Waiting on Wednesday (March 31)

This was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Waiting on Wednesday shares the upcoming books that I'm most excited about.

The Fortune of Carmen Navarro by Jen Bryant

Carmen Navarro rings up customers at the Quikmart, bored to tears. It’s a job, and she needs it. But Carmen’s true love is music: she dropped out of high school to sing with the Gypsy Lovers and land a recording contract, someday.

Just a few miles away, Ryan Sweeney hunches over his books, a studious cadet with his eye on West Point. There’s not a single girl at the Valley Forge Military Academy, and that’s fine by him.

But when Ryan, on a day pass from campus, spots Carmen, with her shining black hair and snake tattoo, his pulse quickens. Carmen, who normally rolls her eyes at the stiff Academy soldados, can tell this one is different. She slips him a note: “Come hear my band.” A romance begins, unlikely, passionate . . . and quickly imbalanced. In an enthralling narrative of obsessive love, the novel builds to a stunning close.

Inspired by the novella and opera Carmen, Jen Bryant creates a strong-minded and alluring heroine in this contemporary tale of tragic love. (From Goodreads)

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Release Date: November 9, 2010

Teaser Tuesday (March 30)

What is teaser tuesday?
It's a meme hosted by Should Be Reading and here are the rules:
Grab your current read...
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on the page
Don't include spoilers

"One moment he was all the way across the boathouse. The next, the silvery screen of water over the sunken rowboat rippled, and he was right in front of me."

-Betrayals, page 151, by Lili St. Crow

Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

I've seen a lot of comparisons between The Maze Runner and both Lord of the Flies, and The Hunger Games. While I agree with some parts of these connections, I think they're all quite different from one another. Yes, they all deal with survival, but The Maze Runner seems to revolve predominantly around the idea of escape, and the importance of memory. I personally thought that the most frightening aspect of this book was that each Glader arrived with no memories of what they were doing there, and why.

The first half of the book allows the reader to learn about the Gladers (The group of male inhabitants), and the daily routine they had created to ensure their survival. We learn that the glade is surrounded by an ever-changing, seemingly unsolvable maze. This maze is the key to their escape, but it holds something sinister as well. The Grievers are extremely dangerous machines that roam the maze. They only have a few run-ins with Thomas, but what we saw of them was pretty chilling.

While reading this book I felt a lot like a Glader. I could only speculate (incorrectly, of course) about why the boys were there. I had to learn their slang, although it was obvious what most of the words were substitutes for. I think that this may be why I enjoy dystopian fiction so much. The reader is always kept guessing about the motives of each character, and what the end of the book will bring.

There were a few things that I thought could have been improved slightly. The first is that I wish we could have seen more of what was happening with Teresa. As the only female in the Glade, I wish I could have experienced more of how she interacted with the boys. I also wish I could have seen more fluid development from Thomas. I expect this to happen in book two, but sometimes it felt like he was extremely angry, and the next paragraph he was suddenly very calm. I chalked it up to dealing with the fact that he couldn't quite reach his memories, and found his surroundings extremely familiar.

In book two, I'm looking forward to seeing what new trials the group will face, what Wicked really wants, and more about the state of the world.

The Maze Runner
By James Dashner
Published by Delacorte press
374 Pages
Rating: B

In My Mailbox (March 28)

In my mailbox was created by Kristi of The Story Siren, who was inspired by Pop Culture Junkie. Here are the books I got this week...

Did you know you can borrow some Barnes and Noble e-books? I didn't, until one of my friends lent me one:

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped. And now it's up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the Titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared -- a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever.



I also got swamped with work this week, hence my lack of posting. I'll make up for it this week, with my reviews for The Maze Runner, and the upcoming book Whisper. What did you get this week?

Waiting on Wednesday (March 24)

This was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Waiting on Wednesday shares the upcoming books that I'm most excited about.

The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade

After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck here in spirit form with no sign of the big, bright light coming to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser/outcast type who hates the social elite. He alone can see and hear her, but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High.

Can they get over their mutual distrust—and this weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?

Published by Hyperion

Release Date: July 6, 2010