Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2015.  This list will be almost half of the books I've read so far this year!  Luckily, about half of them have been pretty good, so I won't feel like I'm unintentionally recommending stinkers by putting those books on this list.

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far In 2015:

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
rating: 3.88

This is one of three fairytale retellings that made my list, but the only young adult one (the other two were middle grade).  I loved the world that the author built; it was almost like alternate history, but with a lot of fantasy thrown in.

The Wide-Awake Princess
by E. D. Baker
rating: 4

Of the three fairytale retellings that made this list, this is the only one that wasn't strictly a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling... although it did incorporate that story, along with many others.  This is actually the first in a series of books about Annie, and now I kind of want to read the rest of them.

Listen, Slowly
by Thanhha Lai
rating: 4.13

I really enjoyed the author's other book, Inside Out & Back Again, which was written in verse.  I thought this one would be, too... but it was a regular prose novel, and I was a little disappointed when I first started reading it.  But then I got caught up in the story and really enjoyed it.  I haven't read any other books set in modern-day Vietnam (that I can recall), so this one provided a refreshing change of scenery.

Carrie
by Stephen King
rating: 4.13

I read my first Stephen King novel this year!  I went with this book mainly because it was short and not so intimidating.  But I actually really enjoyed it.  I'm not quite so afraid of trying some of his other books, now that I have an idea of the way he writes.

Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
rating: 4.25

I hadn't read the book, nor had I seen the movie... even though the former has been out since before I was born, and the latter is already more than a decade old.  I can see why this one is a modern classic, though; it's a simple story, but it has unforgettable characters.  Fantasy combines with serious questions to make an intelligent and thought-provoking read.

Shadow and Bone
by Leigh Bardugo
rating: 4.25

This is my most recent read.  I didn't know much about it going into reading it, other than that it was a Russian-flavoured fantasy.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was fairly well written and had an engaging story... as well as some characters that are very intriguing.

5 to 1
by Holly Bodger
rating: 4.25

I like to read verse novels, but I haven't had a chance to do much of that sort of reading this year.  This book is not strictly a verse novel; it switches back and forth between free verse and prose.  I really enjoyed this dystopian look at an Indian city in the future, where there are so many boys that the girls have now become the precious commodity.

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
rating: 4.38

I had this book in my TBR pile for years... and I only just got around to sitting down and reading it (partly because I wanted to watch the movie, but only after I'd read the book).  It was different from anything I've read... but I can definitely see why it's so highly regarded.

Beastkeeper
by Cat Hellisen
rating: 4.38

This middle grade retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" puts an interesting twist on the story with a multi-generational curse.  Don't let the fact that the main character is young turn you off, though; it's an intelligent, well-written fantasy that will appeal to older readers as well.

All Our Yesterdays
by Cristin Terrill
rating: 4.5

What can I say about this bittersweet time-travel story?  It was one of the first books I read in 2015, and I'm still thinking about it.  I was quite disappointed when the author cancelled the sequel, but I guess I'd rather have no sequel than one that's a disappointment.  This book would be difficult to live up to!


What are the best books you've read so far this year?


Saturday, June 27, 2015

Unpopular Opinion Book Tag

I was tagged by the lovely Cait @ Paper Fury.  Unpopular opinions?  Aren't all of my opinions unpopular?  I seem to dislike the books that everyone else loves, anyway...

1. A popular book or series that you didn't like.

The Fault in Our Stars.  It's one of the most overrated, pretentious books I've ever read.  I'm also not the biggest fan of Harry Potter.  I know, I know... sacrilege!  My interest waned at around book #4; after that, I was more annoyed than entertained.  (I'm still glad I finished the series, though.)


2. A popular book or series that every one else seems to hate but you love.

This is a tricky question.  I don't think I love any truly hated books.  It's not like I'm a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey (that would make answering this particular question super easy)!

3. A love triangle where the MC ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with.

Um... all of them?  I'm not sure I've ever read a love triangle where the main character ended up with the person I wanted them to end up with.  Then again, I rarely ever finish series, so it's kind of hard to tell.  For this question, though, I'm going to have to go with The Hunger Games trilogy.


4. A popular book genre that you hardly reach for.

Young adult contemporary.  I'm just not that interested.  Maybe if I was a teenager it would interest me more.  (I do want to read something by Sarah Dessen one day, though; I've heard her books are really good.)

