April 26, 2009: Midnight Twins/Look Both Ways

I saw some reviews for Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard on some other blogs and it seemed very interesting! So when I went to order it and saw that the second book in the series, Look Both Ways, was just released I bought them both! So on this gorgeous weekend (80's both days) I decided to sit outside and read! I finished both of these books on Sunday - and I am hoping this is a sign of what my summer will be like!
-------I will start with Midnight Twins. I thought the idea behind this book is great! Mallory and Meredith Brynn are mirror image twins that are born only a few minutes apart, but those few minutes are on the opposite sides of New Year's Eve. Twins born in different years! Mally and Merry have always had a special bond - finishing sentences, communicating in their heads and a special language - but one New Year's Eve, a horrible fire changes everything. Suddenly, Mally and Merry are having dreams. One dreams of past events and one dreams of future events. The future events seen are troubling and Merry and Mally have to work together to stop a predator from their school from hurting other girls. I loved the first book in this series - it was a quick read and it was interesting too. I think this will be a great YA series! The ending of this book takes place a few months later, but ends up being a great set-up for the next book.Look Both Ways opens up shortly after the ending of Midnight Twins. I will say that I thought this story didn't flow as nicely as the first in the series, but I am still interested in the third book (is there a third book?) Mally and Merry start having their dreams again, but this time the dream is of a lion. It turns out that one of Mally's friends, Eden, is a shape-shifter (very Twilight-like). I did not like this story and found myself bored reading about it. I enjoyed every other aspect of this book except the lion story. Also, the twins' mother is pregnant again - which I kind of guessed after the ending of Midnight Twins.

I'm hoping the third book in the series can be as good as the first book because I thought the second book kind of disappointed. Great summer reading though!

April 23, 2009: Love and Other Natural Disasters

Last week I finally read Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas. I'm finally making a dent in my reading pile!

On Thanksgiving, Eve (8 months pregnant) hears her husband talking to another woman on the phone. It may seem like no big deal, but the way he was talking to her made Eve feel that something was going on. She confronts him and asks him to leave for the night. After checking his e-mails, Eve realizes he was having an emotional affair for almost a year. As you can imagine, she is feeling betrayed and hurt - but most people don't understand why.

I'm glad that emotional affairs were shown to have consequences. They are very hurtful and just as bad as a physical affair. I thought that the ending was too easy and I wish that Jonathan would have been punished more. He just didn't seem to understand what he did wrong. He thought Eve was hormonal and blowing things out of proportion. So, while it was an okay book - the ending annoyed me.

Book Round-Up

So, I've been away for awhile. Not literally away, but away from my blog. I just can't wait for the sun to shine, we had a snow warning last week and the weather makes me depressed! Also, looking at my reading pile freaks me out. How did I get to that point? I love reading, and I am going to go through my books and put away the ones that don't interest me. Or I could go to Plan B which I prefer. See, in Plan B I win $10 million and quit my job leaving my days free to read all day long - in my new library of course - drinking wine and reading books all day long. Okay - after this I am going to redeem my free lottery ticket and hope for the best:) So anyways....

this week I only got two books (last week I got ZERO books):
Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson [BookMooch]
Still Alice by Lisa Genova [Reading Round Robin]

**Update: I cleaned my reading pile this weekend and pulled the books that I knew I would never read. Honestly, I feel so relieved now. My pile has shrunk considerably and I feel so relaxed!

Been M.I.A

So, I'm still here! It's been a weird week, but I promise I will get reading and post some updates soon :)

April 16, 2009: All We Know of Heaven

I ordered All We Know of Heaven by Jacquelyn Mitchard because I had heard there were some parallels between this story (fiction) and the story of Whitney Cerak and Laura Van Ryn (Mistaken Identity - great book). For those who know me, they know I am obsessed with this real life story - it's so sad but happy. I read Mistaken Identity when it came out last year and I cried my way through this book. It was extremely well-written and gave such an inside look at how these families dealt with their grief and joy - it's very inspirational....but back to this book I just read :) Bridget and Maureen have been best friends for years and look very similar. One wintery night, they are in a deadly car crash where there is only one survivor. Unfortunately, it is a case of mistaken identity (by the way, it would have been awesome if this wasn't revealed on the cover).

