BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS - Some Releases this year

So we have already had some good releases this year with a new Sookie Stackhouse Novel and the much anticipated "A Dance with Dragons". However there are still more great books on the horizon this year and I will discuss a couple of them.

BLOODLINES by Richelle Mead

 

Rose Hathaway and the Vampire Academy series are a pretty big deal. This is the first spinoff from this series and it is being released later this month. I really enjoyed the Vampire Academy series all about a secret world of vampires, their protectors and their enemies. We learn about their schools were they train their young nobles and the half vampire protectors who will lay their life down to protect them.

Yes the series is a little girly perhaps but there is more than enough action to keep even the most opposed to chick lit happy, as well as that the politics and the lore of learning about the hidden vampire world.

I am especially looking forward to Bloodlines because although I really loved Vampire Academy I really didn't like Rose Hathaway the main character of the series but thankfully the people around her were so well imagined it was easy to stay in the series for their sake. Now I have a book were those characters are the main ones and Rose might appear in a few scenes so I'm more than happy.

SON OF NEPTUNE by Rick Riordan

Remember Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief probably one of the first YA fantasy books to follow on the heels of the popularity of Harry Potter in getting a big screen adaption. Things have gone a bit quiet on the movie releases front since then but the Percy Jackson series is a strong series as one of the few popular YA book series I have tracked down that is targeted primarily at boys.

This book will be released in October and I can't wait.

So these are two of the books I am looking forward to. Maybe next time I might discuss a couple more.

The London Riots

They are garnering attention around the world as everyone asks why. They started after the shooting of a young father in a police operation. When the police failed to give a statement at a peaceful protest organised by his family the peaceful protest turned into a riot. Things have spread far and wide since then not just London but also significant incidents in Birmingham and other sites in the Midlands.

This has sparked a lot of discussions over the cause, as in the underlying causes and not the shooting that initially sparked the first riot. Some argue that cuts in social spending are to blame, more point to the disenfranchisement of young people in inner London. Others use the tired old phrase (in my opinion) of it is all down to feral youths. Still others blame social networking.

I don’t have any solutions to offer other than concentrating on protecting people’s houses and property in terms of police numbers. I have heard some positive stories in the aftermath of the riot though, things like a group of local men banding together to protect their neighbourhood from the riots and of course the twitter led campaign for volunteers to come and help clean up London.

So I guess what I want to say is even though this stuff is terrible perhaps something good might come of it, which is all kinds of cheesy I know but still worth saying. On the other hand it might just give the government more excuses to cut back on our civil liberties. Stop and search, detention orders heck we even have on the horizon cameras to read our body language to see if we’re potential terrorists. When you took a step back and look at things you wonder how we got this out of control.

I just hope tonight proves to be the beginning of the end.