Books I've Read in the Past Four Years that Need to be Reviewed ASAP

This is just a place for me to keep track of the books that I've read and need to be reviewed...it's good to

[Source]

have goals!

2013

*Did I review any books at all this year? Lord knows I didn't really read very many!

1. The Cay
2. Kindred
3. The Prophet
4. Things Fall Apart
5. Nantucket Blue
6. Life As We Knew It
7. Dancing at the Harvest Moon
8. Fahrenheit 451
9. Allegiant
10. Quantum of Solace
11. The Painted Veil
12. Hard Sell
13. The Last Little Blue Envelope
14. Losing It
15. The Key to College Success
16. A Modern Girls' Guide to Bible Study
17. 13 Little Blue Envelopes
18. Workshops that Work
19. So, What Do They Really Know?
20. The Great Gatsby
21. Eleanor and Park
22. Image Grammar
23. Class of '88: Senior

2012

*Wow, only three! That's awesome!

1. Flapper
2. Infinite Jest
3. The Vincent Boys #1

2011

*It would seem I give up reviewing once the school year starts...hmmm...?

1. Midnight Cowboy
2. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
3. 22 Things...
4. A Repair Kit for Grading
5. Readicide
6. Vanity Fair
7. Horns
8. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
9. Maisie Dobbs
10. Ragtime
11. Vanity Fair

Six Word Saturday #31

My life in six words
Two days left in my giveaway!

Click to be taken to the giveaway

Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. The full list and linky can be found here. And, here's where I found it.

50 Books...a retrospective, sorta

I've got 6 books on the burners (yes, I've read parts of 6 books) and yet...

3 of these are for Reading Challenges, 2 of those are from last year!

...I don't feel any sense of urgency, I definitely don't feel the same way I did this time last year when a 50 book challenge loomed on the horizon. I wasn't sure (with everything that goes on with day to day living) I'd be able to do it, I was afraid that my zest for reading had died. I wasn't even sure that I really liked to read for pleasure anymore. Those were dark times.

And, why were they?

You get pizza just for reading...pizza people!

Let me start at the beginning. Every since I can remember I have been an above average, avid reader. If my Book-It goal was 100, I read 120, if we had to read a book a quarter, I read four and I remembered. I remember drawing a poster (we could chose to draw a poster or write a page response) for the Phyllis A. Whitney book Step to the Music; a girl in one of those Civil War period pink hoop skirts standing by a man on crutches--a replica of the cover. I remember having to stay in for recess with a friend for three days (we'd been gone on a school trip when the punishment was doled out, so we had to stay in just the two of us) we read 3 of the books from The Chronicles of Narnia...I remember Digory and Polly and Mr. Tumnus and Prince Rillian. I remember the conversation we had about religion; sure I was only in 4th grade, but he was the first Catholic I'd ever met. I remember all the More Tales for the Midnight Hour especially the one about the moth collector. I remember reading The Last of the Mochicans (this is not the one I read, but I can't find it--yes, I remember the cover) as a graphic novel and reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott. I was sad when the girl jumped off the cliff and thought it was even more tragic that someone would punish their kid by making them put pepper on their tongue; events that happened in each of the books; respectively. I read the Emily books by LM Montgomery and because of those books I've written a letter to myself every 10 years since I was 14. I could read over 100 books a year and look over the list recalling each moment in the book, recalling each feeling I felt while reading. I used to keep list of the books I read just for this reason...I still have those list, I still get the same feelings.

In college I read a ton of books many of them were required for classes, but were still fun for me. I appreciate Early British lit, dislike explorer narratives, worship The Scarlet Letter as the first American novel and read The Sun Also Rises every year. I love Edith Wharton and Thornton Wilder, Toni Morrison, Harlem Renaissance poetry, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen.

Then it all just died.

Don't kill me, I'm just trying to finish Vanity Fair

In hindsight, it was a gradual sort of death...although it seemed all of the sudden. I read only the books I taught, and I read them over and over and over. I only read books that would help me with teaching. I  stopped reading for pleasure. Who has time when attending meetings and writing lesson plans?

I tried to get it back on my own. I assigned choice reading at the Honors level. This allowed me to have a list of books; a goal. I made it a point to read books from this list. I started assigning a Non-Fiction book project. It helped me read more non-fiction. It opened up a whole new world of books. But, I still wasn't reading like I used to...I wasn't make my own personal list. I felt like I was reading to survive.

And, then my friend Julie devised herself a plan--50 books in a year, and I soon followed with my own plan. I made it official on Goodreads, I made it official on my newly developed blog, I joined Goodreads reading groups, I joined challenges, I followed reading blogs. And, then I began to read. The reading started off kind of slow, but by summer I was ahead of my goal. I was ahead of my goal by 15 wonderfully, marvelous, glorious books!