I'm kind of mixed on this book. I was really into the book in the beginning. The girls stories were so intertwined that even I got them confused! The car accident, the rehabilitation, the grief, the mistaken identity - that was all really well dealt with. I like how Mitchard wrote Maureen's thoughts when she was trapped in her own body. She couldn't form her words, or her thoughts and it was written so well that it was easy to understand.

After Maureen leaves the hospital, the book went downhill. The love story seemed so contrived and the behavior of Bridget's family was horrendous. I picked up this book because I love the story of the Ceraks and Van Ryns. In the face of this tragedy, they were all very gracious and not hostile towards each other. In this book, it is kind of disgusting how people begin to treat Maureen - even Bridget's parents begin to threaten her and mock her. It was really disgusting. I know it is only fiction but it made me mad. Also, the relationship with Bridget's boyfriend and Maureen gave me the heebie jeebies. I don't care how Mitchard explained it off (oh maybe he loved her the whole time) and that she tried to make it seem like true love forever - to me, it was just icky. They both seemed like they were trying to replace Bridget in different ways (if that makes sense) and it made the whole situation very icky and unstable.

So there are my jumbled thoughts on this book! In summary, the first half was great and the second half annoyed me. I would recommend the real life story, Mistaken Identity.
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April 10, 2009: Bliss

I hope everyone had a great Easter (read about mine here). I didn't get a chance to read at all this weekend, but I did finish Bliss by Lauren Myracle on Friday....it took me all week to read, but I finished it!

This book follows Bliss during the year 1969 as she is dumped by her hippie parents and goes to live at her grandmother's. She starts a new school in the fall called Crestview. Her peer mentor introduces her to some girls that are normal but Bliss is drawn to this girl Sandy, even though people warn her about Sandy. As the book goes on, Bliss is realizing that there is something wrong with Sandy, and it has to do with the voices that Bliss is hearing. Bliss realizes that Sandy is kind of crazy, but only after it is too late.

This book was intriguing. Bliss really wanted to be friends with Sandy and didn't really care what other people thought about it. I didn't care for the layout. Each chapter begins with a huge quote on two black pages, I thought it was kind of unnecessary and annoying. The diary entries were more relevant, but it was obvious to me who was writing them. That being said, I didn't love the book. Something about it was just a tad off, and the ending was very upsetting to me. I don't know, did anyone else read it?

Book Round-Up

Happy Easter everyone! I had a great week this week, not just in books but also in food! I went to a market near my home and got my butter lamb, some polish sausage, pierogies and of course some paczki. I also made a yummy cake, which I will post pictures of on my other blog (hopefully...)

Onto the good stuff :)

All We Know of Heaven: A Novel by Jacquelyn Mitchard
The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Look Both Ways by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Marked (House of Night, Book 1) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

April 4, 2009: Willow

Amazon.com product description:

Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, sixteen year- old Willow’s parents died in a horrible car accident. Willow was driving. Now her older brother barely speaks to her, her new classmates know her as the killer orphan girl, and Willow is blocking the pain by secretly cutting herself. But when one boy —one sensitive, soulful boy—discovers Willow’s secret, it sparks an intense relationship that turns the “safe” world Willow has created for herself upside down. Told in an extraordinary fresh voice, Willow is an unforgettable novel about one girl’s struggle to cope with tragedy, and one boy’s refusal to give up on her.

How can I write my thoughts on Willow by Julia Hoban, when all I am thinking in my head is "oh my gosh...wow....oh my goshohmygoshohmygosh" lather, rinse, repeat. I first heard of this book because of this HUGE contest, which is a fabulous idea by the way. Since everyone seemed so interested in this book, I pre-ordered it and it arrived on Saturday.

WARNING -- This will probably be very spoiler-filled

Okay first of all - kudos to Julia Hoban. Willow is such a powerful book, not only that but it is extremely relatable - as odd as that sounds. Here is what I mean by that...Hoban wrote Willow's character in such a way, that I thought I was Willow. Whenever she was about to cut, I understood why. Whenever she was feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of what she has lost, I understood that she needed to cut herself. It was her way of dealing with the pain because the emotions hurt much more than the cutting. It is amazing that Hoban was able to write such a troubled character, yet we are all able to feel for her and understand her. Believe me, I never in a million years thought I would say that I understand why someone is cutting themselves. After reading this book, I am able to understand this more - I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that it happens.

