More Supernatural Reading

So I'm still going on this "It's October, which means Halloween, which means SPOOKY! VAMPS and WEREWOLVES and CREEPERS! Oh my!" kick so my reading choices have fallen under the supernatural realm as of late.



Dead and Gone
by Charlaine Harris
312 pages

The ninth Sookie Stackhouse book. Finally. Not much different with this one from the other 8...but it's still entertaining. And I still can't decide which of Sookie's many suitors I like best. For now, she's just stuck with Eric though so I have no choice! I do feel oh-so-bad for Quinn after this book though. Life is so not fair in the supernatural world.

7 out of 10 stars. Good, wholesome (yea, right) vamp-y fun.




Halfway to the Grave
by Jeaniene Frost
358 pages

So this is a new series that I picked up from PBS because it suggested that I would like it since I like the Sookie books. Plus, I wanted some fluffy summer reading (which of course kept getting pushed back in the TBR pile and is now fluffy fall reading). Cat is a half human, half vampire (her mother was raped) who now dedicates herself to killing vampires, since her mother bore into her that they are all evil and BAD. Then she meets Bones, a 200-some odd year old vampire who also kills vampires. Interesting...So hijinx ensue, Cat and Bones get it on, and the bad guys are killed. Oh and some secret government agency is now after Cat so they can use her abilities to help them out. It was entertaining, action packed, and had a little loving splashed in there for good measure. It gets a little smutty in a couple parts but at least the cover isn't TOO embarassing to have out in public!

7.5 out of 10 stars. I'm glad that I have the other 3 sitting on my shelf waiting.

The Post in Which I Catch Up.

Well, interwebs, it's been a while. I have no real excuse for why I've been slacking majorly with the blogging! BUT, I have been reading some (whenever football season doesn't take me away) so here's my hopefully quick recap of the past three weeks.

A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving

617 pages

I originally picked this up at a library book sale because The Book Lady talks about it quite a bit! I enjoyed it for the most part and really loved Owen's character but the narrator, John Wheelwright, just felt not real enough for me I guess. Also, this book took me FOREVER to get through. I would think this book would have taken me 5-7 days to get through but it was more like 2 weeks. It was definitely worth a read though. 8 out of 10 stars.

Stealing Buddha's Dinner: A Memoir by Bich Minh Nguyen

253 pages

This was my book club's book for September. I found it funny in some parts and fairly relatable, even though it was about a Vietnam refugee trying to fit into American culture. I guess as kids we are all just trying to fit in with the "cool crowd" by having, eating, and doing the cool things, regardless of our ethnic background. We had a pretty interesting conversation about the book but I don't know that there was anyone who really LOVED it. I felt pretty "eh" about it by the end and barely skimmed the last 40 pages. 5 out of 10 stars.

The Last Summer (of You and Me) By Ann Brashares

306 pages

Eh, good summer chick lit. The characters left something to be desired, as did the ending, but I enjoyed it for what it was: total fluff. Not much else to say... 6 out of 10 stars.

Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbot

301 pages

I've had this on my shelf since last Christmas and just now FINALLY got too it! I don't know why, but I wasn't thinking that this book was pure non-fiction, I was thinking historical fiction, but still it was interesting! I had no idea that a lot of the stuff in it even happened. I really enjoyed this one. 8.5 out of 10 stars

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

312 pages

The 8th of the Sookie Stackhouse books. The usual Sookie getting in trouble because she's involved too deeply in the supernatural world. Entertaining and with the addition of vampires, Weres, and other supernatural creatures it's a great way to start out my October reading! 7 out of 10 stars.

So there you have it! My super-quick recap of the last few weeks. Hopefully I'll start keeping on top of this blog a little bit better now! *See* you all soon!

In which I return to the interwebs...

Hello everyone! My, it's been a while...apologies all around! My reading time has been lacking lately due to some fun things (the return of football tailgate Saturdays, an OAR concert, and spending time at the lake cottage) and some not so fun (painting around the house, chores, and the like). But I have managed to finish one book and hopefully will finish A Prayer for Owen Meany this weekend since it has taken me WAY longer than I anticipated and I must start the September book club book ASAP. Anyway, on to the review.

Gifts of War

by Mackenzie Ford

350 pages (in ARC)

Isn't the cover of this book beautiful? It's really what first drew me to request this ARC. Then, I read the book description and I knew that I would be hooked.

Hal Montgomery is a British soldier on the front during WWI and on Christmas in 1914, there was a truce between the British and German soldiers for a whole day. They came out of the trenches, shared cigarettes and stories of home, and buried their dead. It was there that Hal met Wilhelm, a German soldier who had a fiancee in England who he was not even able to say goodbye to, due to the war. Wilhelm gave Hal a picture of himself in uniform and asked him that if he ever had the opportunity to please find her and give her this picture. A few weeks later, Hal is shot and discharged from the military. Once recovered, he goes to find Wilhelm's fiancee, Sam, to tell her about Wilhelm but of course, he falls in love with her.

