tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25244774567885098262024-03-13T12:20:55.715-07:00The Lit GirlAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.comBlogger161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-54204297163511644612014-09-01T13:48:00.001-07:002014-09-01T13:48:05.605-07:00Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-style: italic;">WATER FOR ELEPHANTS</b> by Sara Gruen</div>
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<b>PUBLISHER:</b> Algonquin Books</div>
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<b>PUBLICATION DATE:</b> January 1st, 2006</div>
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<b>PAGE COUNT:</b> 333</div>
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<b>SOURCE/FORMAT:</b> Library book! </div>
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<b>KEYWORDS:</b> circus, freak show, scary job yo</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43641.Water_for_Elephants?from_search=true">ADD TO GOODREADS</a></div>
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Jacob Jankowski thought he had a plan. He was about to graduate from an Ivy League school with his veterinary degree, and then he was going to partner up with his dad's practice. But when his parents unexpectedly die, and he learns that his father was working for trade on the pet's of Depression-crippled families instead of for money, he looses everything. So he does what any orphaned son would do in the 30's: he hops a train. But it's not just any ol' freighter, it's the train for the <i>Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth! </i>Jacob soon becomes ensnared in the world of workers vs performers, exotic animals, freaks, bootleg liquor, and the lovely Marlena. It doesn't take long for him to learn that the circus is just a big illusion, and you should never mix work with love. </div>
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I love me a good circus story. I ate up <i style="font-weight: bold;">GEEK LOVE</i> by Katherine Dunn, and I am way too excited for the new season of <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/american-horror-story-first-look-728545">American Horror Story</a>. For some reason, I have just always been drawn into the world of circus' and freak shows, despite never having been to one myself. For some reason I wasn't sure, fully, if I wanted to read this. Mostly because it was <i>sooooo</i> popular a few years ago, and it's been made into a movie and I'll admit that I was definitely pleasantly surprised. I actually ate this book up in two and a half days. This book reads lightning fast, the pacing is really nice and the writing style is simple enough to just flow on and on and on. In each page there is a new revelation or piece of action that kept me glued to the page, and as I was reading it was playing like a movie in my head which I loved. There was super great descriptions, and Gruen does a fab job at pulling the reader into the world of a 1930's circus which I was OBSESSED WITH. </div>
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That moment, the music screeched to a halt. There was an ungodly collision of brass, reed, and percussion--trombones and piccolos skidded into cacophony, a tuba farted, and the hollow clang of a cymbal wavered out of the big top, over our head and into oblivion.<br />
Grady froze, crouched over his burger with his pinkies extended and lips spread wide.<br />
I looked from side to side. No one moved a muscle--all eyes were directed at the big top. A few wisps of hay swirled lazily across the hard dirt.<br />
"What is it? What's going on?" I said.<br />
"<i>Shh</i>," Grady hissed.<br />
The band started up again, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever."<br />
"Oh Christ. Oh shit!" Grady tossed his food onto the table and leaf up, knocking over the bench.<br />
"What? What is it?" I yelled, because he was already running away from me.<br />
"The Disaster March!" he screamed over his shoulder.<br />
I jerked around to the fry cook who was ripping off his apron. "What the hell's he talking about?"<br />
"The Disaster March," he said, wrestling the apron over his head. "Means something's gone bad--real bad." </blockquote>
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That was on the <i>second page</i>. With a hook like that, how could you not get sucked into the action? As perfect as the pacing and world building was in this novel, I did take issue with one of the major plot lines which was the budding relationship between Jacob and the horse girl Marlena. Jacob gets adopted into the show as the circus vet, an easy in once he mentions he was about to have an Ivy League education. He's never worked on a circus, is unfamiliar with the lingo, and feels like giving up. Then he catches a glimpse of the liberty horses act, lead by the beautiful and delicate Marlena. After seeing the magic of her act and the love she has for the horses, he makes a pact to stay. For the animals, and because there's a big case of LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT for Jacob with Marlena. The issue with Marlena is that she is married to Jacob's boss August, the Equestrian Director. While their relationship was sweet sometimes, I didn't fully buy that she was worth the risk, and there are A LOT of risks when it comes to falling in love with your boss' wife. We see August being a terrible human/incapable of being a good husband to Marlena, but we don't really see what makes her so special. She didn't have much of a personality, despite her having such a large presence in the circus. </div>
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Despite the somewhat flat relationship between Jacob and Marlena, there were a lot of other solid relationships between friends and enemies. I felt like a fly on Jacob's shoulder as he navigated the world of caring for exotic animals, and learned the shady, shady ways of Uncle Al, the owner of the <i>Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth</i>. There are a lot of characters that I really like, but I didn't trust a single person. This kept the tension high throughout the entire novel, and I didn't know what to fully expect. There is also a lot of drama of all kinds. Police raids! Sex with the cooch girl! Loving your boss' wife! Drunken brawls! The constant threat of being red lighted! At every page turn there was always something happening to push the story forward and keep things engaging.<br />
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I'm blubbering like the ancient fool I am, that's what.<br />I guess I was asleep. I could have sworn that just a few seconds ago I was twenty-three, and now here I am in this wretched, desiccated body.<br />I sniff and wipe my stupid tears, trying to pull myself together because that girl is back, the plump one in pink. She either worked all night or I lost track of a day. I hate not knowing which.<br />I also wish I could remember her name, but I can't. That's how it is when you're ninety. Or ninety-three. </blockquote>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">WATER FOR ELEPHANTS</i> is told in two time frames. There is the young Jacob working for the circus, and there is the old Jacob, who is living out the rest of his life in a nursing home. Old Jacob's life is not that interesting, and the parts of his story as an old man were not as engaging to me. The big story is that there is a circus being set up in the parking lot across the street, and this is what spurs Jacob into thinking about the golden days. Even though this collision of his past and present was intriguing, there just wasn't enough happening. I would've preferred to read a whole book (and maybe a second) about Jacob's life on the circus and working with the animals. Also, the way the book ends made me give an eye roll of epic proportions. I just wasn't about it :(<br />
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Even though I was't a fan of the 'present' Jacob and his relationship with Marlena on the circus, <i style="font-weight: bold;">WATER FOR ELEPHANTS</i> was a truly engaging read that was hard for me to put down. I was fully immersed in the world of a Prohibition-era circus, and there was a lot of drama that made this a quick, quick read.<br />
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<i>Have you read this book or seen the movie? What did you think? How does the movie add up? (I still need to see it!)</i></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-31270310960247180092014-08-29T09:54:00.002-07:002014-08-29T09:54:52.120-07:00Review: 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER</i> by Jessica Brody</div>
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<b>PUBLISHER:</b> Farrar, Straus & Giroux</div>
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<b>PUBLICATION DATE:</b> July 3, 2012</div>
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<b>PAGE COUNT: </b>353</div>
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<b>SOURCE/FORMAT: </b>Library book! </div>
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<b>KEYWORDS: </b>celebrity, heiress, shit jobs, family</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9791906-52-reasons-to-hate-my-father">Add to Goodreads</a></div>
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Lexington Larrabee is about to be a multi-millionaire, and she hasn't had to do an hour of work for it. Unless partying in major cities around the globe and being hounded by the paparazzi is work. She is the daughter of <i>the</i> Richard Larrabee, after all, and heiress to the Larrabee Media empire. She's been surrounded by money her whole life, but she is just days away from receiving her $25 million dollar trust fund check on her eighteenth birthday. She has big plans for this check. A summer cruise in Europe, and then getting the hell out of her lavish yet empty feeling home, and away from the critical eye of her rarely present father. Then, after a drunken night out, she crashes her $500,000 Mercedes into the front of a convenience store, and her father decides that enough is enough: if she wants her trust fund check, she has to work 52 low wage jobs, one per week, for a year. Before she knows it, her summer plans turn from partying in Europe, to learning how to assemble burritos and use a vacuum. If she didn't hate her father already, this is surely the final nail in the coffin. Or so she thinks.</div>
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Guilty pleasure confession time: I love the shit out of stuff like this. I keep up with the Kardashians. I'm sadly addicted to the Kim Kardashian Hollywood app. I read the entire <i style="font-weight: bold;">GOSSIP GIRL</i> series in high school. I watch Rich Kids of Beverly Hills. Etc. Etc. For some reason, I've always been drawn to the lifestyles of the rich and the famous, and when I read the premise of this book, I knew it was something I would probably eat up. It reminded me of that ol' classic show, The Simple Life, and after a particularly dark read, I needed some fluff in my life. </div>
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Lexington Larrabee is one sassy bitch, and I loved that. It's apparent that she has been raised in a rich household, in bratty and sad ways. When she first learns of her father's plans to withhold her trust fund check, she tries to skip town to her birthday bash in Vegas. Much to her dismay, her butler won't drive her to the airport. When she drives herself there, the pilot won't fly her, and her quick thinking is really put into overdrive. It was hilarious to read her inner tantrums over being met with resistance, and the way she comes to conclusions on how to do things. It is also painfully obvious that her father is not around much. Her mother died when she was young, and every 'warm' family moment with her father and his string of short-lived marriages is done for the benefit of a magazine photographer. Her strained relationship with him made me think this book should have been called <i style="font-weight: bold;">52 (MORE) REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER</i>, just because he didn't seem to have any redeeming qualities, even before she had to start working. </div>
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Bruce looks like he's stifling a chuckle, which manages to piss me off even more..."These jobs are...well, slightly less glamorous. Minimum-wage-type stuff. Intended to teach you something about life. To show you how the other half lives."<br />"What <i>other </i>half?" I snarl.<br />"The half that doesn't receive a five-hundred-thousand-dollar Mercedes convertible and then crash it into a convenience store the very next day."<br />...Bruce hands me a piece of paper. "Here's a complete listing of the jobs you'll be undertaking over the next year. You're schedule to start tomorrow."<br />I gruffly snatch the paper from his hand and glance over the list. It seems to go on forever. My eyes graze over words like <i>janitor, waitress, dishwasher, fast-food restaurant employee, </i>and <i>gas station attendant</i>, and I can't bear to read any further. I chuck the paper back in his direction. "No frickin' way I'm doing any of those things!"</blockquote>
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Lexington is accompanied to each job by Luke, an intern for her father's company who ensures that she get to each job on time. Their relationship is strained, to say the least. Luke looks up to Lexington's father, and Lexington can't ever figure out why, especially because he's not much of a father. Also, Luke is the one who has to take her to the dreaded jobs which is bad enough as it is. It was funny watching Lexington try to keep up with her new jobs, and the overdramatic way that she handles her "bruised and battered" body from doing manual labor. Some jobs she genuinely loves, some jobs she loathes, and some jobs it's only her co-workers that make it something worthwhile. Each week she is also required to send in a progress report with what she learned from each job. Sometimes she takes this seriously, other time she just learns that cleaning toilets sucks. These progress reports were also a good way for us to read about her 52 jobs, without having to read about her going to all of them. I especially loved the reasoning for each job, which we learn at the end. It was actually a powerful message, and it really got through to Lexington. </div>
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So <i>this</i> is what real families do.<br />They talk. Make each other laugh. Dole out warm smiles and tender looks as freely as the sun doles out light.<br />They sit together in one place. At one table. Sharing one meal. Without a photographer there to document it for the next issue of <i>Time</i> magazine.<br />And then, like an arctic wind, the reality of the situation hits me with an empty sting.<br />They're not the strange and unfamiliar ones. <i>I</i> am. I'm the one who doesn't fit in. I'm the one who no one can quite figure out. </blockquote>
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Being the reality-TV-pop-culture junkie that I am, I also enjoyed seeing 'behind the scenes' of a family like this. The glamorous parties. All of 'the help.' The strong presence of media manipulation and a hounding publicist who is obsessed with image. I really liked getting that perspective into this world. I also appreciated how much Lexington, and even her father, grows out of this experience. At first it seems like she won't make it the full 52 weeks, but there are small things that she takes away from each job that ultimately molds her. Honestly, out of the end I would have really loved an <i>Undercover Boss</i> type moment where she reaches out to people she worked with and 'blesses' them in some way, but I thought the end was still pretty darn touching. </div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER</i> was the fluff I was wanting out of this read, but it ended up being much more than I expected! There's main character growth, a sassy narrator, and an inside look into the life of an heiress trying to earn a living like everyone else. I did wish that there was something about her father closer to the beginning that could help us like him a little before he dumps this on her, but he ends up growing by the end of this book, too. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-72934001155269420342014-08-22T21:05:00.001-07:002014-08-23T13:16:58.150-07:00Review: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8pkkRJh8Pg9Cs38u9KDC4WD4sYUOzwSRvtlpE1peo3KUmAOUJ3IFRyTIL3VZhwxmptg3IukDU9yNN7Rhs1EEAyNANielYC6xnOXSdO8E1na37Dv5eYJNFiCcxbBj7oc5FyoE25z8X9u2/s1600/to+all+the+boyz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8pkkRJh8Pg9Cs38u9KDC4WD4sYUOzwSRvtlpE1peo3KUmAOUJ3IFRyTIL3VZhwxmptg3IukDU9yNN7Rhs1EEAyNANielYC6xnOXSdO8E1na37Dv5eYJNFiCcxbBj7oc5FyoE25z8X9u2/s1600/to+all+the+boyz.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE</i> by Jenny Han</div>
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<b>PUBLISHER: </b>Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers</div>
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<b>PUBLICATION DATE:</b> April 15, 2014 </div>
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<b>PAGE COUNT:</b> 355</div>
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<b>SOURCE/FORMAT:</b> Library book! </div>
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<b>KEYWORDS:</b> sister relationships, love letters, first loves</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18051352-to-all-the-boys-i-ve-loved-before">Add to Goodreads</a><br />
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Every girl handles love lost differently. Some choose to cry it out over their favorite sappy movie. Others eat it away with a pint (or two) of Ben and Jerry's. And Lara Jean chooses to write love letters to the former objects of her affection. She doesn't ever send them, God no, she tucks them safely away in a vintage hat box in her closet. But then one day at school, Peter, one of the boys she's written letters to, approaches her with a note that looks mighty familiar. The impossible became possible. Her love letters, five of them exactly, have been shipped out to all of the boys she's loved before. As if she needed something else to deal with. Her hold-it-together big sister Margot has just moved to Europe, and now she has to take care of her dad and little sister, all while doing damage control for her letter. </div>
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There has been a lot of hype around this book since it came out (on my birthday!) and I dragged my feet on picking it up for some reason. I don't know if it was the fact that this book is so highly praised or if it was because I haven't been in a fluffy reading mood, but now I regret that I waited so freaking long to pick this up! The best part was this book was not at all what I expected it to be. The general synopsis of this book pointed me in the direction of really awkward boy drama. Lara Jean is forced to confront these boys all of a sudden, some of which she has only communicated to through these love letters, so there is a lot of awkward drama, but that isn't what is at the heart of this story. </div>
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I like to save things. Not important things like whales or people or the environment. Silly things. Porcelain bells, the kind you get at souvenir shops. Cookie cutters you'll never use, because who needs a cooke in the shape of a foot? Ribbons for my hair. Love letters. Of all the things I save, I guess you could say my love letters are my most prized possessions. </blockquote>
I'll get into the boys later, because I kind of have to, duh. But first I want to talk about the amazing SISTERHOOD that is in this story. I loved that Lara Jean's older sister Margot, and younger sister Kitty, were the real stars of this novel, even before the boys. I wasn't expecting this book to have such a strong family presence so it was a pleasant surprise. Lara Jean goes through it all with her sisters. They've made pacts. They look out for each other. They lie for each other. They make compromises for each other. Each sister is also so full of personality, and Han perfectly executed what makes having a sister so special. I especially loved Kitty. She was so full of sass for being nine years old, and her timing of things to say was awesome. She is also notorious for holding a grudge, and Lara Jean has to crack the nearly impossible code of making her sibling happy again. The three girls live alone with their father, and their mother had died when they were younger. I loved that even with their mother not there, they did things to keep her spirit alive. Even their father wasn't there as much as an OB/GYN doctor, but when he was around, he got thumbs up. He is white, and does all he can to keep up with their Korean traditions, and tries really hard to be there for them.<br />
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It takes all of history class and most of English for my heart rate to slow down. I kissed Peter Kavinsky. In the hallway, in front of everybody. In front of Josh.<br />
I didn't think this thing through, obviously. That's what Margot would say, including and especially the "obviously." If I <i>had</i> thought it through, I would have made up a boyfriend and not picked an actual person. More specifically, I would not have picked Peter K. He is literally the worst person I could have picked, because everybody knows him. He's Peter Kavinsky, for Pete's sake. Kavinsky of Gen and Kavinsky. It doesn't matter that they're broken up. They're an institution at this institution. </blockquote>
