I read these books for the first (and only) time a couple of years ago when a friend of mine suggested them to me. I hadn't met anyone else who had heard about it, but it seems like recently I have seen these books being carried around everywhere. Which is what made me decide to put them on here. For those of you who haven't read them yet, this is the Matched Trilogy, by Ally Condie. This is a story similar to "The Hunger Games" and "The Divergent Series". Cassia, the leading lady, is happy with the life she has. The Officials make all the rules and choices and she is about to be assigned her mate. When Xander's face appears, her best friend, she knows that her life couldn't be more perfect. Right before the screen turns off though, the face changes to Ky, a boy that she has grown up with but doesn't know very well.
Now she wonders which one is her true match. The Officials want her to be with Xander, which would make her very happy. Yet there is something about Ky that she can't shake, and she feels like maybe The Officials made a mistake. When she finds out why she wasn't matched to Ky it only adds to her confusion and she can't help wondering if The Officials really know what's best. As Cassia finds more and more unsettling information about her Society, she is put in a position between choosing the predictable and safe, or choosing the dangerous and unknown.
The series follows Cassia in her journey to rebel against The Officials as she searches for Ky. She leaves her community to venture to the outskirts of society in an attempt to save Ky's life. She goes on a life altering journey and eventually reunites with Ky, only to be separated again once they decide to join the Rising. Cassia is assigned to work inside the Society, where she realizes that Xander still has claim on a large portion of her heart. Meanwhile, Ky is stuck on the outside of the borders, unable to make any contact with her. In the end all three of them are brought back together and Cassia has to make her final decision.
This trilogy is written very well, with characters that come to life. The first book was a page-turner and the romance was exciting and gripping. The next two books seemed to drag on. Yes, they continued the story. Yes, they had some suspense, action, and romance. I just couldn't really get in to them. Out of all the dystopian books that I've read, these ones are on the lower end of my favorites list. I wouldn't go so far as to not recommend it, because they are good books. They just aren't they type of books that I will read again and again. They are appropriate for readers of all ages and are written in a way that makes them easy to get through. If you have any other dystopian novels that you have enjoyed, I'd love to hear about them!
I have been on a Nicholas Sparks kick lately, there will be more of his work to come, but today I want to talk about his book "The Longest Ride". This is a really unique book because he takes two separate stories and alternates between the two with each chapter. Actually it's almost like 3 stories, because he switches the point-of-view between the two main characters of one of the stories. They are both incredible stories on their own, and Sparks intertwines them in a beautiful way. The book starts with the story of Ira, an elderly widower who gets in a car crash in the snow and can't get out. As he is stuck in the car he comes in and out of consciousness and dreams about his life with his wife Ruth. It's a very deep romance and covers their entire life together.
The second story is about a young college girl, Sophia, and her budding relationship with a handsome bull-rider named Luke. They meet at a rodeo, where Luke saves Sophia from her drunk ex-boyfriend. They don't seem to have anything in common, but there is an unexplainable spark between them. While Ira and Ruth have a more experienced love, Sophia and Luke's relationship is all about the first stages of love. The initial romance where everything is so new and exciting. The stories are on different spectrums of the love scale, but in the last few chapters they are brought together for an amazing finale. The ending of Ira and Ruth's love story, and the beginning of Luke and Sophia's.
This book has just about everything a hopeless romantic could wish for. A timeless romance that endures through separation, war, loss, infertility, and so much more. Plus the excitement of a young couple discovering each other and falling in love. There is a little bit of sexuality in here, but it is not very descriptive, just a heads up. Other than that I can't think of a reason you shouldn't read this book. It will probably take a few days to a week to get through, and is definitely written for high school age and up. Check it out and let me know what you think!
"The Rule of Thoughts", by James Dashner, is the sequel to "The Eye of Minds". It picks up right where the story left off, which I love, and has all the same intensity to it that the first book does. Michael, the teenage hacker, coder, gamer, is a little more than leery to go back into the VirtNet after his faceoff with Kaine. While he is trying to get used to his new life, and body, he decides he is going to have to track down his friends in the real world. He soon finds out though that hiding in the real world is a lot harder than in the VirtNet. There is nothing to manipulate to hide yourself, or easily transport you to a different game. Michael thinks that he has it figured out, but as soon as he contacts Sarah her parents are kidnapped. The only clue to their whereabouts is a note from Kaine. Michael is helpless. With Kaine chasing him in the VirtNet and the police chasing him in reality, the only person he can think to turn to is Agent Weber. She tells Michael, Bryson, and Sarah that she has a plan to destroy Kaine and save Sarah's parents. They have to go back into the VirtNet and do some very illegal things. Is she really going to help him though? Or is she just using their skills to attain her own goals?
