Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav

Title: Love & Misadventure

Author: Lang Leav

Type: Poetry Collection
Genre: Poetry

Series: No

Pages: 176
Copyright:  2013

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads

Lang Leav is a poet and internationally exhibiting artist. Awarded a coveted Churchill Fellowship, her work expresses the intricacies of love and loss. Beautifully illustrated and thoughtfully conceived, Love and Misadventure will take you on a rollercoaster ride through an ill-fated love affair- from the initial butterflies to the soaring heights- through to the devastating plunge. Lang Leav has an unnerving ability to see inside the hearts and minds of her readers. Her talent for translating complex emotions with astonishing simplicity has won her a cult following of devoted fans from all over the world.

Feelings:
This collection of poetry by Lang Leav was touching. Each poem was very short and concise. However, even though they were short they still carried a lot of wait. The poems spoke of love, and the adventures that come with it. The book was divided into three parts: Misadventure, The Circus of Sorrows, and Love. Each section looks at a different aspect of love.

I read the book in one sitting while I was waiting in a doctors office. Normally I would try and give a book more time that this but I just kept wanting to read more and I did have a rather long wait. While I did feel that some of the poems in the collection needed a second read, I found myself doing so immediately, they were mostly light and easy to take in. Even though the subject, love, isn't always pleasant the poems about loose were still deserving of second reads.

These poems will resonate with those that have been in a relationship and felt the ups and downs that go with it.

I highly recommend this collection as a short read. The poems are short but the style has much to offer the reader even in such a short space.

The One by Kiera Cass

Title: The One

Author: Kiera Cass

Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Post-America

Series: The Selection #3

Pages: 323

Copyright: 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating: 2.5 out of 5


Summary: From Good Reads
The time has come for one winner to be crowned.

When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.

Feelings: 
This book concluded the series in much the way I was expecting. There were a few twists I didn't expect but for the most part it was pretty predictable. I admit that I started reading this series because I liked the dresses on the cover. I was not let down. The series was aimed at a younger audience than me and I knew that when I started reading them. I still enjoyed them as a good brain candy read.

America and Maxon don't really seem like a good match to me for as much as they doubt each other, yet they do have chemistry. The ending was satisfying in the way an ending that isn't the worst but the best outcome can be. I'm glad I finished the series. I plan of checking out other books by Kiera Cass in the future. It will be interesting to see what kind of writer she becomes after this series has been so popular. 

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Title: Outlander 
Author: Diana Gabaldon 
Type: Novel 
Genre: Fiction 
Series: Yes, Outlander #1 
Pages: 627 
Copyright: 1991 
Publisher: Delta Trade Paperbacks 
Rating: 4 out of 5


Cover Rating: 3 out of 5
I think that the simple cover is actually pretty nice. I'm not sure it is really going to get anyone who wasn't already interested in the book interested. I expected to see an image of Jamie and Claire on a horse together. I guess that was just me thinking what would they do if this was a romance novel. It isn't just that so I think that the simple cover is good. It leaves many things to the imagination that are best there.

My cover design

Summary: from Good Reads

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Feelings:
I had heard a bit about the book before it was picked as a cover blind read for me. I thought it would be more of juicy romance than it was. There was quite a bit of violence that I didn't expect. The beginning of the book was largely exposition and I had a hard time getting through it. Once Claire is with the Scots the book gets much more interesting.

I enjoyed reading this book a lot more than I thought I would. It wasn't just a romance it was more than that. Claire is stubborn and so are most of the other major characters. This leads to some interesting conversations and scenes in the book.

"You are not all right, and it's no wonder," I snapped, venting my fear and irritation. "What sort of idiot gets himself knifed and doesn't even stop to take care of it?[...]You're lucky you're not dead, tearing around the countryside all night, brawling and fighting and throwing yourself off horses . . . hold still, you bloody fool." (p. 54)

This is about where the story really started to get me interested. Jamie and Claire are strong characters and they pull the story forward.

I liked the new interpretation of what stone hedges were. Markers for rifts in time. That is really interesting to me.

I recommend this book.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Title: Ancillary Justice 
Author: Ann Leckie 
Type: Novel 
Genre: Science Fiction 
Series: Yes, Imperial Radch #1 
Pages: 409 
Copyright: 2013 
Publisher: Orbit 
Rating: 4 out of 5


Cover Rating: 2.5 out of 5
I do not think I would have read the book if I had seen this cover. I was picturing something more like a planet dark blue with a yellow line of light on the edge from maybe one of the lotuses that Breq carries. I don't think that the Star Wars theme cover is bad I just don't like it as much. I think I did a much better job imagining what the ships looked like that the cover does. Even though the cover does fit the book it doesn't make me what to read the book at all. Thus I would say it is a failure in that respect because what is inside is an amazing story.

Before Cover was drawn.

Summary: from Good Reads.
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren--a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose--to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.

From debut author Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice is a stunning space opera that asks what it means to be human in a universe guided by artificial intelligence.

My idea for the cover

Feelings: 
I thought that this was a hard book to read. This was largely because of how gender is written. The narrative is in the first person and the narrator comes from a place were gender is neutral and thus has a hard time defining gender when she is talking in other languages and must identify the gender of the person she is talking to. The language the narrator speaks uses the female pronoun "she" "her" for all genders and this can get a bit confusing.

"I'll rent a sledge," I said, "and buy a hypothermia kit."
Behind me one of the patrons chuckled and said, voice mocking, "Aren't you a tough little girl." (p. 2)

This is the only indication I have of the narrators gender through out the book. Gender is often from another characters insight or comment and not from Breq. I really liked Breq, the narrator, she (using it here not because she is female but because that is the pronoun the book uses) is very different from most narrators I've read. There are many odd things that we learn as we travel with Breq. The book also follows Breq's character 20 years in the past leading to the events of today.

For the first fifty pages maybe more I found the lack of gender really hard to follow. However, I did get used to it and as we gathered a group of characters and stayed with them it got easier to follow what was happening and not get caught up in the oddness of only seeing the female pronoun used.

She was probably male, to judge from the angular mazelike patterns quilting her shirt. I wasn't entirely certain. It wouldn't have mattered, if I had been in Radch Space. Radichaai don't care much about gender, and the language they speak--my own first language--doesn't mark gender in any way. (p. 3)

I don't want to give to much away about the story because it was really good and I thought reading it without a cover or a story blurb added to the appeal of the story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Science Fiction.