Mini Review: Adulthood is a Myth

Title: Adulthood Is a Myth
Author: Sarah Andersen
Rating: 5/5

Summary:

Are you a special snowflake?

Do you enjoy networking to advance your career?

Is adulthood an exciting new challenge for which you feel fully prepared?

Ugh. Please go away.

This book is for the rest of us. These comics document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, dreaming all day of getting home and back into pajamas, and wondering when, exactly, this adulthood thing begins. In other words, the horrors and awkwardnesses of young modern life.

Review:

Every time a new "scribble" comes out on Sarah Andersen's Facebook or Instagram I just love it.  This is a collection of many scribbles that have never been seen before and I read it in probably an hour.

The next book, Big Mushy Happy Lump, is now out and I cannot wait to pick up a copy.


For a taste here are some of her comics:

 

Booktube-A-Thon Wrap-up

Stop the presses everyone! I actually participated in a read-a-thon and got through most of it!

Though I know I am not on Booktube, I watch many channels on there and decided to take part in the annual Booktube-A-Thon.  There were seven categories to read 7 books in seven days - I managed 6 of these!

Challenge 1 - Read a book with a person on the cover

Title: If I Stay

Author: Gayle Forman

Rating 5/5

Challenge 2 - Read a hyped book

Title: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Author: Becky Albertalli

Rating: 5/5

Challenge fulfillment: This was so very hyped when it came out by every reviewer I know and I finally got to it - it was worth the hype

Challenge 3 - Finish a book in one day

Title: The Little Prince

Author:  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,

Rating: 5/5

Challenge 4 - Read a book about a character that is very different from you

Title: A Long Walk to Water

Author: Linda Sue Park

Rating: 5/5

Challenge fulfillment: I do no live in a war-torn country, am free to go to school, and have fresh water on demand

Challenge 5 - Finish a book completely outdoors

Title: Wonder Woman, Volume 1: The Lies

Author: Greg Rucka

Rating: 4/5

Challenge 6 - Read a book you bought because of the cover

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You

Author: Claudia Gray

Rating: Unknown

This is the one I haven't finished, but isn't the cover beautiful? Currently buddy-reading it with Harleen from Little Bookworm Reviews

Challenge 7 - Read seven books

Title: Openly, Honestly

Author: Bill Konigsberg

Rating: 2/5

Loved the first book, but I think it's been too long since I read it so this novella just didn't do anything for me

#CRAMATHON Challenge Completed

So my last post was about participating in #CRAMATHON

I actually completed it!

As a recap the challenge was:

1. Read a book under 200 pages
2. Read 2 books in 24 hours
3. Read a book set in a different country than where you live
4. Read a book you've been putting off/have been meaning to read for forever
5. A book with pictures
6. A graphic novel/manga
7. Read seven books total

So let's break it down:

1. Read a book under 200 pages

A Heart's Danger by Colleen Coble - This book weighed in at a whopping 100 pages (as do all the books in this six book series)










2. Read 2 books in 24 hours

Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed

Congratulations, By the Way by George Saunders

3. Read a book set in a different country than where you live

And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer by Fredrik Backman - This took place in the mind of a man with Alzheimer's, but also the author is from Sweden so I assume it is set there.  Also, I cried.

4. Read a book you've been putting off/have been meaning to read for forever

Stalking Jack The Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco - I'm counting this even though I didn't finish it.  I got a decent amount through and just hated it, which is unfortunate because I love Jack the Ripper and was really looking forward to this book

5. A book with pictures

Seuss-isms! by Dr. Seuss - I got this on vacation in Universal Studios in Florida over the summer and just got it it for this challenge!

