WWW Wednesday 3 Apr 2013 (Find out what I’m reading this week)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions… • What are you currently reading? • What did you recently finish reading? • What do you think you’ll read next?
	What are you currently reading? I bought a print copy of Beautiful Creatures to read instead of The Host because I just couldn't get into it.
	What did you recently finish reading? I wrote a reviewof The Future of Us on Easter Sunday. It was pretty good, but I had some issues with it.
	What do you think you’ll read next?I read about a quarter of Delirium already, so I'm anxious to finish it.

WWW Wednesday: 30 Jan 2013 (Find out what I’m reading this week)

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading asks you to answer the following three (3) questions…

What are you currently reading?

I am only at page 75 of this book even though I've had it for a while. I'm determined to finally finish a Dessen book though.

What did you recently finish reading?

Holy crap! Wow! I just loved this. I couldn't put it down. It wasn't just the imagery that Oliver used but the pacing was just so right. I highly recommend it (and, as I always say, will do a proper review of it soon.)

What do you think you’ll read next?

     

I have plenty of books that are stored on my Nook and my Kindle that I own and still haven't gotten around to reading, so maybe I can get to one of those next time.

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 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.

WWW Wednesday: 17 Oct 2012 (Find out what I’m reading this week)

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading asks you to answer the following three (3) questions…

What are you currently reading?

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness

I've still not made my progress in this book. I'm really not interested in it and I don't look forward to picking it up to see what happens. I'll probably give up and find something else. I accept that my attention span is too limited to read detail after detail without the characters doing anything.

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

The same goes for this one too. So far all I’ve read is that some guy has died of a brain aneurysm and different people in the town are reacting to it, chapter by chapter. Already there’s a verbally abusive father and I’m really too sensitive to read that stuff.

What did you recently finish reading?

Gossip Girl #1: A Novel (Gossip Girl Series)

I wrote my review here.

What do you think you’ll read next?

   

I think I may just set aside the ones I'm reading now and start either Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen or Burn for Burn by Jenny Han this week. I can be entertained by YA so much easier than the problems of adults.

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.

WWW Wednesday: 10 Oct 2012 (Find out what I’m reading this week)

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading asks you to answer the following three (3) questions…

What are you currently reading?

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness

I picked this book up again last night and got to page 30. I find it interesting but the length of the book, and the fact that there’s a series, may put me off in the end. However, it’s different from what I’ve been reading lately so I’d like to finish it.

What did you recently finish reading?

Gossip Girl #1: A Novel (Gossip Girl Series)

I’ll put up the review ASAP (as I said with the PLL books that I still have to review.) I didn’t hate the book, it just wasn’t that interesting to me. Still, I have a could of GG books that I could read later on for fun. They are quick and easy to get through.

What do you think you’ll read next?

The Casual Vacancy

I really hope to read JK Rowling's book just because it's new and there's a lot of buzz about it. I've not read a whole Harry Potter book so I'm quite intrigued how her adult fiction is.

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)