need a good read?

Wow. I just realized it has been a while since I've posted about my reading adventures... and believe me, I've been on some! So to catch you up, here are just some of the books that were big hits and slight misses:

The Summer Series [The Summer I Turned Pretty, It's Not Summer Without You, We'll Always Have Summer]- Jenny Han: I'm a fan of YA books, always have been and probably always will be, and this was no exception. I love how many YA novels are relate-able during and after your youth. When you are a teen, you know exactly what the characters are going through - you feel the same things they do, you experience the same (or similar) situations, you long to live the life that the characters are living. When you're an adult and read YA, it takes you back to your first crush, first love, first kiss, and they helps you remember what it felt like to need to be wanted and be included and that's exactly what this book did for me.
The story revolves around Belly, a 16-year-old girl and two brothers, Jeremiah and Conrad (thus a love triangle ensues). Belly's life has been intertwined with these two men since they babies because every summer they and their mothers take residence in a beach house. This series is a wonderful coming-of-age story and a great, easy summer read full of more depth than just the normal fluffy love story.

Across the Universe - Beth Devis: Another YA novel, but this one is a little more Sci-Fi in nature. Amy, a 17-year-old girl decides to take the plunge with her parents and become frozen cargo on a spaceship that will land on a foreign planet in 300 years, however she is unfrozen 50 years too early and finds herself in a vastly different spaceship than the one that left Earth. Okay... I know it sounds a little Star-Trekkie... but believe me, it's not! I honestly believe this would be a great book for a high school English class because it raises so many questions about ethics, morals, and what-ifs. It is (thankfully) the first book of a trilogy and I think it would be an amazing movie. I can't say anything more because if I do I will give away something you should discover for yourself.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford: This was chosen as our May book club book and I'm really glad it was, because I probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. It takes you into the life of Henry Lee, a Chinese boy growing up in Seattle during WWII who befriends a Japanese girl, Keiko. The chapters go back and forth from Henry as a boy and Henry as a 50-something man. I loved this novel because it gave an interesting insight into the world of racially-driven expectations, prejudices and discrimination. It also incorporates a part of American history that is usually forgotten or glazed over - Japanese interment camps. I enjoyed that the characters in this novel are well-developed and you can see a lot of the underlining pressures and conflicting emotional struggles. However, I personally thought that more than half of the book was slow moving, but it got quite a bit better towards the end. However, many people in my book club thought differently and enjoyed every page.

Everything written by Sarah Addison Allen - The Peach Keeper, Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen, The Girl Who Chased the Moon: All of these books stand alone, but they all consist of Southern women, friendship, love, and a hint of magic. Allen has a beautiful writing voice that captures you from the moment you open the book. These feel-good books are quick to read because you just don't want to put them down! I'm just going to go ahead and say it - I loved all of these books. I mean, I seriously loved these books. I'm not going to say anything more about them, because I honestly think that you need to read them for yourself.

Bumped - Megan McCafferty: This is yet another YA (I've been on a YA kick this summer it seems). Bumped was written off a very interesting concept - what if it was not only accepted, but also expected that teenage girls get pregnant? Melody lives in a world where girls are encouraged (and paid) to have babies before the age of 18 for married couples because once teenagers hit the ripe, old age of 18, they become sterile due to a virus. There is a new set of vocabulary you need to get used to and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about a YA book based on teenagers having sex, specifically unprotected sex, regardless of the scenario. Yet, I did enjoy this book and I might have enjoyed it purely because the whole idea was original. It is due to have a sequel released in Spring of 2012 called Thumped and I have heard rumors that it might be turned into a film.

A Vintage Affair - Isabel Wolf: Sometimes  Every week my friend sends me a text or e-mail with a list of books that she’s either heard or read about for me to check in to. Sometimes she finds REALLY good books and other times they’re more of a dud. Unfortunately, this ended up to be the latter. It revolves around Phoebe, a woman who owns a newly-opened vintage clothing boutique who befriends an elderly women who owns a coat with a hidden past. There is also a dabble in  love and a story of shattered friendship. I believe there are two big downfalls of this book with the first one being it’s a slow-moving book – there’s no momentum. I felt like I was dragging my feet through tar while I was reading it. The second downfall is that only time the woman actually seemed somewhat happy was when she was talking about the clothes she was selling. Which, don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the joy that clothing can bring – especially if that’s your passion and if it’s they type of clothes she was selling (the descriptions were beautiful and I could vividly see the items in my mind which made me want to purchase them, but alas, I could not because this was fiction), but she was so melancholy without the clothing, even in the end when all of her “problems” were resolved. Perhaps that’s why the novel moved so slowly for me. I honestly feel like the plot was interesting enough, and there were some wonderful supporting characters. But in the end, it really just didn’t give me the zing that I want from a book.



I'm currently finishing the Vampire Academy series as well as reading a nonfiction about travel and love, titled Waunderlust so I'll return shortly...

I may let you go...

Let me preface this by saying I finished the book a few weeks ago, but a week or so after I finished we moved. Thus, I haven't had very much time to work on my review until now.

With that being said, Never Let Me Go did not live up to my expectations and what's sad is I didn't even set very high expectations for it in the first place. For the majority of the book, the story is set in a presumably post WWII era in Europe at a type of boarding school called Hailsham. The story revolves around 3 characters for the most part (Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth) and their discovery of their future societal role.
I thought the book was slow moving and *gasp* bland. There was always a feeling that something was going to happen... but nothing ever did. There was an odd type of love triangle, but not even that got very interesting. What bothered me the most was that the book lacked hope. Don't get me wrong, I don't think every book should have a happy ending, but the characters in this book never really fought for anything different. They asked, they were told no, and they said okay. They basically gave in - letting their futures be determined by a less-than-perfect system.
Every time I read this book I felt as if a huge gray cloud was hanging above my head - they're might have been a few, momentary bright spots, but they were never able to completely shine through to me.

I may venture to rental store and pick up the movie... or I may not.

never let me go

I think it's finally time for me to officially begin my journey down this challenge. I just purchased Never Let Me Go  by Kazuo Ishiguro for my Kindle, which is conveniently now a "major motion picture" staring Keira Knightley. I know what you're thinking, and no, I will not watch the film before I finish the novel, but I do plan on viewing it after turning the last page. I always find it interesting to watch a book come to life and then (usually) tear it to pieces for ruining the story. I will however, try to remain optimistic.

I'm quite excited about this book - the synopsis is intriguing and follows the line of other books I've read and enjoyed and the reviews I've looked over have primarily been positive and praiseworthy, specifically about the writing.

So here it goes... I'll let you know how I fair.