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Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
This week's topic: Top Ten Books that were hard for me to read. For various reasons
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2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - I borrowed this from my English major sister the summer before I started HS. Did not know what I was getting into.
3. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - I like Woolf, but this one's more opaque than say, Mrs. Dalloway. Wrote a college term paper digging out meaning.
4. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - I chose this for a read-a-thon because it's short and that was a mistake. James's sentences tend to be labyrinthine, though interesting.
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6. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - The only book I read for school I straight up hated.
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - The best dystopia, in my opinion, but terrifying in its plausibility.
8. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez - another book I borrowed from my sister many years ago, I feel a lot of this went over my head. I should re-read it, I'd get more out of it now that I'm more familiar with magical realism.
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10. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I loved this more than I thought I would, but I read it bit by bit over two months, setting it aside for other books whenever descriptions of Levin's in-depth love of farming got too boring but always picking it up again.
Monday, September 29, 2014
By Lauren Oliver
Published by Ecco
Publication Date: September 23, 2014
Copy received from: Publisher at BEA
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium
trilogy makes her brilliant adult debut with this mesmerizing story in the
tradition of The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The
Ocean at the End of the Lane—a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and
mystery, in which the lives of the living and the dead intersect in shocking,
surprising, and moving ways
Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country
house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged
family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving
daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.
But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical
Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its
claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe
the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though
their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house
itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a
light bulb.
The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will
soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins
to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic
results.
Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an
enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as
haunting as it is resonant.
Review: This melancholy gothic tale
features ghosts, and uncanny happenings, but the horrors are very much based in
reality. The ghosts are not what the Walker family is primarily haunted by, it’s
the horror and disappointments in their lives.. A sense of sadness permeates
the novel as characters, both living and dead, are forced to reveal their
secrets and deal with their grief, not only over death, but the loss of
innocence, love, potential, and hope. Loneliness is also prevalent, whether the
loneliness of death or the loneliness that comes from holding in a terrible secret.
One of my favorite aspects of this
story is the structure: the novel is divided into sections each featuring a
room of the house. Over the course of this section, the characters, whether the
remaining members of the Walker family or the two ghostly former residents, confront
the memories of events that have taken place in that room, things they have
kept hidden from their loved ones or refused to admit, even to themselves. Be
warned: suicide, domestic abuse, and child molestation are all included in the
house’s history.
As far as the characters inhabiting this
haunted house, I can’t say I found them likable but I did empathize with their
grief and understood their various ways of coping. They have all been hurt by
life and, when it comes to the Walker family, this damage has prevented them
from connecting with each other. Even the ghost characters felt very real, flawed
in a way that doesn’t leave much room for likability but is interesting and
honest.
I do have one or two nitpicks: one
being the teen girl character that appears out of nowhere so that Trenton has
someone outside of the house to interact with, the second being the suddenness with
which some later revelations are made: to the point where I was wondering if my
ARC was missing pages. But these are minor, and on the whole I found this story
engaging. There are no easy solutions to the Walker family’s problems, but they
do unburden themselves of the weight of what’s haunting them and there is a
sort of catharsis. A definite recommended read for those looking for a more
contemplative haunted house story.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
This week's topic: Top Ten Books on My Fall Reading List
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2. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters - I'm a fan of Waters's writing and want to give her new book a try.
3. Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson - a YA thriller starring POC, a must read.
4. The Young Elites by Marie Lu - the author described the main character as "Darth Vader or Magneto as a teenage girl". Sold.
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6. Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero - I'm in the mood for a good old fashioned haunted house story and the cover is gorgeous
7. Belzar by Meg Wolitzer - I'm interested in how Wolitzer writes YA as well as the book's relationship to The Bell Jar
8. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins - Saving this for Dewey's Readathon.
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10. The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp - This looks like lots of fun.
Of course, this is the top ten of at least forty books I want to read this fall. The TBR is never ending :)
by Sarah Rees Brennan
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Copy received from: Purchased
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Kami has lost the boy she loves, is
tied to a boy she does not, and faces an enemy more powerful than ever before.
With Jared missing for months and presumed dead, Kami must rely on her new
magical link with Ash for the strength to face the evil spreading through her
town.
