Ten Recents

Yes, I know. I disappeared. But I have my reasons.

Just kidding! Well, kind of. My cousin went to the hospital 'cause of some epilepsy stuff, and I was there kind of a lot. Like a lot lot. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I permanently smell like rubbing alcohol and stuff. But, I did read some good books there! (Not listing some of the authors due to not remembering them XD.)

1) The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
My cousin's staying with us for a bit, and I kind of pilfered it from her suitcase since my friend recommended it to me. I mean, not PILFERED, but you get my point. I loved this book! Especially Langdon (who is supposedly hot for a fiftysomething guy.) Who knew that a Harvard professor could be so... un-uptight? Also Sophie, who understands all the clues he doesn't. It was a great break from swooning/vampires/werewolves/mermaids. In fact, it was so great I immediately read...

2) The Lost Symbol by Dan Brow
I finished this last week, and I loved it. Same theology/symbolism theme, different plot. Katherine wasn't AS loveable as Sophie. Still, it had creepy tattooed guys, pyramids, and Langdon.

3) Forgive my Fins by Tera Lynn Childs
Okay. I've read a lot, lot, lot of good things about this. Short synopsis? Mermaid princess and cocky guy friend who possibly loves her (in my opinion, it's pretty obvious.) But I can't say I honestly liked it that much. In fact, I've only gotten through a few chapters. See, Quince is fine, but Lily... ugh. I don't know. But mermaids! Yay, right? I haven't gotten through enough of the book to love the mermaid stuff. I would like it better if it was more--well, not necessarily realistic, but tied into legends and stuff. Maybe it's just the sudden shift from Dan Brown.

4) Ultraviolet
Synesthesic girl meets [spoiler] alien guy. The alien stuff was pretty half-baked, in my opinion, but other than that it was good.

5) The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
For old time's sake... Loved this story.

6) Bones by Kathy Reichs
So I had no idea that this was the book version of the TV show. I've watched two minutes of an episode and tried really, really hard not to be grossed out, but... anyway, I much prefer reading it in book version. I loved Tempe! After about six of them, though, I got a little bit tired, so I moved on to the more YA centered...

7) Virals by Kathy Reichs
Apparently this is the second book in the series, but I didn't really feel too left out. Short synopsis: Girl breaks into lab with boy friends. Not boyfriends, boy space friends. Big mistake. The only thing that bothered me was that Tory sometimes says things like, "Besides, it was clear from the get-go--tooting my own horn--that I was bright. Like them." (give or take a word.) Or, "I hate guessing. It's so inexact." She comes off as a little pretentious, but it wasn't so bad, and I liked the science in the plot, because it made sense.

8) Congo by Michael Crichton
I've always loved Crichton, and I felt it was a good contrast to my other reading choices. Surprisingly different in style than Dan Brown and worlds away from #3-7, it was a nice ingredient in the mix.

9) We Hear the Dead
I didn't realize that this was a true story because of its slightly unrealistic plot. The only thing that bothered me is just because of my preference--the language and pacing. I don't usually read historical fiction. Anyways, two sisters come up with some bogus ghost story with manually done effects to match and the whole town and eventually country come running, not to mention way older sister (like eighteen years difference) decides to commercialize it, basically creating a religion of spiritalism.

10) Eyes Like Stars
I am a huge Shakespeare fanatic, so the premise fascinated me: all the characters from every single play live in the Theatre Illuminata, and Bertie, abandoned by her mother on their doorstep, lives there too, on the verge of being kicked out due to her prankster habits. I felt like I was stepping in on a story that was running halfway through. Bertie's surprisingly immature but not unloveable, but the whole characters thing isn't explained. I guess you can't really be a skeptic. Good for fans of Cordelia Funke's Inkheart/Inkspell.

These are my most recent ten, also quite the variety due to my pickiness. I hope to be back and regularly posting this week!

Review: The List

An intense look at the rules of high school attraction -- and the price that's paid for them.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.

This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.

 Following the lives of eight different characters is never easy. Making it into good writing is even harder, yet somehow Siobhan Vivian managed to do just that. The List is about eight girls at Mount Washington High School. They've got one thing in common, and that's that their names all appeared on the List. The List is a tradition. Every year, the ugliest and prettiest girl from each grade are typed on a list that is posted all around the school. If this is sounding like a really bad book to you... hold on a minute.

I wasn't expecting to like this book. In fact, I was expecting to downright hate it. I don't like Gossip Girl (which is what the summary vaguely reminded me of.) But for whatever reason, I bought it anyway. It exceeded my (low) expectations despite its unpromising potential.

