The Summer I Found You is the story about a teenage girl trying to cope with her new diagnosis of type one diabetes and a teenage male veteran who is learning how to embrace his new life after losing an arm, who come together by using each other as an escape, only to discover through love and struggle that your life is what you make of it. (Synopsis from GoodReads)
Title: The Summer I Found You Author: Jolene Perry Publication Date: 2014 Publisher: Albert Whitman Teen Number of Pages: Where I Got It: NetGalley Dates I Read It: November 12- November 16, 2013 Number of Stars: 3/5 Read For: Review purposes
*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
I love a book that alternates points of view and this book is told in alternating points of view from the two main characters. I really enjoy when books have chapters that switch POV's- I feel like it makes the story move faster and I also feel like I can put more faith in the story since both narrators have a larger chance of being honest and believable. I did fell a lot more sympathy for Aiden/Aidan though- he seemed to be a much more developed and rounded character. I hate to say it, but I also felt worse for him since he had lost an arm. I feel like I know so many people who have diabetes, but I don't know anyone who has lost an arm! Being an older reader of YA, I also feel like I had a harder time relating to Kate. Normally, I can relate really well to my YA heroines, but Kate was difficult for me to connect to. I kept looking at her actions and decisions from the responsible, mature adult POV and silently "tsk-tsk-ing" her for being irresponsible. Kate did feel like a real teenager though and this book felt very realistic and true to real life.
I liked this story. This was a light but somewhat forgettable read. There was no real action and it can kind of drag for some readers, especially those readers who enjoy fast-paced, action-packed reads. I was very excited for this book because I loved the cover! It immediately jumped out at me and made me excited to read the book. Don't be fooled like I was because the cover really has nothing at all to do with the book. Also, the story is supposed to be about the summer, but it actually takes place during the school year. I was disappointed in this plot point as I love a summer love story.
As I was reading it, there were times when I wondered to myself if this really was a YA book as it felt more like an adult fiction book. I would recommend this one to older teens, maybe 16-19 or to any teens who may be recently diagnosed with diabetes (or maybe even one who, for whatever reason, have lost a limb).
Every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves, and herself, while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. (-Synopsis from GoodReads)
Title: Insurgent (Divergent trilogy book #2) Author: Veronica Roth Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Harper Teen Number of Pages: 525 Where I Got It: Nook by Barnes and Noble Dates I Read It: November 6-November 12, 2013 Number of Stars: 4/5 Read It For: Just for fun!
I really liked Insurgent, despite being confused out of my mind for the majority of the book. I was so confused at the start of this book that I had to view Roth's blog post: But I Read Divergent A Year Ago! which was super helpful in reminding me how Divergent ended since it had actually been more than a year since I had read it. Once I read her blog post I had to start the book over and re-read the first 40 pages, this time with a little less confusion.
(two pages from my reading journal open to the Insurgent entry)
The characters were still really awesome and we got to see a continuation of character development with our main cast in this book. I really liked the majority of the characters and I thought that they all fit into their roles perfectly. I was pretty pissed off at Tris at several points in the book, and especially at several of the choices that she made and a lot of her reasoning behind her actions and decisions. She is Dauntless after all, though, so I suppose I can't stay too mad at her for too long. I liked how we got to see the humanity of Tris in this book. She is a Dauntless girl in the middle of a factions war, and yet she still spends a great deal of the book feeling guilty about killing someone who was threatening her life. I appreciate Four for the role that he plays. He does a great job as the male lead. I do hope that we get some more from him in Allegiant. I want to know more about him, his back story and his inner thoughts and motivations. Even though I loved the main characters, one of the most annoying things about this book for me was the secondary characters. Roth included an enormous cast of characters in this book and I found it incredibly difficult to keep track of all of them. I wasn't sure who was good and who was evil and who I was supposed to root for and who I was supposed to thumb my nose at and who was born into what faction and who switched to what faction and why. Too much!
The pacing of the book was excellent. This is a long book (525 pages) but it passed very quickly and I was genuinely surprised when it ended; I had thought I had at least 100 pages to go! I did read this book on my Nook so perhaps that helped quite a bit with my not realizing how long it was. Despite the actual length of the book, it flew by and I think that this was mainly due to all of the action that took place. It seemed that every time I sat down with the book there was a battle scene resulting in an emotionally heavy outcome. These books are dystopian done well and Roth continues the excellency of the world building. There did seem to be some redundancy of action to me which only added to my confusion at times. I feel like perhaps those extra scenes could have been left out. It was still a fabulous book that I thoroughly enjoyed and I would recommend. I viewed the second teaser trailer for the Divergent movie on YouTube last night while G was in the computer room and he watched it over my shoulder and he seemed really intrigued. I think it might have
gotten him thinking about reading the books before I drag him to the movie. The trailers look great so far and I highly approve of the casting for this movie. I can't wait for March!