5. A popular or beloved character that you do not like.

Daemon Black from Jennifer L. Armentrout's Obsidian.  I read that book partly because everyone was gushing over how hot this guy was.  He's just a jerk... and I'm not into jerks.  Also, Celaena Sardothien, Sarah J. Maas's assassin who doesn't assassinate (at least, not in the first book).  Celaena's kind of a twit (which is why I might read the second book in the series, just to see what stupid things she ends up doing).


6. A popular author that you can't seem to get into.

Marissa Meyer.  As much as I love the basic premise of her Lunar Chronicles series, I just can't get past the execution.  I've read the first two books, and I can't bring myself to continue.


7. A popular book trope that you're tired of seeing. (examples "lost princess", corrupt ruler, love triangles, etc.)

Ordinary boy/girl realizes he/she has superpowers/is actually a supernatural creature.  (Although, I just finished a book with this very trope and I really enjoyed it.  Maybe I'm just tired of seeing this one done badly.)

8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.

Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy.  I read one of his stand-alone books and hated the way it was written.  So I'm pretty sure I don't want to read a trilogy written by him.

9. The saying goes "The book is always better than the movie", but what movie or TV show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?

I usually prefer the books.  But I guess I'll go with any of the number of Jane Austen film adaptations I've seen.  I haven't actually read any of her books from start to finish, although I will watch some of those movies again and again... so that must say something about my media preference!


What are some of your unpopular opinions about books?  If you've read this far, consider yourself tagged!  Let me know about those unpopular opinions of yours in the comments or in your own blog post.

Review - Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone
(The Grisha #1)
by Leigh Bardugo
Date: 2012
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 358
Format: e-book
Source: library

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life--a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha... and the secrets of her heart.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Before I read either book, I used to get Shadow and Bone mixed up with Daughter of Smoke & Bone.  Similar titles, yes... but very different stories.  Still, they have one thing in common: I was late to the party with both series, and when I finally got around to trying them, I was pleasantly surprised.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

I loved the world-building in this book.  Bardugo has taken all these Russian influences and created a fantasy world that's both familiar and alien.  Much of the landscape, some of the politics, and plenty of the food and fashion are taken right out of Russian history... but then there's this whole fantasy element with the Grisha, who work a form of magic by manipulating matter and energy, and the Shadow Fold, a horrible stain of darkness teeming with monsters.  The author describes things quite well, so it's easy to picture what's going on as you're reading the story.

Alina is sort of the typical young adult heroine.  She's plain to look at, but still manages to attract men's attention.  She has a special skill that's been so hidden that even she doesn't know about it.  Despite these tired tropes, she's still appealing as a character.  She seems real, with conflicted (and conflicting) emotions.

The Darkling is one of the coolest characters I've read in a while, simply because he isn't the easiest person to read.  It's not that the author was confused about his character; on the contrary, I think she knew exactly what kind of person she was writing about.  (It's really hard to write about this guy without giving too much of the story away.  Let's just finish by saying that the author handled his development skillfully and believably.)

It's all a matter of taste...

There's not much I didn't like here.  Even though the ending obviously marks this book as the first in a trilogy, it doesn't have an annoying cliffhanger.  I guess my only complaint is that now I have to go read two more books to finish the story!  That's not really a bad thing, though.

Let's get technical...

Aside from a few word choices that I thought were odd (Alina often talks about her mind "whirring", which seems strange, as that word usually indicates a sound), the writing was pretty decent.  Yes, the archers did "notch" their arrows at one point, but they correctly "nocked" them at another.  I'm not sure if the first instance was simply a typo, or something the editor missed... like Genya's hair colour changing from "deepest auburn" to "bright red".  Oops.

The verdict...

This is a very enjoyable fantasy that I'd definitely recommend.  I'm off to read Siege and Storm.  I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Quotable moment:

Alexei was right: things change. Mal had changed for the better. He'd gotten handsomer, braver, cockier. And I'd gotten... taller. I sighed and rolled onto my side. I wanted to believe that Mal and I would always be friends, but I had to face the fact that we were on different paths. Lying in the dark, waiting for sleep, I wondered if those paths would just keep taking us further and further apart, and if a day might come when we would be strangers to each other once again.

Premise: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 ladybugs


New to the TBR Pile (31)



Borrowed from the library:
A Handful of Stars
by Cynthia Lord

When Lily's blind dog, Lucky, slips his collar and runs away across the wide-open blueberry barrens of eastern Maine, it's Salma Santiago who manages to catch him. Salma, the daughter of migrant workers, is in the small town with her family for the blueberry-picking season.

