Top Ten Tuesday [8]

Top Ten Tuesday is an original meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

    

    

Top Ten Reasons I Love Being a Reader/Book Blogger

1. I love being a reader because... BOOKS!  I would say who doesn't love them as objects, but I know at least three people who would answer that they don't.
   
2. I love being a reader because... As cliche and overused as the saying is: I love escaping to a world that isn't mine.  The ability to leave my life and experience the life of a character for a period of time is something invaluable that I never want to lose.
   
3. I love being a reader because... There are no commercials and the pictures in my head are better than any a movie or TV show could give me.
   
4. I love being a book blogger because... It gives me the ability and forum to share what I think about a book (in real life there aren't many people I can gush about a book to).
   
5. I love being a book blogger because... There is such a wonderful community surrounding book bloggers of every genre.
   
6. I love being a book blogger because... All of the cover art!  I love making lists of beautiful covers and seeing all the covers other bloggers recommend.
   
7. I love being a reader because... You can travel through time, in whichever direction you choose.
   
8. I love being a reader because... It's socially acceptable to be reading virtually anywhere, on whatever material.  With what other form of media can you do that?  None.
   
9. I love being a reader because... Books give my imagination streets and houses; people and countries; and governments and leaders.  All of this makes my imagination, and my life more rich and full of color.
   
10. I love being a book blogger because... All my fellow bloggers open me up to so many potential reads that I may never have found otherwise!  And let's not forget all the followers that make us feel good.

What are your top ten reasons?

Review: Me Since You

Title: Me Since You
Author: Laura Wiess
Rating: 5+/5
Release Date: February 18, 2014

Summary:

Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?
Before and After. That’s how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old; a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.
If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger's shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother, and herself; from the endless replay of heartache and grief.
Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?

Review:

It took me an inordinate amount of time to read this book.  And considering both the author and the subject matter, that has to be some kind of crime.  I got this book as an ARC and was immediately intrigued because I've read "Such a Pretty Girl" by Laura Wiess and she's an amazing, heart-wrenching, author.

I've thankfully never experienced the world of suicide first hand, but I can count the number of times it's been a close call. The emotions in this book are raw and uncensored.  The author isn't writing this book for us to read, she's writing it to tell Rowan's story, to help her heal.

A few times I had to put the book down before I started crying in a public place (and it takes a lot in a book to make me cry), and maybe that's why it took me so long to finish.  I had to continuously stop and breathe and wait until I was better mentally to go back to it.  I've read a lot of powerful books that take a lot out of you, but this one was different.  It was certainly emotional, and it took energy out of me, but it put something back too: hope.  Hope for healing and for human life.

I don't know I can possibly gush more about this book, but I hope Laura Wiess never stops writing, especially books like this.

I recommend this to everyone I possibly can.  (And it comes out to the public tomorrow so go and get it!!)

Rating:

Review: The War within These Walls

Title: The War within These Walls
Author: Aline Sax
Rating: 5/5

Summary: It's World War II, and Misha's family, like the rest of the Jews living in Warsaw, has been moved by the Nazis into a single crowded ghetto. Conditions are appalling: every day more people die from disease, starvation, and deportations. Misha does his best to help his family survive, even crawling through the sewers to smuggle food. When conditions worsen, Misha joins a handful of other Jews who decide to make a final, desperate stand against the Nazis.Heavily illustrated with sober blue-and-white drawings, this powerful novel dramatically captures the brutal reality of a tragic historical event.

Review:

There's a special place in my book reading heart for World War II novels.  Actually, it's one of the only pieces of 20th century history I care to study in any detail.  I think it's the part of me that has a deep-seated, strange fascination with human horrors and the great deal of pain we as a race can inflict upon one another.

My morbid fascination aside, this book was unique in it's structure from the general shape of the book to the drawings and text within.  The book is at least an inch taller than a usual hardcover book and the cover colors are mimicked throughout the text.

The protagonist was loosely drawn, which I found allowed for a more generalized experience.  I mean by this, that you could see the faces of history (more than just the character) in him and thus lends the character their pain and hardship on top of his own.

Plot-wise there were little to no surprises because it all fits with the time period and events of the Warsaw Ghetto, even if it is not perfect (it is fiction after all).

I would recommend this book to history book lovers, as well as those who do not like history but are looking for a stepping stone to get into the subject or an easy historical read.

Rating:

In My Mailbox [1]

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme created by The Story Siren

I get my books from a number of sources including buying, ARC copies, and the library.  This week I struck gold with a library book sale!

Bought

From left to right the books are:

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Possession by Elana Johnson

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Illuminated by Erica Orloff

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Sticky Fingers by Niki Burnham

Pretend You Love Me by Julie Anne Peters

The Prophecy by Dawn Miller

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Bonus DVD:  Cloverfield

Borrowed from the Library

Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman

What did you get this week?

Top Ten Tuesday [7]

Top Ten Tuesday is an original meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Worlds We'd Never Want to Live in

1.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - I love this book series, but I would sooner throw myself off a building then get killed in arena when the rest of the country watches.

2.  Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie - It's so controlled!  I need some breathing room.  Not to mention, only 100 books and 100 songs?  No thank you!

3.  Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth - I love the idea of sections, but hate the segregation.

4.  Freak of Nature by Julia Crane - At no point do I want to die and be forced to come back with my memories taken and sudden super-human abilities.

5.  The Giver by Lois Lowry - Come one, awesome story, really screwed up morals/world/teachings.

6.  The Program by Suzanne Young - Being an individual who needs mental health support, this is downright terrifying.

7.  Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix - I feel like we kinda have this because of China's one child rule, but still don't like it.

8.  Room by Emma Donoghue - I know this is basically our world, but this is the ultimate dark side.  I would go crazy living in a shed for that many years.

9.  Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - Totally would never make it in the circus business!

10.  Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - No sparkly vampires, thank you.