Book Blogger Confessions-- Blogger Envy

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme hosted on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

Question: Blogger Envy: Do you have a bad case of blogger envy? Do you covet thy neighbor bloggers book hauls/follower numbers/blog design? How do you tamp down the green eyed monster?

Oh gosh, yes I do have blogger envy. There are a few blogs that I would love to run. They have amazing designs, always get the arcs I'd LOVE to have, and they have great follower numbers (and certain ones get to go to movie sets and interview the actors. Who wouldn't want to do that???). The ones I really envy though are the ones that are still having a lot of fun blogging. You can always tell which ones these are because they are perky and always have lots of comments because they still have the time to visit all the other blogs and make connections with other bloggers. And that more than the arcs and the designs is what I envy. I miss the excitment of blogging.

Whenever I start to feel really jealous of these blogs, I just remember how much work and time they put in it. Then I think about how much time I put into mine and how that time has been lacking a lot lately. I think of the money that I could spent to hire someone to help me fix the design problems I have with my blog. I think of the connections I could make with effort to help my blog, and know that there are things I can do to get my blog running the way I'd like, but know that I'm probably not going to do any of it. I've had other things on my mind lately and the blog is taking the hit.

Hopefully sometime or another, my blog will be what I'd like it to be and I can stop being jealous of other bloggers.

Book I Gave Up On-- Alice In Zombieland

Alice In Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Published by Harlequin Teen

Genre: YA paranormal

$18.99 (US hardback)

404 pages

 

What it's about:

 

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….


I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Why I Gave Up:

So here's why; it was ridiculous. I have this problem, every time I see anything Alice In Wonderland related, be it movie, book, ect. I must have it. Because of this problem, I've read a lot of crap and seen a lot of horrible movies. It's hard to recreate the wacky world of Wonderland and very few can pull it off. Gena Showalter can not pull it off.

So in the beginning of AIZ, you find out that Alice's whole family was killed by the "monsters." You also find out that her dad is a raving lunatic that doesn't allow the family outside at all after dark. He patrols the house with a gun all night long and during the day he sits around drinking and getting drunk. He says there are man eating monsters that come out of the graveyards every night and they eat people. Alice also notes how her dad has tried going to shrinks, taking meds, all of that good stuff to get over his paranoia and it just got worse. Then on Alice's 16th birthday, she convinces her parents to go out at night. In the end, the dad gets so paranoid while being the passenger in the car while driving past the cemetery, he freaks out and ends up killing everyone but Alice.

The face I made the whole time I was reading

Okay, so let me get this straight, zombies come out of their graves every night, go on a rampage, and then tuck themselves back in their coffins at night, cleaning everything up in the process, and NO ONE NOTICES??? What kind of crap is that? How is it that the half eaten corpses are not in the news every day? How is it that a crazy drunk is the only one that has taken notice of this living dead phenomena?
I do not care if this is explained later on in the story (I guess they are like ghost zombies from what I've heard from other reviews), I'm still not buying it at all. Even if there are zombies out there and Alice becomes some kind of zombie hunter, she can't really have a "you killed my father, prepare to die" rage because zombies didn't kill her family, her dad did. This whole thing just makes me sad. A whole family killed because they didn't really do anything to help her father.

To add on top of this, if you think that Alice In Zombieland has ANYTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH ALICE IN WONDERLAND, you are wrong wrong wrong. You think that it would, but it really truly doesn't. Alice does not go to some different land and kill the evil creatures like the title and cover would suggest. So if you are reading it because of the AIW connection, run, run away and never return. It is a blatant ripoff to get people to read the book that they otherwise might not have picked up.

Top Ten Tuesday- Unfinished Series

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks top ten is Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished (because either you didn't like them, you just have procrastinated, etc.

I have these posts I do every once and a while called  "Book Breakup" in which I talk about series I've given up on. The first four on here I've done those posts for.

As for series I haven't finished, there seems to be a ton of them. These were just the first ones to pop into my head but definitely not the only ones I haven't finished. I seem to be giving up on series easier lately. Plus I haven't been wanting to read series because then I have to try and remember everything that happened in the previous books. Too much work.