Is Guy real? Because I want to marry him! At first I didn't understand why he didn't tell Willow's brother about the cutting, but I was grateful in the end that he didn't. It was Guy who made Willow explore those emotions, better yet - he gave her time to do that. He didn't force her to stop cutting, he simply offered his phone number so that she could call him before she cut. The moment when they were in the library and she needed to cut herself, and he told her to do it in front of him - I pretty much held my breath the entire time. That scene was so intimate and as Willow said - she was so exposed in that moment. That being said - obviously the "romantic" scene was pretty intimate - but it was also so sweet and romantic too.

The crying scenes with David were tough - but when he opened up to Willow about his fear that she could have died too, I lost it! That's right, I was full out sobbing at this point! Thankfully, I was alone and no one saw me - it wasn't a pretty cry.

This book......it's so hard to explain to people how a book about cutting could be so good and touching because most people recoil at the thought of cutting. Yeah, the book is graphic but it makes you feel SOMETHING, in fact it makes you feel EVERYTHING. I probably felt every emotion under the sun in the time period that I read this book; and sure, it was a rocky journey. But you know what, it was worth it!

I am pretty sure that I will need to read this book again, but for now I am going to make my whole family read it!

April 3, 2009: Something, Maybe

I had a good reading week, I think. Friday, when it was hazardously raining, I started (and finished) reading Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott. This book was the perfect sunny counterpart to the hideous rain outside my window. Sometimes, you like to forget what's going on outside and sometimes you like to enhance it (with a thriller). Okay - that was a tangent...anywho

So this is the story of Hannah. She lives with her mother, an erotic web chat hostess and hasn't spoken to her father in over 5 years. He appears to be a Hugh Hefner type of old, pervy man with a reality show and only wants contact with Hannah to make him look like a good person. Hannah works at a fast food call center (cool idea) and has a crush on Josh but it's Finn who wins her heart in the end.

Some thoughts --> * Her father creeped me out! Ick, ick ick. * Her mother did seem really sweet and it seems that she really misses her late husband - which Hannah didn't fully realize. * Finn melted my heart way more than Josh did, and I was so happy when they ended up together in the end.

If you just read Living Dead Girl and were expecting a similar story, this is not it. I was actually pleased that it was so different. It was light and fun and I thought it was really romantic. I would definitely recommend this book if you love a nice romantic story!

Book Round-Up

I only got one book this week......

Willow by Julia Hoban :)

I was so bummed because I hadn't gotten any books all week, the today's mail comes and I get this book! I've read the great reviews and I am going to turn off my tv today and start reading :)

April 1, 2009: Speak

Well, I finally read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I can't believe that I waited so long to read this book! After previously reading Wintergirls and now Speak, I will definitely be interested in reading some more of her books.

Speak follows Melinda through her freshman year of high school. She has become withdrawn and her friends have abandoned her and started mocking her. Her parents seems more annoyed than concerned about Melinda's sudden behavior. As her story unfolds, Melinda seems to trust the reader and tells us her secret. She was raped by a student and now she has to see his face at school. This is even more difficult because he begins to silently taunt her by playing with her hair, and sitting next to her - which obviously makes her uncomfortable. As the story progresses, Melinda starts to realize that she has to tell someone because IT needs to be punished. A girl in her art class, Ivy pushes Melinda in the right direction after some bathroom graffiti shows Melinda that she isn't alone.

This book was so amazing. I have read that some English classes are teaching this book -- um I wish I could have read this book in high school, it would have been so much better than some of the other books I was forced to read. I think this book shows that if someone has suddenly withdrawn emotionally, you shouldn't ignore this (like her parents) you need to find out what is going on.

I bought the 10th Anniversary Edition because I'm just fancy like that, and there is some Q&A and author's notes in the back. It was really interesting to read some of Laurie's thoughts about the sequel and her reaction to all the fans who write to her. She seems like an amazing person and I can't wait to read some more of her books!

On a side note -- has anyone seen this movie? I bought it on Amazon and am going to have a nice, relaxing night watching the movie! I am interested to see how the silence of Melinda is portrayed on the big screen.

Have a nice weekend everyone :)