So, since Hal is in love with Sam, he decides not to tell her about Wilhelm and his picture that he's carrying around with him. Even though, she continues to talk about him and HAS HAD WILHELM'S BABY! Seriously, this whole I'm-going-to-keep-this-secret-and-hope-that-it-goes-away thing NEVER works. Didn't work for Bill with Sookie in Southern Vampire Mysteries series, and didn't really work for Marcus in the Jessica Darling series, so it is definitely not going to work for Hal. Sorry buddy, but secrets don't make friends! (or lovers for that matter!) But, regardless of how much I really wanted to grab Hal by the shoulders and shake the living ba-jesus out of him, he really made up for it in the end and it was just so sad and so beautiful and I literally had just one little tear fall as I closed it...and I loved it. I clutched the book to my chest and wiped away the lone tear and just said "wow."

So 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Review: Sweeping Up Glass

Sweeping Up Glass

By Carolyn Wall

319 pages

I got a copy of this book a while back as an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) from Random House Publishing Group. It was described as "a mystery, a love story, and a haunting rumination on secrets" and it's definitely all of that and more!

Sweeping Up Glass begins with the grown main character, Olivia Harker Cross, living in the house that she grew up in in Pope County, Kentucky with her crazy mother and beloved grandson, Will'm. The wolves that her ancestors had brought to their land are being killed as a warning and she needs to get to the bottom of it before the hunters come after her and Will'm. In order to find out the reason behind the killing of the wolves, Olivia must delve into her troubled past (living with her bootlegger father while her mother is in an asylum, understanding segregation, the return of her mother, a terrible accident, the loss of her love, the birth of her daughter, and the pain of her daughter running away and leaving her infant grandson there for her to raise, etc!). As Olivia looks back, she thought then that she was so smart and understood what was going on around her when really, things occurred that she didn't see at all. Once she figures it out, it changes her life completely.

There were great twists in this book that I really enjoyed. The writing style really brought me into the story by using just enough dialect from the time and location. The only thing that was slightly confusing to me was the time period. It seems like between her childhood and the present time (in the story) there was about a 40 year lapse putting the years of her childhood around 1910-1920s maybe? then her present time around 1950-1960's? But that just didn't seem right to me since things around her didn't change very much technology-wise and there was no mention of the World Wars or any events of the time. I guess maybe things don't change too much when you are in the country...but I think that some time references that the beginning of the chapters or putting the book into sections based on years would have been helpful while reading. Other than that, I really liked it and would recommend it to others if you're looking for a fast-paced, interesting read.

7.5 out of 10 stars.

Review: Sloppy Firsts

Sloppy Firsts

by Megan McCafferty

304 pages

First in Jessica Darling series.

I've been hearing a lot of great things about this book (the entire series really) lately. I figured that it would be a book that would be just perfect to read while laying in the sun...light read, not needing a lot of thought, if I drift off, no big deal I pick it up later...and I was definitely right. I read this entire book on the 4th of July while laying out on the pontoon boat at my in-laws' lake cottage! It was perfect.

The novel is about Jessica Darling. It follows her through the second half of her sophomore year of high school until the middle of her junior year. The actual dates? January 2000 through December 31st 2000. And ya know what? That's the exact same years that I was a sophomore and junior in high school. Hmmmm...this could be interesting! The novel is also told in monthly letters to her best friend, Hope, who was forced to move away after her older brother had dies of a drug overdose and Jessica's journal entries. Guess what? When I was in high school, at this exact age, I kept journals too. Yup. Sure did. And, they sounded a lot like some of Jessica's entries dealing with the cliques, being a brainiac, nerdy type, captain of a sports team, trying to not be defined by the super jock who may like you...it all hits close to home. And makes me kind of want to read those old journals again (except I can't because I shredded all that incriminating evidence long ago!) All this just shows that Jessica Darling is REAL. and funny. and refreshing. She's not the typical popular high school girl that everyone LOVES but secretly hates. She's friendly but not overly so, sometimes angsty, argues with her parents, and ends up having a pseudo non-relationship with a guy that she probably shouldn't.

Anyways, for this review, I don't think that the plot matters so much. I mean, we've all been to high school and remember what it was like. A lot of Jessica's experiences are ones that we've all had or heard about or were there watching. So far, I'm really enjoying looking back at the high school experience through Jessica's eyes. Just so long as I don't ACTUALLY have to relive it! Oh, and everyone I know LOVES Marcus, except I kinda don't...am I going to start liking him? when?? I know in high school, I probably would have had a huge crush on him though...at least that shows that I've grown up a bit right?? hahaha :)

8.5 out of 10. great for the beach/lake/pool. Now on the Second Helpings!

Review: Harry Potter 5

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

by J.K. Rowling

870 pages

I was taking a nice long break from rereading the HarryPotter series in preparation for the release of the 6th movie. But, I realized that July 15th is fast approaching so I had better get on it! The Order of the Phoenix is probably my least favorite of the Potter series. Before now, I had only read it once all the way through and only made it about halfway before the movie came out (I found my bookmark still in there). I actually made it through it this time and I have to say that I enjoyed it a little more this time around, although Harry still bothered me.

Okay, if you haven't read this book/series...well do it now. I'm going to skip the summary since so many already know what it's about.

This is the first of the series where Harry is REALLY stepping into his teenage years. He's full of angst, hurt, anger and, of course, confusion about girls. I can understand some of his hurt and anger. I mean, he's not being told ANYTHING about what's going on and the Ministry along with that horrible Umbridge woman are making it nearly impossible for anyone to believe him or take him seriously. Then, Dumbledore, his beloved mentor and friend, is avoiding him like the plague. On to top it all off, he's having dreams and experiencing emotions of Voldemort's. I'm sure that's not fun but seriously Harry. Quit with the angstiness and the "You don't understand!"-s. I mean, maybe they would get it if you just TALKED about it! Jeez. Keeping it all bottled in will just make it worse, as Sirius can probably tell him since he's locked up in an old creepy house full of his family's dark, nasty stuff.