Rob Lynburn is now the master of
Sorry-in-the-Vale, and he demands a death. Kami will use every tool at her
disposal to stop him. Together with Rusty, Angela, and Holly, she uncovers a
secret that might be the key to saving the town. But with knowledge comes
responsibility—and a painful choice. A choice that will risk not only Kami’s
life, but also the lives of those she loves most.
This final book in the Lynburn
Legacy is a wild, entertaining ride from beginning to shocking end.
Review: After absolutely loving my time in
Sorry-in-the-Vale in Unspoken and Untold, I had high expectations for this
conclusion. Kami and co. are back and are charming and complex as ever, the
story resolves its interpersonal drama in a satisfying way, and Kami gets many
opportunities to prove she is a hero of a journalist. On the strength of its
characters alone I quite like Unmade,
but I do have some reservations regarding its plot.
As mentioned, Kami, always an active character, really steps
up in this novel. Her refusal to go along with Rob Lynburn’s murderous plans
for the town (unlike the vast majority of its citizens) makes her and her loved
ones a target, but she never backs down from doing what she believes is right
and always has a plan. She takes the initiative when it comes to her
relationship with Jared too, making a decision and acting on it. That doesn’t
mean things are resolved simply though. For two people who shared a mind link
for most of their lives, they sure cause a lot of drama based on
miscommunication. Ash is still a factor as well: moping around like a
professional third wheel, sorcerer-style. Angela, Holly, and Rusty all have
roles to play (besides simply being awesome) and my personal favorite character,
Kami’s dad Jon Glass, nearly saves the town in one quick move (that he doesn’t,
and that it could be as simple as that, is one of my issues with the plot).
This story tends to the darker side of fantasy, with
torture, murder, and the endangerment of small children all a factor, but the
jokes never stop flowing with Rees Brennan’s signature charming humor and world
play. The atmosphere of the novel wants to suggest no one is safe, and there is tragedy that is, dare I say it, Whedonesque.
The novel succeeded in getting me invested in these characters and giving me a
need to know their fate.
Now for my issue: a large part of this novel hinges on the
Big Bad, Rob Lynburn, simply not bothering much about the heroes. He’s
overpowered., except when he’s not, and it’s all very arbitrary. He and his
evil sorcerer gang knows exactly where everyone lives in the small town that no
one tries to leave, and no one makes any real attempts to hide either. Kami,
Jared, and the rest of the crew are in and out of the supposedly impenetrable
evil fortress of the Lynburn house so often a revolving door should’ve been
installed. On the side of evil there’s a
lot of waiting around for the equinox to perform a sacrifice. One the side of good there’s waiting around,
discussing what they can do, having a party, and continuing to stay in obvious
places waiting to be attacked until they finally are and it comes as a shock.
These waiting periods allow lots of time for relationship drama. The action of
the finale is extremely mystical and vaguely described, and I found one of the hero’s
sacrifices frustrating, as it seemed less heroic than unnecessary and
extraneous.
Despite those critiques I did like this novel and definitely
recommend the series as a whole. It’s rare that I find a story with such a
large group of well-rounded characters and complex relationships, let alone
one that can induce such a spectrum of emotions; from laughter to tears, from
swooning to biting your nails from the tension.
This gothic novel qualifies for RIP IX
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
This week's topic: Top Authors I've only read one book from but NEED to read more:
1. Sarah Beth Durst
I enjoyed The Lost and can't wait for the sequels The Missing, and The Found. I also have Conjured on my TBR, in addition to her new release Chasing Power.
2. Helen Oyeyemi
Boy, Snow, Bird is a fascinating re-imagining of Snow White and one of my favorite books of 2014. I'm hoping to read White is for Witching sometime before Halloween for the RIP IX Challenge.
3. Lauren Oliver
I was drawn in by the melancholy gothic novel Rooms and I'd like to try her dystopian series Delirium
4. Sherry Thomas
After the highly entertaining The Burning Sky, I can't wait to get my hands on The Perilous Sea.
5. Jandy Nelson
A highly original prose stylist, I need to give The Sky is Everywhere a try after devouring I'll Give You the Sun
6. Richelle Mead
I've only read the first book in the Vampire Academy series. For shame.
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Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Top Ten Tuesday: Hard Books Edition
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
This week's topic: Top Ten Books that were hard for me to read. For various reasons
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2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - I borrowed this from my English major sister the summer before I started HS. Did not know what I was getting into.
3. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - I like Woolf, but this one's more opaque than say, Mrs. Dalloway. Wrote a college term paper digging out meaning.
4. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - I chose this for a read-a-thon because it's short and that was a mistake. James's sentences tend to be labyrinthine, though interesting.
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6. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - The only book I read for school I straight up hated.
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - The best dystopia, in my opinion, but terrifying in its plausibility.
8. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez - another book I borrowed from my sister many years ago, I feel a lot of this went over my head. I should re-read it, I'd get more out of it now that I'm more familiar with magical realism.
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|
10. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I loved this more than I thought I would, but I read it bit by bit over two months, setting it aside for other books whenever descriptions of Levin's in-depth love of farming got too boring but always picking it up again.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Review: Rooms by Lauren Oliver
By Lauren Oliver
Published by Ecco
Publication Date: September 23, 2014
Copy received from: Publisher at BEA
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
The New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium
trilogy makes her brilliant adult debut with this mesmerizing story in the
tradition of The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The
Ocean at the End of the Lane—a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and
mystery, in which the lives of the living and the dead intersect in shocking,
surprising, and moving ways
Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country
house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged
family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving
daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.
But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical
Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its
claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe
the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though
their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house
itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a
light bulb.
The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will
soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins
to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic
results.
Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an
enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as
haunting as it is resonant.
Review: This melancholy gothic tale
features ghosts, and uncanny happenings, but the horrors are very much based in
reality. The ghosts are not what the Walker family is primarily haunted by, it’s
the horror and disappointments in their lives.. A sense of sadness permeates
the novel as characters, both living and dead, are forced to reveal their
secrets and deal with their grief, not only over death, but the loss of
innocence, love, potential, and hope. Loneliness is also prevalent, whether the
loneliness of death or the loneliness that comes from holding in a terrible secret.
One of my favorite aspects of this
story is the structure: the novel is divided into sections each featuring a
room of the house. Over the course of this section, the characters, whether the
remaining members of the Walker family or the two ghostly former residents, confront
the memories of events that have taken place in that room, things they have
kept hidden from their loved ones or refused to admit, even to themselves. Be
warned: suicide, domestic abuse, and child molestation are all included in the
house’s history.
As far as the characters inhabiting this
haunted house, I can’t say I found them likable but I did empathize with their
grief and understood their various ways of coping. They have all been hurt by
life and, when it comes to the Walker family, this damage has prevented them
from connecting with each other. Even the ghost characters felt very real, flawed
in a way that doesn’t leave much room for likability but is interesting and
honest.
I do have one or two nitpicks: one
being the teen girl character that appears out of nowhere so that Trenton has
someone outside of the house to interact with, the second being the suddenness with
which some later revelations are made: to the point where I was wondering if my
ARC was missing pages. But these are minor, and on the whole I found this story
engaging. There are no easy solutions to the Walker family’s problems, but they
do unburden themselves of the weight of what’s haunting them and there is a
sort of catharsis. A definite recommended read for those looking for a more
contemplative haunted house story.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Top Ten Tuesday: Fall Reading List
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
This week's topic: Top Ten Books on My Fall Reading List
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2. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters - I'm a fan of Waters's writing and want to give her new book a try.
3. Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson - a YA thriller starring POC, a must read.
4. The Young Elites by Marie Lu - the author described the main character as "Darth Vader or Magneto as a teenage girl". Sold.
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|
|
|
6. Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero - I'm in the mood for a good old fashioned haunted house story and the cover is gorgeous
7. Belzar by Meg Wolitzer - I'm interested in how Wolitzer writes YA as well as the book's relationship to The Bell Jar
8. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins - Saving this for Dewey's Readathon.
|
|
10. The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp - This looks like lots of fun.
Of course, this is the top ten of at least forty books I want to read this fall. The TBR is never ending :)
Review: Unmade (Lynburn Legacy #3) by Sarah Rees Brennan
by Sarah Rees Brennan
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Copy received from: Purchased
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Kami has lost the boy she loves, is
tied to a boy she does not, and faces an enemy more powerful than ever before.
With Jared missing for months and presumed dead, Kami must rely on her new
magical link with Ash for the strength to face the evil spreading through her
town.