These are in no order:
1. Evernight by Claudia Grey:
This was one of the first series I got into when I first started reading YA. I thought the first one was fantastic, and it all went downhill from there. I never bothered to read the last one in the series.

2. Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz:
Once my favorite character was killed off, I was done with the books. Why bother reading the rest?

3. Sookie Stackhouse Charliene Harris:
Faeries are having a war? And the vampires are joining? No. Just..no.

4. Evermore by Alyson Noel:
Me and my friend like to call Ever "Ever Stupid" (I know, it's such a clever name) because we feel like her stupidity needs to be added onto her name. I couldn't handle how ridiculous she became.

5. Shade/Shift/Shine by Jeri Smith Ready:
This is just because I'm really behind in my books. I own a signed copy of Shine (and I have my name in the acknowledgments!!!) I really really need to read the last book soon.

6. Body Finder by Kimberly Derting:
When I first read BF, I couldn't have loved it anymore. And then I got an arc in the mail for DotD 8 months before the release date and read it immediately. So when the Last Echo finally came out, I didn't remember much of what happened in DotD and just couldn't get into the story. I gave up pretty fast and hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to get into it.

7. Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick:
I was madly in love with this book when I first read it, then I listened to the audiobook some time later and realized that I didn't actually care for it all that much. Soooo I've never finished the rest of the books.

8. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer:
I had the same problem with this book that I did for Hush Hush. Listened to the audiobook and realized that it was only okay and not fantastic like I remembered. Though I'm still curious as to who she ends up with. Maybe I'll just read the last chapter of the last book. Or even better, if someone would tell me in the comments that would be awesome.

9. Shiver/Linger/Forever by Maggie Stiefvater:
I didn't much care for the second book and while I still own Forever, I haven't read it. I've been told the ending was crap so it is getting pushed way back in my tbr pile.

10. Deadly Little Secret/lies/Games/Touch by Laurie Faria Stolarz:
I read the first 3 books and then realized they are all the same. There is only so many times a girl can get kidnapped and touch things to realize what is happening.

Review: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: YA historical fiction

$17.99 (US hardback)

549 pages

 

What it's about:



Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

My thoughts:
This is a book that I bought on a whim (which isn't something I do that often. Pretty much never actually). I had money left in trade that I had to use that day and Powells didn't have any more of the books I knew I wanted, so I went with Grave Mercy. It sounded pretty good and it had a good rating on Goodreads so I bought it.

For the book being about assassin nuns (seriously! how cool is that?) and is a historical fiction, it started out insanely slow. I found myself constantly drifting away from the story in the first 60 pages at least. I couldn't focus on what was happening because it just didn't catch my attention. I had to reread multiple pages just to actually understand what I had already read. I think this had to do a lot more with the writing style than the story plot itself. It was so dry. Even the action scenes were blan.

Then we got into the religion bit of the story. This was something I was concerned about even before I started the book. I normally try pretty hard to stay away from any sort of religion in the books I read. Yet I decided to give this one a go anyways because the idea of assassin nuns made me giggle. The women in this book are worshiping the God of Death and are assissins for him. That is their mission. They kill the people the God tells them to. I couldn't hop on board with this because of my own personal reasons, but also because there was a lot of man hate involved with it. I do not like when there is a lot of hate towards either sex in my books.

BUT....
Even though I just complained about how boring the beginning is and how I disliked the religion, once I got about 140 pages into it, I started enjoying the story. It started to fade away from the religion and moved onto a little mystery and politics. It focused on who was going to marry duchess Anne and who is betraying her to the French. Then of course it started to have a love story as well. Became much more interesting.
So even though it took me a long time to get into the book, I eventually did and enjoyed it.

My rating: 7/10

Beautiful Creatures Teaser Trailer!

I did not know that they were moving this fast on this movie. I knew they had cast everyone but had no idea they were pretty much done filming and that we are this close to the release date already. I never ever hear updates about it so it was kinda shocking to see that the first trailer has been released!