After their initial chance meeting, Salma and Lily bond over painting bee boxes for Lily's grandfather, and Salma's friendship transforms Lily's summer. But when Salma decides to run in the upcoming Blueberry Queen pageant, they'll have to face some tough truths about friendship and belonging. Should an outsider like Salma really participate in the pageant-and possibly win?

Set amongst the blueberry barrens and by the sea, this is a gorgeous new novel by Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord that tackles themes of prejudice and friendship, loss and love.

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1)
by Leigh Bardugo

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life--a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha... and the secrets of her heart.


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Review - A Handful of Stars

A Handful of Stars
by Cynthia Lord
Date: 2015
Publisher: Scholastic
Reading level: MG
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 192
Format: e-book
Source: library

When Lily's blind dog, Lucky, slips his collar and runs away across the wide-open blueberry barrens of eastern Maine, it's Salma Santiago who manages to catch him. Salma, the daughter of migrant workers, is in the small town with her family for the blueberry-picking season.

After their initial chance meeting, Salma and Lily bond over painting bee boxes for Lily's grandfather, and Salma's friendship transforms Lily's summer. But when Salma decides to run in the upcoming Blueberry Queen pageant, they'll have to face some tough truths about friendship and belonging. Should an outsider like Salma really participate in the pageant-and possibly win?

Set amongst the blueberry barrens and by the sea, this is a gorgeous new novel by Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord that tackles themes of prejudice and friendship, loss and love.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This cute middle-grade book is a quick read.  Although it's short, it manages to pack quite a bit of story and character development into its pages.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

My favourite thing about this little book was that it taught me about places and things I didn't know much about.  The story is set in coastal Maine, near the wild blueberry barrens.  I learned a little about wild blueberry harvesting, migrant farm labour, and all the things you can do with wild blueberries.  The parts about mason bees were interesting, too; I'd never heard of these little blue bees, so having them figure prominently in the landscape of the story was kind of cool.

I thought Lily, Salma, and Hannah (all twelve years old) were pretty realistic.  In some middle-grade novels, characters in this age group are portrayed as either kind of stupid or unbelievably precocious.  I was relieved to find that that wasn't the case here.  Sure, they might not be as knowledgeable or as emotionally mature as adults, but they're learning as they go.  The author shows respect for this age group when she writes them as complex human beings.

It's all a matter of taste...

The only thing I didn't really like about this book was the whole issue of Lily's mother.  I didn't think there needed to be the secrecy surrounding the issue of what happened to her; it reminded me of other books that I've read that used the same sort of plot device, and I always felt kind of cheated when I found out the actual truth.  And, in this case, there wasn't really any reason for it.

Let's get technical...

The writing is pretty solid here.  Aside from a few typos in the last three or so chapters, there's not much to complain about.  The book is easy to read and flows nicely.

The verdict...

This turned out to be another one of my pleasant library surprises.  I'd never heard of it, and I wasn't sure it was my kind of book, but I enjoyed it anyway.  It might seem a little young for older readers, but it's a great story for middle graders; I wish it had been around when I was twelve!

Quotable moment:

"I think art can take ordinary things and show them to you like it's the first time you've ever seen them," she continued. "And you realize that even ordinary things aren't really ordinary at all."

Maybe that's true, I thought. Maybe when we see things all the time, we stop really looking at them. And it takes an artist, someone who can look past the ordinariness, to remind us how special they really are.

Premise: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 ladybugs


Saturday, June 20, 2015

Review - Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
Date: 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 336
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I thought it was about time I read another fairytale retelling.  I recently acquired this one, and it appealed to me more than some of the other retellings in my TBR pile... so I thought I'd give it a try.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

My favourite thing about this book is the world-building.  From what I can tell, this fantasy world is somewhat based on a Britain that was long ago occupied by something akin to a Greco-Roman empire.  So, alongside the quaint rural customs of the native peoples, there are also myths and legends drawn directly from Ancient Greece.  That's an interesting enough starting point, but then the author threw in some Hermeticism and magic... which helped flesh out the world even more.  Ignifex's house is... okay, can I have a house like that?  Never mind that I would probably get lost on a daily basis.  I just love the idea of some of those rooms; they're just so wonderful to imagine (and would probably be awesome to look at, if this book is ever made into a movie).

It's all a matter of taste...

