22 posts tagged “books”
The fifth book in the Morganville Vampires series conveniently came out a day after I finished the fourth book and my friend loaned me her copy. I'll have to get my own copy in the future (as I can't have all but one book in a series - my OCD will not allow that).
Overall, I really enjoyed it and the main plot points that occured, however, after book four where we seemed to get a lot more of Claire with Shane, Michael, and Eve, it took a bit to care much about Claire interactions early in the book. I'm really a fan of this series because of those four characters and their relationships. That said, I'm enjoying the overall plot and looking forward to the next book.
I could live without the evil cliffhanger endings.
I'm sorry to have dropped off the planet for a large portion of 2008. It was an insane year. Looking back, from the safety of the passage of time, it wasn't so bad, but at the time, all I could see was the suck touching everything. A lot happened. A lot that I couldn't control. But it's passed, as times like that tend to do, and I'm hoping I can get back to things I enjoy, including blogging.
**
First finished book of 2009 - let's see if I can actually keep accurate count!
It's the fourth book in the Morganville Vampires series and I simply adored this book. I really enjoyed the first three, but I think, in this book, we really get to the heart of the drama going on around our protagonist. It's also at a point in the series where we really know the characters and can enjoy them and their relationships once again
I like Rachel Caine's take on the vampire lore. I like her style of writing. And mostly, I love her characters.
That said, cliffhanger ending made me so glad that the next book came out this week.
I've finished two more books. The first really shouldn't have taken me the week it did, but I kept having to put it down to fully embrace the ridiculousness.
I finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer last night in between swimming races. Overall, I enjoyed it and I liked it a lot more than Eclipse, which made me want to punch the main characters. That said, I still think the woman is insane and half-vampire/half-human baby? Really? That's like a ton of the fanfiction in this fandom. And I get how it then played into the entire book, but it was just so ridiculous a premise at first.
And while I support the right of choice, I can't say that I'd be all about keeping a fetus that BROKE MY BONES while I was pregnant and be happy about it. Jeez.
The point of view change actually made me like Jake a lot more than I did after Eclipse. And I have a feeling book two from Bella's perspective would've been unbearable.
And while I think Jake with Nessie turned out to be adorable. It's creepy. And I got the clunk-over-the-head foreshadowing of Quill with his imprinted two-year-old...but really? That's how she resolved the whole Jacob thing? I'm sure the Jacob/Bella shippers *loved* that.
the last book was my favorite. Bella was a lot less whiny as a vampire and I like Edward more when he's not controlling/overprotective. There are only two things I didn't really like about it.
1) Why, yes, Bella is perfect at EVERYTHING now that she's a vampire. She is the KEY to saving the day. All the Volturi are afraid of HER and HER ALONE. She is a perfect learner and perfect control and...I've read Mary Sues that were less perfect than Bella.
2) Alice & Jasper disappeared for a large section. I love Alice/Jasper. I want more of them, never less.
Overall, enjoyable and addictive - despite the ridiculous moments - much like Twilight was...better than New Moon and so MUCH, MUCH better than Eclipse, a book that made me want to kill myself at parts.
I forget who recommended this book to me, but it was enjoyable. A quick read, nothing spectacular and the plot almost seemed like a necessary evil to show off the author's awesome characters. I'm not sure it completely delivers though on those characters. Then again, it appears to be the first of a few books, so maybe the characters get better expanded.
Not a bad beach read or something for a lazy Sunday where you don't want to think very hard.
The last two books I read were both nonfiction and politically-oriented. Probably not the wisest decision for hot summer days. So I'm now back to mindless fun reads.
Okay, I love Bill Moyers. He's one of my favorite journalists and I enjoyed all the speeches included in this book. But they are speeches and I feel like all of these good speeches would only be so much better in auditory form. To hear how he gave the speech. So this is one of those books I'd recommend in audio format (if Moyers does the reading - that I'm not sure). Overall, good content, but again, I think it would be better to hear than read.
I'm came at this book from the point of view of a very liberal Jersey Girl. Therefore, I know I'm completely biased against the administration. Why did I bother reading it? I was looking for some insight, some reasoning behind why this administration has done so many horrible things. What did I get instead? A civics lesson and the importance of honesty in government from someone who worked for Bush. Plus, there was a whole lot of "it's not Bush, but the system that is corrupt" meanderings and constant reminders that most of the Bushies were good, hard workers.
I guess if this book won't make you extremely angry, it wasn't a bad read. I just found it hard to swallow this "we were wrong and this is why...so buy my book" thing (I got it from the library). I especially have trouble with all these former Bushies who wait until they're impotent to help make a change for the better to come out and say, "It's wrong and I knew it all along." Why not speak up when you can make a difference?
