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"Divergent" by Veronica Roth

"Divergent" by Veronica Roth

I've lost count of how many friends have recommended this book to me.  For a while I had a long to-read list and I didn't seem to have room for it, plus when I learned the third book of the series wouldn't come out till October 2013, I decided I'd wait till all the books were out before starting the series.  Then, last Tuesday night happened.

I was hot, tired, in a bad mood, and had a raging headache.  My husband could sense my bad vibes from across the room.  He wisely suggested my two favorite things:  "read" and "bath."  But I got grumpier because I didn't have a book to read!  

(That's a blatant lie.  I have several books that I've never cracked open.  It is like standing in my closet and saying I have nothing to wear.  I have plenty of clothes, but none that I want to wear, just like I had plenty of book but none that I wanted to read.)

Then a rush of instant-gratification washed over me and I decided to download the book onto the Kindle app on my phone.  I don't do ebooks very often, but it was only $3.99, so with that special one-touch purchasing option (thanks, Amazon!), I was reading in no time.  

All my friends were right, I loved it!  It paralleled "Hunger Games" and "Matched" in the fact that it's a future version of our culture after a societal collapse, and they've restructured in a way they believe will induce peace among themselves.  This story unfolds in Chicago.  As "Hunger Games" had the reaping, and "Matched" had a matching banquet, "Divergent" has a choosing ceremony.  There are five factions that the people have divided into, each focusing their way of life around a virtue to balance and serve one another:  Abnegation (the selfless), Candor (the honest), Amity (the peaceful), Erudite (the intelligent), and Dauntless (the brave).  The year the youth turn 16, they are expected to choose to remain in the faction they were raised in, or leave their families and way of life forever and align with another faction.  This story follows Beatrice, who was raised in Abnegation.  Before the choosing ceremony, the youth go through an aptitude test to determine their strengths to help them decide which faction they'd succeed best in.  Her results were "inconclusive," which is a rare (and as she discovers, a dangerous) result.  She was advised to tell no one she is Divergent, leaving her to determine her fate at the choosing ceremony on her own.  

That's how it starts, in a nutshell!  I loved this YA book.  I can't wait to get my hands on the next in the series, "Insurgent."  Roth's break-through novel left me anxious for more.

"Wings of Nestor" by Devri Walls

"Wings of Nestor" by Devri Walls

Have you ever had a humongous chocolate craving, and as soon as you get your hands of a bag of M&Ms (or any chocolate indulgence of your choice) you eat them and eat them and you devour the whole bag and then it's gone, and you sit back and realize you never really tasted the chocolate?  You were so absorbed in the consumption of your treat that you didn't take the time to pace yourself and enjoy it?  That was so me with this book!  I'm embarrassed to admit it.  But I was so eager to continue the story, I dove right in and almost didn't come up for air.  I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong.  But I read it so fast, the memories of what I read are a blur in my brain.

I wanted to read this one in the ebook version, to see if it had the same formatting errors the first two books had.  The answer to that was, yes, it did, and no, it didn't.  It didn't have the weird paragraphs in the middle of a sentence, but it lacked the italics that helped the reader understand when the characters communicated telepathically.  So, there you go.  Looks like the system still has a few bugs in it.

The 4th book in The Solus series is "Wings of Lomay," to be released sometime later this year (I think).

"Wings of Tavea" by Devri Walls

"Wings of Tavea" by Devri Walls

(sorry, this was the best image I could find!)

I told you this was coming!  Back in February I wrote about Walls' first novel, "Wings of Arian." Last night I finished the second book in the Solus series, "Wings of Tavea."  "Tavea" picks up right where "Arian" left off, with Kiora (the Solus), Emane (the Protector), and Drustan (a shape-shifter) leaving Meros after an enchantment was dropped, which had kept the kingdom safe from evil for a thousand years.  They are not only looking for Dralazar, but are also in search of something else they need to defeat evil:  the Lights.  They meet new magical creatures and discover new enemies.  And a love triangle develops (I feel like I'm 14 again when I read about a good love triangle!).

Walls' scope of imagination blows me away.  I've read my fair share of fantasy books, but she brings new elements to the genre with one-of-a-kind beings, powers, and places.  I feel her story line and characters are positively unique.  I remember reading Mortal Instruments the first time and I thought it was like Harry Potter had a love child with Twilight.  Almost none of that in the Solus series.  And I'm greatly impressed with the development of Walls' writing skills between her first and second book.