I have two complaints with this book.  The first one is the characters... well, the main character, actually.  Nyx is pretty clueless, figuring out the actual relationship between Ignifex and Shade way after she should have.  As a result, she comes across as oblivious and stupid, and I felt it was a little insulting to the reader.  When something is that obvious, and yet the author keeps trying to prolong the mystery, it gets annoying.  Nyx is kind of annoying, anyway.  She's not the nicest person (which is relevant to the story), but she's also sort of uneven, waffling between weird feelings of guilt for resenting her family (they basically raised her to be killed by a monster, so her anger is understandable) and feelings of duty toward her demon husband (as if she's been brainwashed by her culture to the point of being fatally submissive).  Nyx goes between sparring verbally with Ignifex to these strange, internal monologues about her feelings that seem a bit jarring.  I was never entirely sure what sort of a person she was supposed to be.

My second complaint is the ending.  After all of the build-up and everything that had been put in place, I thought it was quite weak.  Actually, I'm not even sure what happened or why it happened.  I don't like finishing a book and then feeling like I need someone to explain the ending to me.

Let's get technical...

For the most part, the writing is pretty strong.  I did, however, wonder about all the cat imagery.  I thought that it must be significant somehow, since there were so many cat-related metaphors and similes.  Perhaps the author just really loves cats.

The verdict...

Aside from a few issues with characterization (and the ending), this is actually a fairly strong fairytale retelling.  The story is engaging, the world-building is intelligent, and I had a hard time stopping myself from reading just one more chapter.

Quotable moment:

In my family, nobody's love had given anything but cruelty and sorrow, and nobody's love had ever stopped giving.

Premise: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 4/5
Originality: 5/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.88 out of 5 ladybugs


New to the TBR Pile (30)



Bought from Amazon.ca:
Every Ugly Word
by Aimee L. Salter

When seventeen-year-old Ashley Watson walks through the halls of her high school bullies taunt and shove her. She can’t go a day without fighting with her mother. And no matter how hard she tries, she can’t make her best friend, Matt, fall in love with her. But Ashley also has something no one else does: a literal glimpse into the future. When Ashley looks into the mirror, she can see her twenty-three-year-old self.

Her older self has been through it all already—she endured the bullying, survived the heartbreak, and heard every ugly word her classmates threw at her. But her older self is also keeping a dark secret: Something terrible is about to happen to Ashley. Something that will change her life forever. Something even her older self is powerless to stop.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)
by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse-Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends -- one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena -- Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

Freebie from Amazon.ca:
The Girl In Between (The Girl in Between series #1)
by Laekan Zea Kemp

Bryn Reyes is a real life sleeping beauty. Afflicted with Klein-Levin Syndrome, she suffers episodes of prolonged sleep that steal weeks, and sometimes even months, from her life. But unlike most KLS patients, she doesn’t spend each episode in a catatonic state or wake up with no recollection of the time she’s missed. Instead, Bryn spends half her life in an alternate reality made up of her memories. For Bryn, the past is a place, until one day a boy she’s never met before washes up on the illusory beach of her dreams with no memory of who he is.

But the appearance of this strange boy isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Bryn’s symptoms are worsening, her body weakening as she’s plagued by hallucinations even while awake. Her only hope of finding a cure is to undergo experimental treatment created by a German specialist. But when Dr. Banz reveals that he knows more about her strange symptoms than he originally let on, Bryn learns that the boy in her head might actually be the key to understanding what’s happening to her, and worse, that if she doesn’t find out his identity before it’s too late, they both may not survive.

Freebie from SYNC AudioFile:
Rose Under Fire (Code Name Verity #2)
by Elizabeth Wein

Rose Justice is a young pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. On her way back from a semi-secret flight in the waning days of the war, Rose is captured by the Germans and ends up in Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi women's concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women, including a once glamorous and celebrated French detective novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed; a resilient young girl who was a human guinea pig for Nazi doctors trying to learn how to treat German war wounds; and a Nachthexen, or Night Witch, a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force.

These damaged women must bond together to help each other survive. In this companion volume to the critically acclaimed novel Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein continues to explore themes of friendship and loyalty, right and wrong, and unwavering bravery in the face of indescribable evil.


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

New to the TBR Pile (29)



Bought from Amazon.ca:
The Queen of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling #1)
by Erika Johansen

An untested young princess must claim her throne, learn to become a queen, and combat a malevolent sorceress in an epic battle between light and darkness in this spectacular debut—the first novel in a trilogy.

Young Kelsea Raleigh was raised in hiding after the death of her mother, Queen Elyssa, far from the intrigues of the royal Keep and in the care of two devoted servants who pledged their lives to protect her. Growing up in a cottage deep in the woods, Kelsea knows little of her kingdom's haunted past... or that its fate will soon rest in her hands.

