[Books I've read] WOOL - Hugh Howey

About a month ago...maybe two, I attended a seminar held at my university (Metropolitan State College of Denver) about literary agents, what they can do for authors, what they can't do, how their work has changed over the years, and how their work is going to change in all the years to come. I decided to attend not only because becoming a literary agent has been one of my dreams since I learned what one was, but because one of the agents that kind of inspired me to become one was going to be there, Kristen Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency. I'd heard of a few books that she represented, as well as a new one for her (well, then it was new- not so much anymore though) which was LEGEND by Marie Lu. As she was explaining to us how much more power the author has in the publishing world today, she kind of stopped herself and asked everyone in the very full room, "Have you guys heard of Hugh Howey?" She nearly fell off her chair when not a soul raised their hands. Forgetting what she was going to say, she switched topics immediately and the one thing I remember her saying that stood out for me was: "Give it about a week or two, you will definitely hear about him then. He wrote an anthology of books called WOOL..." and she proceeded to tell us how Hugh single handedly changed the way people will look at the world of Self Publishing forever. ( Here is a link to read more about Hugh, he's truly fascinating.) So that night after the seminar, I grabbed my kindle and bought it. So onto the real reason I am posting this, I finished WOOL last night at about 1:00am because I literally could not force the book out of my hand. Here's my take on it:

Incredible. Mesmerizing. WOOL had one of the strongest hooks that I have ever read in my entire life, I can't remember the last time I read a book and had a spirit haunt me just to make sure I wouldn't put the book down. I bought the omnibus edition of the book which had all 5 mini-books all rolled into one. The first book focused on Holston, the Sheriff of the Silo (which is a hole in the ground hundreds of feet into the earth where the general population live due to the air outside of the Silo being toxic), which kind of sets up for the rest of the novel. Book 2 focuses on the Mayor of the Silo and Holston's Deputy Marnes, and book three is where it truly unfolds with the introduction of Juliette, the main character for the next three books.

Hugh has built a universe so complex I often had to put my kindle down and wonder how the hell someone could be such a GENIUS. I don't want to give much away because you really should buy it and read it for yourself, but basically the human population has been living in these Silos for hundreds of years and it's the only life everybody ever knew. If anybody asked about what lies beyond the Silo or even thought about it, they were sent to "cleaning". Cleaning in a nutshell is the highest punishment of the law and is eerily similar to the electric chair where one is sent to death while a small audience watches behind the glass. One person is sent to clean the sensors outside of the Silo wearing a special suit, but usually the suit can only withstand the toxins from the outside air for so long, leaving the cleaner to die on the wasteland. Then life returns to normal for most of everybody, except Juliette, Marnes, and the Mayor who suspect something is suspicious within the Silo. I don't know.... it's so hard to explain- but this book was beyond words for me. I found myself reading to and from school on the light-rail, running on the treadmill, in bed, at work, anytime I had any free time that book was in my hands. I'm absolutely sure if you are a lover of Science Fiction novels, then this one will quickly climb to the top of your list too.

Since Hugh is so persuasive on his Facebook page about his novels, I ended up downloading a few more of his novels to keep me occupied. Turns out that: "Hey my book is only 1.99 today so make sure to get it before the end of the day!" works REALLY well for me to buy books. I'm looking forward to the sequel "SHIFT" which I will be reading shortly.

Hugh, if you ever read this: Thank you so much for this book and everything you've done for the publishing world. Kristen was absolutely right and I'm so excited to share this book with everyone I know.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Suggest? 100% Guarantee it will be the best read of the year.

Thanks for reading!

Matthew

[Random] The music ULTA plays in their stores.

As an ULTA Beauty employee, I often have to suffer though 5-8 hours of listening to the same music over and over again. Most of it is complete shit. Like... there's this french song they play that is just AWFUL. Anyway, when I was bored, I shazamed a lot of them and figured out what they were. Some are awesome classics, but they mix in some horrible music from other countries in there. No, not all music from other countries are bad, but these particular ones are horrid. Youtube has been my friend in finding all of these, so below is an incomplete list of the songs they play in ULTA stores.

The Good:

Roberta Sá - Ah, Se eu vou


Janet Jackson - Doesn't really matter


One Direction - What makes you beautiful


The Bangles - Manic Monday


Donna Lewis - I love you always forever



The horrible:

Marcos Valle - Novo Acorde


Fidelity - Regina Spektor

[Books I've read] Between the Lines - Jodi Piccoult and Samantha Van Leer

I'm not going to lie, I really, really wanted to like this book. The plot line was really strong and I've read a few of Jodi's books and was absolutely captivated by them. This one, not so much. Now I understand that this book is written for a completely different target audience than Jodi usually writes for, and that is perhaps the main reason I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, but I just wasn't as impressed as I had hoped.

The book follows Delilah, a young teen who discovers that a character from one of her favorite fairy tales can speak to her. Prince Oliver has been reliving and acting out the same story since the book was written, but is bored with how monotonous his life has become. When he discovers that Delilah too can see and hear him, he instantly becomes infatuated with her. The more they talk, the more in love they fall in love and soon they begin to formulate ways to get one another in each others world. When the book is shut, the character show their true selves, but once the book is reo
pened they are instantly placed where they are supposed to be for the novel to be read again.

I felt the writing was extremely inconsistent in some places and some characters just weren't imperative to the story line. And I especially felt that Delilah was way too young to be feeling the way she does and doing things that she did in the novel, no teenager in their right mind would feel that way.

