Robin Wasserman

First Lines Fridays: November 2, 2018

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Lia Kahn is dead.
I am Lia Kahn.
Therefore — because this is a logic problem even a dim-witted child could solve — I am dead.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

 

August 2017 Wrap-Up (Part 1)

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  July 30 – August 7
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The author’s habit of giving back-handed praise to her characters. (For an example see the second quote in this post.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Willoughby whining about how much he was suffering under the pretense of seeking forgiveness, but really just trying to make himself feel better.

I did downgrade my rating of Sense and Sensibility from 4 stars to 3 stars, with every intention of explaining that here, but my explanation got too wordy so I included it in my rating post instead. (TL;DR I still like and recommend this book!)

My Posts About Sense and Sensibility

The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson
(Little Blue Envelope, book 2)
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  August 6 – 8
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The picturesque descriptions of her travel destinations.
Least Favorite Thing:  Keith.

It was neither bad nor good. I will never read it again or even want to. The idea of being sent on an adventure by a quirky relative will remain fun and delightful. However, if such a thing should ever happen to me I will control my hormones and focus on my adventure.

NEVER GETTING OVER THE LAME-ASS SWOONING WTF WTF WTF

My Posts About The Last Little Blue Envelope

The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine
(The Impostor Queen, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  August 9 – 10
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  BISEXUAL PROTAG (Literally the first time I’ve ever seen one in a fantasy novel!)
Least Favorite Thing:  First person narration… (I’m just not a fan, I feel like it hindered the story’s movement.)

It took longer to get into this book than I usually have patience for, but I’m glad I kept at it (thank you goodreads reviews) because I did end up liking the story and I look forward to reading the next book (even if I’m pretty sure I know exactly what’s going to happen).

My Posts About The Impostor Queen

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
(Uglies, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  August 11 – 15
Read Count:  2  (Pretty sure I read this one other time, but didn’t keep a record of it.)
Favorite Thing:  Wilderness Tally
Least Favorite Thing:  Pretty slang… (It’s totally bogus!)

Tally’s fairytale dreams are so bizarre, I love them.

And I know I should be horrified by the reveal at the very end (and I think the first time I read it I actually was), but I love that too!

Trigger Warning:  Self-harm (cutting). Tally (POV) is horrified, but the people doing it treat it like a religious experience.

My Posts About Pretties

Crashed by Robin Wasserman
(Cold Awakening, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  August 10 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The struggles faced by the mechs against the prejudiced people who would oppress them are brutally allegorical.
Least Favorite Thing:  I….I didn’t like….anyone….

My library doesn’t have the third and final book, but I’ll figure something out because I definitely want to finish the trilogy.

My Posts About Crashed

Part 2

WWW Wednesday: August 23, 2017

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, book 1) by Laini Taylor
I’m not very far into this one yet because I hit a bit of a slump for a few days, but I really like it so far. I love the way Lazlo thinks. Except for the part where he doesn’t try to just straight murder Thyon Nero. Fuck that guy…

I’ve just gotten into Part II and I’m fascinated by the blue people! I’m still not all that sure who they are or how they play into things, but I am definitely fascinated and eager to find out more!

It’s also just really refreshing reading a book about someone who loves books and words and stories.

I’m still working on Specials by Scott Westerfeld (I’m trying not to rush through it because it’s just an easy reread) and of course Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Recently Finished:  Crashed (Cold Awakening, book 2) by Robin Wasserman
I reviewed this book.

I’m glad I got back to this story. Wasserman gave a masterful depiction of prejudice and institutional oppression. I don’t want to put it all down to Wasserman’s being Jewish, that would feel like I was disregarding her intelligence and writing ability, but I don’t doubt her heritage played some part in making her so good at accurately portraying an allegory for racism.

I still maintain that I don’t really like any of the main characters personality-wise, but I don’t think that detracts much from my enjoyment of the story, and anyway it’s just a personal preference.

