Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.
The books I plan to read this week:
My first read for this new week will be Through to You by Emily Hainsworth. I've been wanting to read it for a while now and I just love books with parallel worlds - and this book seems to be even a little bit more heartbreaking than others. And while the concept sounds depressing, I cannot wait to delve into this crazy-sounding world.
Then I'm going to read Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan, which I've heard amazing things about. Sadly I have not yet read any of Sarah's books, but this one sounds like a great way to finally do so. I really hope the writing's as witty as so many reviews have promised and that I will get pulled into a very intriguing paranormal story.
After that I'm finally going to read a non-review-book and that is This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. Can you believe I haven't read any of her books yet? No? I can't either. But I'm going to change that now after reading an excerpt of her upcoming novel The Moon and More, which made me crave to read more contemporary awesomeness.
You know, there are a lot of legitimate concerns that could be raised about what happened on Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya, when our popular ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed by a group that attacked and sacked the U.S. consulate there.
Was it a mistake to have so much of the consulate's security provided by local forces and a nearby group of CIA employees, rather than, say, the U.S. Marines? Should we have had a military response force located close enough to get there more quickly?
Republicans, however, seem to be determined to ignore these very real questions. This may be because "since gaining the majority in 2011, House Republicans have voted to reduce embassy security funding by approximately half a billion dollars below the amounts requested by the Obama administration."
That language comes from a report issued by the very committee investigating the attacks and the U.S. response to them. "You have to prioritize things," shrugged Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, one of the lawmakers who voted to cut funds for embassy security - and who's now helping to lead the committee.
Well, that's true, and it's become crystal clear what the Republican priorities are: not getting at the truth, but desperately trying to find their "magic bullet," the scandal that will bring down the man they love to hate.
All of their previous attempts - Fast and Furious, Solyndra, the DOJ's settlement of a Bush-era civil action against the New Black Panther Party - none of these have managed to gain any traction. But this! This, they thought, was going to be the one.
Mitt Romney got the ball rolling. Before the bodies were cold, he was releasing critical statements in the mendacious and fact-free style that characterized the entire campaign. He accused Obama of expressing "sympathy" for the attackers and for responding to the attacks by "apologizing for our values." The fact that the president had done no such thing didn't matter to Lord Romney, whose disdain for the President was only exceeded by his disdain for the truth.
In the days leading up to the election, Benghazi became the right-wing obsession. Mention anything, anything at all, and they'd start yelling at the top of their lungs that "Obama lied about Benghazi."
"Obama is leading in the swing states ..."
"HE'S LYING ABOUT BENGHAZI!"
"The heads of the car companies say Romney's lying about moving auto jobs to China ..."
"THAT'S NOT AS BAD AS OBAMA LYING ABOUT BENGHAZI!"
"Would you like another piece of toast?"
"I BET OUR AMBASSADOR IN BENGHAZI WOULD HAVE LIKED TOAST, BUT OBAMA MURDERED HIM, THEN LIED TO COVER IT UP!"
And so on.
But as hearings ramped up and people who actually knew things began to speak, it became more and more obvious that there really was no scandal there. No one, as the conspiracy theorists claimed at first, had told U.S. forces to "stand down" rather than help the beleaguered ambassador. President Obama had immediately referred to the attacks as an act of terror, despite Romney's brazen attempt to lie about it at the second debate.
As it turns out, however, the "lies" Ambassador Rice were supposedly telling were actually information given to her by the CIA and vetted by "seven, eight, nine different agencies" before being approved in final form, again by the CIA. At least that's what Rep. Peter King described as the testimony from scandal-plagued former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus.
This led to some rumblings that Petraeus' recent sex scandal arose out of some attempt by the administration to blackmail him. That line of attack went nowhere, probably because it made no sense. Then there was a claim that the White House had changed the ambassador's "talking points" to take out references to al-Qaida and make themselves look better.
As this scandal-that-isn't fades away, to become just another one of the Zombie Lies the right trots out again and again no matter how many times it's debunked, what's next?
Will President Obama be blamed for the death of the Twinkie? Will some small detail of the White House Christmas tree lead to outraged calls for his impeachment?