The times spend with the secret Dumbledore's Army group doing Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons are probably my favorite parts. Harry is much less angst-ridden then because he's teaching others that actually believe him and doing something that he really enjoys. Plus, all that training really comes in handy at the end. Oh and the prophecy! I love that JK Rowling came up with this. "either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives" Ahh, what a great foreshadowing for the last two books. I'm just gearing up for that epic battle that I know will take place!*

8 out of 10 stars. I really liked it once I got past the angst, plus there's a ton of important back story and foreshadowing in this one.

THEN, I watched the movie again. I hadn't seen it since it was released in theaters TWO years ago! And truthfully, I didn't remember a whole lot about it, just bits and pieces.

Since rewatching it, I remember now why I wasn't really impressed with this movie. So much was left out!!! Nothing about Ron and Hermione being Prefects, or the feud between the Weasley family and Percy, or the cleaning of the Black house, and NO QUIDDITCH! None at all!!! So you didn't get to see Ron become the goal keeper and the twins and Harry never beat up on Draco so no lifelong ban! Ridiculous. Also, they didn't put Firenze in there at all so the angry centaurs weren't 100% explained. Oh and the battle at the end wasn't the same either. I mean, they didn't show any of the students that came to help Harry get hurt and they didn't show the different rooms within the Department of Mysteries. Oh oh oh! AND, Dumbledore didn't tell Harry WHY he needs to stay at the Dursley's! Dude! That is important.

I don't really understand how they are going to work all the left out stuff from the 5th movie into the 6th. I hope that they don't keep getting further and further away from the books because that'd be really disappointing. We'll see though! Only a couple more weeks until Half Blood Prince is released!

6 out of 10 on movie #5. I think that I would like it more if I had never read the book though. too much left out!

*Take notes Stephenie Meyer! This is how epic battles are done!!!!

Book Review: Persepolis

The Complete Persepolis

by Marjane Satrapi

352 pages


This was my first venture into the world of graphic novels. I've been interested in reading one for a few months now (probably since The Watchmen movie came out and became popular) but I just didn't take the initiative to find one and read it. I was so unsure on if I would like it or not. Well, I got to find out when the book club pick for June was The Complete Persepolis*.

Marjane Satrapi wrote Persepolis as her memoir. It begins by telling stories of her childhood in Iran and the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, when people became oppressed, women were forced to wear head scarves and men to have beards and no one could speak out against the government. As a child, Marjane was incredibly outspoken, perhaps because her parents were very liberal, and had taken her to rallies against the revolution and told her stories of her relatives or friends that had spoken out against the revolution and had died because of it. Even her schooling changes to one where she must praise the martyrs, wear a headscarf, and not play with any boys.

The story continues on into her teen years and early adulthood where Marjane continues to question authority by buying illegal cassette tapes and sporting a Michael Jackson button on her "inappropriate" jean jacket. She never fully comes to terms with having to wear the head scarf (veil) and draping clothing. For example:

While I found that extremely funny when reading this, it was really a serious action to speak out at an official like that. But, it seems like Marjane was always toeing the line. When she was 14, her parents sent her off to a French school in Austria. Especially there, without her parents, Marjane always questioned authority and ran with the wrong crowd, even ending up being homeless for a few weeks.

This was such an interesting, heart-wrenching, hilarious, and informative story. I really didn't know a lot of things about life in Iran before this. I mean, you get a certain stereotype in your head, especially living in America, and it's hard to remember that there are a lot of people there fighting against the Islamic Revolution and against war and oppression. The graphics are just amazing. They are simple since they are all black and white, yet some are really complex and show a wide range of emotions and situations that I didn't think would be so great to be able to see along with the text. This book really worked so well as a graphic novel. I enjoyed it quite a bit and would definitely like to read another one! Maybe Maus next...

9 out of 10 stars. I would highly recommend this as an excellent graphic novel to dip your toes into the genre.

I also read Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi. It's quite a bit shorter at 84 pages, and only

took maybe 45 minutes to read but it was also a really great story. Not quite as serious as Persepolis though. It's about a relative of Marjane's who was a great musician. One day his wife breaks his instrument so he lays down and decides to die. This graphic novel shows the last 8 days of his life. It's funny and sad with a couple of good morals thrown in. If you aren't sure if you would enjoy a graphic novel or not, this would be an excellent place to start. It's short enough that it's not too much of a waste if you don't like it, but it really does have a great story line.

9 out of 10 stars as well.



* Persepolis was originally published in two volumes. It's now available all in one book, which is why the copy show is called The Complete Persepolis.

Book Reviews: a couple of Mass Market PB's

Okay, so, I've been a very bad book blogger. It's been busy around my household (wedding-related events, family gatherings, painting rooms, water leaks in basements...) and around work (stuff not working right and having to be completely redone, ah, such is life in a lab) so I haven't been able to post in a while. Luckily, I have had some time to read! So you all will be getting a handful of reviews this week, starting with a couple of fun, summertime mass market paperbacks.




