Category Archives: Books

Hold Still

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Book: Hold Still by Nina LaCour

Pages: 230 (Hardcover)

My Review: Hold Still is about 16-year-old Caitlin, who is dealing with the suicide of her best friend Ingrid.

I went through it pretty fast, and it was really hard for me to put it down.  It was hard watching Caitlin struggle with her feelings of anger and guilt, and being the one left behind.  The only thing that Ingrid leaves Caitlin is one of her journals, full of drawings, letters and various journal entries that Caitlin reads over the course of the book.

Even though Ingrid is dead, you really felt her presence through her journal and through Caitlin’s memories, as well as the photographs that Caitlin take, and the photographs that Ingrid leaves behind.

It’s definitely a story of moving on, and that it’s okay to move on.  I thought LaCour did a great job of showing Caitlin’s feelings, and what she was going through.  I’ve never lost anyone to suicide, but I was a mess after my grandpa died.  I can’t imagine losing someone to suicide, but it can’t be easy.  LaCour did an amazing job showing the different emotions someone can feel after losing someone important.

I don’t usually comment on book covers, but I absolutely loved this one!  It has a teen girl on it, with one of the journal entries in the background, with a drawing on the upper left corner.

There was something about the book that reminded me of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  I don’t know if it was the overall tone of the book, or the characters from both books, or what, but almost the whole book, I was reminded of Speak.  If you liked that book, or any other book by Laurie Halse Anderson, you’ll like this one.

Rating: 3.5 of 5.  It was simple, and somewhat fragmented, but overall, I liked it a lot, and found both Ingrid and Caitlin very relateable.  I could picture everything so clearly.

My To-Read List Is Out Of Control

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I love Goodreads.  I really do.  With all the reading I’ve done this year, it’s come in handy.  I love reading, but as much as I love reading, I decided that next year, I would set a lower goal for myself in terms of reading.  Like 50 to 75 books. 

And then I started exploring their recommendation section.  It reccomends books based on what you’ve added and based on similar books that other people have added.  I had a handful of books on my to-read list…like 4 books, so literally, a handful of books. 

Now I have over 200!  226 to be exact.  It’s ridiculous!  But I’m always looking for new books to read, and considering that it’s based on books I’ve added and rated, I’m sure that I’ve found a bunch of books that I’ll really like.  I’m definitely going to start working on that list, since some of the books I’ve requested having a long waiting list, and I’m going to need books to read while waiting for them. 

I definitely have 2 years of reading material, and that’s if I stick with the 100 book per year goal.  And now, I’m considering it just to make it through that list. 

I mainly use Goodreads to keep track of what I’ve read, am reading, and want t0 (or going to) read, and what I’ve rated it.  And it keeps tracks of when I’ve read something too, provided I add in the dates.  But I really like the recommendation feature, and it refreshes as you add books, so I’m sure I’ll find even more books to read. 

They have all kinds of lists of books, and in answer to the question you may be asking yourself, I found some books there too!  I haven’t looked it all too much, because it’s a little overwhelming, and I pretty much ignore the groups, quizzes, and trivia sections, but I find the giveaway section really cool.

Seriously, I love the giveaway area.  Let me tell you why I love this part of the website.  Publishers list books that they give away for free.  You can enter to win a copy of these books.  I entered a few, because those books look really interesting, and if I can potentially win a free copy of it…

So a couple days, I was checking my email…and to my surprise, I won a free copy of a book called Wildflower Hill!  It’ll arrive in the next 4 to 6 weeks, but I’m really excited, since I don’t win anything.  I’m looking foward to it’s arrival, that’s for sure. 

But 226 books!  226!  That’s a lot of books to read!  But there is a good thing about having such a long list.  I’ll always have something to read, since, you know, I have a really long list of books to choose from.

Becoming Jane Austen

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Book: Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence

Pages: 294 (Paperback)

My Review: Becoming Jane Austen is a biography of Jane Austen and the people, events, and places that influenced her life and her novels.

