book-a-holic

Books Read in 2012

2012-01-04T09:57:00.001-08:00

January:
1. A Wrinkle in Time-Madeline L'Engle
2. The Magician King-Lev Grossman
3. Rumors-Anna Godbersen
February:
4. A Clash of Kings-George R.R. Martin

Cable Guy

2011-08-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

     Well I am sitting here at home waiting for the cable guy to show up again. It has been over three weeks since we moved and for some reason our cable just does not want to work. Although, as I've mentioned before, I haven't missed it as much as I thought I would. I have read more books recently than I have in a long time.
     Over the weekend, I finished The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan. I mentioned that I thought the main character was whiny, and I am happy to say that the book did pick up towards the end and I enjoyed it. Ryan has an amazing talent of making realistic and terrifying worlds and if she writes anything further in this series, I will gladly read it.
     I also read Nick Hornby's little trilogy of his collection of columns from the Believer, The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money. I highly recommend these books for anyone who likes to read about reading. They were very funny and insightful.
     Lastly for today here is a link from Feministe, a blog I like to read, on how "fat" women are expected to dress. This piece really struck a chord with me and I wanted to share it. Have a great day guys!

Rainy Sunday

2011-07-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

    Just another rainy day here, although the last two days were sunny and gorgeous. Yesterday I finally got to go to the last Harry Potter movie and I loved it. It is so sad that it is over however. The one thing that I did not care for was the epilogue, but I felt the same way when I read the book, so that was not surprising. It definitely made me want to reread the last book again.
    In other bookish news, I have been enjoying the Half Price Books that is within walking distance of my apartment. HPB does not exist in the smallish town that recently moved from so HPB is pretty amazing to me right now. On Friday, I received my first tiny paycheck from my new job and I rewarded myself by buying The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. I originally read about these books on English Major's Junk Food, one of my favorite blogs. From the first page I have been pretty immersed in it. It is scandalous fun, set in 1899, one of my favorite time periods ever. I have also been reading The Dark and Hollow Places, the third book in Carrie Ryan's zombie books. I love her writing and world building as in her other books, but the main character in this one is driving me crazy with her whining. Hopefully she will grow a little by the end.
    My plans for today consist of laundry, reading and walking to the grocery store. All in all, a lazy rainy Sunday. Have a great week everyone!

A Beautiful Weekend

2011-07-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

      This weekend has been gorgeous and sunny here in Seattle and I have been loving it. My good friend from Portland came up for the weekend and we spent the last couple of days exploring and having adventures. I have walked so much this weekend! After she left early this afternoon, I have been doing laundry and getting ready to officially start my new job tomorrow morning at 6. Sigh.
        In book news, I am reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman, which is a fascinating and terrifying YA book that looks at what could be the future of the pro life/pro choice debate. In his world, abortions are illegal, but teenagers between the age of 13 and 18 can be "unwound" at any time by their parents. Unwinding means that their organs are donated to other people in need. Unwind focuses on three kids who have managed to escape being unwound and are on the run. So far it is pretty intriguing.
       Alright, now I must run back and check on the laundry. Happy Sunday!

Seattle #2

2011-07-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

So, I have now been in Seattle for exactly 11 days. In that time, I have gotten lost on the bus once, walked up steep hills (and realized just how out of shape I was) several times and spent exactly 11 days trying to get our Internet and cable set up (we now have Internet, but still no cable). I can't say that it has been a totally bad thing though.

One of the first things I did when we got here was get a library card and I have already gone there a few times. The branch within walking distance of us is pretty small, but I can order things online and pick up my holds there. Because of our lack of TV and Internet last week, I read quite a few books: Torment by Lauren Kate, Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick, Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, Feed by M. T. Anderson and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I don't remember the last time I read this many books in one week! Zombies vs. Unicorns and Fingersmith were both books that I started during spring break and then abandoned during Spring Term, so technically I just finished these, but still! I kind of like the fact that cable hasn't been around to distract me as much. I really don't miss it that much. They were all great reads, albeit Torment and Crescendo were pretty much exactly the same and in fact I don't even remember clearly which book some of the plot lines occurred in.

Right now I am reading (and enjoying immensely) Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree. It is a short little collection of some of his magazine pieces and they are hilarious and insightful. Tomorrow I start training for my new job. My goal, since I won't be going to grad school until fall 2012, is to keep up my reading and posting on here. I don't want to fall into the mind numbing routine that so often happens when I'm not in school: wake up, go to work, read for maybe ten minutes on my lunch, come home, change into sweats, lay down, watch TV, fall asleep on the couch, go to bed. Although I know that this is far less likely to happen in a big city compared to a small one where nothing ever happens, I am still wary of it. However at the same time, I am not going to try to review everything that I have read or try to stick to a schedule. I am just going to stay casual and keep it fun. I will keep posting on my new adventures and I still plan on sharing some of the great experiences that I had during this last year at school. Stay tuned!

Seattle!

2011-07-18T15:55:00.001-07:00

This year has been crazy-crazy and life changing. For the first time ever, I have made huge active steps towards some life goals that I have had for a long time. Last month I graduated from Southern Oregon University with a BA in English and Writing: Literary Studies. After taking about five years off, I finally returned to school in 2009 and I now have a fancy piece of paper to show for it! I am extremely proud of myself. Also, a week ago, my partner and I moved up to Seattle-something that I have wanted to do since I was 14. This was a huge move and we are now eight hours away from our friends and family in Southern Oregon. It is scary, but definitely very exciting. My next plan of action is to study for and take the GRE so that I can apply to UW in January. Masters of Library Science here I come! Because of the craziness of this last school year, I have been pretty much non-existent on here. I want that to change. I have A Lot to talk about from this last year, including a whole class that I took just on Virginia Woolf and my senior paper that I wrote on gender roles in Dracula. I look forward to getting caught up again in the book blogging world!

Books Read in 2011

2011-01-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

Books Read in 2011:
1. Definitely Dead-Charlaine Harris
2. All Together Dead-Charlaine Harris
3. The Gift-H.D.
4. A Touch of Dead-Charlaine Harris
5. Room-Emma Donoghue
6. Tender Buttons-Gertrude Stein
7. Sapphique-Catherine Fisher
8. Marked-P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
9. From Dead to Worse-Charlaine Harris
10. Dead and Gone-Charlaine Harris
11. Cane-Jean Toomer
12. Dead in the Family-Charlaine Harris
13. Kissing the Witch-Emma Donoghue
14. Fallen-Lauren Kate
15. Mrs. Dalloway-Virginia Woolf
16. To the Lighthouse-Virginia Woolf
17. Orlando-Virginia Woolf
18. Racism without Racists-Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
19. where we stand-bell hooks
20. Three Guineas-Virginia Woolf
21. Stone Butch Blues-Leslie Feinberg
22. The Years-Virginia Woolf
23. Torment-Lauren Kate
24. Crescendo-Becca Fitzpatrick
25. Zombies vs. Unicorns-Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier
26. Feed-M.T. Anderson
27. Fingersmith-Sarah Waters
28. The Polysyllabic Spree-Nick Hornby
29. Unwind-Neal Shusterman
30. The Dark and Hollow Places-Carrie Ryan
31. Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt-Nick Hornby
32. Shakespeare Wrote for Money-Nick Hornby
33. Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float-Sarah Schmelling
34. Dirty Little Secrets-c.j. omololu
35. evermore-alyson noel
36. the perks of being a wallflower-stephen chbosky
37. SlaughterHouse-Five-Kurt Vonnegut
38. The Luxe-Anna Godbersen
39. Wildthorn-Jane Eagland
40. The Magicians-Lev Grossman
41. Across the Universe-Beth Revis
42. Dirty Secret- Jessie Sholl
43. Kafka on the Shore-Haruki Murakami
44. After the Quake-Haruki Murakami
45. Wither-Lauren DeStefano
46. Bumped-Megan McCafferty
47. Passion-Lauren Kate
48. A Game of Thrones-George R. R. Martin
49. Dead Reckoning-Charlaine Harris
50. Retail Hell-Freeman Hall
51. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle-Haruki Murakami
52. The Night Circus-Erin Morgenstern
53. A Great and Terrible Beauty-Libba Bray
54. Birthmarked-Caragh M. O'Brien
55. Tithe-Holly Black
56. Persepolis-Marjane Satrapi

2010

2011-01-04T00:57:00.000-08:00

Here are the books I read in 2010. I did not hit 100, however I did very well ending up with 65 for the year.

