Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

For all those who love Domesday Preppers...this book is for you!  I don't know if I can say I liked this book...I could not put it down...but it left me unsettled.  Your whole perception changes once your a parent and that includes my reactions to books.  I automatically think...what would I do?  Carl and I had an hour long conversation on what we would do if an asteroid did in fact hit the moon.  Now I will admit that this conversation took place over cocktails, while the children were having a sleepover at Nan and Pop's, and it became a hilarious joke very quickly but it gets you thinking.  I will warn you, this book will make you want to start hoarding food and supplies, I joke (kinda.)

Via Amazon.com. 

I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald’s still would be open.

High school sophomore Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, the way “one marble hits another.” The result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintry in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in a year’s worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An extraordinary series debut!

Awards: ALA Best Book for Young Adults, CCBC Choice, Junior Library Guild Premier selection, Listening Library selection, Amazon.com Best Book of the Year, 2011 ALA Popular Paperback, winner of six state awards

Divergent by Veronica Roth

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!  I cannot believe I waited so long to read this book - it was A-mazing.  You can keep you Team Peeta/Team Gale (and Edward/Jacob for that matter) because Team Four will forever have a place in my heart *sigh*.  Combine that with post-apocalyptic deliciousness and I have discovered a new favorite book...well until the next one comes along...

Via Amazon.com

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the YA scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral

One part journal, one part scrapbook, Chopsticks tells the story of Gloria as she simultaneously falls in love and falls apart and I LOVED IT!!!  First of all, visually it is beautiful, each page is a piece of art.  Second, the story - oh, my - it was at times sweet and lovely and at times sad and heartbreaking.  This book does not take you long to read - one hour tops - *but* it is the kind of book you can look through again and again...just wonderful  .

From Amazon:

Glory is a piano prodigy. 

After her mother died, she retreated into her music. Her father raised her with the goal of playing sold out shows at Carnegie Hall and across the globe. Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to Frank, who moves in next door. She loses herself in his paintings and drawings, mix CD’s and late-night IM conversations. Soon, Frank becomes both her connection to the world--and her escape from reality.

Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song “Chopsticks”; F and G notes moving closer together, and farther apart.

Now, Glory has disappeared. But nothing is what it seems. And we must decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

I wanted to love this book, I really did, but that was not meant to be.  A great premise, good characters, great love story...all things I love...but it just fell short - a tad too tidy and predictable.  I found myself speed reading through the end just to see if I was going where I thought it was, and it did.  I am mildly curious at the sequel but it will be low on my TBR list.  So overall just meh.

Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2011: Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden “I love you”) or the supposed “Invalid” community made up of the uncured just beyond her Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point—she believes her government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn red-hot. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she submit to the procedure. In this powerful and beautifully written novel, Lauren Oliver, the bestselling author of Before I Fall, throws readers into a tightly controlled society where options don’t exist, and shows not only the lengths one will go for a chance at freedom, but also the true meaning of sacrifice. --Jessica Schein