Thursday, January 30, 2014

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell



"Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . "
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.
When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.
By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.
What would he say . . . ?
Apparently I have been in a Rainbow Rowell mood or maybe it's that when you read one or two great books by an author you just want to read everything that have. Or at least that is true for me. So Attachments is actually Rowell's first book and it's an adult book. At first I wasn't sure but then about half way through I knew I was going to love this book.

Lincoln is an odd character. He is sort of lost in life after spending 10 years getting various degrees and finally deciding to get out and get a job. He moves back home with his doting mother and gets a job in the IT department of a newspaper where part of his job is reading flagged emails during the night shift. Jennifer and Beth are best friends who work for the newspaper and they spend a lot of time emailing each other so there messages get flagged. Lincoln slowly becomes vicariously involved with them and, though he knows he should, he doesn't stop reading their e-mails. But when Beth notices him, Lincoln finds himself changing his life for the better bases on some of her observations. I love how he grows and becomes more aware of what he wants in his adult life based partly on what he is reading and how he becomes a stronger person for it. Beth and Jennifer are pretty funny and there are some poignant moments in their lives, all told through email. It's funny the things they say about Lincoln without knowing who he is and how much of their own lives they share.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (audio)

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life--and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.
Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

I loved this book, just like I've loved every Rainbow Rowell book I've read (Eleanor and Park is the best). This was only one of her books that I've listened to on audio and the problem with that is that I only get to listen to the book on my commute and on the occasion I get to go somewhere by myself. And it's hard when you are listening to a book this good to get out of the car. I thought about switching to the book version but I was enjoying the narration too much. Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfied each do an excellent job though Caulfield only read the Simon Snow parts with Lowman picking up the remainder of the book told in Cath's voice. 

Cath is such a great character and I really felt for her. Thrown into an unfamiliar situation with some sort of undefined anxiety disorder (probably) it's hard for her. Not to mention her sister almost abandons her once they get to college and her father gives her plenty of reason to worry already. It's a lot for Cath and she retreats to her familiar Simon Snow fan fiction for comfort. I liked how Cath is a fairly straightforward person and how she manages to handle a lot of social situations better than others might. I love how loyal she is and how she wants to take care of her family even when they don't want to let her. And I love Levi. He is a great guy and I was rooting for the two of them even when he makes a big mess of it. 

It was pretty amazing how Rowell invented a whole series of books and then wrote fan fiction around it. I liked the excepts from both the Simon Snow books and from Cath's Simon Snow fan fiction. I loved that. I kind of made me wish I could read the Simon Snow books. But that is a fantastic imagination to come up with all of that to tell Cath's story.

read by Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield. 12 hours, 82 minutes

Monday, January 27, 2014

Weekly Round-Up 1/27

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.
I'm reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. And I am listening to The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, read by the author.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Weekly Round-Up 1/20

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.
I'm reading The Here and Now by Ann Brashares. And I am listening to Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Book Round-Up

The holidays were generous to me in general and especially book-wise. This is going to be a longish post since I got a lot of books over the holidays and quite a few from the library.



ARCS from Netgalley

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Publication: April 8th 2014 by Delacorte Press
ISBN13: 9780385736800


Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

Thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking, The Here and Now is a twenty-first-century take on an impossible romance. Ann Brashares’ first novel for teens since The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Meet seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when she falls for Ethan Jarves. 

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 
Publication: May 13th 2014 by Delacorte Press
ISBN13: 9780385741262
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt
Publication: February 18th 2014 by Walker Childrens
ISBN13: 9780802735003
When Jonah is forced to move from Hamilton to Cross Pointe for the second half of his senior year, "miserable" doesn't even begin to cover it. He feels like the doggy-bag from his mother's first marriage and everything else about her new life—with a new husband, new home and a new baby—is an upgrade. The people at Cross Pointe High School are pretentious and privileged—and worst of all is Brighton Waterford, the embodiment of all things superficial and popular. Jonah’s girlfriend, Carly, is his last tie to what feels real... until she breaks up with him.

For Brighton, every day is a gauntlet of demands and expectations. Since her father died, she’s relied on one coping method: smile big and pretend to be fine. It may have kept her family together, but she has no clue how to handle how she's really feeling. Today is the anniversary of his death and cracks are beginning to show. The last thing she needs is the new kid telling her how much he dislikes her for no reason she can understand. She's determined to change his mind, and when they're stuck together for the night, she finally gets her chance.

Jonah hates her at 3p.m., but how will he feel at 3 a.m.?

One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself.
 
 

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by


Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what it is.

She’s only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she’s just learned that her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all along.

