I've actually had a rather unusual craving for dystopians lately, so I've been reading a lot of them. I tend to like dystopias in general, but I have to be in a very certain frame of mind to want to read them, since they do obviously tend to be depressing, and I mainly prefer my books on the Happily Ever After side of the scale. But the mood struck me, so I began with Matched (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7735333-matched) by Ally Condie, where a Society controls everything about people, including who they'll marry. While the writing wasn't always strong in some places, I really enjoyed the world-building. I liked, for example, that people didn't HAVE to be Matched. They could choose to be Single and were still seen as equal members of Society. And while there definitely is a sort of love triangle, it's not *completely* front and center, and I felt like the main character stood well on her own outside of the two boys. I'm a little wary of continuing on in the series, as the reviews I've read tend to indicate it goes downhill with each book, but my plan is to at least try.
Next I read The Selection (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10507293-the-selection) by Kiera Cass, which was advertised as a crossover between The Hunger Games and The Bachelor, but I can't help but feel that's a bit misleading. In this world, everyone is divided into castes, with Ones being the royal family and Eights being homeless Untouchables, basically. The main character is a Five, and she is deeply in love with a Six. However, the Prince recently came of age and is looking for a bride, so one girl from each province is chosen to compete for his affections. This selection is not based on caste, and is supposed to instill morale in the people to show that anyone can be raised to a One. I didn't feel this was as strong as Matched, mainly because the world building is practically non-existent, and what little is there doesn't make much sense. The love triangle is also a lot more prominent, and I'm not completely sure how I feel about that. Again, the reviews for the second book seem much lower than the first, but I'm still going to give it a shot,
Finally, I had the opportunity to read a book for the museum where I work: Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1148240.Power_Up) by Chris Kohler of Wired Magazine. Chris came to visit us to write about our International Center for the History of Electronic Games, so myself and two of my co-workers read the book to familiarize ourselves with questions he might ask. It wasn't the most riveting piece of literature I'd ever read, but I'm very interested in Japanese culture in general, and it's always fun to be "forced" to read things like that for work.
Next up on my plate, I think, will be Veronica Roth's Divergent (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13335037-divergent), to continue with my dystopias while I'm still in the mood. I'm hopeful it will be as good as everyone makes it out to be!
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Next I read The Selection (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10507293-the-selection) by Kiera Cass, which was advertised as a crossover between The Hunger Games and The Bachelor, but I can't help but feel that's a bit misleading. In this world, everyone is divided into castes, with Ones being the royal family and Eights being homeless Untouchables, basically. The main character is a Five, and she is deeply in love with a Six. However, the Prince recently came of age and is looking for a bride, so one girl from each province is chosen to compete for his affections. This selection is not based on caste, and is supposed to instill morale in the people to show that anyone can be raised to a One. I didn't feel this was as strong as Matched, mainly because the world building is practically non-existent, and what little is there doesn't make much sense. The love triangle is also a lot more prominent, and I'm not completely sure how I feel about that. Again, the reviews for the second book seem much lower than the first, but I'm still going to give it a shot,
Finally, I had the opportunity to read a book for the museum where I work: Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1148240.Power_Up) by Chris Kohler of Wired Magazine. Chris came to visit us to write about our International Center for the History of Electronic Games, so myself and two of my co-workers read the book to familiarize ourselves with questions he might ask. It wasn't the most riveting piece of literature I'd ever read, but I'm very interested in Japanese culture in general, and it's always fun to be "forced" to read things like that for work.
Next up on my plate, I think, will be Veronica Roth's Divergent (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13335037-divergent), to continue with my dystopias while I'm still in the mood. I'm hopeful it will be as good as everyone makes it out to be!
Shannon//Ravenclaw//559 words