Finished:
1. The Almost Moon-Alice Sebold
2. The Autobiography of Benjamin Frankin-Benjamin Franklin
3. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass-Frederick Douglass
4. Odd Thomas-Dean Koontz
5. 1984(audiobook)-George Orwell
6. The Lightning Thief(Percy Jackson #1)-Rick Riordan
7. The Housekeeper and the Professor-Yoko Ogawa
8. the woman who gave birth to rabbits-Emma Donoghue
9. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl-Harriet Jacobs writing as Linda Brent
10. The Sea of Monsters(Percy Jackson#2)-Rick Riordan
11. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America-John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman
12. The Lace Reader(audiobook)-Brunonia Barry
13. Inkheart(#1 in a trilogy)-Cornelia Funke
14. The Bondswoman's Narrative-Hannah Crafts
15. Alice I Have Been-Melanie Benjamin
16. The Girl with Glass Feet-Ali Shaw
17. The Titan's Curse(Percy Jackson#3)-Rick Riordan
18. The Battle of the Labyrinth(Percy Jackson#4)-Rick Riordan
19. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass(reread)-Lewis Carroll
20. The Last Olympian(Percy Jackson#5)-Rick Riordan
21. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins
22. New Grub Street-George Gissing
23. The Adoration of Jenna Fox(audiobook)-Mary E. Pearson
24. Frankenstein-Mary Shelley
25. Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins
26. The Forest of Hands and Teeth-Carrie Ryan
27. Hush, Hush-Becca Fitzpatrick
28. The EverAfter-Amy Huntley
29. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
30. Cathy's Book-Stewart/Weisman/Brigg
31. Life As We Knew It-Susan Beth Pfeffer
32. Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins
33. The Pillars of the Earth-Ken Follett
34. Dead Until Dark-Charlaine Harris
35. The Dead and the Gone-Susan Beth Pfeffer
36. This World We Live In-Susan Beth Pfeffer
37. Living Dead In Dallas-Charlaine Harris
38. Incarceron-Catherine Fisher
39. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius-Dave Eggers
40. Ladies First-Queen Latifah
41. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner-Stephenie Meyer
42. Oryx and Crake-Margaret Atwood
43. Club Dead-Charlaine Harris
44. This Book is Overdue!-Marilyn Johnson
45. Making Rounds with Oscar-David Dosa, M.D.
46. Un Lun Dun- China Mieville
47. Get Me Out!-Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.
48. The Odd Women-George Gissing
49. Dead to the World-Charlaine Harris
50. Cannery Row-John Steinbeck
51. The Dead-Tossed Waves-Carrie Ryan
52. The Sparrow-Mary Doria Russell
53. Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories-Nathaniel Hawthorne
54. A Child of the Jago-Arthur Morrison
55. Sweet Thursday-John Steinbeck
56. Dead as a Doornail-Charlaine Harris
57. Dracula-Bram Stoker
58. The Red Queen-Philippa Gregory
59. The Historian-Elizabeth Kostova
60. The Other Queen-Philippa Gregory
61. A Sunless Heart-Edith Johnstone
62. Striking a Balance-Robert W. Drago
63. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone(reread)-J.K. Rowling
64. The Magician's Nephew(reread)-C.S. Lewis
65. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(reread)-C.S. Lewis

Abandoned:
1. People of the Book(audiobook)-Geraldine Brooks
2. Eat, Pray, Love(audiobook)-Elizabeth Gilbert
3. Inkspell-Cornelia Funke

Underwhelmed by Zombies

2010-06-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

Quirk Productions, 2009. Pages: 317.

I received this book as a Christmas present.

I love Jane Austen and I have for a long time. I also love zombies, so I thought that I would greatly enjoy this book. I was expecting a fun mash up. I have been reading this since Christmas and it was hard to finish. I probably would have abandoned it if I hadn't felt so sure that I was supposed to like it.

It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what I didn't like about it. It mostly follows the storyline of Pride and Prejudice, but Grahame-Smith inserts his passages whenever he feels like it, which it not always a smooth transition. Also Austen has a great sense of humor placed throughout her books and Grahame-Smith has a teenage boy sense of humor that feels out of place among Austen's witty dialogue. For instance, below is a quote from the book that is obviously Grahame-Smith's:

"She remembered the lead ammunition in her pocket and offered it to him. 'Your balls, Mr Darcy?' He reached out and closed her hand around them, and offered, 'They belong to you, Miss Bennett.' Upon this, their color changed, and they were forced to look away from one another, lest they laugh" (205).

I mean seriously? Austen is rolling over in her grave right now. And there are several passages that are like this.

I finished this book yesterday with a bad taste in my mouth, but luckily last night I went to see the production of Pride and Prejudice that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is putting on right now. It was fresh and funny and made me fall in love with the real Elizabeth and Darcy all over again. Thank goodness that all is right with the world again!

The End of Young Adult Week...For Now.

2010-06-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

The Adoration of Jenna Fox- Mary E. Pearson.

Macmillan, 2008. Audiobook. Read by Jenna Lamia.

I borrowed this from my local library.

I listened to this book a couple of months ago on my commute to school and I really enjoyed it! The story is about a teenage girl who wakes up with no memories and the people who claim that they are her family tell her that she was in a terrible accident. As she gets to know herself and her surroundings memories start to come back and it is obvious to Jenna that her parents are not telling her the whole truth. They shelter her way to much and she realizes that there is a mystery going on that she needs to get to the bottom of.

This was a captivating book, and the Jenna Lamia sounds exactly how I would imagine Jenna to sound. I was on the edge of my seat, trying to figure everything out until the very end. It was also heartbreaking. Jenna is a typical teenager and at times she reminded me of my teenagehood. Pearson did a great job of capturing that age in a realistic way.

Overall I recommend this book! It is a quick read, but you will not be able to stop thinking about it after you finish it.

Is There Life After Death?

2010-06-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

The EverAfter-Amy Huntley

HarperCollins, 2009. Pages: 248.

I borrowed this book from a friend.

I read this sweet little book in one go a few days ago. It is an interesting look at one theory of what happens when we die. 17 year old Madison wakes up in a dark space that she calls "is" and she is surrounded by the things that she lost throughout her life. She realizes that by touching these things, she is transported to her memory of the event.

I enjoyed this book. It isn't the suspenseful page turner that I have been reading lately, but it has stayed with me and made me think. Also, Madison cannot remember how she died until the end, and that is a twist that I did not predict. I definitely recommend this book.

I haven't seen any news for other books by Huntley yet, but I will look forward to them. However, if you enjoyed this book I also recommend The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, which is one of my all time favorites.

Vampires, Zombies and Angels, Oh My!

2010-06-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

I've noticed lately that angels are becoming a trendy topic (along with vampires and zombies) in young adult literature. Specifically fallen angels. Hush, Hush is about fallen angels fighting over a teenage girl.

Hush, Hush-Becca Fitzpatrick

Simon & Schuster, 2009. Pages: 391.

I borrowed this book from a friend.

When I started this book it felt very familiar to me. Teenage girl gets paired up with a brooding, attractive boy in her science class that she does not want to be paired up with. He doesn't seem to want to talk to her, yet he seems to show up everywhere she goes. Does this remind you of a certain sparkly vampire?

Eventually Nora starts hanging out with Patch and discovers his softer side and also that there is a lot more going on around her then she realizes. It is hard to do much of a plot synopsis for this without giving much away, so I'm just going to do a quick pros & cons of why you should read this.

Pros: Hush, Hush has a very exciting, intense story line that kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to see what happened next. And once she gets past the ya cliches, Fitzpatrick has innovative ideas that feel fresh.

Cons: Fitzpatrick uses a lot of cliched writing that sometimes feels clunky. Also I don't buy everything about her story. If Nora doesn't want her friends to know that she is anemic, then why does she take her iron pills right in front of them? And who would believe that the reason Nora is carrying around plastic bags containing a disguise is because her garbage is full and her mom asked her to throw their extra garbage away at a restaurant?

Overall though it was a fun read, I still wanted to finish it and I plan on reading the sequel, Crescendo, which is coming out in October, just because I want to see what happens.

Zombies

2010-06-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today I want to talk about a young adult book I discovered that is about one of my favorite things in the world: zombies.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth-Carrie Ryan

Delacorte, 2009. Pages: 308

I borrowed this from my local library.

I picked up this book because I love zombies. I was not expecting much and I was surprised by how rich the plot of this book really is. The story is about Mary, a teenager that lives in a village surrounded by a fence that keeps out the forest of zombies, or as they call them: "the unconsecrated." The village has an eery feel to it with a religious sisterhood in charge of everything and mandatory marriage enforced in order to grow the village. An outbreak has happened a couple generations earlier and no one knows if anyone still lives beyond the forest.

This book is awesome. Hands down. There is mystery, action, zombies and even a love story. Their are some really great creepy parts in it and the writing is superb.

This is my favorite line in the book: "Every night I drown and every morning I wake up struggling to breathe" (Ryan 146).

