Looking at Life Using Book Titles

I found this at Charlotte Reads Classics and I guess that she got it from Catherine. A little New Years fun! Enjoy!

Using only books that you have read this year (2012), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe yourself: Bossypants

How do you feel: Divergent

Describe where you currently live: A Land More Kind Than Home

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Maine

Your favorite form of transportation: Body Surfing

Your best friend is: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

You and your friends are: Between the Lines

What's the weather like: Incendiary

You fear: The Passage

What is the best advice you have to give: Carry the One

Thought for the day: My Name Is Memory

How I Would Like to Die: Unbroken

My souls present condition: Fifty Shades of Grey

If you make your own list, let me know in the comments, I would love to see what everyone comes up with! Plus, this was actually a lot of fun!

2012 End of the Year Wrap Up

Well, it's New Years Eve and in six hours it will officially be 2013. What a year it has been, both in terms of my blog and in my life! This year alone I moved, dealt with a gigantic family crisis, turned down a job that I regret turning down (but I couldn't accept it on account of the aforementioned crisis), bought a new car, read some books, blogged, quit blogging, started blogging again, turned 27 years old and started eating meat again after years of vegetarianism. I've been seeing where several of the blogs I follow are doing end-of-the-year wrap ups so I figured I'd do the same...

Highlights of the year:

I read 47 books, less than last year, but more quality books than ever before.
I gave 8 books 5 stars and I only reviewed 9 books.
In July I joined a local book club and in January I will lead my first discussion.
In September I got to meet several of my favorite authors at the Annual Book Marks Book Festival in Winston-Salem, NC. Read about it here. 
I began participating in the Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
I joined The Classics Club.
I attempted to complete the Readers Imbibing Peril book challenge, hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings, but didn't finish it.
I quit blogging.
I started blogging again.
I posted 60 posts. Most were top ten lists.
I toyed with a daily photo meme, but didn't like it, so I quit it.
I moved to Blogger from WordPress.
I was the winner of three GoodReads First Reads Books.
I was sent a book from an author in Raleigh and asked to read and review it (still haven't gotten to it yet).
I participated in an amazing 2 month long reading group with the Iredell County Public Library where we read books by NC authors set in NC and then discussed the impact the books had on the portrayal of the region. It was super fun. I met some great new people and read some amazing books I never would have otherwise read.
I sent a Random Act of Kindness book to a blogger in England. I got an email that I've got one on the way to me as well from England!

Fiction: 38- 81%
Non-Fiction: 9- 19%
North Carolina Authors: 7- 15%
Classics- 5- 11%
Young Adult- 6- 13%
Oldest Book I Read: Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)- 1811
Newest Book I Read: The Reeducation of Cherry Truong (Aimee Phan)- I got an ARC a month before it came out
Longest Book I Read: The Passage (Justin Cronin)- 784 pages
Shortest Book I Read: If You Want Me To Stay (Michael Parker)- 177 pages
Best Book I Read: A Land More Kind Than Home (Wiley Cash)
Worst Book I Read: The Passage (Justin Cronin)
Best Series Discovery: Divergent (Veronica Roth)
Favorite Character: Tiny from Will Grayson, Will Grayson (David Levithan and John Green)
Book I Recommended The Most: Silver Sparrow (Tayari Jones), A Land More Kind Than Home (Wiley Cash) and The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Favorite Cover of A Book I Read: Anya's Ghost (Vera Brosgol)
Favorite Post: The review of The Reeducation of Cherry Truong (Aimee Phan)
Favorite Blog This Year: Musings of a Bookshop Girl

Five Star Books:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Read Review.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Read Review.
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. Read Review.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Read Review.
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. Read Review.
Bossypants by Tina Fey.
If You Want Me To Stay by Michael Parker.

