In My Mailbox #2

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It's an awesome way to share what new books you got during the past week.

So this week is super cool because I actually got something In My Mailbox...

I was super excited to recieve my copy of Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

I won it as a part of the 2011 Locus Challenge being hosted over at The Ranting Dragon... You can find out more here. I think this is the first time in my life that I have actually won anything... ever... haha.

Monsters of Men is the third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. I'm really looking forward to reading all three books. They seem like great books to review here on the GUYde.

So thanks again to The Ranting Dragon and of course to Candlewick Press for hooking me up!

So what did you get in your mailbox this week?

Review- Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rot & Ruin- Jonathan Maberry

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 464 pages

Genre: Dystopian/Zombie Apocalypse

Buy it 

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

               I can truly say that I’ve never really appreciated a good Zombie story until I read this book. Rot & Ruin was simply a blast to read. From the moment I picked it up I didn`t want to put it down.  It`s funny because there’d be times when I was reading it and I’d forget for a second or two that the book has anything to do with Zombies. As much as it is a story about a 15 year old kid growing up in a world literally surrounded by the living dead, it`s also largely a story about a boy struggling to find his place in the world. While avoiding the `zoms` who would like nothing more than to wrap their rotting mouth`s around a nice piece of human flesh, of course.  So, in short, it`s a coming of age story… with Zombies. Genius, pure genius. 

                Benny lives in the town of Mountainside, a small town separated from the great, zombie infested ‘Rot and Ruin’ by nothing more than a fence (and the fear and denial of the town’s inhabitants).  He’s lived there with his bounty hunting, half-brother Tom since he was an infant and the world as we know it changed forever when the dead began to rise on what became known as “First Night”.

                Now, I`m a big fan of dystopian novels, but what I particularly loved about Rot & Ruin was the fact the story is set only a generation after “First Night”. The implication of telling a dystopian story in a world at this junction point is the fact that the majority of the people who survived the initial fallout understand and remember how life used to be. They feel the loss of their previous lives. However, the flip side is Benny’s generation and all the children born afterwards. Mountainside is all Benny and his friends know. They don’t feel the same loss as the others. They don’t share the same memories. But while the older generation is so scared and traumatized by the past to even consider trying to reclaim what they`ve lost, Benny and his friends are only beginning to yearn for something more. More than the only life they`ve ever known. A life surrounded by a fence on all sides. I found that this really adds an interesting twist to this coming of age story.

                Rot & Ruin isn’t just a book about kicking some good ole zombie ass (although don’t worry, there’s plenty of it). It’s also about Benny figuring out that the world he grew up in may not be as black and white as he had always believed. Benny comes to realize that the Monsters on the other side of the fence may be nothing compared to the ones living on the inside.  

                 I really enjoyed this one. I felt like a teenage guy reading this book could really relate to a lot of the things Benny has to deal with. Well minus the flesh eating Zombie part. It tackles a lot of serious issues but Mayberry manages to discuss them in a way that is fun, exciting and keeps the reader wanting more. I know there is a second book in the works for this series and I for one am definitely looking forward to checking it out! And I`m sure after you read Rot & Ruin you will too!

In My Mailbox #1

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It's an awesome way to share what new books you got during the past week. This is my first IMM post.

So because I'm still super new to blogging, and this is my first time taking part in IMM all three of the books I got this week I bought and paid for myself.

The first two I bought for myself for review.

 

1. The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

2. Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

I've been looking forward to reading both of these books for sometime now. The Hunchback Assignments is the first in a trilogy. The third book in the series (Empire of Ruins) was just released in by Harper Collins in Canada on Feb 18th and is due out in the U.S in September. I'm really looking forward to reading and reviewing this series. 

Behemoth is the second book in Westerfeld's Leviathan Trilogy (check out my review of book one, Leviathan, here). The final book in the series, Goliath, is supposed to be released in October 2011 I believe. Westerfeld just released the first piece of art from Goliath on his website this past week. It was pretty cool. He 'partially' released 3 images and let fans vote to chose which of the three would be completely revealed. Check it out.The one I chose didn't win, but it was still really cool and the art looks awesome.

The third book I bought this week wasn't for me and it has nothing to do with the GUYde. I actually bought it for my daughter and it is super cute so I thought I would share.

That's it for this week. Thanks for checking out my first installment of In My Mailbox.

Review- Little Brother- Cory Doctorow

Little Brother- Cory Doctorow

Publisher: Tor Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 384 pages

Genre: Cyberpunk(ish)

Buy it 

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

The plot of Little Brother deals with some really heavy issues. Specifically, a large part of the book deals with the main character Marcus (and the reader by extension) trying to answer the question, when does the need for maintaining a nation’s security cross the line and infringe on the privacy of its citizens? The reader is often forced to consider, just how much of their freedom they are willing to give up in the name of security? And what is the cost? Although I must admit that even though I didn’t agree with all of the politics which are interweaved throughout the storyline, it didn’t bother me or turn me off because Doctorow didn’t shove it down the readers’ throat. Instead he does it in a way that is both entertaining and thought provoking. Something which I think would be ideal for use in a classroom to engage students in some serious debate.

