First up, a YA science fiction novel by Patrick Ness called "The Knife of Never Letting Go". It's the first in a series that I have no interest in finishing after reading this dismal first entry. The premise sounded interesting enough: a young boy named Todd lives in a new world where all the women have died of a mysterious virus and all the men can hear each other's thoughts. That in and of itself is creepy beyond belief. Todd finds a girl in the swamp one day, and his whole world starts to unravel and come crashing down. He learns everything he's been told is pretty much a lie, and he quickly has to go on the run for his life. I know, I know: it sounds pretty cool. That's what I thought, too, but it quickly became unbelievable (even for sci-fi) and really bitterly depressing. I don't mind *some* depression in my books, but jeez, even I have my limits. I reached a point where I was like if I were the main characters I would just throw in the towel and slit my own wrists.
"You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost in the Mall" by Colin Ellard was one I was really looking forward to. I am quite possibly the most directionally challenged person on the planet (case in point: even though I know I need to go south on PCH in order to get home, I always go north and instantly realize I've screwed up. I get in the car and say "south, south" and when I get to the southbound onramp my brain says no! That's wrong! and I go by it and go north and realize I've screwed up once again. I've done this at least five times in the last six months. And this is with a GPS in the car and I usually have Google Map directions printed out as well. Sigh). I was hoping he would explain why my brain does what it does to get me lost all the time and maybe offer some helpful tips as to what I could do to improve my sense of direction. Sadly, no, this wasn't even really about direction--it was his diatribe against global warming and all sorts of other nonsense. I was extremely disappointed.
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