Friday Reads for 11 Jan 2013

My Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2013 is to read (at least) 30 books. I looked around my couch and made a list of 26 “to read” books that were either on my Kindle, Nook, or coffee table. Some of these are Friday Finds because I recently got them in ebook form from the library.

There are plenty of books I have stashed away that I can still get to but after making this list, I get the idea that I do not need to purchase any more books. Well, until I bump my challenge number to 40 or 50. I don’t think I’ll ever stop finding new books I want to read.

1. Novel Writing - Marshall
2. The Truth About Forever - Dessen
3. Along for the Ride - Dessen
4. Beautiful Creatures - Garcia and Stohl
5. Reading like a Writer - Prose
6. Liar and Spy - Stead
7. The Diary of Anne Frank - Frank
8. If I Stay - Foreman
9. Eve - Carey
10. Adoration of Jenna Fox - Pearson
11. Cold Kiss - Garvey
12. Hollowland - Hocking
13. Must Love Dogs - Cook
14. The Summer I Turned Pretty - Han
15. The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
16. Bright Young Things - Godbersen
17. Pretty Little Liars: Killer - Shepard
18. Pretty Little Liars: Heartless - Shepard
19. Burn for Burn - Han and Vivian
20. Matched - Condie
21. One Day - Nicholls
22. The Secret Life of Bees – Kidd
23. Glass – Hopkins
24. Mockingjay – Collins
25. All the Wrong Questions? – Snicket
26. Divergent – Roth

Of course I also have classics to finish reading like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

Again, these are books that I can access right now. There are plenty of others on my “to read” list.

Friday Reads for 4 Jan 2013

I've been reading The Truth About Forever on my Nook. I've tried to read a Dessen novel many times but I never got very far. I'm planning to at least finish a couple of her novels early this year.

Friday Finds via Should Be Reading, “where you share the book titles you discovered or heard about during the past week” --



I just discovered this book in my Marie Clare magazine (the one with Emma Watson on it for Feb 2013.) I'd like to read even though I'm not sure about the British references and the mild Goodreads reviews.

Friday Reads for 26 Oct 2012

Anna and the French Kiss

This week I'm reading Anna and the French Kiss. While I don't go ga-ga over romance novels, this story is really cute. I like the 1st person point of view, the lack of paranormal themes, and the European setting. I like that Anna has never, ever discussed how "beautiful" she is but we know she is through St. Claire's dialogue.

I like that Anna has interests in film. She enjoys the history of Paris, she's friends with the nerds at school, and she doesn't want to make her feelings for St. Claire hurt anyone. I like her character and that's important for a reader. She has a distinct voice and I applaud Stephanie Perkins's talent as a writer.

Friday Finds via Should Be Reading, “where you share the book titles you discovered or heard about during the past week” --

I found L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad many times but I never put two and two together. I had seen her Style book at the library and recognized her but didn't realize she was from The Hills (even though I have actually seen the show before.)

Epic Reads' newsletter announced her new Beauty book but I was more interested in Starstruck: A Fame Game Novel.

I put L.A. Candy on my Kindle from the library. I'm just super curious now that I know someone from The Hills is using their fame and brain.

Friday Reads for 19 Oct 2012

Burn for Burn

This week I started the first couple of chapters (intros to the characters) in Burn for Burn by Jenny Han.

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)

I also read another chapter of Discovery of Witches last night, getting up to page 75, then took it back to the library. It was just too slow and after hearing details about how Diana liked her tea and how the vampire professor liked yoga, I just knew I didn't have the patience for it right now. Maybe later.

Anna and the French Kiss

And today I started Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins because it was finally available from the library for my Kindle. I had heard good things about it so I wanted to find out for myself. So far the reviews are right - very cute, fun story. I'm at 11% so far.

Friday Finds via Should Be Reading, “where you share the book titles you discovered or heard about during the past week” are:

I had forgotten that Anna and the French Kiss is in a series that includes Lola and the Boy Next Door. I guess Isla and the Happily Ever After will be released soon-ish.

Friday Reads for 12 Oct 2012

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)

This week I'm reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

I'm plodding through this because the book is giant and I know there's going to be a ton of stuff to build up to any actual stuff happening. There's a lot of detail that makes me zone out a bit but it's not uninteresting. Since I haven't read a book like this, I wanted to give it an honest try. I renewed my loan at the library today so I have the rest of October to take a chunk out of it.

Seriously, I'm only at page 50 or so now. I understand what people mean by it being hard to connect to the narration. While it's told in first person, it's not very personal. I mean, it was Chapter 5 before anyone said anything about Diana's eye colour being blue-gold. Her job seem cool to me though, in my humble opinion. Study old manuscripts all day? Yes, please!

Also, I must include my Friday Finds via Should Be Reading, “where you share the book titles you discovered or heard about during the past week.”

This week, I found:

  

Breathe by Sara Crossan and Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday both via Epic Reads.

Friday Reads for 5 Oct 2012

Gossip Girl (Gossip Girl Novel)

This Friday, I’m reading Gossip Girl Book 1 by Cecily von Ziegesar.

I've tried to read this many times before but now that I've bought it, lost it, then paid to have the book put on hold (and waited a month), I need to get through it this time.

It's a very quick, easy read. It's typical high school drama except these kids are rich. They smoke, drink, sleep around, etc. Nothing very redeemable about any of them except the relationship between Selena and Blair. I like that Selena is this perfect girl everyone admires and Blair’s been absolutely fine without her around despite the fact that they were BFFs before.