Downsides to "Tavea:" the first negative aspect in the book was also found in "Arian."  I don't know if it's in the editing or transferring the ebook into paperback, but there are weird mistakes like paragraphs starting in the middle of a sentence, misplaced quotation marks, etc.  These errors were really distracting at times.  You know in "The Princess Bride" when Vizinni keeps shouting, "Inconceivable!" and Inigo finally says, "I do not think it means what you think it means."  Punctuation and grammar have rules and consistency for a purpose, and when those rules aren't followed for one reason or another, it really takes away from the essence of the story.  At least that's how I felt.  So I hope in future editions of the book those mistakes are taken care of.  Because Devri deserves better than that!  Second downside: I read "Arian" back in February, so remember the basics of the story, but some details escaped me.  I felt "Tavea" didn't have enough story overlap to help the reader remember certain details from the first book.  There's a fine line between under-explaining and over-explaining, and I felt "Tavea" was a little lacking and didn't quite cover all the bases to help the reader know what was going on all the time.

I highly recommend that you all explore Walls' story, and I'm more than anxious to get started on the third book, "Wings of Nestor."

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Apparently, I'm one of the last people on the planet to hear about this guy or read this book.  Since I've had it from book club, I've told several people what I've been reading and most of them stopped me mid-sentence to gush, "Oh!  I LOVED that book!"  It played part in that strange phenomena, the one where you never hear a particular word/trend/place, but the moment you learn about it you see it EVERYWHERE. That was my experience with this book.  And happily so.

***MUSHINESS WARNING***

read at your own risk -- consider yourself warned

This book was an answer to prayer.  I believe I am a spiritual person; I have a tendency to see/feel God's love in small ways and "insignificant" things.  I am always deeply touched when I'm blessed with the recognition of God's tender mercies (I like to call them "love notes") in the little ordinary things in life.  I said this book was an answer to prayer, though not a prayer I put into words using my own cognition; it was a prayer that bled from my heart.  There was an unexpected turn of events in the life of my family recently. Not earth-shattering, although heart-breaking.  At the beginning I cried and prayed for days that, selfishly, the event would reverse and things could go back to the way I wanted them.  Then I prayed for understanding, patience, comfort, the ability to have God's grace in my heart so I could exercise forgiveness.  My heart ebbed and flowed with peace and pain, gradual healing mingled with reminders of the sorrow. So when I read the pages of this book, it was not like finding a fill-in-the-blank answer that I'd been hunting for. Rather, it was a calming whisper from my Father in Heaven that He understood my pain, but that He knew I could endure it with His endless love.  I don't understand many things about this universe, but He understands all, and I'm in His watchful care.  I don't know if everyone who reads this book will experience anything similar to what the book did to me.  I would call it a lengthy parable instead of a novel.  But I cannot deny that the very day when I found myself at the lowest low I had experienced in a long time just happened to be the day I cracked open this book, without having an inkling of what it contained inside.  It was a miracle.  And I was filled with love to buoy me through my storm.

I'm not going to tell you what the book is about--I'll let you discover that for yourself.  But I want to share some quotes and passages that were significant to me.

p 47 - It was if the world had fallen silent because the boy's soul had.  He sat there, staring blankly through the door of the cafe, wishing that he had died, and that everything would end forever at that moment.

p 64 - He was actually two hours closer to his treasure...the fact that the two hours had stretched into an entire year didn't matter.

p 69 - "I guess you don't believe a king would talk to someone like me, a shepherd," he said, wanting to end the conversation.

"Not at all.  It was shepherds who were the first to recognize a king that the rest of the world refused to acknowledge.  So, it's not surprising that kings would talk to shepherds."

p 75 - But all this happened for one basic reason:  no matter how many detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved to the same compass point.  Once obstacles were overcome, it returned to its course, sighting on a start that indicated the location of the oasis.

p 76 - "But that disaster taught me to understand the world of Allah:  people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.

"We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life, or our possessions or property.  But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."

p 77 - "Once you go into the desert, there's no going back," said the camel driver.  "And when you can't go back, you have to worry about the best way of moving forward.  The rest is up to Allah, including the danger."

p 85 - "Because I don't live either in my past or my future.  I'm interested only in the present.  If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man.  You'll see there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are are part of the human race.  Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we are living right now."

p 87 - Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees.

p 89 - Meanwhile, the boy thought about his treasure.  The closer he got to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became.  It seemed as if what the old king had called "beginner's luck" was no longer functioning.  In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage.  So he could not be hasty, nor impatient.  If he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.

God placed them along my path.  He had surprised himself with the thought.  Until then, he had considered the omens to be things of this world.  Like eating or sleeping, or like seeking love  or finding a job.  He had never thought of them in terms of a language used by God to indicate what he should do.

p 98-99 - "Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago.  But I'm happy at least I didn't wait twenty years."

p 103 - "The secret is here in the present.  If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it.  And, if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better.  Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children.  Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."

p 115 - "It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil," said the alchemist.  "It's what comes out of their mouths that is."

p 120 - "You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend.  If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love...the love that speaks the Language of the World."

p 122 - "Don't say anything," Fatima interrupted.  "One is loved because one is loved.  No reason is needed for loving."

p 125 - "Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey."

p 125 - "And what went wrong when other alchemists tried to make gold and were unable to do so?"