Reviews:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
The Town That Forgot How to Breathe By Kenneth J. Harvey
The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone Saint James (a first reads win)
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (a first reads win)
The Reeducation of Cherry Truong by Aimee Phan (a first reads win)

2013 Reading/Blogging Resolutions:

1. I am challenging myself to read 50 books next year
2. I am participating in the 2013 To Be Read Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader.
3. I am going to attempt to participate in every Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and The Bookish.
4. I am going to be more active in the Classics Club. I will participate in each months post and I will knock five books off my Classics Club list.
5. I am going to do two posts a month minimum: 1 at the beginning of the month to layout how I want my month of reading to look and another one at the end of the month to wrap up the progress I made during the month.
6. I am going to do more reviews of books.
7. I am going to make progress in the 1001 books challenge.

Happy New Year Everyone! Here's to an amazing 2013 full of reading and blogging!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Read in 2012

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Merry Christmas, Reader! Despite it being a holiday, here I am blogging away. I spent a lot of the morning working on a grant for work and reading/trying to make way in Anna Karenina. A migraine struck me around lunchtime and had me down for the rest of the day with one quick minute to get up and open presents with the family (no books in my stocking this year- WTH!?) but I did get some very comfy new flannel jammies which I am now cozied up in and ready to share a list of top ten picks with you.
This weeks top ten is a freebie since the ladies at the Broke and the Bookish probably assumed that we would all be spending quality time and crap like that with our families, but not this one! I missed last week's TTT and so I decided to use my freebie post to catch up and so my TTT this week is...

The Top Ten Books I read in 2012:

I decided to break my picks up into categories and so I have picked my two favorite classics, YA books, contemporary, non-fiction and book club books.

Classics:
2012 was the year that I lost my fear of classic novels. My reading resolution for the new year is to read a whole slew of classic books.
10. Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Read July 14-26. Read my review here
This was the book that broke my classics curse. I read it this summer as I was moving to my new place so as I needed time away from boxes and packing tape, I would take this book and enjoy escaping to French boarding schools. This book was very intimidating to me when I first picked it up, but by the time I was halfway through it and I was following along I realized I could do this and I loved doing it which lead me to...
9. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Read August 3-12. Read my review here
After my success with Bronte, I moved quickly on to Austen while participating in Roof Beam Reader's Austen in August Reading Event and finally read this book after having read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and multiple viewings of the Masterpiece Classic version of the movie. I loved the book and I love Austen and I can't wait to move on to more of her works. I wish that I had been able to read more during the Austen in August event, but with the move and with school starting back up it just didn't happen this year.

Young Adult:
Being a middle grades librarian, I really need to read more of the contemporary YA books. It's so difficult to find YA novels that aren't trite to the bone though. I did have a few hits this year including the two listed here. Since I had to make the four hour drive to my parents house Sunday for the holiday I picked up a CD version of The Clockwork Angel which is book one in the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare and I am dying to find a disc-man so that I can continue listening to it. I am LOVING this book. It's kind of got some steampunk elements to which is another book-type that I'm normally not a fan of, but it's working for me. Clare also writes another YA series called the Mortal Instruments that I am going to pick up after I finish the Infernal Devices series. I'm also truly excited to read Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion and Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia both of which are being made into movies in 2013. Anyway, on to my two YA picks that I read this year:
8. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithian and John Green. Read June 9-10
An amazing take on the LGBT youth. Funny, sad, and whimsical all at the same time. Plus, it's one book written by two authors whose voices blend perfectly.
7. Divergent by Veronica Roth. Read March 24-29
A Hunger Games type dystopian novel for young girls featuring a take-no-names bitchin' female lead in a futuristic Chicago. It was pretty good, though not great, and I am anticipating reading the second book, Insurgent, which recently came out. I purchased a copy for the library but it's been in such hot demand, I'm reluctant to take it with me when the kiddos are so excited to read it.

Contemporary:
6. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. Read June 29. Read my review here
This book might end up being my favorite read of the year. An amazing and difficult-to-put-down story of a dysfunctional family written in a refreshing new voice. I am so excited to see what Jones is going to come out with next.
5. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. Read August 1-3. Read my review here
This book ties for first place with Silver Sparrow. I am such a sucker for books written by authors from North Carolina writing books about North Carolina. I am leading the discussion on this book at my next book club meeting on January fifth and I am so excited to see how much the other members of the club loved (or hated, can it be possible?!) this book.