                Although there are a lot of heavy themes in this book like I mentioned above, there are also a lot of light topics covered as well. For example, Marcus deals with ongoing problems at school, his parents, strained friendships, and even girls. All of these things really added to the plot as a whole for me. They made Marcus more believable to me. It made him seem like just a regular teen guy who throughout the course of the novel is caught up in some pretty extraordinary circumstances.

                Overall I think this is a great book for a teen guy. It really inspires some serious critical thinking from the reader and Marcus is a very strong male protagonist, even though it’s clear he doesn’t have everything all figured out. Plus, the fact that the use of video games and technology throughout the story will really grab a guy’s attention while reading. Definitely check this one out. It would be an awesome teaching tool in the classroom, and an even better addition to your bookshelf.

Review- Across the Universe- Beth Revis

Across the Universe- Beth Revis

Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 416 pages

Genre: Science Fiction

Buy It

From Goodreads

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

  Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Usually I wait until the end of my review to share why I think a book will appeal to the guy readers out there, but I’m going to make an exception with Across the Universe.  Why? Well basically because I think that there is one thing that is so awesome about this book that will help get it into the hands of guys and I just can`t wait to share it. And what`s even cooler is that it has nothing to do with the story!! So what is it? The dust jacket. Yep that’s right. The dust jacket. Why? Because it is awesome!! Okay but why is it awesome you might be asking? Well it’s reversible, that’s why! 

 Across the Universe has not one, but two covers. The first cover has kind of a cosmic look to it. Its main colours are pink and purple and the dominant images are reverse profiles of Amy and Elder.  Now don’t get me wrong, the cover is beautiful. It’s just really, really feminine. It`s a sad but true fact that most guys would walk by and notice it on the shelf at their local bookstore and say to themselves, “I can’t read that, it’s a `girls` book.” Let’s be honest, there aren’t a lot of teenage boys that would enjoy walking down the halls at school carrying around a pink and purple book. The problem with that is that they would be missing out on a really awesome book! So how did the publisher solve this problem? Simple, they designed a second cover. All you have to do is turn the dust jacket inside out and BAM it’s a whole new book! (well obviously it’s the same book, but you get my drift). The second cover isn’t hyper masculine or anything like that, but it’s perfect and it totally appeals to the guy readers out there. As you can see by the picture, it’s basically a blueprint of the Godspeed. Not only does it look great, but it also gives the reader an awesome visual of the different levels of the ship that Revis describes throughout the book. In my opinion adding the reversible cover to the book was nothing short of a stroke of genius.  Kudos to whoever came up with the idea.

Okay, okay enough about the dust jacket. Let’s talk about the book already. So aside from the fact I absolutely loved the cover, I loved the book just as much. When I first heard about Across the Universe I was drawn in by the plot summary right away and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. And Beth Revis definitely didn’t disappoint me. I would describe this book as ``sci-fi lite`. And by that I mean it will not only appeal to regular science fiction fans but to readers who generally don`t read books about space, space ships, and little green men, as well.  It really does have something for everyone. 

The story is told in a duel narrative. First there`s Amy, the 17 year old girl born on earth who has been frozen in ice for centuries locked away in Godspeeds underbelly. And then there is Elder, the teenage leader-in-training of Godspeed. Personally I liked both of these characters. Although I will admit that at one point I felt as if Elder was a little too one-dimensional and was controlled by let`s just say his, primal urges, a little too much. However, the more I read the more I realized there was a lot more to him than that. I also realized heck, who am I to judge. If I had spent my entire life aboard a ship with nobody my age around of either sex and all of a sudden a beautiful girl is thrust into the picture, who`s to say what kind of urges I would have had. The more I thought about it, I realized that Revis had actually hit the nail right on the head with that one.  I guess us guy`s aren`t as `deep` as I`d like to think sometimes. 

I`ve been a sci-fi fan for a long time, but I can honestly say I had never really thought of all complex issues that would result from multiple generations of people living and evolving on board a spaceship while on a flight that is going to take hundreds of years.  Across the Universe really does a great job with tackling these issues and discussing them in a way that is both interesting and entertaining for the reader to follow. 

The people of Godspeed and the ship itself really are a wonderful creation, and I give Beth Revis all the credit in the world for bringing them to life and sharing them with us. I don`t know if she has any more adventures onboard the Godspeed planned for the future, but I would definitely welcome them. 

Full marks for this one from the GUYde. Give it a read, even if you don`t normally read sci-fi, you might just find that ``sci-fi lite`` appeals to you.

The White Pine Award

I mentioned in my review of Getting the Girl that I was planning on doing a post about the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award program. Well, as promised, here it is. 

Every year the OLA hosts the Forest of Reading program where 10 different Canadian authors/illustrators are nominated for an award in 7 different age groups/ categories. It’s called the Forest of Reading because all of the categories names are tree related (pretty clever huh?).  I’m going to focus on the White Pine award because it’s directed at high school students and YA books.