Reading Next:  The Cursed Queen (The Imposter Queen, book 2) by Sarah Fine
I got my hands on this one and despite my problems with the writing of the first book, I’m eager to know what happens next in the story. In fact, I read the first bit of this one to see if I wanted to use it in a First Lines Fridays post and found myself reading past the prologue and into the first chapter!

I did notice mention of some sort of marks that indicate how good a warrior is, which seem to be self-harm. I’m a little worried about that and I really hope this doesn’t go the way of Carve the Mark with glorification of self-harm… I’m hoping that Fine won’t do that though.

Homecoming (The Tillerman Cycle, book 1) by Cynthia Voigt
I have been wanting to reread The Tillerman Cycle for a while now, and this seems as good a time as any.

I love Cynthia Voigt’s writing style. I’ve mentioned this before I think, but I’ve noticed there are some books that just completely change the way you look at the world. Cynthia’s books are like that. It doesn’t matter how many times I read them, they always make me see things in such a unique way, a way I can’t quite manage without Cynthia’s writing voice.

Musing Monday: August 21, 2017

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Musing Mondays is a weekly meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you steer away from heavy emotional books?

I blogged about ____ this past week…

  • Monday, August 14 – Musing Monday, where I talked about what I was reading at the moment and whether YA was just for teens.
  • Tuesday, August 15 – Teaser Tuesday using Crashed by Robin Wasserman, then a joint update on my progress through Crashed and Pretties by Scott Westerfeld, which I finished later that same day.
  • Wednesday, August 16 – My longest ever WWW Wednesday post in the morning, a little update on Crashed, then WAYRW in the evening (also using Crashed).
  • Thursday, August 17 – Thursday Quotables, pulling a quote from Persuasion this time, then that night I finished and did a rating post for Crashed.
  • Friday, August 18 – I got a review posted for Crashed in the wee hours of Friday morning, then a First Lines Fridays post later that morning, a currently reading photo post featuring Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor and Specials by Scott Westerfeld, and in the evening a Friday 56 using Strange the Dreamer.
  • Saturday, August 19 – My weekly update on my slow progress through Jane Austen’s Persuasion was the only post on Saturday.
  • Sunday, August 20 – A couple little commentary posts on Strange the Dreamer.

Do you steer away from heavy emotional books?
Not always, but a lot of the time yes. I don’t mind when a book makes me emotional, but I have a tendency to over-empathize with the characters in novels so if they are constantly feeling stressed and sad and hopeless I too feel stressed and sad and hopeless. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t read a heavy book if it was good enough, but it would probably take me some time and I would almost certainly need something lighter to pick me back up when it was done.

Review: Crashed by Robin Wasserman (Cold Awakening, book 2)

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Living with other mechs since her wealthy parents transplanted her brain into a mechanical body to prevent her from dying in a horrible accident, Lia becomes a pawn in a religious leader’s movement to outlaw mech technology and eradicate machines such as Lia.

Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Genre:  young adult fiction, ya science fiction, ya dystopia
Pros:  well written, allegorical, realistic
Cons:  slow paced, frustrating main character, realistic

I’m giving this book 3 stars because every problem I had getting into the book and enjoying the story was because I personally didn’t like Lia (the MC), and with the first person POV it’s all Lia all the time. If I had liked her I can tell this story would have been entirely engrossing.

One of the things I really liked about the writing is also one of the things I liked the least. That is, that the characters and their actions were so realistic.

Despite being mechs, with damage resistant bodies and memory back-ups in case they are destroyed, none of them are elite fighters or even excelling at anything much. They are completely realistic teenagers. Give them extra-strong bodies and they pull extra-dangerous stunts. Put a group of them in a house and leave them to their own devices, they screw around (in all meanings of that phrase) and bicker. There are no “maturity level of an adult, leading a teenage revolution” sort of characters. Just a group of kids with problems, facing the destructions of all their rights, trying to figure out if there’s even anything they can do about it.

The reason I almost wish it wasn’t so realistic? The constant bickering leading nowhere at all! Not to mention, hardly anything ever got done. (It was the last 1/3 of the book before they really got down to making any moves.)

