2014 - Book 1

"Shiver" - Minnesota

Well, my first book of 2014 was aptly chosen. I was indeed doing a lot of shivering during the time that I was reading this book. I experienced some -40 wind chills, I think the coldest I've ever felt in my entire life. 

As for the book . . . it was just okay. It started out rather "Twilight"-esque because it's a story about werewolves, although instead of being really warm all the time, the outside temperature causes the wolf-human transformations. I'm really hoping the majority of books on this list aren't like that. Not that I didn't enjoy the story, but I just hope YA novels are a bit more diverse than just werewolves and vampires nowadays.

It was interesting going back and reading YA fiction now that I'm not in the age group that it is targeted at anymore. I found myself more frustrated with the parents for being irresponsible and clueless to what their daughter was going through than identifying with the teenager. I would say it should be aimed for a bit older YA crowd since there was more romance in it than I was expecting for a YA book, but it was still PG-13. I don't want to give too much away, but essentially the protagonist has an unhealthy obsession with the wolves in her backyard after she was attacked by them as a child. She is "in love" with one of them and ta da, he turns into a human when the weather is warm enough and they find each other for a few moments of bliss before strife comes into the picture threatening it all. There is an interesting resolution though, and if you're a high school biology teacher out there an assign your class papers on diseases, if this book gets popular, I would expect lots of girl's papers to be about bacterial meningitis . . . just saying ;) 

So, I wouldn't buy this book, and I probably wouldn't read it again, but it was entertaining for the most part, and I can see some of it's appeal to the YA crowd. I think another book on the US of YA list is by the same author so we'll see what else she can come up with. 

In other news, not book related I made the baked oatmeal again, this time a cherry/apple/walnut version and it was really good. I just doubled the recipe and baked it in a 13" x 9" pan for about 50 minutes . . . yum :) 

Okay, well that's all for now, I'll keep you posted. Hope you are all staying warm :)