BTT: The Best and the Worst

I didn't do last week's BTT, so I'm going to combine both last week's and this week's into one since they are so closely related.

8/13/09: What’s the worst book you’ve read recently? (I figure it’s easier than asking your all-time worst, because, well, it’s recent!)

This would probably have to be The Mist by Stephen King. It was cheesy and kind of dumb and really, just like any other lame "monsters are taking over the world!" story. It was way too predictable, the characters were the same ones that you expect in any story like this (the hero, the nonbeliever, the child, the "I told you so!" person...), and the ending didn't give any resolution. Not Mr. King's best and even the prospect of seeing Mark Wahlberg makes me want to see the movie.

8/20/09: What’s the best book you’ve read recently? (Tell me you didn’t see this one coming?)

Now this question is TOUGH. I feel like I've read a ton of really great books lately! Although, a lot of them are a part of a series. I finished the Jessica Darling series recently and that was witty and hilarious, especially the fifth book. And, I also just recently finished the fourth book in the Outlander series, Drums of Autumn which, of course, was wonderful. The only non-series book that sticks out to me lately would be Without You: a memoir of love, loss and the musical RENT by Anthony Rapp. That book just really struck my heartstrings, it was so well excuted. I know that that might by an odd way to describe a book, but the use of the lines and lyrics from Rent in relation to the different points in his life really made the book stick out to me.

What about you? What are your recent bests and worsts??

Finishing up with Jessica Darling

I read Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings a couple weeks ago but, alas, had to wait for the library request to go through to get my mitts on the last three books in the saga of Jessica Darling. This was alright though because as much as I like Jessica and have enjoyed reliving my high school days through her journal entries, I just feel very hot and cold about Marcus Flutie. But, I still had to find out how the series ended. (There very well may be spoilers in this...)

Charmed Thirds

by Megan McCafferty

359 pages

In this book, the writing format starts to deviate from the first two books just slightly. Instead of this book being just one year in the life of Jessica Darling, it ends up being all of her college years at Columbia, while Marcus is in California being, well, Marcus. During their first year on opposite coasts everything seems to be going great...then the time apart starts to wear on them a bit (especially Jessica because who in the world knows what Marcus is thinking!?) and after a particularly stressful week of "Are we really ready to be this serious?" thoughts, Jessica gets drunk and ends up fooling around with a Republican (gasp! Oh noes!!!) co-ed. This brought back some raging memories from my past...wow...because I seriously did this same exact thing to MY high-school-into-college-boyfriend, so I can kind of relate (except we weren't soul mates by any stretch of the imagination, like Jessica and Marcus seem to be).

Anyways, when Marcus finds out, he takes a vow of silence then sends himself off to a completely secluded ranch for troubled men (or something like that) in the middle of the desert where he can have no contact with anyone, except by letters. He then begins sending one word postcards to Jessica each month, because leaving her to be alone in the desert without saying goodbye isn't hard enough on the girl. Ugh. Stupid Marcus. At this point, I hate him. But, in the end, he shows up at her door with a Barry Manilow decoupaged toilet seat cover and a box full of his journals that he wrote (mostly about Jessica) while in the desert. Awww...love him again...even though I will never read those journals and desperately want to...

Fourth Comings

309 pages

Now the book format changes again. It's still in journal entries, but it's intended to be read by Marcus. It begins with Jessica explaining why she is getting drunk at 3 in the afternoon at a Princeton college bar. "I'm breaking up with my boyfriend today."

What?!?! But you and Marcus just got back together! Noooo!!!

Okay, well it comes out that Marcus applied to Princeton (without telling Jessica) and got accepted which means he's a 23 year old freshman living in the dorms. And I totally understand what she means when she tells him that she can't handle that because he's going to be the mysterious older guy who gets nicknames (there was a guy in my dorm who was a grad student and looked like D'Angelo so that was his nickname) and girls will throw themselves at him (yup they did). So, when Jessica returns to his dorm from the bar to break up with him, he ends up getting down on one knee and proposing. Everyone say "awwww!!!" Yup, I was excited for them at first too. I really liked Marcus (again) at this point! Jessica is of course shocked, somewhat appalled, yet can't find it in herself to say yes (or no). So she takes the next seven days to write in her journal to Marcus all her thoughts and what leads her to her ultimate decision. At the end of this book, it was my favorite of the series.

Perfect Fifths

255 pages

Then I opened this book and realized that THIS was my favorite of the series. It's written in third person (which completely makes sense when you read the book) so you get to read both Jessica's AND Marcus' thoughts! YAY! Finally! A little insight into Marcus.

