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Health & Fitness

A Near Perfect Weekend

New book reviews of titles by Beth Revis and Ransom Riggs.

This past weekend, my sister and brother-in-law had themselves a little getaway in Milwaukee. As a result, I was commissioned to pet-sitting duty. Not that it's a duty or a chore for me - I love getting to spend some time with my furry niece and nephew. I packed my overnight bag, which, incidentally, included more books than clothes! For the rest of the weekend, I curled up on my sister's sofa with Macca. And, while he slept at my feet, I read.

I was halfway through Across the Universe by Beth Revis, so I dove back into that one. It's a young adult book about a teenage girl, Amy, and her parents who are cryogenically frozen in order to board Godspeed, a ship bound for a new Earth in a new solar system. The opening scene is stunning and haunting as Amy describes watching both her mother and father be frozen, and then describes being frozen herself. Chilling stuff - no pun intended! The story is a little slow at first, Amy's chapters are told from inside her frozen state, and we are introduced to Elder, a ship-born leader in training who rescues Amy when she is woken/reanimated 50 years ahead of schedule and left to drown in the cryogenic freezing liquid. The mystery lies in who woke her up early - and who is killing other frozens aboard the ship?

After I finished, I went back to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I have to admit, this book was nothing like what I was expecting. At first, I was thinking of giving up on reading it; it just wasn't capturing my attention at all. Then I reached the end of chapter three and found myself laughing as I replayed the scene in my head while trying to fall asleep one night. I committed to the story and only set it aside to begin "Across the Universe" when that came in from the library. Miss Peregrine is the headmistress of a very special school for children who are peculiar - children who have special abilities like levitating or having a back mouth. The book combines the story and a series of old black and white images of the peculiar children. Monsters, the German air raids and time travel all weave together off the coast of Wales. And the way it ends practically shouts "sequel!"

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Because I had rapidly become obsessed with Beth Revis and the characters she created, I dove next into A Million Suns, the second book in her trilogy. I won't say much about this one for fear of giving away plot points from "Across the Universe." Suffice it to say that it's equally captivating and I'm counting down the hours until I can head home and continue reading. Though I know I'm going to be kicking myself once I finish - the next book, "Shades of Earth" isn't coming out until January 2013!

(If you happen to pick up any books by Beth Revis and like them, you may also like the other authors of Penguin's Breathless Reads Tour. I can tell you that the titles by Ally Condie and Marie Lu are both great - and I'm working my way through all of the authors featured.)

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