Monthly Reading Round Up - July 2011

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner - Finished July 4th, 2011

3 out of 5 stars

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell - Finished July 7th, 2011

4 out of 5 stars

The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg - Finished July 9th, 2011

4 out of 5 stars

Shine by Lauren Myracle - Finished July 14th, 2011

5 out of 5 stars

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - Finished July 18th, 2011

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway - Finished July 20th, 2011

3 out of 5 stars

Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown - Finished July 22nd, 2011

3 out of 5 stars

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness - Finished July 22nd, 2011

3 out of 5 stars

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness - Finished July 26th, 2011

2 out of 5 stars

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart - Finished July 27th, 2011

Jane by April Lindner - Finished July 28th, 2011

3 out of 5 stars

The Boy Book by E. Lockhart - Finished July 28th, 2011

4 out of 5 stars

Treasure Map of Boys by E. Lockhart - Finished July 29th, 2011

Real Live Boyfriends - E. Lockhart - Finished July 31st, 2011

5 out of 5 stars

Books Finished: 14

2011 book total: 61

Favorite This Month: I absolutely loved the Ruby Oliver series by E. Lockhart (The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, Treasure Map of Boys and Real Live Boyfriends).  A lot of the young adult books I have read recently have been focused on romance almost singularly for the plot, and while Ruby is a bit boy crazy, these books have so much more going for them.  I was fascinated by Ruby's complex relationship with her parents and was horrified for her when her relationship with her best friend Kim started going south.  Ruby is funny, and smart as a whip and I really enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. 

Shine was also an excellent book.  It's not something that you would expect from a young adult book, but it was a really beautiful and moving book.

Least Favorite This Month: I loved the first book in the Chaos Walking series (The Knife of Never Letting Go) but I really couldn't stand Monsters of Men.  Todd's relationship with the mayor and the fact that everyone was willing to forgive him for just about anything he did really irked me. 

I loved the idea of a modern day retelling of Jane Eyre, and while I think the author did a pretty good job of giving the characters a modern twist, I didn't find this book nearly as good as the original.

Other:  I was able to read at an insane pace in July because I got hurt at work and haven't been able to go back (more on that another day).

Monthly Reading Round Up - June 2011

Forgive me for posting these so late and all at once!

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly - Finished June 4th 

4 out of 5 stars

The Duff by Kody Keplinger - Finished June 9th

4 out of 5 stars

Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky - Finished June 12th

3 out of 5 stars

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Finished June 13th

4 out of 5 stars

Summer and the City by Candice Bushnell - Finished June 14th

3 out of 5 stars

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - Finished June 19th

3 out of 5 stars

Seers of Light by Jennifer DeLucy - Finished June 24th

4 out of 5 stars

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson - Finished June 28th
3 out of 5 stars

Books Finished: 8

2011 book total: 47

Favorite This Month:I think I'm going to have to say Seers of Light.  I was a little reluctant to read this book because I'm still pretty burned out on paranormal romances', but I really enjoyed this book.  I think I read it in a day or two.  The Duff would probably be my second choice.

Least Favorite This Month: Summer in the City was really a drag for me.  I know it's been a few months since I read this book, but the only thing I can remember about it was that Carrie wanted to date an older man.  I bought this book right away when it came out, but I don't think I will pick up the third book when it comes out.


Other:  I finally picked up the Millennium Trilogy books in June.  While I really loved Lisbeth (she's seriously bad ass), I thought these books were pretty out there.  I found myself rolling my eyes whenever Mikael had sex with every female character in the books.  Regardless, I loved trying to figure out the mysteries of the books and I think had Mr. Larsson not passed away, I would have read everything else from the series because I loved Lisbeth so much.

Monthly Reading Round Up - May 2011

The Witches Daughter by Paula Brackston - Finished May 1st
3 out of 5 stars


Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz - Finished May 4th
4 out of 5 stars


Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan - Finished May 7th
4 out of 5 stars


The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti - Finished May 17th
4 out of 5 stars


The Passage by Justin Cronin - Finished May 18th
4 out of 5 stars


Bumped by Megan Mccafferty - Finished May 25th
3 out of 5 stars


The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Finished May 27th
5 out of 5 stars


The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes - Finished May 29th
5 out of 5 stars added book to favorites


Books Finished: 8

2011 book total: 39

Favorite This Month: I really, really loved The Brightest Star in the Sky.  I was really reluctant to read it because this book is listed everywhere as "chick-lit"so it sat in my to-be-read pile for months and months, but I'm glad I finally did because I loved this story.  All of the characters were really fleshed out and I found myself really rooting for all of them.  I read some reviews about this book after I finished it and a few people said that this is Marian Keyes' weakest book which kind of surprised me.  I'm definitely going to check out some of her other books after this one.