I loved this book, and I started the sequel yesterday: The Dead-Tossed Waves.

Summer! And this week is Young Adult Week on book-a-holic!

2010-06-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been 2 months since I last posted. Spring term was a bit stressful. However, it is now officially summer! I am free to do what i want and read what I want. I thought this day would never come. I have been reading, and I have a lot of books to talk about. School has been tough lately, so I have been mostly reading young adult books. I have found some good ones! So I am officially making this week Young Adult Week on my blog.

To start with today, I want to talk about Catching Fire, the second book in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series.

Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins

Scholastic, 2009. Pages:391

I borrowed this book from my local library.

I posted about The Hunger Games a couple of months ago, and that is how long I had to wait to get this book from the library. I loved The Hunger Games and Catching Fire completely lived up to my expectations. If you haven't read The Hunger Games, go and get it right now! Go! And don't read further, because this will have spoilers.

Catching Fire starts with Katniss and Peeta going on the Victory Tour, which is a tour that the victor of the Hunger Games does a few months after they win. Since Katniss and Peeta outsmarted the Hunger Games, they are under immense pressure to prove to the other districts that they are crazy in love. However, rebellion is in the air. And then! Crazy twist that I did not see coming! And of course crazy tension between both Katniss and Peeta and Katniss and Gale.

I love this series. I was not expecting these books to be written as well as they are, but Collins is really talented. And Katniss is such a strong character. You can't help but root for her. It is killing me to wait for the third book Mockingjay, which comes out in August (I have already preordered it). If you have not experienced Suzanne Collins yet, check her out! You will thank me later.

Hello All!

2010-04-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well it is a beautiful day here and I am overjoyed to see the sunshine! Right now I am reading a few different things, so here is a quick progress report:

New Grub Street by George Gissing. This is a classic that I am reading right now for my lit class and I am really enjoying it. It revolves around several characters in the 1890s London literary community. It is very interesting and also feels very current. Much of what the writers are going through in the book resonates with today's literary community.

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke. The sequel to Inkheart, I am taking my time with this one.

Pride and Predjudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. I love Jane Austen and I love zombies, so I thought I would love this book to death(haha), but I can't get into it. This book is taking me a long time.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. I am listening to this in my car right now and I am pretty engrossed. It is a very interesting concept, although a bit preachy at times. I am on the last disc.

I can't seem to finish anything right now with all of the homework I have, but I am still around, I promise! Ok guys, have a good rest of your week! I hope your weather is as good as mine.

Spring Break Recap

2010-03-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

I really, really meant to write a lot this last two weeks. I promise. I had the best of intentions. However, my couch and the pile of movies I had sitting on the coffee table to watch were just too tempting. And now here it is, the first day of spring term.

So, how about a quick recap of some of the books that I've read recently? I have been reading a ton of great YA fiction and loving it.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was one of these YA reads. I have been hearing about this book for months and had pretty high expectations for it. And oh man! It fulfilled them. I could not tear myself away. This book is exciting, different and compelling. Katniss is a lovable, strong character (what a change from Bella!). I have nothing but good things to share about this book and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel: Catching Fire. Suzanne Collins, you rock my world!

I also finished up the Percy Jackson series with books

3-5, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. I enjoyed this series immensely. Even though the intended audience was obviously younger kids, it was a fun distraction from finals. The ending was satisfying and I felt like Riordan's characters and his writing both grew and matured throughout the five books.

I also read Inkheart, the first book in a fantasy trilogy by Cornelia Funke. These books are translated from German, which I find cool because two of my favorite books from childhood, The Neverending Story and The Princess Bride are also German. I really enjoyed this book and I am currently reading the second book in the series, Inkspell. Book lovers will love these books, since there are constant book references.

So these are a few of the books I've read lately. Right now, besides Inkspell, I am also reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I am about to start Shades of Grey. Now I must go do my first homework of the new term. Ugh. Happy Reading!

Reading Through the Midterm Blues

2010-02-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Book #2 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series.
Published:2006 Pages:279
I borrowed this from my public library.

I enjoyed The Lightning Thief, so I requested the sequel from the library. Once I received it, I read it in one night. This book is even shorter than the first one and it was pretty easy reading. In The Sea of Monsters, Percy and his friends embark on a quest that takes them into the sea of monsters(the same sea that Odysseus traveled through), which is now where the Bermuda triangle is located.

It was a lot of fun and a welcome distraction from my homework. I will definitely read the other three books in the series.

the woman who gave birth to rabbits by Emma Donoghue
Short stories. Published: 2002 Pages: 255
I bought this book at my local bookstore.

I have had this book in my tbr shelf for quite awhile and I happened to pick it up one night while I was procrastinating on a paper. This book contains several short stories and they are all based on true things that happened, mostly in the 1700s and 1800s. Donoghue is not only a novelist of historical fiction (she has a pretty popular novel Slammerkin), but she is a historian as well. After every story, she included a page on the actual facts that inspired her to write that story. This book was fascinating! I loved every minute of it and I cannot wait to read more of her work. I have another book by her, Life Mask, and I plan on reading that soon. Any of you historical fiction lovers out there check her out!

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Audio book. Read by: Alyssa Bresnahan
Published: 2008 Length: 10 Cds.

This book is about Towner, a thirty something woman returning to her home in Salem after years of mental illness. She is called home because her grandmother has disappeared.

This was a crazy ride. I found myself sitting in my car after I got home just to see what happened next. Since Towner admits on the first page that she always lies, I was constantly looking for the twists. I guessed some of them, but there were several and I was very satisfied with the ending.

Barry's descriptive powers are amazing; I have never wanted to go to the east coast as much as I want to now! The pictures she paints in her writing make you like you are there.

The only thing that irritated me a bit about The Lace Reader, was that sometimes the dialogue got a bit cheesy. Barry tended to repeat things a lot such as "that happy ever after crapola" and "I got as far as I could without falling off the ends of the earth" (These are both paraphrased since I don't have have the book). These were both used at least four times. This is a small issue though and overall I loved this book.

And one other comment: what is up with all of the book about twins that have been coming out recently? This is the third book in two months that I have read involving twins.

The Housekeeper and the Professor

2010-02-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Translated by Stephen Snyder
Published: 2003 Translated:2009, Picador
Pages: 180
I bought this book from my local bookstore.

I have been looking at this book for a few months now (I'll admit mostly because it has a beautiful cover) and so I jumped at the chance to get it for 60% off. The book is about a once genius math professor who suffered an accident which restricted his short term memory to only eighty minutes at a time. The plot revolves around the housekeeper hired to care for him and her young son.

This book started slow for me, although the prose was beautiful from the start. Math and baseball haven't always been my favorite subjects, and those are two things that the professor really cares about. However, by the end I found myself captivated and genuinely moved. Ogawa really succeeded in creating realistic characters that I think we can all relate to.

This is a short, simple book; yet I found myself thinking about it for days afterward. It really is worth a read and I think I will keep this one to reread later. Highly recommended!

The Lightning Thief/1984

2010-02-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Book one of Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Pub:2005 Pages: 375

I bought this book at my local bookstore

The Lightning Thief is about a young boy who constantly gets kicked out of his schools. He also seems to have special powers. Monsters start coming to find him. Turns out that his dad isn't dead after all.

Riordan takes the Greek myths and modernizes them in this Harry Potteresque adventure. And it was a lot of fun. It has been years since I studied Greek mythology and it was fun to revisit it. All of the characters were faithful to their origins, but at the same time fresh and original. The ending was predictable, at least for me, however I still enjoyed every second of it. This was a light, easy read, and also addicting. I read this because of the movie coming out soon, which also looks cool. The problem I already have with the movie is that, in the book, Percy is 12. In the previews I've seen Percy looks at least 16. I don't know about that. However the book is a page turner and I 100% recommend it.

1984 by George Orwell

Pub:1950 Audio book pub:1991.

Read by: Richard Brown

I borrowed this from my local library.

This was my first audio book since I was little and I really enjoyed it. I realized last month that I commute 30 minutes both ways to school everyday and that I could be using that time for reading! 1984 was an impulse grab, since I've always wanted to read it.

This book is a classic dysotopian novel and I loved it. I'm not sure why I like dysotopias so much, since they are always depressing, but I can't get enough. This one centers around Winston Smith in England after "Big Brother" and "The Party" have taken over everything. Although at times I felt that Orwell went off on tangents that were unnecessary (he really hated Socialism and although that was the basis for the story, I felt that I didn't need dozens of essay styled pages explicating exactly why they were bad), at other times I was moved by Winston's plight. There were also a couple of scenes that were really terrifying. Overall it was great and I will not forget the ending for a long time to come.

