January 2013 Book Challenge! - Page 3

[beanma]

So I finished The Age Of Miracles last night. Overall, it was easy to read and I didn't find it boring—so two tick marks in the plus column. (Sometimes I get bogged down in really dense books — this was definitely not dense.)

I found it on the new book shelf at my library, which is all adult books, and while The Age Of Miracles was a little bit bleak (not _that_ bleak, really) I kept wondering why it wasn't shelved with the middle grade/young adult books. How do they decide what is YA and what is adult? It definitely did have an interesting voice with the young 11/12 yr old girl narrating, and had an apocalyptic premise (the slowing of the earth's rotation), but there was nothing that bad in it compared to all the dystopian YA fiction out there. Nobody was forced to kill other teenagers ala the Hunger Games.

I would give it 3 stars maybe. I enjoyed it, but it didn't really move me much and I won't be recommending it as a must-read to friends. I might see if my 12 year old would like it, though. I thought that the Barbara Kingsolver book I mentioned above, Flight Behavior, that I just read a couple of weeks ago was more unsettling in terms of our realistic potential future w/ changing the earth and global warming.

Edited by beanma - 2/15/13 at 7:57am

[kofduke]

Pale Demon, Harrison

Condemned and shunned for black magic, Rachel Morgan has three days to get to the annual witches’ conference and clear her name, or be trapped in the demonic ever-after . . . forever after.

But a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy in one car going across the country? Talk about a recipe for certain disaster, even without being the targets for assassination.

For after centuries of torment, a fearsome demon walks in the sunlight—freed at last to slay the innocent and devour their souls. But his ultimate goal is Rachel Morgan, and in the fight for survival that follows, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.

 

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The ninth book in Harrison's The Hollows series, this one is the best to date.  The fast paced action leaves you on the edge of your seat; and the characters are becoming better developed and more mature. And, demons have feelings?  Who knew? 

Antifragile, Taleb

Fragile things break under stress. But, according to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, there's an entire class of other things that don't simply resist stress but actually grow, strengthen, or otherwise gain from unforeseen and otherwise unwelcome stimuli. Taleb sees degrees of antifragility everywhere, from fasting, mythology, and urban planning to economic, technological, cultural, and biological systems...As comical as Taleb's rough handling of his favorite targets can be--academics, economists, and tourists, to name a few--his argumentative style boasts gaping holes, non sequiturs aplenty, and at times an almost willfully repugnant tone. Some readers will find Taleb's brashness off-putting; others will embrace it as a charismatic component of the ideas themselves. .

 

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The concept behind this book is really interesting:  that resilience isn't really the opposite of fragility, rather such should be defined as antifragility, or the ability to strengthen or gain from unwelcome events.  That said, I just didn't like the book; the tone just rubbed me the wrong way.  For me the best parts by far were those about medical interventions.

[Holland73]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg 

Hmmm... yeah--I just tried it and it's a problem.  We had some kind of system release yesterday and I'm wondering if it's related.  Will bump it up to admin.  

Please hold... 

Hi Heather,

What is going on with this situation?  I still cannot open a new thread. 

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by Holland73 

Hi Heather,

What is going on with this situation?  I still cannot open a new thread. 

Oh, good question, I just came to try it.  It still doesn't work?  Bummer.

[heatherdeg]

Just got an admin to fix it (they thought it was done, but apparently not) and I just tested it--it works.  I apologize for the delays.  :/

[Holland73]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg 

Just got an admin to fix it (they thought it was done, but apparently not) and I just tested it--it works.  I apologize for the delays.  :/

Thank you, Heather!!!!

[Holland73]

Here we go...

February 2013 Book Challenge thread is up!
 

Happy Posting, Everyone!

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by Holland73 

Here we go...

February 2013 Book Challenge thread is up!
 

Happy Posting, Everyone!

Thanks for starting the thread!

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg 

Just got an admin to fix it (they thought it was done, but apparently not) and I just tested it--it works.  I apologize for the delays.  :/

Thanks for working on it for us!