Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie

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Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by lovely folks over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, people from all over post their own list based on the topic of the week.  You can find past Top 10 Tuesday topics here.

Top 10 Tuesday Freebie

Today is a freebie, which means we get to pick a topic of our own choosing.  I scanned through the list of previous topics for ideas, and found a few topics that sounded cool, so I decided to go with that.  Today’s list is a grab bag of topics.

Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read:

  • The Diary Of Anne Frank: It feels like everyone has read this but me.  I think I’ll be reading this sometime this summer, because I’d like to say that I’ve read it.
  • 1984: Considering the fact that I really like dystopic novels, it’s amazing I haven’t read this one yet.  I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it, but I’d like to read eventually.

Books That Made Me Cry:

  • Hate List by Jennifer Brown: I talk about this book a lot, but it’s the first-non-Harry Potter book that made me cry…that I can remember.  It’s very emotional and intense, but it was worth it when I was sitting on the couch, crying for 5 minutes after I finished it.
  • The Fault In Our Stars by John Green: I talk about John Green a lot too, but Augustus dying?  Made me sob both times I’ve read this book.

Favorite Places To Read:

  • A Coffeshop.  Any one will do, but my favorite is The Living Room.  Coffee, breakfast, and random conversations make reading there fun.
  • Bed.  I read in bed a lot, because there is nothing cooler than reading in my pajamas.

Favorite Books I Read In 2011:

  • The Hunger Games: Easily my favorite series of 2011.  Also my all-around favorite.  Need I say more?
  • The Iron Fey: I almost went with The Night Circus, but changed my mind at the last minute.  I LOVE the Iron Fey series as a whole, but The Iron Fey was great.  I love the idea of Iron fairies, and how there’s a certain segment of the fairie population that have evolved to the point that technology doesn’t make them sick.

Why I Love Book Blogging:

  • The community: Even though I’ve been posting books reviews for over a year, I’ve only started reading book blogs over the last 7 or so months.  And even then, I’ve only started commenting more over the last 2 or 3 months.  I love that people seem to be so supportive of each other, and I love seeing what’s going on!
  • The books: Not only do I get share what I’m reading, but I also get to see what other people are reading.  Some books have moved way up my to-read list because of reviews, while others have moved down.  Either way, it’s cool to see what other people think.

That’s my list!  What are some of your favorite books from 2011?  Or the books you can’t believe you haven’t read yet?

Olympics!

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I know I’m deviating from my usual weekly post on music and podcasts.  But.  I need to talk about the Olympics.  They’re almost here!  Seriously, if I could watch the Olympics all day, I would.

Of course, I’m super excited about gymnastics, swimming and diving.  I’ll probably watch trampoline (yes, that is an actual event)  and volleyball.  Maybe equestrian, if I happen to catch it.  And probably track.  No more softball or baseball, which is sad.

I looked over the schedule, and had no idea what athletics was.  Apparently that’s what they’re calling track.  Seriously, you can’t call it track and field?  But the opening and closing ceremonies should be cool.  I doubt they’ll be able to top Bejing’s opening and closing ceremonies, but that is a really tough act to follow.

July 27th to August 12 will be a super fun time.  Plus, the Olympics are a great way to break up the boredom of summer.  And there will actually be something fun to watch.  I’ve never been a huge fan of the winter Olympics, so I don’t watch it to the extent I’ll watch the summer Olympics.

If anyone wants to check out the schedule for the Olympics, or to get your Olympic fix, check out the summer 2012 website.  You can be sure I’ll be talking about the olympics a lot!

Dirty Little Secrets

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Book: Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

Book Info: Published by Walker Books For Young Readers; 212 pages; hardcover

Source: Borrowed from the library

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~C.J. Omololu

Goodreads.com Summary: Everyone has a secret. But Lucy’s is bigger and dirtier than most. It’s one she’s been hiding for years—that her mom’s out-of-control hoarding has turned their lives into a world of garbage and shame. She’s managed to keep her home life hidden from her best friend and her crush, knowing they’d be disgusted by the truth. So, when her mom dies suddenly in their home, Lucy hesitates to call 911 because revealing their way of life would make her future unbearable—and she begins her two-day plan to set her life right.