This stunning conclusion picks up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate.

In the Age of Love and Chocolate by Gabrielle Zevin (Birthright #3)
All These Things I’ve Done, the first novel in the Birthright series, introduced us to timeless heroine Anya Balanchine, a plucky sixteen year old with the heart of a girl and the responsibilities of a grown woman. Now eighteen, life has been more bitter than sweet for Anya. She has lost her parents and her grandmother, and has spent the better part of her high school years in trouble with the law. Perhaps hardest of all, her decision to open a nightclub with her old nemesis Charles Delacroix has cost Anya her relationship with Win.

Still, it is Anya’s nature to soldier on. She puts the loss of Win behind her and focuses on her work. Against the odds, the nightclub becomes an enormous success, and Anya feels like she is on her way and that nothing will ever go wrong for her again. But after a terrible misjudgment leaves Anya fighting for her life, she is forced to reckon with her choices and to let people help her for the first time in her life. 

Rosebush by Michele Jaffe  
Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit-and-run. Everyone believes it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane's boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface-not just from the party, but from deeper in her past . . . including the night her best friend Bonnie died.

With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. Along the way, she's forced to examine the consequences of her life choices in this compulsively readable thriller.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (audio, read by Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield. 12 hours, 82 minutes )
Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? Open her heart to someone? Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction?

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (audio, read by author. 5 hours, 45 minutes)
Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

 
 
 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Weekly Round-Up 1/6

Weekly Round-Up is my wrap-up of last week's activities and includes what I'm reading this week, reviews I've posted, books in the mail and anything else of interest plus From the Library, my weekly listing of what I've checked out from the library.
I'm reading The Here and Now by Ann Brashares. And I am listening to Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield.

I think I may have given up on Rotters. I switch to a Christmas book over the holidays and I haven't felt like going back. Maybe I'll try again another time. It's a long book but what I got through was really good.

I'm planning on doing a "what books I got over the holidays" post later this week so look for that. I read 2 ARCs that were brilliant but the reviews won't be up till closer to publication date: Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Amazing books.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Yearly Wrap-Up

I think I may have disappeared these last few weeks or so. Sorry. It got crazy busy around here for the holidays (and/or the month of December). But I thought I'd wrap-up 2013 with my reading stats for the year.

I reviewed a total 52 books this year, 28 books and 24 audio books with a total of 259 hours, 7 minutes of listening. I reviewed 1 movie. It was a much slower year for me but that's fine. I'm still trying to take this more as a hobby than something super serious like in the past. I'm looking forward to some good books this year. I plan on participating in my library's 100 book challenge and maybe 1 or 2 more if I feel like it.

Happy New Year and happy reading!

2014 Reviews

#



A

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell


B

Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews
Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt

C

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, narrated by Emma Galvin
A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

D

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Steifvater

E

Emerald Green by  Kersten Gier

F

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

G


H

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
The House of Hades by Rick Riordian

I


J



K

L


M

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

N



O

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Of Triton by Anna Banks
Once Upon a Thriller by Carolyn Keene

P




Q



R



S

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo 
The Stones of Ravenglass by Jenny Nimmo

T

The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer

U

Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan

V

Viva Jacquelina! Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away by L.A. Meyer.

W

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handeler  

X Y Z

2014 Audio Book Reviews

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Read by Rebecca Lowman and Maxwell Caulfield. 12 hours, 82 minutes. 
2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Read by Neil Gaiman. 5 hours, 45 minutes.
3. Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews. Read by Isabel Keating. 5 hours, 3 minutes. 
4. Of Triton by Anna Banks. Read by Rebecca Gibel. 7 hours, 52 minutes. 
5. Viva Jacquelina! Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away by L.A. Meyer, read by Katherine Kellgren. 9 hours, 29 minutes.
6. The House of Hades by Rick Riordian, read by Nick Chamian. 17 hours, 30 minutes. 
7. The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente, read the author. 8 hours, 23 minutes.  
8. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handeler, read by Khristine Hvam.  6 hours, 30 minutes. 
9. When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket, read by Liam Aiken. 4 hours, 22 minutes.  
10. The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer, read by Maxwell Caulfield. 9 hours, 29 minutes. 
11. Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, narrated by Emma Galvin. 6 hours, 3 minutes.
12. The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, narrated by Richard E. Grant.  8 hours, 12 minutes. 
13. The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo, read by John Keating. 5 hours, 43 minutes.  
14. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, narrated by David Suchet. 6 hours, 53 minutes.
15. The Stones of Ravenglass by Jenny Nimmo, read by John Keating. 5 hours, 46 minutes.