Least Favorite This Month: I'm sad to say that it was Bumped.  I was so excited for this book to come out because I loved the Jessica Darling series so much.  I even made a reminder on my calendar.  I think the characters were pretty well written and I liked the premise of the book, it was just the end that kind of threw me off.  I know that this book is part of a trilogy, so I get why she did it but I guess it just ended kind of abruptly and weirdly for me.  The Witches Daughter also moved really, really slow for me.  It was a struggle to get myself to finish it.


Other:  I kept reading reviews about how great The Help was, but when I read the back of the book it wasn't something that interested me.  Someone from work suggested it so I decided to finally pick it up and I'm glad I did.  There were a few problems with the book, but it was a quick read and I really enjoyed it.  The Nature of Jade was a really lovely book and it had some beautiful quotes.  Here is one I really liked:

"How does a person stay safe, always? Lock yourself away? You’re looking for a guarantee and there are no guarantees. If you love, you’ll feel loss. You can’t ‘careful’ yourself into avoiding loss. You’re trying to get day without night.” 


Now that I've made it through one of my math classes, my reading has really picked up, I start another one at the end of this month though so I'm sure that there will be a dramatic decrease of reading time in July.

Most Well-Read Cities in America

I found this article on one of the book blogs I read and thought it was really interesting.  The Most Well-Read Cities in America.

5 Words - The Passage by Justin Cronin

5 words I would use to describe this book: post-apocalyptic, vampires, experimenting with medicine, epic, survivors

I finally finished this book.  I feel like I've been reading it for a year now.  It was highly recommended on a few blogs I read, but I have to say it wasn't one of my favorites.  The first half of the book kept me on the edge of my seat and I LOVED it, but the second, post-apocalyptic half really dragged for me.   I guess I didn't find the characters in the last half of the book as interesting.  There was some great character development in the first half of the book but I kind of felt like it didn't really go anywhere.  For example, I really liked reading about Carter in the first part of the book but his mentions in the second half of the book made me wonder why he was so built up in the first place. 

I still think I would give this book 3 and a half or 4 stars because I loved the first half of the book so much.

Montly Reading Roundup - April 2011

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin - Finished April 5th

3 out of 5 stars

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult - Finished April 9th

4 out of 5 stars

Horns by Joe Hill - Finished April 12th

5 out of 5 stars added to favorites shelf

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - Finished April 13th

4 out of 5 stars

Cloaked by Alex Flinn - Finished April 17th

2 out of 5 stars

Something Blue by Emily Giffin - Finished April 19th

3 out of 5 stars

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill - Finished April 22nd

4 out of 5 stars

Books Finished: 7

2011 book total: 31

Favorite This Month:  Horns!  Some sections of the book were a little disturbing, but overall it was an excellent book!  I'm really glad that I read it before Heart Shaped Box, because while I liked Heart Shaped Box, I thought Horns was a lot better.


Least Favorite This Month:  I really didn't get into Cloaked.  I felt like it took me forever to finish, and I almost stopped reading it a few times. 


Other:  I found Something Borrowed on an airplane at work and I tore through it in a day.  I picked up Something Blue to find out what would happen with Darcy and read it almost as fast.  Even though I read them in about 2 days,  the main characters drove me absolutely crazy and it was pretty obvious how the books were going to end (although Something Borrowed did throw a little curve).

Sing You Home was pretty good, although I expected a twist ending.

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.

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.

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.

Monthly Reading Roundup - February 2011

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Finished February 1st)

 

Gossamer by Lois Lowry (Finished February 2nd)

Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty (Finished February 2nd)

Perfect Fifths (Finished February 3rd)

By Royal Command by Mary Hooper (Finished February 6th)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis (Finished February 9th)

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (Finished February 13th)

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (Finished February 14th)

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman (Finished February 17th)

A Killing Frost by John Marsden (Finished February 19th)

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (Finished February 28th)

Books Finished: 11
2011 book total: 17
Favorite This Month: This is a tough one because I read a lot of really great books this month.  I'm going to have to say it's a tie between Perfect Fifths and Delirium. 
Least Favorite This Month: Beautiful Creatures.  You can read my 'book thoughts' on it here.
Other:  I'm so sad to be finished with the Jessica Darling series!  I've saved the whole series though so that I can re-read them when I have the time.  Also, I am Number Four....  I picked up this book because I was thinking about seeing the movie, but I wasn't overly thrilled with the book.  It had a lot of action packed moments, but it wasn't what I was expecting.