Like I said, interesting concept, but really poorly executed. It took way too long to get to the climax of the book, and when we finally got there it just died. Oh well, I'm still really excited to read her latest book, The Storyteller. I have much higher hopes that the novel will be worth the read!

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Suggest? If you're bored and have nothing better to read.

Thanks for reading!
Matthew

[Books I've read] Plan B - SJD Peterson

 Ever since I read my first gay themed novel, Desert Sons by Mark Kendrick, I knew it 

was going to be my new favorite genre of books. Having been a while since I last read one, I decided on a whim to try Plan B by SJD Peterson. I just happened to be on my kindle looking for something new to read when I came across the cover to this book (I'm terrible, I totally base a book off its cover), and decided to sample it. After I read the tiny sample Amazon gave me I felt myself wanting more. Even though I didn't necessarily have the money for it, I went ahead and purchased it anyway.  

I am so glad that I did. It didn't take me but a week to finish reading it in its entirety, and that is pretty unusual for me since I have so little time nowadays to read. This particular book intrigued me simply because of the plot. The story revolves around Danny, a normal gay college student whose feminine qualities seem to outshine the rest, and Lance, a straight acting Jock, confused beyond all belief. I've always been a sucker for Fem/Jock pairings though, so it was no surprise that I fell in love with this one. 

The novel had just enough sex(I hate it when sex overpowers the romance) in it to keep me happy and the perfect amount of romance between characters that I just couldn't find the will to put my kindle down. I definitely would recommend this book for any who love m/m romance novels, it's definitely one of those books for me, that I'm gonna have trouble getting out of my mind. Gotta love those feelings.

Rating: 5 out 5 Stars

Recommend? Yes.

Thanks for reading!
Matthew

[Books I've read] Cornerstone Cafe by K.A Pray

Something that I have always wanted to do was keep track of what I read and give you my thoughts about the books that I've read. I've somewhat done that on an old Livejournal account, but has since been abandoned. I think writing them as I read them rather than trying to remember what I read years and years ago, will make this blog more successful.

So I had the honor of reading a book that was written by one of my friends and I have to say I am fairly impressed. This is not the first time that I have read a book by a friend and I remember how hard it was to not be biased since you know the author. I didn't buy it, but rather it was the first book that I "rented" from my Amazon Prime account. I'll support her definitely, maybe once I get a higher paying job that is!! The book that I read was Cornerstone Cafe by K.A Pray.

Overall, I think the story was well thought out and obviously planned since it had many elements in a somewhat diverse world. It starts off with that damn cat whose name is... Cat. I actually like that the cat's name was actually Cat, but the novel revolves around a young teen named Asher, Ash for short, who runs away from home and lands herself in San Francisco. After finding a job at the Cornerstone Cafe, she experiences things no teenager should, and stumbles upon a paranormal secret that the world's been hiding for decades. I don't want to give away too much because I really do think it is worth a read and I don't want to spoil it!

The only cons I have for the novel are just major editing issues. There aren't as many as I was expecting, and a lot of them are minuscule (writing "off" instead of "of" - or lack of commas), but they still need to be addressed. One thing that I loved and disliked about the novel was the romance between three of the characters. It felt a little like Twilight to me with the whole love triangle going on, but I LOVED the character of the angel... whose name escapes me... but, him! The way I imagined him was absolutely adorable. Another complaint was the character of Asher, I feel like at times she was overwhelmingly... bitchy even at times she shouldn't be. But that's her character I guess! But Still, with some work and a little love, I think a Literary Agent somewhere out there would definitely keep this under their belt. Awesome work Kachi, I look forward to the sequel!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Recommend? Yes.

Thanks for reading!
Matthew

Introductory post

I find the fact that I was once addicted to blogging so interesting, especially since it was almost 3 years ago since I last did one. Anyway...

Happy New Year everybody! I have a great feeling about 2013 and I have a whole lot in store for myself as well as friends and family! Starting with my novel, the one I've been writing since middle school. This novel has gone through several different titles and several different plots, but eight years later and with some more experience under my belt, I think I am finally happy with what will be the end result. In middle school I called it... "Ravens Eye". Then it evolved once I hit High School and I started calling it "The Temple of violet Ash", once again changing it towards the end of High School to "The Zenrai Legacy" with book one being called "Hydrangea". Then I abandoned it completely to start several other novels, which I also have not finished.

BUT, in 2011 I got the idea for another novel that I have been infatuated with since and I actually combined the first novel with this one and called it "The Song of Asiron". In 2013 I have finally decided on a name that I may (or may not...) stick with and am very happy with it and the plot. "Serenade".

The novel has, of course, some gay themes in it but mainly explores the relationship of a young boy and his father, the relationship between two lovers, and the relationship with a large horse named Atlas. I'll type up a full summary when I have more time/details, but for now I am so happy with the result. I plan on the first draft being done by Fall of this year at which point I will find some people to help me edit. 

Another thing I have in store for 2013 is to move up in my job. I don't really want to leave my job, because I adore most of the people I work with, but moving up is a goal I will have for this year. I currently work for Philosophy, which is a skin care brand where we believe clear skin is the best cosmetic! I've truly fallen in love with the product and have seen it work for so many different people (myself included). We'll see where life takes me!

Last thing I want to say is that my best friend Lindsay is moving! Well... traveling abroad for 7 months, but still, that's a long time! She's headed to Berlin in Germany to live with a host family while she studies, it's an amazing opportunity and I can't wait for her to come back!

I'll post later when I think of something to write!

Matthew