Ashes

Summery:
It could happen tomorrow . . .

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.

Review:
Let me sum up how this book went for me:
Good, really getting into it...
Very good 4 or 5 star book....
Loving this book....
What the heck just happened?
Did we switch authors?
What the heck!!!!!

Let me explain, the first half of this book rocked, we had an awesome main character, good supporting characters, and an interesting plot that just made you want to know more. Then about half way through a dramatic event happens (sorry no spoilers) and the story stops and restarts 3 days later leaving us knowing very little about what happened and we only get to find out what happens through bits and pieces. And the author's style, along with the story line, just changes so dramatically that you are thrown out of the groove of story telling. 

So I loved it and then was ticked off by it but it still managed to pull off 3 stars, so I'm going to have to pick up the sequel when it comes out and hope it's like the first half of Ashes.

The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance

Summery:
 A vegan-turned-hunter reignites the connection between humans and our food sources and continues the dialog begun by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver

As a boy, Tovar Cerulli spent his summers fishing trout and hunting bullfrogs. While still in high school, he began to experiment with vegetarianism and by the age of 20, he was a vegan. Ten years later, in the face of declining health, he would find himself picking up a rifle and heading into the woods.

Through his personal quest, Tovar Cerulli bridges disparate worldviews and questions moral certainties, challenging both the behavior of many hunters and the illusion of blamelessness maintained by many vegetarians. Are fishing and hunting barbaric, murderous anachronisms? Or can they be respectful ways for humans to connect to nature? How harmless is vegetarianism? Can sustenance hunters and vegetarians be motivated by similar values and instincts?

In this time of intensifying concern over ecological degradation, how do we make peace with the fact that, even in growing organic vegetables, life is sustained by death? Drawing on personal anecdotes, philosophy, history, and religion, Cerulli shows how America’s overly sanitized habits of consumption and disconnection with our food have resulted in so many of the health and environmental crises we now face.

Review:

 Honesty I don't know how to feel about this book. Some parts had a really good flow and brought up interesting ideas, in others it repeated its self and at times you didn't realize what was happening until afterwords because of the weird way it was worded.

So it's a good idea for a book and some parts work really well, but the majority I just wanted to skip and really wish where cut out or redone.

Received from NetGallary.

Happy Birthday!

To me! Just wanted to share that it's my birthday!

Lovetorn

Summery:
When Shalini’s father gets a new job in L.A., she is torn away from her life in India and the boy to whom she’s been betrothed since she was three. L.A. is so different, and Shalini dresses and talks all wrong. She isn’t sure she’ll survive high school in America without her fiancé, Vikram, and now she has to cope with her mom’s homesickness and depression. A new friend, chill and confident Renuka, helps Shalini find her way and get up the courage to join the Food4Life club at school. But she gets more than just a friend when she meets Toby—she gets a major crush. Shalini thinks she loves Vikram, but he never made her feel like this.
In Lovetorn, Shalini discovers that your heart ultimately makes its own choices, even when it seems as if your destiny has already been chosen.

Author Kavita Daswani has always been fascinated by child marriages and betrothals, and this story of a traditional girl from India, who is exposed to so many more freedoms and experiences after being dropped in a completely alien culture, is a fresh and contemporary look at the subject.

Review:
 I'm don't honestly know what to feel about this book. First off our main character is likable but but doesn't always click with her self, if that makes any sense. She makes so decisions that I can't see a person like her making. Don't get me wrong is was a good book with a good story to tell, but along with Shalini (our main character) odd actions the book is just to short.If the book was a few chapters longer or had an epilogue I felt that all these little lose ends could be dealt with and we could have found out what her final decision was.

Over all a pretty good book, but need a little something more.

I got this book through the Goodreads Firstreads program. 

Rippler

Summery:
Samantha Ruiz has a freak gene that makes her turn invisible, or ripple. She can’t control it, and it’s getting worse. Afraid of becoming a lab-rat, Sam keeps her ability secret, until fellow runner Will Baker sees her vanish into thin air. Will promises secrecy and help, and Sam begins to fall in love.
Together, the two discover there are worse things than being a scientific curiosity. Someone’s been killing people who possess Sam's gene. A mysterious man from France sends letters that offer hope for safety, but also reveal a sinister connection with Nazi experiments.
The more time Sam spends with Will, the less she can imagine life without him. When Sam uncovers secrets from her past, she must choose between keeping Will in her life or keeping Will safe.

Review:
This is the story of Sam a girl with a secret, a secret she can't control. So when will sees her disapper he promises to help and to keep her seceret, because he has secrets of his own.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a fun read with a good plot. Our main charcter actual has a brain and doesn't just go with everything Will says. Her best friend isn't the best but pretty realistic. The journal entreies are very disturbing, but fit in well with the store. So worth the read and thanks Cidney Swanson (the author) for sending me a e-book copy!

WWW Wednesdays (#1)

W. W. W. Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading . Here's how it works... Each Wednesday I will answer the following questions:

  

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you'll read next?

Currently Reading:

The Curse of the Wendigo (The Monstrumologist #2) - An interesting book so far and if it's like 1st book it doesn't have a romance.

 

 

 

What did you recently finish reading?

Phaze Doubt (Apprentice Adept #7)- An odd end to an odd series

Torn (The Missing #4)- A nice continuation of the series, but not the best of the series.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide #4) and Mostly Harmless (Hitchhiker's Guide #5)  -  Odd books in an odd series.

 

 

 

 

Jenny Pox (The Paranormals #1)- A good read, but it has a lot of sex for YA. Also it's free on kindle. 

 

What do you think you'll read next?

 

The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles #1)- This one has been on my to-read list since a friend recommended it and I finally picked it up from the library (along with all the other books on my what I think I'll read next) .

There You'll Find Me- A random pick it looks like a quick, cute read. 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Grayson, Will Grayson- I've read and enjoyed both of these authors and hope this book can live up to my expectations.

Marcelo In The Real World- My Goodreads recommendations seem to think I desperately need to read this book, so here it goes!

Burnout

Summery:
On the day after Halloween, Nan wakes up in a subway car. She is not dreaming. She doesn’t know where she’s been or what she’s done. She’s missing a whole day from her life. And she’s wearing skeleton makeup and a too-small Halloween costume that she doesn't remember putting on.
Nan is not supposed to wake up in places like this anymore. She’s different now, so far from that dangerously drunk girl who hit bottom in the Nanapocalypse. She needs to find out what happened to her, and fast. As she tries to put together the pieces of the last twenty-four hours, she flashes back to memories of her previous life. But she would never go back to her old friends and her old ways. Would she?
The deeper Nan digs, the more disturbing things get. This time, she may have gone one step too far. This time, she may be a walking ghost.

Review:
This book is odd, we start out with a girl waking up on a subway with no idea how she got there or how she ended up in a costume and make-up. But slowly she starts to retrace her steps trying to figure out what happened to her, and where is her friend?

First let me say that this book is rather small and a quick read. Which can be a good thing depending on the book but this book felt too fast, like we where rushed through it. It's told in a series of flash-backs mixed with present day trying to figuring out what happened. For the first half the story is very believable and okay, but the second half is much less believable but much more exciting. So a descent read, I wouldn't buy it (at least for the price their currently asking), but if your library has it check it out.  

I received this book through the Goodreads.com's Firstreads Program.