Doomed by Tracy Deebs

Deebs, Tracy. Walker Books for Young Children, January 2013. 480p. $17.99. 9780802723734

Genre: Apocalyptic (world will end if they don't solve the puzzles)
Cover Appeal: Science-fictiony, with numbers, an on button, and circuit board look. Eye-catching and great tag line: Beat the Game. Save the World.

Immediately after
"It's not my favorite shirt, but it is my least favorite shirt." Donna Meagle, Parks and Recreation (substitute book for shirt)

Right Before
On her 17th birthday Pandora gets an email from her Dad, who she hasn't seen since she was 7. Because she's mad at her emotionally and physically unavailable mom, she opens the email even though her mom warned her never to communicate with her dad. Inside is a link to a website that has 12 pictures of her and her dad. She decides she wants to keep these pictures and uploads them to her Walgreens account, emphasis mine, so she can pick them up later. It is this uploading of the pictures that sets all other events in motion. They are actually a computer program that sets off the apocalypse.

During
The first thing that threw me was the uploading of the photos to a local Walgreens account. In a fakepoll of 800+ students at school and my own child and her friends, 0% of them upload photos to be printed. If, for some reason, they want a printout of their photos, they print them. At home. It's noted that she is glued to her cell-phone and laptop. Her mom is a rich, corporate lawyer. Yet, they don't have an awesomely sophisticated printer?

The second thing was the introduction of newcomers, Theo and Eli. These two "seriously hot" guys have "all but revolutionized Westlake's social scene" but somehow Pandora did not know they lived next door to her. But when the computer virus strikes, these two spring to Pandora's rescue even though she continually tells us she doesn't need it. Continually.

Third the gaming aspect. First, we have Pandora. In the ARC, that's both the MC's name and the game that she has to beat to save the world. The game appears to be called Zero Day now. CAn someone who's read the final verify? Anywho, throughout the virtual reality game, these Grecian monsters come to fight the trio. They have to fight the monsters while trying to overcome the obstacles that Pandora's dad have built into the game. If they can beat it, they are 1/2 way to saving the world. The other 1/2 consists of solving clues hidden in the pictures Mitchell, Pandora's dad, sent her. They have to find the places in the pictures because they lead to coordinates that are used to open the gateways in the game. Or vice versa.

Sometime After 
What did I read? It was too improbable. I mean, she hadn't seen nor heard from her dad in seven years, yet she was able to remember so many small details about the pictures. Also, somehow the three of them are able to dodge every government agency, procure the necessary health care, food, and transportation despite the loss of all communication and banking systems and a nuclear meltdown. And there was NO internet. But her dad was the smartest of all because he figured out a way for certain people to still be able to play the game. Without internet. On the run.  And there's time for a love triangle. And they are brothers. Ew. I don't care if they are stepbrothers. Ew.

Overall
This book is all tell. All action. One tragedy followed by the next. All short sentences and quick hits.  None of the characters change or grow. And I didn't care. I couldn't connect with any of them and just wanted to finish this one. Some other people did like it. - check out the Doomed Goodreads reviews.

This review is from an ARC received on Netgalley. Details may have changed before publication.

Witness to Fitness by Donna Richardson Joyner - Review and Blog Tour

Joyner, Donna Richardson. Witness to Fitness: Pumped Up! Powered Up! All Things Are Possible. Harper One, December 2012. 304p. $25.99. 978-0062112552.

I am out of shape and overweight. I don't feel comfortable in my skin right now. So when the opportunity to review Witness to Fitness, a 28-day diet and exercise plan, opened up, I jumped on it. Donna Richardson Joyner's book promises to bring together fitness tips, a meal plan, and bible study. Sounded good to me.

The Layout
The first nine chapters are your background information on Joyner and how she approaches life and fitness. They are divided into 3 segments: Mind, Spirit, Body.  Then comes the 28 day plan.

Each of the first 9 chapters include: Tweets, Tidbits, Step Out!, and Sound Bites. These are supposed to help motivate you and included lots of "rhyming" 2-line phrases.