I read everywhere and anytime. It felt like old times. I read my books to my kiddo at night. I read while she napped, I read while she was at daycare. I read on planes. I tried, unsuccessfully, to read in the car. And, people who are reading this, I read for pleasure!

It wasn't until school started that I realized I'd easily meet my reading goal, but not my challenges, and you know what I didn't care! Having those challenges just forced me to read outside of my comfort zone, having a goal of 50 just guaranteed that I'd read more than that. Having those challenges just meant that there was something on the horizon geared towards making me a better reader, thinker, writer, teacher...person.

And, then I read this lovely post by Gabe Habash and thought, "Oh, geez, what if I'm doing it wrong?" Seriously, I thought that literally for 5 minutes at least...you see Gabe (I feel like I can call him by his first name) counted his pages and I only counted my books. I read more books, but he friggin' read more pages (War and Peace in three weeks, really!? Gar, I'm soooo ashamed it took me 8 months to read Vanity Fair) and I stopped checking my challenge updates...I was *gulp* reading for pleasure. And, I realize, reading his post for the 15th time, that he was reading for pleasure to...he accidentally got caught up in the numbers.

And, I didn't feel any pressure...can you tell I did not play sports in high school? Can you tell I haven't a competitive bone in my body?

Will I continue my challenges? Yes, remember they've made me a better person. Will I do the new ones? Yes, to the best of my ability...there really are books I want to read! I've upped my reading challenge to 55 books (I could do more, but, then I'd lose all the fun of it!). But, I don't care if I don't meet my goal and I don't care if my challenges spill over into the next year or the next. If I'm reading just for the sake of reading who's winning? It sure ain't me!

I just finished a book last night and it felt so good to add it to my Goodreads list. It ain't pizza (there isn't a Book It program for adults or high school students, I know, sad right!?), but it's a start!

Oh, and I love looking at and reading my 50+ books list of 2011. I recall each moment, each feeling...it's fantabulous!

Blogiversary and 50+Books in 2011 Giveaway

Hello Everyone!

In honor of my Blogiversary and in honor of the fact that I've read 60 books this year!!! (Thank-you Nook, Goodreads and Blogs I follow for making this possible!) I'm hosting a giveaway. Hopefully the way to rack up points is simple enough and the lucky winner will receive a book of your choosing from my 2011 reading list or view all 60 here!!!.

This is my first giveaway please excuse any blunders and mishaps! Thanks so much Peggy Ann's Post for the Rafflecopter suggestion!

50 Books in a Year: Book #59 Ten Things We Did (And, Probably Shouldn't Have)

I don't know how long this will last, but you can buy this for your eReader for 99 cents...

Anyway, I bought 10 Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) while waiting in the car for my mother to get finished with her shopping in BN. We were taking turns because the kiddo was asleep in the back seat; in her defense it was naptime. In our defense, one time we took her out when she wasn't fully awake yet...doing that with a baby (easy), doing that with a 12-month old (with a stroller=easy), doing that with a two-year old (stroller or not...hard as H-E-double hockey sticks!).

So, I waited, coffee in hand and surfed through the BN deals on my new Nook Tablet (Merry Christmas to me, from Christopher=husbands can be so sweet)...I ended up buying 4 YA novels each for less than a buck, one of which was this book; a book I wanted to read, but wasn't really in the mood to pay $10 for, a book I would have borrowed from a student, only I saw no student with it...

Anyway, I would have started it then and there, but the tiny person woke up and we went into the store to look at books and wait...

I started it yesterday morning and with all that was going on yesterday (2nd family, or was it 3rd?, family Christmas) I finished it yesterday evening.

Sadly, because I teach high school, I believed every word. I believed that lots of really nice girls who make good grades drink and party (I've had said nice girls in class and some of the stories I've overheard make me never want to have a teenage daughter), I also believe that teens no longer see sex as a stigma (it isn't only party girls that have sex)...I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but it is, I believe that teens understand the proper use of birth control, but not how they can still contract an STD and I believe that parents busy with living their second lives (ie. life after a divorce) don't notice the teen in the room who is screaming for them to lay down some rules and laws.

I like to think of these kinds of books, these modern day YA novels that have a teen girl protagonist, as lessons for me in how to raise a teenage girl...10 lessons I learned from this book:

1] Holy WOW! teach your kids about sex. I'll be teaching my daughter that she shouldn't have sex until she's older and mature and, hopefully, married, but I will also teach her about sex and STDs et cetera, if I don't she will learn from her friends, her teachers and life...and, I will look ill-prepared and naive.

2] I will not overshare my sex life with my teenage daughter (ick!) that's why parents have friends...

3] I will talk to my daughter like she is a person, I will ask her to tell me when she thinks she is ready to have sex, so we can talk...I will do this when she is 12, although in my head that seems a little young.

