunday Navy son will be home for a couple weeks!

Each week as I travel the blogesphere I am bound to stumble across some books and reviews that really speak to me and put a book on my radar. This week has certainly been no exception.

Have you seen this book around? I have a couple of times and it draws me in and then I lose track of it, but Shan from Curled Up With A Good Book and Cup Of Tea wrote a review that made me pop this one on to the wish list!

Lauren Oliver is an incredible writer and this is another book I hear low and positive murmurs about – yet this week I read a review of Liesl and Po at April Good Books and Wine and knew I had to get my hands on a copy!

I can always count on Nise at Under The Boardwalk to give out good audio recommendations. She does that here with Iron House. This is a book I have considered for a while now but never really committed one way or the other. Nise’s description of the narration of Scott Sowers becoming a favorite of hers sealed this deal! 😀

Yesterday I had a wonderful day of writing, a great work out (see below) and ended my day finishing up our book club book for next week, Henry’s Sisters by Cathy Lamb. This is going to be an incredible review!

Work out update… Monday I had went into the YMCA and used the treadmill and elliptical for 661 calories. Yesterday I went in again and as I was finishing up, a friend came in and I stayed while she worked out too..another 1,500 calories. 2161 now for the week/year!

Also – Mari, at Bookwork with a View challenged me to a push up challenge… 100 a day. I agreed and managed 40 yesterday. LOL… I meant to finish them, but honestly forgot… 😛 Stop over to the new Team Kickin It blog to see todays post… Wednesdays are going to be healthy recipe days and I have a yummy one for you! 😀

Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

Published on January 3, 2012January 3, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)39 Comments

Cate Cooper has had quite the year. She had built up quite a life with her husband of twenty-six years, Addison Cooper. And what a whirlwind it had been, an insane love for each other in the beginning… and then it all began to unravel.

As Cate stood over Addison’s casket, she had to wonder where it all went wrong…

Life can be funny that way, as Cate soon finds out that Addison’s death is only the beginning of surprises for her. Quickly (really minutes) after the funeral Cate discovers that Addison was not at all who she thought he was. Within 48 hours… she is out of the home she had grown to love, and finds herself heading back to Folly Beach, the place of her childhood, looking for scraps she can accumulate into a new life.

But Folly Beach is not only the place where Cate grew up… it is also the memories of another woman from another life time… memories of a marriage that was like a symphony, the Heyward’s spirit lives on within the breezes of Folly Beach.

Can Cate go home again and start anew?

Take it from someone who did return to her childhood home, yes, you can go home again. Folly Beach took me a bit by surprise. I was expecting it to be a good story, I wasn’t expecting some of the great humor!

“Everything was a sheet of ice, the temperature around 20. It was only by God’s holy grace that we had all managed to make it to the cemetery without flying off the highway and into a ditch. I was pretty sure the ditches were filled with mangled bodies.”

And that’s just in the early pages, as Cate’s story unfolds it is not only one of a backdrop of historical (?) fiction, a little romance in the mix and a lot of family drama too… it is also one of finding your own fit in this world. I enjoyed going along with Cate as she did just that.

The reason I question the historical fiction above is that while the scenes in the book referring to the Heywards may be fiction, the Heyward’s were not. Dorothy Kuhns Heyward and her husband Dubose Heyward were real people and real playrights. Dorothy was also a novelist and assisted her husband in turning his novel Porgy, based on Negro life on the waterfront of Charleston, South Carolina, into a play.

Truly fascinating to see them woven into this book.

As I write this review I sit at the antique round kitchen table that was my mother’s. If you lean on it, you will find it to be not quite level, but as far as I am concerned, no other table will grace my home. It connects me to her.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can find Dorothy Benton Frank at website: www.dotfrank.com, and she’s also on Facebook.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

I received this book as part of the TLC Book Tour

Also – I happen to have an extra copy of this book and would love to give it to one of my readers! Please leave a comment here letting me know where you would like to escape for a time of relaxation and renewal?

Morning Meanderings… an exciting Blog Unveiling!

Published on January 3, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Good morning! Day two of vacation! I drank nothing but tea for the past few days…no idea why – but the coffee is back on today. 😀

Yesterday I spent much of my time writing and prepping my notes. It was a productive day. When I took a break in the afternoon I spent my time on a little project I have been tossing around in my head….

Because I want to work out more intentionally going into (and throughout) 2012 and BECAUSE there are a group of you who feel the same way I present…

Team Kickin It

(Insert SQQQUUUEEEEEE here) I am actually a little excited about the above adventure so please allow me a little gushing here. 😛 Team Kickin It will be a blog for the work out side of those who care to venture in. I hope to create a space where we can share tips, ideas, healthy recipes, goals, etc… your input and ideas are welcome.

