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Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Made Me Want to Learn Things

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TTTTop Ten Tuesday is a Weekly Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is about books that inspire us to learn new things, or at least make us wish we could! Here are some of the books that made me want to take up new hobbies.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – parkour

Reading about Inej’s amazing spider-like abilities made me wish I was athletic and brave enough to learn some parkour. It looks like so much fun. Well, until you watch all those reels of fail videos. Ouch!

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley – glass blowing

Okay, this one is only slightly cheating because I’ve always wanted to learn glass-blowing anyway. Fun fact: a girl I grew up with actually has an arts degree in this. Anyway, reading about Lucy and how she feels about and connects with her art really made me wish we had local classes that I could take.

Sister Pact by Stacie Ramey/How to Be Brave by E. Katherine Kottaras – painting

Both the protagonists in these books are painters, and I loved the imagery and descriptions of how painting made them feel and how they expressed what they were feeling in the things they painted. I dabbled with painting while I was in school, and I’ve always wanted to continue with more classes. This made me really hungry for it.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson – poetry

I love poetry. I love that a talented poet can use only a few words to paint an incredibly vivid picture and communicate powerful emotions to a reader. This book made me want to write poetry, even though my attempts are often cheesy and hopelessly abstract in a bad way.

PIE by Sarah Weeks – baking

(Honorable mention: Good Grief by Lolly Winston, which isn’t YA, but definitely made me wish I was a baker! I would love to have Sophie’s cheesecake recipes. Yum!)

I don’t know if anyone could read this book and NOT want a slice of pie. The best part about this? The author anticipated this and includes recipes in the back of the book! I love cooking, but I’m horrible at baking. This book made me want to give it another try. Like, now.

To Get to You by Joanne Bischof – skateboarding

Despite the fact that I took ballet lessons for years of my life, I’m not the most coordinated person. (I think the idea that dancers are graceful is a bad stereotype anyway. We spend most of our time in wide open spaces where there’s nothing to trip over/bash into, so put us in a room with breakables and floor height changes and see what happens.) I stood on a skateboard one time. I liked it. That’s about as far as that went. I would love to learn to actually do even some of the most basic skateboarding moves. While the skating isn’t a HUGE theme in the story, the ease with which Riley moves and how soothing it is to him definitely made me envious.

The Feuds by Avery Hastings – ballet dancing

I took ballet classes for lots of years, and even though it’s been a long time, I do still miss it. I loved reading about a dancer. It’s always fun for me to read books about ballerinas because I actually know what the names of the moves are and have done them. It’s like reading a book with some Spanish dialogue and being able to trot out your high school Spanish and follow along without needing the interpretation.

The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos and I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert – music

Books about punk rock kids hold a special place in my heart because for the last let’s not talk about how many years, I’ve been writing about a trio of punk kids myself. Music is another hobby I’ve dabbled in– once upon a time someone handed me a guitar and a chord dictionary, and I went from there– but I’ve never really taken lessons or learned anything complex. Both these books made me want to take up music again.

What about you?

Have you read any books lately that tempted you to pursue new hobbies? If you’ve read any of the books on my list, did you like them?

Review: The Feuds by Avery Hastings

Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Feuds
Avery Hastings
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

As a member of the privileged, genetically enhanced Priors, Davis lives a sheltered life in which she pursues dance and enjoys parties with her friends. As the day of the Olympiads draws ever nearer, the pressure rises for Davis to succeed in competition, but to do that, she’ll have to be perfect.

Cole has only known about Priors from the outside. As an Imp, or Imperfect citizen, he’s second-class, barred from opportunities that could mean a world of difference to him and his struggling family. Cole makes his living as a fighter, working for an up-and-coming politician. When the man asks for one last favor before financing Cole’s biggest fight yet, Cole can’t refuse. After all, what’s the harm in bringing down a Prior? Then he meets Davis, and his whole perception of her people changes. If he follows through with his job, it will destroy the girl he may be falling in love with. If he fails, he will be destroyed.

After reading the sequel, Torn, I really wanted to read this book. As I read Torn, I kept thinking, man, there’s so much history to this story! I really wanted to read the story referenced in all these little backstory hints. Then I discovered there IS a first book. So, now I’ve read it.

I wish I’d read The Feuds closer to the time I read Torn. It’s been long enough that I’ve forgotten some of the things I liked or disliked about the second book, and I know there were things I was hoping were more deeply explored in the first book in the series. One of those things was Davis’s relationship with her dad. He’s a much more present character in The Feuds, and the relationship between them does drive a few of the story elements, so that was satisfying. It made the second book make more sense in terms of what was said vs just hinted at.

I still wanted more information about the Olympiads and the Feuds. They were happening, but I think I wanted to feel like this was a huge tradition really grafted into a culture, and it really just felt like an event. Which was okay.