Non-Fiction
I didn't read a lot of non-fiction this year which is kind of surprising seeing as how my favorite book of 2011 was a non-fiction pick. Most of the non-fiction that I read this year was for book club and I honestly did not like any of those books at all (it was pretty much a mutual feeling within the club as well). However, two works of non-fiction did stand out to me this year:
4. Bossypants by Tina Fey. Read March 24-April 16
I am so in love with Tina Fey. She is my girl crush and my celebrity crush all at once. She makes being smart and wearing glasses sexy and I love her for it. This book, which takes us on a journey of her career in showbiz, starting at a very young age at a summer theater camp in Pennsylvania and ends post-SNL doing her own television show, is a must read for anyone who reads books. It is hilarious and easy to relate to even if you aren't in show business. I honestly believe that Tina and I would be best friends if ever we met.
3. A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz. Read August 12-16
This was my second read for Austen in August. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't awful either. It was really just a love letter to Ms. Austen's novels and a    look back at the authors young life when he first discovered the novels.

Book Club Books
2. Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow. Read July 7-12
I joined my book club this summer and this was the first book on the list and I honestly did not have time to finish it before the meeting. However, people in the club seemed to adore this one and so I have decided to finish it one day, especially since it is on the list of the 1001 books to read and I enjoyed the first half of the novel.
1. AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller. Read July 26-29
Let me be clear, I did not like this book all that much. I love AT memoirs and this one was okay, but out of all of the other book club picks we've had since I joined up, this one was the only other one I could stand to add to the list. For a better AT Memoir, go for Jennifer Pharr Davis' Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachina Trail. 

Have a great holiday, Reader, no matter what your religion or what you celebrate. If I don't get another post in before the new year, have an amazing entry into 2013. Oh, and, congratulations on surviving the Apocalypse!

Movie Review: Anna Karenina

Literally, all the world's a stage in the new remake of Anna Karenina. I loved everything about this movie. With one exception. The whole movie is set on a theater stage which could have been highly confusing if I hadn't first visited the film's website and read that it was done in this way. I even heard the husband part of a husband and wife that sat behind me remark that he thought that the first part was a play that the characters were watching and then fifteen minutes in realized that Oh! THIS is the movie! Several of the sets were just unquestionably painted backgrounds which gave the movie a campy and silly feel and made it very difficult for me to take it seriously. One scene in particular was supposed to be quite emotional, but I ended up chuckling at the absurdity of the background. It's when Alexy Alexondrovitch gets the letter from Anna and tears it up and throws it into the air. The background is a wood painting of Moscow and it looks as if it were done by a first year art student. The set was not only distracting in terms of an off-putting appearance but also because characters constantly walked off stage and straight into another scene. For example, a character who is in a Moscow ballroom exits stage left and ends up in a countryside staring at miles of snow. Despite the movie-set-on-a-stage-but-not-just-a-filmed-version-of-a-live-performance way it was filmed not working for me, I do have to admit that I was pretty dazzled by the horse race scene. They filmed a horse race on an opera house stage! Seeing that alone was worth the price of admission! (Well, that, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but more on that later).

Ok, I can't delay, on to Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The only person that I knew that was in this film was Keira Knightly. Now normally, I do not care for Ms. Knightly, but I positively wanted to see  this movie so I was going to have to suck it up and get past it and I am so glad that I did. Knightly's performance was uh-may-zing! She brought Anna to life. It was like she was channeling the fictional train-smashed dead woman from nineteenth century Russia! For as much as I used to dislike Knightly, I equally love Aaron Taylor-Johnson (he plays Vronsky). I didn't actually know this, I just knew that the guy in the trailers for that movie Savages that came out a while back was h-o-t, hot! As I watched this movie I noticed that Count Vronsky was h-o-t, hot. So, I whipped out my smart phone and lo and behold they were the same person. I did not picture Vronsky as being blonde as I was first reading the book (I'm about 300 pages in) but it worked in the film! I pictured Vronsky as being a little more burly and domineering, but Taylor-Johnson pulled it off perfectly and I without a doubt believed him as Vronsky. I couldn't believe the normally h-o-t, hot Jude Law was so pug-fugly in this movie, but he, too, pulled off the character of Alexy Alexandrovitch (Anna's stuffy husband).