Oh, and I decided I'm pretty sure I would be in Amity, even though they do dress like Ronald McDonald.
Nessa Joanne Mullholland, aka Marilyn Monroe's No. 1 teenage fan, is used to moving house. This time, however, she's relocating in movie-star style--crossing the Atlantic on board the Majestic, headed for Paris from NYC. And it really would be in movie-star style if it wasn't for the fact that she's bringing her cringe-fest professor dad along for the ride (Dad's specialization: human mating rituals--need Nessa say more?). Oh yeah, and sharing a cabin that's five decks below sea level and next to the engine room. Still, at least Holly Isles is on board. Yes, really, that Holly Isles--star of stage and screen. Suddenly, things are looking up. Looking a little Marilyn, in fact, because events are strangely mirroring Nessa's favorite movie of all time, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (-Synopsis from GoodReads)
Title: Diamonds Are A Teen's Best Friend (Book #1 in the Living Blond Trilogy) Author: Allison Rushby Publication Date: 2013 Publisher: Allison Rushby Number of Pages: 107 Where I Got It: NetGalley Dates I Read It: November 2 - 5, 2013 Why I Read It: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review Number of Stars: 1/5
NOTE: This is an edited review. I had a different review, one that I didn't feel good about. I felt like I was too harsh and cruel and that is not what I started this blog for. I want to be honest, but I don't want to do it in any way that can be construed as mean. After I wrote the review I felt bad about it and it kept nagging at me for days and I had considered changing it. I even talked it over with some people I trust. Today I read this article and that made it final for me- I was changing it and I was going to make it more positive. I hadn't called the author any names, nor did I personally attack her in the review, it was just mean and ugly and not my style and something that Taylor Swift would sing about. I was not going lie and say that I loved the book (I didn't) but I don't have to point out every single negative thing about it, picking at all of the seams until no one in the universe wanted to read it, and completely ignore the positive either. Rushby is a great author and has great potential and deserves a chance and does not deserve a hateful review. From now on my reviews will continue to be honest, but they will also be kind. I apologize to anyone I may have offended with my first draft of the review.
Diamonds Are A Teen's Best Friend is the first book in an e-series revolving around thirteen year old Nessa Mullholland. The book is incredibly short (the nook version I read was only 107 pages) which would make it a good match for reluctant young girl readers. In fact, I read on Rushby's blog that she aimed this book at younger teens.
The story started out fun and I was really enjoying the main character. It was beginning to shape up like a nice, cute story changing the pace of the recent dystopian and fantasy books I had been reading. I even LOL'ed at one point in the first chapter! The story was not for me, though. I do believe that Rushby could possibly write some books that would hook me in the future. This story has a lot of potential to reach younger girls and pull them into reading; I would recommend it to some of my middle-school girls who are just getting into fashion and who may be reluctant to read a lengthy and intimidating-in-size book.
Like I said, this is only book one in a trilogy, but I don't think that I will read the other two. It was just not my style.
Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself. (Synopsis from GoodReads)
Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown Author: Holly Black Publication Date: 2013 Publisher: Little Brown Books Number of Pages: 419 Where I Got It: Barnes & Noble, Huntersville, NC Dates I Read It: October 26-November 2, 2013 Why I Read It: Pure Pleasure/Halloween Number of Stars: 2.5/5
I was really excited for this book. Some of my favorite reviewers gave it a standing ovation, the cover is eye-catching and beautiful, I am a sucker for vampire books and I have always wanted to read something by Holly Black so I thought that this would be the perfect place for me to start reading her books. Unfortunately, I found my first Holly Black book to be a great disappointment. I really liked the idea of the story and the plot sounded really interesting and I was excited for a new take on vampires but the story as a whole fell flat for me.