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Now for the boys. I was so torn on them. I think that the focus of this books synopsis being on them lead to me believe that there would be a LOT of boy drama, when really the drama was not that crazy. Of the five letters that get sent out, only two of them really stir the pot, and that is with Josh, and Peter. The problem with Josh is that he has been in a long-term relationship with Margot, even though Lara Jean knows that she is the one who loved him first. Peter is the ultimate boy to have a crush on in high school, who Lara Jean hasn't had feelings for since junior high. The boys were just fine. Each one had their own quirks and didn't fall into a stereotypical role. I also super appreciated the fact that Jenny Han did not make Lara Jean's love life predictable. I thought for sure that I had her fate pinned down, but it changes in a way that is realistic and surprising. </div>
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I cross my arms. "I'd better still have enough flour."<br />
"You look like a grandma," he says, still laughing.<br />
"Well, you look like a grandpa," I counter. I dump the flour in my mixing bowl back into the flour canister.<br />
"Actually, you're really a lot like my granny," Peter says. "You hate cussing. You like to bake. You stay at home on Friday nights. Wow, I'm dating my granny. Gross." </blockquote>
I really enjoyed Lara Jean's narration. There are a lot of different sides to her that we get to see in action. She's quirky with a lot of cute interests like baking and scrapbooking. She orders clothes off of Japanese Street Fashion websites, and I imagine her having the cutest bedroom on the planet. She's not overly academic like her sister Margot was, but she's smart. She's half Korean, and when I thought about it, I don't think I've ever read a book with a Korean narrator ever? I liked getting little glimpses into the Song girl's culture, whether it's the <i>bo ssam</i> that their father tries and fails to make, or their holiday traditions brought into their world by their mother. Even though Peter (above) describes Lara Jean as a granny, I thought she was a wonderfully well-rounded narrator that was able to make me laugh, make me cry, make me shake my head, and teach me things. She was fabulous.<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE</i> is a book that definitely lives up to the hype that swirls around it. It is a quirky story filled with family bonds and the awkward world of getting involved with boys. I believe this is the first book of a new series, so color me excited for the next one! I definitely won't wait so long to read it :)<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-37154047587486836172014-08-17T13:32:00.000-07:002014-08-17T13:32:02.222-07:00Bookish Street Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of my favorite things about my Chicago neighborhood is there is so much awesome street art. Today after taking our bikes in for a tune-up and my boyfriend getting a hair trim, we took a ride down a street that is full of art from some of the best around. This was a sweet surprise, so of course I had to take my picture in front of it. I LOVE it. Took me back to that time I saw some <a href="http://www.thelitgirl.com/2013/05/all-eyes-on-maya.html">Maya Angelou street art</a> last year. Officially adding "bookish street art" to the list of things I love.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-1147014749726819902014-08-17T10:13:00.005-07:002014-08-25T06:22:50.305-07:00Bout of Books Read-a-Thon 11 Goals & Updates! <center>
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<a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" title="Bout of Books"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Bout of Books" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVvZzPcDsn1t95RYYQBdEeu9EGQlZcO_gpq1t8NdUwqyp62UPPC-pQPEGZ4tp8b661EnFDZGxLc9dSD-dJPGGQqXWJKgBvtr4GMC1hJeQKtt9EBkevs9A0Yd8B-AA8eOfyhA8p3Np6W8_F/s200-no/" style="border: none;" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am so excited for the Bout of Books read-a-thon! When I did it in May, I was actually a little surprised by how much I enjoyed pushing myself to read when I typically wouldn't. I also super loved connecting with other bloggers in the Twitter chats, and participating in the different challenges. These read-a-thon's also always seem to come at the perfect time when I'm in a bit of a reading slump, or not reading as much as I would typically like to. Without further ado, here are my goals & updates for the week! Check back to this post to see how I'm doing on my challenges and progress :) </span><br />
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Time Devoted to Reading</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My goals for reading are much like my goals during the last read-a-thon. I want to dedicate my commutes to reading. I commute via bus and train about 40 minutes each way, so that's a perfect opportunity! I would also like to commit at least half of my lunch break to reading. I started a new job last month (which I LOVE) and I get an hour long lunch break. the other half of my lunch break will be like...spent eating. I would also like to try to go to bed earlier so I can read a little before I fall asleep. </span></div>
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My Goals</span></h2>
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<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Read </span><b style="line-height: 18px;">three</b><span style="line-height: 18px;"> books. Last year my goal was to read 2 and I read </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">more</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> than that, so I wanted to challenge myself more ;) </span></span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Participate in two twitter chats. </span></span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Participate in the challenges <b>every day.</b></span></span></li>
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Books to Read</span></h2>
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<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>To All the Boys I've Loved Before</u> by Jenny Han. I've already started this, but I'm only twenty pages in. </span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>One Last Thing Before I Go</u> by Jonathan Tropper</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>Scott Pilgrim #4</u> by Bryan Lee O'Malley</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine</u> by Alina Bronsky</span></li>
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Updates</span></h2>
<b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">M O N D A Y AUGUST 18TH</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Books read today: </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Pages read: 86</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1, <u>To All the Boys I've Loved Before</u> by Jenny Han</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 0</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Challenge:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Book Scavenger Hunt hosted by </span><a href="http://thebookmonsters.com/" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">The Book Monsters</a>. Follow me on Instagram @kittenroar to see my finds!<br />
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Bookish Playlist hosted by <a href="http://lulofangirl.com/">Lulo Fangirl</a>! I loved this challenge! It was supposed to be a book we are reading this week, but a playlist is easier to make when you know the vibe of the story, so I chose one of my favorites :)<br />
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<b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">T U E S D A Y AUGUST 19TH</span></b><br />
<b>Books read today: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 1, <u>To All the Boys I've Loved Before</u> by Jenny Han</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Total pages read: 310</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Challenge:</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 18px;">After much thought, a new OTP came to mind in the OTP challenge hosted by <a href="http://infiniteink671.blogspot.com/2014/08/bout-of-books-one-true-pairing-giveaway.html">Infinite Ink</a>: </span><br />
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My bookish OTP: Georgie McCool and Seth. Mostly because he joked about Gossip Girl. And dat chemistry tho <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/boutofbooks?src=hash">#boutofbooks</a><br />
— Courtney Kazmierczak (@courtneykaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/courtneykaz/statuses/501888790437167105">August 20, 2014</a></blockquote>
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And I had a lot of fun creating book spine poetry! Hosted by <a href="http://littlepocketbooks.blogspot.com/2014/08/bout-of-books-challenge-book-spine.html#more">My Little Pocketbooks</a>:<br />
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This is where I leave you: </div>
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in the casual vacancy</div>
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across the universe</div>
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when you are engulfed in flames</div>
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<b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">W E D N E S D A Y AUGUST 20TH</span></b><br />
<b>Books read today: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 1, <u>Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together</u> by Bryan Lee O'Malley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Total pages read: 515</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Challenge: No challenge :( But I had a blast in the twitter chat! </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>T H U R S D A Y AUGUST 21ST</b></span><br />
<b>Books read today: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 0</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Total pages read: 568</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1, <u>The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine</u> by Alina Bronsky</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Challenge: Too lazy today :( </span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">F R I D A Y AUGUST 22ND</span></b><br />
<b>Books read today: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 0</span><br />
Total pages read: 675<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1, <u>The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine</u> by Alina Bronsky</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Challenge: </span><br />
<b style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Book Chain Challenge</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"> hosted by <a href="http://christianbookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2014/08/bout-of-books-11-day-5-book-chain.html">Christian Bookshelf Reviews</a> in which we link four books </span></span><span style="line-height: 18px;">by the last/first word of each book! Here is my chain: </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b>The Beginning of <span style="color: #f4cccc;">Everything</span></b> by Robyn Schneider</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b style="color: #f4cccc;">Everything</b><span style="color: #f4cccc;"> </span><b>is <span style="color: #f4cccc;">Illuminated</span></b> by Jonathan Safran Foer</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span style="color: #f4cccc;">Illuminated</span> <span style="color: #f4cccc;">Poems</span></b> by Allen Ginsberg</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><b style="color: #f4cccc;">Poems</b><span style="color: #f4cccc;"> </span>by Maya Angelou</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">S A T U R D A Y AUGUST 23RD</span></b><br />
<b>Books read today: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 1, <u>The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine</u> by Alina Bronsky.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Total pages read: 827</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1, <u>52 Reasons to Hate My Father</u> by Jessica Brody</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 3.5</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Challenge: Eeeeeeeep</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<b style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">S U N D A Y AUGUST 24TH</span></b><br />
<b>Books read today: </b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Completed: 0 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Total pages read: 948</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In progress: 1, <u>52 Reasons to Hate My Father</u> by Jessica Brody</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Total number of books I've read: 3.5</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Challenge: I worked and then GOT TOTALLY SUCKED IN BY BEYONCE ON THE VMA'S</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">Wish me luck! xo</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-43552918392415986222014-08-10T18:07:00.000-07:002014-08-10T18:07:09.809-07:00Review: The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95tEgOaxpqakD_dutyT224-QUFfP4W_enEU2p6gNizl2tusG35jo0NGhWU-uzKgX7qG74h0t87Bn4ATr3LAT1W64YUm8EzYXUCBX-P-eaRjiMchgZ-c_MHxjswmLGOryZLfmQf5gmXHyz/s1600/silent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95tEgOaxpqakD_dutyT224-QUFfP4W_enEU2p6gNizl2tusG35jo0NGhWU-uzKgX7qG74h0t87Bn4ATr3LAT1W64YUm8EzYXUCBX-P-eaRjiMchgZ-c_MHxjswmLGOryZLfmQf5gmXHyz/s1600/silent.jpg" /></a></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Silent Wife</u> by A.S.A Harrison</div>
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<b>Publisher: </b>Penguin Books</div>
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<b>Publication Date: </b>June 25, 2013</div>
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<b>Page Count: </b>326</div>
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<b>Source/Format:</b> Library book! </div>
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<b>Keywords:</b> marital problems, miscommunication, affairs, murder</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16171291-the-silent-wife">Add to Goodreads</a></div>
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Jodi has always prided herself on not being the jealous type. She knows her husband, Todd, runs around and takes lovers. As long as he provides for her, though, keeps her comfortable in their Chicago high-rise condo, and allows her to carry on with her very particular routine, she is satisfied. There's no point in causing a fuss, in being the nag. But then, Todd crosses the line, and she learns very quickly that she will do anything it takes for her to keep what is hers. </div>
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This book has been on my radar for a while now. Last year I read and loved <a href="http://www.thelitgirl.com/2013/10/review-gone-girl-by-gillian-flynn.html">Gone Girl</a> by Gillian Flynn, and have been looking for a similar book since. In <b>Gone Girl</b>, I really loved the dual perspectives, the twists and turns, and the two characters I loved to hate. <b>The Silent Wife</b> has been touted as being 'better than <i>Gone Girl'</i> or for fans who enjoyed it. Naturally, I had high expectations, and sadly those expectations were not met. Not even close. </div>
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At forty-five, Jodi still sees herself as a young woman. She does not have her eye on the future but lives very much in the moment, keeping her focus on the everyday. She assumes, without having thought about it, that things will go on indefinitely in their imperfect yet entirely acceptable way. In other words, she is deeply unaware that her life is now peaking, that her youthful resilience--which her twenty-year marriage to Todd Gilbert has been slowly eroding--is approaching a final stage of disintegration, that her notions about who she is and how she ought to conduct herself are far less stable than she supposes, given that a few short months are all it will take to make a killer out of her. </blockquote>
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Like <b>Gone Girl</b>, <b>The Silent Wife</b> is told in dual third-person perspectives, alternating between husband and wife. Where as <b>Gone Girl</b>'s multiple perspectives pushed the story forward and kept me gripped with characters I hated, I could not find myself caring about Jodi or Todd or anything that happened to them. Jodi is a character built in routine, and we get every minute of this routine down to the very minute A lot of what we learn about Jodi's life just seemed extraneous. I didn't want to read about every time she walked the dog, served a smoked fish on crackers, perfectly fanned her magazines, or pressed her clothing. The author did a lot of work to let us know how BORING and PREDICTABLE Jodi was, so that when things started to come to a head we would be shocked and surprised. What happened, though, was I became numbed to Jodi and it made me expect something 'unpredictable.' As for Todd, he was your every day misogynist, and he didn't have any redeeming qualities that I could grasp onto that would allow me to care about what happens to him. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He returns to his pint and his musings, trying her at intervals, finally remembering that it's Jodi he meant to call. There's a reason why he needs to speak to Jodi. He's going to tell her the news before Dean can beat him to it. But he needs to preserve his mood of celebration, and in keeping with this, instead of making the call, he buys a round for the house, which is filling up as five o'clock approaches. People around the room life a glass to him, saluting his generosity...When a group at a nearby table raises a cheer on his behalf, he says with earnest candor, "I'm just hoping that my wife doesn't know." Leaving the well-wishers to puzzle this out for themselves. </blockquote>
The all around lack of communication in this novel is what mostly got to me. Jodi prides herself on her approach to marriage. She's a therapist, so she feels like she has a pretty firm grasp on how she can react. She is fully aware of her husband's affair, and yet she says absolutely nothing about it, which is frustrating because she learns A LOT about her husband in this novel and I can't imagine a woman on the face of this Earth who would have this knowledge and not say SOMETHING. There is a lot of conflict in this novel that is avoided in general with lack of dialogue and a quick summary in prose later on. There are some conversations that we see the start of, but not the finish, and we <i>know</i> that some shit was going to go down but we never get to hear it! Even between Jodi and Todd, the one time that they actually fight about it, we don't get to hear what they actually say to each other. We just read that Jodi is embarrassed by the scene that is created in public and her hair gets mussed up. If we had actually gotten to read what Jodi says to her husband, and other characters that create conflict in this story, this book would have been so much more riveting! We actually get more dialogue between Jodi and a professor/therapist of hers from years ago than we do between her and Todd.<br />
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And then he gets it. She's intentionally giving the occasion a commonplace twist. This is not something that can happen only once, not a special event but a staple, something to be repeated. She wants them to go on as usual, behave as if nothing has changed. Making him dinner is part of ordinary life, and routine pleasures have always been her mainstay, the crux of her happiness, the theme of her existence. A bottle of wine, a homemade meal, the delights of the domicile, predictable diversions, dependable comforts. He sees exactly where she's coming from. It's almost like a game.<br />He's been guilty of underestimating her. </blockquote>
I will say that I was slightly surprised by the ending, in a good way, there was a twist that I had not fully expected. It avoided conflict, much like the rest of the book, but it was the one thing that I did not see coming, and I appreciated that. It was what kept this book from being a one star rating for me. Perhaps this book would have been better if it hadn't compared to <b>Gone Girl </b>so much, I think that the direct comparisons really had me hoping for something that this book just wasn't. There is some beautiful prose, but the constant miscommunication, lack of conflict, and unlikable characters kept me from fully enjoying this one.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-9069971005714501822014-08-09T09:26:00.001-07:002014-08-09T09:31:10.065-07:00Bout of Books 11! It's that time again, y'all! Bout of books! I did my first readathon back in May and had the best time connecting with other bloggers and carving out more time in my day for reading. I couldn't wait for the next one and now it's finally (almost) here!<br />
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<a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" title="Bout of Books"><img alt="Bout of Books" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVvZzPcDsn1t95RYYQBdEeu9EGQlZcO_gpq1t8NdUwqyp62UPPC-pQPEGZ4tp8b661EnFDZGxLc9dSD-dJPGGQqXWJKgBvtr4GMC1hJeQKtt9EBkevs9A0Yd8B-AA8eOfyhA8p3Np6W8_F/s200-no/" style="border: none;" /></a><br />
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<i>The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. <b>For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/">Bout of Books blog</a>. </b>- From the Bout of Books team</i></blockquote>
