Hiatus Status

Hello everyone!

So sorry I’ve been AWOL for such a long time. Life got crazy (I know, lame excuse), and my computer died so I had to buy a new one, but I promise not to abandon this blog for such a long time again.

I have an abundance of book reviews waiting to be typed up and uploaded, so I’ll be working on them slowly but surely. I’m aiming for one every 2 days? I think that’s manageable.

In other news, I passed my original reading goal of 48 book, upped the ante to 60 books, and have passed it again! I’m at 62 books so far and I’ve raised my goal to a whopping 75!! Yay!

 

The Great Gatsby Movie

Y’all, I’m actually EXCITED to see a movie about a beloved book. I love Baz Luhrmann’s directoral style, and The Great Gatsby is a favorite book. Plus, it’s filled with a pretty packed cast. Can’t wait until May!

 

Check out the new trailer!!

http://bookriot.com/2013/04/04/new-trailer-for-the-great-gatsby-with-music-from-beyonce-andre-3000-and-more/

Review: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares

Review: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

4 Stars

Read February 20-22, 2013; 260 pages

 

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares was a refreshing change of pace for me. It was light, sweet, and entertaining. Dash and Lily were wonderfully vibrant characters with their own sense of spunk and individuality. They’re not afraid to be themselves in all their strange/weird/charming ways.  Plus, the entire concept of the book was very original. What would you do if you found a notebook in a bookstore that read: “I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.” Would you dare to answer the challenge?

 

I loved Dash’s wit and sarcasm and acerbic humor. His whole personal perspective and the mood he conveyed was highly entertaining in its quick intelligence. He often left me smiling and chuckling. Lily was sweet and awkward and pretty much the complete opposite of Dash. Yet her point of view was endearing and earnest. They’re such different characters that you’d think they would never get along, but their love of books and words brings them together in a fun and adventurous way. (I’m getting carried along with my adverbs)

 

The fact that these two characters are completely different people who have never met in person, connected by a single notebook, made the reading experience fun to follow. What were they going to say to each other next? Where’s the next place they are going to dare the other to visit? Are they ever going to meet one another? Is it going to go well? I also liked that through the dares they were learning something new, experiencing something they would never have done of their own volition. Seeing how their written interactions made the characters grow was inspiring. I kind of want to try this whole scenario out myself, just for the fun of it!

 

Overall, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares is about first love in all its sweet, frightening, exciting, and awkward ways. Pick it up and enjoy its sweet sentimentality, fun adventure, and engaging original concept.

 

Favorite Quotes:

“Words failed me, insofar as I wasn’t sure I could find the words that wouldn’t fail her” (88)

“I was usually in the mood to look for nothing in particular when I went to the Strand. Some days, I would decide that the afternoon was sponsored by a particular letter, and would visit each and every section to check out the authors whose last names began with that letter. Other days, I would decide to tackle a single section, or would investigate the recently unloaded tomes, thrown in bins that never really conformed to alphabetization. Or maybe id only look at books with green covers, because it had been too long since I’d read a book with a green cover” (3).

“I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable. I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler” (3).

Review: Beautiful Chaos

Review: Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures #3) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

4 Stars

Read February 15-20, 2013; 518 pages

 

Book #3 – I really liked this one. As opposed to trends in the previous two books in the series, Beautiful Chaos was not just action after action. There was some depth and real story telling going on here. Things came together, and were torn apart in ways that left me aching.

 

Also, finally FINALLY I was not annoyed at any of the characters (i.e. my many urges to throw Beautiful Darkness across the room in fits of frustration at Lena). I finally liked her. Now, I have to relent that it might have been because she’s not a super huge part of the plot here in book #3. Sure, she was in it and because Ethan is in love with her she is integral to the story line, but her actions weren’t a significant factor. Less Lena = happier Caitlin. Our narrator and protagonist Ethan comes into his own here and his personality and character shine. My heart just bled for him (see final comment). In fact, most of the character came into their own. They solidified and yet changed – they grew.

 

To put the book in context of the series, things are really shifting and changing now. The actions carried out in previous books are coming to hard and difficult conclusions. Garcia and Stohl did a wonderful job addressing the issues they created. They didn’t write a happy go lucky turn out of events of brush by the potentially life-altering and world-changing consequences. By dealing with repercussions of books # 1 & 2 in this way, the Beautiful Chaos contains a certain amount of gravitas. Reality hits hard. The emotional twists that I as a reader went through excited me. It was a moody book in all the right ways, which suited me as I was reading it.

 

Oh, and the thing I loved loved loved about Beautiful Chaos was the angst. Epic, stunning, deep episodes of angst. Ah! SO MUCH GREAT ANGST!

The Harlem Shake: Library Edition

So if you haven’t had your fill of the Harlem Shake videos circling the interwebs yet, I have another one to share!

 

Here’s a library one!  (I can only hope that everyone in the video loves books and that’s why they’re participating, because if so, that’s a ton of high schoolers who go ape$#!t for libraries and that’s awesome!)

 

Review: Beautiful Disaster

Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

5 Stars

Read February 14-15, 2013; 418 pages

 

I give Beautiful Disaster 5 stars because I already want to read it again. As soon as I finished it, I was sad that I had read though the book so fast, but I couldn’t stop myself. I devoured this book, staying up until 2am before I could get to a place that I could bare to leave the story to get some shut eye. The following morning I proceeded to pick it up right after my shower to finish it, forgetting to eat breakfast in the process. I just couldn’t get enough.