Huge thanks to the lovely Michelle from MuchLovedBooks for the copy of Delirium. I really hope to read this soon, because I can't believe I haven't read it yet. Also thanks to Harlequin Teen (via NetGalley) and HarperCollins (via Edelweiss) for the review copies.
Pretty, pretty new additions to my tbr-pile. I really cannot believe I haven't read Delirium yet, but I need to change this as soon as possible. Big thanks to Michelle again for sending me this! I'm also very happy about these awesome review copies that I can't wait to delve into. Wish my days had more hours so I could spend more time reading.
Undeadly by Michele Vail Series:The Reaper Diaries #1 Publisher: Harlequin Teen First published: November 20th, 2012 Source: NetGalley Format: eARC Pages: 272
Goodreads Summary: The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...
Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper—and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she's shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite boarding school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath.
Life at Nekyia has its plusses. Molly has her own personal ghoul, for one. Rick follows her there out of the blue, for another...except, there's something a little off about him. When students at the academy start to die and Rath disappears, Molly starts to wonder if anything is as it seems. Only one thing is certain—-Molly's got an undeadly knack for finding trouble....
My Rating: 3.5/ 5
First thoughts:
With wonderful mythology elements, paranormal gifts that I'm dying to find out more about and lots of action, Undeadly turned out to be a very interesting read. There are some aspects of the story that did annoy me slightly, but overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it to everyone who is looking for a different kind of paranormal read.
My thoughts about...
...the mythology:
At first I need to tell you about the amazing use of ancient Egyptian mythology. I've always been a huge fan of it and can never watch to many documentaries about ancient Egypt and their beliefs, so of course I absolutely loved that it is featured in Undeadly. The Underworld, the gods and the gifts certain humans got from them create a wonderful basis for the rest of the story.
...the plot and the narration:
Undeadly doesn't take much time to show us what it's about and where this story might go. You get to know Molly's world very fast - and it's a very different world from ours. I love fictional settings in which paranormal elements are officially known by its society and the main character does not have to hide her gifts (at least to a certain extent). The rest of the story is similarly fast paced and interesting things that make you want to continue reading seem to happen within every chapter. Especially the ending though will ensure your need to read the sequel.
Like I said above, we get to know Undeadly's world very fast thanks to Molly's explanations about almost everything. Sadly this led to some confusion for me in the beginning because I felt like I got too much information in too little time. Nonetheless there were certain other aspects toward the end that I would have liked to know more about, which sadly confused me as well.
...the characters:
As a main character, Molly is, while still likeable, a very naive and sometimes annoying person. Her attitudes toward certain things and persons seem to constantly change which makes it hard to really identify with her. I also would have liked her to be more skeptical during certain situations (you'll know which ones I mean when you read it) and maybe think more about the things she's done.
There are many secondary characters which sadly means that we don't get to know any of them very well. With only 272 pages Undeadly is a fairly short novel and with all the action it doesn't leave much room to find out more about Molly's friends and enemies. There is a love story, too, but it's definitely not the main focus and I really hope we'll get to see more of it in the sequel.
...everything:
All in all, Undeadly is a fast and enjoyable read and is definitely able to take off your mind from everyday matters and allows you to delve into a different world. While I'm not too happy with certain things, I'm still very curious about the next book Unchosen and will definitely read it once it's released next year.
Challenge(s):
YA Mythology Challenge 2012
Debut Author Challenge 2012
Do you like Egyptian mythology? Have you already read Undeadly or do you plan to do so? What do you think about its premise?
Living in Germany gives me the perfect opportunity to compare original covers with the ones German publishers choose. Sometimes they're gorgeous, sometimes they make me cringe, but it's always interesting to see different covers for the same novel.
(US/ UK / GER) You can click on each cover to enlarge it.
To my shame I have to admit that I still didn't manage to read Partials despite the very awesome things I've heard about it (feel free to make me see reason in the comments). I actually like all of these covers as their composition of images is very beautifully done. The German cover's colours are definitely more eye-catching, but I think I prefer the more muted colors of the US and UK versions. These two don't have too many differences, but the longer I look at them the more I realize that I prefer the UK version. The typography and the light violett tint of the picture appeal to me a tiny bit more.
Last week's Cover Comparisons is currently at a tie between the new US cover and the UK cover for Maggie Stiefvater's Scorpio Races. Feel free to vote here for your favorite version.