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Is anyone else doing Bout of Books 11?</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-3742417439669651422014-08-08T20:33:00.001-07:002014-08-08T20:33:13.311-07:00Read now: You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSw3HmRAnzn8F6ro4_wGsRQsKC2G8ub6RpBZcPyl7am3mTadhpOKT-sTNKBI3hDLWTQf0aZe8gzUMQdhkWGapygMmiMub6Mw7J9pRdZYgZqQfa7VKsFj99dZOKonvCpPvYh8l4zD7zps4l/s1600/deserve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSw3HmRAnzn8F6ro4_wGsRQsKC2G8ub6RpBZcPyl7am3mTadhpOKT-sTNKBI3hDLWTQf0aZe8gzUMQdhkWGapygMmiMub6Mw7J9pRdZYgZqQfa7VKsFj99dZOKonvCpPvYh8l4zD7zps4l/s1600/deserve.jpg" /></a></div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">You Deserve Nothing</u> by Alexander Maksik</div>
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<b>Publisher: </b>Europa Editions</div>
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<b>Publication Date: </b>August 30th, 2011</div>
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<b>Page Count: </b>320 </div>
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<b>Source/Format: </b>Library book! </div>
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<b>Keywords: </b>student-teacher affairs, ex-pats, heroes</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10834281-you-deserve-nothing">Add to Goodreads</a></div>
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The list of books I need to read in this life time could probably circle the earth at least six times. I'm constantly adding things to my TBR list and it's hard to keep up. But when a friend texts me and says, "you need to read this book. I couldn't put it down," then that book gets a priority position on my list, and so is the story of how this book came into my life. </div>
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William Silver is the teacher every student could want to have. He's young, charismatic, and handsome. He treats his students like adults and exposes them to real world concepts and ideas. He's invited to their parties and called by first name. But being that kind of teacher opens the door to magnetic wanted and unwanted attention. Among those students is Gilad, a disillusioned student who has become numbed to the thrill of moving from country to country with his family. The person to reawaken him is William Silver. Gilad is thrilled by having a teacher like William who trusts him and other students with complex ideas. He's inspired by his control over a room. All he wants is to gain recognition from William. And then there's Marie, a friend of a student of William's who meets him on an alcohol-fueled evening at a party. Marie finds herself swept up his charisma, and tangled up in his life. These three characters narrate as their infatuations turn into obsessions, and realize it's only so long before the perfect pedestals they stand on begin to crack.<br />
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All that attention, it's hard to resist. And if you're honest, you acknowledge that before you ever became a teacher you imagined your students' reverence, your ability to seduce, the stories you'd tell, the wisdom you'd impart. You know that teaching is the combination of theater and love, ego and belief. You know that the subject you teach isn't nearly as important as how you use it. </blockquote>
<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What you need to know...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I mentioned in my reading habits tag that I have a horrible habit of reading Goodreads review for a book, sometimes before I even start reading. Such was the case with </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">You Deserve Nothing</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">, when a top </span>reviewer posted a link to <a href="http://jezebel.com/5863188/how-a-teachers-alleged-student-affair-became-his-acclaimed-novel">this article on Jezebel</a>. This novel's most intriguing storyline is the relationship between William Silver and a student at his school, Marie. Much of this novel's praise came from the bold perspective on this taboo relationship. However, the author himself has allegedly found himself in hot water at a previous teaching position for his relationship with a student, and the real 'Marie' says that a lot of Marie's dialogue or anecdotes comes from real things she has told Maksik, and he exploited these things. Basically: the author could potentially be a creep. That being said, <b>You Deserve Nothing</b> still had me riveted and offered me a slew of things to think and reflect on.<br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What this book forced me to think about...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">1) </span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Hero worship:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I've read a quote in various forms from many people that essentially says: the </span>best thing you can do to preserve your heroes is to never meet them. Mr. Silver becomes a hero to Gilad. Gilad loves every word out of William's mouth, even the ones he doesn't agree with. William in general is a hero to a lot of his students, and his held on the top tier of teachers. But having such high expectations of someone you get to see every day is a dangerous practice, because eventually they are going to fall down and your view of them cracks. I think every character in this novel experiences this in one way or another.<br />
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2) <b>Expectation vs Obligation:</b> When <b>You Deserve Nothing</b> starts to reach that magical moment when everything is humming and threatening to break at any second, Will's students begin to question whether or not he can practice what he preaches. Will argues that he has never been obligated to be anyone's idol or model of perfection, but his students argue otherwise. As a teacher, there shouldn't be any obligation. It comes with the territory of putting yourself in charge. This made me think more about what I am obligated to do or be for other people versus what other people think are expected of me.<br />
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She stiffened. "Will," she said. "I will not permit you to use our classrooms to question God's existence, logic, or nature. It is one thing to discuss a character in a work of literature, it is quite another to treat the God of the Old Testament as a fictional character. This is dangerous territory. You have moral responsibility to protect your students, to steer them through works of literature, to help them see clearly. That's it, Will. <i>That's</i> your job. No more."<br />"Laetitia, I disagree." </blockquote>
3) <b>Existence.</b> Many of William's teachings are based in philosophy, and his required reading includes a lot of existential theories and essays. William and Gilad also witness something that forces them to evaluate the fragility of human existence in general. It's some deep shit that had me pondering the ins and outs of my existence while also being thoroughly hooked in the story.<br />
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I could go on and on about this book, but then I would start to get spoilery and I don't want to ruin this book for anyone. This book was one of the best I've read in recent memory. This book made me think. It challenged my beliefs and ideas, and I was inspired by how well each narrator told their stories. The strikingly beautiful ideas that are discussed, and the borderline poetic way each character looks inside themselves to try and figure things out, kept me hooked on every single page. Plus, it's based in Paris! I especially loved that this book took us into the life of an American living in Paris without relying on big time landmarks to get the vibe in there. There was Parisian youth, riots, morning stops at the cafe, etc. I inhaled this book from cover to cover. Seriously beautiful, guys.<br />
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<b>Question of the day:</b> What is the most thought-provoking book you have recently read? </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-84431990548738143042014-07-29T07:17:00.000-07:002014-07-29T07:17:01.750-07:00Review: Stay by Deb Caletti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Stay</u> by Deb Caletti</div>
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<b>Publisher:</b> Simon Pulse</div>
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<b>Publication Date: </b>April 5th, 2011</div>
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<b>Page Count:</b> 313</div>
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<b>Source/Format: </b>Library book!</div>
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<b>Keywords:</b> abusive relationship, escape, ghosts</div>
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Clara has learned that it's fairly easy to get away. She assesses a problem with her famous crime novelist father. He rents a house on the coast of a sleepy seaside town. They go. She integrates. Makes friends even. But what Clara isn't so sure of, is how easy it is to keep someone away. Her ex-boyfriend, Christian, is back in her hometown, and like all of her friends, he has no idea where she ran off to. Clara has a tingling, nagging suspicion that he will find out, and soon ruin this seaside haven that she has found. She can't help but feel she's being watched everywhere she goes. And as Clara struggles with the living ghost that haunts her every move, she realized that she's not the only one in her family that had reason to escape. </div>
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Holy moly, I was not expecting this book to do what it did. Clara tells us her story with alternating chapters, switching back and forth between her life with her father in this new home they have carved out for themselves, and her relationship with Christian. She tells us straight up that shit has gotten real, and it was too dangerous for her to stay at their house. The shifts of story with each chapter kept me hooked. It is a slow build, I will say that. Just because once I knew things were <i>dangerous</i> for Clara, I wanted to know right then and there what the hell was going on. I was shaking my fists at Deb Caletti like "yoooo why are you going to tell me this and then make me wait?!" The slow build paid off in the end, because each storyline starts escalating at about the same time. As Clara is telling us about the sweet start to her relationship with Christian, things in the seaside town seem refreshing and like a new start. As shit starts to get real in her relationship, she starts uncovering some family secrets, and it all starts to come to a head at the same damn time making it unputdownable at the end. I was up so late reading <i>just</i> to finish this book. </div>
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First off, I've never told this story to anyone. Not the entire thing anyway, and not entirely truthfully. I'm only telling it now for one reason, and that's because an untold story has a weight that can submerge you, sure as a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. I learned that. This kind of story, those kind of things kept secret--they have the power to keep you hidden forever, and most of all from yourself. The ghosts from that drowned ship, they keep haunting. </blockquote>
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Reading Christian's character transformation was eerie. He and Clara meet at a basketball game, share an intense few seconds of locked eyes, connect outside, and the rest is history. At first he seems perfect. He's handsome, in that pale European kind of way. His mother is from Europe and his step-father is from the South so he has a unique accent. He's smart. It doesn't take long, though, for Clara to see that he's incredibly jealous, and she starts having to watch what she says or who she hangs out with. She finds herself lying to keep him from saying harsh things or reacting too strongly. I appreciated that Deb Caletti treated the relationship as an abusive one, and we don't lose sight of that. (Is it anyone else's pet peeve when a relationship is abuse and no one calls it out?!) Clara has her father's eyes on Christian, her friend's eyes on him, and she herself <i>knows</i> that this isn't typical boyfriend behavior. But we also get to see why she struggles with just ditching him and leaving. The Christian we get to know at the beginning of the book is not the same Christian we get to know at the end of the book and it was downright scary, and the suspense of his character and what would happen next pushed me to read into the wee hours of the morning. </div>
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"Possession Point, Dad? Jesus."<br />"I didn't know," he said. "How was I supposed to know?"<br />"Obsession? Possession? Deception Point? You're telling me it's all an <i>accident</i>? How many places could we have gone?"<br />"Swear to God, Pea," he held up his hand. "I'd have to be a sick bastard to knowingly put us in a house on Possession Point." </blockquote>
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I also really appreciated the other stories that were packed into <b>Stay</b>. Each one was rich with characterization and there for a purpose. There are a lot of ghosts in this town. From alleged shipwrecks and the suicidal wives of captains, to the backstories of each of these characters and why they chose to run away to this town as well. One thing that did bother me just a tad was Clara's fast attachment to a boy in this town. Here she is, running away from this psycho, everything reminds her of him, and then she dives in headfirst with the first handsome boy he sees and she makes a very quick and strong attachment to him. I did like that he was a prime example of how a boyfriend should be, especially since she has had not one but <i>two </i>abusive relationships. I just didn't like that they meet and right away she's trying to see him when she goes out and build a romantic relationship with him. </div>
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But what I knew even more than that was that he was the <i>jealous type</i>. That's how I thought of it. As if the words were small print, equal to other qualities a person might have--the athletic type. The creative type. The type to get easily lost or be late, or didn't like food that was too different. It meant that you made accommodations, you got directions beforehand or told him the concert was earlier or picked a place to eat that had hamburgers or didn't say things that would hurt him. You didn't even tell him the truth about who you were or what you had done. You protected him, kept things from him he couldn't handle. Or else protected yourself from what he couldn't handle. You managed it all, like someone who works in an office and who types and answers the phone at the same time.</blockquote>
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<b>Stay</b> by Deb Caletti is a gripping read that perfectly illustrates the dangerous line between an attentive and protective boyfriend, and a hawk-eyed possessive boyfriend. She also shows us why it might not be so easy to leave someone that is clearly not good for you. Not only does the book give an accurate portrayal of this kind of relationship, but there is the drama of broken family histories, what happens when secrets stay secrets for too long, and whether or not it's possible to get rid of the ghosts that haunt us every day. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-50793518470389940842014-07-28T07:04:00.000-07:002014-07-28T07:04:25.790-07:00Review: I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">I've Got Your Number</u> by Sophie Kinsella</div>
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<b>Publisher: </b>The Dial Press</div>
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<b>Publication Date: </b>February 14, 2012</div>
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<b>Page Count: </b>433</div>
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<b>Source/Format: </b>Library book!</div>
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<b>Keywords:</b> rom-com worthy, bad luck, digital communication, weddings</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12033455-i-ve-got-your-number?from_search=true">Add to Goodreads</a></div>
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Poppy Wyatt has found herself suffering from a heavy handed stroke of bad luck. At an early afternoon hotel party, her engagement ring goes missing. Not just any engagement ring that can be replaced at the nearest jeweler, but an engagement ring that has been in her fiancé Magnus' family for three-generations. Oh, and his parents are coming into town <i>that day</i>, and most surely they will want to see the ring. But then, the fire alarm goes off and the ring search must be put on hold. And then, when the chaos of the alarm has settled down and she has given her cell number to <i>everyone</i> in the hotel in case they find it, her phone gets plucked out of her hands on the sidewalk. It almost seems like the universe is paying her back when she finds an abandoned cell phone in a trash bin. But the phone belongs to Sam Roxton, a well-known businessman, and he wants his phone back. Not willing to give the phone up that easy (she has already given the number out to everyone all over again), she cuts a deal with him: she will be the best temporary PA he has had if she can hold on to the phone. Poppy finds herself tangled up in Sam's communication wires, and her own life is getting just as tangled without her hardly even realizing. </div>
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I hate to enjoy books like this. I don't know why, I just do. Books like this are usually very fluffy, very cliche, and very predictable. Sometimes on a hot summer day, a girl just needs that kind of read, and this delivered while also proving me wrong! <b>I've Got Your Number</b> is predictable but not. There are some obvious things that you can guess is going to happen straight away. Instead of just making it happen, Kinsella takes an alternate route, making the path a lot more complicated and unexpected, which creates a bigger pay off for the characters. A lot of things happen in this novel that I couldn't see coming from a mile away. I don't know if that surprise was a good thing, or if it was abrupt planning on the author's end, but I appreciated the small twists and turns that kept me from trusting any of the characters too much. I was also not expecting the sort of political-esque drama that bubbles up in the middle. I'm not a businesswoman, so I can't say whether or not everything was handled appropriately, but it seemed naturally pulled off and was just as engaging as the rest of the story. </div>
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Perspective. I need to get perspective. It's not an earthquake or a crazed gunman or a nuclear meltdown, is it? On the scale of disasters, this is not huge. <i>Not</i> huge. One day I expect I'll look back at this moment and laugh and think, <i>Ha-ha, how silly I was to worry--</i>Stop, Poppy. Don't even try. I'm not laughing--in fact, I feel sick. I'm walking blindly around the hotel ballroom, my heart thudding, looking fruitlessly on the patterned blue carpet, behind gilt chairs, under discarded paper napkins, in places where it couldn't possibly be.<br />I've lost it. The only thing in the world I wasn't supposed to lose. My engagement ring.</blockquote>
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Even though I enjoyed how the story played out, I didn't much like the character's that made the story happen. I think the only way that I could describe Poppy as was <i>flimsy</i>. She doesn't think things through properly before she acts. She's in her mid-twenties, works as a physiotherapist, and does not have a professional bone in her body. Part of Sam's problem with her is when she starts sending e-mails on his behalf. Sam is usually a very abrupt communicator, which drives Poppy nuts so she must change it. In one instance, an email comes in that a bouquet of flowers for a female coworker has been left in Sam's office for her. Poppy writes to this female coworker (as Sam of course) something along the lines of "there's a surprise in my office for you tomorrow. I think you'll like it. xxxxxxxx Sam.' Poppy is then GOBSMACKED at the idea that this could have been taken suggestively by his coworker. Uh? She is also very easily manipulated, and it isn't until just about the very end that we see her start to develop a spine. There is one moment in particular, with her fiancé, where she was so easily swayed I was actually disappointed. </div>
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I also did not like Poppy's fiancé Magnus whatsoever. Right away I got this kind of slimy impression of him and I knew I didn't like him. He's just as abrupt as Sam is in the way he talks to her, and he's always slinking off to research or help a student. However, for Poppy to be as easily manipulated by him as she was, I would've liked to see at least <i>something</i> that would have made him appealing to her. Y'know, raise the stakes a little to show what she has to lose. </div>