6. A graphic novel/manga


Wolf's Rain Volume 1 by Keiko Nobumoto - I actually read volume 2 as well.  I've loved this anime for so long and just recently found the manga










7. Read seven books total

- A Heart's Danger by Colleen Coble
- Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed
- Congratulations, By the Way by George Saunders
- And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer by Fredrik Backman
- Stalking Jack The Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
- Seuss-isms by Dr. Seuss
- Wolf's Rain Volume 1 by Keiko Nobumoto

Halloween Read-A-Thon

Hosted by Wonderless Reviews

I never do read-a-thons because it usually means I end up reading less than I normally would.  HOWEVER, I LOVE Halloween and I love scary books and movies and such!  So I'm doing this one!

Runs 10/10 thru Halloween!

Title:  The Hollow People
Author:  Brian Keaney
Summary:

On the island of Tarnagar is an asylum where you can be locked up for dreaming. Dante works in the kitchen and Bea is the privileged daughter of doctors. When their worlds collide, they are forced to confront the extraordinary evil lurking behind Dr Sigmundus, the ruler of their nation.

Title:  A Monster Calls
Author:  Patrick Ness
Summary:

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Title:  I'm Not Scared
Author:  Niccolo Ammaniti
Summary:

A sweltering heat wave hits a tiny village in Southern Italy, sending the adults to seek shelter, while their children bicycle freely throughout the countryside, playing games and getting into trouble. On a dare, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano enters an old, abandoned farmhouse, where he stumbles upon a secret so terrible that he can’t tell anybody. As the truth emerges, Michele learns that the horror in the creepy old house is closer to home than he ever imagined.

Title:  A Taste for Monsters
Author:  Matthew J. Kirby
Summary:

IT’S LONDON 1888, and Jack the Ripper is terrorizing the people of the city. Evelyn, a young woman disfigured by her dangerous work in a matchstick factory, who has nowhere to go, does not know what to make of her new position as a maid to the Elephant Man in the London Hospital. Evelyn wants to be locked away from the world, like he is, shut in from the filth and dangers of the streets. But in Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, she finds a gentle kindred who does not recoil from her and who understands her pain. When the murders begin, however, Joseph and Evelyn are haunted nightly by the ghosts of the Ripper’s dead, setting Evelyn on a path to facing her fears and uncovering humanity’s worst nightmares.

Title:  Baby Doll
Author:  Hollie Overton
Summary:

Held captive for eight years, Lily has grown from a teenager to an adult in a small basement prison. Her daughter Sky has been a captive her whole life. But one day their captor leaves the deadbolt unlocked.

This is what happens next...

...to her twin sister, to her mother, to her daughter...and to her captor.

Title:  The Funhouse
Author:  Dean Koontz
Summary:

Once there was a girl who ran away and joined a traveling carnival. She married a man she grew to hate—and gave birth to a child she could never love. A child so monstrous that she killed it with her own hands…Twenty-five years later, Ellen Harper has a new life, a new husband, and two normal children—Joey loves monster movies, and Amy is about to graduate from high school. But their mother drowns her secret guilt in alcohol and prayer. The time has come for Amy and Joey to pay for her sins…

Because Amy is pregnant.

And the carnival is coming back to town.

Review: Written in the Stars

Title:  Written in the Stars
Author:  Aisha Saeed
Rating:  4/5

Summary:

This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny?

Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. 

When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

Review:

I think it's obvious by now that I love cultural based books, especially when they revolve around family.  This one, while not one of my favorites, was rather well written and the family dynamic was fantastic, as well as the center of the plot.

Naila (and I cannot seem to settle on a pronunciation of her name in my head), is a bright young Pakistani-American teenager who has her whole life in front of her, until her parents take it away in the worst way you can imagine.

In the summary it says that Naila's parents found her a husband in Pakistan, that is an incredibly watered-down version of the events of the second half of the book.  Naila is thrown away like a dog who couldn't behave.  

Arranged marriages are not uncommon in this world, but this one is described in a detail that shocks people like me, someone who has never seen it first hand.  Many times they work out, but just as many times they do not, and this is a devastating example of when family pushes too far.