I just finished Wicked (Pretty Little Liars, Book 5) by Sara Shepard so I will finally have to do a review of the PLL series that I’ve read so far (the story continues throughout anyway.)

Along with my Friday Reads entry, I’d like to include another event suggest by Should Be Reading called Friday Finds, “where you share the book titles you discovered or heard about during the past week.”

This week, I found a book to add to my To Read list:

The Innocents by Lili Peloquin

I also discovered that there’s a new, controversial genre of books called NA, or New Adult. You can read a blog post on the subject and find discussions about it on Twitter (as I stumbled upon it last night) via #NALitChat.

Review of “The Lying Game”

“At least she had a clear picture of what the Lying Game was now: Girl Scouts for psychopaths.”

Emma has lived in foster homes her whole life, but when she finds a video online that depicts a girl who looks exactly like her being killed, she searches for her long-lost twin. After seemingly being lured to Tucson by her twin, Sutton Mercer, Emma finds out that she got the raw end of the deal. Sutton grew up with everything a girl could ask for: parents, a sister, popular friends, a boyfriend, and anything monetary her heart desired. Except Sutton is dead, so Emma assumes Sutton’s identity. When Emma tries to explain what is going on no one believes her. No one, that is, but Sutton’s killer. In order to keep herself from being the next, dead sister, Emma has to play along with The Lying Game until she can solve the mystery of what happened to Sutton.
First off, before anyone starts harassing me over a review (seriously, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of – book bloggers shouldn’t have to deal with that stuff!) I seriously love Sara Shepard.  I read the first four books of Pretty Little Liars (which I still need to review here) and I was hooked immediately. When I picked this book up, I was really intrigued by the first page, so I was excited to begin reading it. However, like some of the other reviews I’ve read, I just didn’t get into it as much as I did with PLL.
Some people said they didn’t like the point of view that went between Emma in third person to Sutton in first person. I understood that Shepard was trying something new and that was fine but, I agree, I don’t think it did much for the story. If there had been small chapters here and there told in Sutton’s point of view (as does A. in PLL) we would have gotten the gist that Sutton is dead and she’s watching all of this as a ghost.
While the story line sounds innovative and interesting in theory, it just wasn’t. I got really bored of it quickly. It picked up in the middle when Emma was starting to figure things out and the killer had come back to threaten her. But there was just too much that I couldn’t believe about the whole situation to make me like any of the characters.
I agree with whomever said “Why couldn’t Emma just call someone from her hometown who would vouch for her?” I mean, technically, she is still not 18 so she’s under child protective custody until her birthday at the end of the book. Also, if Emma has been dirt poor and without a world of privilege, wouldn’t she be way more impressed with the gadgets and designer clothes she has? Plus, and I mentioned this on Twitter, how does she know to go to Trader Joe’s to buy Brie? And why would she be irritated with an old woman who holds up the line by paying with a check? If she’s getting into her diva role now that she’s assumed Sutton’s identity, I get that, but she wouldn’t just know these kind of things off-hand if she’s been in poverty the last 15+ years.
And Becky. So that’s their mother but Sutton never knew her but Emma lived with her? I guess that’s part of the mystery too.
One other small thing: Sutton? Is this a hip thing, to name kids after random London boroughs? I kept wanting to call her Mutton Surfer. I get that she’s a spoiled little rich girl who loves to pull deadly pranks on people. She gets her car impounded and she has a police record but she’s still living a charmed life. I can almost understand that but I’m not rich and I don’t shop for Brie at Trader Joe’s so I’m not sure.
Anyway, I doubt I’ll read anymore of the books, but I didn’t realize they’d made a TV show for it, so I can look for that next month.
All in all, it’s not a terrible book at all, I just wasn’t overall thrilled with it. If it weren’t for Shepard’s writing style, it wouldn’t have been interesting at all. Most teen readers would probably be into it since the mystery story is pretty intriguing. I’m just not sure they’ll love it as much a PLL. I do, however, give Shepard massive props for starting a totally different project though. As she said in the acknowledgements, it is really hard to start a new series.
My rating: (3/5)

Friday Reads - The Lying Game

I decided to create a Friday Reads section to the blog so that it's used during the times I'm still getting around to the actual book reviews.

This Friday I'm reading The Lying Game by Sara Shepard. I've only gotten to page 44 so far so I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the book. I am really use to the Pretty Little Liars books, so maybe I'm less responsive to a new idea of Sheperd's. I'm not hooked like I was with PLL.

So far I've learned that Sutton Mercer is dead and someone killed her and put the video on Youtube. Creepy, yes. Emma is an orphan who is desperate to get away from her slimey "brother" and her foster mother, so she runs off to find the girl who looks exactly like her - Sutton, her long lost twin.

I know it's realistic and all, but devoting a whole scene about looking over someone's Facebook page is a bit tedious. It did give Emma plenty of facts to search for (because she doesn't know that Sutton is dead.) So, presumably the person who murdered Sutton wrote Emma a message on FB, asking her to meet in Tuscon, Arizona. Emma blindly believes this person and is running around alone in Chapter 4, where I am now.

If this goes where I think it's going to go then it will be fine but extremely predictable (is she going to pose as Sutton but the killer knows the truth?)