Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Dracian Legacy (Dracian, # 1)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From The Dracian Legacy by Priya Kanaparti

  “Dean was not in love with himself. He was beyond stalker-obsessed.”








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Friday, April 25, 2014

Folow Friday


 Have any pets? Tell us or show us!

This one is a tough one for me because I have practically a zoo in my house. I have dogs, cats, birds, snakes, lizards, turtles, and even a sugar glider. A bit of everything. 

Below are some of my pets:

 


 Above is me with Loki, my mynah bird. I raised him since he was a little bird who looked like this:
Now, some of my snakes. Barbossa:





Topkapi:



 Tybalt and Tallulah, who are brother and sister:

Damascus:


 And seven boa babies with no names as of yet (they're only two weeks old):


When it comes to dogs, this is Vinicius, the Brazilian fila:




 Chaos:


 And Dublin:




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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
The Frozen Dead From The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier

"They stood there staring at this work of madness and death. They already knew that they would never forget what they had just seen."

pg. 5










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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson



Wintergirls Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

This was an interesting take on eating disorders. There was a magical, fairy-tale element to the store and the writing that gave it the right amount of poignancy to be effective, even if once in a while the poetic language got a bit out of hand. 

Lia has anorexia and her best friend has just died. There is nothing light about this novel. It deals with very real issues that teens face. What struck me most was the accuracy of Lia’s voice when it came to her eating disorder. As someone who has had anorexia, I wasn’t expecting something as real as what this book shows. It felt like I was back in my own head all those years ago when I was struggling with eating even a piece of gum. It made for a fascinating, if heartrending read. 

The writing could have used some trimming every once in a while. Some images were lovely, while others bogged the storyline down. I think the noel would have been even better if it had tamed some of those strange, melodramatic phrases down. 

This is a novel I recommend for all YA readers. It is a very truthful look at one of the most insidious diseases in this world. 









 P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!










Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
You Should Have Known From You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

"'Oh...' He seemed uncertain. 'No. I mean, he didn't say when he was coming back. He just said he was leaving.'"












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Monday, April 14, 2014

Musing Mondays



Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

WintergirlsI started reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's a very interesting view into eating disorders. As someone who has suffered from anorexia, I am amazed by the accuracy of the way describes this experience. It's visceral and uncomfortable, but it should be. It's definitely a YA novel that should be read.








 P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!







Thursday, April 10, 2014

Confessions by Kanae Minato



 
This was definitely an interesting book, one that held my attention from the beginning and didn’t let go until the last page.

I would describe it as a psychological mystery written in forms of “confessions”. We get to see the same even from different view-points, which makes an event that may have appeared simple at first seem much more complex and less black and white. 

I would have liked the characters to have been a bit more fleshed out, especially the teachers, but overall, the author does a good job of keeping us interested in what is going on in each of her characters’ lives. The writing is simple. It gets out of the way, allowing us to get a better sense of the protagonists. 

If you enjoy reading psychological mysteries that leave you thinking, then this one is a good choice for you. 







 P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!











Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
You Should Have Known From You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

 "If a woman chooses the wrong person, he was always going to be the wrong person: that was all."








P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!




Monday, April 7, 2014

Musing Mondays




Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Liv, ForeverI had to put a book aside because it was irritating me to the point where I was rolling my eyes every few sentences. The book is Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington and it is so far this year, the worst book I've read. I got a bit more than halfway through it and had to call it quits. What is going on with YA fiction these days?
If you want to read my review and see why I thought this book was not worth finishing, you can see it here










 P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!









Saturday, April 5, 2014

Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington



Liv, Forever When Liv Bloom lands an art scholarship at Wickham Hall, it’s her ticket out of the foster system. Liv isn’t sure what to make of the school’s weird traditions and rituals, but she couldn’t be happier. For the first time ever, she has her own studio, her own supply of paints. Everything she could want.

Then she meets Malcolm Astor, a legacy student, a fellow artist, and the one person who’s ever been able to melt her defenses. Liv’s only friend at Wickham, fellow scholarship kid Gabe Nichols, warns her not to get involved, but life is finally going Liv’s way, and all she wants to do is enjoy the ride.

But Liv’s bliss is doomed. Weeks after arriving, she is viciously murdered and, in death, she discovers that she’s the latest victim of a dark conspiracy that has claimed many lives. Cursed with the ability to see the many ghosts on Wickham’s campus, Gabe is now Liv’s only link to the world of the living. To Malcolm.

Together, Liv, Gabe, and Malcolm fight to expose the terrible truth that haunts the halls of Wickham. But Liv must fight alone to come to grips with the ultimate star-crossed love.

This is, hands down, the worst book I’ve read so far this year. The characters are flat and underdeveloped and the plot has enough holes to drive trucks, airplanes, spaceships or anything else you want.
I never thought I’d say this, but the least of this book’s faults was the insta-love. Which is has. Liv, our melodramatic protagonist, falls in love with Malcolm in about a second and a half, just because of his blonde locks, it appears. And it is, of course, completely mutual. Like I said, though, that’s the nicest thing the book has to offer.
The characters are some of the most soap-opera dramatic I’ve had the misfortune to read about in a while. Liv is insufferable. Think one of the Kardashians insufferable. Whining about everything around her. Malcolm has no personality whatsoever, and Gabe is a pastiche of “quirky” characters we’ve seen in tons of rom-com movies.
The writing itself is childish. Not “let’s write a YA novel and keep it simple” childish but “I don’t know how to write a proper sentence without using exclamations point or question marks” childish. How this book made it past an editor’s desk, I don’t know. It’s astounding that anyone thought it was publishable material.
These books are the ones that give YA novels a bad name, so stay away. There’s way too much to read in this world to put up with this drivel.





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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Teaser Tuesdays




Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
London: The Autobiography. Edited by Jon E. LewisShare the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!



"With all due apologies to the also-rans- New York, Moscow, Pairs, Rome, Tokyo- London is the most interesting city in global history. And, dare I say it, the most important."
  







P.S. Please don't forget to sign up for my brand new newsletter which is located right at the top of the page. It will be out once a week, featuring my exclusive stories, poetry, and even songs from my upcoming album! Don't miss out!