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And now that I've started, I can't stop. As the bus chugs along, I email the guy wanting to assess Sam's workstation for health and safety, set up a time, then email Jane to tell her to put it in the schedule. I email Sarah, who has been off with shingles, and ask her if she's better.<br />All those unanswered emails that have been nagging away at me. All those poor ignored people trying to get in touch with Sam. Why <i>shouldn't</i> I answer them? I'm doing him such a service! I feel like I'm repaying him for his favor with the ring. At least, when I hand this phone back, his in-box will have been dealt with.<br />In fact, what about a round-robin email telling everyone they're fab? Why not? Who can it hurt?</blockquote>
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This book was very funny, but a lot of it sadly at Poppy's expense and how quickly she makes her decisions which often play out in the worst way possible. Actually part of the reason I rated this book so high was because I could not put it down. I had to keep reading to see what kinds of things Poppy was going to stir up next, and sometimes it got downright uncomfortable. At the end, when Poppy finally starts to develop a spine and stand up for herself, I felt rewarded and proud of her. I also enjoyed the way Sam's character grew. At first he seems cold and distant, strictly business. Eventually he starts to warm up, and some of Poppy's stupid decisions actually have a positive effect on him. In spite of her breezy thought processes, she was actually a fun narrator to read. Her quick banter with herself and the way her mind spirals out of control when things start to go awry made this book go by very quickly.</div>
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Even though I didn't like our narrator Poppy very much, I could not put <b>I've Got Your Number</b> down because I <i>had</i> to see what happened next. She was also a very witty narrator and very lively, which made this read go by very quickly. I was also pleasantly surprised by the little unexpected twists and turns that this story made to keep it from being too predictable. </div>
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<i>Have you read this? What did you think?</i></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-77539585166190795602014-07-27T14:32:00.001-07:002014-07-27T14:32:14.665-07:00Reading Habits Tag! <span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">If there's one thing that keeps me from reading and writing the most, it is watching Booktube videos. I could watch videos of people showing off their shelves, TBR piles, and hauls for <i style="font-weight: bold;">hours</i>. Our book blogging bubble has it's fair share of meme's, but I love watching book-related tags on Youtube. Why let them have all of the fun? I love this tag about reading habits, so I'm bringing it to my blog. This tag was created by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZazRf4brq7dhIbm8vE_DXg">TheBookJazz.</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading? </span> </b></span><br />
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My bed! Check out my lil Ikea clip on reading light! And I have a super comfy pillow chair that I got from my grandma. The only downside is that usually it's <i>too </i>comfortable, and if the mood is right, I will fall right asleep. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">For a while I was using a playing card with a nude dude on it. Then for Christmas this past </span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">year I asked for cute bookmarks with tassels. I use those a lot. My sister also got me a pretty woven bookmark from when she traveled to Belize so I've started using that. And I've been going to the library a lot lately, so sometimes I just use my library receipt!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/ a certain amount of pages?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Since I do a lot of reading </span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">while commuting on trains/buses, I'm not too picky about stopping in the middle of a page or between chapters. If I'm at home with nothing going on, though, I prefer to wait until a page break or end of a chapter before putting my book down!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>4. Do you eat or drink while reading?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;">Yep! It's weird but I can't read while eating a meal. I used to take my books to the cafe by my apartment and <i>loved</i> eating a slice of carrot cake with some coffee while I read. Usually if I'm at home though, I'm eating chocolate or gummy candy. I'm either drinking Arnold Palmer's, coffee, or beer :) </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>5. Multitasking: Music or TV while reading?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">TV. Usually any music that is played in my apartment is </span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">music</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> I am familiar with so the lyrics can get distracting. I live with my boyfriend and he's a big TV watcher, so it has become easier for me to tune it out... as long as it's not a show that I love ;) </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>6. One book at a time or several at once?</b></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 17px;">One book at a time! When I was in college, I had to read several books at once and it got hard for me to keep each one straight, and it took longer for me to finish one. Now I'm a one book kinda gal. Even though right now I do have a non-fiction book about the first class passengers of the Titanic that I'm reading on the side between books! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>7. Reading at home or everywhere?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;">Both? I'm more comfortable reading at home, but I enjoy reading on my lunch break at work, or on the bus coming home. Reading makes my commute go by waaaaay faster. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>8. Reading out lout or silently in your head?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;">Silently in my head. I can<i>not</i> read out loud. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>9. Do you read ahead or even skip pages?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Sometimes, yes! I'm trying to stop. If a book is really mysterious, I am always tempted to read to the last page to see if that person is present (for instance: if someone goes </span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">missing, I need to know if they stay missing or are found!) I'm worse about reading reviews and spoiling myself.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Breaking the spines! I think I've written </span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">about it before, but hot dog I love a well-loved looking book. When I get paperbacks, I love making their spines look all crinkly and worn. It's also why I used to love buying my books used. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #f4cccc; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 17px;"><b>11. Do you write in your books?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Yes! Sometimes I </span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;">can't fully commit to writing in the margins, even though I used to a lot in college and I was oddly inspired by these <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2014/01/dumbest-thing-ever-scribbling-in-the-margins-of-dan-browns-inferno.html">two guys writing in the margins of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Inferno</i> by Dan Brown.</a> Usually my 'writing in the margins' is simply underlining passages. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17px;">I tag: everyone who wants to do this! If you do this tag, leave me a link in the comments :) I am so nosy when it comes to other people's reading habits. How do you read?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-60274774041642132022014-07-25T09:37:00.003-07:002014-07-25T09:37:41.633-07:00Review: The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Family Fang</u> by Kevin Wilson</div>
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<b>Publisher:</b> Ecco</div>
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<b>Publication Date:</b> August 2011</div>
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<b>Page Count: </b>309</div>
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<b>Source/Format:</b> Library Book! </div>
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<b>Keywords:</b> dysfunctional family, performance art, mystery</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10149142-the-family-fang">Add to Goodreads</a></div>
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Annie and Buster Fang have always been known as Child A and Child B. Their parents, Camille and Caleb Fang, are known in the art world for their wacky public performance art stunts in which they cause chaos in the hopes of extreme reaction which they then catch on tape. Annie and Buster have always been slightly unwilling accomplices in these performances, the presence of children always making the reaction from Caleb and Camille's audience much more intense. But then, they grow up. They don't want to be puppets for their parents anymore, so they branch into their own thing. Annie gains fame as an actress, seasoned by years of "performing" with her parents, and Buster retreats into the solitary life of a struggling writer. But when a media scandal shakes Annie's reputation, and Buster gets injured on a writing assignment, they both find themselves back at their childhood home for a hopefully normal break of family time. But Child A and Child B should know that there's no such thing as normal in the Fang household, and they should've known that Caleb and Camille would have a performance of epic proportions up their sleeves.</div>
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It's hard to not get Wes Anderson vibes from this book <b>right. away.</b> The disinterested and detached children. The questionable parenting skills of adults. The quirky dysfunction that binds them all together, whether they want to be bound together or not. That's just the one way to describe this book. <i>Quirky as fuck</i>. I LOVED that, though. When Caleb is a budding artist, the motto bestowed to him by his one true mentor is "<i>kids kill art.</i>" And when Camille (formerly Caleb's student), becomes pregnant by accident, they are thrust into the life of parenthood with their art hanging in the balance. What Caleb's mentor obviously never realized though, was that kids make great accomplices, and it suddenly becomes Caleb's life mission to prove that statement wrong. </div>
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Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief. "You make a mess and then you walk away from it," their daughter, Annie, told them. "It's a lot more complicated than that, honey," Mrs. Fang said as she handed detailed breakdowns of the event to each member of the family. "But there's a simplicity in what we do as well," Mr. Fang said. "Yes, there's that, too," his wife replied. Annie and her younger brother, Buster, said nothing. They were driving to Huntsville, two hours away, because they did not want to be recognized. Anonymity was a key element of the performance; it allowed them to set up the scenes without interruption from people who would be expecting mayhem.</blockquote>
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Honestly, one of the hardest forms of art for me to wrap my head around is performance art. Art in general can go a million different ways for a million different people. I'm sure the <a href="http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/2010/08/totally-alt-performance-artist-squirts-spaghettios-out-her-vagina.html">girl who pulled spaghettios out of her vag </a>(NSFW) had an ultimate purpose and artistic goal, but I didn't get that shit. So I was not surprised that there was an extreme air of pretension that hung around Caleb and Camille Fang, but I also didn't hate on them for it. <b>The Family Fang</b> alternates between chapters of what happens in the present, and events that they have done together throughout their years of being together. Each event offers mixed responses. We see Caleb and Camille high off the elation of a positive response (sheer horror of their audience = positive response), and we see Caleb in a funk for days over negative reviews. I got a full picture of how much their art has become their life. I saw how important it was to them, and how much having Annie and Buster threatened to throw that off for them. Each event was wild and fun to read about, and there was definitely an evolution throughout the years as they integrated their children into their art, and their children became more of props than their actual kids. </div>
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"They did all this to us," Annie said, "for art."<br />"For art," Mr. Delano shouted, raising his empty glass over his head.<br />"They used us," Buster said.<br />"No, Buster, that's unfair. Your parents withheld certain information in order to get the best performance possible from you. Think of your parents as directors; they control the circumstances and make all the independent pieces come together to create something beautiful that would otherwise not exist. They directed you so skillfully that you didn't even know they were doing it."<br />"Fuck you, Mr. Delano," Annie said.</blockquote>
With each event that Annie and Buster were present for, we get to see how they reacted to them. Sometimes they were caught up in the high of doing a good job at what they were supposed to, and sometimes they were left feeling ashamed and embarrassed. We also see the effect that years of these stunts has had on them as grown ups. Buster is self conscious and frequently embarrassed of his few accomplishments, while Annie has achieved blockbuster success that is skittering away from her. Each one struggles with relationships, and struggles with how they feel about their parents. Annie is also unsure of how to process the scandal that is taking her reputation, because while her publicist sees it as an epic disaster that is threatening to ruin her, her parents are giddy over the idea of morphing it into a twisted art exhibit. As lost as Annie and Buster become within themselves, their sibling relationship is top notch. They both rely on each other to pull them out of whatever funk they have found themselves in, and their bond is super strong. When they joke around together, I was laughing out loud. They could be one of my most favorite sibling relationships that I've ever read.<br />
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"I used to tell all my students, not just Caleb and Camille, but any artist that showed some sliver of promise, that they had to devote themselves to their work. They had to remove all obstructions to making the fantastic thing that needed to exist. I would tell them that <i>kids kill art</i>."<br />Annie and Buster both winced at the phrase, one they had heard their father recite any time the two of them had complicated one of the Fang projects.<br />"...Your parents realized that they would have to find some way to overcome this theory of mine, some construction that would disprove it. So they intertwined their family and their art so tightly that it was impossible to untangle it. They made you two into their art. It was amazing, really. And then time passed...perhaps I was just jealous of them, but I found it was impossible for me to see any Fang art without feeling this horrible sense of dread, that something irreparable was being done to the two of you."</blockquote>
The final event. I was <i>not </i>expecting the mysterious edge that this book took hold of and I was super obsessed. It was one of those things where I wanted to flip to the back of the book and spoil myself. Somehow I resisted. I am not going to go into what it is or what it entails, but I will say that this event of Caleb and Camille's further shows the conflicted feelings that Annie and Buster have about their parents. They are forced to evaluate everything. Their positions as pawns in their parents exhibits, the unique way they were raised. When they were praised for pulling off their roles perfectly, or when they were harshly criticized for doing a terrible job. We get an even deeper sense of their family dynamic as Annie and Buster delve into this mystery. And the twist! What is a mystery without a good twist? I swear my jaw became unhinged as the story got more and more absurd. Oh my God. It was so wild and almost on the edge of unbelievable, but it completely fit the characterization of Caleb and Camille Fang. Let me say that there are some hella strong feelings to be felt by the end of this book, and the mystery aspect was pretty perfectly built.<br />
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<b>The Family Fang</b> is a quirky and absurd story that I became obsessed with. The kids are fucked up, the parenting techniques are not to be tried at home, but we get to know each character so well and we have a level of understanding and sympathy for each one. It's actually being turned into a film right now (sadly not directed by Wes Anderson) and is starring Jason Bateman as Buster and Nicole Kidman as Annie. Um. Not sure how I feel about that (as much as I adore Jason Bateman) so we shall see.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-85709328318089939312014-07-16T17:31:00.000-07:002014-07-22T17:54:36.465-07:00Reasons to ADORE Landline by Rainbow Rowell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's officially official : Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors. I would read her crossword puzzles and grocery lists. I read <i>Eleanor & Park</i>, and even though I was sobbing at the end, I became easily obsessed with her real characters and her ability to write about tough shit without overburdening you. Then I read <i>Fangirl</i>. I bought it a couple of days after it came out because I needed more Rainbow Rowell in my life immediately, and loved how much I was able to relate to it and again, create swoon-worthy characters. Then I got <i>Attachments</i> for Christmas, and AGAIN loved how lifelike her characters were. So when <b>Landline</b> was announced, it soared to the the top of my MUST BUY list, and became a new release I could not wait for. Naturally on July 8th, the day of it's release, I trotted to Barnes & Noble after work. Over the next two days, I was entirely engrossed and yup, I love this one, too. </div>
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Because I usually mix my reviews with upsides and downsides, I had to do something different with this because I can't think of any noteworthy downsides. </div>
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Georgie McCool is just one meeting away from potentially making her dreams a reality. Her and her writing partner Seth have been writing a TV series for years and they finally have the chance to pitch it to a huge network. The only problem is that they need to make four new episodes happen the week of Christmas, and Georgie has a plane ticket to Omaha so she can visit her husband Neal's family with their two daughters. Long story short: Georgie CANNOT go to Omaha. When she pitches this to Neal, she thinks they can just go to Omaha another time, but he shocks her by leaving with their kids and going anyway. His departure dusts off a long known fact: their marriage is not in a good place. Thrown off by her husband's cool departure, she crashes at her mother's house and unearths a retro yellow landline. When she plugs it in and attempts to call Neal, she is shocked to hear that he sounds much younger. She can talk to the Neal of the Past, and he has no idea about the state of their marriage in the Present. Georgie has to decide if she can fix her marriage before it even began, or if they both would be better off if their paths split. </div>
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<b>1. It made me think a lot about my own relationship</b>. A major theme in <b>Landline</b> is relationships and how much work needs to go into them to keep them afloat. It's easy to take your significant other or loved ones for granted and forget how much you need them there. Neal has made huge sacrifices so Georgie can continue chasing her dream, and in turn she works a lot of late nights and misses a lot of time with her children. When she starts talking to Neal on the <i>magic fucking phone</i>, she is shocked at how easy it is to talk to him while she's tethered to the landline with no distractions. It made me think a lot about my relationship with my boyfriend and how sometimes it doesn't feel like we are actually communicating, even though it feels like it because we live with each other and see each other all the time. It becomes so easy to get wrapped up in our online worlds and can go hours without talking about anything substantial. <b>Landline </b>made me want to change that. </div>
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<b>2. Cliche-free characters and the little things.</b> I will go more into character relationships later, but right now I want to give a standing ovation to Rainbow Rowell for letting her characters notice the little things, and for not being cookie-cutter characters. As Georgie reflects on the past of her relationship with Neal, she thinks about what made her fall for him. He's not conventionally attractive, but she's able to notice the perfect symmetry of his lips. He's not social at all, but with her, he's warm and talkative. Even with Georgie. She is chasing her dream of being a comedy television writer. I feel like the cliche for that would be <i>Saturday Night Live</i>, but I don't think the show is mentioned once. Georgie pulls a lot of her inspiration from 1970's sitcoms, which I thought was unique. </div>