Odd Thomas

2010-01-24T23:17:00.001-08:00

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Published:2003 Pages:446

Paperback

I bought this book from my local bookstore.

This term I am doing an extreme amount of reading, so for my free time (when I have some), I am escaping into easy, fun books. Odd Thomas was exactly that. This was my first Koontz book, and it was pretty much what I expected.

Odd is a 20 year old guy that sees dead people. Like the Sixth Sense, but no Bruce Willis. He helps them by solving their unresolved murders and such, while working as a fry cook in a diner. He has a soul mate named Stormy. He has a dream that a lot of people in his town will die if he doesn't intervene...

This book is a thriller with a lot of comedy involved and with several twists that actually got me. Is it literary? No. Is it even well written? Not really. However, it was a page turner and it gave me the break that I needed from more serious topics. I really loved both Odd and Stormy and I cared about what happened to them. Also there were a few parts that totally creeped me out.

I do recommend this book if you are just looking for some light entertainment. This is the first in a series of 4 books, and I'm not sure yet if I will keep going.

My First Book of the New Year!

2010-01-06T16:50:00.000-08:00

The Almost Moon-Alice Sebold

Pages:291, Published in 2007, Published by Little-Brown

I borrowed this from my local library.

This is a hard review for me to write because I love love love Alice Sebold. I read The Lovely Bones a few years ago and it was amazing(I am very excited about the movie coming out). I have been wanting to read The Almost Moon pretty much since it came out but finally found it at the library recently.

The Almost Moon is about a middle aged woman who suffocates her elderly mother. This is not a spoiler because she tells us this in the first paragraph. So I knew from the beginning that this was going to be dark. I'm OK with dark. Hell, I prefer dark. However the book proceeded to make me very uncomfortable. I almost ditched it in the third chapter just because I really felt freaked out. And not in a good way.

I struggled through and kept going, if only because of my faith in Sebold. The book is almost completely made up of Helen's midlife crisis (if that is even what you could call it: what kind of midlife crisis causes you to kill your mom?) and flashbacks into her dysfunctional childhood and the mental illnesses of both her parents. Nothing really happens and the ending is ambiguous. At the end, I wished that I had abandoned it from the third chapter.

I do not and cannot recommend this book, however I highly recommend The Lovely Bones.

List of Books Read in 2010

2010-01-06T16:46:00.000-08:00

One of my goals this year is to keep better track of my reading (which is why I started a blog in the first place), so I will keep my finished and abandoned books here:

Finished:
1. The Almost Moon-Alice Sebold
2. The Autobiography of Benjamin Frankin-Benjamin Franklin
3. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass-Frederick Douglass
4. Odd Thomas-Dean Koontz
5. 1984(audiobook)-George Orwell
6. The Lightning Thief(Percy Jackson #1)-Rick Riordan
7. The Housekeeper and the Professor-Yoko Ogawa
8. the woman who gave birth to rabbits-Emma Donoghue
9. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl-Harriet Jacobs writing as Linda Brent
10. The Sea of Monsters(Percy Jackson#2)-Rick Riordan
11. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America-John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman
12. The Lace Reader(audiobook)-Brunonia Barry
13. Inkheart(#1 in a trilogy)-Cornelia Funke
14. The Bondswoman's Narrative-Hannah Crafts
15. Alice I Have Been-Melanie Benjamin
16. The Girl with Glass Feet-Ali Shaw
17. The Titan's Curse(Percy Jackson#3)-Rick Riordan
18. The Battle of the Labyrinth(Percy Jackson#4)-Rick Riordan
19. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass(reread)-Lewis Carroll
20. The Last Olympian(Percy Jackson#5)-Rick Riordan
21. The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins
22. New Grub Street-George Gissing
23. The Adoration of Jenna Fox(audiobook)-Mary E. Pearson
24. Frankenstein-Mary Shelley
25. Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins
26. The Forest of Hands and Teeth-Carrie Ryan
27. Hush, Hush-Becca Fitzpatrick
28. The EverAfter-Amy Huntley
29. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies-Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
30. Cathy's Book-Stewart/Weisman/Brigg
31. Life As We Knew It-Susan Beth Pfeffer
32. Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins
33. The Pillars of the Earth-Ken Follett
34. Dead Until Dark-Charlaine Harris
35. The Dead and the Gone-Susan Beth Pfeffer
36. This World We Live In-Susan Beth Pfeffer
37. Living Dead In Dallas-Charlaine Harris
38. Incarceron-Catherine Fisher
39. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius-Dave Eggers
40. Ladies First-Queen Latifah
41. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner-Stephenie Meyer
42. Oryx and Crake-Margaret Atwood
43. Club Dead-Charlaine Harris
44. This Book is Overdue!-Marilyn Johnson
45. Making Rounds with Oscar-David Dosa, M.D.
46. Un Lun Dun- China Mieville
47. Get Me Out!-Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.
48. The Odd Women-George Gissing
49. Dead to the World-Charlaine Harris
50. Cannery Row-John Steinbeck
51. The Dead-Tossed Waves-Carrie Ryan
52. The Sparrow-Mary Doria Russell
53. Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories-Nathaniel Hawthorne
54. A Child of the Jago-Arthur Morrison
55. Sweet Thursday-John Steinbeck
56. Dead as a Doornail-Charlaine Harris
57. Dracula-Bram Stoker
58. The Red Queen-Philippa Gregory
59. The Historian-Elizabeth Kostova
60. The Other Queen-Philippa Gregory
61. A Sunless Heart-Edith Johnstone
62. Striking a Balance-Robert W. Drago
63. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone(reread)-J.K. Rowling
64. The Magician's Nephew(reread)-C.S. Lewis
65. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(reread)-C.S. Lewis

Abandoned:
1. People of the Book(audiobook)-Geraldine Brooks
2. Eat, Pray, Love(audiobook)-Elizabeth Gilbert
3. Inkspell-Cornelia Funke

Books I Read in 2009. Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

Although I didn't do many reviews this year because of time issues, here is a list of the books I read last year:

Auel, Jean M.: The Clan of the Cave Bear

Chopin, Kate: The Awakening(reread for class)

Eliot, George: The Mill on the Floss

Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South

Gregory, Philippa: The White Queen

King, Stephen: The Shining

Larsen, Nella: Passing

Montgomery, L.M.: A Tangled Web

Moore, George: Esther Waters

Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye

Myron, Vicki: Dewey

Naslund, Sena Jeter: Abundance

Niffinegger, Audrey: Her Fearful Symmetry

The Time Traveler's Wife

Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(reread for the movie)

Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye

Setterfield, Diane: The Thirteenth Tale

Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath

Of Mice and Men

The Red Pony

The Winter of Our Discontent

Stewart, Trenton Lee: The Mysterious Benedict Society

Wells, H.G.: Ann Veronica

The Time Machine

Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Williams, Tennessee: The Glass Menagerie

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the Wind

To the best of my memory this is what I read in 2009. I am a little disappointed in myself, because this is probably the least amount of books I've read in a long time and a lot of these were for school. My goal this year is to read more books for myself and to work on my massive TBR shelves. I have started doing this some in December. I also want to be more faithful in recording what I read on this blog. Happy New Year everyone!

Finals (aka I want to blow my brains out).

2009-12-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say that I finished my term paper on Harry Potter and turned it in this morning.

Yes, you heard right kids, I got to write a paper on the linguistics involved in Rowling's naming of characters, places, spells etc...in the Harry Potter series. Seriously.

Also I will be mostly absent in the next week and a half while I write two more papers (with actual grown up topics) and take a few finals. You know, a few sleepless nights, overdosing on caffeine, screaming at strangers, the usual. My goal this week is to not fall down, scrape my knee, and rip my jeans in front of the entire student body while they are eating lunch.

(Is it called a student body in college? Never mind, it doesn't matter.)

On a side note, I stayed up even later than I should have after finishing aforementioned paper last night, because I had to finish The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Oh man. That book is amazing. Amazing.

Anyway, have a great week and I will check in when I have sanity again.

Amy out.

Random Monday Babbling

2009-11-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

I finished this yesterday (all 83 pages of it), to get a head start on class next week. Because, no school this week!!!! Hooray!

Anyway, I have read this before, but it was long ago when I was pretty young and I don't remember it that well. As in, I do remember the super sweet time machine and the cool giant crabs, but I do not remember a thing about Wells' political commentary throughout the story. Basically, the part of the future where he spends the most time is his prediction of what society will be like if nothing changes. The working class have been driven underground to run all of the machinery and the elite upper class stays on the surface, completely unintelligent and prey for the under grounders. How fascinating that what is commonly regarded as just a science fiction novel actually has so much clout.

