Thursday, January 31, 2013

D's January Book Wrap-Up

Hello, all! As promised, here is my book wrap-up for the month.

Books Read:  4
  1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  2. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (sister read)
  3. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
  4. Silas Marner by George Eliot (classic)

 Books Abandoned:  0
 Books in Progress:  0, as I just finished Silas Marner today
Best Book: A tough decision, but Miss Peregrine's was the best. A review should be coming your way this weekend.
Worst Book: Before I Fall. No question. Ick. 
If you're looking for S's BWU, you can find it on her other blog here.
Adieu! Goodbye and good luck!
~D

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

January Read - Before I Fall






Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Synopsis (as taken from Goodreads):  


What if you only had one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death--and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.


S’s Rating:   (out of five hearts)

D’s Rating: ❤ 1/2  (out of five hearts)


S’s Thoughts:

I'm going to give Oliver's book a one word review and plonk an asterisk next to it if you want to know more.  

UGH.*

*Okay, so you're interested in why my review was simply a disgusted "ugh"?  Fine.  You asked for it.

I have this rule about books (and wasting my time) called the 50 page rule.  I've had it since high school.  You have 50 pages to interest me, to pull me in like a fish on a hook.  If you can't do it within 50 pages, I ain't biting. Simple as.  Unless of course it's required reading which I honestly think Sister Reads fall under.  I would have thrown the paperback version of this book (not MY kindle version) across the room after maybe page five.  I hated this book, and I'm a fan of Lauren Oliver.  Yep.  

I hated Sam.  I didn't like her, her friends, her boyfriend, any of them.  It was even a stretch for me to like Kent, good guy as he was, because Oliver made him so painfully stereotypical.  The only person I even remotely found myself somewhat liking was Juliet.  Even she was stereotyped but I could look past that because I knew what it was like to be bullied in school and the butt of jokes.  I felt outraged by the cheapened excuse for Sam and her friends' reason for being so hateful to Juliet.

In the end, I'm not sure Sam learned much of anything.  I don't really care, to be honest.  By the final page I was fed up and just willing it to all end.

Standout Quotes:

Really?  No.
Album to listen to while reading this book: Ugh. Okay. Probably some current NOW! album.


D’s Thoughts:
After we read Wintergirls back in August, I felt somewhat guilty that I made S read a book she disliked so much. But for S's choice in Before I Fall this month, I think we're even.

Like S, I hated all of the characters. They were so painfully stereotypical that it was difficult to even imagine them in real life. The one character I found interesting, however, was not Juliet Sykes--her story was sad, but it was predictable. It was the minor character Anna Cartullo. There is only one portion of the book that explores her as being more than "white trash", and I don't feel like enough justice was done to her. She was perhaps the most down-to-earth character in the book.
When I was trying to explain the plot to a friend, he gave me an odd look. "Why would she need 7 chances to redo her last day?" The sad part is, Sam never seemed to understand why she needed to change. Boy, did she need it. In addition to her cruelty to all "below" her, Sam's semi-intelligent thoughts in the book (though few and far between) all seemed forced, as if she'd had such revelations in a drug dream and not off her own intelligence.

I didn't throw the book against the wall. It was coherent English. The book did make me feel something, albeit immense frustration and confusion as to why all novel and movie characters around my age must be perceived as immensely stupid partiers or "emo" kids on the verge of destruction (I might note that this is why I like John Green so much). For that, I'll give it 1 and 1/2 hearts. Generous.


Standout Quotes:
This is one of Sam's "forced intelligence" cliche moments, but I still liked it. Kinda. It was the closest thing she got to demonstrating a lesson learned:

So many things are beautiful when you really look.

Now go read my standout quotes from the other books we've reviewed so you don't find me lame.

 Album to listen to while reading this book: Something I would never, ever listen to.

 

February’s book is D’s choice and is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

See you soon! S & D

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

D's 2013 Exordium

Happy 2013, guys! I hope your New Year's Eve was fabulous...because mine wasn't. I spent the entire day feeling poorly and, for the first time in several years, I didn't even come close to staying up until midnight. Even I had stayed up, I would have been alone. Boo.

Thankfully, I woke up this morning feeling much better! I checked my phone (and found a HNY message from S) as I normally do and looked to find Dictionary.com's Word of the Day:



exordium

 ig-ZAWR-dee-uhm  noun; The beginning of anything.

Finding a touch of inspiration, I thought I'd make my 2013 exordium by posting a message here. There are 3 things I'd like to talk about.

First, don't get mad at me. Please, don't. But if you're waiting for my End-of-the-Year book wrap up, I hate to say that it won't come. You see, unlike S, I didn't do monthly book wrap-ups before we started Two Sisters Reading (which, remember, started in July), and I haven't exactly been keeping up with my reading every single month since then. Granted, my freshman English teacher did have us keep a log of what we read from January until May, but I have moved houses 3 times since I last needed that list and I could not possibly tell you where it is now. Most of my books come from the library, and they don't automatically keep a record of your checkouts. My best estimate is that I've read somewhere between 35 and 40 novels this year, but that's not guaranteed. But hey, if you're desperate to see a full-year book wrap-up, you can re-read S's here or on her other blog. 

Secondly, I will make it up to you by doing my December Book Wrap-Up right now:

 Books Read: 3 (I can feel your judgement, you know)
  1. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
  2. The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (you can read our sister review here)
  3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, which was of course the best book this month
   Books Abandoned: 0!

   Books in Progress: 1
  1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Hmm, haven't done one of those in a while! Which leads me to the last thing I'd like to discuss: my book-related goals for 2013. I'm not much of one for New Year's Resolutions, because January 1st is just another day and your habits aren't erased at midnight and you can decide to make these changes any day of the year. However, I'd like to make a few book/TSR rules for myself that I think are reasonable but necessary in making both my reading habits and this blog the best I can. 
  1. I will read at least 3 books per month, the only excuses being if one book is beyond 600 pages (e.g. Les Miserables) and if I am seriously ill for a week or more.
  2. In addition to the 1 sister read per month, one or more of the others must be a classic
  3. In addition to the monthly sister reviews, I will post one additional review and a book wrap-up (regardless of embarrassment, the main reason I didn't keep up with them this year) each month. 
  4. Between the 12 sister reads and the classics list I made in my last post (plus 2 that I've added thanks to S), I've got a total of 33 books to read. My goal for the year, then, will be 45 books. This will encourage 4 books per month with some wiggle room for not-so-good months. Since I'll be doing a book wrap-up now, I'll be able to check my progress!
I suppose that's all! Once again, Happy 2013! 

Keep reading, observing, and loving,
~D