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<b>3. Character chemistry. </b></div>
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Rainbow Rowell has proven herself once again as being a wizard at writing characters who work so well together. I wanted every single character in my life. A lot of reviews I've read so far point out Neal as being unlikeable. He's an anti-social curmudgeon, but dammit if he isn't charming to Georgie. Then there's Seth, the man who Georgie probably spends more time with than her husband. I laughed out loud at the sassy, well-dressed Seth multiple times. We see how well he and Georgie work together, and their chemistry is electric enough to make us wonder whether or not some boundaries would be crossed. I was even obsessed with Georgie's family. Her mother is a pug obsessed woman with a penchant for bedazzled clothing. She is slightly off her rocker, but dammit if she didn't have me rolling every time she called her pug 'little mama.' I also adored Georgie's way-younger sister Heather, who so perfectly depicts a sarcastic teen. All of these characters were wonderful and round and I wanted all of them. </div>
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<b>4. Witty dialogue.</b> This is probably so effective because of #3, but there is a lot of dialogue in this book that makes reading <b>Landline</b> lightning fast. It's so easy to get pulled into the conversations between their characters. Whether it's Georgie's pleas with Past Neal, work talk with Seth, or Heather lamenting that sometimes she feels like the pug with the least amount of ribbons, each conversation was incredibly real and hilarious and <b>awesome.</b></div>
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<b>5. A CAMEO. </b>I didn't even realize that there was a cameo from two of Rowell's other characters until after I had finished the book and I was stalking her Twitter. That's how subtle it was. Then I had to go back and read the ending again and there they were. AHHHH! </div>
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Basically, <b>Landline</b> is just as wonderful as all of her other books. It's the perfect blend of tough subjects and hilarious conversations. Each character is real and amazing and WHEN IS HER NEXT BOOK COMING OUT?</div>
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PS: Then awesome folks from Macmillan Audio shared a clip of the Landline audiobook to share with me so I could share it with you! Take a peek at Chapter 2 and have a listen <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/landline-by-rainbow-rowell-audiobook-chapter-2">HERE!</a></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-34338007248099567182014-07-14T17:03:00.000-07:002014-07-14T18:29:47.919-07:00Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Truth About Alice</u> by Jennifer Mathieu<br />
<b>Publisher: </b>Roaring Brook Press<br />
<b>Publication Date: </b>June 1, 2014<br />
<b>Page Count: </b>208<br />
<b>Source/Format: </b>E-galley provided by publisher<br />
<b>Keywords: </b>rumors, mystery, scandal<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16068341-the-truth-about-alice">Goodreads</a><br />
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Alice Franklin is a slut. Or at least that's what everyone says. In most towns, rumors come and go as quickly as they start. But not in Healy, where everyone knows everyone, and there is nothing as exciting or juicy happening as the unattainably cool looking Alice sleeping with both the high school football team's star player, and a college guy. In the same night. At almost the same time. Fuel is added to the rumor fire when the star football player, Brandon, dies in a car accident and it was supposedly all Alice's fault. Suddenly Alice, who before floated through high school and was almost even popular, becomes the topic of every conversation and the target of every insult and slur. Everyone has something to say and add to the rumor mill. But at the heart of the millions of rumors swirling around about Alice Franklin, the only person who knows the real truth is Alice.<br />
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<i>**I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for review. This in no way swayed or influenced my opinion on the book. Promise! Quotes in this review may also be reflected differently in the final copy of the book.**</i><br />
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If I'd grown up in Manhattan and I wanted to stay in Manhattan and never leave because I felt safe there and liked it, nobody would think twice. People would think I was sophisticated, probably. And why? Because they have a subway system? Because there's more than one movie theater? Because of the lions in front of the New York Public Library? (Yeah, I know about those, too.) I honestly don't get the difference. If I'd been born in Manhattan, I probably would have wanted to stay there just like I want to stay in Healy. And honestly, even in Manhattan I think I still would have been considered popular. And I'm not so small town that I don't realize that even in Manhattan, a girl like Alice Franklin would still have been considered a slut. </blockquote>
When a scandal has taken over a small town high school, everyone always has a story to add or something to contribute. Jennifer Mathieu, the author of <b>The Truth About Alice</b>, perfectly toys with this idea by offering five different narrators, each with a different perspective on the night that Alice Franklin had sex with two guys, and the aftermath. There is Elaine, the top-tier popular girl who was the hostess of the party that the double sex happened at. There is Kelsie, who used to be Alice's best friend, but ditched her as soon as the rumors came to fruition and her chances of being popular became jeopardized. There is Kurt, the most outcast of outcast who sees through all of the rumors and bullshit and still wants to pursue a friendship with Alice, who he has been crushing on for years. And there is Josh, the best friend of the star football player and who was in the car crash that took his life. Each perspective was narrated in first person and carried out very successfully. Without necessarily seeing the chapter header with who was telling their piece of the story, I knew who it was. Their narration was also super true to how teenagers would tell a story, complete with 'like' and 'you know,' but not too many! This well executed use of multiple narrators helped to create a 360 view of the situation at hand, and we see how each person becomes instrumental in Alice's role as the bully target. The narratives don't match moment by moment, but in the instances where they synced up, I did get a little bored reading the same situation through four different pairs of eyes.<br />
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There is one thing I've learned about people: they don't get that mean and nasty overnight. It's not human nature. But if you give people enough time, eventually they'll do the most heartbreaking stuff in the world.</blockquote>
<u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Spoilers ahead: </u>One thing I took issue with in this story, is that it took a romance to show Alice the light after being bullied. Throughout the book, we see Alice participate in problematic sexual relationships with boys, and the target on her back stemmed from a rumor about sex. At the end of the book, when she ends up with Kurt and he basically becomes responsible for finding happiness again, I groaned out loud.<br />
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I liked Kurt at first. He was a smart outcast that remained witty when dealing with the popular kids. Then we start to learn that he has more or less stalked Alice for a majority of their time in high school. He pays acute attention to her, reads her tossed assignments and essays, has her on a metaphor-riddled pedestal, and then uses this secretly gained information to get in on her good side when she ends up in the outcast pool with him. This is called being a predator, y'all. Kurt doesn't seem like a predator in the traditional sense (see: To Catch a Predator), but he found Alice's moment of weakness, and saw his opportunity to get in with her. And of course they end up together and he is her savior. I would've found it much more powerful if Kelsie was the one who turned her back on popularity FOR ONCE, to stick up for her old best friend. Not just another dude looking to take advantage of Alice Franklin. <b><i><u>END OF SPOILERS!</u></i></b><br />
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How much did it hurt? It was like a million paper cuts on my heart. Because it was slow, and not all at once.</blockquote>
<b>The Truth About Alice</b> is a really eye-opening account of bullying and the people that participate in it. We don't get to see much of Alice's perspective on the matter, but it was riveting to read why these characters believed the rumor's that they heard, and why they kept perpetuating them. What I also really loved about these bullying characters, was that if people knew their secrets, they would be just as bullied as Alice was. Even though we should hate these characters for making Alice's life a living hell, we also sympathize with them because they are fighting their own demons. I especially loved Kelsie's perspective. Her backstory was heartbreaking, and she had an inside scoop on Alice up until the night of the party that shattered her reputation<br />
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Even though I disliked the outcome of this book, I thought Mathieu pulled off the multiple storytellers very well. I knew exactly who each character was, and each one had intriguing backstories and different perspectives to add to Alice's downfall.<br />
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<i>Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to experience this book early!</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-69896419856855730722014-07-13T07:50:00.000-07:002014-07-13T07:50:57.943-07:00Sunday Flicks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Sunday Flicks</i> <i>is another new feature here where I round up the films I've watched this week with mini reviews. Huzzah!</i><br />
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For some reason, I've watched a load of movies this week. I used to watch a lot of movies in high school, decided I missed them, and I've been watching one every other day. Also, in my desire to review or talk about some things other than books, I figured this feature would help me get it out of my system once a week :)<br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Drinking Buddies</b></span><br />
<b>Released: </b>2013<br />
<b>Starring: </b>Jake Johnson, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick<br />
<b>My Thoughts: </b><i>Drinking Buddies</i> has been popping up on my Netflix recommended list for ages now, so I finally decided to give it a go. Plus: Jake Johnson! Luke and Kate work together at Revolution Brewery (in Chicago!) and there is constant romantic tension between them. They seem perfect together. The hitch? They're both in pretty darn good relationships. This movie is one where it seems like there isn't a whole lot happening until you get to the end and then it hits you kind of all at once. It's also worth noting that all of the actor's improvised their lines. AKA there was no script, just a loose outline. Which made me appreciate it even more because I never would've guessed. The actors really embodied their characters.<br />
<b>Rating: </b>4/5<br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Punk Singer</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Released</b>: 2013</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>About: </b>Kathleen Hanna</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Thoughts:</b> Wow wow wow wow wow. After watching this movie I had to sit by myself for several minutes and reflect. Kathleen Hanna was the front woman of Bikini Kill and has become one of the women to spearhead the Riot Grrrl movement. There was a lot of information about Bikini Kill, the movement, and other bands that they came up with. Even if you didn't like Bikini Kill/Le Tigre/Julie Ruin, Kathleen Hanna's views on </span>feminism and living with chronic illness were eye opening and heart breaking and motivating.<br />
<b>Rating: </b>8/5<br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Little Birds</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Released:</b> 2011</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Starring: </b>Juno Temple, Kay Panabaker, Leslie Mann</span><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit;">My Thoughts</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">: I really missed the 'dark' label of this movie on Netflix, because it got real dark real quick and I was very unsuspecting. Lily and Alison are best friends living quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Lily is edgy and dying to leave, Alison is quieter and usually stands in the shadow. One day during a bike ride, they come across an empty pool taken over by skater boys and Lily falls in love with one of the boys. She shoulda taken some advice from Avril and said 'see ya later boy' to the skater boy because she follows them to Los Angeles with Alison and that's when shit gets real.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Rating</b>: 4/5</span><br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Frances Ha</b></span><br />
<b>Released: </b>2012<br />
<b>Starring:</b> Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver<br />
<b>My Thoughts: </b>So many mixed feelings! I related to the 'struggle'. Frances Halladay is trying to make it as a dancer, but has more ambition than talent and can't quite figure out how to make the big time. She is frequently broke, and bounces around from apartment to apartment, staying with different friends along the way. She thought she had it made with her best friend and roommate Sophie, but Sophie moves out to live with her rich boyfriend, sending Frances into a tailspin. I loved watching the relationship between Frances and Sophie, their friendship is often described by themselves as 'being the lesbian couple that doesn't sleep together,' and they brought the spirit of New York (or what I imagine the spirit of New York to be like) to life. But where <i>Drinking Buddies</i> seemed scripted but wasn't, <i>Frances Ha</i> was scripted but seemed unscripted. Frances is super awkward in a way that was slightly annoying to watch, she never seems like she knows what to say and after a while I was kinda over it.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 3/5<br />
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Girl Most Likely</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Released: </b>2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Starring: </b>Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss, Annette Benning</span><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit;">My Thoughts:</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Imogene was supposed to be </span>successful<span style="font-family: inherit;">. She was supposed to be an up and coming </span>playwright and then blew it all. Instead of writing a play with a large grant, she climbs up the social ladder with her friends who are all upper class something or others. Then her live in boyfriend dumps her. Naturally, she stages a suicide, which forces doctor's to put her in care of her slightly crazy mother, and her hermit crab obsessed brother. I saw this in theaters last summer with my sister and enjoyed it then, too, and wanted to watch it again. It's not as funny as you would expect a Kristen Wiig movie to be (especially after Bridesmaids), but Imogene was a character I really rooted for, and it definitely had it's shining moments.<br />
<b>Rating: </b>4/5<br />
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<i>What movies have you watched this week? Any good ones on Netflix right now?</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-40344573939367491332014-07-12T10:51:00.000-07:002014-07-12T10:51:52.160-07:00In My Library Bag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>In My Library Bag</i> <i>is something I've been doing for a while but is now an official feature where I show you what I hauled home from the library recently! </i><br />
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I've written before about how the neighborhood library branch by my apartment is quite small and with a not-so-wide selection. It gets the job done when I'm in a pinch for a new book, but sometimes I actually <i>crave</i> trips to the Harold Washington Library which is one of the largest in the country. It's easy to get lost and turned around in, and the amount of books can be overwhelming. But they literally have everything, which is why I usually take a taxi home after a trip there because my bag is a million pounds. Here's what I got on my last trip!<br />
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1. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9584244-the-arrivals?from_search=true">The Arrivals</a> by Meg Mitchell Moore : I just finished reading <b>The Leftovers</b> by Tom Perrotta and I was looking for another family-type drama. It sounds like this will deliver! Two parents have another chance at parenthood when their adult children all flock home, their lives in different states of disaster.<br />
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2. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10149142-the-family-fang?from_search=true">The Family Fang</a> by Kevin Wilson : I'm currently reading this book about two performance artist parents and their two children. When the children were little, they were used as stars in their parent's elaborate public performance art pieces. Now that they are grown up, they are trying to step out of their parents shadow's, but really have no idea where to start. It's very quirk, and reminds me a little of <i>The Royal Tenenbaums.</i><br />
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3. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12478862-gilded-lives-fatal-voyage?ac=1">Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage</a> by Hugh Brewster : Fun fact - I used to be <i>obsessed</i> with the Titanic. I probably know more than the average person about it. Fun fact- this obsession was born when I watched the movie in 2nd grade (eep!) and the encyclopedia told me it sank on my birthday. This book is about the first class passengers on board will surely keep my flame burning.<br />
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4. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29800.Scott_Pilgrim_s_Precious_Little_Life?from_search=true">Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (#1)</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29801.Scott_Pilgrim_Vs_the_World?ac=1">Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (#2)</a> by Bryan Lee O'Malley : I breezed through these and loved them! They had me laughing out loud, and I was sad I only got the first two!<br />
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5. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227941.Jemima_J?from_search=true">Jemima J</a> by Jane Green : I ended up in a summer reads/chick lit mood half way through my visit to the library, and this book is on all the Goodreads lists! Jemima Jones is very much overweight, and is constantly stepped on by her friends. She meets a hot guy from California online, and of course she tweaks her body measurements. Then he wants to meet, and she has to find a way to become the woman she's portrayed online.<br />
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6. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12805941-perfect-escape?from_search=true">Perfect Escape</a> by Jennifer Brown : I read <a href="http://www.thelitgirl.com/2013/11/review-thousand-words-by-jennifer-brown.html">Thousand Words</a> by Jennifer Brown and I've been wanting to read more of her books. Kendra feels like the only way she can stand out next to her brother who struggles with OCD is to be perfect. Then a cheating scandal threatens to shatter her reputation, and she takes off with her brother to run away from it all. Sounds delightfully dramatic, and like it will tackle some tough issues like <b>Thousand Words</b> did.<br />
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7. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11721314-meant-to-be?from_search=true">Meant to Be</a> by Lauren Morrill : A trip to London? A secret romance? Personal enemies working together? Adventure? Yes, please! This was another result of my chick-lit impulses.<br />
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8. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13586743-one-last-thing-before-i-go?from_search=true">One Last Thing Before I Go</a> by Jonathan Tropper : Did anyone else see the flawless trailer for the adaptation of <b>This Is Where I Leave You?</b> I thoroughly enjoyed that book, and the movie trailer was a reminder to read more of his work. A man's ex-wife is about to get married to a guy that he can't even hate because he's so nice, and his daughter just admitted she is pregnant. Another dysfunctional family drama that will surely be AWESOME.<br />
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9. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12033455-i-ve-got-your-number?from_search=true">I've Got Your Number</a> by Sophie Kinsella : Another beach read/chick-lit impulse pick up.<br />