Rob Lynburn is now the master of
Sorry-in-the-Vale, and he demands a death. Kami will use every tool at her
disposal to stop him. Together with Rusty, Angela, and Holly, she uncovers a
secret that might be the key to saving the town. But with knowledge comes
responsibility—and a painful choice. A choice that will risk not only Kami’s
life, but also the lives of those she loves most.
This final book in the Lynburn
Legacy is a wild, entertaining ride from beginning to shocking end.
Review: After absolutely loving my time in
Sorry-in-the-Vale in Unspoken and Untold, I had high expectations for this
conclusion. Kami and co. are back and are charming and complex as ever, the
story resolves its interpersonal drama in a satisfying way, and Kami gets many
opportunities to prove she is a hero of a journalist. On the strength of its
characters alone I quite like Unmade,
but I do have some reservations regarding its plot.
As mentioned, Kami, always an active character, really steps
up in this novel. Her refusal to go along with Rob Lynburn’s murderous plans
for the town (unlike the vast majority of its citizens) makes her and her loved
ones a target, but she never backs down from doing what she believes is right
and always has a plan. She takes the initiative when it comes to her
relationship with Jared too, making a decision and acting on it. That doesn’t
mean things are resolved simply though. For two people who shared a mind link
for most of their lives, they sure cause a lot of drama based on
miscommunication. Ash is still a factor as well: moping around like a
professional third wheel, sorcerer-style. Angela, Holly, and Rusty all have
roles to play (besides simply being awesome) and my personal favorite character,
Kami’s dad Jon Glass, nearly saves the town in one quick move (that he doesn’t,
and that it could be as simple as that, is one of my issues with the plot).
This story tends to the darker side of fantasy, with
torture, murder, and the endangerment of small children all a factor, but the
jokes never stop flowing with Rees Brennan’s signature charming humor and world
play. The atmosphere of the novel wants to suggest no one is safe, and there is tragedy that is, dare I say it, Whedonesque.
The novel succeeded in getting me invested in these characters and giving me a
need to know their fate.
Now for my issue: a large part of this novel hinges on the
Big Bad, Rob Lynburn, simply not bothering much about the heroes. He’s
overpowered., except when he’s not, and it’s all very arbitrary. He and his
evil sorcerer gang knows exactly where everyone lives in the small town that no
one tries to leave, and no one makes any real attempts to hide either. Kami,
Jared, and the rest of the crew are in and out of the supposedly impenetrable
evil fortress of the Lynburn house so often a revolving door should’ve been
installed. On the side of evil there’s a
lot of waiting around for the equinox to perform a sacrifice. One the side of good there’s waiting around,
discussing what they can do, having a party, and continuing to stay in obvious
places waiting to be attacked until they finally are and it comes as a shock.
These waiting periods allow lots of time for relationship drama. The action of
the finale is extremely mystical and vaguely described, and I found one of the hero’s
sacrifices frustrating, as it seemed less heroic than unnecessary and
extraneous.
Despite those critiques I did like this novel and definitely
recommend the series as a whole. It’s rare that I find a story with such a
large group of well-rounded characters and complex relationships, let alone
one that can induce such a spectrum of emotions; from laughter to tears, from
swooning to biting your nails from the tension.
This gothic novel qualifies for RIP IX
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Authors I"ve Only Read One Book From
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
This week's topic: Top Authors I've only read one book from but NEED to read more:
1. Sarah Beth Durst
I enjoyed The Lost and can't wait for the sequels The Missing, and The Found. I also have Conjured on my TBR, in addition to her new release Chasing Power.
2. Helen Oyeyemi
Boy, Snow, Bird is a fascinating re-imagining of Snow White and one of my favorite books of 2014. I'm hoping to read White is for Witching sometime before Halloween for the RIP IX Challenge.
3. Lauren Oliver
I was drawn in by the melancholy gothic novel Rooms and I'd like to try her dystopian series Delirium
4. Sherry Thomas
After the highly entertaining The Burning Sky, I can't wait to get my hands on The Perilous Sea.
5. Jandy Nelson
A highly original prose stylist, I need to give The Sky is Everywhere a try after devouring I'll Give You the Sun
6. Richelle Mead
I've only read the first book in the Vampire Academy series. For shame.
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