Author: Destiny Vandeput

Digital Marketer by day/Writer by night.
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The Help: Kathrynn Stockett

So I’m like the zillionth person to recommend this book, but it’s true what they say. It’s a great book. It will make you cringe and shudder when you realize what black people went through just 50 years ago. It’s crazy and insane to think this was “normal”. So incredibly sad. But I think it’s a must read for people and it’s a great story. It flips between 4 people’s points of view and I must say, it’s fantastic. You need to read it! I haven’t seen the movie yet as it hasn’t come out here in Belgium yet, but I’m planning on it.

Anyways 5 stars and recommend it!

Summary:
In writing about such a troubled time in American history, Southern-born Stockett takes a big risk, one that paid off enormously. Critics praised Stockett’s skillful depiction of the ironies and hypocrisies that defined an era, without resorting to depressing or controversial clichés. Rather, Stockett focuses on the fascinating and complex relationships between vastly different members of a household. Additionally, reviewers loved (and loathed) Stockett’s three-dimensional characters—and cheered and hissed their favorites to the end. Several critics questioned Stockett’s decision to use a heavy dialect solely for the black characters. Overall, however, The Help is a compassionate, original story, as well as an excellent choice for book groups. 

Paperback: 544 pages Publisher: Berkley Trade; Mti Rei edition (June 28, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 0425245136

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Eden: Keary Taylor

Okay, one of my favorite books I’ve read in 2011. It’s sort of like a machine zombie apocolypse. Sounds strange, but I’m telling you, you’re going to like this book!

I won’t give anything away, but it’s good and you should read it.

Totally recommend with 5 stars.

Summary:
Eve knew the stories of the Fall, of a time before she wandered into the colony of Eden, unable to recall anything but her name. She’s seen the aftermath of the technology that infused human DNA with cybernetic matter, able to grow new organs and limbs, how it evolved out of control. The machine took over and the soul vanished. A world quickly losing its humanity isn’t just a story to her though. At eighteen, this world is Eve’s reality. In their Fallen world, love feels like a selfish luxury, but not understanding what it is makes it difficult to choose between West, who makes her feel alive but keeps too many secrets, and Avian, who has always been there for her, but is seven years her senior. The technology wants to spread and it won’t stop until there is no new flesh to assimilate. With only two percent of the human population left, mankind is on the brink of extinction. While fighting to keep Eden alive, Eve will discover that being human is about what you will do for those you love, not what your insides may be made of. And even if it gets you killed, love is always what separates them from the Fallen.

Reading level: Young Adult Paperback: 420 pages Publisher: CreateSpace (June 3, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 1463525966

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Blood Red Road: Moira Young

This sort of reminded me of that movie Book of Eli. You know when the world ends and all these crazy people take over like it’s the wild wild west?

Blood Red Road is sort of like that, but in a good way. I really liked the book although I thought the ending was a bit “ehh”.

But again, loved the book and totally recommend it!

Summary:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother, Lugh, is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives bearing four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on a quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent—and she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.
Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, intense action, and an epic love story—making Moira Young one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction. 

Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (June 7, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 1442429984

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Legends of the Guardian King series: Karen Hancock

I read these books off of a recommendation and the fact that their Kindle price was pretty cheap (hey, I’m on a budget!)

I feel kind of mixed about these books, even though I really liked them. They are overtly in the Christian genre, which to be honest, I don’t normally like. However, I got into these books. They have a way more “fantasy” feel than normal Christian books do, although their “analogies” were pretty obvious. Like Tersius is Jesus, just say it already! 🙂

If you like the fantasy genre with magic and warlocks and such, but are looking for a bit tamer version, then I would definitely recommend these to you.

I liked them and you get the feel good feeling of good triumphing over evil. But it’s not all roses as the protagonist goes through the fire similar to Job!  But I think it just makes you love him even more.

When you read the summary you’ll probably be like me and like “ehhh”, but give it a shot! Plus if you have a Kindle, book 1 is free, can’t beat that!

Anyways, totally recommend with 4 stars.

Summary of book 1:
Hancock’s intriguing Arena [BKL Ap 15 02] drew a great deal of praise for the originality and starkness of its alternative universe. In The Light of Eidon, she begins a fantasy series called Legends of the Guardian King that is more clearly a Christian allegory but is so crisscrossed with subplots and deceit that exactly where the light of Eidon shines may baffle the reader. It certainly baffles young Abramm Kalladorne, Hancock’s hero. He is the little-valued fifth son of the king of Kiriath, a vivid kingdom that seems a bit like medieval England, with a bit of ancient Rome. Abramm is drawn to the religious life, but after eight years as a novitiate, he discovers that his spiritual leader is a fraud and that the true path to Eidon’s light lies elsewhere. But upon leaving the monastery, he finds himself in the middle of court intrigues, and his brothers sell him into slavery in a faraway, barbarous land. For a while, Hancock’s novel seems like a gladitorial epic, but then Eidon, or Jesus, makes his truths known. A great battle ensues, but victory is not complete and many questions remain. Readers will certainly return for the second installment.

Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Bethany House (July 1, 2003) Language: English ISBN-10: 0764227947

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The Knitting Circle: Ann Hood

I read this book because I was going to join in on a book club while I was in Texas. This didn’t happen, but I still read the book.

Sheesh, it was sad! It was one of those books where you really delved into the characters and the overall sadness they were experiencing. Each person involved in the knitting circle has a deep tragedy they are dealing with and knitting helps them get through it somehow. Or really, having each other to lean on does.

Anyways, it’s a good book though pretty sad and dark at times. I’m still glad I read it and I recommend it with 4 stars.

Summary:
While mourning the death of her daughter, Hood (An Ornithologist’s Guide to Life) learned to knit. In her comeback novel, Mary Baxter, living in Hood’s own Providence, R.I., loses her five-year-old daughter to meningitis. Mary and her husband, Dylan, struggle to preserve their marriage, but the memories are too painful, and the healing too difficult. Mary can’t focus on her job as a writer for a local newspaper, and she bitterly resents her emotionally and geographically distant mother, who relocated to Mexico years earlier. Still, it’s at her mother’s urging that Mary joins a knitting circle and discovers that knitting soothes without distracting. The structure of the story quickly becomes obvious: each knitter has a tragedy that she’ll reveal to Mary, and if there’s pleasure to be had in reading a novel about grief, it’s in guessing what each woman’s misfortune is and in what order it will be exposed. The strength of the writing is in the painfully realistic portrayal of the stages of mourning, and though there’s a lot of knitting, both actual and metaphorical, the terminology’s simple enough for nonknitters to follow and doesn’t distract from the quick pace of the narrative.

Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st Norton Pbk. Ed edition (January 17, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0393330443