Review: Captivated By You

Title:  Captivated By You
Author:  Sylvia Day
Series:  Crossfire (#4)
Rating:  4/5

Summary:

Gideon calls me his angel, but he's the miracle in my life. My gorgeous, wounded warrior, so determined to slay my demons while refusing to face his own.

The vows we'd exchanged should have bound us tighter than blood and flesh. Instead they opened old wounds, exposed pain and insecurities, and lured bitter enemies out of the shadows. I felt him slipping from my grasp, my greatest fears becoming my reality, my love tested in ways I wasn't sure I was strong enough to bear.

At the brightest time in our lives, the darkness of his past encroached and threatened everything we'd worked so hard for. We faced a terrible choice: the familiar safety of the lives we'd had before each other or the fight for a future that suddenly seemed an impossible and hopeless dream...

Review:

I LOVE this series.  Seriously.  I hate the idea and writing of everything that has to do with Fifty Shades of Grey, but the Crossfire series actually has substance on top of the sex scenes.  Gideon is just... wow, what a man.  His demons just make me love him more.  And Eva, she's perfect in all of her imperfections.

There are two reasons why I gave this book a 4 out of 5 instead of the full rating:  POV shifts and lack of problem resolution.  First, the POV shifts aren't big, just jumping one chapter for Gideon and one for Eva and so on, however it's kind of a pet peeve of mine and it wasn't done in the first three books of the series.  On the second point, I mean it's the repetitive problems we've been seeing for four books now with little to no progress, but there was some progress I suppose.

All in all I cannot wait to read the fifth and final book which just came in the mail!

Reading Slump

Have you ever read a book that was just so good that every other book you try to read for weeks after can barely be started?

I'm in a reading slump!!!

I can't get past the first 15 pages of any book that I pick up, and considering I work at a library that is a lot of books!  I've read a few children's books, but that's all.

Anyone have tips for getting out of this?  I just want to read!

(This sounds so dramatic when I write it all out)

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven't Talked About Enough or In a While

Meme by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Books I Really Love But Feel Like I Haven't Talked About Enough/In a While

1. Scribbler of Dreams by Mary E. Pearson - I literally never talk about this book, and a lot of people don't know it exists.  However, this was the book that made me actually enjoy reading it!  One Mother's Day some 13 or so years ago (I was in seventh grade) I read this entire book in a day and I haven't been able to stop reading ever since.

2. A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer - This book is heartbreaking, actually far beyond heartbreaking.  This poor child and everything he went though, and is still going through as an adult survivor of horrific abuse is just amazing.  I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone with a weak stomach or under the age of thirteen.

3. I'll Be Seeing You by Lurlene McDaniel - This book is probably my favorite by this author, and I've read the majority of her books (she's written about 80 I think).  These books are always equally romantic, sweet, and heartbreaking in turn.

4. The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks - I love Nicholas Sparks books, he's one of my favorite authors.  This is my favorite book by him and I hope it never gets made into a movie!  Especially because they would never be able to do the son justice and he is a crux of the book.

5. Burning Bones by Christopher Golden - The best book of the best mystery series I've ever read.  Unfortunately these books are extremely rare, so I've only read three of the series.  One day I hope to read them all!

6. Godchild Vol. 1 by Kaori Yuki - My favorite manga series!  It's a murder mystery series.  My favorite mini-mystery in these books is the Alice in Wonderland murders.

7. Bent by Sean Michael - Guilty pleasure, end of story.  This is book one of many.

8. Dancer with Bruised Knees by Lynne McFall - I'm not sure I can ever properly explain why I love this book.  There's not even a summary on the back of the book when I bought it.  You just need to dive right in.

9. Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix - Best horror book I've every read!  And yes, I'm counting this above Stephen King books.  It's just so unique.

10. Santa's Angels by Janet Kaderli - I know none of us wants to think about winter and snow since it's finally spring, but this is my favorite Christmas book.  It's just the right amount of sweet.