So, in the end, for the most part I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I would have preferred to see a true, plain retelling of the novel instead of a film that was attempting to be cutting edge and arty by employing the set-on-a-stage motif that was used. I loved the actors, I was surprised at how much I loved Knightly and I am now excited to watch her remake of Pride and Prejudice which I've always avoided because I don't like her (and that movie is directed by the same director as Anna K.!). I did love the movie though, the visuals were spectacular (when they weren't just painted pictures in a background) and made me want to visit Russia. The costumes were even more amazing. Every single thing that Anna wore was gorge and I loved that she wore feathers in her hair! Feathers! In. Her. Hair! Can we bring this back into fashion, please?! I feel like this might be a look for me. The attire was classy and elegant pieces of art. The score was beautifully done and had a very Russian feel to it. I'm not normally one for classical music, but I have listened to the free samples on ITunes many a times over the past few days and will most likely end up purchasing the whole album soon. And the dance scenes- wowie wow wow!

That first time that Anna and Vronsky dance is like watching moving art. I could have watched 2.5 hours of nothing but the dancing on screen and been happy and given the movie two thumbs up! Though the movie didn't follow the book perfectly, it did come pretty damn close to doing so. Feasibly  it couldn't follow the entire thing as the book is GINORMOUS and the movie was already pretty long. The book is so ginormous that I don't know if I would have read it without this movie coming out to prompt me to do so. Hopefully with Christmas break coming up I will have ample time to finish it! Check back soon for a book review...

Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors in 2012

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

                                     

    

With the end of the year (and, according to the Mayans, the world) coming upon us, it's time to reflect on the books that we read this past year and to decide which were the best. This weeks list of top-tens is the Top Ten New To Me Authors of 2012.

10. Aimee Phan.
The Reeducation of Cherry Truong. March, 2012.
In March St. Martins' sent me a ARC of this book for review. I have always enjoyed Asian literature, especially of the Vietnamese flavor. Currently I'm dealing with this huge yen to go to Vietnam and Thailand. The book isn't set much in Vietnam, mostly in Southern California where the Truong family was emigrated to. However, in flashbacks we get a peak into a pre-war Vietnam and a pre-war Vietnamese family. Read my review here. 

9. Michael Parker
If You Want Me To Stay. February 2012.
I joined a discussion group at the local public library where we read books by North Carolina authors whose  books are set in North Carolina and this was one of the books that we read. Despite Parker being a former professor of mine whilst I was getting that ever-so-useful English degree at UNCG, I had never read any of his work prior to this discussion group which was totally my loss. Parker's novel was a "bathroom floor" read for me (see previous post to know what that means) and during one sitting on that floor I found myself laughing hysterically and weeping within minutes. A grievous work of a crumbling family that is totally foreign and totally relatable.

8. George Orwell
1984 November 2012
Once we move past the fact that I have a college degree in English and had not read any Orwell until 2012 we can move on to how impressed I was at his writing. Though I didn't enjoy the story very much, I did enjoy the writing style that Orwell possess and I am now compelled to read more by him. Animal Farm, here I come. Read my review here. 

7. Tayari Jones
Silver Sparrow. June 2012.
I sure did love this book. The story of a man with two families and the impact that it has on each of his daughters is pretty foreign to me, but I was charmed by every word that Jones put down on paper. I HAD to know what was going to happen, I needed to figure out if the girls would lead a flourishing adult life despite a somewhat atypical upbringing. I was able to fly through this book and I read it at a time during the year when I really needed an escape from my own atypical reality. I was fortunate enough to get the chance to meet Jones a couple of months ago and I got her to sign my copy of the book which only make the whole experience of this novel more precious to me.
Read my review here.