We started off with a detailed family history, and it was really hard to keep track of everyone because the same few names appeared rather frequently. 

As much as I love Jane Austen, I couldn’t get into the book.  While Jane’s family had a big influence on her writing, I felt like they were more prominent than Jane herself.  The book itself was really dry, and I had a lot of trouble getting through it.  Sadly, I don’t remember much of anything from the book, mostly because I couldn’t bring myself to care.

There was a lot more speculation than I thought.  We don’t know a lot about Jane Austen, so I’m okay with some speculation.  The problem is that he presents it as facts, and tells us how Jane felt, when really…how can we know what she was feeling?  And the cover was misleading- on the front cover, it says (and I quote), “the true love story that inspired the classic novels.”  The back cover mentions that Tom Lefroy, a young lawyer that Jane met, “affected her life and caught her imagination.”  It’s misleading in the fact that he’s only mentioned a few times.  And the whole “we don’t really know for sure, but her sister Cassandra would have known” thing…well, why bother making it seem like her meeting Tom Lefroy is a big deal, when it really wasn’t?

I might be somewhat accepting of the fact that Tom Lefroy may have inspired Pride and Prejudice, but I just couldn’t believe that 20 years later, she was still pining for him and that meeting him had an influence on both Persuasion and Emma.  For all the influence he supposedly had on her life, it would have been nice to learn more about him and what happened to him. 

Another thing that I didn’t like was the ending.  For a book that started back in the 1600’s, it would have been nice to see what happened with her posthumously published novels.  The book literally ends with Jane’s death, and a few more pages about how her death impacted her family. 

Rating: I have to give a 1 out of 5.  I couldn’t like it, and while I’m curious about Jane Austen and her life, this book did nothing to satisfy that curiosity.

Brightly Woven

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Book: Brightly Woven by Alexandra Woven

Pages: 354 (Hardcover)

The Review: Brightly Woven is about Sydelle Mirabil, who travels with Wayland North, an unranked wizard.  He has information that could prevent the coming war, and Sydelle is his “assistant.”

I couldn’t get into the book.  We don’t really get a lot of information about the world the characters live in, and the characters aren’t developed very well.  I thought Sydelle was a little wishy-washy, and seemed a little too perfect.  As for Wayland, he was too cryptic, and seemed really sketchy. 

The main plot was to get to the capitol to give the information about the war, but that tended to be dropped for side quests.  There were a lot of things that popped up that were really random.  The book was also inconsistent in terms of plotting and characterization, and things didn’t make a lot of sense. 

I think the best way to describe the book is disjointed.  It was as if Bracken couldn’t think of any interesting details to add in about the people and the world she created, and she jumps around a lot.  It felt empty, like I was missing something.  It felt like it was pieced together and had a lot of telling but not a lot of showing. 

Rating: 1 out of 5.  There was nothing memorable about this book, and Bracken’s world-building needs a lot of work.  It felt like I was reading the first draft.

The Iron King

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Book: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Pages: 363 (Paperback)

The Review: The Iron King is about Meghan Chase and her journey to find her younger brother Ethan.  It turns out that Meghan is the daughter of a fairy king, and her younger brother Ethan is kidnapped by the Iron King.  She journeys through the Nevernever, which is Kagawa’s version of the land where fairies and such reside.  Her best friend Robbie turns out to be Puck, from A Midsummer’s Night Dream, who leads her to Nevernever, and helps her find her brother.  She meets other people along the way, and gets into all kinds of trouble along the way.

I liked it.  Kagawa’s descriptions are amazing, and I could picture everything so vividly.  I have to say that I loved Grimalkin, who is very much like the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland.  A few times, his response to things was “I’m a cat,” and I could picture Grimalkin saying it like that explained everything.  I’m not sure what to think about Meghan, the main character.  She is impulsive, and a lot of the trouble she gets herself into could have been avoided if she listened to Puck, or if she thought things through.  But at the same time, she did want to save her brother and would do anything for him.