Angels and Demons
by Dan Brown
569 pages


I've been wanting to read this (and The DaVinci Code) for a while now and finally picked it when I realized that the movie was coming out soon. Since A&D is technically the prequel, I decided to read it first fully expecting not very much from the book. I seem to hear a lot of good reviews from a more non-literary crowd and a lot of bad "but it's not literature" kind of reviews elsewhere. I get both sides now that I've read it but I thought, for summer and wanting something action packed and not too difficult to read, this was perfect and I really enjoyed it.

So Robert Langdon is a religious symbology professor from Harvard. He's called in to help investigate a super-top-secret murder at a research science place (CERN) in Geneva. (PS they had a crazy fast airplane pick him up and take him from the US to Switzerland in an HOUR! how awesome would that be?!) Anyways, the murder is kept secret because there's a brand on the victim's chest that says "Illuminati" which was a group of scientists that were against the catholic church because well, science and religion don't normally mix well. But they're suppose to be EXTINCT! Since Langdon is an expert on the Illuminati legends and can't believe that they could be back, he sets out to find out who did this exactly, if the Illuminati are back and what their plan is because oh yea, they stole something that could seriously destroy a whole city.

The rest of the book is full of action, people being murdered, a secret scavenger hunt, and a guessing game of Who is the Bad Guy? but it's exciting and as long as you can get past some of the not-so-great writing style, it's worth a read. Just be prepared to be told that you will need to remember something later as in, "so-and-so says that X amount of wind resistance will slow your body enough to reduce the force of impact by X amount. Little did I know that I (Langdon) would find this information useful within the next 24 hours" or something like that. I mean does Dan Brown seriously think that I don't comprehend what I am reading on page 100 enough to remember it when I'm on page 400? I hate when authors give away what's going to happen like that. I mean, couldn't he have just waited until the big fall, have Langdon remember that info and then say something like "man, I'll have to remember to thank so-and-so for telling me about wind resistance!"

So, 7 out of 10. I really like the blend of science and religion and it was action packed but the writing was eeehhhh....






The Mist
by Stephen King
230 pages



I'm not a big Stephen King reader. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure the only other book of his that I've read is The Green Mile, but I had to read something because it's worth a whopping 25 points for the Spring Book Challenge. My best friend just happened to have this one on her shelf so I stole, er borrowed, it when I returned her copy of The Historian to her (which I had had for at least two years...)

Anyways, on to the story complete with scary-movie-style commentary in italics. There's a big storm one night and the next morning an eerie looking mist is coming across the lake. "Oh, it'll just burn off later with the sun," says the main guy. Uh huh, yeah right. A few hours later, the mist is still coming. Main guy and his son (who's like 8?) head to the store while wife stays behind. Bad move, wife. Once in the store, the mist comes faster and soon you can't see more than a few feet in front of the store windows. Some people decide to leave but never come back and their screams are heard so everyone else is terrified. At one point a bag boy opens a loading dock door and gets taken by something huge with tentacles. good one, dude. Then a few more people decide sitting around is ridiculous and they decide to leave. Because it worked out so well for the last people... Anyways, they all die and the crazy lady in the store keeps spouting off about how it's the end of the world. There always has to be a crazy lady doesn't there? Main guy finally develops a plan to get out but doesn't know how far the mist goes or if anyone else is alive out there. The ending is one of those non-ending endings, where nothing is resolved and you don't really know what's out there but ya know, there's hope still. But, you're probably going to run out of gas before you get out of the mist, buddy.

5 out of 10 stars. I like my endings to actually explain something. But I might see the movie because Marky Mark = Yum.

Review times two: Dexter and Choke

Yes, today is yet another two-fer. It's just been so busy in my world, it's hard to keep on track with the reviews! Hopefully June will be a little less busy for me so I can catch up on some extra reading! Anyways, on to the reviews!

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

by Jeff Lindsay

288 pages

My husband is actually the one who brought this little gem of a book into our house. We have been watching Dexter for a while now (and anxiously awaiting the next season to start!) and he wanted to compare the book to the show. Needless to say, he only got maybe halfway through it before he said "It's pretty much just like the show" and moved on to the next MMA-UFC related non-fiction book he could get his hands on. So, I picked it up.

It really is a lot like the show. And, I could really picture Michael C. Hall as Dexter. He really is perfect for that role.

It's full of witty, kind of dry, yet creepy humor and you really want to not like Dexter because, well, he's a MURDERER. But, since he only kills the bad guys...you just can't help but like him. Despite the look of the shiny-knife-with-bloody-happy-face cover, it's really not all that gory. Definitely nothing that will enter into your dreams and make you not be able to sleep or anything.

Oh, and the ending? Not really at all like the show. It's kind of a combination of the first two seasons of the show in this one book, but it's not really the same. For this reason, I'm really interested in reading the next two books of the series that are out because they are bound to be incredibly different from the show!

9 out of 10 stars. I love me some Dexter.

Choke

by Chuck Palahniuk

293 pages

I followed the oddly lovable Dexter book with another book featuring an odd, yet kind of likable main character. Of course, when you pick up a Palahniuk book, you KNOW that it's going to be kind of odd. "Kind of" maybe being an understatement...

So, in Choke, we follow Victor Mancini who has dropped out from medical school and is working at a colonial town setup circa 1734. He seeks sex from women at sex addicts' meeting and, to pay for his mother's assisted living facility bills, he pretends to choke at a restaurant every night so someone will save him then feel somehow obligated to send him money to help with bills (that he makes up). He keeps a detailed list of everyone who has saved him, their name, address, where, etc. All the while, his mother's health is deteriorating and he can't seem to find the reasons to care.