The writing style was the first thing that I found that I did not like about this story. The style as a whole was just...really...odd. It felt unbalanced for the entire book and I found myself confused over several scenes and especially confused over how the transformation from a human to a cold person to a vampire really worked. The first chapter started off great, and it really pulled me in. After that first chapter though, the story went nowhere fast. Despite the plot sounding like it was going to be an action-packed thrill ride, there was really very little real action in the whole story. I felt like I spent the whole time I was reading the book waiting for the action to start. The last 100 pages were a chore for me to get through. It took me a lot longer to read this book than I originally anticipated. I just did not feel excited to jump back into the story at all and I got to a point last night where I wasn't sure that I would be able to complete the book.
For me to really enjoy a book, I have to care about the characters. In this book I did not care about one. single. character. In fact, I hated them all. They all seemed really one dimensional. Not only did I not care if they lived or died, but I actually was hoping for one or two of the "good guys" to bite it, just to give a little oomph to the story! There was a sudden love element to the book that, to me, seemed to come out of nowhere and I totally didn't buy it. The relationship felt forced, almost as if Black had to add it to the story once the book was over. Oops, I forgot that teenagers have to have a love story in every single book that they read, let me quick add a crappy one that no one believes.
I have heard that yes, there will be a sequel and I have also heard that no, it is a stand-alone book. I can see where there would be room for a sequel, but if there is, I honestly don't think that I will read it. I would like to read something else by Holly Black though since I do hear great things about her. She will be at Yallfest (NEXT WEEKEND!!!!) so I am going to take my copy and hope to get it signed. I also hope to pick up some of her other works while there and I have high hopes that those books will be a better fit for me.
Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . . But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone. For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind? (-Synopsis from Goodreads)
Title: Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell Publication Date: 2013 Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Number of Pages: 433 Where I Got It: Barnes & Noble, Huntersville, NC Dates I Read It: October 22 - October 25, 2013
Number of Stars: 5/5 Read it For: Pure Pleasure!
I've been listening to a lot of Paramore lately, and one song of theirs has this lyric in in that makes me think of this book: "Some of us have to grow up sometimes, and so if I have to I'm gonna leave you behind." This is the ultimate book of what it is like to grow up and leave your childhood self behind. This book is so amazing because at one point in our lives, we, all of us, have this happen to us. This transformation can be extremely detrimental when first we realize that it has happened. I was very impressed with the way that Cath handled growing up and transforming into an adult. She does so through grace and a maturity that I am envious of!
I loved this book so much I can not describe it with words. I found so much of myself and the things that I have been going through present in this book. There are so many positive aspects of Fangirl, I will never be able to cover them all in this one review. But lets start with the first wonderful thing about the novel: the characters. Each and every character in the story is fully rounded. Rarely do I ever discover a novel in which I adore every single character; usually I despise at least 2/3 of the characters in a novel. With Fangirl though, I felt like the people in this book were my actual, real-life friends! I was able to identify a lot with our main character, and even some with her twin sister, Wren, and even with her eccentric roommate Reagan! Even if you yourself can't find a specific character to relate to, the best part about this book is that if you are a reader, then you can identify with the overall theme of the book. Reading Fangirl will make you recount your own experiences with those books that formed the reader that you turned out to be. It was apparent throughout the entirety of the book that Rowell herself is a huge reader. She captured the magic of the experience of reading a story perfectly!
The writing in this book flowed very well. I would sit down for my nightly one-hour allotted reading time and get lost in the flow of the story and end up reading for three (oops). Dialogue between characters is always difficult. It's difficult to read and it's very difficult to write. The dialogue between characters in this story felt very natural and was never distracting. I am so excited to read more books by Rowell (and, like I mentioned in my #FridayReads post for this week, I get to go see her at Yallfest in less than TWO WEEKS!).
The plot was amazing as well. It was honest and never boring and, for me at least, 100% relatable. The story was set in Nebraska (where Rowell lives) but it could have been any town USA. I actually imagined Cath's university as the school I attended (go Spartans!).
I cried when this book was over. It didn't have a sad ending, far from it, actually, but I cried because it was over and because I didn't have any more of Cath and Wren and Levi and Regan to read about. This was one of those books that when it was over (and after I was done crying), I thought to myself: "damn! I wish that I'd written that!"
I would never hesitate to recommend this book. I would recommend it especially to high school seniors about to go to college. I wish that this book was around when I left for college. I also would recommend that 20-something girls who have that love of reading experience this book. I think that we all can relate to Cath's resistance to leave behind beloved characters from our youth (helllllloooooo Harry Potter!). Give this book a shot, I doubt that you will be disappointed!
The Monstrumologist is the story of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrope, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.