With details that are as fascinating as they are disturbing, C. J. Omololu weaves an hour-by-hour account of Lucy’s desperate attempt at normalcy. Her fear and isolation are palpable as readers are pulled down a path from which there is no return, and the impact of hoarding on one teen’s life will have readers completely hooked.
I really liked Dirty Little Secrets.  It’s a great look at the life of someone who’s related to a hoarder.
I loved the hour by hour account of Lucy’s life after discovering her mother has died.  I liked how it focused on Lucy trying to figure what to do, and how to make her life normal.
It didn’t delve into a lot of the issues surrounding hoarding, but considering it’s Lucy’s story, I’m okay with that.  I thought her mother was interesting (although a bit annoying) and her older sister was really interesting as well.  You’d think that after seeing what their mother was like, her sister wouldn’t be a hoarder.  But then again, if it’s all you’ve known…
It was nice to see a novel dealing with hoarding that focused on the family, because it is something that has an effect on people who live with the person hoarding.  I feel like hoarding tends to focus on the hoarder, and not anyone connected to them, so it was very refreshing to Lucy’s story.
It gets a 4 out of 5.  It is simply told over the span of a day, making it somewhat intense.  But it doesn’t delve too deep into the issues surrounding hoarding, which could have added something extra to the book.

Identical

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Book: Identical by Ellen Hopkins, Narrated by Laura Flanagan

Book Info: Published by HighBridge Company; Run Time: 8 hours, 42 minutes; downloaded from public library via Overdrive

Genre: YA/Contemporary

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Ellen Hopkins

Goodreads.com Summary: In the latest hard-hitting YA novel by the “New York Times” bestselling author, 16-year-old identical twin girls must come to terms with their abusive father. 

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for Congress.

Everything on the surface of their lives seems Norman Rockwell perfect, but underneath run deep and damaging secrets. 

Kaeleigh is the good girl-her father’s perfect flower, something she has tried so hard to be since she was nine and he started sexually abusing her. She cuts herself and vomits after every binge, desperate to feel something normal. R

aeanne uses painkillers, drugs, alcohol, and sex to numb the pain of not being Daddy’s favorite. Both girls must figure out how to become whole, but how can they when their world has been torn to shreds? 

I’m not sure what to think about this book.  I really liked it, but at the same time, it was slightly twisted and somewhat disturbing.  It got a little too descriptive at times, which made it hard to listen to, and yet, I could not stop listening.

The idea of twin sisters narrating the novel was interesting, but there were times when I couldn’t figure out who was narrating.  I know they’re identical and all, but at the beginning, I couldn’t tell the two apart, so a little bit of variation in Flanagan’s voice would have been nice.

There was a point at the beginning of the novel where I wondered if they had a simply who died in the car accident that’s mentioned in the novel.  But I dismissed that idea until the end, when I wondered if the twin thing was a hallucination.  After all, the twins never interacted with each other, just their group of friends and their parents.  I thought the ending was a not-so-surprising surpise.  I wasn’t expecting Kaeleigh to be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder), but the fact that her other identity was her dead twin sister was not a surprise.

It felt like an easy way out, for that to be thrown in at the end.  I will admit that it didn’t occur to me until the end of the book that there was something weird going on, and the ending was somewhat dissatisifying.

Something else that got old was the hinting at unrevealed secrets, but it did keep you reading, and you were never quite sure what was going on.  A few ideas did come to mind, but I dismissed them as being too obvious.  It was more predictable than I expected, but maybe that’s because I wasn’t expecting it to be so predictable.

As for the actual narration, I thought it worked really well as an audiobook.  Other than not being able to distinguish between the 2 narrators at the beginning, Flanagan did do a good job narrating.  There is something very poetic about the Hopkins writes and that translates well to being narrated.

Overall, it gets a 4 out of 5.  I really liked it, and while there were a few issues I had with the book, it was really engrossing.

Awakening

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Book: Awakening by Karice Bolton

Book Info: Published by Purely Persistent; 220 pages; purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA: Paranormal- Angels

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Karice Bolton

Goodreads.com Summary: Alone in snowy, remote Whistler village, Ana tries to build a new life since losing her parents. With a cozy condo, a sweet-faced bulldog and an evening job to leave the days free for the slopes, life slips into a great routine. If only she could shake the guilt for not remembering anything about her parents and banish the night terrors that haunt her every dream.

On a whim, Ana goes out with Athen, a guy she’s just met in the Grizzly Pub… The only problem is that she feels like she already knows him. 

Within 48 hours of meeting Athen and his family, Ana’s world implodes. She falls for Athen quickly and before she knows it, a past life begins to resurface. As thrilling as the revelations appear at first, she fights against the chilling information that Athen is from the underworld. Soon she begins to struggle as her own supernatural gifts are slowly unveiled, and she realizes that the nightmares she’s been having might be premonitions and not dreams at all.
It is up to Ana to decipher between fact and fiction before it is too late, and her new love, Athen, follows in her same fate – one that is lost between two worlds.

I really struggled to get through this book.  I liked the angel lore, but the story seemed confusing at times.

I really felt like I was missing part of the story, like all the parts we needed were edited out or something.  It did feel like a lot of it was filler, and I kept waiting for something interesting to happen.  The love story was pretty unconvincing too.  There’s no explanation about what happens to Ana’s parents and how she ended up in Whistler with her own condo while working at the diner.

We were told what was happening, which made it hard to be engaged with and care about what was going on.  I didn’t feel like I was present to what was going on.  And the characters were really bland.  I just didn’t care about them, and I certainly didn’t care that Athen “died” at the end.

Everything just felt so forced, and that is why I have to give a 1 out of 5.  Interesting idea, but unfortunately, it didn’t keep me interested.

Cinder

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Book: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Book Info: Published by Feiwel & Friends; 387 pages; hardcover; borrowed from the library

Genre: YA: Science Fiction/Fairy Tale

Find Out More: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Marissa Meyer

Goodreads.com Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

I finally finished Cinder, and I really liked it.  But how could you not like a cyborg Cinderella?

Cinder is a really interesting and unique take on the story of Cinderella, with the story set in New Bejing, populated with the Lunar people, cyborgs and androids.  I love the science fiction element of it, and that it relies on the “magic” of science.  I liked that it took place in Asia, which is a nice change from a fairy tale re-telling being set in Europe.

I could see everything so clearly, and while there wasn’t a lot of backstory, I didn’t mind, because I was so engrossed with what was going on in the present.  I can’t help but wonder what happens to Cinder after leaving New Bejing, and how things will play.  The book did end on a cliffhanger, and I just wanted to know more!

It was clear that it was a Cinderella story, but at the same time, it is so clearly different than Cinderella.  One thing that I didn’t think about until I finished the book is the fact that there is no incorporation of Chinese culture.  The fact that the book mentions New Bejing is the only indication of its setting.  Otherwise, you’d have no clue of it’s setting.

It gets a 4 out of 5.  I didn’t love it, but it really is a different take on Cinderella.  While predictable, it was enjoyable and engrossing.  Plus, it started out as a NaNoWriMo novel, which is pretty awesome in my book.

Spam

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Sometimes, I get spam comments.  Sometimes, they are hilarious, and I have no idea why it just occurred to me to share some of them.

The first one is in reference to my review of Illuminate.