4] She will know she is loved, I will tell her often. She will know she is loved even if she does things that I do not like.

5] I will never take a job that requires me to leave her without adult supervision...even if that means I put my dreams on the back burner.

6] I will not move her away from her high school and her friends, even if that means I have to turn down a job (I have always firmly believed this!), however, if for some strange reason we have to move...she, kicking and screaming and pouting and moping, is coming with us.

7] I will trust my kid, but will actually meet parents face to face. I will not trust text, emails, running showers...

8] I will not impose year long punishments.

9] I will never get rid of my daughter's pet, even if we move overseas and said pet has to be in quarantine for 6 months.

10] I will give my daughter an allowance and have her tally up how she spent said allowance at the end of every month...what a good way to learn to budget, something I never learned...

OK, so I loved this book cussing, drinking, sex and all and heck, I'd let my daughter read it. I know I would have read it when I was a 9th grader...I read Forever by Judy Blume at that age.

If you've read this book what lessons did you learn? At what age do you think it's appropriate for kids to read?

50 Books in a Year: Book #54 A Study in Scarlet

The only Sherlock Holmes book I've ever read is The Hound of the Baskervilles, I read it, on purpose, in 6th grade after spending many years watching the old black and white version with Basil Rathbone. I was looking forward to reading more Holmes for The Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge, but didn't want to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (as I knew it wasn't the first book). Then a friend turned me on to this...

It just makes sense that after watching Benedict Cumberbatch (Hell-O the Anglophile in me loves him and his name, can we get more British with the name there?) in A Study in Pink  I'd want to read Doyle's A Study in Scarlet.

Um, yeah, while I enjoy the parallels, I should have probably read the book first...

Fun parallels:
1] The titles, of course, are adorable in comparison to each other.
2] The dialogue...there are parts in the book that are word for word in the episode (opening scene, Holmes defending why the cops need him, blood on the walls) the setting and inflections changed, which just makes it more interesting.
3] The Cabbie...of course, one is in a horse-drawn buggy, but still.
4] The choice (don't want to give anything away here).
5] Holmes still vain, still mad, still quite misunderstood by everyone except Watson, and, of course, himself.
6] The Solar System.
and...
7]They both open with Watson having PTS, wounded, back from a military tour in Afghanistan (kid you not, same opener).

A Study in Pink is...
1] Faster paced, there is a whole entire sequence, in the novel, set in The States about Mormons and scandals and murder, that I'm sure we sort of needed, but not really in a rather long chapter flashback...totally ruins the pacing and it's hard to get the pace back or care about the murders after that.
2] Has a Watson that I just adore, second only to Jude as Watson, of course.
3] Devoid of doggie-icide...I'm sure that wouldn't go over well, sick and old dog or not, with a modern audience.
4] devious and creepy, the ending is breath-taking and, well, I didn't have to go through 4 million (slight exaggeration) pages of nonsense to get to to it.

So, while I liked this book is really isn't as good as The Hounds of the Baskerville nor as fun and clever as it's modern version.

4 Stars   

I love this book, but would not give up my first born for it...you should read it though :)

For more Holmes info check out: Holmesian Derivations

50 Books in a Year: Book #52 Dr. No

OK, so this is James Bond book #6 on the list of original books written by Ian Fleming and, so far (I've read 8) this my least favorite. I enjoy campiness and, in relation to James Bond novels, I can tolerate misogyny, racism and impossible plot structures and devices. I could not do that with this book...and, I find it strange that Eon Films elected to pick this book as it's first Bond film (I like the film way loads better), I'm sure that had something to do with Honey Ryder, but I digress.

I'm trying really hard to find something that I liked about this book (and, have just successfully lowered it's stars from 3 to 2), I suppose I can start with what I didn't like.

1] Honey Ryder...there's no white bikini in this book and she spends half her time half-naked looking to James to save her. Now, usually this works and I find myself thinking, yes, James should be in charge here. However, I'm supposed to believe that Honey is so inculcated into the culture that she can live on her own, can go to this remote island alone to fish et cetera, but once James comes along she's weak and helpless...

2] The setting...a remote island off of Jamaica where Chinegros (a Fleming word, not mine...really, I would never use the word Chinegro, what a word!) work for this strange man. The only thing stopping him from taking over the world...bird poop.

3] Dr. No...he sounds asexual and weird and not in a good Blofeld kind of way...I was not scared of this man, nor could I pretend to be intimidated, I was too grossed out.

What I liked (see I knew that if I started writing about what I didn't like these things would come to me):

1] that it's set in Jamaica, I love reading about this country through the eyes of Ian Fleming. I have no desire to go to Jamaica, too darned hot, I have no desire to live in Jamaica, too darned hot, and I also dislike the beach, however, every time I read a passage describe this road or that restaurant I feel a little yearning in my heart.