Overall, a quick and interesting read. My edition is bundled with The Invisible Man. Any thoughts on that book? Is it worth a read?

It will have to wait right now however, because I randomly picked up Catcher in the Rye yesterday by J. D. Salinger and I can't put it down. I know, I know, how have I not read it before now? That one somehow slipped through the cracks. But, it is hilarious!

OK, more to come.

Twilight Hangover

2009-11-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

Today had been a pretty great day. Since I was up until the wee hours at the New Moon midnight showing, I decided to have a lazy morning and finally finish Her Fearful Symmetry, the newest book by Audrey Niffenegger of The Time Traveler's Wife fame. I know that everyone in the world(well, maybe not everyone) has already read and reviewed this book, so I will just give you some of my brief thoughts on it.

Niffenegger is a brilliant writer. Her prose is virtually perfect. She does not create a character that is shallow. Her settings are gorgeous. This book is no exception. I want to go to Highgate Cemetery after reading this, her descriptions made it come alive for me. This entire novel had a creepy feel to it that I loved.
That being said, I had to make myself finish this. Yes, part of it is that I am slammed with schoolwork, but when a book is good enough, you find time for it. I had no problem letting this one sit on my bedside table for a month. I read The Time Traveler's Wife over the summer and could not put it down. I was disappointed that this book did not grab me in the same way.
Overall, after the incredible experience of The Time Traveler's Wife (and yes it was an experience for me-I cried for a day after I read it), Her Fearful Symmetry does not fulfill my expectations. I just didn't care about the characters. I really wanted to, but I didn't. However, it was well written and it did have an original plot. I still look forward to her next book.

Now, regarding New Moon, all I have to say is Jacob is so freaking cool in this movie. And Edward is not. I'm sorry if that makes me some enemies, I totally understand. Oh, and Dakota Fanning was awesome! New Moon was my least favorite book of the series, so I am happy to have that over with so that I can look forward to Eclipse.

I'm Paying for This?

2009-11-12T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I have embraced college life. I no longer have free time. I no longer sleep in, or actually sleep much at all. My mornings consist of pulling myself out of bed while it is still dark out, stumbling down the stairs to start the coffee and back up to the shower. During this trip Harold attacks me on the stairs both times. Harold is a kitten, not a zombie, in case you are wondering. The drive to school while I guzzle coffee and slowly wake up blurs into my early morning class, which seems too loud and intrusive when I want to be back in bed.

The breaks spent eating granola bars and conjugating Spanish verbs. The ten minute sprint up the hill across campus, rushing between classes. Hiding out on the third floor of the library because I am scared of/annoyed by the 18 year olds, maybe because they don't understand. The intentions: I'm going to write that paper a week before it's due, I'm going to read that book over spring/summer/winter break, I'm going to figure out a brilliant paper topic this time. Yet here I am, 2am, after work, typing a paper 6 hours before it's due or fighting sleep off while trying to read that last 50 pages.

What did I do with all of this free time before? TV, books for pleasure, movies, lunch other than peanut butter, sleep, all of these are now privileges I rarely enjoy. And writing this blog can be added to that list.

Some days, I feel strong, empowered, educated. Most days, I feel exhausted, defeated, lonely, stupid, ridiculous and humiliated. I have fallen down more than once in front of people. I have made an idiot out of myself several times in front of whole classrooms and on the flip side of that, I have kept my mouth shut because I was afraid. I have cried in front of strangers and alone in my car. I have lost many friends and pissed off many family members who think I do not make time for them. I ask myself every day: "Why am I doing this?" And the answer that always comes to me is that for the first time in my entire life, I feel whole. My entire being craves to learn and to become what I know I can become. The sacrifices are painful. But I keep telling myself they are worth it.

Hello Again!

2009-09-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

I have been a very busy girl this year and I have not kept up on this blog at all. I did go back to school and I have been focusing on getting good grades and working lots of hours to keep food on the table. I am still reading however and as I have a week until fall term starts I will try to throw a couple of posts up here to see if anyone is still following me.:) I cannot promise that I will write everyday or anything, but I do plan to make a bigger effort to keep this more updated. So to my devoted fans(crickets chirp in background), hello again!

Blindness

2008-11-15T13:15:00.000-08:00

Blindness by Jose Saramago
Published:1995 Pages:293

What if everyone went blind? With no explanation and no cure? That's the question that this novel answers. An eye doctor goes blind after examining a similar case in a patient and is quarantined in an effort to contain the quickly spreading epidemic. His wife tries to go with him and when stopped, pretends to suddenly go blind and is convincing enough to be able to stay with her husband. She is the only person who never loses her sight and the only witness to the horrors that take place afterward.

The blind people are at first kept in an old mental hospital and left to fend for themselves except for a delivery of food at the front gates three times daily. Eventually this slows and then stops and chaos takes over the inmates. Finally a fire is started, the place burns down and the doctor's wife leads a small group to safety, only to find that chaos has spread to the entire city. As the only person who can see, it becomes her responsibility to keep the small group that she has saved alive.

I don't remember the last time I connected with, and loved a character so much, as I did with the doctor's wife. She was strong and yet so heartbreaking at the same time. I felt her feelings and cried her tears. My favorite line in the book is at one point when a certain man takes over the mental hospital that they are trapped in and starts making them pay for their food with valuables, and eventually the women. The doctor's wife speaks up in protest, and the man says, "I won't forget your voice." She reponds back, "Nor I your face." At this point she is pretending to be blind and no one seems to notice those few words that a blind woman shouldn't be saying. That was probably my favorite line in the book.

Nothing is ever explained in this book. We are not told why the blindness started in the first place, or why the doctor's wife never loses her sight. Which ultimately makes it more frightening, because we really don't know what's going on.

I loved Blindness. I love dystopian novels and this is one of the best I have read. Saramago's writing style was perfect for the story. Names were never mentioned, the characters were called by their description. For example, The Doctor's Wife, The Doctor, The Girl With The Dark Glasses, etc... It reminded me very much of another dystopian novel I read recently(which I also loved), The Road by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy also used no names in that book, and similarly, nothing was explained.

I read Blindness because I saw an amazing trailor for the movie that recently came out and I wanted to read the book first.

It was a pleasure to burn

2008-10-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I posted, but I have been a reading fool lately! So this post is going to be four reviews crammed into one, all for you, my reader's(all two of you) enjoyment! Aren't you excited!?

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Published:1953 Pages:179

"It was a pleasure to burn."

This is the best first sentence ever! I was hooked from the first page. This book is about the near future, where firemen go and set fires purposely. Reading is outlawed because it makes people think too much and any books that are found are burned. One fireman meets a seventeen year old girl who changes his mindset, and he starts questioning his job.

This was a quick read for me, but impact full. First of all, I can't imagine life without books. I would be one of those people refusing to leave their houses and being burned with their books. Secondly, it was creepy to me how Bradbury wrote this 50 years ago, but our country is headed that direction. I think that anyone who has ever tried to ban a book should read this and see what the possible consequences to their actions might be. This was the first of Bradbury's books that I have read, but I will definitely read more.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Published:1959 Pages:246

Hill House has been haunted for hundreds of years and has set empty for several of them. Four people set out to try to stay in it for a whole summer and investigate the said haunting. All kinds of crazy stuff breaks loose.:)

I read this book in the span of a night and an afternoon and I couldn't put it down. I loved it that much. The whole thing was so creepy and suspenseful. Jackson does an amazing job at subtly building up a feeling of unease in you that you don't even notice. It was so good and perfect for Halloween. As I've said before, I am obsessed with Shirley Jackson right now. So creepy!

The Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Published:2007 Pages:293

This book is about a thirty something LA women, recently single, to a Jane Austen like setting. She becomes Jane, an entirely different person. As the days pass, she realizes that she isn't in a dream and that she must learn to live the life that Jane Austen might have lived.

This book was a lot of fun. I love Jane Austen, so I caught all of the references and enjoyed myself quite a bit. This is definitely chick lit, which I haven't read in awhile, but I found that it was a nice break from the heavier books I've been reading. I don't think that I would have liked it as much if I didn't love Austen as much as I do...it was basically a love letter to her works.

Sun Storm by Asa Larsson
Published:2003 Pages:307

This book is the first book of a mystery series featuring Rebecka Martinsson, a lawyer. A pastor is found dead in his church and no one will talk, she is forced to go home and help a childhood friend(the sister of the deceased) and gets involved in a mystery where no one is who they say they are.

I don't normally like mysteries very much, but I got drawn into this one. I love Rebecka, she is an unwilling heroine and not your normal rush to the rescue Nancy Drew type. Also I tend to enjoy mysteries with religious undertones...maybe because I grew up in a very strict religious household. Asa Larsson is Swedish and her books take place in Sweden. I've never read anything about Sweden, so another first for me.

