This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. It is now being hosted by Budget Tales Book Blog. To participate, choose a random book from your GoodReads TBR and show it off. Which sounds easy enough until you have to decide how to choose that book! I think I will use a different way each week, like picking a color or number of pages. I will let you know each week how I chose the book and then something interesting about it, like how it ended up on the list or why I want to read it. Got it? Okay let’s get started.
I am continuing my trip through the alphabet and this week’s letter is ‘G’. I didn’t have much to choose from this week, but I did find this gem that I had forgotten about. I’m not sure how it made it onto the list, but it is a new release from earlier this year. After reading the summary again, I am excited to get my hands on it. There is a bit of a wait for it from the library, but I am ok with that. I already have too many books I need to read right now.
Going Zero by Anthony McCarten
Publication Date: April 11, 2023
Summary from Goodreads:
In the name of national security, the CIA in partnership with Silicon Valley wunderkind Cy Baxter have created the ultimate surveillance program known as FUSION. Ahead of its roll out, ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test the groundbreaking system.
At the appointed hour, each of the ten will have two hours to “Go Zero”—to turn their cellphones off, cut ties with friends and family, and use any means possible to disappear. They will then have 30 days to evade detection and elude the highly sophisticated Capture Teams tasked to find them using the most cutting-edge technology. The goal is to see if it is possible to successfully go “off the grid” and escape detection.
The stakes are immense. If FUSION is a success, Cy Baxter will secure a coveted 10-year, $100 billion dollar government contract and access to intelligence resources he truly believes will save lives. For any participant who beats the massive surveillance, it means a $3 million cash prize.
Among the contestants is an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day. She’s been chosen as the gimme, the easy target expected to be found first. But Kaitlyn excels at confounding expectations. Her talents at this particular game are far more effective than all the security experts suspect, and her reasons for playing far more personal than anyone can imagine. . . .
I do remember reading that summary and thinking as I went along that it was an interesting idea and then I got to that last paragraph about one of the contestants being a librarian and that kind of sealed the deal on this one. I also love the fact that she was chosen as the easy target and then she beats those expectations into the ground. I am also very interested in what her personal reasons for playing this game are.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 