While I love that Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons will be in it, what in the world is up with the Ethan pick???? Seriously???? Bleh.

Butttttt the trailer still looks pretty awesome.

Here is the link to the trailer. It won't let me post the video on here. Bummer.

Beautiful Creatures Teaser Trailer #1

My Book Boyfriend-- Bones!

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted every Wednesday by Missie at The Unread Reader and cohosted by Lesley over at My Keeper Shelf


I've been reading the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost since right after the 2nd book came out and am madly in love with it. I had fallen behind in the series and lately I've been catching up. All my love for Bones has come rushing back and so I'm finally doing his MBB post!

About Bones:
Don't we all know Bones by now? Maybe you haven't read his books yet, but I'm sure you've seen the countless other MBB posts about him. So all I'm saying about him is he is a 200+ year old English bounty hunter master vampire.


Who I picture him looking like:
I couldn't help myself, Cat describes him as having incredible cheek bones, blond hair that's gelled, and having a British accent, plus he's a vampire, and I immediately pictured Spike. Funny cause I've never been a Buffy fan, but there it is.

 

“Actually, Justina, I didn't just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I was...right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh, blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact I called to give you the good news. I asked you daughter to marry me. Now, do you want me to call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?”

 

“If I die, I will wait for you, do you understand? No matter how long. I will watch from beyond to make sure you live every year you have to its fullest, and then we’ll have so much to talk about when I see you again…

 

“Right, then, mate, terribly sorry for my unspeakable rudeness, and I do beg your pardon. I can only say that it was caused by my natural affront to the notion of her as my sister. Since I'll be shagging her tonight, you can imagine how I'd be distressed at the thought of rogering my sibling"

"You shmuck! The only thing you'll be shagging tonight is yourself!"
"You wanted sincerity, well, luv, I was sincere.”


Jeepers, there are 23 pages of Jeaniene Frost quotes on Goodreads. That was hard to pick only 3, but I like these ones so that's what ya get.

Top Ten Tuesday-- Bookish People I Want To Meet

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is Top Ten Bookish People You Want To Meet (Authors, Bloggers, etc.)

As always, these are in no particular order.

1. John Green:
I had a chance to meet him back in January but couldn't get the time off work so I didn't get to go.
:( Super upset about that. I have the biggest fan girl crush on John. Not only are his books beyond brilliant and amazing, but his Vlogbrother videos are hilarious, his Crashcourse History videos entertaining and educating, but he also helps create things like Leakycon and Vidcon, and not to mention him and his brother created Nerdfighters!!!

2. Olivia Cunning:
I think it'd be fun to get all girly with her and talk about hott rocker guys and just gush. She commented on my blog once and I freaked. That was an exciting moment for me. I love when I get author comments or emails. To me, authors are like rock stars themselves so it's always fun when you get to talk to them.

3 & 4. David Levithan and Sarah Rees Brennan:
The reason I put these two together is that next month I have the option of meeting one or the other of them. Unfortunately they will both be in Portland on the same day, different places! So now I have to pick, which amazing person am I going to pick? How do you decide something like that??? Which one would you guys pick?

5. Any blogger:
Yup, I love to meet other bloggers. It's always fun to sit around talking about all the different memes, books, designs, and all the drama that is the book blogging world. Lately I've realized how many Pacific Northwest bloggers there are in particular and think it would be fantastic if we all got together somewhere and hung out. If someone wants to put that together, I would help out.

6. Suzanne Collins:
I had the option of meeting her two years ago on her Mockingjay tour and I didn't go! I'm kicking myself for that now. I want to go and ask her "why Finnick???" I know she's probably heard it a million times, but I've never heard the reasoning and I must know. Hopefully it's not as lame as JK Rowlings "Fred just had to die" statement. Because no, JK, no he didn't.

7. Cayla Kluver:
She was so young when she wrote her first book and is still really young and is about to have her 3rd book published. She's in college for freaking sake. I think it'd be fun to meet her. There aren't that many really young authors out there.