2] The opening sequence and every detail seems to have been used precisely in the movie. What a fun opener...

Anyway, I could really take or leave this book...and, that makes me sad. I guess out of 14 books, I couldn't be expected to love them all, right!?

50 Books in a Year: Book #48 Cowboys and Aliens

So, I bought Cowboys and Aliens because I need to read a graphic novel for Geek Girls and didn't want to start the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman, they sound more like a summer project to me...

I was not disappointed in this story, but it isn't my favorite one out there....first of all...it's pretty darned short, I mean I read it in about 30 minutes, that short. I'm not sure who the target audience is, but surely graphic novel readers, myself aside, were unhappy that this book didn't take very long to read.

I do like the story though even if it is the usual Us vs. Them with a little romance. I like the melding of 1800s Wild West and the new frontier. When we all band together the United States can kick butt no matter what time period. I'm pretty sure I'll like the movie loads more (if the graphics are as fun as they were in the book), it's gotta be longer than 30 minutes.

50 Books in a Year: Book #46 Ishmael

Ok, so when I was in late college early high school teaching (1997-2002 approximately) I really liked New Age Philosophy and Christian Spirituality. I read books like The Celestine Prophecy, a lot of those little books by Og Mandino, Deepak Chopra, lots of Ayn Rand, The Purpose Driven Church and many others. Frankly, I ate them up. I think I was at the right age (still seeking my place in the world), in the right mindset (believing in God, but not in what people do in the name of Christianity) and looking for a way to still believe in God through all of the mess.

Fast forward about 10 years, one adult job, a husband and a kid later and you have me. Sure, I could take time to put my philosophy of life on paper, but I'd rather talk to you about this book, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Ishmael is a gorilla who speaks to this lost soul of a man about man's greatest sin; thinking that we are top dog on the mountain of life and assuming that because of that fact, the world was made for us and only us.

A friend recommended it to me and raved about it so much that I started it that night (God Bless the power of the ereader). After about 40 pages, I definitely got what was going down, after about 70 pages I got bored at the gorilla baiting and debating with the man to give him clues about how to live, after about 90 pages (note how long it took me to read the book--months), I felt that Ishmael was beating, over my head, something I already got.

One day my friend wanted to talk to me about the book. I, of course, trashed it. I hated and still hate the rather abrupt ending, I don't see the point of learning from a telepathic gorilla and I get that we are destroying the world...I've stopped some of those rotten things I do, really! I don't really want to stop others, unless forced. I compared this book to other such books talking about how they were better. He listened to my rant and then said, "Well, I read this in college and it changed my whole life, it's one of the reasons I hate Christianity and have turned from religion because all religions are man made and flawed." And, that's when I got it, you see there's this whole part in the book about how in the name of Christianity we aren't doing good works and in the name of Christianity we are destroying ourselves and the world, at least that's how my adult, already formed my spiritual foundation, brain took it; because of this book Christians should be better Christians. He just remembered how this book said that Christians are destroying the world. I asked him to read it again with his adult brain and began to recognize that this book a] is in some way the background of me, if I'd read it in college when I was reading all that other stuff maybe, I too, would have come to the same conclusion and b] this book has way more power than I thought, you just have to be at the place in your life when you are building up or tearing down your foundation. I'm just glad that while I was reading all the books I listed above and more, I was still going to church and able to see how it was what people were doing to and in the name of Christianity not Christianity, itself that was the bad guy.

I'll be sure to never underestimate talking gorillas again.

3 Stars
 

50 Books in a Year: Book #45 Love Story

You know a book is good when you know the ending and when you get there you still cry like your favorite person in the world just died anyway.

You know a book is good when you've grown up hearing about it, you know a movie exist about it, you know the soundtrack and the characters and the ending and it can still make you cry.

That's how I feel about Love Story by Erich Segal.

I love this book.

I even went into the book trying not to love it. I mean what girl doesn't love Love Story? I didn't want to be one of those girls. I didn't expect to like the characters so much. Ollie sounds like a great guy, a little young and, because of this, irrational, but loving and earnest. Jenny sounds like the most perfect girl. I'm sure that she and I could have been friends. I love her parents and his parents and they're friends.

The words are so sparing.

And, the plot so fast-paced.

He meets her, they move in together, she is the perfect wife, she get leukemia and dies. I'm not giving anything away here, the book opens with Ollie talking about her death, and well if you didn't know she died, you've lived in a dark cave for the last 30-plus years.

Along the way, Ollie gets into a huge fight with his father, Ollie and Jennifer get into a huge fight and we learn that "Love means never having to say your sorry." Until I read this book, I thought line was the dumbest line in a book ever. I thought that love always meant having to say your sorry, that good-hearted people don't mind apologizing...hmmm...I also thought the ending of this book would not get to me. I did not think that I would be sniffling on the corner of the couch.