6. Haruki Murakami
Norwegian Wood. March 2012.
Confession: I was not all that impressed by this book. I didn't feel that it fully bloomed and the climax left me wanting. However, I added Mr. Murakami to my list today because I recognized the potential in his writing style and I am eager to revisit this writer and hopefully be better satisfied with the next novel of his that I dive into. After all  we all write pieces that are sub-par (see: any of my blog posts, ever) and we all deserve another chance which I am will to grant to this guy.


5. Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale. November 2012.
Since starting the new version of the blog on this new platform I have used many posts to gush about how in love with Atwood's writing I am. I am so eager to explore her other works and I currently have a copy of Oryx and Crake eyeing me from my TBR pile and in fact it is my September choice for my 2013 TBR Pile Challenge.
Read my review here. 


4. Ron Rash
The Cove. July-August 2012
Another of the three NC authors I have on my list. I love reading books by authors from my state and books that are set in my state and historical books in general and Rash's The Cove fit all three of those likes. Rash has several other promising books released and the local librarian excitedly encouraged me to read Serena.

3. John Green
Will Grayson, Will Grayson. June 2012
As a Librarian that caters predominately to young-adult readers, I think that Mr. Green might be my favorite discovery for work-related reading this year. I read his co-written with David Leviathan pro-LGBT work Will Grayson, Will Grayson this summer and absolutely fell in love with the route that Green is taking the YA readers!
Read my (short but sweet) review here.

2. Ann Patchett
State of Wonder. February 2012.
I can't say that I loved State of Wonder, but much like Murakami, I found possibility in the way that Patchett wrote and I believe that she has some better books out there. For instance Bel Canto has been on my TBR pile for a while and is the June pick for my 2013 TBR Challenge.


1. Wiley Cash
A Land More Kind Than Home. August 2012.
I had to put all the NC authors I read this year on my list. Cash is the author that I am most excited to read his next work. If his first novel is any indication this guy has a long and fruitful future ahead of him.
Read my review here.

What great discoveries did you make this year?

Review: In The Time Of The Butterflies by J. Alvarez

While I was in college for the life of me, I could NOT pass Spanish III. After lamenting about this in the offices of the literary arts magazine I edited for, one of my coworkers asked me why I didn't do like everyone else at UNCG and take Spanish at the local community college and then transfer the credits in. I didn't even know that this was a possibility, but apparently I was the only one who didn't know because on the first day of class I was surrounded by familiar faces that I had seen on the UNCG campus. The professor was not unfamiliar with UNCG students taking the Spanish courses through him and upon polling us we discovered that only 2 out of the 20 some students in that one class were not transferring their credits to UNCG. I loved this class and this professor. He was an American man who just decided to learn espanol and then teach it. He was good at it and he enjoyed it and I passed his class with an A. His name was Don Bill and I respected him because A. he loved the Golden Girls almost as much as I did and 2. He was a huge reader. Constantly Don Bill would talk about the books that he had recently read or was in the midst of reading at the moment. One of those books was In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. The way he was speaking about this book inspired me to some day read it and so I added it to my TBR pile and rarely thought about it again. That is until a few months ago I stopped off Ed McKay's to unload some old books and DVDs before moving and spotted this book. I made a couple of bucks off of the items I had sold so I decided to pick up this story of the famous martyred Mirabal sisters and finally give it a try. It still sat physically on my TBR shelf for a few months. On November 25 I finished reading the latest book for book club and was looking for my next read and I just decided to grab In the time of the Butterflies and sat down on the bathroom floor, turned on the space heater and got down to business. It was fate that I started reading it on 11/25/12 as this was fifty-second anniversary that the Mirabal sisters were beaten to death and tossed over the side of a mountainside in the Dominican Republic as a consequence of rebelling against the dangerous Trujillo reign of terror.