8. Jeaniene Frost:
I've been a fan of hers for years now and have been stalking her blog for that long and yet she has never made it over to the west coast in that time. Why Jeaniene why? West coast needs some love as well.

9. Kiersten White:
While the last two books in the Paranormalcy series were kinda a bummer for me, I'd still love to meet Kiersten. Every time I watch one of her vlogs she cracks me up. She seems like a really fun person to be around.

10. CC Hunter:
I adore her Born At Midnight series and would really like to meet the person who wrote them. They are just too much fun and one of the only series in which I didn't guess the answer to the big question. So rare for me so it's exciting when I meet an author who can actually keep me guessing. Not to mention she has created one of the only good love triangles I have read.

11. Marguerite Gavin:
After reading a bunch of other peoples TTT lists, someone posted a bunch of audiobook readers and I decided I must add Marguerite to the list. She does all of Kim Harrison's books and she is WONDERFUL. The best audiobook reader ever. I read all of Kim's books in her voices now. Now if only they would redo book #6 with Marguerite because the lady they had do it was horrible.


Thought I'd post about some awesome bookish people that were on my "to meet" list that I actually got to meet.
1. JK Rowling:
She came and sat next to my sister and me while we were in the Paris airport waiting to go to Edinburgh. She helped us translate what the stewardess was saying because we couldn't even begin to understand her. This is perhaps one of the coolest moments of my life.

2. Cassandra Clare:
This was an amazing signing. The whole audience nerded out and I actually got to talk to Cassie for a few minutes while she was signing my books. She told me about Alex Pettyfer calling her and talking about Jace, and then we talked about Will and Jem and how Oregonians seem to prefer Jem over Will (except for me, I was the first to pick Team Will. Go me! haha)

3. Kendare Blake:
I just met her a few weeks ago and boy is she cool. One of those people that I wish we were friends because she is just that much fun to talk to. We talked about killing animals in books and how much it pisses us off when it happens. If you've read Anna Dressed In Blood, you will find that ironic.

4. Veronica Roth:
Met her right after Divergent came out. I still can't believe she is the same age as me and yet she has a best selling book that is about to be a huge movie. I told her I want Darren Criss to play Four. She looked at me kinda funny when I told her that Darren is adorable. She doesn't want someone adorable playing Four.

5. Stephanie Perkins:
I drove 4 hours to go to her signing. We talked about Nerdfighteria and did the DFTBA sign for our picture together. Yay for nerdfighters!

6. Kim Harrison:
It wouldn't be a ttt post if I didn't talk about Kim on it at least once. I've met Kim loads of times (I never miss her signings when she comes to Portland). I get a picture with her each time and ask her random questions I have about the series. It's always a blast. So many people show up for her signings and we all mingle and debate the books and who Rachel should end up with (my vote is Trent).

Review: Unspoken

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Series: Lynburn Legacy #1

Published by Random House

Genre: YA paranormal

$17.99 (US hardback)

370 pages

 

What it's about:



Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him

My thoughts:
Be prepared for a gusher of a review. I can't get over how much I ADORE this book.

When I read the synopsis for the book, looked at the cover, and saw people calling it a "goth" book, I obviously expected the book to be pretty dark. I've read Sarah Rees Brennan's Demons Lexicon series and that was a pretty dark series and so I thought Unspoken would be a lot like those books. I was so wrong. I really wasn't expecting this book to be as goofy as it was. I could not stop laughing at many parts and had to stop and write down or bookmark my favorite quotes because they were too priceless. The humor is very British seeing as how the author and the setting are both British. So if that's not your thing, you might just find it awkward rather than funny.  I also wasn't expecting the characters to be so...teenagery. Most YA books lately seem to have characters that are 16 or 17 but they don't act like teenagers. But Kami and her gang are definitely teenagers and I loved it. They were so out there and come up with the weirdest plans, and they most definitely had the "nothing can hurt me" personality that all teenagers have.