I did like the concept of the Iron Fey.  In The Iron King, if fairies touch iron, they could die.  The faeries aren’t a big fan of the advances made in technology and science, since science “proves” they don’t exist.  But the Iron Fey were really interesting.  The Iron Fey are fairies that evolved from the traditional fairies in the book, and they are immune to iron, and are slowly poisoning Nevernever.

I enjoyed it, and you’re left wondering what happens to Meghan at the end.  There are a couple sequels, so I may have to add those to my ever-growing list of books to read.  It was fairly fast-paced, especially the 2nd and 3rd sections.  Random side note: 1- why is dividing books into different sections so prevalent? and 2, why does everything need a sequel?

Random side note aside (read: there WILL be a blog post about this), I love reading about fairies.  I feel like fairies are going to be the new vampire, because there seem to be a lot of YA books involving fairies now…

Rating: 4 out of 5.  It’s definitely a mix of different books, but I love how vivid the descriptions are, and how I feel like I’m there with Meghan.  Add the Iron Fey, and you have a really interesting take on fairies.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels To Tractor Wheels

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Book: The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels To Tractor Wheels- A Love Story by Ree Drummond

Pages: 341 (Hardcover)

What I Thought: The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels To Tractor Wheels is the story of how Ree Drummond (also known as The Pioneer Woman) fell in love with her cowboy husband. 

I love her blog and I like her show.  I wanted to like this book, I really did.  I desperately wanted to like it. 

But I couldn’t.  I found myself hating it the more I read it. 

It’s divided into three parts- the first part was fairly decent, the second part okay, and the third part…well, it was slightly more realistic than the rest of the book.  It was readable, but read too much like a blog entry as opposed to an actual story.  Just because you’re a blog writer doesn’t mean that a book you right should sound exactly like your blog. 

I felt Ree was really shallow, and really self-absorbed.  She went on an on about how cute and amazing and thoughtful the Marlboro Man (her husband) was.  But it was really hard to see why he seemed to be so in love with her, the way she went on about clothes, shoes, make-up and how clumsy she was. 

Oh, speaking of her husband…she NEVER mentioned her husband’s real name the entire time.  NOT ONCE IN 341 PAGES DID YOU SEE HIS NAME!  I got referring to him by the Marlboro Man in the first part, since she saw him at a bar and never got his name.  However, once she started dating him, you’d think we’d get his name.  Nope, not going to happen.  Not even during their wedding was his given name mentioned.  It’s cutesy in her blog, and even the first few chapters of the book, but after a couple hundred pages, it’s not so cute anymore.  In fact, the only mention of his name is on the book jacket.  WTF, Pioneer Woman, WTF? 

She was definitely ill-prepared for being a cowboy’s wife.  The way she tells it, her husband and his family never talked to her about what it would be like living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.  She often worried about what to wear when she was going to the ranch.  It’s like it never occurred to her to ask him what she should wear.  But then again, the clothes she described didn’t seem suitable to living on a ranch.  

Ree seems to be living in a fantasy world the whole book.  She portrays her relationship with Ladd as a fairy tale, and he’s her Prince Charming.  For someone who wants to be independent, she really seems to be dependent on other people.  There’s no mention of her having a job, she spends her time at home or at Ladd’s ranch, and seems to depend on her parents for everything.  Her parents marriage falls apart, and they get a divorce, but she seems to be in denial about what’s going on.  When she isn’t, she really doesn’t seem to care that her parents are getting a divorce.  She doesn’t seem to care about Mike, her developmentally disabled brother, and often tells him to leave her alone.  She seems to gloss over a lot of really bad things, exaggerates things that really aren’t a big deal, and doesn’t ask her parents if there’s anything she can do to make things easier for them.

And as for the relationship between Ree and Ladd, I could see why she liked him and why she was attracted to him.  But nowhere did I see why he might love her.  I felt like their relationship was based more on passion and chemistry, but it seems rather surprising that it seems to be happy and successful.  Maybe I’m a cynic, but while I like a certain amount of fluff…this was way too fluffy for my tastes. 