Long ago, Kelsea's forefathers sailed away from a decaying world to establish a new land free of modern technology. Three hundred years later, this feudal society has divided into three fearful nations who pay duties to a fourth: the powerful Mortmesne, ruled by the cunning Red Queen. Now, on Kelsea's nineteenth birthday, the tattered remnants of the Queen's Guard—loyal soldiers who protect the throne—have appeared to escort the princess on a perilous journey to the capital to ascend to her rightful place as the new Queen of the Tearling.

Though born of royal blood and in possession of the Tear sapphire, a jewel of immense power and magic, Kelsea has never felt more uncertain of her ability to rule. But the shocking evil she discovers in the heart of her realm will precipitate an act of immense daring, throwing the entire kingdom into turmoil—and unleashing the Red Queen's vengeance. A cabal of enemies with an array of deadly weapons, from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic, plots to destroy her. But Kelsea is growing in strength and stealth, her steely resolve earning her loyal allies, including the Queen's Guard, led by the enigmatic Lazarus, and the intriguing outlaw known simply as "the Fetch."

Kelsea's quest to save her kingdom and meet her destiny has only just begun. Riddled with mysteries, betrayals, and treacherous battles, Kelsea's journey is a trial by fire that will either forge a legend... or destroy her.


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Review - Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
Date: 1974
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Reading level: MG
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 144
Format: e-book
Source: library

Doomed to - or blessed with - eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing than it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune...

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book has been around longer than I have... and yet, I've only just gotten around to reading it now!  I'm surprised I didn't try it years ago, back when I was on a children's classics kick.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

Tuck Everlasting reads like a good, old-fashioned, middle-grade novel from the days when authors didn't talk down to kids.  Even as an adult, I found there were a few words that I had to look up, and I actually like that.  Winnie may only be ten years old (not a teenager, like in the movie), but she comes across as intelligent and thoughtful... unlike other middle-grade protagonists I've read in recent years.

The plot is very simple, and the book is not that long at all.  (The edition I read was a 40th-anniversary edition, which included a foreword, an author interview, and a bunch of excerpts from some of the author's other books... which means that the actual story itself is a quick read.)  A lot of the already-small page count is taken up with absolutely lovely description that really gives a sense of time and place.

It's all a matter of taste...

My complaints with this book are few.  I was a little uncomfortable with Jesse, one of the Tuck family's immortal sons, who wanted Winnie to drink from the spring when she turned 17 so that they could run away together.  Perhaps it's just because I've read too many YA novels with hot, ancient immortals lusting after young women, but this sort of rubbed me the wrong way... even though I'm positive the author didn't have any questionable intent when she wrote Jesse the way she did.  He comes across as sweet and innocent, and there isn't actually anything sexually untoward.  So this issue is probably just my own bugaboo, a result of too many age-inappropriate relationships in the books I've read.

Let's get technical...

Aside from the author's love of -ly adjectives and a few comma splices, I thought this book was quite well written.  Some of the passages could be read over and over, just to savour the words.

The verdict...

This is an intelligent middle-grade fantasy that is suitable for all ages of readers.  Its tough questions about life and death and immortality will have you thinking long after you've finished the book.

Quotable moment:

In the end, however, it was the cows who were responsible for the wood's isolation, and the cows, through some wisdom they were not wise enough to know they possessed, were very wise indeed. If they had made their road through the wood instead of around it, then the people would have followed the road. The people would have noticed the giant ash tree at the center of the wood, and then, in time, they'd have noticed the little spring bubbling up among its roots in spite of the pebbles piled there to conceal it. And that would have been a disaster so immense that this weary old earth, owned or not to its fiery core, would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin.

Premise: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 4/5
Originality: 5/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.25 out of 5 ladybugs


Saturday, June 6, 2015

New to the TBR Pile (28)



Borrowed from the library:
Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt

Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.

Freebie from Amazon.ca:
Nearly Almost Somebody
by Caroline Batten

She’s nearly perfect – He’s almost the one

Hubble Bubble, the Vet’s in Trouble
When Patrick’s caught in flagrante with a local beauty queen,
his father delivers an ultimatum: one more newspaper scandal and Patrick will be out on his ear. Desperate not to lose his job at the family veterinary practice, Patrick needs to avoid trouble
– and girls like Libby.

The Ballerina’s Broken
She’s a headline waiting to happen and mourning her
short-lived career as a dancer, Libby casts a wiccan spell to summon a new love: Good-looking, honest, non-brown eyes, English, good with animals… in a nutshell, she summons Patrick.