I still haven't seen the movie, I doubt I could like it more than the book.


"What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me."

Yeah, that's the opener, but I promise you'll want to read on.

50 Books in a Year: Book #44 Final Friends Book Three: The Graduation

Here are somethings I noticed/remembered/liked/disliked about Book Three: The Graduation (the link is to Goodreads).

From the back

The last day of school has arrived at Tabb High. Michael Olson is convinced that Alice's death, nine months before, was murder rather than suicide and is just concluding his investigations. Will he survive this day?

Let's see...
Noticed
1] Pike really does go out of his way to make Jessica likeable in this one.
2] Ummm...how could anyone not notice where he was going with Claire's boyfriend...???
3] The second I started this book I knew exactly what happened to Alice, I remember every detail from this book especially the ending on the boat.

Remembered
1] Jessica and Michael and the sex in the shower...except for my 13 year old brain, really did think this scene lasted longer than 3 lines...hurrrmphf
2] I guess the Jessica of Book 3 is the Jessica I always remembered.
3] I'm still wondering if Polly killed her *spoiler* old grandmother, or was it old aunt...hmm...can't remember that part.

Liked
1] Michael, always have always will
2] This book is full of surprise and action and murder and lots of mystery.
3] That Clark was strange, but innocent.

Disliked
1] That Polly really does get away with a lot.
2] The stereotypes about homosexuals, black people, Hispanic people, sports players, cheerleaders, druggies et cetera that are thrown around carelessly.
3] That it took me until Book 3 to remember everything.

My next bit of nostalgia will be The Emily books by LM Montgomery...

50 Books in a Year: Book #43 Final Friends Book Two: The Dance

Yes, I'm sticking
with the old covers!

Here are somethings I noticed/remembered/liked/disliked about Book Two: The Dance (the link is to Goodreads).

From the back

For Jessica Hart and Michael Olsen, the homecoming dance will end just like the party--in horror. The murderer will walk through another wall.

Let's see...
Noticed
1] Again this book isn't really about the murder as it is about getting to know the characters more and then there's this horrible accident.
2] Bubba is not a good best friend.
3] Parts of the book are a little racist...hmm...

Remembered
1] That Clark wasn't the killer, so the ending of this book *spoiler* where he finds his yearbook and figures out where he goes to school didn't really surprise me, I also don't remember being surprised the first time around, which tells me that I knew Clark wasn't the killer then.
2] Jessica and Michael almost kiss/kiss, however you want to look at it.
3] The girls in this book series are really weak...all of them.

Liked
1] Michael, always have always will
2] Strangely, that these books really aren't very suspenseful. I like the fact that we get to know all of these characters BEFORE something bad happens...we like the characters more.
3] All the sub plots that in some way tie in to the murder of Alice.

Disliked
1] Jessica...how could I have ever thought of her as a role-model...this realization has made me kind of sad.
2] *spoiler* there's a girl that has sex, gets pregnant and her male counterpart pays for her abortion...this whole subplot seems to be taken pretty lightly and it seems that she is sadder that people find out than she is about the whole experience itself, I would have liked this portrayed a little more realistically and, frankly, more in-depth or not at all.
3] The accident and how I couldn't remember how it happened or how Maria acted so harshly

Book Three soon to follow...

50 Books in a Year: Book #42 Final Friends Book One: The Party

This is the cover of the series
when I read it.
The cover has changed several times.

OK, so when I was a kid I loved myself some Christopher Pike, I mean loved...I also loved Joan Lowery Nixon, RL Stine (before Goosebumps, I was a little too old when Goosebumps started up) and Lois Duncan (don't watch any of the books about her movies they're pure buckets of poo). I guess I just liked teenagers involved in suspenseful situations.

All this reminiscing concludes with this book series by Christopher Pike called Final Friends. I've own Books Two and Three of this series forever and it wasn't until I was with my sister as a used book store that I found Book One. After I got home, here are somethings I noticed/remembered/liked/disliked about Book One: The Party (the link is to Goodreads).

From the back
Jessica Hart and her best friends invited dozens of people to their "get to know each other" party. But some people came who weren't invited. And the evening ended in horror. Most figured it was a suicide. They figured wrong. 

Let's see...
Noticed
1] I didn't realize that the character who dies, Alice, I'm not giving anything away if I say her name, doesn't die until the end (like the last 10ish pages) of the book. The rest of the book is filled with typical teenage novel fodder...it feels like fodder now, it felt like plot when I read it back in 1988.
2] Teenagers in the 80s had sex and partied.
3] Parts of the book are a little racist.

