Follow Friday (19)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee’s View and Alison at Alison Can Read. It is a great way for bloggers to make new friends and find new blogs to follow. Go to either blog, follow ALL the instructions and then add you link to the list. It’s just that easy!

This week’s question:

"The New Year is here -- and everyone wants to know your New Years Blogging Resolution! What are you going to try to revise, revamp and redo for 2012 on your blog?"

1. Just say no:  When I first started getting author requests to review a their book, I was so excited that someone noticed my little blog, that I agreed to read every one I got. That is not always a good idea. So, for 2012, I am going to be a little bit more picky about what I agree to review. 
2. Blog, blog, blog:  I am pretty proud of how I've done so far this year, but I want to keep up what I'm doing. I like having a blog, I really enjoy it. I don't want to let it fade into oblivion. So, I just want to make sure I continue to blog in 2012.
3. Utilize social media: It's the future (actually, the present) and I need to use my Facebook and Twitter accounts more than I do now. I want to try to tweet everyday and utilize my Mom Reads My Books Facebook more. 
4. Redecorate:  At some point during 2012, I would like to redecorate my blog. New button, new header, new look, etc. This is my freshman attempt at making a blog and it's ok, but I'd like to get it done by someone who knows what they are doing. 

Your turn! What are your resolutions for your blog?  Leave a link in the comment section and I will stop by your blog. I hope you and yours have a very Happy New Year and an a wonderful 2012!

Teaser Tuesday (December 27)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

·         Grab your current read

·         Open to a random page

·         Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

·         BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

"Tessa had to admit there was something rather beautiful about it, the way they circled each other, blades singing through the air, a blur of black and silver. The ringing sound of metal on metal, they way they moved, so fast her vision could barely follow."--pg. 55 of Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare.   

Please leave a link to your tease in the comment section and I will stop by and take a look! 

Crossed (Match #2) by Ally Condie

Title:  Crossed (Matched #2)

Author:  Ally Condie

Genre:  Young Adult/Dystopian

Publisher:  Dutton Juvenile

Format:  Hardback

Release Date:  November 1, 2011

Cassia’s search for Ky, and a new future with him, has taken her to the Outer Provinces, where death and danger are commonplace. But Ky is not there and now Cassia must follow a series of clues left by him, across a land she is completely unfamiliar with. Cassia’s journey not only leads her toward Ky, but it leads her to question everything she believed.  Along the way, she faces betrayal, a chance to join the rebellion and an unexpected visit from Xander—who may still hold more than a piece of her heart. Now Cassia has a new path to follow, filled with crossings and double-crossings and no way of knowing what to expect out on the edge of the Society.

Oh, where to start? I absolutely loved Matched, the first book in Ally Condie’s planned Match trilogy. It had a great story, it was filled with fascinating, interesting characters and ideas, it was well-thought out and absolutely engrossing. I could not wait to read its sequel, Crossed. But I did wait, drawing out my anticipation as I plowed through my to-be-read pile until I got to it. Unfortunately, the anticipation of reading Crossed turned out to be more exciting than the actual book. *Insert sad face here* I was sorely disappointed in this much-anticipated sequel.

Crossed was vastly different from its predecessor. It was a mixture of poetic waxing and soul-searching babble, with a very small touch of interesting thrown in. I was bored, literally bored, throughout the majority of this book. About halfway through, I seriously considering not finishing and just giving it up to read one of my cookbooks. At least that might have kept me awake. But, I kept reading, in the hopes that maybe it would get better. I kept reading and hoping, hoping and reading. Interesting never happened. I also spent a lot of time confused while reading, thanks to Condie’s choice to switch back and forth between Ky and Cassia as narrator. There were times I read 3-4 pages in a chapter, only to discover that I wasn’t reading Ky’s point of view, but I was instead reading Cassia’s point of view.  I kept having to go back and check to see who the narrator of the chapter was. That was extremely annoying. Just one more thing to add to my list of reasons not to reread this book. Ever.

When I read a book with the intention of writing a review for it, I do not read the reviews of others (such as those posted on Goodreads, LibraryThing or Amazon) because I do not want to be prejudiced or influenced in any way by what others have to say. In the case of Crossed, I wish I had checked out the reviews of others before I chose to read this book.

My grade for Crossed by Ally Condie:

Merry Christmas!

May all of my wonderful readers and fellow bloggers have a fabulous holiday! 

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

Title:  The Drowning Instinct

Author:  Ilsa J. Bick

Genre:  Young Adult

Publisher:  Lerner Publishing

Format:  Kindle/NetGalley

Release Date:  February 1, 2012

Jenna Lord’s life has been difficult to say the least. Her mother is a drunk and her father is cruel and pretty much a jerk. The only bright spot in her life was her older brother, but then he went to Iraq. And let’s not forget her near death in a fire when she was younger. Jenna’s move to a new school is supposed to make things better. And things really start to look up when she meets Mitch Anderson—teacher and coach, extremely kind and understanding and of course, gorgeous. Oh, and married. This is certainly not your typical boy-meets-girl fairytale. It’s more like a fairytale with teeth.

