When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (REVIEW)

WHEN SHE WOKE by Hillary Jordan
Published October 4th, 2011 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
341 Pages // Hardcover
Borrowed from Library
Goodreads
Purchase from Amazon

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love. 

A powerful reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith and love.

I had heard about WHEN SHE WOKE for months before it came out. Even my mother had heard about the book through her book clubs and sources for information. And then what did I do? Well, I might have put off reading it… And put it off… And checked it out from the library… And put it off. Then I picked it up as my due date grew closer and closer. Once I started reading it, there was no stopping. By the end, this book flew onto my favorites shelf and I was desperate to tell the world about the amazingness I had just read.

Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep (REVIEW) + GIVEAWAY!

In the market for a fun, quick read filled with romance, intrigue, and lots of awesome fight scenes? Jennifer Estep's TOUCH OF FROST might be right up your alley!

TOUCH OF FROST by Jennifer Estep
Published August 1st, 2010 by K-Teen
350 Pages
Order from Amazon
Follow Jennifer Estep on Twitter

My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.

 But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died. . .

 

Sometimes there are things where you read them or watch them or listen to them and you cannot quite figure out why you liked it as much as you did. For me, TOUCH OF FROST is one of those books. Many of my fellow bloggers had issues with this book. Several did not finish it. Meanwhile, I loved it. I know where people are coming from when they cite several issues with the book – an unclear plot, choppy dialogue, cliché characters and settings. For some reason, my love of this book and the fact I find it an ooey gooey fluffy pile of goodness transcended those issues and I came away from reading Jennifer Estep’s first foray into young adult fiction feeling very, very happy.

Bond Girl by Erin Duffy

Even girls working high pressure jobs like to read once in awhile. BOND GIRL provides a funny yet insightful look into the finance industry - and it's a book you shouldn't miss.

THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU PROBABLY DON'T KNOW ABOUT WORKING ON "THE STREET":
10. The number of U.S.-owned banks and/or brokerage houses actually located on Wall Street: zero.
9. Office windows that open are overrated.
8. Moran's Ale House & Grill, located in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District, caters primarily to Wall Street employees and people who want to marry them. It serves more beer between Memorial Day and Labor Day than any other bar in the city.
7. Free pizza cures all, especially before 10 A.M.
6. A $65 limo ride with road sodas is a perfectly acceptable way to travel 10 blocks...
5. ...or five blocks if it's raining.
4. Knowing math is important - but nowhere near as important as knowing wine, golf, and watches.
3. Gucci loafers go with every outfit, in all weather, all year round.
2. Socks are optional (and rarely necessary).

And the number on thing you probably don't know about working on the Street is...

1. A bet is a bet is a bet. If you lose at Credit Card Roulette, you will pay the bill. No one cares that you're only twenty-two and the bill is $1,000.

BOND GIRL by Erin Duffy
Published January 24, 2012 by William Morrow Books
304 Pages

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I was lucky to receive an ARC of this book thanks to Book Reporter (http://bookreporter.com) and after my life settled down (if you didn't know, my grandfather was in the hospital and then stayed with my family for two weeks) I finally got a chance to pick it up. I read the book in 24 hours and put all other books and my job search aside. It was that good.

BOND GIRL follows Alex, a recent college graduate who has aspired to follow in her father's footsteps and work on a financial trading floor since she was a child. She joins Cromwell Pierce and immediately realizes her ideas of what it would be like are completely and 100% wrong. There is sexual harassment, no desk for her, bullying, tricks, high pressure scenarios...and a love interest that doesn't take as much interest in her as she thinks.

Alex as a narrator is fun and insightful, as well as fresh and interesting. I loved her story and wanted to know more after the book even ended. The characters were well fleshed out, including the secondary and tertiary ones, and the way this book was written has "make this a movie!" stamped all over it. The situations in this book seem all too real, even for someone like me who worked in Lower Manhattan (albeit not on Wall Street) and saw women like Alex daily rushing about in a world that still treats them as a joke.

The way Alex deals with the problems of her career are fresh, exciting, and driving. A client constantly hits on her, for example, but she is pressured into not saying anything thanks to her extremely large paycheck. But her increasing disenchantment with the field she's always admired makes the book compelling and harrowing, while Alex brings to the narration her ever-present humorous take on her life, her job, and the people around her.

If you don't have a business background, some of the concepts might confuse you (I took economics courses and don't have a clue what bond trading even is still), but putting that aside, BOND GIRL is an exceptional novel that I will recommend to anyone and everyone. And if you want to know more about the type of office where Alex works, trust me, it helps to look it up. I found THIS from UBS that pretty much sums it up. Trust me, it's kind of scary. Especially if you're like me and multiplying 6x15 is a cause for a calculator.

VERDICT: BOND GIRL is a hilarious book with some real impact about a world most of us will never know. It's funny, thrilling, and compelling. Trust me, you want to read this book. It's that good.