I also loved how Brennan didn't go with the obvious love story. Kami and Jared have been able to read each others minds since before they could remember. They are each others not so secret secret. Yet when they finally meet in person, they dislike each other and wish they would go away. It would have been so easy for Brennan to make the characters have insta love yet she went in the other way. I thought that was really interesting and loved watching Kami and Jared figure out how to be around each other and then watching all the other characters try and deal with it as well. I also loved how both Kami and Jared were not all that good looking and not all that remarkable. That was left to the other characters and I really liked that. I liked how not everyone was swooning over Kami and how she was normal looking. Then there is Jared whose flaws are constantly mentioned. He has creepy eyes and a big scar on his face, and an aura that makes you want to flee from him. So not your typical love interest.

I had checked this book out from the library and read it in 3 sittings (would have been one sitting but my social life rudely interrupted my reading). I love this book so much I will be going out and buying myself a copy. I will be rereading this and counting down the days until book 2 comes out. Damn these stupid cliffhangers.

My rating: 9/10

Here is an excerpt that I particularly liked. Don't worry, there isn't really any spoilers.

Kami strode through a froth of daisies to a half-fallen wall that might once have been part of a fortress, but was now a tumble of stones studded with spiky yellow blooms. She bent down, rummaging in the wild tangle of garden around her feet, and chose a pebble. A large pebble. Kami wound her arm back, took careful aim, and threw.
The "pebble" crashed through both glass and curtain.
There was the creak of an old sash window being thrust open, and Jared's head and shoulders appeared at the window. "Hark," he said, his tone very dry. "What stone through yonder window breaks?"
Kami  yelled up at him, "It is the east, and Juliet is a jerk!"
Jared abandoned Shakespeare and demanded, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Throwing a pebble," said Kami defensively. "Uh...and I'll pay for the window."
Jared vanished and Kami was ready to start shouting again, when he reemerged with the pebble clenched in his fist. "This isn't a pebble! This is a rock."
"It's possible that your behavior has inspired some negative feelings that caused me to pick a slightly overlarge pebble," Kami admitted.
Jared's gaze softened slightly. His voice did not. "I saved your life, and you broke my window!"

Let's talk about--Favorite Kissing Quotes

A few days ago, my sister asked me what some of my favorite kissing quotes are because she needed some for a project she was working on. They could be from anything, books, movies, songs, ect.  I then spent the next hour or so looking up all sorts of kissing quotes because I only had four or so memorized that I love. These are my personal favorites.

“Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games


"I want to kiss you on the mouth and tell you I'm your biggest fan"
-Nightmare of you, 'My Name is Trouble'


"No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how."
--Rhet Butler, Gone With The Wind


“One day you may kiss a man you can’t breathe without, and find breath is of little consequence.” ― Karen Marie Moning, Bloodfever


"As far as I can tell, there are two basic (kissing) rules: 1. Don't bite anything without permission. 2. The human tongue is like wasabi: it's very powerful, and should be used sparingly.”
― John Green, Paper Towns


Okay, I can't resist, I must add this quote to the list.
“What makes the perfect kiss? Closing your eyes when you kiss is important. Or lifting up the leg, but that's more of a girl thing, I'm manly. Passion is good! She brings out the best in me. (Selena)”
― Justin Bieber

Hahaha oh Justin. What a silly little boy.


So I was just wondering, what are some of everyone elses favorite kissing quotes? Got any good ones?

Review: Don't Turn Around

Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon

Published by HarperCollins

Genre: YA contemp/action

$17.99 (US hardcover)

310 pages

  

What it's about: 

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa's talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don't realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who'd stop at nothing to silence her for good.


My thoughts:
When I first started reading this book, I couldn't help but think it read like a movie. Then the further I got, the more I thought "huh, I think I've seen this movie before..." so I read all the blurbs on the cover of the book. Someone said that it is a younger version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and whua-la, I figured out what movie I saw that was a lot like this. Then I really hoped that certain things that happened in that movie were not going to show up in this book.