The other two books in the series are The Blood Spilt and The Black Path. I just got The Blood Spilt from the library and I am excited to start on it soon!

TGLAPPPS

2008-10-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer And Annie Barrows
Published:2008 Pages:277

I just finished this book earlier today, and you know that quiet, satisfied feeling you get when you finish a really great book? Sad that it's over, but satisfied at the same time? I'm still kind of floating on that. So be prepared for a lot of gushing.

As a rule, I kind of stay away from too many brand new books...OK, OK I've been to a few midnight release Harry Potter parties. But, really who hasn't? And yes I got sucked into the Twilight series. But at least I waited until this summer to do so! Anyway, my point is, there are a few authors that I will gladly wait in line to devour their brand new books, but I've had some bad experiences with people over hyping new books and then I put my expectations too high, and then the book sucks. So I was a little wary of this book at first, because I have read countless blogs praising it's pages. And it took five weeks to get it from the library. So I read it preparing to be underwhelmed.

I finished it in a day. Well a night and a day. I laughed. I smiled. I cried. A lot. I have completely fallen in love with this novel. The characters are adorable, Guernsey is adorable, the stories told are heart breaking, but still adorable. I want to go to this book's Guernsey and live there forever.

The book is about an author living in London following WW2. She gets a letter from a man on Guernsey who bought a book that she sold, requesting more of the same, and they start corresponding. In doing so, she meets a whole score of other people on the island and decides to write a book about them. This book has an amazing love story, but also some very sad parts as the characters share their experiences from the war. It is a good balance.

I loved the main character, Juliet. I totally related to her. I really know that feeling when you look at someone that you thought you knew and thought you could spend your life with, and say "Who are you? Get out!" She dumped her fiancee because he packed her books up, how awesome is that?

So this book is as good as everyone says it is. It kind of reminded me of L.M. Montgomery's writing(I was obsessed with her books growing up). I want to just curl back up and read it again.

Read it!

In other book news, I also recently read a collection of Shirley Jackson's short stories. Short stories are hard for me to review, so I'll just say that I loved them and I am a bit obsessed with Jackson right now. I just got The Haunting Of Hill House in from the library, so I am very excited about reading that soon!

The Finishing School

2008-10-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

The Finishing School by Muriel Spark
Published:2004 Pages:181

This was a random grab at the library for me. I have been hearing a lot about Muriel Spark lately, but have never read anything by her, so I just picked a book from what they had. I would really call this book a novella, it was super easy reading and I read it in about two hours.

It's about a husband(Rowland) and his wife(Nina), who run a finishing school that moves every year to a new country. Their students are all about 17. Their marriage starts to unravel and Nina starts having an affair, while Rowland becomes weirdly obsessed with one of their students, Chris.

Chris is given a lot of special treatment because he is writing a novel about Mary, queen of Scots. He is arrogant and manipulates everyone around him to get whatever he wants. He also lies like crazy. Rowland is trying to write a novel of his own and becomes extremely jealous and starts stalking Chris.

And that is pretty much what happens in the entire book. Some action happens in the last chapter, which I will not write here because I do not want to spoil the end for anyone. The book is vague all the way through. The ending was a surprise. And not like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't see that coming!" But like, "What?! When did that happen and that doesn't even make any freaking sense!" In my opinion, anyway.

Overall, not the worst book I've ever read, but not the best either. But I will try Sparks again, because I hear a lot of great stuff about her and I think this just wasn't her best work.

Dolores Claiborne

2008-10-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
Published: 1992 Pages:305

My first experience with reading Stephen King was a couple of years ago when I read On Writing, which is an amazing book. It's actually mostly his memoir, with a lot of writing advice thrown in.

Then, earlier this year, I read Cell. I've watched a lot of movies that were based on King's work, so I had high expectations. Cell failed to meet them. It was like a b zombie movie. Entertaining, but no depth to it. After that, I thought that maybe Stephen King just wasn't for me.

Well, at the library last week, I decided to give him one last chance. I scanned his books and picked out one that I hadn't seen the movie adaptation to(no easy task). That's how I ended up with Dolores Claiborne. Which I then polished off in two days.

The book is about Dolores Claiborne, a sixty something year old single woman who is accused of killing the older woman that she cared for. The book is Doloris' confession. Her husband died thirty years before and everyone has always assumed that she killed him also. She sets the record straight in her confession, talking about her marriage, her kids and her job taking care of Vera(aforementioned old woman) over the years.

This book is not a jump out and scare you book. King lets you get comfortable and then a line will absolutely make your blood run cold. There is a build up of suspense all the way through and you don't know what actually happened until the very end. Dolores talks with a kind of "island" accent I guess, which at first I thought was going to be hard to read, but after a couple of pages I stopped noticing it. Which means it was well done.

Overall, I recommend it! It was creepy, had a great plot, and renewed my faith in Stephen King. I will try something else by him, but I think I will stick with his older stuff.

Wide Sargasso Sea

2008-10-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Published:1966 Pages:190

Jane Eyre has been my favorite novel since i first picked it up at fourteen. I have reread it more than once and every time I find something new I like about it. So imagine how excited I was to find out about this book, which is a prequel to Jane Eyre and offers the back story to Mr. Rochester's crazy wife.

Wide Sargasso Sea was a quick read and captured the overall feel of Jane Eyre very nicely. It starts in Antoinette's(Bertha) childhood with a disturbing incident that causes her mother to go mad, follows her through her schooling and her whirlwind wedding.

Things I Liked: The atmosphere was very faithful to the classic Gothic novel, the descriptions of the West Indies were beautiful and it was satisfying to add a little more on to the Jane Eyre story, even though this book stands in it's own right.

Things I Didn't Like: It was very short, and I felt that some important plot elements were mentioned just to be brushed aside. Did Mr. Rochester cheat on her with the servant girl? Really? I can't figure out if that really happened or not. Also, even though it was short, some parts dragged for me. It was a little dry.

Overall, if you are a fan of Jane Eyre, this is worth a read. If you aren't, you might want to pass.

The Town That Forgot How To Breathe

2008-09-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

The Town That Forgot How To Breathe by Kenneth J. Harvey
Published:2003 Pages:471

I picked this book up in the library, intrigued by the very creepy cover and what sounded like a very cool ghost story. And it started out like that. Harvey's descriptions are well done. There is a very scary dead girl running around that smells like dead fish.

That hooked me initially. And then people started, well, forgetting how to breathe. For no reason. Which is not as interesting as I originally thought. An old guy quietly dies in an armchair. Yeah, scary. And every chapter was being told by some new character. After a while I stopped caring about them. And lost track of who the heck they were. I just wanted to go back to the creepy dead girl.

So I'm on like page 104. And I have this compulsive need to finish books I start. But I'm bored. And I have been avoiding reading. No Bueno. So I am doing the unthinkable. Sorry Kenneth, but this book is going back unfinished.

Blech, I need something to get this bad taste out of my mouth.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle

2008-09-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
Published:1962 Pages:214

OK, so I finally got my hands on this book! I've been reading a ton of good reviews and I remember reading part of The Haunting Of Hill House(also by Jackson) when I was 11 or 12 and throwing it across the room when a part really creeped me out(I really need to get that book and finish it). So I requested it at the library and anxiously waited for it. When I picked it up, I read it in one night. I couldn't put it down.

The plot is about three main characters: an uncle and two sisters. Everyone else in the family is dead, from an accidental poisoning six years earlier. Or was it? Wa ha ha...

OK, sorry, but can I just say, arsenic in the sugar bowl? Genius!

Alright, so Uncle Julian is in a wheelchair(resulting from aforementioned arsenic). Mary Katherine is the narrator, and she is 18, but still acting like the twelve year old she was when everyone died. Constance is the older sister and kind of plays mom to Julian and Mary Katherine. She was the one who was tried for the mass murder since she had cooked the meal that night and was finally acquitted. They all live together in the old family house that everyone died in. Creepy, right?

The plot follows Mary Katherine's trips to the village to get books and food in which the villagers torment her, Constance's perfect dinners, Julian's weird obsession with the six year old murder case. Then a long lost, and i should mention broke, cousin shows up. All hell breaks loose.

This book has an ominous feel to it all the way through. The ending is creepy. The characters were creepy. Oh my gosh, I loved it. It was so worth the wait! Highly recommended!

The Road

2008-09-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Published:2006 Pages:241

This was my first experience with McCarthy and I'm glad I started with The Road. I have heard a lot about No Country For Old Men because it was a big movie(I manage a video store) and people either hated it or loved it. I kind of expected something different with this author and this novel did not disappoint.