Curtis Sittenfeld's PREP meets THE SIXTH SENSE in this spine-tingling, unforgettable debut.
Camden Fisher arrives at boarding school haunted by a falling-out with her best friend back home. But the manicured grounds of Lethe Academy are like nothing Cam has ever known. There are gorgeous, preppy boys wielding tennis rackets, and circles of girls with secrets to spare. Only . . . something is not quite right. One of Cam's new friends mysteriously disappears, but the teachers don't seem too concerned. Cam wakes up to strangers in her room, who then melt into the night. She is suddenly plagued by odd memories, and senses there might be something dark and terrible brewing. But what? The answer will leave Cam--and readers--stunned and breathless, in this thrilling debut novel.
I only found out about this a couple of minutes ago by opening my Goodreads homepage and immediately fell in love with the pretty cover and intriguing synopsis. I still love boarding school settings and this one sounds wonderfully mysterious. Definitely a must-read for me next year. Too bad it's still so long until May!
Renegade by J.A. Souders Series:The Elysium Chronicles #1 Publisher: Tor Teen First published: November 13th, 2012 Source: NetGalley Format: eARC Pages: 364
Goodreads Summary:
Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.
But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie.
Her memories have been altered.
Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.
And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.
Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.
My Rating: 3.5 / 5
First thoughts:
Presenting us one of the most unique dystopian settings I have encountered so far, Renegade is a very interesting story. While I'm not completely happy with the characters and would have wished to be able to connect with them more, I liked the overall premise and its execution.
My thoughts about...
... the plot:
With dystopian novels flooding the YA market, it's hard to find a refreshing approach. But luckilyRenegade's setting is incredibly unique, with a society that still has typical characteristics of the dystopian elements we know: oppression, brainwashing, manipulation, and rebellion. In addition to that, Renegade is wonderfully fast-paced and, especially during the second half, action-packed, which turns it into a book that's very hard to put down.
... the characters:
I'm not really sure what to think of Renegade's main character. Evelyn sadly doesn't even know herself very well thanks to the alternation of her memories, which made it hard for me to truly understand her feelings and motivations. At times she was naive, but later it felt like her decisions were made too rash without being well thought-out.
Her love interest, Gavin, comes from the Surface and is thrust into a world that's completely different from what he's used to. In Elysium he is the bad guy, someone who should be murdered on sight. Meeting Evie saves his life and when they get to know each other better, they soon fall in love. Sadly it felt like a case of instant-love to me and even during the later course of the story I couldn't see why they had such strong feelings for each other. This lack of connection to the main characters is what made me enjoy Renegade a lot less than I would have otherwise.
There are a few but not too many secondary characters and while some of them were great to meet, others I'm definitely not looking forward to be confronted with again. At times Renegade's world is painted only in black and white - there were too few elements for me that would have made me feel sorry for the "bad guys", which is a very important aspect of stories for me though.
... everything:
All in all, I ended up liking Renegade even though it didn't completely live up to expectations. Its narration is very easy to follow and despite my lack of connection with Evie, I felt like she is a great narrator - seeing the world from her eyes is definitely interesting. So far I'm definitely curious about how this story will continue and I hope I will get to love these characters more.
Are you still a fan of dystopian stories or have you read too many? What do you think about the premise of Renegade? Are you curious about this book? Or, if you have read it already, what did you think about it?
Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.
The books I plan to read this week:
At first I'm planning to finish Renegade by J.A. Souders, which I started last week. So far I'm liking it although I have to admit that I expected to enjoy it a bit more. Sadly I cannot really connect to the characters and don't care too much about what might happen to them... I really hope that this will change during the second half, because the premise and the actual plot are quite awesome.
Then I'm finally going to read Undeadly by Michele Vail. During the last week I read a few mixed reviews for it which make me afraid that I won't like it as much as I want to, but I'm excited for it nonetheless. I still love the sound of the synopsis (I'm actually one of the select few who aren't sick of boarding schools yet) and hope that I'll just like it better than some others.
Then I'll finally be reading Silver by Talia Vance. Ash from Paranormal Indulgence posted an awesome review of it here and while she didn't like everything, her review made me very curious about Silver again and I decided to finally get to it. But seeing this here today makes me realize how terribly behind I am with my eARCs.