The characters are so realistic that it's easily imaginable. For example, Abby. What Abby cares about is limited between makeup, fashion, gossip etc. But she's not a shallow character. She wants to establish a relationship with her sister, Fern, who wants nothing more than to keep away from her. Bridget, Abby's best friend's sister, is chosen as the prettiest junior. Secretly, she is struggling with anorexia and trying to refocus and recognize the fine line between unhealthily skinny and healthily thin. Then there's Sarah, one of the ugliest girls. She comes up with a plan to not shower or change clothes for an entire week and show up at Homecoming. And Jennifer? This is Jennifer's fourth year on the List...but as ugliest. Of course, she has some secrets too. Some of them are about her middle-school friendship with the prettiest senior girl, Margo; some of them pertaining to the List in general.

The only real problem I had with the character building was Dana. And Rachel. Margo's best friends, who are unexpectedly nice and campaign for Jennifer as Homecoming Queen. It's like there's two of them and one personality, which I didn't appreciate. I understand the need of having two but it was too hard to tell them apart; they need to have distinguishing characteristics.

The way these girls deal with their new labels are very realistic. I hated some of them and I loved some of them: I'm sure this was Vivian's intention. There were a surprising amount of plot twists that I didn't see coming. The writing, while not necessarily in a style that I liked, did not negatively impact my feelings toward this book. In fact I think that it was a necessity so that I could keep track of the eight different girls. There was something markedly relatable in each character; I could understand where many of their actions were coming from.

The ending. I simultaneously loved it and hated it. While I wish it had detailed what actually happened and had a better resolution and whatnot, I loved the metaphor in those final sentences. But still... bad endings are a pet peeve, and if I had to rate this one, I would give it a 3/5. It was almost as if I needed an epilogue. It wasn't too abrupt, but it definitely was not as conclusive as I would have liked. 

This is not really my kind of book. However, I (surprisingly) liked it. I've reread it a couple of times so I can get all my details straight, and each time I have found another thing to mark down as a like but another to mark down as a dislike. Vivian's book deals with several issues: it digs deeper, I think, than Gossip Girl. Recommended for a lazy weekend/not-too-intense reading.

Four stars!

Friday Excerpts

To blog or not to blog, that is the question.... and welcome back to the cyberworld/blogiverse/Internet, ladies and gentlemen! Today I've decided to post several excerpts from some books, not all of which I like. Yet somehow: No matter what book it's from, excerpts always seem to sound good. I mean, the standard excerpt. Not some scribble about pigs flying and a zombie apocalypse. Like:

They were all looking away -- away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray -- unopened soda, unbitten apple -- and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's step, till she dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought possible. My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchanging.

Yes, it's from the widely debated-over Twilight. Now, to me, this excerpt does not at all give anything away to the terribleness that is sparkly vampire-and-insecure teenage girl-lovestruckness. (People, stalkerish tendencies in a guy are not even remotely sexy. Okay?)

Here are a few of my other favorite excerpts:

O, she knew well
Thy love did read by rote and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households' rancour to pure love.
-Friar Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 3

I am a total Shakespeare addict, so of course I had to post an excerpt from one of his plays!

Every second, another streak of silver glows: parentheses, exclamation points, commas - a whole grammar made of light, for words too hard to speak.
-My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I feel like My Sister's Keeper has a lot of wonderful excerpts, but this is one I remember as being particularly clever and beautiful.


It seemed like forever ago, like we've had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.
-The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

A lot of the other quotes were spoilers, so...yeah.

I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my legs blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away.
-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner was an emotionally packed read. Again, I had the problem of would-be spoilers.


Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.” 
-The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This was one of the books that, after I finished, I was thiiiiiis close to crying. Oh, Rudy, you saukerl...

Anyway, thank you for reading all of these excerpts, and happy reading! Over and out! :)

Thursday Themes

Welcome back to another day in the blogverse! Go ahead, sit down on a virtual chair and nibble on a virtual cookie because this Thursday's theme is... *drumroll please*... heroines! That's right. I'm saving heroes for another Thursday, because today's going to be All About Heroines.

Obviously, a heroine cannot be flawless. Actually, it's a little bit off-putting when she is-- I mean, she has to be relatable, too. And she has to grow. I don't mean that she goes from 5'5" to 7'2" in one book. I mean that she has to learn: a.k.a, she shouldn't really be making the same mistakes over and over again. Development, people!

Also, depth. She shouldn't be shallow. Shallowness is what really makes a heroine (or even an entire book) unappealing. Or super egocentric--meaning they just don't think about anybody else. I'm not saying they need to be a regular Mother Teresa. Example: Sabrina from Girl of the Moment, by Lizabeth Zindel. Sabrina's supposed to be snotty. Actually, she's borderline unbearable, but the point is that she's a wonderful example of someone who would be an awful heroine.

My Top 10 Worst Heroines

10. Margo Roth Spiegelman from Paper Towns
9. Megan from Carrier of the Mark
8. Alex from The Magnolia League
7. EVERYONE from Gossip Girl
6. Clary from The Mortal Instruments
5. Schuyler from Bluebloods
4. Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries
3. Bella from the Twilight series
2. Bella from the Twilight series
1. Enoby from My Immortal (Okay, so this doesn't technically count, but she sucks.)