 

Thinking back on it, my reading experience was similar to Abby and Travis’ relationship in the book. Intense. Fast. Overpowering. Addictive. The title is so appropriate. A beautiful disaster – that’s certainly what this story was. A story of two people whose jagged edges somehow come together to create something whole. But it’s not a sappy romance; this is instead a troubled love that works against the odd. I admit that my heart was pounding in many places because I was so keyed up. I was nervous, fidgety, anxious to read as fast as I could to find out what happened next.

 

I liked that both Abby and Travis were realistically flawed. They’re two normal college students (with a bit of eccentric background thrown in – but who doesn’t have some kind of crazy history?) I easily saw this story playing out in my 1,200 student alma mater and I think that’s why I so easily connected to this book. I related to Abby a lot, especially in her desire to draw boundaries, create structure, so as not repeat the mistakes of her past, even if that meant leaving/hurting Travis, who she loves. She hurt a lot in this story and based on some reviews I read post-reading, I think people under-appreciated it because of Travis’ physically visceral reactions as opposed to her more subtle distancing.

 

In all, a great book that I’d love to read again. I’m going to have to go purchase it and add it to my collection.

Sherlock – All Shall Fade

Alright. My friend Lee sent this link to me this morning and I totally teared up and almost cried. Pippin’s song in the Lord of the Rings movie Return of the King always gets to me, no matter how many times I hear it. Now, put that song to the BBC Sherlock series and I’m done. This is internet perfection.

 

This video was done beautifully, with all the right choices for clips and stills. Please enjoy. And if you tear up too, know you’re SO not alone.

 

*SPOILER NOTE* It reveals the end of the series so don’t watch the video unless you’ve seen the end of season 2. You do NOT want to spoil it for yourself.

 

 

Now who’s ready for more Sherlock?!

(Thanks to Serenity S)

Review: Crossed

Review: Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

3 Stars

Read February 7-11, 2013; 367 pages

 

I liked Crossed but I enjoyed Matched more. I think this might have been because I listened to the audiobook version of Matched and read Crossed. Normally, I don’t prefer audiobooks to their hardcover predecessors, but in this case the audio rendition was so well read that I kind of want to go an get the audio for this one to compare my experiences. The audio just held my attention better in this case.

 

But let’s move to talking about the book itself. A change that I enjoyed from Matched to Crossed was that in book 2 I got to read the perspectives of both Cassia and Ky. It was great to get into Ky’s head and see his take on the Society and really get a good sense of his past and how it has made him who he is and how it continues to influence his decisions and reactions. However, the volley between perspectives sometimes got confusing. There were times where I was confused about what was going on and this was because the chapters were only about 5-7 pages each. The constant shifts were sometimes difficult transitions to make and relational plot timing got muddled as a result.

 

The content in Crossed moved away from the books I associated with Matched, like The Giver, and moved instead towards a similarity to the Hunger Games trilogy, though not to such survivalist extremes. There were similar circumstances, a similar love triangle, a choosing of sides, etc. I was pleased that I found quite a few moments of good poetic language in here, especially as Condie was dealing with large philosophical issues. It played into the importance of poetry to Cassia and Ky’s story.

 

Character-wise, Cassia bothered me a bit because she was still so attached to the Society and their propaganda. It bugged me and contributed to her naïveté and some petty actions and thoughts after working so hard to find Ky. Ky, on the other hand, was engaging. I loved having inside access to his struggle and admired his pure belief and love of Cassia. Admirable. Cassia, freaking CHOOSE. You’re buggin’ me. At least it will all get resolved in the final book of the trilogy, Reached.

 

Favorite Quotes:

“I thought it was having the picture that made it special, but it’s not even that. It’s looking at something without being watched, without being told how to see. That’s what the picture has given us” (12).

“Love has different shades. Like the way I loved Cassia when I though shed never love me. The way I loved her on the Hill. The way I love her now that she came into the canyon for me. Its different. Deeper. I thought I loved her and wanted her before, but as we walk through the canyon together I realize this could be a new shade. A whole new color” (234).

Review: Crash

Review: Crash (Visions #1) by Lisa McMann

 

4 Stars

Read February 4, 2013; 233 pages

 

I gobbled this one up in one evening. I haven’t read a book that fast in a while. Now, it was admittedly only 233 pages, but I read it in pretty much one setting. Started around 6pm and was only interrupted by dinner. I enjoyed getting so lost in this book.

 

Crash was fast paced but fully developed and well written. There was no vague language or a skippy plot line. Everything made sense and contributed to creating a well rounded story.

 

This was a Romeo and Juliet romance set within the context of warring family owned Italian pizzerias colored over with this strange paranormal occurrence. I loved the combination. It was unique, interesting, and maintained a good balance between serious and light-hearted. I was really pulling for Jules and her paranormal experiences, her visions, were related in a way that made her situation completely realistic.

 

And oh! The crazy story behind it all… Drama! Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Bookish Valentines

It’s Valentine’s Day.

I am single.

This should suck, no?

However, since I am currently single and since I have no one to give an official “Valentine” to, I thought I would instead share a whole bunch of valentines with YOU! (Yes, you! Sitting there staring at the computer. You must be single too or you’d be off with your better half, yes? I know I would …. Unless you’re waiting to go on a romantic date tonight, in which case your presence at your computer screen reading this entry is excused.)

While I was browsing to find just the right valentine to give to the blogosphere, I found someone who collected a whole bunch of AMAZING bookish/pop culture valentines. There are a wide range of great cards to choose from – Pride and Prejudice to Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings to The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They’re all great. My favorites are from The Hunger Games:

You should definitely check out the rest at Getting a BA in BS and enjoy the ensuing laughter and literary pleasure derived from reading them.

Happy Valentine’s Day y’all!