This book deals a lot with prejudice. Mechs are struggling to even be seen as people. Wasserman portrays it accurately, with nuance from character to character. As opposed to a homogenous group who all feel the exact same way and hate without logic. Not everyone against the mechs is just an evil creep; some are just angry and looking for someone to be angry at, some are confused and genuinely think they are on the right side, some hide behind religion. Of course, some are just hateful people, too.

I definitely recommend this series so far. Wasserman’s writing is good enough that I enjoy it even with first person narration (something I personally hate) and a main character who sometimes tested my patience.

Goodreads | Book Depository | Author’s Website

What Are You Reading Wednesdays: August 16, 2017

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What Are You Reading Wednesdays #WAYRW is a weekly feature on It’s A Reading Thing. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Grab the book you are currently reading and answer three questions:

  1. What’s the name of your current read?
  2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a couple of sentences.
  3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

  1. Crashed (Cold Awakening, book 2) by Robin Wasserman
  2. Org dreams are nothing but random neural firings, spurts of color and unprompted emotion. The story comes later, in that instant before waking, your muddled mind making sense of the chaos by stringing the randomness into a narrative.
  3. I mean, yeah, if I could get a voluntary download and then avoid Jude. In fact, I’d avoid everyone. I’d go off on my own and live like a mechanical recluse!

WWW Wednesday: August 16, 2017

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  Crashed (Cold Awakening, book 2) by Robin Wasserman
Lia is slowly becoming slightly less annoying, so that’s good news! Jude, on the other hand, is not getting any less annoying.

I’ve taken to entertaining myself by shipping Lia and Riley. That is to say, I don’t actually care whether they date or just form a good friendship, as long as one of those things happens!

I just wish Lia would try to figure things out a bit more!

I’m glad I got myself back to this series. Not sure where I’m going to get the third book in the trilogy though! (My library doesn’t have it…)

Specials (Uglies, book 3) by Scott Westerfeld
This is my favorite book in the Uglies series. I find the Specials fascinating.

I also like that we get to see a lot more of Shay in this one like we did back in Uglies. I know I’m not exactly meant to like her, but I really do.

I feel I should warn potential readers:
There are mentions of self-harm that could be triggering to some readers. The narration doesn’t seem to portray it as a good thing, but some of the characters do.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
And as will probably be the case for most of the rest of the year, I’m still working my way slowly through Persuasion. I really hope something interesting happens so I can find the will to read more than one chapter a week!

Recently Finished:  Pretties (Uglies, book 2) by Scott Westerfeld
I’ve read this one 2 or 3 times now (2 that I have a record of, but I could swear I read it another time before…)

Despite all the New Pretty slang that makes everything they talk/think about sound vapid and stupid, I really enjoy watching Tally work her way through problems and situations.

I do wish she would have thought of Shay a little more often! Or at least, would have acted on those thoughts. Not that I’m shocked, she did the same thing back in Uglies. Tally tends to forget Shay whenever she meets a guy.

Again I should mention a trigger warning for self-harm, although there are much fewer mentions in Pretties than in Specials.

The Impostor Queen (The Impostor Queen, book 1) by Sarah Fine
I reviewed this one, read it here.

This is one of those books I liked and didn’t like at the same time. Or I should say, I liked the story, but I didn’t enjoy reading the book all that much. Luckily, it makes up for occasionally being boring or annoying by being a quick read with good themes.

And I really do look forward to getting the sequel from the library. I’m interested to see how things turn out, and also whether my predictions turn out to be true. (Also I guess I’m hoping it will be a little more enjoyable to read.)

Reading Next:  Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, book 1) by Laini Taylor
I was able to buy this book new, which is something I don’t get to do very often, but at the time that it came in I was in the middle of another series and I put this one aside for later and then forgot it like a dummy.

I had been considering rereading Laini’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, which is what reminded me that I still hadn’t gotten down to reading Strange!

I’m really looking forward to this book, and if booklr is to be believed, I won’t be disappointed.

I haven’t decided yet if I will go ahead and reread the fourth book in the Uglies series, Extras, or not. I guess it depends on if I find myself needing an easy reread while reading some other book.