{"id":2190,"date":"2012-08-05T10:52:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T14:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2012-08-05T10:52:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T14:52:21","slug":"stop-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/05\/stop-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"stop the future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whatever else I can say about this summer I can say that I&#8217;ve done lots of reading. 12 books since the beginning of June, 4 more if you add May into the mix. Most have been dystopian YA fiction, barring the new Alison Bechdel book. (Though I&#8217;ve also been reading lots for the research project I&#8217;m writing up, none of which is YA, dystopian, or graphic novel, so there!) Here&#8217;s the full list:<\/p>\n<p>The Giver, Gathering Blue, The Messenger by Lois Lowry<br \/>\nUglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras by Scott Westerfeld<br \/>\nThe Explosionist and Invisible Things by Jenny Davidson<br \/>\nDivergent by Veronica Roth<br \/>\nBefore I Fall and Delirium by Lauren Oliver<br \/>\nLife As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer<br \/>\nThe Maze Runner by James Dashner<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to say exactly why the dystopian YA stuff has had such a hold on me. Maybe it&#8217;s this crazily creepily hot summer, which was already kind of freaking me out (and making me cranky) even before I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/news\/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719\">Bill McKibben&#8217;s depressing article in Rolling Stone<\/a> a few weeks ago. Reading that article made me wonder whether the dystopian YA fiction craze should actually be seen as a way to think through possible scenarios and envision what kinds of skills we&#8217;ll need. Turns out the nearest archery range is in deepest Queens so I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ll be training like Katniss anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>I think what I like best about these books is that they&#8217;re easy to read: the action is fast-moving and the stories are reasonably satisfying so I can gulp them down quickly, classic summer reading. They&#8217;re pairing well with the Buffy Rewatch, too; both make me feel very summery. I&#8217;ve got 3 to return today and 3 more to pick up at the library, along with some crazy manga for Gus. Let&#8217;s hide inside by the coolth of the a\/c, kids, and read til we&#8217;re blind!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whatever else I can say about this summer I can say that I&#8217;ve done lots of reading. 12 books since the beginning of June, 4 more if you add May into the mix. Most have been dystopian YA fiction, barring the new Alison Bechdel book. (Though I&#8217;ve also been reading lots for the research project [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,33],"class_list":["post-2190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2196,"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions\/2196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mauraweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}