(- Synopsis from Goodreads)
The book is written as the diary of William James Henry who has recently passed away in a nursing home at the age of 133(!). Mr. Henry has no family to claim his belongings and so his journals are given to a local author of strange events. The Monstrumologist is the first three volumes of his journals.
Title: The Monstrumologist Author: Rick Yancey Series: The Monstrumologist (Book 1) Publication Date: 2009 Publisher: Simon and Schuster Pages: 434 Where I Got It: Books-A-Million, Concord, NC Dates I Read It: October 13-21, 2013 Number of Stars: 4.5/5 Read For: Halloween!
This book was a delight to read, especially this time of year with Halloween right around the corner! Halloween is my favorite holiday and now that I am past my months-long reading slump (huzzah!), I knew I was ready for a good, captivating, and spooky book to get me into the spirit of the season and boy did I ever pick a good one! The Monstrumologist was not only a spooky story, it was also an engaging tale of the human condition. I savored this book right down to the last page. Yancey has a gift for keeping his reader entertained through the entire ride. There was so much about this book that I liked but most of all I loved how flippin' gory it was! There was monster blood and pus and flesh eating and severed limbs and all of my favorite things! At times it was increasingly difficult to believe that this was a book aimed at young adult bibliophiles! This is because of the gore, yes, but more so of Yancey's elaborate yet eloquent, writing style. The novel is set in 1888 and much of the language and verbiage of the book reads as a novel of this era would. I feel like it could be over the heads of younger readers and would hesitate to recommend it to anyone in their early teens (and younger, of course). I am not one to be easily scared by a book, especially a book about monsters. Ghosts? Yes. Demons? Oh hell yes. Monsters? Not so much. That being said, this book really spooked me out! I attribute this fact to Yancey's uncanny ability to world-build. The setting was very believable and realistic. If you are good at suspending your disbelief while reading, like I am, then you can really find yourself believing that monsters do exist! The only complaint that I could have about this book is that it was a tad bit too long for me. I thought that some of the scenes were a little overdone and that maybe 50 or so pages could possibly have been shaved off. This is only book one of a trilogy and I am very excited to read the rest of this series! The next book is The Curse of the Wendigo which excites me more than the Anthropophagi that we were dealing with in this book; I'm a little more familiar with Wendigos from my days of Charmed watching! (The season one episode The Wendigo is my favorite episode of the entire series!) If you are looking for a super spooky Halloween read then I can't recommend this one enough!
Earth has been twice attacked by alien forces known as "Buggers". In response the government has started training children as warriors to defend Earth in the event of another attack. Andrew (Ender) Wiggin is the third child in his family and is the only one drafted to prepare for war as a student in the Battle School located on a ship that orbits the Earth. Ender is a natural leader and he advances quickly which isolates him from his peers. Soon the survival of Planet Earth rests solely in Ender's young hands.
Title: Ender's Game Author: Orson Scott Card Series: Ender's Saga (Book 1) Publication Date: 1985 Publisher: Tor Science Fiction Number of Pages: 324 Where I Got It: Target, Mooresville, NC Dates I Read It: June 10 - June 16, 2013 Number Of Stars: 5/5 Read For: The Movie's Coming
The first thing that I noticed about this book is how Ender (and really all of the children in the book) thinks and speaks older than a six year old should. At first it was overly distracting for me but as I kept reading I realized that there is so much pressure on the children in this novel. The children are not allowed to be children- they are expected to be and forced to behave like small adults. Once you can accept that this is the case for children in the future, you can really start to appreciate what these characters have to endure, Ender especially. This kid has the patience of Job; he is constantly bullied and betrayed and yet he perseveres each time. His brother and sister, Peter and Valentine, get their own subplot a little over halfway through the book. I loved this story line as it was very advanced for the time that the book was written-they used the Internet!
All of the characters in the book were very well written. The emotions were raw and exposed through this entire book. Card has a gift for getting readers to feel empathetic even towards some of his most despicable characters. Everyone in this book has a motivation and everyone else knows how to play on those motivations to manipulate.
I am not normally a huge fan of science-fiction books and that is why it has taken me so long to read this book. Confession: I probably would have never read this book if it was never made into a movie. I am so glad that I did get to experience this one, though. I was surprised how how beautifully it was written. It has everything that I look for in a book: excellent character development and a beautiful writing style. Normally I don't care to read about intergalactic warfare but this book was highly engaging. I was blown away by how real it felt. The technology is very accurate so it is hard to believe that this was published in 1985. This book is the grandfather of today's ever popular dystopian fantasy fiction.