When Jenna is given the chance to tell her story, she decides honesty should be the best policy. And so begins her tale of a severely dysfunctional childhood, survival through cutting and a budding relationship with a forbidden friend. Jenna knows her friendship with her chemistry teacher Mitch Anderson is a road she shouldn’t go down, but since her brother was sent to Iraq, he is the only person who “gets” her. As their bond grows, Jenna has to choose between what is right and what is wrong, even if what is wrong is the only safety net she has. 

In Drowning Instinct, Ilsa J. Bick weaves an intricate and emotionally charged tale of love and vulnerability. She takes the reader on a journey of discovery, but lets us be the ones to make the discovery. Bick never tells us what to think, she just shows us what happens and lets us decide how it makes us feel. And believe me; those feelings will take you by surprise.

I honestly can not describe accurately how this book made me feel. It was a rollercoaster ride of a book. I went through a host of emotions while reading Drowning Instinct.  When I read a book, I take little notes—things that I want to remember or struck me as interesting, emotions I might have felt. I could have filled a notebook with this one. And once I got to the end, nearly every note I took had taken on a new, deeper meaning. With that being said, I truly believe that this is one of those rare books that will affect each reader differently. I doubt everyone will feel the same way about it that I did. Some people may hate it, while others will love it. But give it a chance, it is truly an experience you don’t want to miss.

Drowning Instinct is a young adult book, but I strongly recommend that this book be read by older, more mature teenagers. There are sexual themes throughout the book, most of which might be difficult for a younger junior-high aged child to deal with. I will be letting my 15- and 17-year-old read it, though. In fact, I may force them to read it. I don’t want them to miss out on such an amazing book.

My grade for Drowning Instinct:              

Please check out Ms. Bick's website at http://www.ilsajbick.com/. She is truly one of the best authors I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

Follow Friday (18)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee’s View and Alison at Alison Can Read. It is a great way for bloggers to make new friends and find new blogs to follow. Go to either blog, follow ALL the instructions and then add you link to the list. It’s just that easy!

This week’s question:

Question of the Week: If you had to spend eternity inside the pages of a book which book would you choose and why?

There are a lot of books I would love to spend eternity in, but I think my top three are: any of the Black Dagger Brotherhood Books (preferably as Rhage's shellan), the Mortal Instruments books with Jace or the Twilight books as a vampire living with the Cullens. Funny, every book I picked is a series!

What book would you want to spend eternity in? Leave a comment with the link in the comment section and I will stop by and have a look. 

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Title:  11/22/63

Author:  Stephen King

Genre:  Thriller/Horror

Publisher:  Scribner

Format:  Hardback

Release Date:  November 8, 2011

What if you could go back in time and change one significant event in world history—Hitler’s rise to power, Kennedy’s assassination, or even 9/11? Would you do it?  Jake Epping, a thirty-five year old English teacher who teaches GED classes in his spare time, is going to find out.  It all begins with an essay Jake assigns his GED class to write: tell him about a moment that changed their lives.  One student, Harry Dunning, writes about the night his father killed his entire family—mother, brothers and sister—in a drunken rage. His entire life changed forever because of that event. Jake realizes that life turns on a dime, and anything, literally anything, could change the future.  Not long after that, Jake’s friend Al tells him a secret; his storage room is really a portal to go back in time, back to one particular day in 1958. Once Jake’s shock wears off, Al asks for his help; he wants Jake to take over his plan to stop Kennedy’s assassination. Jake agrees and takes on a new persona, that of George Amberson. His journey takes him across the country, from Lisbon Falls, Maine to Jodie, Texas (where he finds love) until he finally lands in Dallas, Texas. Now George has to change our history, giving us a new future. But will it be the one we hoped for? And how willing is the past to change?

Stephen King manages to do it again in this heart-stopping read. It has all the elements we’ve come to expect from a King book—it’s long (849 pages long), it contains its fair share of cryptic characters and our protagonist has to go up against unbelievable odds to succeed in the end. One thing missing from this book was the typical Stephen King gore and gross-out factors. That was actually a refreshing change.  King’s writing is so powerful that you can practically smell the unpolluted air of the 1950s. He painted an idyllic portrait of a world that no longer exists and now, I wish I could live in it.  As usual, King finds a way to bring former places and stories into the current book. Whether it’s a brief mention or a full-out correlation, King has a knack for reminding his readers of stories maybe long forgotten. This time, King a found an interesting way to bring two of the characters from his book It into the story. I really loved this, because It is one of my favorites (yes, the one with the creepy clown).  11/22/63 did drag a bit in the middle, though at more than 800 pages, I would have been surprised if it hadn’t. Finally, 11/22/63 turned out to be a rather poignant love story, which took me by surprise. King doesn’t always write effective love stories, but this one snuck up on me and shocked me. I even shed tears as I read the book (I’d like to say a few tears, but it was actually s lot of tears).

If you are a King fan, this is a must-read. It has everything we, his fans—King’s Constant Readers—love about a Stephen King story.  And quite frankly, if you aren’t a King fan, you might want to give this one a shot. It’s not scary, unless changing the past to change the future terrifies you. This might be just the book to ease someone into the strange world of Stephen King. And once you are in, it’s pretty hard to get out.        

My grade for 11/22/63: