The Bachelor, But Better

Find more Kiera Cass books.

Kiera Cass is an author I discovered about a year or so ago. I was cycling through my Amazon book recommendations (a great way I've discovered books in the past) and happened to come across a book titled The Selection. I read through the book description and it sounded like a fun read, so I bought it and it's sequel The Elite on pure gut instinct. As it turns out, I was not sorry.

I bought the books along with several others, so I didn't get to them right away. When I did, I. Couldn't. Put. Them. Down. I blazed through them, bought the third one, titled The One, and blazed through that. Here's a basic premise of the series. It's like the reality show, The Bachelor, but--as I tell those I recommend the book to--it's so much better than that. Let me explain. It does have a few things in common with the reality show: there's a number of girls all competing for the hand and heart of a boy, they go on "dates" with him, and slowly the group is whittled down until only one, The One, remains. The book series has a few big differences. The One will also be Queen, as the boy is Prince Maxon who is looking not only for a bride but someone to help him lead his country (so the stakes are a bit higher). The girls form true friendships, not the catty, back-stabbing alliances that seem to be promoted by the producers of all reality shows. Don't get me wrong, the girls don't all like each other, but we do get to see a bunch of the characters form deep, meaningful relationships with each other. In my opinion, this is far more satisfying. Lastly, and this is a huge difference, the characters are actually 3-dimensional. Partly this is due to the fact that these are books and we don't have to rely solely on dialogue and what we see people do in order to learn about them. We get to see their motivation, learn a little about their true selves, and actually understand them. One of the girls is quite the manipulator, but rather than leave it at that, the author allows you to start to see the reasons for her actions and in the end become very sympathetic towards her. I rather think that reality shows are more like:

Girl: "So what's my motivation?"
Producer: "Your character's a conniving bitch."
Girl: "Ok...and?"
Producer: "No, that's all."

After all, it's all about ratings, not about character development.

I think that it's also fair to mention that woven into the first three books is a secondary plot about a monarchy in trouble, a building rebellion, and a prince that really wants to do the right thing. One little tidbit I enjoyed was the extremely complicated relationship that Maxon has with his father. Not all families are prefect, not even royal ones. All of this an interesting nuance to the main plot and adds definite danger to a rather benign process of the Selection.

There are a total of five books in the series. I mention the first three above. Book four is called The Heir and begins the story of Prince Maxon and his wife's (I won't say who!) daughter, Eadlyn. Now it's her turn to hold a Selection, just as her father did, to find herself a husband and the future Prince Consort. The Crown--pictured at the top of this post--finishes Eadlyn's story and her Selection. Just as with the first three books, I could not put Heir and Crown down. In fact, I started The Crown at about 7:00 at night and had to finish it before I could go to sleep that night. The books are fun. They have characters you really come to love, sometimes despite your best intentions. And they remind us of the gut-wrenching, flying, scary, exciting sensation of what it's like to "be young and in love."

If you haven't figured it out already, I definitely recommend this series!

Exercise sucks

Before I get into the meat of this post, first a little background. I went to my doctor a couple of weeks ago, and my weight and its affect on my health was part of the conversation we had. It was something we had talked about before, but this time something clicked and I found my motivation to get into shape and be healthier overall. Hence, the need to exercise.

Problem is, I hate exercise. It's a feeling that I'm sure many of us share, but we're not "allowed" to feel this way. It's socially awkward to be like "no, I hate that shit. I'd rather sit on the couch and do nothing." We're not supposed to project ourselves as craving laziness. Yes, there is a wealth of studies going back decades that show with strong data how much better it is to do exercise than to do nothing. And yet, how I wish I could do nothing. The problem is that I've been doing nothing for so long, that my health has suffered and I really have to exercise now, particularly if I don't want to die before the age of 50 because of poor health (perhaps a slight exaggeration, but yeah). I may hate exercise, but I hate the thought of dying early a lot more. Not dying can be a great motivator for a lot of things. So can being able to walk around and sleep without being in pain all the time.

And I'm not good at exercise. I don't get a "high" from it, I can't always distract myself from the fact that I'm doing it (although I've been getting better the last day or two), and for me there is no "getting in the zone." PE was always my most despised class (anyone else with me there?). Exercise was never something that I craved. My idea of a good time is 1) curling up on the couch or bed with my cat and a good book; 2) playing one of the Lego video games with my husband; or 3) slaying goblins by the dozen in my group's latest Pathfinders session (in which we sit around a table and role-play it out). Needless to say, I've gotten into some very bad habits. When the habits are only a few weeks or months old, they are easier to break. My habits have been decades in the making, so they are exponentially harder. For me, the goal is to not only accomplish exercise--which I am proud to say has been happening regularly since talking with my doctor--but to also change my attitude towards exercise.

How did I get this way? As a kid, I loved riding my bike and took it everywhere my family went camping. I loved climbing the apricot tree in my backyard and even tried to build a tree house in it (which was complete shit, but hey I tried). I would play in the creek not far from my cousins' house, I would swim and swim and swim during the summer as if I was a nymph. I would even go hiking with my brother's cub scout pack even though I was a girl because I wanted to and climbing a mountain felt like fun to my 10-year-old self. I've forgotten the fun I had being outside and being active. I somehow need to rediscover that joy. I need to relearn that exercise can be fun, and right now that's the hard part.

So if I bitch and moan about having to spend more time on the bike (or walk, or go swimming), it means I'm still trying to adjust my attitude. As the adage goes, old habits die hard and this one is dying as easily as killing a dragon with your bare hands.

Welcome to chaos

It is a common adage that life is chaos. Right now, that seems particularly true for me. Don't get me wrong, chaos isn't always a bad thing. For example, 2014 was a chaotic year for a lot of good reasons: finished my Master's, got a job I love, and got married. But it does mean that life remains very active, and I feel the urge to share my thoughts on it all with any that will listen (yes, you!). Fair warning, these posts could discuss almost anything: interactions with my students that gave me the feels, whatever I'm reading that I can't put down, my latest challenge to getting healthy, food (I love to cook, and yes I may share recipes), my thoughts on the political sphere (I've been too frustrated with people in this area to consider this a good idea right now), travel, hell even when I think the Apocalypse will happen. As you can see, this is (almost) no holds barred. My reasoning is that if I can confine the chaos to a bunch of words, maybe I can get a better handle on it. Right? Riiiight? And maybe, just maybe you might find that we share a piece of the chaos.

First, a little about myself. I'm an elementary school librarian, and before you say "nice easy job there!" there's a lot more involved than just smiling and checking out books (but more on that perhaps another time). I will leave you with this thought: high school, university, and public libraries often have a number of staff to make it run; in my library, it's just me. Yes, it's a lot of work, but I wouldn't trade my time with my kiddos for anything. Aside from my work in the library, I'm an avid reader/video game enthusiast/gardener/furry mom/cook/collector/Pathfinders player/secret Lego builder. Yes, I'm a nerd. It's a lot of fun, you should try it sometime.

So if you'd made it this far and you want to stick around, welcome to my chaos!