I’ll get my complaints out of the way. I hate resort fees. It’s so deceiving, you think you’re getting a good deal then you’re hit with a $25 or sometimes even more resort fee. Why can’t they just do a straight forward price? That’s why I like booking with Harrahs properties.The other bad thing? Our room keys stopped working after a housekeeper walked in at 10pm. Okay, first of all, if I wasn’t so tired from walking around and not having slept the night before, I would have flipped out and called management on her. She had no business in our room and didn’t even do a courtesy knock, just slipped her key in and let herself in our room. WTF?!This is also the first hotel I’ve stayed at where they don’t have a double lock on the door that will let you prevent such housekeepers from disturbing your privacy even though you already have the do not disturb sign hanging on the door knob.Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what I liked:- Newly renovated rooms! Comfy bed, oh my! Flat screen and rather beautiful decor. Love the shades, we left it open so when I woke up at the crack of dawn, I enjoyed the view.- Grand Pool: wow, wow, and another wow. Considering that this is the first time I’ve ever been to a Vegas pool, I was rather impressed. Multiple pools and a lazy river? Yes, please!!! We took a lap at the lazy river and it was really fun. We didn’t even have floaters, just walked and sometimes swam and floated. All their pools are 3 1/2 feet deep from what I saw.- Take the customer survey. Not only do they give you a 20% off on your next stay, you might even get a reply addressing your concerns from their management. Right now, they are undergoing renovations and are pushing reservations by offering 15% off and free buffets with two night minimum stays.Sorry MGM, can’t say I’m a fan of your resort fees!

I don’t even know where to start with this, but it amused me to see complaints about MGM.  Thank you, search engine marketing, for the few minutes of entertainment you have given me.

So, the other spam comment is this one, a comment on my Top 10 Beach Reads.

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to mostly be top notch. I soul a weblog also and require to repost several shears
of your articles on my own diary site. Should it be alright
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If I didn’t know where to begin for the last one, I really have no idea where to start with this nonsensical comment.  Seriously.

I think I’ll be sharing random spam comments periodically.  And Happy July 4th!

Top 10 Books For People Who Like Laurie Halse Anderson

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Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the lovely people over at The Broke And The Bookish.  Every week, people from all over post their own top 10 lists based on the topic of the week.  You can find previous Top 10 Tuesdays here.

Top 10 Books For People Who Like Laurie Halse Anderson

I love, love, love this topic!  In fact, it’s not only my favorite one that I’ve done, but it’s the one that’s been the easiest.  I love Laurie Halse Anderson, and I’ve been a fan of hers ever since I read Speak in high school.  I love how real her characters are, and how she writes about different issues in an honest, very real way.  Speak was really the book I had in mind for this post, so pretty much every book was chosen in relation to Speak.

  1. Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  This is the first book I thought of, and it’s a book that I’m still thinking about months after reading it.  It’s an intense emotional book, but the characters were so real and I felt like I knew exactly what they were going through.
  2. After by Amy Efaw.  I liked that Efaw wrote about teen pregnancy and the consequences of child abandoment.  The plot is why I’m recommending it to Laurie Halse Anderson fans- she doesn’t seem to be scared to write about things that teens might be going through.
  3. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.  I can’t get this book out of my mind. At all.  Again, it’s not something I would think of teens going through, but I’m sure it happens.  I felt like it was a pretty realistic portrayal, which is why I recommend it.
  4. Don’t Breathe A Word by Holly Cupala.  I know this is a book Anderson fans will like, and it’s because of Joy.  She’s a great character, and her feelings of suffocation are something fans of Speak and Wintergirls will relate to.
  5. Looking For Alaska by John Green.  This is the first of 2 John Green books on the list.  This one is recommendedto Anderson fans because Green writes great characters that are so easy to relate to.
  6. Exposed by Kimberly Marcus.  This one made my list simply because it deals with rape in a different way than Speak.  You see that things are not always black-and-white, and fans of Speak will definitely like this book.
  7. By The Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Ann Peters.  This book makes the list because of what Melinda and Daelyn go through at school. It wasn’t easy at school for both girls, and I think that’s something that fans of Anderson will like about this book.
  8. Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu.  So I’m not done with this book yet.  But based on what I’ve read so far, I think this is a book that would be a good read for Anderson fans.  It definitely makes the list because of how Omololu dealt with hoarding.  I really like Lucy, and how she’s hiding this terrible secret that could come out at any minute.  It definitely reminds me of Melinda and how she kept her rape a secret.
  9. North Of Beautiful by Justina Chen Hedley.  Now that I think about it, there’s something about Terra and Melinda that remind me of me.  Plus, they’re both great characters.  I think people who can relate to Melinda will like and relate to Terra.
  10. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.  The other John Green book to make this, this one is included because of the colorful, interesting characters, and the way he dealt with an issue like cancer without making it cliche.