And the Old Witch is Dead
But fighting Libby’s love spell will be the least of Patrick’s problems when a woman dies from a ketamine overdose
– Ketamine stolen from his surgery.

Witchcraft, Scandal, Murder...
Will anyone find their perfect Somebody?

Freebie from SYNC AudioFile:
A Corner of White (The Colours of Madeleine #1)
by Jaclyn Moriarty

The first in a rousing, funny, genre-busting trilogy from best seller Jaclyn Moriarty!

This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life, under mysterious circumstances, and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world).

Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. The talk in the town of Bonfire (in the Kingdom of Cello) is that Elliot's dad may have killed his brother and run away with the Physics teacher. But Elliot refuses to believe it. And he is determined to find both his dad and the truth.

As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds - through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap: dangerous weather phenomena called "color storms;" a strange fascination with Isaac Newton; the myth of the "Butterfly Child," whose appearance could end the droughts of Cello; and some unexpected kisses...


What's new to your TBR pile this week?  Let me know in the comments!

Friday, June 5, 2015

Review - How I Live Now

How I Live Now
by Meg Rosoff
Date: 2004
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 211
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca

“Every war has turning points and every person too.”

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary.

But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Well, that was a load of literary crap.  I really don't like books that try too hard... and this one tried so hard I think it might have burst a blood vessel.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

The basic premise of the story is decent, but it's not really what the synopsis suggests.  At about the 36% mark, Daisy and Piper get separated from the boys, and from then until the 85% mark, it's basically a survival story.  Not that there's anything wrong with that!  But the synopsis makes the book sound like it's this deep story about emotional connectivity... not two girls traipsing around the fields of England while surviving on nuts and berries.

It's all a matter of taste...

I knew, going into this book, that there was a "controversial" relationship between Daisy and her cousin Edmond.  That really didn't bother me.  What did bother me was Daisy herself.  She is inconsistent as a character, as well as being very unlikeable.  I could not relate to her, and for a large portion of the book, I wondered if she was actually a sociopath.  This was probably due to the dry, matter-of-fact way that she related the events in the book, but also because of her reactions to some of the events in the story and interactions with other characters.  Her "eating disorder" appears to be nothing more than an attempt to punish her widower father for daring to remarry.  She gets over her supposed anorexia by simply deciding that it's stupid to starve herself on purpose in the middle of a war.  That minimizes what those with true anorexia are going through; many of them know that their actions are harming their health, and yet they can't just "decide" to get over it.  So she's obviously starving herself as some sort of manipulation (which is something that should have been dealt with... but wasn't).  The other thing that made me wonder if Daisy wasn't quite right is her reaction to the beginning of the war and the absence of her aunt (who is trapped in Norway at the time).  The world is going to hell and you might have lost the only stable adult influence in your life, and your first reaction is, "Woo-hoo!  No adults!"  Daisy claims that they all felt that way, even nine-year-old Piper, which I find hard to believe.  I'm still not sure if the author was trying to make some sort of statement about Daisy, or if she really thinks that most teenagers would enjoy being separated from their parents during a war.

And there's the crux of the matter: I'm not sure what the author was trying to say, though I'm pretty sure she was trying to say something, because this book comes off like one of those boring literary works that we were all forced to read in high school English class.  The stream-of-consciousness style with paragraph-long sentences was annoying at first, and I only got used to it near the end... when Daisy suddenly started narrating in a more conventional way, complete with quotation marks and actual dialogue (which had been absent up until that point).  This made the book difficult to read.

Let's get technical...

The shift from present tense to past tense at the beginning of Chapter 13 was weird, but it was probably supposed to have some special meaning.  Aside from the writing style that I've already mentioned, there's not much else to say about the technical aspects of the writing.  Except maybe that naming your American characters things like Davina and Leonora suggests that you've been living in England for too long...

The verdict...

If this had been the book that the synopsis suggested, I might have enjoyed it more.  But there was so much about Daisy and Piper's survival, and I've seen that done better.  For a similar type of story, without the weird stylistic choices and unlikeable narrator, I'd suggest John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began.

Quotable moment:

Now let me tell you what he looks like before I forget because it's not exactly what you'd expect from your average fourteen-year-old what with the CIGARETTE and hair that looked like he cut it himself with a hatchet in the dead of night, but aside from that he's exactly like some kind of mutt, you know the ones you see at the dog shelter who are kind of hopeful and sweet and put their nose straight into your hand when they meet you with a certain kind of dignity and you know from that second that you're going to take him home? Well that's him.

Only he took me home.