So it's three years after Jessica and Marcus ended their relationship (she said no) and they haven't spoken since. Of course neither has gotten over the other, but they can't be the one to make the first contact. Jessica is at the airport, running to catch her flight when she literally runs right into Marcus. She ends up missing her flight and the rest of the book is the 18 hours that follows and how they reconnect and rediscover who the other is and who they can be together. It's all incredibly sweet and I absolutely (FINALLY!) love Marcus because I finally can be in his head a little and he's grown up a bit and doesn't seem to do things just for a reaction so much any more. Seriously, this was the perfect ending to the series and it's worth reading the other four books just to get to this one.

The ratings for Thirds, Fourths, and Fifths, respectively are: 7.5, 8.5, and 9.5 out of 10 stars. I would definitely recommend this series.

Reviews: Next in Series

So I'm trying to catch up on all my reviews and these next two are both from series and are both Young Adult, so I'm just going to put them together :)



Second Helpings
by Megan McCafferty
349 pages

2nd book in the Jessica Darling Series.



So Jessica is moving on to her senior year of high school and trying to forget all things Marcus Flutie related as much as possible. She has a new goal for the next year (go to Columbia U! even though her parents have already vetoed all colleges in large cities), is still dealing with her best friend living far away, and has to come to terms with her grandmother aging and being put into a nursing home. All the while, there's the normal high school angst and drama lurking around every corner between Jessica and her friends/non-friends and new used-to-be-a-nerd-but-now-is-cute boyfriend. And of course, Marcus is there firing off mixed signals and keeping tabs on Jessica by befriending her grandmother because he happens to work at the nursing home.

I love Jessica. But I have a love/hate relationship with Marcus. One minute I'm thinking that he's just leading her on, and then I'm like "Oh my gosh, he's so SWEET! He wrote her a song!!" (which P.S. I had a boyfriend in high school who wrote me a song and it made me swoon, even though the song really wasn't that good...I think that I may possibly have a cassette tape of it somewhere in the "remnants of high school" storage bin...definitely have to find that...) but then I'm all "Ugh! He's leading her on again!!" So now I must continue the series since I would love to hear more from Jessica and I just have to know whether I like Marcus or not. I've already requested 3, 4, and 5 from the library. They should be in any day now...

8 out of 10 stars. This series is PERFECT for summer!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
652 pages

I've been rereading this series in preparation for the release of the 6th movie (which is based on this book). I just love Harry Potter. It's going to sit on my bookshelf forever so one day my kids then my grandkids can read it, I swear!!!

I had only read this one once, when it first came out so there was plenty of stuff that I had forgotten. Harry has mostly gotten past his angsty stage that occurred during all of the fifth book, so I was back to really enjoying his character. And Dumbledore was back to being involved in Harry's life and giving him lessons, which were really just preparing Harry for what he must do to defeat Voldemort in the end. There is just so much foreshadowing in these books, I can hardly believe it. I think that that is what makes them so interesting to reread. You can pick up on things that you know hint to things ahead (since you know what happens in the future) but of course, you didn't see it the first time around. So great. JK Rowling is a purty smart lady.

I'm not going to bore you all with a synopsis since I'm sure most people have read it and if you haven't then READ THIS SERIES! I highly doubt that anyone would regret reading HP. But, here are a few of my favorite parts:

• Hearing about the early memories of Tom Riddle.
• Harry taking the Liquid Luck and getting the memory from Slughorn.
• Harry realizing that he likes Ginny and Ron and Hermione finally figuring out that they like eachother!
• Hermione getting huffy about Harry doing better than her in potions.
• Hermione losing a bit of the goody-goody-ness and Confunding Cormac! LOL
• The Tonks/Lupin thing...LOVE!
• Draco not being able to do it...there's hope for him, really!
• and the end...oh Dumbledore...sooooo sad.

Then I went and saw the movie...and I really think that they did a pretty good job! Especially after the suckfest that was the fifth movie. I still don't know why they don't mention that Ron and Hermione are prefects and that Harry is Quidditch Captain, but I guess that isn't TOO important really. There were some really hilarious parts and while I was nervous that they would focus too much on the teenage love fest, it really was smoothly put in (except the beginning with the Underground coffee shop girl? what was that?). The fight in the end wasn't what I expected either, and the Tonks/Lupin story was pretty much entirely left out so I don't know exactly how they will deal with that story line during Bill and Fleur's wedding (oh and Fleur wasn't in the movie, so how will that work?). I wish that the fight scene would have been more dramatic and had more of the Order involved (like in the book) and I wish that they would have actually shown some of the funeral scene with the white tomb because that really could have been beautiful, but overall not bad for a movie adaptation.

10 out of 10 stars for the book. 8 out of 10 for movie.

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!