After finishing the book, I don't have much to say about it. I just don't really have an opinion on it. It was just "eh." The book reads as a movie so most of it was action. And I'm not a fan of action movies either. Just like with those, you get a lot of running and close calls, but you never really get to know the characters very well at all. So everything that happened to them, I thought it sucked and felt bad for them, but I never got connected or cared too much. When I got to the last 60 pages and everything was discovered and the characters were starting to do some really stupid things, I got annoyed. The only reason I finished those last pages was that it was only 60 pages but even then, I ended up skimming them. I hate stupid characters and the fact that I didn't have a connection with them, I was just annoyed.

I think the idea of the book was kinda cool, but I dunno. I wasn't invested in it. There was too much action and not enough character developments. I could have gone without reading the book. The only thing I thought was cool about the book was all the computer hacking. There is just something cool and sexy about hackers.

My rating: 7/10

'Divergent' movie has a release date!

It's been announced, Divergent will be hitting theaters March, 21, 2014!!!!

This news is super exciting for me. I can not wait to see who they cast. Normally I'm pretty nervous about casting for my favorite books, but I figure they can't mess up casting any more than they did for the Mortal Instruments. Now I'm just excited to see who they will cast as Four (I'm hoping for Darren Criss *crosses fingers*) and I dunno who I want for Tris. Maybe an unknown.

Here is the article talking about it.
Divergent movie news

Top Ten Tuesday-- Books that make me think

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is Top Ten Books That Make You Think (About The World, People, Life, etc.)

These are in no  order, just whatever popped into my head first.

1. Every Day by David Levithan:
I just read this last week and oh boy does it make you think. Makes me wonder about gender roles, love, relationships of all forms. Even religion. It blew my mind.

2. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green:
All of John's books make me think. It's part of the reason his books are so brilliant. I still think about this book all the time and get all weepy. It definitely makes me think about people and books and how we react to them.

3. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows:
In my review for this book, I talked about how much I loved it because of how much it made me think. How many questions it asked and how the world is set up. So so cool.

4. Stolen by Lucy Christopher:
This was more about my reaction to the book. Stockholm syndrome is a very real and questioning thing.

5. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma:
Made me question love and all the complications that come with it.

6. Unwind by Neal Shusterman:
OMG this book....wow. Just wow. I hope to goodness that nothing like this ever happens and hope that people never become so unconnected and cold hearted to think that this is acceptable.

7. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:
I don't believe this needs explaining.

8. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie:
Heh. This one is more about how brilliant the writing is. Makes me happy and has me questioning the whole book.

9. The Deadly Sister by Eliot Schrefer:
I was going through my list of reviews and this one popped out at me. It's not normally one I talk about much because I only thought it was okay. It's the ending that has me thinking for reasons I can't say on here because it's a spoiler. It has me thinking about anger, jealousy, and desperation.

10. Tell Me A Secret by Holly Cupala:
This is another one that jumped out at me. Maybe this one has me thinking because it's one of the only books I've read about teen pregnancy.

Review: Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Genre: YA

$16.99 (US hardback)

322 pages

 

What it's about:

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

With his new novel, David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

My thoughts:
In the acknowledgments of this book, David said he came up with the idea for the book after having conversations with John Green and Suzanne Collins. So you know this book is going to be awesome if those two authors helped come up with the idea and David Levithan wrote it.

I'm starting to believe that both David Levithan and John Green are brilliant. Truly. When I read books by either of them, I'm always surprised by them and amazed. In Every Day, Levithan took me by surprise. I was thinking it was going to be good, but I didn't think it'd be this good. The story starts on the day A goes into Justin's body and him falling in love with Rhiannon. It just throws you in and you have to figure it out from there. I didn't know what to expect from the rest of the book, but I was always a little surprised. It blows my mind how Levithan is able to get you to connect to all the characters so fast. A is only in the body for about 15 hours, and yet in those few pages it takes to talk about those hours, you are already connected. Throughout the book I was wondering what happened to the kids A inhabits? What happens the next day? How was everything solved? Was it even solved? I wanted to know. Yet you never really do and that was the point.

Levithan had me asking myself so many questions while reading the book. He talks about religion, love, gender roles, and a little of everything. It had me wondering. Like for instance, A. Is A a boy or a girl? Or is A neither or both? Does it matter? Yet I kept thinking of A as a him. Then had to ask myself why.

