As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

Synopsis: What if you could ask for anything- and get it? In the sandy Mojave Desert, Madison is a small town on the road between nothing and nowhere. But Eldon wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, because in Madison, everyone gets one wish—and that wish always comes true. Some people wish for money, some people wish for love, but Eldon has seen how wishes have broken the people around him. And with the lives of his family and friends in chaos, he’s left with more questions than answers. Can he make their lives better? How can he be happy if the people around him aren’t? And what hope is there for any of them if happiness isn’t an achievable dream? Doubts build, leading Eldon to a more outlandish and scary thought: maybe you can’t wish for happiness…maybe, just maybe, you have to make it for yourself.

Publication Date: January 2nd, 2018
Imprint: Sourcebooks Fire
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Teens & YA/Sci-Fi
Received From: Netgalley in exchange for honest feedback
My Rating: 4/5

I would like to provide a trigger warning for attempted suicide in the content of this book.

As You Wish is based on such an interesting concept, one that I'm sure we've all considered, being able to wish for our hearts desire and have it come true. But how many of us have truthfully followed the ideas of our wishes all the way through to consider how they might have come out? That maybe it won't turn out exactly how we hoped? That maybe you should be careful what you wish for?  We're safe in our musings because there is no magical way for those wishes to happen so we're not bound by the consequences of just daydreaming.  Not so for the people of Madison.

Just like in life trying to decide what to do with your life,  go to college, start working immediately?  Are you really ready to make that life-changing to decision at 18?  Yet that is when you must make your wish, and live with whatever it brings.  I enjoyed the examination of the different wishes and how they turned out.  Many were selfish and short sighted, but we're human after all, and at 18 most of us are not equipped to be able to craft a wish that covers all the bases, that plans for every outcome that needs to be avoided. 

I was wary going in from the other varied reviews I was seeing, people either seemed to love it or hate it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how thoroughly and thoughtfully this story covered the premise of wishing and all the ways it might come out.  Our main character Eldon is flawed, as we all are, and struggling with what he wants, vs. what his family wants, a true trauma, and with just being a teenager growing up and all the social pressures that come along with that.  He doesn't make the best decisions, many of the characters don't, and the final outcome is not necessarily the best one for all involved, or in the mind of the reader, but it certainly provides a lot of food for thought. 

Overall I thought it was a well told and interesting story that made me think and pulled on my heart strings.  I appreciate the opportunity to review it!

Winner! -- My Best Read of 2017 Giveaway

The votes are in and you all picked The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood as my best read of 2017! I won't lie, it was a pretty frightening and intense book, I haven't been able to bring myself to watch the Hulu series of it yet!

The book with the next highest votes was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which was also just excellent and I cannot recommend it enough! 



 

  The Winner of my contest is *drumroll* .... Rachelle B. who said agreed The Handmaid's Tale was my best read in 2017, and chose to win Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman! 

Congrats Rachelle!  I have e-mailed you to work out the details of your win! 




Thank you to everyone who entered!  I had a great reading year in 2017, and I can't wait to see what my best read for 2018 will be!

Best Reads of 2017 - A Giveaway!

So life happened, and the rest of my polls didn't, so I made some executive decisions and have a best book for each month! Giveaway incoming! This is a two-parter, you're going to tell me which book was the best of the year, and then you're going to tell me which one you'd like to win if you are chosen! So it's a choose your own giveaway!

The chosen winner will have their choice between a US Kindle copy or a physical copy from The Book Depository or Amazon (my choice which vendor), please note that the cover may vary as I will choose the most economical version of the book for myself to send.  Thank you!

This Giveaway will be open Through Saturday January 20th, 2018! 

Your choices are (with links to their Goodreads pages):

January Vicious by V. E. Schwab	February The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood	March Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
April Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman	May The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin	June The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
July Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia	August Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor	September Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
October The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso	November Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang	December The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan

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Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini

Synopsis: The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada’s father, who was infamously “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Ada’s mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes. When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize that her delightful new friendship with inventor Charles Babbage—brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly—will shape her destiny. Intrigued by the prototype of his first calculating machine, the Difference Engine, and enthralled by the plans for his even more advanced Analytical Engine, Ada resolves to help Babbage realize his extraordinary vision, unique in her understanding of how his invention could transform the world. All the while, she passionately studies mathematics—ignoring skeptics who consider it an unusual, even unhealthy pursuit for a woman—falls in love, discovers the shocking secrets behind her parents’ estrangement, and comes to terms with the unquenchable fire of her imagination.

Publication Date: December 5th, 2017
Imprint: Dutton
Publisher: Penguin Group Dutton
Genre: Historical Fiction
Received From: Netgalley in exchange for honest feedback
My Rating: 4/5

This cover is gorgeous and I was interested to find out more about Ada Lovelace's work with Charles Babbage as I knew they were associated, but only vaguely.  This was a slow read for me, tedious at times as so much of it is Ada, alone with her governesses or her mother's friends, angry and lonely, a brilliant mind with not enough to keep it busy.  She did not have an exciting life, and was often ill, but in spite of being the daughter of a wealthy mother, she was nearly a prisoner, as her mother sought to keep her from falling prey to her bad Byron blood, by keeping her imagination reined in.  Luckily her mother did approve studies in math and science, or the world might not be where we are now!

This is my first read by Chiaverini, but I am interested in more.  While it was not a quick and smooth read, as I mentioned above parts were somewhat tedious as there was much description of not a lot happening, that does serve to give an idea of how Ada herself must have felt, wanting so badly to experience life and being held in check by her mother's fears that she will turn out like her father.  Apparently I was the only person who didn't already know that Lord Byron the poet was her father!

I think lovers of historical fiction with an interest in Ada Lovelace's life will enjoy this, it is not heavy in actual math and science, but more description of Ada's experiences and interests in those studies and relationships with some of the great minds of the time.  The Analytical and Difference Engines of Babbage are mentioned, and described in a way that a person not familiar with them should be able to follow along and have a good idea why they were important. Even though it is told from Ada's point of view, there is a lot of set up from before her birth and while she was very young that helps to establish her mother's feelings about her father, which will in turn affect Ada's entire life.  Her story is often a sad and lonely one, but then I wonder, had she not been watched so closely and kept focused on math and science, but allowed more freedom of imagination, what might she have done instead with her brilliant and all too short life? Would we have computers as we now know them?