Premise: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing: 1/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.13 out of 5 ladybugs


Thursday, June 4, 2015

Review - Grounded

Grounded
(The Grounded Trilogy #1)
by G. P. Ching
Date: 2012
Publisher: Carpe Luna Publishing
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 407
Format: e-book
Source: Kobo

In the year 2050, a secret government study nicknamed Operation Source Code injects eight volunteers with a retrovirus. The goal? To abate the energy crisis by reprogramming human DNA to power personal electronic devices. The experiment works but with disastrous consequences.

Seventeen years later, Lydia Troyer is far from concerned with the energy crisis. Growing up in the isolated community of Hemlock Hollow, life hasn't changed much since 1698 when her Amish ancestors came to America. She milks her cow by hand, bakes fresh bread every morning, and hopes to be courted by Jeremiah, the boy who's been her best friend since she could walk.

But when Lydia's father has a stroke and is taken to the outside world for medical treatment, Lydia and Jeremiah leave home to visit him. An ordinary light switch thrusts Lydia into a new world where energy is a coveted commodity and her own personal history makes her the most sought-after weapon on the planet.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book started off okay, with an interesting premise and halfway decent writing, but the quality of everything rolled steadily downhill and by the end my brain was balking and I was having to read each sentence multiple times because my synapses were shutting down as some sort of protective mechanism against the crap I was forcing myself to read.  I'm so glad I got this book for free; if I'd paid money for it, I would be even more annoyed than I already am.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

I thought the premise of this book sounded pretty interesting, with the genetic modification of people to produce electricity, and I hoped the inclusion of the Amish element would add a unique dimension to the story.  The pace at the beginning was good, so I got sucked in.  And... that's about all I can say that's positive.

It's all a matter of taste...

Where do I begin to describe what's wrong with Grounded?  There's just too much...

Lydia's world makes little sense.  Basically, the world has been taken over by the Green Republic.  Imagine if Monsanto, Enbridge, and Greenpeace joined forces to form a fascist government (without any apparent leader), and that's pretty much what you've got with the Green Republic.  This makes no sense, of course.  That was just the beginning of the ridiculousness.  We've got people running around with octagonal red blood cells (which somehow don't shred their blood vessels), electricity mixing with water without consequences (except near the end), a group of people living in a nuclear exclusion zone with zero ill effects, engineered meat that somehow smells delicious but has no flavour, a bias against organic gardening because it taints the groundwater with chemicals (wait... what?), scientists who operate on assumption rather than facts...  If you like the science in the novels you read to at least be plausible, it's probably best you stay away from this book.

The problem with making half your characters Amish is that, if it's not done exactly right, it can come off as really wrong.  Lydia and her friend Jeremiah both start out in the Amish world, and it's all fine at first... but when they get to the English world, they (especially Lydia) lose most aspects of their Amish-ness.  Lydia seems to know an awful lot about the English world, even before she's told certain things (which leads to awkward passages where she names certain unfamiliar objects before being told what they're called).  She also doesn't speak like an Amish person, and uses phrases that I highly doubt a real Amish person would use (including ones that seem to border on blasphemy)... and then, at other times, she'll fall into this pious, submissive, self-deprecating mindset that I guess is supposed to show her Amish background.  I also just didn't like Lydia as a character.  She's a special little snowflake who turns out to be more powerful than everyone else... and so, naturally, she has to be kept out of the loop and constantly protected by the men in her life.

Which brings me to the sexism.  It was subtle and possibly unconscious, but it really made me uncomfortable.  Apparently the main trait of the Amish is rampant sexism (leading to a ridiculous scene where Jeremiah refuses Lydia's help during an escape attempt and leaps from a window shouting, "Let a man be a man!").  Throughout the book, Lydia is treated as incapable and fragile, though that doesn't stop the males from using physical force against her when they want to get her attention; whether it's punching her in the face (her trainer), grabbing her shoulders and shaking her (her father), or kicking her (her love interest), it's made to seem like Lydia is such an airhead that she can't focus without a man slapping her around.

So... these men.  None of them are all that interesting, either.  There's Jeremiah, Lydia's childhood friend, who everyone thought she'd eventually marry.  But that doesn't happen because she's too busy being coy, stringing him along, and flirting with the new guy she just met... right in front of him!  There's Korwin, the stupendously bland love interest who's continually latching himself on to the heroine's hand.  When Lydia and Korwin kiss, they blow out circuits.  They're warned that if they ever have sex, the result could be equivalent to a nuclear blast.  (But at the end of the book, Lydia feels she knows better and thinks they can probably contain their power and not have anything go boom.  Judging by the way the book ends, I suspect she's wrong.  So I kind of wish they'd gotten down to business and put a neat end to the trilogy right then and there: "So we consummated our marriage and blew up the village.  Whoops!  My bad.")