In terms of the story, I think I liked Cole better in this book but Davis better in the second book. Over all, I think I liked the second book better. I’m not sure if that’s simply because I read it first?

Readers who liked the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld might like this series. The writing is very different, but some of the themes explored in terms of what makes a person beautiful or valuable are similar.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Cole and Davis have a powerful, immediate connection. They share passionate kisses. Davis is still a virgin when the story begins, as if she’s waiting for someone special. It’s implied that she and Cole have sex on a rooftop in what could be their last moments together.

Spiritual Content
Davis comments that she wishes she could believe in God sometimes because of the hope that faith offers. Her world has proven that God does not exist.

Violence
Cole provides for his family by fighting in an arena. He’s brutal and gifted. The fights are briefly described, one through a terrified Davis’s eyes. One fighter is killed in the arena.

Drug Content
Davis and her friends have fancy parties where alcohol and drugs are consumed. When one of her friends seems to be in some kind of medical distress, Davis assumes she’s had some kind of drug or too much alcohol.

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Great Summer Read: Torn by Avery Hastings

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Torn
Avery Hastings
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A grim diagnosis sends Davis to a corrupt recovery facility called TOR-N. There she meets Mercer, a fellow patient and determined optimist. Together they craft a plan to escape the facility and expose the truth about the crumbling facility and poor patient treatment. Davis embraces Mercer’s enthusiasm, but even his charms aren’t enough to make her forget Cole.

After faking his death to spare his family from government retribution, Cole is in hiding. Only his best friend knows he’s still alive. Day by day he develops a plan to get out of the slums and earn enough money to build a life for him and Davis. Then he’ll rescue her from TOR-N and they’ll live happily ever after. That is, if he can manage to keep his identity hidden and beat the genetically enhanced Prior contestants in the Olympiads.

The story begins after Davis’s diagnosis and transfer to TOR-N and after Cole’s faked death and funeral. From page one, tensions run high. Not only are both characters already in pretty dire straits, but they’re separated, and Davis believes Cole is dead, so she’s wrestling with grief on top of everything else. Davis has been diagnosed with Narxis, a plague that’s been ravaging her people – the Priors, those genetically enhanced to excel.

Unfortunately, it’s the genetic manipulation that’s made the Priors vulnerable to disease. Cole’s friend claims to be close to a cure, but his experiments may be too costly to complete. Intriguing moral issues make this story difficult to put down. Genetic improvements make people vulnerable to a new disease (are the enhancements really enhancements then?) Potentially life-saving experiments can only be completed at a high moral cost. Is the sacrifice worth it? What if the test subjects aren’t fully informed of the risks?

The conclusion unfolds rapidly, maintaining the high tension that began on page one, but also speeding past some moments that warranted a little more time in scene. I wanted to know more about Davis’s relationship with her father and why she felt so compelled to seek her estranged mother. There were definitely scenes that included information about those things, and they were nicely tied into the story, but it definitely left me wanting more. Torn is the second book in The Feuds series. Some of the moments I crave are probably waiting for me in the first book in this series. I’ve already purchased the first book in the series and added it to my reading list so I can find out.

At the beginning of Torn, I wasn’t sure I’d like Cole’s character. He’s a bit immature and not the sharpest when it comes to relationships with others. He grows quite a bit and really earned my respect. By the end, I could definitely see what Davis saw in him. As with Davis’s story, Cole’s speeds through some final scenes. I wanted to see more of the Olympiad games. I suspect all that would have made a lot more sense to me if I’d been more familiar with the series. I definitely recommend reading the first book before starting Torn, but it’s not essential to do so. I was able to follow the story without knowing the first book, but I think I would have gotten more out of it if I’d read them in order.

Hastings has done a great job setting up this really complex story world with a lot of big moral conflicts. Fans of Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (These Broken Stars) or Scott Westerfeld (Uglies) will enjoy the moral issues over advanced technology highlighted in Torn. Readers looking for an action-packed drama with sweet romance will definitely want to add this one to their to-be-read lists.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
References to a night spent together (Davis and Cole) on top of a hospital. Kissing is mentioned, but nothing further.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Cole attacks a researcher when he discovers a mistreated patient. Cole battles other contestants in the Olympiad, a high stakes, physically competitive game.

Drug Content
Cole is offered a supplement that Priors use to enhance senses during his Olympiad trial. It’s clear that without these advantages, he doesn’t stand a chance against his opponents.

Avery Hastings is an author and former book editor from New York City. Avery grew up in Ohio, graduated in 2006 from the University of Notre Dame and earned her MFA from the New School in 2008. When she’s not reading or writing, Avery can usually be spotted lying around in the park with her affable dog. Like her protagonists, she knows how to throw a powerful right hook and once dreamed of becoming a ballerina. In addition to New York, Avery has recently lived in Mumbai and Paris, but is happy to call Brooklyn home (for now).