"Alive"

     A little disclaimer: I received the advance reader's edition of "Alive" that is pictured above at a work event that I attended.  Therefore, the cover above may be different (it seems to be, looking at the Amazon picture) than those on the version sold on shelves.  While this post does include some information about the very beginning of the book, there will be no spoilers, promise.

         "Alive" by Scott Sigler is young adult sci-fi novel with a strong lead female character that must face many obstacles to take car of those around her and lead them to safety.  I loved this book, although at the beginning I did have a little issue with it, which will be addressed, however overall I strongly recommend this book and really enjoyed reading it.

     In some ways "Alive" is almost the girl version of "The Maze Runner" which put me off a little at the beginning.  The characters of the two books are introduced in very similar ways.  Thomas of "The Maze Runner," is introduced to readers as he is stuck in a small dark elevator-like contraption, doesn't remember who he is, and ends up in a community of boys who all arrived in the exact same manner.  The main character of "Alive," Savage is introduced as she is trapped within a small, dark coffin-like box, breaks free, finds herself surrounded by others who are also trapped in boxes, and none of them can remember who they are.

     However, this is where the similarities mostly end.  When I picked up on the similarity in the way the characters were introduced, I was a little disappointed because I thought the whole book would be the same as "The Maze Runner" just in a different setting with different characters.  Thankfully, while the two books do have some similar themes, they really are very different from each other.

     "Alive" follows Savage and the others who are trapped within the building with her as they attempt to figure out where they are, who they are, what has happened to them, and how to escape.  The book sucked me in and I finished it within about two days.  It is full of twists and turns(the main one is huge and you'll never see it coming!), and I really enjoyed all of the characters and felt they all had very distinct well developed personalities.

    With the way the book ends, I was anticipating a sequel, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that "Alive" is the first of a trilogy!  I can't wait to read the next one and see what happens.

"Down Among the Dead Men: a year in the life of a mortuary technician"

     "Down Among the Dead Men" is an autobiography of Michelle Williams.  While this is not the type of book I typically pick up, the book caught my interest, as I feel that a lot of what happens to our bodies after we die is not talked about. It is handed off to a funeral home, and then there's a funeral and that's it.  No one ever sits down and talks about what happens at a funeral home or in a morgue, so I thought it would be interesting to read some books about these subjects and educate myself to an extent.

     This book follows the life of it's writer, Michelle Williams, for a year.  It begins with her applying for a job as a mortuary technician as a way to change up her life a bit as she wasn't completely happy in her previous job. After being hired as a mortuary technician at a hospital, Williams tells about learning the different parts of her job, and the reader follows as she is introduced to, and becomes successful at different tasks that are done in the mortuary.

     This book is not merely, 'I went to work, I eviscerated some people, I went home.'  Williams tells about the funny bits and getting to know and become friends with her coworkers.  She also gives the reader some insight into the more surprising and/or challenging parts of her job, a motorcycle accident resulting in decapitation, "What lay in front of us was a headless body; fully clothed, but headless...Resting between his knees lay his motorcycle helmet, so it was a road traffic accident, which gave me a little clue as to what had happened to him...I looked into the visor and found myself fixated by the face behind it." 

     As well as a man so overweight he could not be fit into the refrigerated body storage, "Our only decent gurney had a 560 pound body on it, but was designed to take no more than 500 pounds.  A larger patient in the days when the mortuary was designed was probably about 350 pounds maximum.  There was absolutely no way Mr. Patterson was going to allow himself to be refrigerated and so he was going to have to stay on our gurney at room temperature until a post-mortem was ordered...Since if a body is not cooled, it starts to rot, this is what was going to happen to Mr. Patterson."

     I enjoyed reading this book and getting some insight into what happens to people after they die.  I would definitely recommend it if you have any interest in the subject and are not too queasy, as some bits do get a little graphic.  Williams does a good job at not being too incredibly graphic, but when writing about dead and decomposing bodies, there is only so much you can sugar-coat.

     Let me know what you thought about "Down Among the Dead Men" if you have read it and leave me suggestions for books to read in the comments below!

"Grace's Guide The Art of Pretending To Be A Grown-Up"

     "Grace's Guide" is a guidebook written by Internet person Grace Helbig.  Helbig is a long-time internet enthusiast, with a very popular youtube channel "itsGrace" that has 2,048,332 subscribers( as of writing this post).

     This book is in the format of friendly advice.  "Grace's Guide" is composed of both list of helpful and hilarious tips, as well as a few pages in each chapter where Helbig tells stories from her past and gives the readers insight into her life and her crazy, new-media projects, work mostly from home, internet-famous, life.  The chapters include; Your Professional Life, Your Social Life, Your Love life, and Your Lifestyle. 

     Though I watched Helbig's videos for a long time before her book was released, I was hesitant to buy it as the sudden, rapid announcements that nearly all of the successful, popular youtubers had been given book deals really put me off from reading any of them.  It seemed that, all at once, people my age, or a smidge older, were being given deals to write books when they had either,

A) never seemed to have any interest in writing a book, or

B) didn't seem to be qualified.
(this obviously doesn't count for John Green duh)

     It seemed as if maybe all the big youtube networks that these youtubers were signed to were just getting them all book deals as a way to make more money, and in all honesty, that's probably what a lot of youtubers have book deals.  I haven't read any other youtubers books, but when and if I do, I'm expecting a lot of ghostwriting.  Oops said it.  

     This all having been said, after a few of my friends read the book and loved it, I decided to give it a go.  I was pleasantly surprised by Helbig's book.  It is very clear to anyone that has watched any of her videos that the book is written in a very Grace Helbig way.  Her personality and distinct sense of humor shine through and supply a lot of laughs while reading.

     Grace's Guide is Grace through and through and is exactly what I expected in a book from her.  It was fun, funny, and realistic. It's a book for young people, those who grew up with internet and cell phones and waste way too much time watching youtube videos, and don't spend enough time with real people. 

     I can't really say enough good things about "Grace's Guide." I will say that my only problem with the book is the cover.  The front cover doesn't go all they way to the edge of the pages. The first page has a strip of photos that act as part of the cover and the cover is shorter to reveal that, which is a cool idea in theory.  However, in practice, the pages get worn down and kind of bent at the corners since they aren't protected by the cover.  As someone who works in a library and just someone who like to keep their books nice and neat, it's kind of annoying, I'm not gonna lie.  But the state of the cover, doesn't effect the content within its pages, so go read "Grace's Guide!"

    Here are links to Helbig's YouTube Channel itsGrace, podcast: Not Too Deep (also on sound cloud if that's your thing) and Twitter.