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10. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9791906-52-reasons-to-hate-my-father?from_search=true">52 Reasons to Hate My Father</a> by Jessica Brody : This seems to play into my love of celebrity culture and the summer reads. Lexington is an heiress who is following the same destructive path as many heiresses before her. So when she crashes her Mercedes into a store on Sunset Boulevard, her tycoon father decides that enough is enough. On her 18th birthday, he says that in order to receive her trust fund, she must work a different low-paying job every week for a year. Sounds like this will be hilarious!<br />
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11. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8527904-stay?from_search=true">Stay</a> by Deb Caletti : I've only read one other Caletti book and really enjoyed it. This one about a relationship that turns abusive and unhealthy and the girl's attempts to get away sounds dark and gripping.<br />
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I would say that I have a library problem, but you guys already know that :) After I read <b>The Family Fang</b>, which book should I go with?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-73961502627970997082014-07-08T19:11:00.001-07:002014-07-08T19:11:47.271-07:00Top Ten Blogging Confessions<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted over at <a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/">The Broke and the Bookish</a> where we share our top ten bookish-related things!</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1. I'm a lazy ass blogger.</b></span></div>
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Sigh, I actually feel a lil bad for my subscribers and readers because I'm not the most on-top-of-things blogger. I'm definitely one of those people who has to be ~in the mood to sit down and write a blog post, and usually YouTube (at least it's usually in the BookTube category!) mutes my blogging desires.</div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2. My Netgalley ratio is em-bar-ass-ing.</b></span></div>
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Netgalley, for those who may not know, is a website where me & other book bloggers get advanced e-reader copies of books. Publishers usually judge you by your ratio of books accepted/books reviewed. At first, I was on a roll getting e-galleys left and right. Now, I've slowed down and my ratio is suffering. Ouch. </div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>3. I'm jealous of people who schedule/write posts ahead. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The concept of planning and writing posts ahead of time and </span>like, having an actual schedule, was introduced to me by reading Kaelah's blog over at <a href="http://www.thecluelessgirl.com/">The Clueless Girl's Guide</a>. She always seems so organized with her posts! Lately I don't read fast enough to have a surplus of reviews to write or post. It's happened once or twice where I have posts written ahead of time and I feel so ON TOP OF THINGS! I would like to do that more. </div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>4. I struggle with relevancy vs. desire. </b></span></div>
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I kind of touched on this in my last post about <a href="http://www.thelitgirl.com/2014/06/me-ya.html">my relationship with YA</a>. I feel like the most popular book review blogs (that I know of and read) are centered around young adult new releases. Naturally I want to keep up with that so I usually feel like I need to be reading and reviewing YA. Lately I've been reading literary fiction, and I wonder if people would actually want to read reviews in this genre or nah. </div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>5. I'm not so great @ coming up with unique features. </b></span></div>
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I think the queen of creating features is Jen over <a href="http://www.popgoesthereader.com/">Pop! Goes the Reader</a>. She is always doing awesome things like <a href="http://www.popgoesthereader.com/the-writings-on-the-wall/the-writings-on-the-wall-all-four-stars/">creating wallpapers inspired by her favorite books</a> and finding the <a href="http://www.popgoesthereader.com/category/do-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/">prettiest book covers by genre</a>. I'm jealous! I've thought of a couple ideas here and there, but that goes back to the laziness thing I mentioned in #1. This is why 96% of my posts are reviews or memes (such as this!). </div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>6. I sometimes consider blogging 'bout other stuff. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once upon a time I blogged about all </span>kindsa things. On my blog I reviewed movies, albums, concerts, AND books. I also interviewed artists, small business owners, models, authors, photographers, and musicians. Literally all kinds of stuff. Sometimes I miss blogging diversely like that. Like when I find an album I'm obsessed with or try a new beauty product I can't get enough of. Maybe it can be a weekly feature. Hmm...</div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>7. Rating things is hard, y'all. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I made a post about how I rate, but that doesn't make it any harder for me to decide how to rate </span>things. I don't want to be super negative and give a low rating, but I also don't want to run around singing high praise to books I might not have loved THAT much. </div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>8. Design is hard, too. </b></span></div>
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Despite minoring in marketing in college, I am not-so-fab at visual branding. My ideas are usually a hot mess, and I don't have the $$ to pay someone for a top notch design. I think I've done pretty well so far, but a lot of time's I visit a blog and want to drool over how pretty it is. </div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>9. So many books, so little time.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My Goodreads goal this year was to read 100 books. So far I have read 33. Eeeeeeeek. Sometimes I feel super overwhelmed by how many books there are in the world. Shit, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of books on my own shelves and in my own Kindle. Therefore, I'm jealous of all you bloggers who always have fun things to review and post about!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f4cccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>10. I'm grateful! </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even though I'm a </span>lazy ass blogger with an identity crisis every other day, I'm grateful to be a part of this corner of the Internet and I don't think that's said enough. I'm grateful for every person that comes to my blog and reads and comments and subscribes, and even for the ones who don't. I'm grateful to talk about books with people who love books, and I'm grateful for the connections I have built with publishers who give me review copies. It's all just great. So thank you.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-85914595723768822732014-06-28T10:52:00.001-07:002014-06-28T12:01:33.581-07:00Me & YAThere's been a lot of talk lately in the book blogging community about YA and the adults that read it thanks to this article on <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/06/against_ya_adults_should_be_embarrassed_to_read_children_s_books.2.html">Slate</a>. A lot of book blogs I read tend to focus around YA books, and a majority of the people who write those blogs are older than the intended audience for these reads. It had me thinking a lot about my own relationship with YA and how it has changed over the years and my thoughts and feelings on it now. So let's talk...<br />
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I did not read YA hardly ever as a teenager. Occasionally I would pick up a Meg Cabot or Sarah Dessen book and I devoured the <i>Gossip Girl</i> series, but for the most part I thought that YA was really corny and I had a hard time relating to it. Most of the books I checked out from the library as a teenager came from the fiction section and was primarily geared towards adults. I was more drawn to 'adult' books because, like most teenage girls, I thought I was 'mature,' dammit. High school was also the time when the <i>Twilight </i>series started gaining popularity, and I did <i>not</i> want to be lumped in with the Team Edward and Team Jacob hoard of teenage girls. I also liked the stories in fiction a lot more, they were more intense and gripping for me, and I liked that more than boy problems.<br />
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About two years into college, I started reading a few YA books. Mostly of the John Green variety that came as recommendations from my sister. One day, in a reading slump, I picked up <b>I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone</b> by <a href="http://stephaniekuehnert.com/home.html">Stephanie Kuehnert</a> and loved it. It was exactly a book I would have loved as a teenager. It was gritty and filled with punk rock. After reading what YA had the potential of being (aka: not just boyfriend dramas), I signed up for her YA writing class at my college. In her class, her reading list exposed me to gems such as <b>The Book Thief</b> by Markus Zusak, and <b>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</b> by Sherman Alexie. These books turned me into a believer. They were written as if for adults, and had the types of hard hitting subjects that I loved in literary fiction as a high schooler. Reading these books then got me into reading Goodreads reviews of them, and finding booktube videos about them, blogs about them, and eventually inspired me to start my own blog (this one, duh!)</center>
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Am I embarrassed about reading YA as an adult? Hell naw! There are so many things to love about YA. They are easier and quicker to read than a lot of other fiction. Because publishing companies are in the push to get teenagers to want to read, a lot of YA books are publicized heavily and come with a lot of fun promotional items. When <b>Since You've Been Gone</b> by Morgan Matson came out, people were getting heart shaped sunglasses with their pre-orders. At BEA, people were getting hoodies along with the release of <b>City of Heavenly Fire</b> by Cassandra Clare. Etcetera. There is a lot of fun opportunities for promoting and enticing teens to read, and there's a ton of build up for new releases. Adult fiction usually comes with less fanfare, and honestly I barely know what the new releases are unless it's by an author I've established a love for (Wally Lamb, JK Rowling, Rainbow Rowell, etc). I also love the discussion that surrounds YA novels. People create fan art for their favorite characters, playlists for their favorite books, and so on. I know that if I'm flailing over a new John Green book or something, there are a thousand other people doing the same thing and we connect over that. The fan art and fun extras is also not something that happens regularly in literary fiction unless it becomes a TV show or movie. </center>
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Over-saturation? Is that a thing? This almost contradicts what I love about YA, too. I wish that literary fiction came with the same fanfare as YA, and that it got as much credit and exposure. I watched a thing on TV about <i>TFIOS</i>, and it showed John Green walking outside of a building, and there was a HUGE crowd of screaming girls begging for autographs and selfies. YA authors have more exposure and celebrity, and literary fiction authors are still thought of as heavy drinking hermits without faces and don't get that same kind of attention even though they are just as worthy. It is also very hard for me to find blogs and YouTube channels that review literary fiction because of the intense popularity of the genre. Which is great, but at the same time I start to see the same handful of books and new releases over and over again. Also, I've noticed that, mostly in BookTube videos, when a reviewer branches out from YA, they are 'shocked' and 'uncomfortable' by average sex scenes in books, even though they are adults? Sometimes married ones? </center>
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When I first started The Lit Girl, my goal was to make literary fiction and classics seem more fun to my age group. The handful of blogs reviewing literary fiction that I found were very drab and unappealing in design, or the reviews were very educated and not the kind of quick or engaging read that is often found on blogs that review YA. If anyone has been here for the last year and a half, you'll remember I launched this blog in the middle of a two month long read of <b>Cancer Ward</b> by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I also reviewed or talked about the memoirs and fiction I was reading for fun, and the classics I was reading for school. As I became more interested in YA, I started watching more videos and reading more blogs and eventually I became more drawn to the books that everyone else was talking about and recommending. After all, a lot of reviewers are awesome and I'm fans of so many of them, and I trust their recommendations so I became like a moth to the flame! YA is quicker for me to read, which means my review turn around becomes much faster if I read YA instead of literary fiction all the time. Also, the majority of the galleys I'm approved for are in the YA genre. </center>
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Lately I've found myself wanting to get back to my original goals with The Lit Girl, and try to create more excitement around literary fiction in the book blogging world. I want to make these books seem more enticing and less daunting or intimidating. BUT I still want to read YA and get sucked into their stories and fandoms. I've been reading more literary fiction lately, but there are tons of new YA releases that I am excited about, and still plan on reading and maybe reviewing. Expect to see more books for adults though, and my attempts to hype them up a lot more, and maybe some older or lesser discussed YA books that seem to be forgotten about these days.</center>
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What is your relationship with YA like? Would you be interested in reading more literary fiction reviews?</center>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-85717300060138575222014-06-22T14:21:00.000-07:002014-06-22T14:21:23.079-07:00Review: The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Impossible Knife of Memory</u> by Laurie Halse Anderson<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Viking Juvenile<br />
<b>Publication Date: </b>January 7, 2014<br />
<b>Page Count: </b>391<br />
<b>Source/Format: </b>Library book!<br />
<b>Keywords: </b>mental illness, PTSD, soldier<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079527-the-impossible-knife-of-memory">Goodreads</a><br />
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After too many tours overseas, Hayley's father Andy returns with a bad leg and the incapability to stay in one place for to long. To escape the demons that have followed him back to American soil, he takes her with him around the country in a big rig. Five years later, he decides it's finally time to settle into a normal life. It's hard to be "normal" with Hayley's life. Years on the road have stripped her knowledge of 'The Rules' with her peers, and she is more of a parent to her father than her father is to her. She is the only one that's there to stand by him as he suffers through intense night terrors and when his temper goes sour. As he turns to drugs and alcohol, she starts to wonder how much a daughter is supposed to be able to take from her father, and at what price?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A few days after we moved in, Daddy got unstuck from time again, like the Pilgrim guy in <i>Slaughterhouse. </i>The past took over. All he heard were exploding IEDs and incoming mortar rounds; all he saw were body fragments, like an unattached leg still wearing its boot, and shards of shiny bones, sharp as spears. All he tasted was blood.<br />These attacks (he'd have killed me if I used that work in front of him, but it was the only one that fit) had been getting worse for months. They were the only reason I went along with his ridiculous plan to quit trucking and settle down into a so-called "normal life." I let him think that he was right, that spending my senior year in a high school instead of riding shotgun in his big rig was a practical and exciting idea.<br />Truth? I was terrified.</blockquote>
So far I've only read two of Laurie Halse Anderson's novels, and it's been a mixed bag. I loved the powerful and emotional <b>Speak</b>, but was kinda sorta disappointed by <b>Prom</b>. Before <b>The Impossible Knife of Memory</b> came out, there was a lot of hype surrounding it, and it definitely seemed like it was more in the vein of her book that I loved so much. When I saw it at the library a couple of weeks ago, I HAD to give it a try. I started it last night and finished it this morning. With both of her books before, regardless of my feelings about them, I was able to fly through them, and this was the same. Anderson's novels just have a great flow to them and perfect pacing that makes them hard to put down. Even in moments where something dramatic wasn't happening, there was some engaging dialogue to pull the story along. And after reading the clunky dialogue in <a href="http://www.thelitgirl.com/2014/06/review-whole-golden-world-by-kirstina.html">The Whole Golden World</a>, I appreciated the witty and natural dialogue between the characters in this story. I was also happy that we were carried through a range of emotions, and didn't linger too hard or too long on intense moments. For every scene that made my eyes prick with tears, there was a scene that made me laugh out loud. Sometimes in the thick of an emotional scene, there would be something or a remark from someone that would make me chuckle or roll my eyes before I went back to wanting to cry.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"No!" I stood up. "And now you're all 'I'm the dad' but it doesn't mean anything because all you do is sit on your ass and drink. You're not a after, you're--"<br />He grabbed the front of my sweatshirt. I gasped. His jaw was clenched tight. The bonfire danced in his eyes. I had to say something to calm him down, but he looked so far gone I wasn't sure he'd hear me. He tightened his grip, pulling me up on my tiptoes. His free hand was balled into a fist. He had never hit me before, not once.<br />The wind shifted, swirling the smoke around us.<br />I braced myself. </blockquote>
For the first little while, I really liked our narrator Hayley. A lot of the time she is closed off or cruel, but we can definitely understand where she is coming from. Her mother died when she was a baby, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother and her father's girlfriend, an alcoholic named Trish who eventually splits and fills Hayley with distrust and hostility. I appreciated Hayley's witty remarks and sometimes playful cruelty, because I knew there was a reason behind it. About halfway through the book, I started to see that she has a lot of misplaced anger. At one point, in the school parking lot, her love interest, Finn, blatantly ogles a girl in a miniskirt, with Hayley and their friends right next to him. Their friend is quick to defend Finn by saying that he was "thinking with his other head." The defense was unnecessary, though, because instead of being mad at her boyfriend's wandering eye, she gets pissed at the girl for having the audacity to wear a miniskirt to school and being a slutty bitch. Then there's Trish. <u style="font-style: italic;"><b>SPOILERS AHEAD!!:</b> </u>Trish is Hayley's father's ex-girlfriend, and the target for a lot of her hatred. Even her name and the thought of her influence over her father is enough to send Hayley into a panic attack. We learn that Trish was an alcoholic and a cheater who left during a particularly awful argument with Hayley's father. As Andy's mental health deteriorates in the present, Trish makes a reappearance to try and help Andy heal. Trish admits her wrong doing to Hayley, apologizes, and the progress in her life is evident. She's sober now and has a degree and a job. After all of this, and all of the help Trish offers to Hayley and her father, Hayley still saves her number in her phone as 'Bitch.' It took too long for her relationship with Trish to evolve into something positive. <u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">END SPOILERS</u>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Things were complicated even more by the fact that there was something weird about Finn. Not zombie weird. He was more of a cyborg with a vivid imagination. But he'd spent enough time around the zombies to adopt some of their ways. He knew The Rules. I didn't. </blockquote>