This was not the book for me.
Next reads; Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (comes out this Saturday)
I'm so behind on posting the books that I've been reading. I'm also rather behind on my reading. Ever since I was sick with pneumonia, I haven't been reading nearly as much as I used to. And when I have been reading, I've mostly been re-reading books I love. Comfort reads.
But I think I'm finally getting back on track with this reading thing.
This is the third of the Cal Leandros books and I really enjoyed it. The first book is still my favorite, but what I love most about this book is the way the characters, especially Cal, have grown throughout the course of these books. He's also dealing with the emotional fallout of the first two books and I'm all about that sort of thing.
If you like urban fantasy and/or love the brother relationship in fiction, this is a great read.
As I said when I put up my review of this over at Goodreads.com, I don't want to say too much as I don't want to give the plot twists away. And the plot twists are great, so don't get swayed away because it's a young adult vampire book. It's quite different from all the other books out there that I've read. I also love the main characters and I've once again fallen in love with fictional guys and it has some really well written kissing scenes.
And really, I highly recommend it, but I don't want to ruin the book for anyone.
If anyone out there has read it, I'd love to discuss it with you.
It's sad that Edwards is Expected to Drop Out of Race because I did like him. He wasn't my first choice, but he was a good candidate. Frankly, I liked all three of the main democratic candidates though I'm supporting Obama. I think Obama is really the best for the country at the moment, someone not so engulfed by the established politics. And honestly, I just love to watch and read him give speeches. After eight years of a President that can't formulate a sentence, it would be nice to have a great speaker.
**
I finished books that I haven't already read a billion times, as I've been doing the past few months with rereading the Harry Potter books and some others that I really love. Sure, they're both young adult books, but as that's the genre I write most of my stuff in, I always consider it research.
This is the third book in Rachel Caine's young adult Morganville Vampires series. The storyline is getting even more interesting as we learn more about the vampires and why they're living in Morganville as Claire becomes involved with things. Also, you finally get to see that not all the people in town aside from our main characters are happy about the vampires.
Good book.
If you like young adult and/or vampire stories with an interesting female lead, I'd suggest checking out this series.
This is a sequel to the young adult book I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter. It continues to follow Cammie through a year at spy school, as she prepares for a life of espionage and deals with all the fun of being a teenage girls.
It's an easy read. I just loved the idea of this book and I'm always a fan of strong girl/woman characters who are smart and kick butt.
I'm incredibly tired this morning, barely able to keep my eyes open. I've tried everything except injecting caffeine directly into my veins to no avail. And the saddest thing about it? I got seven hours sleep, which for most people is more than enough. But not for me. Unless I get a little over eight hours, it's like my body just shuts down. And I've always been like this. According to my mother, she used to have to tap her belly from time to time when she was pregnant to make sure I was still alive in there and she would receive a fierce kick in return. And when I was a baby, I was a little night owl, who would stay up very late and then sleep for nine hours straight.
**
Out of Sync by Lance Bass of Nsync (get the clever title?) came out on Tuesday. I must go purchase this book and devour it. I admit it. Not only do I love when celebrities go all crazy a la Tom Cruise and his couch jumping, but I love to read memoirs for little gossip and such. I'm what's wrong with America, but I don't care because Lance Bass wrote a book and I used to be obsessed with Nsync.
Show us a book you wish you had written.
The plot is hardly amazing, but the style and the writing used in this book is so magnificent. I found myself rereading certain passages over and over again and despairing that I would never be able to string a sentence together quite like that.
I just read this article from New York Times called Envisioning the Next Chapter for Electronic Books and I'm not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, I'm a great supporter of anything that gets people to enjoy reading, but I'm addicted to books and part of the experience for me is holding the book. It's smell, it's feel, being able to quantify in my mind how much left before I know the story. And I guess my one concern with something like this is the price seems a bit high. Even for the reader with stacks of books - which could come from libraries - $ 400 bucks seems like a lot of money to enjoy a book (or many) when the standard book is much cheaper.
It'll be interesting to see if this goes the way of the iPod and becomes one of those "must have" items for most people or if it just falls to the wayside as something only a few people use.
What do you guys think?
Books: Show us a great children's book.
I love this book. I still re-read it every few years because it is made of awesome and has two awesome child characters living in a museum. I gave this book to my niece and nephew when they were old enough to enjoy it and they liked it as well. It's just my favorite in a grouping of a whole bunch of books that I truly love still (Westing Game, The Outsiders...)