Another thing that did trip me up as a first-time reader of science-fiction, there was a lot of battle strategy and political talk which was very difficult to decipher at times and the descriptions of the battle arenas were hard for me to picture. Some of the terminology was way over my head and difficult to pick up and picture. This can become distracting and can interrupt the flow of the book but it is not too hard that it would cause one to give up on the book. If I can make my way through it and enjoy it as much as I did, then surely anyone can do it!
Probably my favorite part of the book is the setting. For seven years I lived in and went to college and graduate school in Greensboro, NC which is where Ender's family lives! Card also lives there and is somewhat of a local celebrity. I also loved the Battle School. As I pictured it in my head while reading I kept picturing it as Serenity from Firefly!
This book was a fun, violent, exciting, action-packed vision of the future with a twist ending that will knock your socks off. I recommend this to everyone who likes to read and I hope that people will read this before the movie so that they can fully experience the ending the way that I did. Five out of five stars!
So, reader, I bet that you are wondering to yourself if I have already given up my resolution one month in and again fallen off the blogosphere, but actually, I just kinda fell off everything- literally! Since Sunday night I have had a severe case of Vertigo and it is just as scary as the Hitchcock movie! I woke up Sunday night/Monday morning at 1:00 AM feeling like I was being sucked into the ground, I sat up quick with a gasp and promptly fell over and felt a strong urge to vomit. Which I did for the next two days. Finally yesterday after having fallen down twice and feeling that I will never again be able to walk or drive without risk of a public drunkenness or DUI charge, I sucked it up and I went to the doctor where I was given two medications and strict instructions to not drive any more and to just stay flat on my back until the medication kicked in and the world stopped spinning madly on. Well, I can do the no driving thing, and I'm more than fine with missing some work, but I'm not one to just lay on my back all day. So, I sat up and I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which this post will be a review of and I read all of The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie which I will hopefully have a review of soon.
(This song represents my life this week)
Looking at a computer screen, believe it or not, is somewhat difficult for me as it brings on dizzy spells, so I will most likely be very brief in this review which will be difficult because this book is a beast!
Title: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Author: Michael Chabon Publication Date: 2000 Publisher: Random House Page: 640 Where I Got It: Used at The Last Word in Charlotte, NC Dates I Read It: January 26, 2013 - February 7, 2013 Number of Stars: 4/5 Read For: 2013 TBR Pile Challenge (February Selection)
This is the story of Josef Kavalier who is living with his family in Prague in 1939. Oh, did I mention that he is very Jewish. Yeah, that means he needs to hit the road and get outta Dodge, and quick. Josef has been taking lessons with a master of the art of escape- Mr. Kornblum who agrees to assist him in escaping the country. Through a series of near-miss escapes from different countries Josef finally makes it to New York City where he finds his cousin Samuel Clayman. The two bond quickly and decide to begin making a new form of entertainment known as "comic books". The two have a real talent for this medium and soon their ace hero, The Escapist, is blowing up. The story follows the two young men over the span of almost three decades, through marriages, lost loves, World War II, children, wives, and much more.
This is a book that demands a lot from the reader. It demands an exorbitant amount of focus, time, attention and emotion. It is all at once the story of the burgeoning comic industry, romance, suspense, survivors guilt, LGBT issues, WWII, Holocaust, magic, and the immigrant experience. Let's start with the characters who drive this story. Josef (Joe in America) is at the heart of the novel. I would consider Joe to be the main character, but the character whose story I was the most interested in was Samuel (Sammy). Sam is a lonely boy when we first meet him and I had figured out his "secret" about 100 pages in, I just kept waiting for him to reveal it like a sleight of hand. Rosa was the girl at the center of the boys worlds. She was an artist herself who eventually made comics for women readers. She is the love of Joe's life though in these redolent novels the hero doesn't always end up with the girl and for the majority of the book I was fascinated to see if Joe would ever fulfill his full destiny and end up with Rosa. Chabon includes many expanded (sometimes for pages on end) inner revealings of each of the three main characters which while at times these revelations could be somewhat dauntless they really revealed the inner consciousness of the characters and made them into some of the most authentic characters that I have ever experienced in all of literature. Also astonishing about the characters was that there was not a single one that I resented or found any dislike for which, Reader, is very rare for me. They were too real to hate and through those long interludes of thoughts Chabon makes his readers cherish his characters as if they were beloved friends or family members.