"They were only looking for gold," his companion answered.  "They were seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, without wanting actually to live out the Personal Legend."

p 127 - "The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise.  The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a  world that is perfect.  God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom.  That's what I mean by action."

p 130 - "Tell your heart that fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.  And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

p 132 - "Every search begins with beginner's luck.  And every search ends with the victor's being severely tested."

p 141 - "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve:  the fear of failure."

p 156 - "'Everything that happens once can never happen again.  But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.'"

"Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" by Therese Anne Fowler

"Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" by Therese Anne Fowler

Man! It's been such a long time since I've written a review. I know you've all been waiting for months with baited breath. ;) I am going to try and be better at this blogging venture!

This was another book that I saw on the new bookshelf at the library and thought it looked pretty interesting. It's a historical fiction novel about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald after she met F. Scott Fitzgerald. At the end of the book, the author lets the reader know what is fact and what is fiction. A lot of the dates and places are real. F. Scott Fitzgerald's temperament and alcoholism is based off actual events that happened and Zelda's hospitalizations were also accurate, among other things. The author speculates a little on the reason why Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald end their friendship and how Zelda may have felt after Scott's drunken episodes.

I don't think I will ever tire of catching glimpses into other people's lives, even if it is partly fictional. :) I really like that she writes in first person and uses letters of correspondence to develop the story further. It made me sad for the life the Fitzgeralds may have had if they hadn't been so wrapped up in the "young and bright" age of the 20s and the fame of his first novel. It made me sad for her as a wife and mother. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I was surprised to find that she wrote as well and her stories were doing better than Scott's. Because of the time period, though, her stories were placed under his name. How frustrating that must have been! And not being able to realize other dreams that she had. I am realizing this is sounding quite depressing and it was a little bit, BUT I enjoyed how the author showed how much Zelda and Scott loved each other despite their misgivings and hardships. How much their love endured.

I enjoyed reading the book, but there were certain things that were a bit too... promiscuous for lack of a better word. There were some swear words and a bit too much sexuality in a few directions for my taste. Nothing too explicit, but it might be better reading about their lives in a biography if you're uneasy about that kind of stuff. 

"The Rent Collector" by Camron Wright

"The Rent Collector"

The Cow.  She is one of the most despised and dreaded persons at the Stung Meanchey dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she collects rent from the people living in flimsy dwellings within the dump.  Living in a dump?!  Yes, where human waste, toxic pollutants and trash combine, the underprivileged masses live and work.  They sort through the mounds of refuse for items that are of worth to scrap collectors.  They get enough money to buy food from the vendors near the dump, and enough money to pay The Cow in exchange for the right to sleep in the confines of Stung Meanchey.

Another woman resides in the dump, Sang Ly.  She lives there with her husband and sick little boy.  She detests The Cow (named Sopeap), not because she must give her precious rent money every month, but because The Cow is rude, heartless, and demanding.  But one day The Cow spots something in Sang Ly's shack:  a book that had been found in the dump that the illiterate Sang Ly kept for the pictures to show her son.  At the site of the book Sopeap moans and cries, leaving Sang Ly disturbed by this unfamiliar version of the dreaded rent collector.  Sang Ly offers the ugly old woman the book, and as The Cow quietly shuffles away, Sang Ly has an epiphany:  Sopeap can read!  Sang Ly strikes a deal with the prickly Sopeap for reading lessons, and thus begins a beautiful exploration of a human mind into the world of literature, and the truth of Sopeap's past.

There are also parallels between this book and "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" that thrilled me.

For anyone who enjoys reading as much as I do, this story about someone discovering not only how to read but how reading literature can change one's soul will be an enlightening experience.  This is not a true story but it is based on real individuals in Cambodia.  Camron Wright's son filmed a documentary called "River of Victory" about the people living in Stung Meanchey, and this story evolved from that film.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
~"Sometimes broken things deserve to be repaired."
~"Sang Ly, we are literature--our lives, our hopes, our desires, our despairs, our passions, our strengths, our weaknesses.  Stories express our longing not only to make a difference today but to see what is possible for tomorrow.  Literature has been called a handbook for the art of being human."
~"Whether we like it or not, hope is written so deeply into our hearts that we just can't help ourselves, no matter how hard we try.  We love the story because we are ... Cinderella."
~"It doesn't matter where you live, Sang Ly, it is how you live."
~"Fear will flee.  You will always wake up when morning comes."
~"I still awake every morning to a dump that is smoky, but through the smoke, I've seen some of the most amazing sunsets."