Remembered
1] The main character Michael, he was the prototype for which I based all my future book crushes. He's dependable, smart, doesn't take no for an answer and, of course, crushing on a girl that does not deserve him.
2] Alice, she's a very memorable character. I just didn't realize how much I liked her or how much I was sad when she died.
3] How it happens, but not who killed her.

Liked
1] Michael, always have always will
2] Reading about 1988 as if I'd traveled back in time...
3] The feeling of nostalgia I got while reading...1988 was a good year, I was 12.

Disliked
1] Jessica, the girl Michael likes, when I was younger she seemed genuinely conflicted, but this time around she just seemed like a conniving cheerleader who bemoaned the fact that she was popular, well-liked and single.
2] That I couldn't remember who the flipping killer is!
3] That the book is really about relationships and school and everyday life not about a murder mystery

Book Two soon to follow...

PS. For an independent read one of my students was reading a trilogy of books called Until the End, the cover looked interesting and when I noticed it was by Christopher Pike I asked her what it was about, she said something along the lines of "It's about this girl who is friends with this guy and there's a guy in a motorcycle and they go to a party and a girl dies, I'm only on the first one..." and I looked again, sure enough they've repackaged Final Friends, I wonder if they've updated the setting?

50 Books Completed!

I am so excited that I have read 50 books this year...just gotta finish those other challenges!

The Books in Order:

(Of how much I like them in relation to each other)

1.  An Abundance of Katherines  John Green

2. American Gods  Neil Gaiman

3.  Stories I Only Tell My Friends  Rob Lowe

4. The Graduate  Charles Webb

5.  Love Story  Erich Segal

6. Stardust  Neil Gaiman

7. The Devil in the White City  Erik Larson

8. A Visit from the Goon Squad  Jennifer Egan

9. (S)mythology  Jeremy Tarr

10.  Horns  Joe Hill

11.  Cinderella Ate My Daughter  Peggy Orenstein

12.  How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf  Molly Harper

13.  Final Friends Book 3: The Graduation  Christopher Pike

14.  Mockingjay  Suzanne Collins

15.  Alice in Wonderland  Lewis Carroll

16.  Alice I Have Been  Melanie Benjamin

17.  The Lost Symbol  Dan Brown

18.  Maisie Dobbs  Jacqueline Winspear

19.  The Hunger Games  Suzanne Collins

20.   The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf  Molly Harper

21.   Catching Fire  Suzanne Collins

22.   Limitless  Alan Glynn

23.   Comfort Me with Apples  Ruth Reichl

24.   Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

25.   Beastly  Alex Flinn

26.  Prom and Prejudice  Elizabeth Eulberg

27.  Dead is Not an Option  Marlene Perez

28.  Forgive My Fins  Tera Lynn Childs

29.  Sunday at Tiffany’s James Patterson with  Gabrielle Charbonnet 

30.   Final Friends Book 1: The Party  Christopher Pike

31.   Final Friends Book 2: The Dance  Christopher Pike

32.   The Heart of the Spring  Laura L. Valenti

33.   Little Bee  Chris Cleave

34.   The Imperfectionist  Tom Rachman

35.   The Ice Princess  Camilla Lackberg

36.   You Only Live Twice  Ian Fleming

37.   The Apothecary’s Daughter  Julie Klassen

38.   Loving Frank  Nancy Horan

39.   Ragtime  EL Doctorow

40.   One Day  David Nichols

41.   The Story of Stuff  Annie Leonard

42.   Watermelon Man  Herman Raucher

43.   Wither  Lauren DeStefano

44.   Demian  Hermann Hesse

45.   Cowboys and Aliens  Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

46.   Ishmael  Daniel Quinn

47.   Grace is for Sinners  Serena Woods

48.   The 17 Day Diet  Mike Moreno

49.   The Help  Kathryn Stockett

50.   What Did I Do Wrong  Liz Pryor

50 Books in a Year: Book #41 Watermelon Man

     Herman Raucher wrote The Summer of '42, a book I picked up on accident for a quarter at a garage sale. It is beautiful and tragic and real. I've never seen the movie and I'm not sure I want to, since I love the book so much...that isn't exactly how I feel about this other Raucher book Watermelon Man. Written in 1970 a year before The Summer of '42, it chronicles the life of this incredible bigot named Jeffrey Gerber and his inability to find any  substance in his life...that is until he wakes up one morning and he's 'black as night' and getting blacker by the minute.
     In the beginning I found the premise of this book to be quite clever and enjoyed some of the old racial slang being made fun of in a way that must have been totally unexpected and fresh in 1970. By the end of the book, however, I was tired of the jokes and looking forward to watching the movie. Frankly, everything about the book is probably predictable to a modern audience there's jokes about class and race stereotypes including a black mans' prowess in bed, his ability to run a good race and his ability to make light out of just about anything (you know the old Sambo complex). There's a lady at the office who's only interested in him after he's black and while he feels used, he likes the attention. His kids, who are young, don't understand what the big deal is and his wife, who watched the race riots religiously and wanted to help everybody get along is actually, you guessed it, so racist she really can't be seen with or married to him anymore. What I found interesting, however, were all the ways Mr. Gerber tries to get rid of his skin tone there are long steamy showers, creams and powders and lotions...this has to play out quite humorously on film.
     I gotta tell you though, I really wish the book had been stereotypical until the very end, and since it isn't I'm not sure what lessons I'm supposed to have learned. It seems that the only characters who come off as having grown are the kids, and even then I'm not sure if that's true as Jeff, rich and divorced, only talks to them on the phone.
     This book is funny when I think it should be serious and just when I started laughing for real...it pulled the rug right from underneath me.