Dashner does it again with another non-stop thrilling page turner. This book will most likely take a few days to a week to get through. It's one of those books that when you're not reading it, your thinking about it, and when you're not thinking about it, you are subconsciously playing scenes from it in the back of your mind, and when you're not doing that then you are wondering what the characters are doing while you're not there to keep them company. I didn't think is was AS good as the first one, but it definitely comes close. You will need to read the first book for this one to make sense, and there is a third book coming out this fall I believe. So that will be on here then. And as always, let me know what you think!
I was talking about this blog to my friends at work the other day and one of my girl friends told me that she had a book for me to read. She wasn't sure if I would like it, but I'm not very picky when it comes to books, so I asked to borrow it. Good thing she sits right next to me because she had to cover for me while I read this book at work. "The Eye of Minds", by James Dashner, is the type of book that I carried in my purse with me everywhere and pulled out to read in every free minute I could find. It's about a young boy, named Michael, who is a serious gamer. Almost all of his free time is spent in his coffin - a box that allows his brain to go into the virtual world while his body is being pumped with fluids and things to make every virtual experience feel absolutely real. In a world where you bounce between what's 'real' and what's 'virtually real' it's easy to get confused about what is actually real. There is a rumor being whispered through the virtual world about gamers being trapped there, while their bodies back in the real world become brain dead. For an expert gamer, hacker, programmer like Michael, these rumors aren't a concern. Until he has a run in with the VNS - VirtNet Security. They ask him to go off grid and find out exactly what is happening to these gamers. It will be dangerous, and he'll have to do some pretty illegal things without any help or backup from the VNS, but a gamers gotta game right? And this would be the most exciting and challenging game of all.
I have never read a book like this before, it showed me a world that I know very little about. The way the author describes the virtual world reminds me of reading a book; You get sucked in and it's almost like that becomes your reality and the real you doesn't exist. The characters are fun, it's well-written, and it's clean. I couldn't ask for more in a book. It does have some parts that are pretty scary, I wouldn't suggest anyone younger than high school age read it. I know it's labeled for young adults, and maybe because I'm not a gamer myself I might be a little sensitive to the content, but I just can't imagine a 14-year old reading this book. However if you have a child that is already playing games where they kill people and fight monsters then maybe they would enjoy this book. That's your call. It will probably only take a few days to a week to get through, so go get a copy and get started! Keep your eye out for its sequel, "The Rule of Thoughts". I'll have that on here soon!
My mom gave me this book for Christmas. I always get at least one, she knows she can't go wrong with a book. This year the book was "Extraordinary Comfort", by David C. Asay. It's a book that I most definitely would not have picked up on my own. The cover says it's about a mother's near-death experience meeting her stillborn son. I've never had a stillborn, or miscarriage, so I probably would have walked right past this one. It is written by one of her children that was there in the hospital when she had this experience. She is an old woman by this time and is lying in a hospital bed in a coma that the doctors think she will never wake up from. Her room is full of family when she suddenly opens her eyes, sits up, and starts talking as if they are all just there for a nice visit. She tells a beautiful story about what she has been experiencing while she was in her coma and tells her husband that their fifth son is named Shawn. He died before they had picked out a name for him. She also met her grandson, a miscarriage that her daughter had years earlier.
I won't go into more detail because I wouldn't be able to get the words right. It's a beautiful story and I think it would be very beneficial to someone who has lost a baby. Especially if they don't believe that there is in afterlife. Their child is simply waiting on the other side for his/her parents to get there. The author isn't LDS, but his views on this matter are the same as most church members. It's just an honest heartfelt story. You might not be able to connect with this if you haven't lost someone, but I still recommend reading it. Or perhaps you could give it to someone who is going through a similar experience right now. Anyways, here you go. Let me know what you think!
