On this week's episode of Meg-A-Rae, Meg and I discuss Technology! Technology non-fiction available at the library, technology services (like checking out library e-books and researching with library databases) provided by the library, and technology themed books that are awesome to read! Meg reviews Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson (a great adult read with crossover potential for our older teens). I review Cinder by Marissa Meyer (a great teen read with crossover potential for adults).
Pure (Pure #1)
By Julianna Baggott
Guest Reviewer: Meg Adams
****
“We each have a story. They did this to us. There was no outside aggressor. They wanted an Apocalypse. They wanted the end. And they made it happen. It was orchestrated - who got in, who didn't. There was a master list. We weren't on it. We were left here to die. They want to erase us, the past,but we can't let them.”
Meg's Review:
I LOVED this book! I know dystopian is very popular right now, and it's a bit overdone. But if you liked the Hunger Games, and you want a great story about a strong female, survival, a great twist and a thriller....please take a stab at this book. Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost: how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers...to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as soldiers or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.
Burn a Pure and breathe the ash. Take his guts and make a sash. Twist his hair and make a rope. And use his bones to make Pure soup.
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss: maybe just because his family is broken, his father is emotionally distant, his brother killed himself, and his mother never make it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.
In this week's episode, Meg and I discuss a "new" genre that's been getting some press lately: New Adult. The idea behind this genre is that its intended audience is the 18-25 age range and the content is more mature. Meg discusses the dystopian novel, Pure, by Julianna Baggot - a book that MPL has in both the Adult and Teen collections. I discuss the awesomely titled Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, by Lish McBride - a book that is in our Teen collection and is a Rosie Nominee this year.
Be sure to check out our next episode: A Very Special Librarian Episode!
“Every
libromancer had a first book. Etched more sharply into my memory than
my first kiss, this book had been my magical awakening.”
I went into this book ready to geek out. I mean, seriously, seriously,
geek out. The story opens on Isaac Vainio, a cataloger at a library in
Michigan's Upper Peninsula. But he's not just a librarian, he's a
libriomancer. Isaac could perform a very specific kind of magic: he
could reach into books and pull out anything that appeared within the
pages (restricted only by the size of the page). He got into a bit of
trouble in his job as a libriomancer, so he's been benched; his only
connection to magic now is cataloging books for his library, but also
for the magical organization he used to work for.
Then
he gets attached by Meyerii vampires (also known as sparklers) and finds
himself in a magical war between Libriomancers and vampires, a
mysterious enemy, and the disapperance of Johann Gutenberg (inventor of
the printing press and founder of the Libriomancer organization), with
only a sexy dryad and a fire spider there to help him.
In
theory, this book should have been an uber-awesome, bibliophile
geekfest. I wanted to love it. It referenced some of my favorite things,
like Narnia, Doctor Who, and the very idea of reaching inside of books.
And while the book wasn't "bad," it wasn't as good as I wanted it to
be. I just couldn't get engaged in the story. It did pick up toward the
climax, and some really cool things happened during that part of the
book, but it was a bit of an effort to get there.
This is an adult title, and there are some adult themes (though it stays PG / PG-13), but it's worth a look if
you're a geeky bibliophile like myself. However, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is similar in theme, but superior in...well, everything.
Meg and I got so excited about our Crossover episode that we got a wee bit long-winded. So this episode is broken up into three parts to making your viewing easier! In Part One, we discuss spring programming and we have a lot of really fun things going on next semester! In Part Two, I talk about awesome books written for adults, but would be totally awesome for teens, too. In Part Three, Meg talks about fantastic teen novels that adults should also read! Meg and I both read teen and adult books, so we kept talking and talking and talking about some of our favorites. Enjoy!
Part 1 - New Programs!
Part 2 - Rae on Adult Books for Teens
Part 3 - Meg on Teen Books for Adults
Watch for our next Very Special Episode where we talk about new books in 2013!
In honor of one of our favorite holidays (and our favorite food: pie), Meg and I have compiled a list of the books we're thankful for. They are many and varied. Once you've checked out our video, see the blog post below for all of the books I talked about and see Meg's blog for her favorites!