♥♥♥♥♥ - FIVE HEARTS

A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres (REVIEW)

Although not the usual Book Brats fare, A THOUSAND LIVES is a must read for any Book Brat. Nonfiction with a literary flare, the story of Jonestown is a story that nobody should forget - even those of us born long after the events.

“I love socialism, and I’m willing to die to bring it about, but if I did, I’d take a thousand with me.” —Jim Jones, September 6, 1975

The people who built Jonestown wanted to forge a better life for themselves and their children. They sought to create a truly egalitarian society. In South America, however, they found themselves trapped in Jonestown and cut off from the outside world as their leader goaded them toward committing “revolutionary suicide” and deprived them of food, sleep, and hope. Yet even as Jones resorted to lies and psychological warfare, Jonestown residents fought for their community, struggling to maintain their gardens, their school, their families, and their grip on reality.

Vividly written and impossible to forget, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, haunting loss.

A THOUSAND LIVES by Julia Scheeres
Published October 11th, 2011 by Free Press
320 Pages

Let me begin this review by saying yeah, yeah, this really isn’t the type of book I normally read and review for my blog. In fact, this will probably be one of the stranger things you view here because non-fiction generally isn’t my thing after six years of political textbooks and memoirs about Presidents and Secretaries of State. The Jonestown deaths happened nine years before I was even born, but I’ve read all the books I can get my hands on about it because it is a moment in our past that we really should remember and reflect on, and that includes young women ages 18-30.

A THOUSAND LIVES by Julia Scheeres starts with a main point – the people who eventually died with the Peoples Temple in Jonestown did not join a cult. They thought they were joining a church that cared, a group of people who were genuine in their search of equality. What the victims wanted was something genuine and desirable – a world without discrimination and hate. Scheeres uses a mixture of documents collected from Jonestown and the Peoples Temple and firsthand accounts to piece together a story that reads like literary fiction while being all too real. The stories these people tell mix horrifying elements, control, and domination with hope for the future, hope for a better life. The way Scheeres tells the story of Jonestown is perfect, eloquent, and heartwrenching.

From the stories of scared teenagers looking for a second chance to elderly women who strove to be equal with the world around them, the stories in A THOUSAND LIVES will make you step back and think about your world and what you would do if you were in their shoes.

So yeah, this isn’t my usual blog fare. I mean, yeah, it says in my review policy section that I like books about cults, but I didn’t expect that I would ever post a review of a book about a cult on Book Brats. I never thought that many other people my age with my taste would want to read a book like this besides me. But do I think you should give it a shot.

“Those who do not remember history are bound to repeat it.” A quote that Jim Jones used to stir his people, but at the same time, a quote that is so true. If we don’t remember our past, we really are bound to make our mistakes all over again.

VERDICT: A stirring retrospective of a deranged leader and the fanaticism that lead to the deaths of hundreds of people looking for real change. A definite must read.

♥♥♥♥♥ - FIVE HEARTS

Life As We Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer (REVIEW)

Looking for an enthralling, engrossing post-apocalyptic drama with a great protagonist and an all-to-believable plot? Look no further than LIFE AS WE KNEW IT.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
337 Pages
Published October 1st, 2006 by Harcourt Children's Books

Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

I used to work in the field of disaster preparedness, helping to create plans for disasters in the New York City area (well, it was my internship, and my project was all theoretical, but I learned a lot). My goal in life other than writing is to work in international disaster preparedness. I am the person who tells you to prepare now before it’s too late. Of course I was going to love this book. LIFE AS WE KNEW IT tells the story of 16 year old Miranda, living in Pennsylvania living an ordinary life until an asteroid collides with the moon and knocks it closer to the Earth. Besides making every human have a great view of the moon day and night, it also leads to mayhem, madness, and chaos – both natural and manmade.

Told as Miranda’s diary entries, we are taken into a world where things go from normal to disastrous in a matter of days. From volcanoes blotting out the sun to diseases spreading like wildfire, Pfeffer transports us to a world that while being somewhat farfetched feels all too real and plausible. Miranda watches friends and family die, the world crumble down around her, and struggle to survive herself. Her story is almost heartbreaking, but at the same time enthralling and engrossing. We root for her to survive and keep living while things look bleaker and bleaker with each passing moment.

As I mentioned, a lot of the story is farfetched, but if you suspend your disbelief and look at the story for what it is, a drama about life in the face of disaster, it’s a great story with a believable narrator. The story is not the most vivid, leaving a lot to the reader, which was something I enjoyed. While some have described it as dystopian, it isn’t at all – completely post-apocalyptic, and this apocalypse is one of the best portrayed in my opinion in young adult fiction.

VERDICT: A great novel that, even with a farfetched plot, manages to become an all-too-real feeling portrayal of a young girl on the brink of death facing the destruction of the world. I definitely recommend this to everyone.

♥♥♥♥♥ - FIVE HEARTS