I kept hearing one of my favorite book podcasters, Michael Kindness from Books on the Nightstand rave about this book so I placed it on my TBR list years ago and never thought to really get around to it (it's 640 pages- I was scared!) until Roof Beam Reader hosted the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge and I knew I had to knock this one out in 2013 and added it to the list. I'm so glad that it's not still sitting in the pile and that I have experienced this amazing adventure.
The prose was spectacularly written and it is no wonder to me that this novel won the Pulitzer. The tone of this book ranges from exciting and sweeping to dark and it ends with a twinge of nostalgia that I would have expected from the poetic duo. The plot was engaging which surprised me as I do not care for comic books at all. I was a little hesitant about reading a book surrounding the genre, but this is a readable book even for those of us who are comic book neophytes. The story drifted a little bit for me when one of our heroes enlists in the war. During this part I felt that the character development came to a screeching halt. The character that this selection of the book focused on made decisions and actions which were not believable to me based on the past 300 pages that I had journeyed with this character. Had it not been for this one section of the novel I would have given the book as a whole a full 5 out of 5 stars.
Like I said at the start of this review, this book does demand a great deal from its reader, so this is not a book that I would recommend to just anyone. However, everyone that I know that has read it has loved it. If you have the time and the energy to maneuver this book, I do not believe you will finish it feeling disappointed.
January was a great blogging month for me, but not a great reading month. During the course of the month I only read four books (and one was just wrapping up a book): I finished Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Smith), I read a few stories from A Good Man Is Hard To Find (O'Connor), I read Follow the River (Thom), Naked Came the Leaf Peeper (multi-authored) and I started The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Chabon). I was able to successfully review every book that I read this month (click on the title to go to the reviews).
January's book club book was my book! I selected A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. We had a great discussion about the book and I was dejected to learn that not everyone in the group loved it. I have a rivalry with one girl in the club and she seems to hate anything I suggest, though, so other than her everyone either loved it or like it a lot. This month's selection is Follow the River and we will be discussing it Wednesday evening.
I was really disheartened that I was only able to read four books this month. Work has been really crazy and I'm still trying to remember my promise to myself to leave by 4:15 every day (except Tuesdays and Thursdays and the other days that I have meetings that pop up suddenly the day of the meeting). I'm not counting on getting a ton read in February either. In addition to it being a short month I have a lot of things going on: Tuesday meetings, Book Club on Wednesday, Family Night at School on Thursday, Wiley Cash at the Literary Book Post in Salisbury next Monday, Tuesday meeting on Lincoln's Birthday!, Valentines Day Dance after school on Valentines Day then actually celebrating Valentines Day with Geoff, hair appointment on the 28th, and those are just the scheduled in advance things. Sheesh! I'll be happy to just finish Kavalier and Clay and get to March's book club selection (which I honestly don't know what it is...whoops!)
image from partiallyexaminedlife.com
So, like I said, February is going to be slam-packed for me. However, I am hopeful that I will finish my February TBR Pile Challenge book (Kavalier and Clay), read my March Book Club selection (???) and maybe sneak in another one- maybe finish A Good Man is Hard to Find? I'd love to start reading more short stories. I wish I had more time and I wound undertake a challenge to read a short story a day and write about it, or perhaps a poem a day? A poem is more doable than a short story.
I hope to get to all of the TTT lists this month (bookish memories, romances, characters in X genre, authors I automatically buy their books). I plan to get to the February question from the Classics Club: "What classic has surprised you the most so far, and why?" I also hope to get reviews up for Kavalier and Clay (which, by the way, I should have said this earlier, I am LOVING so far) and whatever book we're reading next for Book Club. And, believe it or not despite my previous rant on my lack of time, I am also planning on starting a new blog. A sister blog for Yeah, I Read it, Yeah, I Saw It will be a blog for the movie lover. Reviews, previews, news, and all the other ews I can throw at you. How I'm going to do it, I will never know. I was driving to see Hyde Park on Hudson today (which, by the way, I missed due to a parking shortage in Charlotte, but I'm planning to try again either tonight or tomorrow) and I realized I had no one to discuss this movie with. A few years ago, feeling remorseful that I had no one to discuss books with, I began Book Jackets and met a lot of new bloggers in the book blogosphere that I now connect with and so currently I'm hoping to do the same with films. We'll see how this goes! Wish me (lots and lots) of luck!