First, I'm thankful for Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantraseries. She is my second favorite fantasy author and this is my second favorite fantasy series EVER. She's created a fully realized world and a heroine that you want to stand up and cheer for! Though it's an adult book, it's a great teen crossover read, too. She's also written a very cool YA book, the first in a new series, called Silence.
Which leads me to my #1 all time favorite fantasy author and series of all time: J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Tolkien is the master of his craft and, in my opinion, the father of all fantasy. He is magic, and I can't wait to see the new Hobbit movies. Thus, I'm also thankful for Peter Jackson.
I'm thankful for adult author Sarah Addison Allen for her beautifully written magical realism books.
I'm extremely thankful to any author who DOESN'T kill the loveable dog, horse, owl, or other sweet beastie just for something silly like plot progression or character growth. I'm looking at you J.K.
I'm thankful for Ally Carter and her super-fun Gallagher Girls novels. The series is about a secret school for girls who learn to be spies. To find out what I really think, check out my review of book 4: Only the Good Spy Young.
I'm thankful for Sarah Rees Brennan and GinaDamico for ruining my life with their amazing books. These books are full of humor, snark, and heartbreak. They are mustache-twirling authors who like to cause their reader's pain - and I loved every second of it! These books hurt so good!
I'm incredibly thankful for Jasper Fforde and his amazeballs Thursday Next series and for entering the YA genre with The Last Dragonslayer. I finished that book in two days and it was SPECTACULAR! No one writes like Mr. Fforde! His books are incredibly clever, witty, magical, and fantastical! I heart every well-chosen word!
Finally, I'm thankful for Gail Carriger - she's one of my all-time favorite authors, a Master of Steampunk and creator of the amazing adult series The Parasol Protectorate. I'm beyond excited that she's starting the new Finishing School series for YA and that Etiquette and Espionage, the first book in the series, comes out this February! I need it in my hands NOW!
Hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving and may you eat your weight in pumpkin pie!
A story where words are not only mightier than the sword, but they are also capable of blowing up a building.
At the onset of puberty, Elianne discovers words like tattoos forming on her arms and legs. Then all hell breaks loose - children are being murdered and found with these same marks in the fief of Nightshade - her home - a rough, lawless, wrong-side-of-the-river place. Seven years after she escaped from Nightshade and found a home in the grand city of Elantra, Elianne, now called Kaylin Neya, finds that history is repeating itself.
This fantasy story, the first in the Chronicles of Elantra series, takes place in a beautifully described world with strange races and many problems. Kaylin is a Hawk, one of the three branches of service in the Halls of Law, in which she is part of the police force for the city. She is sent back into the heart of Nightshade to investigate the resurgence of these murders with former friend and current enemy, Severn. With the help of a Dragon lord and the Lord of Nightshade (a Barrani, an immortal, elf-like race, who are as arrogant and cold as they are beautiful), Kaylin must learn about the ancient language that makes up the marks on her body and the powers they give her in order to fight the evil that's searching for her.
While much of this story is made up of the fantastic, at its heart is the trauma of Kaylin's youth and how she struggles to overcome it. She is forced to face the past before she can move on to the present concerns. This story envelops the reader in its fantasy world, but what I found most compelling is Sagara's depiction of words and names and the power they can hold. In this place that power is tangible; it can both save a life and bring down walls (both figuratively and literally).
This book is generally considered an adult title, but it has excellent YA cross-over potential. Kaylin is probably about 20 in this story. Her abilities and training make her more capable than her age would suggest, yet her past and attitude tend to make her act younger than her age. This book would be accessible and appropriate for teens who have a love for fantasy. I highly recommend it!
“Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.”
Description from Goodreads: Every April, when the wind blows from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood...
Lily's Review: I will start off by saying this; this is definitely one of my favorite
books I have EVER read. It is a great story!A Walk to Remember is about Jamie
Sullivan and Landon Carter. They are both seniors in high school, and a twist
of fate makes them partners for the homecoming dance. Their relationship slowly
progresses, but it does. Now take my advice, you will start out smiling and
happy, but towards the end it gets sad and you may cry.
This book was great. I recommend it to anyone who wants a very simple,
but good love story. It held my attention the whole time, and before I knew it,
I had finished the book. Like I said, this is probably one of my favorite books
ever! It is a very touching story, and anyone who likes
love stories should definitely read this book sometime!