The love interest, Finn, left a lot of mixed feelings. His entrance into Hayley's world was very sudden. It was like he just showed up one day and decided he wanted to be her boyfriend pretty quickly. There was no build-up to his dedication to her. He met her, and then was relentless in his attempts to get her attention or spend time with her. Especially with her unique (read: closed-off) way of dealing with people that aren't her father or her best friend Gracie, I was surprised that there was something about her that hooked him right away. Once he was there though, I appreciated his presence. Besides the mini-skirt incidence. He tells funny calculus jokes. He gives her opportunities to trust him, and his loyalty is unwavering. Even more, he has several run-in's with Andy when he is in the middle of a breakdown and is undeterred. He challenged Hayley and pushed her out of her comfort zone, and I thought that was important given the fact that she walks on egg shells at home.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One side of my heart <i>tha-thumped</i> like I was a little kid and he'd just come home and I could run across the hangar floor when the order releasing the troops was shouted, and Daddy would pick me up so I could hug him around the neck and, nose to nose, look into his sky-colored eyes and tell him that I missed him so much. The other side of my heart froze in panic because now I was old enough to understand where he got that limp and why he screamed in his sleep and that something inside him was broken. I didn't know how to fix it or if it could be fixed.</blockquote>
Andy was the perfect example of being able to like unlikeable character's. I feared him throughout the majority of this novel. We witness several times his intense mood swings, and the delicate way that Hayley has to choose her words around him. He's prone to violence and indulges himself in heavy drinking and marijuana. Throughout the book, there are snippets told from Andy's perspective. These illustrate the things he saw when he was overseas fighting in the war, and helps us gain extra insight as to how deep his PTSD goes. Anderson's use of a returned soldier was timely and eye-opening. We see him at his high moments and at his very, very low moments, and even though I was terrified of him, I was rooting for him to pull through and get the help he needed to carry out a productive life.<br />
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<b>The Impossible Knife of Memory</b> was timely and intense. Anderson does not shy away from showing how Andy's PTSD affects Hayley, and how deep and bad it can get. I thoroughly enjoyed the witty banter between Hayley and her friends, but Hayley's misplaced anger and hostility in a couple of scenes turned me off to her. Anderson's pacing in this novel was brilliant, and she perfectly layered scene's to give us an even mix of emotions, which made this book unputdownable.<br />
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<i>Have you read this yet? What did you think? </i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-31362519349741048832014-06-22T07:09:00.003-07:002014-06-22T07:09:42.191-07:00What TFIOS means to me. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've written a few times on here how hard <b>The Fault in Our Stars</b> by John Green hit home for me as a thyroid cancer survivor. Of course, with the movie coming out, there is a lot of new discussions about the book, and the fact that John Green used cancer patients as the stars of a romance story. The criticisms about a fiction story revolving around two kids with cancer really got me thinking, and what came out of it was this piece. Writing has always been my therapy, and I sat down one night and hammered out my story, and tried to articulate why this novel, and consequently the film, have had such a positive influence on me and my recovery. I'm so grateful <a href="http://hellogiggles.com/">hellogiggles.com</a> wanted to publish my piece on their site, and have been overwhelmed by the feedback I've received so far from people who are fighting cancer, have overcome cancer, or who haven't had cancer, but gained a new perspective on what this story could mean to someone. I've been walking on clouds the past couple of days.<br />
If you would like to read the story, please click <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://hellogiggles.com/cancer-survivors-defense-fault-stars">here!</a></span><br />
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Thank you for reading! I hope you are all having an A+ weekend!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-23681483724868480112014-06-19T17:04:00.000-07:002014-06-19T19:45:40.622-07:00The Fault in Our Stars Movie Thoughts!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To say I was nervous about seeing the movie adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars is an understatement. This book was very special to me when it came out because our main girl, Hazel, suffers from thyroid cancer like I did when I was her age! I prepared myself by re-reading the book before the movie came out, and when I started crying at <i>the end</i>, I knew that I was in for a 2 hour block of chest pains in the theater. Naturally, I rounded up my boyfriend and warned him that he should be ready to cry. I also gathered my tissues because duh. The two hours of the movie went exactly as I expected. A lot of tears slipping loose, and a sore jaw from clenching my teeth so I wouldn't bust out into ugly cries in public.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>What I Loved: </b></span><br />
<b>1) This adaptation stayed so faithful to the book it's insane.</b> I was super surprised by how on point this movie was compared to the book. Since I had just re-read the book, I had all of Augustus' witty remarks fresh in my brain, and I embarrassingly found myself whispering along when he said, "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend." A lot of the dialogue was quoted word for word from the book, which was fabulous because there's a lot of good stuff in the book.<br />
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<b>2) Ansel Elgort.</b> The last time I did a movie thoughts post, it was on <a href="http://www.thelitgirl.com/2014/03/divergent-movie-thoughts.html">Divergent</a> and the most I had to say about Ansel Elgort was that I appreciated his awkward running. Given the fact that Augustus has a prosthetic leg, there was no awkward running, but Elgort gave much more to appreciate in this role. I was charmed by him. Not only is he super cute, he delivered Augustus' musings and flirtations perfectly. He made me laugh multiple times, swoon multiple times, and <i>cry</i> over his heartbreaking acting during the G-Tube incident. Shailene Woodley was also a wonderful Hazel. She's very expressive, and sometimes her face said more than her words.<br />
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<b>3) The inclusion of technology. </b>A lot of Gus and Hazel's conversations happen via text message in the book, and there are the e-mails exchanged between Van Houten and the two of them. I thought the little pop-ups were totally cute and a fun way to include the technological aspect of their relationship into the movie.<br />
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<b>4) Like the book, I like the way the film realistically approaches teens with cancer/going through tough shit in general.</b> One of my favorite parts about TFIOS is that it's a story about teens with cancer that can be loved by teens who have/had cancer. I liked that the movie included real life cancer survivors in the support group, and how Hazel and Augustus don't always feel like they have to put on a strong face, which is something that's typically expected of people dealing with cancer. I also really, really loved seeing Isaac's character come to life. His heartbroken trophy breaking was spot on, and I felt super triumphant when he nails his ex-girlfriends car with a bunch of eggs!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>What I Didn't Love As Much [SPOILERS AHEAD]: </b></span><br />
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<ul>
<li>A lot of Augustus' illness was greatly condensed. In the book, we see a lot of really rough moments. The showed the G-Tube infection, which was perfectly executed. We don't see him piss the bed or watch his sense of humor go dark. I liked that the book went there, and was slightly disappointed that the movie didn't take us to that place either. Hollywood probably figured that if they included any more TOUGH STUFF, theaters all across America would be flooded with tears. </li>
<li>I didn't hate Van Houten in the movie as much as I did in the book. This is another moment where the film was trying to protect the viewers, I think, as Van Houten says some truly despicable things when Hazel and Gus go to meet him. He gets a couple jabs in, but not as much as in the book. Also, I really like seeing his assistant RESIGN, and then take Gus and Hazel to the Anne Frank house. In the film, his assistant is clearly flustered, but does not take that extra step. </li>
<li>No scars. After reading the book, where Hazel mentions having a radical neck dissection, I always pictured her having scars similar to mine. I won't tell you to Google image search it, because it's pretty gnarly, but thyroid surgery almost always leaves a scar, at least a little one. I do think it's awesome that she has her nasal cannula, but I was disappointed at the lack of scars for largely personal reasons. </li>
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So yeah, I was super freaking happy with how <b>The Fault in Our Stars</b> was adapted to the big screen. It was practically quoted word for word, and Ansel Elgort nearly charmed the pants off of me with his brilliant portrayal of Augustus Waters. Shailene Woodley also broke my heart and made me laugh and I cried so many tears. LUCKILY, I was able to contain my ugly cry, and when I peeked over at my boyfriend, I definitely noticed some misty eyes. This movie made a grown man with a big ol' beard cry, so I think that's saying something :) </div>
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<i>Have you seen TFIOS yet? Are you planning on? </i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-68029561921645913302014-06-17T16:47:00.003-07:002014-06-17T16:47:56.723-07:00Review: The Whole Golden World by Kirstina Riggle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">The Whole Golden World</u> by Kristina Riggle<br />
<b>Publisher: </b>William Morrow Paperbacks<br />
<b>Publication Date:</b> November 5, 2013<br />
<b>Page Count: </b>419<br />
<b>Source/Format: </b>Library book!<br />
<b>Keywords:</b> family drama, student-teacher relationship, marriage<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17349173-the-whole-golden-world">Goodreads</a><br />
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Seventeen year old Morgan starts talking to TJ Hill after class one day. She likes that he treats her like the mature adult she believes she is. He likes that she sees him as some sort of hero. Their relationship slowly evolves into something more, testing the boundaries of what they each view a healthy relationship to be. The issue? Morgan is TJ's student, and he is a thirty year old married man. Their secret relationship depends on the women in each of their lives remaining oblivious. Morgan's mother, Dinah, is too wrapped up in her small business, rebellious twin son's, and a dissolving marriage to pay attention to the comings and goings of her honor student daughter. TJ's wife, Rain, hinges her happiness on ovulation cycles and TJ's ability to help her create a baby. When their case comes to trial, matters are made even more complicated when Morgan sit's on TJ's side, as a willing woman in love with an older man, instead of a victimized student. Told from the perspective of the three women, Morgan, Rain, and Dinah, all sides of this relationship are shown, and the different ways one relationship can shatter a community.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That quick, sad smile told her all she needed to know. Despite the courts saying it was a crime, despite her parents locking her down like she herself was a criminal, despite the gossip and vandals and spewing hate from random strangers...he loved her anyway. Against the odds and against all sense. She lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders, as if the orchestra conductor had just raised her baton.<br />The judge cleared his throat and the air in the room seemed to freeze, as everyone waited for it all to begin. </blockquote>
I used to be a big Jodi Picoult fan in high school. I was always sucked into her highly dramatic novels that made me question my morals and her ability to create multiple sides to a story that mixes her readers up so they don't even know what they want to think until the very end. When I read the plot overview of <b>The Whole Golden World</b> by Kristina Riggle, I knew that this was something that was right up my alley. I was greatly intrigued by the three perspectives that we get to see this story unwind in. The perspective I was most looking forward to was Morgan's, since she is the one going through this affair with her teacher. I was actually kind of disappointed. We get snippets into her life. She writes dark poetry that she keeps secret from everyone else. She is an honor student. She plays the cello. She is like a second mom to her prematurely born twin brothers. She's an insomniac. Her ex-boyfriend is in TJ Hill's class with her. She has a scar that she is deeply self-conscious about. Yet, many details does not a round character make, and unfortunately I think she fell victim to her author trying to do too much with her. Why does she play cello and does she actually like it? Why is she still upset about her ex-boyfriend that dumped her quite a while ago and seemed to treat her like dirt? WHAT DOES HER SCAR LOOK LIKE? One thing that irked me was the fact that this facial scar is mentioned many times, is the subject of a lot of her poetry, and the source of her nightmares, yet we don't know what it looks like. We see where her scar comes from, and we know that she cakes it in makeup, but we don't know what it looks like. Everyone tells her that the scar isn't that bad, so I started to learn not to trust Morgan. That distrust grows stronger when she admits that much of her attraction to Mr. Hill is based on the fact that he treats her like an adult. Yet, with her mother pushing her to act like a second mother to her twin brothers, and her constant studying and amount of responsibility, I was surprised that this was something that she needed validation for. Her mood swings are often misguided, too. At one point, she gets in an argument with her best friend Ethan when he makes her feel like a fool over something that (to me) was fairly small. Yet she holds an intense grudge against her <i>best friend </i>that spans months. I was thinking that by the end of the novel I would have figured her out, but I didn't. My confusion over her motives and desires made it hard for me to care and feel sorry for her when the slander starts rolling in and things started falling apart.<br />
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She turned in the circle of his arms and tossed away her hairbrush, fitting herself to him. <i>Lucky girl</i>, her mother had said the day she got married, and Rain had agreed, that day and every day hence. <i>I'm a lucky girl indeed.</i>She reminded herself how exhausting it was for TJ to be the "fun teacher," the role he had chosen for himself. All day, every day, he had to be on, and up, and dialed "all the way up to eleven" as he put it, all the while maintaining a tricky balance between allowing just enough jovial fun without letting the classroom unravel into chaos.</blockquote>
My favorite character to follow along with was TJ's wife, Rain. Her character is an example in this novel where less is more. She is a yoga teacher, born from free-spirit parents, yet finds it hard to believe in the typical yogi rhetoric. And she desperately wants to be a mother. She struggles with her stubborn fertility and puts all of her energy into creating a baby with her husband. Rain isn't clouded by as many details as Morgan, and it was much easier for me to sympathize with her. We see her patience with TJ, and the hope she clings to when it comes to conceiving. While I was questioning why Morgan felt the need to pursue a teacher, I had no problems seeing how Rain was able to remain somewhat oblivious to her husband's infidelity. Rain was also on one of the bigger emotional rollercoasters in this book. Because her focus was so concentrated on becoming a mother, I felt more connected to her pursuit. Even though Rain does not realize her husband's affair until later on in the book, little hints from TJ were laced into her narrative, so <i>we</i> could see what was going on, but she couldn't yet bring herself to think the worst.<br />
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When Dinah flinched away from Morgan and stared at her own clenched hands, she began to picture herself as she must appear to everyone else: the failed mother, whose golden child turned out to be just another girl gone bad. Schadenfreude was already in full effect, Dinah knew, from the way the other mothers feel silent when she dared step into their presence, looking at her sideways from wary, skeptical eyes.<br />Her own mother had exclaimed, "How could you let this happen?" when she first heard, as if Dinah had mistakenly let Morgan off her leash.<br />Dinah had been outraged at the time and railed at her mother for the lack of support. But in the darkest hours of the night, Dinah continued to ask herself the very same question. </blockquote>
Dinah fell into the same trap that her daughter did. She is surrounded by a lot of drama that I had a hard time letting myself get interested in. The main story at the heart of <b>The Whole Golden World</b>, is the affair between Morgan and TJ. Unlike in Rain's narrative, pieces of this affair were not sprinkled into Dinah's, which made her Call to Action come fairly late in the game. Up until she finds out about her daughter's illegal affair, we don't see anything about the story at hand. Instead we see her struggles as the business owner of a small cafe that is popular with the high school students. We watch her marriage with her husband, the assistant principal of Morgan's school, fall apart. And we watch as she flounders to keep control of her twin son's who have entered their first year of mainstream high school. I liked that Dinah owned a cafe, which put her in the heart of high school gossip, but it failed to serve any purpose until it becomes a place of slanderous vandalism. It would've been more effective for gossip about her daughter to bubble up in the cafe and trigger Dinah's hovering parental style to see what Morgan was up to. Her crumbling marriage also seemed more like an attempt from Riggle to add more drama and stakes to the story, but it comes off as a cliche. They don't have as much fun as they used to. She fears infidelity on his end. She is jealous. Her marriage to a person of power within the high school where this affair unfolds also held a lot of potential, but even that was anti-climatic to me, because besides him coming home late and drinking a lot of beer, we really don't see much of him! A lot of Dinah's dialogue was clunky and unnatural, like she was giving a quotable speech every time she spoke. She did have a lot of passion, though, so I will have to give her a thumbs up for that.<br />
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It was all going exactly according to plan.<br />He leaned in for a kiss, and this time she dodged his morning breath but covered by tilting her head to kiss his neck next to his Adam's apple. A groan rumbled in his throat, and he briefly grabbed her hair.<br />Then he released her. "Bye, I'll get in touch when I can." He opened the door, and she stepped into the chilly garage.<br />One word rang in her mind as he swung the door shut behind her: <i>dismissed</i>. </blockquote>
So if you quickly scrolled to the bottom of this (pretty lengthy) review to see my rating, you are probably wondering, "so why the 4 crystal rating?!" After all, I really only liked one of the three main narrators. Strangely enough, I really enjoyed reading any part that contained TJ Hill, even though we are supposed to view him as a predator, or at the very least, an adulterer. His character evolves so much. He is originally painted as the teacher you could only hope to have in high school. He's young and attractive, lends a helpful hand, and allows a hearty amount of fun in his classroom. I knew for a fact that I wasn't supposed to trust TJ, I just had to think about why. Was it because he was engaging in this relationship with a student, or was it because he was a dirty liar? My distrust in him was entrancing and interesting for me to read. I definitely got a Jodi Picoult-esque fix by reading this novel, because there were so many sides presented. The failed mother, the hopeful wife, and the dying-to-be-adult teen girl participating in this affair. Not only was I trying to figure out my distrust on TJ, I was also debating over whether or not Morgan deserved to be shamed as much as she was. The affair happens between two consensual adults, the complications come in with the fact that he's married. And her teacher. I also greatly enjoyed, as I mentioned, the complexity of TJ's character. I would've rather had his perspective instead of Dinah's. The debates inspired by this book would make it an A+ pick for a book club!<br />