While the book follows Victor's present day life, there are also flashbacks of his childhood, his mother being deemed unfit to care for him and spending her time in and out of jail. Each time he ends up in a foster home, only to have his mother get out of jail and come back to kidnap him. Then she goes on about all sorts of conspiracy theories that she has. No wonder he turned out so messed up!

Everyone in the novel seemed to have really lost touch with reality, but by the end, they all kind of accept the hand they've been dealt. The whole book is centered on Victor going out, choking, then making someone feel like they're a hero, like they have something in their life to be proud of, while he's been lacking that his entire life.

8 out of 10 stars. If you like Palahniuk, I think that this is one of his better novels. And, it's on the 1001 list.

Book Review and a Song: The Host

The Host
by Stephanie Meyer

613 pages


I would never have picked up this book if Stephanie Meyer hadn't written the Twilight books. It wouldn't normally be my cup of tea...but I kind of enjoyed it.

The Host takes place in generic-time (probably sometime in the 21st century) USA. Aliens, known as souls, have pretty much taken over the Earth by inserting themselves into humans which are their host creatures. Souls are silver, plasma-like ribbon creatures which are inserted into the back of a human's neck (along the spinal cord) and they make connections into their host's brain. They retain all of their host's memories and some even keep their host's name, but the person who was there before is gone...usually. Since souls have taken over the Earth, it's become a more peaceful place. Souls don't want there to be violence, are incapable of lying, and are actually pretty boring. Most normal humans have been taken over by a soul, while some renegades still hide out, trying to avoid getting caught and being taken over by a "parasite."

In The Host, we follow a very particular soul named Wanderer (since she's lived 8 different life-times on 8 different planets while most souls only live one or two then stay in one place), gets inserted into a human who was discovered by Seekers (souls whose calling is to basically be a bounty hunter) and attempted to kill herself rather than be caught. Since this human, Melanie, had been surviving so long and was so against being taken over by a soul, she did not give in once Wanderer had been placed in her. Wanderer has to deal with having another voice in her head and soon realizes that she sympathizes with Melanie and that she cares about Melanie's family as if they were her own.

Once Wanderer figures out that she likes and trusts Melanie (and that the feeling is mutual), she finds a way to lose her seeker and treks out to find Melanie's love, Jared, and brother, Jamie, by clues given by Melanie's crazy uncle Jeb. Jeb finds her in the desert and takes her back to their renegade headquarters inside a mountain filled with lava tubes where 36 humans live. Of course, no one trusts Wanderer and some try to kill her and Jared hates her and much drama ensues....but then people begin to change their minds because Wanderer is just so NICE. One of the humans, Ian, falls in love with her. Jamie loves both Wanderer and his sister because he knows they are both in there. And Jared is just torn because it's his true love's body, and while the person in control is nice and everything, he wants Mel back.

In the end, Wanderer has to decide whether she wants to continue inhabiting Mel's body or sacrifice herself so Mel can return to her family. When I got to the end of the last chapter, wow, it was just this wonderfully perfect bittersweet ending. I was happy for some and oh-so-sad for others, but it was really how this story needed to end. Then Stephanie Meyer, in her true fashion, has to go and add on an epilogue which easily could have had "and they all lived happily ever after" as the last line. Why!!??! Why does Stephanie Meyer feel the need to make every ending so freakin' happy? Don't get me wrong, I like some warm fuzzies every once in a while but seriously, the book would have been GREAT without the epilogue! oh well. I'm docking a star for that cheese ball epilogue.

7.5 out of 10. It was an interesting read for sure, I just wish I would have stopped before the epilogue.


Now, in order to receive 25 points toward the Nest Book Club Spring Book Challenge, I have to think of a song that this book reminded me of, revise the lyrics, and come up with a Haiku. This part was easy because I couldn't get OAR's song The Wanderer out of my head throughout the WHOLE book! Maybe because I had just had that CD in the week before? I dunno. But literally, all day...In.My.Head. So here it is with some revised lyrics:

Down the road there was a girl walking, walking

Knapsack round her back the soul’s talking, talking

And her rental car has run out of gas, but it no matter cause the girl’s on the run

Needs sunglasses for her shining eyes, girl never had nowhere to run when they were found, now found

So she walked along to lava tubes, wanted to find Mel’s long lost love

But no

She's the wanderer looking for her long lost home

She's only got one place to go

She's wandering and wondering when to go home

She's not alone, not alone, not alone

Soul’s been hosted for a thousand years, trying to drive away those fears, but no

Well then she picked up and then she went down south

Jared said nothing and Jamie shut his mouth

Well, she never thought too much, just thought she could bring them around

For Mel needed help and Ian love

And when love came around I heard the sound

Wanderers wandering all round the town

But no, they go

She's the wanderer looking for her long lost home

She's only got one place to go

She's wandering and wondering when to go home

She's not alone, not alone, not alone

Hey, she's the wanderer looking for her long lost home

She's only got one fine place to go

She's wandering wondering when to go home

She's not alone, not alone, not alone

She wan wan wandered along, made new friends and she helped them along

She won won won the war, helped out her friends and they found there were more

And now, a Haiku:

Mel and Wanderer
In the same body both love
Jared and Ian.