The Road is about one possible way our world might end. The book never explains exactly what happened, in fact all of the writing is very abrupt and simple. Nothing is explained that doesn't absolutely have to be. The story follows a father and son as they try to survive by whatever means necessary. Their names are never revealed, in fact only one name is spoken in the entire book and the man that says it admits that it's not his real name. This book is heart breaking in parts as the two main characters trudge through a never ending road covered in ash. Everything is grey, everyone is dead.

This book has a very dismal air to it, one that sticks with you. I found myself thinking of it long after I finished it. This book is a picture of the love between a father and son surviving even in the worst of circumstances. It's beautifully written. I recommend it to anyone. It is a definitely a downer though.

Breaking Dawn.

2008-09-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Alas, I finished it. I did drag it out as much as I could, believe me. I really have to say that I am sad to finish this series. It was just so addicting. And I know, I know that the Twilight Saga isn't exactly great literature, but I challenge you to try to put these books down once you've started them. Fellow Twilight addicts, you know what I mean.

I can't say anything about the plot without giving stuff away to the maybe 5 readers left who haven't already read this book. It really takes off right from the beginning. This was the longest book in the series and it was my favorite. It was darker and the characters all grew up quite a bit. Bella finally quit her never ending whining and kicked ass. And the writing was SO much better. Meyer has really grown with her characters and, like I said, this book was the best one yet.

I had a hard time settling into another book after finishing these books. I still am actually. I've been reading great books, they're just not the same.

So. Bottom line: if you have not read these books, READ THEM! I know, I know, they are silly looking ya vampire romances. How good can they be, right? Read them. Read them. I can't tell you enough. You will thank me.

I Am A Slacker...

2008-09-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

OK, so here's the reviews that I have gotten so behind on.

The Constant Princess-Philippa Gregory

I love Gregory's books. I am a sucker for historical fiction. And I loved this book. But, compared to the others, something was missing. The Constant Princess is about Katherine of Aragon. It follows her life from the time she is a child and the book ends right as Anne Boleyn is taking over as queen. I enjoyed getting to know Katherine a little better, but I was bored in some parts. I think that this might have been because Katherine was just so good. You know? There wasn't as much soap opera drama as in some of the other books and it got a little dry. I love reading about the Tudors because it's one sexual scandal or beheading after another...now that's entertainment.:) I did enjoy her romance with Arthur.

The Yellow Lighted Bookshop-Lewis Buzbee

I loved this book! I requested it at the library after seeing several positive reviews on it, and ate it up. This book is all about the love of books and bookstores. It also has a lot about the history of book selling. I found it fascinating. I can relate so much to the way the author described going into a book store, smelling the books, just the joy of being surrounded by books. This book was like feeding a drug addiction. That's how much I loved it.:) If you like reading "books on books" read this one!

Leaving The Saints-Martha Beck

This book was powerful. It is one woman's story of growing up as a Mormon, and then discovering repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse. The book is about her and her husband eventually leaving the church. It is very compelling and when I first read it I completely believed her story. I was so interested, that I started doing research on Martha Beck and her family online. And all I'm going to say is that now I don't know if I really believe everything in the book. I mean, I could see that happening in a religion of any kind, but I don't know how much I really trust Beck. Anyway, definitely an interesting read.

I'm Back

2008-09-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

OK so wow. I have been so busy. And I have kind of had a midlife crisis. Although I'm only 25. So hopefully this will get it out of the way for later in life.:)

I have been working at my current job since I was 18. And for the most part I love it. But I graduated from my local community college 3 years ago with an associate of arts and never went back to get my bachelors. And lately I have become stressed out and unhappy at my job. Don't get me wrong, i love it and I'm good at it. But i just realized that I don't want to do it for the rest of my life. I always meant to finish school. I never meant for my job to become my career. But I got settled in and comfortable and it was just too easy. Change is scary.

I think I want to be a librarian. No joke. I think it sounds like an amazing job. I have a lot of school to finish before I can get there. And I can't work the job I have and go to school. So it's a pretty scary thing. But I've decided that I'm going to do it. I don't want to let myself waste anymore time doing a job that I don't love.

I know this is more about my personal life, but if anyone has any suggestions or helpful websites, I would be happy to have them.

In book news, I haven't had much reading time, but I'm halfway through Breaking Dawn. It is a welcome escape from my real life.:) I still have three books to post about, so I promise to get to those this week.

And that's all she wrote folks...

Seattle, Here I Come!

2008-08-27T22:22:00.001-07:00

I have been SO busy with work lately...it's insane. I have been reading though, I just haven't had time to review much recently. And now I am off to Seattle for four days! Hooray! When i get back, I will work on reviews for these books:

Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck
The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory
The Yellow Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

Also, I borrowed a copy of Breaking Dawn to take on my trip with me. I can't wait to start it. Will it be Edward or Jacob? Will Bella get married? Will Bella and Edward finally do it? Will Bella live up to her normal standards of being needy, self centered, whiny and just altogether completely annoying? I love it!:):):)

Happy Labor Day Weekend Everyone!!!!!

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

I just finished this book this morning. I have to say, I liked it a lot better than New Moon. Yes, Bella is still whiny and pathetic, but Edward and Jacob finally seem to grow up. The action is great. There is not such a noticeable lag as in New Moon, although there was a lot of storytelling in this one that sometimes seemed to drag on a bit.

Also, I love Jacob. I think he is adorable. He got a really big part in this book, and I really enjoyed that. Am I the only one who thinks that Bella should be with him?

Anyway, I just really hope that, in Breaking Dawn(the fourth book in the series), Bella grows up and learns to make decisions on her own without freaking out about everything. She really needs to learn to survive on her own without a man by her side at all times. Or two sharing custody of her. Give me a break!

Just a side note: where did Bella learn all of this crazy homemaking stuff? She cooks elaborate dinners and constantly cleans. What teenage girl cleans the bathroom on her own accord? As for the cooking, I'm 25 and I can barely make macaroni and cheese. What the heck?:)

Enjoying a Rainy Afternoon

2008-08-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

I spent a relaxing afternoon in the library today with my roommate. While she happily devoured Twilight for most of the afternoon, i browsed. I found a few books from my tbr list and also discovered a new author, that again i have somehow never heard of. The author was Nick Bantock and i read through four of his books while sitting in the library. They are picture books for adults. I think that's a fascinating concept! These are the books i read:

Griffin & Sabine: An extraordinary correspondence
Sabine's Notebook: In which the extraordinary correspondence of Griffin & Sabine continues
The Golden Mean: In which the extraordinary correspondence of Griffin & Sabine concludes
The Gryphon: In which the extraordinary correspondence of Griffin & Sabine is rediscovered

They are a series that tell the love story of Griffin and Sabine completely through postcards and letters. These books are beautiful...the letters are handwritten and can actually be taken out of envelopes in the book as you read them. The illustrations are also amazing. I loved them! I only grabbed four, but I think there are more, so I'll look the next time I'm at the library.

I can't believe I've never heard of these books before...the first one was published in 1991! Has anyone else read these fantastic books?

Two New To Me Authors

2008-08-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

I did some browsing at the library last week and found a few books that i wanted to try out. I really need to stop buying so many books...they are going to come alive and attack me in my sleep! Anyway, i stumbled across two authors that i hadn't read before: Clive Barker and Chuck Palahniuk.

I grabbed Mister B. Gone completely on impulse. I had never even heard of Clive Barker before. It had an interesting cover and the first sentence said, "Burn this book." I was hooked.

The book is about a demon who, because of a bunch of random adventures in medieval times, is now trapped in the book that you hold in your hands. He is trying to convince you the whole time to burn the book and put him out of his misery. To do this he tells you his story. How he was pulled up from hell, people he killed, the demon that he met and fell in love with, and finally, how he ended up in the book.

This is not a pretty book. There is a lot of violence and a lot of descriptions of just ugly stuff. There is no clear hero...all of the characters are pretty evil. So if that stuff bothers you, then this isn't a book for you. I liked it. The demon narrator freaked me out. One second he was seducing me, the next threatening me. And it was an interesting story. Having read Dante's Inferno in lit class a few years ago, i can see very strong influences on this book. Over all i thought it was interesting and different. I probably wouldn't read it again, but it was a fun, quick read(i read it in an evening). I've heard that Barker's other stuff is better, so I'm definitely going to read more of him.

I've heard a lot about Chuck Palahniuk. I loved Fight Club, the movie based on his book. But I've never actually read one of his books. This was the only one the library had, so i grabbed it. I have to say, after reading so much historical fiction and ya lit lately, it was kind of a culture shock. Choke is about a sex addict who pretends to choke on food in restaurants so that people will save him and then give him money. He has a crappy job and his mom is dying. His life sucks.

