Category Archives: 2014

2014, ARC review, Book Review, contemporary, dystopian, romance, science-fiction, standalone, time travel, YA

[Review] The Here and Now – Ann Brashares

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Book Title:                  The Here and Now (Standalone)
Author:                          Ann Brashares
Number of pages:  288

Synopsis:

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

(re: Goodreads @ The Here and Now by Ann Brashares)

Should this book be picked up? the tl;dr spoiler-less review:

– Depicts the post time-travel life which reads more like a contemporary romance despite having elements of science-fiction.
– Various thought-provoking elements and themes presented in a very wishful way when regarding the plausibility of the future environment.
– Basically The Prenna Show, where events unfold in favour of the protagonist with no sense of urgency and tangible consequence.
– Unsubstantiated world-building necessary to set-up the dystopian-influenced Community; ultimately leaving gaps in the narrative that may lead to further questioning. 

Initial Thoughts

Dear desk, I have marked you with the blunt force from my head. For this I apologize.

I think I enjoyed the idea of liking the novel more than actually wanting to read it. Does that make sense? I hope it does because now that this one positive is out of the way, I can now detail everything that was very off to me about this read. This might be the angriest review yet.

Full disclosure: I received an advanced reader copy of The Here and Now through NetGalley for an honest review. I extend my thanks to Random House for providing me the opportunity to review this book.

Disclaimer: There may be spoilers inherent to this review from this point onward.

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2014, meme, top ten tuesday

[Top Ten Tuesday] – #14 – Top Ten Gateway Books In My Reading Journey

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Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I thought this would be a fun way to share a condensed version of potential rambles and thoughts that I have.

This Week’s Theme:
Top Ten Gateway Books
In My Reading Journey

Initial Thoughts:

So April Fools, right? I had this thought of throwing off readers by stirring the pot and delving into choices that would sound absurd as a gateway book…but I can’t make cookie cutter judgments without reading the novels that I’d likely nominate. Alas, another run of the mill list will be produced. But more importantly, this journey of a list is more of a throwback and overall progression of gateway books corresponding to a particular age group. The books listed are in no particular order in each category and link up to their respective Goodreads sites.

Age Category: Zygote – Preschool

thoughts: just chillin’ like a villain.

0. N/A

Age Category: Elementary School (Morning SK – Grade 8)

thoughts: seeking out reads with minimalist required effort.

No titlethe bfg - roald dahl (cover)oh the places you'll go - seuss (cover)

1. Jean Marzollo – I Spy

The gateway book of all gateway books. A picture book with stellar one liners that could keep me occupied for several minutes (or longer). This is literally your average child’s treasure trove of reading during library period (if you had this at your school). I remember there were only a few copies available and no one would share…

2. Roald Dahl’s BFG & Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

I didn’t particularly read a lot either author to begin with but I do remember these two in particular (and the old-school Lorax movie). You can’t be at fault for picking up any of Dahl’s or Seuss’ books. Literally, just grab one and enjoy.

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2014, blog awards & tags, Miscellaneous

[Miscellaneous] – Liebster Award

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Miscellaneous is the tagline to store my random posts that don’t really belong elsewhere. It’s more for consistency sake so I can have an itty-bitty picture to follow suit with the post.

What’s Random Today?LiebsterAward

The Liebster Award recognizes and helps discover new blogs. The rules are (generally) as follows:

1) Link back to the person who nominated you.
2) Answer 11 questions from the individual who nominated you. 3) Nominate 11 new bloggers and come up with your own 11 questions. You cannot nominate the person who nominated you. 4) Inform your nominee on being nominated.

(I think this is a variation because the original also has you listing 11 random facts about yourself… but nobody got time for that.)

Initial Thoughts:

But really… a Liebster Award, huh? That’s cool I guess. My takeaway is basically, TL;DR: “here’s some prompts, please rant away.” Well thank you kind sir, I will. You have been warned for this extremely long and potentially pointless rant post.

But first, here’s an amazing sales pitch (but not really):

I was nominated by Books and Iced Coffee so you can do whatever you want with that. She was also kind enough to ask me the same questions as the person before asked — so I’m shaming her for rehashing these questions (although call me a hypocrite now when I’m too lazy to generate my own list of questions).

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