3 Stars
 

50 Books in a Year: Book #40 Wither

I wasn't going to read Wither, as the cover makes me want to...I don't know punch puppies, drown kittens, vomit uncontrollably? Can you tell I hate these new-fangled covers that have some sort of waif model on the cover posed in some sort of Tyra Banks type manner? And, yet, against my will, I am drawn to its colors and symbolism...

Anyway, I wasn't going to read it and then I saw this review for it on Goodreads (by a reviewer whose opinion I value and whose reviews I follow) just trash the dickens right out of it. It made me curious. Isn't it funny how a bad review can do that? But, I still wasn't going to pay to read it...I waited...hoping one of my students would have it and let me borrow it, hoping one of my friends would buy it and let me borrow it and then there it was on the bookshelf at my aunts house when we went to visit her in the summer begging me to read it. I read it in a day, it's not really that hard of a read.

Frankly, I like the story. The only thing that makes it dystopic, however, is the premise. The rest is mostly a love quadrangle.

Frankly, I like the setting. It happens to be a gothic castle full of mysterious secrets and an orange grove in its meandering garden and, by contrast, a city taken over by disease-riddled, I can only imagine, zombie-like teens and pre-teens and those who prey upon them.

Frankly, I like the main characters. Rhine (isn't that a lovely name that you know 85 million teenage girls will now want to name their first born?) is strong when she needs to be, feminine when she needs to be and knows what she wants which is out of her life of sister-wifedom and back with her brother defending their home. I like her husband, a man/boy struggling not to be the pawn of his father, and the boy she truly loves (at least I think she does), the servant, Gabriel. I, even, like the other two sister-wives, even if one is a little spoiled child who enjoys that she is pregnant at 13 and the other is a bit sad (we find out for good reason) and mopey.

I've recommended it to a couple of students who I know like their dystopia on the light, romantic side and I've mentioned it in passing to a couple of my SF YA friends in the hopes that we could then chat about the many reasons this book and its author bugs me because I can't put my finger on it, except to say maybe there's too much to try to entice the reader to buy into the concept and not enough once your hooked. It's kind of like Taken (that movie with Liam Neeson), meets the Uglies series, meets Frankenstein (the book and the Kenneth Branagh movie), meets I Am Legend, meets the most beautiful sweeping romance ever...say Gone with the Wind.

Will I read the second one? I'm not sure, it's got another one of those covers and a setting that seems to be all the rage now...the carnival/circus. Maybe, I'll just have to keep my eyes on the look-out to see if anyone will let me borrow it.

3 Stars

Side note: my review for this book bounces between 3 and 4...I'm torn...

50 Books in a Year: Book #39 Sunday at Tiffany's

OK, so I know I've talked about romance novels enough that you may think that I don't like them. That's not entirely true. I believe a romance novel has a time and a place. I am also willing to read or watch anything romance-y if I am in the mood and I understand that there are different types of romance novels and I understand what a good book in each genre is...even more importantly I understand when I love a book that really isn't the best of its genre. Case in point:  Sunday at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet...I might premise the rest of this by saying that I am also the girl who will watch most Hallmark movies, getting misty-eyed (and sometimes crying) at the appropriate places...I am, in short, a sap...a sap for a good story (who cares what the package looks like).

Sunday at Tiffany's is a book whose premise is a little thin...really, what if your imaginary friend comes to life at an appropriate age and, although you aren't supposed to, you remember him and he's hot, although when you were like seven you thought of him as more of a father, and you love him, and he helps you become the strong woman that you should've always been to begin with, he helps connect you to your mother and dump your trashy boyfriend, and, while he helps you he becomes more human...which may or may not be a good thing. I love the premise. I love the romance. I love the ease of reading of this book (I'm pretty sure I read it in an hour...while watching the kiddo and the television). I am glad it's a movie that I can buy on DVD if I desire. It will look wonderful sitting next to "Tully", "Enchanted" and "The Notebook".