Chapter 7 - Eat to Live - includes suggestions for swapping. These were difficult to use in the actual meal plan since you had to hunt them down each time.  They were also repetitive in that she would list substitutions then take each of those substitutions and list those same substitutions again.

Half a 6-inch whole-wheat pita pocket

• 1 slice whole-wheat bread
• 1 light whole-grain English muffin
• 1 small whole-grain dinner roll
• 90 calories wort of whole-grain crackers

Looking at the swap for the slice of bread reveals all the same things again. Seemed to be just a way to add to the page count.

The Plan
Each day on the plan includes: Be Faithful (bible verse), Be Grateful (motivational story), Be Positive (2-4 line quips), Be Fruitful (meals), Be Joyful (song of the day), and Be Fit (exercise). This is followed by 4-6 pages of Joyner demonstrating strength and/or cardio exercises. At the end of each week there is some space to journal.  The meals include nutritional information and calorie counts.The calories switched from near equal lunch and dinners to lighter lunches and heavier dinners.  They also became more time-consuming.

The Verdict
Although I liked having a verse, song, and story each day, the rest of the plan proved too much for me.
The lack of a weekly menu plan, too many Shakeology shakes, the food expense, the time-consuming and impractical meals, and an overwhelming amount of exercise drowned me before I made it to the end.

I work full time so I go to the grocery store once a week.  I may go back midweek if I need something special but that's it.  I like to plan out what I'm going to eat and then I make the shopping list from that menu. I had to go through each day and write down everything! It would have saved so much time to have a shopping list at the beginning of each week!

The first three days, as well as most days throughout the plan, required you to drink Shakeology shakes or their equivalent. This reminded me so much of the Slim-Fast plan.  It was hard to get past the first two weeks.  It just seemed like a marketing thing since the shakes are by the company that represents Joyner. The food required was expensive.  Once those shake days are over, Joyner tries to incorporate lots of variety, almost too much. Sometimes a food was listed (1/4 slice of avocado) and not listed again that week. That would mean you would have to waste the rest of the avocado or you and your family would have to eat separately. Many items were also seasonal. As a single mom, I couldn't afford to keep up with the plan.  It was about 3 times my normal food budget!

The meals were time-consuming and impractical, especially the lunches.  I don't have time to cook cheeseburgers for lunch.  If this was something left over from a previous meal, it may have worked, but it wasn't.  I found myself making many substitutions to stay on track.  The snacks (when you weren't having shakes) were not something I was used to. 2 figs and 2 tbsp blue cheese with 1 oz ham? Turkey, toast, ad 1/8 sliced avocado?

Joyner called for a MINIMUM of 50 minutes to start and I'm ballparking on the low end.  Warm up 3-5 minutes, Cardio 30-60 minutes, Strength Training 15 min or more (she demonstrated these so not all had times just the number of repetitions and suggested number of circuits), Stretch 3 - 5 minutes.  Sure you can break these down and do part in the morning and part in the afternoon but for someone to go from sedentary to this could be overwhelming.  Some of the exercise times didn't even add up: Hold for 3 seconds, do 16 reps, then switch and repeat. Alternate sides for 1 minute. It would take a minimum of 48 secs to do ONE side. No way to do this in a minute.  Each week you also went outside. Not possible here during the winter since you were at a playground or doing jump rope. Joyner tells you not to work the same body part two days in a row but the exercises do just that.

I expected to do some modifications but not to the extent necessary to make this work. I gave up after two weeks because the cons outweighed the pros. I did remember to eat more often, which helped me eat better. I scheduled lunches and snacks each day which totally eliminated the need for either the snack basket or the pop machine! I give it 2 out of 5 copies - Read it maybe.

Check out these other blogs to see what they thought of Witness to Fitness:

Tuesday, January 22nd:  Miss Aleck & Co.

Thursday, January 24th:  DopeReads

Wednesday, January 30th:  Running with Spoons

Monday, February 4th:  Living Outside the Stacks

Monday, February 11th:  EmpowerMoments

Thanks to Harper and TLC Book Tours for this review copy. Don't forget to stop by TLC for more Witness to Fitness information and to see what other books are out on tour!