Wednesday Words Favorite Things: Books

Today we’re talking about our favorite books.  Asking me to do that is like asking a parent which is their favorite kid… aka very hard!  I kind of have ADD when it comes to listing my favorite things.  In random conversations I can rattle off my faves easily, but when someone asks me to make a list I’m all, “Uh… well… you know…”  Then afterward I’ll suddenly remember everything when the time has passed. Like the other day I was having dinner with friends and one of them asked me who I liked to read.  I couldn’t list them.  I read all the damn time and I couldn’t make a list!  I was like, “I read a lot of YA, vampires and stuff.”  Seriously?!  Geesh…

But yeah… my favorite books (that I can remember at this moment, LOL).

Ohhh this book!  This book broke my heart and made me laugh at the same time.  I’ve only ever had two books make me cry and this wasn’t one, but I was definitely touched.  I read this book in two sittings and it’s calling me to read it again.  That alone means that I loved it because I rarely re-read books.  I did figure out where the plot was going to go early on, but I think maybe that’s just the writer in me.  I try to figure out what’s going to happen and think about how I would make it go if it were my book.  This was the first book by Green that I’ve read and I just fell in love with his writing.  I’ll soon be reading all of his books.  Oh and, 29 days til the movie! I can’t freaking wait for the movie! 🙂

This was one of my favorite books growing up.  It’s so cute and sweet Grover is so clueless you can’t help but love him. 🙂  If you haven’t read it, do so.

I had to read this for a book club I used to belong to.  I was too busy at the time to sit and read so I got the audio book from the library and holy cow it was amazing.  The dude who read the book did different voices and accents for people and just did a phenomenal job.  Then of course there is the story itself which is all kinds of awesome.  I’m so pissed that the movie didn’t get much publicity (so little that it came to and left the theaters without me knowing) because it looked like it was going to be great too.  I’m sure it’s a great read, but I highly suggest getting the audio book for this one.  🙂

I’ve been looking through my goodreads history for five star books to put on this list.  Every single one of Jen’s Blood Ties books have five star ratings from me and I read them years before I met her in person and started hanging out with her.  So yeah, I’m a fan!  I remember reading these books and thinking, “Cool! They’re in Michigan!”  “Cool! The author is from Michigan too!”  “Son of a bitch, she’s younger than I am and has already been published!”  LOL  I adore Jen’s writing.  She has a way of pulling me into books that I never would have thought I’d liked.  For example, I’m not a big fan of historical romance, but I’ve read some of Jen’s stuff that she’s written as Abigail Barnett and have loved it.  Basically, Jen rocks and if you haven’t read her books you need to. 🙂

Neil Gaiman rocks my socks.  I have loved every novel of his that I’ve ever read.  I got turned on to him though through Backstreet Boys fanfic, believe it or not.  A friend of mine was writing this amazing fanfic that blended the Boys with the Endless and as I read the fanfic I was like, “I need to read this series…”  So I started buying the twenty dollar volumes slowly and totally fell in love with the series. I own the whole set and it’s the only graphic novel series that I’ve read from start to finish.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is supposed to be trying to bring it to the screen and holy wah, if he gets it done I’ll love him even more than I already do!

This and A Light in the Attic are books I read so much as a kid that I memorized a bunch of the poems and page numbers.  I recently got my Where the Sidewalk Ends out to share with my youngest nephew and it just warmed my heart to see him enjoying the poems and pictures as much as I do. 🙂

 

Sarah Addison Allen is brilliant.  I’ve loved every book that I’ve read that she’s written.  When I read her books I think to myself, “I want to write like her when I grow up!”  She’s just, magical.  In fact, she has a new book out that I need to get badly. 🙂  It was sold out the last time I was at the book store though.

Last but not at all least… Lara Zielin.  I’ve read all of her books and loved them all but this was the first one read thanks to Bronwyn’s suggestion.  It’s wonderful.  Lara herself is all kinds of amazing and she’s a Michigan author so yay for that!  She just quit her job to write full time too so yay for more wonderful Lara books!

There are tons of other books that I love, but I can’t simply name (or remember) them all. 🙂  I’m curious to know if any of these are books that you love!  Let me know in the comments, then check out what favorite books my girls have on their lists!

Bronwyn Green | Kris Norris  | Jenny Trout

Gwendolyn Cease | Jessica Jarman |Tess Grant | Leigh Jones

Review: Betrayed

Betrayed by P.C. Cast
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First let me say that this book was a little better than the first. The plot had a little more meat to it and less of Zoey bitching about everything under the sun… or should I say the moon since she doesn’t go in the sun anymore? But yeah, it was okay-ish.

After reading the first book in this series I had the bright idea that while reading the second book I’d keep track of things that bugged me to make reviewing the book easier. I got out my handy pack of post-it flags and started putting flags on the annoying bits. After a while I stopped flagging because the same annoying things kept popping up over and over and over again. But I do have a few to point out because they simply can’t be ignored.

First and foremost, for someone who is great friends with gay guys, Zoey is one hell of a homophobe. I’m sorry but as someone who is a part of the LGBT community, if I had a “friend” who felt the need to constantly point out how gay something is, they wouldn’t be my friend for long.

Page 17 – He was tall, dark, and handsome- like an old-time movie star (without the latent homosexual tendencies).