It's nearly two weeks after the presidential election and the "shocking" victory of Barack Obama over Lord Mitt, the Earl of Etch-a-Sketchington (shocking, that is, unless you were actually paying attention to the arithmetic).
Reading and watching the seemingly endless parade of analysis, recrimination and tantrums filling the media, one is compelled to ask, in the words of The Former President Who Must Not Be Named: Is our Republicans learning?
Well, I said last week that we live in hope. And there's been some reason to believe that maybe, just maybe, the GOP has taken some lessons from losing both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
For instance, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, the new head of the Republican Governors Association, gave an interview to Politico in which he candidly said that Republicans need to stop being "the stupid party."
Noting that some Republican candidates had damaged the GOP brand with "offensive, bizarre comments," Jindal insisted that "we've ... had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people, and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters." He urged the party to reach out to all Americans, "including the 47 percent and the 53 percent."
Erick Erickson, who built one of the most virulent nests of angry wingnuttery with his website redstate.com before becoming a regular contributor on the supposedly liberal CNN, pushed back against the crazies calling for states to secede. Barack Obama, he wrote, "did not win by stealing the election. ... He won by turning out the most people in a well-run campaign. In other words, he won fair and square."
Sadly, however, Jindal and Erickson may be lonely voices crying in the wilderness. Many prominent Republicans seemed determined to keep pushing the message that lost them the election: that Those People are coming to take your stuff.
The conservative media figures who did so much to insulate their right-wing audiences from reality were even more blunt. Bill O'Reilly went full-out racist, saying that the election was decided by African-American and Hispanic voters who "wanted someone to give them stuff."
Ann Coulter was practically in tears as she told talk show host Laura Ingraham: "We have more takers than makers, and it's over. There is no hope." Rush Limbaugh sarcastically suggested that the way to bring back women voters was for conservatives to "start their own abortion industry."
Here's a news flash, GOP: You're not going to win the votes of African-Americans, the majority of whom are working people, by acting like all anyone darker than you wants to do is lie around the projects collecting welfare and committing voter fraud. You're not going to win the votes of Latinos by backing laws that assume that every one of them is illegal until they prove otherwise.
You're not going to win the votes of young people by acting as if the desire for educational opportunity makes them parasites, and by the way, that their openly gay and lesbian friends are abominations before God. You're not going to win the votes of women if you insist that their desire that the insurance they work or pay for covers contraception makes them lazy sluts who want free birth control pills so they can have sex all day.
This should not be hard to figure out. You don't win elections by insulting the people you need to vote for you. If you offend a sufficient number of minority groups, pretty soon you've offended a majority.
Republicans may try to take comfort in the fact that they held on to control of the House of Representatives.
But that doesn't mean that the "white makers vs. the grasping dark hordes" message is going to suddenly turn into a winner in 2016.
You may be able to hang on to a House seat in a district gerrymandered to put people who look, talk and think just like you in one place. But it won't win you the Senate or the White House. That requires outreach to all Americans. Just ask Paul Ryan, who held his "safe" House seat while losing his home state.
In a changing America, conservatives will win few victories by professing their love of country while openly loathing more than half of the people who live in it.
Huge thanks to Macmillan and Harlequin Teen (via NetGalley).
I couldn't be happier about these two very awesome additions to my tbr-pile. After the cliffhanger of Goddess Interrupted I'm craving to know how the story will continue. And I've been wanting to read Unremembered ever since I first found out about it and am so curious to find out whether it's just as awesome as I want it to be.
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill Publisher: Delacorte Books FYR (Random House) First published: November 13th, 2012 Source: NetGalley Format: eARC Pages: 304
Goodreads Summary:
Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.
It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").
But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.
My Rating: 4.5 / 5
First thoughts:
After being slightly scared that my high expectations for Meant to Be will only lead to disappointment, I realized that this contemporary YA is just as awesome as its summary wants to make us believe. It's an incredibly cute and heart-warming story with characters that will slowly make their way into your heart and will definitely stay there. If you're looking for a great addition to your contemporary collection, be sure to take a closer look at this one.
More detailed:
After I read about comparisons of Meant to Be with my absolute favorite contemporary YA Anna and the French Kiss, I knew that I had to read it. But thanks to that comparison and the über-cute summary, my expectations were pretty high and I'm very happy to announce that they were completely met. This definitely is the perfect read for everyone who is looking for a cute distraction from their own everyday lives.
Julia, Meant to Be's main character is a slightly obsessive, crazy but oh-so-loveable narrator who you will definitely fall in love with. Like many other Young Adult main characters she is slightly unpopular but knows just how to live with this situation. She is looking for the perfect Hollywood-kind-of love with the guy who is meant to be with her. Of course she has an idea who that perfect guy might be, but the girl who usually tries to plan everything has to realize that some things just don't happen like you want.
Therefore the love story is wonderfully entertaining. I soon knew which guy to root for and crossed my fingers for him to not mess things up with Julia. This story is full of tiny (and not-so-tiny) misunderstandings that made me laugh and made me cringe and overall made it almost impossible for me to put this cute read down. Of course there are also some interesting secondary characters that we get to meet, but thanks to its shortness Meant to Be mainly concentrates on the most important characters and doesn't overwhelm us with unnecessary information.
All in all, Meant to Be is a book to fall in love with and to pick up whenever you need to remind yourself that cuteness and true love are still out there in the world. With a slightly nerdy but very refreshing main character, lots of chaotic misunderstandings and a heart-warming love story it will definitely appeal to many readers and end up on quite a few favorite lists.
Do you love cute contemporary novels like Meant to Be or Anna and the French Kiss as much as I do? And if you haven't read it yet, do you plan to read Meant to Be as well? What do you expect from it?
Living in Germany gives me the perfect opportunity to compare original covers with the ones German publishers choose. Sometimes they're gorgeous, sometimes they make me cringe, but it's always interesting to see different covers for the same novel.
(US Hardback / US Paperback / UK / GER) You can click on each cover to enlarge it.
I always like the fantasy-like feeling of Maggie's covers because they usually fit her beautiful writing oh-so-well. To my shame I have to admit that I haven't read The Scorpio Races yet, but I've had a UK copy ever since the book has been released and really hope to get to read it soon. Therefore it's also obvious that I definitely prefer the UK cover to US hardback cover - the latter is a little bit boring to me instead of just beautifully simple. The new US version (to be released April 2013) is a little bit better as it has more life to it, but I still prefer the UK cover. The German version is pretty, but - to me - slightly boring, too.
"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters Publisher: Amulet Books Expected Publication: April 2nd, 2013 Pages: 304
Goodreads Summary:
In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?
Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.
Oh wow, please take a look at this super creepy cover! The summary sounds like the novel could reflect this mood and I'm desperately hoping it will - because that seems so very promising. Too bad it's still so long until its release date.
Which book are you waiting for this Wednesday? Carina
The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin Series:Mara Dyer #2 Publisher: Simon and Schuster BFYR First published: October 23rd, 2012 Source: Bought Format: Hardback Pages: 527
Goodreads Summary: Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past. She can’t.
She used to think her problems were all in her head. They aren’t.
She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets. She’s wrong.
In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?
When I read the last word of The Evolution of Mara Dyer I couldn't really think about much but "What the f***ing hell?!" I'm always a tiny bit scared of sequels to books I really loved and if you feel similar, don't be scared of this book - it's just as amazing as the first installment and will leave you speechless and wanting more... immediately.
More detailed:
After falling love with the first installment of this trilogy I have been eagerly awaiting the release of The Evolution of Mara Dyer and of course ditched my reading schedule to read it as soon as possible. But now I almost regret not waiting, because I'm seriously wondering how I'm supposed to survive the wait for the third book of this über-awesome series.
One of my favorite parts is still Noah Shaw, of course. In the beginning I was scared that The Evolution of Mara Dyer might suffer from a typical second-book-problem by not including the love interest as much as I'd like it to, but luckily I soon realized that Noah isn't that easy to get rid of. And while he's quite a broken character, I just love witnessing scenes with him.
Mara is still the unreliable narrator we got to fall in love with in the first book and it's still fascinating to see the world from her perspective. During certain scenes in The Evolution of Mara Dyer - especially toward the ending - I just wanted to hug the poor girl and tell her that she'll eventually get her happy ending. My only problem? I'm not really sure she will and if Michelle Hodkin decides to break our hearts, this is one of the few series I'd actually still love nonetheless.