In the Time of the Butterflies is the historically fictionalized account of the lives of Dede, Maria Teresa (Mate), Patria and Minerva Mirabal, four sisters, Las Mariposas (the Butterflies), who were born and raised near the Dominican capitol. The sisters are convent-educated and through friends and family members they find themselves at the center of an underground group of rebels against the 30+ year rule of Trujillo. The story is told from each of the sisters perspectives leading up to the moments before the fateful ambush. The one surviving sister, Dede, who was not with her sisters that night, tells her story in present tense and in flashbacks. The story is a tangled tale of family and loyalty and honor and courage. 

Title: In the Time of the Butterflies

Author: Julia Alvarez

Publication Date: 1994

Pages: 432
Publisher: Algonquian Books
Where I got it: Ed McKays Used Bookstore, Winston-Salem, NC

Dates I read it: November 25, 2012-December 9, 2012

Number of stars: 4/5

There is very little biographical information on the Mirabal sisters so creating lives for them had to be quite difficult for Alvarez. However, she is able to pull it off perfectly. Each sister has her own voice and her own fears and frustrations both political and personal. My favorite sister was Minerva. I loved her for her spunk, her feminism, and her courage, even if sometimes that courage, by her own self admittance, was just  her putting on a brave face to keep her sisters going in the fight. I enjoyed reading the chapters that were told from Maria Teresa (Mate) the best. Her chapters were done through diary entries. Beginning when she was a young girl and showing the usual Dear Diary type entries and ending with her time in prison with her writing honestly about her time in a torture chamber in a contraband diary. Reading the pieces from Dede that were told in present time were difficult to read as Alvarez made you feel the loneliness and the heartbreak that comes from loosing three sisters and taking on the burdens and responsibilities of raising all of their left-behind children. I liked the fact that even though this is a work of fiction and the lives and activities of the sisters were a complete fabrication of Alvarez's imagination, this book does shed light on what it must have been like for any family existing under atrocious Trujillo rule in the Dominican Republic. 

Each sister told the story from her perspective about a certain span of time. I would have loved to get a point of view from the other three during the same time periods. I also would have enjoyed a non-sister voice of someone who was outside of the revolution and I think that perhaps their mother who feared and prayed and stuck behind them and loved them and clung to life for twenty years just so she could assist in the raising of the children that were left behind would have been a great voice to hear from. 

Like I mentioned earlier, my favorite was the vigorous Minerva and I loved reading the earnest diary entries of Mate. The only characters I didn't like, surprise surprise, were Trujillo and everyone who was with him, the SIM officers. The Mirabal family was like any other family, fighting and loving and keeping secrets. It was easy to believe that the events in the story actually happened to the real Mirabal sisters because they were events that take place in most any family. I loved each and every character in the book. The characterization of them grew from page one and as the years passed and the characters aged, as a reader you are able to get a real sense of their character development. There was honestly nothing about the characters I did not like. Profoundly well written especially considering that little is known about their early lives.

At the end of the novel it is reveled by the author that as a young child she and her family were forced to flee the Dominican Republic as a result of her own father being a part of an underground anti-Trujillo plot. Alvarez became fascinated about the entire era, especially the story of the martyred Las Mariposas sisters and as an adult returned to her home to research the time and the lives of the sisters, even speaking one-on-one with Dede herself in the process. Since the release of the book it has been made into a movie staring Salma Hayek, Marc Anthony and the guy that played Selena's dad and the teacher in Stand and Deliver so I would be interested in seeing it. The trailer looks promising, yet I'm kind of disappointed that it looks like it will only focus on Minerva's story. Whether you read the book or view the film, I do encourage all to make themselves aware of the horrors of this epoch of Dominican history. Viva Las Mariposas!

Favorite Quotes:

"And on the third day he rose again...on my third day at Mama's instead of a resurrection, I got another crucifixion. The SIM came for Mate."

"A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she doesn't want to be the only one left to tell their story."