Rating: 1 out of 5.  I didn’t like it, and while it was meant to be a sappy fairy tale, I felt a dose of realism was needed.

Fruits Basket, Volume 11

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Book: Fruits Basket, Volume 11 by Natsuki Takaya

Pages: 200 (Paperback)

What Did I Think? In Volume 11, Akito keeps the zodiac with him during the day, leaving Kyo and Tohru alone.  Akito and Kureno set off to meet the Tohru the next day, because Akito thinks that Tohru needs to learn that she is no match for him.  After seeing Kyo and Tohru having fun at the beach, Akito decides that Kyo needs to learn the lesson first.  We meet Rin Sohma, who is the horse in the zodiac, but Tohru and Yuki promise they won’t tell anyone she’s there.  Akito asks for Kyo and asks if Kyo is any closer to succeeding in the bet they had going.  Akito goes to see Tohru before leaving, and tells her to stop interfering.  Akito reveals that Kureno is the rooster, and that Akito is the god of the zodiac.  Tohru vows to break the zodiac curse.

I liked this volume, and this is the real turning point in the story.  I think this might be my favorite in the series so far, because you see Kyo wanting to protect Tohru, and realizing that it won’t be easy, and you see Tohru resolving to break the curse so her friends will be okay and so they can be free from Akito.

And of course, no volume of Fruits Basket is complete without fan art, which is always really cool to see.  We also learn about the year of the sheep.  I miss the random ultra special blah-blah-blah column, but at least she has random side notes to read, which are always interesting.

Rating: 5 out of 5.  If I could give it a higher rating, I would.

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

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Book: Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Pages: 341 (Paperback)

What Did I Think? In Chamber of Secrets (CoS), the Chamber of Secrets is opened.  Harry gets a visit from Dobby, a house-elf who works for the Malfoy family.  He warns Harry that something terrible will happen if he returns to Hogwarts.  Harry makes his way to the Weasley house after Fred, George and Ron come to get him.  He finally makes his way to Hogwarts, with Harry and Ron taking Mr. Weasley’s flying Ford Anglia since they can’t get to the Hogwarts Express.

Several students, plus Mrs. Norris get petrified by the monster in the Chamber of Secrets.  Hermione, Ron and Harry brew the Polyjuice potion to figure out who the Heir of Slytherin is.  People thought it was Harry after the school learned he was a Parselmouth (one who can speak to snakes) after an incident at the dueling club.  Moaning Myrtle is a girl who haunts the school after being killed the first time the Chamber opened, most notable the bathroom where she died.  Let’s see…we also meet Aragog, who is a spider that Hagrid found.  Everyone thought that Hagrid was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets and so he was expelled.  Aragog isn’t the creature who was in the Chamber.  In fact, Aragog is scared of the monster in the Chamber.  We find out that the monster is a basilisk, who travels the pipes…and those must be some pretty big pipes.

Ginny, Ron’s younger sister, is taken into the chamber, and Ron and Harry go to rescue her, along with Professor Lockhart.  However, Ron and Lockhart get left behind after Lockhart’s attempt to obliviate Ron and Harry backfires.  Harry saves Ginny, destroys a diary that belonged to Tom Riddle, kills the basilisk with the sword of Gryffindor, and Ginny realizes that she was possessed by Voldemort and was the one behind the attacks.

There’s a lot of adventure, and some mystery.  It’s amazing how many clues are in the book, and how a lot of the places and creatures seen in this book are important to later plot points.  There is a lot going on, and I wish could throw in every little detail, but I can’t.  Especially I want to try to practice condensing HP to a few paragraphs…this will be especially important for books 4 through 7.