No matter what is going on in my life I want to create a healthy balance between that and taking care of me. Feel free to join me by going to Team Kickin It and clicking on the follow by email button. This will ensure you receive an email every time the site is updated.

Oh and currently… there are no comments as this is the big unveiling, so I hope a few of you can pop in over there and help me welcome in new habits to 2012!!! 😀

In bookish news… I have a review coming later of Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank. I am working in a bakery within the pages on Henry’s Sisters…. I am enjoying an awkward invite to Thanksgiving dinner in Boo, arguing with Patch in Crescendo, and searching the train compartment by compartment in the delightful audio of Murder On The Orient Express.

I hope your day starts off wonderfully and continues to gain momentum from there 😀

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Published on January 2, 2012January 2, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)46 Comments

In this later world society (what was once known as Chicago), when one turns sixteen years of age there is an annual Choosing Day where each teen will choose one of five factions in which they will devote their lives. These factions are:

DAUNTLESS:(the brave) fearless, undaunted. Undaunted: courageously resolute, especially in the face of danger or difficulty; not discouraged.

ABNEGATION: (the selfless) 1. to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce. 2. to relinquish; give up

ERUDITE: (the intelligent) characterized by great knowledge; learned or scholarly. The word “erudite” focuses on knowledge rather than intelligence– intelligence being something you’re born with, and can’t necessarily control, and knowledge being something that you acquire.

CANDOR: (the honest) 1. the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression; candidness.

2. freedom from bias; fairness; impartiality.

AMITY: (the peaceful) 1. friendship; peaceful harmony. 2. mutual understanding and a peaceful relationship, especially between nations; peace; accord. 3. cordiality

and the one that no one is supposed to talk about (like “He who shall not be named in the Harry Potter Series…)

DIVERGENT: 1. diverging; differing; deviating. 2. pertaining to or causing divergence. 3. (of a mathematical expression) having no finite limits Diverge: 1. to move, lie, or extend in different directions from a common point; branch off. 2. to differ in opinion, character, form, etc.; deviate. 3. Mathematics . (of a sequence, series, etc.) to have no unique limit; to have infinity as a limit. 4. to turn aside or deviate, as from a path, practice, or plan.

A teen may choose to stay in the faction they were born into… or after a series of tests may find that they are better suited for a different faction. The point of the factions is form a “perfectly balanced” society… all working in their areas for the greater good.

Hopefully you are still with me…

When Beatrice Prior goes to her Choosing Day, she has every intention of staying in her families faction and continuing on with the life she has always known… but when it comes time to make the choice…

she chooses differently.

Beatrice (Tris) now finds herself in a world she really does not know, instead of the one of peace and meekness that she is used to, suddenly he is being trained to be a fighter, learning to fend for herself and doing surprisingly well with it. Of course, she makes a few friends as well as a few enemies along the way. And inside holds a secret that not only gives her an edge, but could also destroy everything.

The 2nd book, Insurgent is due out May 1, 2012

Every year I like to pick a book I really have been wanting to read for a while for my first book of the year. It’s a quirky tradition but one I enjoy! This year, I had it narrowed down to three books, and I made my final decision on New Years Eve…

Divergent.

I chose well. 😀

Divergent was everything I love in a great read… a fast start to the book, amazing characters, a captivating story line, fresh and new topics, and a satisfying ending.

I picked this one up in the early morning hours of January 1 and finished around 11 pm that night. I did little more than read all day. It was BLISS.

Divergent falls into the dystopia genre that I have really come to enjoy. I have no idea the attraction other than I think I really enjoy reading about survival more. In all of these books, survival is the goal… food usually a luxury, housing is not what we have today, and the evil of this new world seems to be every where….

In Divergent’s case the evil is within the division of the people in the first place. The segregation is very real…. once a teen has chosen their faction, if it is other than their home one, they will leave their family immediately and start a new way of living. Communications between factions is frowned upon, each looking at the other as weak, or the enemy – seriously it is mind boggling.

I think what amazes me most about a read like this is that it is all fiction. Author Veronica Roth has taken a world and divided it, making up rules, and people, and diseases, and manipulation…. and I love that it is all new, not done before.

It’s hard to put Divergent into words other than to say it blew me away. I will be anxiously awaiting the opportunity to purchase the second in the series, Insurgent, which is due out May 1.