Just like it's predecessor, The Evolution of Mara Dyer is incredibly hard to put down. Apart from the beautiful style of writing, the über-exciting plotline and the intriguing characters, it's Michelle Hodkin's way of always ending her chapters with little cliffhangers that made me continue reading even when I should have been sleeping or learning.
All in all, I fell in love with this amazing series all over again. I'm already craving the third book more than it's healthy for me and I can't wait to delve back into Mara Dyer's creepy world full of mysteries and secrets that I'm dying to get answers to. If you haven't read this series yet, I strongly recommend you to change that as soon as possible - this is a must-read!
Do you love this series as much as I do? Or, if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?
Welcome to Fictional Distractions of the Week. It is inspired by Book Journey's It's Monday! What are you reading? and Fiktshun's My Reading Pile and it will show you what I'm planning to read during the next week.
The books I plan to read this week:
I definitely have a very awesome week of reading ahead of me, starting with my current read Meant to Beby Lauren Morrill. I really love this one so far - it's everything I expected: cute, funny and absolutely entertaining. Definitely crossing my fingers for this lovely love story.
After that I'm going to start reading Renegade by J.A. Souders which sounds like a fanastic read. And even though I have not read too many reviews for it yet, I've heard good and surprising things about it that make me look forward to it even more.
And my third read for this week will be Undeadly by Michele Vail, which I've been wanting to read for the longest time and will finally get around to do so. Again, I have not had the chance to read many reviews for it yet, but I'm expecting it to be quite awesome.
[Note: this is the unedited version. The one in the paper eliminates the first paragraphs because the editor was afraid the Party of Love might firebomb the newspaper office.]
So now, at long last, the election is over, and President Barack Obama will have his second term. Before we get to our discussion of what happened and why, let me just take the time to say: HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!
Ahem. On to the post-election analysis.
I’ve said before that Mitt Romney was destined to be the John Kerry of the Republican Party. Each man was a rich, entitled Massachusetts moderate trying to convince his party's skeptical base he was one of them, despite having once supported the thing that that base purported to despise most (the Iraq War in Kerry's case, the individual mandate in Romney's). Both Kerry and Romney ran against controversial incumbents, with a central message that amounted to “I’m not him.” And both fell short. But Mitt Romney fell much shorter than Kerry. Why? Perhaps because the “him” Romney was running against didn’t exist.
The imaginary Barack Obama that the Republicans were running against bore little or no resemblance to the actual man in the White House. Imaginary Obama was a scowling, far-left radical, a socialist, a fascist or a communist, depending on who was yelling into the mike at the time. Imaginary Obama was simultaneously an evil schemer who was plotting 24/7 to destroy America and a guy who was too dumb to get into college without affirmative action or to speak without a teleprompter. Imaginary Obama was a divisive, harshly partisan figure, hated by all, even his former supporters. Worst of all, he was an incompetent, a miserable failure at absolutely everything he touched.
The problem with this strategy is that the actual Barack Obama that non-delusional people could see was a smart, calm, moderate with good likability ratings who’d brought the unemployment numbers down at a steady if sometimes maddeningly slow pace, saved the auto industry, and brought Osama bin Laden to justice. People heard the Right dismissing every bit of good news, crying doom and gloom, and insisting “everything’s getting worse,” looked around, and went, “hmmm, it really isn’t.”
Then along came Sandy. The quick Presidential response to the hurricane and the grateful reaction of Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who only a few weeks before had been savaging Obama at the GOP convention, blew away any lingering doubts non-delusional voters may have had about both the President’s competence and his ability to work with Republicans.
As the polls showed the President pulling further and further ahead in crucial swing states, Republicans began pulling the blanket of delusion over their heads. Pundits like Dick Morris, Karl Rove, Michael Barone and even the usually sane George W. Will predicted a Romney landslide, with Will predicting 321 EVs for Romney.
One expects this sort of thing from hacks like Morris, Barone and Rove, but Will really should have known better. The polls were “skewed,” they insisted, because they assumed that Democratic voter turnout would be the same in 2012 as it was in 2008. That wasn’t going to happen this year, they asserted with the all the misguided and uninformed bravado of a latter-day George Armstrong Custer.