Back to CoS, though, Lockhart is hilarious, and completely useless as a Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher.  Another favorite moment in CoS is when Hermione transforms into a cat (on accident, of course) after drinking the Polyjuice Potion.  While I like CoS, I think I would place it behind Sorcerer’s Stone.  A lot of the things and places and people do make another appearance somewhere in the series, and I love the details.  I love how things that don’t seem important and are insignifcant in this book show up to be more important.  One of my favorite things about CoS is that there’s still a sense of innocence.  There are some very bad, evil things in the wizarding world, but it’s far off in the distance…at least to a certail extent.  There’s no Voldemort, not really, anyway, and things are solved easily.  Things are still pretty black and white, with no real shades of grey.

Rating: 4 out of 5.  While not one of my favorites, it’s still really good, and sets up some stuff that’ll be revealed in later books.  And there’s a little bit of everything in the series, as well as this book.

Day Of The Video

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Okay, since I have no clue what to write about today, I have some videos to share.  I’ve found them in random places, but they’re really entertaining.

First, we have the Crazy Honey Badger video.  I recommend having the sound ON while watching this, because the narration is really what makes the video great.  And if you have the sound off, it’s just a bunch of nature footage.

Next is the Original Badger Song.  I never knew this video existed until I saw it posted on Facebook.  As a proud Hufflepuff, I bow down to the Badger.

The next video is the Potter Rock Anthem (Now I’m HufflePufflin).  Is it weird that I started singing along?  I think it’s one of my favorite parodies.

We R Slytherins is a parody of We R Who We R by Ke$ha.  I think I found it while watching the video above, but I can’t remember for sure.

And the final video for today is Harry Potter in 99 Seconds.  I found it over at The Last Muggle, and it’s one of my favorites.  I’m amazed they managed to condense 7 books into 99 seconds!

I hope you enjoyed the videos, I may post a few more another day.

Perfect

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Book: Perfect by Sara Shepard

Pages: 298 (Hardcover)

My Thoughts: In Volume 3, A tells Aria’s mom, Ella, that Aria’s dad (Byron) had an affair with a student.  This is after Aria ignored A’s threats.  Ella kicks Aria out of the house, so she goes to live with her boyfriend Sean and his family.  Aria still continues her affair with her English teacher.  Emily starts up a relationship with Maya, but is outed at a swim meet.  Her parents send her to Tree Tops, a program that will help Emily get over the “illness” of being gay.  Emily ignores them because she doesn’t want to change who she is.  Hanna is no longer friends with Mona, and is humiliated at Mona’s birthday party.  At the party, she gets a text from A, and recognizes the number, finally figuring out who A is.  Spencer’s family finds out that she used her sister’s economics essay in class, which may ruin her chances at getting the Golden Orchid award that she was nominated for.  They all meet at Rosewood Day School so Hanna can tell them about A, but before Hanna can do that, she is run over by a car.  The book ends with a text from A, saying that Hanna knew too much.

It’ definitely intriguing, and the mystery continues.  I really want to know who A is, and why A is putting the girls through all of this.  A definitely has some issues, since A ran someone over because they knew too much.  I get why the girls don’t want to go to the police, since they’d have to tell all of their secrets, but at the same time, they’re clearly in over their heads with all of this.  Not wanting to spill their secrets might have cost Hanna her life…but I have the distinct feeling Hanna isn’t going to die.  But people are getting hurt because of this!

There’s also a stalker in Rosewood, and this mysterious stalker is looking in people’s houses.  Emily, Hanna, Aria, and Spencer know it’s A, but don’t tell anyone.  And A sends a picture of Aria and her English teacher to Sean, who calls the police, and then dumps Aria, leaving her with nowhere to go.  Aria and her English teacher…that whole thing is such a mess.  I don’t even know where to start with that, so I’m not even going to try.

I’m getting more intrigued as I continue to read the series.  I feel like A is someone we’ve met, but overall, I really have no clue.  A is very sneaky, but since they accidentally revealed themselves, how good could they really be?  A will clearly stop at nothing to get what they want.

Rating: 4 out of 5.  It’s pretty good, and it’s consistently good.