Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Title: Shades of Earth

Author: Beth Revis

Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: Yes. Across the Univers #3

Pages: 369
Copyright: 2013
Publisher: Razorbill

Rating: 3 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

Feelings:
This was a visual book for me the descriptions of the people and the places made the planet come to life. I liked the planet even with it's dangers. I didn't care for the way the earth-borns once woken seemed to take over and view the ship-borns as lesser people. That bothered me as they didn't really seem like they would be those kind of people. We got to see a reversal though, Amy has been discriminated against by those on Godspeed and now those on Godspeed are discriminated against by those from earth.

I liked that Elder and Amy stay together even though her parents don't like it. I did wonder at why Amy and Elder are the only ones that really seem concerned with how things are and try and find out more information.

The ending of the book wasn't what I expected but I think that was a good thing. I would recommend the series to those who enjoy young adult fantasy.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

Title: Gut and Psychology Syndrome

Author: Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Health

Series: No

Pages: 392
Copyright: 2012
Publisher: Medinform Publishing

Rating: 3 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride set up The Cambridge Nutrition Clinic in 1998. As a parent of a child diagnosed with learning difficulties, she was acutely aware of the difficulties facing other parents like her, and she has devoted much of her time to helping these families. She realised that nutrition played a critical role in helping children and adults to overcome their disabilities, and has pioneered the use of probiotics in this field.

Her willingness to share her knowledge has resulted in her contributing to many publications, as well as presenting at numerous seminars and conferences on the subjects of learning disabilities and digestive disorders. Her book "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" captures her experience and knowledge, incorporating her most recent work.

She believes that the link between learning disabilities, the food and drink that we take, and the condition of our digestive system is absolute, and the results of her work have supported her position on this subject. In her clinic, parents discuss all aspects of their child's condition, confident in the knowledge that they are not only talking to a professional but to a parent who has lived their experience. Her deep understanding of the challenges they face, puts her advice in a class of it's own.

Feelings:
I felt like there was a lot of information in here. I was looking for something to deal with digestive problems. The medical community doesn't know what it is so I don't know either. However, I was sick, really sick for three months, and then spend one month doing a little better on a gluten-free diet before I started working with someone that suggested I try using the GAPS diet.

I read the full book and found that while I don't agree completely with everything that she talks about dealing with autism, dyspraxia, A.D.D., A.D.H.D, schizophrenia, dyslexia, and depression I did think she made some good points. I felt like some areas were very well researched and backed up, I live with a skeptic and he tends to disbelieve everything, and being dyslexic myself I found it hard when she made sweeping generalizations. I think she would have been better served focusing on autism which is really where her research backs her up.

As for the diet I decided that since I was really struggling, I would start with the introduction diet. It became clear quite fast that almost all of the recipes she includes in the book aren't really for the introduction diet but are more for the full GAPS diet. If I need guidance it is in the introduction diet. I felt like this is where the book could have been much stronger. The stages are laid out for you but it doesn't really give you a good feeling of what you might cook. I just wanted a few suggestions to get me started. I had to find this somewhere else. She also lists vegetables you can eat on the different stages of the intro diet and it has etc. That is so so helpful. I need a list not a partial list I want the whole list.

Over all I do think the diet is good for healing a gut or digestive system that is in need of that. I'm doing much better and I haven't even made it through the introduction diet yet. However, there are still some things that haven't gone away yet and I wonder how much time I need to give before I try something different.

I would recommend this book to people struggling with digestive and gut issues that the medical community doesn't understand. 

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Title: A Million Suns

Author: Beth Revis

Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: Yes Across the Universe #2

Pages: 386
Copyright: 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads
Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It’s been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. Everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed.

But there may be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to act on his vision—no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder learns shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a mystery that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier. Their success—or failure—will determine the fate of the 2,298 passengers aboard Godspeed. But with each step, the journey becomes more perilous, the ship more chaotic, and the love between them more impossible to fight.

Beth Revis catapulted readers into the far reaches of space with her New York Times bestselling debut, Across the Universe. In A Million Suns, Beth deepens the mystery with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.



Feelings: 
This book develops the relationship between Elder and Amy. Amy is giving elder space so that he can be the leader that Godspeed needs, however, it is harder for her to do this because he is the only one on the ship that really cares for her and doesn't see her difference as a bad thing.

In some ways this book felt a little like a dramatic treasure hunt. Okay let me just say that it isn't a bad thing. I thought the book was good and I liked it. It was just one clue to the next while Amy tries to survive on the ship with people who think she is strange and different and can't accept her.

I would recommend this book to those that enjoyed the first in the series.

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Author: Neil Gaiman

Type: Novel
Genre: Fantasy

Series: No

Pages: 181

Copyright:  2013

Publisher: William Morrow

Rating: 3 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

Feelings:
I enjoyed this book. I did at times feel like it was a little slow but because of the length of the story I think that was a good thing. There was a lot that happened in the story and not all of it was clear from the beginning. The narrator is remembering a childhood full of dark things. As the book progresses we learn more and more of what happened in his past.

I liked the progression of the story. The ending of the story felt very right. There are some stories that I would argue that the ending could have been better or maybe different as it didn't seem to fit right. This story the ending worked. It completed and yet wasn't so final as to make it so the reader can't imagine a future.

I would recommend this book to those that like a fantasy set in this world. However, let me note that the book has gotten a lot of hype and I'm not really sure that it lives up to that. I have enjoyed Neil Gaiman's other books more.