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<b>The Whole Golden World</b> is a mixed bag. Two of the three perspectives were muddled by irrelevant drama and details that made it hard for me to feel for the characters. The affair between this well-loved teacher and his student, and the questions I asked myself while reading this novel made it unputdownable for the last half of this novel. I was desperate to see how this played out for each character, and I was making new assumptions at every turn of the page.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-76846261879466916032014-06-03T11:06:00.001-07:002014-06-03T11:06:21.488-07:00How I RateHola! I'm sorry for the little unannounced break I took around here, but things have been mildly chaotic. After reading so much for the Bout of Books readathon, I think I fell into a bit of a slump. I started reading <b>The Wolf of Wall Street</b> by Jordan Belfort, and it is taking me forever to slog through the 500+ page book (hellooo overwriting). Boyfriend and I then traveled up to Michigan for my baby brothers high school graduation on Thursday evening. I was expecting to do a ton of reading on the 5 hour train ride, but napping and instagram seemed more important, and I read nothing save for a few pages when I had zero cell phone service. Once we arrived to my hometown of Alpena, we jumped full-swing into graduation party preparation. All day Friday was spent chopping, mixing, and cooking. Friday evening was spent decorating the party haul. All day Saturday was finishing up the food, and hosting the party at the haul. Then Sunday was his commencement ceremonies, a pit-stop at Dairy Queen, and some family time. Phew. My mom drove all the way back yesterday afternoon, and now I'm spending some quality time with her before she makes the long drive back, and I return to work.<br />
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She's getting ready, so I wanted to write up a quick post of <b>how I rate.</b> I don't think I've ever fully discussed this before, and I know every blogger is different. Plus, I'm planning on reading a butt load this summer, so a lot more reviews will be popping up on here. As you've noticed, I use a pretty little crystal-rating system, instead of stars. Fun Fact: I have a tattoo of this same design on my wrist (the tattoo came first LOL). Here is the basics of how I lay it down for rating:<br />
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<b>1 Crystal: </b>This book should've stayed in the rough. If I didn't have a heart, it would've been DNF'd. Very few redeeming qualities that kept me reading to the end. Would only recommend to worst enemies or people who enjoy cringing a whole lot. This also translates to: don't waste your time.<br />
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<b>2 Crystals:</b> This is a gem that has been unearthed but is pretty tarnished. Despite the scratches, though, there are some glimmers of potential that kept me reading until the end. I wouldn't fully recommend this to anyone unless the book was in a genre or about a subject that someone really enjoyed, but I don't regret picking it up. This is a book that would be best to get from your library.<br />
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<b>3 Crystals:</b> This one is neither here nor there. This one has about equal parts of hiccups in the writing, and really brilliant aspects. I would recommend this one to certain people, but steer other people clear away. A three crystal rating is just one that I didn't love, but didn't hate either. This is a book that you should also get from your library, but if it's in a subject or genre you really enjoy, buy it!<br />
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<b>4 Crystals: </b>Ahh, this one sparkles and shines, but it is not a perfect crystal! This is usually for a book that I super enjoyed, but maybe had one or two flaws that kind of threw me within the book. I will recommend a four crystal book to just about anyone. More than likely this book is worth the purchase, and is one that a lot of people will enjoy.<br />
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<b>5 Crystals: </b>THE PERFECT CRYSTAL! This one sparkles, shines, and is 99% flaw free (to me at least.) This rating usually goes to books that can make me cry, that leaves me flailing and obsessed, and is one that I recommend to anyone who ever asks for a book recommendation, no matter who they are. This is a book that I would wholeheartedly recommend purchasing and adding to your collection. Basically: if I tumblr/twitter/goodreads search this book to connect with other people who also loved it, it's a 5 crystal FO SHO.<br />
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<b>BUT</b>, like every rating system there are some variables! By this I mean that every book and author is written with a different objective. A contemporary author has different goals and guidelines than a dystopian author which has different goals and guidelines than a horror author. <b>Therefore, I rate each book according to the genre/category it is in, and not according to every other book written in history of books I've read before. </b>For instance, I rated <b>A Clockwork Orange</b> by Anthony Burgess 5 stars, and I also rated Jenna Jameson's autobiography, <b>How to Make Love Like A Porn Star</b> the same. <i>Clockwork Orange</i> is a modern classic, that just about everyone has read, and is on a lot of required reading lists for classes. At the very least, most people have heard of it. Jenna Jameson's autobiography is maybe not as well known, and is definitely not on the same literary scale as <i>Clockwork</i>, BUT her autobiography was entertaining and engaging, which is what I think all memoirs/autobiographies should be.<br />
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Hopefully that makes sense. Of course, my rating system is not the most precise, but so far it's been working out pretty well ;)<br />
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<i>If you review books, how do you rate? Do you prefer to use a star rating system or other?</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-84636314067570449672014-05-20T13:53:00.000-07:002014-05-20T13:53:46.029-07:00Review: Palo Alto by James Franco<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Palo Alto</u> by James Franco<br />
<b>Publisher: </b>Scribner<br />
<b>Publication Date: </b>October 7, 2010<br />
<b>Page Count: </b>196<br />
<b>Keywords: </b>short stories, misfit teenagers, delinquents, violence<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7840834-palo-alto">Goodreads</a> & <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439163146/ref=x_gr_w_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=httpwwwgoodco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1439163146&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">Amazon</a><br />
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Set in the town of Palo Alto, James Franco's story collection of the same name follows a group of teenagers through the trials and pains of making it through high school. Each of them are struck by tragedy and face the injustice of life. Some of them are just bored, and some are trying to find out how their bodies work. All of them have different journeys, but they are all trying to navigate their adolescence the best way they know how.<br />
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Funny how new facts pop up and make you doubt that there's any goodness in life. Everyone pretends to be normal and be your friend, but underneath, everyone is living some other life you don't know about, and if only we had a camera on us at all times, we could go watch each other's tapes and find out what each of us was really like. But then you'd have to watch girls go poo and boys trying to go down on themselves.</blockquote>
When I was taking my first fiction writing class in college, a couple of my classmates and I started playing an unofficial game. We had learned that an older woman in the class was easily disturbed, and when some of our stories got too gruesome or bloody, she would quietly stand up and walk out of the classroom until it was over. It became a game to see who could get her to walk out, so each week we showed up with the most over-the-top, senselessly violent stories to see who could succeed. Looking back, it was kind of mean, but also an important exercise for us young writers. Self-censorship is something that plagues a ton of fresh writers, and pushing ourselves to write the grossest things we could kind of set the bar for our possibilities. I think of this first foray into fiction writing, because many of the stories in <b>Palo Alto</b> read the same way our trying stories did. There is a lot of shocking violence and disturbing actions, but little to no purpose. Also, I've never <b>trigger warning</b>'d a book before, but <b>Palo Alto </b>needs one, especially for the story <i>Chinatown in Three Parts</i>. As can be told by my anecdote up top, it does not take much to offend me. This story almost put <b>Palo Alto</b> on the DNF list for me. In it, a boy befriends Pam, a new student to his school who is half-Vietnamese. He decides he wants to have sex with her, and sly's his way into having sex with her. Then he brings her to his friends, and they all have their turn at her. Then she brings him to a restaurant, so his chef friend can have his turn at her, too, and he can get free food. Despite her correcting him that she is <i>half</i> Vietnamese, he and his friends take to calling her 'Chinatown' and when they have their way with her, they call it, "going down to Chinatown." The cherry on top of the cake comes when the boy and his friend Seth get arrested and questioned by the police. They are later released and <i>laugh</i> about their charges, and literally face zero consequence. Uh, what? I was actually nauseous while reading this story, told in three parts, and felt so terrible for Pam. If Franco wanted to write a story like that, there should have been some sort of consequence, some sort of lesson. But instead, he perpetuates the idea that because 'Chinatown never said she didn't want to' it was okay for him to pimp her out. And then he acts surprised when she doesn't want to hang out with him anymore. Okay, Franco, okay.<br />
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When A.J. came back, there was nothing to say. And nothing to do because he was holding the bottle. I was feeling okay; I'd had enough vodka. This was the way the night had cashed in. Choices had been made and things happened, and here we were. It was sad and funny. My life was made of this. Stuff like this.</blockquote>
<b>Palo Alto </b>follows the same group of characters, and some of them are mentioned several times. It was hard to remember if the Tom in one story was the Tom in the next story, because there is really no defining characteristics. All the boys are alcoholic racists. All the girls are fat sluts. All the adult men are pedophiles who touch little boys and rape little girls. It was honestly hard to tell the characters apart, and nothing unique distinguished them from one another. There are several car crashes in different stories. What this collection of stories lacked was distinguishing characteristics, and lessons. If you write about two instances of people being hit by cars, each story should tell me something different. Unfortunately, that just never happens. In the first story of the book, <i>Halloween</i>, a boy on probation is driving home drunk from a Halloween party. He is speeding, and runs over a woman. Of course, he keeps driving. He's never caught! And in fact, over time, whenever he drives past the spot, he starts to forget as the years past. He doesn't dwell on the woman he hits and kills, and there's no lesson to be learned. In the story right after <i>Halloween, Lockheed</i>, a girl falls in love with a boy at a party simply because he is giving her the time of day. Then he starts fighting with an older man outside, a car comes out of no where, hits him, kills him, and then speeds away. Again, no one is caught. The story ends shortly after, so I'm not sure how it affects the girl who was supposedly in love with him. Instead of creating a complex drama between two characters, an overly dramatic occurrence happens and cuts the time short, and for what? These characters lacked distinction, and the drama of the stories relied too heavily on shock value to make an impact.<br />
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Barry had done it with her, the girl I loved, and it had meant nothing to him; Tanya would die and no one would care; and there were billions of bodies alive on earth and they would all be buried and ground into dirt; and Picasso was a master at age sixteen and I was a perfect shit.</blockquote>
So why wasn't this book given one star? Even though the stories lacked real substance for me, and violence seemed purposeless and for shock value only, I think that writing these stories will be building blocks for Franco's writing career, much like trying to make an old lady leave my Fiction 1 class was for me. I also wonder if this book was organized chronologically from when they were written by Franco, because two of the stories, <i>I Could Kill Someone</i> and <i>April In Three Parts</i> are featured near the end of the book, and start to really get to the root of these characters lives. I think April appeared in earlier stories, but it wasn't until <i>April In Three Parts</i> that I really remembered who she was. The boys start to get put in their place. We start to learn more about what makes them tick, and what causes them to act in the ways that they do. I started to sympathize with them more. Franco was really peeling back the layers from the shocking actions, and getting to the core of why they were happening.<br />
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James Franco is obviously a well-read and well-educated individual, and maybe part of it is the fact that this is very well known information brought to us by his celebrity. Maybe knowing he has an Ivy League education and an MFA in Creative Writing and that he has adapted several well-known pieces of classic literature that I was expecting more than shock value as a crutch, and characters that were hard to remember. But the stories near the end give us a glimmer of the potential that Franco has to be a great writer like those he admires.<br />
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<i>Have you read this one? Thoughts on shock value in stories & when it is appropriate? </i></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2524477456788509826.post-44334254590654483762014-05-19T09:09:00.001-07:002014-05-19T09:09:20.459-07:00Bout of Books Read-A-Thon Wrap Up! For the past week, I participated in the <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/">Bout of Books Read-A-Thon</a>. I've never done one of these before, after years of hearing about them, plus it was one of my bookish resolutions for the year to participate in a read-a-thon.<br />
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<b>The Verdict: </b>Uh, HOW HAVE I NOT PARTICIPATED BEFORE? I connected with so many other book bloggers, in a way that I haven't before. I'm constantly reading other blogs and commenting, but following the #boutofbooks hashtag really just took it to another level to fully connect with other bloggers, root people on, and participate in reading sprints together.<br />
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<b>Total Books Read: </b>3!<br />
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1. <b>Shut Out</b> by Kody Keplinger: I started this one the day before the read-a-thon started, but finished the majority of it on Day 1. I will have a review coming soon!<br />
2. <b>Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek</b> by Maya Van Wagenen : I was incredibly charmed by Maya's story. A review for this one will definitely be coming soon, too!<br />
3. <b>This Star Won't Go Out</b> by Esther Earl & Family : I probably won't review this story, because how am I going to review a celebration of a girl who died too soon's life? I've mentioned before (I think) that I'm a thyroid cancer survivor. I related to chunks of Esther's story: being unable to go to school, losing friends, feeling useless and exhausted all of the time. This book is a collection of her journal entries, essays by friends about their relationship with Esther, CaringBridge updates, YouTube video transcriptions, and photos. Her story gets you into the head of a young person with cancer, validates the value of online friendships, and displays what a strong-headed person she was, even though her body was too weak. Have tissues ready if you choose to read this one.<br />
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<b>Total Pages Read: </b>926!!! So proud of myself :') 56 of those pages were from me starting to read <b>Rosemary's Baby</b> by Ira Levin last night.<br />
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<b>Challenges: </b>I participated in a couple of challenges, though I didn't do them every day.<br />
First challenge was hosted by <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/">Bout of Books</a>, and we had to introduce ourselves with a picture & the books we were hoping to read!<br />
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Me & the books I hope to get to for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boutofbooks&src=hash">#boutofbooks</a>! Need to finish wolf of Wall Street before <a href="https://twitter.com/Mitch_Kaz">@Mitch_Kaz</a>'s graduation! <a href="http://t.co/Sv8Akjjkw8">pic.twitter.com/Sv8Akjjkw8</a><br />
— Courtney Kazmierczak (@courtneykaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/courtneykaz/statuses/466004202037075968">May 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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The only book I read in that pile was 'Popular.' Shows how much of a mood reader I am :)<br />
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Second Challenge was <b>If You Like X, Try Y </b>hosted by <a href="http://thebookbarbies.blogspot.com/2014/05/bout-of-books-challenge-if-you-like-x.html">The Book Barbies</a>. Here were my recommendations:<br />
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if you like Mad Men or vintage drama, try Valley of the Dolls or The Love Machine by Jacqueline Susann ! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boutofbooks&src=hash">#boutofbooks</a><br />
— Courtney Kazmierczak (@courtneykaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/courtneykaz/statuses/465859943380180992">May 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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If you like reading about cults & carnivals, then try GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boutofbooks&src=hash">#boutofbooks</a><br />
— Courtney Kazmierczak (@courtneykaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/courtneykaz/statuses/465865980220960768">May 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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The third challenge I participated in was a Book Pairing hosted by <a href="http://myoverstuffed-shelves.blogspot.com/2014/05/bout-of-books-10-this-made-me-think-of.html">My Overstuffed Shelves</a>, in which we paired books we've read or were reading with things it reminded us of.<br />
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Pairing:the book made me think of the movie which made me think of a VERY painful scene <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boutofbooks&src=hash">#boutofbooks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/KnittingGromit">@KnittingGromit</a> <a href="http://t.co/fjAgJzykFM">pic.twitter.com/fjAgJzykFM</a><br />
— Courtney Kazmierczak (@courtneykaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/courtneykaz/statuses/466692069948280832">May 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
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The last challenge I participated in was a Book Rainbow hosted by <a href="http://neonyetireads.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/rainbow-of-books-challenge-for-bout-of-books/">Neon Yeti Reads</a>. This was maybe one of my favorite challenges!<br />
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Yay! My book rainbow that I created for today's challenge with the boyfriend's help. This was crazy fun. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23boutofbooks&src=hash">#boutofbooks</a> <a href="http://t.co/83rIkalhuf">pic.twitter.com/83rIkalhuf</a><br />
— Courtney Kazmierczak (@courtneykaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/courtneykaz/statuses/467327188774051841">May 16, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<b>Participation: </b><br />
Woo-wee, I feel bad for my twitter followers who weren't participating in Bout of Books because just about every tweet this week was related to it! Whether it was rooting other readers on, hosting and participating in reading sprints, connecting with other bloggers, and <b>THE CHATS</b>: every tweet was ended with #boutofbooks. Let's go back to the chats. They were <i>beyond</i> fun. I participated in the first one last Monday morning, and the one on Wednesday evening. It was another fun opportunity to connect with other bloggers, enthuse about wine, and talk about our favorite books. Even though the chats moved <i>so fast</i>, it was still so fun and the hour for each chat passed by so quickly!<br />
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If you are participated in the next Bout of Books Read-a-Thon, it will be taking place August 18th-24th. I will definitely be participating again next time. For more details, of course check out the <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/">Bout of Books</a> blog. I'm so grateful for all of the fellow bloggers I got to connect with, and I can't wait for the next one!<br />
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Did you participate? How did you do?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07136256675614043010noreply@blogger.com1