The program is supported through local public and school libraries across Ontario and ultimately the goal is get people reading, no matter what their age!! Something I whole heartedly support. The nominees are announced in November and the cool thing about the program is that participants get to vote for their favourite book at the end of April and the whole thing culminates with the awesome Festival of Trees in May of each year. The Festival of Trees is a two day event held at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto where the participants have the opportunity to attend and meet the authors. Ohh, and of course they give out the award!! Last year’s winner of the White Pine Award was Mostly Happy by Pam Bustin.

Here is a list of the 2011 White Pine Nominee’s. (with links)

1. 1.   Borderline- Allan Stratton

2.  2.   Fear the Worst- Linwood Barclay

3.  3.   Fishtailing- Wendy Phillips

4.  4.   Gravity Brings Me Down- Natale Ghent

5.  5.   Hearts at Stake- Alyxandra Harvey

6.  6.   The Monkeyface Chronicles- Richard Scarsbrook

7.  7.   The Second Trial- Rosemarie Boll

8.  8.   Some Girls Are- Courtney Summers

9.  9.   Swim the Fly- Don Calame

1010.  The Worst Thing She Ever Did- Alice Kuipers

There are three books on this list on my TBR radar that I think would really appeal to the guys out there, so I`m going to try and get my hands on copies and post a review for all of you to check out! 

This year’s Festival of Trees is being held May 11^th and 12^th. I plan on being there and when it`s all said and done I`ll definitely be posting all about it!

In the meantime check out the Forest of Reading Website to learn more about this amazing program! It really highlights some of the best YA books coming out of Canada.  And Canada is pretty awesome. Just saying. 

Incarceron- Catherine Fisher

Incarceron- Catherine Fisher

Publisher: Dial
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 448 pages

Genre: Dystopian

Buy It

Imagine a living prison so vast that it contains corridors and        forests, cities and seas. Imagine a prisoner with no memory,       who is sure he came from Outside, even though the prison has    been sealed for centuries and only one man, half real, half           legend, has ever escaped.                                                         
Imagine a girl in a manor house in a society where time has been forbidden, where everyone is held in a seventeenth century         world run by computers, doomed to an arranged marriage that appals her, tangled in an assassination plot she both dreads and desires. One inside, one outside. But both imprisoned. Imagine a war that has hollowed the    moon, seven skullrings that contain souls, a flying ship and a wall at the world's end.                                       
Imagine the unimaginable. Imagine Incarceron                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                      

Incarceron is a prison unlike any other you’ve ever heard of before.  It’s a whole world onto its own.  A world that has been sealed off from the outside for generations. No one comes in and no one ever gets out (or so the prisoners think). Outside of the prison is the Realm. I world permanently and deliberately trapped in the past. 

The story is told in a dual narrative (which I love). First there is Finn. The prisoner trapped in Incarceron whose only memories prior to waking up one day all alone in a cell, are vague, fleeting flashbacks brought on by seizure like episodes. Finn swears that he was born outside of the prison even though pretty much everyone he knows thinks he’s crazy for it.

On the flip side there is Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron and destined to be Princess of the Realm. Claudia is trapped in a falsely created world bound by the “protocol” imposed on the people of the realm by the ruling Monarchy. The reader soon realizes that Claudia is just as much of a prisoner as Finn.  I must say that as the story progressed I became convinced that the Realm was more of a prison than Incarceron. 

Catherine Fisher had the extremely tough job of creating two completely different worlds for the reader to explore. Honestly these two worlds couldn’t have been more different from one another. I actually found that I was more interested by the Realm and trying to figure out what exactly was going on there than I was Incarceron. The Realm is described as an old fashioned Victorian(ish) era world, although throughout the book Fisher hints at the fact that the whole place is just an illusion neatly hiding all the advanced technology underneath.  Incarceron is revealed to the reader as a dark, artificially created, self-contained and self-supporting world. With Incarceron Fisher makes sure the reader knows that the prison is beginning to show its age and like most prisons it is a cruel and vicious place. What’s worse though is that fact that Incarceron is alive, and it is always watching.  Survival is day to day accomplishment in Incarceron. 

Like I said, being able to create and fully develop two totally different worlds is not an easy task to undertake in just one book, and when I finished it there were definitely a lot of unanswered questions in my mind. However, from what I’ve heard the sequel (Sapphique) answers a lot of them, so I’m really looking forward to reading it and learning more about these two fantastic worlds.

This book has so many things that guys will enjoy. Incarceron is a rough and tough world full of fights, battles, non-stop adventures, and endless mystery. This one really gets the imagination going. It’s not all roses and lollypops. It’s dark, it’s twisted, and its ending is not what you would call a fairy tale one. And in my opinion that isn’t what the majority of guys are looking for a story anyways.

Even though I don’t rate the books I review here on the GUYde, this one gets top marks from me and is highly recommended for the guys out there.