That’s my list!  What other books will Laurie Halse Anderson fans enjoy?

Audiobooks!

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Today, I’m taking a break from talking about music and podcasts and I’ll be talking audiobooks!

For the longest time, I didn’t like audiobooks.  Something about listening to them bothered me, and I just couldn’t get over the idea of listening to books. But my attitude towards them has changed.  If it means more people are reading, then I’m all for that.  And I listen to podcasts, so why not books?

The couple I’ve listened to had really good narrators, and while I take notes of what I’m thinking, it’s been kind of cool listening them.  I still have a few to get through, but I’m contemplating getting an Audible subscription.  I did get a free audiobook via The History Chicks.

As for buying them, I honestly don’t know if I’ll do that.  Between the library, and possibly audible, I think I’m good on audiobooks for now.  But if I find something I really like, I might end up buying it.  But we shall see, and I’ll definitely keep talking about them as I keep listening to them.

I just can’t believe it took me so long to listen to audiobooks.  Seriously.

Random t.v. thoughts: I watched the Olympic trials for female gymnastics over the weekend, and it was really exciting.  It was so sad to see Nastia fall on bars (twice!) and her fall the second night was so scary!  And it’s sad because bars is like, her event.  It was exciting to see Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber make the team, but not surprising.  But sad to see Nastia not make the team.  It looks like a good team, and I can’t wait until the Olympics start!

Have a lovely Monday!

June Wrap-Up

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So, I thought I’d recap the month of June, blogging wise.  I’ve seen it on a couple of book blogs I follow, and I kind of like the idea.

So, I’ve read and reviewed 18 books in the last month.  I’m not going to link to every single book, but you can find all of my book reviews in the 2012 archives.  Just scroll down to June.

I’ve also done all the Top 10 Tuesday posts for the month of June, and I have to say, I’m so glad I decided to participate.  I tend to read books for fun, think about it on a pretty superficial level and leave it at that.  But it does get me to think about what I’m reading in an interesting, fun and different way.  Plus, I’ve found some cool blogs because of it, and it’s interesting to see how the lists are similar to or are different from my own list.

And reading!  I’ll be reading, of course.  Here’s what I plan on reading this month:

  • Cinder.  I’m almost done with it, so a review should be coming in the next week or so.
  • Awakening by Karice Bolton.  Another book I’m almost done with, but I’m not in any hurry to finish it.
  • The First Queen Of England: The Myth Of Bloody Mary by Linda Porter.  It’s definitely interesting, and one I need to finish soon.
  • An Abundance Of Katherines by John Green.  I’m currently on a John Green kick, especially after reading Looking For Alaska.
  • Supernaturally by Kierstan White.  I need to finish this one this month, because the next book, Endlessly, comes out later this month.

Those are just a few of the books I’m reading right now, but there are definitely more books that are just waiting to be read, so expect the normal level of reviews I’ve been doing all year.  Oh, and my reading challenge goal keeps going up.  I started out the year with 115, and I’ve since increased it to 200 books.  It might change again, but I should probably wait a while before I do that.

And as usual, I’ll keep talking about music, podcasts and more!  Here’s a great month, full of fun things!