And thus commences the longest post ever! *curtsy*

Book Review: The Lace Reader

The Lace Reader

By Brunonia Barry

385 pages

Oh, Brunonia, you have a strange, strange name and perhaps an even stranger story. But I like it. I picked up this book because it was the chosen one for this month at the township library book club (which I've been wanting to join last month, but I completely missed the meeting in April). I made it this month though! And what a fine group of ladies...I'll come back to them...let's talk about the book first.

The first lines of the book draws you right into the story:

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.

This opening paragraph ends up being SO important to the story because by the end, most of it is a lie. Towner grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, where her Aunt Eva lived, and just off the coast of Salem on Yellow Dog Island, where her mother May and Aunt Emma lived and worked a shelter for battered women and children. All the Whitney women were Seers, or psychics who could read the future in a piece of lace. She spent her life going between the her Aunt Eva's place in Salem and Yellow Dog Island, but when her twin sister committed suicide and her Aunt Emma's husband, Cal, beat Emma so badly that she ended up brain damaged, Towner ended up in the psychiatric hospital and opted to undergo shock therapy. Once released, she opted to get as far away from Salem as she could and headed off to California. She then returned to Salem when she found out that her Aunt Eva was missing. Towner was forced to remember the past and see the future once again, which she had been trying so hard not to do.

The ending of this book hits you like a ton of bricks. I never saw it coming!! Of course, looking back, I realize that there were little clues all the way through the book. This would be a good one to reread knowing the ending because you could pick up on all the little pieces that you missed the first time around.

This was a really fun book for a book club. Everyone had different opinions about it and being able to discuss everything that happened in this book in particular helped to piece it all together. I walked into book club really liking this book, and I walked out liking it even more because everything that didn't make sense before, suddenly made a lot more sense. Everyone seemed to pick up different tidbits of info from throughout the story and it really made everything come together nicely. I'm definitely going to be going to this book club next month and not just because there are cookies (really good cookies at that) but because it was really fun, and the next book is Persepolis, which is a graphic novel and I've been wanting to try out reading a graphic novel for a while now.

So The Lace Reader gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me. It was exciting, thought provoking, and had a lot of twists and turns that really had me guessing.

A week late-a review and giveaway!

So I was supposed to post this LAST Monday, but unfortunately life got in the way and I didn't even finish this book until late, late Saturday night (as in two days ago). I don't remember the last time it took me that long to finish a book that was just over 300 pages! But this past week was so busy that I went two, three days in a row without reading! That's just unheard of for me. But, without further ado, here's my review:






Enduring Justice
by Amy Wallace
313 pages



Official Summary:
In Enduring Justice, Hanna Kessler’s childhood secret has remained buried for over two decades. But when the dark shadows of her past threaten to destroy those she loves, Hanna must face the summer that changed her life and the man who still haunts her thoughts.

Crimes Against Children FBI Agent, Michael Parker knows what it means to get knocked down. And when the system fails and a white supremacist is set free, Michael’s drive for retribution eclipses all else.

A racist’s well-planned assault forces Hanna and Michael to decide between executing vengeance and pursuing justice. When the attack turns personal, is healing still possible?

This thought-provoking novel deals with healing from sexual abuse, the balance of justice and mercy, and maintaining mixed-race friendships in the midst of racial tension. Readers who enjoy investigative thrillers by Dee Henderson, Colleen Coble, and Catherine Coulter, and who watch crime dramas like Law & Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, and Without a Trace will love this book—and the entire series.



My thoughts:



This book definitely had a lot going on. There was a lot of action, some technical FBI-style jargon to keep it real, and a lot of emotion coming from the characters. The characters themselves, well first, there were a LOT of them. Lots and lots of characters which I think would have been much easier to keep track of if I would have been able to read this book in a few days, rather than over an expanse of 7 or 8. But it was fairly easy to get them all straight again once I got back into it.

Different sections of the book were written in the point of view of three of the major characters. This was kind of interesting because you got the POV of Hannah, the woman surrounded by FBI guys her whole life who gets the sacrifices they make for the job, but who can't quite understand why, Michael, the FBI guy just trying to find some justice in the world, and Sean, the white supremacist. Switching the POVs ended up being a really good tool for Amy Wallace to use to create several different story lines, get the reader invested into each one, then bring them together at the end.

I felt like the back story to the characters was really important, but very slow to come out. I think that I would have liked to have known more about the past of the three main characters in larger chunks. For example, Sean kept referring to his father and finishing what he had started but then you'd only get a little snippet of what his father had done, then maybe another little snippet a couple chapters later. The same went for Hannah and Michael's past relationship, how they met, and what had happened between them. I feel like I would have liked to know MORE! But, regardless, I did find myself really rooting for Hannah and Michael, and hoping the Sean got caught sooner rather than later.

What I didn't know when I read the summary of this book was that there was going to be a Christian theme to it, which is something that I really don't normally read. I lot of times, I feel like they can tend to get a little preachy. But, this one really wasn't at all. There were several mentions of God, and praying, but it was pretty much all things that I could expect in any storyline involving a character dealing with the intense stuff in this book. So, it ended up being a good reminder of how difficult it can sometimes be to "keep the faith" and believe that everything will come out right and that justice will prevail, and sometimes things are just out of your own hands. It definitely didn't come off as preachy, and really most of what was mentioned could be applied to any religious background since you don't have to be any particular religion to have faith or pray that things will work out. (I guess the only exceptions in this book being a mention of a christian singer and Veggietales, but hey, can't blame someone for a pop-culture reference).