The other thing that really drove me to distraction was the pacing.  The first part starts out strong and moves along well... but at a certain point, things grind to a halt.  It might've been when Lydia kept wandering around the Stuart mansion for no good reason.  It might've been when her trainer offered up backstory in dribs and drabs, making me more frustrated than Lydia herself when we found out we'd have to wait until the next training session to find out more.  Things picked up again near the end, but then a lot was glossed over with a whole bunch of telling.

Let's get technical...

This book definitely could have used some more editing.  The writing wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great, either.  Especially by the end, it was getting a little rough.  And I can't look past it when an author misspells their own character's name; how can you not remember how your own character's name is spelled?  Plus, it's confusing when you give characters names starting with the same letter: Konrad and Korwin, Jameson and Jeremiah and Jonas...  A little more variety would have been nice.

The verdict...

Grounded is offensive to women, to men, and to the Amish.  A spark of a good idea was ruined by a poor execution.  I have no desire to read the sequels.  I'm just relieved that I'm done with this one... and that it was free.

Quotable moment:

I cup his face and my blue glow bathes him in light. As I lower my lips to his, the draw I've felt to Korwin from the very beginning takes hold. My energy flows into him freely, in one direction at first, but then just as Maxwell explained, the flip comes and the power between us morphs into something else, dividing and multiplying. He is empty, so it takes some time before the power returns to me. But when it does, it almost knocks me off the bed. Our cells feed each other, revolving faster and faster. Atoms in a perpetual dance of motion heat the air around us. Energy pours out and in until my muscles twitch and the paint on the wall behind Korwin begins to peel and singe.

Premise: 2/5
Plot: 1/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing: 2/5
Editing: 2/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall Rating: 1.75 out of 5 ladybugs


Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows.  This has apparently been done as a topic before, though I can't remember if I participated or not.  I'll pick some of my more recent reads, just in case:

Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows:

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare
by M. G. Buehrlen

This could be a tough sort of story to put on film, but if done right it could be really interesting.  I think the trick would be getting the audience to recognize all of Alex's past lives as her, so that we're invested in all these "different" characters.  Plus, I'd love to see a visual representation how Alex accesses her other lives.

All Our Yesterdays
by Cristin Terrill

While this one might be confusing (what with the time travel and all), I think it could be done.  It has a strong story that would probably translate well into a movie.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy
by Laini Taylor

Some lucky movie maker would have an awesome time with this one!  All those creatures, the wonderful characters, the amazing worlds...  This would likely be a feast for the eyes.  And, of course, there would be three installments of amazingness...

Liesl & Po
by Lauren Oliver

How cute would this movie be?  Though it would probably end up being marketed to children, it has the potential to be a visual masterpiece.  The settings, costumes, and music have the potential to be amazing.

Listen, Slowly
by Thanhha Lai

This cute coming-of-age story would make a nice movie.  It has an exotic locale, a fish-out-of-water as a main character, and plenty of intriguing secondary characters that would translate well onto the screen.

The Lunar Chronicles series
by Marissa Meyer

While I'm not a huge fan of the books (I've only read the first two... and that's enough for me!), I think they might make great movies.  One of my main problems with the books is the lackluster world-building and my inability to picture the settings as a result.  That issue would, of course, be bypassed by making the stories into a series of movies.

Penryn & the End of Days series
by Susan Ee

While I see most books and book series as translating better into feature-length films, I can see this series as a TV show aimed at teenagers.  It's got romance, gore, and plenty of action... so why wouldn't it work on screen?

Stolen
by Lucy Christopher

While this book is largely about the characters, it also has a setting (the Australian Outback) that would look gorgeous on film.

Under a Painted Sky
by Stacey Lee

One of the first things I thought on finishing this book was that it would make an incredible movie.  The pioneer trail setting, the diverse characters, the action, and the time period would all combine to make this a unique offering for teen viewers (or anyone else who enjoys historical pieces).

The Wide-Awake Princess
by E. D. Baker

I can see a movie like this ending up in the same vein as Enchanted or Ella Enchanted: not taking itself too seriously, but serious fun at the same time.  I'm actually somewhat surprised this book hasn't been translated onto the screen yet.  It would make a wonderful romantic comedy for teenagers.


What books or series would you like to see as movies or TV shows?