TOTALLY uncalled for!

Page 25 – Okay, I know it’s bordering on weird (or maybe queer is the better word choice) to continually notice how gorgeous a woman is when you’re a woman, too, but Neferet is so damn beautiful that it’s like she has the ability to focus all the light in the room on herself.

Seriously? Queer? Ugh! First of all women ALL notice how beautiful other women are. It’s what we do. The only women who feel the need to throw words like queer around and point out that they aren’t interested sexually in other women are insecure homophobic assholes.

Page 186 – There were a lot of guys in his position (ridiculously popular) who would have either ignored this little third former roommate or, worse, been visibly pissed that they’d have to share a room with a “fag.” Erik wasn’t like that at all, and I couldn’t help but compare him to Heath, who would probably have been freaked that he had to room with a gay kid. Not that Heath was hateful or anything like that, but he was a typical teenage Okie boy, which tended to mean narrow-minded homophobe.

Putting the word fag in quotes doesn’t make it okay. Neither does following it up by saying how Heath isn’t hateful because he’s just a typical teenage Okie. He is hateful if he would be visibly pissed to have a gay roommate. And you, my dear Zoey, are equally hateful by always pointing out shit like that!

The Casts have Zoey dropping little ditty’s like that throughout this series and each time I read one I get a little bit more pissed off. I actually began reading the third book and there were so many references to how gay this or that was in the first chapter that I actually considered putting the book down forever.

Another thing that just makes me cringe with these books is how the Casts seem to want to shove their beliefs down the reader’s throat. Zoey thinks every girl in the world is a “ho.” She herself isn’t one though, because she has reasons for having two boyfriends and contemplating a third! Then there’s this gem on page 29 when Zoey is talking about other schools.

I wanted exclusive and upper class (none of those stupid “alternative academies” that were really just holding pens for future criminals – ugh).

So not only is Zoey a homophobe but she apparently hates alternative education and believes that anyone who is an alternative ed student is a criminal. It’s funny since she herself is in an alternative education school for freaking vampires! Way to be a judgmental jerk. If Zoey’s friends knew the awful things she thought about them throughout this story there’s no way they’d be her friends.

The problem with these books is that despite all of the stuff that makes me want to throw the books across the room, they have decent plots. So even though when I’m reading them I get royally pissed off, I still kind of want to know what happens to the characters. Kinda. I guess we’ll see how I feel at the end of book three.

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Review: Marked

Marked by P.C. Cast
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m not sure what to say about this book. I liked it, but some of it really bugged me too. The different writing styles of the Casts was pretty obvious and there was one who drove me a little bit crazy. I assume that the mom’s writing was the one I liked because it felt a little more controlled while what I assumed was the daughter’s parts seemed a bit amateurish. It also felt like they were both trying too hard to portray teens as a certain way and it was overkill. Almost like they were like, “We’re writing YA so we need our characters to talk like this…” but in reality, I don’t know any teens who speak the way the kids in this book do. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with the word “ho” in it so many times nor do I know any teens who actually say it. Heck they even praised themselves in the book dedication for “sounding like teenagers” and well… they didn’t.

Also, for a YA book, there’s a whole lot of adult stuff in this book. The language didn’t bother me, kids swear, it’s a fact of life. And I’m not a prude by any means; I read and write erotica… But blow jobs in a YA book is kind of borderline if you ask me. I know it’s realistic, there’s a huge problem with oral std’s and teens right now, but for some reason it bugged me in this book. Probably because it wasn’t needed… Zoey could have come across Aphroditie and Erik in a totally different way and it would have been fine. And HELLO… it’s called sexual assault when someone says no but you keep going. Not okay. Ugh. What if it had been Erik forcing himself on Aphroditie? People would have been screaming over how inappropriate this book was!

That aside, however, I kind of like the idea of the book. The tattoo aspect is kind of neat as is the idea that not everyone who attends the House of Night will end up a vampyre in the end. I love the cats, the twins, and Damien. Stevie Ray and Zoey are pretty annoying but it wouldn’t be the first time I read annoying main characters.

I’ve heard from several people that this series goes downhill from here but I’m willing to find that out on my own… I’m moving on to the next book this weekend.

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Review: Gone

Gone by Lisa McMann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally a third book in a trilogy that didn’t suck! 🙂 I really enjoyed this book although not as much as I liked book #2. The only thing that really bugged me about this one was how after two books Carrie and Janie suddenly spoke to each other in a totally different way using phrases that they hadn’t used in the other books. It was almost like McMann found a few new catch phrases and thought she’d throw them in to seem “cool” but they really didn’t work at all and were more annoying than anything else.

In all, this is a great series. I read the first two books in one night and the third book the next night. Super fast reads and yet they didn’t feel rushed at all which is truly an art. Yeah, yeah the series has adult language but so do most teenagers so I found it to be pretty realistic. I’ve seen a lot of people bitching about how they wouldn’t let a teenager read this because of the language and the situations but I think for older teens it would be fine. Younger teens might struggle with the series but then again so many kids have lived through much worse so this wouldn’t even be a blip on their radar. I give kudos for McMann for writing a series that felt like it was based in reality (well except for the paranormal stuff LOL) instead of a fluffy YA book series that doesn’t feel real at all. Plus she’s from Michigan so she rocks. 🙂

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