Overall, I'd give this book 7 out of 10 stars. I know there are certain people that I would recommend it to, and others that I probably won't. But, it was a good read especially if you are into to crime-FBI style dramas.

Now, I'm giving away a copy of the book Enduring Justice by Amy Wallace! Just leave a comment for this post for one entry, follow this blog for an extra entry, or blog about this giveaway in your blog for another entry (please post extra entries in the comments as well)! Contest ends Friday at 4pm EST. Thanks all!!

And if you don't win the book, you can find it here.

Bad Blogger Reading Recap

Hey! I'm alive!!! I haven't posted reviews in SO long and have been a bad, bad book blogger, but I hope to get back on track this week with these two catch-up reviews today, a catch-up Musing Mondays in a few minutes, and another review (and giveaway!) later this week! So, watch out for that, since it's my first. :) ooooh, I'm a giveaway virgin! Anyways, on to the reviewin'.




A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle
203 pages
Juvenile Fiction

I first read this book when I was in 6th grade and I HATED it. Ugh, I can still remember the angst of having to talk about this book and right a report on it when I just loathed it. I don't remember what I was interested in reading at that time in my life, but this book definitely wasn't it. So, when the challenge category of reading a book with The Nest Book Club and participate in the monthly discussion came up, and this was the chosen April book, I for some reason decided that it would be a good idea to read it again because there's a chance that I was just an angst-filled 6th grader who didn't see the wonderful qualities in this book...but then again, it really could just not be my cup of tea.

Unfortunately, it ended up being the latter. I guess that I didn't really hate it as much as my 6th grade self did, but I definitely didn't enjoy it. And, if I would have remembered the ending more clearly, I probably wouldn't have finished it this time around. But, I stuck with it, and was still pretty unimpressed.

The story begins with Meg, a typical, awkward 14 year old girl whose parents are scientists and little brother is "weird" but really is some ahead-of-our-time genius. Meg does poorly in school, even though she's really quite bright, and basically complains a lot about how she's a misfit, awkward, etc. Meg's father has been gone for a few years now doing some top-secret science thing and Meg complains about missing him a lot too. One night, her little brother meets a weird lady named Mrs. Whatsit, and her friends Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which. The three Mrs. tesser (AKA travel through physical space very quickly) Meg and her brother to another planet which is being overrun with evil (a dark cloud around the planet) to find and save her father. Evil-ness occurs, Meg whines, Father is saved, and everyone arrives back at home without making a very big impact on the huge evil.

The one good part about reading this as an adult would be that now I know why I don't care for it. First, I just wasn't interested in Meg figuring things out and defeating evil. I was annoyed by her character's seemingly constant whining and complaining about things that she could change if she just put a little work and effort into it. The other thing that kind of bothered me was that this was a very sci-fi themed book with references to mind reading and control, time and space warping, and rearranging particles yet there were several references to God not just by the Earth people, but by the creatures from other planets. To me, this just didn't really fit because it was basically insinuating that everyone has the same God, when even solely here on Earth, that isn't necessarily the case. The religious God references just didn't quite seem to fit into the theme of the book, in my opinion. I would read a line mentioning religion or God and just think to myself, "huh, that seemed a little out of left field..."

So, I have to give A Wrinkle in Time redo a 4 out of 10. I didn't like it (again) but I'm pretty sure that my sixth grade self would have given it a 0 or 1, so it's a slight improvement over that. I just hope that my someday children won't have to read it...there's definitely better things out there.







Voyager
Book 3 of the Outlander Series
by Diana Gabaldon
870 pages



Ahhhhh, now THIS is more like it!!! After dragging myself through A Wrinkle in Time, a bit of time with Claire and Jamie was JUST what I needed. Voyager picks up where Dragonfly In Amber leaves off. Claire is in Scotland with her daughter, Brianna, and has just discovered that Jamie did not die in the battle at Culloden. She decides that she will find where he ended up with the help of Bree and Roger, and may be able to return to him. The first part of the book alternates between Claire talking about their research to find Jamie's whereabouts after the battle and Jamie actually getting away from the battle alive and what all he is going through. I loved this part because I just ACHED for the both of them. I mean, Jamie knew that Claire was gone and really, he wanted to die at that battle, he really was planning on dying! So they are both just going through life knowing that they will never see their true love again. So. Sad.

Anyways, Claire finally finds where Jamie is at approximately 1768 (since the rocks took her back almost 200 years exactly) and decides to go and find him. I stayed up until well past my bedtime reading this section because I just had to see them reunited!!! And, I almost squee'd out loud when Claire walked into his printing shop and he FAINTED at the sight of her (and I would have squee'd had my husband not been next to me sleeping). Ah, true love! Reunited! And it feels SO good! but of course, the good cannot last because Jamie is always into something not-quite-legal...and this causes Claire to accept Jamie as the man he is now, for the sake of the man she once knew and they embark on a crazy adventure from Scotland all the way to West Indies.

Throughout it all there's love, passion, adventure, and a bit of humor and I just can't get enough! 10 out of 10 stars. Better than Dragonfly in Amber by a smidgen since the newlywed type passion was back.

book reviews: a Two-fer

I'm being a big blog slacker as of late, so I have a couple of quick reviews today!

Definitely Dead

by Charlaine Harris

#6 in Sookie Stackhouse series

324 pages

Well, I took a nice long break from Sookie (almost 3 months) and I was a little disappointed that I waited so long to read this one. First, I had forgotten some of the things that had occurred at the end of the 5th book which were big parts of this book, so I was a little confused at some points. And second, I really liked this one! It was probably one of my favorites.

Sookie and Bill aren't together any longer and something really awful is revealed about his true reason for meeting her. Having Bill out of the picture opens the book up for new characters to be included. Quinn is a were-tiger that we met briefly in the 5th book and he gets a more starring role in Definitely Dead (as evident by the cover). I really like Quinn so I'm a little anxious to read the next book and see what happens between Sookie and Quinn after all the usual "Sookie almost gets killed a few times" drama that occurs in this book (and every other Sookie book, really.)

Anyways, 8.5 out of 10. One of the best Sookies, in my opinion.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

by David Sedaris

257 pages

This was my first journey into the world of David Sedaris. I really didn't know what to expect because the back cover gives you nothing, but I'm glad I gave it a shot! This book is full of stories from David's childhood to adulthood. His family sounds like something out of a cheesy comedic movie and had me going, "really? this can NOT be real!" but it's all too humorous/dumb/sad to not be true. This book was all that I needed it to be. Light, fun, witty, and at some points it was laugh-out-loud funny. My favorite story is probably the one where he talks about how he asks people in places he has never been before about their gun laws (who knew it was legal in Michigan to hunt if you are blind without the aide of a seeing companion??) and the story of St. Nicholas in Denmark (which is SO much better than American Santa!)

Fun and enjoyable. I'd pick up another of his books for sure. another 8.5 out of 10 stars.

PS I read Sedaris for the SpringBookChallenge, LBGT author or character category.

Book Review: a bestseller

The Shack

by William P. Young

248 pages

It's hard for a book that's been on the New York Times' bestseller list for weeks and weeks to really live up to its hype. Add in a bunch of talk about how controversial this novel is, and it gets REALLY tough to go into reading it with an open mind and not expecting too much. I think that may have been one of my problems with this novel...

The Shack is about a man named Mack whose daughter is abducted and murdered while him and some of his other children are camping. Mack gets lost in the grief of losing his daughter, enters into what he calls "The Great Sadness", and quits having a relationship with God. One day, Mack gets a letter in the mail with no post mark. It simply tells him that it's been too long and he should come to the shack (where his daughter's bloody dress was found). It is signed from "Papa" which is Mack's wife's name for God. She has a very personal relationship with God and therefore feels close enough to call him "Papa" rather than God or Father.

Mack figures it's either a cruel joke, the killer trying to get him, or may it really is God. So, his wife and kids head out of town (not knowing Mack's plans) and Mack heads up to the shack. God is up there to meet him and He appears to Mack as a black woman, while Jesus is a homely looking Jewish man, and the Holy Spirit, Sarayu, is a small Asian woman. Mack spend the weekend with God (all three parts) and learns a lot about the relationship you should have with God, what God wants from us, what His plan is, and how to live your life with God's intentions in mind. Once he gets home, few people believe him but, of course, he's a changed man.

Now, the first and probably biggest controversy surrounding this book is the whole "God is a black woman" thing. Well, really, God is just showing himself as a black woman. He even says in the book that he's neither man nor woman, black nor white, etc. Also in the Bible, it says that God may show himself to you whenever, and as whoever or whatever, he pleases. On top of that, this is a work of fiction, so it's not like there aren't crazier things out there written! So I could get past the weirdness of things like that. What I couldn't really get past was the cheesy dialogue. The writing just wasn't GOOD* or engaging really. And that's what I think really got me disliking this book. I understand that it could have a pretty good message within it, and that it could really help some people going through a tough time after losing someone, but I just like my books to be well written on top of having a good message.

Overall, 5.5 out of 10 stars. I wouldn't read it again and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone personally, but some people may get some good out of it...just not really me.

*Yes, I know that Stephenie Meyer's writing isn't GOOD either, but I didn't really expect a teenage vampire romance book to have good writing on top of all the drama...but a book about someone meeting God and talking with Him all weekend?? I just expected more.

Musing Mondays: Book reviews

So I've been dipping my toes into some weekly posts to decide which I like and I've come across Musing Mondays hosted by Rebecca. I really have been liking her questions so here's my first Musing Monday!

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book reviews…
Do you read any non-blogging book reviews? If so, where (newspaper, library etc)? Do you have any favourites sources you'd like to share?

Most of the book reviews I read are from book blogs. I like that I can read multiple posts on lots of different books and figure out which bloggers have my kind of reading tastes. Then I know who will recommend a book that I will like.

I do tend to check out the Amazon and Barnes and noble dot com reviews if I'm buying from them (or if I'm bored at work and looking for some new books...). These reviews just can't be trusted as much as the book blogger's though.

I think that my favorite kind of review though is a in-person-stranger-review. I love when I'm at a bookstore or library and someone sees a book in my hand and goes "Oh my gosh, you HAVE to read that!" (I'm guilty of doing this ALL the time. I'm sure that some people think that I'm a weirdo stranger, but I love recommending books to people!) It just shows that this book really left an impression on them so it must be worth the read.