The only complaint I have about this book is the abrupt ending. After finishing the book, I sort of just sat there, scratching my head in confusion. I'm still not possitive about the ending and would have liked to know more about it, but once again, that was the point. I see what Levithan was doing and get it, but I'm not thrilled with the ending.

My rating: 9/10

Top Ten Tuesday-- fall tbr list

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the girls over at The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks top ten is Top Ten Books On Your Fall TBR List.

I'm going to make these the 10 books coming out this fall that I'm excited to read and hopefully I can get copies of them so they are on my tbr list. They are in order of release date and the links are to their Goodreads pages.

1. Outpost by Ann Aguirre (release Sept.4th):
I was madly in love with the first book in this series when I read it back in December. I'm pretty excited to get back into the dystopian world with Deuce and Fade.

2. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (release Sept. 11th):
Everyone is talking about how good this book is and I want to see what the hype is. Plus it sounds pretty good and I liked the other SRB books I've read.

3. Ten by Gretchen McNeil (Release Sept. 18th):
I'm a massive Agatha Christie fan. I own all but 5 of her books and plan on owning and reading all of them. So to see someone redo one of her books is pretty awesome. I can't wait to see if it's any good.

4. What's Left Of Me by Kat Zhang (Release Sept. 18th):
The cover alone had me dying to read this book. It's amazing. Then I read the synopsis and wow. Just wow. It sounds like it's going to be really good.

5. The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling: (Release Sept. 27th):
Who doesn't have this on their list? I've already preordered mine.

6. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan: (Release Oct. 2nd):
I'm behind in this series but I'll be catching up pretty soon.

7. Poison Princess by Kresley Cole (Release Oct. 2nd):
I love Kresley Cole's adult books and can't wait to see how she does in the YA world.

8. Whispers at Moonrise by CC Hunter (Release Oct. 2nd):
This series is soooooo good!!!! Now that some things have been figured out in the 3rd book, I want to see how Kylie handles it and what in the world happens next.

9. Velveteen by Daniel Marks (Release Oct. 9th):
The synopsis sounds really interesting. Plus the whole "coworker" thing has me wondering. How do you have coworkers in purgatory? Guess I will have to read the book to find out.

10. Sacrifice by Cayla Kluver (Release Oct. 30th):
 Gah!!! I can not wait for this book. I love this series and will be excited to see how it ends.

Book Blogger Confessions

Book Blogger Confessions is a meme hosted on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month and is hosted by For What It's Worth

Question: Following: How do you follow blogs? Do you use Google Reader? Are you on an e-mail list? Are you more apt to follow people who have less followers? Would you follow a blog to enter a contest? What makes you unfollow a blog?

I follow blogs using Google Friend Connect. I love how GFC will show me which blogs I'm already following and will automatically sign me in when I go to comment. The blogs that I have to personally type in all my info (name, email, blog url) are blogs that I will probably not comment on. Too much effort. Same with blogs that use the captcha. If I have to guess at what that mess of letters is, I won't comment.

I also love how GFC and blogger have a giant scroll list of all the newest posts from the blogs I follow. I just have to scroll through, see which posts pop out at me and I will then go look at them. I like having all the blogs I follow in one list. I'm too lazy for anything else.

When it comes to following, I will follow all the blogs that follow me when I do the follow hops. Then when I come across blogs I like I will follow them. I don't seem to follow the bigger blogs nearly as much as I follow the newer ones with less followers. They are the ones that are still really excited about blogging and it shows. But since I'm almost at 3 years of blogging (the 25th of this month will be my blogaversary) and I've found abotu 15 blogs I like and that like my blog back and I tend to mostly pay attention to those ones. I do still comment on the other blogs I follow, I just don't go to their blogs nearly as much.

There has only been a few times that I have unfollowed a blog. Once when a blog had been hacked and was posting non-stop spam. Then a few times when the blogs switched from book blogs to other things, health blogs, political blogs, ect. I don't really unfollow blogs.