I actually liked it. I wasn't expecting to. I always kind of thought that Palahniuk wasn't for me. But he is a great writer. He does have a lot of disturbing images to offer, but once you get used to that his prose is very clever. I found myself laughing out loud several times. And in the end(which has an awesome twist, by the way), i found myself feeling sorry for the main character, even though he is a total jerk. Over all, i enjoyed it and i will read more of his books. I think i can only take them in small doses though.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

So i stayed up until two in the morning finishing this book, the sequel to Twilight. Wow, as if Bella didn't have enough drama, let's just throw in a werewolf too.

OK, so honestly, the first half of New Moon was pretty painful. Bella is completely emo and then kind of turns into a crazy stalker. I wanted to just grab her and slap some sense into her. Some of Meyer's writing gets pretty melodramatic(if i read one more sentence about the "hole" in Bella's chest...). I really did have to make myself keep reading.

But...the second half more than makes up for it. I was so glad i kept reading. In the span of three pages Bella is suddenly rushing to Italy to save Edward and from there it doesn't lag again. Also, the struggle Bella has with trying to stay friends with Jacob gets interesting since he does NOT get along with Edward.

I love these books. I love the characters and I am willing to look past some of the shortcomings just because i want to find out what happens to them. I am really looking forward to Bella growing up some...and maybe the writing as well.

Overall...loved it, am addicted and can't wait to read more.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

I have to say I had my doubts about this book, but I finally gave into the hype. I work in a video store and people are already asking about the movie(coming out in December), so I gave in and went and bought the book so I would know what the heck everyone is talking about.:) The day I happened to go to the bookstore and buy it was actually the release date of Breaking Dawn(the fourth book in the series). The girl said that there were only two copies left and it was only five. These books are definitely more popular than I thought!

It is hard to talk about the plot line of this book without giving anything away, but I'll try. Basically it's your typical high school love story. Except that Bella finds out that her crush, Edward, is a real life vampire. With a family of real life vampires. But that doesn't stop her from falling madly in love with him. And of course, as we found out in Buffy, vampires and humans don't mix very well. Let the drama begin!

The book really isn't that well written. The dialogue wasn't great and the descriptions were repetitive. And there are some obvious holes in the plot. That being said, I loved it. I read it in a day and a half. I couldn't put it down. The sexual tension between Edward and Bella is extremely well done. It killed me. I just kept reading, waiting for them to hook up.

Twilight reminds me a lot of Buffy and Angel(which I loved!). The whole doomed love affair thing. Which, luckily, I can't get enough of.:) So, yes, I would recommend this book. While it is not a literary masterpiece, it is addicting and highly entertaining. I am already halfway through New Moon, the second book. So far it is not as satisfying as Twilight(I kind of want to punch Bella in the face right now), but I have been told that it gets better. I'll let you know.

What The?

2008-08-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

I'm reading Twilight right now(and loving it) and i happened to see one of the trailers for the new movie that comes out in December.

Am i the only one that thinks that this movie looks like a pile of crap? I would never have casted Bella and Edward with the actors that are playing them and it looks like it's going to be completely cheesy.

This makes me a grumpy pants.:(

Atonement by Ian McEwan

2008-08-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

For some reason this book felt kind of like homework. I liked it, I really did, but at times i felt like i had to make myself keep reading it. Maybe this was because I've already seen the movie(I loved it), and the book is very similar to the movie so I already knew everything that was going to happen.

So the plot is about how a 13 year old girl sees something that she is not supposed to and lets her overactive imagination get the best of her. This leads to her lying in court and ruining some people's lives. You know, the norm. Freaking little sisters. Pretty much the entire world has seen this movie or read the book so i don't really feel like i need to go into much more detail on the plot.

Anyway, the book goes from 1935-1999 and alternates between Briony, Cecilia and Robbie's perspectives. My favorite part was the beginning, just because the descriptions were amazing and the characters so colorful. And i did find myself a little more emotionally attached to Briony in the book than in the movie. Overall, it was good, but at times i found my mind wandering. I don't feel that the book lived up to all the hype that I heard about it. For me anyway.

As a die hard romantic, i did have a favorite quote from this book though.

Cecilia always ends her letters to Robbie with, "I'll wait for you. Come back."

Oh how i love books about unrequited love.:)

update to my tbr list...er...pile.

2008-08-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

I went to the book store last night for the first time in about a month(which is a very long stretch for me). So even though i am currently reading Atonement, i now have four other shiny new books to distract me.:)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer(the reason i went into the book store in the first place...what is all the hype about?)
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld(total impulse buy)
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs(saw the movie, but have heard from tons of people that the book is so much better)
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz(haven't even finished the first one yet, but it was cheap, so why not?)

And this is just adding to the Giant stack of books i already have that i haven't touched yet. OK, I'm going to bed(i.e. read until i fall asleep). Have a good night all!

I just can't get enough of good old henry the 8th

2008-07-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Boleyn Inheritance
By Philippa Gregory

OK, so i started this book Tues night and finished it last night(i was up way later than i should have been). As always with Gregory's books after about the first ten pages it was torture to put it down. Let me just say that i love anything about this time period. I discovered The Other Boleyn Girl after watching the movie and fell in love with the book. Gregory's writing is just so real and it is easy to slip into that world and not want to come out.

I was excited to start this book because it was about three people that i actually don't know much about: Jane Rochford(the sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn), Anne of Cleves(4th wife to Henry the 8th), and Katherine Howard(5th wife to Henry). The narrative switches back and forth from each of these women and all of their stories are linked together. As always this is a book about the court, kings and queens, seducing and of course, beheading. The thing i found the most interesting about this book is that it portrays Henry as a old man, sick and almost a tyrant. This is change from the young, handsome "ladies man" he has been portrayed as a lot lately.

Overall it was a great book. I would suggest it to anyone who likes historical fiction or has an interest in the Tudors. When a book keeps me up 3 hours past when I need to be asleep, i know it's good.

books, books and more books...

2008-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

i guess you could say that i'm addicted to reading. i can thank my mom for that. one good thing that she has done for me. she started reading to me when i was a baby. i still remember her reading the wizard of oz to me while i was in the bathtub. so i was well on my way to reading encyclopedia brown by the age of five.

and it just stuck with me. i read to escape. to escape what you ask? now do you really want this to become a sad teen angst story about my parents bitter divorce and having to grow up up way before my time? i don't think so. it has so been done before. so i will leave that up to your imagination.

anyway, so i have a love for books. my house is full of them. they fill my nightstand, coffee tables, bookshelves, the dining table, kitchen counters, even my car. i usually have one in my purse and when i clean i find them under the couch, between cushions, behind dressers and in my dirty laundry. my roommate calls me a nerd. i choose to take that as a compliment. i gave up on the library some time ago. don't get me wrong, i love the library. too much actually. i always get way too many books and then forget about them. at least paying the fines goes to a good cause, right? i just like buying them. i like being surrounded by books. sometimes i will have one for years and never read it. but i just can't bear to part with them. i know that some of you will know what i mean. and some of you will think i'm a freak. and maybe i am.

ok, so enough about me.

my favorite book(right now):

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close~Jonathan Safran Foer

i am rereading it and i am even more in love with it then when i read it for the first time. his writing amazes me. that is what i want to write like someday. what kills me is that i don't think he is even as old as i am.

it's just such a good portrayal of 9/11 without it really being about 9/11. i can't describe it...if you haven't read this book, read it. you will thank me.

my favorite book(ever):

Jane Eyre~Charlotte Bronte

i am aware that this is a cliche. every girl reads this book in high school and says it's her favorite. but it still really is my favorite.

a few of the books that i have read recently:

The Poisonwood Bible~Barbara Kingsolver

great book about a missionary family going to africa and slowly falling apart. i found it really interesting the way that the sisters took everything that happened. they all had their own way of dealing with it and went on to live very different lives because of it.

Pure~Rebecca Ray

strange book about a teenager in high school. the author was 16 when she wrote this. it was a sad, strange book that i didn't especially enjoy, but at the same time i couldn't put it down.

The Raw Shark Texts~Steven Hall

i picked this book up for five dollars on the clearance rack and loved it. it was different than anything that i had read before. fascinating read.

book on my nightstand that i want to get to:

Atonement~Ian McEwan

i saw the movie and loved it. i love comparing movies to books.

Odd Thomas~Dean Koontz

i've actually read the first chapter of this and it reminds me of the ghost whisperer. it looks like a fun read.

The Boleyn Inheritance~Philippa Gregory

i discovered Gregory when i read The Other Boleyn Girl and The Virgin's Lover a few months ago. i just love historical fiction about that time period. i can't wait to start this one.

so that's kind of where i'm at right now...if anyone has any suggestions let me know. i would love to hear from you.