Belletrinsic

books, books, books

friends, both near and far

airplanes, so I can visit those friends all over the world

the love I have for my family

my Mac

supportive bosses

Twitter

my perfect eyesight

family willing to take me in when I have nowhere else to live

Glee

music from Glee

the innocence of childhood—and keeping it that way for the kids I know

warm blankets

hot chocolate—especially at a cafe or coffeehouse

clothes warm from the dryer

cute boots (with stiletto heels, of course)

cuddling puppies and kitties

getting cards or packages in the mail

Christmas lights at Temple Square

laughing and crying over good memories

getting older and maybe a little bit wiser

gorging on a huge turkey dinner—with pie, lots of pie

and for my nephew (pictured here with his sister), who was born exactly one year ago, our own Thanksgiving gift.

And for the part you’re all more interested in . . . the winner of the journal!

Jessica Capelle

Jessica, email your address to me me at michelle dot witte at belletrinsic dot com, and I’ll mail you your prize.

Here are the details for this month’s contest:

List 10 things you’re grateful for and post it in the comments below. Now, I know you’re thankful for your family, your pets, and your tv, but I want you to dig a little deeper. Think creatively, think weird, think odd. Think of things that show us a little more about you. Specifics are good.

For this contest, I will be giving away a gorgeous journal from Paperblanks. You can use it for whatever you like since I’ll never know, but I’d like to think you’d use it (at least partially) as a gratitude journal. Stretch Thanksgiving beyond one day a year.

I already know I won’t be able to pick a list I like best, so we’ll choose a winner using my fabulous number generator.

Next week when the contest ends I’ll reveal my own list of things I’m grateful for. Prepare to be amazed.

Dun dun duuuun.

That’s really how they should have ended The Maze Runner, first book in The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner. Instead they concluded with a boring “End of Book One.”

Now here’s the thing. The Maze Runner is a seat-of-your-pants thrill ride, but there’s an undercurrent of something more sinister and overarching as the book progresses. This isn’t just the story of a boy who wakes up in a ginormous maze filled with deadly monsters, and who can’t remember a thing about himself or his life. It’s a story of survival, community, hope, fear, and courage.

So let’s start with the basics. Every thirty days a boy is brought up in a metal box to a wooded glade surrounded by a vast maze. The glade offers protection to the ragtag group of boys that live there, the walls closing every night before the Grievers—horrible monsters, part animal, part machine—come out to prey upon any boy without the maze’s walls. The Gladers have survived like this for two years, sending boys out each day to map the shifting walls of the maze with the hope of finding a way out.

The day sixteen-year-old Thomas shows up, things begin to change for the boys in the glade. One day after his arrival, a girl is sent up through the box. A girl, the first ever in the glade, with a message for the Gladers: “She’s the last one. Ever.” Thus starts a race against the clock for the Gladers to solve the puzzle of the maze before they are all killed.

I won’t say anything more about the plot for fear of giving anything away, but I will say this: the moment you start reading this story, you won’t want to stop. Dashner deftly weaves mystery with suspense and terror, creating a world where nothing is permanent or safe.

As the story progresses and mysteries deepen, two questions become key: Who would do this to children? And more to the point, why?

The end of the book does bring a sense of conclusion, but even then more questions are asked. I, for one, will be eagerly anticipating the release of the second and third books in the series.

For a cinematic taste of The Maze Runner, view the book trailer here: http://bit.ly/2ENNkw

Now for the part many of you have been waiting for: the giveaway. (For the excellent entries, see http://belletrinsic.com/blog/?p=192)

And the (random-number-generated) winner is . . . desktopgremlins. W00t! So, gremlin, email me at michelle.witte@belletrinsic.com with your name and address so I can mail you your prize. For everyone else, I suggest you buy a copy because this is definitely one to read.

Young adult fiction is so broad and varied. Subgenres and subcultures are created frequently to address the interests and fascinations of teens. One of the more recent—and more interesting, in my opinion—is that of dystopia.

Some of my the most amazing books I’ve read lately fall within this category of dystopian fiction. For a general definition, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take in its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures.

So why bring this all up? Because the lovely Ann Kingman has created the DystopYA Reading Challenge. By December 15, I will read at least three dystopic ya novels. (I say at least three because I have several of them waiting already in my to-be-read pile.)

My first choices for this challenge are:

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

*Bonus! See below for details.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Look for reviews of these awesome books to come. And for more information on how you can participate and a full list of books, visit On the Nightstand.

*Since I couldn’t wait for my copy of The Maze Runner to come in the mail, I went to the store and bought another copy. So that means it’s giveaway time! If you would like to win a copy of The Maze Runner by James Dashner, finish this sentence:

If I were stuck in a ginormous maze with deadly monsters and no memory of who I am, I would _________.

A winner will be randomly chosen from those who answer in the comments of this post by next Friday, when I post my review of the book.