I admit that Bella is listed twice, but... honestly? Total poster child for worst YA heroines. Also, there are some other things I want to say: 1) I liked Margo at first, but I just sort of lost track of her, and where she was going and why. 2) I read Carrier of the Mark because Leigh Fallon was an inkie. (If you don't know what that means, it's okay.) 3) My Immortal is widely known as the worst fanfic on the internet.

Katniss Everdeen

My Top 10 Best Heroines

10) Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief
9) Hermione from Harry Potter
8) Stargirl from Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
7) Melinda from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
6) Anna from My Sister's Keeper
5) Meg Murray from A Wrinkle in Time
4) Maximum Ride from the Maximum Ride series
3) Hazel Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars
2) Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games
1) Tris from Divergent

Hermione Granger

Actually, for me it's kind of a four- or three- way tie, but I don't usually do ties, so yeah.
Now, observe these images.  If you can't see it, enlarge it. It is hilarious and also true. Aka the 'What would ___ Do' diagrams, they describe how certain YA heroines would react upon hearing that the rent is due.

Anyway, thanks for reading this slightly rambly blog post. Happy Reading!

An Abundance of Katherines (John Green)

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

First of all, I am a certified nerd. Well not really certified, but you get my point. Colin is also a certified nerd (aka a master of anagrams/child prodigy.) However, he is a kind of foolish nerd, because as the story opens, he has just broken up with his nineteenth girlfriend. It doesn't really matter what her name is, because as it turns out, Colin's type in girls is simply girls named Katherine.

Hassan, Colin's best friend, is not a nerd. In fact, he's put off college for a year, which is soon to become two years since he hasn't filled out anything yet. But he's a good friend. And he decides that he has the perfect cure for Colin's broken heart-- a road trip. Duh. 

One of the things I loved most about this book was Hassan's and Colin's friendship. First of all, there's lots of witty banter, as per usual in John Green writing. Somehow, despite their numerous differences, the two have remained friends after an incident with a pupillary sphincter (more on that later) in high school. The witticisms aren't the best part--it's just 'watching' them work together. 

Anyways, Colin, noted child prodigy, has a theory: there are dumpers and dumpees. You cannot be both a dumper and dumpee. Also, he is a dumpee. If you don't figure this out in the beginning of the book, there is also a quick description of each beginning/middle/end of his relationships. I'll admit that it sounds, well, kind of boring. Surprise! I actually loved hearing about the Katherines.

So Colin and Hassan decide to stay in Gutshot, Tennessee. (I know. Gut. Shot. Violence, people, violence!) This is because of Lindsey Lee Wells, who finds Hassan and Colin when Colin falls on the back of his head. And that's when Colin has his Eureka moment: a graph of when x=time and y=happiness and lots of other domain restrictions and yay math!  

Thus begins Colin and Hassan's stay in Gutshot, Tennessee, filled with many graphs, x and y equations, Calculus, a tape recorder, and also Lindsey Lee Wells. At some point, the math for the dumpers/dumpees curve became complicated to the extent that I kind of skimmed the equations, because there was no way I was ever going to be able to understand that. 

On the other hand: I've read some of John Green's other books, and I felt like it wasn't just quite up to par with The Fault in Our Stars, which I actually think is the best out of all that I've read. However, I loved the characters, who were original and spunky. The plot-- who doesn't love road trips? And also anagrams and child prodigies? Not to mention a really bad taste in girls? And, finally, the writing style. I fell in love with John Green from the first book I read by him. It is strong, peppered with humor, serious in a few places, cynical and sarcastic in others, and full of life. 

Excerpt: “And the moral of the story is that you don't remember what happened. What you remember becomes what happened. And the second moral of the story, if a story can have multiple morals, is that Dumpers are not inherently worse than Dumpees - breaking up isn't something that gets done to you; it's something that happens with you.” 

4/5 

upcoming reads & reviews

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green: John Green is one of my favorite authors. An Abundance of Katherines is real, funny, and strong writing. When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

Paper Towns by John Green: Yes, so maybe I have a slight John Green addiction. Emphasis on slight. Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer Q gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

 The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly: I'll admit that I am not usually up for historical fiction, but Christina gave it five stars, so I read it. East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.
But Fiona's life is shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man take from her nearly everything-and everyone-she holds dear. Fearing her own death, she is forced to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit propels her rise from a modest West Side shop-front to the top of Manhattan's tea trade. But Fiona's old ghosts do not rest quietly, and to silence them, she must venture back to the London of her childhood, where a deadly confrontation with her past becomes the key to her future.

 The List by Siobhan Vivian: Despite my misgivings upon reading the summary, this book actually surprised me with its perspectives on life. An intense look at the rules of high school attraction -- and the price that's paid for them.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.

This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.




 
Happy Reading! Expect reviews for these books soon :)