May 14, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday and Wishlist Wednesday

Today I'm joining Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Breaking the Spine

This is a meme where you post about an upcoming book that you're excited about. 

I'll be joining my Waiting on Wednesday post with Wishlist Wednesday hosted by Pen to Paper


This is a meme where you post about a book that you can't wait to get off your wishlist and onto your shelves!

The book that I have been waiting for for more than 8 months that was just released is The One by Kiera Cass. 

The Selection changed the lives of thirty-five girls forever. And now, the time has come for one winner to be chosen.
America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the competition approaches its end and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.


I finished book two in this series The Elite back in November when I couldn't find a concrete answer for when the last book was coming out and it drove me crazy! I'm super excited the book is finally out- it was released May 6th but I'm still going to have to wait to get it from the library or find room in the budget to buy it. 

I find myself really enjoying this book- it is kind of a Cinderella tale with lots of women coming to the ball to vie for the Prince's attention but only one is going to come away the queen. I don't really know why I enjoy this book so much though. There is a serious case of insta-love here and now we have two love triangles- one on either side and this is objectively the kind of book I can't stand. BUT I REALLY DO ENJOY IT AND I CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! I can view this book as an objective outsider and it really isn't a great book- the main plot is who is going to end up with who and the secondary plot is what is happening with the country but somehow it works.

Have you read The Selection? What do you think? Have you ever had a book that you loved that you had no idea WHY you love it? Leave me a comment and let me know!

May 13, 2014

Teaser Tuesday


Today I will joining Teaser Tuesday- a meme by Should Be Reading- where you grab your current read, flip to a random page, and post 2 (non-spoiler) teaser sentences.

In honor of me being back into blogging (I hate when life interferes with my reading) and posting the Mid Year Wrap Up of my Zombie Reading Challenge, I have decided to post my Teaser Tuesday from World War Z by Max Brooks. Warning, one of the teasers is rather graphic in nature- I think it adds to the Zombie feel but it might be unsettling to some.


The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. "World War Z" is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. 

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. 

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?" 

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission. Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war.


Today's teaser come from page 219-220:
She warned me to stay off it and every other road that crisscrossed the basin. "Roads mean cars," she said, "and cars mean Gs." 

 The first G I saw was small, probably a kid, I couldn't tell. Its face was eaten off, the skin, nose, eyes, lips, even the hair and ears... not completely gone, but partially hanging or stuck in patches to the exposed skull.
I've already read this book and I love the varying view points as you read about the war with the undead and how humans lied to protect themselves or sacrificed it all for the good of others. It was an awesome read and this week I'll be rereading it and posting a review. 

What do you think of zombie books and my teasers? Leave me a comment and let me know!