I'm glad that there are books like this is the world, books that I can go back to and read when feeling down to feel better, to feel happier...to sigh with the knowledge that schmoopy romance can exist. Books don't need to be perfectly written or deeply plotted to be uplifting, sometimes lighter really does mean better.

One thing I don't get...how is this book written by two people?

50 Books in a Year: Book #38 Mockingjay

I stumbled upon this series totally by accident. Er...sorta. I was planning on reading the series...really, just closer to the movie after THE REST OF THE WORLD had read them and I could read them alone...sorta.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
How I fell into this one: I had asked my friend Kay, via Facebook, if I could borrow her copies while visiting her in Colorado. The day we were to leave, she commented that she had the books on her Kindle and wondered why I didn't borrow it earlier in the week. I said that I didn't know and borrowed the Kindle immediately, as I had to read two books in less than 24 hrs. not counting, sleeping, packing and watching the child time. Just incase you were wondering, I did it.

Reaction:
Just incase you don't know the plot, here it is from Goodreads:
Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. The thrill-packed final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will keep young hearts pounding.
Likes
*May contain spoilers* I'm sayin this just incase you've been in a cave for the last few years and have no idea what's going on in the world. This is one of those books that doesn't end perfectly, one of those books that feel like everyone dies and yet, it is real and beautiful and propels the plot along.
As Sherman said, "War is hell" and Collins does not let you forget that. In this book there are no winner, just survivors and people who learn to cope with the losses. Finally...Katniss gets a BACKBONE!!!
Dislikes
*Again there may be spoilers* Some of my favorite characters die and there's this scene with genetically altered lizard snake creatures that is just disturbing. I'm not sure how I feel about Gale.

5 Stars

What I thought about the series as a whole?!
I am in love with this series and look forward to talking about it with my students.

5 Stars

50 Books in a Year: Book #37 Catching Fire

I stumbled upon this series totally by accident. Er...sorta. I was planning on reading the series...really, just closer to the movie after THE REST OF THE WORLD had read them and I could read them alone...sorta.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
How I fell into this one: I had asked my friend Kay, via Facebook, if I could borrow her copies while visiting her in Colorado. The day we were to leave, she commented that she had the books on her Kindle and wondered why I didn't borrow it earlier in the week. I said that I didn't know and borrowed the Kindle immediately, as I had to read two books in less than 24 hrs. not counting, sleeping, packing and watching the child time. Just incase you were wondering, I did it.

Reaction:
Just incase you don't know the plot, here it is from Goodreads:
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol. Catching Fire maintains the adrenaline rush of Suzanne Collins's series launch.
Likes
Peeta, seriously, I spent this whole book liking him more and more and more. No matter how much Katniss misread him (and, I couldn't believe that she was still...er...I'll save that for 'dislikes') he was there for her. I love how Collins added just simple gestures to let us know that Peeta would do anything for Miss Everdeen and she doesn't see it. Cinna is my favorite character, he is like 'Sassy Gay Friend' meets Rupert Evert meets every girls dream boat. He laughs, he cries, he creates spectacular clothes and he's a perfect 'Jimmie Cricket'. I do feel a little guilty that my favorite characters in this female driven book are male, but c'est la vie. I'm do like how Kat seems to be seriously conflicted between her two male best friends and I like how she's beginning to understand her role and how wonderful and powerful she is to the world and to herself.
Dislikes
I'm really glad that Katniss gets better in the next book because I spent most of this book wanted to give her a little shake. I mean everytime she talked or reacted I wanted to shake her ever so lightly, and say something like "Girl, please!".

4 Stars


What I thought about the series as a whole?!
I am in love with this series and look forward to talking about it with my students.

5 Stars

50 Books in a Year: Book #36 The Lost Symbol

     I enjoy a good thriller.    
     I like when a book makes me read so fast that I get paper cuts flipping through the pages or, in the case of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, I read so fast I get little tini seizures from flicking through the pages on my Nook.
     I love Dan Brown.
     I love Robert Langdon.
     I'm pretty sure that I won't have anything bad to say about Mr. Brown as long as he continues to write books involving the brilliant Dr. Langdon and clues that aren't hard for me to cipher, but always surprising when I do, as long as there are tormented characters like Mal'akh, as long as there's slight sexual tension, but not enough to be distracting, as long as he writes about pretty places I've been or want to go.
     I love that Dan Brown's stories are always just a step ahead of what my head can guess.
     I do have to say though, if you have a fear of drowning or suffocating (like I do) or a fear of large sea creatures (like I do) might I suggest not reading this book (especially the last few chapters) late at night, on a trip to the Smithsonian, in a cabin in Colorado with just your kiddo beside you, or while taking a bath. I mean unless you want to be freaked out of your ever loving mind, which sometimes isn't a bad thing.

Easily

5 Stars