Reading.

This is attempt number three to type this silly post. I am at war with this computer. The one with no enter bar. Said ghost enter bar got stuck and somehow I posted a ginormous empty post. Big black space. Like the space in my heart for this computer right now. And now I'm afraid to press enter. So we're going with the no paragraph format. So... ahem... as I was saying (but keep in mind the first draft was ever so eloquent as all lost drafts are. So if I say something funny here, just know in your heart you would have been piddling in your pajama bottoms had you seen the original. If not for the evil computer)... During my time of unemployment (which commenced January 1st--Happy New Year-- when I was laid off), I have rediscovered that I am, in fact, literate. Growing up, I was always reading. Christmas wishlists generally just had "books" as an item. I did not need to specify. I just loved them all. When I hit college, the whole reading for pleasure thing went out the window. All the sudden there was all this studying to be done. So not so much reading for pleasure. After college, I was a fairly good reader, but the depression thing set in really firmly and for the last three or four years books have not been a thing in my life (except to rack up late fees from unopened books at the library). Darn apathy. But I am pleased to report that during this lovely time of unemployment, outside of the time spent on the job-search thing, I have had quite a bit of time to read some fine literature, and other books too. I just hit save. Just wanted to let you know that at this juncture. Because for the love of all that is good in this world, I will not lose this freaking post again. Since my other thing I'm trying to start doing again is writing (specifically on this blog), I thought that this clearly is the time and place for my very first book review. Unless I've reviewed books on here before. In which case, just kidding. The book I finished earlier this week has been on my mind ever since. I cannot wait for the next in the series. It's one of those book series that people have tagged as "the next Hunger Games." Basically because it's about a distopian world with a protagonist. (People also have called Divergent, which I found deficient "the next Hunger Games." If you haven't read all three books don't even try to argue otherwise. That's all I'm saying.)  I loved the way that Brown developed the main character, and led the reader to be invested in the mission he finds himself on. He created an entire world with it's own history, cultures, and customs that were easy to imagine, but wildly different from our world. I love authors who are so complete in their imagining of a new world and their attention to details about why the world is the way it is (for me Harry Potter and Huinger Games both accomplished that well). By the end of the book, I found myself excited to see where the next book starts, and to find out what life looks like in the part of the world the story has moved to.  This book has got a nice sci-fi, fantasy feel. This is totally a book that dudes would love as well as us chicks. There is a fair amount of violence in it, and some cussing. For the most part I felt that those elements were used well to develop the story and were not gratuitous (although he has a favorite swear word that I could have done with a little less of, but he probably thought it lent some realism to the character). Basically, I"m super excited to read the next book, and super bummed that it won't come out until 2015. This is an instance where jumping on the bandwagon early can be cause for an annoying amount of waiting. I am pretty confident that the wait will be worth it.   (insert paragraph break here, or cuss at the computer. One of those two things). My other pick for books worth your time is Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. This story about a chinese boy and his japanese girl friend at the beginning of World War II is sweet, and very interesting from a historical perspective. It's set in Seattle, and you can tell the author took the time to research what things were like at that time. This part of Seattle's history has fascinated me since I learned of Japanese interment camps in middle school. I've always been so amazed at the way we gloss over these types of injustices perpetrated by the government, but also citizens. I love this book for putting very real human perspective on the events of the time. It was a quick read and definitely worth my time.