5 Words - Cloaked by Alex Flinn

5 words I would use to describe this book: fairy tales retold, adventure, magic, romance, flordia

I just finished this book last night, and I have to say it was my least favorite book by Flinn.  This one felt a little more childish than the previous two that I've read (Beastly and A Kiss in Time).  I have to admit the 'She's beautiful and rich so I guess I have to marry her' attitude that Johnny has in the beginning of the book was really grating on my nerves so I almost didn't make it through this book.  Once the adventure picked up though, I found Johnny to be a little more likable and I really enjoyed trying to figure out which fairy tales were in the story.

Well would you look at that

I made the Deans list!  All the way down there at the bottom, but there I am!

5 Words - Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

 

5 words I would use to describe this book: romance, paris, high school, young love, family/freind relationships

This was a sweet little book that I finished in about 2 days.  I loved the romance of Paris and the build up of Anna's relationship with Saint Claire, but the book was pretty predictable and focuses pretty strictly on their romance.  That being said, it was a fun, light reading kind of book. 

5 Words - Horns by Joe Hill

Since I can't seem to find enough time to make sufficient 'book thought' posts, I thought it might be fun to try making posts where I try to explain a book I've recently read in 5 words.  I've come across this on a few other blogs and I thought it was pretty neat so I'll give it a whirl.  I'm going to make another post right after this one because I finished 2 books this week, so sorry for the  back to back posts.

 

5 words I would use to describe this book:  anti-hero, love story, horror, revenge, mystery

Love story is technically 2 words, I hope you will let that slide.  

I really loved this book.  It made me laugh, it made me cry and I was dazzled by how every little piece of the story fit together.  I can honestly say that I didn't see any of the twists coming.  I'm definitely picking up Heart Shaped Box after I finish the audiobook I started right after this book.  I feel that this book is in the same sort of category as The Gargoyle, where I found myself cringing or really uncomfortable reading parts of it, but the outcome was totally worth all of it.  I added this book to my favorites shelf and will probably re-read it in the future.

Birthday Pictures

I don't have much to add to these except, what a night!

By popular demand

Alright, I know it's not a real action shot, but you have to admit the resemblance is uncanny.  :)

p.s.  those with a sharp eye can spot Ronnie's Mii watching in the background, he's the one in orange.

Monthly Reading Round Up - March 2011

Sorry for posting March's round up so late.  My semester just ended for 2 of my classes and I had so much homework on top of my exams.  If you can believe it, I got an outstanding grade in my databasing class.  I only missed 2 points for the whole class because of participation.  My business math class... well lets just say I missed a few more than 2 points, but I did a lot better than I thought that I would. I only have one class for the first few weeks of this semester which is great because it's algebra and it's going to be nice to just concentrate all of my energy on that.    


Thank you to everyone for your well wishes on my birthday yesterday!  I will have Ronnie take a picture of me playing my Wii sometime this week and I also have a bunch of pictures to post from my birthday party last night. 


Without further ado, here is my reading list from March

Timeless by Alexandra Monir - Finished March 2nd

3 out of 5 stars

The Art of Tangled by Jeff Kurtti - Finished March 6th

5 out of 5 stars

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting - Finished March 10th

3 out of 5 stars

The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig - Finished March 16th

3 out of 5 stars

The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart - Finished March 17th

5 out of 5 stars add this book to my favorites shelf

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex - Finished March 23rd

2 out of 5 stars

The Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - Finished March 24th

3 out of 5 stars

Books Finished: 7
2011 book total: 24
Favorite This Month: Without a doubt The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks was my favorite.  I wanted to make a 'book thoughts' post about it, but I just couldn't find the time.  The book is about young Frankie who goes to a prep school and meets a boy whom she eventually starts dating.  Her boyfriend starts flaking out on dates so she decides to follow him to find out what is exactly going on with him.  It turns out he is in an all male secret society.  Frankie becomes really intrigued and wants to join, but since it is a males only club she can't.  One of the members leaves for a trip so Frankie makes up an e-mail address and pretends to be him and gets the secret society to pull a bunch of elaborate pranks.  The book is a lot better than I'm sure I made it sound so I highly recommend checking it out.  I'm going to pick up a few more of E.Lockhart's books when I get the chance.

I really loved this quote from the book:
"It is better to be alone, she figures, than to be with someone who can’t see who you are. It is better to lead than to follow. It is better to speak up than stay silent. It is better to open doors than to shut them on people."


Least Favorite This Month: Dracula in Love by Karen Essex.  This book dragged SO MUCH for me.  I picked it up because I really loved the cover and I thought the concept sounded really interesting.  It's a retelling of Bram Stokers Dracula with Mina as the story teller this time.  I think the idea was to make it more realistic, but I just couldn't get into this one.  Perhaps my problem was I haven't read the original Dracula? 

Other:  As you can see, the end of this semester really slowed down my reading this month.  I added the art of tangled, although I'm not really sure if I should have.  There was a lot of actual stories and tidbits in there along with the beautiful art work too. 

Timeless.  I was really excited for this book, but it was a little underwhelming for me.  One neat thing about it though is that Michelle (the lead character of the book) writes lyrics, and Phillip writes music in the novel.  The author wrote 2 songs that are mentioned in the book and you can pick them up on iTunes. 

The Desires of the Dead.  I LOVED The Body Finder, but this one was really predictable to me so that's why I gave it only 3 stars.  The story was still good, I just knew right away what was going to happen.