Actually, had you asked earlier in the year, I might have said you had a point. There were a lot of disaffected Democrats, particularly on the Left. (Anyone who says liberals all think the same has clearly never been around any). But that was before the GOP, some of its prominent supporters, and its candidates began taking extreme radical positions on things like abortion, contraception, gay rights, and immigration, and saying things that frightened, offended or ticked off Latinos, LGBT people, African-Americans, and especially women. That fired up the very constituencies the GOP had told themselves would stay home.
So thanks, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, Todd Akin, Rick Santorum, John Koster, Richard Mourdock, etc.! You fired liberals up and damaged the GOP brand with moderates, probably for years. And right wingers, dwelling as they do in their tightly woven cocoons where only Fox News and talk radio can penetrate, never even saw it. They still don’t. But numbers really don’t lie.
Now that the Republican leadership has failed in their stated number one goal of making Barack Obama a “one term president,” what will they do? Will they actually start pushing bills other than futile grandstanding attempts to “repeal Obamacare”? Will they actually deal in good faith on the budget?
Well, we live in hope. But first they’re going to have to do is stop deluding themselves that everyone hates the President and the Democrats as much as they think they do and that they’ll be rewarded for obstructionism. Reality, it’s said, has a well-known liberal bias, but it’s still reality.
Huge thanks to the lovely Donna from Book Passion for Life for Fated, and to Macmillan and Bloomsbury UK.
I'm super excited for these awesome books I got this week. Fated is a birthday present from Donna and I absolutely can't wait to read it as I looooved Sarah's Lila series. But I'm also incredibly excited for Renegade and Hysteria, which both sound super amazing. Definitely have some great reading ahead of me. And since I have 4+ weeks time until my next exam I might get some reading done next week.
Which books did you get this week? Carina
P.s.: Today's the last day to enter my INTL giveaway. Click here.
Allegiance by Cayla Kluver Series: The Legacy Trilogy #2 Publisher: Harlequin Teen First published: February 28th, 2012 Source: NetGalley Format: eARC Pages: 490
Goodreads Summary:
An eighteen-year-old queen in love with the enemy as their countries pass the point of no return...
Bound to a man she cannot love, Queen Alera of Hytanica must forget Narian, the young man who holds her heart. For Narian is destined to conquer Hytanica at the behest of his master, the powerful magic-user known as the Overlord. Alera doesn't truly believe Narian will fight against Hytanica-until Cokyrian troops attack with Narian commanding the charge.
Faced with the greatest betrayal a heart can know, Alera must set aside personal feelings and lead her kingdom through its darkest time. And when all hope, will and courage seem lost, she must find strength and remember that even the blackest night must have a dawn...
This might include spoilers for the first book of the series.
Following the events of the series' first book, Allegiance enables us to understand certain characters even better and made me change my opinion about them. Even though I'm not too happy with some things that happened and would have preferred a faster pace, I still liked this second installment and am looking forward to read the last part of this trilogy.
More detailed:
Just like its predecessor, Allegiance is set at a slow pace and as I read it during a week where I had only little time to read, I had some problems staying interested in the story because of that. While the writing is still as wonderfully descriptive as in Legacy, which makes it so very easy to imagine the setting and the characters, I sometimes wished for the story to move faster.
Alera finds herself in a situation she isn't very happy about - as the new queen of Hytanica she's married to a man who expects more affection from her while the man she actually loves is gone. But, to be honest, I didn't really miss Narian while he wasn't by her side as I was very happy with the way Steldor developed.
Even though she is trying to handle this situation as good as possible, I sometimes felt a little bit frustrated with Alera who turned out to be more whiny than I would have liked. Also, her efforts to try to solve her problems single-handedly only led to more problems and her inability to accept that certain things just cannot be changed annoyed me.
Nonetheless I liked the basic concept of the storyline that had more than just a few twists and turns I didn't expect. Sadly I'm not really a huge fan of the ending, but I'm pretty sure many others will like it. All in all, I expected to like Allegiance a bit more after having adored Legacy, but nontheless I'm looking forward to the third book to find out how Alera's story will end.
Have you read Allegiance? If yes, what did you think about it? If no, do you plan to read it?
