Feeling Guilty

I'm feeling a little guilty for putting my blog on hold so I could spend all my free time plowing through Scott Westerfield's Ugly series.... not too guilty, but guilty.

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

Its a dystopian series that takes conflicted characters and plastic surgery to the extreme.  At times I wanted to slap a few of the characters and steal their hover boards, I think I might have even spoken out loud to Tally while I was reading.  The series was a quick read (4 books in 10 days) and it kept me wanting more.

Starts with a death and ends with a funeral. (The Casual Vacancy book review)

Fortysomething  Pagford parish councilor, Barry Fairbrother passes away suddenly from an aneurysm.   Almost immediately, Pagford citizen's  begin to consider what the dead man’s empty seat means.  Some see it as opportunity for Pagford to finally rid itself of the Fields (a downscale neighbourhood), and a chance to shut down the local methadone clinic, used by numerous Fields residents.

The Casual Vacancy is riddled with racism, personal vendettas, corruption, whistle blowing and personal grudges that soon pushes the election into the backdrop and brings forth the hatred the villages of Pagford house for one another.  Teenagers are at war with their parents, neighbors are at war with each other, the haves are at war with the have nots.

The first hundred pages were hard for me, there are a lot of seemingly unrelated characters, and it felt like a lot of jumping around.  But by page two hundred, I was hooked! 

The Casual Vacancy is everything Harry Potter is not - drugs, swearing, self-harming, having casual sex, and singing along to Rihanna.  I still think its magical in its own way.

Hitting the books

Things are moving along with my summer reading, and I'm only getting slightly sidetracked. From my list, here are the 5 I have finished in order of preference...

Fault in Our Stars by John Green - A story about two teens one terminally ill, Hazel Grace, and another, Augustus Waters who is in remission. They immediately hit it off and change each others lives drastically.

favorite quote from the book: "I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, than all at once."

I liked this book so much, I immediately downloaded two other John Green books to read!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater - When Grace was a little girl, she was attacked by wolves in her backyard, not just any wolves… werewolves. What she remembers most from her attack, though, is the wolf with the yellow eyes - Sam, who lives two lives.

I have to admit, I've been on a little bit of a wolf kick lately, and I didn't just read Siver, I also read Linger and Forever (the other 2 books in the trilogy)

favorite quote from the book: “Books are more real when you read them outside.”

The Giver by Lois Lowry - Jonas, is a 12 year old boy who lives in a world without war, pain, hunger, death, misery or, even, bad weather, where everyone is happy and has their place in society, until he is chosen to become the Receiver of Memory. agonies of war and disease and loss, the heights of human achievement, freedom, music, colour, and the overwhelming power of love. Jonas must keep the memories and not share them with anyone.

favorite quote from the book "Memories are forever."

Thought this book as OK - didn't love it, didn't hate it.

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks - Logan Thilbault served in Iraq. During his service on one of three trips there, he finds a picture of a girl. Carrying the picture makes Logan the luckiest man in the Marines, causing him to break the record of the most car bombs survived. His friend Victor tells him the mystery and “destiny” that he has and he goes out to find the women. When he does, he somehow falls in love with the girl, Elizabeth.

favorite quote from the book "The most ordinary things could be made extraordinary."

Like the other Nicholas Spark's novels, this was a quick and easy read.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown - When their mother is diagnosed with cancer, Bianca and Cordelia find themselves returning home to join their third sister, Rose, who still lives in their hometown. Bean and Cordy aren't returning to support their mother as much as they are impelled by their own messy life situations: Bianca because she has been fired for stealing from her job, and Cordelia because after years of living irresponsibly on the road, she has discovered that she is pregnant.

I couldn't really get into this book, I basically finished reading it because I started it.

favorite quote from the book: "Sisters keep secrets. Because sisters' secrets are swords.”

I'm part way through Game of Thrones A Feast for Crows (book 4), and The Witch's Daughter and I just started The Book Thief... will let you know what I think of them soon. :)

What are you reading this summer?

Sorry, I have another list. I'm beginning to realize that my life is a series of lists with items being shuffled from one to another. Done, to do, not yet, almost finished, never, maybe....

Anyway, this is my summer reading list, in no particular order...

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks - A Marine travels to Louisiana after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown - Three sisters, as different in temperament as King Lear's daughters, each return to their parental home, harbouring secrets.

Fault in our Stars by John Green - Sixteen-year-old cancer patient named Hazel is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she meets and falls in love with the seventeen-year-old Augustus, an ex-basketball player and amputee.

The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.

IQ84 by Haruki Murakami- A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84.

The Book Thief by Zusak Markus - narrated by Death, the book is set in Nazi Germany, a place and time when the narrator notes he was extremely busy. It describes a young girl's relationship with her foster parents, the other residents of their neighborhood, and a Jewish fist-fighter who hides in her home during the escalation of World War II.

Bossypants by Tina Fey according to the NY Times its a spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephronisms for a new generation.

Undone (Georgia #1) by Karin Slaughter - When a tortured young woman enters the trauma center of an Atlanta hospital, Dr. Sara Linton is thrust into a desperate police investigation with Special Agent Will Trent and his partner, Faith Mitchell. Though guarding their own wounds and their own secrets, Sara, Will, and Faith find that they are all that stand between a madman and his next victim.

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater - Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards - The story of a man who gives away his newborn baby, who has Down syndrome to one of the nurses.

The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston - In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate at the hands of the panicked mob: the Warlock Gideon Masters, and his Book of Shadows. Secluded at his cottage in the woods, Gideon instructs Bess in the Craft, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had and making her immortal. She couldn't have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.

A Feast for Crows (Game of Thrones book 4) by George R.R. Martin

I'll keep you posted as I progress.... I'm guessing I'll be finishing up with these around the end of July, then I'll be looking for suggestions :)

Have you read any of them? Do you have any suggestions? Any of them on your list too?

I lost a few days again...

I had a great post planned for Friday. I did, really.

What happened? 50 Shades of Grey is what happened!

I am not the Danielle Steele type, I prefer Nelson DeMille or Stephen King, maybe a little Anne Rule, and Sookie Stackhouse, but with all the hoopla about this book I had to read it. I mean not every books gets banned from libraries, compared to Twilight, and Cinderella, and is called Mommy porn.

This is what EL James' website has to say - When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires. you can check it out here


I don't want to give anything away - but I will say, if you are the sort of person who likes to go to the movies, and will sit through a bad one or two because your best friend loves it, then I highly recommend 50 Shades of Grey. If not, you could turn it into a drinking game... take a shot for each time the author uses "wicked grin", "flushed crimson", "panties", "inner goddess" or when Christian calls Ana "baby" - you could be flat out drunk by Chapter 4!

Laters baby, now back to reading A Storm of Swords and Insurgent.